256 4 ^5^ I Improved system of stenography ^ "^^ William Wilson a: THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES i^ \ A,*~ AN UTTTIR 9AIUS, TF.r IMPROVED SYSTEM S T E N GRr^"* BY WHICH A SPEAKER CAN BE FOLLOWED VERBATIM. WITH OBSERVATIONS AND RULES ENABLING THE STUDENT SPEEDILY TO ATTAIN A COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE OF THE ART, WITHOUT A MASTER BY WILLIAM WILSON Festinatione extenditur vita. PAISLEY :— PUBLISHED BY MURRAY & STEWART, W. WOTHERSPOON, J. MOTHERWELL, AND W. M'FARLANE GLASGOW:— J. M'LEOD ; EDINBURGH:—!. MENZIES; AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. .MDCCCXLVI. PAISLEY . PRINTED BY NEILSOX AXD lUURRAY. PREFACE. The Public may perhaps desire to know why the author of tliese pages has thought proper to add anotlier to the many works already published on the subject of Stenography. Without making the affirmation that his system is " briefer than any other," or that he has followed some formerly unbeaten track, he begs to refer to the Work itself, confident that an enlightened public will award the palm of merit where such is justly due, and believing that whatever may be their verdict in regard to it, there is at least awaiting it their fair and unbiassed scrutiny. He humbly flatters himself that the present system not only em- bodies much that is in a manner novel, and at the same time of essential service to students, but that the arrangement of its several parts, with the clear and explicit nature of the instruc- tions which it contains, is such as to render unnecessary the aid of a teacher. Yet, notwithstanding, he would not have ven- tured on the present publication had it not been to meet the urgent and repeated solicitations of many esteemed and valued friends, who, from the occasional snatches which he was privi- leged to impart them, were led to think highly of the merits of his system, and to desire its appearance in some tangible shape. 448297 IV He begs to solicit a candid expression of opinion in regard to it by his friends of the Press ; and, whatever may be its ultimate fate in the mind of the public, should its appearance have con- tributed in any degree to arouse their attention to the practical utility and importance of the art, it will afford satisfaction sufficient to the mind of THE AUTHOR. Paisley, ]oth January, 1846. INTRODUCTION Writing is an invention which has been fraught with incalcu- lable good to the human race. The art which enables man to preserve for the edification of a present and of future gene- rations, those "thoughts that breathe, and words that burn,'' which so frequently distinguish the eftasions of human intellect, must be admitted on every hand to be one of no small importance. It may be divided into two great branches, viz., Caligraphy and Stenography — caligraphy comprehending long, and stenography short- hand writing ; and no one can be considered to possess an adequate intimacy with writing, who is not acquainted with both of these divisions, any more than a man could be esteemed an adept at a science, whose knowledge did not extend beyond one particular branch of it. There exists no lack of evidence to prove that caligraphy is incapable in itself of answering all the purposes of writing, just as the simple rules of arithmetic are of themselves inadequate to the solution of the more profound mathematical problems. The operations of human intellect are not unfrequently the most rapid in their nature, and often has the caligrapher had to lament the loss of ideas which came crowding on the tablet of his memory, before he had accomplished the extension of others having the claim to priority. The human voice is calculated for the most astonishing velocity of utterance, and many of those every-day spontaneous effusions, it is of the utmost consequence to preserve. It is, therefore, matter of surprise that the progress of steno- graphy has not hitherto been more remarkable. It commends itself by its varied merits to the notice of every man of refine- ment, whilst its utility to the man of literature is beyond all question. Presenting as it does to the clergyman, the lawyer, and indeed almost every class in the community, such a vast saving in that most valuable of all commodities, time, it is cer- tainly astonishing that its merits are not more generally appre- ciated, and tliat its practice is not more systematically adopted. Public indifference in the matter is attributed by many to the difficulty which is said to exist in acquiring a knowledge of the art. Its great value, however, after it is acquired, ought to be kept in view ; and he who, it may be, having practised