Ideayraphy by THOMAS How, is a scheme of the nature
of short- hand : and, so fur as we are able to form a judgment from a careful in- Ideayraphy by THOMAS How, is a scheme of the nature of short- hand : and, so fur as we are able to form a judgment from a careful in- spection, it is an able one,—sound and intelligible in principle, clear and simple in the theory of its execution. The leading plan of Idea- yraphy is, first, to reduce words to their elementary sounds, so as to render their representation as simple as possible : thus, the ideagraphist would write we instead of weigh, no instead of know, besides further abbreviations in practising his art, leaving the context to determine the sense. By this strict attention to the elementary sounds, .certain con- sonants are altogether dispensed with. The next step is to abridge the labour of forming the letters : and this is accomplished by using amen) dot for the vowels, and determinieg their name by their relative position to the ruled line, with which it is essentisl in this system to write. The consonants are formed by means of a straight, a sloping, and a curve line ; their respective characters being marked by their horizontal, an- gular, and reversed positions. To attain this accomplishment, would require care and exercise; and to write it readily, would require much practice. Upon these points, however, no opinion is here given, for we have not attempted "ideography:" all that needs be said is, we can understand it.
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