261. My father, and my uncle Toby (clever soul) were sitting by the fire with Dr. Slop; and Corporal Trim (a brave and honest fellow) was reading a sermon to them. As the sermon contains many parentheses, and affords an opportunity also of showing you a sentence in brackets, (you will observe that all the previous parentheses in this lesson are enclosed in crotchets) I shall insert some parts of it in the following numbers. [See No. 262, 263, &c.] 262. To have the fear of God before our eyes, and in our mutual dealings with each other, to govern our actions by the eternal measures of right and wrong: the first of these will comprehend the duties of religion; the second those of morality, which are so inseparably connected together, that you cannot divide these two tables, even in imagination (though the attempt is often made in practice) without breaking and mutually destroying them both. [Here my father observed that Dr. Slop was fast asleep. I said the attempt is often made; and so it is; there being nothing more common than to see a man who has no sense at all of religion, and, indeed, has so much honesty as to pretend to none, who would take it as the bitterest affront, should you but hint at a suspicion of his moral character, or imagine he was not conscientiously just and scrupulous to the uttermost mite.

263. I know the banker I deal with, or the physician I usually call in [There is no need, cried Dr. Slop (waking) to call in any physician in this case,] to be neither of them men of much religion.

264. For a general proof of this, examine the history of the Romish Church: [Well, what can you make of that? cried Dr. Slop,] see what scenes of cruelty, murder, rapine, bloodshed, [They may thank their own obstinacy, cried Dr. Slop] have all been sanctified by religion not strictly governed by morality.

265. Experienced schoolmasters may quickly make a grammar of boys' natures, and reduce them all (saving some few exceptions) to certain general rules.

266. Ingenious boys, who are idle, think, with the hare in the fable, that, running with snails, (so they count the rest of their school-fellows,) they shall come soon enough to the post; though sleeping a good while before their starting.

LESSON XVII.

THE DASH.

The Dash is a straight mark like this

The Dash is sometimes used to express a sudden stop, or change in the subject.

Sometimes the Dash requires a pause no longer than a comma, and sometimes a longer pause than a period.

The Dash is frequently used instead of Crotchets or Brackets, and a Parenthesis placed between two dashes. [See number 281.]

The Dash is sometimes used to precede something unexpected, as when a sentence beginning seriously ends humorously. [See Numbers 311 to 318.]

In the following sentences the Dash expresses a sudden stop, or change of the subject.

EXAMPLES.

267. If you will give me your attention I will show you- but stop, I do not know that you wish to see.

268. Alas! that folly and falsehood should be so hard to grapple with - but he that hopes to make mankind the wiser for his labors, must not be soon tired.

269. I stood to hear- I love it well—the rain's continuous sound; small drops, but thick and fast they fell, down straight into the ground.

270. He set up the most piercing and dreadful cries that fear ever uttered-I may well term them dreadful, for they haunted my sleep for years afterwards.

271. Each zone obeys thee

fathomless, alone.

thou goest forth dread,

272. Please your honors, quoth Trim, the inquisition is the vilest- Prithee spare thy description, Trim. I

hate the very name of it, said my father.

273. The fierce wolf prowls around thee there he stands listening — not fearful, for he nothing fears.

274. The wild stag hears thy falling waters' sound, and tremblingly flies forward- o'er his back he bends his stately horns the noiseless ground his hurried feet im

press not and his track is lost amidst the tumult of the breeze, and the leaves falling from the rustling trees.

275. The wild horse thee approaches in his turn. His mane stands up erect his nostrils burn- he snorts he pricks his ears and starts aside.

276. The music ceased, and Hamish Fraser, on coming back into the shealing (or shed,) said, I see two men on horseback coming up the glen -one is on a white horse. Ay-blessed be God, that is the good priestnow will I die in peace. My last earthly thoughts are gone by he will show me the salvation of Christ

road that leadeth to eternal life.

277. There was silence meal was before them

began to eat.

