Pf EFACE. 4$ 'beyond childhood ; though I have frequently, in the book, addressed my directions to masters and their scholars. I persuademyself that there are thousandsof young persons, andmany at full grown age, who for want of happier advantages, may profit consider. able in this universal piece of knowledge, by the directions that are here pro. posed. They may learn to read more usefully to those who hear, as-well as to write more intelligibly to those who must read, if they will but enter into acquaintance with the principles of their native tongue, and follow the rules here prescribed. It is not so easy amatter to readwell asmost people imagine : There are multitudes who can read common words true, can speak every hard name exactly, and pronounce the single or the united syllables perfectly well ; who yet are not capable of reading six lines together witha proper sound, and a graceful turn of voice either to inform or please the hearers: and if they ever attempt to read verse; even of the noblest composure, they perpetually affect tocharm theirown ears, as well as the company, with ill tones and cadences, with false accents, and a false harmony, to the utter ruin of the sense, and the disgrace of the poet. As for spelling, how wretchedly is it practised by a great part of the unlearned world ? For having never attained agood knowledge of the general three and sound of the English letters, nor the customary and various use of diphthongs; and beingutter strangers to the derivation of words from foreign languages, they neither spell according to custom, nor tothe sound, nor the derivation. When they have learned the use of a pen, they make such a hideous jumble of letters tostand for words, that neither the vulgar nor the learned can guess what they mean. Yet here I am sensible I must beg pardon of the critics, that I have allowedmy readers to spell several Englishwords rather according tocustom, and the present pronunciation, than in the etymological and learned way; and that I have advised them sometimes to spell words of the same sound, and the same derivation, two different ways, if they have a different mean- ing ; as practise, when it is a verb, with an s; and when it is a noun, with a e: For it is the happiness of any language to distinguish the writing, and, if it werepossible`; the sound also of everyword which hasiwo distinct senses, as we do in the words Advise andAdvice ; that neitherspeech nor writingmight have any thing ambiguous. I hope they will forgive too, if I have allowed the unlearned to spell many of the saine words two ways, even when their sense is the same ; as Prettous may be written with a t, or a c. Perhaps they may tell me, that both these can never be right. But in several of these instances, the critics themselves are at great variance, though the matter is of too trifling import- ance-to be the subject of learned quarrels; and custom, which is, and will be sovereign over all the forms of writingand speaking, gives me licence to indulge my unlearned readers in this easy practice. I will never contest the business of spelling with any man ; for after all the most laliorious searches into antiquity, and the combats of the grammarians, there are a hundred words that all the learned will not spell thesame way. I have byno means aimedat perfection, and shall not avail be disappoint. ed when the world tells me, I have not attainedan impossibility. The Eng- hsh,tonguebeing composed out of many languages, enjoys indeed a variety of their beauties ; but by this means it becomes also so exceeding irregular,
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