After you have learned to write, it is well to provide your desk with a leadpencil, a piece of India rubber, a ruler, and a bottle of mucilage and a brush.

Position of the Writer.

In writing in a sitting position, a flat table is the best.

The position of the writer is a matter of the greatest importance, as it decides his comfort at the time, and exercises a powerful influence upon his general health.

The main object is to acquire an easy and graceful position, one in which the right arm has full play of the muscles used in writing.

The table should be sufficiently high to compel you to sit upright. Avoid stooping, as destructive of a good hand and of good health. Your position

Sit

should be such as will enable you to fill your lungs without much effort. with your right side next to the desk or table, and in such a position that the light will fall over your right shoulder upon the paper.

The right forearm must be placed on the desk so as to rest the muscle front of the elbow, and the hand placed on the book so as to rest the nails of the third and fourth fingers.

The forearm must be at right angles with the copy, the book being steadied by the fingers of the left hand placed on the paper at the left of the pen-point. Hold the wrist naturally over the desk, and you will see that the inner side is raised a little higher than the outer. Keep the wrist free from the desk, and do not let it turn over to the right or the left, or bend down or up, or otherwise.

Hold the pen lightly between the thumb and first two fingers, letting it cross the forefinger in front of the third joint. Rest the base of the holder at the

nail of the middle finger. Place the forefinger over the holder.

thumb and fingers outward, and the third and fourth fingers under to rest the hand on the nails. Let the nibs of the pen press the paper evenly.

The pen should be in a vertical plane with the inside of the forearm, and inclined at an angle of fifty-two degrees (52°) from the base.

The movements in writing are produced by the extension and retraction of the pen-fingers and the thumb; by the action of the forearm on the arm-rest as a centre of motion; the whole arm movement, which is the action of the whole arm from the shoulder as the centre of motion; and the union of all these move

INCORRECT MODE OF HOLDING
THE PEN.

PROPER MODE OF HOLDING THE

PEN.

ments. In ordinary writing, the first is sufficient. In ornamental writing, flourishing, etc., all the various movements are employed.

The fingers should be kept flexible, and their movements, as well as those of the hand and wrist, should be free and unrestrained. Cramping or stiffening either the fingers or the wrist causes the handwriting to be cramped and awkward, and greatly fatigues the writer. The pen should be held as lightly as though the least pressure would crush it, and not grasped as though you thought it would fly

away.

In standing at a desk to write, stand upright, and with the chest well thrown out. The desk should be high enough to compel you to do this. It should slightly incline from the outer edge upwards, and should project far enough to allow you to place your feet weli under it. The principal weight of the body CORRECT POSITION OF THE HAND. should rest upon the left foot, the right being thrown forward. Stand with your left side toward the desk, and rest your body on the left elbow, which should be laid upon the desk in such a manner as to enable you to steady your paper or book with the left hand. This position will enable you to write freely in the ordinary manner, or to use the whole forearm should you desire to do so. The pen-holder should point towards the right shoulder.

A great saving of fatigue is made by assuming and keeping a correct position while writing either sitting or standing. By conscientiously attending to this matter, you will soon acquire the habit of maintaining a correct position, and will reap the benefit in the ease with which you perform your task, and in improved health.

No one should be satisfied with a bad handwriting when it is in his power to improve it. Any one can procure a copy-book, and can spare an hour, or half an

hour, a day for this effort at improvement. You should begin at the beginning, and practise faithfully until you have reached a satisfactory result. Remember that a good hand is not acquired in a week or a month; it takes long and diligent practice to produce this result. The end, however, is worth all the labor necessary to its accomplishment.

The great aim should be to make the handwriting legible. An ornamental hand is very attractive, but it may be this and yet not easily read. This is to fail in the first requisite of good writing.

The advantages of writing well are numerous, and will readily suggest themselves. In the first place, it is always a pleasure to prepare a plainly and neatlywritten letter or paper. The writer is then never afraid or ashamed for his friends to see his writing, and is never disgraced by a wretched scrawl in addressing a letter to a stranger.

A good hand is also an invaluable aid to a young man seeking employment. A merchant in employing clerks and salesmen will always give the preference to the best penman. A young man applying by letter for a situation can scarcely offer a better reference than the appearance of his letter. Should you wish to become a book-keeper or accountant, a good handwriting is a necessity.

How to Spell Correctly.

WHETHER a person is a good penman or not, it is necessary that he should know how to make use of his ability to write, or, in other words, how to transfer correctly his thoughts to paper.

The first requisite is to know how to spell correctly. This is even more important than writing a good hand. A badly-spelled letter is much more of a disgrace to the writer than one badly written. The habit of spelling correctly may be easily acquired, and once mastered is rarely lost. Our language is so rich in words that even the best of spellers may sometimes be unable to give the proper orthography of a word, but the knowledge of the general principles which govern the formation of English words will enable him to meet all the ordinary demands likely to be made upon him. These may be found in almost any spelling-book, or work upon the principles of composition. It is well, however, to give a few of the most important here. We may remark, in passing, that writing words out in full on paper, or on a slate, is an admirable means of impressing them upon the memory.

All words of one syllable ending in 7, with a single vowel before it, have double at the close: as mill, sell.