The long vowel sounds are to be expressed by a dot at the beginning and end of a word, but never in the middle of it; for in that case, you are to begin the next consonant in the place where the vowel should be. This rule could not be strictly complied with in the case of horizontal letters, when the vowels are to be expressed on the upper side of the characters, for this would occasion much awkwardness in the writing, and make one of the characters cut another. To avoid this inconvenience, begin the character which is to stand in the place of a or c, a little above the hori zontal letter, as bearing a reference to the places of these vowels; but so placed as not to touch the other character m.
When a consonant is repeated, with a vowel be tween them, the syllable will be expressed by doubling the size of the consonant. It is oftener more easy and expeditious to denote the plural by a dot under the word, than by adding the character for the plural; but these methods are at the pleasure of the writer. In short-hand, every word is written according to the sound, without regard to the true spelling. You ought never to vary the terminations of the persons of verbs, because omitting these gives much facility to the writing, and cannot embarrass the reading. I forbear from giving many rules for contracting, as every person will form those for himself, so as to be able to follow a speaker, and then only they ought to be freely employed. But when writing such things as are to be kept for private use, and future perusal, I would recommend few contractions, and the regular or general use of the vowel marks.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul, he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, for his name sake. Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me, in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall fol low me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
On Speech, from Dr. Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric.
One of the most distinguished privileges which Providence has conferred upon mankind, is the power of communicating their thoughts to one another.
Destitute of this power, reason would be a solitary, and in some measure, an unavailing principle. Speech is the great instrument by which man becomes bene ficial to man; and it is to the intercourse and trans mission of thought, by means of speech and writing, that we are chiefly indebted for the improvement of thought itself.
What we call human reason is not the effort or ability of one, so much as it is the result of the reason of many, arising from the lights mutually communicated, in consequence of discourse and writing. (J. w.) The preceding article is a literal copy from the Edinburgh edition of this work; the following is furnished from the 8th or stereotype edition of Gould's ilmerican The author of that work says: In England and some other parts of Europe, the great utility of this art is now fully acknowledged, and professional gentlemen are beginning to consider it an almost indispensable accomplishment.
In the United States, a land of legislation, public discussion, and universal interchange of thought and word, its manifold advantages are too obvious to re quire comment, or to demand an apology for the in troduction of another article, under the same head.
Although the early history of cannot be traced with entire precision, still it is evident, that under different names and forms, it was practised to some extent by the most remote civilized nations of the earth. The Egyptians, who were at a very early period distinguished for their learning, represented objects, words, and ideas, by hieroglyphics. The Jews also used this species of writing, adding a num ber of arbitrary characters, for important, solemn, and awful terms, such as God, Jehovah, &c. A similar method was practised by the Greeks; it is said to have been introduced at Nicolai by Xenophon. The Romans adopted the same method; and Ennius, the poet, invented a new system, by which the Notari re corded the language of celebrated orators. He com menced with about 1100 marks of his own invention, to which he afterwards added many more. His plan, as improved by Tyro, was held in high estimation by the Romans. Titus Vespasian was remarkably fond of short-hand; he considered it not only convenient and useful, but ranked its practice among his most in teresting amusements.