in Grammar, the art of pointing, or of dividing a discourse into periods, by points expressing the pauses to be made therein.

The points used are four, viz. the period, colon, semicolon, and comma. See the particular use of each under its proper article, COMMA, COLON, PERIOD, and SEMICOLON.

In general, we shall only here observe, that the comma is to distinguish nouns from nouns, verbs from verbs, and such other parts of a period as are not necessarily joined together. The semi-colon serves to suspend and sustain the period when too long; the colon, to add some new supernumerary reason, or consequence, to what is already said; and the period to close up the sense and construction, and release the voice.

It has been asserted, that punctuation is a modern art, and that the ancients were entirely unacquainted with the use of our commas, colons, &c. and wrote not only without any distinction of numbers and periods, but also without distinction of words: which custom, Livius observes, continued till the hundred and fourth Olympiad; lympiad; during which time the sense alone divided the discourse.

What within our own knowledge at this day puts this beyond dispute, is the Alexandrian manuscript, which is at present in the king's library, at the British Museum. Whoever examines this, will find that the whole is written continuo ductus, without distinction of words or sentences. How the ancients read their works written in this manner, it is not easy to conceive.

After the practice of joining words together ceased, notes of distinction were placed at the end of every word. In all the editions of the Fasti Capitolini these points occur. The same are to be seen on the Columna Rostrata. For want of these, we find much confusion in the Chronicon Marmoreum, and the covenant between the Smyrneans and Magnesians, which are both now at Oxford. In Salmasius's edition of Dedicatio statuae rigille Herodis, the like confusion occurs, where we find ΔΕΠΤΥΣ and ΔΕΡ ΙΙ.

Of these marks of distinction, the Walcote inscription found near Bath may serve as a specimen:

IVLIUS VITALIS FABRI CESIS LEGV XXV V V STIPENDIORUM &c.

After every word here, except at the end of a line, we see this mark v. There is an inscription in Montfaucon, which has a capital letter laid in an horizontal position, by way of interstitial mark, which makes one apt to think that this way of pointing was sometimes according to the fancy of the graver.

P. FERRARIUS HERMES CAECINIAE DIGNAE. CONIVGI KARISSIMAE NUMERIAE &c.

He we observe after the words a T laid horizontally, but not after each word, which proves this to be of a much later age than the former.

As the improvement of stops appears not to have taken place while manuscripts and monumental inscriptions were the only known methods to convey knowledge, it is conjectured that it was introduced with the art of printing. The 14th century, to which we are supposed to be indebted for this invention, did not, however, bestow those appendages we call stops: whoever will be at the pains of examining the first printed books, will discover no stops of any kind; but arbitrary marks here and there, according to the humour of the printer.

In the 16th century, we observe their first appearance. We find, from the books of this age, that they were not all produced at the same time; those we meet with there in use, being only the comma, the parenthesis, the interrogation, and the full point. To prove this, we need but look into Bale's Acts of English Worthies, black letter, printed 1552. Indeed, in the dedication of this book, which is to Edward VI, we discover a colon: but, as this is the only one of the kind throughout the work, it is plain this stop was not established at this time, and so warily put in by the printer; or if it was, that it was not in common use. Thirty years after this time, in that sensible and judicious performance of Sir Thomas Eliot, entitled The Governour, imprinted 1580, we see the colon as frequently introduced as any other stop; but the semicolon and the admiration were still wanting, neither of these being visible in this book.

In Hackluyt's Voyages, printed 1599, we see the semicolon: and, as if the editors did not fully apprehend the propriety of its general admission, it is but sparingly introduced. It has been said, indeed, that the semicolon was brought into use at a much earlier period; but it appears that it was only for the purpose of an abbreviation, as in (namq;) (neg;) for namque, neque, and not in the sense in which it is now employed, Month. Mag. v. 411.

The semicolon, indeed, as well as all the ordinary points, is used in a work entitled "Imagines Deorum," printed at Leyden, in the year 1581, in Roman characters. We likewise meet with them in the translation of a justly celebrated book, written in French by that wise and good man, Philip Mornay, lord of Plessis; in the "Schoolmaster" of Roger Ascham, printed in 1570, with the exception of the semicolon; and in the "Trewnesse of the Christian Religion," by Sir Philip Sidney, published in 1587, in which we find the asterisk, brackets, the interrogation, the comma and the semicolon, all as we now use them; and the colon and period are square dots.

