ts may properly follow it, if the words written in full
would demand them: as, A. D. for _Anno Domini_;--Pro tem. for _pro
tempore_;--Ult. for _ultimo_;--i.e. for _id est_, that is;--Add., Spect,
No. 285; i.e., _Addison, in the Spectator, Number 285th_.

"Consult the statute; 'quart.' I think, it is,
'Edwardi sext.,' or 'prim. et quint. Eliz.'"--_Pope_, p. 399.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--It seems to be commonly supposed, whether correctly or not, that
short sentences which are in themselves distinct, and which in their stated
use must be separated by the period, may sometimes be rehearsed as
examples, in so close succession as not to require this point: as, "But if
thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which?
Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou
shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and
thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."--SCOTT, ALGER,
AND OTHERS: _Matt._, xix, 17, 18, 19. "The following sentences exemplify
the possessive pronouns:--'_My_ lesson is finished; _Thy_ books are
defaced; He loves _his_ studies; She performs _her_ duty; We own _our_
faults; _Your_ situation is distressing; I admire _their_ virtues.'"--_L.
Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 55. What mode of pointing is best adapted to
examples like these, is made a very difficult question by the great
diversity of practice in such cases. The semicolon, with guillemets, or the
semicolon and a dash, with the quotation marks, may sometimes be
sufficient; but I see no good reason why the _period_ should not in general
be preferred to the comma, the semicolon, or the colon, where full and
distinct sentences are thus recited. The foregoing passage of Scripture I
have examined in five different languages, ten different translations, and
seventeen different editions which happened to be at hand. In these it is
found pointed in twelve different ways. In Leusden's, Griesbach's, and
Aitton's Greek, it has nine colons; in Leusden's Latin from Montanus,
eight; in the common French version, six; in the old Dutch, five; in our
Bibles, usually one, but not always. In some books, these commandments are
mostly or wholly divided by periods; in others, by colons; in others, by
semicolons; in others, as above, by commas. The first four are negative, or
prohibitory; the other two, positive, or mandatory. Hence some make a
greater pause after the fourth, than el