some time deprived of this article, they become much freer from local prejudice, and of more open manners, than those in whom this daily habit has never been interrupted.* An opinion may be formed of the extensive consequences resulting from this practice, when what I was told is generally known, but still disregarded. An individual mentioning to another the manner in which he had his toast prepared, and the exact quantity he ate every day, the other made a hasty calculation with a pencil, and found that he had consumed, in the course of his life, one hundred and seventy five cords! It is a subject of great regret to me, that I could not learn the name of the person, because, if he should be a man of prim, precise habits, it would serve to elucidate my theory.

The subject would admit of much more ample developements, but I shall conclude with suggesting some of the prominent objections to the practice. Legislative enactments on the subject would be inefficient, if the general feelings and sentiments of an enlightened people could not be called in to their aid.

1. The abolition of this food would prevent an ignominious dependence on foreign nations, or a useless diversion of domestick industry, for the supplies of toasting irons, toasting forks, toast racks, &c. &c.

2. It would diminish the necessities of scorching the skin and spoiling the complexions of many interesting servant maids.

3. It would prevent the present destruction of the voice; which, perhaps, if this practice ceased, would acquire force and mellowness. 4. It would serve to liberalize the manners, and enlarge the powers of the mind.

5. It would occlude the possibilities of being mutated into negroes.

6. It would operate a great saving of time, and, thus accumulating the national economies, produce a more ample developement of the national energies.

SUPPLEMENT.

I was unwilling to introduce any thing into the foregoing memoir, which might, by interrupting the continuity of the subject, divert the attention from the train of ratiocination, which, I flatter myself, so unanswerably shows the evil consequences resulting from a pernicious custom. Yet I cannot refrain from adducing further proofs, in reasoning by analogy, of the direct influences of the food we eat, on our moral as well as physical qualities, by some reflections on another substance, which will be perfectly familiar, and must have occurred to every individual. My ideas will be at once anticipated, when I mention Plum Cake, or its synonym, Wedding Cake; a composition, compared with toast, of infrequent occurrence; but which, being compounded of as many noxious and heterogeneous things as were contained in the Box of Pandora, I would suggest, should in future be called a Pandoroid.

*It cannot be necessary to remind the reader, that we are not bound to refute, or accede to the conclusions of the author. ED.

The sorceresses, in preparing the Pandoroids, use many magical incantations;

"Double, double,
Toil and trouble ;"

and then furnish the outside with a meretricious medley, mistaken by the credulous and simple for ornament, but which is in reality a close imitation of the Obi practices of African enchanters, from whom it was borrowed.

There are thirteen principal ingredients in these compositions, each of which, though harmless, or even nutritious when alone, becomes extremely virulent in these combinations. If other proofs of this were wanting, it would be sufficient to consider the difference between those people whose nuptials are celebrated with this inauspicious compound, and those of the poorer classes of the community. These latter, whose weddings are perpetrated with only a little innocent gingerbread, consider marriage merely as a state for getting and rearing progeny. Alas! how different from those above them.

As soon as the Pandoroid is devoured (which, from the quantities made, occupies the efforts of months) but sometimes before, its effects are fatally witnessed! The sugar was only a covering to the carbonized surface; the eating of which discovers itself in the honied terms of "my sweet," and " my dear," that faintly conceal the crusty humour beneath. Then too the brandy, which was amalgamated in the mixture, shows itself in the unruly spirit of the infuriated husband; while the eggs, which, if the course of nature had not been interrupted, would have produced chickens, create in the wife such a dispositionto pecking, that her mate often becomes completely henpecked. The citron, too, is at once an emblem and provocative of the green eyed monster, Jealousy! Let every husband beware how he tastes it.

To enlarge further would be superfluous, though the subject might be "pursued through more ample illustrations;" since no one can think lightly of this preparation, by whom it has ever been

eaten.

ACCOUNT OF MR. PELHAM'S SYSTEM OF
NOTATION.

