262 ANALYTIC ORTHOGRAPHY. 
position, usually assumes the form of the initial letter of the word to which it is pre- 
fixed; as in zgnoble, ignorance,” &e. 
8. Whilst such literary ideas have tended to corrupt the judgment of every native in- 
vestigator of a badly written language, the student in geometry and astronomy is not 
trammeled with the magic and astrologic value of triangles and squares; the chemist 
sweeps away the rubbish of alchemy; musicians construct a system adapted to their wants 
without regard to the features that would render a previous imperfect system unintelligible 
without special study; mechanics and manufacturers have their standards and gauges; 
even the cooks of the civilised world have a uniform nomenclature; and in his way Mr. 
Soyer has a more philosophic mind than Deacon Trench, the modern painter is a better 
observer than the poet, George Cruikshank a better delineator than Charles Dickens. 
9. “A people will no more quit their alphabet than they will quit their language.” — 
Trench. Yet Anglosaxon, (which will be called Anglish, for a reason given in § 255,) 
and black letter disappeared; old letters were dropped, (as those for the sonant and surd 
th, py, and the Danish vowel y,) improper new ones were introduced, as Belgian (a term 
used in preference to Dutch,) hk, w, v, y, 2, Latin g, x, (not used in normal Anglish,) a pe- 
culiar unauthorized 7, probably Norman; and every one of these letters, th, th, k, w, v, y, 
ZG, &, J, Was ignorantly foisted upon English, by people who had so little idea of spelling, 
that the same word was often spelt in several ways upon the same page.* Of these ten 
novelties, one half, (4, g, x, th, th.) were unnecessary, and the remainder, (J, v, 2, y, 2,) 
came in with false powers. Forms of letters have varied, long s has disappeared, and ct 
has replaced a form é with an arched line of union. Spelling has varied materially and 
often for the worse, and the modern page differs in the use of capitals and italics. 
10. Duponceaw objects (Tr. Am. Phil. 1818, p. 237) to “the masquerade dress under 
which men of more fancy than reflection would disguise the immortal thoughts of Milton 
and Shakespeare, so that the eye would no longer at once recognise them,” &c. But this 
disguise has been already cast over them. Milton was born in 1608, and his Paradise 
Lost presents a very different appearance from the first edition of 1667. The following 
specimen of Shakespeare (in modern typography) shows, that (like Duponceau’s “ vision’’) 
his} spellings of 1625 have “melted into Ayre:” 
* The following examples are from Holland’s Plinie, 1635, some of them from contiguous lines—we wee, she shee, 
he hee, pul pull, wil will, ten tenne, sun sunne, moon moone, stars starres, els else, bin beene, physitian physition, 
whelps whelpes, shels shells, clee clawe, oisters oysters, meremaids mearmaids. Parkinson) 1640,) has poppy and 
poppye in the same line, and Jonstonus (1657,) uses eels and ecles. Chaucer has egre eyer, malyre maugre, lest list 
luste, lewed lewde, kneen knene, hackenatie hakeney. 
+ “These are not jis spellings; he edited no play, and the Tempest was not even published in his life time. 
They are printer’s spellings, probably more regular than his.”” MS. note of A. J. Ellis. 
