༄།།

BY THE APPLICATION OF A NEW PRINCIPLE

TO HIS CELEBRATED SYSTEM OF

UNIVERSAL STENOGRAPHY:

BEING AN ENTIRELY NEW AND COMPLETE BOOK OF

SHORT HAND,

PERFECTLY LEGIBLE, DISTINCT IN ALL ITS PARTS,

AND ADAPTED TO EVERY PURPOSE OF

Heat and expeditious Writing;

By which nearly one half of the words of any subject may be
written, each, with a single stroke of the pen; with one
simple rule of contraction, sufficiently concise
to enable the Practitioner to

FOLLOW A SPEAKER.

THE WHOLE ILLUSTRATED BY FIFTEEN COPPERPLATE
IMPRESSIONS, CONTAINING FORTY-SIX SETS OF
PROGRESSIVE EXAMPLES.

By I. H. CLIVE.

PRINTED

FOR THE AUTHOR, BY C. CHESTER, NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME;
SOLD BY HIM,

B. CROSBY, AND CO. STATIONERS' COURT, LONDON;
W. WALKER, 192, STRAND; AND ALL OTHER BOOKSELLERS.

So

many systems of Short Hand being already before the Public, it becomes the duty of a fresh writer to give an account of his work, and to state the grounds on which he lays claim to the time and attention of his readers.

If we search out the history of Stenography, from the period of its systematic arrangement, at the beginning of the 17th Century, we shall find, that it has risen to its present improved state, by the accumulation of the best parts of different methods published since that time. It has employed the ingenuity of about sixty Au

thors, most of whom have made some improvement in it. Each author has attempted much, and, perhaps, failed; yet, as each has contributed a little, there is sufficient plea for a fresh labourer to put his hand to the work, even in the presence of those who look upon it as incapable of receiving further improvement.

Many Short Hand Writers have in their alphabets expressed two letters by one particular kind of stroke, with this distinction only, that for one of the letters the stroke has been made upward, and for the other, downward; than which, no two strokes, when in combination, can be more distinct for a line struck upward like the top of an, is as easy to be distinguished from the same kind of line, when made downward like the bottom of a p, as a curved line from a straight one. This idea I have enlarged upon; and by applying the principle of it to the different elementary characters in general use by Short Hand writers, I found, that I should have simple strokes enough, and such as were sufficiently easy of junction, to express nearly all the consonants of the alphabet; and that each of those strokes would be as different from any other as was necessary: which I consider as the most material point, next to brevity, in any system.