T2Z3s by Laming Warren Tear THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES 'A 'N 'n3JX S ui -soaa aaoixvd a3aNI8131HdWVd iNnowoHin B, 0. 8AK&1 LAWYER ? SHORT SHORT HAND, LAMING WARREN TEAR, AUTHOR, OF " ONE STEP FURTHER IN STENOGRAPHY.' " When it is considered with what rapidity the organs of speech are moved, it will be evident that, unless the writer be enabled to express bis subject in fewer simple marks of the pen than there are syllables contained in it, he must surely fail in his endeavour to keep pace with the speaker." Page 4. LONDON: WHITTAKEE AND CO. AVE MARIA LANE. 1852. Those who may not feel inclined to rule their own paper may procure it ready prepared at the publishers'. INTRODUCTION. IT would almost seem to be needless to expatiate upon the importance of the art of Stenography, and the purposes to which it may be applied, for it is universally admitted ; besides the power of catching the winged words as they fly, and which would otherwise be lost for ever, it is a vast auxiliary in the acquirement of knowledge generally : it will enable the student to take notes at lecture, to commit tn his thoughts speedily and compendiously to paper, and ^ also to note down, in the course of his reading, such >- matter as he may consider necessary in the progress of his K study ; thus giving him a great advantage over those OS ZJ who, without its aid, are necessarily obliged to make their notes in the tedious characters of our common alphabet. Since the publication of my former Work, of which this | may be considered a new formation, I have devoted much ^ attention to the art, and feel perfectly convinced that any advance or improvement therein, worthy to be called such, y must be formed upon some plan different from that of the common methods. There have been numerous works on Stenography during the last few years, each one claiming advantage over its predecessor, but nearly the whole of them have been based upon the same principle, and formed of the same ma- A 2 448 4 INTRODUCTION. terials ; and the perfection of ingenuity itself is incapable of effecting more than the materials upon which it exerts its skill are capable of producing ; thus, the stenographic characters at present in use having, from their application under the old system by so many authors, undergone almost every possible variation, further improvement in the art must depend upon the adoption of some other principle than that in practice. The grand aim of the stenographist should be to ex- press as much as he possibly can with the least possible quantity of labour, and, consequently, in the least possible period of time ; and, to enable him to effect this, the more simple are his characters, the more likely is he to attain this end. When it is considered with what rapidity the organs of speech are moved, it will be evident that, unless the writer be enabled to express his subject in fewer simple marks of the pen than there are syllables contained in it, he must surely fail in his endeavour to keep pace with the speaker : with this view, which is the all-important view, it has been my object, while forming a simple character, at the same time to express something more ; thus the incipient letter is, and sometimes two, or three, or more, of the first letters of a word are expressed conjointly, and at the same time, with the consonant following, by writing the consonant upon a position, presently to be explained ; so that it may be said, that more than one-half of the subject to be taken down is written before the speaker open his lips. The auxiliary verbs so often recurring, are, throughout the whole of their moods and tenses, simple and com- pound, either in the affirmative or negative, expressed by one simple mark, or mere touch of the pen ; and when the verb may be preceded by a pronoun, the pronoun writ- ten upon the proper position expresses itself and the verb INTRODUCTION. 5 at the same time. Surely so brief and facile a mode of expression is as highly important as it is easy of acquire- ment. Legibility, another important feature in Stenography, is also secured by this system, in a much higher degree than by the common methods the positions affording the means of expressing what is to be taken down, notwith- standing the extreme rapidity, with greater fulness. The positions are expressed by three red lines, inter- sected by two blue lines, and one red line alternately, which afford eighty-four positions, signifying the alphabet, double letters, prepositions, &c., as shown in Plate II. It is well known to short-hand writers that the practice of their art is attended with extreme mental and physical fatigue, for the powers of attention and execution are at their utmost stretch ; but by this system, when once per- fectly acquired, the writer is enabled to effect his purpose with comparative ease and comfort. It is true it requires more practice than any other, but the great advantage to be derived therefrom is surely worth the extra trouble necessary for its acquirement ; and if the object be other- wise unattainable, i. e. so ready a means of expressing language, the application and pains requisite are, doubtless, well bestowed. I have made use of Mr. Gurney's characters in this system, with two of them, the b and the