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 fornia 
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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 PHONOGRAPHY ; 
 
 OP 
 
 THE WRITING OF SOUNDS.
 
 PHONOGRAPHY; 
 
 OR 
 
 THE WRITING OF SOUNDS. 
 
 IN TWO PARTS, VIZ. 
 
 L O G O G R A r II Y, 
 
 OR UNIVERSAL WRITING OF SPEECH; 
 
 AND 
 
 M U S I C O G R A P H Y, 
 
 OR SYMBOLICAL WRITING OF MUSIC; 
 
 WITH A SHOUT HAND FOR BOTH. 
 
 By V. D. DE STAINS, 
 
 Graduate of the University of Paris. 
 
 ^cconU Ictiitfon. 
 
 " He who cannot say something in sympathy with, or in aid of, tlie great 
 tnovements of humanity, might as well hold his peace." — Cuannino. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE. 
 
 1 842.
 
 [iSntn-ftr a\ f^tationcie' ?^all.] 
 
 t.ovnoN : 
 PiiiUcil by Miuiiicc ami I'd., Fiiicluirili street. 
 
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 'S^k7 o 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface -page I 
 
 Introduction 9 
 
 BOOK I.-LOGOGRAPHY. 
 
 Part I. — P rogressive Formation and Degeneration of Languages. 
 
 Chapter !.• — On Speech. 
 Natural Formation of Speech IS 
 
 *i Chapter II. — On Writing. 
 
 f> 
 
 >- Natural and successive Formation of the various Characters, 
 
 ^ from the Pictorial Figures and Hieroglyphics to the Pho- 
 
 — netic Signs and Alphabets 26 
 
 Chapter III. — On Alphabets. 
 
 5r Examination of the Alphabets of the ancient and modern 
 i!^ Languages, passing from primitive perfection to extreme 
 
 § confusion, as exemplified in the English and French 
 
 Languages 33 
 
 3 
 
 H Part II. — Regeneration of Writing, or Logography based 
 
 on simple and universal Principles. 
 
 Chapter I. — On Orthography. 
 
 Impossibility of having an accurate Writing of Speech by 
 means of the Roman Letters. — Necessity of adopting a 
 new Series of Phonetic Characters 49 
 
 M8G03
 
 VI CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter II.— On Phonography. 
 
 Analysis of Speech, based upon the Anatomy of the Organ 
 itself 59 
 
 Chapter III.— Phonographic Alphabet. 
 
 Formation of a new Character. — Advantages (with regard 
 to neatness and expediency) of following as much as pos- 
 sible in the Writing, the natural movements of the Right 
 Hand 79 
 
 Part III. — Short Hand. 
 
 Chapter !.■ — Preliminary Notions. 
 Antiquity of Short-Hand, its Uses and Advantages ... 95 
 
 Chapter II. — Short Hand of Logography. 
 
 Its Alphabet, abbreviating Rules, and Orthography. — Com- 
 parison of the present System with those of Gurney, 
 By ROM, Taylor, Mayor, Molineux, Harding, Lewis, 
 &c. &c 115 
 
 Chapter III. — Allegorical Writing. 
 
 Superiority of Allegorical Characters over Alphabetical 
 ones. — Advantages to be derived from a combination of 
 both. — What parts of Speech are best adapted to Alle- 
 gorical Signs. — Application 127 
 
 BOOK II.— MUSICOGRAPHY. 
 
 Chapter I. — On Ancient Music. 
 
 Its Origin, progressive Formation, and Importance over all 
 other Sciences 157
 
 CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 Chapter II. — On Modern Music. 
 
 Its Origin, from the above, and successive Transformation 
 into a System entirely different. — Comparison between 
 the two 1(55 
 
 Chapter III. — On Musical Characters. 
 
 Ancient and Modern Characters. — The Greek Alphabet,— 
 the Staff,— the Arithmetical Figures 178 
 
 Chapter IV. — Rp:formeu Characters, or Musicography. 
 
 Its Simplicity and Conciseness, exemplified by a part of the 
 National Anthem being printed with the common Letter- 
 press, and in one-sixth of the space generally occupied 
 by the Staff 184 
 
 Chapter V. — Short-Hand of Musicography. 
 
 Its Uses and Advantages explained with relation to Melody, 
 Harmony, and Composition. — Analysis of the Principles 
 of Harmony and the Properties of Musical Sounds , . 197
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR PLACING THE PLATES. 
 
 Plate I. • • 
 
 to face page 
 
 RG 
 
 II. .. 
 
 
 .. 90 
 
 III. .. 
 
 
 -. 120 
 
 IV. .. 
 
 
 .. 126 
 
 V. •■ 
 
 
 • • 152 
 
 VI. .. 
 
 
 • • 154 
 
 VII. •• 
 
 
 •• 190 
 
 VIII. • • 
 
 
 
 .. lys 
 
 IX. •• 
 
 . . 
 
 .. 204 
 
 CORRIGENDA. 
 
 'ug« 1 line 1, 
 
 fur 
 
 this read 
 
 his 
 
 22 . 
 
 22, 
 
 
 Greek 
 
 Greeks 
 
 22 . 
 
 23, 
 
 
 
 Persian 
 
 Persians 
 
 41 
 
 16, 
 
 
 
 four 
 
 three 
 
 C7 • 
 
 11, 
 
 
 
 vew 
 
 view 
 
 72 • 
 
 10, 
 
 
 
 meazuse ■ . 
 
 measure 
 
 «7 • 
 
 14. 
 
 
 
 disliiK'tion 
 
 distinctions 
 
 95 . 
 
 20, 
 
 
 
 aT)jU(:IO')pa(/'iU) 
 
 crijjutio'ypav'iv 
 
 102 . 
 
 19, 
 
 
 
 mute 
 
 hard 
 
 102 . 
 
 19, 
 
 
 
 souml 
 
 sounds 
 
 107 • 
 
 20, 
 
 
 
 Plate III. .. 
 
 Plate IV. 
 
 108 . 
 
 5, 
 
 dele 
 
 future 
 
 
 110 . 
 
 25, 
 
 for 
 
 S.P.P.P.T.C. 
 
 S.P.P.P.S.C. 
 
 122 
 
 26, 
 
 
 over 
 
 across 
 
 l.i3 . 
 
 -'4, 
 
 
 
 Plate VII. 
 
 Plate VI. 
 
 141 
 
 20, 
 
 
 
 mood 
 
 moods 
 
 147 ■ 
 
 6, 
 
 
 
 your system 
 
 our system 
 
 162 
 
 17, 
 
 
 
 Plate I. 
 
 Plate VII. 
 
 167 • 
 
 22, 
 
 
 
 Plate I. . . 
 
 Plate VII. 
 
 108 . 
 
 22, 
 
 
 
 jiroved 
 
 proves 
 
 170 . 
 
 30, 
 
 
 
 Plate I. .. 
 
 Plate VII. 
 
 171 
 
 2.'J, 
 
 
 
 sound 
 
 sound.s 
 
 176 • 
 
 21). 
 
 
 
 every chord 
 
 each chord
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The favour with which this little work has 
 been received, both by the press and the public, 
 has induced the author to undertake this second 
 edition, so much improved, revised, and enlaro^ed, 
 /f that it might more properly be termed a new 
 treatise than a reprint of the first publication, of 
 which little has been preserved beyond the title- 
 page and natural divisions of the work. 
 
 As the skilful artist, who, anxious to gain the 
 admiration of his contemporaries and to secure 
 if possible that of posterity, used to expose his 
 rough sketches in the thoroughfares whilst he 
 listened silently behind to the numerous critics, 
 he has launched, unknown, his small pamphlet 
 amongst the crowd, carefully and most gratefully 
 noticing the various and sometimes contradictory 
 remarks passed upon it ; and with the same can- 
 dour and simplicity with which he then acknow- 
 
 B
 
 2 PREFACE. 
 
 ledged the numerous defects of the sketch, he 
 will now hold forth the merits of the work here 
 perfected. 
 
 For, although he may have appeared to his first 
 readers with no higher pretension than that of 
 having added a new system of Short-hand to the 
 numberless ones already published; yet, leaving 
 aside the Musical Short-hand, which at least is a 
 conception entirely new, he has aimed at nothing 
 less than the total renovation of the writing and 
 orthography of all the languages of the civilized 
 world, by substituting for the confused, ill-con- 
 trived, would-be etymological Roman characters, 
 a series of signs simple, yet distinct and elegant 
 in their forms, and equal in their number to the 
 few elementary sounds of the human voice ; there- 
 by enabling the writer to follow with the greatest 
 preciseness, by means of those figures, joined or 
 combined, all the simple or complex sounds of the 
 human speech. 
 
 The importance of such a reformation is here 
 made obvious : firstly, to the classical scho- 
 lar ; secondly, to the student of modern 
 LANGUAGES ; thirdly and lastly, to the nation, the 
 world at large, viz. the illiterate. 
 
 Firstly, the classical scholar, keeping in 
 mind the incalculable difference that must exist 
 between the modern tongues, incessantly waving
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 in their accent, and the dead languages, now un- 
 derstood not through the living organ of speech, 
 but by means only of dead letters, bleached ske- 
 letons of gigantic beings whose articulations will 
 remain for ever unknown, cannot but feel deeply 
 afflicted by the ungrateful barbarity with which 
 the modern languages, in their progressive forma- 
 tion successively renounce and cast aside as use- 
 less trash all letters whose only purpose, like that 
 of armorial bearings, was to testify their noble and 
 antiquated origin. 
 
 With what joyfulness, therefore, will he not hail 
 the introduction of a modern character, whose only 
 pretension is to express accurately the spoken 
 sounds, without interfering in any possible man- 
 ner with the etymologies of the words ; thereby 
 leaving him the undisturbed possession of the 
 classical letter. 
 
 For, the classic, to whom time is no object, 
 would doubtless continue the use of the ancient 
 characters, and indulge in writing his own lan- 
 guage with all the luxuriancy of the most accurate 
 etymology. And as the toiling part of the nation, 
 from the minister of state to the common informer, 
 from the banker to the grocer, from the guinea- 
 a-liner to the penny-a-one, would all immediately 
 avail themselves of a character which enabled them 
 to write as fluently nearly as they spoke, and that 
 
 B 2
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 without SO much as a single chance of error, thus 
 adding not a little to the comforts of all statesmen, 
 authors, and every one whose hand-writing is sub- 
 jected to fall under the unmerciful glance of the 
 public ; the Roman characters would gradually 
 become an unknown tongue^ entirely reserved for 
 the use of the classical aristocracij . How grati- 
 fying to their vanity ! And why does a reasonable 
 being consecrate so much of his youthful years to 
 the study of the classics, if it is not to satisfy his 
 vanity ? 
 
 Secondly, the student of modern lan- 
 guages, having followed through their progres- 
 sive formation the various living languages of 
 civilized Europe, raised simultaneously and as 
 children of one family, cannot help noticing the 
 numerous quantity of words they continually bor- 
 row from each other, and which forms such a 
 conspicuous part of their vocabularies, that, were 
 each nation reduced to its own indigenous produc- 
 tions, their intellectual wants would be as misera- 
 bly satisfied with such allowances as their animal 
 ones with the few acorns, crab-apples, and such 
 like fruits, the almost only spontaneous produce 
 of their rich soils. 
 
 And having made this curious remark, viz. that 
 the living languages, so easily read by the means 
 of their almost universal characters, are neverthe-
 
 PREFACE. 5 
 
 less most difficultly spoken by foreigners, and it 
 may be added, never perfectly articulated by 
 those who have begun the study of the written 
 I tongue before that of the spoken one, he will 
 I easily perceive that these contradictions and diffi- 
 culties are owing to the Roman letters, insufficient 
 in number and confused in the extreme, having 
 been adapted to the modern languages, to each 
 one separately by its own classics, without having 
 ; any knowledge of the primitive sounds of those 
 letters, without taking the least care for the 
 f accurate representation of the natural sounds 
 I of their own language, and without paying the 
 : remotest attention to the sounds already ascribed 
 ! to the same letters in other languages. 
 
 Thus he will rest satisfied that the Roman 
 letters, whilst they linked the written lan- 
 guages together by an apparent similarity of 
 phonetic characters, effectually prevented the 
 natural and progressive rapprochement of the 
 SPOKEN tongues, by forcing every new word 
 on its introduction on a foreign soil to be dis- 
 figured either in its spelling or in its pronun- 
 ciation, and more often in both. 
 
 But let him suppose for one moment that the 
 Roman letters (with a few additions, making their 
 number equal to all the sounds of speech) had 
 been judiciously ascribed each to one single
 
 6 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 sound, and he will agree that the same alphabet, 
 once adopted by all civilized nations, would have 
 united their various languages into one universal 
 tongue. 
 
 The English language has but two sounds that 
 are not common to all European nations, viz. 
 the two th. The Spanish has the same two 
 I sounds in common with the English, and a pe- 
 culiar aspirated pronunciation of j. The French 
 has six, amongst which are the four nasals. All 
 the other sounds are equally familiar to all Eu- 
 ropean nations, although written in many differ- 
 ent ways. This once ascertained, it is obvious 
 that a complete and rational alphabet once adop- 
 ted for these sounds, their pronunciation would 
 be invariably fixed, and remain ever after pure 
 and unalterable, since no written character could 
 be read but with one and the same sound every 
 where. How much would civilization and peace 
 be promoted by such an harmonization ! 
 
 Lastly, THE ILLITERATE. This numerous 
 tribe is divided into two. families ; those who 
 can read and write any how, and those who can 
 do neither. 
 
 As to the first, they know too well the almost 
 insurmountable diflicultics of orthography not to 
 adopt with eagerness a system of writing which 
 would deliver them from all the miseries of that
 
 PREFACE. 7 
 
 science, enabling them at once to write their 
 own language with perfect correctness and 
 facility. 
 
 With regard to the second, the author has 
 only a few words to say to convince them ; viz. 
 
 HE WILL TEACH THEM TO READ AND WRITE 
 PERFECTLY WELL WITHIN A WEEK. 
 
 This new writing could soon be applied to the 
 press, when it would reduce every book to one 
 quarter of its present size and price ; which being 
 a reduction not quite so disproportionate as that 
 of the penny postage, one might easily calculate 
 on a fair increase of business and profit to the 
 printers, publishers, booksellers, and all channels 
 through which the tide of knowledge w^ould flow, 
 in order abundantly to irrigate the thirsty soil. 
 
 Knowledge is power, great statesmen have 
 said it; we may add that it is morality which 
 is preferable, and happiness also, the first and 
 last craving of human nature. Yet how few 
 can acquire that power, morality, and happi- 
 ness ! How dearly even those few must pay 
 for it, not with money, but with the precious 
 years of their youth passed sorrowfully in a 
 damp, dull school-room, bent over the great 
 tormentor of childhood; the spelling-book! 
 
 Let the reader, having well considered these 
 undeniable facts, answer if the introduction of a
 
 8 PREFACE. 
 
 rational alphabet which would reduce the study 
 of reading, writing and orthography to the learn- 
 ing of a few characters, easily committed to the 
 memory in less than a week, thereby returning 
 to the studious world years till then spent in 
 misery and confinement, and henceforth to be 
 consecrated to healthy exercises and endearing 
 acquirements, would not render a greater ser- 
 vice to mankind than the discovery of a new 
 world ! if the nation propagating such a writing 
 would not soon become the greatest in physical 
 and intellectual power? if the various people 
 adopting the same universal standard of commu- 
 nication would not ultimately become, from that 
 single fact, more strongly united in peace and 
 harmony, than all the powers of diplomacy could 
 ever have made them? 
 
 Such has been the goal aimed at by the au- 
 thor, who having been exalted a few moments in 
 amazement at its splendour and magnitude, sinks 
 now in humility at the simplicity of the means, 
 although on this hospitable shore, his adopted 
 home, he would fain have said with the poet, 
 
 " Exi'ffi ^nonuinentum.'"
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Phonography is the art of writing the sounds 
 both of speech and of music. 
 
 It will appear strange, at first sight, to find 
 coupled under one title two sciences, which are 
 at present most distant from each other; thanks 
 to our modern unmusical tongues. But, never- 
 theless, music is still the natural language of all 
 animals inhaling the vibrating element; and man 
 himself, however civilized, whenever overpowered 
 with an emotion of gladness or sorrow, suddenly 
 renounces the monotonous conventional sounds of 
 speech for the self-taught soul-expressing ones of 
 music. Thus the interjections ^ common and spon- 
 taneous voices of all nations, are pure musical 
 sounds : among them we may class also the laugh 
 common to the noble horse, and even to his 
 unassuming substitute, the donkey; the scream 
 common to the whole respirating tribe; and lastly 
 the sigli, a pure musical repose, or wistful rest 
 between the past and the future.
 
 10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Speaking and singing are both the two natural 
 operations of the same organ, as walking and 
 dancing or running are the two natural motions 
 of the same body, often intermixed or confounded 
 by the child or the savage, but divided into dis- 
 tinct sciences by the grown-up man and the 
 civilized nation. 
 
 But, although we have united the two first 
 under the same head of Phonography, we have 
 treated each separately in the work, which is 
 divided into two distinct books ; viz. Logography 
 and MusicoGRAPHY. 
 
 The first book relative to the writing of speech 
 contains, in the first part, all that may refer to 
 the history of that ancient art ; and in the second 
 part, presents the reader with a series of phonetic 
 characters based upon a system entirely new, 
 and which may be termed a universal alphabet. 
 
 It is not to be supposed, however, that all pos- 
 sible sounds of the human voice have here their 
 distinct characters ascribed to them ; this would 
 be confusion indeed. What we mean by a uni- 
 versal alphabet is, a series of letters sufficient to 
 write the spoken languages of civilized Europe 
 accurately^ and the others approximately^ as \\ 
 hereafter explained. 
 
 The sounds of speech are naturally divided into 
 three classes ; firstly the aspirated, secondly the
 
 INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 intonated, thirdly the articulated ; or, to use the 
 common appellation, the aspiration, the vowels, 
 and the consonants. 
 
 The first sounds abound in the languages of 
 people in the primitive state. Sonorous, full, and 
 musical, yet harsh, guttural, and wild, a strongly 
 aspirated language characterizes a people energe- 
 tic yet voluptuous, whose life is spent now in dan- 
 gerous sports or sanguinary wars, now in songs, 
 poetical recitations, and idle talk : such is the 
 language of the wandering tribes of the East, 
 the Arabs, Persians, Indians, Africans, &c., and 
 amongst us the Gipsies. We may observe, en 
 jmssant, that the Spaniards, who have retained 
 much of the manners of the Moors, have also pre- 
 served in their language a few of their aspirations. 
 The second sounds, more numerous in the 
 western languages, characterize by their mellow 
 and voluptuous harmonies the speech of a people 
 highly polished and refined, fond of music and all 
 the fine arts, but wanting in firmness and perse- 
 verance. It is the language of artists, poets, 
 musicians, painters, lovers, and above all, of a 
 people of pleasure and dolce Jar niente, (sweet 
 laziness.) Such is the Italian, the Spanish, the 
 Portuguese, and in some measure the French. 
 
 The third sounds predominate in the language 
 of the North, and characterize by their firmness
 
 12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and energy the speech of a nation essentially 
 active and industrious. A language braced by 
 nervous contracted articulations, impresses us 
 with the idea of the cold climates of the North 
 and its indefatigable inhabitants. It contracts 
 the lips as the cold bleak wind ; it presses, rattles, 
 and rushes between the teeth with the incessant 
 energy of steam, with as little music as it possibly 
 can have between its overpowering consonants; 
 it is, above all, the language of business,— Active, 
 energetic, and dreary. Such is the English, the 
 Dutch, the German. 
 
 From this general classification it is obvious, 
 1 that the consonants, the nerve of speech, charac- 
 5 terizing the voice of people in the matured stage 
 of industry and civilization, are the most impor- 
 tant part of the writing ; that the luxuriant youth- 
 ful vowels are next in rank ; and that the aspira- 
 tions, wild and infantine sounds, require less atten- 
 tion than any of the two first. Consequently we 
 have represented the first completely ; the second 
 accurately, as far as regards the European lan- 
 guages only ; and the third slightly, but sufficiently 
 for a sound that is gradually disappearing from 
 all the languages of civilization. 
 
 This part is terminated with a few abbreviating 
 rules, making of the new characters the shortest 
 hand yet devised. In an age when every one has
 
 INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 to make the most of his time, and to exert his in- 
 dividual faculties as it were at high pressure, such 
 a commodity cannot fail being duly appreciated. 
 
 The second book is relative to the writing of 
 music, and contains a new written gamut based 
 upon the principle of music itself, and of which 
 the advantages are explained, with reference to 
 melody^ harmony^ thorough-bass, and composi- 
 tion. Four long words which have no pleasant 
 sound to the ear of young beginners, most artfully 
 made to shudder at their very names ; but which, 
 nevertheless, mean nought else than the four 
 parts as necessary to music as the four limbs to 
 a horse, and which cannot have been dispensed 
 with in elementary books for any other end than 
 that of rendering the w^orks confused, the science 
 mysterious, and the study lengthy. 
 
 It will be acknowledged, that if this writing 
 were generally adopted, the science of music 
 would lose much of its difficulties, and the music- 
 master much of his importance, and therefore it 
 is not to be expected that the latter will patronise 
 the present work. But we shall address ourselves 
 to the composer, and to the amateur, who will 
 find incalculable advantages in our system. The 
 first in writing his inspirations with almost the 
 rapidity of thought ; the second in copying for his 
 own use, even in his pocket-book if he please, his 
 favourite songs, or those he may happen to hear.
 
 14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The military bands might also deem it conve- 
 nient to have in a legible character, and in a 
 book a fifth of the usual size, the music which . 
 they carry, with no small annoyance, perched 
 upon their instruments. 
 
 Another unquestionable advantage is, that the 
 new characters could be cast and used as the 
 letters of the press, which process would afford an 
 uncommon correctness of type, added to a consi- 
 derable reduction in price ; and although the 
 music-copyist might be injured by this music- 
 , printing, as the scribes of old were by the intro- / 
 duction of book-printing, yet the community I 
 at large would be benefited by it in a similar 
 proportion.
 
 PHONOGRAPHY. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 [L@(g(0){g[^^[H)[^'y^
 
 LOGOGRAPHY. 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 Progressive Formation and Degeneration of tJie 
 written Languages. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 ON SPEECH. 
 NATUIIAL FORMATION OF LANGUAGE. 
 
 I WILL not presume to put in question any of 
 the opinions which have been consecrated by the 
 wisdom of ages or the sanctity of Scripture. 
 Language is indeed of a divine origin, and the 
 first one spoken on earth was doubtless the most 
 splendid gift of God to man. What might have 
 been that language, the genius of a Newton could 
 hardly conceive, or the imagination of a Shaks- 
 peare describe ; for, as much as the mind is above 
 the body, so much were the beauties of that lan- 
 o-uage, which comprised in itself all the human 
 sciences, through which every animal was desig- 
 nated according to its nature and pro])ensitieSj 
 
 c
 
 18 ON SPEECH. 
 
 every tree, every plant, according to their consti- 
 tuent parts and multifarious qualities ; and far- 
 thermore, in which every thought was expressed 
 logically and philosophically, without even the 
 possibility of ambiguity or doubt ; so much, I say, 
 were the beauties of that language above those 
 of the external objects destined to gladden the 
 senses of the happy couple. It was the language 
 of God himself, through which the Almighty had 
 commanded the elements and created the world, 
 and which he had breathed into the soul of man, 
 that the creature of his love might understand 
 him in his works, and converse with him face 
 to face. 
 
 The loss of that language was doubtless the 
 severest punishment of our disgraced father. 
 Looking down from that height to the various 
 languages that have come to our knowledge, we 
 may easily perceive that they are all of a most 
 terrestrial origin ; and we have full reason to be- 
 lieve that it was the same in the remotest ages, 
 though some seven centuries before our era many 
 different nations pretended to possess the original 
 tongue spoken in Eden. 
 
 Psammiticus, who was the first to open Egypt 
 
 ,' to foreigners, thought of deciding the question 
 
 t^ by an experiment truly inhuman in itself, and 
 
 \ yet most ridiculous. He had a few young babies
 
 ON SPEECH. 19 
 
 brought up without hearing the sound of any hu- 
 man being ; nor even did they receive their first 
 food at their mothers' breasts, being suckled as 
 young kids by goats. The experimentative mo- 
 narch feeling satisfied that the natural spontaneous 
 language of the little family would be the iden- 
 tical primitive language of mankind. With such 
 absurd notions it is not to be wondered at that 
 the question was decided in favour of the ancient 
 Phrygian, because the first, the almost only sounds 
 these unhappy creatures spoke, were hako or 
 baako, which signifies bread in that language, and 
 which they repeated most noisily whenever they 
 were hungry. 
 
 Inhere was a proof, an irreversible proof ! Yes, 
 truly, they had spoken their another tongue, I 
 mean the tongue of mother goat, who had taught 
 them to bray, and v/ho understood their shrill baka 
 ' better than all the Phrygian classics, running up 
 jto them in a hurry to give them not bread, but 
 milk, their cherished food ; and a kind nurse she 
 was that dumb creature, much more attentive than 
 many of the speaking ones who hire themselves 
 to relieve of their holy duty unnatural mothers. 
 The experiment, however, shall not be entirely 
 useless, and will serve to explain to us precisely 
 the formation of all languages. 
 
 Man, endowed with tlie greatest taU^nts for 
 
 c -1
 
 20 ON SPEECH. 
 
 imitation, first describes by imitative sounds the 
 voices of the various animals that attract his no- 
 tice ; thus, the young babe will point at the hah- 
 lamb^ the bow-how^ the moo-cow, &c. &c. At 
 best we are but children, and the language of 
 every nation in its infancy or uncivilized state is 
 almost purely imitative ; hence in all countries, 
 however advanced in civilization, you will still 
 find in the language of the inhabitants onoma- 
 topoeias, or words most admirably constructed to 
 imitate the voices of their wild beasts, the notes 
 of their sino-incr birds. We have no sound in 
 our European tongues that could express the 
 grating howl of the tiger, or the deep and sono- 
 rous roaring of the lion, both so forcibly depicted 
 by the guttural aspirations of the Arabic tongues ; 
 but our European languages, altogether confined 
 between the tongue and the lips, are admirably 
 adapted to imitate the snapping barking of our 
 dogs, the mewing of our cats, and the whistling, 
 thrilling notes of our birds. 
 
 A German poet has expressed, in the most 
 charmingly imitative verses, the songs of the 
 nightingale, so numerous in the ancient forests 
 of that country ; and a French author has trans- 
 cribed the conversation of a rookery with a sur- 
 prising degree of imitative harmony, (or more 
 pro])erly cacophon//). Perhaps the fi)ur French
 
 ON SPEECH. 21 
 
 nasal sounds, so difficult to be acquired by foreign- 
 ers, could be traced to some peculiar grunting 
 animal, primitive inhabitants of their formerly 
 woody and impenetrable country. 
 
 Thus, in the first instance, the same animals 
 have taught the same syllables to nations far dis- 
 tant, and in no wavs connected too:ether. 
 
 Secondly, all vowels, spontaneous emissions of 
 the voice, are naturally adapted to express all 
 spontaneous feelings, and thus we see all inter- 
 jections expressed in the same sounds in all lan- 
 guages, ancient and modern; they need no trans- 
 lation, and are almost as intelligible as pantomi- 
 mic signs. The English, French, German, Spa- 
 nish, Italian, Dutch, &c., have all ali ! ahi ! oh ! 
 the Hebrew ha ! he ! hen ! 
 
 Greek a'i ! ia ! iu ! 
 
 Latin ah ! eheu ! 
 
 Arabs ahh ! ahhi ! 
 
 Persians ei! 
 
 Illyrians ah ! ahah ! 
 
 Thirdly, by a universal impulse the most 
 easy syllables, and consequently the first ones 
 uttered by infancy, have been in all nations 
 applied to designate the first objects dear to 
 the little being. Thus papn, 7na7nma, are 
 almost the spontaneous expressions to designate
 
 22 ON SPEECH. 
 
 parents. Hence the Tuscans have hahho. 
 
 the Persians hah. 
 
 Turks haba. 
 
 Moguls hoah. 
 
 Arabs hu. 
 
 Hebrews and ^ , 
 
 Chaldeans S '"* 
 
 Syrians aha. 
 
 Hence the Greeks have mamma, mamme, mam- 
 mia, and mammea. 
 
 the Latins mamma. 
 
 Epyrotes mame. 
 
 Gauls and Celts mam. 
 
 Peruvians mama. 
 
 Siamese mem. 
 
 Fourthly, the various parts of the organ of 
 speech are naturally denominated by the conso- 
 nant they are best adapted to pronounce ; hence, 
 the lip of the English, levre of the French, lahia 
 of the Latins ; hence the teeth of the first, dents 
 of the second, odous, odontos of the ancient Greek, 
 dondi of the modern ones, dandan of the Persian, 
 dis of the Turks, ta7id of the Dutch, toth of the 
 ancient Saxons, &c. &c. 
 
 Fifthly and lastly, certain sounds have been 
 ascribed to certain ideas, to which they had a
 
 ON SPEECH. 23 
 
 figurative similitude, for every sound has its pecu- 
 liar innate harmonies, rendering it more or less 
 congenial to some peculiar ideas. Thus the hard 
 hissing consonants will express naturally every 
 thing hard, stiff, compressed ; the nasal ones, re- 
 sounding inv^^ardly, will give an idea of any thing 
 secluded, intimate, or monotonous, — the inward 
 mind, the peaceable home. The thrilling, vibrat- 
 ing /■, will naturally adapt itself to all round, rol- 
 ling, radiating, restless objects ; whilst the liquid 
 / will depict any thing soft and limpid, — the liquid 
 light, the juelting, lulling love. 
 
 Thus the syllable st, acquiring from the diffi- 
 culty of its utterance a certain degree of precisc- 
 ness and firmness, has been adapted in most 
 languages to express the idea of stability, as in 
 the word to stand : 
 
 in Latin stare. 
 
 Greek istane. 
 
 Sclavon stati. 
 
 Saxon , standan. 
 
 Hebrew tiitsob. 
 
 Persian istaden. 
 
 Dutch staen. 
 
 Spanish estai\ 
 
 French restcr. 
 
 Italian stare. 
 
 English stand.
 
 24 ON SPEECH. 
 
 The words to stir and to rest come from the 
 same component principles, transposed in their 
 order with relation to their meanings. For being 
 admitted that st expresses fixity and r motion, 
 when the change is from repose to action, the word 
 will be to stir, to start ; but when the change i&, 
 on the contrary, from action to repose, the word 
 will be to arrest, to rest.'^ 
 
 This natural and spontaneous formation of 
 speech, as shown by the great similitude of sounds 
 in all languages, has been held as a proof of the 
 common orio;in of these in a universal mother 
 tongue; our learned doctors, absorbed in their pro- 
 found researches on etymology, and determined 
 on proving their interpretation of the Scriptures, 
 never giving it a thought that the conclusion to 
 be drawn from their premises would be, that the 
 Almighty had found insurmountable difficulties in 
 his attempt to divide the proud masons of Ba- 
 bel by languages that he intended to be totally 
 different from each other. 
 
 For my part, I think that the true explanation 
 of this passage may be easily found in the very 
 confusion brought on earth by those learned inter- 
 preters of Holy Writ. They wished to raise 
 
 * See " De la Formation mechanique des Langues, par 
 President de Brosses. Paris, an ix ; " and " Intorno a' prin- 
 cii)ii deir arte Etymologica," by Pasquale Borrelli. Pia- 
 fenza, 1834.
 
 ON SPEECH. 25 
 
 themselves to the foot of Jehovah's throne; they 
 boasted, each in his individual creed, of having 
 erected the everlasting monument of human wis- 
 dom, and they only succeeded in dividing and 
 dispersing the human family into a multiplicity of 
 canting sects, more hostile to each other than the 
 various species of carnivorous animals. 
 
 In order to avoid the accusation of substitutinij 
 theoretical fancies for inscrutable scriptural re- 
 velations, I will mention the immortal Leibnitz, 
 who emitted a similar opinion to mine with re- 
 spect to the origin of language ; and I may quote 
 even a Father of the church of great renown, 
 Gregory of Nysse, who says, that " God made 
 the things, not the names ; and that to man he 
 gave, by a special favour, the power of designat- 
 ing, by true and expressive names, the things 
 created by him." With regard to the confusion 
 of Babel, he says again, " The confusion of lan- 
 guages ought necessarily to be attributed to the 
 will of God in the theological sense, although in 
 the historical sense it is the work of man."* 
 
 * The same idea is again emitted in the following lines : 
 " Volens Deus homines diversis uti Unguis, naturam dimisit, 
 lit pergeret pro arbitrio apud linguas [sonum articulare ad 
 explanationem nominum." — Centra Eimomiuin, Orat. xii. 
 page 182, 1. 11. Edition 1638.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON WRITING. 
 
 NATURAL AND SUCCESSIVE FORMATION OP THE VARIOUS CHA- 
 RACTERS, FROM THE PICTORIAL FIGURES AND HIEROGLY- 
 PHICS, TO THE PHONETIC SIGNS AND ALPHABETIC LETTERS. 
 
