Basic Principles of Gregg Shorthand

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prolonged.
And this has been the bane of English shorthand for which practice—practice,

persistent, patient, long-suffering practice—has been the only antidote; nor anti-
dote can it be called, for the physical strain and fatigue of such writing arises from
a physiological natural law, and remains the bitter cup even of the most expert. a

And a paraphrase of it will make the statements apply equally well to  :

` Regarding the inestimable value of a    little need be
said. Writing consisting of a medley of straight lines, demanding a rigid, jerky
and angular movement, causes, by the absence of that natural curve motion to
which the hand is accustomed in longhand, a severe strain on hand, nerve and
brain, especially distressing when the writing is rapid and the effort prolonged.

And this has been the bane of English shorthand for which practice—practice,
persistent, patient, long-suffering practice—has been the only antidote; nor anti-
dote can it be called, for the physical strain and fatigue of such writing arises from
a physiological natural law, and remains the bitter cup even of the most expert. a

Keeping this guiding principle in mind—that the ideal shorthand system should be “the dis-
tilled essence of our common calligraphy,” as someone expressed it—we can now understand
why so many systems published in modern times failed to attain greater success. They failed be-
cause:

. They eliminated but one or two of the unnatural features found in the older systems, and
retained all the others.

. While eliminating one or two unnatural features, some of them extended the use of other
unnatural features far beyond the limitations imposed in the older systems.

Conclusion

After I had completed the preceding chapters of this book, in which the basic principles of the
system had been fully explained, an event occurred which inclined me to “scrap” the entire
manuscript. It was the winning of the Shorthand Championship by Albert Schneider — at the
age of twenty. The old saying, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating,” and the maxim, “The
public is educated quickly by events, slowly by arguments,” came to mind. I said, “Why should I
print a book setting forth an elaborate presentation of the scientific principles on which Gregg
Shorthand was built, when the soundness of those principles has been placed beyond all reason-
able controversy by the actual achievements of its writers.”

But the book has been written, and as I dislike thinking that it has been a needless expendi-
ture of time and labor, I am sending it forth. It may serve a useful purpose in furnishing the
shorthand historian of the future with data on which to base a history in which the evolutionary
principles may be traced—as distinguished from the mere cataloguing of the names and works of
the various shorthand authors, as is the case with most of the histories that have appeared in the
past. It may, too, prove of service to the advocates of the system in giving reasons for the faith
within them.