John Wilson

“ All these instances I have cited tend to prove how great is the appreciation which men of culture have for those books out of which they have drawn inspiration for their lives, or into the making of which they have put their souls; and they all prove, also, the immense importance of the accomplished proof-reader in helping to create for us the books which we love. ”

“ Occasionally a writer will split his infinitive; as, “We were to cautiously and quickly advance to the hill above,” instead of, “We were to advance cautiously and quickly to the hill above;” “You must not expect to always have things as you would like to have them,” instead of, “You must not expect to have always things as you would like to have them.” It is claimed by some writers, however, that it is not only correct to separate the infinitive from the verb, but that such construction adds force to the sentence ”

“ One night, as I was studying my lessons for the morrow, my father read to me, from Channing’s Essay on Self Culture, the words I have quoted, which illustrate not only Channing’s enthusiasm, but the power and influence of books. Let me repeat a few more lines from the passage:—
“God be thanked for books! They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are the true levellers. They give to all who will faithfully use them the society, the spiritual presence, of the best and greatest of our race. ”

“ Many errors are also made by incorrect application of punctuation marks; as, for instance: An auctioneer, who had a buggy for sale, placed the sign, “Buggy! for Sale,” on an old bedstead near his door. In a short time his attention was drawn to the blunder by the laughter of some who passed. He readily perceived his error, and promptly made the correction. Examples of this kind are countless, of which I here give a few: “Woman, without her man, is a brute,” should be, “Woman,—without her, man is a brute.” A child being asked, “Why should we love God?” ”

“ Leading actors, in preparing their plays for the stage, always punctuate rhetorically, to indicate to the speaker of the lines the pauses necessary for effect. The art of true punctuation is, however, founded on grammar, its aim being to assist the reader to discover the true meaning of a sentence. ”

“ When two nouns are jointly used, the first serving as a qualifying adjective to the second, a hyphen should be inserted between them. Writers and printers frequently omit the hyphen in such cases, causing an unnecessary obscurity to the reader; thus, “Colonel Baden-Powell, when in West Africa, fell in love with a native saying, ‘Softly, softly: catchee monkey!’ which, when Anglicized, is, ‘Don’t flurry: patience gains the day!’” I had some difficulty in understanding the meaning of this pleasantry till I supplied the hyphen between the two words, native-saying. ”

“ In the latter case, the reader makes one day the name of the oak,—putting the two nouns in apposition as meaning one thing. In the Lord’s Prayer, it is not uncommon to see a comma after the words, kingdom, power, and glory; as, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.” Rhetorically, and to give force and emphasis to each expression, a pause in reading is necessary; but, grammatically, the comma is inaccurate.
Writers sometimes, and frequently proof-readers, blunder in the proper use of the exclamations, O and Oh. ”

“ As many blunders were made by the monks in transcribing and re-transcribing the ancient MSS., the assistance of the [21] corrector, or proof-reader, was as much needed then as now; the wrong words were erased with a sponge or with a knife, and the corrected words inserted. Solomon, three thousand years ago, said, “Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” This was uttered at a time when few read or studied, and when all books were in manuscript, the printer’s art being then unknown. To-day everybody reads, studies, and writes ”

“ In the cases cited, and in very many others, the proof-reader has shown himself to be “a power behind the throne;” for, without his aid, innumerable errors would have occurred.
A writer on Punctuation, many years ago, said that, “Perhaps there never existed on any subject, among men of learning, a greater difference of opinion than on the true mode of punctuation, and scarcely can any two persons be brought to agree on the same method; some making the pause of a semicolon where the sense will only bear a comma ”