THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
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Elements, or First Principle s 
 SHORT -HAND. 
 
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THE READY WRITER, 
 
 AlfD- 
 
 INTERPRETER OF THE 
 
 ROYAL LEWISIAN SYSTEM 
 
 o> 
 
 SHORT HAND. 
 
 EMBBACING A FULL AND COMPLETE 
 DEVELOPEMENT OF THE METHOD OP WEITINQ A3 FAST AS A PEBSON CAN SPEAK, 
 
 BY CHARACTERS AS LEGIBLE AS COMMON PRINT. 
 
 This popular and well-established system, which is founded on forty years' 
 practical experience in the Courts of Law, and in both Houses of Parliament, is 
 now universally adopted by the Short Hand Writers, and the Gentlemen 
 professionally connected with the Press, whereby they are enabled to report 
 the most rapid speakers, and to extend their Notes without any of those 
 
 DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES ATTENDING ALL OTHER SYSTEMS. 
 
 Invented and Perfected by 
 
 JAMES HENEY LEWIS 
 
 (OF EBLET, 1TEAB STBOtTD, GLOCCESTEBSHlr.E) 
 
 Founder of the Society of Reporters, and Practical Professor of the Art : Inventor and First Teacher 
 of the Royal Lewisian Systems of Writing, Arithmetic, Book-keeping, and Short Hand. 
 
 NINETY-FIFTH EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 ||rinto> for % SUi^or 
 
 AT THE SHORT-HAND INSTITUTION, 113 STRAND, 
 
 NEABLY OPPOSITE EXETER HALL. 
 
LONDON 
 
 PRINTBD BT 8 POTT I SW OODB AWT) CO. 
 JTEW-BTKKBT SQFABK 
 
H. R. H, THE PRINCE REGENT. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 %L In thanking your Royal Highness for your 
 
 gracious permission to dedicate to your Royal 
 Highness the present system of Short Hand, it is 
 
 CQ 
 
 -i impossible not to reflect on the happiness of a 
 people whose Chief Magistrate lends a willing ear 
 
 H 
 
 to the petitions of his subjects, and extends his 
 
 
 == patronage to every branch of science and of letters 
 -3 
 
 that may conduce to the improvement of the national 
 
 ,j. character and to the purposes of general utility. 
 1 
 
 In the extension and improvement of an art like 
 
 mine, your Royal Highness is personally interested. 
 
 Whatever possesses a tendency to facilitate the correct 
 
 448434 
 
IV DEDICATION. 
 
 and copious transmission to future ages of the 
 eloquence of our patriots, and the exploits of our 
 naval and military forces, must contribute to pre- 
 serve and extend the glory of the Prince under 
 whose auspicious reign the prosperity of the empire 
 has attained its proudest elevation. 
 
 That your Royal Highness may long continue to 
 reign over a people whose manners your example 
 has improved, and whose arts your patronage has 
 exalted, is the sincere wish of 
 
 Your Royal Highnesses 
 
 Grateful and obedient servant, 
 
 JAMES HENEY LEWIS. 
 
 Sunday, August 20 : 
 J.H.L. 1786. 3 bf 9, P.M. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE art of SHORT HAND, after struggling with 
 the prejudice or the indolence of more than a 
 century, has, at length, become an important 
 object of general education, and is regarded as a 
 necessary acquisition to the scholar and the 
 gentleman. The value of its attainment is, 
 indeed, sufficiently testified by the number of 
 competitors who have endeavoured to obtain 
 the public attention by the publication of their 
 peculiar systems. The readiness of the pro- 
 fessors of Stenography to communicate their 
 discoveries and improvements to the world, 
 has been in proportion to the encouragement 
 afforded them by the community ; and the result 
 of competition in this, as in every other branch of 
 human knowledge, has been its gradual advance- 
 ment to perfection. 
 
 It does not appear, from the writings of the 
 
VI 
 
 ancients, that they were acquainted (previous 
 to the Christian era) with any regular system 
 of abbreviation, by which they could embody 
 the eloquence of their orators, or promote the 
 convenience of private composition : yet, 
 among the Komans, a mode of writing was 
 prevalent for many ages, which would have 
 afforded considerable facilities to the Steno- 
 grapher ; the movement of a stylus on a 
 ground of wax, was unaccompanied by many of 
 the inconveniences that attach to the modern 
 mode of writing; and though the necessity of 
 obliterating every antecedent manuscript, that 
 the wax might be prepared for use, rendered 
 the practice comparatively useless to the pri- 
 vate individual, it might have afforded many 
 facilities to the writer in a public court, whose 
 first object was expedition, and who could after- 
 wards have copied his notes upon parchment. 
 
 Some imperfect attempts at regular abbre- 
 viation were made by the clergy and the monks 
 of the barbarous ages ; but their efforts usually 
 terminated in nothing more satisfactory than 
 the substitution of a single horizontal stroke for 
 an M, the occasional employment of the initial 
 letter alone, and the frequent omission of the 
 termination. Even the abbreviations on ancient 
 
Vll 
 
 monuments were unskilfully contrived, and 
 were, in all probability, illegible to many of the 
 Kornan citizens. 
 
 Some individuals have conjectured, indeed , 
 that Short Hand was known a century after 
 the time of Homer, because there exists a tra- 
 dition that his Iliad was inclosed in a nut-shell. 
 But the truth of the story is more than pro- 
 blematical ; and if its correctness be admitted, 
 there is no occasion to suppose that the manu- 
 script was in any other characters than such as 
 were commonly employed. Huet, Bishop of 
 Avranches, relates an experiment by which he 
 demonstrated to the Dauphin of France the pos- 
 sibility of writing the Iliad on two small pieces 
 of vellum ; and there is now exhibited in the 
 library of Venice a small picture of the VENUS 
 DE MEDICIS, which, when examined by the 
 microscope, is discovered to be Ovid's Art of 
 Love written fairly out in the Roman character. 
 We have all seen the Lord's Prayer, in the 
 compass of a sixpence. Such minutiae, however, 
 are more to be regarded for their curiosity than 
 their utility, and are the production of profitless 
 and disproportionate exertion. 
 
 The effusions of ancient eloquence, resplendent 
 and beautiful as the united testimony of sue- 
 
Vlll 
 
 cessive critics and historians has declared them 
 to have been, were forgotten with the occasion 
 that gave them birth, and delighted the for- 
 tunate individuals alone who witnessed their 
 delivery. The orations ascribed to the Grecian 
 and Roman warriors and statesmen, by the 
 historians of these republics, were the fictitious 
 compositions of the narrator ; and, instead of 
 communicating interest to his productions, had 
 no other tendency than to vitiate the purity, 
 and discredit the fidelity of history. The 
 speeches of Catiline, and the harangues of 
 Fabius, as represented by Cato and Plutarch, 
 were either the mere invention of the writer 
 himself, or are constructed on a general outline, 
 according to his own modes of thinking, and his 
 own peculiarities of style. 
 
 Nor have the moderns been merely deluded by 
 fanciful and fictitious orations. The eloquence 
 of the great masters of ancient oratory has been 
 but imperfectly transmitted to posterity. The 
 orations of Cicero and Demosthenes, however 
 excellent in themselves, are, compared with the 
 unknown and forgotten harangues of their con- 
 temporaries, but as a single star compared with 
 the innumerable luminaries of the firmament ; 
 and the powerful efforts of Plato and Hor- 
 
IX 
 
 tensius, in the contests of oratory, live only in 
 the praises of their contemporaries. 
 
 How much would mankind have been delighted 
 and improved had the defence of Socrates, and 
 the oration of Caractacus, been transmitted to 
 us as they fell from the lips of those celebrated 
 men, and with all the characteristic peculiarities 
 of thought and expression that distinguish the 
 reported speeches of a CHATHAM and a TOOKE ! 
 When Regulus exhorted his countrymen to 
 persevere in their enmity to the Carthaginians, 
 though his life depended on their submission; 
 and when Virginia implored the vengeance of 
 the Senate against her ravisher; the struggles 
 of patriotism and the resentment of virtue 
 presented to the mental eye of the auditor a 
 picture which, had he been able to embody it, 
 would have excited the admiration of future 
 ages, as much as it improved and delighted the 
 masters of the world. The simple and un- 
 premeditated eloquence of nature would have 
 outvied those elaborate harangues by which 
 successive historians, and dramatists, have en- 
 deavoured to ennoble the characters of the hero 
 and the virgin; and while they obtained an 
 irresistible command over the feelings, they 
 would have contributed, through the medium 
 
X 
 
 of the Stenographer, to the correctness of his- 
 tory, as much as to its beauty and sublimity. 
 
 The utility of Short Hand to the reporter 
 of debates, to the student in the courts of 
 law, to the intelligent historian, to the pri- 
 vate scholar, to the man of business, and to 
 every individual, whose convenience may be 
 promoted by a mode of writing at once easy, 
 secret, and expeditious, has been universally 
 acknowledged, and is in itself so evident, that 
 the art is now cultivated with avidity in every 
 rank of society. 
 
 Can there be a more favourable moment to 
 publish " THE READY WRITER," than that when 
 education has become the object of legislative 
 attention, more necessary, and more sought 
 after, than ever ? when our youth, instructed 
 by the experience of their parents, that science 
 alone can furnish them a certain resource under 
 every circumstance of life, give themselves up 
 with a generous ardour to the labour of study, 
 and eagerly press forward to be received in our 
 colleges and public schools. It is there they 
 will prove the inestimable advantage which 
 Stenography bestows on those who have learned 
 and cultivated it. Those pupils, possessed of a 
 power truly invaluable, will be able to fix upon 
 
XI 
 
 paper all that the Professor shall have said, 
 explained, or commented upon. They can note 
 those rapid and brilliant traits, those sudden 
 reflections, which escape the Lecturer in the 
 heat of the moment, and of which even he him- 
 self may soon lose the remembrance. Returned 
 home, in the silence of the closet, they can medi- 
 tate without embarrassment, without difficulty, 
 on the lessons which will lay unfolded before 
 them, (thanks to Stenography!) while others 
 lose their time in endeavouring to recall the 
 fugitive traces of those lessons, the principal 
 points of which they may perhaps be able to 
 recollect, but the details of which (often so 
 interesting) shall be lost to them for ever. The 
 ancients called Memory "the mother of the 
 sciences;" and surely this title may also be 
 given to an art which, supplying the memory, 
 renders her effects more durable, and more 
 certain. 
 
 On leaving the school of the Professor, the 
 student is transported to the theatre, the night 
 of the first representation of a new piece. What 
 enjoyment for a Stenographer, to be able to note 
 down at the instant those sublime thoughts, 
 those harmonious verses, that ravishing wit that 
 electrifies the audience ! to snatch their cries of 
 
Xll 
 
 admiration! to steal from female beauty her 
 delicious tears! but which leave to the mere 
 spectator, afterwards, only a confused idea, and 
 the regret of not being able to prolong those 
 soft emotions, by the distinct remembrance of 
 the magic words that had excited them. It is 
 this regret (so often felt, but seldom acknow- 
 ledged,) that obliges the public to re-demand 
 those traits which have affected them the most. 
 But for the Stenographer, he requires not these 
 repetitions he can possess them in the absence 
 of the actor. And if the Stenographer is 
 charged to give an account of the new piece, 
 what advantage does he not possess over every 
 other journalist! Beside the brilliant sallies, 
 which he can report as they were uttered, it is 
 easy for him to retain, and to indicate, the names 
 of all the persons, to follow them through every 
 situation in which the author has placed them, 
 and to communicate all the details, by which 
 alone it is possible to judge of the merits of a 
 dramatic production. 
 
 The Tribunal and the Bar offer a field no less 
 ample and splendid to the student skilled 
 in Stenography. All those unpremeditated 
 effusions, all those masterpieces of eloquence, 
 and force of reasoning, excited by circumstances, 
 
Xlll 
 
 by place, and by opposition, are reflected upon 
 his paper, as from, a faithful mirror a mirror, 
 however, that has the advantage of preserving 
 the resemblance of the object, after that ob- 
 ject itself shall have disappeared. It is by the 
 assistance of this art, that all England can 
 participate in the discussions which have 
 existence in her Tribunals, and in the bosom of 
 her Legislative Bodies; it is by means of 
 Stenography, in short, that Englishmen are 
 enabled to peruse the opinions of their represen- 
 tatives precisely as they were expressed, and to 
 know, in like manner, the true motives that gave 
 rise to the laws by which they are governed. 
 
 At the Bar, the Counsel practised in 
 Stenography commits to writing the objections 
 and the acknowledgments of his adversary, at 
 the very moment of their utterance : and when 
 he replies to the one, or draws his defence from 
 the other, for the advantage of his client, he 
 fears not the accusation of falsifying or per- 
 verting them; since it is not merely their 
 general meaning, but the expressions themselves 
 of his antagonist, which he cites, without 
 uncertainty or error. If the quibbles of law 
 perplex, or sophistry attempt to pervert the 
 cause of justice, and throw a gloss of innocence 
 
XIV 
 
 over villany and oppression, by what means can 
 we attain so perfect an elucidation of the truth, 
 or developement of falsehood, as by having it in 
 our power to review the various arguments 
 advanced, and all the specious logic of the 
 Declaimer? The seductive powers of eloquence 
 may subdue the understanding, and hurry the 
 minds of men into the impetuous passions of the 
 Orator ; but if, by the means of Stenography, we 
 can penetrate the wily labyrinths of rhetoric, 
 and calmly appeal to the sober principles of 
 truth, the mind is no longer under the intoxi- 
 cating influence of the Declaimer; Reason 
 resumes her power; delusions vanish, or are 
 seen in their true colours, and in all their naked 
 deformity. 
 
 Assisted by this art, the pious Ministers 
 of the Gospel are enabled to prepare their 
 discourses with greater facility, and more de- 
 lightful satisfaction. And in those inspired 
 moments when the most beautiful conceptions, 
 sublime sentiments, and elegant expressions 
 flow with such fluency that they, most of all, 
 wish for the pen of a " Ready Writer" how 
 admirably is this art adapted to retain those 
 thoughts, otherwise fleeting as the wind and 
 seldom to be recalled. 
 
XV 
 
 To a person of a religious disposition, though 
 in a private capacity, how wonderfully is 
 Stenography suited to improve it, by making 
 the most profound and interesting observations 
 of the Minister his own, and thereby giving them 
 a stronger and more important impression on 
 the mind. And this advantage will happily 
 attend it, even though the student be not 
 capable of writing verbatim. But how incon- 
 ceivable the pleasure, when he can with ease 
 copy from the lips of an Orator all his studied 
 beauties of language, his luminous ideas, his 
 superior reasoning; and enjoy the intellectual 
 banquet at his pleasure. 
 
 The more we reflect on the advantages of the 
 discovery we announce, the more numerous do 
 they appear. The Author, who composes, often 
 complains of the fatigue of writing, that the 
 ardour of his pen languishes under so tardy a 
 process. Stenography delivers him from this 
 fatal inconvenience, and enables him to gather 
 the blooming laurels of fame, and the rich 
 harvest of emolument. But its indirect uses 
 are not less evident than its direct application 
 to all the purposes of life. The immediate 
 utility of the Mathematics is less evident than 
 their tendency to inure the mind to habits of 
 
XVI 
 
 intense and persevering study, and to train it to 
 a regular and systematic method of investiga- 
 tion. In the same manner, the practice of 
 Short Hand may powerfully contribute to 
 facility of conception, to accuracy of observa- 
 tion, and to that rapidity of apprehension, and 
 execution, which of all other qualifications are 
 the most necessary in the common intercourse of 
 society. By its reference to the general prin- 
 ciples of Grammar, it accustoms the mind to the 
 minutiae of construction, and to all the varieties 
 of etymological analysis. 
 
 The multiplicity of former systems present a 
 serious obstacle to the successful exertions of a 
 new claimant on the public favour. It is 
 natural to conclude, that nothing new can be 
 added to an art on which so many predecessors 
 have exercised their ingenuity. It is suspected 
 that the latest attempt is either similar to all 
 that have gone before it, or deserves the praise 
 of novelty at the expense of perfection. The 
 author flatters himself, however, that it will be 
 impossible to take even a cursory review of the 
 present system, without observing the number 
 and importance of his improvements. On com- 
 paring it with the most popular systems it will 
 be found that in the three great requisites, of 
 
XV11 
 
 I 
 
 brevity, distinctness, and expedition, it is deci- 
 dedly superior. 
 
 The majority of those who have studied the 
 art, so as to investigate its principles, must 
 have been surprised at the awkward complexity 
 of their characters, the obscurity of their 
 irregular combinations, and the tediousness and 
 deformity of their detached prepositions and 
 terminations. The writers on Short Hand have 
 forgotten, that as much time is lost in taking off 
 the pen, and putting it down again, as in the 
 formation of two characters. A detached 
 particle, therefore, occupies nearly as much time 
 in writing as if the word were written at full 
 length. 
 
 In several modern systems, expedition has 
 given place to elegance; and their writers, ir 
 their love of symmetry and ornament, have 
 forgotten the first great object of their art. 
 
 If it has been the purpose of many of the 
 author's predecessors to form a beautiful inter- 
 mixture of curvilineal, horizontal, and per- 
 pendicular lines, they have succeeded. But the 
 author of the present system has endeavoured 
 to do something more, and to enable his pupils 
 to attain an art by which they may follow 
 the most rapid speaker, and afterwards read 
 
XVlll 
 
 their own reports and memorandums with 
 correctness and facility. To do this is the first 
 and original intention of Short Hand, to which 
 all others are subordinate. 
 
 The chief obstacle to the success of the pupil 
 is impatience. The greater number of students 
 are eager to attain the perfection of an art 
 before they have learned its rudiments, and 
 neglect those preliminary minutiae, on which all 
 subsequent excellency depends, in their en- 
 deavour to arrive by a royal road to its skilful 
 and expeditious practice. Let it be constantly 
 impressed on the mind of the pupil, that care at 
 the outset, and patient attention to the first rudi- 
 ments of an art, are the most eifectual helps to 
 success ; and that to proceed to a second lesson 
 before he has conquered the first, will only pre- 
 vent him from obtaining a thorough knowledge 
 of either. The utility of the lessons is gradual ; 
 and to learn nothing before its time is the best 
 method of learning everything well. 
 
 Though the author undertakes to teach his 
 pupils a system by which, in comparatively a 
 small space of time, they may be enabled to 
 answer every useful purpose, he cannot vouch 
 for their application or their industry, after 
 they have withdrawn themselves from under his 
 
XIX 
 
 superintendence. To master all the difficulties 
 of this art and difficulties there are in every 
 human pursuit is the most effectual mode of 
 fixing its principles in the memory. He recom- 
 mends the learner, therefore, not to be content 
 with a moderate proficiency, but to perfect 
 himself in its more minute principles, as well as 
 its general practice; for it should be remem- 
 bered, that if anything be worth learning at all, 
 it is worth learning well ; and that perseverance 
 at the end is as necessary as patience at the 
 beginning. 
 
 Already, in the private lessons the author 
 has given, of his new method, to persons of 
 every age, sex, and understanding, he has ex- 
 perienced the delightful satisfaction, that all 
 were capable of seizing with facility its me- 
 chanism and application; and he enjoyed their 
 surprise ; for, notwithstanding his positive 
 advertisements in the public papers, they could 
 scarcely believe that a few lessons only were 
 sufficient for the perfect comprehension of his 
 principles of abbreviation. 
 
 Whatever may be the opinion of the reader, 
 however, respecting the ingenuity of the present 
 system, as compared with those that have pre- 
 ceded it, its author may claim, at least, the 
 
 a2 
 
XX 
 
 merit of long experience and unremitted appli- 
 cation. He asks only an Englishman's first 
 demand "a clear stage, and no favour." He 
 promises nothing that he is not able and ready 
 to perform, and hopes that his exposition of the 
 theory of his science will do no discredit to his 
 practice. 
 
TO STUDENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE STENOGRAPHIC ART, 
 
 ON THE BANEFUL EFFECTS OF SPURIOUS SYSTEMS. 
 
 THE art of Short Hand, though extremely 
 easy and interesting, is but little understood by 
 the great majority of the public. The appre- 
 hended difficulties on the one hand, and the close 
 application, thought necessary, on the other, 
 have prevented thousands, who had formed a 
 general misconception of the nature of Steno- 
 graphy, from even attempting it. Many, who 
 have obtained a superficial knowledge of the 
 art from pretended teachers, or from useless 
 and unintelligible systems, (so profusely circu- 
 lated,) have abandoned it in despair, regarding 
 the pursuit as unattainable : the opinion of one 
 such individual has discouraged many others; 
 the faults of the teachers of short hand, and the 
 
XX11 
 
 obscurity of the printed systems, have been so 
 generally attributed to the art itself, that but 
 few, even of those who have attempted the 
 study of it, have been induced to prosecute 
 their labours to complete success. Short Hand, 
 however, (like a juggler's trick,) is only mys- 
 terious to those who are not sufficiently ac- 
 quainted with its principles : instead of its being 
 a work of time, or a laborious undertaking, to 
 acquire a thorough knowledge of it, the theory 
 may be obtained, by a good system, in a few 
 hours, so as to enable the learner to write any 
 word ; and even the practical part is not half so 
 difficult as is generally imagined-, for when the 
 learner can make the characters, and unite them 
 to each other, without hesitation, every time he 
 practices he will obtain additional freedom, 
 until he arrives at the same degree of dexterity 
 he has acquired in writing the common hand. 
 
 It will readily be perceived then, that what- 
 ever irksomeness is experienced by the student of 
 short hand, that irksomeness arises entirely from 
 the imperfection of the methods made use of. 
 Unfortunately, men of real practical talent have 
 seldom meddled with the subject; the com- 
 posing of short hand systems, that is to say, 
 books to teach short hand, has generally been 
 
XX111 
 
 performed by the booksellers, and their coad- 
 jutors the book-makers, who, by pilfering " here 
 a little, and there a little," from various works 
 on the subject, have contrived to furnish their 
 dupes with an heterogeneous mass of merely 
 theoretical information (at an easy rate) on the 
 art, the practical part of which they themselves 
 have yet to understand. Every ignoramus, now- 
 a-days, who has pryed into the pages of some 
 paltry pamphlet on short hand, for a few hours, 
 fancies himself capable of " making a sys- 
 tem ! ! !" Bless the mark ! a system which shall 
 excel (as a matter of course) those of able pro* 
 fessors, who have devoted their whole life to the 
 subject ! That such impertinent assumption 
 such futile efforts " the blind leading the 
 blind," fully explain the reasons why the stu- 
 dents of short hand have long laboured under 
 insurmountable difficulties, and why so few 
 have succeeded in their endeavours to acquire 
 any degree of perfection in the art, is clearly 
 shown in the professional career of that eminent 
 reporter Mr. GEOKGE VEITCH, the author of the 
 following narrative : 
 
 " I began short hand (says Mr. V.) with the 
 lover's enthusiasm. GURNET'S was the treatise 
 which I chanced to lay hold of, at a moment 
 
XXIV 
 
 when utter ignorance and inexperience made 
 me the dupe of one of those numerous works on 
 the art, written only to perplex and confound; 
 the authors of which, for the most part, had 
 neither the talent to imitate, nor the genius to 
 improve the new fair models that have happily 
 started into existence amid a heap of rubbish, 
 which has both encumbered and degraded the 
 art; an art which will ever claim the attention 
 of the curious, and will be practised so long 
 as it is desirable to a nation to obtain an 
 authentic copy of the proceedings that have 
 place in the bosom of her legislative bodies, in 
 her courts of law, or at her public meetings, 
 where liberty and eloquence united pour forth 
 sentiments which light up the torch of freedom, 
 and strike terror into the breasts of tyrants. 
 To return I had not the power of concealing 
 to myself the object of my studies; my vanity, 
 unlike that of JUNIUS, sought a more extended 
 circle than my own bosom; I discovered my 
 new pursuit, with pleasure, to all my acquaint- 
 ances ; and from those of them who were most 
 familiar with literary research, I requested an 
 opinion as to the probability of my ' following 
 a speaker.' Their decision was by no means 
 favourable to my views ; but I had tasted of the 
 
XXV 
 
 seductive banquet of Stenography, the subject 
 possessed all the charms of novelty, and I 
 fancied that, if the power had been hitherto 
 unattained by that system, it was left for me 
 victoriously to grasp it ; in short, the delirium 
 was at his height; and though I listened to 
 their opinion, it was in silence, for it had no 
 effect in moving me from what, in truth, might 
 then be called the purpose for which I lived. I 
 wrote I persevered I laboured. For many 
 months the congregation of an independent 
 chapel recognised me as a constant visitor, for 
 the purpose of putting upon paper some portion 
 of the discourse of an amiable and pious, if not 
 an eloquent, preacher: the sermon was no 
 sooner ended, than I hastened to some solitary, 
 secluded spot my book was produced but in 
 vain did I endeavour to decipher characters 
 more unintelligible than Hebrew ! After many 
 struggles, I was induced to abandon, for some 
 time, a study which, for my toil, returned me 
 only disappointment: thought I, how many 
 valuable hours have I already lost ; but the 
 4 genius' of short hand was beside me, and, though 
 rebellious, still I felt myself her slave! Did I 
 walk the streets of the city short hand was the 
 only object that presented itself to my mind! 
 
