

149 



,'MANSJIIP. 



UM khre* < page the learner wil: 



,-o|,i,--, tint, i-, l.i-.'.l on I'-ttem or con. 



I'OttoU- 



i.iitfht htrui. next lesson we >- 



in itxolf a ry form 



majority : 



;riiitf to HC- 



of the :nl ..I I'. HIM. 11. inp : -vill How tuko t!l() 



tlio Uiirt\ : 



ontlo and 



gradation v.. : on from Hi" iii--i, Minplo stroke, 



known utl '* involving combina* 



:itary strokes that havo hitherto boon brought 



by drawing or dragging," or the word hall, which mean* the 



"fnuji the huge block maa that float* 



.<) water! that tutain it, and from which ri*e the tapering 



maata and network of cordage that giro grace and .boa;. 



Teasel's form. It u onneoeuary to mention more oaaaii in which 



; He from a waut of proper attention to too rola- 



iv..< i i- DM i.ii'l .! ...;..... ; . : :' . . . ' ' :. .':.: 



A cl- .i/lo li.ui'i ioau nhould 



strive 1 iy bo hu rank or otation in life. 



that it U vulgar and commonplace to writo a 



legible hand that it shows good breeding to writo such a 



scrawl that it Li impossible for any 0110 but an expert to decipher 



COPY.8LIP- NO, 32. THE WORD 



COPY'SLIP NO, 33,- THE WQED hilt. 



COPT-SLIP NO. 34. THE WORD pull. 



before their notice. The words in Copy-slips Nos. 33 and 34 

 will bear efficient witness to the truth and propriety of the 

 statement wo mado in our last lesson, that unless duo attention 

 be paid to the relative proportion of the strokes of letters that 

 extend above or below the lines that contain the body of any 

 letter, the appearance of any handwriting will be far from 

 pleasing, as it will bo wanting in that harmony that is so abso- 

 lutely necessary to satisfy the eye. Suppose, for instance. th:it 

 in Copy-slip No. 33 the letter 1 in the word hilt had been carried 

 no higher than tho t, how unsatisfactory wonld have been its 

 aspect : or, again, if tho letter t in the samo word had been 

 carried as high as tho 1, what trouble would the reader havo 

 to determine whether the writer meant what ho had written to 

 be the word that means tho " handle of a aword," or -that by 

 which "rising ground" is denoted. Then, also, in Copy-slip 

 No. 34, if tho straight stroke of tho p in pull were not carried 

 down to its proper extent, but allowed to terminate a littlo 

 below the lower of the lines that contain tho Micr u, what 

 doubt would arise in a reader's mind : . T the writer 



meant to writo the word which means " to draw," or " to move 



it. How the notion has arisen it is difficult to say; but, to 

 hazard a guess, it is fair to suppose that it originated in an idea 

 that to be engaged in trade and commerce was low, and that aa 

 people in business generally wrote legibly and plainly, it was 

 the stamp of a commercial huxtering spirit to go and do like- 

 wise. Happily, in our times legible handwriting is not thought 

 unworthy of a man of education and good social position, while, 

 indeed, it is one of the principal qualifications that is insisted 

 on in those who aspire to the Civil Service and employment in 

 Government offices. To write a good hand is one of the first 

 steps towards the attainment of that liberal education which 

 stamps a man as a gentleman without any of the adventitious 

 claims that arise out of a man's descent and social standing, 

 and it is now as absurd for any man to racer at another because 

 he can write lopibly as it was for Jack Cnde to dnb tho clerk of 

 Chatham a villain because he was taken " setting of boy's 

 copies," and to hang him as a traitor, with his pen and ink-horn 

 about his neck, because ho could write his own name, and had 

 not a mark to himself, like, in Cade's csiima^">n, " an hocest, 

 plain-dealinj man." 



