96 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



THE SPELLING REFORM. 



Read before the Hamilton Association, March 2^th, i8g2. 

 BY C. R. m'CULLOUGH. 



"As the instrument of all thought, the medium of all science, language 

 is not only essential to civilization, but its basis. Deprived of a system of 

 intercommunication the progress of mankind would be impossible." 



The history of language is the history of civilization, The dis- 

 covery of a method of symbolizing thought, the invention of an 

 alphabet, the adaptation of independent types, mark the three 

 greatest eras of human progress. 



The first writing known to man was undoubtedly hieroglyphic. 

 These hieroglyphs were simply pictures of thought, each picture 

 being illustative of an idea. This system was therefore adapted to 

 a period when ideas were comparatively few, or to a civilization at 

 stand-still. With the increase of ideas came the demand for some 

 more ready means of recording thought, and as necessity has ever 

 been the mother of invention, the idea was conceived of transferring 

 the symbol or picture from the thought to the sound employed in 

 speech to represent that thought. 



The Egyptian priests were acquainted with both the hiero- 

 glyphic and the alphabetic systems, and kept their secrets of caste 

 and creed by the former on account of the greater difficulty attend- 

 ing its acquisition and retention in the memory. The hieroglyph 

 lives to-day in the Chinese method of language representation, and 

 the contrast between the intellectual standing of the people of that 

 empire, and the rest of the world — the progress in civilization 

 and science of Europe and America, in contrast with the stationary 

 intellect and political status of China — is strong testimony to the 

 relative merits of the two methods for furthering the ends of civiliza- 

 tion and advancement. 



There were defects in the Latin alphabet which were transmit- 

 ted from one age and nation to another. As a result modern Eng- 

 lish in* its representation is less true to the alphabetic theory on 

 which it professes to be based than was the case hundreds of years 



