Part 5 (1/2)

They make a desert, and call it--peace.

Thou, great Anna, whom three states obey, Who sometimes counsel takes--and sometimes tea.

3. To express in one sentence great contrariety of action or emotion or to increase the speed of the discourse by a succession of snappy phrases.

She starts--she moves--she seems to feel The thrill of life along her keel.

In this connection DeVinne gives the following excellent example from Sterne:

Nature instantly ebbed again;--the film returned to its place;--the pulse fluttered,--stopped,--went on,--throbbed,--stopped again,--moved,--stopped,--Shall I go on?--No.

Attention may be called to Sterne's use of the semicolon and the comma with the dash, a use now obsolete except in rare cases.

4. To separate the repet.i.tion or different amplifications of the same statement.

The infinite importance of what he has to do--the goading conviction that it must be done--the dreadful combination in his mind of both the necessity and the incapacity--the despair of crowding the concerns of an age into a moment--the impossibility of beginning a repentance which should have been completed--of setting about a peace which should have been concluded--of suing for a pardon which should have been obtained--all these complicated concerns intolerably augment the sufferings of the victims.

5. At the end of a series of phrases which depend upon a concluding clause.

Railroads and steams.h.i.+ps, factories and warehouses, wealth and luxury--these are not civilization.

6. When a sentence is abruptly terminated.

If I thought he said it I would--

7. To precede expressions which are added to an apparently completed sentence, but which refer to some previous part of the sentence.

He wondered what the foreman would say--he had a way of saying the unexpected.

8. To connect extreme dates in time indication.

The war of 1861--1865. The war of 1861-1865.

9. To define verse references in the Bible or page references in books.

Matt. v: 1--11. Matt. v: 1-11.

See pp. 50--53. See pp. 50-53.

NOTE. In instances such as given in the two preceding rules the en dash may sometimes serve if the em dash appears too conspicuous.

10. A dash preceded by a colon is sometimes used before a long quotation forming a new paragraph. In other cases no point need accompany the dash.

The dash is sometimes used as a subst.i.tute for commas. Writers on the subject say that this use occurs when the connection between the parenthetical clause and the context is closer than would be indicated by commas. The distinction, if real, is difficult to see. It would be better if none but the most experienced writers attempted the use of the dash in this way.

Dashes are often used instead of marks of parenthesis. It is better to let each mark do its own work.