w, altered, the characters for q and # added, and the letter h rejected as useless : thus, the whole are simple, and may be written by one inflection of the pen respectively. A specimen of the lines is given at the end of the book. DIRECTIONS FOR THE LEARNER. THE first step towards the acquiring this System is to learn to form the characters of the stenographic alphabet, as well as the double letters given in Plate I., with pre- cision and neatness. N.B. The word up, in the first column, signifies that the character against which it is placed should be formed upwards. The signification of the positions in Plate II. should then be committed perfectly to memory, where, it will be observed in Fig. 1, the red perpendicular line is repre- sented by a broken line, and Fig. 2 represents Fig. 1 on a larger scale ; and, however difficult it may appear to be able to retain the signification of so many positions in the mind, a very short practice will prove its easy accomplish- ment. For instance, the vowels form one line, and the consonants succeed each other in order, uniformly from first to last ; then an analogy is kept up, as far as is prac- ticable, between the first and second class of positions, which serves greatly to assist the memory, and to render the task easy. The mode of writing is thus : for the word?io place the pen on the position which represents n in Plate II., omit the intervening vowel, and write the character for t ; the word time, pen on position t, and write character for m ; before, pen on position b, and write character for fr; criminal, pen on cr, and write mnl ; shame, pen on sh, and write m ; advantageous, pen on ad or advan, which, it will be observed, is in the second class of positions, therefore the corresponding position, a, should be passed over and left blank, as in the first Example in Plate VI., and write DIRECTIONS FOR THE LEARNER. 7 tgs ; content, pen in con, and write the conjunctive ter- mination for tent. It may be as well here to state" that the conjunctive terminations in Plate I. should be written upon the positions, as well as joined to a preceding con- sonant ; myself] pen on m, conjunctive termination for self; the same termination in h, t, th, or o will express himself, itself, themselves, or ourselves, as the case may be. It will be observed, the vowels are omitted in the middle of words. To express auxiliary verbs Plate III. must be con- sulted, where the signification of the positions in that respect is pointed out. To write an auxiliary verb, not preceded by a pronoun, a touch of the pen, as given in the examples, care being taken to form it perpendicularly downwards, should be placed upon the position answering to the verb, in its proper mood and tense. When a pronoun may precede the verb, the character for it in Plate I. should be written upon the verb's place ; for instance, in the first example, would have, the character above described is placed upon the position signifying such verb, and in writing he would have, the pronoun he is introduced instead, which expresses itself and the verb also ; this relates to affirmatives only, for should the verb be required to be written in the negative, one bar to the right should be passed over, ac- cording to the example " It was not to be," &c. It will be observed that a slight horizontal touch expresses been. The words, and combination of words, in Plate X1L, of which there are upwards of 200, expressed respectively by a dot or a comma placed upon the proper position, may next be learned ; but it is not necessary that the whole of these should, in the first instance, be committed to memory, as the learner's progress will facilitate their acquirement, and his own discretion enable him to make selection of such as are likely to prove most useful. In Plate IV., will be found several contractions of words in. general use ; and in Plate V., examples of contractions. In Plate VI., many miscellaneous examples are given, to which I beg to call the learner's attention : the mode 8 DIRECTIONS FOR THE LEARNER. of expressing the stenographic s, when joined to another consonant, is by writing the consonant double its usual size, as in the words appearance, advantageous, clumce, France ; in the two last words, and most others when c is sounded soft like 5, it should be expressed by that letter, and by itself when sounded hard like k, as in the word music : it may here be observed that, generally, the sound of a word should be followed, rather than the manner in which it is spelled. In Plate I. it has been shown, that a small circle represents ing, ong, and tion ; when intended for ing or ong, it should be turned the way in which we write a common o, as in the example intending, and in the contrary direction for tion, as in the word temptation ; when used in the plural number, it should be written double its usual size, as in the word alterations. Ct in the middle of a word, when it has the sound of x, should be expressed by that letter : when x is the first letter to be written, the character for it in Plate I. should be used, as in the word annexation ; when otherwise, as in the words satisfaction and contradiction, it should be expressed by crossing the preceding by the succeeding consonant. A final vowel may be expressed by