LIBER SEXTUS. 657 



Neque vero ars est, sed artis abustis, cum ilia naturam non 

 perficiat sed pervertat Verum quod ad Poesim attinet, (sive 

 de fabulis sive de metro loquamur) est ilia (ut superius dixi- 

 mus) tanquam herba luxurians, sine semine nata, ex vigore 

 ipsius terrae germinans. Quare ubique serpit, et latissime 

 diffusa est; ut supervacuum foret de defectibus ejus sollici- 

 tum esse. De ilia igitur cura est abjicienda. Quod vero ad 

 Accentus Verborum, nil opus est de re tarn pusilla diccre; 

 nisi forte illud quis notatu dignum putet, quod accentus Ver- 

 borum exquisite, accentus autem Sententiarum neutiquam in 

 observationem venit. Attamen illud fere universo generi hu- 

 mano commune est, ut vocem in fine periodi submittant, in 

 interrogatione elevent, et alia hujusmodi non pauca. Atque 

 de Grammatics parte, quae ad Locutionem spectat, hactenus. 



Quod ad Scriptionem attinet, ea aut Alphabeto Vulgari 

 perficitur (quod ubique recipitur), aut Occulto et Private, de 

 quo inter singulos convenit ; quod Ciphras vocant. At Or- 

 thographia Vulgaris etiam controversial!! et quaestionem nobis 

 peperit ; utrum scilicet eodem verba scribere oporteat quo pro- 

 nunciantur modo, an potius ex more consueto ? At ilia scriptio 

 quaa reformata videri possit, (ut scilicet scriptio pronunciation! 

 consona sit,) est ex genere inutilium subtilitatum. Nam et 

 ipsa pronunciatio quotidie gliscit, nee constans est; et deri- 

 vationes verborum, praesertim ex linguis extraneis, prorsus 

 obscurantur. Denique cum ex more recepto scripta morem 

 pronunciandi nullo modo impediant, sed liberam relinquant, 

 quorsum attinet ista novatio l ? 



1 Every living language is continually changing; and the orthography gradually 

 follows changes of pronunciation. But to make the pronunciation of the present mo- 

 ment the standard of orthography is to set aside as far as possible the historical element 

 in the development of the language, and thus greatly to diminish its value as a record 

 of the progress of human thought, not to mention the effect which such a system would 

 have in making works composed before the era of the last reformation unintelligible. 



[I cannot help thinking that Bacon would have pronounced a less confident judg- 

 ment on this question, if it had occurred to him that a system of notation might be 

 contrived which should not only represent the pronunciation of the particular time, 

 but accompany all changes of pronunciation which time might introduce; 80 that the 

 written word should be at all times a true description of the spoken word. For this 

 purpose, nothing more is required than an alphabet containing as many distinct cha- 

 racters as there are distinguishable elementary sounds in the language, so that the same 

 sound may always be represented by the same character or combination of characters, 

 and no combination of characters may be used to represent more than one combina- 

 tion of sounds. Against a reform of orthography founded upon such a reconstruction 

 of the alphabet, it appears to me that none of the objections either in the text or in 

 the note can be justly urged With regard to the history of the past, everything would 

 remain as it is. A dictionary containing the old and new spelling of every word in 

 the language would effectually preserve its etymological history (so far as our present 



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