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a child might acquire it," is regarded as unattainable by a young man of talent.

The motto of every young stenographer should be "PERSEVERE!" The theory of the art may speedily be attained; but to acquire a practical proficiency, vigorous assiduity is necessary, more, perhaps, than in any other art; without it, genius will be of little avail, and for this plain reason,-that the attainment is mechanical. Practice, and nothing but practice, can impart and increase expedition.

UNIVERSAL STENOGRAPHY.

CHAPTER I.

THE object of Short-Hand being to render writing as expeditious as possible, the rational principles on which it is founded, are,

1st. To leave out as many of the letters, usually written, as can be done consistent with legibility, so as to leave the number to be written as small as possible.

2nd. To use, for those letters, the characters most easily made.

In carrying the first principle into effect, we are to use such letters only as are absolutely necessary to make up the sound of the words, or to suggest them to the mind.

Vowels being only simple articulate sounds, and employed in every word and every syllable, are not necessary to be inserted in the middle of words, because the consonants, if fully pronounced, with the assistance of connection, which is the MASTERKEY for the decyphering of Short-Hand, will always discover the meaning of a word, and make the writing perfectly legible. This mode of writing, by leaving out the vowels, is not peculiar to Short-Hand, but is used in the Hebrew, Arabic, and other Eastern languages. But even the vowels may be denoted, by a plan which will be explained in the following pages.

B

In many cases, also, when the vowel is not strongly accented at, the beginning or end of a word, it may be omitted; and, after considerable practice, it may always be done when following a rapid speaker. When dipthongs or tripthongs occur, only one vowel is to be expressed, being that which agrees best with the pronunciation.

The English language consists of twenty-six letters, six of which are vowels.

The letter c is to be represented by s when soft, and by K when hard; J is denoted by G ; Q is represented by K; v is denoted by the letter F, which it strongly resembles in sound. If the pupil think it necessary to make a distinction, he may write the stroke of the letter v, rather coarser or thicker.

The character appointed for w, is always used when it is an initial letter; when it occurs in the middle of a word, and does not join well with the preceding syllable, we do not scruple to express it by the vowel o or ou, writing POUR for power, which can occasion no ambiguity.

Z is represented by the letter s, from which it may be distinguished, if necessary, by means of a thicker stroke, in the same manner as v is distinguishe from F.

We have also simple characters for a few double consonants, and one for the termination-ious.-See alphabet plate.

The Stenographic Alphabet is as follows, b, d, f or v, g or j, h, k or q, l, m, n, p, r, s or z, t, w, x, y.

The practice of making the strokes (as in common hand) fine and strong, is to be avoided; the pressure of the pen on the paper, should be slight and uniform

Write but little at a time, when learning; and do not neglect to read over, two or three times, what you may have written, before it is laid aside.

At first, all difficult words, such as proper names and terms of art, may be written in common writing.

For the various letters of the alphabet, the most simple and distinct marks are applied to represent

them.

According to nature, the consonants may (as Byrom observes) be exhibited thus:

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In this view, the relation or affinity of the letters becomes more observable: that between the letters of the first and second rank, and also between those of the third and fourth, is so near, that the lower class of the Welch generally pronounce those of the first rank, instead of those of the second; and the inhabitants of Somersetshire, on the contrary, those of the fourth instead of the third: the first pronouncing the word God, as if it had been written Kot, the other FOR as VOR.

It will be seen, by referring to plate 2, that, for the convenience of joining, the w, and some other letters, may be varied a little in shape; the m may be made with the loop above or below, as the writer pleases. In the joining plate, a dot is inserted, to point out where each letter begins.

The first thing to be attempted, is the learning of the characters, which must be well grounded on the memory; and let the pupil be careful to make each letter clear and distinct.

Next, the words the characters stand for. The alphabetical characters are also used as prefixes and terminations. In forming WORDS, they are to be neatly joined together, and must be written in the most expeditious manner possible, and without taking off the pen until the word be finished.

When any of the words occur which are set down in the alphabetical plate, the character adopted may be written smaller than when joined to other letters. At first, it may be advisable to write the word "with" in plate 1, a little ABOVE the line; "which" through the line, and "who" BELOW the line.— The same plan may also be adopted, as to prefixes and terminations.

The alphabetical words are those which are found to be most frequently occurring; and others may, after considerable practice, be added.

Great care must be taken to give to the upright, sloping and horizontal characters their TRUE direction; to make the angles sharp and clear, and the circular and other parts, duly proportioned: for, upon the legibility of the writing, much will materially depend.

In order to perfect the learner in the construction of the alphabetical characters, he should write each letter SINGLY for awhile, in the same way that boys at school practise the common alphabet.

Those words which the single characters represent, and also the prefixes and terminations, must be learned perfect, as a song.

If any word or prefix be not immediately recollected, the only inconvenience attending it will be the loss of the advantage to be derived from that brief method of expressing it, as the word must then be written more at length, i. e. spelt by the consonants which compose it.

With a clean pen, trace over the various combinations of the letters, as laid down in the joining plate.

The method of joining the Short-Hand characters, does not differ from that of common writing: where the first character ends, the next usually begins,

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