LESSONS IN SHORTHAND. 



thought* to tbo safety of manuscript, also renders it an object ' which he was himself accustomed to write. In 1780, .Mr. Perry, 



u:-i. thru proprietor of the Morning Chronicle, orjranwed a corj* of 



reporters. From that time Stenography was studied for profettiooal 

 purposes, and though there are some reporters on the daily papers who 

 i-.ni \d ii. i couilcused longhand, the majority practise the equally 

 simple and far more expeditious system of Shorthand." The pub- 

 lication of the parliamentary debates caused a demand for reporters, 

 and for a system equal to their wanU. Mason's, adopted by '< 

 was found insuHieicnt. Its lengthy outlines could not be traced fast 

 enough to enable the reporter to keep pace with the flow of eloquence 

 that he often had to record ; and the numerous arbitrary signs, and 



peculiarly worthy of regard. By this moans many ideas which 

 daily strike us m ty bo snatched from dostruotion, and preferred 

 till iiuitur.t .l.-lil".iMtion can ripen and perfect them. 



"hi addition to these great advantages, Science and Religion 

 aro indt'litcil to thin inestimable art for the preservation of 

 many valuable lectures and sermons, which would otherwise 

 have boon irrecoverably lost. Among the latter may be 

 instanced those of Whitfield, whose astonishing powers conld 

 move even infidelity itself, and extort admiration from a Chester- 

 lii-M mid a Hume, but whose name would have floated down the 

 ^ r< -am of time, had not Shorthand rescued a portion of his labours 



contractions of words, 



from oblivion. With BO many vouchers for the truth of the system (privately taught by himself for several years) was made pub- 

 remark, we can have no hesitation in stating that since the in- lie in 1707, soon after his death. It was much practised in private 

 vention of printing, no cause has contributed more to the diffu- 1 circles, but was not brief enough for the reporter. Mavor's appeared 

 sion of knowledge, and the progress of refinement, we might in 1780, and Taylor's in 1786. These two valuable systems, with 

 also odd, to the triumphs of liberty and the interests of religion, many others far inferior, were the fruits of this increased demand for 

 than the revival and improvement of this long-neglected art. the means of reporting the proceedings of the legislature , and their 

 " Such are the blessings which Shorthand bestows indis- appearance marks the close of the second epoch, and the dawn of 

 criminately on the world at large. But it has additional and POLITICAL FREEDOM. 



peculiar favours in store for those who are so far convinced of 196. The practice of shorthand writing having been found so favonr- 

 ita utility as personally to engage in its pursuit. The advan- able to the development of the mental powers of those who used it (as 

 tages resulting from the exercise of this art, are not, as is tho j shown, first, in reporting the sermons of the Reformers, and then in 

 case with many others, confined to a particular class of society ; i taking down the discussions of our legislative assemblies) ; and the 

 for though it may seem more immediately calculated for those experience of above two hundred years having proved the utility of 

 whose business it is to record the eloquence of public men, and the art ; and, by the establishment of cheap schools, the ability to 

 the proceedings of popular assemblies ; yet it offers its assis- read and write having been acquired by nearly all who were able 

 tance to persons of every rank and station in life to the man to afford the expense of learning these arts through the medium 

 of business as well as the man of science for the purpose of of the old alphabet ; a somewhat extensive desire was shown, 



private convenience as well as of general information." 



Dr. Johnson says, " Shorthand, on account of its great and gene- 

 ral utility, merits a much higher rank among the arts and sciences 

 than is generally allotted to it. Its usefulness is not confined to any 

 particular science, but is universal : it is therefore by no means 

 unworthy the attention and stndy of men of genins and erudition." 

 HISTOBx" OP SHORTHAND. 



193. There are three principal epochs in the improvement and dis- 

 semination of the art of Shorthand iu modera times, ending respec- 

 tively at the publication of the matured systems of Mason (1682), 

 of Taylor (1786), and of the first edition of Phonography (1837) ; 

 and each may be assigned to some specific cause, or peculiar feature 

 of the time. The Shorthand of the Romans, as practised by Tiro, 

 (the freedman of Cicero), Enuius. and others, was an abbreviated 

 longhand, both as to the forms of the letters, and the orthography. 



194. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the principles of the Reforma- 

 tion were extensively promulgated in this country from the pulpit. 