XXVI 
 
 Did I wander in the country the thought of 
 writing 'with the velocity of speech' accompanied 
 me! Everything I saw only brought to my 
 recollection with what signs it should be repre- 
 sented ; the sigh of the wind, and the murmur of 
 the stream, were alike embodied in an hierogly- 
 phic or sacred character. Was my life a blank ? 
 No; I was, at least, innocently employed, and 
 often, in endeavouring to fix the art in my 
 memory, I have acquired other useful informa- 
 tion. Time rolled on sometimes I had nearly 
 succeeded in wholly emancipating myself from 
 the thraldom of a pursuit, the end of which ap- 
 peared more distant the further I advanced ; but 
 straightway a new circumstance occurred, and I 
 again ' bowed the knee' at the altar of Stenogra- 
 phy. It happened that, during this perplexity of 
 my mind, the great teacher of short hand visited 
 Liverpool in his professional capacity; from 
 him I received that instruction which gratitude 
 compels me to declare has proved most effec- 
 tive, and, in the ' LEWISIAN SYSTEM,' I soon 
 obtained that prize for which I had sought so 
 ardently, and so long, in vain. Thus, at length, 
 my prayers were favourably heard, and in 
 R AFFLES' transcendent eloquence I first enjoyed 
 the harvest of my toil. 
 
XXV11 
 
 " Emboldened by success, I aimed at still 
 higher views ; my footsteps were turned to Lon- 
 don, for the purpose of exercising a power more 
 glorious, I had conceived, than that of con- 
 querors. I made known my abilities and soon 
 procured a satisfactory engagement on one of 
 the most respectable journals ; since which time 
 I have been fortunate enough to enjoy the dis- 
 tinguished confidence of many worthy friends. 
 Happy art, that can thus unite strangers in the 
 bonds of amity ! ' There is a tide in the affairs 
 of men;' and, lest the 'genius' who has of 
 late smiled on my efforts, and enlivened and 
 quickened me to activity, should withdraw her 
 regards, ever jealous of neglect, let me seize on 
 every opportunity of imitating him who, with a 
 bold yet cautious hand, has now fixed on a 
 firmer basis an art which has long floated on 
 the pens of experienced writers; but the true 
 principles of which are in vain sought for in the 
 various systems. To the 'genius' of Steno- 
 graphy (thanks to her prophet, the great teacher) 
 I can now usefully devote my labours." 
 
 From this interesting narrative, written by an 
 individual no less eminent in the practice of 
 short hand than zealous for its advancement, 
 may be seen what insurmountable diificulties 
 
XXV111 
 
 and irksomeness attend the study of imperfect 
 systems; and, at the same time, it will teach 
 those who may wish to acquire the art, how 
 necessary it is they should be circumspect as to 
 what system they intend to pursue ; since there 
 is no subject, whatever, on which so much trash 
 has been published. 
 
 Let the difficulties thrown in the way of the 
 student, by those authors who have so foolishly 
 obtruded their conclusions without the demon- 
 stration of practical experiment, be entirely 
 removed, and it is certain, that, for one learner 
 hitherto, there would be fifty; for everybody 
 would be glad to learn short hand, if it could but 
 be easily learned. Under these circumstances, 
 we should be guilty of a sort of misprision of 
 treason to society were we not, as far as lies in 
 our power, to enable the public, and, above all, 
 the friends of education, to detect the imposture. 
 
 "Whatever may be the opinion of those won- 
 der-working system -mongers, who imagine it so 
 very easy a matter to make " a system of short 
 hand" (as they call it,) the author of the present 
 work can truly say, that of all the difficult tasks 
 he ever engaged in, he has found this subject to 
 be the most difficult ; and, moreover, that forty 
 years' practical experience in the art has tended 
 
XXIX 
 
 to convince him, that to produce a perfect system 
 of Stenography, unexceptionable in every respect, 
 will, for ever, exceed the utmost stretch of human 
 ingenuity. 
 
 Those who best understand the art, are most 
 aware of the difficulties an author has to en- 
 counter in his pursuit, not only of perfection, but 
 even of comparative improvement: the labour 
 and skill required for the formation of a mo- 
 derate system of short hand can only be 
 appreciated by those who have attempted the 
 experiment. The inventor of an alphabet is 
 always doomed to the mortification of finding 
 that his practical efforts are unequal to his theo- 
 retical intentions : he constructs an alphabet in 
 the enthusiasm of the moment, and then dis- 
 covers that it abounds with imperfections; he 
 resumes his labour, and, again disappointed, 
 probably abandons the object in despair. The 
 greatest masters of the art have brought their 
 systems to comparative perfection only by unre- 
 mitted and assiduous perseverance; and the 
 most celebrated authors in this branch of art 
 have found occasion, in every new edition of 
 their works, to confess their errors, and suggest 
 alterations and improvements. 
 
 In the course of the last thirty years, we 
 
XXX 
 
 have made use of the present system to facilitate 
 our own private studies, to take notes and 
 memorandums at public lectures, and to make 
 extracts from books, &c. We have also been 
 in the regular habit of taking down sermons, 
 many of which have been published, and trials 
 in the courts of law, and debates in both houses 
 of parliament. Whatever appeared to us, from 
 actual experience, to be practicable and useful, 
 in following a rapid speaker, we retained; what 
 we proved to be otherwise, we rejected. 
 
 Having also been much engaged in teaching 
 the art to persons of various acquirements and 
 abilities, we made it our study 'to observe the 
 various difficulties which occur to learners, and 
 have endeavoured to strike out a method of 
 teaching purely our own, which, from its suc- 
 cess, we are induced to believe is singularly 
 easy and perspicuous. 
 
 This system, we are proud to state, has not 
 only been received by the public with the 
 warmest approbation, but has been adopted by 
 a great majority of the law and parliamentary 
 reporters, with uniform success. And as for 
 those who practice any of the other methods of 
 short hand, we may venture to assert, that they 
 will find it well worth their while to change it 
 
XXXI 
 
 for this, (as many hundreds have done,) since 
 it is so capable of dispatch, that numerous 
 sentences may be written by it in half the time 
 they can be expressed. 
 
 Convinced as we are of the sufficiency of this 
 plan, to enable a writer to follow the most rapid 
 speaker for a long duration, and to read his 
 notes at any distant period with perfect faci- 
 lity; we dare hope that, aided by the "READY 
 WRITER," the number of practitioners of short 
 hand, augmented and encouraged by a certainty 
 of success, will prove the utility and progress of 
 the art better than the worthless eulogiums of 
 hacknied scribblers, whose praises are often cap- 
 tivated and surprised by deceitful appearances. 
 
 As for us, we are prouder of the patronage 
 and good opinion of the "Reporters" than we 
 should be of a volume of praises which we felt 
 we had not merited. Yes, it is with unspeak- 
 able pleasure that we have been convinced, by 
 the success of many adepts, that the art of fol- 
 lowing a rapid speaker will no longer be the 
 exclusive privilege of a few stenographers, 
 whose hands may be a prodigy of velocity, and 
 the intellect a phenomenon of memory, if they 
 are not aided by particular or arbitrary means, 
 which, in a measure, rectify the deficiency of 
 
XXX11 
 
 their method; and to which they owe the ex- 
 ercise of tedious application. 
 
 It is not the enumeration of the quantity of 
 pleadings transcribed by a single hand which 
 will demonstrate the perfection of the art of 
 abbreviation, but the number of persons capable 
 of taking down, as quick as an orator can speak, 
 the discourses pronounced on different subjects. 
 
 After having submitted to the laws of abbre- 
 viation all words susceptible of being reduced, 
 and fixed them on scientific data, our efforts 
 will now tend to promulgate a method to which 
 public opinion, agreeing with the judgment of 
 the law and parliamentary reporters, appears 
 to give the decided superiority over all others 
 known in the present day. And should the 
 u Ready Writer " tend to awaken a spirit of 
 enquiry for this noble art to conjure up an 
 enthusiasm in the student to increase the 
 admiration of its votaries and if the zeal, so 
 often cooled by deceived hopes, should hereby 
 be re-animated with the certainty of success; 
 then, Stenography, elevated to the rank of an 
 art of the first utility, will be judged worthy of 
 the study of men who know best how to appre- 
 ciate the value of time. 
 
THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES 
 
 OF 
 
 STENOGRAPHY. 
 
 FOB the purpose of expressing our thoughts 
 in writing, certain letters or characters have 
 been formed, denoting distinct or inarticulate 
 sounds ; and the complete set of letters in any 
 language is called the ALPHABET, which in 
 the English tongue contains twenty-six, 
 whose names and powers are as follows : 
 
 ai bee see dee ee ef jee aitch eye 
 
 abcdefghi 
 
 lay 
 
 Jeay 
 
 el 
 
 .em 
 
 en 
 
 
 
 pee 
 
 CM 
 
 <zr 
 
 j 
 
 k 
 
 1 
 
 m 
 
 n 
 
 O 
 
 P 
 
 q 
 
 r 
 
 ess 
 
 tee 
 
 you 
 
 *ee 
 
 double u 
 
 f/fo 
 
 wy 
 
 zed 
 
 
 S 
 
 t 
 
 U 
 
 V 
 
 W 
 
 X 
 
 y 
 
 Z 
 
 
 Of these, six are vowels, a, 0, /, 0, w, y; 
 all the rest are consonants. A vowel is an 
 
 6 
 
articulate sound, that can be perfectly and 
 distinctly uttered by itself, without the help 
 of any other letter. But a consonant will 
 not make a clear and perfect sound, except 
 it be joined with a vowel; for without one 
 of the vowels no syllable can be made; as 
 b, d, /, p, &c. without the aid of a vowel 
 cannot be sounded. 
 
 Some of the consonants, however, have a 
 certain audible but obscure sound in them- 
 selves, and are called semivowels. They are 
 /, I, m, n, r, v, s, z, x, and c and g soft. 
 
 Four of the semivowels, namely, I, m, n, r, 
 are also distinguished by the name of liquids, 
 from their readily uniting with other conso- 
 nants, and flowing as it were into their 
 sounds. 
 
 The consonants b, j9, t, d, k, q, and c and g 
 hard, are called mutes, and cannot be sounded 
 at all without the aid of a vowel. 
 
 The letters c, $, and z, have in themselves 
 a hissing or buzzing sound, and are called 
 sibilants; and the letter h is termed an 
 aspirate. 
 
 Consonants are again subdivided into 
 labials, or letters formed by the pressure of 
 the lips; dentilabiak, formed by the con- 
 
3 
 
 joined operation of the lips and teeth; den- 
 tals, formed by the teeth ; paladials, formed 
 by the palate ; paladilinguals, formed by the 
 palate and the tongue; and gutturals, issued 
 from the throat. 
 
 A diphthong is the union of two vowels, 
 pronounced by a single impulse of the voice. 
 A triphthong is the union of three vowels, 
 pronounced in like manner. 
 
 From letters, singly pronounced, or joined 
 with others, are formed syllables} one or 
 more syllables make words; words make 
 sentences; and sentences make up the Ian- 
 guage or speech. 
 
 By a syllable is meant a single articulation, 
 or as much of a word as can be uttered by 
 one impulse of the voice. As syllables, 
 in speaking, are sounds of which words are 
 formed ; so, in writing, they are parts of the 
 same word, composed of characters which 
 represent those sounds: for instance, the 
 word syllable itself (syl-la-Ue) has three 
 parts, three sounds, and three syllables. 
 
 A word consists of one or more syllables; 
 as good, good-ness, go-vern-ment. The first 
 of these is usually termed a monosyllable, or 
 word of one syllable ; the second, a dissyllable, 
 
 B 2 
 
or word of two syllables; the third, a trisyl- 
 lable, or word of three syllables ; and a word of 
 four or more syllables is termed a polysyllable. 
 
 A sentence is composed of several words, 
 so put together as to make complete sense: 
 as, God made the world. Evil communications 
 corrupt good manners. 
 
 Thus, letters are the marks of articulate 
 sounds, and words the signs of ideas, and 
 language the representation of thoughts. 
 
 But our common alphabet, even with re- 
 spect to long-hand, is very defective ; and 
 our customary application of it, or spelling, 
 monstrously absurd. Upon that, however, 
 I shall not here dilate : it being sufficient to 
 observe, that in writing Short Hand we are 
 under no obligation to follow custom, where 
 we can leave it with advantage ; nor to desert 
 it, where any advantage may be obtained 
 by following it. We are at liberty to make 
 use of all helps which nature affords against 
 custom; or which custom, or second nature, 
 as it is called, furnishes against the first; 
 or even to disregard both, if we can secure 
 our point without minding either. 
 
 The design of Short Hand is to bring 
 writing as near to speech as possible; and 
 
therefore those letters that have values only 
 relative and conventional must be dispensed 
 with. For whilst common writing admits a 
 great number of letters absolutely useless to 
 the pronunciation, Stenography, on the con- 
 trary, proportions the number of its charac- 
 ters to that of the sounds or motions of voice, 
 and speaks more to the ear than to the eye. 
 Add to this, Stenography makes use only of 
 characters extremely simple, few in number, 
 and such as the hand forms almost instinct- 
 ively; but common writing employs signs 
 of a strange and awkward form, which nei- 
 ther ground themselves in the memory, nor 
 can be properly executed (by the old method), 
 but after many years' assiduous practice and 
 tedious application. 
 
 Notwithstanding the ignorant partiality of 
 ancient Stenographers to the disgusting prin- 
 ciples of deformity and arbitrary construction, 
 or the ridiculous assertions of our modern 
 authors, that the excellence of Short Hand 
 depends entirely on the precision and elegance 
 of its character; in defiance of these absurd 
 notions, our experience has sufficiently con- 
 vinced us, that expedition in writing, and faci- 
 lity in reading, are the true basis, and the 
 
leading principles upon which every rational 
 system of Short Hand must be founded. We 
 insist upon it, that it is of more importance 
 to the practical Stenographer, that he should 
 be able to follow the delivery of a speaker, 
 than that his slow and deliberate painting 
 should delight the eye. The experiments of 
 ingenious theorists, and wanton speculators, 
 may serve well enough to amuse the inex- 
 perienced, and extend the erroneous ideas 
 which have too generally prevailed respect- 
 ing the principles of Stenography. Such ab- 
 surdities, however, are totally inconsistent 
 with our present design; they must be alto- 
 gether abandoned in a system founded upon 
 immutable and universal principles, capable 
 of expressing all words by a regular syste- 
 matic employment of alphabetical signs, adapted 
 equally to every art, science, or profession, 
 and uniting expedition and legibility in the 
 highest degree. 
 
 But the greatest difficulty of our present 
 undertaking is, not to prove that it is desi- 
 rable for the Stenographer to be able to write 
 and read with facility, but to point out the 
 most practicable and easy method by which 
 this accomplishment may be acquired. The 
 
7 
 
 principles are eternally the same; and the 
 making of these clear, and of easy compre- 
 hension, is an object of the most important 
 consideration in such an undertaking. 
 
 Simplicity is the law of nature; and the 
 author of the present system, following her 
 dictates, will endeavour to elucidate, in the 
 plainest and most intelligible manner, the 
 progress which patient thinking, aided by long 
 experience, has enabled him to make in the 
 stenographic art; and will pledge himself to 
 lay before the reader such a system as hath 
 no equal for simplicity, either in the invention 
 or the execution; a system completely 
 adapted to the common capacities of men, 
 and which, if generally known and practised, 
 would infallibly supersede the necessity of 
 any other. 
 
 The alphabet being the foundation upon 
 which all the rest depends, the greatest care 
 must be taken to establish this on the best 
 and most rational principles. The plainest 
 and simplest marks in nature should be so 
 adjusted to the consonants as to produce, 
 upon the whole, from their mutual com- 
 binations, the utmost brevity, the greatest ex- 
 pedition, and the most perfect legibility. 
 
8 
 
 Various modes have been devised to ac- 
 complish this desirable object ; but all hitherto 
 discovered, labour under many great defects ; 
 and the embarrassments they necessarily in- 
 volve, equal those from which they profess to 
 deliver us. 
 
 Some have imagined, that the excellence 
 of Short Hand depends more upon the good 
 application of an alphabet, than upon the 
 nature and choice of its characters. Others 
 who have professed to reform these princi- 
 ples, have carried their fanciful improve- 
 ments to such an extravagant degree of re- 
 finement and minuteness, that it has rendered 
 the practice of their methods very trouble- 
 some, and, in some cases, almost impracti- 
 cable. 
 
 On referring to the general principles of 
 Stenography, we shall find that there are very 
 few simple marks of extensive or real use. 
 Those that are simple are not so numerous as 
 the letters of the common alphabet ; and con- 
 sequently the Short Hand alphabet must be 
 reduced to a less number of characters than 
 are made use of in our ordinary method of 
 writing, and all words be expressed by fewer 
 letters than are employed in the common 
 
mode of spelling them. Such letters as have 
 a mutual affinity in sound may be represented 
 by one mark; those that are not absolutely 
 necessary to distinguish the words, must be 
 rejected, and only a sufficient number retained 
 to communicate the true sound of each word, 
 or at least, enough to suggest it to the mind, 
 without any regard to the common rules of 
 orthography. 
 
 In the first place, the letter c having both 
 a hard and soft sound, similar to k and s, they 
 will supply its place, according as it sounds : 
 thus, county may be written kounty, and city 
 may be written sity. 
 
 The letters / and v being pronounced with 
 the same organ of speech, only / a little softer 
 than v, one character is sufficient to represent 
 both : thus, if favour was written fafour, the 
 word could not be mistaken. There is, in- 
 deed, so great a similarity in the sound of 
 these two letters, that, in general, all words 
 ending with / or /<?, their plurals in the com- 
 mon way are written ves. 
 
 For the letter j we may always substitute 
 <7, the soft sound of which is nearly the same ; 
 for instance, jewel may be written gewel", and 
 a person unacquainted with the spelling of 
 
10 
 
 words would naturally conclude, from the 
 sound, their initials were the same. G, when 
 sounded hard, will easily be understood. 
 
 The letters k and q are likewise similar in 
 sound; the latter is pronounced the same as 
 the former if u were not added to it, without 
 which it never appears in any word: they 
 may therefore be represented by one cha- 
 racter. 
 
 The letter z, being seldom employed in the 
 English language, and only a coarser and 
 harder expression of 5, the former is entirely 
 rejected, and the latter may always be written 
 in its stead. 
 
 Our alphabet, thus retrenched, consists of 
 the following consonants : b, d, /, g, h, k, I, m, 
 n, p, q, r, s, tj w, and x. By a variety of 
 practical experiments we are convinced, that 
 no ambiguity can possibly arise from the 
 omission of the suppressed letters; for if the 
 words be expressed according to their sound, 
 and not according to their orthography, in 
 this case the number of letters in the 
 retrenched alphabet will be abundantly suffi- 
 cient, as far as consonants are concerned (for 
 about vowels we shall be yet silent awhile), 
 to denote in a legible manner, any parti- 
 
11 
 
 cular word or sentence in the English lan- 
 guage. 
 
 The number of our consonants being thus 
 settled, and the reason for fixing upon that 
 number being given, the next step is to invent 
 as many simple marks, easy to be made and 
 distinguished from each other, as are neces- 
 sarily required to represent them. Our 
 ordinary letters are of so complex a form, 
 that most of them require five or six motions 
 of the pen, and are consequently deficient of 
 the necessary rapidity. To remove this incon- 
 venience, we must substitute such characters 
 as are better adapted to the purpose of 
 expedition. They must be simple, and yet so 
 perfectly distinct in their expression, as that 
 no one character can be mistaken for another ; 
 not arbitrarily obtruded, but founded on 
 systematic principles, and judiciously applied, 
 according to the nature of the language they 
 are designed to represent. Those characters 
 that are most easily written and joined 
 must be assumed to signify the letters, 
 or the sounds, most frequently used; the 
 more unusual sounds being represented by 
 the less simple characters. Those letters 
 that are most similar in sound, should be 
 
12 
 
 expressed by such characters as correspond 
 nearest to each other in form ; so that if at 
 any time the character for one such letter 
 be inconvenient, the character for the other 
 may easily and naturally be substituted in its 
 room, with a real increase of expedition, and 
 at the same time without any injury to the 
 legibility. 
 
 These properties are so essentially neces- 
 sary to constitute a good system of Short 
 Hand, that any method is more or less im- 
 perfect, in proportion as it is wanting in all 
 or any of them; and none can be called a 
 good one, that is not possessed of them all. 
 
 But though it may be easy enough to 
 conceive in theory what a good system of 
 Short Hand ought to be, yet to reduce this 
 theory to practice, to reconcile such jarring 
 properties as those which require the princi- 
 ples to be contracted, and yet the influence 
 and application of them to be extended 
 beyond the usual bounds, requires the most 
 intense and persevering exercise of investiga- 
 tion and experiment. But to proceed 
 
 It is universally allowed, that the most 
 simple expression of the pen is a point or dot 
 [ . ] But though this mark in its own nature 
 
13 
 
 is more simple than any other, yet, as it is 
 not capable of being joined with ease and 
 distinction to a line in any direction what- 
 soever, its utility, on that account, must be 
 greatly contracted. It can only be distin- 
 guished by position, magnitude, or number; 
 as s-5 ^s : : : &c. 
 
 The next mark in simplicity of formation, 
 is a straight line and this can be varied 
 in every direction from the centre of a circle 
 to its circumference, ^^ while no more can 
 be admitted as useful in short-hand writing 
 but such as can be preserved clear and dis- 
 tinct from each other. Accordingly we find 
 that the horizontal - - the perpendicular I 
 and the two oblique lines, the one at an angle 
 of forty-five degrees to the right \ , and 
 the other at forty-five degrees to the left / , 
 or thereabout, have always been found most 
 convenient and best adapted to general 
 practice. 
 
 Another straight line may be procured by 
 making the oblique line to the left / upwards, 
 as well as / downwards ; the letter going 
 before or following, will always show how it 
 is made, whether upwards or downwards, and 
 render it perfectly distinct. 
 
14 
 
 What follows the straight lines are the 
 semicircles O which make excellent cha- 
 racters for joining with others of a well- 
 chosen alphabet. By dividing a circle O 
 with an horizontal line we obtain two semi- 
 circles O O Another circle O being divided 
 by a perpendicular line I we have two other 
 semicircles (J> O > an ^ these w ^ C 3 are 
 equally distinct as the simple lines, and are 
 admirably adapted for our purpose. 
 
 The circle itself o is as distinct, and well 
 suited for Short Hand as any other character ; 
 for, in joining, the pen runs on smoothly, and 
 is prepared for a change of direction, without 
 the least stop or difficulty. 
 
 The straight lines, &c. being exhausted, 
 and these inadequate to supply our wants, we 
 must have recourse to such other characters 
 as will join easily and expeditiously with 
 those already obtained, and, at the same 
 time, be sufficiently distinct from them. 
 
 By a variety of trials during a long course 
 of practical experience, we find that no use 
 whatever can be made of the angular cha- 
 racters 1 x^. L _-ir_jA>< .T'ina well- 
 regulated alphabet ; for though each of these 
 is perfectly distinct when alone, and per- 
 
15 
 
 formed with great deliberation and mathe- 
 matical precision, yet, when joined to other 
 marks, or when written in haste, they are not 
 sufficiently distinct from many of the simple 
 characters, when they are united to each 
 other; which renders them liable to be con- 
 founded, and exposes the writer to continual 
 embarrassment and mistakes ; as it is utterly 
 impossible to perform them with any degree 
 of certainty when expedition is required. 
 Besides, characters of this description greatly 
 retard the velocity of the pen, and an alpha- 
 bet in which they are admitted, must, neces- 
 sarily, be awkward and difficult of formation ; 
 so that, if no ambiguity should arise from the 
 use of them, the difficulty of uniting them 
 with other characters would subtract so much 
 from the expedition, that we cannot venture 
 to admit them into the alphabet. 
 
