The American patriot., 1855-06-09

Pope and jeffrey applied it Judiciously.
The colon was favorite of the ancients, |
from whom it was borrowed by the phoso
piers and mathcmaticians; and hence there is
ground for the charge of affectation when it is
often discerned in eight literature" The Gin
tellectuaP' poets, who arrogate to themselves
the title of 'thinkers, ,"-imitators of the crab
bed style of Keats-petrifying condensers, in
sphering thought in syllable-as the Brow
nings, Emersons, ct i'd genus omne-endow
their eliptical lines with these inverted eyes,
like young old children assuming premature
spectacles. In Dickens "Christmas Tales"
it recurs constantly, sometimes discarding from
his pages the dash, and even the parenthesis
1t is most appropriate in metaphysical and sci
entific treatses. Elsewhere, it serves to unite
to the already complete sentence, generally,
(the exception being with mastery a partici-
pie adjunct-which shall manifest familiarity
with the pen. or not, accordingly as the whole
is euphonious, or the reverse. Spenser resor-
ted to it in his own measure, in which, to avoid
deformity, his sentences were stretched to
three-fourths ofan inch, or nine lines in length.
Shakspeares colloquial, yet inimitabc blank
verse, is unlegible without it, She is an ex-
traordinary woman, in favorable or unfavora-
BILE sense, who has recourse to it.
The erclamation-point more than red-hair
and vivid complexion, is pathogeomonic of
the sanguine temperament. lnstnctivcly, dis
trust plain, business statement, with this
mark hoisted, tail-lke, at its end. 1t is the
horror of sedate chirographists. The fingers
of the great Newton never depicted this POM
pom of precipitancy; the operations of his mind
were as calm and grand as the actions of the
great laws he described-and slowly, calmly
and majestically flowed the resistless river of
his demonstration. But of the French it is as
characteristic as sacre! Frequently it is dis
charged from the bow of ridicule. 1t is the
dagger of a strained humor. But the stetto
of true wit is invisible; the happy collocation
of the sentence-keen, direct, and applicable
the fatal irony-is content with the period of
the royal fiat that speaks, and slays. The ex-
travagant, the hysterical, the cynical, and the
burlesque-oving, employ it. 1t bristlss in the
works of Carlyle. The platonic friendships of
the sex are emphasized with tan undersco-
ring, in their epistles, drawn erect. With bud
ding magazine contributors it shows, like a
grave-post, the tomb of catastrophe!
- The dash is invariably employed by
young and ambitious writer's. The quaint and
humorous resort to it. In Sterne we meet
with it to excess. 1t is rather harum- -scarum
mark sometimes, being in much favor with
such scatter-brains as the doctor in "Japhet,'
and Jingle in "Pickwick." Farmers and mer-
chants substitute it for the period, but the for
mer is betrayed by his stiff, doubtful cammas,
to which the latter imparts a flowing curve.
Women likewise use it, making it of consider
able length-"sweetness long drawn out."-
Correctly applied, it may answer as an excel
lent rivct or link, by which you attach TO somt
commonplace sentiment a winged poetical H.
lustraton or simile which enables the sentence
as it were, to soar. Its abuse proves the exis.
tence of an abrupt, immethodical, unfilrnished
mine Tennyson may be cited as worthy ol
study for his dashes.
{ The wilful parenthesis is symptomatic
cnteris paribus, of the literary pctit-moit1e
the would-be wit. With Willis, it is an excres
cence--the fashionable mustache of his trim
style, which would be so much more prcpos
sessing without it. With Hunt, it is an awaken
ing in your side when he has set you
dreaming by his cnchantins prose. With the
less endowed, it is an index of mental confu
sion and awkward expression. The nngiftet
paronthesises is an interrupter in colloquy
He is a broad asserter-but gives himself thu
lie in a qualifying parenthess. Two commas
may often surpersede it. Never let it brcal
your sentential harmony. There is no perftc
master of it, Eschcw it.
The interrogationpoia is adopted will
ceremony by the grave and serious. The Span
lard, exhibiting formality akin to that will
which he crosses himself, places this point botl
before and after his interrogatory. lmpassion
ed men argue with it; as exemplified in the or
ations of Demosthenes, and the harangues G
Henry. It caps climax eXcellently when S.
to speak, you look back proudly over the lowe
heights you have surmouted. Observed at in
tervails in an essay, it shows where the monotc
nous pulse of the author thumpcd more livel
where his smouldering fire hared up--wher
thought broke in upon him which he coul
not wholly master, and so appealed to hi
reader-where he triumphed-and where sti
he doubted! Occurring repeatedly, and altel
mating with the dash and the exclamation-poil
it insures vivacity, but accompanied with n
little impertinence, as in the teuiitions of julie
Jannin. 1t is, however a sign of cultivation
Its good qualities shine in Sidney Smiths "Le
tcrs of Peter Plymley.
"Quotation-marks when they really Ell
brace Notwithstanding it. if we may
say as property not ones own-cndorsc or
honest, it is true; nevertheless, found to tr
quently on a page, they do not declare mut
in favour of ones originality-if they do II
declare ones pedantry and proclivity to FOOLS
display Some writers use vulgar words, al
hope to escape the charge of vulgarity by pc
, ming them up in these pinfolds of commans-
spurious delicacy and pseudo gentility, mo
reprehcnsible than unaffected vulgarty, b
cause associated with hypocrisy and wcaril
, mask, more calculated to soil the minds
, others: moral that might be dilated into
essay The presence of the first of the
double marks, and omission of the last, Chat
!, where the quotation is not clearly defined) c
hibit haste, fulness and carelessness of dispo
ton, and possibly, not a punctious discrimi
alton between meum and tuum. De Ounce
- who confesses his own inability, animadve1
: severely, in his biographical sketch of Char
+ Lamb, upon Sergeant Talfourd's praise of HI
q ltfs extraordinary felicity in this respe
. Vide his typographical Essay"