 We have seen, in the preceding chapter, that 
 the speech of every people in its infancy is an 
 imitative description of the surrounding objects, 
 intermixed with the natural interjections or ex- 
 pressions of pain and pleasure, surprise and cu- 
 riosity, love and aversion. Add to these a few 
 pantomimic signs, and you will have the complete 
 language of all uncivilized nations, such as at the 
 present day is used by some of the natives of 
 America, as well as by the savage tribes of Middle 
 Africa, amongst which the courageous advocate 
 of the Gospel contrives in a short time to be 
 understood without an interpreter. 
 
 Co-existing with that instinctively spoken lan- 
 guage, we find also generally a conventional written 
 one, or acknowledged way of recording numbers, 
 dates, past events, &c. With the wish to relate, 
 came the desire to retain ; from the pleasure of
 
 ON WRITING. 27 
 
 conversing with a present friend, arose the anxiety 
 of communicating with a distant one. First, huge 
 images were carved in clay or wood ; afterwards 
 the same were reduced to their simple outlines, 
 traced on the thin bark of trees, and subsequently 
 painted. Thus we have arrived at last, after a 
 considerable circuit, at the hieroglyphics of Egypt; 
 thus the first attempts made by our young children 
 to fix on paper their early conceptions, are the 
 self-taught principle of that divine art. 
 
 In America this pictorial writing was in use at 
 the time of its discovery, and the king of Mexico 
 i was apprized of the landing of the invaders by 
 paintings sent from the coasts by the first tribes 
 who had encountered them, describing their ves- 
 sels, numbers, arms, and mode of warfare. Some 
 of these pictures are still to be seen at the royal 
 palace of Madrid. 
 
 Had the hieroglyphics of Egypt always remain- 
 ed pictorial, they might be still, in a great mea- 
 sure, understood ; but the picture of the real 
 object was soon abandoned for its allegory, a 
 change which allowed a greater number of ideas 
 to be expressed, and which also made writing a 
 science. 
 
 Our antiquaries have laboured much in order to 
 understand the strange figures traced on the an- 
 cient monuments of Egypt. A French traveller
 
 28 ON WRITING. 
 
 of some repute, Champollion Figeac, has even pub- 
 lished a sort of key to these symbolic representa- 
 tions ; but in reality his discoveries go no farther 
 than the deciphering of a few proper names, which 
 are written in a different system to the rest of 
 the inscriptions. The characters in these instances 
 being used, not as symbolic representations, but 
 as mere phonetic letters, and consequently repre- 
 senting not ideas, but sounds. The priests of 
 Egypt, in order not to deface their classical mo- 
 numents by writing the proper names in the vul- 
 gar characters, which would have exposed them 
 to be partly understood by the profane public, 
 had recourse to those means in order to express 
 phonetically all names, which however they took 
 care to enclose in an oval line, pointing thereby 
 to the adept that they were to be read, not inter- 
 preted as the pure hieroglyphics. 
 
 These names, thanks to the persevering French- 
 man, we may now read ; but the remaining parts 
 of the antique inscriptions are still as unintelligible 
 to us as they ever were. 
 
 In every art or science, the principal object of 
 man is to simplify his means, to lessen his trou- 
 ble ; thus, the process of speech, gradually im- 
 proving with the progress of civilization, became 
 more and more easy and expeditious ; the harsh 
 imitative sounds were shortened into softer ac-
 
 ON WRITING. 29 
 
 cents, and a conventional language replaced the 
 
 natural one. The same process ^^as also fol- 
 
 'jlowed in the writing which, abandoning gradually 
 
 jail descriptive images and allegorical figures, 
 
 I became also almost entirely conventional. 
 
 Speech had been made so copious as to express, 
 in addition to the voices of animals and the sud- 
 den emotion of the heart, all ideas previously 
 explained by a pantomimic language ; and it 
 became obvious that a figurative representation 
 of that speech would convey the various concep- 
 tions of the mind with much greater facility than 
 the painted objects, or the far-fetched symbolic 
 images of the metaphysical conceptions. 
 
 It was certainly a most glorious eff'ort of human 
 srenius to have substituted for the series of irre- 
 gular images and arbitrary symbols, a regular, 
 unalterable standard writing ; simple, uniform, 
 concise, and universal. Such was the syllabic 
 character, the third stage of writing, in which 
 every word was represented phonetically by a 
 distinct character. 
 
 This is still the writing of the Chinese. Their 
 historians will tell you whi(;h of their kings in- 
 vente<l Astronomy and its syllabic signs; which, 
 Botany ; which. Chemistry, and their numerous 
 characters. But though no new words or science 
 have been introduced for some thousands of years,
 
 30 ON WRITING. 
 
 yet it requires nearly a whole life to acquire a 
 perfect mastership over its complicated writing, 
 and but few Europeans have been able, after 
 many years' study, to acquire a tolerable know- 
 ledg'e of its characters relative to commerce and 
 the necessaries of life. 
 
 It is obvious, that with this writing every new 
 word requires a new syllabic sign, and that, by 
 the natural progress of science, the increase of 
 words in every branch of learning would soon 
 render writing far too complicated for the memory 
 of man to retain. 
 
 It must have been a most awful crisis when the 
 philosophers, the friends to knowledge and wis- 
 dom, discovered that there was no room for 
 new discoveries or improvements ; and that they 
 must either stop all progress in every branch of 
 science, or discard their books, become an encum- 
 brance, since there was no longer a sufficient space 
 under the human skull for both. 
 
 Of all the nations on earth, the Chinese was 
 the only one that mistrusted Providence, and 
 stopped short all farther progress, enacting the 
 severest laws against any innovation whatever. 
 They would not allow the destruction of their 
 Ibooks ; they wished to retain what God had con- 
 ixlcmned ; reluctant to venture on new disco- 
 veries, they dropped anchor, and drifting round.
 
 ON WRITING. 31 
 
 turned their faces to the past ; but behokl, as 
 fthe wife of Lot, they were petrified. They 
 [exist, it is true, but theirs is the existence of 
 the Egyptian mummies. On this condition only 
 they were allowed to make a stand in the univer- 
 sal progress of mankind, doomed to remain as a 
 warning to any people who should be tempted to 
 resist civilization. 
 
 The other nations follow^ed the divine impulse, 
 and were soon rewarded in their faith ; they re- 
 ceived the Alphabet. 
 
 A man was found who, analyzing every sound 
 of speech as a skilful builder does the various 
 compartments of an organ, dissected the various 
 articulations of the voice, and on a sudden pro- 
 duced the key-board to that splendid instrument to 
 the gaze of the astonished world, viz. the Alpha- 
 bet, so simple in its structure that a child might 
 learn its gamut in a few days, yet so complete in its 
 perfection, that there was no combination of the 
 human notes which the fing-er could not follow 
 with scrupulous exactness. 
 
 Thus, in the same manner as the simple pic- 
 ture-writing had led to the scientific hieroglyphics, 
 so the syllabic or simple phonetic writing was the 
 first step towards the alphabet, or analytic scale 
 of the principles of speech, both of these being 
 phonetic characters or representations of sounds.
 
 32 ON WRITING. 
 
 whilst the two former had been pictorial figures 
 or representations of objects, either in their natu- 
 ral form or in their allegorical attribution, either 
 physical or metaphysical. 
 
 The alphabetic character is the fourth and last 
 stage of writing ; the mind can go no farther, and 
 it is even highly probable that some of the first cha- 
 racters invented still exist amongst ours, though 
 our modern grammars can give but a very imper- 
 fect idea of that first alphabet, which, represent- 
 ing in its various figures all the multifarious 
 sounds of speech, and having a distinct letter for 
 every distinct sound, reduced orthography to the 
 simple rules of pronunciation. Happy the chil- 
 dren of that golden age ! They did not know 
 the miseries of the spelling-book.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON ALPHABETS. 
 
 EXAMINATION OF THE ALPHABETS OF THE ANCIENT AND MO- 
 DERN LANGUAGES, PASSING FROM PRIMITIVE PERFECTION 
 TO EXTREME CONFUSION, AS EXEMPLIFIED IN THE ENGLISH 
 LANGUAGE. 
 
 The invention of the alphabet, like many other 
 masterly creations, has been ascribed to various 
 individuals, and the names of Seth, Memnon, 
 Prometheus, Mercury, seem to have an equal 
 claim to the gratitude of mankind for this asto- 
 nishing composition. 
 
 Far be it from me the desire of lessening the 
 merits due to the inventor ; but although I assent 
 to the opinion of the learned, that the alphabet is 
 the most important creation of the human mind, I 
 still will maintain that this invention was the na- 
 tural result of leading circumstances which must 
 inevitably have brought it to light. For no useful 
 discovery has ever been made public, without its 
 importance, its necessity, having been felt pre- 
 viously, if I may say so, in private; and its out- 
 
 D
 
 34 ON ALPHABETS. 
 
 lines, its characteristic features, having been 
 drawn by the thoughtful philosopher. Thus 
 the man of genius, who, feeling in the highest 
 degree the wants of his age, collects the dis- 
 seminated glittering sparks, and enlightens the 
 world with a resplendent pile that projects, from 
 his frail form, a gigantic shadow over the remotest 
 posterity, is certainly the first, with regard to prac- 
 tical talent, or usefulness, the scale in which 
 the world weighs men,; but he is nevertheless 
 the lojst, with regard to contemplative merit and 
 theoretical science. 
 
 The world may reward the aspiring inventor, 
 for whom fortune has prepared the times ; but 
 the reflective man will feel that, the greater the 
 invention, the more unbounded ought his admira- 
 tion to be for those his predecessors, who, with a 
 spirit above the frailties of man, disregarding 
 even fame, kept within themselves and for a few 
 adepts, the great thought which the world, unpre- 
 pared, could not yet hear. 
 
 How different those fame-hunters who, anxious 
 of being the first to tell the good news, desert 
 the field, to bring to the city incomplete truths, 
 more dangerous than untruths ! How often the 
 hopes of a whole generation have been blighted 
 by the untimely disclosure of a blundering cox- 
 comb talking about liberty, enfranchisement of
 
 ON ALPHABETS. 35 
 
 the people, civilization ; without even suspecting 
 the existence of a moral atmosphere, out of which 
 neither liberty nor civilization can thrive !* 
 
 But to return to our subject. The alphabet, 
 whoever might have been its inventor, created, 
 without doubt, an immense revolution in the sci- 
 entific world. It must not be left unnoticed, how- 
 ever, that this new writing, which offered so easy 
 a means of communication to the intellect, effec- 
 tually separated the learned men into as many 
 communities as there were languages spoken. 
 
 The hieroglyphic language, composed of real 
 images or poetical allegories, addressed itself 
 universally to the mind and could be understood 
 and written by all learned men, as mathematics 
 are in our days, independently of the tongue in 
 which these characters might be spoken. But 
 the alphabetical language, being a mere written 
 sound, was confined to the speech and varied 
 
 * I hope I shall not be suspected of alluding to any of our 
 modern politicians. It is too well known that such as might 
 feel themselves offended are no fame-hunters, and that, if they 
 disturb nations in their very vitals by feeding them with the 
 green fruits torn from the tree of knowledge, or if after- 
 wards, maddened at their deeds, they suddenly blaspheme 
 their own soul, trampling under their feet the young kernel 
 which is taking root in the disturbed soil ; if they do those 
 things, they well know what name will be given to the bar- 
 gains they have made. 
 
 D 2
 
 36 ON ALPHABETS. 
 
 accordingly, thereby keeping each little academy 
 secret and alone in its own sphere. 
 
 Thus the people who, united, had raised the 
 pyramids, portentous works now above our con- 
 ception, were disseminated into numberless na- 
 tions by the new characters which rendered their 
 various languages unintelligible to each other, — a 
 confusion, ordained by Providence, that men 
 should seek separately knowledge and trutli, 
 which when found would unite them for ever into 
 one faith, one lip, one word, one language. Of 
 this more anon. 
 
 The same principle, no doubt, which had pre- 
 sided over the symbolic or hieroglyphic writing, 
 prevailed also in the tracing of the various alpha- 
 betical signs, intended to convey, by their forms, 
 ideas of their sounds, as we may easily perceive 
 by the inspection of the various characters of our 
 modern alphabets, in which still are to be traced 
 some of the original conceptions of the inventor. 
 For instance : 
 
 B, profiling the mouth closed, as in a well-pro- 
 portioned face, the underlip a little thicker than 
 the other, represents in its curves the exact out- 
 line of the organ on the point of uttering that 
 labial consonant. 
 
 P is a harder utterance of the same sound, and
 
 ON ALPHABETS. 37 
 
 requires a closer contact of the lips to resist the 
 pressure of the breath ; in this the under lip con- 
 tracts inwardly, as represented in the figure. 
 
 F is the hissing consonant of the same kind, 
 the labials ; and is figured by the same character, 
 modified in accordance with the modifications of 
 the lips; viz. the under one being compressed in- 
 wardly as in P, whilst the upper one, propped up 
 in a horizontal line, discloses the upper teeth, 
 under which the breath forces itself in a hissing 
 stream. 
 
 fj pronounced by a quick vibration of the 
 tip of the tongue, is represented in the letter by a 
 little appendage suspended loosely at the end of 
 a slight vibrating spring. 
 
 Other letters have represented animals, whose 
 natural voices are imitated in the spoken sound, 
 as in S, (particularly the Greek letter,) which 
 is the exact representation of a serpent hissing, 
 and ready to dart upon its hearer. 
 
 Ao;ain, some sounds were called to the mind in 
 an indirect yet equally forcible manner : for in- 
 stance, the sound of th^ for the utterance of which 
 the tongue is brought between the teeth, as for the 
 action of sucking, was represented in the Greek 
 by the first object that attracts the baby's atten- 
 tion, and at the sight of which it brings between 
 its teeth its little curling tongue ; viz. the teat, or 
 tJieta, as represented in the ancient manuscript ; 
 
 Mseos
 
 38 ON ALPHABETS. 
 
 not oblong, but perfectly round, with a small 
 knob in the middle. 
 
 Since I have mentioned the Greek alphabet, 1 
 will remark the great analogy that exists between 
 the -v/^ (ps) and the sound of an arrow darting from 
 the bow, as represented in the letter itself. 
 
 This last consonant is one of four which were 
 added to the Greek alphabet during the siege 
 of Troy, and which Palamedes is said to have 
 learned from the cranes in their migrations; a 
 supposition which implies that the four sounds 
 belonged to the language of the feathered tribe, 
 instead of to that of man. 
 
 Certainly, Palamedes had time to invent many 
 things during those ten years ; but I think, never- 
 theless, that in this, as well as in the invention of 
 chess, also attributed to him, people have given 
 him credit for more than he deserved ; and that 
 he merely borrowed the four letters from the 
 alphabet of some of the besieging nations, apply- 
 ing them to some sounds already existing in the 
 Greek language, for which there were not before 
 any correct representatives. 
 
 Without carrying this examination farther, it is 
 easy to perceive that the first alphabet was a pic- 
 turesque representation of the sounds of speech, 
 systematically arranged in a complete phonetic 
 scale, corresponding to the various modifications 
 of the voice.
 
 ON ALPHABETS. 39 
 
 I have delayed mentioning the vowels, because 
 in primitive languages they were never written ; 
 as, for instance, in the Hebrew and Arabic, in 
 which, even to the present date, they are but faint- 
 ly indicated by means of small ornamental signs 
 which do not belong to the writing, and which, 
 had they been traced, however imperfectly, when 
 these languages were the living speech^ would 
 have constituted a capital offence, a sacrilege ; 
 — for the vowels, pure inarticulate emanations 
 of the breath, constituting the first spontaneous 
 acclamations of the human soul, have always been 
 ascribed to God ; Jehovah, that revered name, 
 which the Jews were forbidden even to pronounce, 
 far more to WTite. 
 
 At a later period, when other nations ventured 
 to write those holy sounds, they consecrated to 
 them the three mystic characters, principles of 
 all sciences, and considered as the attributes of 
 divinity ; viz. the straight line, the circle, and 
 the triangle, I O A . Even the whole of the 
 English vowelic sounds might be encompassed 
 within those three sio-ns. 
 
 In our modern alphabets we write five of our 
 
 il vocalizations ; why five only, when we have three 
 
 ' times as many simple inarticulate sounds? Why ? 
 
 Because we have copied those five letters servile- j i 
 
 ly from the Romans who knew no better, having 
 
 copied them in the same manner themselves from
 
 40 ON ALPHABETS. 
 
 other people unknown to us ; and thus the five 
 mystic sounds have been transmitted through ages 
 in their primitive purity. It is a fact, that those 
 five letters, so defective in our modern alphabets, 
 when written in their natural order, viz. that of 
 their natural progression, from the smallest to 
 the fullest aperture of the organ, present to our 
 sight the same forbidden name which, after tra- 
 versing the Pagan ages under the faint imitations 
 of Zeus among the Greeks, and Jove among the 
 Romans, is presented to the Christian world in 
 the five characters which are the fundamental, 
 the vital part of their language : i e o u a^ (p^'o- 
 nounce ee a ho oo ah^ as all Christian nations 
 except the English and French do pronounce 
 them,) and with the two aspirations iehouah, 
 JEHOVAH, the living speech.* 
 
 The introduction of characters to represent 
 vowels is always a proof of a degenerated writing. 
 
 The Romans took their alphabet partly from the 
 Greeks, partly from other people unknown to 
 us ; I dare say without much knowledge of the 
 sounds expressed by the signs they were bor- 
 rowing. 
 
 The moderns, viz. the English, French, Ger- 
 mans, Spaniards, Italians, &c. &c., formed their 
 alphabets with Greek and Roman letters, without 
 
 * I need not state that the j and v arc corrupt pronun- 
 ciations of i and n. See page 44.
 
 ON ALPHABETS. 41 
 
 I knowing even as much as the sounds of those 
 / letters, without regard to the sounds of their own 
 languages ; in short, without any knowledge, sense, 
 - or judgment whatever. 
 
 Let us take, for example, the first alphabet 
 that comes under our eyes: the English one. A, 
 the first letter, has alone three various simple 
 sounds, as diff'erent from each other as any other 
 three in the whole scale. In diphthongs, a enters 
 in the representation of all the various sounds as- 
 cribed to vowels ; so that when we consider the 
 variety of sounds written with this letter, we see 
 no more reason to call it a than any other name. 
 This may be said of each one and all of the five 
 vowels. There are about thirty ways of writing 
 in English the four sounds attributed to a ; ten 
 or twelve for each of the three sounds of e ; as 
 many for those of o, and not less for those of u. 
 For instance, we write the sound of e, in Jier, 
 equally with every one of the five vowels, as in 
 altar, alter, stir, actor, arthur, pronounced, accord- 
 ing to Walker, altur, altur, stur, actur, arthur ; 
 then the same sound again with two or three letters 
 combined, as in famous, fashion, pTecious, pro- 
 nouncedyamz/5, fashun, preshus. 
 
 By supplement to these five signs comes the w, 
 which, " when a consona7it, has the sound of oo," 
 as says most facetiously our friend Murray ; and
 
 42 ON ALPHABETS. 
 
 the y^ another quaint character, described also as 
 a consonant with the sound of a vowel ; viz. a 
 speaking-mute, and destined to represent what 
 has already one or two representative signs. 
 
 If we turn from the vowels to the consonants, 
 we find still greater confusion and absurdity, if 
 possible. There, each character has three or four 
 sounds, and sometimes a fifth one borrowed from 
 the French, besides the privilege of remaining 
 mute at times : these need no example. Let a 
 foreigner read attentively the twenty-two pages 
 consecrated by Murray to the pronunciation of 
 the letters ; let him study those twenty-two pages 
 for a twelvemonth, and if he can make sense of 
 them, — but what am I saying ? The poor fellow 
 , would lose his brains long^ before a twelvemonth 
 \ had elapsed. 
 
 Just notice the A, that letter so dear to the 
 classics and etymologists, and so profusely deco- 
 rating all scientific words derived from the Greek. 
 There is a slight remark to begin with, viz. 
 Ijthat h is not a Greek consonant, and that conse- 
 Ijjquently its introduction in Greek words is a true 
 ! * barbarism. The character certainly has been 
 copied from the Greek alphabet, but there, it is 
 the representative of a vowel, e long. Of that 
 vowel we make a consonant, or a something inde- 
 scribable ; and as we arc told it comes from the
 
 ON ALPHABETS. 43 
 
 Greek, we show our learning by forcing it into 
 
 I almost every word derived from that language, 
 
 . by which process these same words would be 
 
 ' completely unintelligible to the good people of 
 
 Greece : all out of respect for the classics, and 
 
 for the sake of scientific etymology ! 
 
 However, for that etymological writing we are 
 indebted to the Romans, who showed by it that 
 they had certainly seen a Greek alphabet; and 
 also, that they had certainly not been able to 
 read it. 
 
 In the English language it is quite bewildering 
 to follow that letter through all its sudden trans- 
 formations, as in the words thought, through, 
 trough, hughes, &c. &c. Now we see it intro- 
 duced by way of accent, and called aspirated h ; 
 then it appears by way of ornament, and is called 
 mute h, and that is right at last ; a fool who does 
 not know his own mind had better remain silent. 
 
 Really, the manner in which we apply most of 
 our letters, shows about as much judgment as 
 was exhibited by the New Zealanders, related by 
 Cook ; who, having stolen sundry wearing apparel 
 of which they did not know the proper use, placed 
 it about their persons in the most ludicrous con- 
 fusion, trying every possible way but the right. 
 
 We cannot conclude this chapter without men- 
 tioning two letters, so modern in their sounds 
 
 If
 
 44 ON ALPHABETS. 
 
 that our lexicographers have not yet ventured to 
 give them a place to themselves, but continue 
 still to keep them lodged with their relatives, to 
 the great annoyance of the young student forced 
 to have recourse to the dictionary ; I mean the 
 j and the y, two hissing consonants squeezed out 
 of the two soft vowels z', u^ (pronounced ee, oo, 
 every where but in England, as we have said 
 previously,) and which alone might characterize 
 the modern European tongues. 
 
 The operations of speech, as we have explained 
 before, are of two natures ; viz. the intonations, 
 or pure musical sounds, called vowels ; and the 
 articulations, or pure mechanical ones, called 
 consonants. 
 
 The people of the rich countries whence civi- 
 lization arose, inhaling freely the embalmed air 
 of their oases, breathing happily their luxuriant 
 lives, singing harmoniously their acclamations of 
 thanks to the Almighty, composed their languages 
 of almost all musical sounds ; hence the numerous 
 vowels of the Greek, and their harmonious pe- 
 riods ; hence the full tone of the Latin, and its 
 rich and lively accent. Not so with the modern 
 languages. 
 
 The nations of the North, of a later civiliza- 
 tion, restless and harassed in their minds, with 
 their mouths closed against their cold atmos-
 
 ON ALPHABETS. 45 
 
 phere, force their words between their compressed 
 teeth in a strain of sounds descriptive of their 
 hard climate ; their language, stifled with conso- 
 nants, now breaks and rolls as the torrents from 
 their rocky mountains; now oozes and whistles as 
 the wind, sharp and keen, along their dry coasts, 
 or between the rustling frozen leaves of their 
 lofty forests. What have we done with the beau- 
 tiful vowels of the Greeks ? Some we have neg- 
 lected as useless ; others we have transformed 
 into hard aspirations or hissing consonants. What 
 have we done with the variegated consonants of 
 the Latins ? We have confounded nearly the 
 whole of them into sharp hissing sounds. The 
 sound of sh can be written in five different 
 modes ; with sh, s, t, ch, and c, as in show, 
 pension, action, chaise, and ancient. The sound 
 of y is written in three ways, as inya^, philoso- 
 phy, enough. That ofj with four different let- 
 ters, g, j, s, and z, as in gem, Joseph, measure, 
 azure. Now the Romans, who furnished us with 
 that character, j, had no such sound ascribed to 
 it, no more than they had the sound of v, given 
 by us to that letter ; but these two vowels, i, u, 
 (pronounced ee, oo, as we have said before,) being 
 the two weakest of the five, viz. the two that 
 require the smallest aperture of the organ of 
 speech, were soon squeezed, in our half-frozen
 
 46 ON ALPHABETS. 
 
 mouths, into two hissing consonants, as the warm 
 breath is transformed into icicles against a frozen 
 pane of glass. The Latin word for victory is not 
 r victorisLy but wictoria. ; and there might be some 
 ' erudition in the affectation of some people to pro- 
 nounce the V in that manner ; provided they did 
 not make vs of double us. 
 
 The English, by a sort of compensation, have 
 given to the two original vowels, in many in- 
 stances, a double sound ; pronouncing the first ah, 
 ee, the second e, oo ; these diphthongal sounds 
 are called the long sounds of these letters: a 
 definition worthy of the absurd pronunciation 
 pecuhar to the English language. 
 
 I will not carry this examination any farther. 
 I hope by this time to have given a sufficient idea 
 of the absurdities of the modern alphabets, each 
 in its own language. If we learn the French, or 
 
 I any other language using the same letters, new 
 difficulties will arise ; so that the common alpha- 
 bet, which should be the common key to all Euro- 
 pean languages, is, on the contrary, an impedi- 
 ment to a common understanding ; and the various 
 nations, instead of being brought nearer by the 
 quantity of words borrowed from each other's 
 dialects, are farther set apart by the alphabet, the 
 {Babel of our modern times. 
 
 To guide us in these labyrinths, we have the
 
 f 
 
 I 
 
 ON ALPHABETS. 47 
 
 t 
 
 spelling-book, a fascinating little composition, with 
 which we open the understanding of our chil- I 
 dren. It is a fact, lamentable enough yet but too 
 true, that every elementary book seems to be 1 
 calculated to try the beginners by every possible 1 
 means, in order, it appears, that only those en- 
 dowed with the greatest share of energy and per- ■ 
 severance should remain to partake of the fruit 
 of knowledge ; as the ancient Egyptians used to | 
 try, by various mysteries, the courage of those 
 wishing to enter their sanctuaries, (which were 
 their libraries also) ; or as the Russians initiate 
 their young infants to the miseries and hardships 
 of life, by taking them out of a hot bath to roll 
 in the snow : a trial which proves fatal to a great 
 number. Thus, our poor children are doomed to 
 sicken for years over the spelling-book, the rich- 
 est collection of absurdities and contradictions 
 that could be contrived, as an initiation to what 
 they are to meet with in society. 
 
 How many little understandings are shaken, 
 scattered, in that long trial ! Who can tell ? 
 Perhaps our mad-houses (also a modern commo- 
 dity) might help us in our statistic researches. 
 Indeed, however paradoxical it may appear, I will 
 venture to say, that with no other guide than the 
 spelling-book I could ascertain the general ave- 
 rage of insane people in any community. Thus,
 
 48 ON ALPHABETS. 
 
 in Spain and Italy, where all letters are pro- 
 nounced in almost an invariable manner, there are 
 but few mad people ; in France we find a greater 
 , number, owing to the great quantity of mute 
 letters ; and in England, where the spelling-book 
 is the most complicated, there are more insane 
 ,' people than in any other part of the civilized 
 world. 
 
 Be it as it may, what no one can deny is the 
 positive and real miseries brought to the world 
 by the spelling-book ; the hardships, the suffer- 
 ings it inflicts upon our poor innocent, sensible i 
 children, whose little brains are bewildered by 
 that glittering accumulation of letters, whose , 
 health is impoverished by their attention (w^hich, ' 
 I' good creatures, they lend so readily to any thing 
 useful) being forced upon things beyond the ! 
 comprehension of a Leibnitz or a Newton, and 
 whose distorted features too often bear, to the last 
 of their days, the stamp of amazement, dulness, 
 and misery.
 
 LOGOGRAPHY. 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 Regeneration of Writing, or Logography based 
 on its simple and universal Principles. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON ORTHOGRAPHY. 
 
 IMPOSSIBILITY OF HAVING AN ACCURATE WRITING BY MEANS 
 
 OF THE ROMAN LETTERS. NECESSITY OF ADOPTING A NEW 
 
 SERIES OF PHONETIC CFIARACTERS. 
 
 We have seen, in the first part of this work, how 
 the writing of speech has been gradually formed, 
 and how it has gradually degenerated. Numerous 
 attempts have been made amongst the various 
 nations using the Roman alphabet, in order to 
 improve that art, by successive alterations in the 
 orthography of their various languages, which 
 have only contributed to render the science more 
 and more confused and arbitrary, notwithstanding 
 all the talent and wit of the {ratlier short-sighted) 
 reformers : witness the Voltairian orthography 
 of the French. In language, not protected as the 
 one here mentioned by an Academie Royale, 
 
 E
 
 50 ON ORTHOGRAPHY. 
 
 the confusion has increased with greater rapidity ; 
 till at last, as a finishing stroke, some writing- 
 masters, and such like literati, have seriously pro- 
 posed a radical reformation of the whole ortho- 
 graphy at once, by adopting such spelling as 
 should be deemed the nearest to the pronuncia- 
 tion, without regard to any other consideration 
 or grammatical rule ! 
 
 It wanted little penetration to have foreseen, 
 that the first deviation from the strictest etymo- 
 logical spelling was invariably leading to this 
 conclusion. If the beginning had been good, 
 good also would be the end, the only test in all 
 tilings. Let us, then, examine this final propo- 
 sition of the doctors in calligraphy, with respect 
 to the English and the French languages. 
 
 In the first instance, we have an alphabet of 
 five vowels and twenty consonants, to express 
 a language consisting of nine intonations and 
 twenty articulations, perfectly distinct, as will be 
 hereafter explained. With regard to the conso- 
 nants, they certainly appear at first sight to be 
 in equal number with the sounds they have to 
 express ; but in reality, as three of these signs 
 are superfluous, (viz. c, </, and x, which represent 
 sounds already expressed by ^, A:, and ks or gz^) 
 their number is eff'ectually reduced to seventeen, 
 leaving three articulated sounds without any
 
 ON ORTHOGRAPHY. 51 
 
 representative sign ; and with respect to the 
 vowels, they are not even equal in number to 
 one-half of the intonated sounds they have to 
 represent : for i being rejected as the superfluous 
 expression of ae or e, five of the nine sounds are 
 left without proper signs, making, with the three 
 articulations above mentioned, a total of eight 
 sounds of speech deprived of figurative signs. 
 How, in the name of common sense, can these be 
 distinctly expressed otherwise than by eight new 
 distinct letters f However, such an innovation 
 could never enter the head of our judicious re- 
 formers, whose w^hole labour is seriously spent 
 in contriving such combinations of the characters 
 already used, as will represent {to their fancies) 
 these eight puzzling sounds ; although they have 
 not the least connexion with those previously 
 ascribed to each of the combined characters.* 
 
 In the French language, which has the same 
 number of letters, there are six more intonations 
 
 * These eight sounds, added to the twenty-one already 
 expressed, constitute the twenty-nine simple sounds of the 
 human organ strictly analyzed ; they are the elements of 
 speech, and as such should have every one its elementary 
 character in the wi-iting. The complete combination of any 
 two, three, or more letters, can never convey to an un- 
 biassed mind the idea of a simple sound ; consequently, all 
 the successive pretended improvements in the orthography 
 are equally absurd. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 ON ORTHOGRAPHY. 
 
 or vowels to be expressed, making a total (the 
 two tJi not being pronounced in that language 
 otherwise than as t alone) of twelve sounds, or 
 nearly one-half of the whole speech left to be 
 expressed, any how, by the above-described com- 
 binations. 
 
 Such is the end of the successive alterations in 
 the orthography of the modern languages, which 
 the neglect of their etymologies has rendered so 
 complicated, that there is hardly an author in 
 whose manuscripts are not found numerous ir- 
 regularities, although they mostly resort to the 
 ingenious method of writing in the worst possible 
 hand, in order to avoid detection. The greatest 
 men even have not always been above this little- 
 ness, and the Emperor of the French has some- 
 times endangered the success of a battle, by the 
 almost illegible manner in which he scribbled 
 his orders. 
 
 Napoleon, however, might have made ample 
 excuses for his not having devoted the required 
 time to those grammatical accomplishments ; for 
 some otherwise very clever men have given up 
 in despair the study of the spelling-book, and 
 candidly acknowledged their inability in the 
 science of orthography; the most arduous of all 
 studies, because the least submissive to rules. 
 
 Now that so many unsuccessful attempts have
 
 ON ORTHOGRAPHY. 53 
 
 been made, we will try, in our turn, to fix the egg 
 on its point ; and, taking a lesson of the perse- 
 vering Spaniard, prove at once that nothing could 
 be more simple and easy than the long-wished 
 for reformation. 
 
 The Roman letters, as stated in the Preface, 
 having been adapted to the modern languages by 
 the learned classics, who have paid the greatest 
 regard to the etymologies, and considered the 
 sounds of their languages as things of a secondary 
 importance ; how can any one expect to find now, 
 in those very letters, a perfect scale of the modern 
 spoken sounds ? If we want to express our mo- 
 dern accent in a manner satisfactory to our ear, 
 we must cast aside the ancient characters, and 
 form our own phonetic scale; if we retain the 
 classical alphabet, we must retain also the most 
 accurate etymologies, we must write every foreign 
 word with its foreign spelling, whatever might be 
 the sound pronounced for them; no half measure 
 can answer on either side. 
 
 Since the first is the reformation most gene- 
 rally wished for, since the great desideratum is to 
 have in writing a perfect and unalterable repre- 
 sentation of speech, the first thing to be done is 
 to remove at once every vestige of the ancient 
 alphabet. 
 
