t the period; 4to or 8vo has
no more need of it than 4th or 8th; and N. L. 8 deg. 9' 10'' is an expression
little to be mended by commas, and not at all by additional periods.
OBS. 5.--To allow the period of abbreviation to supersede all other points
wherever it occurs, as authors generally have done, is sometimes plainly
objectionable; but, on the other hand, to suppose double points to be
always necessary wherever abbreviations or Roman numbers have pauses less
than final, would sometimes seem more nice than wise, as in the case of
Biblical and other references. A concordance or a reference Bible pointed
on this principle, would differ greatly from any now extant. In such
references, _numbers_ are very frequently pointed with the period, with
scarcely any regard to the pauses required in the reading; as, "DIADEM, Job
29. 14. Isa. 28. 5. and 62. 3. Ezek. 21. 26."--_Brown's Concordance_.
"Where no vision is, the people perish, Prov. xxix. 18. Acts iv. 12. Rom.
x. 14."--_Brown's Catechism_, p. 104. "What I urge from 1. Pet. 3. 21. in
my Apology."--_Barclay's Works_, iii, 498. "I. Kings--II. Kings."--_Alger's
Bible_, p. iv. "Compare iii. 45. with 1. Cor. iv. 13."--_Scott's Bible,
Pref. to Lam. Jer._ "Hen. v. A. 4. Sc. 5."--_Butler's Gram._, p. 41. "See
Rule iii. Rem. 10."--_Ib._, p. 162. Some set a _colon_ between the number
of the chapter and that of the verse; which mark serves well for
distinction, where both numbers are in Arabic figures: as, "'He that formed
the eye, shall he not see?'--Ps. 94: 9."--_Wells's Gram._, p. 126. "He had
only a lease-hold title to his service. Lev. 25: 39, Exod. 21: 2."--_True
Amer._, i. 29. Others adopt the following method which seems preferable to
any of the foregoing: "Isa. Iv, 3; Ezek. xviii, 20; Mic. vi, 7."--_Gurney's
Essays_, p. 133. Churchill, who is uncommonly nice about his punctuation,
writes as follows: "_Luke_. vi, 41, 42. See also Chap. xv, 8; and _Phil._,
iii. 12."--_New Gram._, p. 353.
OBS. 6.--Arabic figures used as ordinals, or used for the numeral adverbs,
_first_, or _firstly, secondly, thirdly, &c._, are very commonly pointed
with the period, even where the pause required after them is less than a
full stop; as, "We shall consider these words, 1. as expressing
_resolution_; and 2. as expressing _futurity_."--_Butler's Gram._, p. 106.
But the period thus followed by a small letter, has not an agreeable
appearance, and some would here prefer the comma, which is, undoub
|