The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1842-07-28
For The Recorder.
OLD Nm. rHwAcKux's LETTrN-
Philadelphia. I7lh May, IS

rnhadeiphias l1lh May, 10
MY DEAR GRANDSON: Your letter az
forded me great, and but for an undotied
! On the FIRST, and an uncrossed on the
second page, would say unalloyed plea
sure. These marks of carelessness and
inaccuracy might have overlooked as a
lapsus calami, OF the result of haste,
scarcely pardonable. however. in one who
pretends 10 be scholar; but the want Of
. comma on the last page, 18th line, was
too much for my patience to endure. In
vain did Inb nv glasses; in vain did l
apply the microscope: the comma was
absolutely wanting: not even a trace Of
the dry pen could l detect. Three seve-
raj times did | proceed to this vacuum,
which had llatiered myself your nature
as well as mine abhnrred, and as often did
| lay the letter aside in modification.
had almost said in disgust. My nerves
will moi now bear what was not insup>
portable in my younger days. Your lit
lie nephew Thomas broughtme the letter
for the fourth time, assuring me that he
could see faint comma, and adding that
in the postscript, depreealing criticism,
you said you had written in the school,
room, during a short interval. with all
Mr.. > 8 children playing round you, and
Jas the messenger was on the point Of
starting, you had not time to glance the
letter over. On examination found the
faint comma. il is true; but from the diff.
ferent shade Of the ink, ii was evident the
little rogue had inlerpolated il.
Need | repeat what you have heard. ten
thousand times, that a man without head
is as much a man, as an without dot
is an !; and that tree without branch
is more tree, than wiihouta cross is
a {! But no excuse can be admitted in
extenuation Of the omission Of a point.
This is indispensable TO the sense, AID
ought to be done mechanically and un>
consciously, by force Of habit.
In the matter Of punctuation you know
always granted that the moderns have
the advantage Of the ancients. The an
clients were uuacquainled with the use of
our stops, and wrote not only without any
distinction Of numbers ard periods, but
also without distinction of words; which
custom continued till the hundred and
fourth 0lympisd; during which time the
sense alone divided the discourse. This
IS proved by the Alexandrian manuscript,
IN the British Museum, which is written
:ontiauo duciu, without distinction Of
words or sentences. How the ancients
'ead their works without stops or intersti
ial spaces, il is difficult to conceive
But though this improvement Of Ian
yuage was unknown TO the ancients,
while manuscripts and monumental in
criptions were the only known methods
If conveying and preserving knowledge,
We must beware of thinking it an inn
'rovement of very modern date. Itcom-
ncnced in fact with the invention Of print
ng. In the earliest printed books spaces
we're left between the words; and we find
he first appearance Of stops in the 18th
en,ury. In this century however only,
he comma, parenthesis. Interrogation and
all stop were introduced. The first CO.
on appeared in 1850. in the dedication of
tales Acts Of English Votaries, black
stter. The first semi-colon appeared in
500 in Hackluit's voyages: the admira-
ion point was the last invented, aud
Gems not to have been introduced till
ONE time in the 18th century.
All this ! have said i'm order to impress
n your mind becoming sense of the
nPropriety, not TO say the criminalily,
c neglecting the real advantages of COM
aratively modern times; and l trust my
yes will never again be panied by si-
nilar delinquency.
But here come my grand children and
reat grand children TO gambol on The
reen, and their enjoyment, and my own
DO, viii be robbed Of its wonted zest,
Mess grandpa" looks at.them from his
asy chair, under the old chestnut. plant
d BY my own hand forty years before
ou were born: so you must take my let