 1 will not attempt to deny that such a step
 
 54 ON ORTHOGRAPHY. 
 
 would greatly lessen the importance of the ancient 
 languages. Certainly none can feel a deeper 
 respect than I do for those noble ancestors of our 
 modern tongues ; but it is because I know the 
 full extent of the benefit they have conferred on 
 the modern, that I do not hesitate in stating that 
 the study of them has already lost the greatest 
 part of its interest. 
 
 The Latin has undoubtedly an everlasting claim 
 upon all civilized nations ; viz. that of having 
 preserved the vital spark of knowledge, in spite 
 of the most wild persecutions; and we cannot 
 doubt that, after the fall of the Roman empire, 
 the world might have been driven back into bar- 
 barism, had not the holy Muses been kept alive 
 in that sacred arch which protected them from the 
 raging hurricane, and whence, at the appointed 
 time, they sallied forth with a fresh splendour 
 under the rainbow of a new covenant ; the art 
 of printing given as a guarantee, that no longer 
 should the discoveries of science be smothered 
 by the flood of barbarism. 
 
 But since then, the Latin has become a mere 
 empty vessel ; old doctors may preserve the 
 venerable remnants, they may brighten them 
 with their black sleeves, or carve them into 
 elegant cups to sip their wine after dinner; God 
 forbid such innocent amusement should be denied
 
 ON ORTHOGRAPHY. 55 
 
 to them ; but to us, men of the rising generations 
 of the living world, belong the living languages. 
 Nay, I will say more in reference to dead lan- 
 guages ; I will say that there is a sort of irreligion 
 in the obstinacy with which certain classes of 
 people persevere in making these languages the 
 principal channel to knowledge ; for if we allow 
 one whose word is life, who called himself the 
 LIVING SPEECH, Still to bc the supreme ruler of 
 mankind, we must feel convinced that when, in 
 his everlasting wisdom, he uproots and throws 
 down, as the tempest does a tree, a whole nation 
 and its language, it is because that nation has 
 become adverse to the holy progress of civiliza- 
 tion ; it is because that language and its literature 
 are representative of a morality repulsive to the 
 rising generations ; it is because the whole fabric, 
 rotten in all its parts, was sucking through its far 
 extended roots the most nutritious substances, in 
 order to feed in its portentous limbs nothing but 
 pernicious fungus and noxious animals. Thus, 
 judged by their deeds, Greeks and Romans were 
 doomed to fall, in order to^^elerafe, By tBeir" 
 speedy decomposition, the rising of new genera- 
 tions, new languages. The learned might dissect 
 their great bodies, of which we still admire the 
 majestic and harmonious proportions, in order
 
 56 ON ORTHOGRAPHY. 
 
 (thereby to improve the constitution of the living ; 
 but to galvanize their withered sinews, to force 
 the stream of life, the sap of knowledge, through 
 their dried up veins, is at once an injury to the 
 living world, a sacrilege towards God. 
 / The dead languages, it must be acknowledged, 
 have too often been cultivated, not for their 
 literature, but for the secrecy they afforded, 
 being unintelligible to the world at large, or, as it 
 were, unknown tongues ; for the scheme of the 
 Rev. Dr. Irving is no invention of his own : many 
 canting sects have proved this in all ages. 
 
 It is a general observation, that every corpo- 
 ration, every association, will try to have its own 
 private language, unknown to all others. The 
 free-masons have their mottoes and emblematic 
 devices; the nobility, their heraldry; the mer- 
 chants, their private marks ; the thieves, their 
 slang ; and all the gentlemen of the black cloth, 
 doctors in law, physic, or divinity, their Latin, 
 which is, in no ways, that of Virgil, Tacitus, or 
 Cicero. All these are unknown tongues. We 
 do not pretend to establish any comparison be- 
 tween the various trades or callings above men- 
 tioned; they all act through various motives, — 
 some with the most honourable principles, others 
 with the reverse ones ; but nevertheless, they
 
 ON ORTHOGRAPHY. 57 
 
 seem all to have one point in common, viz. to 
 keep others in the dark respecting their pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 Now, from the most ancient times down to 
 the present ages, wherever has existed a strong 
 government, a privileged aristocracy, there has 
 existed also a dead language, an unknown tongue, 
 in which were written the laws of the land, most 
 energetically enforced upon those who could not 
 ,read them; in which were written the prayers 
 and religious dogmas most fervently uttered, and 
 most strictly adhered to, by those who could not 
 understand them. The Sanscrit was, 1500 years 
 
 i before Christ the dead language of India, for- 
 
 j 
 
 i bidden to the hulk of the nation, under penalty 
 of death. And the greatest empire of modern 
 times, the Papal government, has never acknow- 
 ledged any other mode of communication but that 
 of a dead language, — the Latin. 
 
 Hence it is easy to explain why the first step 
 in all noble social improvements has been to tear 
 aside the veil, to renounce the unknown tongue, 
 
 \ in order to teach mankind in the living speech ; 
 
 I — witness the religious reform of the fifteenth 
 
 \ century. 
 
 ' From religion the movement has extended to 
 politics, and every branch of learning; the social 

 
 58 ON ORTHOGRAPHY. 
 
 laws as well as the religious ones are now to be 
 enforced, not by violence, but by persuasion, 
 every member of the human family being cheer- 
 fully invited to partake of the fruit of knowledge; 
 and now, at last, the ancient languages may well 
 be considered as irrevocably dead. Let us, then, 
 deposit, with every sentiment of respect and gra- 
 titude, within their revered monuments, every 
 remnant of what they have so generously lent us, 
 even to the last letter of their alphabet.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON PHONOGRAPHY. 
 
 ANALYSIS OF HUMAN SPEECH, 
 
 Having once renounced the Roman letters, the 
 creation of a new alphabet is one of the simplest 
 operations that can be conceived. A hundred 
 school-boys would contrive a hundred different 
 ones in a half-holiday, every one of which would 
 be far superior to the Roman one. The numerous 
 quantity of short-hands, or phonetic alphabets, 
 published every year, are again corroborations of 
 this ; yet there can be but one possible perfect 
 system of speech-writing, as there is only one 
 straight line between two extremities. But the 
 reason why there are so many different roads is 
 probably because the right one has not yet been 
 opened. Let us then proceed systematically to 
 our goal. 
 
 The great desideratum is to obtain a perfect 
 written gamut of the sounds of speech. For this, 
 two operations are necessary. 
 
 The first : to ascertain what are these sounds, 
 how they are formed at the various points of the
 
 60 ON PHONOGRAPHY. 
 
 organ, and what relation they have with each 
 other in their succession or combination. Thus 
 obtaining, by means of the most minute analysis, 
 all the simple sounds or elements of speech, 
 which should be classed methodically in the order 
 of their relative importance. 
 
 The second : to form a series of characters in 
 equal number with the sounds obtained ; these 
 characters to be so contrived as most easy to the 
 natural motion of the hand, then classed accord- 
 ing to their relative rapidity of execution, and 
 ascribed to the elementary sounds in such order 
 as to let the most important, viz. the most fre- 
 quent ones, be represented by the most rapid and 
 easy characters, preserving as much as possible 
 between the various figures the same analogies 
 of formation as may be observed between the 
 various sounds ascribed to them. 
 
 The sounds of speech have been already de- 
 scribed and classified in the first part of this work, 
 but not sufficiently to the present purpose ; for it 
 is only by means of the most scrupulous analysis 
 that we can succeed in laying down the firm foun- 
 dations of a good phonography. 
 
 Speech is naturally divided into two very 
 distinct parts ; viz. the intonated and the articu- 
 lated sounds, commonly designated as vowels and 
 consonants. None of the numerous definitions I
 
 ON PHONOGRAPHY. 6l 
 
 have met with have ever appeared to me to give a 
 clear idea of these ; not even that of the gramma- 
 rian we have had occasion to mention in the fore- 
 going pages, although it may be, for aught I know, 
 and to quote the author's own expression, " more 
 exact and philosophical than any other."* 
 
 "A vowel," says Lindley Murray, "is a simple 
 articulate sound, perfect in itself, and formed by 
 a continued effusion of the breath and a certain 
 conformation of the mouth, without any alteration 
 in the position, or any motion of the organs of 
 speech, from the moment the vocal sound com- 
 mences till it finishes." 
 
 " A consonant is a simple, articulate sound, 
 imperfect by itself, but which, joined with a 
 vowel, forms a complete sound, by a particular 
 motion or contact of the organs of speech." 
 
 Now let us examine how far we may rely on 
 the exactness and philosophy of the above defi- 
 nitions. 
 
 As to exactness, we remark, firstly with regard 
 to the vowels, that the two letters i, u, long, 
 being formed each by two successive operations 
 of the organs, necessitate an alteration in the 
 position of those organs during their utterance, 
 thereby forming two exceptions to a rule given 
 for Jive letters ; and secondly, with respect to the 
 * See Lindley Murray's English Grammar, page 18.
 
 62 ON PHONOGRAPHY. 
 
 consonants, that there is not a single one accu- 
 rately defined, since seven letters, viz. f^ j, /, r, 
 5, sh, z, can be heard perfectly without any other 
 sound being combined with them ; and all the 
 others, although they cannot be uttered when 
 alone, may be fully articulated with the help of any 
 one of the seven sounds above mentioned. For 
 example, the two mutes j», t, are as well sounded 
 in the interjection pst, (a sound much used in 
 France to attract the attention,) as in the word 
 pot. The letter 5, in the first instance, as well as 
 the letter o in the second, are pure emissions of 
 the breath necessary to the pronunciation of the 
 letters />, t, and answering equally well to the de- 
 finition of a vowel above quoted ; whilst the p and 
 t, being heard in the first word without the help 
 of any vowel, constitute also two exceptions to 
 the definition of a consonant. 
 
 As to philosophy, or more clearly speaking, 
 common sense, it is worth remarking, that there 
 could hardly be any thing more confused and un- 
 intelligible than the second paragraph : " A con- 
 sonant is a simple articulate sounds So far so 
 good, the definition here is all that is required for 
 the elements of speech : " imperfect bi/ itself'' — 
 here begins the confusion : how articvlate xiimper- 
 fect? — ^^hut which, joined with a vowel, forms a 
 complete sounds This can have no other mean-
 
 ON PHONOGRAPHY. 63 
 
 ing but that the conjoined vowel perfects the im- 
 perfect simple diYWcvXdXQ, sound; thereby implying 
 that the combination of two sounds constitutes 
 ONE complete, perfect, simple, articulate sound. 
 This is a strange sort of analysis, and must cer- 
 tainly be founded on philosophical principles not 
 to be met with in the works of Leibnitz or Bacon. 
 
 Without attempting to give a definition of the 
 sounds of speech, which could never correspond 
 to their letters, so ill adapted as they are to those 
 sounds, I will proceed in their examination, merely 
 illustrating the subject by a comparison which 
 appears to me of a nature to give a correct idea 
 of these two elements of speech. 
 
 Let us, then, consider the voice as a stream 
 running through the organ of speech which forms 
 its conduit, and by its diversified construction 
 allows it to flow deep or shallow, broad or narrow, 
 in a variety of strains, every one of which may 
 continue unmodified, until the breadth, the source 
 of sound, be exhausted. These are the vowels ; 
 the intonations, properly speaking, being the only 
 sounds with which music is ever sung. 
 
 In certain and distinct points of that conduit 
 are placed various contrivances, which opening 
 and shutting against the stream as so many locks, 
 obstruct its passage entirely or partly, according
 
 64 
 
 ON PHONOGRAPHY. 
 
 to their various constructions. These are the 
 consonants, or better : the articulations. 
 
 It is obvious that the intonations may always 
 flow freely, without touching any of the articula- 
 tions; whereas few articulations can be distinctly 
 heard, unless an intonation or stream be run- 
 ning, against which the action of the lock might 
 be felt. 
 
 The impetus with which the stream is propelled 
 might also give some idea of the aspiration in the 
 language, which cannot affect any other sound 
 than the vowels, or intonations. 
 
 Previous to entering into the examination of 
 the different structures and modes of action of 
 these various pieces of machinery, it is necessary 
 to make a few observations respecting the nature 
 of the voice, or stream of sound, itself. 
 
 The human voice has two different accents, 
 viz. a low, and a loud one ; the first being the 
 clear emission of the breath, the second the same 
 breath vibrated in the throat by a peculiar organ, 
 placed at the top of the wind-pipe and called the 
 glottis, which is the musical instrument of the 
 voice, and acts in the same manner as the mouth- 
 piece of a clarinet. The vibrations of the glottis 
 cannot affect in any way the pronunciations of 
 the vowels or intonations, which, as we have seen,
 
 ON PHONOGRAPHY. 65 
 
 consist of a series of modifications or curves given 
 to the conduit open for the passage of the breath ; 
 for each of these, once formed and set in its rela- 
 tive position, will continue to give the voice the 
 same intonation as long as the breath continues to 
 flow through it, either in a simple or a vibrated 
 sound, viz. either in a whispered or a loud voice ; 
 but they have a powerful action upon the greater 
 part of the articulations, by causing on the edges, 
 as it were, of these various impediments to the 
 breath a sort of tremulous motion, which alters 
 considerably their sound. 
 
 Resuming now our analysis of the elements of 
 speech, we will proceed to their examination in 
 the same order as already adopted. 
 
 On Articulations. 
 All the articulations of speech may be classed 
 in three categories, called the Gutturals, the 
 Palatals, and the Labials, according to the 
 three different parts in which they are uttered; 
 viz. the first, at the source of all spoken sounds 
 in the deepest part of the organ, and as it were 
 from the throat, as ng, k, sh, in the words sitig-, 
 kate, shoe; the second, in the middle of the 
 mouth and from the palate, as n, f, s, in the 
 words no, tea, say ; and the third in the extreme 
 part of the vocal apparatus, and from the lips, as 
 
 F
 
 66 ON PHONOGRAPHY. 
 
 m, p, /, in the words ma/i/, pea, foe. A few sim- 
 ple operations, performed in an analogous man- 
 ner on each of these three seats of articulation, 
 producing three series of analogous sounds, which 
 constitute the whole of the articulations of speech, 
 and which we present to the reader in the follow- 
 ing order: — 
 
 I. THREE MUTES. 
 
 The breath being closed up in any of the three 
 points above described, produces three articula- 
 tions perfectly mute of themselves, unless placed 
 in contact with some sound upon which they may 
 be heard opening or shutting their firm gates. 
 They are expressed in Roman letters by k, t, p, 
 and constitute the only three perfect consonants 
 of the modern languages, as heard in the words 
 key, toy, pew. 
 
 These three locks, although they join perfectly 
 and stop every particle of breath, cannot however 
 prevent the latter, when vibrated, from being heard 
 accumulating and pressing behind their slight 
 partitions. In these instances the articulations 
 are softened by this internal murmur, and the k, 
 t, p, are changed into g, d, b, as heard in go, 
 day, bo IV. 
 
 II. THREE HISSING VOICES. 
 
 Examining again the same points, we find that 
 the three gates, if imperfectly closed, will let the
 
 ON PHONOGRAPHY. 
 
 67 
 
 breath escape in a rapid stream ; and this furnishes 
 us with three hissing articulations, as designated 
 in Roman characters by sli, s, Jl pronounced as in 
 the words shoe, say, foe. 
 
 In these also, as in the three perfect mutes 
 previously described, the vibrations of the glottis 
 produce a striking modification ; for the tremulous 
 motion thereby communicated to the edges of the 
 partly opened gates, changes the three sharp hiss- 
 ing sounds into three soft buzzing ones, expressed 
 by z, s, V, as pronounced in azure, ease, vew. 
 
 The English and Spaniards, amongst the Euro- 
 pean nations, have a fourth hissing articulation, 
 intermediate between the palatal and the labial 
 ones. It is formed, if I may be allowed so to ex- 
 plain it, of the upper part of^ and the under one 
 of s, being pronounced by bringing the latter, the 
 tongue, in juxta-position with the former, the upper 
 teeth, and forcing the breath between the two. 
 
 This articulation is susceptible of the same vi- 
 brated modification as the other above mentioned. 
 The English, nevertheless, have no peculiar cha- 
 racter for it, and use the combined letters th for 
 both sounds, as heard in the words thy, thigh* 
 
 * The Spaniards give this articulation to the letter z., 
 which in our alphabet is a mere synonyme of s soft ; and it 
 may be supposed that the Spanish pronunciation of z, is the 
 right one of the Greek zeta, or vibrated sound of the theta. 
 
 F 2
 
 08 ON PHONOGRAPHY. 
 
 The seven articulations which have now been 
 successively submitted to our analysis, producing 
 as we have seen fourteen sounds in the language, 
 are the only ones on which the vibrations of the 
 throat have a distinct action, and for this reason 
 it is necessary that we should well examine them 
 before we proceed any farther in the elementary 
 sounds of speech. 
 
 In modern alphabets some of these articulations 
 have two characters ascribed to them, SiS p and b 
 for the labial mute, yand v for the hissing voice 
 of the same class ; whilst others have but one 
 character for their two sounds, as s for the two 
 hissing palatal sounds as heard in season, and 
 th already quoted. Some even can hardly be said 
 to have any proper representative character : for 
 instance, the guttural hissing one which Walker 
 represents in his dictionary by sh and zh, and 
 which is generally expressed in English by the 
 letters s, t, z, and as in the words asia, addition, 
 azure. But every simple sound of speech has, 
 nevertheless, an equal claim to a distinct repre- 
 sentative in the alphabet, and no difference can 
 judiciously be made between the seven articula- 
 tions we have as yet examined. 
 
 The reader, who might doubt whether these 
 fourteen sounds be really formed by means of 
 seven articulations only, can easily convince him-
 
 ON PHONOGRAPHY. (39 
 
 self of the fact, by pronouncing in a sharp whis- 
 per the seven following words : cog, toad, pebble, 
 change, season, favour, therewith ; for he will 
 find that the vibrations being suppressed, all 
 difference disappears between the two sounds 
 of each articulation, and he will pronounce as 
 if reading, coc, toat, pepple, cJianche, seasson, 
 fafour, therewith* 
 
 Resuminar our examination of the elements of 
 speech, we remark — 
 
 HI. THREE NASALS. 
 
 In the same three points we shall again find 
 the three nasal articulations of our European 
 languages by one single operation being per- 
 formed, in the three different circumstances, as 
 follows : — 
 
 Having previously closed the lock as for the ut- 
 terance of k, t, or p, if we open for the stream of 
 sound a passage above on the roof of the mouth, 
 the voice, escaping through the nostrils as through 
 a safety valve, or, to keep up the former compa- 
 rison, a waste-gate, will emit the sound of either 
 ng, 71, or m, as heard in king, tin, or beam ; 
 
 * Some foreigners, particularly the Germans, seem not to 
 have even the power to distinguish the two sounds of eacli 
 articulation, and their accent in the English language is 
 the most unpleasant of all.
 
 70 ON PHONOGRAPHY. 
 
 according to its being repercussed from the first, 
 second, or third gate. 
 
 IV. AND LASTLY, THREE LIQUIDS. 
 
 These articulations are called liquids from their 
 great fluency and facility of blending with other 
 sounds. They have a great analogy together, and 
 are formed also in three distinct points of the 
 vocal apparatus corresponding with the other ar- 
 ticulations, excepting the third one, which instead 
 gf a labial is another palatal sound, and is pro- 
 nounced with a much weaker emission of breath 
 than the two first. These two, answering in all 
 respects to our general division, are formed with a 
 slight contraction of the parts pointed at by k or 
 t whilst the breath is forced through them, emit- 
 ting at the same time a guttural or a palatal roll- 
 ing sound, as that expressed by h, r, in hat^ rat* 
 The third liquid, which is written /, is pronounced 
 in a manner similar in a great measure to that of 
 r; for instance, they are both formed by bringing 
 the tongue in contact with the palate, with this 
 difference only, viz. that in / the tongue is applied 
 
 * The great resemblance that will be remarked between 
 these two words, particularly if pronounced by a native of 
 the capital, will prove to the reader the analogy of the two 
 articulations, although he might have been startled at first by 
 my classing the aspiration amongst the liquids.
 
 ON PHONOGRAPHY. 
 
 71 
 
 once ; the breath, during its short pressure, being 
 forced each side of it ; whilst in r the tongue is 
 only brought at first near to the point of contact, 
 when the breath being forced in the narrow space 
 left, causes the tip of the tongue to vibrate, there- 
 by producing the sound alluded to. 
 
 The following table presents a synoptical view 
 of all the articulations of speech, arranged accord- 
 ing to the foregoing classification. 
 
 Articulations, 
 
 Sounds. 
 
 Gutturals. 
 
 Palatals. 
 
 Labials. 
 
 3 mute <. 
 
 3 simple 
 3 vibrated 
 
 k 
 
 g 
 
 t 
 d 
 
 P 
 b 
 
 4 hissing < 
 
 4 simple 
 4 vibrated 
 
 sh 
 zh 
 
 s t 
 z t 
 
 h f 
 
 b V 
 
 3 nasal 
 
 3 unalterable 
 
 ng 
 
 n 
 
 m 
 
 3 liquid 
 
 3 ditto 
 
 h 
 
 r 1 
 
 
 13 articulations. 
 
 20sounds. 
 
 6 guttural. 
 
 7 palatal. 
 2 m 
 
 5 labial, 
 ixed. 
 
 The above table contains all the articulations 
 of speech which, with a few exceptions, are iden- 
 tically the same in all languages, all nations ; and 
 these exceptions even are limited to the guttural 
 sounds, as hereafter explained.
 
 7*2 ON PHONOGRAPHY, 
 
 1. The hissing articulation of that class, (the 
 guttural,) is pronounced thoroughly from the 
 throat by all the people of the East, and also by 
 the Spaniards, as exemplified in their j ; whilst 
 the English, and other nations of the West, pro- 
 nounce it more from the palate and tongue, and 
 consequently nearer to the palatal sound as 
 placed in our table. It is probably for this reason 
 that our children are so apt to confound the two 
 classes of hissing sounds, pronouncing soes, mea- 
 zuse, for shoes, measure^ &c. &c. 
 
 2. The liquid guttural is much more strongly 
 pronounced in the Eastern tongues than in the 
 European ones, and we may even say that this 
 harsh sound is gradually disappearing from the 
 modern languages. 
 
 In French, for instance, an aspirated h sim- 
 ply indicates that the following vowel cannot be 
 joined in the pronunciation with the letter that 
 immediately precedes the h ; and a positive aspir- 
 ation uttered for that sign would be intolerable. 
 
 3. The palatal liquid is pronounced in two dif- 
 ferent manners, viz. the first, as already described, 
 by the vibration of the tip of the tongue against 
 the roof of the mouth, which produces a pure pa- 
 latal sound ; the second, by the vibration of the 
 deepest part of the palate against the root of the 
 tongue, which produces a sound almost aspirated.
 
 ON PHONOGRAPHY. 73 
 
 This guttural pronunciation was the most natural 
 to all primitive or aspirated languages, (see the 
 Introduction, p. 11,) and distinguishes to the pre- 
 sent day all the Eastern tongues ; but the first, 
 a pure palatal sound, is the one adopted in all 
 European languages. And even softened as it is, 
 it would appear as if it tasted still too much of 
 the wild tongue, since the natives of the two first 
 capitals in Europe disdain to sound its vibrating 
 note. 
 
 On Intonations. 
 
 This second component of speech being the 
 musical part of the voice, varies with every cli- 
 mate, every country, every town, every indivi- 
 dual, and cannot easily be brought under the sway 
 of fixed rules. But nevertheless, since I have 
 undertaken to write with the greatest accuracy 
 attainable all the spoken sounds, I will try to class 
 also the inarticulate ones ; following in this the 
 order of their gradual formation through the pro- 
 gressive expansion of the mouth. 
 
 I must again recur to a comparison of the same 
 nature as that which has served to explain the 
 articulations. But here I will compare the sounds 
 formed by the mouth when running by a progres- 
 sive expansion of its vacuum, the scale of into- 
 nations which forms the soul of speech, to the 
 successive sounds heard when a bottle is being
 
 74 ON PHONOGRAPHY 
 
 emptied, and in which each note produced by a 
 bubble of air going up to replace a quantity of 
 wine corresponding to its bulk, has its peculiar 
 sound; the first being the deepest, because sound- 
 ed the farthest into the vase, and the successive 
 ones decreasing gradually in fulness and tone, as 
 they are formed nearer and nearer to the orifice, 
 until at last they die in a soft oozing murmur. 
 
 These gentle sounds will vary with every vase, 
 and almost every liquid ; they will be modified 
 also by the various angles at which the bottle may 
 be held, being full, cheering, and generous, or 
 meagre, faint, and half suppressed ; thereby tes- 
 tifying, in a great measure, the disposition of the 
 individual who is filling the glasses. In the same 
 manner, the vowels or intonations of speech vary 
 in a thousand ways. These are the sounds whose 
 various modifications characterize the accent of 
 each country, the peculiar voice of each indivi- 
 dual, and oftentimes disclose even the innermost 
 sentiments which the mind in vain attempts 
 to conceal.* 
 
 * The primitive nations, as we have said, (see Introduc- 
 tion,) never ventujred to fix in writing these waving sounds. 
 In after years three great divisions were made, and three 
 signs ascribed to thera, viz. / O ^4, which encompass all 
 possible intonation of speech, as the three notes of the per- 
 fect chord do the musical scale. From three, the gamut
 
 ON PHONOGRAPHY. 75 
 
 The reader can have no difficulty in under- 
 standing now, why our modern alphabets, which 
 have characters to express every articulation, are 
 nevertheless so deficient in signs to represent the 
 intonations of speech. These, however, may be 
 written, if not with the same unerring precision 
 as the first, at least with a sufficient degree of 
 clearness to give a satisfactory idea of their re- 
 lative depth, provided a fundamental sound be 
 agreed upon in the same manner as the key-note 
 given by the tuning-fork. 
 
 Beginning with the three primitive vowels, 
 placed, as we have said, as the first, middle, and 
 last notes of the inarticulate sounds of speech, 
 we will proceed by filling gradually the space be- 
 tween them, till we have obtained a scale equal 
 
 has ultimately been extended to seven notes ; and the scale 
 of the intonations, likewise, was successively carried to seven 
 letters, as written in the Greek alphabet. 
 
 It took many centuries, however, to introduce the inter- 
 mediate degrees in both sciences, for the severest punish- 
 ments of the law were decreed against such innovations. 
 " Adore the one whose name could be written in four 
 letters^' said Pythagoras, who did not even presume to pro- 
 nounce the hallowed sounds ; from which precept we have a 
 ri<dit to infer that in his time four vowels only were written 
 in the language. (See Chapter iii., page 39.) 
 
 The Romans, who formed their alphabet at a later period, 
 had five written vowels, consisting of the primitive full- 
 toned trio, mysterious symbol of the divine gift, to which
 
 76 ON PHONOGRAPHY. 
 
 in its divisions to the number of spoken intona- 
 tions in use amongst the various nations of the 
 civihzed world, as represented in the following 
 table : — 
 
 Prijnitive Era, 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 3 
 
 3 SIGNS. 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A 
 
 Second Era, 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 5 SIGNS. 
 
 I 
 
 E 
 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 A 
 
 Third Era, 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 6 
 
 7 
 
 7 SIGNS. 
 
 J 
 
 E 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 n T 
 
 A 
 
 Fourth Era, 
 
 1 
 
 2 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 7 8 
 
 9 
 
 9 SIGNS. 
 
 1 
 
 E E 
 
 E 
 
 
 
 U A 
 
 A 
 
 This last class representing the sounds of the 
 
 living languages, (the only ones we are able to 
 
 ascertain,) as they are successively uttered in the 
 
 12 3 4567 89 
 
 words if, her, break, met, not, no, hull, fat, fall. 
 
 were added two semitones, or transitory inflexions, placed at 
 equal intervals, and forming in their succession the sacred 
 name forbidden to our fathers. 
 
 What the origin of the Roman alphabet was, and how the 
 five mystic characters representing the word Jeova, one 
 God, have been preserved by the pagan nations, and after- 
 wards are become again the name of God, one in three 
 PERSONS, who calls himself VERBUM, the word, the speech; 
 are become again the soul of the limng speech amongst the 
 various nations of the world, whose languages all difier, to 
 whom even Latin itself is mostly unknown, but who are all 
 united in that one word, and all worshippers of one God, 
 is, and ever shall be, an unfathomable mystery.
 
 ON PHONOGRAPHY. 77 
 
 These nine intonations will be found sufficient 
 to pronounce English, Italian, Spanish, and al- 
 most all other living languages except the French, 
 in which there are six more inarticulate sounds. 
 These six notes have in themselves very little of 
 the melody that characterizes the others of the 
 same genus, and their pronunciation is so diffi- 
 cult in consequence of this, that the natives of 
 the south of France have not yet learned to give 
 them their true character, as heard in the northern 
 part of the same country. 
 
 The first of these six sounds is written zz, and 
 formed by bringing the tongue against the under 
 teeth w^ith the smallest aperture of the mouth, as 
 for the sound of i (short), whilst the lips are 
 rounded in the same form as given for the ut- 
 terance of w, (m bidl). It requires the smallest 
 vacuum after ?*, and is consequently placed next 
 to that sound. 
 
 The second, written eu^ follows immediately 
 in the same order, its sound partaking of the 
 one just explained, and the second sound in the 
 English scale, {e in her.) 
 
 The four remaining unexplained, form a distinct 
 class of themselves, being called nasal, and written 
 as m, un^ on, an ; which representation conveys 
 an exact idea (to the French scholar) of their 
 mixed sounds, by showing that the mouth and
 
 78 ON PHONOGRAPHY. 
 
 tongue being disposed as for the utterance of the 
 French letters ^, w, o, a, the nasal valve is opened, 
 in consequence of which the breath divides itself 
 in two streams, one running through the mouth 
 with the vowel, the other through the nostrils 
 with the consonant; thereby pronouncing both 
 signs in one simultaneous chord.* 
 
 Having thus completed the scale of the inton- 
 ations, we find it consisting of fifteen sounds, 
 which are to be classed thus : 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 10 
 
 11 
 
 i, 
 
 U, 
 
 eUy 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 e, 
 
 e, 
 
 0, 
 
 0, 
 14 
 
 on, 
 
 u, a, 
 
 15 
 an. 
 
 «", 
 
 according to their pronunciation in the words it, 
 ut (French), eu (French), her, break, met not, 
 no, bull, fat, Jail ; vin, un, on, an, (the last four 
 French,) thereby following in their succession 
 the order of the gradual expansion of the organ 
 of speech. The four nasal ones to be classed 
 separately in a second line, since they partake 
 as much of the articulation as of the intonation. 
 
 * The Chinese, I understand, have this nasal accompani- 
 ment to all their vowels ; such harmony must strike the ear 
 in a manner, I should say, similar to that of the bagpipe.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PHONOGRAPHIC ALPHABET. 
 
 FORMATION OF A NEW CHAT^ACTER. ADVANTAGES (wiTH RE- 
 GARD TO NEATNESS AND EXPEDIENCY) OF FOLLOWING AS 
 MUCH AS POSSIBLE IN THE WRITING, THE NATURAL MOVE- 
 MENT OF THE RIGHT HAND. 
 
 We have said it in the beginning of the preced- 
 ing chapter ; the formation of a good alphabet 
 is an operation very simple in itself, and which 
 could be easily performed by any person of ordi- 
 nary abilities ; yet by a good alphabet, we mean 
 a series of phonetic characters, expressing by 
 clear and distinct signs all the various elements 
 of speech with the same preciseness with which 
 we have analyzed them. 
 
 But this is not all that is required of us ; for be- 
 sides inventing; a series of characters answerino- to 
 all the articulations and intonations of speech, we 
 have to contrive for them the figure most rapid of 
 execution; which implies that they should be not 
 only most concise in themselves, but also most con- 
 genial in their forms to the natural movements of 
 the right hand. We have, again, to combine their
 
 80 PHONOGRAPHIC ALPHABET. 
 
 various lines in such an order, as to allow them to 
 join one another with the greatest fluency, ease, 
 and at the same time distinctness ; thereby secur- 
 ing to our phonographic system the advantages 
 of clearness and preciseness of expression, joined 
 with ease and rapidity of execution. And still 
 this is not all; for keeping in mind the promise 
 we have made, to present our readers with the 
 shortest hand yet devised, we have to make such 
 distinctions and selections in our representative 
 figures, as to reserve the most expeditious for the 
 sounds which the reporter must write, in order to 
 be afterwards enabled to retrace to his memory 
 the complete speech, and which form the basis of 
 all short-hand: and lastly, we have to establish 
 such close relation between both systems of writ- 
 ing, that the imperfect one, or short-handy might 
 at any time be made perfect, or long-hand^ by the 
 addition of the letters omitted at first ; and this 
 without altering the general aspect of the writing. 
 Such are the conditions we have imposed on 
 ourselves ; how far we have succeeded in our 
 exertions to fulfil them, the reader will be able to 
 appreciate from the following pages. 
 
 Our sounds being divided into two classes, viz. 
 the articulated and the intonated ones, we must 
 have a corresponding distinction in their repre- 
 sentative characters: and since we see a similar
 
 PIIONOGUAIMIIC ALPIIAIU'.T. 81 
 
 division in all geometrical figures, whicli are com- 
 posed either of straight or of curved lines ; we 
 will at once apply this distinctive feature in the 
 following manner. 
 
 The triangle, a simple, firm, unalterable figure, 
 supported by an upright, will give us in its various 
 lines, the consonants or articulations, the frame- 
 work, the unalterable skeleton of the language ; 
 whilst the vowels or intonations, harmonious, soft, 
 waving sounds, will be represented by the various 
 curves to be found in the circle. 
 
