FLY-SPECK, n. The prototype of punctuation. It is observed by Garvinus… — The Devil's Dictionary
SAPIR 861
FLY-SPECK, n. The prototype of punctuation. It is observed by Garvinus that the systems of punctuation in use by the various literary nations depended originally upon the social habits and general diet of the flies infesting the several countries. These creatures, which have always been distinguished for a neighborly and companionable familiarity with authors, liberally or niggardly embellish the manuscripts in process of growth under the pen, according to their bodily habit, bringing out the sense of the work by a species of interpretation superior to, and independent of, the writer's powers. The "old masters" of literature--that is to say, the early writers whose work is so esteemed by later scribes and critics in the same language--never punctuated at all, but worked right along free-handed, without that abruption of the thought which comes from the use of points. (We observe the same
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