which, if it be not a lever to move the world, is sufficient, under an ingenious division, modification, and combination of its parts, to write all the language, of all the books in the world; and in skilful, active hands, the writing may be executed with perfect legibility, and with the rapidity of speech.

I have shown that the elements of oral language consist in a few simple sounds or letters: and that the art of spelling with these, or with their visible representatives, though it usually requires years, may be learned in a few hours.

I have also said, that the elements of written language are a few visible signs to represent sounds or letters, and that, though twenty-six are usually employed, twenty will answer-and these twenty we shall soon find growing out of a figure little larger than a mustard seed.

I have said too, that children soon learn to keep up a conversation among themselves, and to communicate their ideas intelligibly, by means of a very few words.

It is likewise found by investigation, that these few words, or to the number of one hundred, judiciously selected, will constitute about half the whole number of words of ordinary composition-though drawn from the English language, consisting of from fifty to seventy thousand words.

I have shown further, in my own practice for years, and it is daily confirmed, in the experience of hundreds of my pupils, that in a given period, from five to ten times as much may be written in short-hand, as in long or common hand-and that the same matter in short

hand, will occupy but about one-fifth the space required in long hand.

We know, that by the use of logarithms, and the substitution of addition and subtraction, for multiplication and division, months and years of time, and acres of figures, are saved to surveyors, navigators, engineers, &c. &c.—and similar savings are frequently made by geometrical projections and algebraic solutions.

We have frequently seen matter occupying the broadside of a newspaper, condensed by a competent editor, into a single column, without the loss of one valuable idea, and with, perhaps, a great improvement of style, both in beauty and perspicuity.

When all these facts are taken into view, is it not apparent, that the mode of inculcation usually pursued in our schools, is susceptible of much improvement; and may not the facts and circumstances here enumerated, and the principles suggested, lead to the adoption of some system more conformable to nature and philosophy? In this enlightened and liberal age, when so many improvements are daily brought into use, to save materials, labour, and time, and to open further facilities to almost every laudable enterprise, can any one doubt, that an important reformation may, and will be brought about, upon principles similar at least to those at which I have hinted, and different from the method which I have reprobated. Believing that this will be the case, and that I shall receive the approbation of my particular readers, I cannot regret having made these suggestions, though I may, for a time, suffer the animadversions of bigotry and incredulity,

I am aware, that in theorising, I may have trespassed upon the time and patience of my readers, but presuming that they have not sufficiently familiarized the contents of the several stenographic plates, as directed in my last number, it is perhaps better to fill up the interim in this way, than to dwell upon practical minutiæ, which will be necessarily exemplified to every learner, in the several stages of his future progress.

I shall now proceed to explain my present method of teaching the art of short-hand, to classes attending my personal instruction. In this attempt, from the very nature of the case, I must be driven into some of the very evils of which I have been complaining; for, instead of having a class in my immediate presence, where each individual can hear my explanations, and see the accompanying exemplifications upon a chart, or actual demonstrations upon the black board, I am addressing hundreds of individuals, scattered over a territory of thousands of miles, to whom, if present, I could explain in five minutes what must now require an hour.* But each individual is requested to open the short

* As my readers are not, perhaps, all familiar with mathematical technicalities, I shall necessarily, in some instances, conform to popular usage, or the every day acceptation, rather than to philosophic accuracy, in the use of terms. In my use of the word circle, I shall mean, not a circle in fact, but the circumference, or ring, by which a circle is bounded; and of a perpendicular, I shall mean, neither that it forms right angles with the plane of the horizon, or any line which it may actually cross, or with which it may be in contact; but simply, as it relates to the page or paper upon which it is exhibited, supposing one end up, and the other down-and that a line drawn from left to right across the page, is in fact a horizontal,

hand system, at the title page, and to fix his attention upon the stenographic tree facing the title.

Below the tree, and near the foot of the page, is a small circle, with a diameter drawn through it. This figure is supposed to contain in embryo,a stenographic tree, as an acorn, the future oak; and, in imitation of the reality, it is seen, first shooting up, and then spreading into a diagram, representing the roots of the tree. And, as the oak is sustained and nurtured by its roots, so in the simile, is the stenographic tree dependant upon its roots as seen in the diagram; and in this figure may be seen at a single view, clearly developed, all the characters and letters employed in the system. Nor, among the roots, is there one, which does not go directly and necessarily to sustain the tree, and the system; neither could one be removed, without robbing the stenographic alphabet of a letter, which, as there are but twenty, would be an irreparable loss. These characters or letters are all derived, directly, from the elementary key, below, and are of four distinct species, as will be seen by their proper classification upon the first four limbs of the tree.

1. The horizontal diameter is used for the letter s; the perpendicular diameter for t; the oblique diameter, drawn downwards on an angle of 45o, to the left, is d; the same line running upwards is r; the oblique diameter drawn downwards on an angle of 45o to the right, is f, or v, either, as may be required.

2. If a circle be divided horizontally, into two semicircles, the upper one is k, or q; the lower one, n: if

divided perpendicularly, the left semicircle is ch, and the right g, or j.

3. If any of the right lines above described, be joined to a small circle, and project as a tangent, the circle and line together, form a stenographic letter of the third class, as seen upon the third limb of the tree: viz. If it project from the top of the circle, to the right, horizontally, the circle and right line together, constitute the letter m. If the same figure be turned, so that the tangent project downward, perpendicularly, from the right side, it will represent the letter p—if obliquely to the left, downward, on an angle of 45°, it is h-if obliquely to the right, downward, on the same angle, it is b; if obliquely to the right, upward, it is 1; or, if the upper segment of a larger circle be joined to the whole circle, in the form of a curved tangent, projecting to the right, the letter w is produced.

By joining the right line to a quarter, instead of the whole, or half circle, the letters of the fourth class, are respectively produced-viz. If the right line be joined as a tangent, to that segment or quadrant of the circle, lying below the horizontal diameter, and on the left of the perpendicular, and project to the right, horizontally, it produces the letter x;-If attached to the upper quadrant, on the left of the perpendicular, and project horizontally to the right, the character sh is formed— if attached to the other extremity of the same quadrant, and project from the left side of the circle, perpendicularly down, it is th—if attached to that segment or quadrant, contained between the lower extremities of the two oblique diameters in the diagram, and be extended