SPELLING REFORM 265 



SPELLING REFORM AND THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY 



By Professor W. LE CONTE STEVENS 



WASHINGTON AND LEK UNIVERSITY 



n~^HE basis of modern physical science is the conservation of energy. 

 -■- This doctrine, that the sum of the energy in our universe is 

 constant while its modes of manifestation and transformation are 

 indefinitely variable, has been established only within the last century, 

 though vaguely foreshadowed many hundreds of years ago. Assuming 

 the use of any machine for the transmission of energy, the amount of 

 useful work done is less than the amount expended by the source be- 

 cause a part must be absorbed in the production and maintenance of 

 motion in the machine itself, and in friction. With the development 

 of heat and the radiation of this from the machine, energy that was 

 initially available becomes transformed and ceases to be available. 

 Such economic loss is physically a conservation. 



The human brain is a machine for the transmission of energy, even 

 though the work thus done may not be so readily measurable as that 

 accomplished through the medium of a steam engine. The assimilation 

 of food is the process by which energy from external sources is applied 

 to the human machine and utilized through the medium of the brain. 

 No physiologist has yet been able to analyze the mechanism of thought, 

 but with the failure of the supply of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitro- 

 gen, which in suitable combination constitutes food, the power of 

 thought vanishes with the paralysis of the brain. The function of the 

 educator is to guide and help young human beings to use to the best 

 advantage every part of the human machine, and especially that part 

 whose function is to originate ideas, to convey them by the use of 

 suitable symbols, and to apply them for the benefit of the race. 



The use of words for the oral conveyance of ideas, or of what are 

 intended to be such, has always been the favorite occupation of more 

 than a single sex. Every speaker acquires his own habits of expression 

 that become recognized among his associates. A certain amount of 

 what we familiarly call mental energy is put by him into the expression 

 of an idea. Another output of such energy is expended by the hearer 

 in the effort to take in that idea. Success is usually only partial, as 

 every practical teacher will sorrowfully admit. Clearness of thought 

 must precede clearness of expression, and this in turn must precede 

 clearness of apprehension. The man's style may not be ornate, it may 

 not be conventionally elegant, but it is good in proportion to his sue- 



