make public the discourse some hours before the orator has uttered his last and newest words. It is to these artists alone that the exaggerated wonder of Ausonius is literally applicable. If the practice at Bourdeaux in the 4th century was the same as it is in Britain in the nineteenth, on such occasions, it is not impossible that the learned professor composed these verses, whilst he was contemplating such a solemn end, and was reflecting on the inconvenience-and to a professed rhetorician it would not be a trifling one-of being thus anticipated. It is possible that it had been lately introduced, and in that case the words, Quis ordo ' rerum tam novus?' will be satisfied. It is certain, that soon after the time of Cicero, the art of Tachygraphy had attained to considerable perfection; and perhaps Plutarch underrates its advancement at the period of which he speaks; it was a natural ambition in the Gurneys of those days, to desire to trace up their art to an origin so illustrious as M. Tullius, and to choose such a Cadmus to bring their letters first into the Forum, and as a consolation, also, for the unreasonable censure which Seneca had passed upon them. Quid loquar verborum notas,' says the angry philosopher, 'quibus, quamvis citati, excipitur oratio, et ce'leritatem linguæ manus sequitur? Vilissimorum mancipiorum 'ista commenta sunt.' Martial graphically describes the utmost perfection of the art; his epigram paints the writer as keeping always a-head of the speaker, and waiting for him, as in our days we see frequently a similar command of that useful and curious kind of writing.

6

'Currant verba licet, manus est velocior illis ;
Nondum lingua suum, dextra peregit opus.'

There is reason to believe that the art was of higher antiquity than Plutarch assigns to it, although it may not be so ancient as Funccius would make it, who gravely assures us, in his learned treatise De Scripturâ Veterum,' that our general father, Adam, was a skilful short-hand writer. It seems more probable, however, that Tiro imported the art from Greece, than that he was the inventor of it; especially as Diogenes Laertius informs us that Xenophon used to practise it; but it is not necessary to trace the history of it at present. During the decline of the Roman Empire, this kind of writing was much in use, and during the whole period usually termed the Middle Ages: Manuscripts written entirely in the Tironian notes are not unfrequent in libraries of the date of the seventh century, as it is supposed, and downwards to a late era; and scholia in these characters are still more common in the margins of manuscripts which are themselves written in the ordinary manner.

At the revival of letters these works attracted powerfully the attention of learned men; we find an elegant and urgent letter of Cardinal Bembo (Epist. Famil. 1. 5. cap. 8.), to Julius the Second, earnestly exhorting him to revive the study of these notes. His Holiness was moved by the solicitations of his eminent correspondent; and he accordingly set the most learned men of his time to work to discover the art and science of the Tironian notes. They studied them with the greatest application, and examined them with all possible care; but in vain. Many who were unable to decipher them after all their efforts, grew angry, and abused them lustily, comparing them to the Chinese characters, and declaring that they were merely arbitrary symbols, and that it was impossible to find the key to them, and vain to attempt it. These endeavours failed, not, as the Germans would have us believe, because the wits of the south are less sharp than those of the north, but because the former had not the helps which the latter have enjoyed, namely, several copious dictionaries in manuscript of the notes, and some copies of the Psalms, which were known to be the Psalms.

The attention of learned men was drawn to this subject early, in the North, and their inquiries were not so completely baffled. Trithemius, or Trittenheim, at the end of the 15th century, was lucky enough to purchase a Lexicon of Tironian notes, of an abbot of his own order, by a sort of pious fraud, or excusable trick; and he tells us, also, that he discovered, in the library of the Cathedral at Strasburg, the book of Psalms written in these notes, which had ignorantly been supposed to be the Psalms in the Armenian language. His book is scarce, his narrative quaint and curious, and the story worthy of attention. These are the words of the respectable monk:

