but robin redbreast's song is peculiarly delightful when all the other birds of the wood have ceased to warble and his notes alone are heard.

Phrases are often divided by semicolons when they are not complete as sentences, but yet are used as complete clauses. We embraced; clung to each other; felt as if death could not divide us; and yet we knew that we must part. We looked at the gallant ship for a moment; her masts were broken; her sails shivered to shreds; her brave seamen disabled; her captain killed; and, alas! she sank to rise no more.

These clauses might, according to more recent punctuation, be all divided by a dash, which will be explained in another part.

THE COLON.

The Colon consists of two Periods thus :.

The colon seems a little strange;

Not quite so easy to arrange;
Two periods you see :

Twice over I had made a dot,

Yet something more had been forgot,
And colons there must be.

The colon is generally adopted in sentences where a semicolon has already been used; and yet the sentence is lengthened out so as to require another stop before the conclusion of the sentence, which might again have been complete without the rest, as in this sentence: the remainder, however, being dependent on the former

part for its meaning, a colon is used to arrange the sentence as it were into three distinct parts. A semicolou is generally followed by a conjunction, such as but, whereas, &c.; and the colon seldom admits of one. It is frequently used previous to a quotation, which we must here explain.

THE QUOTATION OR INVERTED COMMA,

Used before and after a Quotation thus "".

In using phrases not our own—
Words spoken by some other one—
We quote their words you know.
Thus, when we quote from Solomon
"A father should chastise his son,"
These marks are put to show.

The inverted commas show that the line or passage quoted, is not the words of the individual who wrote the rest. When a quotation is made in the middle of a sentence it is frequently preceded by a colon. ThusSolomon says: "A good name is better than precious ointment." It is a remarkable fact as well as a precious promise: "The seed of the righteous never beg their bread," and "Blessed are they that trust in God; they shall never be brought to shame."

Insert Inverted Commas and Colons in the following: You have all read in the book of Proverbs Be not wise in thy own eyes, and I daresay you have heard it said that The Lord loveth a cheerful giver.

The sentence quoted must begin with a capital letter although it is merely a continuation of another.

THE INTERROGATION ?.

Th' interrogation's put to show

There's something that we wish to know,
And asks a question thus:

How is mamma? Is James quite well?
How old are you? or can you spell

This word—a blunderbuss?

Insert proper stops in the following sentences:

Are you aware that a million of Bibles are being sent to China Are you making any thing for the bazaar in behalf of the Gælic schools Is France a republic still Do you know what that means If not I must tell you. How do you know a true Christian

"A tree

is known by its fruits." How does Christ mark out the sincere from the hypocrites

66

By this shall all men

know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one towards another."

ADMIRATION OR EXCLAMATION!.

We make this mark of admiration

To show we've used some exclamation

To indicate surprise :

How beautiful! Beloved one!

This painting's exquisitely done!
O what expressive eyes!

This mark is always used after an interjection, and its meaning is so obvious that it requires no further explanation.

THE DASH.

A dash indeed is quite abrupt,
'Tis put almost to interrupt

Or break off suddenly.

What was I once? It matters not:
My friends forsaken-shunned-forgot-
I weep-groan-murmur—sigh.

This mark is much more frequently used than formerly; and is more expressive than the semicolon. Thus My dear friends gone-myself childless-my fortune squandered-my heart broken-where then could I turn for consolation but to Jesus the hope and anchor of the soul?

This mark is called a dash-not dash a dog-not dash an off-hand flourish, or dandy-trick-but dash this stroke

Insert proper stops in the following sentences :—

"Life

"Eternity thou pleasing dreadful thought!" is short but eternity is long." I saw him repeatedly gave him my best advice warned him of his conduct and felt as deeply interested in his welfare as I could have done had he been my own son. All was in vain he scoffed at reproof turned a deaf ear to every entreaty and at last so disgraced himself that he was obliged to leave the country. How different was John's conduct. He comforted soothed provided for his mother and his sisters respected loved felt proud of him.

THE PARENTHESIS ( ).

Look! here is a parenthesis,

It means- -there's little use for this;

But since we've put in here,

We'll place this mark (before, behind),
And when you read these words, you'll find
They might be out, my dear.

This mark called parenthesis is almost out of use, and commas are used in its stead. It means that the part of the sentence within these marks might have been left out, or is spoken aside, or put merely to throw more light on some other point, or to prevent misconstruction of some particular things stated, thus

"Judas said unto him (not Iscariot), Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?"

You will evidently see that the words within the parenthesis are used merely to show that the Judas spoken of was a different individual from Judas Iscariot, who betrayed our Lord. Although these words, (not Iscariot), had been left out, the rest of the sentence would have been quite complete: still, the explanatory words within the parenthesis made it more so.

Prince Albert (not the Queen's son, but her husband), is a good musician, and has composed several excellent songs, pieces, and polkas. Louis Philip (late king of France), taught mathematics in Switzerland long before he became king. The greatness of Rome (such is the language of the historian), was founded on the rare,

I