it for a temporary period, throws it aside as a thing of trifling value, little reflects that the initiatory process presents all the difficulties which are to be encountered, and that the more fully its prin- ciples become developed to the mind, in place of its practice being felt irksome, it is followed more in the light of a pleasure than anything else. If but one-half the amount of time which is gene- rally spent in the acquisition of long-hand writing were awarded to its practice, it could not but make signal progress amongst our population. The use of short-hand characters in reporting, may be said to be of comparatively recent origin. Prior to their adoption, all its purposes were in a manner answered by the common caligraphic letters, in omitting vowels and in using se- veral methods of abbreviation now practised by stenographers. By the introduction, however, of stenogrtiphic characters, a new and before undreamt of field of abridgment was opened up. First, the characters themselves could be written in at least one- third of the time ; and second, by their aid the combination of sounds, the most legitimate of all methods of abbreviation, could be carried to an extent far beyond possibility with the ordinary letters. In the formation of a stenographic alphabet, two things require to be kept in view, viz., that the characters be of the simplest possible description, so as to be easily and speedily formed, and that they be so different one from another as not to be in any case liable to mistake. Of the alphabets hitherto pub- lished, no one combines these tNYO advantages to a greater extent than Taylor's. To it, therefore, the author of the present treatise has to acknowledge himself in a measure indebted. A practical experience of some years has suggested to his mind the propriety and utility of many things not comprehended in Mr. Taylors, or in any subsequently published system. These have been em- bodied in the present work, and will, he trusts, be found by others, as they have been by himself, improvements of a very de- cided character. There is no system which he has yet seen, un- encumbered with impediments to a learner's progress, and certainly not one which does not 'omit noticing much that is essentially requisite to the easy acquisition of a sound prac- tical knowledge of the art. The system by Harding is objec- tionable in many respects ; and the preparatory process of writing in long-hand, inculcated by Templeton, can be regarded as nothing short of an unprofitable waste of time. Mr. Pitman, of Bath, has lately propounded a system called Phonography, and arrogates to it an adaptation to supersede both our long and short-hand writing. Although the practicability and the desirableness of its superseding our common writing could with propriety be ad- mitted, yet, from various considerations, which it may be out of place to specify here, it can never be expected satisfactorily to supply the place of stenography in the matter of reporting. No S5"stem of writing can be considered a good one where the cha- racters so run into each other as to render the work of decipher- ing a matter of difficulty, if not in some cases of absolute impos- sibility. The characters used in the system now submitted to the public, possess all the attributes of simplicity, and more of dissimilarity than any others which have met the author's notice. The system will, therefore, it is humbly conceived, be found to possess the double advantage of being speedily written and easily deciphered; and it is believed that there are few systems whert the characters so easily unite with each other, and where the writing' presents suqh an appearance of compactness and beauty. In tlie preparation of its details, due attention has been paid to a clearness and regularity of arrangement ; many things have been discarded which acted as incumbTances on formerly published works of a like nature; and nothing has been omitted which could be thought to facilitate, in any degree, the learner's progress. The author, however, is far from laying claim to a character for it, which has been assumed in one notable instance, namely, that of perfection. He believes that there may yet be much room for improvement ; and he who would seek to stay its march be- yond his own petty achievements, betrays an amount of egotis- tical impudence which could scarcely be expected on the part of a sound-thinking man in these days of enlightenment. Yes, man and the works of man are destined to a steady, an endless pro- gression — a progression which alone can terminate with his earth- ly career. THE SYSTEM. Rule I. — Practise the