Latin, as publick, public; musick, music; logick, logic; pedantick, pedantie.

5. e l is sometimes written for le, at the end of some words, as cattle, cattel, battle, battel.

6. o a is turned sometimes into long o, and e final, as coal, cole; cloak, cloke; smoak, smoke; groan, grone; shoar, shore.

7. or is written where our was wont to be written, as labour, labor; honour, honor; favour, favor; conqueror, con

queror.

8. Among other letters which are now-a-days omitted by some writers, p between m and t is often left out; as presumption, presumtion; attempt, attent; so in assumption, contempt, contemptuous, temptation, &c.

9. ph is changed into f many times, as phansy, phanatic, phantastic, phantom, phrensy, phlegm, sulphur, prophane; for which are written, fancy, fanatic, &c.

10. que is changed into k, or ke; as barque, traffique, masque, flasque, relique, chequer, casquet, musquet, are often written, bark, traffick, &c.

11. re or er are written indifferently in these words; theatre, or theater; so metre, meter; centre, center; sepulchre, sepulcher.

12. s is sometimes turned into z, in such words as rasor, scissars, brasier, losenge, exercise, chastise, devise, enterprise; which may be written razor, scizzars, exercize, enterprize, &c.

There are also many other words where c is made frequently to supply the place of s, but it is by no means proper, though it is very common; as in dispence, suspence, scence, pretence, &c. all which words ought to end in se, as dispense, suspense, sense, &c.

13. ti, or ci, are written in these words, antient, vicious,

gratious, pretious, spatious, &c. as ancient, vicious, &c.

14. ugh may be left out in though, tho', through, thro', and in thought, brought, &c. with an apostrophe in the room of them, as tho't, bro't, &c.

15. ugh is sometimes changed for w, as in yew, ploro, bora, thorow, enow; for yeugh, plough, bough, thorough, enough.

Upon the word enough there is this observation made, that, when it signifies a sufficient quantity, it is written always with ugh, and pronounced enuff, as there is wine enough. But when -it signifies a sufficient number, it is oftentimes both pronounced and written enow; as, There are bottles enow.

16. ul, or wt, is turned into ll in these words, rowl, roll, powl, poll, scrowl, scroll, controul, controll. 17. Many words are written with u after a vowel, which used to be written with wheretofore, as noun, nown; ground, grownd; sour, sowr; caul, cawl; lour, lowr.

廉

18. Words whose sounds end in i; were once written with ie, now with y, as Aie, fly; bloodie, bloody; victorie, victory: some are written either with ie, or y e, as die, dye; lie, lye; tie, tye: others only with y, as my, thy, by; others chiefly with y e, as rye, pye; as custom pleases.

19. It may be observed in general, that i and y are written for one another indifferently in many words, as lion, lyon; tiger, tyger; praise, prayse; toil, toyl; said, sayd; paid, payd.

20. Some words are written either with a double or single consonant in the middle, as well as in the end; as aray, array; orange, orrange; forage, forage; later, latter; mat, matt; rot, rott; scof, scoff; sum, summ: and words of several syllables ending in I as hopefull, hopeful; speciall, special: natu rall, natural.

I dare not pretend to maintain that both these ways of spelling the same words in this chapter, are learnedly right and critically true. Nor do I write now for scholars and critics; but many of the learned have been wisely negligent in these lesser matters, and not wasted their time in long and deep researches after an e, or an s, or az, and they have taken the liberty to spell those words different ways; and many times, in imitation of the French, have left out useless letters by way of refinement: I confess the derivation of these words is hereby lost. But after all, custom, which will be the standard of language, has rendered both these methods of spelling tolerable, at least to the unlearned.

For the words which are not reduced to any of these rules, see the sixth table.

There are also several English proper names which men spell different ways; as Elisabeth, or Elizabeth; Esther, or Hester; Nathanael, or Nathaniel; Humfry or Humphrey; Anthony, or Antony; Gaspar, or Jaspar, Hierom, or Jerom; Giles, or Gyles, Katherine, or Catharine; Britain, or Brittain. But I shall not make a distinct table of them here observation will sufficiently teach them.

I shall conclude this chapter with one remark, namely, That in old writings, and in books printed long ago, you find many needless letters used in spelling several words, which are left out in modern books and writings; as for instance, the words which we write, son, gun, sap, press, goodness, tho, body, doth, doest, &c. were once written, sonne, gunne, sappe, presse, goodnesse, though, boddy or boddie, doeth, doest; and a thousand other instances there are of the like kind wherein modern writers have shortened the manner of spelling by leaving out such letters as are not pronounced.

CHAP. XXIV.-Catalogues of Words pronounced or written in such a Way as cannot be reduced to Rules, &c.

IN learning to read and write English, we shall find several words whose accent, pronunciation, and spelling, are not easy to be brought under any certain rules; and these can only be learnt by long observation, or by tables or catalogues drawn up for this end.

There are several other things also that relate to reading and writing, which cannot well be taught otherwise than by tables; such are abbreviations and contractions in writing and in speaking, whereby two or three letters are to signify one or two words or more, as A. M. or M. A. Master of arts. So numbers, as one, two, three, &c. which are marked with letters, as I, II, III, &c. or with particular characters, as 1, 2, 3, &c. Various other letters and marks also are used to signify whole words, as l. for pounds; oz. for ounces; &, or &, for and; which may be learnt by the following table.

TABLE III.-A Table of other Words pronounced different Ways, when they are used in different Senses.

Note, the words Hast, Past, Bath, Breath, Cloth, and such others, when they are pronounced long should have the e final added to the end: as Haste, Paste Bathe, Breathe, Clothes and therefore they are not to be spelt the same way.

TABLE IV. A Table of Words, the same or nearly alike in "Sound, but different in Signification and in Spelling,

passage