V. THE NOTE OF INTERROGATION.

29. The note of Interrogation is placed at the end of a direct question.

Can gold gain friendship?

Is that the best answer you can give to the fourteenth cross-interrogatory?

Is any among you afflicted?

Oh, lives there, Heaven, beneath thy dread expanse,
One hopeless, dark idolater of Chance?

OBS. 29. When several distinct questions occur in succession, the practice of some writers is to separate them by commas or semicolons, placing the question-mark at the close only; as:

“Where was Lane then; what was his situation?”—Trial of Selfridge.

“Am I Dromio, am I your man, am I myself?”

This we regard as incorrect. Each several question should have the in­ter­ro­ga­tion point.

Dro. S. Do you know me, sir? am I Dromio? am I your man? am I myself? {p113}

Rosalind. What did he when thou saw’st him? What said he? How looked he? Wherein went he? What makes he here? Did he ask for me? Where remains he? How parted he with thee? and when shalt thou see him again?

OBS. 30. If several questions in one sentence are joined by connectives, each question takes the note of in­ter­ro­ga­tion. “Have I not all their letters to meet me in arms by the ninth of the next month? and are they not, some of them, set forward already?”

OBS. 31. When a sentence contains several interrogative clauses, having a common relation to, or dependence on, one term, a single in­ter­ro­ga­tion point is sufficient.

“Was I, for this, nigh wrecked upon the sea;
And twice by awkward wind from England’s bank
Drove back again unto my native clime?”

“By sensational preaching do you mean an incoherent raving about things in general and nothing in particular; a perversion of every text; an insult of common sense; a recital of anecdotes which are untrue, and a use of il­lus­tra­tions which are unmeaning?”

Who will count the value to a man to be raised one remove higher above the brute creation; to be able to look with the eye of intelligence, instead of vacant ignorance, upon the world in which he lives; to penetrate as far as mortals may into the mystery of his own existence, and to be made capable of enjoying the rational delights of that existence; to be protected by his knowledge from every species of quackery, fanaticism, and imposture; and to know how to estimate and use the gifts which a beneficent Creator has spread around him?—Prof. L. Stevens, Girard Coll.

“What can preserve my life, or what destroy?”

NOTE.—An assertion stating a question does not take the in­ter­ro­ga­tion point; as, “The question is, what lenses have the greatest magnifying power.”