neceffary in order to render every word intelligible at first view; for many learners, who can tell the fignification of every character, when it ftands alone, are often at a loss to diftinguish the meaning of their own writing, when the characters are joined together; partly owing to the strange appearance they make to the eye, and partly to the omiffion of fome of the letters. I have, therefore, in the first lesson in the plate, inferted the character for every confonant, and alfo all the points for the vowels; which method the learner muft follow, till the compound characters are become quité familiar to him.

When the learner can readily, and at a future time (or at leaft feveral days after it is written), read thofe compound characters eafily, he may proceed to avail himself of the next advantage this art allows, namely, that of inferting no more characters in a word than are abfolutely neceffary to discover its found. Thus, for the word aniverfe, nus, with the vowel mark for u, will be fufficient to convey au idea of the found, as it fhews the letters unvs. Ufing also the simple characters of the alphabet for the words, prepofitions, and terminations, they there fignify.-Upon this principle, the fecond leffon is formed.

But as the chief excellency of fhort-hand writing confifts in expedition, and which the foregoing rules will not fufficiently favour, there are alfo other methods of abbreviation, by which much time is faved. It is not fufficient that words be expreffed by an alphabet of very fimple characters, but they should also be expreffed by as few of those characters as poffible; or the chief end of writing fhort hand, which is that of following a speaker, would be fruftrated. I fhall, therefore, lay down a few fimple rules, which, if ftrictly adhered to, will enable the learner to write as expeditiously as is necessary.

RULE I.

In writing the confonants of the fame word, the end of the foregoing character is always joined to the beginning of the VOL. I.

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following

following one: if they be joined in any other manner, as the words by the No. 18, in the third leffon: or if they stand feparately, they fignify whole words, and not fingle letters.

RULE II.

There are many words which frequently occur in writing upon any fubject whatever, and may eafily be recollected by the writer, though expreffed ever fo imperfectly; fuch words may be written by only marking the first letter of the word, if it be a confonant; or the vowel point and the first confonant, if it begin with a vowel, as is often done in the third leffon with the words modefty, affurance, bafhful, and impudent, and bashfulness and impudence.

RULE III.

When words are thus expreffed by their first, or first and fecond letters, it is often neceffary to diftinguish them, as being either fubftantives, adjectives, verbs, or adverbs. If the word be a fubftantive, it is marked by a dot placed against the end of the character; if an adjective, by a point placed just before or above the place where the fubftantive point is placed; and if an adverb, by a point just behind or below the substantive mark, that is, on the oppofite fide to the adjective point. The places where the three points are or should be fituated, must be in a straight line, which line must be at right angles to the end of the character; as feen in the plate: (fee diftinguishing points.) When the fubftantive thus expressed is plural, the substantive point is to be made a little longer than ufual. The verb has no point to exprefs it.

RULE IV.

When the fame word is required to be repeated with a prepofition, whether it be a fubftantive, adjective, verb, or adverb, it is only placing another point after its substantive, adjective, or adverb point; as in fig. 5, time after time.

RULE

RULE V.

When two words are expreffed by their first confonants, and a prepofition should be between them, which is omitted, they are to be joined together in the common manner, and a point placed at their point of conjunction: as in fig. 7 and 8, the love of money, the thirft for gain.

RULE VI.

When any word begins with any of the prepofitions, it is to be begun with the mark for fuch prepofition; and, in general, the next confonant will be fufficient. And when they end with any of the terminations, the first, or first and fecond confonant of the word with fuch termination, will generally fuffice to difcover the found. But when prepofitions and terminations are used, as they are joined to the other characters like fingle letters, the word fhould always have at least one of its vowel points to prevent confusion.

RULE VII.

Moft of those phrafes which confift of a word with a prepofition, conjunction, or article, before and after it, may be written as one word.

RULE VIII.

When a pronoun follows a prepofition, they are joined together, as the foregoing. And pronouns may always be expreffed by their first, or first and second confonants, having the vowel point if requifite.

RULE IX.

To exprefs the definite article the, the confonant mark for is used; and to exprefs the article a, a finall point is placed at the beginning of the following confonant,

The foregoing rules are all that can be fafely given; and if strictly attended to, will answer every purpose that can be expected

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expected from this art. I have avoided arbitrary characters for certain long words and phrases, as I am convinced they are not adapted to every one's memory; and from the great number of words with which our language abounds, it is impoffible that a few hundred characters to express so many peculiar words can be of much utility to the learner, and particularly as the chief ufe of fhort hand is to follow a public fpeaker, many of whom poffefs a very extensive flow of language. Befides this, the method of fubstituting a set of characters for many words or phrases is very burdenfone to the memory, difficult to learn, and is tafily and foon forgotten.

I have thought proper to mark all the vowels by points, according to many of my predeceffors in this art, though I have differed from all others in the order of placing them. Dr. Mavor, Mr. Angel, Mr. Mason, and Mr. Gurney, alfo exprefs the vowels by points; but the method of the three latter is to denote the vowels by points placed on the same side of the letter: thus a and e are reprefented by points near the top of the character, or the beginning of it; i by a point in the middle of the character; and o and u by points near the bottom or latter end of the character: whereas, in this, fyftem, the points for a and e are placed on one fide the character, and thofe for o and on the other fide of the character, and the point for i, at the top; which must give this method a great advantage over the other. By the former method the place of the a and e cannot always be diftinguished from each other, nor that of the o and u: by this method, I will venture to affert, they will never be confounded.

Though fome writers on this fubject have given different characters for all the vowels, I have given the preference to points: they give the writer infinitely the advantage over the other method, in point of expedition; and by an attentive perufal of his work after he has written it, and while the subject is ftill fresh in his memory, he may mark all the vowels; which will render it intelligible at any future time.

With regard to the characters for the confonants, I have endeavoured

endeavoured to render them as fimple as poffible in their construction, yet perfectly different from each other. Moft writers on this art either make their characters too complex, or, if they make them fimple, form them so much alike, that they are eafily confounded with each other. In fome modern fyftems, the difference between different characters confifts only in one being a fine and the other a black stroke; which distinction, writers of short hand have seldom time to make; not to mention the other fimilarities between the characters, fuch as, different characters being of the fame form, but of different fizes; with many other abfurdities. While, on the other hand, thofe who have rendered their characters fufficiently different, have formed them fo complex, as to give the learner no advantage, in point of facility, above the common round hand. It must be allowed by every one, that the more fimple a character is, the more eafily it is formed. When a character confifts of two lines, whether ftraight or curve, it requires almost twice as much time to form it as to form a character confifting of only one of fuch lines: and characters which confift of two lines joined together at one end, fo as to form an angle, require ftill more time to form them. Willis, who published a fyftem of fhort hand in the year 1628, has no less than thirteen characters in his alphabet, which are formed with angles in them, befides two which are complete ovals, or circles. And Mr. Mawd, who published another system in 1635, has also eleven angled characters, and those for the most part taken from Mr. Willis. Mr. Skelton, also, who improved upon the two former, has, in his alphabet, published in 1659, fourteen very complex characters, namely, ten angled ones, three curled at one end, and one complete circle. But Mr. Rich, who published his fyftem in 1669, has only feven angled characters, three curled ones, and one entire circle. His fyftem was in great repute for many years, and Mr. Locke recommends it in his treatife on Education (because there was at that time none better). Yet Mr. Nicholas, who published his fyftem thirty years after Mr. Rich, and evidently

Mr.

took.