But the phonetic party have produced something which will immortalize their plan: I mean their shorthand, which has had a fraction of the success it deserves. All who know anything of shorthand must see that nothing but a phonetic system can be worthy of the name: and the system promulgated is skilfully done. Were I a young man I should apply myself to it systematically. I believe this is the only system in which books were ever published. I wish some one would contribute to a public journal a brief account of the dates and circumstances of the phonetic movement, not forgetting a list of the books published in shorthand.
A child beginning to read by himself may owe terrible dreams and waking images of horror to our spelling, as I did when six years old. In one of the common poetry-books there is an admonition against confining little birds in cages, and the child is asked what if a great giant, amazingly strong, were to take you away, shut you up,
And feed you with vic-tu-als you ne-ver could bear.
The book was hyphened for the beginner's use; and I had not the least idea that vic-tu-als were vittles: by the sound of the word I judged they must be of iron; and it entered into my soul.
The worst of the phonetic shorthand book is that they nowhere, so far as I have seen, give all the symbols, in every stage of advancement, together, in one or following pages. It is symbols and talk, more symbols and more talk, etc. A universal view of the signs ought to begin the works.
A HANDFUL OF LITTLE PARADOXERS.
Ombrological Almanac. Seventeenth year. An essay on Anemology and Ombrology. By Peter Legh,[[170]] Esq. London, 1856, 12mo.
Mr. Legh, already mentioned, was an intelligent country gentleman, and a legitimate speculator. But the clue was not reserved for him.
The proof that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles looked for in the inflation of the circle. By Gen. Perronet Thompson. London, 1856, 8vo. (pp. 4.)