G A. ee MW S, 27K 
‘-modate orthography better to the pronunciation, without 
“ confidering that this 1s to meafure by a /hadow, to take 
“+ that for amodel or fandard which ts changing while they 
‘sapply it.” If language change, the orthography ought 
alfo to change; but if orthography were once properly ac- 
commodated to language, even this would not be liable to 
change, confequently that : and it would then be confider- 
ed, by all.but Johnfonians, as great an impropriety to mi/- 
cull a written word, as now to pronounce it properly. 
“* Others,” he fays %* le/s abfurdly indeed, but with equal 
** wnlikelibood of fucce/s, have endeavoured to proportion the 
** number of letters to that of founds, that every found may 
‘* have its own character, and every character a fingle found. - 
‘© Such would be the orthography of anew language to be 
“¢ formed by a fynod of Grammarians upon principles of /cience. 
“But who can hope to prevail on nations to change their 
“practice, and make all thear old.books ufele/s ? or what ad- 
“vantage would a new orthography procure, equivalent to 
‘““ the confufion and perplexity of fuch an alteration?” In an- 
fwering the above I will firft afk the fimple queftion «what 
is the w/e of writing? Itis to exhibit to the eye the fame 
words that are fpoken to the ear: and it is impoffible to 
do this without giving a diftin@ mark for every diftiné& 
found: to deviate from this rule is to run into error. A 
fynod of grammarians would not require a new language 
to accommodate true {pelling to, it may be fo eafily accom- 
modated to * all languages ; and if falfe orthography does 
not 
* In a tour through Scotland, I vifited the Hebrides, and met with many old men who 
neither {poke a word of Englifh, nor could they read a word in any language; thefe men 
repgated many of the poems afcribed to Offian, and other ancient bards. One of thefe Poems 
1 wrote with fuch orthography and characters, as I thought might anfwer to the founds which 
were repeated by an old man. . I afterwards read it flowly to a fenfible old woman, who un- 
deritood it, and the Englifh, well enough to give me a tranflation; this wasas regulara poem 
as any I have feen tranflated, poffefling alfo much genius, but fhe often lamented the poverty 
of the Englifh language, which fhe faid was incapable of exprefling the fublimity of many of 
the paflages. 1: might be fo, but I conceived there was another, anda more forcible reafon, 
viz, her being more extenfively acquainted with the gaelic than the Envlifh. 1 will here a 
grels 
