mplicity of the Italian and Spanish spelling ought to be a cause of
high proficiency in literary and educational attainments among the
people of Italy and Spain. A commendation of those two nations for their
taste in discarding "Greek orthography" to be effective ought to be
supplemented with some evidence of the usefulness of that operation.
Unless so supplemented, the commendation can have no weight as an
argument. The Anglo-Saxon race has not been accustomed to follow the
Latins in literary and educational matters. The past and present
condition of those two countries affords no guarantee that their
adoption of the so-called simpler spelling is commendable. There are
persons whose corroboration of a statement adds no weight to it with
their neighbors. It adds no force to the arguments of the "reformers"
that the Italians and Spaniards endorse them.

The demand for "spelling reform" is based upon the assumption that the
pronunciation constitutes the word--in other words, that the real word
is the breath by means of which it is uttered. In the word _wished_
philologists assure us that the letters _e d_ are remains of _did_, as
if it were written _did wish_; and it certainly has that sense. It is
proposed to substitute _t_ for the _ed_, because, we are told by the
"reformers," the _t_ represents the sound given to those two letters. Of
course the _t_ stands for nothing: it does not represent any idea. It is
only a character, and its pronunciation only a breath, without any
significance. The new word cannot mean _did wish_. The "reformers" must
contend that _wisht_ is the real word, or their position cannot be
maintained for an instant. If the word still remains _wished_--"_did
wish_"--though pronounced _wisht_, their proposition to conform the
spelling to the pronunciation is laughable. There can be no conformation
and the old words remain. Whenever a change is made in a single letter
of a word, the word is broken: it is no longer the same word. The new
form becomes a new word, and there can be no objection to any one giving
to it any significance he chooses. In a certain sense, and also to a
certain extent, letters are representative, and are not the real words.
Before the arts of writing and printing were invented the sound of
course constituted the representative of the idea sought to be conveyed.
The invention of the arts of writing and printing brought into use other
representatives of ideas. The cuneiform character