able when he had taken his eye off without any difficulty to recover the place where it had left the page; and so expert was he at this that he has been sometimes thought to have preached by heart or to make little or no use of his notes, which gave him all the outward advantages of extempore preaching without subjecting himself or his audience to any of its disadvantages. For hereby he was at liberty to execute whatever is usually thought graceful and ornamental in the pulpit either with respect to the mien, posture or movements; which advantage is in great measure lost by any person who is bound perpetually to attend to his notes; and which is not often found well improved by any person who has matter to consider rather than his manner, and is bound to watch more over his words than his behaviour, and who through the entire disuse of notes wants even those seasonable restraints which they will give to redundancy of action and perhaps in some cases to extravagances of gesture. A similar remark is made by a writer in the British Quarterly Review, xxv. 485, in an article on Oratory: "In the case of Dr. Chalmers it is worth remarking that the manu

1

1 Sharp's Life of Abp. Sharp, 1. 41.

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script from which he read was always or nearly always in short-hand. This permitted him, as it seemed, to take in a large number of words per glance as his eye crossed the paper, and so to have a larger proportion of his attention free for the aspect of his audience. Indeed, unless one was near him to observe the fact, it was difficult to know that he was reading."

In keeping diaries and private memoranda, the use of this character, which at present unfortunately serves as a secret cypher, will successfully elude the vigilance of prying curiosity. Pepys wrote his amusing diary in Rich's shorthand, and it is probable that many interesting anecdotes would not have been recorded if he had been obliged to set them down in the tedious ordinary hand-writing. John Byrom, the poet and inventor of a system which bears his name, kept an amusing short-hand journal, which has lately been published by the Chetham society. Sir Symonds D'Ewes also kept his journal in characters. A MS. memorandum, in a copy of "Notes of Domestic and Foreign Affairs during the last years of the reign of George I. and the early part of the reign of George II.," states that "these Notes constituted the private diary of Lord Chancellor King. They were written.

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in Rich's short-hand, and transcribed from the original by me, Thomas Rees."

Stenography will enable a person to avail himself of the aid of an amanuensis with great advantage. Professor Agassiz derives great benefit in this manner from stenography. He it has enabled him to do more in one year says than he could have done in three years without it; and that he finds the facilities which it affords to him, to exceed very much the power of the human mind for work-for intellectual effort.1

The most useful application of the art however is to the taking down of speeches, trials, sermons, &c. For this purpose it is extensively practised in the committee-rooms of the houses of parliament, where the evidence is taken verbatim from the lips of the witnesses and afterwards printed. Newspapers also give employment to large numbers of stenographers. The principal of these are the reporters of the parliamentary debates. These "gentlemen of the gallery," as they are termed, have generally received a liberal education, and many of them are possessed of considerable literary talent. Lord Campbell, Mr. Charles Dickens, and Mr. John Payne Collier commenced their

1 Pitman's Persuasive to the Study of Phonog. 8.

c 2

These

% LEVANG The jeni trg vi % zonans u fry is cled is turns are feet jacks & Barent periods of the evening To deven o'clock they are either hallhors & tre parts. After that hour they are generally either quarter hours or twenty minutes. A fail three-quarters' turn amounts, with the majority of speakers, to stewhat more than two columns of close type, the transcription of which is seldom accomsed under four hours of severe labour.1

hers's Edinb. Journ. xii. 87; Davidson's Short

The courts of law are regularly attended by short-hand writers, some of whom travel the circuits with the judges. To members of the legal profession a knowledge of the art is of especial importance. Mr. Dunning, afterwards lord Ashburton, strongly recommended its use to the legal student, and lord Abinger once stated from the bench that during a long professional life he had derived the greatest assistance from short-hand notes, and had found that, though occasionally disfigured by errors, they were such as a practised eye could readily detect.1 Mr. Samuel Warren says, "Short-hand is a valuable accomplishment, one which I have often seen confer such advantages on its possessor, as have made me vow many times that I would acquire the art myself. It enables you to take out your pencil at a moment's notice, and note down verbatim words perhaps of infinite importance, and of which it may hereafter prove of great service to yourself and your clients to have an accurate record. So many instances of the truth of these remarks must be

1 Considerations on the present position of Short-hand writing, p. 7.