When Job Everardt published in the year 1658, his "Epitome of Stenographie," he had certainly no intention of minimising the value of his art, but, on the contrary, was quite ready to magnify the office of the shorthand writer. The engraved title-page is ornamented by eleven emblematical pictures, and stenography is declared to be "Swifter than the swift of foot" (Amos ii. 15); "Swifter than a post" (Job ix. 25); "Swifter than a weaver's shuttle" (Job vii. 20); "Swifter than waters" (Job xxiv. 18); "Swifter than clouds" (Isaiah xix. 1); "Swifter than ships" (Job ix. 26); "Swifter than horses" (Jer. iv. 13); "Swifter than dromedaries" (Jer. ii. 23); "Swifter than roes" (1 Chron. xii. 8); "Swifter than leopards" (Heb. i. 8); "Swifter than eagles" (2 Sam. i. 23). It may be remarked in passing that the worthy Everardt consistently spells than _then_ in the text to each of these emblems. We have left to the last the picture which holds the place of honour. Here we see a worthy divine, robed in a black gown, set off with white collars and cuffs, and with his head covered by a furred skull cap. He stands in a low pulpit, his hands rest on the comfortable cushion, which is unencumbered either by book or MS. Opposite to him, and occupying the whole of a comfortable form or very wide chair, is a stenographer. He wears his hat, as was often customary in church during the seventeenth century; he has impressive white hands; he has not taken off his cloak, but on a fold of it allows a book to rest, in which, with an impossible pen, he is taking down the sermon, and stares with fixed gaze as the divine asserts "My tongue is as the pen of a swift writer," and seems almost inclined to dispute the assertion that any tongue could keep pace with his nimble stylus. It must be confessed that the early stenographers--to confine our attention to them--were not at all in the habit of under-valuing their art. Here is what this same Everardt, "dropping into poetry" like Silas Wegg, has to say in a triple acrostic:-- Secret, short, swift this Writer iS, the Sun's course seemes but slow to hiS The Teacher's nimble tongue comes shorT this Writer waits his nexT reporT Eagles arE swift, his pen doth fleE his quill an Eagle's seems to bE Noe clouds can flee, Nor waters ruN swifter theN his quick strokes have doN One postin g Swiftly TO and frO his Oft-turn'd quill doth even SO Galley or ship with Sailes and FlagG the Weavers shuttle, Leopard, StagG Roe, Dromedary, Horse oR Ha'R: oR the swift swiming Dolphin ra'R And the quick Scribes, As ShemajA Baruch, EzrA, E L I S H A M A Paint forth, as Patterns in a maP this ARTS true Portrature and shaP Haste Haste to learn what it doth teacH Swiftness and Shortness botH to reacH Yea both in StenographyLY much more in this EPITOMY