 The two sorts of characters could be joined and 
 intermixed in writing, syllable by syllable, in the 
 same manner as the sounds they represent are 
 joined and intermixed in speech ; but, although 
 this method might appear the most exact and re- 
 gular, we must write each class separately, after 
 the manner of the Eastern languages, if we wish 
 to secure to our system the manifold advantages 
 recently alluded to. 
 
 Thus, in each w^ord, we will trace at first the 
 outlines of its sound, by a representation of its va- 
 rious articulations, joined together in one figure; 
 and adorn afterwards this angular form, the skele- 
 ton of a word, with the signs representative of the 
 intonations necessary for its pronunciation, and 
 giving it, as it were, life. 
 
 Beginning with' the articulations, as analyzed 
 
 G
 
 82 PHONOGRAPHIC ALPHABET. 
 
 and Classed in our table, we find that they consist 
 of seven double and six single ones, making in all 
 twenty sounds, to be represented in writing bv 
 means of straight lines, which we will vary in 
 their positions, since we cannot do so in their 
 forms.* 
 
 Thus we have five straight lines : one horizon- 
 tal, one perpendicular, and three slanting ; the 
 first upwards to the right, the second downwards 
 to the right, and the third downwards to the left. 
 These we will apply to the five articulations re- 
 presented in Roman letters with s, r, t, A:, and w.* 
 
 Each of these five characters may be multiplied 
 by a small dot being placed at its termination ; 
 and since there will still be a great analogy be- 
 tween the two series of figures, the dotted and the 
 undotted, we will ascribe the five new figures to 
 five sounds, having corresponding analogies with 
 the five already transcribed, viz. to those written 
 with z, I, d, g, and m : this series of dotted cha- 
 racters should be made a little longer than the 
 undotted ones, in order to distinguish them more 
 clearly, even if the dot happen to be omitted.* 
 
 Although we have denied ourselves the use of 
 curved lines for any other purpose than that of 
 expressing intonations, yet, since the circle and the 
 oval are two distinct figures in themselves, which 
 
 * See Plate I.
 
 FHONOCiRAPHlC ALl'HABET. 83 
 
 <'aii iicMT 1)0 altered or confounded with other 
 signs, we have made two exceptions with regard 
 to them, ascribing their representation to the 
 sounds of p and /"; and the same signs a little 
 larger, with the addition of a dot in the middle, 
 to the two analogous sounds, h and v. 
 
 We have now six articulations only left unrepre- 
 sented, w^hich are the two th, sh, zh, ng, and A. 
 
 As to the last sound, it will be sufficiently ex- 
 pressed with a slight mark added to the intonation 
 upon which it falls, and the five remaining arti- 
 culations need not have characters entirely new 
 invented for them; but they may be expressed 
 by figures (slightly altered) representing other 
 sounds, with w-hich they have a striking analogy ; 
 in the follow^ing manner, viz. sh and zh, by the 
 signs of 5 and z with a small line across; the two f/t, 
 by the signs of t and d with the same distinctive 
 mark ; and ng, by the sign of n similarly altered. 
 
 With regard to the intonations, we have distin- 
 guished fifteen of them, which must be all repre- 
 sented, according to our system, with curved lines. 
 But we cannot introduce such a number of diff*e- 
 rent curves in our writing, without endangering 
 the distinctness of them all ; and since perspicuity 
 is the most important point, we will divide the 
 circle into four curves only ; limiting ourselves 
 to four distinct figures, which, with the addition of 
 
 a 2
 
 84 I'llOXOGRAPHlC ALPIIARKT. 
 
 a dot, make a number equal to the vowels of the 
 Roman alphabet. A careful examination of the 
 sounds to be represented, will enable us to class 
 them under these five heads, according to their 
 various relations and analogies with each other ; 
 a slight diiference in the pressure of the pen at 
 the end of each curve being sufficient to express 
 the difference existinir between the various into- 
 nations of each class. 
 
 Consequently giving the dot to the smallest 
 of intonations, the i (short), we will ascribe the 
 perpendicular curve, concave towards the left, to 
 the sound of e in break, met ; the horizontal one, 
 concave at the top, to the sound of o in not, no ; 
 the reverse horizontal curve to the sounds of u in 
 hut, bull ; and the perpendicular one, concave on 
 the right, to the sounds of a in fat, fall. 
 
 The danger, which exists now in the Roman 
 character, of confounding the two sounds of each 
 sign, will be avoided effectively, if we distinguish 
 the second sound, viz. the full sound of each 
 class, by a small loop terminating the curved line. 
 The diflerence of quantity may be expressed by 
 writing the long sounds with a longer curve, and 
 the short sounds with a smaller one. 
 
 The nine sounds we have now classed and ex- 
 pressed, are sufficient to write English, Italian, 
 German, Spanish, and almost every modern Ian-
 
 IMIOXOGHAPUIC ALl'IIABET. 85 
 
 guage, with the exception of the French, in which 
 exist the six remaining intonations, consisting of 
 two pure ones and four mixed sounds, or nasal 
 intonations, as previously described. The two 
 first, written in French ?/, e?/, we shall express 
 with the sign already ascribed to the English ?/, 
 in hut, bull, with a small line across ; and the 
 nasal or mixed one will be very correctly ex- 
 pressed, if we trace their articulated part in the 
 body of the writing, taking care to cross it after- 
 wards with the intonation which is heard simul- 
 taneously with it. But since the i necessary to 
 make the sound of i)i is expressed in our writing 
 with a dot, we must use in its stead the curve 
 ascribed to e. Thus the four curves given for e, o, 
 u, a, traced across the nasal articulation, or straight 
 line slanting towards the left, will express the four 
 French sounds, m, on, un, an. 
 
 The elements of speech thus described, are 
 represented in the following table, which com- 
 ])ines in one })age all that has been said in this 
 chapter.
 
 86 PHONOGKAFHIC ALPHABET. 
 
 Explanation of the Plate. 
 
 The elements of speech are here represented 
 in the order followed throug-hout the book. The 
 distribution of the present Plate, showing on one 
 side all the logographic signs, and on the other 
 all the various Roman characters expressing si- 
 milar sounds, in corresponding columns and num- 
 bers, has appeared to us the clearest synoptical 
 exposition we could present of our system. 
 
 The column V, containing examples of all the 
 articulations and intonations combined into sylla- 
 bles and words, is doubly transcribed on the ex- 
 planatory side ; firstly in English, and secondly 
 in French, presenting, in the same succession, all 
 the sounds of these two languages. The sounds 
 which are deficient in either language, are marked 
 by an asterisk in their stead. 
 
 At the bottom of the Plate we have added a 
 transcription of the nineteen words which Walker 
 places, in his valuable Dictionary, at the top of 
 every page, as references for the pronunciation of 
 the other words. This we give as a test for the 
 accuracy of our system.
 
 P u A te: I 
 
 
 wzJ?^n^o(y 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 // 
 
 ^■/^^{:>u/{z/w-^J 
 
 ^ 
 
 -¥- 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 "^ 
 
 II 
 
 "V 
 
 _0_ 
 
 -^ 
 
 T^ 
 
 T 
 
 V 
 
 n/-fP-^^-tiiA<m4 
 
 III 
 
 Y 
 
 T 
 
 IV 
 
 
 of 
 
 -=^ 
 
 V 
 
 ^ 
 
 ,/^ 
 
 0f 
 
 -^ 
 
 / 
 
 -^ 
 
 ■r^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 1^ 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 ^ 
 
 7^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 *>. 
 
 _^_^ 
 
 -1
 
 <r-^^;?>^^^<?^y^.^?';^ y,-^y^^'' ■^6€^7a^-YZy^y L^f/.'iZytaA^/^^ 
 
 {^^J-UU^^Ji-i^^^ 
 
 
 la^-^ < 
 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 
 M^ U^.6^,e&.,._ 
 
 ^ 
 
 V 
 
 IV 
 
 i^ fp^.^/MM) 
 
 
 u^ 
 
 a"& 
 
 
 V 
 
 'U/^M/J'y 
 
 
 ^y 
 
 J 
 
 ^4/-/H£^^A 
 
 ;^^- 
 
 J. 
 
 9i- 
 
 J, 
 
 £-<^' 
 
 yp^fyg^/^ 
 
 d., 
 
 m,c./-.j. 
 
 y^.2f.j. 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^.e.a..o.o.t/. 
 
 Jn^u^n^ 
 
 j/-m^/Hy 
 
 £/^^S 
 
 ^ 
 
 '£ayit£y_ 
 
 /.g.^. 
 
 TJ. 
 
 £<Z,ea^.a^. 
 
 «^4^^ 
 
 J^^^. 
 
 ^ 
 
 JMl^ 
 
 'V.^^/ 
 
 £• . £^i^, a^. 
 
 /At 
 
 zs'i^y 
 
 ^ 
 
 •Hi- £y>ayV' 
 
 . ^- 
 
 £^ 
 
 eyy 
 
 y/i^ 
 
 .^^ nj£^ 
 
 f-^/- /f-i^Jeyr. 
 
 n. 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ .i>a.cn' aM- 
 
 ^^yi^^- cTA^ 
 
 ny 
 
 m 
 
 f?-(^/. 
 
 yJO^y 
 
 y^L^ 
 
 yy^ 
 
 a- 
 
 /JK-a4^.aM. 
 
 ^^ 
 
 /^^t^iT^n^ 
 
 y^'^yt 
 
 tZy/- 
 
 yr->!- 
 
 g^^^^^^^fCYC.^ 
 
 yn^-Myj^^y 
 
 /^^.-tfc/- 
 
 €y^ / 
 
 jL 
 
 i'i/f^y 
 
 / (y-y^- 
 
 yQ I 
 
 My2L. 
 
 {7 ^^ 
 
 -4L 
 
 /9^y 
 
 ..azfly- 
 
 JL 
 
 ^y^y 
 
 y yy 
 
 /gy/S //^Uy /fiz/c .^^ /Pi^^y y^^^^/- yA^y^^: - /l-jy^y 
 
 /^^ y^yf^.^n'S /Tyl^V /^-^- /u yP-^ yju^' 
 
 <i?^ 'n-< 7-tyty»yVi^ /^^e^ ^,^^^^-y^ 
 
 J
 
 phonographic alphabet. 87 
 
 Remarks on the foregoing Table. 
 
 I. We have made no distinction in our phono- 
 graphic signs, between the intonations o^ far and 
 
 fat; nor and not, &c., &c., although there is a 
 notable one in the pronunciation ; and here we 
 might appear at fault, but we beg to observe that 
 the difference, which is one of quantity, is entirely 
 owino; to the influence of the articulation immedi- 
 ately following ; for r being a liquid and almost 
 aspirated sound, cannot stop the intonation as 
 shortly as t, a perfect mute. The same differences 
 of quantity are observable in pit and pill, cut and 
 cur, &c., although Walker has not deemed it 
 necessary to mark the latter distinction. 
 
 II. Although the parallel columns of words are 
 intended to show the universality of our system, 
 we need not repeat that the articulations are the 
 only sounds which we call identically the same 
 in both languages. The intonations are as near 
 as possible to each other ; and we may add even, 
 that without any further instruction, a native of 
 England who should pronounce the French 
 
 /sounds as they are written on the same line in 
 
 I the English column, would speak much more 
 
 purely than many a native of France; or, also, that 
 
 i a Frenchman pronouncing English according to
 
 88 PHONOGRAPHIC ALPHABET. 
 
 the instructions given in the French column, 
 would be much nearer to the pronunciation given 
 in Walker's Dictionary, than any uneducated 
 countryman of England, without mentioning the 
 native of Scotland, or Ireland. But yet withal, 
 there would still be a foreign accent, which seems 
 almost the result of a peculiar conformation of 
 the organ of speech, and which would be de- 
 tected solely by a peculiar sound given to the 
 intonations. 
 
 These various shades, (as well as the few sounds 
 peculiar to each language, viz. the two th^ English, 
 the II, eu, and four nasals, French,) can never be 
 clearly explained without auricular demonstra- 
 tion, and the few instructions we subjoin here, are 
 presented merely as a guide to the student, who 
 should learn all foreign sounds from the natives 
 themselves. 
 
 1. The two sounds of e in break, break-fast, 
 written in French e, e, are generally pronounced 
 in English, the first long, and the second short ; 
 whilst in French the quantities are reversed. A 
 sound similar to the French e short, is heard in 
 the word sleep?/, which would be written in that 
 language slipe.* 
 
 * We are aware tliat tliis is not llu- proimnciation iiuli- 
 catcd hv AValker. \\\\o <'ives the .sanic sound to both svl-
 
 PIIONOURAPHIC ALPHABET. 89 
 
 2. The sound of a long in Jiall., is pronounced 
 very round in Enc^lish, where the tono-ue beinff 
 drawn backwards, gives it a great analogy to the 
 sound of in whole ; whilst in French the mouth 
 is kept nearer to the shape necessary for the 
 pronunciation of a short, as in hat, the French a 
 long being the exact open sound of the same kind. 
 
 3. The English contracted pronunciation of le 
 in little, &c., does not exist in French, and very 
 few French people can acquire it; but they might 
 pronounce it much better were the e mute sup- 
 pressed in the writing, as it has been for many 
 other words of the English language. 
 
 lables, as it" written sleepc. This last pronunciation may be 
 the correct one. We do not presume to argue on this point, 
 we merely mention the other, (the one we have always heard 
 in conversation,) because it affords us the opportunity of 
 describing to the English ear the sound of the French e.
 
 9i) PHONOGRxVPHIC ALPHABET. 
 
 Directions to obtain Expedition and 
 Elegance in the Writing. 
 
 It may have been observed already by the 
 mere inspection of the alphabet, that our charac- 
 ters, with the exception of two, are all traced in 
 the direction most natural to the movement of the 
 hand. This contributes much to give ease and 
 elegance to the writing ; but what constitutes its 
 great fluency, is the facihty it affords of joining in 
 one single curved or undulated line, any number 
 of articulations which may happen to follow each 
 other at obtuse angles ; the difficulty of striking 
 with rapidity and accuracy such angles, renders 
 this contraction more precious still. The two 
 loops, again, may be joined in various directions, 
 as most convenient at the time ; they may be 
 repeated in different ways, which will render the 
 writing more pleasing to the eye, at the same time 
 that it will add to its effect upon the memory. 
 
 We also suggest, for the sake of expediency, 
 two deviations from our simple rule, viz : — 
 
 1. To trace all incipient intonations at the same 
 time as the articulations, and in the body of the 
 writing, taking care to trace their curves in the 
 exact proportions, to ])revent their being con- 
 founded afterwards with the articulations.
 
 PLATE II . 
 
 (y/s^f'^U'^^e'JJ ) Mst^fyi'*^ '• aA^^€;^J |. 
 
 /^6^/^J^^^ta/frm ^ 
 
 A 
 
 e. 
 
 \ 
 
 / 
 
 s 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 /. 
 
 y 
 
 /: 
 
 1 7 
 
 o Q 
 
 '/ 
 
 n/ 
 
 J. 
 
 Die 
 
 N 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 y\ 
 
 y^ 
 
 \ 
 
 +N 
 
 / 
 
 V 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 ^ 
 
 y\ 
 
 \ 
 
 \ N 
 
 ^ 
 
 y 
 
 V 
 
 V 
 
 / 
 
 y 1^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 z' 
 
 v^ 
 
 V 
 
 ^ 
 
 </ 
 
 /* 
 
 ,^ 
 
 -^ 
 
 _/ 
 
 ;^ 
 
 \ 
 
 ^ 
 
 y 
 
 GP 
 
 a 
 
 -/-^ 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 \ 
 
 s> 
 
 J> 
 
 dS> 
 
 <22 
 
 ^ 
 
 >^^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 > 
 
 V 
 
 V 
 
 .^ 
 
 /" 
 
 ^ 
 
 -/-y- 
 
 y^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 /^ 
 
 O^ 
 
 ^^-^ -^ 
 
 ■T^W- 
 
 X" 
 
 a_ 
 
 ^ 
 
 \^ 
 
 '^^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 / 
 
 z^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 v^ 
 
 V 
 
 / 
 
 f 
 
 ^ 
 
 -r^ -^ 
 
 7 
 
 
 -^/ 
 
 3> 
 
 j> 
 
 / 
 
 7 
 
 \ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 1 
 
 
 / 
 
 y 
 
 / 
 
 1 
 
 Z 
 
 X 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 1" 
 
 1
 
 cyA^-oU/r/z'JJ 
 
 
 ■^ 
 
 rY^^^m^'A ^uJ<^^^fuo^^/^^ 
 
 J 
 
 > 
 
 ~T7J.. 
 
 rY^//^ 
 
 X 
 
 /7 
 
 /^ 
 
 /^ 
 
 f 
 
 ''f- 
 
 /^ 
 
 ^P. 
 
 / 
 
 /^-: 
 
 / 
 
 'yXy 
 
 ^ 
 
 \ 
 
 x\ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 d^ 
 
 / 
 
 ^\. 
 
 ^ 
 
 < 
 
 c 
 
 ^j< 
 
 *s. 
 
 
 ^ / w 
 
 y\y / 
 
 -^ '^ i^ 
 
 ,? 
 
 ^ 
 
 / 
 
 <f 
 
 / 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ i/^ i^ \<^ 
 
 --i-^:/^,^- 
 
 ';- V- 
 
 r^ 
 
 6r 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 (T^ 
 
 <r\/ 
 
 -j' yy^jrj 
 
 
 / 
 
 ^\y^ \y J" 
 
 '^ ^ ^ ^ \/ 
 
 nil M If Ir 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 ■^ 
 
 s 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ \ y\/\/ 
 
 \ 1 
 
 s -J 
 
 I. 
 
 
 5^ 
 
 I 
 
 /^ 
 
 / 
 
 y 
 
 e/ 
 
 ^-1- 
 
 / 
 
 y 
 
 J 
 
 y 
 
 4 
 
 ^ 
 
 jy 
 
 ^' 
 
 V 
 
 ^ 
 
 J 
 
 / 
 
 J 
 
 z 
 
 A 
 
 / 
 
 A" 
 
 y 
 
 s/ 
 
 d 
 
 v^ 
 
 J 
 
 / 
 
 /_ 
 
 { 
 
 ) 
 
 J 
 
 1/ 
 
 V 
 
 J 
 
 J 
 
 I 
 
 U- 
 
 L 
 
 V 
 
 ^ [^ 
 
 J \J 
 
 y J 'J 
 
 J 
 
 ) 
 
 1
 
 PHONOGRAPHIC ALPHABET. 91 
 
 2. To express the two incipient ones, written 
 in English w and ^, by a backward stroke, but 
 still in the same form as the sig-n ascribed to them 
 in the middle of words. The tendency of the 
 English tongue, to squeeze these two sounds into 
 hissing articulations, seems to necessitate some 
 mark of this sort, to distinguish them from the 
 purely intonated sounds. 
 
 The accompanying Plate exemplifies the seve- 
 ral instructions herein contained. 
 
 Concluding Observations. 
 
 Writing, being intended for the picture of 
 speech, cannot be correct unless it convey to the 
 mind, through the eye, the same ideas that have 
 been communicated through the ear. Some means, 
 therefore, should be contrived of expressing, be- 
 sides the proper pronunciation of the words taken 
 individually, the various modifications of the voice, 
 under the successive feelings of the soul, which 
 may be called the music of the language, and 
 which distinguish the true orator from the mere 
 speaker ; consequently we beg to subjoin the 
 following rules, as a useful addition to our pho- 
 nography.
 
 9*2 PHONOGRAPHIC ALPHABET. 
 
 1. Be attentive to write the syllable upon which 
 falls the accent in each word, and the word upon 
 which falls the emphasis in each sentence, with a 
 bolder stroke of the pen. 
 
 2. Use all the signs of punctuation in the Ro- 
 man hand : if you place them a little apart from 
 the other characters, they cannot be misinter- 
 preted. Other symbolic characters may be added 
 in order to express admiration, hope, envy, pity, 
 scorn, contempt, &c., &c., which are all marked in 
 the common hand with the sign of exclamation (!) 
 Some of the arbitrary signs given in our short- 
 hand may be used for that purpose ; and we will 
 point out the most distinct ones amongst them, at 
 the end of the part of our book relating especially 
 to the latter science. 
 
 3. As the voice of the orator raises or lowers 
 itself in the speech, alter in proportion the direc- 
 tion of your writing, raising it above or lowering 
 it below the straight line. Using ruled paper 
 would render a slight alteration of this kind very 
 conspicuous.
 
 PHONOGRAPHY. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 PART II. 
 SHORT- PI AND.
 
 SHORT-HAND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PRELIMINARY NOTIONS. 
 
 ANTIQUITY OF SdOKT-HANU ; ITS USES AND ADVANTAGES. 
 
 According to our conception of the present 
 work, the part we are about to introduce to the 
 reader is but of secondary importance ; never- 
 theless, since the knowledge of this simple art 
 (short-hand writing) is likely to be the principal, 
 if not the only object the purchaser of our volume 
 will have in view, we feel it incumbent upon our- 
 selves to enter into this second part more mi- 
 nutely even than we have done with regard to 
 the first. 
 
 " The antiquity of short- hand," says one of 
 our predecessors, " would be sufficient to prove 
 its utility, were the various advantages it affords 
 contested by any one. It was known amongst 
 the Greeks under the name of Semiography, 
 ((Tr]/x€Lorypa(pl(o) ; and according to Diogenes Laer- 
 tius, Xcnophon was the first who, in order to fol-
 
 96 SHORT-HAND. 
 
 low the speeches of Socrates, made use of abbre- 
 viating' signs, of which the forms are described by 
 Plutarch. This art went from Greece to Rome, 
 and it is to its rapid characters that we owe the 
 preservation of Gate's famous speech against the 
 measure which Gsesar was proposing, in order 
 to overthrow Gatilina's conjuration. Gicero, who 
 was then Gonsul, and who had an excellent re- 
 porter in Tiro,* his affranchised slave, took care 
 to have notaries, or short-hand writers, placed in 
 various parts of the senate, in order to collect 
 carefully all that came from the lips of this great 
 genius. To these proofs of the existence of 
 short-hand amongst the antients, we may add 
 the testimony of Horace, Virgil, Ovid,f Martial, 
 Valerius Probus, Sertorius Torquatus, Ennius, to 
 
 * Tiro was brought up amongst the slaves of Cicero, who 
 gave him afterwards his liberty. He became so useful to his 
 master, in his public as well as private affairs, that the latter 
 gave him every proof of confidence, and even friendship. 
 " I thought, my dear Tiro," says he, in one of his letters, 
 " I should have been able to do without you more easily, but 
 really it is impossible. Take care of your health," does he 
 add, " and be persuaded that, however important might have 
 been the services for which 1 am indebted to you, the great- 
 est you can render me is to keep yourself in good health." 
 
 f Ovid, in speaking of Julius Caesar, who wrote to his 
 friends in short-hand, says : — 
 
 " His arcana votis terra po].'igO(]ue fornntur."
 
 SHORT-HAND. 97 
 
 whom Paulus Diaconus by mistake attributes the 
 nvention of this art ; of Persanius Philargirus, 
 Fennius and Aquila, both affranchised of Me- 
 csenas; of Seneca, Manlius, Saint Isidore, and 
 Ausonius.* The study of this science was encou- 
 
 * We cannot help quoting the verses which this poet, who 
 was preceptor to the Eaiperor Gratianus in the year 385, 
 wrote in honour of a very expert reporter of his time : — 
 
 Al) NOTARIUM VELOCISSIME EXCIPIENTEM. 
 
 Puer notarum praepetum 
 Solers minister, advola ; 
 Bipatens pugillar expedi, 
 Cui multa fandi copia, 
 Punctis peracta singulis, 
 Ut una vox absolvitur. 
 Evolvo libros uberes, 
 Instarque densse grandinis, 
 Torrente lingua perstrepo : 
 Tibi nee aures ambigunt, 
 Nee occupatur pagina ; 
 Et mota parce dextera 
 Volat per aequor cereum : 
 Cum maxime nunc proloquor 
 Circumloquentis ambitu 
 Tu sensa nostri pectoris, 
 Ut dicta jam ceris tenes. 
 Sentire tarn velox mihi, 
 Vellem dedisset mens mea 
 Quam prsepetis dextroe fuga 
 Tu me loquentem praevenis. 
 Quis qua3so, quis me prodidit? 
 
 H
 
 98 SHORT-HAND. 
 
 raged by the Emperors, who even learnt it them- 
 selves ; and Titus often used to challenge all his 
 secretaries, even to the most expert, to equal him 
 in celerity. It was taught in the public schools, 
 and the shortened characters were employed in 
 
 Quis ista jam dixit tibi 
 Quae cogitabam dicere? 
 Quae furta corde in intimo 
 Exercet ales dextera ! 
 Quis or do rerum tarn novus 
 Veniat in aiires ut tuas 
 Quod lingua nondum absolvit ? 
 Doctrina non haec praestitit ; 
 Nee ulla tarn velox manus 
 Celeripedis compendii 
 Natura munus hoc tibi 
 Deusque donum tradidit 
 Quae loquerem ut scires prius, 
 Idemque velles quod volo. 
 
 Translation. 
 
 To a very clever Notary, or Reporter. 
 
 Come, young and famous reporter, prepare the tablets on 
 which you express, with simple dots, whole speeches, as 
 rapidly as others would trace one single word. I dictate 
 volumes, and my pronunciation is as rapid as hail ; yet your 
 ear misses nothing, and the pages are not filled. Your hand, 
 of which the movement is hardly perceptible, flies over the 
 waxy surface; and although ray tongue runs over long 
 phrases, you fix my ideas on your tablets long before they 
 are worded. I wish I could think as rapidly as you write ! 
 Tell me, then, since you precede my imagination, — tell me
 
 p. 
 
 SHORT-HAND. 99 
 
 the tribunals to follow all the proceedings of the 
 law. They were used, also, in the writing of all 
 public acts, which with the notaries* were simple 
 preparatory notes, and had only legal force when 
 they had been transcribed in full length, without 
 abbreviations, and sealed and signed by the re- 
 gular officers, or lawyers. 
 
 We have very few books written in short- , 
 hand; but this is not to be wondered at, when we ^ 
 remember that the superstition of the first ages 
 condemned them to the stake, as the impious 
 work of mao'icians and astrolosfers. The royal . 
 
 who has betrayed me? who has revealed to you what I was 
 meditating? How many thefts does your hand make in my 
 soul ! What is this new order of things ? How is it that what 
 my mouth has not yet expressed, has already arrived at your 
 ears? No art, no precept, can have given you this talent, 
 since no other hand has the celerity of yours ; and you cer- 
 tainly owe to nature and the gods, a gift which allows you 
 to know what I am going to pronounce, and to think, as it 
 were, with myself. 
 
 * The private notaries, Notarum scriptores, notarii, 
 were formerly but the lawyers' clerks ; and the ecclesiastical 
 notaries, in the first years of the church, had for employment 
 to collect, in short-hand notes, the acts of the Martyrs. 
 They had been established by Saint Clement, seven in num- 
 ber, and placed in various quarters of Rome. The Pope, 
 Fabianus, thinking that short-hand was above the general 
 understanding of the people, created seven under-clerks, to 
 translate in the long-hand what the notaries had written 
 with their shortened characters. 
 
 H 2
 
 100 SHOUT-HAND. 
 
 library of Paris, however, possesses various ma- 
 nuscripts in Tironian notes, a Capitular and fifty- 
 four Charters of Lewis the Pious, successor to 
 Charlemagne, which have been printed in 1747? 
 with an Alphaheticum Tironianum, to facilitate 
 the reading; of them. 
 
 Amongst the modern nations, England was 
 the first to make an application of this art to its 
 own language, owing, most probably, to its early 
 political reform. Short-hand, however, remained 
 much confused and complicated until the year 
 1786, when Samuel Taylor published his Uni- 
 versal System of Stenography, which was soon 
 translated into all the living languages of Europe. 
 This work, by showing the simplicity of the prin- 
 ciple of so useful a science, increased the taste of 
 the public for its acquirement, at the same time 
 that it stimulated numerous authors to improve 
 this system, or to combine others. The various 
 works now existing in England in short-hand, 
 under the names of Brachygrophy, Polygraphy, 
 Semiography, Stenography, Tachygraphy, &c. 
 &c., amount to much more than a hundred. 
 There are nearly as many published in French, 
 German, Italian, &c. Add to this that every re- 
 porter or practitioner of the art has generally his 
 own private system, and it may justly be supposed 
 that the total of the short-hands in actual prac-
 
 SHORT-HAND. 101 
 
 tice amounts to some thousands. We have made 
 it our purpose to analyze and compare those that 
 we could meet with, either in print or manuscript, 
 and a constant study of more than ten years du- 
 ration has enabled us to examine a few of them. 
 Whatever we have found interesting, useful, or 
 advantageous in any way amongst these, we have 
 carefully preserved and adapted to our own sys- 
 tem, in which we have contrived, on the other 
 hand, to the best of our ability, to remedy the 
 various objections, of any weight, raised against 
 the art itself. 
 
 There is an important distinction to be made 
 at first between the short-hand or contracted 
 character used instead of the long-hand or Ro- 
 man letters, and the abbreviated hand or con- 
 tracted words which can be practised with all 
 sorts of characters or letters ; for although the 
 first appears to afi'ord the greatest advantages, 
 the real speed in writing is principally, if not en- 
 tirely, due to the second; so much so, indeed, that 
 most of the reporters recently alluded to, after 
 having spent many months in the study of a sys- 
 tem of short-hand, or contracted character, re- 
 nounce suddenly these strange figures to return to 
 the well-known Roman hand, which by means of 
 all the abbreviations they have learned, and with 
 Ithe help of a few arbitrary signs, enables them to
 
 t 
 
 102 SHORT-HAND. 
 
 follow the most rapid speakers with perfect ease, 
 and to give afterwards their entire speeches in 
 full length, without the omission of a single word. 
 
 This is rather a dangerous disclosure for an 
 author to make, at the same time that he publishes 
 a new system of contracted characters, and we do 
 not wish the reader to understand that he may do 
 better, or even as well, with the Roman letters as 
 with any contracted figures ; we merely substan- 
 tiate a fact, the result of our personal observa- 
 tion, and which we will explain in the following 
 manner. 
 
 The various systems of short-hand yet pub- 
 lished, consist generally of a series of characters 
 given as pure representatives of sounds, but which 
 are nevertheless identified, each of them, with 
 some peculiar letter of the Roman alphabet. Thus, 
 for instance, whilst they have but one sign for the 
 mute and the hissing sound of g in gage ; one 
 only figure for the four distinct sounds of s in 
 sea, reason, pleasure, cession ; they trace with 
 two characters, entirely different, the similar hiss- 
 ing sounds heard in chaise, shall, &c. &c. Some 
 new systems even follow entirely the Roman let- 
 ters and English orthography, having a character 
 for^ and another for j)h ; one for k, another for 
 q, and a third one for c hard. Consequently, the 
 Roman letters are constantly kept, as it were, in
 
 SHORT-HAND. 103 
 
 sight within the mind ; adding to this, that they 
 are^eveiTliised^in their own natural shapes wher- 
 ever the writer wishes to express a word or a 
 sentence with any preciseness, according to the 
 instructions given by the short-hand professors 
 themselves, who cannot find in their method the 
 means of wTiting any sound accurately or dis- 
 tinctly. And again, when the reporter is return- 
 ed from the house, or the court, he immediately 
 translates into Roman hand, whilst the words are 
 still resounding, as it were, in his ear, (I do not 
 mean for the press alone, but also for his own 
 use afterwards, if required,) all that he has col- 
 lected in his imperfect notes, because he has no 
 Qiieans of making them mo7'e precise tlian they 
 are. This constant intermixture of both charac- 
 ters must necessarily turn to the disadvantage 
 of the one but very recently learned, and of so 
 limited an application ; thus, the new figures, 
 however concise in their forms, never become 
 familiar to the pen, and lose the sole advantage 
 inherent to them ; viz. that of a greater rapi- 
 dity of execution. The Roman hand is there- 
 fore resumed by the greater number of persons, 
 who had begun the study of short-hand with the 
 greatest eagerness. 
 
 None of these disadvantages are found in our 
 system, which is too complete in itself to require,
 
 104 SHORT-HAND. 
 
 in any circumstance, the assistance of the Roman 
 form ; and although we can use all the possible 
 contractions of syllables or words which expe- 
 diency may require, we yet find the means of 
 expanding these contracted sounds to their full 
 length, by a few additional signs placed over the 
 characters first traced, and which still preserve 
 their primitive aspect ; an advantage we have 
 even over the Roman hand. 
 
 Various objections, more or less plausible, have 
 been raised against the study of short-hand in 
 general ; these we will now examine, with respect 
 to our system in particular. 
 
 Firstly : the time which must be consecrated 
 to this study has been considered as one of the 
 greatest obstacles, and has deterred many indi- 
 viduals from looking into it. The same argu- 
 ment may be raised against all sciences, which 
 can be acquired by no one without time and 
 application. It would have had some weight if 
 applied to the system of Seneca, (who was, never- 
 theless, no idler of his time,) who had invented 
 five thousand diff'erent signs, or hieroglyphics. 
 It might even be used against the various arbi- 
 trary signs collected to a certain amount by some 
 of our predecessors,* or against the various com- 
 
 * For instance, n round for /7ie world, then a dot 
 in it for in the world ; a line across it for iltrough the
 
 SHORT-HAND. 105 
 
 plicated systems of double or treble letters ; but 
 with regard to our own, it is certainly most futile, 
 since all that is required to be committed to 
 memory consists of seven simple figures, repre- 
 senting the seven primitive characters of our 
 alphabet, and which may be learned in seven 
 minutes. All the remaining parts of the system, 
 being natural deductions of a few simple princi- 
 ples, will be invariably fixed in the mind by one 
 single reading. 
 
