themselves sufficiently
acquainted with the letters, do in fact know but very little about them. If
a person is able to read some easy book, he is apt to suppose he has no
more to learn respecting the letters; or he neglects the minute study of
these elements, because he sees what words they make, and can amuse himself
with stories of things more interesting. But merely to understand common
English, is a very small qualification for him who aspires to scholarship,
and especially for a _teacher_. For one may do this, and even be a great
reader, without ever being able to name the letters properly, or to
pronounce such syllables as _ca, ce, ci, co, cu, cy_, without getting half
of them wrong. No one can ever teach an art more perfectly than he has
learned it; and if we neglect the _elements_ of grammar, our attainments
must needs be proportionately unsettled and superficial.

I. NAMES OF THE LETTERS. The _names_ of the letters, as now commonly spoken
and written in English, are _A, Bee, Cee, Dee, E, Eff, Gee, Aitch, I, Jay,
Kay, Ell, Em, En, O, Pee, Kue, Ar, Ess, Tee, U, Vee, Double-u, Ex, Wy,
Zee_.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.--With the learning and application of these names, our literary
education begins; with a continual rehearsal of them in spelling, it is for
a long time carried on; nor can we ever dispense with them, but by
substituting others, or by ceasing to mention the things thus named. What
is obviously indispensable, needs no proof of its importance. But I know
not whether it has ever been noticed, that these names, like those of the
days of the week, are worthy of particular distinction, for their own
nature. They are words of a very peculiar kind, being nouns that are at
once _both proper and common_. For, in respect to rank, character, and
design, each letter is a thing strictly individual and identical--that is,
it is ever one and the same; yet, in an other respect, it is a
comprehensive sort, embracing individuals both various and numberless. Thus
every B is a _b_, make it as you will; and can be nothing else than that
same letter b, though you make it in a thousand different fashions, and
multiply it after each pattern innumerably. Here, then, we see
individuality combined at once with great diversity, and infinite
multiplicity; and it is _to this combination_, that letters owe their
wonderful power of transmitting thought. Their _names_, therefore, should
always be written with capitals, as proper n