doubts of the Fathers of the Church, how particular passages should be read and understood, gives reason to believe that there was not, in the fourth century, an accustomed system of pointing; it is known, that in that century the Septuagint was not pointed, and thence, it may be inferred, that the New Testament was in a like

case.

Saint Jerome, who was born A. D. 340, and died at the age of 80, translated the Books of the Old and New Testaments into Latin; which version is known by the name of the Vulgate :-he, it is said, attended to the pointing of the Scriptures, and to him is attributed the merit of adding, perhaps adopting from some of the Greek Grammarians, the comma-point or subdistinctio and the colon-point or media distinctio. About the time of Jerome, points began to be used in manuscripts; but it does not appear, that any thing approaching to the present system, was adopted earlier than the ninth century.

Notwithstanding the claim for Jerome, that he attended to the pointing of the Scriptures, a more consistent tale of the first step taken towards this end, is as follows; that in the fifth century, to assist the clergy in reading the New Testament in public worship, and to obviate the inconveniences and mistakes, to which the earlier fathers had been subject, Euthalius, first a Deacon of the church at Alexandria, and afterwards Bishop of Sulca in Egypt, divided the text of the New Testament into lines; and in such a way that each line terminated, where a pause was to be made: the following, taken from the epistle of St. Paul to Titus, is an example of this mode of pointing;

THATTHEAGEDMENBESOBER

GRAVE
TEMPERATE

SOUNDINFAITH

INLOVE

THEAGEDWOMENLIKEWISE
INBEHAVIOURASBECOMETHHOLINESS

NOTFALSEACCUSERS
NOTGIVENTOMUCHWINE

TEACHERSOFGOODTHINGS5

An examination of the above passage, so divided into lines, and the consideration that, from various causes, after-copyists might write several divisions in the same line, suggest the idea, that in such a case they adopted some mark, to distinguish the several divisions; hence might arise the introduction of at least one point."

Aristotle treated of the period, not as a sign but as a reality. Cicero also treated of the period, not as a sign but as a reality:8 he also spoke of the colon as a member of a sentence, and of a comma as a fragment, under the name of incisum. Quinctilian treated the period, colon, and incisum or comma as realities, and not as points.10

Cicero spoke of pointing [interpungendi]; and it has been said that he intended thereby to speak of certain marks, used to distinguish one word from another; but an examination of what he says in his work entitled, "De Claris Oratoribus," leads to the inference, that by pointing, he meant certain signs or points, which were used to distinguish the numbers, feet, or measures, in which studied oratorical compositions were framed for the sake of harmony, and that he did not intend any

points, used to mark or to point out periods, colons, or commas as such; if this opinion is correct, the points of Cicero would answer to the marks or bars, which denote the rests and measures in modern written music.11 12

Seneca said, that when he wrote he was accustomed to interpoint:13 but quoting him on the authority of Ainsworth, I do not now venture an opinion as to what he intended by that phrase.

There certainly is a great difference between the use of marks for distinguishing word from word, or distinguishing rests and measures, and the use of points for pointing out the several members and fragments of a period in inscriptions (fac simile copies of which are given in the Gentleman's Magazine, for February, 1841) on Roman Altars, found in Britain, are certain marks, evidently points, and used for other purposes, than merely to distinguish word from word.

Beyond what Cicero, Quinctilian, and Seneca have said, the inscriptions on the altars,-that St. Jerome was a Roman and attended to the pointing of the Vulgate edition of the Scriptures,—and what is stated by comparatively modern Grammarians, I have, in relation to the Art of Pointing, learned nothing of the practice of ancient Latin Authors: it may however be reasonably inferred, that if they did not in any way lead, they perhaps followed the Grecian Grammarians.

This brief account of the Art of Pointing in ancient times, is far from being satisfactory; some of the dates and statements are not, apparently, reconcileable with each other; and an examination of ancient manuscripts by some scholar would, perhaps, lead to a version different in many particulars.

SECTION THE SECOND.

The History of the Art of Pointing in the earlier stages of the Art of Printing, and its progress to its present state.

In the earliest printed works, which have come under my notice, only the period-point and the colon-point were made use of; but the interrogative-point was soon added.

Whoever introduced the several points, it seems that a full-point, a point called come, answering to our colonpoint, a point called virgil answering to our commapoint, the parenthesis-points and interrogative-point, were used at the close of the fourteenth, or beginning of the fifteenth century. In a work entitled Typographia or the Printer's Instructor, by J. Johnson, printer, published in 1824, reference is made to a printed book, which is, probably on insufficient grounds, attributed to Wynkyn de Worde: from this latter work, so attributed to De Worde, the following extract upon the craft of poynting thus speaks ;-" there be five manner of points and divisions most used among cunning men; the which if they be well used, make the sentence very light and easy to be understood, both to the reader and hearer and they be these, virgil,-come,-parenthesis, -plain point,-interrogative." The extract then goes on ;-"seeing we (as we would to God every preacher would do) have kept our rules, both in English and Latin, what need we, seeing our own be sufficient, to put any other examples." The quotation proceeds to describe the form and explain the several offices of the five points the virgil is thus described; "it is a slend

:

B

er stroke leaning forward, betokening a little short rest, without any perfectness yet of sentence": this description of a virgil makes it answer to our commapoint, and the French Grammarians yet retain the name; the comma-point being by them named virgule. -of the come the quotation thus speaks;-"a come is with two tittles betokening a longer rest, and the sentence is yet unperfect, or else if it be perfect, there cometh more after belonging to it; the which more cannot be perfect by itself, without at the least somewhat of it that goeth afore"; this description of the come makes it answer nearly to our colon and semi-colon-points, and it will be referred to, when the colon and its point are treated upon. 14

The first notice, which I have taken of the semi-colonpoint is in a work, printed in 1605.

Of the note of exclamation the first I find printed, was in 1618.

The earliest use of the dash, that I have seen, was in the year 1662: it was then named the break, and served to denote an interruption, or an abrupt breaking off, in the midst of a period; subsequently it has been diverted from its primary use, and by some writers made to serve, without distinction, for the colon, semi-colon, and comma points, and even the parenthesispoints.

In the middle of the last century, I find a point distinct from the parenthesis-point, to which was given the name of parathesis; the form of which is commonly called brackets; the fragment which it points out will hereafter be treated of.

The summary of the matter appears to me to be, that at the introduction of printing about 1445, only two