clashing,
grinding sounds that ever grated the ears of a Vandal; thus, _rasped,
scratched, wrenched, bridled, fangled, birchen, hardened, strengthened,
quickened_, &c. almost frighten us when written as they are actually
pronounced, as _rapt, scratcht, wrencht, bridl'd, fangl'd, birch'n,
strength'n'd, quick'n'd_, &c.; they become still more formidable when used
contractedly in the solemn style, which never ought to be the case; for
here instead of _thou strength'n'st_ or _strength'n'd'st, thou quick'n'st_
or _quick'n'd'st_, we ought to pronounce _thou strength'nest_ or
_strength'nedst, thou quick'nest_ or _quick'nedst_, which are sufficiently
harsh of all conscience."--_Principles_, No. 359. Here are too many
apostrophes; for it does not appear that such words as _strengthenedest_
and _quickenedest_ ever existed, except in the imagination of certain
grammarians. In solemn prose one may write, _thou quickenest, thou
strengthenest_, or _thou quickenedst, thou strengthenedst_; but, in the
familiar style, or in poetry, it is better to write, _thou quickenst, thou
strengthenst, thou quickened, thou strengthened_. This is language which it
is possible to utter; and it is foolish to strangle ourselves with strings
of rough consonants, merely because they are insisted on by some
superficial grammarians. Is it not strange, is it not incredible, that the
same hand should have written the two following lines, in the same
sentence? Surely, the printer has been at fault.

"With noiseless foot, thou _walkedst_ the vales of earth"--
"Most honourable thou _appeared_, and most
To be desired."--_Pollok's Course of Time_, B. ix, l. 18, and l. 24.

OBS. 42.--It was once a very common practice, to retain the final _y_, in
contractions of the preterit or of the second person of most verbs that end
in _y_, and to add the consonant terminations _d, st_, and _dst_, with an
apostrophe before each; as, _try'd_ for _tried, reply'd_ for _replied,
try'st_ for _triest, try'dst_ for _triedst_. Thus Milton:--

"Thou following _cry'dst_ aloud, Return, fair Eve;
Whom _fly'st_ thou? whom thou _fly'st_, of him thou art."
--_P. L._, B. iv, l. 481.

This usage, though it may have been of some advantage as an index to the
pronunciation of the words, is a palpable departure from the common rule
for spelling such derivatives. That rule is, "The final _y_ of a primitive
word, when preceded by a consonant, is changed into _i_ before