"The following short and practical rules will be found, we hope, fully adequate to every purpose for which they were intended.
"Rule 1st. The usual abbreviations in long-hand are always to be followed ; as Mr. for Master, M.D. for Doctor of Physic, and Abp. for Archbishop, &c.
" Rule 2d. Substantives, adjectives, verbs and par ticiples, when the sense will direct to the meaning, are to be expressed by their initial consonant with their distinguishing marks ; viz. a substantive must have the dot exactly over its initial consonant ; an adjective must have a dot under it ; a verb is to be expressed by a comma over its initial consonant ; and a participle by a comma under. These being the four principal parts of speech will be sufficient ; and an adept will never be at a loss to know when he can with safety apply this rule to them.
" Rule 3d. To render the writing more legible, the last letter of the word may be joined to the first, and the proper mark applied.
" Rule 4th. The constituent or radical part of words, especially if they are long, will often serve for the whole, or sometimes the first syllable ; as we ought to moderate our ex. by our circum. ; a man's man. commonly shape his for.
"Rule 5th. All long words, without exception, may have their prepositions or terminations expressed by the incipient consonant of such preposition or termi nation.
" Rule 6th. When there is a great dependence be tween the parts of a sentence, the initial letter will often suffice ; as L. is the capital of Great B. The eldest son of the king of Great B. is styled prince of W. Every one, it is presumed, will allow this to be perfectly legible in long hand [parti cularly in Engand], then why should it not be in stenography ?" Although I decidedly reprobate the use of numerous arbitrary signs, as heretofore employed in short hand, still to a limited extent, they may be useful. Mr. Gurney, a celebrated reporter in the British parlia ment in his own work upon short-band, when speak ing of arbitrary characters, says: " A principal advantage in this system of short hand consists in the small number of arbitrary and contracted characters; and in their conspicuity, by which they will be soon understood, fixed in the me mory, and read again at first sight." He afterwards introduces the capital letters of the common writing alphabet, as the arbitrary signs of certain words of frequent occurrence—the plan I think a good one, if confined within proper limits; and I therefore give it as prepared by him, together with remarks and additions by the editor of the last American edition of his work.