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STENOGRAPHY. 



STEUEOUKAPHIC. 



Irvture*. 4o. By student* of divinity, medicine, law, ur others, who scientific or other subjects, shorthand may be studied with great 

 may wish to preserve the whole or parts of discourse* or lectures on advantage. The art, however, is not to bo acquired without the 



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 \TI-oc>o<r? V S Pi 



diligent application of many months, and it also requires considerable 

 manual dexterity, though worthless treatises and travelling teachers of 

 stenography occasionally assert the contrary. 



We shall now give a brief summary of the principles of stenography, 

 according to the system of Taylor, as improved by Harding. 



Of ike Aljikaliel. The voweU are represented by points, a period 

 standing for a, r, and i, and a comma for o and it. The single con- 

 sonants of the shorthand alphalwt amount only to sixteen, c and z 

 being rejected as unnecessary, the former having both a hard and a 

 soft sound, similar to k and >, as in the words " command " and " sen- 

 tence;" i is therefore always substituted for r, where the letter has a 

 toft sound, and / where it has a hard sound : / and v, being similar in 

 found, are both represented by the same character. For the same 

 reason, g and j are represented by one character, as are also k and q. 

 Characters are also assigned to double consonants, such as rh, sh, and 

 (A. These double consonants conduce to both perspicuity and ex- 

 pedition. The vowels are distinguished from each other by their 

 position. For instance, should the period be placed over the top of 

 a consonant, it signifies a ; if placed against the side, or opposite the 

 centre of the consonant, it becomes e ; if placed at the bottom ?'. The 

 personal pronoun / is represented by a mark similar to the top part of 

 a note of admiration. The comma is o when placed in the same 

 situation as the dot or period for a, and v when in the same situation 

 as the dot for e. Where vowels have been generally omitted, either 

 through the haste of transcribing remarks on any subject, or for 

 expedition in following a speaker, they ought, where such a course is 

 rendered necessary, to be supplied immediately afterwards, while the 

 (subject written is fresh in the recollection of the writer. In all words 

 which have neither incipient, terminative, nor long vowels, no middle 

 vowel should be expressed unless some peculiarity may render it 

 ex|>edieut or necessary to deviate from this general rule. A word of 

 more than one syllable, having a long vowel in it, must generally have 

 that vowel expressed, because the long vowel being found in that 

 syllable which is most distinctly heard in pronunciation, affords the 

 greatest help in reading; at the same time, however, when a word of 

 more than one syllable consists of several consonants, even the long 

 vowel may be frequently omitted. The various characters of the 

 alphabet represent, when placed by themselves, a number of small 

 words. For example, the a or cut is written by dot; the and also ami by 

 a comma, the former being written aliove the line, and the latter below. 

 The consonant b represents the word be, by, been ; d. do, <l'nl, done ; f, 

 /, f> >ff 8> ( ' M l> <J ire > ff> good ; h, hart, he; k, i-nnn; knnirn ; 1, Lnrd, 

 all, mil, and so on throughout the alphabet. For the attainment of 

 practical proficiency in the art, it is necessary that the alphabet should 

 be acquired so perfectly as to be written correctly four times in a 

 minute. It is necessary also in this place to explain that d and r, 

 which in the alphabet appear to be precisely the same in form, are 

 distinguished by the former, when joined to another consonant, being 

 written downwards, and the latter upwards. 



Of Prepoationt and Termination!. Prepositions and terminations 

 are the letters or signs by which the first and last syllables of words 

 are represented. The whole of the single and double consonants of 

 the alphabet are employed in denoting the beginnings or endings of 

 words ; in which situations the letters are not joined to the other part 

 of the word, but placed so close as to show their connection and 

 prevent their being mistaken for separate and independent words. 

 Tin letter 6 represents the prepositions a/a, o/n, lie. ; and the tormina- 

 tioim Me, i/iie, y ; the letter d, the prepositions de and da, and the 

 terminations don, end, encd, &c. ; the letter /, the preposition fur 

 and the termination ful; and the other alphabetical characters are 

 appropriated in a similar manner. Besides the consonants several 

 arbitrary marks are also used to denote the endings of words. In 

 many case* a preposition and a termination together are all that are 

 Decenary to represent a word. 



! /-tonmo. In the system of Taylor very few arbltraries are 

 employed. They do not exceed twenty in number and may generally 

 be employed with advantage, which is more than can be said of the 

 arbitraries of several other systems. The experienced shorthand 



At improved by Harding in the tfoniliona of the roweli. 



