7. Place the substantive, adjective, or adverb point before two or more con sonant marks, to denote two or more sub. stantives, adjectives, or adverbs, connect ed by a conjunction; as, King, Lords, and Commons ; , soberly, righteously, and godly, &c.
8 Express long words by their first syllables, with as many annexed as there are syllables wanting. In very corn. mon words the points may be occasionally omitted.
9. Express long words by their pre positions, together with their next vowel or consonant only.
10. Words may be denoted by their first vowel and consonant, with their ter minutions added ; as,,, )l , opportunity, &e 11 Words easily discovered by their connection may be expressed by their first vowel and consonant, or by their prepositions only ; and as few English words end with the syllable to, the pre position to may be joined to the preced ing word ; belongs to ; , satis factory to, &c.
12 Join the pronouns to prepositions ; as, lea , to me; L , to us; L, to you, &c.
always adding the vowel point, when the words would otherwise be liable to be mistaken.
13. Join the preceding word, the pre position, and pronoun, all together; as, , belongs to me; Mei-% , agreed with me, &C.
14. Join adverbs, verbs, prepositions, pronominal adjectives, and substantives, all together ; as,, safely depend upon my word, &c.
15. Many common phrases, formed by a substantive, preceded by the preposi tions -with, without, in, &c. and followed by to, of &c. may be abbreviated ; as, 1., with regard to ; ,in consequence of. &c. These several words are express ed by their first consonants only, joined together the vowel o being added in the first example to denote the preposition to.
16. In like manner, denote common adverbial phrases by the initial consonants joined together; as, , in like man ner; , in particular; kJ.R./1, in a great measure, &C.
17. Numerous contractions may be made, when it is, or it was, are followed by an adjective, and to, or that ; as, it is impossible to ; it is not to be supposed that, &c.
The above abbreviating rules, though few in number, are very extensive in their application. An assiduous attention to the nature and idiom of our language, may suggest others as useful and extensive as these. I'roper care being taken to lay a right foundation, the legitimate ways of contracting will increase in proportion to the writer's want of them. It must be obvious to every one, how much ,a sys tematic plan of abbreviation, like this, is superior to that which consists of a mul titude of arbitrary marks to signify par ticular words and phrases ; a plan which not only disfigures the writing, but ren ders it nearly, if not entirely, illegible even to the writer himself, unless it is transcribed into long hand while the sub ject is fresh in his memory. The expe rience of the late ingenious Dr Darwin will serve to illustrate the futility of these systems. " The book I learned short hand from," ea) a this elegant writer, " was published by Gurney, and said to be an improvement on Mason ; other treatises of short-hand I have also ex amined, and found them all of nearly equal excellence. I can only add, that many volumes I wrote from medical lec tures I now find difficult to decipher." Had Dr. Darwin practised the system of Mr. Byrom, we can assert, both from our own experience, and the experience of many others, that he would have found no serious difficulty in deciphering his medical lectures at any period of time after they were written. For, as the pre sent indefatigable Dr. Mayor observes, in the introduction to his own treatise on stenography, "it must be owned that it is above the reach of human ingenuity to exceed his (Mr. Byrom's) general plan, which must for ever be the basis of every future rational system." The first Part of the Specimens without Contractions, spelt according to the Me thod used in writing Short-hand. (See Plates Short-hand.)