Page:EB1911 - Volume 24.djvu/1084

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(E. M. T.)&emsp;

In the 10th century all practical acquaintance with the shorthand systems of Greece and Rome faded completely away, and not till the beginning of the 17th can the art be said to have revived. But even during that interval systems of writing seem to have been practised which for speed approximated to modern shorthand.

Shorthand in English-speaking Countries.—England was the birthplace of modern shorthand. The first impulse to its cultivation may possibly be traced to the Reformation. When the principles of that movement were being promulgated from the pulpit, a desire to preserve the discourses of the preacher naturally suggested the idea of accelerated writing. It is certainly striking that in the early systems so many brief arbitrary signs are provided to denote phrases common in the New Testament and Protestant theology. In the early systems of Dr Timothy Bright and Peter Bales almost every word is provided with an arbitrary sign. Dr Bright (c. 1551-1615) was a doctor of medicine who afterwards entered the church. His ''Characterie. An Arte of''