36 
 C55e 
 
 PEASY SHORTHANT> 
 
 BY 
 
 Si SIR EDWARD CLARKE, KLC. 
 
 REQUIRES NO TEACHER. 
 
 CAN BE WRITTEN WITH PEN, PENCIL, OR STYLOGRAPH. 
 
 EASILY READ. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO. LTD. 
 1907 
 
 One S:hillmg 
 
ma EDWARD CLAEKE'S 
 SHORTHAND. 
 
 Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN 
 
 GREAT COUNSEL'S SIMPLE 
 
 SYSTEM. 
 
 Sir Edward Clarke, E.G., has given his 
 new system of shorthand to the world in 
 a little book entitled, "Easy Shorthand" 
 (Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kout and 
 Co., Ltd.), published at le. 
 
 " It was my good fortune," he writes, 
 "to spend two years of my early teyhood 
 at a boarding school at Edmonton, called 
 Coll??<? House, f rf.:ii which, although tho I 
 -iduiary tea/jliiag wat, very poor, 1 brought 
 ..way two acquirements which have been 
 of more valuo to me in life than any which 
 I have since added. They were elocution 
 and ehcrthand." 
 
 The eminent King's Connpel states that 
 it was not until more than thirty years 
 Ir.ter that he became aware of the fact 
 that the shorthajid system which he had 
 learned was that invented by Samuel 
 Taylor in ITSH. He deaoribee with charm- 
 ing humour the "&?a of perplexity" into 
 which the rjradual development of ehort- 
 hand brought him. "A thing lik© the be- 
 gi.nniug of a cobweb," he says, meant 
 '■ expectation " and " a p<su-and-ink sky- 
 rocket " stood for "diiadvantageous." Hie 
 Gfcruggle with the ejstem he sums up with 
 the remark, "It was almost- beartbreak- 
 in?." 
 
 It was during his recent ©ea voyage, 
 after he had abandoned political pursuits, 
 that Sir Edward comploted hie system, 
 and he is prepare<l, he says, to surrender I 
 all claim io originality if, in the multi-:' 
 tude of attempts at a p^rfert shorthand, 
 hifi system lia.s been anticipated. 
 
 It will be aeea at a glance by writers 
 
,of Pitman's plionogranliy that Sir Edward , 
 avoids three material dii&culties^ wliich 
 beset present studenta of the winged - 
 art '•• when he declares that the necessity ; 
 of very fast writing requires that the si^n ■ 
 shall not depend on the thickness of the 
 stroke, or the siz© of the character, or its I 
 exact position in relation to the line, real 
 or imaginary, on which it is written. 
 
 It is interesting to note that four ot the 
 characters which he usee, those for t, 1, h, 
 and n. are similar to those nsed by i'lt- 
 
 °^The special advantage of th© new system, 
 the author urges, m that uo teacher is re- 
 quired. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/easyshorthandOOclariala 
 
EASY SHORTHAND 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR EDWARD CLARKE, K.C. 
 
 REQUIRES NO TEACHER. 
 
 CAN BE WRITTEN WITH PEN, PENCIL, OR STYLOGRAPH. 
 
 EASILY READ. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SIMPKIN, MARSHALL. HAMILTON, KENT & CO. LTD. 
 
 1907 
 
 ONE SHILLING 
 

 SHORTHAND 
 
 It was my good fortune to spend two years of my early boyhood 
 at a boarding school at Edmonton called College House, from 
 which, although the ordinary teaching was very poor, I brought 
 away two acquirements which have been of more value to me in 
 life than any which I have since added. 
 
 They were elocution and shorthand. As to elocution I may 
 speak elsewhere. But my knowledge of shorthand came in this 
 way. 
 
