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told, the popish priests in King Henry VIII.'s time poured soap ashes on Mr. Petit's grave, in the church-yard, to prove him an heretic, affirming that God would not suffer grass to grow on an heretic's grave.' Strype's Memor. vol. i. p. 203. The absence of grass, you observe, Mr. Urban, is esteemed a mark of roguery and villany in Mr. Arden's, and of heresy in Mr. Petit's case, and was given out to be such, as to the latter, even by the papists themselves; how then can it be a token of sanctity in Bishop Fisher's grave? Certainly, in his case, the weeds and grass ought, by parity of reason, to be more copious than ordinary, rather than deficient.

But, fourthly, how can this observation argue a virtue inherent in the bishop's bones, when they were removed from this church-yard in a short time into the Tower? The bishop was beheaded 22d of June, 1535. The sixth of July following, Sir Thomas More suffered, soon after which, His body was buried in the chapel belonging to the Tower, called S. Peter ad Vincula, by the care of his daughter Margaret; to which place, as it is said, she afterwards removed the body of John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, who being beheaded for the same matter on the 22d June going before, was buried in the church-yard of All-hallows Barkin." Wood's Athen. vol. i. col. 39. 2d edit.

The removal of the prelate's body not only precludes the pretended miracle, but also will fully account for the want of grass, on his grave; for from thence, it may be in

ferred:

Fifthly, and lastly, that the appearance, though it were such as is represented, was no other than what may be accounted for in a natural way. This bishop's grave was made by the halberds of the guards, and consequently was but shallow. See his Life, p. 211. After he had lain there a short time, the earth was moved again, as Mr. Wood writes; which second removal would of course retard all vegetation, nothing in the world contributing so much, as moving of earth, to the destruction of grass and weeds. If then along with this we consider the nature of the place, and the situation of it, there might well be but little grass.

I conclude upon the whole, that there was nothing preternatural in this affair; that the fact itself is doubtful; that admitting it to be true, the bishop's bones were no other way concerned in occasioning the want of grass, than as they caused the earth to be twice removed; and, lastly, that upon the whole matter, this is no other than one of

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those false miracles, as was asserted above, with which the modern papists are perpetually injuring the sacredness of truth, and hurting the credit of real ones.

Nov. 14, 1752.

1752, Dcc.

Yours, &c.

PAUL GEMSEGE.

XL. On the first Introduction of Pointing.

Westminster, Jan. 8.

MR. URBAN, IT is not, perhaps, an inquiry wholly useless, or unentertaining, when the usage of stops began amongst us, since upon them all propriety of reading and pronunciation so much depends.

We will first consider, when they were not; and it will appear that † Lipsius is on the side of truth, when he says, that all ancient records, which were within his experience, were without notes of distinction;' by which he must mean, regular, determinate, and fixed stops. Putean, in his observations upon Quintillian, is of the same opinion. What within our own knowledge at this day puts this beyond dispute, is, the Alexandrian manuscript, which I have particularly consulted on this occasion. This curious monument of antiquity is at present in the king's library at the British Museum. Whoever examines this, will find, that the whole is written, continuo ductu, without distinction of words, or sentences. How the ancients read their works, written in this manner, is not easy to conceive. Their manner of reading was, very possibly, the same with that used in our courts of judicature; and what seems to favour this surmise, is, the ancient custom continued, in these tribunals, of writing without stops.

It has been imagined by some, that this invention of pointing sprung up in the time of Hadrian, but this is a mistake, and arose from the misinterpretation of a passage in Suidas. Suidas, speaking of Nicanor, the grammarian, says, that he composed a little treatise, περὶ σίγμης τῆς πας Ομήρῳ, καὶ τῆς παρὰ Καλλιμάχω. But whoever will take the pains to examine Suidas's meaning here, will clearly see, that he

* See Hall again, p. 3 aud 211. De Distinct. lib, iv.

In his letter De Distinct. § See Suidas in hac voce.

is not talking of stops and pointing, but of emphasis, accent, and pronunciation. Lipsius* indeed supposes, that these words intimate a proposal to introduce pointing, and that the proposal was rejected. His error lies, in not having given due attention to their import.

