24 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



There has, too, and wisely, been a constant tendency to 

 drop all unsovnded letters. What earthly use is there of 

 lugging along letters which are entirely mute ? In old but 

 classic authors we have God.de dyddfe, nowe, which&amp;lt;s, pulle, 

 beste, suche, couerte (court) beetwene, begunwe, etc. 



Within our own memory the final k is lopped off from 

 words where it had a perfect sinecure, as in music&, etc. 

 &quot; Rarit kum itj&quot;* does not look any more odd to our eyes 

 than our spelling would have looked to those who wrote 

 one hundred years ago. 



If it be asked why we do not spell every word by the 

 same rule that we &quot;do some ; we reply, that violent, and 

 sudden changes in languages are impracticable / and as in 

 everything else, are not desirable. We are glad to see 

 spelling simplified, and shall move along just as fast as we 

 can do it with a reasonable prospect of carrying the public. 



It is not a matter of conscience ; we have no necessity 

 laid upon us to reform the language ; no call to be literal 

 martyrs ; it is a matter of convenience and taste, to be done 

 or omitted as one pleases. It would be more inconvenient 

 to stand alone with all writers against us, for the sake of 

 spelling consistently, than to spell foolishly and super 

 fluously in conformity to inveterate practice. Therefore, 

 for the sake of company, we still spell quite absurdly. 



It is called inconsistent; and by men, too, who spell 

 trough, cough, enough, though, through, bought, six dis 

 similar sounds (ou, ow, oo, o, uf, off), by the same com 

 bination of letters ! If consistency be the question, every 

 English writer that ever lived, is a mere bundle of incon 

 sistencies. Every continental living language, and the dead 

 classic languages, have thrown in their contributions, and 

 our tongue comprises the scraps, odds and ends, of all 

 lands, with all the diverse peculiarities of each language 

 more or less retained. Under such circumstances, when no 

 man writes a sentence without spelling inconsistently, it is 

 quite ridiculous to oppose a simplification of spelling, be- 



