“In this strange world, made a hopeless riddle to him, he might, if he had had a less intense nature, have sat weaving, weaving—looking towards the end of his pattern, or towards the end of his web, till he forgot the riddle, and everything else but his immediate sensations; but the money had come to mark off his weaving into periods, and the money not only grew, but it remained with him.”
SEMICOLONS.
- A semicolon is used to separate the parts of a compound sentence if they are involved, or contain commas. It is also used to give independence to the members of a compound sentence when not very complex.
- “The meadow was searched in vain; and he got over the stile into the next field, looking with dying hope towards a small pond which was now reduced to its summer shallowness, so as to leave a wide margin of good adhesive mud.”
- “As for the child, he would see that it was cared for; he would never forsake it; he would do everything but own it.”
- Semicolons are used to separate a series of clauses in [306] much the same way as commas are used to separate a series of words.
- “I love you more than words can wield the matter;
- Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty;
- Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;
- No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor;
- As much as child e’er loved, or father found;
- A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;
- Beyond all manner of so much I love thee.”
- A semicolon is generally used to introduce a clause of repetition, a clause stating the obverse, and a clause stating an inference.
“The meadow was searched in vain; and he got over the stile into the next field, looking with dying hope towards a small pond which was now reduced to its summer shallowness, so as to leave a wide margin of good adhesive mud.”
“As for the child, he would see that it was cared for; he would never forsake it; he would do everything but own it.”
“I love you more than words can wield the matter;
Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty;
Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;
No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor;
As much as child e’er loved, or father found;
A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;
Beyond all manner of so much I love thee.”
(Many examples of the last two rules will be found in the discussion of compound sentences on pages [202], [203].)
COLONS.
- A colon is used to introduce a formal quotation. It is frequently followed by a dash.
- “Under date of November 28, 1860, she wrote to a friend:—
- “‘I am engaged now in writing a story—the idea of which came to me after our arrival in this house, and which has thrust itself between me and the other book I was meditating. It is Silas Manner, the Weaver of Raveloe.’”
- “On the last day of the same year she wrote: ‘I am writing a story which came across my other plans by a sudden inspiration, etc.’”
- A colon is used to introduce a series of particulars, either appositional or explanatory, which the reader has been led to expect by the first clause of the sentence. These particulars are separated from each other by semicolons.
- “The study of the principles of composition should include the following subjects: a study of words as to their origin and meaning; a study of the structure of the sentence and of the larger elements of discourse—in other words, of concrete logic; a study of the principles of effective literary composition, as illustrated in the various divisions of literature; and also a study of the æsthetics of literature.”
- “What John Morley once said of literature as a whole is even more accurate when applied to fiction alone: its purpose is ‘to bring sunshine into our hearts and to drive moonshine out of our heads.’”
- A colon is used to separate the major parts of a very [307] complex and involved sentence, if the major parts, or either of them, contain within themselves semicolons.
- “For four years he had thought of Nancy Lammeter, and wooed her with a tacit patient worship, as the woman who made him think of the future with joy: she would be his wife, and would make home lovely to him, as his father’s home had never been; and it would be easy, when she was always near, to shake off those foolish habits that were no pleasures, but only a feverish way of annulling vacancy.”
- A colon is sometimes used to mark a strong independence in the parts of a compound sentence.
- “He didn’t want to give Godfrey that pleasure: he preferred that Master Godfrey should be vexed.”
“Under date of November 28, 1860, she wrote to a friend:—
“‘I am engaged now in writing a story—the idea of which came to me after our arrival in this house, and which has thrust itself between me and the other book I was meditating. It is Silas Manner, the Weaver of Raveloe.’”
“On the last day of the same year she wrote: ‘I am writing a story which came across my other plans by a sudden inspiration, etc.’”