“The Governor of all—­has interposed,
    Not seldom, his avenging arm, to smite
    The injurious trampler upon nature’s law.”—­Cowper.

RULE XI.—­PARTICIPLES.

Participles, when something depends on them, when they have the import of a dependent clause, or when they relate to something understood, should, with their adjuncts, he set off by the comma; as, 1.  “Law is a rule of civil conduct, prescribed by the supreme power in a state, commanding what is right, and prohibiting what is wrong.”—­BLACKSTONE:  Beattie’s Moral Science, p. 346.

    2.  “Young Edwin, lighted by the evening star,
      Lingering and list’ning wander’d down the vale.”—­Beattie.

    3. “United, we stand; divided, we fall.”—­Motto.

    4. “Properly speaking, there is no such thing as chance.”

EXCEPTION.—­PARTICIPLES RESTRICTIVE.

When a participle immediately follows its noun, and is taken in a restrictive sense, the comma should not be used before it; as,

   “A man renown’d for repartee,
    Will seldom scruple to make free
    With friendship’s finest feeling.”—­Cowper.

RULE XII.—­ADVERBS.  Adverbs, when they break the connexion of a simple sentence, or when they have not a close dependence on some particular word in the context, should, with their adjuncts, be set off by the comma; as, “We must not, however, confound this gentleness with the artificial courtesy of the world.”—­“Besides, the mind must be employed.”—­Gilpin. “Most unquestionably, no fraud was equal to all this.”—­Lyttelton.  “But, unfortunately for us, the tide was ebbing already.”

   “When buttress and buttress, alternately,
    Seem framed of ebon and ivory.”—­Scott’s Lay, p. 33.

RULE XIII.—­CONJUNCTIONS.

Conjunctions, when they are separated from the principal clauses that depend on them, or when they introduce examples, are generally set off by the comma; as, “But, by a timely call upon Religion, the force of Habit was eluded.”—­Johnson.

   “They know the neck that joins the shore and sea,
    Or, ah! how chang’d that fearless laugh would be.”—­Crabbe.

RULE XIV.—­PREPOSITIONS.

Prepositions and their objects, when they break the connexion of a simple sentence, or when they do not closely follow the words on which they depend, are generally set off by the comma; as, “Fashion is, for the most part, nothing but the ostentation of riches.”—­“By reading, we add the experience of others to our own.”

   “In vain the sage, with retrospective eye,
    Would from th’ apparent What conclude the Why.”—­Pope.