Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	good_a	read_v	see_v	2,579	5	3.2518	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50276	Fax nova artis scribendi, or, An introduction (by way of dialogue) to the best forms and proportions of all letters, in each hand most useful, and excellent for all business both in clerkship and trade : to which is added, rules for spelling and pointing : as also, a table of abbreviations, so large that it will facilitate both the writing and reading of any business at common or civil law : together with some directions which may be beneficial for a clerk in the progress of his whole clerkship / by John Matlock ....	Matlock, John.	1685 (1685)	Wing M1292A; ESTC R19209	24,285	50

Breadth of the Minnum Strokes are but One Sixth part of their Heighth but in This they must be One Fourth And thus much for Court-Hand Sc. You spake of a Cursory Court-Hand a little before Mr. Well remembred To make a Quick Expeditious or Cursory Hand Two things are absolutely necessary 1. A right Form of Letters viz. A Form agreeing to the Rules of Expedition so far as the Characters both in Shape and Use will admit 2. A frequent Use or Custom in the Writing of the same Court-Hand may be made far more Expeditious than it 's commonly wrote and yet vary but a very small matter from the Original and not in the least the more illegible or infirm by avoiding some Cutts prejudicial to the making of Letters And also these Cutts being many and the most difficult Parts of Letters they must retard the Motion of the Hand This will plainly appear when you have Written a few Lines by this Copy of the Twenty Four Letters wherein the Pen must not be taken off in the performing any Letter except in the making of an x Sc. I judge this last Form of Letters better for Use than the Other Mr. It 's better for common Business than the Other because it 's far more Expeditious but for Business of extraordinary Concern the Sett-Court is best it being the most Beautiful Besides it 's very convenient that the Sett-Court be very well understood before an Imitation of the more Cursory Hand for the more like the Cursory Hand is to the Sett the better For though the Letters may be altered to a Cursory Form yet notwithstanding the Form of each Letter must be in a great measure like the Original otherwise it cannot be Court Sc. Pray Sir then What will you call That that is one part Court and the other Secretary Mr. What will you call that Person that 's both Man and Woman Sc. Those are called Hermaphrodites and pass for Men or Women as the Sex prevaileth Mr. So you may call these Miscellanies Court or Secretary as the Form prevaileth Now I shall proceed to the Chancery-Hand the last of the Five before-mentioned Best for the Writing of any Clerk-like Business whatsoever whose Proportions are as followeth First The Letters within Line must be One Fifth of the Third of an Inch in Heighth Secondly The Wideness of these Letters must be equal to their Heighth Thirdly The Stemms of the Letters must be equal in Length to the Letters within the Line except the Stemms of a s and t which must be lower by One Half than the other Stemms Fourthly The Wideness of these Stemms must be equal to their Heighth Fifthly The Fulness of each Stroke must be equal to One Third of the Heighth of the Letters within Line Sixthly The White of the Letters or One Third of their Breadth must be your distance between Letter and Letter and the double thereof between Word and Word Except Two compass Letters come together in one Word then they must be joyned close Seventhly The Distance of Lines must be Three Fifths of the Third of an Inch. Your Desires of Writing Well and my Endeavours to fulfill the same being now accomplished there remains nothing of my Profession that may be any way serviceable Sc. I have receiv'd a Letter from my Father wherein is signified his Infinite Thanks for your more deserving Favours And I am thereby informed That he has provided a Lawyer for my Master And I doubt not but that you will advise me how to demean my self so as that I may not only please my Master but also may most advantage my self in his Service Mr. I 'll tell you what pleased my Master and I doubt not but that will please Yours First then Observe to write all Business in a good Character clean and true Secondly Observe to dispatch your Business in due Time and to have every thing in readiness when he calls for it Sc. Truly Sir this is not long in wording But many times a short Demand requires a long Performance Mr. Many times a long Payment is made by a good Forecast which I advise you to be ready at In order to which take these following Directions First Be sure to Write always up to the Character you have learn'd and then move your Pen as quick as you can This Course being observed Practice will not only make you Write Quick but Well also Secondly Observe to keep your Study clean and neat and let every thing therein be laid in its proper Place Thirdly Be careful to Write true avoiding thereby the razing out and interlining of Words which is very disgraceful and may be of ill Consequence if it happen in any material Part of a Deed. But if it unluckily so happen that either by your Master's Amendment of what you are to Transcribe or by your Negligence you are forced to alter any Word after it s written if on Parchment then after it 's perfectly dry scratch out the Word with the Point of your Pen-knife being careful therein to scratch away as little of the Parchment as you can for fear of scratching through or making it so thin that it will not bear Ink Then smooth it with your Pummis-Stone And if you interline any Word or Sentence be careful to place rightly your Point of Induction Write no material Word too nigh the Edge of your Paper that being the soonest prejudiced either by fretting or tearing When you have any Business of your Master's be careful to imploy every moment of your Time therein And be sure to admit of no Recreation till your Hands be freed of Business This Course being followed through the whole Progress of your Clerkship I doubt not but that you will please your Master and bring Honour to your self Sc. Sir I thank you and I 'll do my Endeavour to prosecute your Directions Pray Sir be pleased also to give me some Directions how to imploy my spare Minutes Mr. Procure you Two Precedent Books the One a Folio the Other a Quarto Page them both and Margent them with Red Ink. At the End of your Books Rule Ten or Twelve Leaves down the Middle on both sides with Red Ink for your Table which make Alphabetically And in these Books enter your Precedents In the Folio enter your Precedents for Conveyancing and in the Other your Precedents for Pleading And be sure to let nothing that 's new to you pass your Hands without a Copy And if it chance that through the haste of Business you have not an Oppertunity to take a Copy unless you become Master of the Morning an Hour or two sooner than you were wont let neither Drowsiness nor Sloth be any Impediment And you will also do well to spend a good part of your leasure Hours in reading some profitable Books of the Law And when you Read endeavour to apprehend the Reason of Things otherwise you will never be able to apply what you Read to your Practice Sit when you

