28 DECEMBER 1951, Page 16

Punctuation and Thought •

Sm.—" If you cannot punctuate you cannot think." Archbishop Temple's dictum, ziuoted by Janus, is interesting. Had his Grace been addressing an audience of clergy he might well have added, "And you may seriously mislead your people in their thinking." For example, when the Lord's Prayer is used in public, there is almost always a sense-destroying pause 'after the fourth word of "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us." This pause certainly obscures, and inay even

entirely prevent, our realisation of the truly awe-full implication which our Lord so specifically and deliberately emphasised by adding: "For if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your