 I noticed that the English master, a Mr. Oakeshott, who 
 for some reason was specially kind to me, used to carry about 
 a little book in which from time to time he made entries in 
 mysterious signs. I asked him to teach me the art, and he gave 
 me a card on which he wrote the shorthand alphabet, a few 
 other characters, and one or two simple rules. I never had or 
 needed any other teaching ; I mastered the symbols, and then it 
 became a habit with me to practise at spare times, or in pre- 
 paring lessons, or when listening to readings or lectures. When 
 I passed to the City Commercial School in Lombard Street 
 
 a2 
 
 1029811 
 
there was more work to be done ; and I found my shorthand, 
 slowly as I then wrote it, very useful. Later on, after I left 
 school, I took to diligent practice ; and the habit of taking down 
 as fully as I could the lectures of Maurice and Brewer at the 
 Working Men's College, and of Barry, and Plumptre, and Henry 
 Morley at King's College, had the double advantage of making 
 me an expert writer and of fixing the substance of the lectures the 
 more firmly in my memory. No opportunity of practice was lost. 
 I used to take a notebook to church and take down the sermons. 
 Those of the Rev. Daniel Moore at Camden Church, Peckham, 
 were most useful ; for he spoke clearly and slowly, and by the 
 time I had filled a dozen notebooks with his discourses I could 
 report him fully. 
 
 Further practice enabled me to do the same with more rapid 
 speakers. I have, however, very seldom been called upon to 
 report speeches. The great value of shorthand to me has been 
 found in other directions. 
 
 I have mentioned the taking notes o.f lectures. In Court, 
 while a junior, I of course had to take notes in longhand, as 
 others might require to use them, but as a leader I have always 
 taken them in a mixture of longhand and shorthand which is very 
 rapidly written and very easy to read. And I have found it most 
 useful to be able to take down the exact words used by a witness 
 or by an opposing counsel in his speech, or by the judge in his 
 summing-up or judgment, or by a speaker to whom I had to 
 reply in the House of Commons. 
 
6 
 
 Again, shorthand has been very valuable in enabling me to 
 copy rapidly extracts from books, or to note down quotations 
 made in conversation or in speeches, or good sayings or good 
 stories which can be set down on any scrap of paper that is 
 handy and made valuable use of afterwards. 
 
 But perhaps to me the most important advantage of writing 
 shorthand has been in the preparation of speeches and the 
 drafting of letters. No speech should ever be made without 
 preparation, nor any important letter without a draft. The use 
 of shorthand in the preparation of speeches gives a vigour and 
 freshness of diction which is apt to be lost in the laborious 
 process of longhand writing; while the process of drafting a 
 letter in shorthand and copying it afterwards actually takes less 
 time than the deliberate production of an undrafted letter, and 
 has the additional advantages of giving opportunity for correc- 
 tion, and leaving a copy in the writer's hands. 
 
 There is yet another important use of shorthand, which is 
 its employment for private correspondence. 
 
 And one of the best methods of studying the art is to engage 
 a friend to exchange regularly letters (not long ones) in short- 
 hand, carefully and not hurriedly written, which will give 
 excellent practice both in writing and transcribing. 
 
 The system which I learned, although I did not know the 
 fact until more than thirty years later, was invented by one 
 Samuel Taylor in 178G. In 1823 a version of this system was 
 issued as ' Universal Stenography, or a new and practical system 
 
6 
 
 of Shorthand, by William Harding, Professor and teacher of 
 Shorthand.' 
 
 He published a fresh edition in 1832 ; and in 1860 a revised 
 version, * with new prefixes, terminations and various other 
 additions,' was put forward by John R. Robinson. These later 
 editions, or rather adaptations, of Taylor were, like most other 
 systems of shorthand, prepared by teachers who were interested 
 in elaborating a science which should require to be taught, rather 
 than in producing a system so simple that teachers might be 
 dispensed with ; and Harding and Robinson between them 
 contrived the sort of system which is described by Charles 
 Dickens in the 38th chapter of * David Copperfield ' : 
 
 ' I bought an approved scheme of the noble art and mystery 
 of stenography (which cost me ten and sixpence) and plunged 
 into a sea of perplexity which brought me, in a few weeks, to 
 the confines of distraction. The changes that were rung upon 
 dots, which in such a position meant such a thing, and in such 
 another position something else, entirely different ; the wonderful 
 vagaries that were played by circles ; the unaccountable con- 
 sequences that resulted from marks like flies' legs ; the tremen- 
 dous effects of a curve in a wrong place, not only troubled my 
 waking hours, but reappeared before me in my sleep. When I 
 had groped my way, blindly, through these difficulties, and had 
 mastered the alphabet, which was an Egyptian Temple in itself, 
 there then appeared a procession of new horrors, called arbitrary 
 characters ; the most despotic characters I have ever known ; 
 
who insisted, for instance, that a thing like the beginning of a 
 cobweb meant " expectation," and that a pen-and-ink sky-rocket 
 stood for " disadvantageous." When I had fixed these wretches 
 in my mind, I found that they had driven everything else out of 
 it ; then, beginning again, I forgot them ; while I was picking 
 them up I dropped the other fragments of the system ; in short, 
 it was almost heart-breaking.' 
 