 Secondly : it has been said that the practice of 
 short-hand spoils the hand for plain writing. We 
 certainly do not see any fair ground for such an 
 objection, since the characters alluded to have no 
 connexion whatever with those of the common 
 
 / world, &c., &c. A straight line | foi* uprightness; a 
 
 5 small cross f for Jesus Christ ; a point of exclamation ! 
 
 ; for the Holy Ghost, &cc. Sec. No douht such signs are very 
 
 expeditious, hut if they be used also for other purposes, 
 
 they must sometimes lead to a great deal of confusion ; and 
 
 if they be reserved for these allegorical significations, the 
 
 sounds they are made to represent in other systems have in 
 
 these to be expressed by more complicated figures, which in 
 
 the end must be a considerable disadvantage. At the same 
 
 I time, if an author collect a certain number of these signs, 
 
 ' and contrive to place them in a specimen plate, he may cer- 
 
 ; tainly pretend to a great superiority over other short-hand 
 
 » composers ; provided the words expressed by his hierogly- 
 
 ' phics are made the only test for the excellency of his method.
 
 10(3 SHORT-HAND. 
 
 hand. One might as well say that painting, or 
 playing on the flute, was an impediment to the 
 attainment of a good hand-writing. The only 
 objection which might be maintained with some 
 foundation is, that the short-hand characters 
 have nothing in their forms which reminds us of 
 the ease and elegance of the human hand ; that, 
 although they constitute writing, yet they have 
 no connexion whatever with the usual writing ; 
 and that their practice, however perfect, can 
 lead in no way to a better formation of the 
 Roman letters. No short-hand author ever pre- 
 tended to the contrary ; but with us, this argu- 
 ment even falls to the ground, since most of our 
 characters, being formed in the slanting direction 
 natural to the movements of the right hand, the 
 general aspect of our writing is not unlike that of 
 the running hand ; whilst the oblong loops, (a 
 complete innovation in short-hand,) by their va- 
 ried modifications and combinations with the other 
 characters, give to the whole much fluency and 
 elegance. 
 
 The last reproach generally made is, that the 
 practice of short-hand is injurious to orthography. 
 This might have some foundation with regard to 
 the system in which the short-hand characters 
 represent, as we have previously remarked, the 
 Roman letters ; because, unless they follow closely
 
 SHORT-HAND. 107 
 
 the English orthography, as in Mr. Whitehead's 
 system,* they may, by a long practice, influence 
 the writer to use in the common hand the same 
 contractions or substitutions which he practises 
 in short-hand ; but when a system like ours is 
 purely phonetical, the two writings can never be 
 so far identified Avith each other as to lead to 
 such mistakes. For example, the word judge, 
 generally written in short-hand guge, is spelled, 
 with our characters, dzhudzhe : in the first in- 
 stance, the reporter, transcribing his notes in a 
 great hurry, might be led to spell both syllables 
 with the same letter g, which he identifies w^ith 
 his short-hand character ; but with us the pho- 
 netic characters represent the pronunciation of 
 this word with a preciseness unusual in the com- 
 mon hand, and which, in this instance, cannot be 
 translated into English orthography. 
 
 After stating the various objections raised 
 against short-hand, we will make a brief enume- 
 ration of the advantages to be derived from it, 
 and which are of two sorts ; viz. the direct use- 
 fulness of the art itself, and the indirect and 
 beneficial influence resulting from its practice. 
 
 The first advantage of short-hand, or, more 
 properly speaking, the one most universally ap- 
 preciated, is the facility it aff'ords for preserving 
 
 * See Mr. Whitehead's System, Plate III.
 
 108 SHORT-HAND. 
 
 the rapid speeches made in parliament, at the 
 bar, or in the numerous meetings, social, politi- 
 cal, or religious : this needs no commentaries. 
 The only remark we shall make on this point is, 
 that the future progress of short-hand is essen- 
 tially united with that of religious and political 
 reform, in which cause it exerts an influence as 
 powerful as that of the press itself, with which it 
 is closely united. This explains why England 
 was the first amongst the modern nations to bor- 
 row this science from the Roman republic ; w^hy 
 France began only to make some progress in 
 it after the year 1815, when she received her 
 present form of government, and why Italy and 
 Spain appear as yet to have hardly had any 
 use for it. 
 
 The next advantage is, that of facilitating the 
 studies of our schools and universities, by enabling 
 the pupil to collect more from one single lecture 
 than he could have done from five by the com- 
 mon characters. 
 
 To a gentleman following the profession of the 
 law, short-hand is almost an indispensable ac- 
 quirement, if he W'ish to preserve in their pre- 
 cise forms the arguments of his adversaries, the 
 depositions of the witnesses, the answers to the 
 interrogatories and cross-examinations, the ver- 
 dicts of the juries, or the sentences of the judges.
 
 SHORT-HAND. 109 
 
 It is not even necessary to be proficient in this 
 art, to derive benefit from it. A few days' study 
 will be sufficient to give any one the means of 
 taking, in a comparatively short time, and a very 
 small compass, the various extracts he may want 
 at the public libraries ; and at the same time that 
 he will be gaining speed in his writing, he will 
 be collecting a considerable store of agreeable or 
 useful information, which may form a very inte- 
 resting volume of his portable librari/ ; and if 
 Homer's Iliad, copied with semiographic charac- 
 ters, was once enclosed in a walnut-shell ; we 
 cannot doubt that, with proper materials, and by 
 means of our concise characters, the principal 
 works of the immortal Shakspeare might be pla- 
 ced in the same compass. 
 
 The linguist will find in our phonetic charac- 
 ters the means of transcribing the exact pronun- 
 ciation of a foreign language, with a preciseness 
 not to be equalled with the Roman characters ; 
 and their conciseness will enable him to pencil 
 them between the lines of his class-book, under 
 the direction of his master, to remain as a con- 
 stant and unerring reference.* 
 
 Authors, again, will find in it the means of 
 
 * This last remark is only applicable to our characters 
 written in full, which constitute, nevertheless, a very short 
 hand ; though not so concise as the one we are about to in- 
 troduce to the reader.
 
 110 SHORT-HAND. 
 
 writing their compositions with a great rapidity, 
 and I may say with a perfect security to them- 
 selves ; for if they take the pains to add a few con- 
 tractions and arbitrary signs to this system, they 
 will be in no danger of having any of their un- 
 published productions stolen from them : an evil 
 much complained of in the literary world. 
 
 Another advantage, which may be best appre- 
 ciated by the fair reader, is, that short-hand will 
 give to a devoted friend the means of engraving 
 the warmest protestations within the smallest com- 
 pass, such as the inside of a ring ; and, if the ini- 
 tials only be written, to trace on its surface more 
 matter than he could have done otherwise on a 
 whole sheet of paper.* 
 
 Two persons, by means of our characters 
 written upon a large scale, and exposed on a 
 height, could understand each other at a great 
 distance, with a certain degree of secrecy; they 
 might even use the same means at night, by pla- 
 
 * This representation of the whole words by their initials 
 was much practised by the Romans, particularly on their 
 urns, and funereal monuments : v. s. m. signified votum 
 solvit marito ; o. o. olla ossuaria ; o. d. a. v. oUa data a viro ; 
 s. p. p. p. T. c. sua propria pecunid potii, sibi curavit. In 
 their epistles, also, the first part generally consisted of ini- 
 tials ; for instance, s. v. g. e. v. for Si vales, Gaudeo, ego 
 valeo ; s. T. E. T. L. N. V. E. E. s. c. V. for Si iu ct TuUia, lux 
 nostra, valetis, ego ct suamssimus Cicero valemus.
 
 SHORT-HAND. Ill 
 
 cing before the characters a lamp or other light, — 
 a contrivance much in practice by the Romans, 
 who in besieged towns made use of these fiery 
 characters to express their wants to their friends. 
 The initials s. c. signified succurrite cifo, help 
 quickly, &c. &c. 
 
 But the greatest advantage of short-hand lies, 
 perhaps, in its indirect influence on the mind, 
 which it tends considerably to strengthen, by 
 putting into action its highest faculties, viz. me- 
 mory, imagination, and judgment ; for, no other 
 sounds being written but those strictly necessary 
 to give an idea of the phrase, memory, or in its 
 stead imagination, is called upon to supply in the 
 reading the sounds left unexpressed, in order to 
 make sense of the unfinished characters ; and as 
 the exact meaning of each phrase is closely con- 
 nected with what precedes and follows it, judg- 
 ment, by comparing the various words to be ex- 
 pressed under these simple characters, points out 
 those most fit for the occasion. Hence it follows, 
 that a man of experience and learning has a 
 greater facility to read short-hand, than any 
 other ; the necessity of incessantly comparing the 
 various parts of each sentence forcing the reader 
 to dive, as it were, into the very thoughts of the 
 author, (as far as his own abilities will allow.) 
 
 If, perchance, a sentence be not clearly under- 
 stood at first sight of the characters, the young
 
 112 SHORT-HAND. 
 
 practitioner should pass it over, and read on for 
 awhile, in order to allow the intuitive judgment 
 to make its own investigations ; and, returning to 
 the same part afterwards, he will be astonished to 
 find that he reads it with the greatest facihty. 
 The success of this almost infallible method is 
 owing to the instinctive sensations, by means of 
 which the judgment, apparently unoccupied with 
 an object, from which we think to have drawn its 
 attention by directing it upon another, still con- 
 tinues to dwell upon it without our knowledge, 
 and gives us, when our eyes or memory return to 
 the same, the word of the enigma we had in vain 
 attempted to explain. 
 
 Although the reading of short-hand may be 
 difficult, and rather slow at first, yet by practice 
 and application it will soon become much more 
 easy and rapid than any other ; for as the charac- 
 ters need not be pronounced to be perfectly un- 
 derstood, the more concise they are, the sooner 
 they are examined and their meanings ascertain- 
 ed. For instance, the date of this year, eighteen 
 hundred and forty -two ^ is much more rapidly un- 
 derstood from the four symbolical figures 1842, 
 than from the twenty-six letters above written.* 
 
 * This observcation is only applicable to silent reading ; 
 for when the words are to be pronounced, the process of 
 speech must take its necessary time, however rapid migjht 
 be the perception of the eye, or the conception of the mind.
 
 SHORT-HAND. 113 
 
 The habit of short-hand strengthens memory 
 which preserves the object intrusted to its care 
 in proportion to the brightness and strangeness 
 of the images created. Hence it follows, that 
 monuments, medals, and all other relics perpetu- 
 ate facts much more efficaciously than history 
 and books. It is through the distinctness of the 
 various features of the human form that Cineas, 
 ambassador of king Pyrrhus at Rome, could re- 
 member all those who were presented to him, 
 and that the next day he named every one of 
 them, senators and plebeians, without missing 
 one individual ; it is through the same analysis 
 that Cyrus could preserve in his memory the 
 names of all the soldiers of his army ; lastly, 
 it is by associating- certain ideas with certain 
 forms, that lawyers, actors, and all those who 
 have to speak in public, acquire an artificial 
 memory much more powerful than the natural 
 one, as we may learn from Moliere and Shaks- 
 peare, the greatest actors as well as the greatest 
 authors of their ages, and also from Pascal, who 
 never forgot one single thing of all that he had 
 done, read, or thought during his life ! One of the 
 most efficacious means of helping the memory is, 
 to write ourselves what we wish to remember ;* 
 
 * Should any one put in question tlie advantages of this 
 
 I
 
 114 SHORT-HAND. 
 
 the more irregular the characters, the stronger 
 will be the impression on the mind, and conse- 
 quently short-hand, with its abbreviations and 
 strange figures, is certainly the most advantageous 
 of all writings for that purpose. 
 
 We will conclude this chapter with a consider- 
 ation, which in the present age may have more 
 weight upon the mind of the public than all that 
 has been previously said : viz. suppose every man 
 in active life to be three hours at his desk every 
 day ; were all his business transacted in short- 
 1 hand, he would be able to write as much within one 
 \ I hour, as he did before within the three. And if 
 I he be a man of useful pursuits, working ten con- 
 secutive hours every day, the two hours saved 
 daily will be equal to one-fifth of his productive 
 life, or to ten years in fifty ! ! 
 
 practice, we merely refer him to Demosthenes, the great- 
 est orator of Greece, who copied eight times the works of 
 Thucydides, in order, as he said, to give more power to his 
 genius. 
 
 1
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SHORT-HAND OF LOGOGRAPHY. 
 
 ITS ALPHABET, ABBREVIATING RULES, AND ORTHOGRAPHY. 
 
 COMPARISON OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM WITH THOSE OF 
 GURNEY, BYROM, TAYLOR, MAYOR, MOLTNEUX, HARDING, 
 LEWIS, HUNTER, AVHITEHEAD, ETC. ETC. 
 
 The art of short-hand writing, as we have already 
 stated, is divided into two very distinct branches : 
 the first, relating to the characters, consists in 
 substituting for the common letters of the Roman 
 alphabet, a series of arbitrary figures, much supe- 
 rior to those in conciseness and rapidity of exe- 
 cution ; it is purely mechanical, addresses itself 
 entirely to the memory, and constitutes what is 
 generally understood under the common appel- 
 lation of short-hand. The second, relating to the 
 abbreviations, consists in suppressing methodi- 
 cally in the writing all that which is of a secondary 
 importance, preserving only in each word the 
 letters strictly necessary to lead afterwards to its 
 sounds, and in each phrase the words indispen- 
 sable to bring to the memory the whole sentence; 
 it varies according to circumstances, addresses 
 
 I 2
 
 116 
 
 SHORT-HAND OF 
 
 itself principally to the judgment, and may be 
 practised with all sorts of characters. Each of 
 these two we have treated separately, as follows : 
 
 Short-hand Characters. 
 
 Our short-hand alphabet differs but slightly 
 from our long-hand one ; the only distinction 
 consisting in the suppression of all the little addi- 
 tional marks ; viz. the dots and cross lines placed 
 at the end or in the middle of certain articulations 
 in order to distinguish them from others with 
 which they have a great analogy.* The inton- 
 ations being always suppressed in short-hand as 
 hereafter explained, our alphabet is reduced to 
 seven signs, expressing, as it were, the seven 
 roots of all the articulations of speech. 
 
 If the reader have followed with attention what 
 we have said with respect to the analogies exist- 
 ing between the various spoken sounds, in the 
 first part of this work, he is now fully satisfied that 
 all the articulations may be classed with facility 
 under these seven heads. It would be superflu- 
 ous to dwell any longer upon the subject, and pre- 
 senting our short-hand alphabet to the eye, we 
 will refer for all further explanations to the above- 
 mentioned pages. 
 
 It will be observed that two of our figures 
 * See page 65 on articulations.
 
 LOGOGRAPHY. 117 
 
 represent as many as four different sounds; this 
 example is given to us by the English ortho- 
 graphy itself, which writes with the same cha- 
 racter the four hissing sounds heard in sir, 
 rose, measure, se^^ion. The analogies existing 
 between the various sounds belonofino; to each 
 sign, will bring them all instantaneously to the 
 mind at the sight of their representative charac- 
 ter. Some distinction, however, might easily be 
 made between them, by tracing the characters of 
 the second and fourth columns with a long-er or 
 heavier stroke of the pen. This we indicate as a 
 means of facilitating the deciphering of the words 
 to young beginners, but after a few weeks' prac- 
 tice it will be found almost superfluous. 
 
 The next consideration is the materials to be 
 employed : for these we advise the pupil to pro- 
 vide himself with a sharp steel pen, or a hard 
 pencil, (Brookman's HHH,) and ruled paper, 
 with a sufficient space between the lines to pre- 
 vent the characters from running into each other. 
 This last requisite may be objected to: it has beeji 
 said that " ruled paper is not always at hand," 
 which is doubtless true, nor was the Dutchman's 
 anchor ; (to quote the words of Mr. T. How, in 
 his Ideograplty, by far the cleverest pamphlet 
 published of late years on this subject,) "nor is 
 a pen or pencil always at hand, or even plain
 
 118 SHORT-HAND OF 
 
 paper ; but it is highly presumable that he who 
 wanted to exercise his art, would see the pro- 
 priety of being provided with these necessaries, 
 unless he aspired to place himself in the tritely 
 proverbial predicament of the illustrious personage 
 alluded to, or that he inherited any family pride as 
 a descendant from one of the foolish division of 
 ten virgins, of whom we read in the 25th chapter 
 of St. Matthew." Here it may be asked if it 
 would not be as easy to procure ruled as plai.i 
 paper f If however, perchance, the second only 
 were to be had, the lines might be dispensed with 
 without much inconvenience. 
 
 Abbreviations.* 
 
 Rule I.— No intonation is ever written in 
 short-hand. 
 
 Remark 1. However, as the words which have 
 no articulation in them must still in some way be 
 recalled to the mind of the reader, we propose to 
 indicate all intonated sounds by a dot placed 
 exactly in the position where each intonation 
 would have been begun in the long-hand ; as, 
 you spoke and I listened^ write . . spk .nd : 
 Isnd. — No. 1. 
 
 * We have given our examples here in the Roman hand ; 
 the figures refer to the Phite III., where tlie same words are 
 traced in short-hand.
 
 LOGOGRAPHY. 119 
 
 Remark 2. Words which have an intonation 
 before their first articulation, should be begun a 
 little above or below the line. All other words 
 being traced from that line, the distance left in 
 the first instances will give the reader to under- 
 stand that there is a sound left out, which sound 
 can be no other than an intonation ; as, they have 
 done it. — No. 2. 
 
 Remark 3. If there be two intonations before 
 the first articulation, the distance from the line to 
 the beginning of the word must be doubled ; as, 
 the orders which were received from the United 
 States. — No. 3. 
 
 Remark 4. When ruled paper is not used, a 
 dot placed immediately before the first articulation 
 written, will indicate the intonated sound ; if two 
 intonations be pronounced, two dots must be pre- 
 fixed. Thus the example quoted in Eemark 3 
 would, in the present instance, be written in 
 the following manner : th . rdrs . .ch . .r rsvd 
 frm th ..ntd stts. — No. 4. 
 
 Remark 5. When great preciseness is required 
 
 in the writing, a dot may be added in the middle 
 
 of a word to indicate the place of a vowel, as in 
 
 the form of this frame, write th frm of this 
 
 fr.m — No. 5. 
 
 Rule II. No more should be written than 
 what is strictly necessary to assist the memory.
 
 120 
 
 SHORT-HAND OF 
 
 Thus most terminations may be suppressed in 
 compound words, provided a dot be placed at the 
 end of the shortened word to point out the abbre- 
 viation to the reader; as in comfortable^ immen- 
 sity^ goodness, write cmfrt. .mmns. gdn. — No. 6. 
 
 A great many words even may be sufficiently 
 expressed by their initials alone. The following 
 ones are generally written in that manner. 
 
 B 
 C & K 
 
 D 
 F 
 G 
 L 
 M 
 N 
 P 
 R 
 S 
 T 
 V 
 Z 
 
 List of Alphabetical Words. 
 
 be, been, by, bad, bought, but. 
 
 can, come, could, king, queen. 
 
 day, do, did, done, dead. 
 
 if, of, off, far, for. 
 
 go, God, good, give. 
 
 all, ill, will, law, Lord. 
 
 me, my, man, many, ma'm, miss, master. 
 
 an, in, no, nor, not. 
 
 up, upon, people, person. 
 
 are, art, or, our, right. 
 
 us, sir, so. 
 
 at, it, to, into, unto. 
 
 vertu, voice, Victoria, victoi'y. 
 
 as, is. 
 
 Such are the principal abbreviations in short- 
 hand. The reader may add to them as much as 
 his ingenuity may suggest, or his memory allow 
 him to practise with safety. The following tran- 
 scription of the Lord's Prayer will give him an 
 idea of their effect in general.
 
 PLATE III . 
 
 
 •i^^/rfj^ 
 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 kc 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 P 
 
 4 
 
 s 
 
 -^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 ny 
 
 7' 
 
 r 
 
 
 r',"^ 
 
 rVa^fS 
 
 .^ 
 
 d 
 
 s 
 
 ^ 
 
 p 
 
 T^y 
 
 I 
 
 3.cliys 
 
 ^ 
 
 SAy 
 
 ai. 
 
 //^.Cia^. 
 
 l^l 
 
 :^k 
 
 'i^ 
 
 (^^-lZ/?^/'.//'^J'. 
 
 
 --£ 
 
 ;l^!^^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 ^ y^-' - 
 
 i\ ,-1/ 
 
 s. 
 
 ) 
 
 ^^ 
 
 / 
 
 /-^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 -^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 iZ 
 
 /2 
 
 >-^ 
 
 X^ 
 
 ^-^ 
 
 -9^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 -yr^ 
 
 ^. 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 f-n 
 
 00 !/^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 /S 
 
 T-^ 
 
 i fev 
 
 ^v^ 
 
 -^ 
 
 ^1- 
 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 "V7 
 
 -^/--T^^^'^— y-y- 
 
 ?y? 
 
 ^/ 
 
 V r- 
 
 y ~y 
 
 
 .^^-^^/f-/-^^-^^-^ .^ ^^ f p/ /y 
 
 Jl fyUsan, iu^^ : ^^/i^p-ya/A S(re^l. La/v^.v-
 
 LOGOGRAPIIY. 121 
 
 Th Ls Pu.b. 
 
 R fthr ..ch r n .vn .ll..d b th nm th c. c th I b d 
 n .rth 2 t z n ,vn g s th d r dl brd .nd frgv s r trspss 
 z .. frgv thm tht trspst .gnst s nd Id s n n tmpt. b 
 dlvr s frm .vl f thn s th c th p..r nd th glr f .vr 
 nd .vr mn — No. 20. 
 
 Orthography of Short-hand. 
 
 Rule I. — All the articulations contained in a 
 word should be joined together without lifting the 
 pen until the word is finished ; as, satisfaction, 
 considerable. — No. 7. 
 
 Remark \. — When two straight lines follow 
 each other in the same direction, their succession 
 presents the appearance of one single character 
 traced a little longer than usual. In order to 
 prevent the confusion that might sometimes arise 
 from this, it is advisable to place a dot at the 
 point of junction, provided there be an inton- 
 ation pronounced between the two straight lines ; 
 as in system, determination. — No. 8. 
 
 Remark 2. — When there is no intonation be- 
 tween the two similar characters, the writer may 
 lift his pen after the first, and trace the second 
 parallel to it ; as in aynnistie. — No. 9- 
 
 Remark 3. — Even with an intonation between 
 the two similar characters, it may sometimes be
 
 122 SHORT-HAND OF 
 
 found more convenient to write each character 
 separately ; for both, being in the same form and 
 position, will be as rapidly traced in two parallel 
 short lines as in one single long one, and the 
 WTiting will be rendered, through this, much more 
 distinct, neat, and intelligible ; as in determinate, 
 monument. — No. 10. 
 
 Rule II. — All characters following each other 
 at an obtuse angle, should be blended into one 
 curved or undulated line ; as calm, seci^et, dis- 
 crimination, exchequer. — No. 11. 
 
 Rule III. — In tracing round loops, some atten- 
 tion should be paid to the intonations sounded 
 with their articulations ; for in many instances 
 they may be partly indicated by the manner in 
 which these loops are joined together in short- 
 hand. Thus Bible, hawhle, bubble, although 
 written with the very same character, bbl. are 
 traced in three distinct manners, indicating, by 
 the various little curves that must be left between 
 the loops, the sounds of the intonations pro- 
 nounced with them. — No, 12. 
 
 Rule IV. — Two or more words expressed by 
 their initials only, may be joined together as if 
 they formed one single word ; but, in this case, 
 a small horizontal line should be drawn over them,
 
 LOGOGRAPHY. 123 
 
 in order to show that they are to be divided and 
 pronounced singly ; as Queen, Lords and Com- 
 mons. The will of God. — No. 13. 
 
 Remark. — In writing alphabetical words, the 
 small ones, such as articles, prepositions, and 
 conjunctions are always omitted, as in the above 
 example. 
 
 Rule V. — Whenever the form of the characters 
 will permit, it will add considerably to the clear- 
 ness of the writing if we join together the words 
 that have an immediate relation with each other, 
 as the adjective with the substantive, the adverb 
 with the verb, &c. &c.; but the junction should be 
 made by placing the pen, not at the end, but in 
 the middle of the first word written, and begin- 
 ning the second word from that point ; as in good 
 si/stem, well said. — -No. 14. 
 
 Remark 1. — When the second word begins 
 with an intonation, the articulation which follows, 
 and which is to be joined on the preceding word, 
 should be traced across it ; as in good army, well 
 administered. — No. 15. 
 
 Remark 2. — Should there be a double inton- 
 ation pronounced before the first articulation of 
 the second word, this articulation must be traced 
 across the preceding word in such a manner, as to 
 show a greater proportion of its figure projecting 
 into it; as in great house, so united. — No. 16.
 
 124 SHORT-HAND OF 
 
 Rule VI. — A repetition is indicated by a thin 
 
 m 
 
 line drawn under the word or words repeated; as 
 Never, never shall we meet again. — No. 17. 
 
 Remark. — When one or more words intervene 
 between the words firstly pronounced and their 
 repetition, a caret should be placed wherever the 
 repetition occurs. Ex. Lord, have mercy upon 
 us; Christ, have mercy upon us: write, L .v 
 mrc n s krst ,. — No. 18. 
 
 Rule VII. — A contraction or suppression of 
 any sort at the end of a word is indicated by a 
 dot. Ex. sentiment, sentimental, glory, glori- 
 ously, write snt. sntm. gl. glrs. — No. 19. 
 
 Rule VIII. — The punctuation is not written in 
 short-hand, but indicated with spaces left between 
 the words in proportion to the time that the voice 
 should rest between their utterance ; a full stop 
 being generally indicated by beginning the next 
 word on another line. 
 
 Rule IX. — Whenever words occur which re- 
 quire great preciseness, as proper names, quota- 
 tions, or strange and unusual expressio7is, and 
 also whenever the sense is not perfectly clear to 
 the writer, recourse must be had to the long- 
 hand, (or Logography,) in which all such parts 
 should be written as accurately as possible. 
 
 Rule X. — All short-hand notes or extracts
 
 LOGOGRAPHY. 125 
 
 should be carefully read over at the earliest 
 opportunity^ and made as much as possible con- 
 formable to the above rules. 
 
 Here end our instructions relative to Shot^t- 
 hand: a part we consider merely as a useful ap- 
 pendage to Logography. Yet to those who give 
 this science their first consideration, we hope that 
 our system will not appear unworthy of notice, 
 since we feel satisfied that it is superior in its 
 principle and constitution to a great many, as we 
 intend to prove by a comparative examination of 
 the most popular ones among them ; this being 
 said without disrespect to any. For we have been 
 pleased to relate the progress of the art of short- 
 hand, proud to acknowledge the merits of our 
 numerous predecessors, and it is with a deep sen- 
 timent of gratitude for their assistance that we now 
 lay before our readers a table of those systems 
 most generally esteemed, and which we have 
 taken the liberty to analyze through the medium 
 of our characters. 
 
 The first inspection of the plate will show that 
 they have generally a great analogy and even 
 sameness with each other, and are considerably 
 inferior to ours in conciseness and fluency, or 
 rapidity of execution. These deficiencies are 
 owing to two principal causes ; viz. firstly, to the 
 complication and irregularity of the characters ;
 
 126 SHORT-HAND. 
 
 secondly, to the total disregard in their formation, 
 of the movements most in harmony with the arti- 
 lation of the right-hand. 
 
 The numbers at the bottom of each column 
 give the comparative quantity of simple inflections 
 of the pen contained in each alphabet ; presenting, 
 in an inverted form, the exact ratio of their rela- 
 tive shortness.
 
 Plate i v . 
 
 
 ^/^^^//^ 
 
 .^. 
 
 wi^m- 
 
 y^y9^s^. 
 
 ^^sf^- 
 
 
 J^^<^ 
 
 CiJ-^^y*^"
 
 
 ^/<^^y??i^iy
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 
 
 SUPERIORITY OF ALLEGORICAL CHARACTERS OVER ALPHABE- 
 TICAL ONES. ADVANTAGES RESULTING FROM A COMBINA- 
 TION OF BOTH. WHAT PARTS OP SPEECH ARE BEST 
 
 ADAPTED TO ALLEGORICAL SIGNS. APPLICATION. 
 
 A SHORT-HAND book would never appear com- 
 plete to the generality of readers, unless it con- 
 tained a great collection of arbitrary characters 
 or hieroglyphics. As to us, although we have 
 previously remarked that all those apparently 
 ingenious allegories, contrived by many short- 
 hand writers, are more an encumbrance than an 
 advantage in a well-combined system ; although 
 we further add that, amongst the numerous works 
 we have perused treating on the subject, those 
 most approved of by the public, such as Taylor's, 
 Harding's, Lewis's, &c. &c., contained the least 
 of such allegorical figures ; yet withal we must 
 acknowledge that, were proper precautions taken 
 in order not to confound the allegorical with the 
 alphabetical characters, great advantage might be 
 derived from the combination of both species of 
 writing. For the allegorical figures, bringing the
 
 128 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 
 
 objects at once to the mind, are much more easily 
 understood than the alphabetical characters, par- 
 ticularly when the latter are contracted in a rapid 
 short-hand; and by combining both together, the 
 clearness of the first would throw a considerable 
 light on the second, and render them at once 
 perfectly legible. Provided, however, that the 
 parts of speech most useful and frequent in the 
 language were selected to be thus allegorically 
 expressed. 
 
 For instance : having ascertained that sub- 
 stantives are generally accompanied with articles 
 either definite or indefinite, and declined (as well 
 as their representative pronouns) by means of a 
 few prepositions, of which the most frequent are 
 o/J tOj for, from, at, in, on, by ; that verbs are 
 generally accompanied with pronouns, and conju- 
 gated by means of the auxiliary verbs, he, have, 
 do, loill, shall, must, may, might, would, should, 
 let ; that regular or complete phrases contain 
 always a substantive or pronoun in the nomina- 
 tive case and a verb ; and that irregular or in- 
 complete phrases are always accompanied with 
 one of the two conjunctions, or, and, which con- 
 junction is either written in each irregular phrase, 
 or (when two or more of these, having the very 
 same irregularity, follow each other without inter- 
 ruption) expressed only in the last one of them ;
 
 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 1*29 
 
 and lastly, that all sentences are either affirm- 
 ative or interrogative, according to the relative 
 situations of the verb and its nominative, and 
 either positive or negative according to its being 
 constructed without or with the neo;ative adverb 
 not ; having, as we said, ascertained these parti- 
 culars of the English language, if we ascribe 
 allegorical characters to all such articles, prepo- 
 sitions, auxiliary verbs, conjunctions, and adverbs, 
 that we may write, when we read the same sen- 
 tences again, the meaning of these leading parts 
 of speech being thus expressed without the least 
 chance of ambiguity or doubt, the remaining words 
 will, in many instances, suggest themselves to the 
 mind even before their signs are read; or at least 
 their simple roots will be more than sufficient to 
 render them perfectly intelligible, principally if 
 we have taken care to point out by a dot placed 
 in two different positions, the substantives and 
 verbs that may be found without any one of the 
 above leading words to designate them. 
 
 Let us exemplify this by an application of the 
 combined system of writing to a part of a speech 
 delivered by Lord John Russell in the House of 
 Commons, on Feb. 2(3, 1828, for the repeal of 
 the Test and Corporation Act, and which we find 
 quoted as a specimen in almost all short-hand 
 books published since that epoch. 
 
 K
 
 130 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 
 
 " Sir, / have shown that the Acts, to which I have 
 called the attention of the house, originated in circum- 
 stances altogether different from those under which their 
 burden is complained of, and their repeal sought /or. / 
 have gone through the causes which occasioned the enact- 
 ment of the statutes ; / have enumerated the reasons that 
 now exist for their abandonment ; / have endeavoured to 
 show that, so far from not inflicting any hardship on the 
 body against whom they are directed, they are, in fact, the 
 cause o/" great mischief and injustice, and produce a corre- 
 spondent degree of irritation on the minds of the parties 
 aggrieved hy tliem. I have shown, or attempted to show, 
 that these laws are founded on principles of persecution ; 
 that they inflict very serious grievances on a large propor- 
 tion of our population ; that in their spirit and operation 
 they are totally at variance with the improved state of our 
 own legislation iyi relation to these matters, both in Scot- 
 land and Ireland ; arid that they are diametrically opposed 
 to the legislation of all liberal and enlightened Christian 
 countries. 
 
 " Sir, / think an alteration in the laws most loudly 
 called for and imperatively demanded at our hands, the 
 rather as their repeal will tend to render the dissenters 
 more attached to the constitution, and more willing to bear 
 with cheerfulness the proportion of the burden imposed 
 upon them for the maintenance of the church and state, 
 great as these burdens most undoubtedly are. 
 
