CatlelU] *> *" [March 15, 



should have but a single power, and those letters only should 

 be used whose powers, successively pronounced, would pro- 

 duce the sounds required," and then he declares with an 

 emphasis that would have rejoiced the honest heart of 

 Franklin, that the English spelling is farther removed from 

 this state than that of any other language with which he 

 was acquainted. lie also asks in the same connection and 

 with a cheerful confidence in the answer that must be given 

 by all sensible persons, " if the English word cough were 

 spelt cof, would that change the word ?" Permit me to add, 

 that although our third President did not do much to ad- 

 vance the reform so dear to the heart of our first, he did a 

 great service to the English language by introducing Anglo- 

 Saxon studies into the curriculum of our Colleges and Uni- 

 versities. He made the mistake, pardonable in those. 

 days, of regarding the Anglo-Saxon as u merely an anti- 

 quated form of our present language," asserting that, if we 

 " would remove the obstacles of uncouth spelling and 

 unfamiliar characters, there would be little more difficulty 

 in understanding an Anglo-Saxon writer than Burns' 

 poems;" but he was eminently sagacious in insisting 

 upon "the necessity of making the Anglo-Saxon a 

 regular branch of Academic education," and was far in ad- 

 vance of his time in giving to this study such prominence 

 in the great university he founded. 



But, with your permission, Mr. President, I will add that 

 there are other members of the American Philosophical So- 

 ciety wdio have become eminent as Philologists, though they 

 have not been called upon by the Society to occupy the high 

 official position once adorned by Franklin and Jefferson, and 

 now by yourself. We need only look around these tables 

 to see them. The learned Professor of Hebrew in Princeton 