 More fortunate than the great author, who, however, con- 
 quered all his difficulties and without the help of a teacher 
 made himself an expert shorthand writer, I was ignorant 
 of these mischievous developments, and just used the charac- 
 ters, with only such abbreviations as practice suggested to me ; 
 and when a few years ago I determined to try to popularise 
 a useful art, now too much neglected, and, when it is learned, 
 far too much elaborated, I intended to reproduce the system 
 just as it was shown to me. 
 
 A few months ago the abandonment of the political pursuits 
 which had occupied much of my life gave me leisure to study 
 the subject, and to examine other systems ; and I satisfied 
 myself that the methods which I had found sufficient were 
 capable of great improvement. Modifications suggested them- 
 selves which I have carefully tested, and during a recent sea 
 voyage I wrote many thousands of words, and satisfied myself 
 by thorough personal experience of the practical value of the 
 alterations I had made. So the system to which I now invite 
 attention is not Taylor's, or Harding's, or Kobinson's, and if 
 
8 
 
 in the multitude of attempts at a perfect shorthand this has 
 been anticipated I shall be happy to surrender all claim to 
 originality, while hoping that I may succeed in obtaining a 
 large measure of attention for a system which I believe to be 
 as simple and as easily read as it is possible for shorthand 
 to be. . 
 
THE CONSTEUCTION OF A SYSTEM 
 
 The reason we require shorthand at all is that the forms 
 which we use in writing are far more elaborate than they need 
 be, and therefore take an unnecessarily long time to set down. 
 The most rapid writer of our longhand takes from four to six 
 times as long to write down a sentence as an ordinary person 
 takes in speaking it ; and what we desire in a system of short- 
 hand is that we shall substitute for the cumbrous letters we now 
 use such simple signs as may enable the pen to keep pace with 
 the spoken words, and at the same time set down characters so 
 clear and well-defined that they may without difficulty be read 
 either by the writer or by anyone who is acquainted with the 
 system of signs which he has used. 
 
 The necessity of writing very fast imposes certain conditions 
 which are of great importance. They are that the meaning of 
 the sign shall not depend on the thickness of the stroke, or the 
 size of the character, or its exact position in relation to the line, 
 real or imaginary, on which it is written. It is not impossible, 
 but very difficult and requires long practice, to make distinctions 
 between thick and thin strokes except when writing with pen 
 and ink ; and so a system which makes the meaning depend on 
 such distinctions practically debars the use of the pencil or the 
 
 A3 
 
10 
 
 stylograph, which are far more convenient instruments. If short- 
 hand were only required for the purpose of making notes, or 
 copying extracts, or writing private letters, niceties of position 
 and thickness and size would be easily observed, but it may be 
 safely said that a learner of any system which depends upon the 
 observance of these distinctions will take at least twice as long 
 in becoming qualified for verbatim reporting as he would take if 
 he practised a simpler system. And these distinctions, while 
 they are difficult to observe in writing, add very greatly to the 
 difficulty of transcribing the notes of any but an extremely 
 expert and careful writer. The best system of shorthand is that 
 which provides a set of signs of simple form, each having the 
 same meaning whether it is written large or small, thick or 
 thin, above or below the line of writing. 
 
