Defence of improved Spelling. 
been made towards it? Much lefs than in 
reafon might have been expected, even 
allowing to every obviating caufe irs full 
efficacy. Barbariim hath retreated with 
a flow pace: fome remains of it at leaft 
ftill appear in the manners of the people, 
by its genuine marks, ferocity and indo- 
lence ; outrageous acts of lawlefs  vio- 
‘lence, unheard of in any civilized coun- 
try, are ftill trequently committed there 3 
and hardly any other country bears on 
the face of it fuch plain indications of the 
bounty of God, in imparting x the gifts of 
nature, and of the floth of man in neglett- 
ing to improve them. 
Porery, that more than Egyptian 
darkneis, {till covers a great part or the 
land; a darknels, which may be ienfibly 
felt in its pernicious effedts and ‘de- 
ftruétive con{ quences. It is the great 
obitacle that ftands in the way of every 
' beneticial, puery senierous defign: it coun- 
teracts every principle thgt leads to loy- 
alty and tri = piety, to induftry and ib 
ful knowledge, to national itrength, - {e- 
curity and ‘ha ppineis, It inipires its 
wretched votaries with a deteftation of 
that government which protects them, be- 
cauie it is adminiftered by thofe or 
they call ufurpers and heretics; and 
makes them ready to join the enemies of 
their country, becauie they call them- 
delves catholics; a name perverted in the 
application to the very contrary of its 
true meaning. The love of their country 
being thus extinguifhcd in ‘their breatts, 
one of the ftrongeft incitements to the 
nobleit exertions of the powers of body 
and, mind is deftroyed. Their underftand- 
ing. fubdued to the belief of ‘grofs falfe- 
hoods, and habituated to Speandi ities, is 
weakened and depraved ; it becomes im- 
pervious to the light of truth, and callous 
to the force of argument. Intrenched in 
ignorance, and ina language of their own, 
little known to others, and difficult to be 
attained, enilaved to the peculiar cultoms 
and iuperftitions cf their anceftors; fixed 
im an “obftinat e adherence to hereditary 
errors, and a determined ‘hatred of thofe 
whofe duty it is to remove them; awed 
by the terrors of dreadful anathem: as, and 
(in the cafe of converts at leat): by ‘the 
obligation of oaths, binding them not-to 
hearken to reafon, or yield to conviction ; 
they render themfelves inacceflible to hu- 
man inftruction, and give up their claim 
to the direCtion of the word ot God: 
éc Seeing they fee not, neither do they 
perceive ; and hearing they hear not, nei- 
ther do they underfiand. The heart of 
= people is waxed BoE and their ears 
diftinguithed raak 
13 
are dull of hearing, and their eyes have 
they clofed ; left they fhould fee with thes 
eyes, and hess: with their ears, and under 
ftand with their} hearts, and fhould be con- 
verted and healed.’ 
TL aims rtf 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
Y7 OUR. corr efpondent. V.0.V, (vol. 
V. p. 425.) is not fatisfied we the 
ar cuments that I have already adduced in 
avour of an improvement in our mode of 
(citing! He continues to think that an 
alteration would be prejudical to the lan- 
guage; that etymology would be thereby 
deftroyed;  and‘that. it. would be a means 
ot configning our bef authors to oblivion. 
A with to fee the fubject of orthography 
fully difcuffed,. induces me to trouble you 
with another letter in fupport of my tor- 
mer, and to reply to the above objeétions 
of V,O.¥. 
Tt is out of my power to conceive, | 
how a well regulated alteration in fpell- 
ing, a fyftematic orthogvaphy, can be 
prejudicial to any language; and we 
Know, that in other European languages, 
this has been adopted, much to. their im- 
provement. V.O.V. fays, that this has 
been the effect of fafhion and caprice, but 
in this he is certainly miftaken. It was 
reafon, and a conviction of the necefiity of 
the alteration, that produced it, as would 
have been apparent to your correlpondent 
had he taken the pains of inquiring inte 
it. Lhe mode of fpelling in France, 
prior to the prefent century, was very 
different from that now in ufe, and, in 
thofe times, the propriety oi an alteration 
was wean difcuffed by the learned, 
but the fame reafons that your corref= 
pondent now adduces, influenced them, 
and no alteration took place. ‘The ed 
tors of the “‘Trevoux Dictis onary,” as it 
is called, were, I believe, the firft wha 
made any confiderable attempt towards an 
improvement: they publithed a complete 
dictionary of the language, in five folie 
volumes, about the year 1714, in which 
they di bres all the letters not pro- 
nounced , by pris inting them with a dif. 
ferent types thus DOubTe, EfPhE, 
&c. this was a confiderable advance to- 
wards the great improvement of the 
French language, which afterwards was 
accomplifhed, under the influence of the 
French academy. 
Would the F Bench have 
attained that 
among the Europea 
langua ages, which it now poflefles, if this 
alteration had not teken place? Surely. 
not. ‘Lhe fucceis then of this amendment, 
eo 
40 
