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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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68 Miscellaneous Correspondence .
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edition by Palmer of 1799 , and of the autographic manuscript of Dr . Doddridge , which was kindly furnished me by his grandson Mr . Humphreys , as soon as he heard of my proposal , but unfortunately not before it was too late to introduce all thfe alterations , which the examination of it suggested . Had 1 received it sooner , I should have added to my list of Rejected
Characters in my last page several more , which would have rendered my work a more complete index than it is to the meaning of old manuscripts , but which I should not have recommended to those who are to adopt the system for present purposes . As it is , I have endeavoured to make my edition a fair representation of Rich ' s Short-hand , as it was improved by Doddridge , and as it has been , in some very slight and unimportant
particulars , modified by more modern use . In some instances , where two modes of writing a word are prevalent , I have inserted both ; and the only instance in which I have ventured on any thing , for which I had no manuscript authority , is this—that I have omitted , as always unnecessary and sometimes ambiguous , the dot , which some , and the nt , which others , place in the circle , which stands for sent . In the last page will be found a list of Arbitrary and Symbolical Characters , which I have omitted in the body of the work , because they are either little used , or of little use ; but they may be retained by those who think better of them than I do .
By the kindness of a friend I am in possession of an edition of Rich's Shorthand , ( the 19 th , ) and it would much amuse your readers to see all the conceits and conundrums with which it abounds : thus a character very like a capital writing E , but perpendicular , stands for" Babylon , " and the same slanting , for " Babylon is fallen ; " a circle with a dot in it is " World ; " without the dot it is " There is nothing in the world ; " and with a cross in it , " The crosses of the world . ' * This work is entitled , " The Pen's Dexterity ; or , the Ingenious and Useful Art of Writing Short-hand . Containing Twenty Copper-Plates , ( curiously
Kngraved , in the Author s Life time , for the Use of his Scholars , ) of all the Letters , Characters , and Contractions used therein . With Rules and Directions explaining the same to the Meanest Capacity . Whereunto are added , Law-Terms , with other Discourses , as on War , Trade , Birds , Beasts , Fruits , Vermin , &c . London . 1775 . " As a frontispiece we are treated with
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an effigy of the Author , with the following lines appended beneath : * Here Active , and Mysterious Art you see Contracted in a Small Epitomie ; Soon Gaiu'd with practise ; thus the meanest Wit Makes a Diversion of a Benefit . Thus either Sex , or Age may , old or young , With Nimbler Pen , out-post the Nimble Tongue . Thus to thy Lasting Fame it shall be said , Rich Lives in Characters , tho' Rich be Dead . "
Rich appears to have been not a little vain both of his art and his persou , for he has treated us with another picture of himself in the commencement of an edition of the New Testament , which is about the size of a hen ' s egg , written and engraved according to his system . Underneath this picture we read the following lines * of which the elegance and the modesty are on a par with each other : " Fame and the Picture speak , yet both are " but Shadows unto the Author : could the
Cut Copy his Art , this would be truly high To have the Picture speak his Quality . " This edition of the New Testament is indeed a curiosity , on which the eyes of a bibliomaniac might doat , but it abounds so much with contractions , as to be a perfect conundrum to any man who has not an extraordinary memory to retain the system . Vanity appears to have beeii the fashionable failing of those days , for in a Short-hand , published by Addy in 1695 , ( which is a refinement on the conceits of Rich , ) we . have a portrait of the author , " Vera Effigies Gulielmi Addy , " with a face like a chimney sweeper ; and underneath are the following lines :
" En Puer , En Senior , scribendi gloria splendet Pulchrior hie ; aliis ; Nil , simul , atque semel Perficitur studiis praeclaris ; Ars juvat artem : Inclyte sic A ddy quoe latuere doces . Authoris laudes siquit ? depingere posset , Dignior in terris nulla tabella foret . " We have , then , two complimentary epistles in verse addressed to the author , and an address from the latter •* To ihe
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1830, page 68, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2580/page/68/
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