 Before, however, we attempt to construct such a system it is 
 well to consider our written language, and see whether we 
 require a separate symbol for each letter of our alphabet. A 
 little examination will show us that some of the letters are 
 superfluous. The most prominent fault of our alphabet is the 
 presence of the letter ' c' It is of no use at all, and only makes 
 the learning of the language much more difficult. Genera- 
 tions of children have suffered from the stupidity of alphabet 
 publishers who persist in telling them, quite untruly, that c-a-t 
 spell kat and that c-o-w spell kow. From the alphabet we wish 
 to represent by simple characters, ' c ' may at once be banished, 
 and every sound for which it is used can be represented by * k ' 
 
11 
 
 or ' s.' On examination of the other letters of the alphabet 
 further elisions are found to be possible. Thus ' f ' and ' v ' are 
 practically interchangeable. ' G ' and ' j ' are so similar in 
 sound that one sign may conveniently represent them. Of ' k ' 
 and ' q ' the same may be said. ' X ' might be rendered by ' ks,' 
 but that would be using two signs for one letter, and as * x ' is 
 used but seldom we do not require a very simple character for 
 it. ' Z ' is very rarely used, and the sign which represents ' s ' 
 will be found sufficient. 
 
 We find, therefore, that for the purpose of reproducing in 
 simple forms the consonants of our language only sixteen 
 characters will be required to represent the following letters : 
 
 1. 
 
 w. 
 
 X. 
 
 y- 
 
 Vowels we need not trouble about at present. They will be 
 easily dealt with, but our first business is to find the best signs 
 for these sixteen letters. 
 
 Let us see how many simple signs, straight lines or simple 
 curves, we have at our disposal. They are all contained in the 
 followina: diagram : 
 
 b. 
 
 g-j- 
 
 m. 
 
 s.z. 
 
 h. 
 
 V. 
 
 d. 
 
 k.q. 
 
 P- 
 
 f. v. 
 
 1. 
 
 r. 
 
 a4 
 
12 
 
 Now we arrange them in order of simplicity, remembering 
 that our pen will be travelling from left to right, and that a 
 straight line is preferable to a curve when written in the same 
 direction. 
 
 Let us now appropriate these symbols to the consonants to 
 be represented according to the frequency with which we shall 
 require to use the symbol. This is not the same thing as 
 finding out how often a particular letter appears on a page of 
 print. A letter may occur often, and yet not often require to be 
 indicated by its special symbol. The most important instance 
 of this is the letter ' h,' which occurs very often. But it is often 
 silent and is generally in combination with other letters, as in 
 ' the,' ' they,' ' ch,' ' sh,' ' th ' and ' ght,' for which we shall have 
 special symbols ; and the sign adopted for ' h ' will not need to 
 be often used. So ' h,' although it appears so common, is not a 
 letter to which we must allot one of our simplest signs. 
 
 The result obtained from a careful examination of a large 
 number of passages from different books is that the twelve 
 symbols we require to use most often are those representing the 
 following consonants, in their order of frequency : 
 
 s. n. t. r. d. f. 1. m. p. b. g. k. 
 
 Now to these we apply our simple lines in the order deter- 
 mined by ease of writing, and we have the following alphabet : 
 
13 
 
 s. n. t. r. d. f. 1. m. p. b. g. k. 
 
 — v.^ ' /op//(DoivK)\ r J ~^ V. ) ^^ 
 
 Here are twelve symbols, each a simple line, easily joined 
 together, no rules being required for this, as if the letters are 
 properly formed it is almost impossible to make a mistake ; and 
 these twelve simple lines represent no less than 85 per cent, of 
 the consonant sounds we require to express. 
 
 There seems to be one exception, and only one, to the state- 
 ment made above as to the easy joining of the letters, and that 
 is when * m ' is followed by 'd.' The exception, however, is 
 apparent and not, real, for the ' m ' can be written so as to 
 remove the difficulty. 
 
 The straight stroke sloping from right to left is the only 
 character which can quite conveniently be written either up or 
 down, and it therefore does duty for two letters, * r ' and * d.' 
 
 There are yet four consonants for which we require signs, 
 ' h,' ' w,' * X ' and ' y,' and for these the following symbols will 
 be found convenient : 
 
 h. w. X. y. 
 
 / ^ ^ / 
 
 The ' h ' looks an awkward letter, but in practice it can 
 generally be dropped. The ' w ' is not inconvenient, and if the 
 reversed form of it, 'i^, , be used for ' wh ' when the ' h ' 
 requires to be sounded and for the words 'who' and 'which,' 
 
14 
 
 the reading of notes will be made more easy. ' Y ' can often 
 be dispensed with altogether ; it usually occurs as ' ly ' or 
 ' lly,' and then a dot can be substituted for the termination. 
 