 A desire to preserve for future private reading the discourses of the 

 principal preachers of that day, led to the cultivation of the newly 

 invented art of shorthand writing. Teachers and systems increased 

 rapidly ; and by a comparison of one mode with another, and by ex- 

 perimenting with various series of alphabetical signs, Mason, at length, 

 produced a system far superior to any that had preceded it. The pro- 

 press of the art, from the publication iu 1588 of Bright's system of 

 arbitrary characters for words (or rather from the publication of the 

 first shorthand alphabet by John Willis, in 1602), to the appearance 

 of Mason's system in 1682, may therefore be considered as resulting 

 from the dawn of RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. Mason's system was pub- 

 lished by Thomas Gurney, in 1 751, aud it is used by members of his 

 family, as reporters to the Government, to the present time. 



195. No other marked advance was made till the middle of the next 

 century. " It is singular," observes Mr. Bradley, iu his shorthand 

 t realise, " that although Stenography was introduced into this country 



: ;i very early period, yet that our forefathers should never, until a 

 \ery recent date, have thought of adapting it to that which is now its 

 primary, although by no means its only, use we mean the transcript 

 of addresses delivered to the public, or in which the community at 

 large are interested. The example of Cicero ought to have incited 

 them to this pursuit, even had not the obvious nature of the art done 

 so. However, the use to which it has been since so successfully 

 applied, seems not to have been considered by them ; for, up to 1780, 

 public proceedings, or rather miserably abridged sketches of them, 

 were taken down in the ordinary writing for the London journals. 

 Dr Johnson was one of the earliest reporters of the debates in 

 Parliament, and the Doctor boasted that he took care the Whig dogs 

 should not have the best of the argument a course which he could 

 well adopt ; for, instead of reporting the speeches of noble lords and 

 honourable members, he composed them ; and it is recorded that he 

 made them all speak in the same pompons and grammatical style in 



chiefly by young persons, to add to their other means of acquiring 

 knowledge the use of shorthand writing. Treatises on the art had 

 hitherto been sold at high prices, seldom at less than half-a-guiuca, 

 and were thus beyond the reach of many who were desirous of learn- 

 ing. To meet this want, William Harding, a bookseller in Pater- 

 noster Row, published, in 1823, a neat edition of Taylor's system, 

 with some slight improvements, at the reduced price of 3s. 6d. The 

 book sold extensively, aud in a few years other booksellers supplied, 

 at a much cheaper rate, not only Taylor, but also Byrom and 

 Mavor. The last publication of Taylor's shorthand was by Odell. 

 An attempt to improve u|K>n Taylor's system, by marking the long 

 and short sounds of the vowels, with the intention of issuing a cheap 

 edition for general use in National and British schools, led the writer 

 of this sketch of the history of the art to the invention of Phono- 

 graphy. This occurred in 1837. Phonography is, however, so dif- 

 ferent in all its details from Taylor's system, that its origin could 

 never be discovered from the work itself. Founded, as it is, on the 

 " alphabet of nature," and already extensively practised throughout 

 Great Britain and the United States of America, its publication may, 

 perhaps, without presumption, be called the third epoch in the deve- 

 lopment of the art of Shorthand. The immediate cause of the present 

 extended practice of this kind of writing, was THE DIFFUSION or 



KNOWLEDGE AMONG THE MIDDLE CLASSES OF SOCIETY. It has yet 



to be extended to the lowest classes, and this will be the mission of 

 Phonography combined with Phonetic Printing. 



197. That Phonography is likely to fulfil this mission, may be in- 

 ferred from one or two characteristics which distinguish it from all 

 other systems of Shorthand. The first is, that it is founded on a 

 strictly phonetic analysis of the English language, and may, conse- 

 quently, be used with facility by those who are unable to spell in 

 accordance with the usual unsystematic orthography. The second is, 

 that Phonography is not adapted to the wants of the reporter alone, 

 but is especially well suited for letter-writing and general composi- 

 tion, as it may be written in a form as legible in every respect a* 

 common longhand, with, at the lowest computation, one-sixth of the 

 trouble ; that is, in one-third of the time, and with half the fatigue. 

 The existence of two distinct styles of Phonography, one adapted for 

 letter-writing, and the other for reporting, the second being only 

 an extension of the first, and not a new system in itself, is the basis 

 of the popularity of Phonetic Shorthand. The consequences of these 

 happy arrangements are, that letter-writing is extensively cultivated 

 among phonographcrs, and that a nearer approach to the introduction 

 of one uniform system of Shorthand writing, which all disciples 

 of the art have looked upon as likely to be productive of such great 

 benefits, has already been made in the short period that Phonogra- 

 phy has been before the world, than was made in the two hundred 

 years during which Shorthand was previously employed in England. 

 That these effects will continue and increase, there is every reason to 

 believe, on account of the uniformly increasing demand for phono- 