 Characters more suitable for uniting with 
 those already chosen are to be found in the 
 segments of a circle ; the formation of which 
 requires a more natural movement of the 
 hand ; so that they are not only more expedi- 
 tiously formed and united to others, but are 
 more readily distinguished, and, consequently, 
 preferable to angular characters, for the pur- 
 
16 
 
 poses of short-hand. Let us, therefore, divide 
 a circle both by an horizontal and a perpen- 
 dicular line -(J)- by which we shall gain the 
 following new characters f ^ "^ j These 
 are nearly as simple in their construction as 
 the lines and semicircles already obtained; 
 they admit of intelligible combinations, and 
 tend to the promotion of rapidity ; while, at 
 the same time, they contribute to the regu- 
 larity of the writing, which renders it more 
 uniform and beautiful. 
 
 The number of marks, thus increased, are 
 still insufficient for our wants ; recourse must, 
 therefore, be had to such compound characters 
 as are next in ease and distinctness to those 
 we already possess; these are the segments 
 
 of an ellipsis ^=> -ffj- /$ ^* compounded 
 
 of a right line and a curve running into each 
 other without an angle, of which there are 
 
 sixteen to be obtained <- c ' ' f 1 Q /? 
 
 / i/ ^> V> but the five most simple, dis- 
 tinct, and easy of combination t <. / y j 
 
 will be sufficient to complete our purpose. 
 The connection of these characters in the 
 course of writing will create no confusion in 
 reading or transcribing, since none of them 
 
17 
 
 being angular in their forms, all angles will 
 denote the junction of letters. 
 
 A sufficient number of useful characters 
 being thus obtained, the next consideration is 
 to ascertain how they may be most naturally 
 and advantageously adjusted, to represent the 
 letters of the common alphabet ; separately, 
 that every single letter may have its parti- 
 cular mark assigned to it, according to the 
 frequency of its occurrence ; and conjointly, 
 that such letters as most usually meet together 
 may be denoted by those characters that unite 
 most rapidly and distinctly with each other. 
 
 In order to ascertain this point, and enable 
 him to form a correct decision on the subject, 
 the author has been at the trouble of counting 
 page after page, in books on various subjects, 
 the number of times the different letters oc- 
 curred, according to the stenographic mode of 
 spelling. 
 
 But the most important object of his re- 
 search has been to find out those letters 
 which are most frequently COMBINED in our 
 language, in order that such characters as 
 
 o o ' 
 
 are most easily and distinctly joined, might 
 be applied to those letters which are most 
 frequently combined with one another. This 
 
18 
 
 he found was a very difficult task, and to 
 accomplish it consistently, to the extent of 
 his design, almost impossible ; for, in one 
 subject, a particular word or phrase often 
 prevails through the whole ; and, in another, 
 the construction is materially different : con- 
 sequently, the use of certain letters or sounds, 
 with regard to frequency of combination, is 
 susceptible of infinite diversity. Even on the 
 same subject the style considerably alters the 
 use of words and phrases ; some affecting a 
 plain English style ; others, a multitude of 
 foreign words, studied expressions, and elabo- 
 rated antithesis. For these reasons, a par- 
 ticular account of the various calculations, 
 and the multiplied experiments, changes, and 
 improvements the author has made in their 
 adjustment, before he could satisfy himself 
 in appointing each particular letter its proper 
 representative, would be too tedious here to 
 enumerate ; but the reader may rest assured 
 they were not appropriated without great 
 consideration ; and the practitioner will find, 
 that in every combination which may possibly 
 occur, no objection can be raised to any of 
 them that is not overbalanced by other cir- 
 cumstances. When these arrangements are 
 
19 
 
 known and practised, the writer will at once 
 perceive and admire the precision, the ele- 
 gance, and the systematic construction of 
 which it is susceptible; and with what clear- 
 ness and facility all the sounds of speech may 
 be noted down and embodied in writing. 
 
 To dwell a little, however, upon the prin- 
 ciples we have pursued, may help to fix the 
 short-hand in the reader's memory, and con- 
 vince him that a due proportion has been 
 observed between the ease of making the 
 character and the comparative frequency of 
 its occurrence, and that nothing has been 
 hazarded at random. 
 
 The letter s being oftener made use of 
 than any other consonant, will be best repre- 
 sented by the circle o; for, besides its frequent 
 occurrence at the end of words, and in other 
 cases, it is generally employed to express the 
 plural number ; and in short-hand it is always 
 used for the soft sound of c. It must, 
 therefore, be of considerable importance, that 
 the character appropriated to s should be 
 that which will most easily and rapidly unite 
 with all the other characters ; for, although 
 the advantage in each instance, taken singly, 
 may be but small, yet, as these instances 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 occur so very often, they must, upon the 
 whole, tend greatly to shorten our labour. 
 
 To preserve the analogy between t and d, 
 and enable the former to unite with s, merely 
 by an are of a circle <j~ (one of the most 
 beautiful and expeditious junctions) it is de- 
 noted by the horizontal line. The letters 
 / \ and r / which so often come together, 
 meet at an acute angle v ; and, if a simpler 
 form be assigned to / \ than to n \j which 
 is more frequent, the curve of which n con- 
 sists is adapted to join with other characters, 
 in numerous instances, by sliding imper- 
 ceptibly, into each other, without any angle 
 at all ; so that no other character would so 
 well suit the ordinary combination of n. 
 
 Among the consonants, it was observed 
 that th is a sound which seldom occurs twice 
 in one word, yet, at the same time, is very 
 frequently used in our language ; it therefore 
 required a character that could easily be 
 written and joined, but needed not to be one 
 so convenient for repetition. In examining 
 our characters we found the following mark 
 possessed of these properties, and, there- 
 fore, we applied it to represent th. 
 
 It is inconceivable, indeed, what pains 
 
21 
 
 have been taken, not only to adapt similar 
 characters to similar sounds, that if any of 
 them should happen to be indistinctly written, 
 the sound might guide to the sense, but also 
 to apply the simplest and plainest marks to 
 the letters of most frequent occurrence in the 
 short-hand orthography, and to denote, by 
 such characters as will join with the greatest 
 ease and expedition, those letters which most 
 commonly occur in conjunction. 
 
 Having frequently enumerated their recur- 
 rence in modern books of various kinds, and 
 carefully averaged their combinations, in 
 order to ascertain the comparative preference 
 of their disposition, and to proportion with 
 accuracy the facility of writing and joining 
 them ; the author believes that his method is 
 so well adapted to the nature of our language, 
 and the construction of our sentences, that it 
 would be impossible to procure a more exact 
 and beautiful correspondence by any other 
 arrangement, or to exchange with advantage 
 any one character for another. 
 
 Every practicable analogy has been em- 
 ployed to assist the memory: first, by as- 
 sociating the consonants of the greatest 
 similarity in sound, as / and v, g and j, k and 
 
22 
 
 c hard, s, soft c and z ; and secondly, by ex- 
 pressing those letters that are nearly alike in 
 sound, by characters corresponding very much 
 in form ; so that, if at any time it were con- 
 venient to exchange one letter for another, 
 such substitutions shall not embarrass the 
 reader by giving the words a general aspect 
 to which he is not familiar. 
 
 Especial pains have been taken to pre- 
 serve lineality ; for which purpose the pre- 
 sent distribution of the characters is admi- 
 rably adapted. Here the writer is not 
 reduced to the necessity either of contracting 
 any character, of making them sometimes 
 larger and sometimes smaller than their pro- 
 per size, in order to preserve the line, or of 
 abbreviating them by connection or position. 
 Such of them as extend above or below the 
 line, are appointed to express combinations 
 comparatively unfrequent, and for the most 
 part initial or final only. The advantage 
 of lineality is incalculable ; the lines may 
 then approach nearer to each other; and 
 no uncouth wandering of the characters 
 will retard the velocity of the pen, by dis- 
 turbing its compact and progressive move- 
 ment. The writing will also appear more 
 
23 
 
 beautiful, and the positions of the characters 
 be almost as invariable as in print ; so that 
 the eye will quickly become accustomed not 
 only to their separate figures, but to that of 
 each syllable and word which they compose ; 
 and the vowels can then be better dispensed 
 with, to the great promotion of rapidity, or 
 more easily inserted, when necessary, in their 
 proper places. 
 
 By thus studiously balancing conveniences 
 and inconveniences, and correcting abstract 
 theory by long experience, the present ori- 
 ginal Stenography has been framed; and its 
 author flatters himself his system is, in every 
 respect, the most rational and beautiful that 
 has ever yet appeared, since the art of Short 
 Hand was first known and practised. 
 
 Some fastidious critics,' disposed to cavil, 
 may perhaps find fault, that the explanations 
 are, in many instances, exceedingly diffuse; 
 but to such the author answers, that, although 
 disposed to give general satisfaction, he would 
 rather incur the reproach of being tedious, 
 than be censured for failing to convey such 
 a clear and complete knowledge of Steno- 
 graphy as should be perfectly comprehended 
 by the humblest capacity. Besides, he is 
 
24 
 
 aware that the improving spirit of the inge- 
 nious may urge them to continual alterations 
 which, IF tending to benefit the art, he would 
 be as anxious to see. as any other person ; and 
 therefore he wishes to remove every obstacle 
 to an object so desirable, by pointing out the 
 motives that directed him, that they may not 
 mistake change for improvement, by adopting 
 arrangements which may appear SIMPLE, with- 
 out being POWERFUL. 
 
 It has been already observed, that, in the 
 selection of characters, three very different 
 properties are to be considered; viz. the sim- 
 plicity of their form, the legibility of their 
 construction, and their capability of producing 
 an easy and spontaneous junction with the 
 preceding and succeeding letters with which 
 they are combined ; and to constitute a cha- 
 racter which shall be perfectly unexception- 
 able, the whole of these principles must be 
 united. That these are very distinct proper- 
 ties may easily be proved ; for characters 
 extremely simple in form, each taken sepa- 
 rately, are found in several modern systems 
 of Stenography; and yet they are such as 
 cannot be combined with each other in an 
 easy and flowing manner, but whose combi- 
 
25 
 
 nations are often extremely difficult to per- 
 form, and very unpleasant in their appear- 
 ance, full of unnatural joinings and frequent 
 liftings of the pen, and which, instead of 
 preserving an easy legibility, as Short Hand 
 ought to do, the words written therewith are 
 almost as unintelligible, and assume as inele- 
 gant an appearance as the arbitrary charac- 
 ters of the Chinese. Thus, many methods 
 which have appeared very specious upon 
 paper, have been found vastly inadequate 
 when attempted to be reduced to practice. 
 The present system, however, is not the rash 
 effort of a warm imagination, or the glitter- 
 ing speculation of an exalted mind. The 
 author has adopted nothing that has not a 
 thousand times undergone the ordeal of the 
 strictest examination. He has invented and 
 tried innumerable other forms and classifi- 
 cations of the characters; but none of them 
 were in any respect so successful as the 
 present. 
 
 Let us now arrange the letters in the pro- 
 gressive order of their numbers, and add 
 their proper characters under them; when 
 it will appear that the most useful marks 
 are applied to those letters which are 
 
26 
 
 most important in the Short Hand ortho- 
 graphy: 
 
 b d fv gj h kc I m n 
 
 p q r s c z t w x y 
 
 r s o _ ^ & > 
 
 It would be an easy matter, indeed, to 
 compose an alphabet with a more specious 
 appearance of facility, and thereby to de- 
 ceive the eye of the inexperienced; but it 
 is not a fallacious appearance of brevity, 
 it is the easy connexion of characters, and 
 their natural dependence one upon another, 
 which truly bespeak the propriety of their 
 form. 
 
 In a very few instances the characters 
 might, perhaps, have been more simple in 
 their construction ; but had a greater degree 
 of simplicity in this respect been attempted, 
 they would not have preserved their neces- 
 sary distinctness, nor have been capable of 
 their present easy and flowing junction with 
 the other characters; the author, therefore, 
 thought it better in some measure to reject 
 the first of these principles, rather than, by 
 
27 
 
 retaining it, lose the advantages resulting 
 from the union of the two last mentioned. 
 Moreover, it may easily be proved, that an 
 attempt to gain expedition, by carrying the 
 principle of simplicity in the form of the 
 letters beyond a certain extent, will generally 
 defeat it own purpose; and this must inevi- 
 tably be the case, whenever simplicity of 
 form in the character is purchased at the 
 expense of the other two essential properties 
 already mentioned. 
 
 This set of characters is, therefore, the 
 simplest that can possibly be reduced to 
 PRACTICE, the fewest in number, the easiest 
 in form, and the most consistent with general 
 use. They possess the peculiar qualities of 
 being readily made, of joining with the greatest 
 ease, elegance, and dispatch, in every com- 
 bination to which they can possibly be ap- 
 plied. All the characters are as analogous 
 to each other as the sounds they represent; 
 and their conveniency for joining is commen- 
 surate to the frequency of their use. The 
 number of ascending and descending lines are 
 duly proportioned to each other; and the 
 whole are so perfectly distinct, that in the 
 quickest writing one character cannot possibly 
 
28 
 
 be confounded with another. The writing is 
 also extremely legible, perfectly lineal, and 
 exquisitely beautiful. This is the Short Hand 
 we have been hitherto seeking; as one me- 
 thodical in its construction, and built upon 
 rational principles. 
 
OBSERVATIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 THE CONSONANTS. 
 
 ENOUGH has been said to show how simple, 
 rational, and convenient, the alphabet itself 
 is. But, after this is adjusted to the best 
 advantage possible, still there are some words 
 and syllables which will require to be con- 
 tracted. It is necessary, for the sake of expe- 
 dition, that certain words which, on account 
 of the idiom of our language, are very im- 
 portant, should be marked by the shortest 
 and easiest expression. The best method of 
 abbreviating them will be by making the 
 alphabetical characters, when standing alone, 
 their arbitrary representatives ; whereby many 
 of the most useful words can be expressed by 
 single letters. For this purpose the author 
 has carefully examined the various words in 
 
30 
 
 the English language, and selected those which 
 will be found most serviceable and advan- 
 tageous to the writer. 
 
 Authors who have written on this subject 
 have generally fixed on words of a different 
 description, many of which are, in reality, 
 merely the SOUND of the letters to which they 
 have been applied; and it was therefore 
 entirely useless to apply them to those cha- 
 racters as arbitraries ; it was only imposing 
 an unnecessary burden on the memory. In 
 this respect we have taken the liberty of 
 differing from all other writers on the subject, 
 and have selected such words as our practical 
 experience convinces us are of very frequent 
 occurrence, and, at the same time, embrace 
 the greatest number of terminations. By this 
 means we have avoided one of the most fatal 
 errors of other authors, that of applying 
 several words to each character, (a plan so 
 productive of obscurity,) and we have also 
 obtained an enormous power of abbreviation, 
 without injuring the legibility, or burthening 
 the memory. For although there is but one 
 word applied to each mark, yet most of these 
 words embrace from eight to twelve termina- 
 tions which are all represented by the self- 
 
31 
 
 same character; for instance, OBSERVE, s, ed, 
 er, ing, eth, est, able, ation. 
 
 Moreover, the letters of the alphabet are 
 so adapted to the words for which they 
 respectively stand, that the former will natu- 
 rally assist the student to recollect the latter; 
 the words being in all cases expressed by 
 their first consonants; and, although there is 
 a second word somewhat dependant on each 
 character, as b J for observe, b ^ for object; 
 d / for discover, d A for deliver ; yet especial 
 care has been taken, by the judicious adop- 
 tion of the TICK, not to create any confusion, 
 or occasion any mistake thereby. 
 
 Our next object was to provide an expres- 
 sion for the most usual compound sounds, in a 
 brief and analogical manner. "Wherefore, 
 besides lengthening the straight line charac- 
 ters, and enlarging others to signify any two 
 consonants of the same name, when they come 
 together in a word, we have appointed easy 
 and distinct marks to represent the double 
 consonants bl, br, ch, fl, gl, gr, sh, sir, th, and 
 tr; these, from their frequent occurrence, are 
 highly essential to facili tate the writing ; and 
 being expressed by characters entirely distinct 
 from the single letters which signify them 
 
32 
 
 separately in the alphabet, they instantly 
 discover themselves, and render the writing 
 infinitely less difficult to decipher; because 
 there is no danger of reading a vowel between 
 the single letters, which must often happen 
 when the initial characters are made up of 
 them. Like the letters of the alphabet, they 
 always serve in a double capacity, that is, as 
 consonants when joined with any other cha- 
 racter, and as arbitrary marks for those words 
 annexed to them in the Table when they 
 stand alone, (thus ch /". represents charge, 
 f character;} so that it is impossible to 
 mistake them, either in the writing or in the 
 reading. 
 
 These general observations being premised, 
 let us go on with an investigation of the 
 various consonants, and point out what fur- 
 ther alphabetical abbreviations can be made 
 to aid our purpose. In pursuit of this object, 
 the first idea which presents itself is, to 
 expunge all silent and superfluous letters; 
 and in selecting the different consonants by 
 which we mean to denote any word or sen- 
 tence in the Short Hand orthography, to 
 attend principally, and, indeed, entirely, to the 
 sound of the words, and to make use of such 
 
33 
 
 letters only as will most readily and certainly 
 express them. Such letters must be selected 
 as will convey a strong outline of the pronun- 
 ciation of the words, and be at the same time 
 sufficiently definite and obvious to prevent 
 their being misunderstood or mistaken for 
 others. The nicer modulations of sound are 
 seldom to be regarded, as they rather conduce 
 to the harmony of language than subserve 
 any purpose of real utility. 
 
 It would, perhaps, be difficult to point out 
 such an orthography in Short Hand as would 
 be equally apposite to every capacity : the 
 great disparity of genius renders it impossible 
 to do so with any degree of certainty; and, 
 therefore, until this mode of abbreviation has 
 become perfectly easy and natural, one person 
 may, if he so choose, admit more letters in a 
 word than another. The farther, however, 
 any person is advanced in the practice and 
 experience of the art, the more concisely he 
 will write; that is, the fewer letters will he 
 use in spelling a word. It is impossible to 
 compose any system of Short Hand, in which 
 various words will not be spelt alike, or 
 written with the same letters; as, for instance, 
 dsps L will stand for either despise or 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 dispose : but in such case, the sense and con- 
 nexion will immediately distinguish for 
 which of these two words the contraction is 
 intended; which, indeed, is no more than 
 what we are frequently obliged to trust to 
 in reading common writing. 
 
 When, therefore, the proper power of each 
 letter is once known, and fixed in the me- 
 mory, a habit of writing from sound only 
 will be attained without the least difficulty. 
 If custom has reconciled us to the introduc- 
 tion of unnecessary letters in the spelling of 
 words, and many words are so clogged with 
 letters, that, if all were sounded, would ren- 
 der them unintelligible; it is reasonable to 
 suppose, that a little attention and practice 
 will make words which are expressed in a 
 more natural way as familiar to the eye as 
 those that are written by the ordinary method ; 
 for there are in every word some radical 
 letters essential towards its formation; these 
 are the leading letters in composing the 
 sound when spoken, and therefore when 
 written do as sufficiently distinguish it as 
 though every letter was inserted: these, for 
 the most part, are the CONSONANTS. But, to 
 be more particular 
 
35 
 
 B. 
 
 And p correspond so nearly in sound, that 
 oftentimes one letter may be used for the 
 other: b between m and r may often be 
 omitted; as in lumber, slumber, number, &c. 
 When b stands before t, or after m, it may 
 always be thrown out, because it is then 
 mute : Ex. doubt, dumb, womb, tomb, comb, &c. 
 
 C. 
 
 This letter is not distinguished by a sepa- 
 rate character. For its sound (except before 
 h, which is provided for) is either hard, like 
 k, particularly before the vowels a, o, and u, 
 and the consonants I and r ; or soft, like s, 
 as before e, i, and y. It is, therefore, repre- 
 sented by the one or the other of those cha- 
 racters, according to its sound. In many 
 words c and ch may be dispensed with, and 
 yet the writing will remain perfectly legible : 
 Ex. acquit, acquire, acquiesce, acquisition, 
 schedule, schism, &c. Reduce ck and ct to 
 k-j as in lack, black, rock, stock, act, &c. 
 And also cc, cks, and cts, may be reduced 
 to x; as in accept, backslide, flocks, rocks, 
 acts, &c. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 D. 
 
 And t may often be exchanged for each other, 
 particularly at the end of a word, as the 
 same position of the mouth is used in articu- 
 lating them; but in the words command- 
 ment, friendship, friendly, groundless, hand- 
 some, world, stand, and many others of the 
 same nature, d may be entirely omitted. 
 When d stands before g, it may also be omit- 
 ted, for it is then nearly silent: Ex. lodge, 
 trudge, grudge, knowledge, &c. "When ed 
 ends words, after k, I, m, n, p, s, ch, th, and 
 x, you may substitute t for ed] as in chokt, 
 smelt, dreamt, meant, stript, misst, snatch t, 
 fixt, &c. 
 
 F. 
 
 The same character that represents / also 
 stands for v, which is a letter of nearly the 
 same sound, being only a little coarser, and 
 is, therefore, not distinguished in Short Hand 
 by a separate character. The double con- 
 sonant ph may be expressed by /, for scarcely 
 any difference in sound exists between them : 
 gh (when these letters are not silent) may 
 
37 
 
 also be represented by /; as in laugh, rough, 
 enough, &c. 
 
 G. 
 
 As well as c, has both a hard and soft sound. 
 Before the vowels a, o, and u, and the conso- 
 nants / and r, and at the end of words, unless 
 followed by d or e, it is always sounded hard-, 
 and is generally soft before e, i, and y. This 
 letter is also used for the j, which has partly 
 the same sound as the soft g. When g stands 
 before m or n, as in phlegm, gnat, gnaw, 
 reign, sovereign, foreign, &c. it has no sound, 
 and consequently may be dispensed with : g 
 may likewise be dropped in such words as 
 strength, length, &c. as may also gh in high, 
 nigh, right, sight, Jight, might, light, night, 
 taught, thought, sought, bought, &c. without 
 the least injury to the legibility of the writ- 
 ing. But whenever it happens that gh has 
 the sound of /, which is oftentimes the case, 
 / must be substituted, as in laugh, cough, 
 rough, tough, enough, &c. : g, at the end of a 
 word, may stand for dg, or dge. 
 
 448434 
 
38 
 
 H. 
 
 Many short-hand writers omit h entirely, 
 as being a respiration only ; but as it is use- 
 ful in writing proper names, and in a few 
 other cases, we have given it a place in the 
 alphabet. In the middle of words it may 
 always be omitted, and very often at the 
 beginning of those consisting of more than 
 one syllable, without occasioning any impedi- 
 ment, except when it is strongly aspirated. 
 It has no sound after the letters r or w. In 
 short, h unconnected with c, s, or t, (for 
 which distinct characters are assigned,) is 
 almost useless in Short Hand, which requires 
 every possible contraction that is consistent 
 with legibility. 
 
 J. 
 
 This letter is represented by the same cha- 
 racter as g, the soft sound of g being exactly 
 like j. 
 
 K. 
 
 Is invariably made use of to denote the hard 
 sound of c, as in cord, corn, coast. When k 
 immediately precedes n, it is nearly silent, 
 and consequently may be omitted; as in 
 knock, knave, knight, kneel, know, knowledge. 
 
39 
 
 When k follows c, ending words derived 
 from the Greek or Latin, it may likewise be 
 omitted: Ex. sack, lack, splenetick, musick, 
 publick, fabrick, &c. The termination que 
 may be expressed by &; and you may al- 
 ways write ks or x for the terminations acts, 
 ccts, icts, as in facts, effects, afflicts, &c. 
 
 L. 
 
 May be left out in such words as balm, psalm, 
 calf, half, could, would, should, &c. And as 
 / is nearly silent in all words when k im- 
 mediately follows, it may in such cases be 
 omitted: Ex. balk, talk, walk, &c. 
 
 M. 
 
 Requires no explanation. It is a letter that 
 has but one uniform sound, and can very 
 seldom be omitted in the Short Hand ortho- 
 graphy. 
 
 N, 
 
 lias no sound after ra at the end of a word, 
 and may therefore be thrown out: Ex. con- 
 demn, solemn, hymn, autumn, column, &c. net 
 may drop the c ; as disjunt for disjunct, distint 
 for distinct, &c. 
 
40 
 
 P. 
 
 The letter p is always mute before s and t 
 at the beginning of words, as in psalm, psal- 
 tery, ptisan, &c. It is mute also in the mid- 
 dle of words, between m and t, as in empty, 
 tempt, tempter, attempt, contempt, peremptory, 
 assumption, sumptuous, &c. In all such 
 words the letter p may therefore, with great 
 propriety, be omitted in Short Hand. When 
 p and h meet together in a word (particularly 
 at the beginning), they generally sound like 
 /, and in that case / may always be substi- 
 tuted: Ex. prophet, pharisee, physic, phleg- 
 matic, phantom,, phoenix, Pharaoh, nephew, &c. 
 This character is always written downwards', 
 and care should be taken that it be made 
 perfectly perpendicular, otherwise it may be 
 mistaken for d or/. 
 
 a. 
 