 The learner who wants to make himself a good shorthand- 
 writer in a short time should pause at this page, and before he 
 troubles about vowels or abbreviations should set diligently to 
 work to learn the sixteen symbols, and to practise them until he 
 not only writes as if instinctively the proper character for any 
 letter that is named to him, but writes that character of the 
 proper size, and with the firm straight stroke or the definite 
 curve which is required. In this as in other studies, people 
 often fail to learn properly because they play about with the 
 later exercises before they have quite mastered the first. 
 
 But very little patience is required. Two or three hours 
 (half an hour at a time) spent in careful writing of the signs, 
 for at this stage speed should be quite disregarded, and half an 
 hour a day for a fortnight spent in writing separate letters, not 
 words, dictated in haphazard fashion from any book that is at 
 hand, will make any intelligent person master of this part of the 
 art of shorthand. The one important thing is that the letters 
 should be written clearly, firmly, and of the proper size. In 
 shorthand, as in longhand, some find it natural to write in larger 
 characters, some in small. I think the size shown in this book, 
 ^ of an inch, will be found convenient, but any size may be 
 adopted so long as (and this is of the very highest importance) 
 the letters are all of the same size. The chief difficulty in 
 
15 
 
 transci'ibing i!otes arises from carelessness in this respect. An 
 exception to the rule as to equality of size may be made in the 
 case of double consonants, which can be marked by writing the 
 shorthand symbol about half as large again as the usual size. 
 
 of "X off \ later '1/ letter ^ rub "V rubber 'v^ 
 
 Double Letters. 
 
 There are a few more characters to be learned. Certain 
 letters occur so frequently in combination that much time will be 
 saved by expressing them by simple signs. These are * ch,' * sh,' 
 ' th,' and ' ght.' 
 
 For ' ch ' we use one of the twelve elementary signs which is 
 less easy to write than the others and could not conveniently be 
 used for the letter * h.' The four signs we now adopt are :— 
 
 ch. sh. th. ght (written upwards) 
 
 It may be as well to give examples of their use : — 
 church CX shall ^-f this j light ^ 
 
 The * sh ' should be used for ' tial ' : partial ^ , — ' , martial 
 
 : 'gh,' when sounded as in 'rough' and 'tough,' is 
 represented by ' f,' and when as in ' plough ' by ' w.' 
 
16 
 
 rough 
 
 /\ tough I plough V"^^ 
 
 The sign for * th ' is not apphed to ' the,' for which the sim- 
 plest of arhitraries will hereafter be given. 
 
 The perpendicular stroke, written upwards, for ' ght,' is 
 particularly useful. It often occurs and cannot be mistaken for 
 anything else. 
 
 bright J sight _J might j thought f 
 
 The signs on this page must, of course, be learned as thoroughly 
 and written as carefully as the consonants given before. 
 
 Vowels and Vowel Sounds. 
 We now come to consider the important question of the use 
 of vowels, and as it is evident that we shall occasionally want 
 to indicate them, the following signs may usefully be adopted. 
 They should be written not larger than one-third of the size of 
 ordinary characters : 
 
 a. e. i. 0. u. 
 
 In writing shorthand for purposes other than very rapid 
 reporting, the insertion of vowels is often necessary, but the 
 fantastic spelling which renders our language so hard to learn 
 would make it absurd to reproduce the vowels actually used in 
 longhand. 
 
17 
 
 There are, however, vowel sounds which must be indicated ; 
 except, indeed, in cases where the notes will be transcribed by 
 the writer while the matter is fresh in his mind. 
 
 A short vowel between two consonants need never be in- 
 serted ; the context will show what word is meant. Thus ^ 
 
 bt. represents 'bat,' * bet,' 'bit,' and 'but,' and nothing more is 
 wanted. But ' bt ' are the only consonants in other one- 
 syllabled words having very varying sound and meaning : 
 
 bait beet boat 
 
 bate bite boot 
 
 beat bout 
 
 How can we find a simple method of distinguishing these ? The 
 difficulty is solved by dividing the vowel sounds into three 
 groups, and indicating each group by a small sign to be placed 
 at the junction of the two consonants. 
 
