on the Englifh Alphabet. 141 
tions, they ought to be compofed, in order to 
eftablifh that unity and precifion, which fhould 
characterize every work of art: Hence fach an 
attention to elements would render language cogni- 
zable, as well by the fight as by the organs of hearing, 
and prevent the errors of one fenfe, which fo often 
arife (efpecially when foreigners are acquiring our 
language) from the miftakes of the other. 
“It is true, indeed, it may be urgéd, that our 
Alphabet, in its prefent ftate, has, for at leaft twa 
centuries, very well anfwered all the purpofes of 
writers of every defcription. So, there is reafon to 
fuppofe, did the Cadmean letters ferve three thoufand 
years ago, for the writers of that age, till Palamedes 
found out that three or four letters more would do © 
better; and perhaps thefe feemed enough, till 
Simonides added as many cthers as Palamedes had 
done before.* 
Habitual error may fometimes be mixed with 
reafon, and miftaken for one perfect whole; but as 
truth and falfehood can never be {o altered as to 
incorporate together, to analyze appearances, and to 
feparate truth from its femblance, is the certain 
means of approaching nearer to perfection. 
» Te 
* Quippe fama eft, Cadmum, claffe Phaenicum veitum, 
Pudibus adhuc Grecorum populis artis ejus auélorem fuiffe 
Quidem Cecropem Athenienfem, vel Linum Thebanum, et tem- 
poribus Trojanis Palamedem Argivum memorant, fexdecim 
hiterarum formas ; mox alios, ac pracipuum SMionistenn: cateras 
neperiffe, Lallemand’s Tacitus, vol. ii. page 13. 
