but as the Latins rejected K, and gave to C all the words they borrowed with the Greek K in them, we caught by their fashion rather than imitating their simplicity and love of system, adopt both letters, as well as S and Q, investing C with both Greek and Latin properties; and lest the symbol K should not be sufficiently multiplied, have endowed Ch with the same sound.* A similar reduplication of F by Ph, in compliment to the Greek, and many from other languages, might be adduced and explained: these, together with the double letters X and soft G, the soft Ch, the arbitrary mode of forming certain syllables, as tion, tious, and the same multiplication of vowel characters as we have seen in the other letters, by diphthongs and triphthongs, and double vowels, deplorably vary our modes of spelling, and render nugatory any attempt to arrange the rules of orthography. In explanation of the terms diphthongs and * This is probably an inept compliance with the Greek X, which symbol, it may be averred, upon faith of the general simplicity of their alphabet, never had any sound which could confound it with K or any other letter: doubtless the x had the utterance which the Gaelic gives to Ch, vide note p. 456, and which other nations at the present day deem worthy of a place in their languages. This is confirmed by the Latin version of some Greek familiar words possessing this letter, as Kaganday into Carthago; and that apt specimen of onomatopoiia, xaw, to yawn, which would lose all its expression, unless this letter had the utterance now claimed for it, as the peculiar aspirate of a yawn. This word the Latins call hio. Thus the three in triphthongs, we need only say that they are a merciless invention, by which two, and even three poor vowels are carried off at a single explosion of the voice, and by a sound which, at other times, is denoted by a single vowel letter. Beau, and the two in Bow, have the same sound as the one in so; the diphthongs too, like the vowels, have unfortunately been invested with varied utterance; for instance in the three words tough, though, thought, the same diphthong has different sounds. One of the most common sounds in our language is that of the vowel u, as in the word Urn, or as the diphthong ea in the word Earth, for which we have no character. Writers have made various efforts to express it, as in Earth, Berth, Mirth, Worth, and Turf, in which all the vowels are indiscriminately used in turn. This defect has led to the absurd method of placing the vowel after the consonants, instead of between them, when a word terminates with this sound; as in the following, Bible, Pure, Centre, Circle, instead of Bibel, Puer, Center, Cirkel. The difference of sound given to the vowel A is equally perplexing. Affixing arbitrary marks to this letter, indicating the sound it should carry, would tend much to settle our pronunciation. Its sound of АH! the most pure of all our intonations, never occurs at the end of a word, except in a few interjections, such as psha! Ah! and la! Were it agreed that this sound should be the name of the letter, according to the practice of every other country, that its broad petto sound Au should be dotted thus à, and that the slender sound of Hay, should have a line drawn over it, thus a, we should arrive at a certainty of pronunciation as it regards this letter. Similar marks might be made upon the other letters to which we annex different sounds. In the alphabet the vowels and other letters are huddled together without any proper arrangement. These letters, no doubt, were intended as delineations of the form of the mouth, which produced the original sounds. Their primitive figure, being now lost, this purpose is no longer considered, and such is their present unsettled utterance, that no two nations are agreed in pronouncing them alike. It would be a great step towards perfection to spell our words as they are pronounced; if it be urged, that such a scheme would destroy all their resemblance to the parent language from which they are derived, we might at least agree upon affixing additional marks, and thus accomplish it by degrees. The speaking sounds of all languages are the same, and it is possible to fix the sound of every letter so accurately, that the pronunciation of every language should be instantly comprehended and spoken. Then we might say, we had fashioned an Alphabet for the convenience and use of the world! W w 385 CHAPTER L. ON RHYTHM IN LANGUAGE. THAT agreeable modulation of sound which arises from words, when thrown into verse, has been by the poets called Rhythm; and the syllables of which it is composed have been cast into long and short. These, when linked together in measured portions, are denominated feet, and according to the number in each line, so is the character and movement of the verse. The varieties which are made by stringing together little clusters of them, called anapests, spondees, and dactyls, in the estimation of the Latins, produced not less than twentyeight different sorts of feet, and with the Greeks many more. All this, as it regards the English language, and probably every other language, is a mere visionary theory. It has been proved that syllables are as various in their duration as the notes in music, and in their times are susceptible of the finest gradations. Some words are slow and heavy, others light and fleeting, and the poet of nature repeats them according to their spirit and disposition. Hence, they are not confined to the limping gait of long and short, but in their motion are free and unrestrained. If we put to the test our English poems, as scanned by writers upon prosody, we shall find them but lame exhibitions of the melody of language. Poetry distinguishes herself from Prose, by yielding to a musical law, which is, that her phrases or strains are confined to an even number of bars, as two, four, six, and eight. The ear will not admit of such strains as are composed of the odd numbers, three, five, seven, and nine. In an eminent work just published, the following lines of ten syllables are marked into feet of five musical bars, agreeably to this classical rule. All are but parts of one | stupendous whole, Whose body Nature is, That chang'd thro' all, Great in the earth | and yet in all the same, as in | th' ether | ial frame; refreshes in Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the breeze, the trees but which in reality, move in the time of only four bars, thus:— 3 Triple Time dotted crotchet, or the bar 63 inches pendulum. That chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the in th' etherial frame; |