ted and never
will exist. An alphabet must always be a rough instrument of
practical convenience. Very certainly our posterity will
never adopt any thoroughgoing system of phonetic spelling.

Nothing is going to be changed _per saltum_. The most we can
hope for is a gradual improvement, accelerated, perhaps, by
wisely directed effort. This means that spelling will always
have to be learned and taught, and that considerable time
will have to be devoted to it.

Language Has to Change.

As to the too common belief that spellings should never be changed,
Professor Thomas says:

What is needed is to prepare the way for a generation whose
feelings shall be somewhat different from ours--a generation
that shall have less reverence than we have for what is
called usage.

During the last hundred and fifty years we have become a
race of dictionary-worshipers, and we have gone so far in
our blind, unreasonable subserviency to an artificial
standard that the time has come for a reaction. We need to
reconquer and assert for ourselves something of that liberty
which Shakespeare and Milton enjoyed. We need to claim the
natural right of every living language to grow and change to
suit the convenience of those who use it. This right belongs
to the written language no less than to the spoken.

We have the same right to make usage that Steele and Addison
and Dr. Johnson had; and there is just as much merit in
making usage as in following it.

The Tale of a Dog.

To gain an idea of the extent to which usage has changed in three hundred
years, it is necessary only to read the following dog story, which was
first recorded in 1587, and was reprinted lately by the London
_Chronicle_:

Item--We present yt at the tyme of our sytting ther hath ben
complaynt made of another dogg, betwene a masty & a
mungerell, of Peter Quoyte's which hath stronng qualyties by
himselfe, which goyng lose abrode doth many times offend the
neyghbors & wyll fetch owt of ther howses whole peces of
meate, as loynes of mutton & veal & such lyke & a pasty of
venson or a whole pownde of candells at a tyme, & will not
spoyle yt by the way but cary yt whole to his masters howse,
which being a profytable dogg for his master, yet because he
is offensyffe to many yt is not sufferable, wherfor his
master hath forfeyt for eve