SIR ISAAC PITMAN,
The Life of Sir Isaac Pitman. By Alfred Baker. (Sir Isama. Pitman and Sons. Is. 61)—Isaac Pitman was from the first ono, of the men whose natural qualities are such that they are bound. to rise. Ile had the advantage of a severe family discipline, which, found, however, very little, in him to need correction or control. Of outside helps to mental development ho had as few as; possible. He left school when lie was still three months short of', his thirteenth birthday. Nor could this have been much of a loss; if the teaching was like the accommodation,—eighty or a hundred. boys in a room measuring twenty-five feet by fifteen by eight and a half ! But nothing mild discourage a lad of such a, temper. One remarkable instance of his energy is that, finding that he mis- pronounced words—he bad books enough, but no educated people to talk to—he read through Walker's Dictionary, copied out two thousand words with the marks of quantity, &c., and committed them to memory. He began life as a clerk, was a school teacher for some years, but had settled down to the work of his life before he was thirty. This work was "the giving to the world a system of shorthand having an absolutely phonetic basis." Of this we need say nothing here. The whole matter is set out in the greatest fullness by Mr. Baker, whose narrative will be of much interest to all who practise the art. To Isaac Pitman'himself the cause of spelling reform was not less dear than that of phonetic Shorthand, and at no long interval came a third devotion,—a Profound attachment to Swedenborgian teaching. Spelling reform, as our readers are aware, did not meet with a success equal to that of phonetic shorthand. The Spectator was among the multitude that preferred to stand on the old ways. "We look upon Mr. Pitman, of Bath, and his adherents as guilty of as flat burglary as ever frightened Dogberry." The inventor addressed to us a convincing reply, which we will reproduce :—" On reading this akuizashon propel wil be led tu inkweir intu the natiur ov the ' burglari' and the `feloni ' with hwich we ar eharjd ; and hwen they feind that we sz simpli suppleiing the defishensiz ov our alfabet, and puting things tu reits' in the use ev leterz, as mani ov them az luv truth and utiliti more than their own eaze, will aid us in the work." This sanguine prophecy lias not been fulfilled. Sir Isaac Pitman—he was knighted in 1894 (at the instance of Lord Rosebery)—had sundry "fads," as We may venture to call them. He was against alcohol and tobacco, a vegetarian, anti-vaccinationist, dm. But he was a very useful citizen.
Previous page
