[ 392 ] . 
<A Method of exprefling it readily, and legibly, by an 
“Alphabet, and Rules, the beft adapted to thatPurpofe.” 
How cafy foevcr the general Principles of fuch a 
Method may appear to be, there is a deal of Nicety 
required to put them in Execution : An exad Atten- 
tion to continual Trials and Amendments is necef- 
fary to afccrtain the Preference amongft an infinite 
Variety of Difpofitions, which Inventors may feled, 
and throw their Charaders into. So that it is no 
Wonder, that fo many Publifhers of new Short- 
Hands content themfelves merely with Newnefs, or 
at moft with fome ftill imperfed Meliorations of 
foregoing Attempts. 
This Gentleman proceeds no farther than to make 
an Alphabet for his Plan * 5 but muft be fenfible, that, 
were it never fo complete a one, many compendious 
Applications of it might be obtain’d by a proper 
Enquiry -into the Nature of our Language (the moft 
happily fufceptible of this Art of any) and the Ab- 
breviations which it admits of, very intelligibly, in 
Writing. 
And, in his Alphabet, he entirely omits the Let- 
ter h (which is often wanted), and the Vowels a , 
e, i , 0 , and yet retains the Vowel u, which is cer- 
tainly as needlefs as any of the reft : But as a fingle 
Point, in five diftind Situations, would have pro- 
vided for them all alike, he might as well have 
added that to his Plan, in order to exprefs any par- 
ticular Vowel, upon Occafion ; becaufe it would 
not 
* Mr. Jeake only offers his Plan as the mere Elements of a 
Short-hand, leaving it to every Pra&itioner to build upon his Foun- 
dation, as they fhall judge neceffary from Practice : He retains the 
Uj becaufe it often Hands for v gr ve or *y. C. M. 
