OF THE DIVISION AND SOUND OF LETTERS.

IN the early ages of antiquity, before alphabets were invented, mankind, fenfible of their want of fome means of recording historical events and scientifical discoveries, had recourse to various arts for these purposes; the first of which was painting. That partiality for pictures, fo evident in all ages and countries, afforded the ancients a method of per petuating their tranfactions. To commemorate that one man had killed another, they painted the figure of a dead man, with another man ftanding over him, having an hostile, weapon in his hand. On the first discovery of America, this was the only kind of writing used by the Mexicans.

The firft improvement made by our ancestors in the art of writing (if it might then be called an art) was by the intro duction of hieroglyphical characters. Thefe confifted of

VOL. I.

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certain

certain fymbols, which were made to reprefent certain invifible objects, to which, in fome particulars, fuch fymbols were fuppofed to bear fome refemblance. An eye was the fymbol of knowledge; a circle, of eternity, as having neither begin. ning nor end. The figures of animals were also much employed in this kind of writing, on account of fome quality with which they were supposed to be endowed, and in which they refembled the object fignified. Thus, imprudence was reprefented by a fly; wifdom by an ant; and victory by a hawk. Thefe hieroglyphics flourished moft in ancient Egypt (as did all other learning at that time), where the knowledge of these characters was reduced into a regular art: and many specimens of them are fill extant in relics of Egyptian antiquities. Hieroglyphics, though an improvement upon the former mode of writing, was a very imperfect one, and often confufed and perplexed its most skilful professors.

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In a few fucceeding ages, hieroglyphics gave place to fimple arbitrary marks, which were introduced to represent objects, without having the leaft resemblance or affinity to the objects represented. The Chinese still use characters of this nature they have no alphabet of letters, but every fingle mark or character fignifies one perfect idea or object. The number of these characters are therefore great feventy thousand. To be perfectly acquainted with them, conftitutes the bufinefs of a whole life; which must be an infurmountable, obftacle to the improvement of science. Our common figures, 1, 2, 3, 4, &c. afford us an example of th this fort of writing; where each figure or character conveys the idea of the number for which it frands as clearly and intelligibly as the words themfelves, one, two, three,&c. But when marks or characters come to be used for all our ideas, in exclufion to an alphabet of letters, they then, from their number, become inconvenient.

The next improvement in the art of writing was by the invention of figus or marks, which stood, not directly for the objects themselves, but for the words or names whereby

they

they were diftinguifhed. This was an alphabet of fyllables. An alphabet of this kind is fill in use in Æthiopia, and some Countries of India.

But the noble and fublime difcovery of an alphabet of letters fuperfeded every other improvement its this art. Who was the first in this invention is uncertain. An alphabet of letters was, however, brought into Greece by Cadhus, the Phoeniciau, who was contemporary with king David. This alphabet confifted of only fixteen letters: the reft were added afterwards, as figns for proper founds were found to be wanting. The Phoenician, Hebrew, Greek, and Roman alphabets are fo much alike in the figures and names of the letters, as plainly to evince they were originally derived from the fame.

By the ufe of the alphabet, we are now, therefore, enabled to express our ideas with the fame clearness and precision, as in converfation.

The English alphabet confifts of twenty-fix letters: A, a; B, b; C, c; D, d; E, e; F, f; G, g; H, h; I, i; J, J; K, K; L, 1; M, m; N, n; O, o; P, p; Q, q; R, r; S, f, s; T, t; U, u; V, v; W, w; X, x; Y, y ; Z, z; and is divided into vowels and confonants, mutes and femi-vowels.

The names of the twenty-fix letters are as follow: a, bee, cee, dee, e, ef, gee, airch, i, ja, ka, el, em, en, o, pee, cue, ar, efs, tee, u, vee, double u, ex, y, zad.

The vowels are fix in number, viz. a, e, i, o, u, y; all the reff are confonants.

The mutes are thofe letters which are begun, when they are fpelled, by a confonant: as, b, bee; c, cee; d, dee, &c.; those which are begun with a vowel are called semi-vowels : as, l, el; m, em ; n, en ; r, ar ; s, efs, &c. ; l, m, n, r, are alfo called liquids.

When two vowels meet together, they are called a diphthong of thefe there are thirteen, viz. di, ei, oi, ui, au, eu, Ou, ec, 00, ea, eo, oa, and ie.

When three vowels meet, they are called a triphthong: as in the word beauty.

With regard to the found of thefe double vowels, there are no rules, that can be given, which will hold good in all cafes, as words are founded according to the caprice or affectation of the age, or the fpeakers: a knowledge of them muft, therefore, be acquired by experience and obfervation.

And concerning the found of fingle letters, the following rules are all that can fafely be depended upon.

C is pronounced hard like k, before a, o, u; and soft like s, before e, i, and y.

G is alfo founded hard before a, o, u ; fometimes hard, and fometimes foft, before i andy; and generally foft before e.

E is moftly filent at the end of a word; but in that cafe it lengthens the foregoing vowel; as, hid, hide; and that fometimes in the middle of a word; as ungrateful. But fometimes it only foftens a preceding g, as in lodge, judge.

His only an aspiration of the breath, and fometimes at the beginning of a word is not founded at all: as, an hour, an honeft man.

W is either a vowel or a diphthong; its proper found is the fame as u in the Italian, ou in the French, or oo in the English.. Sometimes it is not founded at all after o, sometimes like au.

X is a double confonant, compofed of a hard c or k, and s; and at the beginning of a word moftly founded like z.

Y has exactly the fame found as i; and is only a substitute for it at the end of a word, or before i: as, cry, flying. It is a perfect vowel; and when ufed as a confonant at the beginning of a word, it answers to the ancient Saxon i: as, yew, iw; young, iong.

Z is a double confonant; it founds as much coarser and thicker than s, as v does than f.

J and v, though confounded by fome old writers with i and , are entirely different letters; the former having the found of a foft g, and the latter that of a coarfer f. The former is called ja, and the latter vee.

SECT.

SECT. II.

OF SYLLABLES.

A SYLLABLE is a conftituent part of a word, or a whole word; it confifts of one or more letters, and is formed by a fingle impulfe of the voice.

Spelling is the art of rightly naming the letters fingly that conflitute a word, and dividing them into fyllables.

The art of spelling perfectly is not to be acquired (parti、 cularly in the English) but by practice: but a few rules for the dividing of fyllables may poffibly be of fervice.

1. A fyllable in the beginning, or middle, of a word ends in a vowel, except fuch vowel be followed by x, or two or more confonants: as in re-li-gi-on.

2. When two or more confonants follow a vowel, which is pronounced fhort, they must be separated; and one, at least, always belongs to the preceding fyllable: as in ab-fti-nence.

3. When two or more consonants follow a vowel, which is pronounced long, they fometimes belong to the following fyllable: as, di-grefs.

4. A particle, though placed immediately before a vowel, is feldom divided: as, un-e-qual.

5.

A mute with a liquid following are seldom divided; but a liquid or a mute, with a mute following, are mostly divided. 6. When le or re follow a mute they are never divided. These are the fundamental rules for the dividing of fyllables: but fome grammarians recommend them to be divided as they are founded in a just pronunciation.

SECT. III.

OF THE NINE PARTS OF SPEECH.

WHEN mankind had arrived at some perfection in the art of writing, they foon difcovered the propriety of reducing language

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