_Handwriting._--In my last communication (Vol. v., p. 235.), in
consecutive lines, _when_ was printed _where_, and _second_ was printed
_record_. This is not wholly the printer's fault: in the common current
hands, _n_ and _re_ are much alike; and _n_ and _r_, _s_ and _r_, are
like enough to cause mistake. I have more than once got as far as a
second proof, containing what might, if it had been printed, have been
interpreted as a reflection on the dimensions of the clergy, which was
far from my intention; namely, allusion to the area of a circular
_rector_, in which the first _r_ should have been _s_. What I want to
make a note on, is this: no _current_ hand is taught at schools: the
so-called _small_ hand is nothing but the larger hand written smaller.
If any one would publish some specimens of current hand, in which all
the letters are perfectly distinguishable from each other, he would do
good service. And the (?) might go the length of a woodcut (which
imitates writing better than copper): for no persons write so badly as
writers. The task should not be undertaken by a writing-master: for
there are few who will go through thick and thin in their calligraphy.
What is wanted is a good _skewer-hand_, in which there are none of those
upstrokes and downstrokes which, in former days, used to subject boys to
certain other upstrokes and downstrokes, of which it can only be said
that the former were more bearable than the latter.