in doing good.”  Why do they not omit the comma where the conjunction is understood?  It would be doing no greater violence to the principles of elocution; thus, “The head the heart and the hands, should be, &c.” or thus, “The head the heart, and the hands, should be employed,” &c.  Who does not perceive that the latter pause, where the conjunction is expressed, is as necessary as the former, where the conjunction is understood?  And, since this is the case, what fair objection can be made to the following method of punctuation?  “The head, the heart, and the hands, should be constantly and actively employed in doing good;” “She is a woman, gentle, sensible, well-educated, and religious.”

[12] As a considerable pause in pronunciation is necessary between the last noun and the verb, a comma should be inserted to denote it; but as no pause is allowable between the last adjective and the noun, or between the last adverb and the verb, the comma, in such instances, is properly omitted; thus, “David was a brave, wise, and pious man.”

Two or more nouns, verbs, adjectives, participles, or adverbs, occurring in the same construction, with their conjunctions understood, must be separated by commas; as, “Reason, virtue, answer one great aim;” “Virtue supports in adversity, moderates in prosperity;” “Plain, honest truth, needs no artificial covering;” “We are fearfully, wonderfully framed.”

Exercises.—­We have no reason to complain of the lot of man nor of the mutability of the world.  Sensuality contaminates the body depresses the understanding deadens the moral feelings of the heart and degrades man from his rank in creation.

Self-conceit presumption and obstinacy blast the prospects of many a youth.  He is alternately supported by his father his uncle and his elder brother.  The man of virtue and honor will be trusted relied upon and esteemed.  Conscious guilt renders one mean-spirited timorous and base.  An upright mind will never be at a loss to discern what is just and true lovely honest and of good report.  Habits of reading writing and thinking are the indispensable qualifications of a good student.  The great business of life is to be employed in doing justly loving mercy and talking humbly with our Creator.  To live soberly righteously and piously comprehends the whole of our duty.

In our health life possessions connexions pleasures there are causes of decay imperceptibly working.  Deliberate slowly execute promptly.  An idle trifling society is near akin to such as is corrupting.  This unhappy person had been seriously affectionately admonished but in vain.

RULE 7.  Comparative sentences whose members are short, and sentences connected with relative pronouns the meaning of whose antecedents is restricted or limited to a particular sense, should not be separated by a comma; as, “Wisdom is better than riches;” “No preacher is so successful as thee;” “He accepted what I had rejected;” “Self-denial is the sacrifice which virtue must make;” “Subtract from many modern poets all that may be found in Shakspeare, and trash will remain;” “Give it to the man whom you most esteem.”  In this last example, the assertion is not of “man in general,” but of “the man whom you most esteem.”