175 



But as every syllable would seem a simple sound, he would 

 be under the necessil}^ of noting each by a separate charac- 

 ter. In the lines just quoted he would find sixty-one sylla- 

 bles ; but as thirteen of them are repetitions, forty-eight 

 characters would suffice to designate them. Having suffici- 

 ently familiarised himself with these characters, so as to re- 

 collect the sound by the sign, and the sign by the sound, he 

 would naturally group together those signs which represent- 

 ed sounds bearing the slightest degree of resemblance to 

 each other. In this process he would find his forty-eight 

 characters arrange themselves in five columns, perhaps in 

 the order in which I shall represent them. He might have 

 chosen different configurations, straight or curved, simple or 

 complicated, for his characters ; but I shall select for mine 

 such as will remind my reader of the sounds which they are 

 intended to represent. 



YOL. XII. 



A A 



