language. (2) That the grand purpose of written lan- 

 guage is to represent to the eye the spoken language, as 

 heard by the ear. (3) That the written language should 

 be so constructed that the transition from the spoken to the 

 written, and, conversely, from the written to the spoken, 

 should be simple, uniform, and truthful. (4) That, to 

 this end, a phonetic system is the most direct, easy, and 

 rational. (5) That in devising a written language for a 

 people hitherto without one, no sensible scholar would, at 

 the present day, think of framing it on any principle 

 other than the phonetic. (6) That the present orthog- 

 raphy of the English language is so lawless, so perplex- 

 ing, so confounding to all rational expectation, that the 

 learner is compelled, from first to last, to guess at the 

 pronunciation of every new w^ord he sees ; that he cannot 

 be certain of correctness until assured by his teachers, 

 and possibly not even then. 



Under this last point, numerous illustrations of irregu- 

 larity and inconsistence in English spelling were given. 

 It was shown that the present orthography of the English 

 language employs sixty-two signs, which have at least 

 one hundred and fifty-nine uses ; whereas a pure pho- 

 netic system would, therefore, save a vast amount of time 

 in learning to read and spell. 



Mr. Hagar then proceeded to answer the objections 

 usually urged against a reform of English orthography, 

 endeavoring to show that they were of little importance. 



The paper closed by answering the question. What can 

 be done toward accomplishing the desired reform ? Some- 

 thing could be done in the following ways : (1) By the 

 general discussion of the subject among teachers and 

 other friends of education. (2) By establishing spelling- 

 reform associations throughout the country. (3) By 

 concert of action among State and County educational 