 ' or ' made downwards may denote the long ' a ' sound ; 
 - the 'e' or ' i,' and , or | made upwards the 'o' or 'u* 
 or ' ou.' So the words will be written : 
 
 S 
 
 bait. bate. 
 
 ^- beat. beet. bite, 
 
 boat. boot. bout. 
 
 s 
 
18 
 
 This is not perfect, but it will be found quite sufticient for 
 practical purposes. 
 
 It may be useful to give some examples : 
 
 clock ^-Y''^^ cloak ^-.j^ clique /^'^^ claque ^y^^^ 
 
 love 
 
 r\ life r\ 
 
 loaf r\ 
 
 laugh r^ 
 
 not 
 
 ^ note ^ 
 
 neat "^f 
 
 naught ^ 
 
 Where the vowel contributes the first syllable of the word, as in 
 ' amen,' ' eternal,' ' iconoclast,' ' omission,' it should be in- 
 dicated. This may be done by writing the proper character for 
 the vowel in front of and separate from the first consonant, or, 
 which I think better, by joining to that consonant the mark of 
 the introductory vowel sound. 
 
 ' Amen ' j^ or ^_/^-^ ' eternal ' v. /vV ®^ ly^^ 
 
 'iconoclast'/. 
 
 Care must be taken that these introductory vowels, although 
 clearly made, shall be very small, or they may be mistaken for 
 ordinary letters. When the first consonant is ' s ' and the vowel 
 sound is ' e ' or ' i,' the sign must be written separately, as 
 
 - J 'easy.' When the first consonant is M,' 'm,' 'n,' or 
 ' X,' and the introductory vowel is ' e,' no mark need be made, 
 for the sound of the consonant is * el,' ' em,' ' en,' or ' ex,' 
 
19 
 
 When the final vowel is sounded it should he indicated, if 
 required, in the same way as the introductory vowel : 
 
 out 1 af "x ef orif "X of "X 
 
 too [ tic 1_ ultra /^/^ 
 
 Vowels and vowel sounds do not often need to be used in 
 taking notes ; but if those notes are to be put away for future 
 use, the vowel sounds should be put in as soon as possible after 
 the notes are taken. 
 
 "When put in they must be written with great care. Half the 
 difficulty found in transcribing shorthand comes from mistakes 
 or carelessness in writing the characters. 
 
 Prefixes, Teeminations, and Abbreviations. 
 
 It will be admitted that so far no great burden has been 
 imposed on the memory of the student of this system of short- 
 hand. He has been called upon to learn twenty-eight characters 
 in all ; and the size of these characters, and the way in which 
 they shall be joined to each other, are matters left to his own 
 discretion. Directly he begins to write, it will occur to him that 
 there are methods of using the signs which he has learned which 
 will save very much time. There are certain prefixes and termi- 
 nations often occurring which are troublesome to write in full, 
 and can quite easily be simplified. They are the prefixes ' con,' 
 * inter,' ' enter,' 'intro,' 'sub,' ' super,' ' satis,' 'multi,' 'magni,' 
 
20 
 
 or ' mani,' ' trans,' and the terminations * lly ' or ' ly,' ' tion ' and 
 'ing.' 
 
 Each of these can be represented by a single sign, and only 
 one of those signs is one which the student has not already 
 learned. 
 
 ' Con ' is represented by a * k ' over the first letter of the 
 second syllable of the word : 
 
 contract [/^ converse '^ / — consist ^^^ 
 • Enter,' ' inter,' or * intro,' by an ' n ' before the next syllable : 
 enterprise --^/^ interdict ^-^ introduce v_^ 
 
 * Sub ' by an ' s ' under the next letter : 
 
 substitute 
 
 submit _y1 suborn 
 
 * Satis ' and ' super ' by an ' s over the next letter : 
 satisfy \ /^ superintend ^ superfluous \/ 
 
 * Multi,' or * magni,' or * mani,' by an ' m ' similarly used : 
 nultiple -^"^^ manifest \ magniloquent Jf ^ 
 
