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Isaac Pitman on Need for Shorthand (1852)
Advantages of Shorthand (1852)
This excerpt is taken from Sir Isaac Pitman's book "A
Manual of Phonography" of 1852 where he describes in detail the need
for an improved writing system:
Isaac Pitman on Need For
Shorthand
To this general disregard of the principles of a true orthography,
in the spelling of the English language, may be referred much of the
educational destitution that is seen among the working classes of
this country. It is also the cause of a great waste of time in
attaining the elements of learning among all classes of society.
The
realization of a reformed system of orthography, by which these
evils would be removed, many practical educators have considered as
highly desirable, though it has generally been thought to be
unattainable.
That which few had courage even to hope for, has been given to the
world through the apparently unimportant circumstance of the
publication, in 1837, of a new system of shorthand, based on an
analysis of the English spoken language.
The author of this system
of Phonography had originally no intention to disturb the
established orthography of the language, and in the 3rd edition of
his work, published in 1840, he observed, "it is, of course,
utopian, to hope to change the printed medium of intercourse of the
millions who speak the English language; but it is not extravagant,
or hopeless, to attempt to find a substitute for the complicated
system of writing which we at present employ."
It may, perhaps, not be inappropriate to observe that Phonography,
with all the intellectual and social benefits that follow in its
train, has resulted from the seemingly trifling circumstance that
the author of the system at the age of seventeen, learned Taylor's
system of shorthand from Harding's edition, and that he was incited
to the study chiefly by the perusal of the following eloquent
enumeration of some of the advantages arising from the practice of
the art, from the pen of Mr Gawtress, the publisher of an improved
edition of Byrom’s svstem. (300 words)
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This excerpt is taken from Sir Isaac Pitman's book "A
Manual of Phonography" of 1852 where he is quoting the words of Mr Gawtress who inspired his first study of shorthand:
Advantages of Shorthand
A practical acquaintance with this art is highly favourable to the
improvement of the mind, invigorating all its faculties, and drawing
forth all its resources. The close attention requisite in following
the voice of the speaker, induces habits of patience, perseverance,
and watchfulness, which will gradually extend themselves to other
pursuits and avocations, and at length inure the writer to exercise
them on every occasion in life.
When writing in public, it will also
be absolutely necessary to distinguish and adhere to the train of
thought which runs through the discourse, and to observe the modes
of its connection. This will naturally have a tendency to endue the
mind with quickness of apprehension, and will impart an habitual
readiness and distinctness of perception, as well as a methodical
simplicity of arrangement, which cannot fail to conduce greatly to
mental superiority.
The judgment will be strengthened and the taste
refined; and the practitioner will by degrees become habituated to
seize the original and leading parts of a discourse or harangue, and
to reject whatever is common-place, trivial, or uninteresting.
The memory is also improved by the practice of stenography. The
obligation the writer is under to retain in his mind the last
sentence of the speaker, at the same time that he is carefully
attending to the following one, must be highly beneficial to that
faculty, which, more than any other, owes its improvement to
exercise. And so much are the powers of retention strengthened and
expanded by this exertion, that a practical stenographer will
frequently recollect more without writing, than a person
unacquainted with the art could copy in the time by the use of
common-hand.
It has been justly observed, “this science draws out all the powers
of the mind;—it excites invention, improves the ingenuity, matures
the judgement, and endows the retentive faculty with those superior
advantages of precision, vigilance, and perseverance.” (314 words)
(Punctuation is copied exactly from the original book.)
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