[ 408 ] 
them j and yet they are able to exprefs themfelves 
with greater Fluency and Precifion than we can well 
be Matters of, till we fhall imitate their Care to 
polifh and to propagate their Language, by fome 
Attention to the Improvement of our own. 
They have none of our th> dh , ch , or and if 
a Man’s Name, fuppofe, were Thatch th’ edge , they 
would not be able, without previous Practice, to 
pronounce any one of thefe 4 Confonants, which 
help to compofe it, and which Cuftom obliges us 
to denote, fo abfurdly, by 9 Letters that have not 
the alphabetical Force of any one of thefe 4 amongfl: 
them. 
The mod important Refledion upon the Subjed 
is this, that whereas we have in our Language but 
7 diftind Sounds or Vowels, and thrice the Num- 
ber of Stops or Modifications of them ; if we had 
accordingly 28 Letters or Types appropriated to 
them, and always wrote or printed what we fpoke, 
the Theory of Reading might be acquired in as few 
Hours, as it cofts at prefent Months or Years to ac- 
quire it in. 
But I forbear the Purfuit of this Topic any far- 
ther 5 underftanding, from Gentlemen who were de- 
firous that I fhould examine Mr. Lodwick’s Scheme 
immediately, that the Society would break up for 
the Summer, at the next Meeting : Attendance up- 
on my Short-hand Scholars has obliged me to urge 
what occurred upon the Perufal of it as briefly as I 
could, and fo I fubmit it to Confideration, and 
am, &c . 
VL 
