54 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts^ and Letters. 



present difficulties, this method enables a student to make a far 

 wider acquaintance with literature, and to give a better authority 

 to his authorship, than if he should read altogether by the delib- 

 erate examination of every page and word. 



The mechanical difficulty of rapid writing also, troublesome in 

 every literary pursuit, is peculiarly so in the higher education. 

 The iTse of lectures, in university instruction, is embarrassed so 

 much by the necessarily slow and burdensome process of writing 

 out the lectures of the professors that we cannot afford to make 

 that use of lectures which is so popular in Germany, and which, 

 but for this obstacle, might be very useful in our own educational 

 methods. 



Only five or ten years ago, spelling reform was looked upon as 

 the impracticable notion of a few dreamers. At present, it has 

 the support of the leading philologists of England and America. 

 Indeed, the only work in this interest which is likely to abide, has 

 been done by our foremost linguistic scholars. Eeports very fa- 

 vorable to this reform have been made by committees of both the 

 American Philological Association and the Nationcd Educational As- 

 sociation. Some sjDecial organizations have been formed, both in 

 this country and in England, to promote this same end. The 

 Grermans also have taken active measures to correct the compara- 

 tively few and slight orthographic defects of their language. The 

 Royal Commission, appointed by Minister Falk, reported such 

 modifications as violate the historic spelling just about as often as 

 they violate phonetic principles. Such a compromise, though now 

 the law of the Empire, could not hope for great popularity ; but 

 it is noteworthy that the complaint that reaches our ears is chiefly 

 on account of the half-way character of the reform, rather than 

 because the sacred order of the letters has been disturbed. Under 

 such sentiments, a Eeform League has been formed in Grermany 

 aiming to complete the reform, and introduce it into common use. 

 They make a forcible showing of some of the advantages of the 

 reform, in the following mathematical fashion : 



" If, after the adoption of phonetic spelling, each child at school 

 were to save only one lesson in spelling everj^ week, that, for sixty 

 millions of Grermans. would amount to a saving of five millioa 



