riio.NOGRArHY. 45 



Perhaps some of the real causes of the quarrels of which the old 

 poets tell us so much, might, if accurately traced, be found in the kitch- 

 en. If, by what I cannot but consider happy hints calculated to throw 

 much light upon important and abstruse points, I have done nothing 

 to secure to myself an eminent place among the learned ; I have at least 

 the proud consciousness of feeling that 1 have given myself claims up- 

 on the gratitude of many of our female domestics, by showing that the 

 habit of dressing the hair over the lire where the dinner is cooking, has 

 so sublime an origin. H. O. R. 



ENGLISH PHONOGRAPHY, NO. II. 



BT PROF. W. M. REYNOLDS, OF PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE. 



Various attempts have been made to remedy the ii-regularities and 

 imperfections of English Phonography. The practical character of this 

 country especially manifested itself in this direction even cotemporane- 

 ously with our revolution. Dr. Franklin, interested in this subject 

 both as a printer and as a philosopher, proposed to reform our alphabet 

 by rejecting the six letters c, ^', q^ w, x and ?/, which he considered su- 

 perfluous, and introducing in their places six new characters to express 

 the sounds for which we have no peculiar signs. Though Franklin 

 was not a philologist, his knowledge even of French being very limited, 

 so great was his genius, and so strong his common sense, that he un- 

 doubtedly possessed high qualifications for this work ; but as it is one 

 which requires a large expenditure of both time and patience in order 

 to carry it through, and as so little had at that time been done in Eng- 

 lish Phonology (or the analysis of our spoken language) it is not strange 

 that, amid his numerous engagements in philosophy, politics and phil- 

 anthropy, that great man failed to do all that was necessary, and finally 

 abandoned the enterprise. Jt is not necessary to enter into an examina- 

 tion of the causes of this failure, nor shall we do this in reference to 

 any other plans that have been proposed, believing that the establish- 

 ment of a good system will be all that is required to show the insuffi- 

 ciency both of that which is now in use, and of others which have been 

 proposed as substitutes for it. Gratitude, however, does not allow us 

 to pass over the labors of Noah Webster in silence. His "Dictionary" 

 is an imperishable monument of his learning and a miracle of industry, 

 and the reforms which he has succeeded in introducing into our Phono- 

 graphy in spite of the incessant carping of pedants and other men of 

 contracted minds, are both important in themselves and prepare the way 

 for other."? mure thorough and extensive. It is true that Webster was 