Isidore,† indeed, seems to have made a new discovery, when he tells us, that, in his time, they made use of three points, or distinctions. According to him, they were called comma, colon, and period. The form of all three was the same, but their position different; the first being placed at the bottom, the second at the middle, and the third at the top of the letter. Positura,' says he, est figura ad distinguendos sensus per cola, commata, et periodos. Quæ dum ordine suo apponitur, sensum nobis lectionis ostendit. Ubi enim in initio pronunciationis, respirare oportet, fit comma, et ad imam literam ponitur. Ubi autem sententiæ sensum præstat, fit colon, mediamque literam puncto notamus. Ubi vero plenam sententiæ clausulam facimus, fit periodus, punctumque ad caput literæ ponimus.' It must be observed here, that Isidore wrote about the time when the old practice of joining words together ceased, and writings, began to be more legible, by separating and distinguishing words from each other. About this time we find, from monumental inscriptions, that they made use of certain marks, placed at the end of every word; not to distinguish sentences, but words. And, though we call some of our stops, at this day, by the same name, it does not follow that we use them for the same purpose. From Isidore's words, here cited, one would at first imagine, that the points were only in those places he specifies; but it must be understood, that agreeable to the practice of that age, those notes of distinction were placed after every word, though perhaps

not in the same manner.

In all the editions of the Fusti Capitolini, these points occur. The same are to be seen on the Columna Rostrata.§ For want of these, we find such confusion in the Chronicon Marmoreum, and the covenant between the Smyrnæans and Magnesians, which are both now at Oxford. In Salmasius's edition of Dedicatio Statua Regilla Herodis, the like confusion occurs, where we find ΔΕΥΡΙΤΕ for Δενς ιτε.

An instance to prove that marks of distinction were

In his letter about pointing, printed with Putean's Dissert. de Distinct.
De Orig. lib. i. c. 19.

See Cellarius's Orthography, p. 70.

§ Vide Livi Hist. edit. Oxon. tom. vi. p. 207.

placed at the end of each word, by the ancients, will appear from the Walcote inscription, found near Bath. It presents itself to the eye in the following manner :-

IVLIUS VITALISY FABRI
CESIS LEGv XXv. Vv. V
STIPENDIORUMv &c.

After every word here, except at the end of a line, we see this mark. There is an inscription in Montfaucon, which has a capital letter laid in an horizontal position, by way of interstitial mark, which makes one apt to think that this way of pointing was sometimes according to the fancy of the graver.

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Here we observe after the words, a T laid horizontally, but pot after each word, which proves this to be of a much later age than the former.

Having now considered, that the present usage of stops was unknown to the ancients, I proceed to assign the time in which this commendable improvement of language began.

As it appears not to have taken place, while manuscripts and monumental inscriptions were the only known methods to convey knowledge, we must conclude, that it was introduced with the art of printing. The fifteenth century, to which we are indebted for this mystery, did not, however, bestow those appendages, we call stops; whoever will be at the pains to examine the first printed books, will discover no stops of any kind; but arbitrary marks here and there, according to the humour of the printer. In the sixteenth century, we observe their first appearance. We find, from the books of this age, they were not all produced at the same time: those we meet with there in use, being only the comma, the parenthesis, the interrogation, and full point. To prove this, we need but look into Bale's Acts of English Fouries, black letter, printed 1550: a book not commonly to be had, but which I have in my collection. Indeed, in the dedication of this book, which is to Edward VI. we discover a colon: but, as this is the only one of the kind throughout the work, it is plain this stop was not established

at this time, and so warily put in by the printer; or if it was, that it was not in common use. Thirty years after this time, in that sensible and judicious performance of sir Tho mas Elyot, entitled, The Governour, imprinted 1580; we see the colon as frequently introduced as any other stop; but the semicolon and the admiration were still wanting; neither of these being visible in this book. In Hackluyt's Voyages, printed 1599, we see the first instance of a semicolon: and, as if the editors did not fully apprehend the propriety of its general admission, it is but sparingly introduced. The admiration was the last stop that was invented, and seems to have been added to the rest, in a period not far distant from our own times.

Thus we see, that these notes of distinction came into use, as learning was gradually advanced and improved: one invention indeed, but enlarged by several additions. Nothing is more probable, as we can trace them no higher than the fifteenth century, than that the thought was monastic. The monks, however ridiculous in some things, have obliged posterity with others, truly valuable. Learning, such as it was, did not want advocates in this age. If Walsingham, a benedictine monk of St. Alban's in this century, wrote the Historia Brevis, a work much esteemed at that time, and was distinguished for his literary accomplishments, it is something more than conjecture to attribute this invention to him.

Yours, &c.

EDGAR BOCHART.

1759, January.

MR. URBAN,

Wateringbury.

Mr. Edgar Bochart, in his essay on the introduction of pointing, says, 'In Hackluyt's Voyages, printed 1599, we see the first instance of a semicolon; and, as if the editors did not fully apprehend the propriety of its general admission, it is but sparingly introduced. The admiration was the last stop that was invented, and seems to have been added to the rest, in a period not far distant from our own times.'

That your correspondent is mistaken, in supposing the semicolon to have been prior to the admiration, is evident from the Catechism set forth by king Edward the sixth, and printed by John Day, in the year 1553. In a question in this catechism, p. 19, there is a note of admiration, as

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