UNDER RULE XVII.—­OF DEPENDENT QUOTATIONS.

“Thus, of an infant, we say ‘It is a lovely creature.’”—­Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., p. 12.

[FORMULE.—­Not proper, because no comma is here inserted between say and the citation which follows.  But, according to Rule 17th, “A quotation, observation, or description, when it is introduced in close dependence on a verb, (as, say, reply, cry, or the like.) is generally separated from the rest of the sentence by the comma.”  Therefore, a comma should be put after say; as, “Thus, of an infant, we say, ‘It is a lovely creature.’”]

“No being can state a falsehood in saying I am; for no one can utter it, if it is not true.”—­Cardell’s Gram., 18mo, p. 118.  “I know they will cry out against this and say ‘should he pay, means if he should pay.’”—­O.  B. Peirce’s Gram., p. 352.  “For instance, when we say ’the house is building,’ the advocates of the new theory ask, ‘building what?’ We might ask in turn, when you say ‘the field ploughs well,’ ploughs what?  ‘Wheat sells well,’ sells what?  If usage allows us to say ’wheat sells at a dollar’ in a sense that is not active, why may it not also allow us to say ‘wheat is selling at a dollar’ in a sense that is not active?”—­Hart’s English Gram., p. 76. “Man is accountable, equals mankind are accountable.”—­S.  Barrett’s Revised Gram., p. 37.  “Thus, when we say ‘He may be reading,’ may is the real verb; the other parts are verbs by name only.”—­Smart’s English Accidence, p. 8.  “Thus we say an apple, an hour, that two vowel sounds may not come together.”—­Ib., p. 27.  “It would be as improper to say an unit, as to say an youth; to say an one, as to say an wonder.”—­Ib., p. 27.  “When we say ’He died for the truth,’ for is a preposition.”—­Ib., p. 28.  “We do not say ’I might go yesterday,’ but ‘I might have gone yesterday.’”—­Ib., p. 11.  “By student, we understand one who has by matriculation acquired the rights of academical citizenship; but, by bursche, we understand one who has already spent a certain time at the university.”—­Howitt’s Student-Life in Germany, p. 27.

SECTION II.—­THE SEMICOLON.

The Semicolon is used to separate those parts of a compound sentence, which are neither so closely connected as those which are distinguished by the comma, nor so little dependent as those which require the colon.

RULE I.—­COMPLEX MEMBERS.