alphabet. Endeavour first to form the letters neatly, and then to attain rapidity in writing them. Do not proceed one step farther until the whole alphabet be tho- roughly impressed on the mind. The alphabet, as will be seen on reference to plate 1, consists of Consonants, Irregulars, and Yowels. The consonants are either single, double, treble, or quadruple. A dot is placed to each consonant, in order to show the pupil where to begin in forming the characters, and, of course, the consonants will occupy his attention prior to the vowels, as they are in all cases made first, and the vowels where used afterwards written to them. Three of the single consonants represent each two letters of our common alphabet, viz., f and v, g and j, and s and z. Their ge- neral similarity of sound preventing any confusion which would otherwise arise, amply justifies the arrangement adopted in regard to them in the present system. The letter c forms no part of the Stenographic alphabet. When sounded hard as in " can," the cha- racter for k is used ; when soft, as in " cease," that for s. The only difference between r and d is, that r is written up, and d, down. They cannot be mistaken when joined to other consonants ; but when r stands alone, or is used as a prefix or affix, the small cha- racter for it must be written. W, at the beginning of a word, with the loop upwards, represents the double consonant " wh," the sound of which is heard in such words as where, whither, &c. As wh seldom occurs except as an initial consonant, the w may be turned with the loop either way, as is found most con- 10 venient for the purpose of joining, in any other part of a word. In various systems of Stenograpliy the douhle consonant ng, is represented by a circle, which can only be used at the end of a word. In the present system the circle is used for the termina- tion "tion," and a character is allotted to ng which maybe joined to any other letter, and used in any part of a word. It is there- fore of service in such words as angel, english, engage, as well as where the ng is the final letter, as thing, string. The character for nk will be found of material advantage in such words as uncle, bank, thank, rank. The double consonants bl and pi may be formed from b and p, by turning the loop from the left, as bless — see No. 1. plate 1; please — see No. 2. plate 1 ; but they, together with the quadruple consonants, and the treble conso- nants, nng, nnk, nks, nch, nsh, and nth, can only be used at the beginning of words. The irregulars are used as alphabeticals, and do not enter regularly into the composition of words. The vowels are nine in number, and are partly determined by their positions along the consonants. Rule II. — Learn to join the characters properly. This will be at first best attained by writing over several times the table of joinings on plate 2, which exhibits the best method of joining any two consonants. .The vowels, of course, do not re- quire joining. It will be observed that, there arc various letters of the alphabet, viz., "- the looped ones, witli two characters." These are required for convenience in joining. The letter "b," for instance, joining more readily with " m," having the loop downwards, and " 1" being more easily joined to " m" with the loop upwards. In order to ascertain the manner of joining any two characters, we look on the table of joinings, just as we would to find the product of two numbers in a multiplication table. Supposing we desire to. find how b and p are joined, we run along from b in the column at the side of the plate, until we come to the square exactly below p in the column along the top. If we n wish to see how f and n are joined, we take f and pass along un- til we come below n, and so on with the other letters. Rule III. — In writing, leave out most of the vowels. The learner may experience some little difficulty in doing this at first, but in the course of a little practice he will have become perfectly reconciled to it. First-rate short-hand writers seldom introduce them. The words " man, than, tear, bless, first, tell," will, upon this principle, be written " mn, thn, tr, bis, frst, tl," In cases where the writing is to be laid aside for some time, it may be necessary to insert the sounded vowels. On plate 1, will be found examples, to which the learner is referred when desirous of ascertaining the proper position of a vowel. The fol- lowing will be found in short-hand on plate 4, as an example of writing where vo\vels are introduced, but which the student will the better appreciate when he has gone through the remaining rules. EXERCISE WITH VOWELS.