thing before thou have it; for borrowing is the canker and death of every man's estate. The third is, that thou suffer not thyself to be wounded for other men's faults, and scourged for other men's offences, which is the surety for another. -Sir Walter Raleigh. PERSEVERANCE Is the ever ready and kindly ally of those who are seeking success and feel that they do not possess the ability to attain it so quickly as others. The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means and the exercise of ordinary qualities. The road of human welfare lies along the old highway of steadfast well-doing; and they who are the most persistent, and work in the truest spirit, will usually be the most successful. IMPORTANCE OF LITTLE THINGS The Duke of Wellington was a first-rate man of business; and it is not perhaps saying too much to aver that it was in no small degree because of his possession of a business faculty amounting to genius that the Duke never lost a battle. His magnificent business qualities were everywhere felt; and there can be no doubt that, by the care with which he provided for every contingency, and the personal attention which he gave to every detail, he laid the foundations of his great success. Michael Angelo was one day explaining to a visitor at his studio what he had been doing at a statue since his previous visit. "I have retouched this part-polished that-softened this feature-brought out that muscle-given some expression to this lip, and more energy to that limb." "But these are trifles," remarked the visitor. "It may be so, replied the sculptor, "but recollect that trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle." Attention to details makes a business man, or any other kind of man, "sure that he is right," and then, of course, it only remains for him to "go ahead." "An estate is a pond; trade is a spring." "There is no royal road to riches, and, in a business as big as mine, no back lane." "How much value I place on industry, and how I believe in devoted hard work at the thing once for all accepted as a man's 'calling' in life, may be seen from the fact that even at this stage of my career I generally work from nine in the morning to ten at night." "My receipt for prosperity, in such a concern as mine, is at the disposal of all. Here it is: 'Work hard, deal honestly, be enterprising, exercise careful judgment, advertise freely but judiciously." "Never despair; keep pushing on,' was my motto during all that time of struggle." -Sir Thomas Lipton. MARKS USED IN WRITING AND PRINTING PUNCTUATION Punctuation is the use of marks in writing or printing, for indicating the grammatical divisions of sentences. Some idea of the importance of knowing how to properly punctuate may be gathered from the following: A Two Million Dollar Comma It seems that some years ago, when the United States, by Congress, was making a tariff bill, one of the sections enumerated what articles should be admitted free of duty. Among the articles specified were "all foreign fruit plants, etc., meaning plants imported for transplanting, propagation or experiment. The enrolling clerk, in copying the bill, inserted a comma, accidentally, making it read, "All foreign fruit, plants," etc. As a result of this simple mistake, for a year, or until Congress could remedy the blunder, all the oranges, lemons, bananas, grapes and other foreign fruits were admitted free of duty. This little mistake, which any one would be liable to make, yet could have avoided by carefulness, cost the government not less than $2,000,000. A pretty costly comma, that. 1. The Comma (,) denotes a slight pause and divides a sentence into its component parts. It must be used in sentences which would otherwise be misunderstood. 2. The Colon (:) is placed between the chief divisions of a sentence when these are but slightly connected and they are them selves divided by some other marks, and is also placed between clauses when the connection is so slight that any one of them might be a distinct sentence. 3. The Semi-colon (;) indicates a shorter pause than the colon and also divides compound sentences. When a clause especially explains the meaning of some other expression, it is separated from that expression by a semi-colon, and one is used to divide a sentence into sections when the parts are not independent of each other, enough to require a colon. 4. The Period (.) denotes the close of a sentence. It is placed after every declarative or imperative sentence. All abbreviations and initial letters standing alone are followed by a period; used also to separate whole numbers from decimals and after the enumeration of letters or figures. 5. The Interrogation Point (?) is used after every sentence or part of a sentence containing a question. 6. The Exclamation Point (!) is used to denote wonder, surprise, or astonishment. 