 And qu are the same; because these letters 
 always keep together in a word: they gene- 
 rally sound like k, hi, or kw, particularly in 
 the middle of words. 
 
 R. 
 
 Is expressed by the same character as d; only 
 
41 
 
 with this difference, r is written with an 
 ascending, and d with a descending stroke, 
 which will always be known from the man- 
 ner of its union with the following character; 
 but in a few monosyllables, where r is the 
 only consonant in a word, and consequently 
 stands alone, it is to be made as is shewn 
 in the definite contractions, for distinction's 
 sake. 
 
 S. 
 
 The same character which signifies s will 
 also represent the soft c, and the letter z. 
 When s follows &, it has generally the sound 
 of x, and therefore may be written x. When 
 s is the sign of the plural number, and a 
 consonant precedes it, as well as in the words 
 isle, island, viscount, and others of a similar 
 nature, it may be omitted. 
 
 T. 
 
 In many words t may be omitted, particu- 
 larly when c stands before it, and in all words 
 when it precedes ch, for it has then no sound : 
 Ex. act, object, neglect, reflect, watch, latch, 
 snatch, catch, thatch, match, fetch, &c. 
 
42 
 
 F. 
 
 And / being nearly alike in sound, are, in 
 Short Hand, represented by one and the same 
 character. 
 
 W. 
 
 May be omitted at the beginning of words, 
 when it is immediately followed by r, for it 
 is then silent, as in wring, wreck, wrong, 
 wrath, wretch, wrinkle, wrangle, &c. In short, 
 w may be thrown out of most words, particu- 
 larly if a vowel goes before it, and yet leave 
 the writing perfectly intelligible: Ex. law, 
 How, flow, grow, &c. But when w follows 
 d, s, t, and th, it must have its proper name 
 and character, as in dwell, swell, twain, 
 thwart, &c. 
 
 X. 
 
 Has two sounds, sharp and flat. It is, indeed, 
 a mark hardly to be esteemed a single letter, 
 but rather a character expressive of the com- 
 position ks, and sometimes it sounds flat like 
 gz. No word in the English language begins 
 with x, but it has the sound of many double 
 and triple consonants, and may therefore be 
 written in their stead. It has, for instance, 
 the sound of cc in access, accident, &c. and 
 
43 
 
 of cts in facts, acts, afflicts, effects, districts, &c. 
 and of cks in such words as mocks, blocks, stocks, 
 rocks, &c. At the beginning of a word x is 
 mostly sounded like z. 
 
 Z. 
 
 This letter has the same relation to s that 
 v has to/, being a thicker and coarser expres- 
 sion of it; the letters s and z are therefore 
 represented, in Short Hand, by one and the 
 same character. 
 
OBSERVATIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 THE VOWELS. 
 
 OF all the absurdities that characterise the 
 various productions on Short Hand, none 
 is more conspicuous or more perplexing than 
 the awkward and preposterous methods of 
 expressing the vowels, nor can anything be 
 more productive of uncertainty and confu- 
 sion, more inconsistent with the principles of 
 general utility, or more discouraging to the 
 learner. 
 
 Instead of expressing them in such a clear 
 and compendious manner as would bear the 
 test of practical experience, it has been cus- 
 tomary to assign an imaginary position for 
 each of the vowels; and their only distinc- 
 tion, when intermediate, was by taking off 
 the pen, and drawing the following conso- 
 
45 
 
 nant from that place after the preceding one, 
 which the vowel would have occupied had it 
 been a final one. 
 
 In many of the most common methods of 
 Short Hand, the initial and final vowels are 
 represented by dots, in either case, placed 
 about the characters in five different posi- 
 tions. When intended to express the former, 
 they are directed to be placed before the con- 
 sonant, on the left hand; and when the latter, 
 they are placed behind the consonant, on the 
 right hand. Thus, the place for a is over 
 the consonant ; e is against the upper corner 
 of it ; i and y against the middle ; o against 
 the lower corner ; and u underneath ; as they 
 are here represented : 
 
 at et it ot ut " e ta te ti to tu 
 
 That the ridiculous contrivance of lifting 
 off the pen, and putting the next consonant 
 in the vowel's place, in the middle of words, 
 is ill calculated for the purpose of expedition, 
 must be too obvious to need any illustration ; 
 it carries its own absurdity upon the face of 
 it. Nor is the obscure method of expressing 
 the vowels by points placed in different 
 
40 
 
 situations about the consonants, less liable to 
 objections; so minute a space being allotted 
 them, that, unless the writing be performed 
 with mathematical exactitude (which is im- 
 possible to be observed or practised, when 
 any degree of expedition is required,) they 
 become so totally undistinguishable as to 
 render the art almost impracticable. 
 
 Some authors, with a view to remedy the un- 
 avoidable confusion which those niceties occa- 
 sioned, have made only three positions for the 
 initial vowels, thus y 
 
 o u y o or .1 
 
 and the same number for the final ones, 
 thus "I i' I , orv . Though this 
 
 ou r * o or u 
 
 method is liable to many important objec- 
 tions, yet it is neither so perplexing nor so 
 ambiguous as either of the former: for, as 
 there are only three positions instead of five, 
 allotted for the vowels, they can be expressed 
 with greater accuracy by the writer, and are 
 more easily distinguished in the reading; 
 which renders it preferable to either of those 
 expedients already noticed. 
 
 In several modern systems, the interme- 
 diate vowels are altogether discarded, and a 
 single point only retained to express the 
 whole of the initial and final ones. This 
 
47 
 
 point is directed to be placed just in the 
 centre of the line, leaving it to the sagacity 
 of the reader to find which of the vowels 
 it is intended to represent. And, moreover, 
 the writer is directed to omit all vowels, in 
 expeditious writing; and leave it to the con- 
 text to supply those defects ! But is it not 
 evident that those rules will tend to introduce 
 the greatest obscurity in the writing, and 
 render it difficult to be read at any distant 
 period, after the subject has escaped the 
 recollection of the writer? No technical 
 terms, no names of persons or places with 
 which we are unacquainted, can possibly be 
 expressed by such a system, with any degree 
 of perspicuity. 
 
 Many authors have obtruded methods on 
 the public, recommending the employment of 
 a separate alphabetical character to represent 
 each of the vowels, in their regular order; 
 but their systems possess no peculiar excel- 
 lence, they are merely theoretical! It is 
 not, however, to the adoption of this principle 
 that I object, so much as to the indiscreet 
 extreme to which it has been carried. There 
 can be no doubt that, with an alphabet judi- 
 ciously aided by such characters, a very 
 
48 
 
 useful and expeditious Short Hand might be 
 formed. Yet it unfortunately happens, that 
 in every system in which the consonants are 
 sacrificed to the introduction of vowel cha- 
 racters, the former, on which the facility of 
 Short Hand chiefly depends, are formed of 
 the most illegible and complex characters, 
 the more simple ones being selected for the 
 vowels; and, therefore, it is not very sur- 
 prising that such systems are fast sinking 
 into disrepute. 
 
 There are also various other methods, 
 which serve only to perplex and deceive the 
 learner; their authors have displayed but 
 little research, labour, or ingenuity, in the 
 elucidation of the general principles of the 
 art ; they appear, indeed, to have been 
 entirely ignorant of the true nature of Short 
 Hand, and therefore their performances bear 
 no comparison with their professions : but it 
 would take up too much time, and fill many 
 pages, to record their complex and useless 
 innovations, which, instead of improving and 
 facilitating the progress of the art, tend only 
 to make it more difficult, and to bring it into 
 disrepute. 
 
 And here it may be necessary to caution 
 
49 
 
 the writers of Short Hand, not to suffer them- 
 selves to be deceived by the apparent length 
 of the different characters or specimens of 
 writing; for, without any regard to apparent 
 length, that system which can be written with 
 the fewest strokes, the fewest obtuse angles, 
 and the fewest dislocations or removals of 
 the pen, and in which the characters them- 
 selves, and the angles which occur, are the 
 most natural and easy, is, undoubtedly, the 
 most expeditious ; and, as time is the measure 
 of swift writing, must, consequently, be the 
 shortest and best. 
 
 That such imperfect and objectionable 
 methods of expressing the vowels should have 
 been resorted to, must have arisen from the 
 want of a proper investigation of the simple 
 marks which nature affords ; and from appa- 
 rent conciseness having been so strangely mis- 
 taken for real brevity. Writers on Short Hand 
 have erroneously concluded that that combina- 
 tion of characters must be the shortest, which 
 is comprised in the least compass, or which 
 looks most compact. They have, for instance, 
 preferred + for length to - | though, in 
 reality, there is no difference between them; 
 and have thought C*\ shorter than \jr\ though 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 it is in fact much longer. Thus, it is obvious, 
 that those marks which occupy the smallest 
 space, or seem the shortest, are not always the 
 most conducive to expedition; for whatever 
 appearance of brevity they may have upon 
 bare inspection, the shortest characters are, 
 undoubtedly, such as can be most expe- 
 ditiously written. 
 
 It cannot be denied that a dot (.) is in 
 itself the most simple mark that can possibly 
 be made; but then it should be remembered 
 that it is always attended with a removal of 
 the pen from the paper, and on that account 
 it must be considered as equal to a compound 
 character. If we impartially examine into 
 the' real length of time occasioned by the 
 sudden stop, and taking off the pen, the space 
 which it must actually pass over, the putting 
 it down again, in order to form the dot, and 
 the return of it to begin the next word, we 
 are persuaded that every ingenuous person 
 will lose his attachment to any precise posi- 
 tions for the vowels, from the plain convic- 
 tion that such methods of expressing them 
 are exceedingly wrong, and ought never to 
 be complied with, provided a more clear and 
 expeditious system can be adopted. To 
 
51 
 
 accomplish this in the most effective man- 
 ner, many experiments have been tried; 
 and the result, after much practical ex- 
 perience, is, that the following characters 
 *. / * . - have been found to possess advan- 
 tages which abundantly preponderate in their 
 favour, and render them more eligible than 
 any others. 
 
 By this mode of expressing the vowels, they 
 may be easily and naturally omitted in swift 
 writing, to the great increase of expedition; 
 and yet any of the intermediate ones can 
 afterwards be inserted at the writer's leisure; 
 so as to render what has been thus rapidly 
 and concisely written, sufficiently legible for 
 him to read at any distant period, with the 
 greatest ease and certainty. And, we may 
 further observe, that when a vowel at the 
 beginning or end of a word is required to be 
 expressed, if the character be placed any- 
 where by the side of that consonant to which 
 it belongs, it cannot easily be mistaken, as 
 the consonant will give the vowel its proper 
 sound, and a little practice will render it so 
 familiar that the writer can no more hesitate 
 where to place the character in Short Hand, 
 than, in common writing, where he should 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 make the cross stroke of a ; where he should 
 place the title over an i or a j\ or, where he 
 should begin a second word when he has 
 written a first. In short, by this arrange- 
 ment, all those difficulties already mentioned, 
 in expressing the vowels, when they are abso- 
 lutely necessary to be expressed in order to 
 convey the sound of the word, are entirely 
 avoided. There are, likewise, other reasons, 
 for preferring these characters; they require 
 no greater nicety either in their formation or 
 position, than can be easily preserved, even in 
 the most rapid writing; the exact places 
 where the vowels intervene, are shown in so 
 determinate a manner, that it requires no 
 particular care to render them perfectly dis- 
 tinct, and consequently, the writer is enabled 
 to discover such vowels without the least 
 doubt or hesitation. 
 
 We suppose it will be allowed that this 
 is the most clear and simple method of 
 managing the vowels, that has hitherto been 
 given; any one of these characters is made 
 with the same facility as a point] and, there- 
 fore, it is truly surprising that this plan has 
 not been universally adopted, which would 
 have prevented the absurdity of allotting a 
 
53 
 
 point or dot for all the vowels indiscrimi- 
 nately in the same position ; or, of assigning 
 them places so minutely exact, as to render 
 them impossible to be observed with certainty, 
 or practised with any degree of expedition. 
 When the writer is in haste, it is impossible 
 to be very exact in the placing of the points, 
 and the misplacing of one will deceive the 
 reader more than the entire omission of it. 
 
 With regard to the vowels, as they are 
 merely the conductors of the voice, (the 
 breath which passes between the consonants 
 in coupling them together to make a vocal 
 connection) they are seldom necessary in Short 
 Hand, and when they are, they will be most 
 advantageously denoted by their appropriate 
 characters. 
 
 Many persons are in the habit of omitting 
 all the vowels, even in the common mode of 
 writing, when expedition is required, without 
 experiencing the least inconvenience in read- 
 ing their manuscripts ; and the truth is, that 
 after a little practice, the omission of the 
 vowels becomes so familiar to the short-hand 
 writer, that in any speech he may have 
 REPOKTED, each word has been so dissected, 
 (if we may be allowed the expression) that 
 
54 
 
 the whole subject consists merely of a skele- 
 ton of consonants. 
 
 The vowels have all a soft sound, some- 
 what similar to each other, pronounced by 
 the breath alone, without that motion of the 
 tongue and lips which is absolutely necessary 
 in pronouncing the consonants. The dis- 
 tinction between a single vowel and a diph- 
 thong (of which there are thirteen, viz. az, ei, 
 oi, ui, au, eu, ou, ee, 00, ea, eo, oa, and ie) con- 
 sists in this, the sound of a single vowel, 
 if drawn out ever so long, continues the same 
 from first to last, and the organs continue in 
 the same position. In a diphthong there is 
 a motion of the organs, and the ending is a 
 different sound from the beginning. A single 
 vowel in the same breath admits but of one 
 sound; a diphthong in the same breath 
 admits of two sounds distinct from each 
 other. And it is remarkable, that every real 
 diphthong has in it the power of either the 
 first or last vowel, or both, which are equiva- 
 lent to the y or w. 
 
 To mark the double or treble vowels, when 
 necessaiy, it will be sufficient to write that 
 vowel only which is of the nearest sound to 
 such double or treble vowel ; as, for example, 
 
55 
 
 to express the diphthong ea, in the word 
 great, we use the vowel-mark for a, as grat; 
 and to express the triphthong eau, in beau, we 
 use the vowel-mark for o, as bo; but for the 
 same vowels in the word beauty, we use . u, 
 as buty. 
 
 In writing proper names or foreign quota- 
 tions, (particularly if they stand alone,) the 
 omission of the vowels would frequently pro- 
 duce the greatest obscurity ; and, indeed, in 
 most cases when a word stands alone, more 
 letters are necessary to express it, than when 
 the same word is in combination with others ; 
 in the latter case, the associated words are 
 a clue to the meaning of each other. The 
 greater number of consonants, however, there 
 are in a word, the less will it require the aid 
 of vowels to render it legible ; and the more 
 experience the writer has in READING, the 
 less occasion will he find for them. In the 
 English language there are many thousand 
 words which the SOUND of the consonants 
 express so intelligibly as to render it unneces- 
 sary to insert the vowels ; and in such cases 
 (as it is a fixed rule never to write them unless 
 the legibility of the word entirely depends on 
 them) they are, of course, to be omitted. 
 
56 
 
 Though the omission of the vowels may, at 
 first, somewhat puzzle the reader to tran- 
 scribe even his own writing, yet a little prac- 
 tice will render it perfectly familiar to him ; 
 as the chief difficulty, both in writing and 
 READING Short Hand, arises from the novelty 
 of the characters, and the want of a familiar 
 acquaintance with them. 
 
57 
 
 DIRECTIONS TO THE LEAftNEE, ON 
 COMMENCING THE LESSONS. 
 
 LET us suppose the learner to have maturely 
 considered the foregoing ''observations,' which 
 prepare the mind for the development of 
 the primary part of the system, so essential 
 to be well understood by learners, before 
 they attempt to apply it in their studies ; and 
 now, the way being sufficiently cleared before 
 him, he will enter upon the system with much 
 more pleasure and confidence. 
 
 As the object of the author is to convey 
 a clear, ample, and complete knowledge of 
 Stenography, to be understood by the hum- 
 blest capacity, it will be requisite for the 
 student to proceed gradually, step by step, 
 or nothing but confusion will ensue; for, 
 although the system is sufficiently simple and 
 
58 
 
 comprehensible, it requires an adherence to 
 the whole of the minutiae to profit by it 
 effectually ; indeed, its very simplicity may be 
 injurious to it, by causing the ardent student 
 to pass on too rapidly, to reap, prematurely, 
 the harvest he is desirous of obtaining. As 
 in the mathematics, no problem can be 
 demonstrated without understanding all the 
 preceding demonstrations, so every advance 
 in this art must be grounded on the full pos- 
 session of all the antecedent doctrines. 
 
 The first thing the learner attempts, must 
 be a knowledge of the stenographic alphabet ; 
 which he should have so well grounded on 
 the memory, as to be able to write any letter 
 without the least hesitation. The alphabet, 
 so far as the consonants are concerned (for of 
 the vowels we shall speak hereafter) are , 
 c?, / and v, g and j, h, k and hard c, /, 
 m, n, p, q, r, s and soft c and z, t, w, x, 
 y, which is a kind of amphibious letter 
 sometimes partaking of the nature of a con- 
 sonant. These letters have their proper cha- 
 racters allotted to them, as seen in the plate, 
 which characters are not only called by the 
 names of the common letters, and possess 
 their power when combined into words ; but 
 
59 
 
 they also serve, when standing alone, as 
 arbitrary marks for those words annexed to 
 them in the plate. The student should ex- 
 amine the alphabetical characters with care 
 and attention, and endeavour to draw them 
 correctly, with a fine-nibbed pen, about the 
 same size and strength as those in the plate', 
 observing, at the same time, that although a 
 small dot (.) is prefixed to each, yet that dot 
 does not form any part of the character, nor 
 is it ever to be made by the learner; it is 
 only placed there to show him at which end 
 he is to begin, when making the character. In 
 order to render it more easy, he should commit 
 to memory only four or five of the letters 
 at a time, and so proceed till the whole are 
 not only made correctly, but are as familiar to 
 his mind as those of the common alphabet; 
 and also the words which the single characters 
 represent must be learned perfectly 'as a 
 song;' when this is completed, the founda- 
 tion of the art is securely laid. Any diffi- 
 culty attending the formation -of the charac- 
 ters may be easily overcome by repeatedly 
 writing them. 
 
 The difference between the alphabetical 
 and the auxiliary characters consists in this, 
 
60 
 
 that there is a small TICK attached to the 
 latter, which shows that they are not for the 
 purpose of composing words, but that they 
 stand merely as arbitrary characters for the 
 words annexed to them in the plate; and 
 which (like those expressed by the alpha- 
 betical characters) embrace a great number 
 of terminations, whereby an immense power 
 of abbreviation is produced without injuring 
 the legibility, or burthening the memory; 
 take, for instance, the word object, which 
 produces objects, objected, objector, objecting, 
 objecteth, objectest, objection, objections, objec- 
 tionable, objective, objectively, objectiveness. 
 Here are thirteen words, expressed by one 
 character, without the possibility of ob- 
 scurity: and this is the case with all the 
 others. The words must be perfectly com- 
 mitted to memory; and, as for the ticked 
 characters, they are already learnt, if the 
 learner knows the alphabetical ones, as there 
 is no difference whatever between them 
 except the TICK. 
 
 As the characters which express these 
 words in all their diversified terminations, 
 will be continually interspersed with the rest 
 of the writing, the small mark attached will 
 
61 
 
 not only give them a definite meaning, but 
 will render them immediately conspicuous, to 
 the great promotion of legibility. The tick 
 should always be placed in the most eligible 
 point, in order that as little time as possible 
 may be lost in applying it. 
 
 Great care must be taken in the beginning 
 to give to the upright, oblique, and horizontal 
 straight lines, their true direction, to make 
 the semicircles, the segments of the circle, 
 and other characters duly proportioned to 
 each other in all their parts; upon this the 
 legibility of the writing will greatly depend; 
 for if errors are suffered to take place at the 
 beginning, they will increase as the learner 
 goes on, and will prove a great obstacle to 
 his reading. Every one who wishes to 
 obtain perfection in Stenography will find it 
 necessary to attend strictly to this injunction ; 
 for to every reflecting mind it is an obvious 
 fact, that although our progress at first be 
 slow in the acquirement of science, yet, by 
 making ourselves completely perfect in the 
 rudiments, every impediment is thereby re- 
 moved, and our progress will be easy, 
 pleasant, and certain. Many of those who 
 have attempted to learn Short Hand by the 
 
62 
 
 books, and have given it up, supposing it too 
 difficult to be attained in a reasonable time, 
 have candidly confessed they had not patience 
 to go on regularly ; but without which method 
 of proceeding, it is impossible to learn this or 
 any other useful art or science. 
 
 What the student finds difficult, in this 
 system, he would have found far more so in 
 any other; and much that is difficult in all 
 other systems, in this is rendered perfectly 
 easy. Weigh well the advantages of the 
 acquisition against the labour of obtaining it, 
 and ye who enter upon this task, pursue it 
 steadily to completion; the forced efforts of 
 an hour are of little avail ; attend properly to 
 the directions, and with a little patience and 
 perseverance 
 
 Soon shall your flying pen speed unconfined, 
 And leave the rapid speaker's words behind. 
 

 Plate I. 
 
 THE SHORT-HAND ALPHABET, 
 
 AND AUXILIARIES, 
 
 WITH THE WORDS THOSE CHARACTERS REPRESENT. 
 
 Words expressed 
 by the Alphabetical 
 characters. 
 
 Alphabetical 
 characters. 
 
 Letters. 
 
 Auxiliary 
 characters. 
 
 Words expressed by 
 the auxiliary 
 or ticked character!. 
 
 observe 
 
 J 
 
 b 
 
 -^ 
 
 object 
 
 discover 
 
 / 
 
 d 
 
 / 
 
 deliver 
 
 frequent 
 
 \ 
 
 f and v 
 
 *^ 
 
 forgive 
 
 govern 
 
 * 
 
 g andj 
 
 c^. 
 
 general 
 
 habit 
 
 r- 
 
 h 
 
 c- 
 
 happy 
 
 kind 
 
 /* 
 
 k and c 
 
 r 
 
 know 
 
 lawful 
 
 c 
 
 1 
 
 < 
 
 labour 
 
 imitate 
 
 r\ 
 
 m 
 
 A 
 
 imagine 
 
 necessary 
 
 \j 
 
 n 
 
 V 
 
 neglect 
 
 public 
 
 1 
 
 P 
 
 1- 
 
 perfect 
 
 quick 
 
 > 
 
 q 
 
 ^ 
 
 question. 
 
 respect 
 
 / 
 
 r 
 
 / 
 
 reflect 
 
 scarce 
 
 
 
 s&c&z 
 
 9 
 
 serious 
 
 time 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 -r- 
 
 temper 
 
 wicked 
 
 <. 
 
 w 
 
 V 
 
 worthy 
 
 expect 
 
 (/ 
 
 X 
 
 t/ 
 
 extraordinary 
 
 yield 
 
 ) 
 
 y 
 
 > 
 
 yourself 
 
THE 
 
 THE 
 
 ALPHABETICAL CHARACTERS. 
 
 WE have shown that each of the short- 
 hand alphabetical characters has the name 
 and power of a letter of the common alpha- 
 bet; and that, when standing separately or 
 alone on the line of writing, it represents (as 
 an arbitrary mark) one or more words. When 
 the learner is perfectly acquainted with the 
 form and signification of each of those cha- 
 racters, that is, when he has practised them 
 singly and accurately, until they are so fixed 
 in his memory that he recollects them at 
 sight, his next step is to practise the PAIR- 
 ING of them together, (in order to prepare 
 him for writing words,) observing that each 
 
66 
 
 character be properly united with the pre- 
 ceding one. 
 
 As the junction of the characters is the chief 
 embarrassment a learner generally meets with, 
 and as the facility of writing depends entirely 
 upon the freedom of making and joining 
 them ; in order to remove this difficulty, we 
 have given a plate, which is laid down upon a 
 principle similar to that of the ' multiplication 
 table,' (see Platell.) wherein all the alpha- 
 betical characters are combined together in 
 the easiest and most natural manner: this 
 will be found of more real advantage to a 
 learner than a multiplicity of specimens 
 would have been; for whenever he is at a 
 loss how to join any of the characters, he 
 may be instantly informed by having recourse 
 to this table. 
 
 The number of specimens which some 
 authors of Short Hand consider a recom- 
 mendation, are only for the purpose of 
 showing the different combinations, and if a 
 person wishes to find any particular junction, 
 much time and trouble must be bestowed 
 before he can be satisfied in his inquiry ; but 
 by this table the combination of any two 
 letters may instantly be found. 
 
