88 piioNfUiKArnv 



tlirowti into the air iVoin ten thousand fires kindled by Indians and hunt- 

 ers among the western forests strewed with the recent fallen foliage, add 

 their sombre hue to the already existing vapor smoke. The "Indian 

 Summer" is, consequently, only one of these four periods, and subject 

 like the rest to vary very much in character and duration during differ- 

 ent years. It must be regarded as only one of the annual round of 

 fluctuations to which the gaseous robe of the earth is subject. 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF PHONOGRAPHY. 



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



We now proceed to shovv how this system which we have proposed 

 for the notation of sound operates. And as one of the mo?:t formidable 

 objections to it Avill be that it "innrders the king's (.-' queen's) English," 

 wc shall at once test this matter practically. By the "English language" 

 I understand not merely the language of books, but much more that 

 spoken language which we employ in the social intercourse and the bu- 

 siness transactions of every day, which gave its melody to the strains 

 of Chaucer and of Spenser, of Shakspeare and of Milton, as well as to 

 those of Burns and Byron, Campbell and Wordsworth, and in which Pitt 

 and Fox, Burke, Curran and Grattan, Otis, Adams, Henry and Webster, 

 and their compeers have thundered and lightened. This is not a dead lan- 

 guage ; it does not consist merely in the letters or written words in which 

 it is attempted to preserve it. Imperfect as its written form is, it is not a 

 mere picture language, conveying only ideas, and giving us no clue to 

 those sounds which have so often thrilled and breathed fresh life into our 

 hearts, and which is, even in its most trifling forms, endeared to ns by all 

 the holy associations that make music of onr "household words." The 

 theory of the English, like that of every alphabetic language, is, that 

 the combinations of its letters present representatives of all its spoken 

 forms. But that the fact does not correspond to this is admitted upon all 

 hands. Let us see, then, whether the notation of sounds which we have 

 proposed, will more successfully and sufficiently answer this purpose, 

 and whether it is of such a nature as to commend itself to general use. 



As a test, let us see how some of our most venerable English litera- 

 ture would look in the garb which we propose to give it universally, and 

 let us ascertain what innovations are necessary, and then candidly weigh 

 the advantages to be derived from them. The second stanza of Spen- 

 ser's Fairie Queene will furnish us with an example. The original, if 

 printed in the beginning of the 16lh century would have been somewhat 

 in this style : 



