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on comparing them, that the sound a existed in each, com- 

 bined with another sound which could not be articulated 

 without it. These indistinct sounds his- mind could, how- 

 ever, embrace and discriminate. To make sure of his dis- 

 covery he would affix a character to each, as well as to the 

 articulate sound with which it was combined; and the 

 first fruits of his labour would be the letters o, m, c, t,f, I, 

 n, r. The discovery of the last mentioned letter would 

 enable him to return to the analysis of the sound which 

 he passed over at first ; and as he had succeeded in find- 

 ing that ra was composed of the sounds indicated by an r 

 and an a, he would readily perceive that Ar, the first sylla- 

 ble of Arma, was but a transposition of the same sounds 

 in the order o. r. 



This minute circumstance can be but little interesting at 

 present ; yet no doubt it was of the highest importance to 

 the inventor of the alphabet; for it furnished him with a 

 test to discover whether a sound were simple or compound. 

 In attempting to repeat in every possible way, any one of 

 those sounds that have since been called vowels, it still re- 

 nmins the same, and cannot be inverted. It is therefore a 

 simple sound. But combine it with another and the com- 

 pound admits of an easy inversion: ma becomes am, la, be- 

 comes al, ^c. After this discovery, the only difficulty that 

 could occur, in considering the first column, would i>e the 

 analysis of syllables composed of three sounds. The firet 

 that presents itself is ram, the last syllable of ira/w, and this 



