Ge Ay I Me Ua S. 297 
mon ufe, and there are already more than fufficient for 
every ufeful purpofe. 
Indeed we find few languages which do not contain 
feveral chara€ters that are ufelefs, and to which the fame 
founds are appropriated. The Englifh contains the fol- 
lowing; ¢ which has fometimes the power of s, fometimes 
of k; 9, which has always the power of £; and x, the 
powers of ks, of gz, or z*, 
Language does not require half the number of letters 
made ufe of by any nation; becaufe, were ten or twelve let- 
ters well arranged, they would be capable of exprefling 
every idea we have acquired, or fhould be able to invent. 
Wachter in his Nature et Scripture Concordia, endeavours 
to fhow that ten letters are fufficient for a very comprehen- 
five language. Tacquet the mathematician calculates the 
various combinations of the alphabet of twenty four letters 
to be no fewer than 620,448,401,733,239:439,360,000. 
Clavius however only makes them 5,852,616,738,4975- 
664,000: they are both wrong; but the human mind can- 
‘not form an idea of fuch apparent infinity of combinations, 
nor could the inventive faculties of man exhauft them in 
language. Hence it does not follow that the moft extenfive 
alphabet would be required by the moft copious language. 
We find among fome favage nations fuch a paucity of 
expreflion, that they cannot be faid to havea more exten- 
five language than fome beafts «and upon which would 
philofophers reafon, on the formation of language? <on the 
beautiful, artificial Hebrew, or the confined expreffions of 
the moft ftupid of the human race? among whom a few 
fyllables compofe the whole vocabulary, and exprefs all that 
VOL. Ul. Pog their 
* Mr. Sheridan hath not only rejected thec, g, & x, but likewife the ;, which he ought to 
have retained inflead of the ezh taken from Wilkins, which ts really not in the Englifh Jan- 
guage ; but the j, as pronounced by the French, is a very common vowel, ard] am the more 
aftonifhed at his not adopting it, as he knew fo well the power of j:—But his error is uniform, 
never having ufed the 7 even in the words occa/ion, okecjan (occazhun Sher :)——adhe/ion, adbiijon 
{adhezhun) decifion, explofion, cenfufionmProfod: gram: xlviii— 