(Continued from page 33.)

BUT the most curious specimen of English composition is found in Elphinstone's "Inglish Orthoggraphy Epittomized." This gentleman engaged in a deep research into the analogies of the language, and in a phraseology and mode of spelling peculiar to himself, exhibited a multitude of rules for pronouncing the letters, accompanied with a copious collection of examples. As a treatise of the elementary principles of the language, his work is highly valuable, but for practical use, it is worse than nothing. His proposal was to discard every useless letter, and with those remaining,

to spell the words as they are pronounced. The consequence was an entire change of the orthography, except in a few words where the present alphabet creates no confusion between the spelling and the pronunciation. On this method of Mr. Elphinstone, Mr. Smith, the author of an ingenious and useful work, makes the following just remarks.

"A learned friend of mine has with great ingenuity and labour lately composed a work, wherein he proposes to render English speech and spelling mutual guides; and I must do him the justice to say, that, as far as I have examined and understood his method, I think it perfect in its kind. But the plan which he hath adopted is attended with a double inconveniency. By a total change in the orthography of the language, foreigners cannot be taught to spell, at the same time they are taught to read; and when they are perfectly instructed in this method, and can readily make use of his books, they will be able neither to read, nor to understand any other work in our language."

The work from which this quotation is made, is the "Scheme of a French and English Dictionary, with a view to render the pronunciation of the English language more easy to Foreigners; by William Smith, A. M." Sensible of the little attention given to general rules, with their numerous trains of exceptions, Mr. Smith has endeavoured to reduce their number, and has substituted a few new ones in the place of those he considered as imperfect. But his principal dependence is on the classification of words according to the sounds of the vowels they contain, and a numeral notation of these sounds in the manner of Dr. Kenrick, from No. 1, to No. 15. The sounds of the variable consonants are likewise as well distinguished as the single alternative of the Italick character will allow. An important part of his plan consists in the alphabetical arrangement of more than thirteen thousand words, referring to the pages where they are classed by their vowel sounds. This gentleman appears also to be sensible of the necessity of a more perfect notation of sounds, for in the preface to his work he observes, "The pronunciation of our language is, I believe, the most difficult to be communicated, or taught by rules; and the reason is obvious; we have so great a variety of articulate sounds, and so small a number of letters to represent them. In order to remedy this defect, I endeavoured, many years ago, to investigate every simple sound of the language, and invented a particular character for each; which characters were invariably to represent the same sound, with a little variation, if long or short; and some of them so constructed as to unite in the formation of diphthongs, and double consonants. But this mode, although, in my opinion, the most effectual that can be devised, to bring either a native or a foreigner to a just articulation and true pronunciation of English, has been complained of as too formidable in the commencement, and too laborious in the prosecution."

It is, however, not to be wondered at, that this mode was considered as too laborious," when it entirely excluded all the characters we have been accustomed to, and substituted a perfectly new

set, both for consonants and vowels; so that a book printed on Mr. Smith's plan would not contain a single character in common use.

Our own country has likewise contributed its portion of invention to facilitate the pronunciation of English. About the year 1768, Dr. Franklin, whose comprehensive mind embraced every subject of a philosophical cast, projected the "Scheme of a new alphabet and reformed mode of spelling," and exhibited examples of its operation in a correspondence entered into expressly for that purpose. Taking the Italick alphabet for his ground work, the Dr. began by expunging every useless letter, and then introduced six new characters to distinguish the variable sounds of a, u, and th, and the powers of the combined consonants ng and sh. Still, however, he found that discarding the superfluous letters and substituting others would not answer the purpose without recourse to false spelling. His plan was, therefore, liable to a serious objection on this account, independent of the uncouth figures which he had substituted for the alphabetical characters.

In the "Royal Standard Dictionary" of Mr. Perry, the words are not only "rationally divided into syllables, but the various sounds of the vowels and consonants are denoted by typographical characters."

