ing number of failures. To avoid these, the element should be practised separately, or in combination with a single vowel, until it can be pronounced with ease and certainty. Then the consonant combinations into which the element enters should be repeated, again and again, with single vowels; and not until these are mastered should the sound be introduced into words and sentences. At first the acquired sound should be slightly prolonged at each recurrence; until, in this way, a habit is formed of pronouncing it correctly, without special effort. A few hours, or, at most, days, should suffice for the obliteration of any of the elementary defects..

XX. ORTHOGRAPHY.

The confusion between letters and sounds in English is so great, that efforts have, again and again, been made to reduce our writing to something more of consistency and rule. A few changes which have been, of late years, introduced by lexicographers are now widely adopted, although they are not, in all cases, alterations for the better. If economy of type and of printing space were the object of change, the writing of one letter instead of two, would necessarily be an improvement; but such economy is not the object of spelling-reformers. Their aim is the laudable one to make the written word more nearly accordant with the spoken word.

With only twenty-six letters in the alphabet, and some of these redundant, the use of digraphs for single sounds cannot be avoided; nor can diacritic marks (such as

^) be dispensed with for the distinction of different sounds of the same letters. The scheme of elementary notation shown under the head of "English Phonetic Elements," makes the fewest possible number of changes of spelling, in order to show pronunciation; but such a means of discrimination is not intended, or recommended, for general adoption, because, even with this comparatively simple arrangement of signs, dhe fōnětik riting ov Îngglish, bi mēnz ov Rōman lětêrs, wood ǎwltêr dhe hōl aspekt ov dhe länggwij

Few persons carry their desire for spelling reform quite to this extent, but they confine their attention to some of the most obvious orthographic anomalies. Thus er is substituted for re in theatre; tho for though; plow for plough; t for ed in passed, stopped, locked, etc. Of the same

nature would be the omission of dispensable letters in digraphs; as i from friend; a from head; o from leopard, etc. These are changes in the right direction, and many more of a similar kind might be advocated; but some of the alterations which have been introduced are not to be commended. For example, the omission of e in judgement, which violates one of the few absolute phonetic rules of our language: namely, that g before a consonant always has its "hard" sound. And what shall be said of the alteration which retains the silent letter of a combination, and discards the letter which is pronounced?

Such is the result when the termination our is contracted into or. This change is altogether in the wrong direction, because the termination is pronounced ur and not or. Previously to this innovation, the termination or was confined, almost exclusively, to personal nouns, such as creator, orator, sailor, senator, testator, tutor, etc.; and the termination our to words of an impersonal nature, such as candour, favour, labour, rancour, splendour, vapour, etc. The distinction may have been of little importance, and unsustained by any difference in the etymology of the syllable; but, such as it was, it had become established in the language, and with the confusion of our and or, the distinction disappears.

A phonetic spelling is important to children in learning. to read, and to foreigners in acquiring English; but to persons who have passed through the rudiments of the language, and are prepared to profit by works of literature, the phonetic method has not a corresponding value. On the contrary, each word, as an element of thought, is associated with its orthographic outline, pictorially, in the mind, and the accustomed eye is perplexed and annoyed by phonetic distortion of the familiar word.

An entirely separate system of letters is extremely desirable for the uniform representation of sounds which are diversely written in different languages; and the employment of such a phonetic alphabet-as it does not interfere with old associations-can excite no hostility among the most conservative of scholars. The physiological letters of "Visible Speech" are designed to serve this international purpose, without disturbance of established usage in the writing of any language.

The Roman alphabet is, however, susceptible of being used for phonetic initiation. A little nursery book published by the author, about 30 years ago, (entitled " Letters and Sounds") introduced a method which was tested at the time, in many families and some private schools, with results rivalling those obtained with the Phonetic Primers then recently published by Messrs. Pitman & Ellis. In the latter, a system of phonetic types was employed, but in "Letters and Sounds" the common alphabet was used. The full orthography of each word was printed, to accustom the eye to the presence of silent letters; but the latter were shown in subordinate type.

This little book having long been out of print, the following outline of its method may be of some future service. All the early lessons were illustrated by pictures illustrative of the sounds of the letters; such as a boy holding out his hurt hand (o); a girl holding up her hands in wonder (eh! =a), etc.

The first lesson introduced the letters a, o, s, and connected them in a little reading exercise made up of the words so, sa", Sow. The second lesson added the letters m, p, i, and in the reading exercise made use of such words as a'm, mo, ma, mam, pa", ap, mope, soup, apes; the words being worked up into sentences with the pronoun I. The