HIS TORT of the SOCIETT. y 



Orthography being thus a moft fcientific art, it is of much 

 importance, for the educating of a people in this art, to con- 

 form the practice flrictly to the rules of fcience, and to have 

 the rules of that fcience comprifed in the knowledge of the 

 alphabet. The alphabet is therefore now made the fubject of 

 a fcientiflcal difcuffion. 



An alphabet being nothing but the figured elements of 

 fpeech, and fpeech confiding of articulated founds, we are to 

 examine thofe diftincl founds which man has it in his power to 

 form for the purpofe of his fpeech, and alfo all the practicable 

 articulations proper for modifying his vocal founds. 



The vocal power of man is, from experience, found to be 

 divided into feven diftinct notes, and this power is reprefented 

 by a line divided into fix equal parts, which forms feven equal 

 diftinctions of his perfect founds. 



The letter i is here affixed to the moft acute or higheft of 

 thofe notes of vocal found, and u is the written fign affixed to 

 the loweft, or the note which is naturally moft grave. In a 

 middle place between thofe two extremes, in this vocal capacity 

 of man, is placed the found, which is confidered as correfpond- 

 ing to the letter a. 



Thus, we have the radical alphabet, of the perfect vocal 

 found in the letters f, a, u. All the other founds are then ne- 

 cefTarily comprehended between that middle vowel and the two 

 extremes. This determined fpace of vocal found is then fub- 

 divided, the upper half, or higheft fpace, into the vowels e and 

 vi, the lower, again, into thofe of o and v. 



Thus we complete the feven perfect notes of human voice 

 or vocal founds ; and thefe are all defined or diftinguifhed, in 

 defcribing the gradual change or regular modification of the 

 organ, which is neceffary in founding each. 



But befides the feven perfect vowels which compofe what 

 may be termed the radical alphabet of human fpeech, there are 

 two femitones, placed fomewhere between the middle note, 



and 