67 
 
 The method of joining the Short Hand 
 letters does not differ, in any respect, from 
 that of the common writing ; where the first 
 character ends, the second is to be com- 
 menced, running, as it were, into each other, 
 in the easiest and most natural manner, with- 
 out taking the pen off the paper. 
 
 The whole of this table will be easily 
 understood by the learner, if the steno- 
 graphic alphabet be well impressed upon 
 his mind beforehand ; if not, the author 
 recommends him, before he enters on the 
 joining table, to re-peruse the directions on 
 the alphabet. 
 
 A ready recollection of the characters is 
 essential: a mere superficial knowledge of 
 them is worse than useless. So it is with the 
 * multiplication table ; ' a child, or an adult, 
 may easily understand the principles of it; 
 that it is, in fact, nothing but ' addition ' in 
 another form ; but, for use, this would be of 
 little service. It is necessary, in applying it, 
 that the arithmetician should have no pause, 
 no calculation to effect, but at once give the 
 correct answer; or business would be con- 
 siderably retarded. 
 
 The common alphabetical letters placed at 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 the top and left hand squares of the table will 
 direct the learner to the characters sought 
 for. Suppose, for instance, he wishes to join 
 t and p together : look for the letter t, on the 
 left hand side of the plate, which having 
 found, let him pass his eye along between the 
 two parallel table lines facing that letter, 
 until he comes to that square in the table, 
 directly under the letter p, in which he will 
 find the two characters t p united, thus ~~] : 
 the union of any other two characters may 
 be found in the same manner. 
 
 The junction of the characters must not, 
 in the slightest degree, alter either their form 
 or their position; in that respect they must 
 always be as similar as possible to those of 
 the preceding lesson. The characters for d 
 and r have both one and the same inclination; 
 but r being struck upwards, has the following 
 character joined to the top, thus A r /; 
 while the d being drawn downwards, has the 
 next character joined to the bottom, thus <( 
 d f. Any other letter following either of 
 them, must be joined to the upper end of r, 
 and to the lower end of d, as given in the 
 table. 
 
 A few days should be applied to the prac- 
 
69 
 
 tice of the table of joining the alphabetical 
 letters together; which contains all the dif- 
 ferent combinations in which they can pos- 
 sibly occur ; this practice will enable the 
 learner to make them with precision, and 
 firmly establish their true shape in his mind. 
 As any number of characters can be joined 
 together with equal facility, the learner may 
 also exercise himself by joining all the alpha- 
 betical characters together, in one continued 
 line, without taking off the pen, until the 
 whole be completely finished, thus 
 
 In the practice of Short Hand, the cha- 
 racters may be written either large or small, 
 as the writer pleases, provided they are all 
 made proportionate to each other ; but the 
 smaller and lighter the writing, the more ex- 
 peditious and easy it will be, and so much 
 the more beautiful will it appear. At first, 
 however, it will be advisable for the student 
 to practise them quite as large as those in 
 the tables, and decrease their size as he be- 
 comes familiar with them, until at last they 
 
70 
 
 occupy as small a space as is consistent with 
 perspicuity. 
 
 In writing the characters contained in the 
 table, the stenographer must observe, that the 
 practice of making alternate fine and thick 
 strokes (as in common writing) is to be 
 avoided ; the pressure of the pen on the paper 
 should be light and uniform. 
 
Pfate 21. 
 
 THE METHOD OF JOINING 
 
 THE ALPHABETICAL CHARACTERS. 
 
 b 
 
 1 I 
 
 in 
 
 11 
 
 MI 
 
 w 
 
 b 
 
 d 
 
 A- 
 
 A 
 
 C 
 
 S 
 
 V 
 
 No 
 
 X 
 
 b 
 
 'T 
 
 r\ 
 
 cT 
 
 S 
 
 HIE. 
 
 X 
 
 m 
 
 y 
 
 P 
 
 I/ 
 
 K 
 
 L 
 
 L 
 
 1, 
 
 V 
 
 X 
 
 X 
 
 v>x 
 
 r 
 
 5~ <T 
 
 
 W 
 
 V 
 
 S 
 
 V 
 
 S 
 
 CT 
 
 "X 
 
 \ 
 
 y 
 
 X. 
 
THE 
 
 DOUBLE CONSONANT 
 CHAKACTERS. 
 
 WE must now draw the attention of the 
 learner to the double consonants ; for, besides 
 the characters appropriated to denote the 
 consonants singly, there are others to express 
 some of those that are so frequently combined 
 together, in the English language, as double 
 consonants; the use of which will greatly 
 increase the power of abbreviation. 
 
 The value and necessity of the double 
 letters, in this art, cannot be too much insisted 
 on. In a species of writing which very 
 generally dispenses with the vowels, it is a 
 point of the greatest importance to denote, 
 if possible, what part of the word the 
 omitted vowel would have occupied. Now, 
 
74 
 
 double consonants, from their nature, ex- 
 clude a vowel from between them ; and there- 
 fore tend, in an eminent degree, to clear the 
 writing, and render it more legible. 
 
 These characters are, in some cases, derived 
 from those of the alphabet; and, in others, 
 they are quite of a different form from those 
 which are applied to the same consonants 
 singly: they are all, however, distinct from 
 those of the alphabet, either in size or shape, 
 are so little complex as to be easily written, 
 and tend, at the same time, to legibility, 
 because there is no danger of reading a vowel 
 between them, as though they were single 
 letters. 
 
 The student should learn these as perfectly 
 as he is now supposed to have learned those 
 of the alphabet, and their combinations. He 
 will readily understand that the Short Hand 
 characters in the second column are of the 
 same name as the common letters in the 
 third column; that they are made use of 
 in composing words, by being united to the 
 alphabetical, or any other characters; and 
 this is the case whether the letters which they 
 represent come together in the word, or are 
 separated by one or more vowels. The 
 
7b 
 
 same mode of uniting with, and running into, 
 other consonants, applies to these, as to the 
 alphabetic characters; the pen must not be 
 removed from the paper from the beginning 
 of a word to the end, but wherever the pen 
 may be at the end of making one letter, 
 there to commence the next. This rule being 
 strictly observed, the most natural mode of 
 joining the letters will seldom fail to present 
 itself; for instance, the word stream is to be 
 commenced with the mark <2_ for str, and then 
 the mark n for m is to be added, thus o^ 
 strm. In a similar manner the word master 
 is expressed by the mark f\ for m, and that 
 for str o_ joined to it, thus -x2_ mstr. 
 
 The double consonant characters are to be 
 written as light as possible, and as small as 
 is consistent with legibility. To prevent them 
 being made the wrong way, we have placed a 
 dot opposite the point where each must be 
 begun. The mark for tr may be made either 
 upwards or down wards. When these charac- 
 ters are found unconnected with others, they 
 will then serve (like those of the alphabet) as 
 arbitrary representatives of some words of 
 frequent occurrence, which embrace a great 
 variety of terminations; and, therefore, the 
 
76 
 
 same course has been pursued with respect 
 to them as was observed in the former case. 
 The words which we have here chosen in- 
 clude all their terminations, in the same man- 
 ner as those in the alphabet; for instance, 
 bl /? stands for believe, belief, believes, be- 
 lieved, believer, believers, believest, believeth, 
 believing, .believable. 
 
 The auxiliary or ticked characters in the 
 fourth column serve as arbitrary marks for 
 those words in the fifth column, in all their 
 diversified terminations. They are exactly 
 the same as the characters in the second 
 column, with the addition of the tick. 
 
 This mode of contraction, which is made 
 use of throughout the system, is perfectly 
 new, very safe, and exceedingly useful. It 
 forms one of the most important features of 
 improvement hitherto attempted. These 
 auxiliaries give great speed to the writer 
 they are, as it were, the wings of Short Hand, 
 and frequently express whole words, and 
 even sentences, of the most common oc- 
 currence, without the least burden to the 
 memory: the tick renders them totally dis- 
 tinct from all other characters. A power so 
 advantageous as this, must certainly be worthy 
 
77 
 
 of the student's best attention to attain a 
 mastery of it. But the advantages resulting 
 from such an arrangement cannot be suffi- 
 ciently appreciated by any but those who 
 have become familiar with the system. 
 
 Some authors have employed precisely the 
 same character to represent both single and 
 double letters ; and the letter intended to be 
 expressed by such character can only be 
 known by considering the relative position 
 which that bears to the other characters ; such 
 a method of expressing the letters is very 
 objectionable; for, although there is no great 
 difficulty in placing a character, which is 
 written separately, in any relative position 
 with one which is also unconnected with any 
 other letter; yet we shall find, in many 
 instances, that we shall not be able to do 
 the same when several characters are joined 
 together. Besides, when a character is writ- 
 ten separately, and is only distinguished by 
 the position it bears to the other characters, 
 great care must be taken in making such 
 character precisely in its proper place, other- 
 wise it will be liable to be mistaken for 
 some letter which it is not intended for : and 
 as great care is required in placing such 
 
78 
 
 characters in their exact position, it follows, 
 as a natural consequence, that a character 
 even more complex in its form, that would 
 easily combine with the rest of the characters, 
 might be written more expeditiously, and 
 possess a much greater portion of uniformity 
 and legibility. 
 
 Let the student who is determined not to 
 stop short of the ultimate excellence of this 
 art, make himself perfectly acquainted with 
 this lesson; he will experience its utility as 
 to his ease and convenience, when following a 
 rapid speaker, and great dispatch is required. 
 
Plate III. 
 
 THE DOUBLE CONSONANTS, 
 
 AND AUXILIARY CHARACTERS, 
 
 WITH THE WORDS THEY REPRESENT. 
 
 Words expressed by 
 the double 
 consonant characters. 
 
 Double 
 consonant 
 characters. 
 
 Double 
 consonants. 
 
 Auxiliary 
 characters. 
 
 Words expressed by 
 the auxiliary 
 or ticked characters. 
 
 believe 
 
 a 
 
 bl 
 
 * 
 
 belong 
 
 borrow 
 
 7 
 
 br 
 
 ^ 
 
 brother 
 
 charge 
 
 / 
 
 ch 
 
 /' 
 
 character 
 
 false 
 
 \ 
 
 fl 
 
 . X. 
 
 follow 
 
 glad 
 
 V 
 
 gl 
 
 s 
 
 glory 
 
 great 
 
 S 
 
 gr 
 
 y 
 
 grief 
 
 shame 
 
 o 
 
 sh 
 
 9 
 
 short 
 
 strange 
 
 Q_ 
 
 str 
 
 <v 
 
 strong . 
 
 think 
 
 
 th 
 
 
 thank 
 
 trespass 
 
 / 
 
 tr 
 
 / 
 
 trouble 
 
 
 
 
 
 
THE 
 
 METHOD OF EXPRESSING 
 
 THE 
 
 PREPOSITIONS AND TERMINATIONS. 
 
 IN search of further brevity, the student 
 who is resolved to press onward may now, 
 with propriety, attack the prepositions and 
 terminations; which he will find of very 
 little burden to the memory, and which will 
 hereafter fully compensate for all the pains it 
 can possibly cost him to learn them, if, indeed, 
 he requires a Short Hand which possesses 
 great expedition. 
 
 In the practice of following a speaker, all 
 assistance that can be derived from the pro- 
 perties of our language, and can be intelli- 
 gibly expressed by the Short Hand characters, 
 may be made use of; indeed, the rapidity of 
 
82 
 
 some public speakers renders it absolutely 
 necessary for the careful and correct writer 
 to avail himself of such advantages. Hence 
 it follows, that the prepositions and termina- 
 tions, being extremely essential to promote 
 expedition, by the abbreviating properties 
 they embrace, have been adopted by the 
 various writers on this art; but, unhappily, 
 for the purpose of expressing them, they 
 have mostly fallen upon the wretched expe- 
 dient of complex arbitraries, symbolical marks 
 of the most awkward description, and the 
 common alphabetical letters. 
 
 In the preceding lessons we have shown 
 that a Short Hand character, when standing 
 by itself, may be employed to denote a single 
 word] and as many words in English begin 
 with those parts called prepositions, and end 
 with those parts called terminations, it will 
 greatly promote expedition to represent such 
 parts of words (as well as whole words} by 
 single characters; placing the prepositions at 
 the beginning, and the terminations at the 
 end, of the words to which they belong, as 
 their names imply. 
 
 It should be here observed, that we make 
 use of the word preposition in a sense alto- 
 
83 
 
 gether different from that of the grammarian : 
 by the term, we merely intend the beginning 
 of a word; so that, in the stenographic 
 lexicography, the first syllable, or, perhaps, 
 two syllables, of any word, might be called 
 a preposition, because occupying an early 
 place in the word itself. 
 
 The present method of expressing the pre- 
 positions will render them so perfectly dis- 
 tinct and intelligible, as to prevent the least 
 confusion, with whatever rapidity they may 
 be applied. In many long words the primary 
 syllables may be written with a single stroke 
 of the pen, by which means two, three, or 
 more characters are frequently saved. Little 
 difficulty will likewise be found in commit- 
 ting them to memory, the whole of them 
 being written by the alphabetical characters. 
 In making use of a preposition, the learner 
 will observe that it is to be used only at the 
 beginning of a word, and is always to be 
 written above the line, and the other cha- 
 racters which compose the word must then 
 be written exactly underneath the preposition, 
 but not joined to it. So that the characters, 
 when used to express single alphabetical 
 letters in composing words, being always 
 
 G 
 
84 
 
 commenced upon the line or regular course of 
 writing, and when used as prepositions, 
 invariably written ABOVE it, the mere differ- 
 ence in point of place produces all the effects 
 of diversity of character, and renders them 
 perfectly intelligible. Besides which, the 
 change of position has this important advan- 
 tage, it supersedes the necessity of introducing 
 additional characters, an arrangement to which 
 other writers on the subject have been obliged 
 to have recourse; and which tends so much 
 to burden the memory of the learner, and 
 paralyse his efforts in the attainment of this 
 highly useful and interesting art. 
 
 The terminative characters being of great 
 service for the purpose of shortening long 
 words and scientific terms, these will appear, 
 upon consideration, to be of equal importance 
 with the former ; and we have, therefore, taken 
 care to put down their expressive figures as 
 clear from complexity as possible, that they 
 may be written with the same degree of 
 facility and dispatch as the prepositions, and 
 be taken, at first sight, for what they really 
 are intended. 
 
 The terminational characters are invariably 
 UNITED to those letters which immediately 
 
85 
 
 precede them, in the words of which they 
 form a part; and, in order to distinguish 
 them, a small TICK is added, similar to that 
 placed on the auxiliary characters in the 
 alphabet, and the double consonants; and, 
 like those of the auxiliaries, the tick placed 
 upon each of the present characters is merely 
 a mark of distinction, by which it may be 
 known, and read as a termination. The 
 student should observe that each of the termi- 
 nations may be made use of to the utmost 
 extent and diversity of which it is capable; 
 as, for instance, the termination ject '*-r- may 
 likewise include jects, jector, jected, jecteth, 
 jectest, jecting, jection, jections, jecture, jecturer, 
 jecturable, jectural, jecturally, jecturality, jectile, 
 jectionable, jective, jectment, and so with all the 
 rest. 
 
 When a preposition and termination come 
 together, and make up the whole word, no 
 confusion will arise if the termination mark 
 be joined to the end of the preposition cha- 
 racter, placed, as before-mentioned, above 
 the line. 
 
 Those who are unacquainted with the 
 nature of Short Hand may, perhaps, be sur- 
 prised at our using the alphabetical characters 
 
 G 2 
 
86 
 
 to express the prepositions and termina- 
 tions, and may suppose that by such an 
 arrangement some confusion will arise in 
 reading the Snort Hand ; but a little practice 
 will immediately remove even the appearance 
 of ambiguity, and render both the writing 
 and reading of it perfectly easy and fa- 
 miliar. There is little doubt, indeed, that 
 students in general will understand this part 
 of the system, by merely inspecting the plate : 
 but, that the less ingenious student may not 
 find himself at a loss, we have been more 
 particular in our explanations. 
 
 The brevity and distinctness with which the 
 prepositions and terminations are marked, 
 must strike every one with astonishment 
 who compares this system with any other yet 
 invented. Let the learner only acquire a 
 thorough knowledge of the lessons, and pro- 
 ceed regularly through the system, and thus, 
 (to use a simile,) like a flower, he will arrive 
 at perfection ; and then the mystery will die, 
 as does the flower. 
 
Hate IV. 
 
 THE PREPOSITIONS AND TERMINATIONS, 
 
 OB BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS OP WOBDS. 
 
 Preposition 
 character!. 
 
 The Prepositions. 
 
 Termination 
 characters. 
 
 The Termination! . 
 
 , 
 
 bar bur 
 
 \ 
 
 form full 
 
 - 
 
 dis discon 
 
 c_ 
 
 guish ject 
 
 *- 
 
 com con 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 Ian Ion 
 
 r 
 
 claim cation 
 
 1 
 
 prac proc 
 
 A 
 
 rnand ment 
 
 ^ 
 
 quar quan 
 
 V 
 
 tion at ion otion at ion 
 
 / 
 
 recom recon 
 temp trans 
 
 9 
 
 ship scribe soever 
 
 V 
 
 exter extra 
 
 X 
 
 self selves 
 
 5 
 
 inter intro 
 
 ^ 
 
 ward warded 
 
THE 
 
 VOWELS, KEY SYMBOLS, 
 
 AND 
 
 DEFINITE CONTRACTIONS FOR SMALL WORDS. 
 
 BEFORE the learner is sufficiently qualified 
 to commence the PRACTICE of Short Hand, he 
 must make himself well acquainted with the 
 present department, which concludes the pre- 
 paratory lessons, or that part of the system 
 which is to be committed to memory. 
 
 A\ r e have before observed, that in Short 
 Hand it is customary to write only by the 
 consonants, or, as it is generally termed, by 
 the sound of words, and to omit the vowels 
 altogether, except in any particular instances 
 where the interpretation would be vague and 
 uncertain without them. The advantages of 
 this method of writing (which is indeed the 
 plan pursued by all Short Hand writers) are 
 
90 
 
 self-evident, as the omission of superfluous 
 letters enables the practitioner to express 
 words with fewer characters, and thereby 
 give additional dispatch to the writing, with- 
 out injuring its legibility; for this method 
 of proceeding, though novel to the learner 
 in the first instance, soon becomes as familiar 
 to him as the common method of writing. 
 
 When, however, for the sake of greater 
 legibility, the introduction of the vowels is 
 rendered absolutely necessary, the characters, 
 given in the plate, will be found of the most 
 simple and distinct nature, and, for the faci- 
 lity of their application, are better adapted 
 for the purpose of expressing them than any 
 others that can possibly be devised. 
 
 With regard to the single vowels, there are 
 jive of them, a, e, i, o, u, that stand alone in 
 the English language; these are expressed by 
 their characters being placed ABOVE the line 
 of writing. Those words in the table, viz. an, 
 and, &c., which are arbitrarily expressed by 
 the vowel marks, are likewise to be noted 
 ABOVE the regular course : but when either 
 of the vowel marks are made use of, in com- 
 posing a word, it is to be placed about the 
 consonant characters (after the consonants 
 
91 
 
 which compose the word are written) as near 
 as possible to the place or point where they 
 have been omitted. 
 
 It will be perceived that these characters 
 are similar to those in the first lesson, but 
 the smallness of their size will render their 
 distinction sufficiently evident. Should the 
 practitioner, however, in following a rapid 
 speaker, strike them off as large a size as 
 those referred to, yet, by being written above 
 the other characters, and always disjoined, 
 their position (to say nothing of the con- 
 nection of the subject) cannot fail to deter- 
 mine their intended meaning. 
 
 The * KEY SYMBOLS ' form a new feature in 
 Short Hand, which is well worthy tbe attention 
 of the student. These marks are easy of 
 formation, and very distinct from the literal 
 characters, and from each other; so that in 
 the most rapid writing they cannot possibly 
 be confounded. The value of these symbols 
 for distinguishing the names of persons or 
 places for signifying the omission of any 
 word for showing where the questions and 
 answers commence in the examination of 
 witnesses for marks of reference for mar- 
 ginal notes or observations and for various 
 
92 
 
 other purposes specified in the plate, are self- 
 evident, and will be abundantly exemplified 
 in subjects of the most common occurrence. 
 
 It will be observed that one of the key 
 symbols (a cross, thus x. ) represents & period, 
 or full stop ; which is the only stop made use 
 of in Short Hand. When dispatch is required, 
 there is no time for pointing, neither is there 
 any absolute necessity for it, except to divide 
 one complete sentence from another, (as is 
 constantly practised in legal documents,) and 
 for that purpose a cross, being a very conspi- 
 cuous character, is adopted. 
 
 Although we decry the use of arbitrary 
 contractions to any great extent, because we 
 presume that every system is competent to 
 its purposes without them; yet we do not 
 wholly reject them on particular occasions, 
 for the sake of advantages in shortening the 
 labour of the Short Hand writer, which more 
 than counterbalance any little dislike we may 
 have to them: nor do we join in the senseless 
 cry raised against them by those creatures of 
 theory those evanescent system-mongers, who 
 know nothing but by hearsay of the nature 
 of 'reporting;' or of those half-witted critics 
 and reviewers, who presume to sit in judgment 
 
93 
 
 on a subject which they have not the ability 
 to comprehend. 
 
 The expansion of power derived from the 
 use of arbitrary contractions renders them, 
 when judiciously applied, so exceedingly 
 useful, that they are more or less practised 
 by all the law and parliamentary reporters, 
 and others who are in the habit of writing in 
 public: the veracity of this statement we 
 challenge any person acquainted with the 
 subject to controvert. It is an accredited 
 fact, that a certain Short Hand writer, who 
 stands very high in the profession, has one 
 system for his own use, wherein he has 
 adopted many hundred 'arbitrary charac- 
 ters,' and has published a different system 
 for the benefit of the public. 
 
 Taking into consideration, then, that expe- 
 dition is one of the chief requisites in the 
 stenographic art ; and how desirable it is that 
 the system should be as potent as possible, 
 to enable the writer to keep pace with a rapid 
 speaker; every method should be adopted, 
 consistent with perspicuity, to further this 
 desirable end. 
 
 In the course of our practical experience, 
 we have selected the present table of ' short 
 
94 
 
 words,' not only for the frequency of their 
 occurrence, and the rapidity with which they 
 are generally pronounced, but also for the 
 time which most of them will be found to 
 occupy in writing. When either of these 
 words occur, the learner may, therefore, 
 deviate from the general principle hitherto 
 laid down, of writing them by the alpha- 
 betical characters, and may express them by 
 those marks which are here annexed to them. 
 The adoption of these extraneous aids will be 
 found not 'only to give additional celerity to 
 the writing, but will render it far more easy 
 to decypher. 
 
 The marks here chosen are, we presume, 
 the most simple and distinct that can be 
 selected to answer the desired purpose. They 
 are to be written on the line, or regular 
 course, and to be made as light and dimi- 
 nutive in size as possible. From repeated 
 trials it appears that not the least ambiguity 
 can arise in either writing or reading them, 
 as they are perfectly distinct from the al- 
 phabetic characters, which will render them 
 immediately conspicuous from the rest of the 
 writing. 
 
Plate V. 
 
 MISC 
 
 ELLANEOUS TABLE. 
 
 
 THE VOWELS, THE KEY SYMBOLS, 
 
 
 AND DEFINITE CONTRACTIONS FOR SMALL WORDS. 
 
 
 .Vowels. marks 
 
 Words they express. 
 
 Definite contractions for small words. 
 
 
 a 
 
 N 
 
 an and 
 
 ^^ 
 
 after afterwards 
 
 
 e 
 
 f 
 
 he the 
 
 
 
 also always 
 
 
 i & y 
 
 > 
 
 my may 
 
 3 
 
 any many 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 no so 
 
 ^ 
 
 can come 
 
 
 u 
 
 - 
 
 you your 
 
 " 
 
 ever every 
 
 
 Key Symbols. 
 
 f 
 
 for from 
 
 
 V 
 
 placed 
 
 under a word 
 
 -* 
 
 give gave 
 
 
 
 shows it is a name. 
 
 / 
 
 have having 
 
 
 JC, 
 
 signifies that something 
 
 J 
 
 how however 
 
 
 
 is there omitted. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 into unto 
 
 
 2 6 
 
 marks 
 
 of reference. 
 
 
 off often 
 
 
 / 
 
 a question asked. 
 
 ^j 
 
 only over 
 
 
 "ex) 
 
 an answer given. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 /JP 
 
 or are 
 
 
 or 
 
 query, 
 
 or, this is doubtful. 
 
 .. 
 
 other otherwise 
 
 
 X 
 
 a period or full stop. 
 
