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felt it my duty repeatedly to speak; and if, in the cause, I have shown more zeal than the nature of the case may seem to require, I hope it will be overlooked by those to whom I have addressed myself. To show that I have not condemned unjustly, I will subjoin the following extract from Byrom's own work, by which it will be seen, that what he sanctions in himself, he at the same time disapproves in others.

"The preceding methods of abbreviation are such as are of most common use and practice; and though they are not many in number, yet they are very extensive in their application; for few sentences can occur, in which some or other of them will not find a place. An accurate and assiduous attention to the nature and idiom of our language may suggest others, as useful and extensive as these. Proper care being taken to lay a right foundation, the legitimate ways of contracting will increase, in proportion to the writer's want of them. The more he writes, the more concisely he may venture to write, and yet be able to read his contractions with ease.

"In all the various ways of describing words by some shorter method than that of writing all the consonants of which they consist, care must be taken, when the contraction consists of two or more words joined together, that no one word of it be represented by more than one character; and, that the whole mark, by some means, if possible, be shown to be a contraction, either by the insertion of points in the middle of the marks, which, when despatch is required, is seldom practised

to denote vowels in the middle of words,—or by the unusual ending or joining of the marks.

"These contractions are not designed to be taught, as the common standard method of writing short-hand, upon all occasions. That method which was taught in the first part, and which will be as easily read, upon a little practice, as common long-hand, will be found sufficiently short for all common purposes; and it should therefore be kept to, when very great despatch is not required.

"Inventors of short-hand have generally introduced into their systems, besides the alphabetical characters, a multitude of arbitrary marks,-one, for instance, now before me, has three hundred and thirty of that description, to signify particular words and phrases, which are often chosen rather upon account of their length than their frequent occurrence. The injudicious application of these arbitrary marks is not the only objection against them. They are particularly burdensome to the memory, tedious and difficult to be learned, but very soon forgotten; and scarcely legible to the writer himself, unless he sits down to decipher them immediately, whilst every thing is fresh in his memory; but to others they are almost always illegible. By this means, the world has been deprived of the labours of several learned men, of which, had a regular system of short-hand been then generally used, it might now have enjoyed the benefit.

"But these objections are not applicable to the me. thods of abbreviation here taught. They burden the memory with no new or arbitrary marks, and with but

few rules for the extension of the powers of the alphabetical characters; and yet those rules are so general, and may be applied to such a multitude of cases perpetually occurring, that they give this system the advantage even in point of expedition, over arbitrary marks, and, at the same time, leave the writing perfectly legible, whatever length of time may intervene, not only to the person himself, but also to every other writer of the same method."

I now return to my own method, and request the attention of all my readers to the 13th and 14th pages of the system. Here is a literal exposition of the contents of plate 7, or the manner of spelling and writing by short-hand, in its most simple and easy form, without any extra attempt to improve legibility, or to increase facility beyond the standard medium of the art.

To a person familiar with the plan, this writing is as easily read, as common long-hand, though in this short chapter 586 letters are omitted.

I will next present`a portion of the same chapter, exhibiting in italics, the words which in short-hand are represented by single characters. This exposition will show, that in writing a chapter of 327 words, 158 of those words are represented by single charactersthis confirms an important fact, to which I alluded in a previous number. It is, at the same time, a fact which should be known to every individual, who places the least value upon his time or labour-indeed, it developes one of the most important secrets in the art of short-hand, and is in truth one of the pillars that sustain the whole superstructure,

Seventh Psalm-Showing the words represented by single letters.

1. O Lord my God in thee do I put my trust; save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me.

2. Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

3. O Lord my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands;

4. If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me: (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy :)

5. Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah.

6. Arise, O Lord in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded.

7. So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about: for their sakes therefore return thou on high.

8. The Lord shall judge the people: judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.

9. Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.

10. My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.

11. God judgeth the righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day.

12. If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.

13. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against his persecu

tors.

14. Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.

15. He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.

16. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.

17, I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high.

If we turn to Washington's speech, contained in pages 23, 24, 25, 26, and written in plates 13 and 14, we discover another very important abridgment of labour in the representation of the most frequent prefixes, terminations, &c. by single letters and touches; for, instead of the 585 letters exhibited in small type, there are but 142 stenographic marks employed; and yet the writing is rendered more intelligible, than if those parts had been spelled and written out with all the consonants.

I will next present a portion of scripture, and show by italics such words as may be omitted without destroying legibility; or materially affecting the sense of the subject to prove the effect of this plan, let the reader glide easily along, omitting in his way, all the words in italic. This method will soon become familiar,

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