— Plate 4. In nothing has the corruption of our nature and the worldly spirit which it generates been more apparent, than in the obscur- ing of that divine light which removes our ignorance, in the per- version of that sacred truth which sanctifies our spirits, and in the neglect of that holy and perfect example, whicli is to us the pattern of all righteousness.* Rule IV. — Write always according to sound. In no case in- * From a Sermon on the Heroism of the Christian spirit, by the Rev. P. Brewster. 12 sert a letter which is not distinctly heard in the pronunciation of a word. Thus — would is written wd. calm is written km. could kd. balm bm. light taught It. tt. psalm lamb sm Im. eight at. 'dumb dm. See No. 3. plate 1 comb km. hymn hm. night nt. autumn autm. reign deign gnaw rn. dn. nau. See No. 5, plate 1. psalter . . . sltr. See No. 4. plate 1 • answer pshaw nsr. shau knife knock nf. Ilk. See No . 6. plate 1. half hf. write rt. calf kf. wTong rng. talk tk wretch rch. w^alk wk. judge jj- baulk ... bk. soften ... / sfn. Where ph and gh sound like f, f must be written ; where ch sounds like sh, k, q, and h, write these letters, as, character w^ritten krktr. philosophy written flsf. laugh ... If. launch ... Insh. choir loch qr. Ih. The letter *' h" is seldom inserted in the middle, and is often omitted at the beginning of words by prefixing the vowel, as dishonour — dsnr., honour — onr. See No. 7* pl^^^ 1. W is not often used in the middle, and never at the end of a 13 word. Letters such as "p" in contempt, "d" in ** groundwork," and "b" in "number," may, with perfect propriety, be left out. "When two letters of the same name come together in a word without an intervening vowel, they are represented by one letter, as manner — mnr. See No. 8. plate 1. If a vowel intervene, the d/ish and semi-circle characters are made twice the usual size ; if a looped character, the loop is made double the ordinary size, as lifty. See No. 9. plate 1. ninety. do. 10. do. 1. popery. do. 11. do. 1. In all cases, the sound more than the orthography of words is to be attended to. The learner may now write exercises composed of words of one and two syllables, such as — EXERCISE I.— Plate 3. Three boys left their home one day. They had not gone more than a mile, when one of them was caught up by a bird of prey. The bird flew away with him to his nest, and, no doubt, would have done him some harm, but a man who was on the hills shot the bird in the head with his gun, and then both the boy and the bird fell down on the grass. When the boy saw that he w^as safe, he was so glad that at first he could not speak. The man, who had a kind heart, took him to his home, and did all he could to make him feel happy. 14 EXERCISE IL— Plate 3. Summer has now come. Nature has now a lively and a pleas- ing aspect. The trees, which in winter were bare/ are now co- vered with leaves. The fields look well. The birds are chant- ing their sweet and stirring notes. The rain, which falls now and then, is the means of making all things look fresh, and all that can make Nature look dull seems to have fled at the glad approach of Summer/ Rule V. — Having attained a tolerable accuracy in the writing of words of one and two syllables, proceed to introduce the pre- fixes and affixes. Many words of two syllables and upwards can be divided into parts. Some may be divided into three parts — the prefix, the root, and the affix, such as convenience. Others consist of the prefix and root, or the root and affix, such as perform, and fugi- tive. In the word convenience, " con " is the prefix, " veni " is the root or body of the word, and " ence " is the affix. " Per " is the prefix, and " form" is the root of the word " p.erform." In regard to " fugitive," " fugi" is the root, and " tive" is the affix. Each prefix and affix is represented by a single letter of the alphabet, thus, convenience is written k-vn-n. See No. 12. plate 1. perform ... p-frm. do. 13. ^do. 1. fugitive ... fg-^^' .97 18 tution from every sacrilegious touch, as the high priest of his calling, with a pious zeal. The feelings and the rights of Eng- lishmen were enshrined in his heart ; and with their united force braced every nerve, possessed every faculty, and communi- cated warmth and vital energy to every part of his being. The whole man moved under this impulse. He felt the cause of liberty as his own. He resented every injury done to her, as an injury done to himself, and every attempt to defend it as an insult upon his understanding. He did not stay to dispute about words, about nice distinctions, about trifling forms. He laughed at the attempts of little retailers of logic to entangle him