 * Trans ' by a * t ' before the next consonant : 
 
 transparent |~\/^ transitory ■ jJ^ 
 
21 
 
 The termination ' ly ' or lly ' can be indicated by a dot at the 
 end of the word : 
 
 finally \ . strongly ~l^^ radically /f.^ 
 
 The very common termination ' tion ' should be represented 
 by an ' s ' under the word : 
 
 intention (^_y formation \y^~~ substitution 
 
 The other termination very frequently occurring is ' ing/ and 
 for this a loop at the end of the word is an easily- written and 
 quite distinctive sign : 
 
 being v lighting ,' making C^ wing ^-^^ 
 
 These abbreviations do not, with the exception of the last- 
 named, introduce any new sign, and they will be found to save 
 a great deal of time, and make the notes more easy to read. 
 Some useful abbreviations are almost obvious. Thus a 
 
 rather long * f ' \ will do for * very ' ; but I warn the student 
 
 against the practice, recommended in some books, of making 
 a letter stand for one or more words. Thus it is proposed that 
 ) shall stand not only for 'go,' 'age,' and ' ^g%,' which it 
 properly represents, but also for ' god ' and * give.' Nothing 
 whatever is gained by this practice, which taxes the student's 
 memory, gives no appreciable saving of time, and makes the 
 notes more difficult to read. 
 
22 
 
 Certain words often used together may conveniently be 
 joined in writing and somewhat abbreviated. The following arc 
 useful and cannot give trouble. 
 
 has been or have been (^ 
 
 will be ^~\^ 
 
 shall be ' V^ 
 
 will have been / 
 
 shall have been /^ 
 
 with regard to g~^ 
 
 It is easy to construct abbreviations ; but I strongly advise 
 caution in this respect, for the gain of time is dearly purchased. 
 A popular system of shorthand should be like the Morse 
 signals, which all can use ; not like a Marconi message, which 
 requires the recipient to be specially attuned. On the next 
 page I give a list of some useful abbreviations which will 
 illustrate the way in which they may most safely be con- 
 structed. There are some words which are particularly clumsy 
 when written in full. Such a word is ' acknowledgment ' 
 
 '^^ys-V/ ^^ . That is obviously a troublesome word to 
 write. 
 
23 
 
 Let us take the first letter and write another across it thus 
 )0( and we get a good symbol for ' acknowledge,' and by 
 
 adding an ' m ' thus ^^-^-^ w® ^^^'^^ ^or this clumsy word a sign 
 which is easily remembered, for there is nothing arbitrary about it. 
 
 Abbreviations. 
 
 These may best be produced by taking the simple signs and 
 using each of them as the foundation of a symbol for a word 
 which would take long to write in full. But in doing this three 
 rules must be observed. 
 
 1. The letter used as the foundation of the symbol must 
 always be the consonant which would first be written if the 
 whole word were written in full. 
 
 2. The other part of the symbol must be the consonant 
 which would be written next. 
 
 3. Where the symbol is used for two words, they must not 
 be both substantives or both adjectives, unless the character of 
 the words makes it almost impossible to doubt which is meant. 
 Thus the same symbol may safely be used for ' advertisement ' 
 or 'devolution,' but not for 'devolution' and 'development' 
 where the context might often leave it doubtful which was 
 meant. 
 
 It is not expected that the following symbols should be 
 learned by heart like the simple signs, but if the student will 
 
24 
 
 carefully consider and copy them he will find that the first time 
 he has to write one of the words they represent he will naturally 
 think of the contraction which has been here suggested : 
 
 Fully Weitten. 
 
 V^ bj. Object J^ 
 
 )^ bbr. Abbreviate V^n. 
 
 l^bs 
 
 \{ dv. 
 
 / 
 
 Abstract 
 
 (Observe V_ 
 Observation 
 
 I Advertisement 
 
 Development 
 
 \r~vM 
 
 I Fortunate 
 V fr. - 
 
 Franchise 
 
y gr. Gradual yT 
 ^ hw. However ''Nv/ 
 
 } js. Justification 
 
 ^ kt. 
 
