PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.
A great and increasing demand for a simple, rapid and perfectly legible phonetic hand-writing for general use has led to the invention of Light-Line Phonography, which is the outcome of years devoted to stenographic study and research. The system is based on natural physiological laws, and the characters have been assigned to the various sounds after long and careful experiment Its main features may be briefly summarized as—
(1) The total absence of shading or thickening. By this is meant compulsory shading, for the student may write either light or heavy, according to the natural character of his hand-writing.
In the old methods cognate sounds being distinguished by shading it was necessary to represent the most frequently recurring sounds by downward signs—as in rapid writing only downward lines could be shaded with any degree of certainty—hence the constant tendency of the writing in these systems is downwards. The result is obvious—lineality, and consequently phraseography, is destroyed and the writer is greatly harassed by the straggling and uncertain character of the writing We confidently challenge comparison in this respect. In lineality and continuity of execution, the system is quite unapproached.
