re 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. {83}

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.)

Another attempt, the third, at this old difficulty, which cannot be put
into few words of explanation.[171]

Comets considered as volcanoes, and the cause of their velocity and
other phenomena thereby explained. London (_circa_ 1856), 8vo.

The title explains the book better than the book explains the title.

1856. A stranger applied to me to know what the ideas of a friend of his
were worth upon the magnitude of the earth. The matter being one involving
points of antiquity, I mentioned various persons whose speculations he
seemed to have ignored; among others, Thales. The reply was, "I am
instructed by the author to inform you that he is perfectly acquainted with
the works of Thales, Euclid, Archimedes, ..." I had some thought of asking
wh