'De Notis, et mirabili modo, sed nimis laborioso, scribendi, M. T. Ciceronis, et post eum S. Cypriani, Episcopi, et Martyris.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, facundus Romanorum orator, librum scripsit non parvæ quantitatis, Notarum, quem S. Cyprianus, Carthaginiensium Præsul et Martyr, multis et notis et dictionibus ampliavit, adjiciens vocabula Christianorum usibus necessaria, ut opus ipsum fieret non solum utile Paganis, sed multò magis etiam fidelibus. Rarus est codex, et a me semel duntaxat repertus, vilique pretio emptus. Nam cum, anno Dominicæ nativitatis 1496, bibliothecas plures librorum amore perlustrarem, reperi memoratum codicem in quodam ordinis nostri monasterio, nimiâ vetustate neglectum, projectum sub pulvere atque contemptum. Interrogavi abbatem, doctorem juris, quanti illum estimaret: respondit, S. Anshelmi parva opuscula nuper impressa illi præferrem. Ad bibliopolas abii, quoniam in civitate res contigit metropolitana, postulata Anshelmi opuscula pro sextâ floreni parte comparavi, abbati et monachis gaudentibus tradidi, et jam prope in

teritum actum codicem liberavi. Decreverunt enim, pergameni amore,* radendum. Biennio fermè post hæc, eques Argentinam in causis ordinis mei adscendi, admissusque per Joannem Keisserbergium, insignem loci concionatorem, in bibliothecam majoris Ecclesiæ, Psalterium reperi, totum iisdem Tullii et Cypriani Notis exaratum, aureisque capitellis decentissimè scriptum. Superscriptio autem ab ignaro mysterii talis fuerat extrinsecus posita: Psalterium in Armenicâ linguâ! Doctorem adhibui, falsitatem ostendi, ita rescribendum admonui : Psalterium notis Ciceronianis descriptum. Quod fecerit necne, incertum habeo, quoniam ad eam bibliothecam postea non sum reversus. Memoriam postulat iste modus scribendi magnam, et laborem legendi penitus ingentem; ubi quilibet character aut dictionem significat integram, aut syllabam ultimam, sive partem orationis aliquam ad compositionem totius idoneam.'

The

After the time of Trithemius, much was done at various periods, and by different persons, towards the analysis of the Tironian notes; but not so much as the inquirer after the lost classics would desire-for no fruit was produced. The most important work on this curious subject is a very modern one; and although it cannot as yet be said that the learned author has actually borne fruit, by deciphering any author of value, yet his labours will greatly facilitate such a generous enterprise, and a brief account of the book will best explain what it is necessary to the present purpose to understand of these matters. title of the work is, Tachygraphia Veterum exposita et illus'trata ab Ulrico Frid. Kopp. 2 tom. 4to. Manheim, 1817,' a general title of Palæographia Critica,' being thrown over it, like a mantle, or cloud. The first volume contains various investigations,-the history of the art,-an analysis of the forms of words, and whatever in short is necessary to constitute what may be called a Grammar of ancient short-hand; and it is, in truth, a wonderful monument of diligence and learning; but it would be very advantageous to make an epitome, or abridgement, omitting all that is merely archæological and historical, and especially those parts in which the errors of others are stated and exposed, and retaining only whatever is necessary in a grammar.

If this abridgement were well executed, we might venture to hope that some meritorious persons would avail themselves of the helps which the learned Kopp has afforded, and demonstrate at once the correctness of his work, and the incorrectness of his

*The amor pergameni has done much injury to the cause of learning. Classical scholars will perhaps maintain, that it is the most mischievous form in which that mischievous passion has shown itself; that the love of skin has been more fatal than the love of flesh.

desponding dedication, which is in these words:

Posteris

hoc opus, ab æqualium meorum studiis forte alienum, do, dico, ' atque dedico.'

