56 SOUNDS AND SIGNS. 



built up from the Universal Alphabet, or rests upon 

 it, as Elementisinus, as a house rests upon its foun- 

 dation, ov as the parts of a house are correlated with 

 its vestibule or main entrance ; as a wheel depends 

 upon its hub or centre ; or as any peripheric expan- 

 sion upon its basis, centrum, core or pivot. 



88. Vow el- Sounds and Consonant- Sounds must be 

 carefully distinguished from the Letters or Signs, writ- 

 ten or printed, by which these Sounds of the Alpha- 

 bet are signified or represented and they are very 

 apt to be confounded with them. Sounds, Yowel or 

 Consonant, are what we make* with our mouths and 

 Jiear with our ears; and are precisely the same 

 whether we know what they mean, and the letters by 

 which they should be written or printed, or whether 

 we know neither what they mean, "nor by what letters 

 to write or print them as when we listen to the 

 speaking of an unknown language. 



89. Letters are, on the contrary, what we see with 

 the eye, when we read, and make with the hand, when 

 we write, and represent by types, when we print. They 

 are, indeed, used to signify sounds, but they are not 

 themselves sounds, and may even be falsely used, so 

 as to misrepresent the sounds, instead of truly re- 

 presenting them, as, for example, when people spell 

 inaccurately (with reference to whatsoever standard 

 of correctness). 



90. In different languages, the same Sound is, now, 

 in the deficiency of any accepted and practical Uni- 

 versal Alphabet, frequently represented by quite dif- 

 ferent letters ; so that, in learning a new language, we 



