151 
have these suggestions proved unsuccessful in practice. One 
of the earliest attempts was made by Earl Stanhope, who 
laboured most earnestly to improve the low condition of the 
printer’s art in his time, and though the Stanhope press 
succeeded, the logotypes were a failure. 
A more successful scheme was conceived some twenty 
years ago by Mr. John H. Tobitt, son of a London school- 
master, who emigrated to America when a boy, and after- 
wards established himself as the “ Combination Type 
Printer.” His success was acknowledged by the grant of 
silver medals at the World’s Fair in 1851. 
No previous systems, however, were based upon a careful 
attempt to discover a law of language, so that but very few 
logotypes have been adopted in common by different expe- 
rimenters, and each has launched off into a series of his own, 
strangely varying from those of others. A little reflection 
must convince us that few things are more amenable to the 
rule of averages than the frequency of combinations of 
letters, provided that we be willing to undertake the labour 
requisite to ascertain the most frequent combinations in a 
thorough manner. 
It is a curious instance of the rarity of original investiga- 
tion that we have been willing to spend great amounts of 
time and money without making the proper inquiry into 
the comparative frequency of words and combinations of 
letters. Mr. Babbage, while engaged upon his calculating 
engine, had occasion to examine tables of logarithms, and 
discovered that the same errors were to be found in various 
tables which were supposed to be founded on original cal- 
culations. Certain Chinese tables were even found to be 
copies of the same defective originals, and it is wonderful 
how ready men are to copy the imperfect labours of others 
rather than to undertake the task thoroughly themselves. 
Ten years ago I took this matter in hand, and gradually 
reduced it to a system which is applicable to other lan- 
