sewhere between any two. This
greater pause is variously marked by the semicolon, the colon, or the
period; and the others, at the same time, as variously, by the comma, the
semicolon, or the colon. Dr. Campbell, in his Four Gospels, renders and
points the latter part of this passage thus: "Jesus answered, 'Thou shalt
not commit murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not give false testimony. Honour thy father and mother; and love
thy neighbour as thyself." But the corresponding passage in Luke, xviii 20,
he exhibits thus: "Thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit adultery;
do not commit murder; do not steal; do not give false testimony; honour thy
father and thy mother." This is here given as present advice, _referring
to_ the commandments, but not actually _quoting_ them; and, in this view of
the matter, semicolons, not followed by capitals may be right. See the
common reading under Rule XIV for Capitals, on page 166.

OBS. 2.--Letters written for _numbers_, after the manner of the Romans,
though read as words, are never words in themselves; nor are they, except
perhaps in one or two instances, abbreviations of words. C, a hundred,
comes probably from _Centum_; and M, a thousand, is the first letter of
_Mille_; but the others, I, V, X, L, D, and the various combinations of
them all, are direct numerical signs, as are the Arabic figures. Hence it
is not really necessary that the period should be set after them, except at
the end of a sentence, or where it is suitable as a sign of pause. It is,
however, and always has been, a prevalent custom, to mark numbers of this
kind with a period, as if they were abbreviations; as, "While pope Sixtus
V. who succeeded Gregory XIII. fulminated the thunder of the church against
the king of Navarre."--_Smollet's Eng._, iii, 82. The period is here
inserted where the reading requires only the comma; and, in my opinion, the
latter point should have been preferred. Sometimes, of late, we find other
points set after this period; as, "Otho II., surnamed the Bloody, was son
and successor of Otho I.; he died in 983."--_Univ. Biog. Dict._ This may be
an improvement on the former practice, but double points are not
_generally_ used, even where they are proper; and, if the period is not
indispensable, a simple change of the point would perhaps sooner gain the
sanction of general usage.

OBS. 3.--Some writers, judging the period to be wrong or needless in such