All words of one syllable ending in 7, with a double vowel before it, have one I only at the close: as mail, sail.

Words of one syllable ending in 7, when compounded, retain but one / each: 25, fulfil, skilful.

Words of more than one syllable ending in / have one / only at the close: as, delightful, faithful; except befall, downfall, recall, unwell, etc.

All derivations from words ending in have one / only: as, equality, from equal; fulness, from full; except they end in er or ly: as, mill, miller; full fully.

All participles in ing from verbs ending in e lose the e final: as, have, having; amuse, amusing; unless they come from verbs ending in double e, and then they retain both as, see, seeing; agree, agreeing.

All adverbs in ly and nouns in ment retain the e final of the primitives: as, brave, bravely; refine, refinement; except acknowledgment and judgment.

All derivations from words ending in er retain the e before the r: as, refer, reference; except hindrance, from hinder; remembrance, from remember; disastrous, from disaster; monstrous, from monster; wondrous, from wonder; cumbrous, from cumber, etc.

Compound words, if both end not in l, retain their primitive parts entire: as, millstone, changeable, raceless; except always, also, deplorable, although, almost, admirable, etc.

All one-syllables ending in a consonant, with a single vowel before it, double that consonant in derivatives: as, sin, sinner; ship, shipping; big, bigger; glad, gladder, etc.

One-syllables ending in a consonant, with a double vowel before it, do not double the consonant in derivatives: as, sleep, sleepy; troop, trooper.

All words of more than one syllable ending in a single consonant, preceded by a single vowel, and accented on the last syllable, double that consonant in derivatives: as, commit, committee; compel, compelled; appal, appalling; distil, distiller.

Nouns of one syllable ending in y, preceded by a consonant, change y into es in the plural; and verbs ending in y, preceded by a consonant, change y into ies in the third person singular of the present tense, and into ied in the past tease and past participle: as, fly, flies; I apply, he applies; we reply, we replied, or have replied. If the y be preceded by a vowel, this rule is not applicable: as, key, keys; I play, he plays; we have enjoyed ourselves.

Compound words whose primitives end in y change y into i: as, beauty beautiful; lovely, loveliness.

It is an excellent plan to keep a small dictionary at hand, in order that you may refer at once to the word if you are in doubt as to its orthography. The standard recognized in the United States is either Worcester or Webster. Johnson's is good, or Walker's, and for students' use, Stornmoth's is available and handy.

How to Use Capital Letters.

There is no surer mark of an educated person than the proper use of capital letters. To omit them when they should be used is a serious blunder, and to make too profuse a display of them is to disfigure your writing, and proclaim yourself ignorant of one of the first principles of correct writing.

The rules governing the use of these letters are few, simple, and easily remembered. They may be stated as follows:

The first word of every book, chapter, letter, note, or any other piece of writing should begin with a capital letter.

The names of the months and the days of the week should always begin with a capital letter.

The first word after a period should begin with a capital letter.

The first word after every interrogation, or exclamation, should begin with a capital letter; unless a number of interrogative or exclamatory sentences occur together, and are not totally independent.

The various names or appellations of the Deity should begin with a capital letter: as, God, Jehovah, the Almighty, the Supreme Being, the Lord, Providence, the Messiah, the Holy Spirit, etc.

All proper names, such as the names of persons, places, streets, mountains, lakes, rivers, ships, etc., and adjectives derived from them, should begin with a capital letter.

The first word of a quotation after a colon, or when it is in a direct form, should begin with a capital letter.

The first word of an example, every substantive and principal word in the titles of books, and the first word of every line in poetry, should begin with a capital letter.

The pronoun I, and the interjection O, are always written in capitals.

Any words, when remarkably emphatical, or when they are the principal subject of the composition, may begin with capitals.

How to Punctuate Correctly.

A knowledge of punctuation is very important. A document not punctuated, or not punctuated properly, may present a neat appearance if written in a good hand and correctly spelled, but its value may often be entirely destroyed by incorrect punctuation. A notable instance of this occurred in England in September, 1818, and is thus noticed in the London Times:

"The contract lately made for lighting the town of Liverpool, during the ensuing year, has been thrown void by the misplacing of a comma in the advertisement, which ran thus: "The lamps at present are about 4050 in number, and have in general two spouts each, composed of not less than twenty threads of cotton.' The contractor would have proceeded to furnish each lamp with the said twenty threads; but, this being but half the usual quantity, the com

A A B C D C C

F G KL

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z g g

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z &

Mrs Henry Holmes compliments to Mrs. M. J. Winchester requesting the pleasure of her company to Fea on Thursday evening next. 1515 No. 8th St

Phila. Feb. 12.th. 1881.

missioner discovered that the difference arose from the comma following, instead of preceding the word each. The parties agreed to annul the contract, and a new one is now ordered."

A Mr. Sharpe once engraved a portrait of a certain Richard Brothers, and gave the following certificate to that effect. The document was designed as a simple statement of fact. The misplacing of a comma, however, converted it into a piece of gross profanity. It read as follows: "Believing Richard Brothers to be a prophet sent, by God I have engraved his portrait." Had the comma been placed after the name of the Deity, the effect would have been very different.

Punctuation is the art of dividing a written composition into sentences, or parts of sentences; and is principally used to mark the grammatical divisions. of a sentence. The marks employed in punctuation are sometimes used to note the different pauses and tones of voice, which the sense and accurate pronunciation require.

The characters or marks used in punctuation are the following:

In addition to these the following marks of reference are used:

Bules of Punctuation.

(From Parker's "Aids to English Composition.")

When two or more words are connected without the connecting word being expressed, the comma supplies the place of that word; as, "Alfred was a brave, pious, patriotic prince."

Those parts of a sentence which contain the relative pronoun, the case absolute, the nominative case independent, any parenthetical clause, and simple members of sentences, connected by words expressing a comparison, must be separated by commas; as, "The elephant, which you saw in the menagerie,