Stops, or How to Punctuate

<h2><SPAN name="THE_FULL_STOP" id="THE_FULL_STOP"></SPAN>THE FULL STOP</h2> <p><b>I. A full stop is placed at the end of every sentence that is neither exclamatory nor interrogative.</b></p> <div class="blockquot"><p>A penal statute is virtually annulled if the penalties which it imposes are regularly remitted as often as they are incurred. The sovereign was undoubtedly competent to remit penalties without limit. He was, therefore, competent to annul virtually a penal statute. It might seem that there could be no serious objection to his doing formally what he might do virtually.</p> </div> <p>How much should be put into a sentence is rather a matter of style than of punctuation. The tendency of modern literature is in favour of the short sentence. In the prose of Milton and of Jeremy Taylor, the full stop does not come to release the thought till all the circumstances have been grouped around it, and the necessary qualifications made. In Macaulay the<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></SPAN></span> circumstances and the qualifications are set out sentence by sentence. So the steps of reasoning in the example which we have given are stated with that distinct pause between each of them which the reader would make if he thought them out for himself. They might be welded together thus:</p> <div class="blockquot"><p>Seeing that a penal statute is virtually annulled if the penalties which it imposes are regularly remitted as often as they are incurred, and seeing that the sovereign was undoubtedly competent to remit penalties without limit, it follows that he was competent to annul virtually a penal statute; and it might seem that there could be no serious objection to his doing formally what he might do virtually.</p> </div> <p>Both forms are correct in point of punctuation. Which is the better form is a question of style. Take another example:</p> <div class="blockquot"><p>The sides of the mountain were covered with trees; the banks of the brooks were diversified with flowers; every blast shook spices from the rocks; and every mouth dropped fruits upon the ground.</p> </div> <p>There is here an advantage in putting these four statements together, instead of making four separate sentences. We can more easily com<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></SPAN></span>bine the details, and so form a single picture&mdash;a picture of fertility.</p> <p><b>II. As a rule the full stop is not to be inserted till the sentence be grammatically complete. But some parts of the sentence necessary to make it grammatically complete may be left for the reader to supply.</b></p> <div class="blockquot"><p>It is well said, in every sense, that a man's religion is the chief fact with regard to him. A man's or a nation of men's. By religion I do not mean here the church-creed which he professes, the articles of faith which he will sign and, in words or otherwise, assert. Not this wholly, in many cases not this at all.</p> </div> <p><b>III. When a sentence is purposely left unfinished, the dash takes the place of the full stop.</b> (See <SPAN href="#XL">Rule XL.</SPAN>)</p> <div class="blockquot"><p>"Excuse me," said I, "but I am a sort of collector." "Not Income-tax?" cried His Majesty, hastily removing his pipe from his lips.</p> </div> <p><b><SPAN name="IV" id="IV"></SPAN>IV. A full stop is placed after most abbreviations, after initial letters, and after ordinal numbers in Roman characters.</b></p> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></SPAN></span></p> <div class="blockquot"><p>Gen. i. 20; two lbs.; <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1883; 3 p.m.; &amp;c., and etc.; M.D., J. S. Mill; William III., King of England; MS., LL.D. (not M.S. and L.L.D.).</p> </div> <p>Note that the use of the full stop in these cases does not prevent another point from being used immediately after it. But if they occur at the end of a sentence, another full stop is not added; or, more correctly, it may be said that <SPAN href="#IV">Rule IV.</SPAN> does not apply at the end of a sentence.</p> <p>"Mr," "Messrs," "Dr"&mdash;abbreviations which retain the last letter of the whole word&mdash;are written without a point.</p> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></SPAN></span></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />