Be his motives what they may, he must soon disperse his
followers.

This relation of your army to the crown will, if I am not
greatly mistaken, become a serious dilemma in your politics.

Of course, this rule must be qualified by the rules for the stronger
points, especially by those for the semicolon and the colon. It is
often necessary to separate the clause from the rest of the sentence
by a strong point.

EXCEPTIONS.--(I) No point is needed if either the dependent clause or
the principal clause be short.

He would be shocked if he were to know the truth.

But if the dependent clause be inserted parenthetically, it is marked
off by commas or the other marks of parenthesis, however short it may
be. (See Rule X.)

If the sentence last quoted were inverted, a comma would be placed
after the dependent clause.

If he were to know the truth, he would be shocked.

In the first form of this example, "he would be shocked" is a
definite, finished statement, the necessary qualification to which
should follow with as little pause as possible. But in the inverted
form, the first part of the sentence--"if he were to know the
truth"--is not a finished statement, and the mind may pause for a
moment before going on to the consequence, knowing that the
consequence must follow.

(2) No point is needed if there be a very close grammatical connection
between the dependent clause and some word or words preceding it.

They had so long brooded over their own distresses that they
knew nothing of how the world was changing around them.

Note that by the word "so" the clause "that they knew nothing" is
joined very closely to the previous part of the sentence; and that the
two clauses "that they knew nothing" and "how the world was changing
around them," are even more closely joined to one another by the
preposition "of." For the same reason, where the object is a clause,
there is no point before it.

He confessed to us that he had not thought over the matter.

A useful distinction will afterwards be drawn between the different
kinds of relative clauses. (Rule XIV.)

X. Words thrown in so as to interrupt slightly the flow of a sentence
are marked off by commas.

He resolved, therefore, to visit the prisoner early in the
morning.

This, I think, is the right view of the case.

The first ideas of beauty formed by the mind are, in all
probability, de