266 G; Al De M’ W& S&: 
Shew a fentence in the Roman alphabet to an individus=. 
al of each nation that makes ufe of thefe characters, and 
two perfons cannot be found to read it alike: nor can a. 
perfon who underitands the powers of the letters in oné 
Janguage, be capable of reading a fentence in each language. 
properly. 
Moft of the nations of Europe have received more or» 
lefs the Roman alphabet, yet there is not.one language to 
which it is perfeQly adapted; however, although in the. 
different languages of Europe the fame found is often re=. 
prefented in each by two or three characters, we find in 
moft of them fome words which contain the fame character 
to reprefent the fame found; therefore the formation of an | 
extenfive, fixed alphabet, for the ufe of Europe, will not 
be fo difficult, as if we could furnifh no inftances-from the 
different languages, in which they allconcurred to give the 
fame found to the fame chara@ter. But this will only 
ferve while we attempt te preferve the Roman charaters, . 
and produce as little innovation as poffible.in printing: 
were we to go asfar as common fenfe would direét, and 
lay afide the Roman alphabet, which is exceedingly com-. 
plex, adopting one that might be reduced to fuch fimpli-. 
city, as to require only one fourth of the time to write the » 
fame matter, we mutt firft fix all the founds, by making - 
for each language acorrefpondent table.in diftin& columns, 
then adapt the fimplicity of the charaGer, as much as pof- . 
fible, to the frequency of the found in the different lan-. 
guages. The moft certain mode of fixing the founds, is. 
by adopting in each table the fimpleft monofyllables in. 
which they are found, fuch as are commonly pronounced 
alike, and are the moft frequently ufed. The fame letter 
or character fhould ftand at the head of each correfponding 
perpendicular column, in the feveral tables, and the fame 
alfo atthe beginning of each horizontal line, thus repre-- 
fenting 