These typographical characters consist of the usual accentual marks repeated over different vowels, whether their sounds be alike or not. In one instance alone does the appropriation of the marks approach uniformity, and that is, in the application of the acute accent to denote a similar sound in the vowels a, e, i, o, and y in liar, her, shirt, done, hyrst; and though the u in duck has evidently the same sound, it has a different mark placed over it. It is somewhat singular that a perception of the simple effect of this accent being used to denote the similar sound of these five letters, did not lead Mr. Perry to the systematick appropriation of different marks to different sounds. The simplicity of his plan is further impaired by applying the grave and acute accents to the double purpose of indicating the sounds of the vowels and the tone of the voice. Thus the grave accent not only designates two distinct vowel sounds in part and wolf, but is also descriptive of the flat and slowly accented syllables in border, warning, &c. In like manner, the acute accent is placed over the single vowels in liar, her, &c. to denote their sounds, and over the accented syllables in borrow, washing, &c. to signify a sharp and quick stroke of the voice. The only mark of distinction applied to the variable consonants, is the addition of a small comma, or French cedilla to the bottom of some of them, and the interposition of the grave accent between some of the double consonants. But it is observable that he has provided no distinctive marks of the sounds of c, of f, of n, or of r, and has noticed only two of the sounds of s and x. Hence it is evident that his notation of the words cell, special, suffice, of, sink, bare, vision, version, beaux, &c. must be insufficient without referring to the general rules for pronouncing those letters, with all the exceptions to which they are respectively subject. Instead, however, of recommending the study of these rules, Mr. Perry cuts the matter short by advising the student to "repeat six or eight pages of his dictionary daily, and when

he shall have gone through the whole, to begin again, and thus to continue till he has made the pronunciation familiar to him."

Among the writers who have distinguished themselves by successful researches into the analogies of the language, Mr. Walker holds a conspicuous station. His chief merit consists in having developed the latent rules of combination which had escaped the observation of his predecessors. By freely following the course of his own ideas, and freely availing himself of all that had been written on the subject, Mr. Walker has left but little to be done by his successors in tracing the connection between the written and the spoken language. After many years of attentive observation, aided by much practical experience, he presented to the publick his valuable and judicious treatise of the " Principles of English Pronunciation," prefixed to a "Critical pronouncing Dictionary, and Expositor of the English Language." In this work, the student finds the most satisfactory information on many points that had been in dispute. "It not only exhibits the principles of pronunciation on a more extensive plan than others have done; divides the words into syllables, and marks the sounds of the vowels, like Dr. Kenrick; spells the words as they are pronounced, like Mr. Sheridan; and directs the inspector to the rule by the word, like Mr. Nares; but where words are subject to different pronunciations, it shows the reasons from analogy for each, produces authorities for one side and the other, and points out the pronunciation which is preferable. And to add to these advantages, critical observations are given on such words as are subject to a diversity of pronunciation, and the inspector invited to decide according to analogy, and the best usage."

In this exposition of the plan of Mr. Walker it appears, that his chief dependence is on a detail of the general rules of pronunciation with all their exceptions. These rules, illustrated by numerous well chosen examples, are extended to five hundred and fifty eight articles, occupying upwards of one hundred octavo pages, closely printed, and are mostly well calculated to answer the purpose of settling the pronunciation, if the student will devote the time and attention necessary to understand them. Some doubts, however, occur, whether Mr. Walker has been able, by the notation he has adopted, to convey a perfect idea of his own practice, and whether some of those sounds which may be perfectly comprehended by his notation, are not in themselves inaccurate. Besides the numeral notation, which is the same as Sheridan's, with a slight difference in the application, Mr. Walker has adopted the injudicious method of false spelling; the effects of which may be justly estimated by those who consider how difficult it is to obtain a correct knowledge of orthography, even without this impediment.

As a standard of English pronunciation his dictionary will probably be appealed to, till a few more "standards" shall evince the futility of all attempts to fix the fleeting sounds of the human voice.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]