In an alchemical manuscript of the date of 1572, the semicolon is said to be met with, as well as the other three points which are in common use. The colon and period are abundant in a work entitled "Dionysius de Situ Orbis," printed at Venice in 1498, but none of the other stops or points. The single point (.) appears to be the most ancient. Since the year 1485 the colon was introduced; the comma is first seen about the year 1521; and the more refined semicolon was brought into use about the year 1570.

The invention of the semicolon is most probably due to the English; for from the Leyden edition of Pliny, 1553, it is evident that the Dutch printers were not then in the practice of using it; and if in 1570, they were, Roger Ascham would probably have employed it; for the Dutch were the principal classical printers in his time; but we find that some English books were marked with it at that period.

The admiration was the last stop that was invented, and seems to have been added to the rest in a period not so far distant from our own time.

Thus we see that these notes of distinction came into use as learning was gradually advanced and improved; one invention indeed, but enlarged by several additions.

But notwithstanding what has been said relative to the use of stops as being a modern invention, we shall find reason to be satisfied that the ancients were not unacquainted with the method of making pauses in speaking and writing, if we attend to the following elaborate investigation of Mr Warburton, which we shall lay before our readers in the words of the author.

"Some species of pauses and divisions of sentences in speaking and writing must have been coeval with the knowledge of communicating ideas by sound or by symbols.

"Suidas says, that the period and the colon were discovered and explained by Thrasymachus, about 380 years before the Christian era. Cicero says, that Thrasymachus was the first who studied oratorical numbers, which entirely consisted in the artificial structure of periods and colons. It appears from a passage in Aristotle, that punctuation was known in his time. The Rhet. lib. iii. 5." learned Dr Edward Bernard* refers the knowledge of pointing to the time of that philosopher, and says, that it consisted in the different position of one single point. At the bottom of a letter thus, (A.) it was equivalent to a comma; in the middle (A.) it was equal to a colon; at the top (A.) it denoted a period, or the conclusion of a sentence.

"This mode was easily practised in Greek manuscripts, while they were written in capitals. But when the small letters were adopted, that is, about the ninth century, this distinction could not be observed; a change was therefore made in the scheme of punctuation. Unicales literas hodie nemo usu dicitus eas in vetustis codicibus, qua priscam formam servant, ac solute sunt, nec mutuo colligantur. Hujus modi literae unicales observantur in libris omnibus ad nonum usque saeculum. Montf. Palaeog. Recens. p. xii.

According to Cicero, the ancient Romans as well as the Greeks made use of points. He mentions them under the appellation of librariorum nota; and in several parts of his works he speaks of 'interpunktae clausulae in orationibus', of 'clausulae atque interpuncta verborum', of 'interpunctiones verborum', &c.†

Seneca, who died A.D. 65, expressly says, that Latin writers in his time, had been used to punctuation. Nos cum scribimus interpungere consuevimus. Mu retas and Lipsius imagined that these words alluded to the insertion of a point after each word; but they certainly were mistaken, for they must necessarily refer to marks of punctuation in the division of sentences, because in the passage in which these words occur, Seneca is speaking of one Q. Haterius, who made no pauses in his orations.

According to Suetonius in his Illust. Gram. Valerius Probus procured copies of many old books, and employed himself in correcting, pointing and illustrating them; devoting his time to this and no other part of grammar. Multa exemplaria contracta emendare, ac distinguere et adnotare curavit; soli huic, sec uti praetera, grammaticae partis dedicatus.

It appears from hence that in the time of Probus, or about the year 68, Latin manuscripts had not been usually pointed; and that grammarians made it their business to supply this deficiency.

Quintilian, who wrote his celebrated treatise on Oratory about the year 88, speaks of commas, colons, and periods; but it must be observed that by these terms he means clauses, members, and complete sentences, and not the marks of punctuation §.

Aelius Donatus published a treatise on Grammar in the fourth century, in which he explains the distinctio, the media distinctio, and the subdistinctio: that is, the use of a single point in the various positions already mentioned.

Jerom*, who had been the pupil of Donatus, in his Latin version of the scriptures, made use of certain distinctions or divisions, which he calls coda and com ma. It has however been thought probable, that these divisions were not made by the addition of any points or stops; but were formed by writing, in one line, as many words as constituted a clause, equivalent to what we distinguish by a comma or a colon. These divisions were called striae or fracturae, and had the appearance of short irregular verses in poetry. There are some Greek manuscripts still extant which are written in this manner.

The best treatise upon punctuation I have seen, and from which these authorities are partly taken, was published some years since and dedicated to Sir Clifton Wintringham, Bart. the name of the author I know not**.