“Remember Heav’n has an avenging rod: 
    To smite the poor, is treason against God.”—­Cowper.

RULE II.—­GREATER PAUSES.

When the semicolon has been introduced, or when it must be used in a subsequent member, and a still greater pause is required within the period, the colon should be employed:  as, “Princes have courtiers, and merchants have partners; the voluptuous have companions, and the wicked have accomplices:  none but the virtuous can have friends.”—­“Unless the truth of our religion be granted, a Christian must be the greatest monster in nature:  he must at the same time be eminently wise, and notoriously foolish; a wise man in his practice, and a fool in his belief:  his reasoning powers must be deranged by a constant delirium, while his conduct never swerves from the path of propriety.”—­Principles of Eloquence, p. 80.

   “A decent competence we fully taste;
    It strikes our sense, and gives a constant feast: 
    More we perceive by dint of thought alone;
    The rich must labour to possess their own.”—­Young.

RULE III.—­INDEPENDENT QUOTATIONS.

A quotation introduced without a close dependence on a verb or a conjunction, is generally preceded by the colon; as, “In his last moments, he uttered these words:  ‘I fall a sacrifice to sloth and luxury.’”—­“At this the king hastily retorted:  ’No put-offs, my lord; answer me presently.’”—­Churchill’s Gram., p. 367.  “The father addressed himself to them to this effect:  ‘O my sons, behold the power of unity!’”—­ Rippingham’s Art of Speaking, p. 85.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE PUNCTUATION.—­ERRORS CONCERNING THE COLON.

UNDER RULE I.—­ADDITIONAL REMARKS.

“Of is a preposition, it expresses the relation between fear and Lord.”—­Bullions, E. Gram., p. 133.

[FORMULE.—­Not proper, because the additional remark in this sentence is not sufficiently separated from the main clause, by the comma after the word preposition.  But, according to Rule 1st for the Colon, “When the preceding clause is complete in itself, but is followed by some additional remark or illustration, especially if no conjunction is used, the colon is generally and properly inserted.”  Therefore, the colon should here be substituted for the comma.]

“Wealth and poverty are both temptations to man; that tends to excite pride, this discontentment.”—­Id., ib., p. 93; see also Lennie’s Gram., p. 81; Murray’s, 56; Ingersoll’s 61; Alger’s, 25; Merchant’s, 44; Hart’s, 137; et al.  “Religion raises men above themselves, irreligion sinks them beneath the brutes; this binds them down to a poor pitiable speck of perishable earth, that