 " /advocate the repeal of these laws, because I am con- 
 vinced that their abolition will materially tend to allay the
 
 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 131 
 
 bitterness of party and religious feeling, and contribute to 
 the promotion of harmony and good-will among the dif- 
 ferent classes of his Majesty's subjects ! But, sir, above all 
 / urge the repeal of these enactments, because / am satis- 
 fied that it will suit the tone and spirit of the times. It 
 ivill he better to consent to the repeal of these enactments, 
 than to permit the existence of those angry yet inefficient 
 and impracticable laws, which are a disgrace to the statute 
 book." 
 
 The words printed in italics being those which 
 compose the first class, would be expressed with 
 allegorical characters, conveying to the mind at 
 once full and complete ideas of their meanings 
 before their sounds could be pronounced or even 
 thought of by the reader. The remaining part 
 of the speech printed in Roman letters, would be 
 written with alphabetical characters, as usual ; 
 and the combined writings would read thus : — 
 
 Sr / have shn that the .cts to which I have eld the 
 .tnshn of the .s .rdgntd in srcmstnss .Itgthr dfrnt from 
 those .ndr which their brdn is cmplnd of and their rpl 
 st for, &c. &c. 
 
 By the above example we must feel convinced 
 of the great advantages to be derived from such 
 a combination. For not only are the meanings 
 of all the allegorical words expressed through it 
 more plainly than they could ever be with the 
 
 K 2
 
 132 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 
 
 most perfect alphabetical writing, but also the 
 remaining words of the sentence have all their 
 grammatical construction and relative importance 
 thoroughly made known to the reader by means 
 of their different positions and relation with the 
 first class of words ; and this even before he has 
 been able to ascertain the sounds of their repre- 
 sentative letters ! 
 
 For instance : the first word wTitten alpha- 
 betically is shn. This, the allegorical figures 
 tell us, is a past participle intended to repre- 
 sent by means of the personal pronoun / and 
 auxiliary verb have, the first pei^son singular 
 of a verb in the pei'fect tense and indicative 
 7nood. The second written word is xts, which is 
 designated by the same process as a substantive 
 in the definite sense, jilural number,^ and nomi- 
 native case : eld., the third written word, is desig- 
 nated as a past participle, expressing by means 
 of the personal pronoun /, and auxiliary verb 
 have, the first person singular of a verb in the 
 perfect tense and indicative mood; .tnshn is 
 next designated as a substantive in the singu- 
 lar number, definite sense, and direct objective 
 case, submitted to the direct action of the active 
 
 * Although the English articles do not determine either 
 crender or number, we have thouglit it more advantageous to 
 express both in oiu" allegorical signs, as hereafter explained.
 
 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 
 
 133 
 
 verb, eld, previously analyzed ; .s is afterwards 
 designated as a substantwe in the singular num- 
 ber, definite sense, and possessive case ; .rdgntd 
 is designated by the dot underneath as a verb 
 in the perfect tense : this verb having no nomi- 
 native near it, we have had recourse to the 
 above-mentioned dot (see Plate V.) to show its 
 grammatical importance. But as every verb must 
 have a nominative, as well as every nominative 
 a verb relating to if, as soon as we under- 
 stand (by means of the dot) this word to be a 
 verb, we immediately conclude that it is the one 
 relating to the nominative .cts, previously ana- 
 lyzed and left in suspense till now w^ithout its 
 verb. We need not continue this analysis any 
 further. We have said enough to convince the 
 reader of the great clearness of such a writing ; 
 and those who have any practice of short-hand, 
 must have often felt the want of some such dis- 
 tinctive marks to lead them in deciphering their 
 confused and perplexing characters. 
 
 It will be remarked, that the allegorical charac- 
 ters contained in the above speech (see Plate 
 VII.) are more numerous even than the alpha- 
 betical ones ! The proportion is not always so 
 favourable as this to our combined system ; but 
 yet we may with confidence assert that the arti- 
 cles, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, con-
 
 134 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 
 
 junctions, and adverbs, above mentioned, and 
 which do not amount altogether to sixty distinct 
 words, or one thousandth part of the English 
 vocabulary, form nevertheless at least one third 
 of all that is ever printed in any kind of books, 
 and one-half of all that is ever delivered in 
 the forms of addresses, lectures, sermons, and 
 speeches of any kind. 
 
 Such are the words we have selected for our 
 allegorical characters, which in their formation 
 constitute a class of figures perfectly distinct from 
 the others, as hereafter explained. 
 
 In our long hand, it will be remembered, we 
 have divided the characters into two distinct 
 classes ; the first consisting of straight lines and 
 expressing all the articulations, the second con- 
 sisting of curved lines, and expressing all the 
 intonations of speech. But in short-hand, where 
 we do not write intonations, we have no use for 
 the curved lines, and consequently we can apply 
 them to the formation of our allegorical charac- 
 ters without fear of ever mistaking them for 
 alphabetical ones. 
 
 Another characteristic feature of our allego- 
 rical signs is, that they are always written above 
 or below the line followed in the writing of the 
 alphabetical ones, so that were they intermixed 
 with intonations, no confusion could ever arise
 
 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 
 
 135 
 
 from this circumstance, even if the paper had no 
 ruled lines, for the various positions of the two 
 kinds of characters would be still perfectly dis- 
 cernible ; add to this, that most of the allegorical 
 ones have upward and backward strokes, which 
 are never found in the alphabetical figures. 
 
 Explanation of the Allegorical 
 Characters.* 
 
 To be expressed allegorically : 
 
 Istly. Both ai'ticles, viz. the dejinite with a 
 comma or small stroke of the pen slanting down- 
 wards to the left, and the indefinite w^ith an 
 inverted comma or small stroke of the pen slant- 
 ing downwards to the right : both these signs 
 being w^ritten in the singular above, or to the left 
 of, and in the plural under or to the right of the 
 substantive they accompany. — Ex. No. 1. 
 
 Singular, the system, a system, the law, a law. 
 Plural, tJie systems, systems. f the laws, laws.f 
 
 2ndly. The Jive personal pronou7is, viz. the first 
 and second persons, with the two curves ascribed 
 to the intonations o, e ; the third person mascu- 
 
 * The numbers given at the end of each paragraph refer 
 to Plate v., where the examples are repeated in allegorical 
 characters. 
 
 f The character of the indefinite article plural is only 
 written under substantives which are not preceded by any 
 adjective relative to them.
 
 136 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 
 
 line, with the curve ascribed to the intonation o ; 
 the third person feminine, with this last curve 
 looped at its beginning ; and the third person 
 neuter, with tlie curve ascribed to the intonation 
 u : these five signs being written in the singular 
 above, and in the plural under the line,* — Ex. 
 No. 2. 
 
 Singular, /, t/wzi, he, she, it. 
 Plural, we, you, they, they, they. 
 
 3rdly. The Jive possessive adjectives, with the 
 five signs ascribed to the five personal pronouns to 
 which they relate, having a small comma placed 
 above them when the substantive possessed is in 
 the singular, and under them when it is in the 
 plural number : these five signs being written in 
 the singular above, and in the plural under the 
 line. — Ex. No. 3. 
 
 Singular, my, thy, his, her, its 1 , , . 
 
 ■^' •^' ' ' S colour, (sing.) 
 
 Plural, our, your, their, their, their ^ 
 
 Singular, my, thy, his, her, its ) , , ^ 
 
 ' •" •" .' _' > colours. (PLU.) 
 
 Plural, our, your, their, their, their * 
 
 4thly. The Jive possessive pronouns, with the 
 signs ascribed to the five personal pronouns to 
 
 * Although the gender is not indicated in English in the 
 plural of many words which have this distinction in the 
 singular number, we have preserved the three genders with 
 our signs in both numbers. The advantages of this uniform 
 preciseness need not be explained.
 
 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 137 
 
 which they relate, having a small inverted com- 
 ma placed above them when the substantive pos- 
 sessed is in the singular, and under them when 
 it is in the plural number : these five signs being 
 written in the singular above, and in the plural 
 under the line. — Ex. No. 4. 
 
 Sin. tnine, thine, his own, hers, its own i 
 
 ^ 7 - 7 ■ , • > seems good, (.sin.) 
 
 Plu. ours, yours, theirs, theirs, theirs ) 
 
 Sin, mine, thine, his own, hers, its own i i / s 
 
 . . > seem good, (plu.) 
 
 Plu. ours, yours, theirs, theirs, theirs ) 
 
 5thly. The two demonstrative pronouns, with 
 the two perpendicular curves ascribed to the inton- 
 ations «, e, looped at their beginning ; these two 
 signs being written in the singular above, and in 
 the plural under the line. — Ex. No. 5. 
 
 Singular, this, that reads well. 
 Plural, these, those read well. 
 
 6thly. The two demonstrative adjectives, with 
 
 the two perpendicular looped curves ascribed to 
 
 the demonstrative adjective, having a small dot 
 
 placed before them : these two signs being written 
 
 in the singular above, and in the plural under the 
 
 line. — Ex. No. ti. 
 
 Singular, this, that book reads well. 
 Plural, these, those books read well. 
 
 7thly. The relative pronouns, viz. that, with a 
 small comma having a dot over it; who, or whom.
 
 138 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 
 
 with the curve ascribed to the intonation u loop- 
 ed at its beginning ; which, with the same looped 
 curve, having a dot inside ; what, with the same 
 sign having a larger loop ; and whose, with the 
 same looped character, having an inverted comma 
 placed above when the substantive possessed is in 
 the singular, and under when it is in the plural 
 number : these five signs being written in the 
 singular above, and in the plural under the line. 
 —Ex. No. 7.* 
 
 Sin. I know that, whom, which, what, whose 1 mean 
 
 Plu. I know that, who, which, what, whose ) 
 
 8thly. The relative adjectives, which, what, 
 whose', viz. the two first with the same characters 
 as the relative pronouns, having a dot placed be- 
 fore them, and the third with the small looped 
 character, having a comma placed above when the 
 substantive possessed is in the singular, and un- 
 der when it is in the plural number ; these three 
 
 * Remarks. Our allegorical characters constitute a svs- 
 tern of writing in which every part has been studied with 
 relation to itself, as well as to the whole combination which 
 we are now explaining. We hope, therefore, that the reader 
 will not judge hastily of what has been as yet laid before 
 him, and that, if he were disposed to think the above 
 signs might have been simplified, he will suspend his judg- 
 ment until he comes to the end of this chapter, when he will 
 feel satisfied that simplicity, perspicuity, and conciseness, 
 are the result of those apparently confused and superfluous
 
 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 139 
 
 characters being written in the singular above, 
 and in the plural under the line. Ex. No. 8. 
 
 Sin. 7vhich m.ar\, what house, whosehovsQ, whose horses. 
 Plu. which men, what houses, whose horse, whose horses. 
 
 Each of these eight sorts of words is susceptible 
 of being placed in a variety of circumstances or 
 cases, of which the most frequent are the nomi- 
 native, the objective direct, and the objective 
 indirect. In the first instance : the word being 
 the principal substantive in the phrase, is gene- 
 rally written before the verb ; in the second, the 
 word being the object upon which is directed the 
 action of the verb, is placed next after it; and in 
 the third, the word being the object yor which the 
 action is performed, is written last of all ; as in 
 
 1 _ .2 3 
 
 the phrase, / give it him. 
 
 Sometimes, when the direct objective is a 
 longer word than the indirect, it is placed after 
 
 characters. In this example (No. 7), the words w?io, which, 
 what, are not smiply relative pronouns, (viz. words show- 
 ing that the same substantive is used with the following 
 verb,) but they convey besides a peculiar meaning with them. 
 For instance : whom signifies the person that ; which, the 
 one that ; what, the thing that : it was therefore neces- 
 sary to give a distinct sign to each. But when they are sim- 
 ple relative pronouns, as in the phrases, / know the man 
 who came; the person which you mean, &cc,, they need not 
 be expressed otherwise than by the dotted comma ascribed 
 to the relative that.
 
 140 ALLEGORICAL AVRITING. 
 
 it ; as in the phrase / give him those, but yet 
 the sense of the phrase cannot be misconstrued ; 
 and when there is more preciseness wanted, the 
 preposition to is added before the indirect objec- 
 tive. We follow exactly the same rules with our 
 allegorical characters, with the exception that we 
 have but one character either in the nominative 
 or in the objective case. As to the various pre- 
 positions which are used, we have selected a few 
 of the most frequent to be represented with alle- 
 gorical signs also, as explained hereafter, para- 
 graph the 12th. 
 
 9thly. The most frequent auxiliary verbs. By 
 auxiliary verbs we mean verbs used as helps to 
 conjugate other verbs, and which, losing all indi- 
 vidual character, preserve no other signification 
 but what is necessary to express the time and 
 mode of the verbs they are joined to. For in- 
 stance : the verb ivill is a verb active, expressing 
 the action of the mind being directed on a certain 
 object in a certain manner ; as, in the phrase If 
 you will go, I cannot detain you. But in the fol- 
 lowing one. If you go, you will repent it, there 
 can be no will to repent, and the verb will, losing 
 all individual character, is nothing more than a 
 simple auxiliary to the verb repent, conjugated 
 through its means in the future tense, indicative 
 mood. Again, when one says, / have the book ;
 
 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 141 
 
 the verb have is employed in its proper signifi- 
 cation, and indicates possession ; but in the phrase 
 / have lost the hook, the verb have, instead of in- 
 dicating- possession, contributes to give a contrary- 
 idea, being auxiliary to the verb lost, conjugated 
 through its means in the past time, indicative mood. 
 It is of the greatest importance to consider well 
 before we make any application of the allegoric 
 signs, whether a verb is used in its proper sense, 
 or as auxiliary to the following verb, for on this 
 distinction depends all the advantages of our alle- 
 gorical characters. 
 
 The English language, in consequence of its 
 deficiency in simple tenses, has a great number 
 of auxiliary verbs, by means of which it expresses 
 a variety of delicate shades in time and mood, 
 which cannot be translated without much diffi- 
 culty, even in more perfect languages. The fol- 
 lowing table, in which we have conjugated the 
 verb to run, in the mood and tenses most fre- 
 quently used, and which is transcribed literally on 
 the Plate V., has appeared to us the most intel- 
 ligible way of explaining our allegorical figures, 
 ascribed to auxiliary verbs.
 
 142 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 INDI' 
 
 PRESENT. 
 
 1 
 PAST. 
 
 ^ ^v 
 
 
 
 Simple. 
 
 
 Simple.* 
 
 Contemporary, 
 
 
 ' 1 person 
 
 I run 
 
 
 I have run 
 
 I was running 
 
 
 2 person 
 
 thou runnest 
 
 thou hast run 
 
 thou wert running 
 
 g 
 
 3 person (m.) 
 
 he runs 
 
 
 he has run 
 
 he was running 
 
 
 3 person (f.) 
 
 she runs 
 
 
 she has run 
 
 she was running 
 
 
 3 person (n.) 
 
 it runs 
 
 
 it has run 
 
 it was running 
 
 
 1 person 
 
 we run 
 
 
 we have run 
 
 we were running 
 
 < 
 
 2 person 
 
 you run 
 
 
 you have run 
 
 you were running 
 
 g 
 
 3 person (m.) 
 
 they run 
 
 
 they have run 
 
 they were runninc 
 
 
 3 person (f.) 
 
 they run 
 
 
 they have run 
 
 they were running 
 
 1 
 
 3 person (n.) 
 
 they run 
 
 
 they have run 
 
 they were running 
 
 Additional Moods in the Ti 
 
 
 
 Eventual simple. 
 
 Eventual conditional. 
 
 Conditional simple. 
 
 . 
 
 '1 
 
 I may run 
 
 I might run 
 
 I would run 
 
 
 2 
 
 thou may est run 
 
 thou mightest run 
 
 thou wouldst run 
 
 O 
 
 3 m. 
 
 he may run 
 
 he might run 
 
 he would run 
 
 'A 
 
 iri 
 
 3 f. 
 
 she may run 
 
 she might run 
 
 she would run 
 
 
 ,3n. 
 
 it may run 
 
 it might run 
 
 it would run 
 
 
 f 1 
 
 we may run 
 
 we might run 
 
 we would run 
 
 
 2 
 
 you may run 
 
 you miglit run 
 
 you would run 
 
 
 3 m. 
 
 they may run 
 
 they might run 
 
 they would run 
 
 a. 
 
 3f. 
 
 they may run 
 
 they niii;ht run 
 
 they would run 
 
 
 , 3 n. 
 
 they may run 
 
 they might run 
 
 they would run 
 
 The same Moods in the Ti 
 
 
 '1 
 
 I may have run 
 
 I might have run 
 
 I would have run 
 
 a. 
 < 
 
 2 
 
 thou mayst have run 
 
 thou mightest have run 
 
 thou wouldst have run 
 
 
 3 m. 
 
 he may have r\in 
 
 he might have run 
 
 he would have run 
 
 ■A 
 
 3 f. 
 
 she may have run 
 
 she might have run 
 
 she would have run 
 
 
 ^ 3 n. 
 
 it may have run 
 
 it might have run 
 
 it would have run 
 
 
 /I 
 
 we may have run 
 
 we might have run 
 
 we would have run 
 
 •< 
 
 2 
 
 you may have run 
 
 you might have run 
 
 you would have run 
 
 
 3 m. 
 
 they may have run 
 
 they might have run 
 
 they would have run 
 
 
 3 f . 
 
 they may liave run 
 
 they might have run 
 
 they would have run 
 
 
 ,3n. 
 
 they may have run 
 
 lliey might have run 
 
 they would have run 
 
 This tense in our sign is the same as the preterite, I run.
 
 : V E MOOD, 
 
 
 
 
 
 143 
 
 
 - 
 
 FUTURE. 
 
 Anterioi . 
 
 Simple. 
 
 
 Anterior. 
 
 "^ 
 
 I had run 
 
 
 I shall run 
 
 I shall have run 
 
 
 tliou hadst run 
 
 
 thou will 
 
 run 
 
 thou wiit have run 
 
 
 he had run 
 
 
 he will run 
 
 he will have run 
 
 
 she had run 
 
 
 she will 
 
 run 
 
 she will have run 
 
 
 it had run 
 
 
 it will run 
 
 it will have run 
 
 
 we had run 
 
 
 we shall 
 
 run 
 
 we shall have run 
 
 
 you had run 
 
 
 you will 
 
 run 
 
 you will have run 
 
 
 they had run 
 
 
 they will 
 
 run 
 
 they will have run 
 
 
 they had run 
 
 
 they will 
 
 run 
 
 they will have run 
 
 
 they had run 
 
 
 they will 
 
 run 
 
 they will have run 
 
 
 RESENT, OR FtTURE SiMPLE. 
 
 Obligatorii hii right. 
 
 Obligatory byjorce. 
 
 Obligator n by presumption. 
 
 Obligatory by prayer, 
 order, or determination. 
 
 Infi- 
 nitive 
 
 I should run 
 
 I must run 
 
 I will run 
 
 let me run 
 
 
 thou shouldst run 
 
 thou must run 
 
 thou shall run 
 
 run 
 
 
 he should run 
 
 he must run 
 
 he shall run 
 
 let him run 
 
 
 she should run 
 
 she must run 
 
 she shall run 
 
 let her run 
 
 
 it should run 
 
 it must run 
 
 it shall run 
 
 let it run 
 
 c 
 
 3 
 
 we should run 
 
 we must run 
 
 we shall run 
 
 let us run 
 
 O 
 
 you should run 
 
 you must run 
 
 you shall run 
 
 ru n 
 
 
 they should run 
 
 they must run 
 
 they shall run 
 
 let they run 
 
 
 they should run 
 
 they must run 
 
 they shall run 
 
 let they run 
 
 
 they should run 
 
 they must run 
 
 they shall run 
 
 let they run 
 
 
 VST, OR Future A 
 
 nterior. 
 
 
 
 should have run 
 
 I must have run 
 
 I will have run 
 
 let me have run 
 
 
 ou shouldst have run 
 
 thou must have run 
 
 thou shalt have run 
 
 have run 
 
 
 ' should have run 
 
 he must have run 
 
 he shall have run 
 
 let him have run 
 
 
 e should have run 
 
 she must have run 
 
 she shall have run 
 
 let her have run 
 
 ^ 
 
 should have run 
 
 it must liave run 
 
 it shall have run 
 
 let it have run 
 
 Qi 
 
 2 should have run 
 
 we must have run 
 
 we will have run 
 
 let us have run 
 
 > 
 
 u should have run 
 
 you must have run 
 
 you shall have run 
 
 have run 
 
 o 
 
 ey should have run 
 
 they must have run 
 
 ihey shall have run 
 
 let them have run 
 
 
 ey should have run 
 
 they must have run 
 
 they shall have run 
 
 let them have run 
 
 
 ey should have run 
 
 they must have run 
 
 they shall iiave run 
 
 let them have run 

 
 144 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 
 
 In each of these various tenses and moods a 
 verb raay be repeated in four different manners, 
 
 viz. — 
 
 f 1. in the possessive sense, as I have run. 
 Affirmatively, | ^ .^^ ^^^^ negative ... / have not run. 
 
 Interroo-a- C 1 • i^"^ ^^^^ positive sense, as Have I run ? 
 tively, ^2. in the negative ... Have I not run? 
 
 Consequently, preserving the signs in their sim- 
 ple form for the representation of the verbs in the 
 affirmative positive sense, we shall express, 
 
 lOthly, The negation and interrogation by a 
 thin line drawn across the characters in the first 
 case, or joined before them in the second. Ex. 
 No. 10. 
 
 / have not run. Have I run ? H ave I not run 7 
 
 llthlv. The verbs have and he; these two 
 words, when auxiliary, being expressed, the first 
 with a loop, and the second with a straight line 
 joined at the end of the pronominal characters, 
 are distinguished, when used in their individual 
 sense, by a small dot added to them. Ex. No. 1 1 . 
 / have TjoolxS. I am studious.* 
 
 12thly and lastly. The prepositions, conjunc- 
 tions, and adverbs most frequently used ; viz. 
 
 * It is useless to remark that we express the root of the 
 verb alone with the above signs, and that all the variations 
 of time and mood are expressed with the auxiliary charac- 
 ters, as well as all those of persons and numbers with the 
 pronominal figures.
 
 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 145 
 
 to, of, for, with, so, on, more, less, very, amU 
 than, with the signs given in Ex. No. 12, being 
 written above the line ; and at, hy,from, without, 
 as, in, most, least, ever, not, or, with the same 
 signs, being written under the line. 
 
 It might appear at first sight a rather difficult 
 task to class in our minds, and to remember in 
 the practice, the numerous arbitrary figures con- 
 tained under the above twelve heads, and which 
 form the basis of our symbolical system ; but on 
 a closer examination we soon perceive that al- 
 most all these variegated and apparently irregular 
 figures are formed in a simple and regular man- 
 ner, from the various combinations of di few ele- 
 mentary signs, which latter signs are the only 
 real arbitrary ones.* 
 
 For instance, having chosen five simple distinct 
 characters to be applied to pronouns or adjectives, 
 we express in the following manner : 
 
 Istly. The five singular personal pronouns ; 
 viz. / or me, thou or tJiee, he or him, she or her, 
 it, with the five characters written above the line. 
 
 2ndly. The five plural pronouns correspond- 
 ing to the same persons ; viz. we or us, you, they 
 or them, (masc.) they or them, (fem.) they or 
 them, (neuter,) with the same characters written 
 under the line. 
 
 * See Plate V.
 
 146 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 
 
 3rdly. The five singular pronominal adjec- 
 tives ; viz. my^ thy^ his, her, its, with the same 
 characters, having a small comma added to them, 
 written above the line. 
 
 4thly. The five plural pronominal adjectives 
 corresponding ; viz. our, your, their, (raasc.) 
 their, (fern.) their, (neuter,) with the same cha- 
 racters and comma written under the line. 
 
 5thly. The five singular possessive pronouns ; 
 viz. mine, thine, his own, hers, its own, with 
 the same characters, having a small inverted 
 comma added to them, written above the line. 
 
 6thly. The five plural possessive pronouns 
 corresponding; viz. ours, yours, theirs, (masc.) 
 theirs, (fem.) theirs, (neuter,) with the same 
 characters and inverted comma written under 
 the line. 
 
 Consequently, with five simple characters and 
 two commas, we express thirty different words of 
 the English language, and as many as sixty dis- 
 tinct meanings, since we express in all possessive 
 words the number of the substantives possessed, 
 by writing the possessive comma for the singular 
 above, and for the plural below the pronominal 
 character ; besides giving the gender of plural 
 pronouns in the third person. Those distinctions, 
 which cost us no extra trouble, at the same time 
 that they render writing more regular, are indis-
 
 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 147 
 
 pensable in our allegorical system, where all 
 verbs being written in their simple roots only, 
 we have to look to the nominative pronouns for 
 the distinction of numbers. For instance, the 
 phrase, Your sheep are ivhite^ and mine is black, 
 would be written in your system. Your (plural) 
 sheep be white, and mine (singular) be black. 
 
 Proceeding in our examination of the allego- 
 rical characters, we find that 
 
 The singular demonstrative pronouns this, that, 
 being expressed with the two characters ascribed 
 to /, you, looped at their beginnings and written 
 above the line, we have also, 
 
 2ndly. The plural demonstrative pronouns 
 corresponding ; viz. these, those, with the same 
 characters written under the line. 
 
 3rdly. The two singular demonstrative ad- 
 jectives ; viz. this, that, with the same characters, 
 having a dot placed before them and written 
 above the line. 
 
 4thly. The two plural demonstrative pro- 
 nouns corresponding ; viz, these, those, with the 
 same characters and dots written under the line. 
 
 Consequently, we have here again eight differ- 
 ent words expressed with two characters and 
 one dot.* 
 
 * There is a great deal of confusion in some grammars, 
 as well as misunderstanding among some grammarians, with 
 
 L 2
 
 148 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 
 
 Lastly. The singular relative pronoun who 
 or whom^ what, and ivhich^ being expressed with 
 the character ascribed to the pronoun it, having 
 at its beginning a small or a larger, or a dotted 
 loop, and written above the line, we trace also, 
 
 2ndly. The plural relative pronouns corces- 
 ponding, with the same looped characters written 
 under the line.* 
 
 3rdly. The singular relative adjectives what, 
 which, with the same looped characters, having a 
 
 respect to various words called adjectives, or pronouns, or 
 pronominal adjectives, &c. &c. The rule we have followed 
 is this : whatever is written for a noun, (pro nomine.,) we 
 call pronoun ; whatever is added to a noun, we call adjec- 
 tive ; consequently, in the phrase Take this, the word this 
 is a pronoun ; and in the other phrase, Take this hook, the 
 same word this is an adjective. f In English we write both 
 in the same manner ; but such a confusion would have been 
 a blot in our allegorical system, which we give as a mathe- 
 matical (and consequently strictly exact) written language, 
 addressing itself to the mind, not to the ear, and legible to 
 all eyes, although the tongue may translate it into a hundred 
 different dialects. 
 
 * We need not repeat here, that the distinction of num- 
 bers is as essential to us in relative pronouns as in other 
 words, particularly when used as nominatives of verbs. 
 
 f The articles, in our opinion, are true adjectives. How- 
 ever, as we are not writing a grammar, we have preserved 
 in this (as well as in other instances where they did not 
 interfere positively with our system) the acknowledged 
 denominations.
 
 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 149 
 
 dot placed before them, and written above the 
 line. 
 
 4thly. The plural relative adjectives corres- 
 ponding, with the same characters and dots 
 written under the line. 
 
 5thly. The singular possessive relative adjec- 
 tive whose^ with the small looped character, having 
 a comma placed above it when the substantive 
 possessed is in the singular, and under it when 
 the substantive is in the plural number; this looped 
 character and comma being written above the line. 
 
 Gthly. The plural relative adjective corres- 
 ponding, with the same characters written under 
 the line. 
 
 ythly. The singular possessive relative pro- 
 noun with the same character, having an inverted 
 comma placed above or below, according to the 
 number of the substantive possessed, and written 
 above the line. 
 
 8thly. The plural corresponding pronoun, with 
 the same character and comma written under the 
 line. Therefore with two signs and two commas, 
 we have expressed five English words and four- 
 teen different meanings. 
 
 With respect to the verbs we have also sim- 
 plified the characters as much as it was possible ; 
 expressing, with twelve auxiliary signs, almost all 
 the different variations of moods and tenses of
 
 150 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 
 
 the English grammar. As to the prepositions, 
 conjunctions, and adverbs, although we call them 
 arbitrary, yet, with respect to the English lan- 
 guage, they are nearly all written phonetically : 
 thus, should the student forget their allegorical 
 meanings, the logographic sounds of their charac- 
 ters would soon bring them to his mind. 
 
 Orthography of Allegorical Characters. 
 
 It is desirable to join into one combined figure 
 as many characters as possible, provided each 
 individual character remain perfectly in its form, 
 and the sense of the compound figure be not 
 doubtful. In illustration of the above precept, 
 the following rules are subjoined. 
 
 Rule I. — All nominative pronouns, immedi- 
 ately followed by one or more auxiliary verbs, 
 must be joined with them in one character, as Ex. 
 No. 13. I had eaten. You should have said it. 
 
 Rule II. — When an adverb intervenes be- 
 tween the pronoun and the auxiliary verb, the 
 latter may be joined with the pronoun, as in 
 Rule I. ; but in this case, the adverb should be 
 joined to the verb to which it relates, in the man- 
 ner indicated for the writing of logography, page 
 123; or a dot placed under the said verb, in 
 order to point it out. Ex. No. 14. We shall 
 soon have done. He seldom icill appear.
 
 ALLEGOHICAL WRITING. 151 
 
 Remark 1. — When the pronoun and the auxi- 
 liary verb relating to it are separated by other 
 words, a dot should be placed after the pronoun, 
 and another dot before the auxiliary verb, in 
 order to indicate their relation with each other ; 
 and also to show that the pronominal sign, form- 
 ing a part of the auxiliary character,* is not 
 to be pronounced in the reading. Ex. No. 1.5. 
 Mine, as I have said, would have suited them. 
 
 Remark 2. — It is advisable to place a dot also 
 before all auxiliary characters, whose pronominal 
 sign is not to be pronounced in the reading. 
 Ex. No. 16. The black horse has ivon the race ; 
 (otherwise it would read thus : Tlie black horse, 
 HE has won the race). 
 
 Rule III. — All pronominal, demonstrative, or 
 relative adjectives, separated from the auxiliary 
 verbs to which they relate by the nominatives 
 alone of the phrases, should be joined with the 
 said auxiliary verbs in compound characters. Ex. 
 No. 17. My vote decided the question. This 
 book shall be bound : which book is it ? 
 
 * Our auxiliary characters being so constructed that a per- 
 sonal pronoun is always united with them, it is necessary 
 to adopt some means to show the few exceptions when that 
 personal pronoun is not to be uttered ; otherwise, for in- 
 stance, the Ex. No. 15 would read thus: Mine, as I have 
 said, then ^vould have suited them.
 
 152 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 
 
 Remark 1. — When a qualificative adjective 
 intervenes between the pronominal or demon- 
 strative adjective and the nominative, the two 
 allegorical characters may be joined as above, 
 provided the qualificative adjective be joined to 
 the nominative in the manner indicated for loffo- 
 graphic characters, page 123. 
 
 General Remarks relative to Perspicuity 
 and Expedition. 
 
 Rule IV. — The two impersonal pronouns, 
 people, one, may on all occasions be expressed by 
 the personal pronoun, we. Ex. No. 18. People 
 should remember their promises ; (write. We 
 should remember our promises.) 
 
 Rule V. — All substantives not accompanied 
 by any allegorical signs, and whose short-hand 
 characters might offer some difficulty in the read- 
 ing, had better be pointed out by a dot written 
 above it, (far enough from the character, how- 
 ever, not to be misinterpreted for a vowel point,) 
 as Ex. No. 19. Many boats start from London 
 Bridge every day. 
 
 Rule VI. — All verbs placed in similar circum- 
 stances to those of the substantives above referred 
 to, had better be pointed out by a dot underneath. 
 Ex. No. 20. The acts, to which I have called 
 the attention of the house, originated in
 
 I -LA I J. 
 
 ALLEGORICAL CHARACTERS. 
 
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 C y ^ ^ ^ ' 
 
 rinr: 
 
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 ruicrMie tc twc cr Trvore objects. 
 Sinff: 
 
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 4 ^?' J^c-ss&sszve I^roThOun^. 
 
 ily 
 
 JO •'' Ne^cLly'cn, andJhierri'^uy72n. 
 
 J 
 
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 Hft^havf:. to de. 
 
 ^Z^-^ frepos, Conj, adv. 
 
 -i5 \j ^ i. 
 
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 r* C^ 
 
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 \ seern^ (^ce'J,- 
 
 secin (focJj 
 
 Mnff 
 
 FfM^r: 
 
 c, K ^ <^ "-^ I 
 
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 ■Sin^if: 
 
 e 9 
 
 7-ea^'S weZZ^ 
 
 Plicr: ^ ^ 7v?<K^ Tv^Zl^ 
 
 6 ^Defn/yn str-aZive ^d^ective^. 
 
 Zxampl.es. 
 
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 INDICATIVE MOOD. 
 
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 Future. 
 
 varos. 1 
 
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 .9in^fjle. 
 
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 uivterior. 
 
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 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 153 
 
 The above Rules we feel confident will be 
 found sufficient to ensure perspicuity and expe- 
 dition in the writing of our combined system of 
 short-hand, (viz. both allegorical and logogra- 
 phic). The Plate VI., which contains the speech 
 quoted in page 130, transcribed firstly in logo- 
 graphy, secondly in logographic short-hand, and 
 thirdly in the combined writing ; illustrates si- 
 multaneously the three systems, demonstrating 
 how they combine with each other, and may be 
 consulted as a reference in corroboration of the 
 various instructions and rules given in the course 
 of the above work. 
 