a dot at the termination of the last consonant, at the top for a and e, the centre for i and y, and at the bottom for o and u, as in the examples delay, destroy, continue ; but the stenographist, after some practice, will generally find the dot joined to the last consonant sufficient, as in the word reply. Should it be required to express two vowels in the middle of a word, it may be done by making a small dot for the first vowel, and writing the succeeding consonant beside it, as in the example lion. When a consonant at the termination of a word is required to be doubled or repeated, a dot should be placed beneath it, as in the word founded. A dot over a word expresses ity, as in the word capacity. The mode of writing the disjunctive terminations is shown in the examples parliament and important. These may be dis- tinguished from this, by writing the long s double its usual size on the position th, as in the example. An easy mode of expressing certain combinations of B. 0. DIRECTIONS FOR THE LEARNER. 9 letters, and still retaining simplicity of formation, is shown in Plate VII. It will be observed, a thickness of stroke generally expresses the letter d, and increase of size expresses the plural number ; but although it will appear evident that a very great saving of labour, and, consequently, of time, must be thus obtained, still I would not recommend its adoption when writing without the lines, as, from the rapidity required, the difficulty of writing long and short, thick and thin, characters, and distinguishing them afterwards, would be very great, whereas by the lines, the writer having fewer marks of the pen to make than there are syllables contained in the matter to be taken down, and, as the lines form a kind of measure for the purpose, it can be effected with facility ; however, I would more particularly refer to the examples given, for instruction in the mode of writing, which will be found more serviceable than the most lengthened and the fullest description. I will therefore proceed to explain the manner of writing the example in Plate VIII.- A, a dot in the position for a Minister, characters for str in mn, being the corresponding position to mr, which should be passed over ought not to be (see auxiliary verbs, Plate III.) a Minister after, a dot, as expressed in Plate XI. lie is character for pronoun he in verb's place suspected, pen in s, write characters for sped he should be, pronoun in verb's place like, pen in I, character for c Csesar's, srs in position c wife, / in w not, t in n only, pen in o, write nl and dot con- joined free, dot in /r, see Plate XI. from, dot in /guilt, character for It in g but, t in b from suspicion, pen in s, write sp and character for t ion if the, comma, see Plate XI. house, s in h should, see auxiliary verbs withdraw, write characters for thdrw in w their, r in ih confidence, comma, see Plate XI. from me, comma, see Plate XI. it would be, pronoun it in verb's place my, dot in m duty, comma, see Plate XI. without, tht in w waiting, t, and character for ing in w for, r in / an, dot in a address, rs in ad for my, comma in fr removal, vl in rm to, dot in t wait, t in w upon my, comma, see Plate XL Sovereign, vrn in s and, see Plate IV. delivering, Ivring in d up, p in u to him, dot in 10 DIRECTIONS FOR THE LEARNER. h the, dot in th seal, I in s of, dot in o my office, / double its usual size in o say, dot in s Sir, r in s I have, pronoun in verb's place long, character for ong in I served, vd in sr you, dot in y with, th in w diligence, pen in d, write character for I, and disjunctive termination for gene e with zeal, / in z and with fidelity, dl, and dot above the word for ity, in / but success, c double its usual size in sc has not (see auxiliary verbs) crowned, nd in cr my endeavours, (see Plate IV.) your, r in y Parliament, I and termination for went in pr have (see auxiliary verbs) withdrawn, thdrwn in w from me their confidence and all my, comma in al declarations, clr and termination for lion, double the usual size in d to them, m in th are (see auxiliary verbs) sus- pected therefore (see Plate XI.) Sir let, t in I me, dot in m resign, n in rs to you those, * double the usual size in th employments, pi and termination for ments in em which, dot in ch I ought not to, pronoun / in verb's place keep, p in k longer, ngr in I than, in th I can be, / in verb's place serviceable, vsble in sr to your Majesty (Plate IV.) and your subjects (see Plate IV.) and beg, g in b you will, you in verb's place bestow, stw in b them upon (see Plate XI.) some, m in s other, thr in o who, dot in to with greater, tr in gr success though (see Plate XI.) not with greater fidelity may (see auxiliary verbs) give, v in g more, r in m satisfaction, fxn in satis to your Majesty and your Parliament. In Plate X. will be found the stenographic characters for figures, which, when required to be expressed, should be written upon the top line. Plate XI. shows a comparison between my system written upon the lines, and that written without the lines, from which it will be seen at a glance, the immense saving in favour of the former ; it will also be observed, that throughout the whole only twenty-eight examples of com- bination of characters appear, and that a large proportion of the remainder are mere dots and commas. DIRECTIONS FOE THE LEARNER. 