it really was,
this was due, no doubt, to the absence of all noise. [Here are
three commas. The reader cannot quickly discover which one
marks the great division of thought.]

Right: The speed of the car seemed slower than it really was.
This was due, no doubt, to the absence of all noise.

Wrong: The winters were long and cold, nothing could live
without shelter.

Right: The winters were long and cold. Nothing could live
without shelter.

Right: The winters were long and cold, and nothing could live
without shelter [For the use of the comma, see 91a].

Right: The winters were long and cold; nothing could live
without shelter [For the use of the semicolon see 92].

Right: The winters were so long and cold that nothing could
live without shelter.

Exception.--Short coordinate clauses which are parallel in structure and
leave a unified impression, may be joined by commas, even though the
conjunctions be omitted.

Right: All was excitement. The ducks quacked, the pigs
squealed, the dogs barked. [The general idea _excitement_ gives
the three clauses a certain unity.]

Exercise:

1. The key is turned to the right, this unlocks the door.

2. The author keeps one guessing, there is no hint how the
story will end.

3. The farmer is independent, he has no task-master.

4. There has been a change of government, in fact there has
been a revolution.

5. Lamb had failed in poetry, in the drama, and in the novel,
in the essay, at last, he succeeded.

=19.= EXERCISE IN UNITY OF THOUGHT

=A. The Comma Splice=

Rewrite the following material in sentences each of which is a unit of
thought. Most of the statements should be summarily cut apart. If you
decide that others taken together have unity of thought, combine them
(1) by a comma plus a conjunction, (2) by a semicolon, or (3) by
reducing one of the statements to a phrase or a subordinate clause.

1. The canoe is long and narrow, it is made of birch bark.

2. I decided to serve tea, of course cream and sugar would be
needed.

3. Some men hunt rabbits for market purposes only, they are the
sportsman's enemies.

4. This city furnished many boats for the siege of Calais, when
these boats returned they brought the plague with them.

5. The bottom of the box is then put in, it is naile