<h2><SPAN name="THE_MARK_OF_EXCLAMATION" id="THE_MARK_OF_EXCLAMATION"></SPAN>THE MARK OF EXCLAMATION</h2>
<p><b>XXXIV. The mark of exclamation is placed after interjections and words
used interjectionally; that is to say, after expressions of an
exclamatory nature. The exclamation may be one of surprise or of fear,
or the utterance of a wish, a command, or a prayer.</b></p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>Quick! Begone! Out of my sight!</p>
<p>Heaven preserve us!</p>
<p>Would that better feelings moved them!</p>
<p>O Lord, be merciful unto me, a sinner!</p>
</div>
<p>Interjections are not always followed immediately, and are sometimes
not allowed at all, by a mark of exclamation. No rule can be given
more precise than this: (1) That we should not insert a mark of
exclamation immediately after an interjection, unless we should make a
distinct pause after it in speaking; and<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></SPAN></span> (2) that no mark of
exclamation is to be used at all, unless the exclamatory nature of the
sentence is more or less strongly marked. It is useful to notice the
difference between "O" and "Oh." The former is used only before the
vocative case, and never has a mark of exclamation, or indeed any
point, placed immediately after it.</p>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">Alas! all our hopes are blasted.<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Lo, he cometh!<br/></span>
<span class="i2">O Dido, Dido, most unhappy Dido!<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Unhappy wife, still more unhappy widow!<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Oh, do not reckon that old debt to my account to-day!<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p><b><SPAN name="XXXV" id="XXXV"></SPAN>XXXV. The mark of exclamation is placed after sentences which, though
interrogatory in form, are really exclamatory.</b></p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>How could he have been so foolish!</p>
<p>And shall he never see an end to this state of things! Shall
he never have the due reward of labour! Shall unsparing
taxation never cease to make him a miserable dejected being,
a creature famishing in the midst of abundance, fainting,
expiring with hunger's feeble moan, surrounded by a
carolling creation!</p>
</div>
<p>This rule might be put in another way by saying that a mark of
exclamation, and not a<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></SPAN></span> point of interrogation, is placed after what
are called rhetorical questions, or statements made more striking by
being put in the form of questions. They are not asked for the sake of
receiving a direct answer, and are in reality exclamations. Still all
rhetorical questions are not thus punctuated; the point of
interrogation is sometimes more effective. The sentences quoted under
<SPAN href="#XXXI">Rule XXXI.</SPAN> would lose much of their force if marks of exclamation were
used. In each case we must decide whether the sentence strikes us most
as a question or as the expression of emotion.</p>
<p><b>XXXVI. The mark of exclamation is sometimes placed after an ironical
statement.</b></p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>They did not fight, tens against thousands; they did not
fight for wives and children, but for lands and plunder:
therefore they are heroes!</p>
</div>
<p>The mark of exclamation keeps up the semblance of seriousness which is
of the essence of irony.</p>
<p><b>XXXVII. The mark of exclamation is placed after the statement of some
absurdity.</b><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>He has been labouring to prove that Shakespeare's plays were
written by Bacon!</p>
<p>To him the parliamentary vote was a panacea for all human
ills, and the ballot-box an object as sacred as the Holy
Grail to a knight of the Round Table!</p>
</div>
<p>The same reason applies to its use after such sentences as after
ironical statements.</p>
<p><b>XXXVIII. The mark of exclamation may be placed after any impressive or
striking thought.</b></p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>The Angel of Death has been abroad throughout the land: you
may almost hear the very beating of his wings!</p>
</div>
<p>It may be doubted whether the mark of exclamation is in such cases of
any great service; for the impressiveness of a sentence ought to
appear in the sentence itself, or to be given to it by the context.
There is a real danger, as the style of many people shows, in thinking
that punctuation is intended to save the trouble of careful
composition. In putting the mark after pure exclamations, usage is
more or less uniform; with regard to impressive sentences, we are left
entirely to our own discretion.<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></SPAN></span></p>
<p><b>XXXIX. When a sentence contains more than one exclamation, sometimes
the mark of exclamation is placed only after the last, sometimes it is
placed after each of them, the test being whether or not they are in
reality, as well as in form, several exclamations.</b> (Compare <SPAN href="#XXXI">Rule
XXXI.</SPAN>)</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>Though all are thus satisfied with the dispensations of
Nature, how few listen to her voice! how few follow her as a
guide!</p>
<p>What a mighty work he has thus brought to a successful end,
with what perseverance, what energy, with what fruitfulness
of resource!</p>
</div>
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<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></SPAN></span></p>
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