 Controversy 
 
 Contradiction [^ 
 
 ^ It. 
 
 I Literature .-'H/l/ 
 
 Literary 
 
 Manufacture 
 
 ^ mf. i Manufactory 
 
 Manifold 
 
 ^-"v7 
 
26 
 
 Probability 
 
 Procrastination 
 
 7- rs. Responsible 
 
 Z^ sni. Something ^ 
 
 -X, sf. Satisfactory ^^ J 
 
 I tr. Trustworthy ^/~U/]/' 
 
 v\/ nv. Nevertheless 
 
 v|^ nt. Notwithstanding 
 
 «7< wd. Withdraw /U. 
 
 <i±/ wht. Whatever 
 
y: will'. 
 
 27 
 
 r 
 Wherever k^^^^ 
 
 I Whithersoever "H/ 
 
 ■^ xt. Extravagant 
 
 "-/^ xr. Extraordinary 
 
 j^ chr. Character (^O/ 
 
 ^ thl. Theological Y^\^ 
 
 •^ shr. Shorthand ^-/(^ 
 
 It is obvious that the construction of symbols of this kind is 
 capable of almost indefinite extension ; and if the rules laid 
 down above are strictly observed the shorthand writer will 
 gain much in speed by adopting abbreviations and will find 
 no increased difficulty in reading his notes ; but I repeat my 
 warning as to the danger of resorting too freely to an expedient 
 which, for all except those who are engaged in verbatim reporting, 
 is quite unnecessary, and prevents the use of the notes by others. 
 
28 
 
 Akbiteaeies. 
 
 It only now remains for me to mention three very simple 
 and very useful arbitraries. 
 
 'And' is indicated by a comma on the line of writing 
 thus : , 
 
 * The ' is represented by a comma above the line : ' 
 
 * They ' by the following sign : /. 
 
 Punctuation. 
 
 This is only needed in correspondence or in copying extracts, 
 and the only difficulty is with the comma, which should be 
 written from left to right, to distinguish it from the sign 
 for * and.' The colon and the semicolon are used as in long- 
 hand, and the full stop is not needed, as a space can be left 
 between one sentence and another. 
 
 For dates and numbers the ordinary numerals should be 
 used. 
 
 It is the special advantage of the system of shorthand which 
 has now been described that no teacher is required. But I 
 would point out to schoolmasters and schoolmistresses and 
 parents and to members of families that very valuable help may 
 be given to those who are studying the art by dictation, by 
 correspondence, and by the exchange of exercises for the purpose 
 of transcription. 
 
29 
 
 A schoolmaster will find his boys, however young they are, 
 very keen to learn shorthand when once its many advantages 
 have been explained ; and if he will occasionally, and only for a 
 short time at first, dictate single letters or sentences to them and 
 then let each boy transcribe first his own notes and then the 
 notes of one of his fellows, he will find it a popular and useful 
 variation of the ordinary lessons. He should not in early days 
 dictate separate words, for when the exercises are written, as 
 they at first should be, without the vowel sounds being inserted, 
 the difficulty caused by the fact that the same consonants 
 represent several words only to be distinguished by the context 
 will discourage the learners. And in exercises for speed it is 
 best to let learners write something which they know by heart 
 (this is excellent practice for the solitary student) or to dictate 
 something with which they are so familiar that no difficulty can 
 be felt from imperfectly hearing the dictation. In transcribing 
 exercises when the vowel sounds have not been used, the long- 
 hand consonants should be written under the shorthand charac- 
 ters. When the whole sentence is thus completed it will be far 
 more easily read than if it is taken word by word. 
 
30 
 
 Illustrations. 
 God Save the King. 
 
 ? -\' ^ 
 
 (5-^ 
 
 >1 
 
 ^ 
 
 ~\ 
 
 ''■^ 
 
,r 
 
 . ? 
 
 31 
 
 ^.f 
 
 7 ^rv" / -, cy 
 y^.J Oakeshon e^ V 
 
 ly t U / J/ M/~ 
 
 y V 
 
 S-^s 
 
 ^ 
 
 9^ 
 
 7 
 
 ^1 J.^ 
 
 
 (See ante, pp. 3 and 4.) 
 
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