LESSONS IN PENMANSHIP. 



LESSONS IN 1'KN.M. \NSI 111'. XVII. 



AWT intelligent solf-toachor, who ha* carefully followed oar 

 instructions from the beginning, and has been able to find time 

 to write for at least an hoar daily, will now find that he Inn 

 acquired the proper position of the band in writing, and the 

 right mode of holding the pen, while he has also gained sufficient 

 control over the muscles of his hand and wrist to be able to 

 make the movements necessary to form the letters that have 

 already been brought under his notice, without the temporary 

 inconvenience which a beginner invariably experience* from an | 

 undue tension of the ball of the thumb and the muscles on the j 

 opposite side of the palm of the hand, canned by holding the i 

 pen too stiffly, and not permitting the fore-finger and thumb to , 



graved copy-slip*, there mart utill be many of our readers who 

 do, and fur their benefit examples for practice are given im 

 Copy..lip No-. 58, 59, and 60. After f urnuhing example* of 

 the seven letters of the writing alphabet that yet remain to 

 be mentioned, we shall proceed to five a aerie* of oopy-clipe 

 in the various kinds of writing generally taught in schools, 

 from which the learner will be able to make himself acquainted 

 with the forms of the capital letters. The inrtroetiona already 

 given for tracing out the shapes of the small letters have, of 

 necessity, been copious and ample, and to those of oar readers 

 who may be able to write, the explanations of the methods need 

 in forming each letter of the writing alphabet, may have ap- 

 . It mart be remembered, 



peared minute and tedious. 



that these elementary lessons in Penmanship are intended rather 



COPT-SLIP NO. 58. THE WORD gay. 



COPY-SLIP NO. 59. THE WORD gllOSt. 



^7777737- 



COPT-SLIP NO. 60. THB WORD yacht. 



play freely on the joints by which, so to speak, they are hinged 

 together and connected with the wrist and arm. On the con- 

 trary, through having gained sufficient confidence in his skill 

 and powers by daily practice, he begins to move the pen freely 

 and rapidly over the paper, while the down-strokes of his letters, 

 which were at first crooked and unevenly formed, ore now 

 regularly sloped and sharply and clearly defined at the edges. 

 He begins to find, too, that he no longer requires so many exam- 

 ples for practice in words composed solely of the small letters 

 of the writing alphabet to be placed before him by means of 

 engraved copy-slips, inasmuch as he can select words enough for 

 himself, in writing which he finds a useful exercise in testing his 

 knowledge of the forma of the letters with which he is already 

 acquainted, the way in which each is connected with letters by 

 which they are preceded or followed, and the relative propor- 

 tion of the parts which extend above and below the lines 

 that contain the body or main part of the letters. But although 

 the majority of our self-taught students may not require en- 



for learners who are trying to teach themselves to write, and 

 for those who are endeavouring to improve a faulty style of 

 handwriting, than for those who have had the benefit of being 

 shown how to shape their letters by a writing master : and it is 

 for the guidance of self -teachers, who have no one to show them 

 how each letter should be formed by writing it before them, 

 that our instructions have been made as elaborate and preeiee 

 as they are. 



But even to those who know how to write, these minute direc- 

 tions may be of the greatest importance. Many of our readers, 

 we trust, are engaged in the good work of teaching adult* in 

 evening schools. To such as these oar lessons will afford assist- 

 ance in conveying in suitable terms the instructions they are 

 giving, and accompanying that instruction by accurately-formed 

 diagrams on the black-board, which will serve as examples to 

 all the members of a large class, and save the labour and loss of 

 time involved in writing separate copies for each individual of 

 which the class is composed. 