 Excepting a few signs, or rather positions, 
 ascribed by Mr. Mote, and after him by Mr. 
 Whitehead, to some of the pronouns and auxi- 
 liary verbs, we do not remember having ever 
 observed any sort of classification or order in the 
 various arbitrary characters, more or less numer- 
 ous, contained in all short-hand publications; and 
 we may say, that they off'er not the remotest 
 analogy with the regular system we have deve- 
 loped, the advantages of which are sufficiently 
 illustrated in the first part of the chapter to in- 
 duce the experimental reader to try its practice. 
 
 As a conclusive remark we will add, that our 
 allegoiical system presents a collection of logi- 
 cal formulas addressing themselves to the mind.
 
 154 ALLEGORICAL WRITING. 
 
 and consequently intelligible to all philosophical 
 readers, independently of the dialect in which 
 they may be spoken ; being entirely similar to 
 those of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, chemistry, 
 mineralogy, or any other science w^hich has been 
 sufficiently investigated to admit of an analytical 
 and, as far as it extends, universal language. 
 With respect to the first, and starting from the 
 point at which we have stopped, it might be pos- 
 sible to analyze also, and to class systematically, 
 all the remaining words of the language, or more 
 properly speaking, all the remaining meanings 
 of the philosophical world, and thus to establish 
 a universal written language, in which could be 
 treated all the questions relating to religion, 
 morality, and political economy. Such a creation 
 might prove a valuable gift to mankind ; and we 
 may, perhaps, some day attempt the herculean 
 task, should w^e meet, in this our first acknow- 
 ledged work, with sufficient encouragement from 
 the public, to give us the confidence in ourselves 
 indispensable for such an undertaking.
 
 P L AT E VI 
 
 c^'/€€y "-^^e-fE^Ay ^^^y-^/e^ j^^^€i^^ /3/ _ , /S/. 
 
 / A-^-U^^^-ffit/iZJ^-^^ayt^ ef^^^y^^'^M^'/e^!0 /^^yLs^a.'^i^rn^ /%^«e^/^e-^-«^ tz^r^^'/ ^^-/-^ 
 
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 J-^-t^ /U-ity /^£^e^ /oi^h/ a^^^<^^^t^<^^^ (^^y^^ 
 
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 ti^^u^HV -3; 
 
 
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 P— i-. 
 
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 ..s^T"^:^ 
 
 ^'"^^^V:-^, 
 
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 -T 
 
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 V^ 
 
 
 r 
 
 f- 
 
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 S^ 
 
 ^./^/ ^;, . ^^^-^ 
 
 ^^-^ 
 
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 ^ /' •< 
 
 « 
 
 X/. y^. 
 
 "VT 
 
 r^ 
 
 7^2-?^ 
 
 
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 ^ 
 
 ^' ^Kf'-^M''-''^ 
 
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 t^t^ 
 
 -^=^[f-^ 
 
 ^ ■ Wi-Lson^ m^t . ^isk^/;^:iis S'^Z a jz^si^n^.
 
 PHONOGRAPHY. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 [y§0(g©(g[^/S.[?[>^JV.
 
 MUSICOGRAPHY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ORIGIN AND IMPORTANCE OF ANCIENT MUSIC. 
 
 As we have stated in our Introduction, Music is 
 the first language ever spoken by man, and its 
 origin cannot be attributed to human invention 
 any more than speaking itself, or dancing, or any 
 other spontaneous exercise of our innate faculties. 
 But by music we generally understand various 
 successions and combinations of vibrated sounds, 
 classed according to fixed rules and a standard 
 scale agreed upon amongst certain communities ; 
 and in this sense, although the gradation and rela- 
 tive proportions of the sounds are generally taken 
 from nature itself, yet the necessity of conform- 
 ing ourselves to the said fixed rules, in order to 
 be understood by others, has made it a science; 
 and a very intricate one it has become. 
 
 Music seems to have been one of the first arts 
 practised on earth, and we find it connected with 
 the most ancient monuments of mankind. It is 
 probable, also, that vocal music long preceded the
 
 158 ORIGIN AND IMPORTANCE 
 
 instrumental, if ever there have been amongst the 
 antients a music really instrumental ; that is to 
 say, composed entirely and solely for instruments. 
 Men, long before they contrived instruments, 
 must have observed the different tones of their 
 voices ; they must have learned, from the con- 
 certs of the birds, to modify their accents, in 
 order to render them agreeable and melodious : 
 afterwards wind instruments were probably the 
 first used, in imitation of the whistling of the 
 wind amongst the rushes, or other vegetable 
 tubes. Such was the opinion of Diodorus, and 
 other authors, as expressed in the following 
 verses of Lucretius : 
 
 " At liqiiidas avium voces imitarier ore 
 Ante fuit multo, quain levia carmina cantu 
 Concelebrare homines possmt, aureis-qiie juvare; 
 Et zephyri cave per calamorum Sibila primum 
 Agrestes docuere cavas inflare cicutas." 
 
 As to other instruments, sonorous strings are so 
 common, that men must have soon remarked their 
 different tones, and composed tunes with them. 
 Drums, and such like instruments, might have 
 been constructed in imitation of the hollow trunks 
 of trees and other concave objects, which were 
 noticed to produce a deep sound when struck. 
 
 Besides these natural suppositions, nothing can 
 be advanced with any degree of certainty with
 
 OF ANCIENT MUSIC. 159 
 
 regard to music itself as an art. Many attribute 
 its invention to Mercury, who is said also to have 
 invented the lyre ; others assert that Cadmus, in 
 running away from the court of the king of Phoe- 
 nicia, brought with him into Greece the musician 
 Hermione, or harmony. In Plutarch's Dialogues 
 on Music we find, in one part, that Lysas attributes 
 the invention of music to Amphion ; in another, 
 that Solericus names Apollo as the inventor ; and 
 in a third, that Olympus has the credit of it. We 
 have little means, and perhaps less interest still, 
 to investigate the rights of the three claimants. 
 To these first inventors succeeded Chiron, Demo- 
 docus, Hermes, and Orpheus, who is also repre- 
 sented as inventor of the lyre ; afterwards Phoe- 
 nicus, and Therpander, who lived in the time of 
 Lycurgus, and gave rules to music ; then Thales 
 and Thausiris. 
 
 Most of these great musicians lived before 
 Homer. Amongst the more modern ones we 
 may mention Lasus Hermionicus, who is said to 
 have written the first treaty on this art, Diodorus, 
 who perfected the flute by adding new holes to it, 
 and Timotheus, who was fined by the Lacede- 
 monians for having added a string to the lyre. 
 
 The antients, extremely obscure and confused 
 with respect to the inventors of musical instru- 
 ments, are not more clear or intelligible with
 
 160 
 
 ORIGIN AND IMPORTANCE 
 
 regard to the instruments themselves, of which 
 we know little more than the names. They differ 
 much, also, among themselves as to the nature, 
 object, power, and constitution of music. In 
 general, they gave to this word a far wider sense 
 than we do at the present age, classing under that 
 name not only dance, pantomime, and poetry, but 
 also the assemblage of all the other sciences. He- 
 sychius tells us that the Athenians gave the deno- 
 mination of music to all the arts and sciences ; 
 and Hermes defines music the knowledge of the 
 order of all things. This was also the doctrine of 
 Pythagoras and Plato, who maintained that all in 
 nature was music, and taught morals through its 
 means. The Pythagoricians, believing the soul 
 to be formed of the most harmonious proportions, 
 sought to re-establish, by means of a terrestrial 
 one, the intellectual and primeval harmony of 
 its component parts ; that harmony which exist- 
 ed in its perfection when the soul inhabited the 
 heavens, previous to its animating our frames. 
 
 With regard to music itself, in the modern 
 sense of the word, then inseparably linked with 
 poetry, it was highly esteemed amongst the an- 
 tients, and particularly the Greeks, who attri- 
 buted to this art the most wonderful effects and 
 an unlimited power, believing it to be practised 
 even by their gods. Plato and Aristotle, gene-
 
 OF ANCIENT MUSIC. l6l 
 
 rally at variance with each other on all political 
 questions, agree nevertheless in giving the great- 
 est influence to music on the morals of the peo- 
 ple. Polybius tells us that music was necessary to 
 soften the dispositions of people inhabiting cold 
 and dreary countries ; and that the Cyneta^, who 
 neglected music, surpassed in cruelty all the other 
 Greeks, there being no people among whom so 
 many crimes were ever committed. Athenaius 
 asserts that in former times the laws both divine 
 and human, the exhortations to virtue, the history 
 of the gods, heroes, and illustrious men, were all 
 written in verse, and publicly sung in choruses 
 accompanied with instruments. 
 
 This union of music with poetry in the cele- 
 bration of all that is destined to exalt the mind, 
 may perhaps partly explain to us those wonderful 
 effects of which our modern music can give no 
 example or idea. Indeed, nothing in our present 
 combinations of musical sounds can be compared to 
 the music of the Greeks ; for the simple reason that 
 theirs rested entirely upon the various succes- 
 sions of four notes, forming their musical system, 
 or tetrachord ; whilst ours is based upon the va- 
 rious successions and combinations of eight notes, 
 forming our musical gamut, or octave. They cer- 
 tainly had on their instruments, when tuned in the 
 diatonic gender, the same succession of sounds as 
 
 M
 
 162 ORIGIN AND IMPORTANCE 
 
 we would find on a modern harp by striking six- 
 teen successive strings, (a number equal to their 
 complete scale,) but little or no notice was taken 
 of the relation of the octave ; the combination of 
 four sounds, or a tetrachord, forming in their sys- 
 tem a whole as perfect to their ear, as that of 
 eight, or an octave, to ours. 
 
 This musical scale in its most complete state 
 consisted of sixteen notes or strings, divided into 
 four tetrachords conjoint, in the same manner as 
 our octaves are ; viz. by the highest note of the 
 first tetrachord being the lowest of the second 
 above. There was, however, a disjunction from 
 the second to the third, or from the third to the 
 fourth, according to certain rules useless to re- 
 late here ; this variation caused the third tetra- 
 chord to have two names, as shown in Plate I., 
 fig. 1, in which we have noted in modern charac- 
 ters the whole Greek scale in the diatonic and in 
 the chromatic genders. 
 
 They had also a third gender, called the en- 
 harmonic, in which, according to Aristoxenes, the 
 three first strings were placed at a quarter of a 
 tone from each other; or, according to Pythagoras, 
 they were tuned at unequal distances, giving a 
 minor half-tone between the first and second, and 
 a major half-tone between the first and third ; so 
 that there was only the difference from the major
 
 OF ANCIENT MUSIC. l63 
 
 to the minor half-tone between the second and 
 third : a difference which modern ears cannot ap- 
 preciate. It will be further remarked, as another 
 similitude with our octave, that the two extreme 
 notes of each tetrachord were fixed and unalter- 
 able ; and that the intermediary ones alone suffered 
 those various alterations necessitated by the gen- 
 ders, modes, &c. &c. 
 
 The word harmony had with them a sense 
 entirely different to that which it has acquired 
 amongst the moderns ; being applied only to the 
 successions of the notes and not to their combina- 
 tions, since they never played in their accompani- 
 ments any other note but the unison, or at most 
 the octave. As to time and measure, they were 
 entirely governed by the rhythm and metre of 
 the verses, for which they had the most rigid 
 rules. 
 
 With regard to their musical characters, or 
 notes, they were taken from the letters of their 
 alphabet, written in different positions according 
 to the various modes and genders, and which 
 have been explained in all their details by their 
 authors. 
 
 It is generally and erroneously believed, that 
 if the ancient music is entirely lost to us, it is 
 in consequence of its characters being totally 
 unintelligible. I hope that the short account I 
 
 M 2
 
 164 OF ANCIENT MUSIC. 
 
 have just given of the music of the Greeks will 
 be sufficient to prove, that we could now decipher 
 their notes as well, perhaps, as the Greeks them- 
 selves might have done ; but to understand, to 
 execute, to feel those melodies, these are the dif- 
 ficulties which will never be surmounted ; for, in 
 music, as well as in other languages, it is a dif- 
 ferent thing to read and to understand, and the 
 ancient music is a dead language, of which the 
 vocabulary is lost. Those who might feel a 
 deeper interest in the subject may consult the 
 works of Aristoxenes, disciple of Aristotle, chief 
 of the sect opposed to Pythagoras, and the most 
 ancient author whose works have been preserved; 
 then Euclide of Alexandria, Aristides, who wrote 
 in the time of Cicero ; afterwards Alypius, then 
 Gaudentius, Nicoraachus, and Bacchius; Plutarch 
 also, whose Dialogue on Music we have had occa- 
 sion to mention ; the mathematician Ptolemy, who 
 wrote the principles of harmony about the time 
 of the Roman emperor Antoninus, and tried to 
 combine in his system the advantages of the two 
 schools that divided the musical world ; and last- 
 ly, amongst the Greeks, Briennius. In Latin we 
 have also, Boecius, Martianus Cassiodorus, and 
 Saint Augustin.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ORIGIN AND PROGRESSIVE FORMATION OF 
 MODERN MUSIC. 
 
 Music from the Greeks was transmitted to the 
 Romans, at a time when the degenerated charac- 
 ter of the latter rendered them unfit to feel and 
 encourage it in its higher branches ; and, at the 
 downfal of the Roman empire, music of all the fine 
 arts the most brilliant, because the most delicate 
 and subtle, would have entirely disappeared under 
 the oppression of the northern invaders, had it 
 not been rescued by the first Christians, who 
 had associated it with their imposing ceremonies. 
 
 However, at the time when the latter began 
 to have churches and to sing psalms, music had 
 already lost the greatest part of its energy and 
 beauty ; and the Christians deprived it of most 
 of its remaining power, viz. that of rhythm and 
 measure, when from verse, to which it had always 
 been applied, they transposed it to the prose of 
 holy writ, or to some barbarous poetry worse still 
 for music than prose itself. 
 
 Nevertheless, the plain Chant, or church music, 
 preserved by the priests of Rome in its primitive 
 character, as all other external ceremonies of the
 
 166 ORIGIN AND FORMATION 
 
 church, offers still some precious remains of the 
 ancient melody of the Greeks in the diatonic 
 scale and its various modes, as much as it can 
 be felt without measure or rhythm. For, as early 
 as 370, St. Ambrosius, archbishop of Milan, had 
 established certain rules for church music. These 
 rules, modified afterwards by the Pope Gregory, 
 were ultimately introduced in France by the Em- 
 peror Charlemagne, who brought from Rome for 
 that purpose Theodore and Benedict, two great 
 musicians, who had been taught by Pope Gre- 
 gory himself. This music, called the Gregorian 
 Chant, is the same now in practice in the Catholic 
 churches on the Continent. 
 
 In the year 1024, an Italian Benedictine named 
 Guy d'Arezzo, having according to the common 
 opinion added to the Greek scale three notes in 
 the treble and one in the bass, or, according 
 to Meibomius, having by these additions restored 
 this scale to its perfect state, marked his lower 
 note with a Greek G, or gamma ; and as it was 
 the first on the ascending scale, he gave its 
 name to the whole system, which he called also 
 gamma-ut, or gamm'ut, from the two names given 
 by him to this first note ; viz. the one gamma, as 
 the lowest note on the scale, and the second id, as 
 the first note of his hexametric division of the 
 same scale.
 
 OF MODERN MUSIC. 167 
 
 But we must not confound this gamut with 
 our present one. As we have stated, the Greeks 
 had written their music w'ith the letters of their 
 alphabet, and the Romans adopted corresponding 
 letters for their musical sounds. Besides these 
 letters, the Greeks had also four syllables corre- 
 sponding to the four notes of their tetrachord, 
 which they used to pronounce in studying their 
 intonations ; and Guy, having substituted the divi- 
 sion of six to that of four previously in use, gave 
 to his hexachord the denominations o^ ut, re^ mif 
 fa^ sol, la ; these six syllables being the first ones 
 of six verses of a hymn to St. John the Baptist' 
 in which they were observed to fall in succession 
 Upon the six first notes of his scale. ( Plate I., 
 fig. 2). Thus, in running up the twenty notes 
 constituting the full range of sounds then practised 
 in music, the six syllables were repeated every 
 hexachord, in the same manner as the four syl- 
 lables te, ta, the, tho, had been repeated, every 
 tetrachord in succession, by the Greek students. 
 (See Plate I., fig. 1). 
 
 It was not till a long time afterwards that the re- 
 lation of the octave, being principally attended to,* 
 
 * We are aware that the common opinion attributes 
 to the Pope Gregory the discovery of the relation of the 
 octave, and subsequently the fovmdation of the modern 
 system of music or gamut ; probably from the fact of his
 
 168 ORIGIN AND FORMATION 
 
 gave rise to a third system or division by eight, 
 which to our ears is the only natural and perfect 
 one. In the last gamut the six first notes pre- 
 served the six names chosen by Guy, and the 
 seventh had no other designation than its alpha- 
 betical letter. This caused great difficulties in 
 the study of music until the latter part of the 
 seventeenth century, when a French musician, 
 named Lemaire, adopted the syllable si, which 
 was subsequently introduced into Italy and other 
 countries. 
 
 Thus every note had two names : the first its 
 alphabetical letter, showing its fixed degree on 
 the scale ; the second its syllahle, showing its re- 
 lation with the fundamental note of the music 
 
 having reduced the musical alphabet to seven letters, re- 
 peated in different type every successive octave. But it is 
 easy to demonstrate the error of both suppositions. 
 
 Firstly, with regard to the properties of the octave : the 
 very fact of the Greeks playing at the octave of the voices 
 those accompaniments which they called harmonies or anti- 
 phonies, proved that they knew as well as Pope Gregory 
 himself the relation of the octave, named by them diapa- 
 son, and that if they did not repeat the same seven letters 
 every successive diapason or octave, it was probably because 
 their melody, not being submitted to that octametric divi- 
 sion of sounds, gave to every note a distinct character, 
 which called forth a distinct representative sign. Indeed it 
 is highly probable that their first instruments, and conse- 
 quently their first music, had been based upon the very
 
 OF MODERN MUSIC. l69 
 
 executed ; which fundamental was for that purpose 
 always called ut. For these seven syllables were 
 only invented to facilitate the study of music 
 through a transposition which is practised even 
 to the present day by those masters who, re- 
 gardless of their own interests, desire their pupils 
 to acquire rapidly a thorough knowledge of the 
 twelve various keys. 
 
 There was besides a third manner of writing 
 instrumental music, called in French tahlaturej 
 and which consisted in tracing as many lines as 
 there were strings on the instrument, and figur- 
 ating, by small marks on these lines, the notes 
 which were to be sounded. From this Guy 
 d'Arrezzo formed his stave, consisting of four 
 
 system of which the invention is attributed to the learned 
 Father ; as both Nicomachus and Boecius assert that Mer- 
 cury's tetrachord, the first instrument invented, was com- 
 posed of four strings, of which the two extreme ones sounded 
 the octave, and the two intermediate ones, the fourth and 
 fifth, as c, F, G, c, (the very notes of our fundamental bass); 
 and, if we take into account the various alterations which 
 were occasionally made to the two intermediate strings, 
 according to the various modes in which the instrument 
 was tuned, we must come to the conclusion that the suc- 
 cession of sounds given by these four strings was very 
 similar to our modern gamut. 
 
 The Greeks subsequently extended the range of their in- 
 struments to two octaves, and adopted for the subdivision 
 of these a system entirely new, and perhaps purposely
 
 170 ORIGIN AND FORMATION 
 
 lines only, which is still in use for church music ; 
 and in 1338, Jean de Muris, a canon of Paris, 
 having added a line to these four, gave to the 
 notes all the distinctions necessary to express 
 their relative duration. Thus was established 
 the system, which is now become almost the uni- 
 versal written language for music. 
 
 Nevertheless, it was not before the end of the 
 fifteenth century that this noble art began to 
 emerge from the barbarism into which it had 
 fallen, when the organists of Germany gave to 
 sacred music that deep and majestic character for 
 which they have retained their superiority to the 
 present day. Italy soon followed, and, favoured 
 by the harmony of its tongue, which assimilated it 
 
 calculated to counterbalance the powerful effect of the 
 octave. Whatever might have been their motives, we can- 
 not certainly accuse them of ignorance on this score. 
 
 As to the second point, viz. that of having established 
 the modern musical system, it has no better foundation than 
 the first, since the plain chant, as he established it, and as 
 it has been preserved in some of the ant'ifplionies sung to 
 the present day in Catholic churches, has little or no rela- 
 tion with modern music. Even three centuries after him, 
 when Guy d'Arezzo substituted his hexachord for the tetra- 
 chord of the Greeks, and gave to its six notes six distinct 
 syllables, destined to facilitate the study of vocal music, the 
 melody was still limited to six sounds, as is proved to us by 
 the hymn itself, which furnished that musician with his six 
 intonation syllables, (see Plate I. fig. 2 ;) by these six syllables
 
 OF MODERN MUSIC. I7l 
 
 in a great measure to the ancient languages, gave 
 birth to a kind of music entirely new ; viz. the 
 Opera, of which the first one, composed by 
 Vincent Galilvea, upon the stirring history of 
 Ugolin, had immediately an immense success. 
 
 Yet the science of music remained still very 
 limited, the whole harmony known consisting 
 of a few simple chords, until the year 1590, 
 when a Venetian, named Monteverde, invented 
 the natural discords, and thereby opened the field 
 allotted to the composer. But from the seven- 
 teenth century only did harmony begin to receive 
 the wide and firm basis which has multiplied its 
 power and resources, and made it a science. At 
 that time various French mathematicians directed 
 
 being deemed sufficient then to read all the modulations of 
 music, and by a similar gamut of six syllables being prac- 
 tised in France at the same time that Guy gave his to Italy ; 
 as Jean de Muris found it still in use in Paris in the four- 
 teeth century, and of which the syllables were pro^ to, do, 
 no, tu, a. 
 
 A very remarkable feature of this hexametric division of 
 the musical sound is, that where the major gamut ends the 
 minor begins ; as, major gamut, c, D, E, f, g, a ; minor 
 gamut, A, B, c, n, e, f; and by playing successively these 
 two gamuts, we lose entirely for the moment all sentiment 
 of the octave. The latter effect will prove that the chant 
 of that time was much more analogous to the Greek, than to 
 the modern music.
 
 172 ORILIIN AND FORMATION 
 
 their investigations toward the analysis of sound, 
 its generation and properties. Sauveur and the 
 Rev. Dr. Mersenne first discovered the principle 
 of the perfect chord in the vibrations of a single 
 string ; viz. the tendency of every sound to gene- 
 rate its own third and fifth. Upon this Rameau 
 built his Treaty of Harmony ^ published in Paris 
 in 1722, of which the most important part is his 
 system of fundamental bass, which had great 
 success, probably from his having been the first 
 to ascertain that all chords are susceptible of cer- 
 tain modifications, called in French renversement ; 
 that is to say, of having any one of their component 
 notes written in the bass without ceasing to be 
 harmonically the same. About the same time an 
 eminent violin player, named Tartini, published 
 another treaty of harmony entirely opposed to the 
 one above mentioned, inasmuch as he directed all 
 the bass to be engendered from the treble, whilst 
 Rameau had done the reverse ; the one drawing 
 harmony from melody, the other melody from har- 
 mony ; each by an opposite road coming to conclu- 
 sions nearly similar, as to the combination and suc- 
 cession of chords. This sort of invention became 
 almost a mania, particularly in France, where each 
 new system had its followers, who arrayed them- 
 selves earnestly under the banner of its inventor.
 
 OF MODERN MUSIC. 173 
 
 Meanwhile Germany and Italy had been fast 
 progressing in the practical part of this new 
 science, and the French musicians were still gro- 
 velling in their petty quarrels whilst these two 
 countries had produced many first-rate composers ; 
 for it is but within the last century that France, 
 and afterwards England, have begun to possess 
 a music of their own, and native composers of 
 real merit. 
 
 In all the fine arts examples have generally 
 preceded rules, but in modern music it has been 
 the reverse : mathematicians have laid the foun- 
 dations upon which men of genius have raised 
 their admirable monuments. This progress, so 
 directly opposed to all that we know, is perhaps 
 the strongest proof we can adduce that music, as 
 we understand it in the present era, is a creation 
 entirely new, and that no relation or even com- 
 parison can be established between the antients 
 and the moderns on that subject. 
 
 We cannot wonder much at the severity of the 
 Lacedemonians towards Timothseus for having 
 added one string to the lyre, when we consider 
 that the addition of a single note* to our gamut 
 has created in us such an estrangement from the 
 Greeks on this subject, that, although we still 
 continue to hold them as our masters in every 
 
 * See Note, page 167.
 
 174 ORIGIN AND FORMATION 
 
 other branch of the fine arts, yet in this one, the 
 most highly honoured and deeply cultivated a- 
 monsrst them, we cannot even form an idea of 
 what they understood or practised, and that (like 
 all those allowed to decide in their own cause) we 
 have not hesitated to attribute to ourselves an 
 immense superiority, doubting almost whether 
 they ever had any real knowledge of music. 
 
 But before we condemn the Greeks as barba- 
 rians upon this score, it is proper that we should 
 pause a little, and reflect if it be really music that 
 we have invented. 
 
 " When we think," says J. J. Rousseau, " that 
 among all the nations of the earth, who have every 
 one had a music and a melody, the Europeans are 
 the only people who ever had a harmony or chords, 
 and who find this mixture agreeable ; when we re- 
 flect that the world has existed so many centuries 
 without, of all the nations who cultivated the fine 
 arts, a single one having ever known that har- 
 mony; that no animal, no bird, no being in nature 
 ever produced any chord but unison, or music but 
 melody; that the languages of the East, so sono- 
 rous, so musical, that the Greek ear so subtle, so 
 refined, and exercised with so much art, have never 
 guided those voluptuous and passionate people 
 towards our harmony ; that without it their music 
 had such wonderful effects, whilst with it ours
 
 OF MODERN MUSIC. 175 
 
 has such poor ones ; that, at last, it was reserved 
 for the nations of the North, whose dull and coarse 
 organs are affected more by noise and strength 
 of sound, than by sweetness of tone and melody of 
 inflexion, to make this grand discovery, and to 
 give it as an ever-ruling principle of the art ; 
 when, I say, we notice all this ; it is very difficult 
 not to suspect that all our harmony is but a gothic 
 and barbarous invention, which we never would 
 have thought of, had we been more sensible to the 
 beauties of the art and to true natural music." 
 
 Without adopting the opinion of the eccentric 
 French author, who was nevertheless himself a 
 perfect harmonist and an ingenious composer, we 
 may say that the distinctive features of modern 
 music is harmony, whilst that of ancient music 
 was melody; and this at least will be placing both 
 parties on even ground. 
 
 It is incontestable that, by extending the mo- 
 dern gamut to the complete octave, we have 
 limited our melody to the divers successions of 
 seven sounds, whilst the antients gave it no other 
 bounds but that of the two extremities of their 
 whole scale. Impressed with so strong a senti- 
 ment of the octave that he could never hear after 
 seven notes but the repetition of the same sounds, 
 the modern musician was naturally drawn to seek 
 variety in the different combinations of these 
 seven notes blended in chords of two, three, or
 
 176 ORIGIN AND FORMATION 
 
 four sounds ; and harmony was created. Modern 
 music is all harmony, nothing but harmony ; and 
 when we consider that on almost every instru- 
 ment we hear, and principally the piano, that 
 modern orchestra in miniature, from which the 
 young beginner receives his first notions of the 
 divine art, and over which the learned composer 
 tries the effects of his scientific combinations, no 
 exact interval can be given except the octave, 
 (which even is not with us admitted as an inter- 
 val,) we may safely assert that where there is no 
 harmony there can be no music. For no note 
 can completely satisfy the exquisite feeling of our 
 soul, unless it be accompanied by its natural 
 chord, which, by blending with it its rich harmo- 
 nies, and shading it as it were with its transparent 
 and mysterious waves, give to the ear an inward 
 feeling of the pure sound it cannot hear.* 
 
 * The young lady, therefore, who, learning by herself a 
 new song, spells with one finger, note by note, on her newly 
 tuned instrument the difficult passages of the sweet melody^ 
 does certainly the thing best calculated to destroy in her 
 every natural sentiment of music, and to make her sing false 
 notes. But let her first practise the accompaniment; then, 
 playing the full, sonorous chords, let her try the air, and she 
 will find almost by inspiration the pure vibrating intona- 
 tions. But, perchance, she may not be able to derive any 
 advantage from this, and the one note, of which every chord 
 is but the relieving gro^md, may still remain unknown, un- 
 felt : in this case, let her return to her first method ; there 
 cannot be the least danger for her musical organs.
 
 OF MODERN MUSIC. 177 
 
 But whilst our instruments are tuned in accord- 
 ance to a temperament, or regulated deviation 
 from the true proportions of the octave, the 
 Greeks had theirs tuned with the most strict 
 accuracy, whether that they obeyed the precepts 
 of Pythagoras, and took all their intervals from 
 the mathematical divisions of the monochord; or 
 that they abided by those of Aristoxenes, and ad- 
 mitted no rule but the acute judgment of their 
 well-exercised ear. Hence it follows, that all the 
 notes they formed were sounded with such pre- 
 ciseness and delicacy, that all chords or mixture 
 of sounds, instead of adding to their effect, would 
 only have altered their exquisite purity, and of- 
 fended the fastidious ear of the listeners. The 
 soul of their music was melody, unfettered, unre- 
 strained, unbounded melody ; and whilst the mo- 
 dern composer encircles his audience with a triple 
 and endless chain of chords, the ancient one car- 
 ried his in the wide open space. Whether he 
 were to follow the lively notes of the lark or the 
 deep roaring of the tiger, on that one strain he 
 would direct the whole might of his choruses ; and 
 with him an orchestra of a thousand instruments 
 were but a thousand voices, still joining, still 
 pouring in one sound, still echoing the thrilling 
 or thundering- note.
 
 CHAPTEK III. 
 
 ON MUSICAL CHARACTERS. 
 ANCIENT AND MODERN CHARACTERS FOR MUSIC. 
 
 The Greeks, as we have seen, had for musical 
 characters the letters of their alphabet, which 
 being also their numerical figures, conveyed to 
 the mind in the same signs both the idea of the 
 notes and the ratio of their different vibrations. 
 The Romans, who learned their music from the 
 Greeks, wrote it also with corresponding alpha- 
 betical signs, which nevertheless, having no rela- 
 tion with their numerical system, were in conse- 
 quence but a very indifferent translation of the 
 Greek written notes. 
 
 The moderns, having adopted the Roman alpha- 
 betical scale, (which the Pope Gregory had re- 
 duced to seven letters only, repeated in different 
 type for every different octave,) soon remarked 
 the imperfections of that system, and contrived 
 various improved characters, of which the two 
 most universally adopted were, and are still 
 now, the staff, and the arithmetical figures. The 
 latter, however, although by far the most clear
 
 ON MUSICAL CHARACTERS. 179 
 
 and easy of the two, has never been used but 
 for the writing of basses, and is now no more 
 seen in printed music. 
 
 We will examine successively these two cha- 
 racters, which, like all other written languages, 
 require to be particularly clear, simple, and ex- 
 peditious, both to read and to write. 
 
 The Staff. 
 
 The staff, invented a thousand years ago, has 
 been rendered gradually more and more com- 
 plicated, without having ever undergone a tho- 
 rough judicious reform or radical improvement. 
 Thus, although all our musical system is based 
 on the octave, although in whatever way we 
 trace our musical characters we can never repre- 
 sent but the seven notes of our gamut combined 
 in various ways, or the same combinations trans- 
 posed in various keys ; yet in our written music 
 no advantage is taken of, no relation is established 
 with these well-ascertained truths. Thus, whilst 
 a staff of three horizontal lines, affording seven 
 distinct positions, would have been sufficient to 
 write all modern combinations of sounds, (with 
 a few additional signs designating the octave to 
 be played,) we have five fixed lines and twelve or 
 fifteen additional ones, making a total of eighteen 
 or twenty lines, and above forty positions ! 
 
 N 2
 
 180 ON MISICAL CHARACTERS. 
 
 With regard to time, that vital part of music, 
 one single remark is sufficient to demonstrate the 
 absurdity of the means employed ; viz. that the 
 more rapidly the music is to be played, the more 
 confused are the characters, the more time is 
 spent in writing them, and the more space they 
 occupy on tlic paper. 
 
 Without enterinoj into the minute details of 
 this defective system, we will limit ourselves to 
 the simple observation, that it overloads the me- 
 mory of the beginner in such a manner, that his 
 ear is formed, and his organs have acquired the 
 necessary pliability and ease, long before he is 
 able to read at first sight ; and that consequently, 
 all his attention and energies are spent in attend- 
 ing to the rules, instead of being centered in the 
 sentiment and execution of the music. Hence 
 it follows, that many people play better without 
 than with notes, and that professors have the 
 greatest difficulty to keep their pupils to them. 
 
 Musicians, it is true, do not see all this, for 
 habit renders every thing easy. Music for them 
 is not the science of sounds, but that of semi- 
 breves, crotchets, quavers, and semiquavers; when 
 these figures do not strike their sight, they cannot 
 see music. Besides, what they have learned with 
 so much hardship, why should they make it easy 
 for others ? It is not, therefore, to the musician
 
 ON MLSICAL CHARACTERS. 181 
 
 that we must appeal here ; but to the man who 
 knows music, and who has reflected on that art. 
 
