38 JOHK READE : VITA SINE LTTEETS. 



prêt themselves to those who have learned the meauing of the elementary symbols of 

 which they are composed." Again he says : " The system of Visible Speech is the ready 

 vehicle for a universal language, when that shall be evolved ; but it is also immediately 

 serviceable for the conveyance of the diverse utterances of every existing language. No 

 matter what foreign words may be written in this universal character, they will be pro- 

 nounced by readers in any country with absolute uniformity." According to Dr. Bell's 

 method, there are four simple symbols for the vowels, " from the combinations of which 

 every vowel in every language can be expressed to the eye, so as to be at once pronounced 

 with exactitude by the reader." In like manner there are five elementary symbols for the 

 consonants. All the elements of each class haA'e one symbol in common — that of the 

 vowels being a straight line, that of the consonants, a curve. From the synthesis of these 

 symbols, which are simply directions for the action of the lips and tongue, any letter in 

 the alphabet may be formed. Visible Speech was first made known to the world in the 

 summer of 186*7, and has been largely studied by philologists as "an exponent of linguis- 

 tic phonetics." Before that date Mr. Alex. John Ellis had devoted much time to the same 

 subject and his treatises are highly recommended by Professor Max Miiller, in the fifth of 

 his second series of " Lectures on the Science of Language," in which he discusses the 

 claims of the physiological alphabet or alphabet of nature. The latest work on the subject 

 is "The Organs of Speech and their Application in the Formation of Articulate Sounds," 

 by Professor Meyer, of the University of Zurich, from which I have already quoted. 



