6 HIStORT of the SOCIETi: 



3^/)', into fyllabks, or articulate founds, the conftituent parts 

 of words ; and, /q/f(y, into letters, or inarticulate Ibunds, the 

 conftituent parts of fyllables. 



There are only two of thofe prad\lcable methods of typi- 

 fying fpcech, that have any peculiar advantage to recomtoend 

 their ufe. Thefe are the verbal method, on the one hand, and 

 the elemental, on the other. Each of thefe having their pecu- 

 liar advantages, are now to be mentioned. 



The advantages of the verbal method confift in this, that 

 different nations, by this means, might communicate their de- 

 fires by writing, without the knowledge of each other's fpeech. 

 But the necelTary difadvantage of this method is more than fuf- 

 ficient to counterbalance its great benefit ; becaufe, while there 

 would not be fufficient accviracy for thus exprefl"mg every 

 thought in writing, it would require to make it the bufinefs of 

 a man's life to read and write. Whereas the advantage of the. 

 elemental 'method will appear from this, that while the com- 

 mutation of our figures and our fimple founds is perfecft, our 

 fpeech, which is compofed of thofe fimple founds, may be 

 written with facility, and our written language read with abfo- 

 lute jierfedlion. The benefit of this method, therefore, far more 

 than compenfates for its lofs, in not ferving as a mean of cor- 

 refpondence between foreign nations. 



Music and fpeech are next confidered, in order to fee their 

 neceflfary connedtion and the difference of their principles. 



The formation of articulate expreJlion, by means of vocal 

 founds and confonants, is then illuftraied, in fliewing the na- 

 ture of our fpeech, as the foundation of our art of writing. 



Thus, an alphabet is reprefented as being the work of inge- 

 nuity and wifdom, and as being, with good reafon, the boafl 

 of fcience. The corruption, therefore, of this alphabetical 

 method of charadlerifing fpeech, is reprobated as an error pre- 

 judicial to fcience, and difgraceful to a nation that is wife and 

 learned. 



Orthography 



