The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1847-07-10

of spelling. The plural. again, of sucI
words as romances, ages, horses. he wIot
ron'oncees. ages. horses; and upon tn,
following equitable consideration; that, in
asmuch as the final in the singular is mute
that is, by general vote Of the nation ha.
been allowed TO retire upon a superannua
ton allowance, it is abOminable TO call i
back upon active service-like the modern
Chelsea pensioners-as must be done, if i
is to bear the whole weight Of separate
syllable like ces. Consequently, if the ma
ton and Parliament mean to keep faith
they are bound to hire stout young te
run in The traces with the old original E, tax
ing the whole word of his aged shoulders
Volumes would not suffice to exhaust the
madness Of Ritson upon this subject. And
there was this peculiarly in his madness
over and above its clamorous ferocity, tina,
being no classical scholar Ia meagre self
taught Latinist, and no Grecian at alb though
profound as black letter scholar. he cared
not one straw for ethnographic relations Of
words, nor for unity Of analogy, which are
the principles that generally have governed
reformers OF spelling. He was an attor.
ney, and moved constantly under the mono.
maniac idea that an action lay on behalf
OF misused letter, mutes, liquids, novels, and
dpthon4 against somebody or other John
Roe, was it, or Richard RoeO for trespass
on any rights Of theirs which an attorney
might trace, and of course for any direc, out.
rage upon their persons Yet no man was
more Systematically an offender in both
ways than himself; tying up one leg Of a
1uadruped word, and forcing i, to rsn upon
three; cutting off noses and ears, il he fam
cied equity required il; and living in eternal
hot water with language which he pre-
tended eternally to protect.
And yet all these fellows were nothing in
comparison Of Mr.. Pinkerton. The most
OF these men did but ruin the national spell
ing, but Pinkerton-the monster Pinker-
ton-proposed revolution which would
have left US nothing to spell. 1t is almost
hook regularly printed and
published, bought and sold did not remain
10 attest tie fact-that this horrid barbarian
seriously proposed as a glorious discovery
for refining our language, the following
plan. All people were content with the
compass Of the English languages; its range
Of expression was equal to anything but,
unfortunately, as compared with the sweet
orchestral language Of the south--Spanish
the stately, and Italian the lovely--it wan.
ted rythmus and melody. Clearly, then,
the one supplementary grace, which it re-
NAMED for modern art to give, is that every
one should add at discretion and a, inc
and ano, to the end Of the English words.
The language, in its old days, should be
taught struttdre steuttissimdmenie. As a
specimen, Mr.. Pinkerton favored us viii,
his Own version Of famous passage in Adj
olson, The Vision Of Mira" The pas.
sage, which begins thus, AS | sat on the
top OF a rock" being translated into, AS
salto on the TOPPING Of a rocko,' &c.
But luckilissime this proposalio Of the lab
surdissimo Pinkertonio was not adopiadc
by dnybOdy.ini ,rhdterer-aao.
Mr. Lander is more learned and probabl,
more consistent in his assaults upon the es
tabllshed spelling .han most OF these elder
refonners. But that does not make HIM
either learned enough or consistent enough
He never ascends into Ang Saxon. or the
many cOgnate languages OF the Teutonic
family. which is indispensable to search.
ing inquest upon our language; he does moi
put forward i'll this direction even the slen
der qualifications Of Horne Tooke. But
Greek and Latin are quite unequal, when
disjoined from the elder wheels in our ETY..
molosical system, to the working Of the 10
tai machinery Of the English language
Mr.. Landor, proceeds upon no fixed princi
Piles in his changes. Sometimes it is on
the principle Of internal analogy with itself
that he would distort or reuotort the Ian
g,,age; sometimes ON the principle OF ex
ternal analogy with its roots; sometimes OF
the principle Of euphony, or Of metrica
convenience. Even within such principle
he is not uniform. All well-built Enelisl
scholars, for instance. know that the wor,
Eealiy cannot be made into diSsyllable
unsuitable i, ever was with the elder poet
- Spencer, Milton, &c; and so it i
amongst all the modern poets who have ia
ken pains with their English studies; e. g.
1.-THE eagle lord of land and sea.
Stopp'd down-to pay him fe-al-ty."
/, is dreadful to hear man say teally il
any case but here it is luckily impossible
Now, MIR. Lander generally is correct, an
uisects the word; but once, at least, he bi
sects it. complain. besides, that MI
Landor, in urging the authority Of Miltol
for photographic innovations, does not al
ways distinguish as to Millions motives
is true. as he contends, that, in some instan
ces, Milton reformed the spelling in ODE
dience TO the Italian precedent; and certain
ly without blame; as in sorran, sdeign
which ought not to be printed Gas it isl wit
an elision before the S, as if short. for di.
iain; but in other instances Milton motiv
had no reference to etymolog. Sometime
| il was this. In Millions day, the mOder
use of Italics was nearly unknown. Every
BODY is aware that, in our authorized versio
of the Bible, published in Millions infanc!
italics are never once used for emphasis
but exclusively to indicate such words q
auxiliary forms as, though implied and I'll
tually present in the original, are not tex
ually expressed, but must be 80 in Englisi
from the different genius of the Language
Now, this want Of proper technical n
source amongst the compositors of the az
for indicating peculiar stress upon a wor'
evidently drove Milton into some perplex
/ A. G. ,ororonsotorv rontrivance In w: