24 On Short-hand Writing. 
From Rome I should travel to England, and there introduce 
my reader to the unparalleled Timothy Bright, who lived in the 
reign of Elizabeth, and who, as we are informed, was the first 
inventor of a stenographic Alphabet, which he dedicated to that 
Queen. I should even rally my countrymen upon their various 
whimsies styled dmprovements of the art; such as the writing 
of whole sentences without taking off the pen—or the crea- 
tion of three or even five real or imaginary lines called ‘ places,” 
which, like our musical stave, shall metamorphose one letter 
into another at pleasure, or even dispense altogether with cer- 
tain commencing letters, through the agency of the name of that 
place upon which the second letter shall be made. “Neither 
should I hesitate to set forth the pedantic introduction, called 
“© Invention,”’ of a whole host of Latin prepositions, such as 
omni, post, and preter—ill suited to the genius of our language, 
and calculated neither for perspicuity, nor, on the great average 
of syllables, even for brevity itself. I should perhaps also state 
the various important controversies of our very learned crypto- 
graphists—whether, in the writing of any individual word, the 
hand should or should not be ever lifted at all: but as I cannot 
ensure to myself a patient reading, by the unlearned world, of 
such enlightened topics, I shall pass on in my own way with 
the subject, and lay before you what many will consider a very 
usefu though perhaps not a very amusing Table of all the short- 
hand characters deserving the name of alphaletical, 
TABLE OF ALPHABETICAL SHORT-HAND CHARACTERS, arranged 
in the order of Simplicity, i.e. commencing with the most 
simple and regularly proceeding to the most complex. 
Ist. Right lines ee ee 4/% |— ee a) ee ee =5 
2d. Curves [any thing ap- (> sly 
proaching semicircles] - ae a 
3d. Right lines beginning | —a RMN oie 
with acurveorhook (27 ¢% NO If mA= 
Ath. Right lines begin- “US GS a ean ts 
ning with a loop \Bo7 LPO NET Ca 
5th. Curves (nearly semi- >. 
crcles)beginning | C9) NRA 8 bots =2 
withaloop .. J —. 
Reject, as explained below .. 3 
Remain} |). «2 ..aael 