277. They hear not

- the

not a word was said their God had been thanked, and they

eyes are covered with thick mists

know not for their

they will not see.

278. The God of Gods stood up-stood up to try the assembled gods of earth.

279. And ye like fading autumn leaves will fall; your throne but dust your empire but a grave

your martial pomp a black funereal pall your palace trampled by your meanest slave.

280. To-day is thine improve to-day, nor trust tomorrow's distant ray.

281. And thus, in silent waiting, stood the piles of stone and piles of wood; till Death, who in his vast affairs, never puts things off as men in theirs and thus, if I the truth must tell, does his work finally and wellwinked at our hero as he passed,-Your house is finished, Sir, at last; a narrower house a house of clay — your

palace for another day.

282. For some time the struggle was most amusing the fish pulling, and the bird screaming with all its might the one attempting to fly, and the other to swim from its invisible enemy· the gander at one moment losing and the next regaining his centre of gravity,

The Dash is sometimes to be read as a period, with the falling inflection of the voice.

283. The favored child of nature, who combines in herself these united perfections, may justly be considered as the master-piece of creation as the most perfect image of the Divinity here below.

284. Now launch the boat upon the wave -the wind is blowing off the shore- I will not live a cowering slave, in these polluted islands more.

285. The wind is blowing off the shore, and out to sea the streamers fly-my music is the dashing roar, my canopy the stainless sky—it bends above, so fair a blue, that heaven seems opening to my view.

286. He had stopped soon after beginning the tale he had laid the fragment away among his papers, and had never looked at it again.

287. The exaltation of his soul left him - he sunk down—and his misery went over him like a flood.

288. May their fate be a mock-word may men of all lands laugh out with a scorn that shall ring to the poles.

289. You speak like a boy-like a boy who thinks the old gnarled oak can be twisted as easily as the young sapling.

290. I am vexed for the bairns- -I am vexed when I think of Robert and Hamish living their father's life But let us say no more of this.

291. He hears a noise- he is all awakeagain he hears a noise on tiptoe down the hill he softly creeps 'Tis Goody Blake! She is at the hedge of Harry Gill. 292. Mr. Playfair was too indulgent, in truth, and favorable to his friends- and made a kind of liberal allowance for the faults of all mankind-except only faults of baseness or of cruelty; against which he never failed to manifest the most open scorn and detestation.

293. Towards women he had the most chivalrous feelings of regard and attention, and was, beyond almost all men, acceptable and agreeable in their society though without the least levity or pretension unbecoming his age or condition.

The Dash is sometimes to be read like a comma, with the voice suspended. [See Lesson 9th.]

294. Vain men, whose brains are dizzy with ambition, bright your swords-your garments flowery, like a plain in the spring-time-if truth be your delight, and virtue your devotion, let your sword be bared alone at wisdom's sacred word.

295. I have always felt that I could meet death with composure; but I did not know, she said, with a tremulous voice, her lips quivering-I did not know how hard a thing it would be to leave my children, till now that the hour is come.

-thy pall and thy prison-may

297. And Babylon shall become

she that was the

beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chalas the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah by the hand of God.

deans

298. Our land -the first garden of liberty's tree has been and shall yet be the land of the free. 299. Earth may hide-waves ingulph us, but they shall not to slavery doom us.

it

fire consume

300. They shall find that the name which they have dared to proscribe- that the name of Mac Gregor is a spell.

301. You must think hardly of us ural that it should be otherwise.

and it is not nat

302. Delightful in his manners inflexible in his principles and generous in his affections, he had all that could charm in society, or attach in private.

303. The joys of life in hurried exile go-till hope's fair smile, and beauty's ray of light, are shrouded in the griefs and storms of night.

304. Day after day prepares the funeral shroud; the world is gray with age: the striking hour is but an echo of death's summons loud-the jarring of the dark grave's prison door. Into its deep abyss-devouring all -kings and the friends of kings alike must fall.

305. No persuasion could induce little Flora to leave the shealing and Hamish Fraser was left to sit with her all night beside the bed.