 
 
 our own 
 
 
 / 
 
 mark ^opposition to the 
 preceding word or 
 
 * 
 
 out ought 
 
 
 
 sentence, 
 placed under a word or 
 
 y 
 
 ,, . { there 
 that l therefore 
 
 
 
 
 sentence shows a re- 
 petition. 
 
 t 
 
 thou though 
 
 
 4 
 
 viz. 
 
 
 _L 
 
 up upon 
 
 
 // 
 
 &c. 
 
 
 k. 
 
 with will 
 
 
THE 
 
 METHOD OF WRITING 
 SHORT HAND. 
 
 HAVING shown the student the course we 
 would advise him to pursue in order to 
 become acquainted with the THEORY of the 
 system, we shall now introduce him to a 
 more interesting department the PRACTICE 
 of the art. 
 
 Those who are unacquainted with the 
 nature of Short Hand, commonly imagine 
 that there is, or ought to be, a distinct 
 character to express every individual word, 
 and particular characters to express whole 
 sentences; and the more any system abounds 
 with characters of this description, the more 
 perfect they conceive it to be. But expe- 
 rience has proved directly the reverse : and, 
 setting experience out of the question, a 
 
98 
 
 moment's reflection must convince any think- 
 ing person of the utter impracticability of 
 inventing different characters to express even 
 a tenth part of the words in our language, 
 without rendering them so complicated as 
 to be wholly undecipherable. The Chinese, 
 indeed, have attempted, and they have, un- 
 happily, succeeded in the attempt, to express 
 every word in their language by a different 
 character; but the consequence is, that the 
 Chinese, with all their boasted acuteness and 
 penetration, can hardly, during the course 
 of the longest life, learn to decypher one half 
 of the characters invented by the prepos- 
 terous ingenuity of their writers; and the 
 most learned men of their nation must, in 
 the course of their -reading, every day meet 
 with words which they cannot understand, 
 nor even read or spell: whereas, with us, 
 children of a very tender age are, in a few 
 days, taught to name and recognise all the 
 characters used in our language; which, 
 being few in number, are easily remembered, 
 and soon enable them to read every word, how- 
 ever difficult or new to them, and to express, 
 in writing, every sound, or combination of 
 sounds, of which the language is susceptible. 
 
B. 0. BAfctK 
 
 LA 
 99 DALLAS, TEXAS 
 
 The same difference that exists between 
 our common alphabet and the complex cha- 
 racters of the Chinese, will also be found to 
 exist between these characters and those of 
 the present Short Hand system. We have 
 recourse to a small number of marks (which 
 we call by the names of the various letters) 
 simple in themselves, but combinable at 
 pleasure, so as to express with ease and dis- 
 tinctness every word that occurs: and in 
 order to write a word by simply joining the 
 characters, we proceed as in our common 
 mode of writing, with this exception, that 
 they must always be joined together without 
 any extra stroke between them, and that all 
 letters not sounded, whether vowels or con- 
 sonants, must be omitted. So that, although 
 every letter of a word is very seldom ex- 
 pressed, yet every letter necessary for deter- 
 mining what word is intended, is given by its 
 proper representative. 
 
 Having instructed a great number of pupils, 
 of very unequal capacity, we have found that 
 persons unacquainted with Short Hand labour 
 under difficulties similar to those experienced 
 by such as have never learned to write, and 
 generally require as plain and easy exercises 
 
 H 
 
100 
 
 as are usually adopted in teaching the common 
 hand. 
 
 In his first exercises in this art, it will, 
 therefore, be advisable for the learner to 
 deviate from the regular course, above pre- 
 scribed, and write the characters for all the 
 letters of which each word or sentence is 
 composed, placing them underneath the let- 
 ters, separately, as in the following example. 
 
 Virtue is its own reward. 
 \ :> / ' :>O :> O Vw /'V N // 
 
 This practice should be continued until 
 the learner has acquired a habit of making 
 every character exact, in shape, size, and 
 position; for, as the method first adopted 
 will soon become habitual to him, it is highly 
 necessary, at the outset, that he should pay 
 particular attention to the accuracy of the 
 characters; and he will then experience the 
 pleasure of being able to read his own writ- 
 ing, without that hesitation which ill-formed 
 characters would inevitably produce. Let 
 not the student imagine that time is lost by 
 proceeding methodically, and taking proper 
 time to practice the characters, until their 
 
101 
 
 forms are familiar to his mind, and he can 
 make them readily, and ^vith great precision : 
 his advancement in the art will be much 
 more rapid if he enter upon the succeeding 
 rules with a considerable degree of prompt- 
 ness in recollecting, and facility in forming, 
 each mark. It is the exercise of the pen 
 which brings a learner to perfection in this, 
 as well as in the common mode of writin^. 
 
 o 
 
 The student may now proceed a step fur- 
 ther, and join those characters, to form the 
 words ; for as, in common writing, words and 
 sentences are composed by uniting the letters 
 of the alphabet together, so our steno- 
 graphic characters which represent those 
 letters having, when joined with others, the 
 names and power of the letters of the common 
 alphabet, are equally capable of expressing 
 any word that can possibly occur. 
 
 The student must not, at present, pay any 
 regard to the sound of the words, but first 
 write all the consonants of which each word 
 is composed, and afterwards insert the marks 
 for the vowels at the proper points where they 
 have been omitted. This is necessary, in 
 order to render every word intelligible to the 
 learner, at first view; for many persons, who 
 
 H2 
 
102 
 
 can tell the signification of every character 
 when it stands alone, are often at a loss to 
 distinguish the meaning of their own writing, 
 when the characters are joined together ; partly 
 owing to the strange appearance they make 
 to the eye, and partly to the omission of some 
 of the letters. 
 
 As there is no resemblance between the 
 alphabetical characters adopted in this art, 
 and those used in the common writing, the 
 learner , apprehends something dark and in- 
 tricate in Short Hand: but he should con- 
 sider, that all the letters of our common 
 alphabet are nothing more than arbitrary 
 characters for sounds, which through custom 
 they suggest to the mind, without bearing the 
 least resemblance to the sounds themselves. 
 
 In writing Short Hand the assistance of 
 RULED Lines is of great advantage to a 
 learner; these lines we have introduced, and 
 find them of essential service to the correct 
 expression of the vowels, and the precise 
 place of the single words, the prepositions 
 and arbitrary contractions. With respect to 
 the line, it is, at all times, a pleasant conductor 
 of the pen ; and by means of it, writing, even 
 when done with the greatest rapidity, has 
 
103 
 
 always the appearance of order and regu- 
 larity. It must be observed, therefore, that 
 the character for the first or initial conso- 
 nant of each word is to be written on, or 
 rather, in the line ; that is, as much of it is to 
 appear below the line as above it. The next 
 character is to be joined to the first, and so 
 on, in the regular order in which they occur, 
 to complete the word, but without regard 
 to the position (as respects the line) of any 
 except the initial character : for example, 
 
 Esteem integrity, truth, and honesty. 
 
 In like manner, by combining the proper 
 characters, and carefully observing that every 
 letter in each word begins exactly where the 
 preceding letter ends, the pen running on 
 from the beginning to the end, and, so far 
 as the consonants are concerned, uniting the 
 whole, however long the word may be, before 
 taking the pen from the paper, any word 
 whatever may be expressed. 
 
 As a few remarks on the form and res- 
 pective proportion of the letters, and the 
 mode of joining the curved ones, with the 
 
104 
 
 greatest ease and elegance, in the formation 
 of words, may be beneficial to the student, we 
 would here observe that all the perpendicular 
 and inclined letters, namely j / N 
 "V / L ^ / <S / ^ ^ are made to 
 touch two parallel lines, the distance of which 
 is measured by the length of \ p. 
 
 The horizontal letters _ c c are 
 
 measured by the length of | p. These 
 double consonant characters \ / are 
 double the length of p. 
 
 The breadth of the semicircles r\ ^ C :> 
 and of the circle o ar e about two-thirds 
 the length of - t or | p ; and their height 
 nearly the same proportion. 
 
 With respect to the joining of the cha- 
 racters; when r\ and v for instance, are 
 united, they are not, each of them, to be 
 made complete, in this manner, /\, ; but 
 a part is to be taken from each of them, 
 thus /-** 
 
 In the same manner, the inclined letters, 
 when joined with r\ or u are not made 
 complete, but, running into one another, lose 
 each a part, as m / is not written in this 
 manner *\ but thus ^\ ; n r not so 
 but so ^/ 
 
105 
 
 The rest of the curve-line letters, when 
 joined together, are likewise made to run 
 into one another smoothly; avoiding, by this 
 means, that stopping of the pen which the 
 making of an awkward angle necessarily 
 occasions ; as, for instance, m y is not written 
 thus ^ but thus Q part of the curved-line 
 being in common, both to r\ and ~) . 
 
 When the learner has sufficiently exercised 
 himself in joining the characters, and acquired 
 a tolerable facility by writing words and sen- 
 tences in the common orthography, he must 
 accustom himself to abbreviate the words in 
 the most natural and rational manner; by 
 omitting all silent letters, and inserting those 
 only which are absolutely necessary to pre- 
 serve the sound of the word, and thereby 
 render it intelligible ; as, for instance, 
 
 ndvr y, will plainly express endeavour, 
 xs & clearly denotes excess, 
 atmpt ^ r \_ completely sounds attempt, 
 gvrn c XA-' is enough for govern, 
 indntr y sufficiently marks indenture. 
 Iftr f. will signify laughter. 
 
10G 
 
 Thus it will be seen, that notwithstanding 
 the rejection of the silent consonants, and the 
 suppression of the intermediate vowels, there 
 will still remain a sufficient number of letters 
 to determine the meaning of those words, at a 
 glance, without uncertainty or error, merely 
 by giving the characters retained their full 
 and proper sound. A variety of examples of 
 this nature might be given, but these are 
 sufficient to confirm our observation. 
 
 In order to promote expedition, the learner 
 should now call into action the ' double con- 
 sonants,' and learn to combine those marks 
 properly, whenever they occur in the Short 
 Hand orthography, with such of the alpha- 
 betical characters as may happen to be either 
 before, or after them, in the course of writing. 
 We shall give an example, by contrasting the 
 use of the alphabetical characters with that of 
 the double consonants. 
 
 birth 
 
 torture 
 
 strength 
 
 graceful 
 
 garnish 
 
 tremble 
 
107 
 
 It is quite clear, however, that even this 
 step would not render the writing sufficiently 
 brief, and therefore the inventors of Short 
 Hand have contrived to shorten the begin- 
 nings and endings of particular words, by 
 means of those characters technically termed 
 the prepositions and terminations. Take, for 
 instance, the prepositions in the following 
 words, by way of example : 
 
 transport 
 recommend 
 interested 
 
 or trans 
 recom 
 inter 
 
 prt 
 nd 
 std 
 
 IT 
 
 y 
 
 o~7 
 
 discontent 
 
 discon 
 
 tnt 
 
 / 
 
 The termination of each word is invariably 
 to be united to the character immediately 
 preceding it, in the various words of which 
 they form a part ; and in order to distinguish 
 them, a small tick is added, as will be seen 
 by referring to the table of the prepositions 
 and terminations; they are made use of in 
 the following manner : 
 
 anguish or n guish ^-r- 
 demand d mand /< 
 reward r ward 
 inform n form 
 
108 
 
 Many long words contain both a preposi- 
 tion and a termination ; and, in such a case, 
 they are both to be united to the intermediate 
 part of the word, (the one at the beginning, 
 and the other at the end, as their names 
 imply,) and to be distinguished by the lick 
 being made treble the usual length, for that 
 purpose; as, for instance, in the following 
 words : 
 
 recommendation or recom nd ation /v 
 
 transportation trans prt ation 
 
 discontentment discon tnt ment 
 
 transform trans form -^ 
 
 command com mand c_A 
 
 When a word is made up entirely of a pre- 
 position and a termination, as is the case 
 with the two last words in this example, they 
 are to be joined together, and distinguished 
 by the tick as above. 
 
 The learner should now copy the contents 
 of Plate VI. a few times, and extend his 
 practice to other subjects consisting of short 
 and easy words the Psalms, for instance, 
 are highly appropriate; but more especially 
 pieces in verse, such as he can repeat from 
 
109 
 
 memory these are the most suitable for his 
 first experiments in writing, as it teaches him. 
 to read it at the same time. 
 
 In order to exercise the learner in the 
 various lessons, we have furnished him with 
 a piece containing " the description of a 
 newspaper" which embraces all the contrac- 
 tions made use of; and in which all the 
 words, and parts of words that are abbre- 
 viated in the system, are printed in italics ; 
 so that, by writing this piece a few times, he 
 will become completely acquainted with the 
 system. 
 
 Some attention must now be given to the 
 1 SHORTENING RULES ; ' the application of 
 which will depend on the sagacity of the 
 writer, as regards the extent to which he 
 can apply them. He should not, however, 
 be anxious to abbreviate too much at first, 
 but go on by degrees, always contriving to 
 leave his writing so clear that he may not be 
 at a loss in deciphering it. 
 
 In the practice of writing Short Hand, all 
 awkward positions of the hand and arm 
 should be avoided. The pressure of the 
 fingers upon the pen, and the hand upon the 
 paper, must be as little as possible ; the pen 
 
110 
 
 should be held very short, and its motion 
 must be regulated entirely by the movement 
 of the fingers, and not (as in the common 
 writing) by the whole hand] which, in long 
 continued writing, would thereby become ex- 
 ceedingly fatigued, and its progress would 
 consequently be greatly retarded. 
 
 The pen, in common writing, forms an 
 acute angle with the paper, but in Short Hand 
 it is of great advantage that it should be held 
 nearly perpendicular, and the thumb placed 
 opposite to the end of the fore finger, so that 
 strokes up or down, to the right or left, may 
 be made with equal facility. The lines should 
 be kept at a sufficient distance from each 
 other, lest the joinings of the consonants 
 should happen to reach too far, and mingle 
 with the line above or beneath. The cha- 
 racters should all be made of equal thickness, 
 and the smaller and lighter they are, the 
 more expeditiously will the practitioner write. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING IN PUBLIC. 
 
 Hitherto the student has depended on the 
 exercise of his eyes and fingers, whilst the 
 ear has been slumbering in indolence; but 
 
Ill 
 
 the time has now arrived when that import- 
 ant organ must be roused into activity; and 
 when, in its turn, the labour of the eye may 
 be dispensed with, except, indeed, to guide 
 the pen to the proper locality of the initial 
 letters. Henceforth, it is only with the 
 speaker's voice, the ear, and the fingers, that 
 the writer has aught to do; and, conse- 
 quently, he must close his eye on every book, 
 as regards his .practical efforts. The busi- 
 ness of the stenographer is now with sound, 
 and not sight ; and it is this peculiarity that 
 confounds a self-taught student as with an 
 impenetrable darkness. He acquires the 
 principles of Short Hand, and then tran- 
 scribes the pages of some favourite authors, 
 to perfect himself for reporting a speaker; 
 he makes the attempt but finds, on his first 
 essay, that he is utterly incompetent to do 
 that of which his previous practice and 
 facility led him to believe himself capable. 
 Had he engaged the ear instead of the eye 
 his success would have been far more cer- 
 tain; for the employment of the eye, as the 
 principal means of acquiring proficiency in 
 the art, is injurious to the student; so far 
 injurious, that he exercises an organ which 
 
112 
 
 will not, and cannot, conduct him to the 
 intended result of his labours; and which 
 will, moreover, give him a habit which he 
 must afterwards abandon, and substitute, in 
 its stead, a new and a better one. 
 
 In order, therefore, to prepare himself for 
 writing in public, let the student procure a 
 person who has the patience of Job, to read 
 pieces of verse, and prose, (in an easy style,) 
 with great deliberation, whilst he writes 
 them, every day, for about an hour; the 
 reader increasing in speed, as he finds his 
 ability to follow him increase; thus, each 
 day, he will perceive what rapidity he has 
 gained. This method will be found far 
 more effectual than writing a great deal 
 some days, and neglecting it others; for 
 experience has proved that, in this art, a 
 regularity of practice will produce a much 
 better effect on a learner than a long and 
 wearied attention, without proper digestion, 
 can possibly produce; it will also afford 
 greater pleasure, and much less fatigue. 
 And though his progress, at first, may seem 
 slow and disheartening, yet, by writing the 
 same piece a few times, he will perceive 
 a more considerable advancement than he 
 
could possibly have imagined; for greater 
 ease and rapidity of motion will increase 
 imperceptibly upon him by practice. It is 
 only by the frequent use of the pen that 
 we can acquire a masterly command, and 
 great facility in writing. 
 
 Through the medium of following a voice, 
 the fingers will soon become familiarly asso- 
 ciated with the ear, and be urged on to their 
 utmost rapidity of movement by an intense 
 anxiety to keep pace with the reader; the 
 creative powers of the mind will be called 
 into active and vigorous exertion, which will 
 soon overcome that nervous timidity and 
 confusion which always attend practitioners 
 in their early attempts to write after a 
 reader or speaker. It will be necessary for 
 the student to continue practising from a 
 reader, until he is so expert as to be capable 
 of writing the words in the same time that 
 they can be distinctly pronounced; for, as 
 expedition is the offspring of practice, and 
 as every new word, or combination of cha- 
 racters, requires some consideration before 
 it can be performed, and as that which 
 occasions hesitation at the moment of its 
 performance is an impediment to promptness 
 
114 
 
 of execution, it must be obvious, that 
 the learner can never write with sufficient 
 rapidity until his thoughts shall somewhat 
 precede the motion of his pen, which we 
 know, from experience, can only be ac- 
 complished by a determined application of 
 the means we have recommended. And 
 for his encouragement let the student bear 
 in mind, that it frequently happens that 
 those who are slow at first, and require more 
 time than others for learning any art or 
 science, are, in the end, the greatest scholars. 
 It is an old adage, that " they are not always 
 the best travellers who are swiftest at first 
 setting out, and for a spirt can outdo the 
 rest ; but those who begin slowly, tread 
 surely, and travel with an even untired pace 
 to the end of the journey." 
 
Plate VI. 
 
 THE METHOD OF WRITING 
 
 LONG SHORT-HAND. 
 
 He who in SHORT HAND would excel 
 
 Must know each MARK and form it well; 
 
 And, if he wish to write with SPEED, 
 
 And what he's written hope to READ, 
 
 Each word that's in the TABLES placed 
 
 Must on his mind be DEEPLY traced. 
 
 In vain may he expect PERFECTION 
 
 Who shuns or slights each choice direction; 
 
 But he who will himself divert, 
 
 And with the rules become EXPERT, 
 
 Can copy out whate'er he please, 
 
 And read the whole with PERFECT EASE; 
 
 Take down a sermon, or a speech, 
 
 And speedily PERFECTION reach. 
 
 In short, in each important matter, 
 
 He'll write as FAST as tongue can chatter. 
 
NATURAL ABBREVIATIONS. 
 
 To guide the ardent practitioner in a plain 
 and practical method of abbreviating, we have 
 given the following examples, which will be 
 a sufficient developement of a principle that 
 can only be limited by the extent of his own 
 memory. It may be necessary, however, to 
 inform those of less application, that, as this 
 course is entirely distinct from the system, 
 and not at all necessary to be pursued, the 
 adoption of it is quite optional, and may be 
 received or rejected as the writer pleases. 
 
 t? 
 
 k 
 
 e 
 
 contrary contradict 
 Christian 
 congregation 
 countenance 
 divide division 
 eternal eternity 
 multitude 
 none nothing 
 around about 
 round roundabout 
 
 e 
 e- 
 
 V. 
 V- 
 
 tremble ing 
 transgress ors 
 through across 
 throughout beyond 
 together taught 
 altogether 
 
 under-stood-stand-ing 
 within 
 without 
 between 
 
 NOTE. The vowel characters, by being placed 
 UNDERNEATH any other characters, will serve to 
 express the terminations 
 
 ang 
 
 ing 
 
 ong 
 
 - ung 
 
 I 2 
 
STENOGRAPHIC ORTHOGRAPHY. 
 
 FOB example's sake, we shall here give an 
 exact specimen or two of our mode of spelling, 
 (excepting those words and parts of words 
 which are arbitrarily represented in the system, 
 and always spelt in full, ) by which it will be 
 seen that no such difficulty will arise in the 
 reading of it, as might at first be imagined. 
 
 [NOTE. Those words and parts of words printed in Italics are each 
 expressed by a single abbreviating character, contained in this 
 system.] 
 
 PSALM L 
 
 Blsd s the mn that wlk nt n the knsl f 
 
 the ungd nr stnd n the wy f snrs nr 
 
 sit n the st f the sb.rn-ful. Bt ha dlit 
 
 s n the la f the Lrd and n hs la 
 
 dth he mdtt dy and night. And he shl 
 
 b Ik a tre plntd by the rvrs f wtr 
 
 that br-ing frth hs frut n hs ssn hs If also 
 
118 
 
 shl nt wthr and "wt-soever he do shl prspr. 
 The ungd are nt so bt are Ik the chf wch 
 the wnd drv awy. Therefore the ungd shl nt 
 stnd n the jg-ment nr snrs n the congrega- 
 tion f the rits. For the Lrd know the wy 
 f the rits bt Me wy f the ungd shl prsh. 
 
 
 
 PSALM II. 
 
 Wy do the ethn rag and the ppl imagine a 
 vn th-m<7 ? J%e k-ings f the rth st thm-se/ves 
 ancf Me rlrs tk knsl together gnst the Lrd 
 awe? gnst hs nntd sy-ing Lt s brk thr bnds 
 asndr and kst awy thr krds from s. He that 
 sit n the hvns shl laf the Lrd shl have thru 
 n clrshn. Thn shl fo spk wwto thm n hs 
 rth and vx thm n hs sor Jt's-plsr. Yt have 
 I st my k-ing upon my hly hi f Sin. I 
 will dklr the dkre *Ae Lrd ath sd unto me 
 MOM rt my sn ths dy have I bgtn the. Ask 
 f me and I shl give the Me ethn jfor thin 
 
119 
 
 inrtns and the utrmst prts f the rth for thy 
 pss-sion. Thou shl brk thm with a rd f irn 
 thou shl dsh thm n pss lik a ptra vsl. Be 
 wis nw therefore O ye k-ings be nstrktd ye jgs 
 f the rth. Srv the Lrd with fr awe? rjs with 
 trembling. Ks <Ae Son 1st he be ngry anrf ye 
 prsh from the wy wn hs rth s kndld bt a 
 111. Blsd are 1 thy that pt thr trst n hm. 
 
 PSALM 
 
 Lrd how are thy nkrsd that trouble me ? 
 are thy <Aaf ris w/> gnst me. Many there be 
 wch sy f /wy si there s no hip /br hm n 
 Gd. Bt thou O Lrd rt a shld for me my 
 glory and the Iftr up f mn hd. I krd unto 
 the Lrd with my vos an<? he hrd me OM 
 f hs hly hi. I Id me don and slpt I wkd 
 for the Lrd sstnd me. I will nt be afrd f 
 tn thsnds f ppl that have st ihm-selves gnst 
 me round about. Arys O Lrd sv me my 
 
120 
 
 Gd for thou ast smtn al mn nras upon the 
 
 chk bn thou ast brkn the tth f the ungd. 
 
 Slv-ation belongeth unto the Lrd thy b\s-ing 
 s upon thy ppl. 
 
 PSALM IV. 
 
 Hr me wn I kl Gd f my ritsns thou 
 ast nlrgd me wn I ws n dis-trs have mrsy 
 upon me and hr my pryr. O ye sns f mn 
 how \-ong will ye trn my glory into shame? 
 how l-ong will ye Iv vnty and sk after 
 Is-ing? Bt know that the Lrd ath set aprt 
 hm that s gdly for hm-self the Lrd will hr 
 wn I kl unto him. Stnd n aw and sn nt 
 eom-un 7i/A yowr 0u> hrt upon your bd 
 a?M? be stl. Ofr the sakrfs of ritsns and pt 
 your trst n the Lrd. There be many that 
 sy wo wt'W sho s aw^/ gd ? Lrd 1ft thou up 
 the 4it f thy countenance upon s. jTAow ast 
 
121 
 
 pt gladness n my hrt mr thn n the time 
 
 that thr km and thr win nkrsd. I will bth 
 
 ly me don n ps and sip for thou Lrd only 
 mk me dwl n sfty. 
 
 PSALM V. 
 
