Copies for Round Hand Text.

Avoid bad company.
Care destroys the body.
Expect to recieve as you give.
God is perfect in his works.
Innocency need not fear.
Keep faith with all men.
Money corrupts many.
Opportunities are flighted.
Quiet men have quiet minds.
Sin produces fhame.
Value a good conscience.
Wisdom is valuable.
Yield patiently to fate.

Be wife betimes.

Do the things that are juft.
Frequent good company.
Hours fly fwift away.
Join experience to theory.
Learn in the time of youth.
No task is too hard to learn.
Provide against poverty.
Remember your duty.
Time and tide flay for none.
Understand your trade.
Xerxes wept at mortality.
Zeal is sometimes proper.

Copies for Round Hand.

All letters even at head and tail must stand:
Bear light your pen, and keep a steady hand.
Carefully strive in each line to excel;

Do every thing, that is to be done, well,
Excel in each new line, în every part:
Faults for the future thun, by rules of art.
Gripe not your pen, but hold it very flight,
Hold in your elbow, have a left hand light.
In all your writing at the copy look;
Join all your letters by a fine hair-stroke:

Keep free from faults, and blots, your copy-book.
Learn the command of hand by frequent ufe,
Much practice will good penmanship produce.
Never ftrive to write too faft at first;
Of all a learner's faults, this is the worst.
Practice alone can produce expedition;
Quick writing is moft learners' vain ambition.

VOL. I.

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Rule

Rule your lines ftraight, and make them very fine;
Set stems of letters fair above the line,

The tops above the stems, the tails below,
Ufe pounce to paper, if the ink go through.
View well your copy, fee how much you mend;
Wipe clean your pen, your task being at an end.
Your fpelling mind, write each word true and well;
Zealously strive good writers to excel.

A Receipt for making black Ink.

To one quart of foft water, put four ounces of fresh blue galls of Aleppo, bruifed pretty fmall; two ounces of copperas; and two ounces of gum-Arabic. Bottle it up, and shake it once a day, and in three or four weeks it will be fit for use.

The green peelings of walnuts, foaked in the water before the ink is made (if they be in feafon), will render it the ftronger, and more beautiful.

A Receipt for red Ink.

Simmer three pints of ftale beer, or vinegar, with four ounces of ground Brazil wood, for an hour; then strain it through a flannel, and bottle it up for use.

Or a little gum-water and vermillion will make a curious red ink for prefent purpofe.

SECT. II.

OF SECRET WRITING.

SECRET Writing may be performed feveral ways. Former ages were very fertile in inventions of this kind; and, by thefe means, intelligence has been obtained by countries, from

other

others, with whom they were in a state of hoftility; and that not unfrequently in modern times. It may alfo ferve individual purposes, where fecrecy is required.

There are principally three ways of writing, so as not to be read by any, but those who can discover the manner in which it is written. Firft, writing in cipher, which requires great ingenuity, and of which, my limits will not permit me to fpeak. Secondly, fubftituting other arbitrary marks or characters, for words or letters, than the words or letters themselves. And, thirdly, writing with fome ink or liquid which will not appear legible, till rendered fo by some mechanical operation.

The fecond method, of fubftituting one character for another, is cafily performed; as any perfon might make an alphabet of his own, confifting of twenty-fix characters, each of which might ftand for fome one letter of the English alphabet; and thus the writing would be unintelligible to any but those who have the key or index. Or, the nume rical figures may be used to the fame purpose: as for example. a may be represented by 1; b, by 2; c, by 3 ; &c. as follows 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, v, u, w, x, y, z.

According to this index, the following fentence, riches gain friends, will be written thus: 18, 9, 3, 8, 5, 19. 7, 1, 9, 14. 6, 18, 9, 5, 14, 4, 19. Or the figures, to correfpond to the letters, may be placed in any other order. Or the letters in the alphabet may be tranfpofed. Certain confonants may be fubftituted inftead of the vowels, and the vowels inftead of the confonants: as, instead of the vowels, a, e, i, o, u, y, use l, m, n, f, g, r, and vice verfå, respectively; then the foregoing fentence will stand thus: ynchms glni fynmids. And an infinite number of other ways might be invented, by this mode of fubftitutional writing, which the ingenious. reader will discover; fuch as, dividing the alphabet into two parts, and tranfpofing the letters which ftand in the first or fecond

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fecond place, in one part, with those in the first or second place, in the other part; or, dividing it into three columns, and applying this rule alternately; first, to the first column, and then to the second: and a number of other ways there are, too numerous to mention.

The third way of writing fecretly, is, Firft, by writing with the juice of a lemon, the juice of an onion, urine, or the fpirits of vitriol, which will not appear legible till it be holden to the fire.

Secondly, by tracing the letters on the back of the paper, after it is written, with a pen dipped in milk; thefe letters, fo traced, will not appear legibie, till the paper be holden to the fire; then they will appear of a bluish colour. But, in this manner of writing, the paper should be very thin,

The laft method I fhall mention, is, by ufing fympathetic inks, as they are generally called: there are various preparations under this name. I fhall mention only two, and which may fafely be depended upon.

1. If a little green vitriol be diffolved in water, with a little nitrous acid, the characters written with it will be invifible, till they are wetted with the following mixture:

Put two ounces of fmall Aleppo galls in half a pint of water; when it has stood three or four days, pour it off. A pencil, 'dipped in this mixture, and drawn over the letters, written with the former ink, will render them of a beautiful black.

Or letters written with the latter ink, will be invisible, till they are wetted with a folution of Pruffian blue in water; and letters written with this folution, will also be invifible, fill wetted with the above ink of galls, and water.

2. Incorporate one ounce of litharge of lead with two ounces of diftilled vinegar; let it ftand twenty-four hours, then strain it off, and let it fettle.

Put one ounce of orpiment, in powder, and two ounces of quick lime, in a quart bottle, with water fufficient to

cover them about an inch above the ingredients. Place the bortle in a moderate heat, for twenty-four hours: then pour it off, and cork it close.

The letters written with the former of these inks, will not appear till they be expofed to the vapours of this latter ink; when they will appear perfectly plain.

SECT. III.

OF EPISTOLARY WRITING, AND SUPERSCRIPTION OF LETTERS.

Or every species of compofition, there is none that, in its nature, approaches nearer to familiar conversation (except plain dialogue) then epiftolary writing. A letter is a direct addrefs from one perfon to another, and should, therefore, contain all the cafe, elegance, and familiarity of conversation; paying the fame regard to the nature of the subject, and the perfon addreffed, as in a perfonal application. The principal characteristics of a letter are, nature, fimplicity, fprightlinefs, and wit. The style of a letter fhould be natural; and appear to express the genuine feelings of the mind. It should not indicate the least mark of study. There fhould be no formal divifion of the parts, no laboured introduction, nor pathetic conclufion; but all fhould appear the fpontaneous product of the writer's own emotions. It should likewife be wholly devoid of any complexity or ambiguity of expreffion: for this purpose, the fentences fhould be short, and the style perfpicuous. It fhould contain all the vivacity of converfation. And, if the writer be mafter of any wit, a letter (if the subject permit) affords as proper a place for the

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