326 



THE POPULAE EDUCATOR. 



13! 7c 



11 



/k... 



A.. 



the preceding lessons on Penmanship. In our first lesson, we 

 endeavoured to explain to students who are seeking to teach 

 themselves how to write, or trying to improve their handwriting, 

 the proper position of the body, the hand, and the pen ; and in 

 subsequent lessons we showed how each letter was formed of 

 one or more simple elementary strokes and their modifications, 

 the proportions of each letter being regulated by horizontal 

 lines placed at certain distances from each other ; thus creating 

 a system which has never before been attempted in teaching 

 writing, and which possesses the merit of enabling the self- 

 teacher to test by actual measurement how much he knows of 

 the regular proportions of the letters in relation to each other", 

 when he casts aside his leading-strings as the lines within and 

 on which copies are written may be appropriately termed and 

 endeavours to write on a blank sheet of paper, with no other 

 guide to the form, connection, and proportion of the letters than 

 that which is furnished by memory, of the copies he has written 

 in lines for practice, and the instructions which have been given 

 in our lessons. 



The eaB]y copy-slips, numbered from 

 1 to 6, wet e traversed by fine diagonal 

 lines running from right to left, in 

 a downward direction. These lines 

 served to show the proper slope or 

 inclination of the letters for writing. 

 They are inclined to the horizontal 

 lines crossing the paper from side 

 to side, at an angle of 60 degrees. 

 This inclination is shown in the 

 annexed diagram by the diagonal 

 line running upwards from the 

 point 7j, in the loft-hand column of 

 letters, from left to right, and cross- 

 ing the perpendicular line on the 

 right at a -point between a and d, in 

 the right-hand column of letters. 



The horizontal lines that cross 



the copy-slips from side to side, and which are shown at one 

 view in the accompanying diagram, are designed, as it has been 

 said, to fix the proper proportions of the letters in height and 

 depth. Starting from the centre line c c, the line a a above it, 

 and the line b 6 below it, show the common level of the letters 

 that are written within these lines, and do not extend beyond 

 them either above or below. The letters that are contained 

 within the lines a a, I b, are a, C, 6, i, HI, n, O, r, S, U, V, W, 

 X, or exactly half the alphabet. Of the remaining thirteen, 

 eix namely, lb, d., h., k, 1, t extend above the upper common 

 level a a; five namely, g, j, q, y, Z extend below the lower 

 common level b b, while the remaining two, p, f, extend both 

 above a a and below b b. Of the last-named thirteen letters, t 

 is included between the lines dd,bb; b, d, h, k, 1, between 

 the lines ee, bb; q, between the lines a a, g g; g, j, y, Z, 

 between the lines aa,hh; f, between the lines kk, g g ; and p, 

 between the lines //, g g. The student is advised to rule a piece 

 of paper in this manner, and write the alphabet upon it. He 

 will then have all the letters together at one view, in their 

 relative proportions. The distances of the lines from the cen- 

 tral line c c, on either side of it, are shown by the numbers 

 annexed to the diagram. Those on the left-hand side represent 

 the distances in sixteenths of an inch ; those on the right-hand 

 side, in fractional parts of an inch. These are the proper pro- 

 portions for large-hand writing ; but in small-hand, the space 

 between the lines a a, bb is considerably reduced, while the 

 loops and tails of the letters that extend above a a, and below 

 b b, are greatly extended in proportion, as will be seen from our 

 future copy-slips in small-hand. 



The width of the letters contained within the lines aa,bb, 

 and indeed the width of all letters used in large text, except 

 i, m, and w, should be exactly one-half of that part of the 

 diagonal line that is intercepted between them. In the annexed 

 diagram, the proper width of a letter in large-hand is shown by 

 the line intercepted between a in the left-hand column of letters, 

 and o, the point in which the line a a is crossed by the diagonal. 

 It measures exactly seven-twenty-fourths of an inch in width. 



The elementary forms of which the small letters of the writing 

 alphabet are composed, in large-hand writing, are ten in number, 

 namely : 



1. The "bottom- turn," which in its simple or modified form 



enters into the composition of nine letters, namely, a, b, d, i, 

 1, q, t, U, and W. Of these i and U are formed of the bottom- 

 turn, without any modification; while t and 1 consist of tho 

 bottom-turn slightly modified. 