V D>o 5 Z 



v ) c?<y z 



r qt r /O I L A A x+ 7 / 

 -^^T'/OILAAXcr/ 

 D <r / | \ P(> J /9_o s 

 pf^TV I \<nt-o'_ 

 P <3J A/ I 6^ <r- ox . .1 



writer may readily, and with much benefit to himself, increase the 

 number of these marks as occasion may require. For inst-un < . t he in- 

 dividual who acquires the art of writing shorthand for th>- pin i 

 its practical application in a court of law, may readily assign art 

 marks for such technical terms or lengthy words as 

 frequent recurrence. In the same manner the student of medi 

 divinity may also form such characters to suit his own ; 

 pursuit ; and those persons who practise shorthand for a variety of 

 purposes may in like manner adapt them to the several subjects on 

 which they may have occasion to take notes. The great capabilities of 

 arbitrary characters in these respects have not, we believe, been 

 pointed out as they might have been, either by Mr. Harding or any 

 other author into whose system we have looked. 



Of the mode of Spelling, The great aim of shorthand being to 

 represent words by the fewest simple characters possible, all letters 

 which are not distinctly sounded hi any word must be omitted. 

 in cases where their retention may seem necessary. If words are 

 written as they are pronounced, every silent letter will of course be 

 omitted. In following a speaker, however, it is necessary that .ill 

 vowels should be omitted, or otherwise it will be impossible to take 

 more than the substance of his remarks. Where, how. 

 names occur, they should either have the vowels inserted or be written 

 in longhand : the latter method is most advantageous, as the : 

 when so written, serve us rallying-points to the eye in deciphering 

 shorthand notes. Where the vowels are omitted ia general writing, 

 the rule is to write such of the consonants as are sounded in the pro- 

 nunciation of any word. 



Of Miscellaneous Modes of Abbreviation. As in following a .-| 

 all the vowels require to be omitted, and the consonants only written, 

 so all the small words in a sentence are likewise left out. In sonio 

 cases, however, where the speaker is deliberate and the writer is expert, 

 nearly all the words may bo expressed. In the abridgement of sen- 

 tences of course the writer is guided by his own judgment and the 

 necessities of the case. The different tenses and moods of the verbs 

 are generally expressed in the English language by the help of other 

 verbs, as thall, have, had, can, couhl, may, mnxt, tie, &o. These being 

 written by their first consonant, may be joined together ; but a point 

 should be inserted over the characters, to signify that they are tli 

 letters of words in the sentence. The radical part of a word too may 

 often be sufficient to denote the whole word, as ejcp. for expenses, pos. 

 for possible, and so forth. A mode of contraction much used iu 

 common writing is to express the first and last consonants of a word, 

 inserting a dash in the middle to show that it is deficient. This plan 

 may be adopted in shorthand writing, or the common letters may be 

 occasionally used. If the characters camiot be distinguished by the 

 plan first pointed out, the termination may be written under the first 

 consonant. The usual abbreviations iu longhand can be adopted in short- 

 hand. If a part of a sentence is to be repeated, a line may be drawn 

 under it, and a caret placefl where the repetition should be read. 



As our object is not to supply a manual by which the art of short- 

 hand may be acquired, but rather to afford some information concern- 

 ing its leading principles, wo have omitted explanations of minor 

 importance. 



STKI'PES. [PLAINS.] 



STEREOGHAPHIC. This word, which is derived from crr/<i'j, 

 "solid," and yfJafKu', "to draw," and which therefore ought to be 

 applied to every method of representing a solid in a plane, has IVM > - 

 theless a limited technical sense, being applied to that projection of a 

 sphere in which the eye is at a point in the sphere, ;uni at p 

 projection is the great circle of which the eye is at the pole, or a plane 

 parallel to it. This mode of projection was known to Jlipp.-irehus, and 

 was first described in the work on the planisphere attributed to 

 Ptolemy. 



The stereographic projection has two remarkable (properties. The 

 first is, that all circles are projected either into straight lines or < 

 Those which pass through the eye are of course projected into t 

 lines ; in every other case the projection is the SUBCONTRAKT section 

 of a cone, which, has its vertex at the eye, and the circle to be projected 

 for its base ; consequently the projection is a ehvle. As much of the 

 circle as lies below the plane of projection (the eye being considered as 