1] WITHOUT LINES. WHEN it is required to write without lines, as in the case of making memoranda, or in taking down any thing, where speed is not the object, the initial letter or letters of every word, expressed otherwise by the positions, should be written, and the incipient vowels in Plate I. must be used, but only at the commencement of words ; in which case also, the arbitraries in Plate IX. may be profitably consulted. A dot above a word to the left is a, an, or and. The long s should be written at the commencement of a word, except when s is followed by a t, when the small circle, also representing the s, must be used, as in the word satis- faction, nearly at the close of the example given in Plate X., and in the middle of a word, as in the same example. At the end of words the long s is invariably employed. The character for r in Plate IX. should be used at the commencement of a word, but not otherwise. A line over a word is upon, as will be found in Plate X. " upon the sovereign." The letter A , is Administration ; a, according or accord- ingly ; c is circumstance ; e, endeavour or endeavoured, according to the manifest sense of the context ; E, Eccle- siastical ; /, frequently ; g, government ; G, gentleman ; H, honourable gentleman ; /, individual ; I, legislature ; m, multiply ; N, noble lord ; JVc, noble duke ; n, notwith- standing ; q, question ; r, represent ; s, surround, sur- rounding ; /, state, stately, statement. In conclusion, I beg to offer something like fair pre- sumptive evidence, not merely of the art of Stenography being capable of vast improvement, but of the possibility of keeping pace with a moderately quick speaker. I have 12 DIRECTIONS FOR THE LEARNER. before stated, that to effect this, the writer must neces- sarily express his subject in fewer marks of the pen than there may be syllables contained therein ; hence, as by the common methods this I presume to be impossible, in- asmuch as the fingers are incapable of moving as quickly as the organs of speech, and the least monosyllable containing two consonants would require two distinct characters to express it, we must, to ensure success, resort to some such means as I have adopted for that purpose. The example in Plate VIII. contains 227 syllables; I express it by 174 simple marks of the pen, which is fifty -three less than the number of syllables, so that the writer has only to make at the rate of three marks of the pen while the speaker is delivering four syllables, a large proportion of which are mere dots ; this surely illustrates forcibly the practicability of following a speaker, whereas, to write the same matter without the lines, it is necessary to employ 362 marks of the pen, as shown in Plate X., more than double the number of cha- racters used by the lines, and 135 more than the number of syllables ; and the result in favour of the improved method is obtained, as I have shown, by a means as simple as it is perfect, and requiring little capacity for its application ; all that is requisite to insure success is practice ; practice as nothing when compared with that necessary to attain proficiency in music, to which it may not inaptly be as- similated. I therefore rely witli confidence on my work, not in- tended originally for publication, hoping that I may be so fortunate as to induce a portion of my readers, at least, to commence a task, which cannot fail in the end to afford something more substantial than mere amusement. THE END. UILBKRT & RIVINGTON, Printers, St. John's Square, London. ALPHABET DOUBLE LETTERS, *c. DISJU NCTI VE TERMINATIONS f + / ^ ^/ t/a#ice' c ,. f&&tt /" c/ / c= <>2> / ^&nc&, &c. J ^ ,-^ g. // c ^/ ' n y^ ff/tf/ nasnce,, PC. ; c + y o //?.'/. "sty. //' ' / f ^ ' // i A/ .,,; ^/ ^ /7 /^/ ^ /. PRONOUNS y i \^_/ j\ n& ^ at. W/i (>f UWtCrt. 1 NCI PI ENT VOWELS , CONJ U NCT 1 VE TERMINATIONS f/ - , 'fly > ^ > ^ //c> ^ \_ M ' 7 c) ///f/// / .///' ./ /ft'.' ,/,,,; ,lr. V^ //' ''< J 'Fi. 2. , {{- f/- !/ r,,/- / r- // //s r/ zct ^- .xn/t-/ Li usd2z_ aJ- ////// .I// f.'// '//// //' ft //, f/'/' /.I //;,///!/ /! -I, r//." >/ '/' '.'/I'/ff rr ' if/ft.,/ ' j/ie-tf/r/ /t ';/f///f//t/rt< 5- 0&a66 //., fona&e tu> ttety //f/ //riff nUV& /Iff.l /// '/ y '" / < /i/// // 'r /~>f/r////t' //'/''* fo //ft /'i /'/// \- t- /,. /, t/ j / / / / /, ///,/ //,,//,// / 'i- //>' // (,///;.///'< ( J ////// //i / /'' /' ////, t /'/c. f.J //"//< f 1 '- T/ft '/ 'if, /.' no~K ve . Sr, //-f,///^/ /// //<>// ////y// /y , / . '/ /,;/., /,/,/ //. /, ,/'/,// >/"/ //it/ /, /riii<- ////// /!///,/<:/ /'I/."/ /'" f/ //,/,////// /" //' 'S/ s,t ///>/ /( /'' EXAMPLES OF CONTRACTIONS I ' -. / / /f ;/// / f <;/'//. > //v/// //// "to S////.I /'///< It /r/ /// f '//>/// <7 '//'/ /'f > /'///"'//////ss/> Sy,,; PLATE VI MISCELLANEOUS EXAMPLES /// ///SS '// ///' rf /"/ ///f //S // S,) /// 5 s // /// X '/ f/// / / 'f '/ S' Tf '// S'f >-%?/, /Z^<%2S. - ft //Y>'//- S,J f/ f/'" fs/ f/ ///'f // // f.J //'S- S/S///S// // /// '/ PLATE EXAMPLE WRITTEN WITHOUT LINES, AND FIGURES 7 s O V . o FIGURES ./ ft PLATE f f s COMPARISON BETWEEN THE TWO SYSTEMS VJ 1> 1 o / x J r V / i ^ o c^ 7 p ? 1, ^ 1 'X -^ ^-^ , ^ . C - ^ ^J ^ ^ S o JS ' .tJ "*1 g " 2? 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