 Give lir t my wrds O Lrd cow-sdr my mdt- 
 ation. Arkn unto the vos f my kry my k-ing and 
 my Gd for unto the will I pry. 3/y vos 
 shl /^OM hr n <Ae mrn-ing O Lrd n </<e 
 mm-ing will I drkt wy pryr unto the awrf 
 Wi7/ Ik up. For thou rt nt a Gd that ath 
 plsr in wickedness nthr shl evl dwl with the. 
 T%e flsh shl nt stnd n thy sit thou hat 1 
 wrkrs f inqty. Thou shl des-try thm that spk 
 Is-t'wgr the Lrd u7/ abor ^e bldy and dsit-ful 
 mn. Bt s for me I wz7Z come into thy hos 
 n the multitude f thy mrsy and n thy fr 
 wf// I \vov-ship i-ioard thy hly temp-\. Ld 
 
122 
 
 me O Lrd n thy ritsns bkse f mn nms 
 mk thy \vy strat bfr my fs. For there a no 
 fth-ful n thr mth thr n-ward prt s vry 
 wickedness thr throt s an opn splkr thy fltr 
 with thr tng. Des-irj thou thru O Gd It 
 thm fl by thr own knsls kst thm out n 
 the multitude f thr transgressions for thy 
 have rbld agnst the. Bt It 1 ths that pt 
 thr trst n the rjos It thm ever shot for jy 
 bkse thou dfnd thm It thm also that Iv thy 
 nm b jy-ful n the. For thou Lrd wilt bis 
 the rits with fvr wilt thou corn-pas hm s 
 with a shld. 
 
 PSALM VI. 
 
 O Lrd rbk me nt n thn ngr nthr chstn me 
 n thy lit rfis-plsr. Have mrsy upon me O 
 Lrd for I m wk O Lrd hi me for my 
 bns are vxd. My si s also sr vxd bt thou 
 O Lrd how \-ong? Rtrn O Lrd deliver wij 
 
123 
 
 si oh sv me for thy mrsy sk. For n dth 
 there s no rmmbrns f the n the grv wo 
 shl give the thanks ? I m wry with my 
 grn-z'w<7 1 the nit mk I my bd t swm I 
 wtr my koch w?zYA my trs. Mn ey s cow-smd 
 bkse f grief it \vx old bkse f 1 mn nms. 
 Dprt from me 1 ye wrkrs f inqty for the 
 Lrd ath hrd the vos f my wp-ing. The Lrd 
 ath hrd my spl-cation the Lrd will rsv my 
 pryr. Lt 1 mn nms b shmd and sr vxd It 
 thm rtrn and b shmd sdnly. 
 
EXERCISES FOR THE LEARNER, 
 
 CONTAINING THE DESCRIPTION OF A NEWSPAPER; 
 
 WHICH EMBRACES ALL THE ABBREVIATIONS MADE USE 
 
 OF IN THIS SYSTEM. 
 
 [NOTE. Those words and parts of words printed in Italics are each 
 expressed by a single abbreviating character, contained in this 
 system.] 
 
 To those who guide the public PRESS 
 
 We're much indebted I con fess ; 
 
 I judge them worthy of respect, 
 
 And on their labours oft reflect. 
 
 There s scarce an object, new, or strange, 
 
 Within their talents' ample range, 
 
 But what they speedily discover, 
 
 And carefully to us deliver. 
 
 If we imagine half the pains 
 
 That often rack their bur den'd brains, 
 
 Their captious readers to amuse, 
 
 When ever there's a dearth of NEWS, 
 
 There's no impartial man can wonder 
 
 That we sometimes detect a blunder. 
 
125 
 
 Who ever may frequent the place 
 
 Where all these varied scenes we trace 
 
 May all their difficulties believe, 
 
 And what is printed false, forgive. 
 
 How swift their move ments \ wide their plan- 
 
 And inter est ing to every man. 
 
 Whate'er informs, instructs, amuses, 
 
 Its ample page around diffuses ; 
 
 And almost every inform ution 
 
 That's treasured up throughout the n ation. 
 
 Perhaps you read a 1 ong debate, 
 
 Upon the great affairs of State ; 
 
 Or, else peruse with silent awe 
 
 The dread deci sions of the Law ; 
 
 'Tis there the Stenographic art 
 
 So often does its aid impart, 
 
 And, by its wond'rous magic powers, 
 
 Makes every word that's uttered our's. 
 
 Some vessel is about to sail, 
 
 And only waits the favour ing gale. 
 
 A merchant has a stock of wine, 
 
 Declares it exquisitely fine 
 
 Another,,/?/^ casks of butter, 
 
 Just arrived on board a cutter ; 
 
 And advertises all for sale, 
 
 In the lot or, by retail. 
 
 A needy tradesman wants to borrow ; 
 
 What I've lent many to my sorrow. 
 
 Another tells of pills, and p otions ; 
 
 Of stimulat ing drugs and 1 otions ; 
 
 Of virtues extraordinary, 
 
 For all dis orders necessary ; 
 
126 
 
 Of power to search the system through, 
 
 And o'er the whole new life to throw 
 
 So strangely kind to gain your pelf 
 
 He hopes you'll not neglect yourself. 
 
 Another has a horse to sell, 
 
 De scribes him perfect, strong, and well ; 
 
 Is certain that he does not lie, 
 
 And pledges his integrity. 
 
 A tailor publishes his card, 
 
 And states his prices, at per yard ; 
 
 Can recom mend his superfine 
 
 For ready cash at twenty-nine ; 
 
 A quar ter's credit shouldst thou want 
 
 His terms are not extra vagant. 
 
 Of cassimere, he has a plenty, 
 
 And dex'trous workmen more than twenty ; 
 
 Can imitate the varied shapes 
 
 Get up a coat with grace ful capes ; 
 
 A habit, pantaloons, or vest, 
 
 Superior work, and cloth the best ; 
 
 In short, what ever you require 
 
 He'll soon proc ure, at your desire. 
 
 A character some groom can give, 
 
 If in your service he should live. 
 
 A family are plung'd in grief, 
 
 And stand in need of your relief. 
 
 Another gives us inform ation 
 
 About his book/or calcul ation ; 
 
 That many questions there are solved, 
 
 Which in the mind have 1 ong revolved. 
 
 Perhaps you read a vote of thanks 
 
 Is offered unto Chairman BANKS, 
 
127 
 
 Whilst in a speech, that none will learn, 
 
 He com pli mcnts them in return. 
 
 Some bar barous wretch perhaps is h ung, 
 
 While through the streets his speech is s ung ; 
 
 How many round the spot collected, 
 
 And how a thief was there detected ; 
 
 And taken off with special care 
 
 By those transgressors always fear. 
 
 O'erwhelmed with shame, to prison sent, 
 
 And there in filth and darkness pent, 
 
 Am ong a group of brother rogues, 
 
 Without a shill ing in their brogues. 
 
 From thence trans ferred to public trial, 
 
 Obliged to go without denial ; 
 
 Together stand the wicked wights, 
 
 Wearied out with sleepless nights ; 
 
 Discom posed with downcast faces, 
 
 Bereft of all exter nal graces ; 
 
 Sergeant WILDE submits each case, 
 
 And br ings the parties face to face; 
 
 Deep silence reigns, for now the Court 
 
 Is ponder ing over each report ; 
 
 Both Bench, and Congregation too, 
 
 As Christians, pity this sad crew. 
 
 The learned Judge his com ment makes, 
 
 The Jury no division takes ; 
 
 For why divide in contrary mood, 
 
 When guilt is clear and clearly understood ? 
 
 The verdict now the foreman gave, 
 
 And nothing can the sentence waive ; 
 
 Now culprits into con science pry, 
 
 And seem to dread eternity ; 
 
128 
 
 Attentively each hears his doom, 
 With countenance of settled gloom 
 Begin their sorrows now to vent, 
 And wait the threaten'd punish ment : 
 With measur'd footsteps short and slow, 
 Some tread the wheel that rolls below ; 
 And this eternal revol ution 
 Gives those who trespass retrib ution ; 
 Another offio Chatham skulks 
 To try his strength on board the hulks, 
 And by his manual agility 
 Gives quan turn proofs of his ability. 
 Some brave the sea's temp estuous .storm, 
 Where they to hard ship must conform ; 
 Whilst some com mence without delay 
 A trip direct to Botany Bay. 
 Some discon tented multitude, 
 Upon the public peace intru de ; 
 Refuse all recon cili ation, 
 And show their hostile indign ation ; 
 No other way to make a clearance, 
 But military inter ference, 
 They soon the leaders apprehend, 
 And make the others home ward bend. 
 Perhaps some hypocondriac, 
 Who never to his home came back, 
 Is sought in vain by weep ing friends ; 
 Whilst he, pursued by Fancy's fiends, 
 And list'n ing to their dread instruc tion, 
 Is taught to work his own des true tion ; 
 An inquest holden near the ground, 
 Reveals the truth to all around ; 
 
129 
 
 The an guish of a wretched mother, 
 Dis tracted wife, or hapless brother. 
 A rogue, well prac tised in the trade, 
 An entrance through some door has made ; 
 A cruel wretch, with base inten tion, 
 Almost beyond one's com prehen sion ; 
 With muffled foot and noiseless tread, 
 He hears some snor ing man in bed, 
 And burst ing on the trembling elf, 
 He spr ings a light and shows him self; 
 De mands the keys in threaten ing strains 
 And then beats out his victim's brains. 
 The horrid deed is soon pro claim'd, 
 A great re ward is also nam'd, 
 He's seized whilst striv ing to elope, 
 And ends his days with hempen rope ! 
 Perhaps your eye may often meet 
 A fact detail'd at Marlbro' street, 
 A serious tragical affair, 
 Which neither you nor I could bear. 
 A dandy walk ing through the town, 
 Receives a blow which knocks him down ; 
 The th ing is done as quick as thought, 
 No hand is seen no battle fought ; 
 But spr ing ing up, he cried peccavi, 
 When straight came up the watchman Davy, 
 They follow'' 'd fast these saucy elves, 
 And boldly seized the g ang them selves 
 Who thinking to get out of trouble, 
 Attack'd them both with courage double ; 
 And hold ing self defence as lawful, 
 The con sequence was truly awful. 
 K 
 
130 
 
 One of the dire death deal ing blows 
 Des cended on the watchman's nose, 
 Who, dropp ing like the slain in battle, 
 Perceiv'd 'twas time to spr ing his rattle ; 
 This brought the whole fraternity, 
 Who took the rogues in custody. 
 Perhaps you read some puzzl ing case 
 Which was dis cussed at such a place, 
 For JOHNNY DOE, and RICHARD ROE, 
 Whom all the legal gentry know ; 
 A very wordy, mystic case, 
 Which not the keenest eye can trace : 
 Whereas, though, afterwards, however, 
 Ought, therefore, otherwise, whom soever, 
 Beticeen, belonging, having, and so forth ; 
 With other words of equal worth. 
 Our British troops perhaps must go 
 In glory's path, to meet the foe : 
 To charge them o'er and o'er again, 
 On any wide ensanguined plain ; 
 To make them altogether yield, 
 Or, gladly fly them selves the field. 
 Perchance you read of great men fall ing : 
 A General in the act of seal ing ; 
 Observing victory through the battle, 
 And happy 'midst the cannon's rattle ; 
 Expecting soon to take posses sion 
 And listen to the foe's con ces sion : 
 When lo ! a swift w ing'd bullet flies 
 Across his skull, he drops and dies. 
 You read, perchance, some alter cation, 
 'Twixt two high fools of lofty st ation ; 
 
131 
 
 A bullet settles the dis pute 
 And leaves a wrctch/or ever mute. 
 Sometimes you read of con tracts made, 
 Of monies oft received and paid. 
 Some raised to dignity awe? wealth, 
 Some Ian guish ing, and some in health, 
 And oft of con troversies rare, 
 And contradictions hard to bear ; 
 This punish'd now, and that re warded, 
 And many oddities recorded. 
 Of sights magnificent and curious, 
 Th ings hyperbolical and spurious. 
 Of matters carelessly begun, 
 Which never were nor will be done. 
 Of some men's inability, 
 And other's respectability . 
 Events to come are oft foretold, 
 Eclipses, earthquakes, heat and cold ; 
 And oft of bankruptcies we read, 
 These wealthy now, and those in need. 
 Of those who marry those who die, 
 Here some com mand, and some com ply. 
 Of latitude and Ion gitude, 
 Where dar ing spirits oft intru de. 
 Of those who govern church and state, 
 In temperance, and tax ation hate. 
 Sometimes we hearyrom an attendant 
 Of foreign deeds, and sights resplendent. 
 Of goods both dear and reasonable, 
 Of others good and seasonable. 
 And oft of deeds which mortify, 
 And some, in short, which horrify. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 
 
 Of works with wit and humour pregnant, 
 
 And th ings which rouse to wrath indignant. 
 
 Of fortunes lost by heedlessness, 
 
 And houses fired by carelessness. 
 
 Com modities both bought and sold, 
 
 And those who give, and who withhold. 
 
 Of intro due tions to the Court, 
 
 Or, Parliamentary REPORT. 
 
 Of th ings whereon to speculate, 
 
 Or, form the subject of debate. 
 
 Which ever way you turn your eye 
 
 Its pages every where supply 
 
 Something instructive or amus ing. 
 
 That, after all, is worth perus ing, 
 
 In which you may instruc tion find, 
 
 To quicken and expand your mind. 
 
 
THE 
 
 SHORTENING RULES. 
 
 THE greatest difficulty a learner experiences, 
 in his early acquaintance with Short Hand, is, 
 to acquire an orthography exactly correspond- 
 ing with the pronunciation. This will, at 
 first, demand a little attention; for, though 
 our common mode of spelling is most un- 
 natural and difficult, and that which this art 
 requires is quite the reverse, yet custom has, 
 in this case, so far prevailed over nature, that 
 it is not everyone who is able to decompose 
 words into their constituent sounds, and to 
 express them by suitable letters ; for the ortho- 
 graphy, in this art, must be directed entirely 
 by the ear, and not by the established rules ; 
 for if the sounds of words are expressed it is 
 sufficient : if each word be spelt exactly as it 
 is pronounced, and no more letters made use of 
 than are absolutely necessary to render the 
 
134 
 
 word intelligible, and distinct from any other, 
 it is all that is necessary, to preserve an easy 
 legibility, as in the following sentence : 
 
 Ts grtly ws to tlk wth our pst ors, 
 And ask thm wht rprt thy br to hvn. 
 
 ' 'Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours, 
 And ask them what report they bore to heaven.' 
 
 Thus it will be perceived, that although 
 it may seem awkward at first, yet, when the 
 student has acquired a little familiarity with 
 the art, and accustomed himself to pay a 
 proper attention to the construction of the 
 sentences, the practice of writing by sound 
 will become so perfectly easy and natural, 
 that it will greatly surprise him that even 
 the idea of any difficulty should have ever 
 existed ; for he may rest assured that practice 
 will make READING (though the subject be 
 much abbreviated) no task whatever. 
 
 With respect to the shortening rules, no 
 pains have been spared to render them as 
 extensive as possible in their use, and, at the 
 same time, easy to understand and practice. 
 In the ardour of composition, or when fol- 
 lowing a rapid speaker, the writer will gladly 
 
135 
 
 avail himself of their assistance; and will 
 apply them more or less, as he finds himself 
 more or less pressed for time. A proficient 
 in Short Hand will, of course, leave out many 
 letters and words which a young practitioner 
 dare not attempt, for fear he should not be 
 able to read it. 
 
 Most of these rules may be adopted with 
 great advantage into any other system of 
 Short Hand, because they are in accordance 
 with the nature of our language, and the 
 construction of our sentences ; and are, there- 
 fore, so admirably adapted to their purpose, 
 that they are capable of being constantly 
 applied. There are few sentences of any 
 length in which they may not be used with 
 the greatest readiness and advantage. 
 
 THE OMISSION OF LETTERS. 
 
 In all words whatever, when connection 
 (the master-key for deciphering Short Hand) 
 will admit of it, all silent letters, whether 
 vowels or consonants, must be omitted. 
 But to be more particular 
 
 When two or more vowels begin or end a 
 
136 
 
 word, write that vowel only which agrees with 
 the proper pronunciation, as in the words 
 earl, eagle, adieu, view; write erl, egl, adu, vu. 
 And, in general, no more than one vowel 
 ought to be written in any word except in 
 proper names of persons or places, and tech- 
 nical terms. 
 
 The initial vowels may frequently be 
 omitted except in such words as add, apt, 
 ask, aid. image, actor. 
 
 vowels may generally be omitted, 
 except in the pronouns me, thee, he, she, we, 
 ye; or in such words as free, try, pay, tree, 
 empty, memory. Or when a or e form a 
 distinct final syllable, as in Anna, Lethe ; &c. 
 
 No short vowel need be expressed, except 
 where it is essential to distinguish the sin- 
 gular from the plural, as man, men; foot, 
 feet. 
 
 When the consonant following has clearly 
 the sound of the vowel, which is frequently 
 the case as to a, and e, as in arbour, ardent, 
 elder, ember, these vowels are to be omitted. 
 
137 
 
 A long vowel may be omitted in all such 
 common words as both, life, dine, abide, 
 divine. 
 
 No intermediate vowel should be made use 
 of, except the interpretation of the word 
 depends upon the sound of the vowel; as in 
 such words as resume and re-assume, resemble 
 and re-assemble; which, being verbs, can 
 only be distinguished by the vowel a. 
 
 When ue, ui, uo, or ough sound like w as 
 in true, fruit, though, thou, through; that 
 letter may be substituted. 
 
 The only diphthongs that require to be 
 expressed in their proper sounds are ai, oi, au, 
 and ue. In polysyllables, i may stand for oi 
 and oy. For oo, write w, when they sound as 
 u. For ie, write i. For oa, oe, eau, ou, and 
 ow, write o. For eu, ew, ui, iew, yew, and 
 you, write u. 
 
 The letter k will serve to express ck: dg 
 is expressed by g : kn is represented by n. 
 wr is written by r: b after m is always to 
 be omitted, as in lamb, dumb, &c. 
 
138 
 
 When w is an initial letter, it may fre- 
 quently be omitted, and it is always dropped 
 at the end of words. 
 
 If a word has three or more syllables, with- 
 out either long or final vowel, write no vowel 
 at all; thus, mblsh for embellish; mprpr for 
 improper ; &c. 
 
 When two consonants of the same kind, 
 or same sound, come together, without any 
 vowel between them, as letter, little, memory, 
 command, &c. only one is to be expressed ; 
 but if a vowel or vowels intervene, both 
 are to be written, as in sister, moment, re- 
 member, &c. 
 
 When the double consonants gh and ph 
 sound like /, as in laugh, rough, enough; 
 phantom, philosophy, phrensy, &c., that letter 
 may be substituted. 
 
 The double consonant gh may always be 
 omitted when i precedes, or when t follows it, 
 as in light, right, bought, sought, &c. 
 
 When cc, cts, or cks, sounds like x, that 
 
letter will serve to express them ; as in access, 
 accident, facts, effects, districts, rocks, blocks, 
 sticks, &c. 
 
 So far, is what may be termed long Short 
 Hand; which is sufficiently brief for every 
 purpose, except that of following a rapid 
 speaker. Those who are desirous of attaining 
 that object, will direct their best attention to 
 the following rules, for 
 
 THE OMISSION OF SYLLABLES. 
 
 Let the first word in each sentence be 
 clearly and distinctly expressed; which will 
 secure the connection, and render the whole 
 sentence easy to be read, though much abbre- 
 viated in the latter part. 
 
 c 
 
 When a portion of any word is so complete 
 as to convey the full meaning of that word, 
 the useless part may be omitted; thus write 
 comply for compliance or compliant. By 
 this rule the terminations ance, ancy, ant, 
 antly, ence, ency, ent, ently, may generally 
 be omitted. 
 
 Many words may be expressed by their 
 
140 
 
 first consonant, especially when all possibility 
 of mistake is prevented by their connection 
 with the context, or by the direct application 
 of the accompanying epithets : for example, 
 our blessed L both by his preaching and ex 
 has shown us the vanity and folly of seeking 
 for lasting h in the possession of the goods of 
 this wicked w. 
 
 The two first syllables of all such words as 
 consan guinity, conve niently, archi tecture, 
 recom mendation, transmu tation, will be a 
 sufficient expression for them, with the aid of 
 connection. 
 
 Sometimes a preposition may be omitted 
 without any sign of expression : thus, til for 
 until ; tho for although ; to for unto. 
 
 Words beginning with double or triple 
 prepositions, such as repre sentation, misrepre 
 sentation, compre hension, misunder standing, 
 transub stantiation, may be written by joining 
 the prepositions together. 
 
 The compound terminations lessly, lessness, 
 fully, fulness, may in most cases be omitted, 
 
141 
 
 which will shorten above a thousand words in 
 the English language. Example : care lessly, 
 worth lessness, shame fully, spite fulness, are 
 only to be written careless, worthless, shame- 
 ful, spiteful. 
 
 The single terminations less and ness may 
 be often omitted, as "he is a worth boy" 
 instead of a worth less boy ; and " dark was 
 upon the face of the deep " instead of dark 
 ness. 
 
 The terminations s, est, eth, in the tenses 
 of verbs, may always be omitted ; as speak for 
 speaks, speakest; teach for teaches, teacheth. 
 The radical part of a word may often express 
 the whole; as expn for expenses; exm for 
 examine; mid for midst ; Ion for longer. And 
 many long words, which have neither prepo- 
 sition nor termination prescribed for them, 
 may be written by three or four of their con- 
 sonants; which will be sufficient, with the 
 help of connection, to decipher them. 
 
 The ed and ing of participles may often be 
 omitted, and likewise most terminations after 
 a conjunction. 
 
142 
 
 The adverbal termination ly, the y, ty, 
 ity belonging to substantives, and also the 
 ize belonging to verbs, may be omitted. Ex- 
 ample: meek /y, slow ty, modesty, honesty, 
 moral ity, ize, solemn ity, ize ; &c. This rule 
 will wonderfully assist the writer in following 
 a rapid speaker, as the termination ly ends 
 above five thousand words in the English 
 language. 
 
 The terminations ly, ant, ance, ent, ence, 
 full, able, ment, ship, scion, tious, scions, sci- 
 ence, and some of them doubled, as antly, 
 ently, fully, ably, &c. may be omitted, in a 
 vast number of instances, which the context 
 will naturally supply. 
 
 Long words will frequently admit of large 
 contractions; generally one or two syllables 
 may be dropped before the termination tion, 
 and other terminations in long words, but 
 the learner's proficiency in reading his own 
 writing will dictate by experience (the best 
 teacher) when, and how far, he may venture 
 on such omissions. 
 
 Double terminations must never be written, 
 
143 
 
 as sing ing, reward ed, careless ness, forgetful 
 ness, cheerless ly, &c. for in this case the last 
 termination would destroy the first. The 
 above words must therefore be written sing, 
 reward, careless, forgetful, cheerless, &c. 
 
 "We would here observe, that all the pur- 
 poses of Short Hand may be fully answered 
 by the foregoing contractions, without study- 
 ing the most concise method of writing it. 
 For its greatest expedition will never be 
 wanted, by one who has a tolerably ready 
 pen ; yet those who are desirous of attaining 
 all the expedition which, with a due regard 
 to legibility, may be derived from the nature 
 of the plan, will attend us through the fol- 
 lowing rules; in which they will find certain 
 methods of abbreviation founded upon, and 
 suggested by, contractions which are fre- 
 quently practised by rapid writers in the 
 common hand. 
 
 THE OMISSION OF WORDS. 
 
 Not only words may be contracted, but 
 likewise sentences. If by writing the radical 
 part of a word, it is left intelligible; in like 
 
144 
 
 manner by writing only the radical part of a 
 sentence, or the leading words on which the 
 sense chiefly depends, the others will readily 
 occur. But with respect to these omissions, 
 they should only be practised when the sense 
 can remain uninjured, or when, by restoring 
 the grammar, we restore the sense : of course 
 they are intended only for those persons who 
 have made considerable progress in the graphic 
 art. The more conversant a person is with 
 Short Hand, the greater number of words 
 will he find he may abbreviate, and the more 
 readily will he distinguish them; till habit 
 has rendered him quite familiar with such 
 contractions. 
 
 The preposition of may be omitted after 
 superlatives, and than after comparatives. 
 Example: most (of) all; thou best (of) 
 men; wisdom is more precious (than) rubies; 
 health is better (than) riches ; his knowledge 
 is more extensive (than) mine. 
 
 When a noun or pronoun is joined to its 
 governing verb or participle, the preposition 
 to or unto may be omitted. Example : he 
 spoke (to) me; they spoke (to) him. The 
 
145 
 
 Lord spake (unto) Moses; became (unto) his 
 
 own. 
 
 The above prepositions may also be omitted 
 after the words according, near, nigh, next. 
 
 When a sentence, text of Scripture, or a 
 whole paragraph occurs, which the writer has 
 by rote, or can refer to at leisure, he need but 
 write a word or two ; thus, for " the devil 
 goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom 
 he may devour," write, the devil goeth about 
 like. Again, the following sentence " The 
 fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," 
 may be expressed thus The fear Lord is 
 begin wisdom. 
 