in senseless argument. He did not come there as to a debating club or law court to start questions and hunt them down, to wind and un- wind the web of sophistry, to pick out the threads and untie every knot with scrupulous exactness, to bandy logic with every pretender to a paradox, to examine, t6 sift evidence, to dissect a doubt and halve a scruple, to weigh folly and knavery in scales together, and see on which side the balance preponderated, to prove that liberty, truth, virtue, and justice, were good things, or that slavery and corruption were bad things. He did not try to prove those truths which did not require any proof, but to make others feel theni with the same force that he did, and to tear off the flimsy disguises with which the sycophants of power attempted to cover them. The business of an orator is not to convince but to persuade, not to inform but to rouse the mind, to build upon the habitual prejudices of mankind (for reason of itself will do nothing), and to add feeling to prejudice and action to feeling — Hazlitt. If a sufiicient degree of attention has been paid by the learner to the six preceding Rules and the observations which have' been founded on them, in order to become a good short-hand writer he has only to attend properly to Rule YII. — Practise with zeal, and persevere with earnest- ness. 19 The best method of practice is for the student to write some pieces of composition, read to him slowly by a person whom he has procured for the purpose. As he finds himself advancing, the individual may be made to read more quickly, and thus will he smoothly and steadily progress. Should he find it inconve- nient to procure a reader, he ought to employ himself copying off a few speeches or essays. In conversation, when any uncommon words occur, he ought to reflect on how they would be formed in stenography. After a little practice, he may attempt to follow some slow and deliberate speaker, and though he should at first experience a diiB&culty in keeping up with him, he must not be discouraged, but take down as much as he can, and he will find, that the more he practises the more he w411 be able to ^vrite down, and he may soon attain a degree of proficiency which will entitle him to be called a verbatim reporter. The speakers most easily reported are those generally termed eloquent, who place the proper emphasis upon the words, and who have a just regard to the stops or punctuation. The greatest difficulty which the student will experience, will be in following such speakers as hurry out their words without arrangement or without connection, whose endeavour appears to be, rather to astonish their hearers by their loquacity, than delight them by the beauty and elegance of their delivery and composition. Force of language consists neither in a multiplicity of words, nor in ra- pidity of utterance ; and, although the reporter may sometimes lose a few words, he has still the consolation left, that the pro- ductions of this class of speakers are not always worthy of the trouble of reporting. However, in cases of difficulty, such words only should be left out as the sense will supply. A black lead pencil marked H.H.H. which may be procured at any stationer's shop, is best for writing with, as it preserves its point for a considerable length of time. The paper used OiUght to be tolerably good in quality. The pupil is recommended to read over what he writes, at 20 least as often as he can find time to do so. In this way his mind will become more familiar with the characters, and not only will he acquire a greater fluency in reading, but this familiarity will be the means of enabling him to write much more swiftly. In conclusion, he is urged to PERSEVERE. -f WILSON'S STENOGRAPHY. c c ?- .-t - ^ Cvl ^ ) IH u '\.»^"^N<\.< TiTTfTTT rai^^^^-^-^- llllPSI! -^~"i i <=! - I ■ tj S ^ §" 1^ •^s r^" V2 y. : • -J ' if \M^"\^>j%^^V(^e ^y^K^'^^^' rc ^ ^ ^ E IB 5v r<, ^ ^ ^ ^ « «. ^ ^ '^ ^ ^ 0. 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J * T t V r & ? vOerest- M { T pJ-Lr,,czp.T^- «fz;u,rt^ztay /I -\ -f- + < estaWtsJi, - U„i7U7-,t^u tr=v 1- extlTU- — r / ChTZd- Si:ru;zZe- TMrd TaM^ <-/. . (■^•/i??tf^w«r. ■uflit xl ^ ? A- nurff, -ourn rcuL /m/u stau. H mn W/LSON'S STENOGRAPHY. PLA T£ J I^^EH CIS B S. -Ea:£7vise /"'^ ^ / -- - , /-- n , V , ' / ^f ^. ^ % f •, ^' ' , %y1 W C I xe? rise 2"^ p- \ ^u r /^ eV Y- - V c - r° — \ ---X ./ c^^ JExe/rise 5'^ 5AJUAS. Til THE LIBRARY UNIVERSi f O/ CAUFORNUI LOS AiNGELBS UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. FonnL9 — 157n-10,'48(Bl039) Z^6 Wilson - '}J699± An iraproved DEMCO LIBRARY SUPPLIES Madison New Haven L Wis. Cona. .