 There are not two opinions among the latter 
 class of people upon the numerous defects of our 
 characters; but these defects are more easy to 
 expose than to correct, and the many useless 
 attempts that have been made, have only cor- 
 roborated the well-known fact, that the public, 
 without investiffatinof the merits of a new system 
 presented to it, keeps generally to what it finds 
 established ; prefering a bad way of knowing, to a 
 better one of learning. 
 
 The last observation, borrowed from J. J. Rous- 
 seau, brings us naturally to the system which he 
 tried in vain to introduce into general practice; 
 viz. 
 
 The Arithmetical Figures. 
 
 This system of writing music, which consists 
 in representing the seven notes of our gamut 
 with the seven first figures of arithmetic, was ge- 
 nerally used, previously to the present century, for 
 writing basses and accompaniments ; but as such 
 a character necessitated in the player certain 
 preliminary notions of harmony, which, however 
 simple they be, are nevertheless considered as 
 a burden by the modern finger ers^ arithmetical 
 fio-ures have been in all cases replaced bv the
 
 182 ON MUSICAL CHARACTERS. 
 
 present notes, and it is useless for us to enter into 
 more minute details. 
 
 The system proposed by Rousseau, and relat- 
 ing to which he published in 1743 a volume, 
 entitled Dissertation on Modern Music, cannot 
 however be passed entirely without notice. 
 
 In this system the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 
 represent the natural gamut c, d, e,f, g, a, b, and 
 are all written upon one line : the octave above 
 is written above the line, and the octave below 
 under the line. Thus one line is sufficient to 
 write three octaves, and with the occasional addi- 
 tion of one line above or below, the composer has 
 a range of seven full octaves. 
 
 The sharps or flats introduced in the modula- 
 tions are marked upon the figures themselves, by 
 a line slanting upwards or downwards. 
 
 The key-note given in the margin is entirely 
 relative to the instruments upon which each per- 
 former forms his own gamut, (by transposition, if 
 necessary,) the music being itself always written 
 in natural keys, in order to preserve in all cases 
 the same characters to the same intervals. Thus 5, 
 which is g in the key of C, will be played a in the 
 key of D ; and consequently always represent the 
 dominant or fifth note from the fundamental. 
 
 The time is expressed by dividing the line
 
 ON MUSICAL CHARACTERS. 183 
 
 into bars, and each bar into two, three, or more 
 sub-divisions, as required by the style of the 
 music, or the multiplicity of the characters. 
 
 It is impossible not to be struck with the sim- 
 plicity of this system ; and, had the author suc- 
 ceeded in bringing it into general use, we would 
 not perhaps have ventured to introduce ours to 
 the public, since the principal advantages of the 
 first constitute no indifferent part of the second. 
 But yet we still hope that the reader will find in 
 the latter some genuine merit ; and also peculiar 
 advantages which could not have been derived 
 from previous publications.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 REFORMED CHARACTERS, OR MUSICOGRAPHY. 
 
 The musical characters have to fulfil the double 
 object of representing sounds ; firstly, according 
 to their intervals, which constitute melody and 
 harmony ; secondly, according to their duration, 
 which constitutes measure and time. 
 
 With regard to the first point: In whatever 
 manner we turn or combine our musical signs, 
 we can never represent with them more than the 
 seven notes of our gamut, based upon various de- 
 grees and raised at various octaves ; consequently 
 a scale of seven signs will always be sufficient to 
 trace these seven notes in all their various situ- 
 ations and combinations, provided a means be 
 taken of fixing the starting note or fundamental 
 sound of each gamut, as well as the relative situ- 
 ation of each octave. 
 
 The second point is perhaps the most important 
 of the two, since time regulates and entirely charac- 
 terizes melody ; and even of itself constitutes the 
 sole music of many instruments of very powerful 
 effects, such as drums, bells, castanets, cymbals,
 
 RETORMED (HARACTEUS. 185 
 
 triangles, &c. In our opinion, the only really intel- 
 ligible manner to attain this second object, is to 
 establish such precise relation between the length 
 of the sign on the paper and the duration of the 
 note in the time, that both begin and terminate 
 together in the same instants. By this we do not 
 mean a relation entirely conventional, as that esta- 
 blished on the staff, and which necessitates numer- 
 ous and complicated operations of the mind ; but 
 a simple self-evident one, based on correct geo- 
 metrical proportions : such a relation, in a w^ord, as 
 we observe between the division of a dial and the 
 hours of the day ; or better, between the charac- 
 ters raised on the barrel, and the notes played 
 through the pipes of an organ.* 
 
 * It is a subject of wonder to us, that the above-mentioned 
 iuatiument never led, by its simple construction, to an ana- 
 logous modification of the present musical characters ; for 
 our reader probably is aware, that the organ-builder traces 
 across his barrels, previously to his fixing the notes a number 
 of parallel lines corresponding to those of the staff, which 
 he also divides, with respect to time, by perpendicular lines 
 iu a corresponding number of bars. Consequently, if the 
 musician, suppressing all additional signs attached to the 
 notes in order to express the duration of their sounds, had 
 replaced the round dots with horizontal lines equal in their 
 length to the length of the notes represented by them, he 
 would have had by these few alterations a musical character 
 at once clear and simple, which character would have been 
 a very near imitation of the notes fixed on organ-barrels. 
 (See an example of Uiis. Plate VIT. fig. 3.)
 
 186 REFORMED CHARACTERS, 
 
 On these two principles we have based our 
 characters, as follows : 
 
 Explanation of the Characters.* 
 
 Firstly, with respect to intervals : 
 
 Having our paper previously ruled as for com- 
 mon writing, we find that each line affords us 
 three distinct positions ; viz. the first upon, the 
 second above, and the third under the line ; and 
 that the same character, repeated in each position, 
 may be made to express three diff'erent notes. 
 Consequently, beginning with the three notes of 
 the perfect chord, we will represent them with an 
 horizontal straight stroke of the pen, drawn in 
 the three positions above mentioned, as follows : 
 viz. the fundamental or first note, upon ; the me- 
 diant or third note, above ; and the dominant or 
 fifth note, under the line. Afterwards proceeding 
 with the four remaining notes, all more or less 
 subservient in the melody to the three first, we 
 will express the second, fourth, and sixth with 
 a horizontal curve rounded at the top, and traced 
 in the same position as the first, third, and fifth 
 sounded immediately below them ; and the seventh 
 or leading note, with a character peculiar to itself; 
 viz. a horizontal curve rounded downwards, traced 
 on the line. These seven signs representing in 
 
 * All the examples quoted in the following pages are 
 traced in Plate VIII., in the same succession as followed in 
 their explanation.
 
 OR MUSICOGRAPHY. 187 
 
 succession the seven sounds, g, a, b, c, d, e^f, 
 Ex. No. 4. 
 
 Sharps and flats are expressed by means of 
 slanting lines traced in the following manner ; 
 viz. C sharp, or D flat, with the character of C na- 
 tural raised towards the right; D sharp, or E flat, 
 with the character of E natural lowered towards 
 the right ; and G sharp, or A flat, with the character 
 of G natural raised tow^ards the right. Ex. No. 5. 
 
 Exceptions : F sharp and B flat, modifications 
 of a very frequent occurrence, are expressed, the 
 first by inverting the curve ascribed toy natural, 
 and giving it the form of the leading note, (of 
 which its sound assumes for a time the character, 
 the fifth note having become suddenly funda- 
 mental, or first note of the temporary melody) ; 
 the second, by tracing the character ascribed to 
 B natural, not on the line, its position as leading 
 note, but under the line, and on a level with the 
 fifth ; (the fundamental or first note to which it 
 leads having suddenly become dominant, or fifth 
 note of the temporary melody). Ex. No. 6. 
 
 Having thus expressed the seven sounds of 
 our gamut, and the twelve diatonic degrees of 
 modern music, nothing remains but to fix by dis- 
 tinct marks the octave of each note. For this, 
 it being once admitted that the characters above 
 described represent in succession the seven notes 
 written in example No. 4, when we have to write
 
 188 REFORMED CHARACTERS, 
 
 sounds at the octave above or below these, we 
 join a small dot over or under our characters. 
 This mark, once added, influences all the subse- 
 quent characters, which continue to be read in the 
 octave indicated by it until a new mark is intro- 
 duced, to raise or lower the melody one octave. 
 Two dots indicate a double octave ; above or 
 below, according to the position of the said marks. 
 Ex. No. 7. 
 
 When notes are to be played in two octaves at 
 once, the characters should be accompanied with 
 a short cross line ; in which case the character 
 written expresses the bass sound, and the cross 
 perpendicular line, the octave above. Should the 
 interval be of two octaves, two lines must be 
 traced across the character. Ex. No. 8. 
 
 Secondly, with respect to duration : 
 
 The duration of the notes in our system is not 
 expressed through the medium of additional signs, 
 but given in the characters themselves, which 
 have as much length on the paper as their sounds 
 have duration in the time. For this purpose, the 
 line on which we write our music is livided 
 into a certain number of bars, all of a strictly 
 equal length, without any regard to the various 
 numbers of notes to be written in them ; each 
 bar is afterwards mentally subdivided into two or 
 three equal parts, according to the time in which
 
 OR MUSICOGRAPFIV. 189 
 
 the music is to be played ; * and the characters 
 representing the notes follow each other closely, 
 leaving no horizontal distance between them, 
 but what is strictly necessary to keep the notes 
 distinct from one another ; unless there be a rest 
 in the music. In the latter case, the vacant space 
 left on the horizontal line is always proportioned 
 to the duration of the silence. We need no spe- 
 cial characters for rests : where there is nothing 
 written, there can be nothing to read. Yet, in 
 order to add more preciseness still ; whenever 
 rests occur, we mark by small perpendicular lines 
 
 * There are but two sorts of times, the double and the 
 triple. The ancient musician considered the triple time as 
 the perfect one ; we, on the contrary, regard the double as 
 the simple and perfect time. The latter opinion may be exact 
 with relation to our mode of timing our characters ; but 
 if we consider them in themselves and with respect to their 
 effect, we cannot but acknowledge that the first is by far the 
 most easily felt, the most exciting, the most powerful. In 
 ancient music we find that the characters corresponded exactly 
 in their subdivisions to each time : thus the breve or square 
 note was equal to three semibreves or round notes in the 
 triple time, and to two semibreves in the double time. We 
 have both times in our music ; but, by a strange oversight, 
 we have only preserved the subdivision by two, although 
 the first was as necessary as the second. In consequence of 
 this, when we have to divide a space of time in three equal 
 parts the characters are wanting, and we have recourse to 
 the figure 3, or to other conventional signs equally com- 
 plicated.
 
 190 REFORMED CHARACTERS, 
 
 the natural subdivisions of the bar in which they 
 are contained, and express their duration at the 
 same time by small dots joined to the perpendi- 
 cular lines in various positions. Ex. No. 9- 
 
 Whenever notes are found which do not agree 
 with the regular subdivision of. time followed 
 in the piece, the bar in which they occur should be 
 divided by small perpendicular lines, in order to 
 demonstrate clearly that they have not been writ- 
 ten thus by mistake. Ex. No. 10. 
 
 It is evident, that the number and respective 
 lengths of the notes in each bar will always indi- 
 cate to the eye, as well as their sounds do to the 
 ear, the time in which the music is played ; yet, 
 in order to render the style of the music intel- 
 ligible at first sight, we express, by means of the 
 figure 2 or 3 written in the margin, whether the 
 piece be in double or triple time. See Ex. No. 9- 
 
 Remark. All the various sig^ns used in the 
 common staff, such as a pause, a repeat, &c., &c. 
 may be employed likewise with our characters. 
 
 By the above explained system all modifica- 
 tions of sounds are expressed clearly and correctly. 
 Thus, the octaves having always the same charac- 
 ters, the chords are easily brought to their funda- 
 mentals. Thus, the distinctive feature given to 
 the three notes of the perfect chords by opposi-
 
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 OR MUSICOGRAPHY. 191 
 
 tion to the other four, will cause the style of the 
 music to be intelligible to the eye independently 
 of the sounds : for most consonant intervals being 
 composed of similar signs, and all dissonant ones 
 of dissimilar signs, a simple harmony will be 
 distinguishable by the concordance of its various 
 characters with each other; whilst a scientific 
 composition, a complicated harmony containing a 
 greater number of discords, will always be charac- 
 terized to the eye by the contrary forms of its 
 representative signs. Last of all, unless in minor 
 keys, the various periods in the melody, as well 
 as the whole piece, will always terminate with 
 the straight horizontal bar, affected to the funda- 
 mental note, or tonic, and its harmonics. 
 
 It is obvious, that if we were to adopt the usual 
 method of writing in the different keys, we should 
 lose many of the above-enumerated advantages ; 
 but we see no reason to bring such a confusion into 
 our system. Since there are but two modes in 
 music, a major and a minor, there can be but two 
 gamuts corresponding. What is it to play or sing 
 in D major, but to transpose the gamut of C a 
 degree higher, and to establish it upon the note D 
 as its fundamental sound ; when all the properties 
 which belonged to C as key-note are given to D, 
 which is substituted to it in all respects ? It is only 
 to explain this substitution that the various clefs
 
 19*2 REFORMED CHARACTERS 
 
 and keys have been introduced; and this multipli- 
 city of confused signs, which cost much time to 
 the student to learn, and which has no other ad- 
 vantage but to point out mechanically the notes on 
 the instruments, has greatly contributed to de- 
 stroy the natural sentiment of music, by subject- 
 ing the performer to the instrument, instead of 
 the instrument to the performer. Not so with 
 our system : whichever note be our fundamental, 
 is written as such, with all its harmonies and 
 relations to the other notes, which are every one 
 more or less subservient to it. We write the 
 musical, not the instrumental proportions. If the 
 performer is forced to strike A sharp on the same 
 key as B flat, giving to this intermediary sound, 
 in its two occurrences, denominations and charac- 
 ters belonging to two notes with which it has no 
 relation whatever, it is because his instrument is 
 imperfect and his classification incorrect; but a 
 good singer, or violinist, knows the difference and 
 can express it. Therefore we say to the musi- 
 cian : whatever instrument you may happen to 
 play, write the notes perfectly ; you will at least 
 please the eye, if you do not satisfy the ear. The 
 only difficulty is, that you will have sometimes to 
 transpose ; but that cannot be of any great consi- 
 deration, since a little girl six years of age, who 
 begins the piano, does a much more arduous thing
 
 OR MUSICOGRAPHY. MY^ 
 
 without feeling- greatly inconvenienced by it: we 
 mean, reading" with two different clefs siraultane- 
 ously, thereby always transposing with one hand 
 or the other.* 
 
 The various clefs have been invented in order 
 to save to the composer the trouble of writing so 
 many additional or ledger lines, by keeping as 
 much as possible the music within the compass of 
 the staff; whilst the various sharps and flats, form- 
 ing what are called the different keys, have been 
 introduced, in order to make the written notes 
 correspond exactly to the fixed sounds of our 
 instruments. The latter object being the only 
 one that requires our consideration, we establish 
 the relation of our characters with the notes of 
 the instruments in the following manner. 
 
 In the key of C natural, (which we express w^ith 
 the letter C written in the margin,) our funda- 
 mental note (or horizontal bar traced on the line) 
 represents, as we have stated, the C which is writ- 
 ten in the treble clef on the third space of the 
 staff. All the other notes follow .in succession 
 at their respective distances. 
 
 Suppose we wish to raise our music one chro- 
 
 * However, those who might prefer writing for the instru- 
 ments with all the various keys, which have cost them so 
 much trouble to acquire, are quite at liberty so to do with 
 our signs, and need not find fault with the system under that 
 pretence. For the others only we continue our explanation. 
 
 O
 
 194 REFORMED CHARACTERS, 
 
 matic degree, or half a tone, we shall be then, 
 with relation to the instrument, in C sharp or D 
 flat, and we should have to write on the stave 
 7 sharp, or 5 flat, to express this pitch of our 
 gamut. But with our system we do not trouble 
 ourselves with these details, and still write the 
 notes in a natural key; simply indicating, by a 
 line drawn across our key-letter, (in the margin,) 
 that the said note is to be raised one half of a 
 tone. In D natural, we substitute this letter for 
 the C in the margin ; in D sharp or E flat, we 
 cross the key-letter D with a small line ; and so 
 on for every one of the eight remaining chromatic 
 degrees of our musical scale, which may succes- 
 sively be taken as fundamentals of a natural 
 gamut, proceeding in the same succession of 
 sounds as the first. Ex. No. 11. 
 
 The vocalist will read as easily in the one as in 
 the other of those keys, which, whatever may be 
 their technical denomination, are all equally na- 
 tural to his voice, and the instrumentist alone 
 will have to find, among the sharps or flats of his 
 scale, those sounds which are not in the natural 
 gamut of his instrument. The difficulty being 
 wholly instrumental, has nothing to do with the 
 music itself; and whatever be our fundamental 
 note, this note we express with the same horizon- 
 tal bar ascribed to it, as first of the scale. 
 
 But the fundamental note, which is the tonic
 
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 OR MUSICOGRAPHY. li)') 
 
 in major modes, is only the mediant in minor ones ; 
 the tonic then being placed a third minor below. 
 This difference is marked with a small line drawn 
 under our alphabetical or key-letter, which, by its 
 means, indicates the minor mode relative to the 
 said major key. Ex. No. 12. 
 
 The Plate VIII., which contains applications 
 of all the above rules, will be sufficient to give 
 the reader an idea of our system applied to 
 INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC ; and with respect to vocal 
 MUSIC, we need not compose a plate on purpose 
 to demonstrate the usefulness of our characters, 
 since their simplicity and conciseness will allow 
 us to print them with the common letter-press. 
 The three first lines of the national anthem, 
 which we give here as an example, will show how 
 one might, by their means, trace with a pencil 
 between the lines of any book the music to which 
 the verses were set. 
 
 God save our gracious queen 
 
 God save our noble queen 
 
 I 
 
 God save the queen. 
 
 O I
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 * 
 
 SHORT-HAND OF MUSICOGRAPHY.* 
 
 In the second, as well as in the first book of the 
 present publication ; viz. in the writing of music 
 as well as in that of speech, we have made it our 
 principal care to render the characters as concise 
 as it was possible to do, without endangering their 
 perspicuity; and it is not to be expected that they 
 would admit of many further contractions or sim- 
 plification. In fact, they will admit of none of 
 those practised in logography, under the common 
 denomination of short-hand, and which consist 
 in suppressing certain intermediary sounds, left 
 to be supplied afterwards either by memory or 
 
 * Whilst our work was in the press, we have been favoured 
 with a pamphlet published at Antwerp in 1834, under the 
 title of Musikalische ^tenograplue Von Hypolyte Pre- 
 vost. We certainly had never heard of this Belgian pro- 
 duction when we claimed for ourselves in our Preface the 
 priority of the application of short-hand to music ; and 
 we beg to assert that, beyond the analogies of their titles, 
 there are no points of comparison whatever between the two 
 works. Not that we wish to depreciate in any way the 
 system of M. Prevost ; but since it is based upon a new appli- 
 cation of the common staff, to which are added four more
 
 MUSICOGRAPHV. 197 
 
 judgment; for in music, where so much more li- 
 berty is given to the imagination than in speech, 
 we can leave nothing to be guessed at by the 
 reader. 
 
 But if we cannot entirely suppress any second- 
 ary note, however insignificant it be, yet the vari- 
 ous properties of sound, and the mysterious rela- 
 tions of the musical degrees with one another, have 
 been so thoroughly investigated and establish- 
 ed on principles so regular and simple, that the 
 greatest facilities are given to the musician to 
 represent, by a few allegorical signs, all those se- 
 condary or subservient notes, which are only used, 
 either in melody or harmony, as leading to, or 
 enforcing the power of, the principal ones. * 
 
 Consequently, our principal abbreviations con- 
 sist in a selection of allegorical figures, repre- 
 senting- certain musical o-radations or combina- 
 tions, and added to the notes written in a manner 
 
 lines, whilst ours consists chiefly in the suppression of all 
 the ruled lines but one, the difference between the two 
 is obviously as great as it is possible to be. We grant 
 that M. Prevost's system may present great advantages 
 to its author, or to those wlio might have succeeded in ren- 
 dering themselves complete masters of its intricate combi- 
 nations ; but yet, after having minutely examined it with 
 the previous determination of presenting a translation of it 
 to our readers, should we find it preferable to our own, 
 we have returned with renewed confidence to the latter ; 
 as explained in the following pages.
 
 198 SHORT-HAND OF 
 
 analogous to that in which the sounds alluded to 
 are added to those represented by the notes them- 
 selves. They are of two kinds ; viz. those in the 
 melody, consisting of runs either chromatic, dia- 
 tonic, or harmonic ; and those in the harmony, 
 consisting of chords or symphonies, either con- 
 cordant or discordant. 
 
 With respect to the first, all runs composed of 
 more than three sounds following one another by 
 a regular uniform progression, are expressed by 
 joining their first and last notes in the three fol- 
 lowing ways ; viz. for a chromatic progression 
 by means of an oblong loop, for a diatoiiic pro- 
 gression by means of a round loop, and for a har- 
 monic progression by means of a double loop. 
 Ex. No. 1.* 
 
 With respect to the second, all harmonies 
 formed of more than two sounds struck together, 
 are naturally classed in two distinct categories ; 
 viz. the concordant ones, which can be no other 
 than the perfect chord, (in the simplest form two 
 consecutive thirds,) and the discordant ones, 
 which can all easily be classed under the head of 
 seventh, (in the simplest form three consecutive 
 tl birds.) 
 
 Every degree of the scale can be made the 
 base of a harmony, composed of two or three con- 
 
 * All the examples given in this chapter refer to Plate 
 IX., which is placed at p, 204.
 
 MUSICOGRAPHY, 199 
 
 secutive thirds; or, in other words, every note can 
 be in its turn the first either of a perfect chord, 
 or of a discord, according to various changes 
 introduced in the modulation, and governed by 
 certain rules based on the properties of musical 
 sounds. 
 
 Among these combinations of sounds some 
 are of very frequent use, others are seldom intro- 
 duced, and a few have been completely discarded. 
 Nevertheless, in our allegorical representations 
 we have not thought it worth while to suppress 
 any of them, since they do not amount altogether 
 to more than twenty-two; viz. six perfect chords 
 and sixteen discords. For, with respect to the 
 first six, all perfect chords being formed by the 
 concurrence of three sounds, having between them 
 in succession two of the three following intervals : 
 — minor third, major third, and fourth ; these three 
 intervals are susceptible of but six combinations: 
 and with reg-ard to the sixteen remaining, all dis- 
 cords (except the augmented fifth) being formed 
 by the concurrence of four sounds, having be- 
 tween them, in succession or repetition, three 
 of the following intervals : — major second, minor 
 third, and major tliird ; these intervals are sus- 
 ceptible of but fifteen combinations.* 
 
 * llestricted as they are by the necessity of not exceeding 
 ten semitones or a minor seventh between their two extreme 
 notes, as also of avoiding two consecutive seconds, either 
 played together, or left understood in the octave.
 
 200 
 
 SHORT-HAND OF 
 
 The following Table will give the reader a sy- 
 noptical view of all the above chords, classed in 
 their natural order. See Ex. 3 and 4. 
 
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 o
 
 MUSICOGRAPHY. 201 
 
 All chords beino; formed, as we have seen, from 
 the different combinations of four intervals only, 
 it is obvious that four distinct little signs com- 
 bined in similar groupes, will be found sufficient 
 to express these chords in all their various forms. 
 Ex. No. 2. 
 
 Having- thus selected the figures necessary to 
 represent the four intervals we may meet with in 
 harmony, when we have to write a chord, placing 
 our pen at a proper distance and beginning with 
 the highest sound, we join successively the signs 
 representing the successive intervals, until we 
 come to the lowest note or root of the chord, which 
 last note we trace at once, and (except in dis- 
 cords 19, 20, 21, and 22,) with the same stroke 
 of the pen, in its proper form and position. Ex. 
 No. 3 and 4. 
 
 Sometimes a note is added under, or suppressed 
 in a chord. In these cases we still continue to 
 write the chords as above explained, and indicate 
 afterwards the under added note, bv adding- its 
 character to the chord ; and the suppressed sound, 
 by a short bar across the sign representing the 
 same. Ex. No. 7, chords 15 and 19- 
 
 We have collected in figs. 5, 6, and 7, all the 
 chords generally used in modern music, and re- 
 presented them, firstly with the notes of the staff, 
 secondly with the figures commonly called tho-
 
 202 SHORT-HAND OF 
 
 rough bass, and thirdly with our short-hand cha- 
 racters, preserving in all of them the numbers 
 referring to the universal table given in page 200, 
 and figs. 3 and 4. 
 
 With relation to the figured bass, it will be re- 
 marked that we have employed about thirty dif- 
 ferent signs to express the various chords. This 
 is the least number that can be used, and the 
 total of those employed by various masters amounts 
 to much more than a hundred. Yet many diff*er- 
 ent combinations of sounds, being the various 
 forms of the same primitive chords, have the same 
 signs in common ; whilst other chords are figured 
 in as many diff'erent ways as they can be repre- 
 sented on the staff, although their symphonies do 
 not vary in any one of their relative proportions : 
 as, for instance, the two altered discords numbered 
 in our table 19 and 22, which divide the octave 
 into equal parts, and the numerous enharmonic 
 passages which do not exist in modern music, ex- 
 cept in the composer's imagination and as a com- 
 plicated science, or on the staff" and as unfathom- 
 able riddles,* whilst the practice differs essentially 
 from all. But with our allegorical characters, 
 
 * The word enharmonic^ taken from the Greek music, in 
 which it had a meaning, as we have explained pp. 162, 163, 
 is applied in modern music to express theoretically the na- 
 ture of the distance existing between a note raised by a
 
 MUSICOGRAPHY. '203 
 
 we have a distinct sign for every distinct form of 
 the same chord; and, in enharmonic passages, v^e 
 have but one way of writing the same intervals, 
 leaving to the practical musician to give its pro- 
 per character to every note, as far as his own in- 
 strument will allow him to do. 
 
 In writing isolated notes, some expedition 
 
 sharp, and another note placed a second major above it, low- 
 ered by a flat: as, for instance, between C sharp and D flat. 
 For this purpose the learned harmonist divides the dis- 
 tance formed by the major second into five parts called 
 commas, of which he gives two to each altered interval, 
 leaving the distance of a comma between the two : as 
 C C {sharp) D {flat) D. This is the science. 
 
 o 
 
 J ? 5 5? 
 
 In the practice, the musician who commands a perfect 
 instrument, such as a pliable voice or a violin, observes 
 also a difference, but in no way similar to the above one. 
 True, he divides the distance into five similar commas : but, 
 observing that C sharp, as leading note to D, must be 
 nearer to the latter than to C natural, in order to show 
 its tendency to ascend ; whilst D flat, as sub-domitiani 
 of the fundamental A flat, must be nearer to C than to D 
 natural, in order to show its tendency to descend, he gives 
 three commas to each altered interval ; as 
 
 C !> {flat) C {sharp) D. This is the practice. 
 
 Oil > 5 ■> 
 
 Consequently the difference between the note written in 
 the staff" and the sound given by the perfect instrument is 
 one comma, whilst the distance between the two altered 
 intervals is progressive in the first instance, and retrograde 
 in the second. This is the riddle.
 
 204 SHORT-HAND OF 
 
 may be gained by substituting for the musi- 
 cographic characters short commas placed in the 
 same positions; but the fundamental, as well as 
 those notes which might suffer occasional altera- 
 tions, either in their sounds or duration, must al- 
 ways be written in full. Ex. No. 8. 
 
 We have transcribed in short-hand, fig. 9, the 
 waltz given in Plate VIII., in order to show 
 the extreme conciseness of our short-hand. 
 
 We do not pretend to substitute our work for 
 a treatise of harmony; however, to those who 
 might think an extract of that science sufficient 
 for their purpose, we offer the following short 
 remarks. 
 
 Properties of Musical Sounds. 
 
 Every musical sound is naturally accompanied 
 with its own self-produced perfect chord. This har- 
 mony, being formed of the twelfth and seventeenth 
 above the fundamental sound, is particularly distin- 
 guishable when the said fundamental is played low 
 enough on the scale to leave a certain body to the 
 upper sounds ; as, for instance, when we strike 
 any one of the bass notes on the piano; in which 
 case, the twelfth and seventeenth produced by the 
 vibrations of the single string can be plainly heard. 
 Consequently, every two sounds struck together
 
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 MUSrCOGRAPHY. 205 
 
 being productive each of its relative tvv'elfth 
 and seventeenth, will be consonant in proportion 
 to the number of those relative sounds they will 
 have in common with each other. If the tw^o 
 sounds be completely dissonant, their opposition 
 to each other will be felt through every subdivi- 
 sion of their harmonies ; but if consonant, they 
 will blend and mix together in such a manner, as 
 to preserve only those relative harmonies which 
 are common to both, in order to become as it 
 w^ere one sound, as c, g* 
 
 There is only one third note that can be added 
 to these two without changing their effect, and 
 that is the third major of the fundamental, form- 
 ing with them the complement of a triad of sounds, 
 of which the two upper ones are the exact repe- 
 tition of the self-produced harmony of the first 
 or base note, as c, e, g. 
 
 To this chord, of which the proportions are 
 
 * An experiment related by Tartini, and which is not per- 
 haps very generally known, places the principles of harmony 
 in a very strong light. It is as follows : place two hautboys, 
 in perfect harmony together, at a few paces distance from each 
 other; then, advancing exactly in the middle between them, 
 cause them to play in a full sonorous manner various chords, 
 and you will hear, besides the sounds of the two instruments, 
 a third one perfectly distinct, and which will be more or less 
 powerful in proportion to the more or less harmony that 
 may exist between the two sounds.
 
 206 SHORT-HAND OF 
 
 given to us in the innate harmony of every sin- 
 gle musical sound, we can add nothing; hence 
 it is called the perfect chord. 
 
 If we add a fourth note, (forcibly a dissonant 
 one,) its immediate effect will be to unbind the 
 other three, and isolate every one of them from 
 the others. This unsettled state cannot be en- 
 dured; the ear must rest again on the perfect 
 chord, and this is what is called the resolution of 
 the dissonance : every dissonance must be resolved 
 upon the perfect chord. 
 
 Besides this rule, there is another equally im- 
 portant ; viz. that every discord must be prepared, 
 that is to say, the dissonant note must be heard 
 as a consonant in a different chord, immediately 
 before it is played as a discord, unless it be the 
 dominant seventh or the diminished fifth, (which 
 is the same chord still, minus the dominant,) these 
 two being generally introduced without prepara- 
 tion, probably because they lead so forcibly to 
 the tonic, and mediant of the scale, that the ear 
 is immediately impressed, through their sounds, 
 with the anticipation of the perfect chord, on 
 which they must ultimately be resolved. 
 
 With regard to the modulations and progres- 
 sions of harmony, they are entirely governed by 
 the imagination and taste of the composer. Nu- 
 merous and intricate are the rules given on this
 
 MUSICOGRAPHY. 207 
 
 subject ; but none of them can supply in the musi- 
 cian the want of the two requisites above men- 
 tioned : and the young beginner who would com- 
 pose a harmony presenting various consecutive 
 fifths or octaves, thereby jumping as it were from 
 one key into another without shade or prepara- 
 tion, could never expect to find in any didactic 
 work, the knowledge of an art for which his organs 
 were not sufficiently prepared. To such a one 
 we would say, study the compositions of our best 
 authors ; * learn from them the various effects of 
 the different chords, considered in themselves as 
 
 * It is obvious, that all the possible combinations of 
 sounds the science of harmony can give, do not amount to 
 more than twenty-tw^o, as exemplified p. 200. These twen- 
 ty-two combinations could be still reduced to eight; viz. 
 two perfect chords and six discords, according to the admitted 
 principle that all chords remain the same, whatever sound 
 be taken as first note, provided the other notes follow 
 without being altered in their successions or relative dis- 
 tances, as c, e, g ; e, g, c ; andy, c, e; which are considered 
 by harmonists as one and the same ; viz. the major perfect 
 chord. However, as it would be a great error to conclude from 
 this, that the choice of the form of a chord is indifferent in 
 harmony, and since each one has its individual character 
 and distinct expression, we would advise our readers not to 
 attempt too much at first ; but, preserving the twenty -two 
 figures we have given, to transcribe by their means some of the 
 composition he admires most. By consecrating a few hours 
 every day to this pleasing occupation, he will have learned
 
 208 MUSICOGRAPHY. 
 
 well as in their relation to the fundamental of the 
 tune; study to disti' uish, through their various 
 modulations, the different harmonies produced by 
 the various forms given to the same chords ; in a 
 word, learn from those great composers to feel as 
 well as to read or write the numerous and varie- 
 gated combinations of musical sounds ; for their 
 immortal works form the real, the only treatise to 
 teach the divine science. 
 
 more in a month than he would otherwise have done by poring 
 for years over dry treatises full of complicated rules, and con- 
 tradicted by numerous exceptions oftentimes still more unin- 
 telligible ; at the same time that he will have acquired the 
 practice of our musical short-hand, and collected for his 
 own private use, and in a very small compass, many valuable 
 works, which are sometimes difficult to be procured at any 
 price. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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