 The articles a, an, and the may be omitted 
 when expedition is required. Example, 
 " he is (a) man of (the) world, and of (an) 
 amiable disposition." 
 
 The prepositions of, of a, of an, of the, 
 may be omitted whenever the connection will 
 supply the omission. 
 
 Many small words may be dropped in most 
 sentences, without affecting the sense of them, 
 
146 
 
 or even rendering doubtful the exact expres- 
 sions made use of. 
 
 When two words of a contrary signification 
 (termed an ANIITHESIS) come together, or 
 with a word or two between them, write the 
 first contrary word, and then express the 
 opposition, and that which goes between 
 them, by an oblique line, slanting to the left, 
 thus, $/ day and night; good and bad; 
 summer and winter ; from light to darkness ; 
 from the east to the west; neither the rich 
 nor the poor; both the just and the unjust. 
 
 When two words come together, denoting 
 the difference of sex, write only the former, 
 and let the other be expressed in the same 
 manner as above. Example, l ~*y man and 
 woman ; male and female ; a man and a woman. 
 
 When two correspondent terms of relation- 
 ship fall together, they are to be signified in 
 the same manner as above. Example, */ 
 son and daughter ; wife and husband ; mother 
 and father; parents and children; old and 
 young ; from one to the other. 
 
 If a word or sentence be REPEATED, the 
 repetition may be signified by an horizontal 
 
147 
 
 line drawn underneath the first word, as ^x 
 lord lord; come come. If the conjunction 
 and intervenes, the repetition may be expressed 
 in the same manner, thus 'V. ever and ever; 
 worse and worse ; more and more. 
 
 If the word repeated has from before, and 
 to after it, the same expression will be suffi- 
 cient. Example, ^ >- from year to year; 
 from generation to generation; from place 
 to place ; from nation to nation. 
 
 These rules should be used sparingly, until 
 they become familar to the student ; who, after 
 long practice, will be able, if necessary, to 
 extend them. So bountiful is the memory, 
 her powers of retention are indefinite; and 
 habit (like the traveller exploring the world) 
 will at each step make new discoveries. 
 
 It is diligence that accomplishes man ; and 
 with pain the philosopher often views genius 
 endowed with celestial gifts, but palsied by 
 negligence, struggling in the obscure valley; 
 whilst ordinary capacities, through their in- 
 dustry, have worthily vaulted to the eminence 
 of human honours. 
 
THE 
 
 JOINING RULES. 
 
 IT must be obvious to every practical steno- 
 grapher, that the judicious application of well- 
 digested rules for joining words and sentences 
 together, greatly contributes to the promo- 
 tion of brevity and expedition : This might 
 readily be demonstrated, even in reference to 
 the common mode of writing ; for if two 
 persons, equally expert with regard to fluency, 
 were to copy but a few sentences the one 
 frequently removing his pen from the paper, 
 and separating every word; and the other, 
 observing a proper distance between them, 
 yet keeping his pen on through each sen- 
 tence there can be no doubt but the latter 
 would write nearly as fast again as the former : 
 and this would hold good, to a considerable 
 degree, with any two persons equally expert 
 in Short Hand : it is on this account, there- 
 
149 
 
 fore, that many writers have been induced so 
 strenuously to recommend the use of joining 
 rules. Without professing any partiality, 
 however, for this kind of practice (as the sys- 
 tem is abundantly sufficient without it) we 
 have given the following simple rules, merely 
 to accommodate those who, perhaps, would 
 have considered it a deterioration of the 
 system had we passed over this part of the 
 subject in silence. 
 
 Amongst all the systems we have yet met 
 with, we have found no distinct method of 
 joining words; many theoretical rules have 
 been laid down by preceding writers on this 
 subject, but most of them, when put into 
 practice, have involved the learner in so 
 much perplexity, in endeavouring to deci- 
 pher his characters, that he has been com- 
 pelled to lay them aside, as tending more to 
 confuse than to assist him. 
 
 In joining many words together, it is fre- 
 quently necessary to depart from the rules 
 given for writing those words; by which 
 means not only the lineality is injured, but 
 the writing becomes more difficult to decipher ; 
 
150 
 
 none but those who are proficients in Short 
 Hand should, therefore, attempt this practice, 
 especially on an extensive scale. 
 
 The first and second rules of the following 
 series are, however, so simple and distinct, 
 that they form an exception to the above 
 objections, and may be adopted by the student 
 with great advantage; as they will enable 
 him, in many instances, to join six or eight 
 words together, in half the time he could write 
 them disjoined; and will not be found in 
 the slightest degree to injure the legibility. 
 
 1. All words coming together in a sen- 
 tence, each of which would be expressed by 
 a single character upon the line, may be 
 joined together without fear of misapprehen- 
 sion, by placing a dot at the end of the last 
 character, to indicate that those words are 
 so joined. EXAMPLE If it is to be so, we 
 can be in time. 
 
 2. All words (upon the foregoing prin- 
 ciple) meeting together in a sentence, each 
 of which would be expressed by two cha- 
 racters, may be joined together, by placing, 
 
151 
 
 for the sake of distinction, a comma at the 
 end of the last character, to show that such 
 words are so joined. EXAMPLE This man 
 was not more than ten days there. 
 
 These rules might be extended, but as 
 such an extension would tend to confuse 
 rather than to assist the learner, we would 
 advise him not to proceed further in this 
 department, until he has had considerable 
 practice in the art. 
 
 EXTENSION OF THE JOINING 
 RULES. 
 
 The words belonging to the ticked charac- 
 ters, in the alphabetical and double consonant 
 tables, may be joined to any other word or 
 words which precede them. EXAMPLE It 
 would be extraordinary. 
 
 Such short words as, by their frequent 
 occurrence, are become so familiar as to be 
 readily known, may be denoted by their first 
 consonants, and joined together. EXAMPLE 
 As it is in my name ; are his men to come 
 to day, &c. 
 
152 
 
 Some words have so great a dependance 
 upon each other that they cannot easily be 
 misunderstood; and these may be joined 
 together whenever they occur. EXAMPLE 
 Let us go ; as far as we can ; as it was said ; 
 'tis not so great, &c. 
 
 The monosyllable to may, in most cases, 
 be joined to the word preceding; and by this 
 means many very useful contractions can be 
 made. EXAMPLE According to ; belonging 
 to; subject to; contrary to, &c. 
 
 When the proportion of equality is ex- 
 pressed by as as, or so as ; with some 
 word intervening, they may all be joined 
 together. EXAMPLE As well as ; as good 
 as; so much as; so long as, &c. 
 
 Compound words (especially if short) may 
 frequently be contracted and joined together. 
 EXAMPLE Coach-man, land-lord, church-yard, 
 short-hand, gentle-man, Holy-Ghost, good- 
 man, Great-Britain, Great-God, &c. 
 
 The longer words are, the greater advantage 
 may be taken in using initials and finals, yet 
 
153 
 
 even with monosyllables this liberty may at 
 all times be taken, whenever the connection 
 will admit of it ; observing to choose those 
 that are most expressive of the words, or 
 most likely to distinguish them when joined 
 to each other. Thus write I U, for, I owe 
 you; I P P, for, I promise to pay; T S N, 
 for, It is not; I M N, for, I must not; 
 W K B, for, What could be, &c. 
 
 It must be remembered that the auxiliary 
 or helping verbs, (by which verbs are chiefly 
 inflected,) viz 
 
 Do, have, shall, will, may, can, am, must; 
 Did, had, should, would, might, could, was, must; 
 
 Together with the verbs, let and ought; 
 The participles (of be) being, been ; 
 And the personal pronouns, 
 /, thou, he, she, it, we, ye, they ; 
 
 Are the most important parts of speech ; it 
 will therefore very much abridge the labour 
 of the pen to express those words by their 
 first consonants, and join them to each other, 
 whenever they come together. 
 
154 
 
 Three of these verbs (which are most pro- 
 perly termed auxiliaries) viz. be, have, and 
 do are often coupled with most of the others. 
 These, occurring very frequently, should 
 always be joined; particularly can, could, 
 may, might, must, ought, shall, should, will, 
 would', as, can be, could be, have or has 
 been, had been, may be, might be, must be, 
 shall be, should be, will be, would be; can 
 have, could have, may have, must have, shall 
 have, will have; can do, may do, must do, 
 shall do, will do, &c. 
 
 When the negative particle not occurs be- 
 tween any of the auxiliaries, or before a verb 
 in the infinitive mood, it may be joined with 
 them. EXAMPLE Will not be; have not 
 been ; not to be ; shall not be, &c. 
 
 The preceding pronouns may also be joined 
 to the auxiliary verbs ; as, he must be ; he will 
 not be ; we may be ; they can be ; ye ought 
 not to be, &c. 
 
 The next word which comes after any of 
 the aforesaid signs of the persons, moods, and 
 tenses, may be joined to them ; as well as the 
 
155 
 
 personal pronouns which end with self or 
 selves. 
 
 The past participle of the verb is very fre- 
 quently to be met with preceded by the verb 
 to be, in the infinitive mood, which may be 
 conveniently joined; and also the words had 
 been. EXAMPLE To be given by the master ; 
 to be seen by the people; to be brought to 
 the bar of the house; had been signed by 
 the master ; had been brought to the master ; 
 had been supported by the government, &c. 
 
 To render the writing compact, and avoid 
 discontinuances, it will be eminently service- 
 able (as the verbs to have, and to be, form 
 almost our whole conjugations) to connect, 
 as far as possible, each inflection of the 
 auxiliary verbs with its corresponding pro- 
 noun (when that happens to be a consonant) 
 and also with the negative: observing, that 
 where no other pronoun begins such com- 
 bination, the pronoun may be understood ; as, 
 wlb for it will be, &c. 
 
 Prepositions generally require after them 
 either a noun or pronoun: the pronouns 
 
156 
 
 being few in number, and in all cases used 
 as substitutes for nouns, must occur very 
 frequently, and consequently soon become 
 familiar to the reader; they may, therefore, 
 be joined to the prepositions without danger 
 of producing any ambiguity ; EXAMPLE He 
 left it to me ; he gave it to us ; he left it for 
 you ; he gave it for thy, &c. 
 
 Join the pronouns governed to the follow- 
 ing prepositions governing them viz., above, 
 about, according to, after, against, amongst, 
 at, before, behind, below, beneath, besides, 
 between, beyond, by, concerning, for, from, 
 instead of, into, unto, near, near to, nigh, 
 nigh to, next, next to. 0, oh, of, off, on, 
 out, out of, over, over against, round about, 
 than, through, to, towards, under, underneath, 
 upon, with, within, without. 
 
 Numerous contractions may be made when 
 the pronoun it is followed by a verb ; or 
 when the impersonal verbs it z's, or it was, are 
 followed by an adjective, and to or that. "We 
 must content ourselves by giving a few of 
 the most usual; as, it cannot be; it was to 
 be ; it seems to be ; it is not to be ; it is 
 
157 
 
 impossible to; it was necessary to; it is 
 according to ; it is contrary to ; it is evident 
 that ; it is not to be supposed that, &c. 
 
 The pronouns my, mine, thy, thine, his, 
 her, our, your, their, that, this, these, those, 
 what, which, whose, and same, may be joined 
 with most of the shorter substantives that 
 follow them, and to a great number of the 
 longer ones. EXAMPLE My God ; mine 
 ears; thine enemy; our Lord; this day; same 
 night ; my justification ; our sanctification, &c. 
 
 The words some, any, none, which, each, 
 both, followed by a preposition and pronoun, 
 may be denoted by their first consonants, and 
 joined to the preposition and pronoun ; as, 
 some of them; any of us; none of them; 
 which of them ; each of them ; both of them, 
 &c. 
 
 When the word own occurs between a pro- 
 noun and the word self, it may be joined to 
 the former; as, my own self; his own self; 
 her own self, &c. 
 
 If two substantives, connected with each 
 other by a preposition, be such as the context 
 
158 
 
 will readily discover, when described by their 
 first consonants, they may be joined together. 
 EXAMPLE Love of God ; grace of God ; 
 church of Christ ; kingdoms of the earth; 
 the love of money is the root of all evil ; seek 
 ye first the kingdom of God, &c. 
 
 Many common phrases formed by a sub- 
 stantive preceded by the prepositions with, 
 without, in, and followed by to or of, may 
 be very conveniently contracted, and joined 
 together. EXAMPLE With respect, or refer- 
 ence to; without regard to; in consequence, 
 comparison, or consideration of, &c. 
 
 When the conjunctions and, or, begin a 
 sentence, or a member of a sentence, they 
 must always be the first word of a joining. 
 
 Common adverbial phrases may be often 
 denoted by their initial consonants joined 
 together; as, in future; at the same time; 
 in the mean time ; at present ; in this manner ; 
 in a great measure ; in the same manner ; in 
 general; in particular, &c. 
 
 The definite article the may be joined to 
 
159 
 
 the signs of comparison more, most, and very, 
 which frequently follow it; thus, the more; 
 the most; the very, &c. The article may 
 also be united to any other word which the 
 sense of the passage will discover, though 
 represented only by its first consonant, or 
 first consonant and vowel, 
 
INSTRUCTIONS 
 
 READING SHORT HAND. 
 
 BEFORE the learner attempts to read Short 
 Hand, he must write it, not only correctly, 
 but also with some degree of ease and free- 
 dom: to endeavour to read before he can 
 write, would only be the means of embar- 
 rassing himself with that which, by a little 
 attention and practice, will become perfectly 
 easy and familiar. It would be highly unrea- 
 sonable to expect that a person who had made 
 little more progress, in learning the English 
 language, than a superficial knowledge of the 
 alphabet, should be capable of reading a sen- 
 tence with correctness and fluency. It would 
 be equally preposterous, in the present case, 
 for the learner to imagine he should read 
 Short Hand (which, perhaps, he has only 
 
161 
 
 practised a few weeks) with that freedom and 
 ease he can long hand, which he has been 
 practising for a series of years. It is practice, 
 indeed, that makes even print so familiar, 
 that we read it with so much ease; to a 
 person who is accustomed to reading, the 
 letters and words become so impressed upon 
 his mind, that he readily recollects them with- 
 out spelling. So it is with respect to the 
 reading of Short Hand ; when once a person 
 can write it with the same ease and freedom 
 he can the common hand, the reading will be 
 easy in proportion, and he will then discover, 
 that nothing but the want of a familiar ac- 
 quaintance with the characters prevented his 
 reading them with as great facility as other 
 writing, there being identically the same 
 given in both. 
 
 When the learner first begins to read what 
 he has written, the best way is to transcribe 
 it in common small hand ; and for his assist- 
 ance in so doing, he must proceed with telling 
 the letters one by one (giving each letter its 
 full sound) in the words he does not know at 
 sight. Let him be particularly attentive to 
 the sounds of the different letters as they rise ; 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 and also to the form of the combined cha- 
 racters in each particular word. This will at 
 once confirm him in the proper method of 
 spelling, writing, and reading-, and, by this 
 means, he will sooner acquire a proficiency 
 in the art, than by any other method that can 
 be prescribed. Yet, while the system is not 
 very familiar to him, he ought not to be sur- 
 prised or discouraged if he should at first 
 meet with some little difficulty in making out 
 the various abbreviations; but let him per- 
 severe in the methods here given, and observe 
 never to lay by what he has written, without 
 perusing it again and again, till he can read 
 it with ease and fluency. 
 
 It is far easier for a person to decipher 
 his own writing (even if it be much worse 
 written) than that of others, as he cannot fail 
 to have a general knowledge of the subject 
 he has written upon ; besides, there are cer- 
 tain peculiarities in every person's style of 
 writing, with which the writer himself is best 
 acquainted, and which renders his manuscript 
 more intelligible to himself than to any other 
 person. In order to assist him in the read- 
 ing, it is highly necessary for the learner to 
 
163 
 
 be very attentive to the subject, and always 
 bear in mind the sense of the preceding sen- 
 tence ; and if he is at a loss to decipher any- 
 thing he has written, let him transcribe the 
 letters and marks, letter by letter, as they 
 stand, into common hand, and he will then 
 read them with ease and certainty. 
 
 The omission of all unsounding letters in 
 words gives each letter that remains a sepa- 
 rate and individual importance, in conveying 
 the proper sound, and renders it necessary 
 for each of them to be distinctly considered 
 or named in deciphering the notes. Thus, 
 for example, the word memorial is expressed 
 by two m's, an r and an /; yet it must not 
 be named double m r 1-, for that would not 
 give the word its sound ; but, if each letter 
 be named separately, thus m, m, r, I; those 
 letters will convey the proper sound of the 
 word memorial, or at least sufficiently to be 
 understood, which is all that is required. 
 
 By the rules for omitting the vowels, the 
 same characters will sometimes stand for dif- 
 ferent words; those for mn rv/ for instance, 
 may not only be read man, but men, mane, 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 mean, mine, moon. The characters nt ^~ 
 may be read net, neat, nit, night, not, nut. 
 This, at first, may occasion some hesitation 
 in the reading, but by a little practice the 
 learner will easily overcome that hesitation ; 
 for an ambiguous meaning seldom or never 
 arises from representing several words, totally 
 different in signification, by the same symbol. 
 To be convinced of this, he has only to read the 
 following expressions The besiegers sprung a 
 mine ; and, This book is mine : here, the very 
 same word conveys two different ideas ; but 
 its connection with the rest of the sentence 
 necessarily and instantaneously leads the mind 
 to its proper meaning. 
 
 There are many other words in our lan- 
 guage which are only to be understood from 
 their connection ; as, mean, rose, intimate, fine, 
 &c. In such instances, indeed, the gram- 
 matical connection is alone sufiicient to dis- 
 tinguish the several meanings of the word ; 
 Thus, a rose, he rose, are perfectly distinct. 
 But in Short Hand, where the grammatical 
 often fails, the rational connection will serve 
 the same purpose. In this expression, for 
 example, a sable fr, no person who is ac- 
 
165 
 
 quainted with the English language can be 
 at a loss to know what word is denoted by 
 the two consonants fr\ the connection, as to 
 sense, will instantly suggest, that fur (and 
 not far, fare, fear, fire, for, &c.) is the word 
 that is intended. 
 
THE 
 
 STENOGRAPHIC FIGURES. 
 
 THIS method of notation is equally intelli- 
 gible, and much more rapid than the common 
 figures. For marking the cost and selling 
 prices of goods of any description for keeping 
 private accounts, and any other purposes 
 where secrecy is desirable, it will be found 
 exceedingly useful, and well adapted to the 
 purpose. 
 
 These figures are taken from those in 
 general use being, in fact, the most simple 
 parts of the common numerals; and may, 
 therefore, be readily committed to memory. 
 They join each other in the most easy and 
 elegant manner, and may be written singly, 
 or united to any others, with the greatest 
 facility, being equally distinct and legible in 
 either case. 
 
168 
 
 In joining the stenographic figures, pre- 
 cisely the same method is to be observed as 
 in writing words in Short Hand ; this will be 
 perfectly easy to the student who has attained 
 a knowledge of the foregoing lessons. The 
 Short Hand figures, in their regular rotation, 
 are as follows : 
 
 1 
 
 / 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 <r\ 
 
 
 (/ 
 
 And to show how intimately they are con- 
 nected with the common numerals, and, con- 
 sequently, how easily they may be committed 
 to memory, we shall merely change them, in 
 the following line, into those very identical 
 figures. 
 
 The stenographic figures must be placed upon 
 the line or regular course of writing, and dis- 
 tinguished from the alphabetical characters 
 by this mark " placed underneath them. 
 
 Example: 5 4, 3 8 9 _ ^ u 
 
 All the figures united, forward and backward. 
 
OBSERVATIONS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 MATERIALS FOR REPORTING. 
 
 THE " REPORTING BOOK " most approved of 
 by the profession is made of a good wove 
 post paper, with a hard polished surface; and 
 in shape it resembles that of the " delivery 
 book " commonly made use of in commercial 
 affairs. The most convenient size is con- 
 sidered to be about 8^ inches in length, by 
 4^ in breadth, containing about 100 leaves, 
 ruled in narrow faint blue lines, about 5 of an 
 inch apart, and bound in a stiff, unbending 
 cover. In " reporting a speaker " the book 
 is usually held in the hand; and the writer 
 seldom sits down, but performs the operation 
 standing. 
 
 The " INK " should be the blackest and 
 clearest that can possibly be manufactured, 
 
170 
 
 in order that every letter may appear dis- 
 tinct immediately it is formed. This may 
 be effected by mixing a certain quantity of 
 ingredients in its composition ; though all 
 glutinous substances should be excluded, 
 that the ink may be sufficiently fluid to flow 
 freely from the point of the pen. 
 
 The " PEN " must be cut to a much finer 
 point than for the common writing, and some- 
 what harder, by making the slit, shoulders, 
 and scoop very short. In " reporting a 
 speaker " there is no pen so serviceable as 
 those made from the " seconds " of the " Hud- 
 son Bay " quills ; though, for neatness of 
 writing, we have always found a pen made 
 from a raven's, or a crow's quill, far prefer- 
 able to any other, and they are likewise very 
 durable. The best method of using them is, 
 to cut the stems off, and fix a pen on each 
 end of a light handle, made of cedar wood ; 
 an instrument so prepared will write well for 
 three or four hours, without mending. But 
 "pencils" of every description, require so 
 much pressure on the paper, as to create 
 delay, and tire the fingers; indeed they 
 write so illegibly, and increase so much the 
 trouble of deciphering, (especially if the notes 
 
171 
 
 be not immediately "extended") that they 
 appear to be quite useless for this purpose. 
 There are very few " metallic pens " sufficiently 
 elastic for the Short Hand writer they re- 
 quire great care, are apt to penetrate the 
 paper, and cause a sprinkling of the ink, 
 which, even at best, flows neither so freely, 
 nor so safely, as from the point of the common 
 pen. 
 
 But, in this respect, we have been parti- 
 cularly fortunate, in having discovered and 
 " PATENTED " an instrument which appears 
 to give great satisfaction, and has obtained 
 the patronage and approbation of.every indi- 
 vidual in the stenographic profession. The 
 " self -supply ing pen holder " with " Lewis' 
 Flying pen " is peculiarly adapted to the pur- 
 poses of Short Hand, as it not only forms the 
 characters with greater elegance and correct- 
 ness, but also enables the stenographer to 
 write with twice the rapidity he could possibly 
 do by any other means ; for as the pens never 
 require mending, and the tube to which they 
 are attached furnishes a constant supply of 
 ink for a whole day's writing, the artist is not 
 subjected to the inconvenience and loss of 
 time occasioned by continually taking off the 
 
172 
 
 pen to procure ink, but is enabled to pursue, 
 without interruption, the most rapid flights of 
 the most vehement orator, and to sustain a 
 continued and vigorous attention during his 
 loftiest and most extended efforts. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 'PBINTEU BY bl-OXTISWoOUi. AND CO. 
 NEW-STKKUT &QUAEB 
 
LEWIS'S Patent Self Supplying Pen. 
 
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 03 13 
 
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 For Short Hand Writers and Reporters. 
 
- 
 
THE SHORT- HAND PRAYER BOOK. 
 
 In order that the learner may speedily obtain proficiency 
 in this art, Mr. LEWIS has published ' THE PBAYER 
 BOOK ' (according to the use of the united Church of 
 England and Ireland), beautifully executed in Lithography, 
 from his own manuscript characters, written in the most 
 accurate manner, and embracing all his improvements in 
 Short Hand. This work will be of inestimable advantage 
 to a learner, as it will enable him to obtain a thorough 
 knowledge of the theory and practice of the art in a tenth 
 part of the time he otherwise could. The book is printed 
 in a portable pocket size, elegantly ornamented, and hand- 
 somely bound. The price to pupils is only six shillings; 
 to strangers, eight shillings. Also, a beautiful edition of 
 THE NEW TESTAMENT price to pupils, 7*. Qd. ; to 
 strangers, 10*. 
 
 'The Short-Hand Institution, 113 Strand.' 
 
 THE HISTORY OF SHORT HAND. 
 
 A few copies of ' LEWIS'S HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF SHOBT 
 HAND, from the Earliest Eecords of the Art to the Present 
 Period,' is now on Sale price, to pupils, 6s. ; to strangers, 
 10*. 
 
TO THOSE WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. 
 
 Debates in Parliament Trials at Law Arguments of 
 Counsel Sermons Lectures Speeches and Orations 
 on any subject correctly taken in Short Hand (in town 
 or country) and faithfully copied, on the most reasonable 
 terms, by 
 
 JAMES HENRY LEWIS, 
 
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 An extraordinary price will be given by Mr. LEWIS for any 
 old works, curious manuscripts, or subjects of any descrip- 
 tion, relating to Short Hand. Apply at the ' Institution,' 
 
 No. 113 STRAND. 
 
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
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 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
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