4. Enunciate every syllable as it is completed, preserving the distinctness of its elements.

5. Pronounce the word with due proportion of force and time on each syllable, taking care that the elements, as before articulated, be distinctly preserved in the pronunciation.

The analysis consists of the steps marked 1, 2, 3; spelling, of those marked 3, 4, 5.* In monosyllables the steps 2 and 4 have, of course, no place.

NOTE 1. When a consonant is doubled in the orthography of a word, the element is repeated in the steps 2, 3, 4; but in 5 (pronunciation) the element is sounded but once; that is, the vocule of the first is suppressed.

NOTE 2. Each exercise is made to present a single element in various combinations, (though variously represented to the eye,) so that, in practis

* The mode of spelling here proposed is the only proper way of assisting a child that is learning to talk. It cannot reasonably be expected that a distinct and organically correct articulation can be acquired by the common custom of learning merely to pronounce words. A complicated group in perspective is not probably the best first lesson in drawing, nor is a rapid harmony of four parts the best first lesson in music. But what reason is there for supposing that the muscles which move the articulating organs will at once execute properly a complicated series of movements in obedience to a single volition, while the muscles of the hand and arm refuse to do so? "Instinct is a great matter." Intuition is a great matter. But we neither know what to speak by intuition, nor learn how to speak by instinct, but by imitation; otherwise all men would speak the same language, Chinese, Choctaw, or whatever. And there can be no doubt that nearly all the stammering, blundering, and indistinct articulation which we so continually hear, while few are conscious of it in themselves, have come very naturally, if not of mere necessity, from the folly of those who expect, or allow, children to execute words without mastering the simplest elements of which they are composed.

Orthographic spelling is another matter, and ought to be kept entirely separate in early education. Orthoepic spelling is perfectly simple in theory, and easy in practice; for the whole of a word is identically the sum of all its parts, properly united. This method once understood, orthography becomes easy in proportion as the alphabetic characters represent single sounds. So that with a truly phonetic character a spelling book is totally useless beyond the "key-sheet," or alphabet. And the irregularities of English orthography would lose much of their mystery, and its acquisition be proportionably facilitated, if the alphabet, such as it now is, were only used phonetically at first, in teaching children to read, and the theory of silent letters and substitutes were introduced afterwards. That is, it would be better to learn first the rule and the reason for it, then the exceptions and the occasions of them, than to wade through masses of words, grouped in an unprincipled manner, as neither examples nor exceltions. In that way, almost every exception to rule in orthography would become an example of a rule in etymology.

Oral orthographic spelling is very properly going out of use in teaching, because it is found not only false in theory, but pernicious in practice, at least for beginners; since it involves a well-nigh unavoidable misapprehension, a confounding of the sounds of a word with the names of the characters that represent that word to the eye. This does not arise in orthoepic spelling, nor in orthographic spelling by sight.

ing, attention may be called to one element at a time. A beginner should go through the exercises at first with the monosyllables only.

NOTE 3. Words are grouped in these exercises by the coincidence of their accents. When a word varies in accent according to its different uses, the accent here given is justified by indicating the use of the word, by the common abbreviations; (n.)=noun, (a.) = adjective, (v.)=verb, &c.

NOTE 4. In the sentences at the bottom of the exercises, give special attention to the proper joining together of words in a clause, which is quite as important as the proper joining of syllables in a word. Being printed without any grammatical signs, they afford exercise in analyzing sentences by the sense alone, to secure the proper grouping of words into clauses, which, according to Quintilian, is the second requisite for clearness. This exercise is more needed than one would suppose who has not learned that punctuation never indicates directly, nor certainly, the place of the rhetorical pause.

§ 14. 1. e-ve.

The most slender form of all the tonics. [§ 10. 8. (b.)]

Accented.

deep feet, peace wreath, teach leash, beam leave, mesne breathe treaty people, either seizure, meanly beaming - tedious deity, vehement behemoth -repeat critique, belief intrigue, machine marine, between demean― completely adhesive — indefeasible apotheosis.

Unaccented (but very distinct.)

profile colleague, sunbeam day-dream — apple-tree humble-bee, afterpiece verdigris.

Unaccented (and less distinct.)

secure chicane, beside detach, prepare repent

ferocious setaceous,

beginning devastate - piety increment, congregate consequence.

2. e-ar.

(§ 5. 2.) Accented.

peer tear, fear seer, shire here, bier deer, gear jeer, weird reared,

reindeer leapyear-working-gear winandermere, chanticleer worces

tershire.

Bring me to hear them speak where I may be concealed yet hear

them.

Tis deeply sworn sweet leave me here a while.

The doubleness of the benefit defends the deceit from reproof.

3. i-n.

