11. There are many beautiful letters in Cary’s “Life of Curtis”; there is no other so beautiful as that written just after the death of Lincoln, nor is it possible to read it without a great trembling of the heart.
12. If there is ever a time to be ambitious, it is not when ambition is easy, but when it is hard. Fight in darkness; fight when you are down; die hard, and you won’t die at all.
The comma before “and” in No. 12 divides the semicolon group into two parts, and does not stand between groups coordinate with the first and second groups.
“Die hard, and you won’t die at all” is really a bull; and the incongruity of ideas might well be expressed by a dash before “and.”
13. All association [among people] must be a compromise; and, what is worse, the very flower and aroma of the flower of each of the beautiful natures disappears as they approach each other.
14. All religions, even the most conservative and traditional, are in constant flux, they either advance or decay.
The above sentence is thus punctuated in the Enclycopedia Britannica and the New Standard Dictionary. We know of no [129]meaning of the comma that indicates the real sense relation between “in constant flux” and what follows. Nor is this relation that shown by the colon; for a thing,—for instance, the ocean,—may be in constant flux, and yet not either advance or decay.
The meaning of the language requires “and” after “flux,” preferably with a semicolon before it.
15. Lily Dyer was a favorite with the village folk; she had just the qualities to arouse admiration. She was good and handsome and smart.
In the above example the semicolon relation does not exist between the groups of words (clauses) between which it is placed, for the second group does not add something to the first to make a complete thought. Moreover, the third group bears an unmistakable relation to the second group; and such relation is not the period relation. The language needs regrouping, to show the sense relations: