Another way is thus: Divide the side a. b. of the square into six equal parts & mark off the two extreme parts, one at either end, by the points f. and g.; then draw the inner and broader limb, with its point at e. as above; and to this, in an upward direction, a narrower one, so that between f. g. be left a vacant space, and so more readily the letter slope forward. Then you are to draw the two lateral and vertical limbs—the near and slender, and the farther broad one—at the top, indeed, as in the first sketch, but at the bottom produce them to the two angles c. and d. and finally add projecting cusps, as you were instructed in the first M; but the projection below will pass beyond the square at the points c. and d. Or you shall make M at top with acute angles, in which case the lateral limbs will slope the more; or shear them off obtusely, and in this fashion (whichever pleases you best) make them as you see them depicted in the following diagrams.
[THE LETTER N.]
Likewise the letter N you shall make in its square thus: First you are to draw two standards vertical and slender, so that at top & bottom they may touch the square, & that being produced, the nigh one at the bottom, and the farther at the top, they may touch the angles at c. and b. Now join these two by a broad oblique limb, running from the angle a. to the point e., by which is denoted the remote side of the farther limb, where you shall allow the acute angle to remain; but at the top, this limb, produced beyond the angle a., you are to round out to a fifth part of the length of a. b. This prolongation should incurve below, a fifteenth part of the distance a. b. projected on two arcs, the upper one the greater, the lower the less. For the lesser arc, therefore, you shall take as diameter of its circle, a line the fifth part of the distance a. b. and its centre is to be taken outside the square, so that the foot of the compass may touch the tip of the extension and the angle a.; then extend a little the feet of the compass, and shift its centre until the arc touch both the tip of the part produced, & the broad oblique limb, in the middle point between the side a. c. & the nearer of the two slender vertical limbs.
Or you may make the letter N in such fashion that its upper nigh extension shall remain within the square; or you may make from it an acute angle as shown overleaf.