2. The " top-turn," which enters into the formation of threa 

 letters of the alphabet, namely, m, n, and r. This elementary 

 stroke, unlike the bottom-turn, does not form a complete letter 

 without some other elementary stroke being joined to it. 



3. The " top-and-bottom-turn," which enters into the com- 

 position of six letters of the alphabet, namely, h., m, n, p, 

 V, and y. 



4. The " straight-stroke," which enters into the formation of 

 three letters of the alphabet, namely, h., k, and p. 



5. The letter o, which is a complete letter in itself without 

 any addition, and which, as an elementary stroke, enters into the 

 composition of four letters of the alphabet, namely, a, g, d, q ; 

 and in a modified form into the formation of four additional 

 letters, namely, c, 6, 8, and x. 



6. The elementary looped form turned at the bottom, which 

 enters into the composition of three letters, namely, g, j, and 

 y ; and in a modified form into the composition of z. 



7. The elementary stroke, that completes the formation of 

 three letters, namely, b, V, and w, in combination with the 

 bottom-turn or top-and-bottom-turn. 



8. The elementary stroke that is added to the top-turn to 

 form the letter r. 



9. The elementary looped form turned at the top, which 

 enters into the composition of the letter f, which is finished 

 below the line b b, with the straight-stroke. In small-hand 

 writing, this form is used instead of the straight down-stroke 

 for those portions of the letters b, h, and 1, which extend above 

 the line a a. 



10. The elementary stroke, that may be called a modification 

 of the top-and-bottom-turn, added to the " straight-stroke," to 

 form the letter k. 



The following table shows at a glance the formation of all 

 the letters of the alphabet in reference to tho numbers attached 

 to the recapitulation of elementary forms that has just been, 

 given : 



a ... 5.1 Ji ... 4.3 o . . . 5 v ... 3.7 

 I . . . 1.7 * . . '. 1 p . . . 4.3 w . . .1.1.7 

 c . . . 5 j . . . 6 g ... 5.1 ... 5.5 

 d . . . 5.1 k . . . 4.10 r ... 2.8 y ... 3.6 

 e . . . 511 ... 1 s . . . 5 z . . . 6 

 / . . . 9.4 m. . .2.2.3 t . . . 1 

 g . . . 5.6 n . . . 2.3 u . . . 1.11 



LESSONS IN ENGLISH. XL 



DERIVATION : PEEFIXES (continued). 



Meter, metro, with tho signification of " mother," of Greek 

 origin (/MJTTJP, pronounced meet-ear, a mother), enters as the 

 first two syllables into the word metropolis (iro\is, pronounced 

 pol'-is, a city), a mother city, the capital of a country, the chief 

 city of a province. 



" By consent of all churches, the precedency in each province was 

 assigned to the bishop of the metropolis, who was called the first bishop, 

 the metropolitan." Barrow. 



Micro, of Greek origin (/it/epos, pronounced mi-kros, tittle), is 

 seen in microcosm (Greek, Koff/j.os, pronounced kos-mos, the 

 world), that is, a little world. 



" Because in the little frame of man's body there is a representation 

 of the universal, and (by allusion) a kind of participation of all the 

 parts there, therefore was man called mtcrocosmos, or the little world." 

 Raleigh, " History of tlie World." 



Micro appears also in microscope (Greek, fficoirew, pronounced 

 skop'-e-o, I look at, see). 



" The works of art do not bear a nice microscopical inspection ; but 

 the more helps are used, and the more nicely you pry into natural 

 productions, the more do you discover of the fine mechanism of na- 

 ture." Berkeley, " Sin*." 



Mid, of Saxon origin (compare middle), halfway, makes a part 

 of several English words, as midland, midnight, micZday, mid- 

 ship, midsummer ; the meaning of which is very plain. MidnS 

 (rif , rib, Saxon, division) is the diaphragm, the skin or membrane 

 which separates the heart and lungs from the lower belly. 