This element is not a mere short e-ve, but has a very distinct form of its

own.

Accented.

pip tip, bit writ, cuish hiss, bid hid, fig wig, been linn, mill will, king thing-pittance pretty, linen women, spirit lyric, busy visor, vineyard tribune-miracle tyranny, midshipman englishman-admit refit, amid begin, dismiss insist—parasitic intermittent.

Unaccented (but distinct.)

ignite invite, intend immense, dissuade mistake— respite conscript, fertile hostile, calling shilling — puerile juvenile, feminine genuine.

Unaccented (and less distinct.)

direct finance-minutely tribunal.

This sickness doth infect the life blood of our enterprise.

It is will he nill he he goes.

The mines is not according to the disciplines of the war the concavities of it is not sufficient.

4. e-nd. Accented.

get yet, check reck, deaf feoff, yes mess, said led, keg beg, mend

wend

-

leopard epoch, fetid heifer, any penny, prelate legate, festive breakfast, medley wainscot ·regular benefit, recompense hesitate —— arrest professed, against immense respective forgetful, resentment enfeoffment-recommended reprehended.

Unaccented, (distinct.)

chicken kitchen, sudden silent, moment transient, greatest smallest, counsel model, novel barrel, cruel vessel, madness goodness, likeness fondness-dividend providence.

You shall have gold to pay the petty debt twenty times over.

* с

Men that make envy and crooked malice nourishment dare bite the best.

5. e-rr.

This element probably arose from a modification of the last. (§ 5. 2.) But it is now radically distinct from it.

Accented.

err sir, jerk irk, girt gird, bird heard, terse verse, dearth earth, berth mirth, herb firm, fern yearn, earl pearl, whirl girl — perfect person, mercy merchant, verdant vernal, virtue colonel, servant nervous - terminate mercantile - - deter refer aver, disperse rehearse converse

- alternate infernal concerning, aspersion desertion reversion — determinate reverberate intercalary.

Unaccented, (distinct.)

fetter batter, chaffer father, reader warmer, rover taller, longer stranger - fetterlock butternut, counterpoint finger-post, thundercloud dangerous confirmation consternation, generation intervention.

And as he errs doting on Hermia's eyes.

I do wander every where swifter than the moones sphere and I serve the fairy queen to dew her orbs upon the green.

6. a-le.

This is a compound element. It is not made of e-nd and e-ve only, as some suppose, but of two extreme forms, (the first more open than e-nd, and the last, e-ve,) together with all the intermediate forms, properly proportioned. In singing, it should never be caricatured thus: a-h➖➖➖➖➖e-ve.

Accented.

cape bait, faith lace, braid gauge, knave deign, swathe pale, chaise gray - fatal patron, safely chasten, nation patience, ancient changing, chamber angel-placable patronize, neighboring dangerous vey inveigh, abase arraign, detail exhale dictator bravado, umbrageous occasion.

Unaccented (distinct.)

con

dictate inmate vibrate, noonday outlay survey (n.), comrade telltale female animate celebrate congregate.

Away I say stay'st thou to vex me here a slave that still an end turns me to shame.

7. a-ir.

This element was originally a modification of the last. (§ 5. 2.) That it has now become a permanent radical variation is not owing to the "republican contumacy of the American lexicographer," as Mr. Smart thinks, but to the actual use of educated men on both sides of the Atlantic, excepting, perhaps, pupils of the Westminster elocutionist.

The further transformation of this element to a-h, as thar for there, bar for bear, har for hair, - a custom which prevails in Virginia and southward, - is not of "republican," but undoubtedly African, origin. The true sound is very near a-le, with the natural vowel for its vanish.

In the exercises below -r must not be made a syllable.

Accented.

pear tare care, fare chair share, heir hair yare, bare dare wear, rare ne'er there, lair ere scarce - parent careful, fairy chairman, heirloom harebell, barely yarely, rareness scarcely - prayerfully chariness, warily rarity, rareeshow scarcity-repair unfair, beware forswear, forbear declare apparent forbearance, insnaring declaring.

Unaccented, (distinct.)

welfare arm-chair, ploughshare nightmare- farewell.

Let me but bear your love I'll bear your cares.
You'll do him wrong ere you are 'ware.

8. a-t. Accented.

cap gap, chat that, pack whack, mab blab, hag lag, have has rapine batten, fancy random, ballot gallant, tarry harass-natural national, raillery charity, sacrament chastisement, sacrifice aggrandize divan sedan decanter example, inhabit imagine.

Unaccented, (distinct.)

compact contract, potash footpad, woolṣack mill-dam.

Unaccented, (obscure.)

attend accord, assure absolve, adjust announce - total ballad, compass combat.

She thanked me and bade me if I had a friend that loved her.