The second volume is a very full Dictionary of this old shorthand, containing about twelve thousand words or marks, arranged in alphabetical order: a number abundantly sufficient to enable the student to acquire great facility in reading, to understand the analogy fully, so as to become perfectly familiar with the whole system, and to put it in the power of any one, by the labour of a few hours, to discover the subject of any manuscript which is written in these characters. It is probable, therefore, that at last the desire and demand of the learned, as expressed by Justus Lipsius more than two centuries ago, will be satisfied; Aiunt libros alibi in bibliothecis exstare harum No'tarum. Cur non edunt? Quanto utilius, quam nugas quasdam, 'hodie atque heri natas!'

As to the notes themselves, the curious will most readily find a specimen of them in the Thesaurus Inscriptionum' of Gruter, or in the third volume of the Nouveau Traité de Diplomatique.' Kopp successfully combats the idea, that the notes are not alphabetical, although it is not to be denied, that many of them must be considered as arbitrary signs; but, on the whole, the Tironian system, as explained by him, displays wonderful ingenuity. He would rather derive their name from Tiro, a learner, than, as it is usually deduced, from the freedman of Cicero. The characters, we think, are manifestly formed from the Roman, and perhaps also sometimes from the Greek capitals; yet they frequently resemble the Chinese, the more simple characters of which forcibly remind us of the more complicated of the notes; and if a number of them were culled out for the purpose, they would probably deceive even eyes accustomed to the sight of Chinese writing. There is the same cramped execution; they are thick and black; a large wedge-like stroke is rudely varied with awkward loops or curls, issuing from different points, or by short, black, wedge-like strokes, placed in different directions, adjoining, or sometimes passing through, the parent stem at various points. The ancients were, for the most part, ignorant of any alphabet, except the Greek and the Roman, which were very like each other; the Tironian characters were formed of the Roman capitals, or of portions of them. In modern times as many persons are familiar with a great variety of alphabets, and as the art of Tachygraphy had made greater progress, the inventors of modern systems of short-hand ventured to contrive new alphabets, and to look only for such forms of letters as are most simple and easily made, and have the advantage of join

ing well with the characters that precede and follow. They have accordingly formed various systems, of which the letters are strikingly cursive, and present an appearance entirely different from the Tironian notes; not resembling the Chinese, but rather the Arabic and Persian hands, in the union of the letters that form the words, in the dots and other minute marks, which are like the Eastern vowels and diacritical points, and because also the words often ascend or descend considerably from the line, the different portions of the same word, although the letters are still joined, being, as it were, on different levels. In systems of short-hand used for languages which are but little inflected, signs, denoting the terminations of words, are not of much importance; but in the Greek and Latin, in which the inflections are numerous, such signs are as essential to determine the true sense of a passage, as the radical part of the words; in the Tironian notes, therefore, they occupy a distinguished place. The notes do not appear to be very brief to us, who are accustomed to cursive writing, and to the modern and more perfect short-hand; though they no doubt seemed very compendious to persons who always wrote in Roman capitals, and to whom abbreviations were much more necessary. We have, moreover, ample proof, that they were sufficient for their purpose; since men, who were skilful in the use of them, were able to take down the words of a speaker, as rapidly as they were uttered. Many of the Tironian notes have been retained in old entries and charters, in manuscripts, and even in printed books; as the mark resembling the Arabic numeral 9, which denotes the termination us, and the line, like the mark over a long syllable, which signifies m, or sometimes um, and several others.

A few Greek manuscripts are in existence written in notes; and the learned Kopp assures us, that the Greek notes are more easy and simple than the Tironian, and that the accents and spirits which are always expressed, greatly assist the reader. In appearance, they are more similar to modern short-hand. They often occur in Greek manuscripts that are written in long-hand: as the Latins called these characters notæ, and their short-hand writers notarii, so the Greeks used the terms σημεία and σημειογράφοι. Kopp is decidedly of opinion, that the Tironian notes were not derived from Greece; and his reasoning is ingenious, though not conclusive.

This very industrious and learned person describes the manuscripts which he examined, as consisting either of dictionaries of notes, which he found of course very useful, or works of a religious nature; and he very frankly gives vent to his disappoint