mbarrass a study, which in its true shape is perfectly simple and
clear." The following old anecdote would rather tend to prove that
spelling and reading were not either "simple or clear" to a Lancashire
judge, who, having asked the name of a witness, and not catching the
word exactly, desired him to spell it, which he proceeded to do
thus:--"O double T, I double U, E double L, double U, double O, D." The
learned judge laid down his pen in astonishment, and after two or three
unsuccessful efforts, at last declared he was unable to record it--so
puzzled was he with the "simple" spelling of that clear name--Ottiwell
Wood.

In the _Massachusetts Teacher_ of January, 1853, there is the report of
a committee, in which they state "that children taught solely by the
phonetic system, and only twenty minutes each day, outstripped all their
compeers." They further add, that "the phonetic system, thus beneficial
in its effects, has been introduced into one hundred and nineteen public
and five private schools, and that they have reason to believe, that no
committee ever appointed to examine its merits have ever reported
adverse to it;" and they conclude by strongly "recommending teachers to
test the merits of the System by actual trial in their schools." Then
again, in the following number of their journal, they strongly condemn
the system as both useless and impracticable.

Having carefully weighed the arguments on both sides, I am led to the
conclusion, that the objections of those who condemn the system are
partly owing to the fact, that while reaching their present advanced
state of knowledge, they have entirely forgotten their own struggles,
and are thus insensibly led to overlook the confusion and difficulty
which must ever arise in the infant mind, where similar combinations
produce similar sounds. An infant mind is incapable of grasping
differences, but understands readily simple facts; if what meets the eye
represent a certain fixed sound, the infant readily acquires that sound;
but if the eye rest on _o, u, g, h,_ as a combination, and the endeavour
is made to teach him the endless varieties of sound produced thereby,
his little mind becomes puzzled, his ideas of truth become confused, his
memory becomes distrusted, and his powers of reading become retarded by
the time occupied in the--to him--most uninteresting task of learning a
host of unmeaning sounds. The inevitable consequence is that the poor
little victim becomes