THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 97 



ago, and, owing to the constant change in pronunciation, which is 

 being followed by no corresponding alteration in the spelling, we 

 are being rapidly carried back to the hieroglyphic type of thought 

 representation. The matter should, then, command the profound 

 interest of the progressionist, and challenge the attention and win 

 the efforts of all who have at heart the advancement of the race. 



English spelling is not acquired by sound — no, the teacher who 

 should instruct his pupils to proceed on this theory of spelling 

 words would meet with very unsatisfactory results. Learners are, 

 on the other hand, instructed to familiarize themselves with the 

 appearance of words, and to carry them in the eye as they would 

 a picture, a face or a figure — in short, to take the word as a whole, 

 just as the Egyptians of old were compelled to carry their hiero- 

 glyphs. The result of this is to render more difficult the acquisition 

 of an elementary education, and were it not for the pluck, persever- 

 ance and pertmacity of the race, coupled with improvements in 

 educational methods, English-speaking people would in due time 

 realize the fact that other nations were leading them in learning and 

 advancement. 



The spelling-reformer, no less than the reformer in any other 

 department of life and effort, is always exposed to criticism, occa- 

 sionally to censure, and not infrequently to ridicule. If, however, the 

 reformer is able to maintain his position and prove the truth of his 

 contention, we should, I think, acknowledge the fact and shake off 

 that inertia which is more deadly to the success of any movement 

 than the most uncompromising opposition. 



The movement for reformed spelling is not the creation of this 

 pre-eminently creative age. As early as the thirteenth century Or- 

 meen had raised his voice in its behalf. In the sixteenth John Hart 

 and Sir Thomas Smith (Secretary of State under Edward VI), urged 

 reform. These advocates of improvement in language representa- 

 tion were followed by Sir John Cheke, and in the seventeenth Bishop 

 Wilkins appeared with his " Philosophical Language." In the 

 eighteenth Dean Swift, Benjamin Franklin, James Elphinstone and 

 others took up the cause, and during the present century we find a 

 Webster so far convinced of the necessity for reform as to introduce 

 into his dictionary such spellings as " labor," " center," " traveler," 

 " worshiper," etc. So general has been the acceptance of these 

 spellings that throughout the continent of America, and, indeed, to 

 some extent in England, they are the received forms of the words. 