and I have received a great deal of Satisfaction from your Three Principles together with their Existences and I hope I have a right Understanding of them But Sir Has the Scribe Liberty by these Principles to change or invent Characters for Hands as he pleases Mr. No But he may alter any useful Hand to make it accord with the said Principles provided his Alteration do not render the Hand more illegible I will now proceed to give you the Knowledge of the best way of Writing and according to the fore-recited Principles in each particular Hand And I think it most convenient to begin with the English-Ingrossing-Hand commonly called Set-Secretary And that I may not do and undo I will First set down the General Branches considerable in each Hand Which springing from the said Three Principles of this Art and being followed perfectly will reduce Hands to their highest Excellencies The Rules founded upon these Three Principles have Respect either to the Proportion or Forms of Letters As for the Proportion of the several Characters of this Hand I have already proved That they must be so Firm as that they may endure Legible for ever But how Firm this Hand ought to be that it may thus endure it remains yet to be considered And that I may not give you the Proportion too small which would prejudice the End of its Use nor too full which would render it the more slow I have considered this That Hand which has endured Firm and Legible for several Centuries will endure Legible for ever Now how Large and Firm those Hands are that have thus continued may be seen both by Printed Authors and Antient Writings Sc. Sir There are several sorts of Prints and those of several Proportions Mr. The Smallest of any sort will endure for ever if it be well Printed which doth not only appear by the duration of Books extant in the smallest Prints published both for the Instruction of the present and future Ages but we may also see these Books thus Printed an hundred Years or more after their Publication to remain Firm and Legible as they were the First Day of their Printing Sc. There is a great Difference between that which is Printed and that which is Written Mr. As to the Manner there is but as far as it concerns that which I here argue for there is no Difference a Stroke of the Pen being altogether as durable as a Stroke from the Press they bearing both one Fulness Sc. But that which is Printed seems more firm than that which is Written Mr. The Print is the blacker because it admits of no Hair-strokes but this is Nihil ad rem if you consider First That the Difference of Letters in this Hand depends upon a full Stroke Secondly That their several Forms by which they may be known depends also upon a Full. Sc. I observe from hence That as all Letters are known by some Difference so that Difference must be made by the Full of the Pen that the Difference may remain Mr. It 's well observed Now if the smallest Print be judged of a sufficient Firmness for perpetual Duration sure an Hand as full again cannot be thought too small Now that I may give you the right Proportion of every Letter in this Hand and of every thing that has relation thereunto First I will set down in what particulars Proportion is to be considered in this Hand I. It has respect unto the Length and Breadth of every part of a Letter both Great and Small II. In the joyning of these Letters viz. In the distances between Letters and Words III. In the Ruling viz. The distance of Lines For the First viz. The Proportion of Letters You are to observe That some Letters are made with Stemms and some without Those without Stemms are those Letters that are wholly made within the Ground and upper-line And I chose the rather to give you first the Proportion of these Letters within these Lines because those with Stemms take their Proportions from thence First then Observe to make these said Letters One Fourth of the Third of an Inch or One Fourth of a Grain which i● all one in Heighth and the Breadth viz. The White and two-side Lines of each of these Letters must be equal to their Heighth All the Letters of this Hand depending upon a Circle and Perpendicular Line Secondly Observe that the Length of each Stemm must be longer by one half than the other Letters within the Lines excepting q whose Stemm must be equal in Length to the Minnum Strokes and p which must be but One Half of the Minnum Strokes and the Compass of each of these Stemms must be equal in Compass with the other Letters within the Line except h and k which must be as wide again Thirdly Observe that the Fulness of each Stroke be equal to One Fourth of the Wideness Fourthly Observe the White of the small Letters for your Distance between Letter and Letter and the double thereof between Word and Word except Two Circular Letters come together in a Word and then those Letters must be joyn'd closer by One Half Fifthly Observe that your Lines be ruled distant from each other the space of One Third of an Inch which will prevent your Stemms from falling into each other Sixthly Observe that you set all your Letters upright this being the best way for all English Hands And by reason this Last thwarts the Opinion of Mr. Cocker I will inform you what were the Reasons that induced me thus to contradict him I have observed That the Hand naturally and freely will tend only that way that it 's most accustomed to and that is the cause that when any accustom themselves to write Court which ignorantly of late has been lean'd towards the Left-hand they lean all the other Hands alike which is no small Prejudice to them And therefore upon good Reason it is my Opinion That all our English Hands are ●est when set upright which will not in the least be to their Prejudice but very much to their Advantage Sc. Pray Sir How do you judge the Sett-Hand was wrote before Mr. Cocker's Time Mr. Before Mr. Cocker our English Hands were all set upright as it appears by the Manuscripts of Mr. Davy's written Anno Dom. 1590. Sc. It 's strange Men should be thus forward to vary unless their Alterations were for the bettering the Hand altered Mr. I judge that the Alterations of Hands was intended for the bettering of them though in many things their Design miscarried And it was impossible it should be otherwise for they never prescribed to themselves any certain Principles of Writing which would have reduced their Writings to a Certainty as Standards to examine their Writing by but invented and altered every Hand according to their own roving Phancies And what was newest among them was deemed Best as appears by the Words of Mr. Cocker in his ARTS GLORY And I wonder what Hand-Writing would have been