An excerpt from the Introduction: NEARLY fifty years ago, in the wilds of the Great West, "a youth to fortune and to fame unknown," but who was conscious of his powers, made the sublime resolution to rescue from its undeserved obscurity the practical Art of "Writing. He seems to have been expressly created for the high commission which he was called upon to execute; for his organization was almost femininely fine and subtle, his temperament was strongly poetic, his love for the beautiful, whether in Nature or Art, amounted to an ecstatic passion, and his whole nature was emotional and sympathetic. There existed in the magnetic brain of this unassuming but enthusiastic youth, an idea of graceful lines, and curves, and characters, which, combined with a proper regard to symmetry, utility, and general beauty, would at once embody his darling idea, and glorify the art which he so devoutly desired to serve. And so he wrought, patiently and persistently, until at length, the representations of his hand were as pure- and chaste and beautiful as the peerless conceptions of his mind. Not one of all the multitudes who were astonished at his earlier triumphs, knew that what they so admired were, in their most attractive features, the faithful type of his sweet and gentle spirit whose master hand had wrought them out; nor could the most sanguine of them have formed any adequate conception of his future fame among the thousands and tens of thousands who have since been charmed by the pictures of his pen. The young man whose early history is thus briefly told was Platt E. Spencer, the originator and author of the Spencerian System of Practical Penmanship - a system whose superiority is universally recognized, and whose benefits are universally sought. Within the last year, Mr. Spencer has been called to his rest, "Mourned by more hearts than when a monarch dies." We now present his invaluable "System" to the public, enriched by all the various improvements suggested by himself - previous to his death.