Dear Sir, We have used your "Treatise on Punctuation " in my school for more than two years, as the text-book on that subject. I feel it due to you to say, that it has given me great satisfaction. In its arrangement, its fulness, in the great number of exercises, and the demand which they make on the learner for study, and in its completeness, your work seems to me to be all that could be desired in such a treatise. From N. Tillinghast, Esq., Principal of the Normal School at Bridgewater, Jan. 18, 1851. Our educational library has lately been enriched by a copy of Wilson's "Treatise on English Punctuation." We have read it through with great pleasure, and find little or nothing in it opposed to our own notions, but much that will be useful to us and to every teacher and author. ... The definitions are generally clear and simple, and the exercises such as are appropriate and sufficient: any one of ordinary intelligence can understand them. Besides valuable instruction in regard to Punctuation, there is much other matter, which none but a practised proof-reader could give. school Journal. ... Common Mr. Wilson has just issued another volume, to be very earnestly recommended to all.... The Appendix, among other useful matter, contains capital and much-needed remarks and directions on Proof-reading. We have heard good judges speak of this manual as an "authority;" and such is our own opinion. Were it thoroughly studied and followed, what improvements would follow in all manner of manuscripts! what songs of joy would resound throughout the printing establishments of the land! and what blessed changes for the better would be witnessed in periodicals and newspapers! It is an excellent book for schools, and no family should be without it for purposes of reference. New-York Christian Inquirer. In itself a most beautiful specimen of the noble art of printing, this book is designed to secure accuracy, elegance, and lucidness in works that issue from the press. . . . All necessary information upon this important subject will be found, presented in a very simple and forcible way, in Mr. Wilson's "Treatise on Punctuation." It is an exceedingly valuable book; and a copy of it should be at the service of every one who is directly or indirectly interested in the large subject of which it treats, -all who have to write important letters, records, and documents, as well as those who write for the press. . . . Its title is a very full exposition of its contents; and a reader of it will be equally surprised and instructed by the amount of knowledge which its perusal will impart. We heartily commend it to the masters and pupils of all our high schools and academies. - Christian Examiner. WOOLWORTH, AINSWORTH, & CO., 5.1, JOHN STREET, NEW YORK, 1871. A TREATISE ON ENGLISH PUNCTUATION; DESIGNED FOR LETTER-WRITERS, AUTHORS, PRINTERS, AND AND FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES, With an Appendix, CONTAINING RULES ON THE USE OF CAPITALS, A LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BY JOHN WILSON. NINETEENTH EDITION. WOOLWORTH, AINSWORTH, & CO., 51, JOHN STREET, NEW YORK. 1871. Edic T 768,71.900 HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY GIFT OF GEORGE ARTHUR PLIMPTON Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. Cambridge: Printed by John Wilson and Son.. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. IN presenting anew the following treatise, the author would say, that, agreeably to the admission contained in the closing paragraph of the Preface to the second edition, he has embraced the opportunity of making what is conceived to be further improvements, by changing occasionally the modes of expression, enlarging the remarks and exercises, rewriting and extending the section on compound and derivative words, drawing up a more copious list of abbreviations, offering to young authors some considerations on the preparation of "copy," and appending a full and minute Index. He feels justified in affirming, that not only in its present form, but in its past, this book is the most complete of any on the subject that he has seen; a great portion of its contents, though in practical operation, not being found in any other work. He mentions this, not by way of boast, but merely to show the incorrectness of an assertion made in the Preface to a work on " Composition and Rhetoric," recently published; in which the writer of it states, that as Punctuation, "when considered at all in educational text-books, is treated only in the most cursory manner, it was regarded as a desideratum to present in this volume a complete and thorough system, which should cover exceptions as well as rules, and provide for every possible case, however rare or intricate;" that writer having forgotten, that the second edition of the present work - which was probably then lying on his table, and the "Introduction" to which, in its plan and thought, if not in its expression, coincides remarkably with his Lesson on "the Principles of the Art" of Punctuation - contains at least double the number of the pages which he devotes to the setting-forth of his system. 22, SCHOOL STREET, BOSTON, January, 1855. EXTRACTS FROM THE PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. * .... THE writer of the following work, who has had ample opportunities of becoming acquainted with the elements and practice of Punctuation, thinks, for reasons assigned in the "Introduction," that he is justified in submitting it to the consideration of teachers, authors, compositors, and correctors of the press. Eighteen years ago, he published a little book, designed solely for printers, of which a chief portion consisted of matters belonging to Punctuation; the groundwork being mainly, but not altogether, the article of Lindley Murray on that subject, introduced into the larger edition of his "English Grammar." That book has been long out of print, and would have been republished, but that, with an increase of years, the writer trusts he has had an accession of experience, which enables him to understand more of the practical bearings of the art of which he has treated. He therefore ventures to publish the present work, so different in its arrangement from the former, and so much augmented, as to entitle it to be regarded as, to a great extent, new. . . . . To show the various adaptations of the rules, and to improve the taste or to exercise the judgment of the student, the writer has also introduced numerous examples and copious exercises, partly from books on the subject, but in the main from those having no direct reference to sentential marks; the punctuation of the examples, when wrong, having been rectified in conformity with the principles laid down in this publication. SALFORD, near MANCHESTER, February, 1844. Despite of what is here said, the youthful work referred to was, in an enlarged form, republished at Glasgow in the year 1848, having on the titlepage the name of "John Graham" as its author, but with the Preface ostensibly subscribed by "John Wilson " and "John Graham." |