7. The Dash (-) indicates a sudden change in the subject. One is usually placed before the answer to a question when they both belong to the same line. Often used instead of the parenthesis marks. 8. Quotation Marks ("") indicate the words of an author or speaker quoted. Every quoted passage should be enclosed in quotation marks. Quotations consisting of more than one paragraph have the first quotation mark at the beginning of each paragraph, but the second is used only at the close of the last paragraph. When one quotation includes another, the latter is enclosed by only one of each of the first and last marks, (' '). 9. The Parenthesis () is used to enclose an explanatory remark, which might be omitted without injuring the grammatical construction of the sentence. 10. The Hyphen (-) is used to connect the syllables or parts of a compound word, and to connect a word broken at the end of a line, when the remainder follows on the next line. 11. The Caret (^) denotes that some word or letter has been omitted by mistake; as, 12. Brackets [] are used chiefly to give an explanation, or to supply an omission; as, Yours [the United States] is a great country. 13. The Apostrophe (') placed between letters and above them in a word denotes a contraction; also used before or after the letters to denote the possessive case; as, O'er, John's book, James' house. 14. The Stars (*** ) or N. B. are used to invite special attention. 15. The Brace { connects several words with one common form. 16. The Paragraph (¶) begins a new subject. 17. The Section (§) is used to subdivide chapters. 18. The Asterisk (*), Parallels (|), Dagger (†), Double Dagger () are used as reference marks. 19. The Commercial A (@) used in market quotations, means "at" or "to." 20. The Sign “" means per, and “b” means pound. 21. The Ellipsis (***) or (- -) denotes the omission of letters or words. 22. The Index (1) points to something of special importance. 23. Underscore (— is a line or lines drawn under words in writing that is intended for printing. One line denotes italics; two lines, small capitals, and three lines, large capitals. SPELLING Very few rules for spelling can be given to which exceptions are not so numerous as to render the rule of little value, but the following are a few of the more general: Words ending in e drop that letter before the termination able, as in move, movable; unless ending in ce or ge, when it is retained, as in change, changeable, etc. Words of one syllable, ending in a consonant, with a single vowel before it, double that consonant in derivatives; as ship, shipping, etc. But if ending in a consonant with a double vowel before it, they do not double the consonant in derivatives, as troop, trooper, etc. Words of more than one syllable, ending in a consonant preceded by a single vowel, and accented on the last syllable, double that consonant in derivatives, as commit, committed, but except chagrin, chagrined. All words of one syllable ending in 1, with a single vowel before it, have ll at the close, as mill, sell. All words of one syllable ending in 7, with a double vowel before it, have only one l at the close, as mail, sail. The words foretell, distill, instill and fulfill, retain the double 7 of their primitives. Derivatives of dull, skill, will, and full, also retain the ll when the accent falls on these words, as dullness, skillful, willful, fullness. Words of more than one syllable ending in 7 have only one I at the close, as delightful, faithful, unless the accent falls on the last syllable, as in befall, etc. Words ending in 7, double that letter in the termination ly. Participles ending in ing, from verbs ending in e, lose the final e, as have, having; make, making, etc.; but verbs ending in ee retain both, as see, seeing. The word dye, to color, however, must retain the e befor ing. Words ending in oe retain the final e, as shoe, shoeing; hoe, hoeing. All verbs ending in ly, and nouns ending in ment, retain the e final of the primitives, as brave, bravely; refine, refinement; except words ending in dge, as acknowledge, acknowledgment. Nouns ending in y, preceded by a vowel, form their plural by adding s, as money, moneys; but if y is preceded by a consonant, it is changed to ies in the plural, as bounty, bounties. Compound words whose primitives end in y, change the y into i, as beauty, beautiful. RULES FOR THE USE OF CAPITALS A very common fault is the improper use or omission of capital letters. Persons liable to make such mistakes should study attentively the rules given below on the subject and then carefully apply them. Most words commence with small letters. Capitals must be used only when required by the following rules: The first word of every sentence and the first word of every line of poetry should begin with a capital letter. All proper names should begin with capital letters. Every word that denotes the Deity should begin with a capital. Pronouns relating to the Deity should generally commence with a capital. |