venture
to disturb its peace.

I myself, however, am not a practical reformer; least of all in a matter
which concerns Englishmen only--namely, the spelling of the English
language. I should much rather, therefore, have left the fight to others,
content with being merely a looker-on. But when I was on the point of
leaving England my conscience smote me. Though I had not actually given a
pledge, I remembered how, again and again, I had said to Mr. Pitman that I
would much rather keep than make a promise; and though overwhelmed with
other work at the time, I felt that before my departure I ought, if
possible, to satisfy Mr. Pitman's demands. The article was written; and
though my own plans have since been changed, and I remain at Oxford, it
may as well be published in discharge of a debt which has been for some
time heavy on my conscience.

What I wish most strongly to impress on my readers is that I do not write
as an advocate. I am not an agitator for phonetic reform in England. My
interest in the matter is, and always has been, purely theoretical and
scientific. Spelling and the reform of spelling are problems which concern
every student of the science of language. It does not matter whether the
language be English, German, or Dutch. In every written language the
problem of reforming its antiquated spelling must sooner or later arise;
and we must form some clear notion whether any thing can be done to remove
or alleviate a complaint inherent in the very life of language. If my
friends tell me that the idea of a reform of spelling is entirely
Quixotic, that it is a mere waste of time to try to influence a whole
nation to surrender its historical orthography and to write phonetically,
I bow to their superior wisdom as men of the world. But as I am not a man
of the world, but rather an observer of the world, my interest in the
subject, my convictions as to what is right and wrong, remain just the
same. It is the duty of scholars and philosophers not to shrink from
holding and expressing what men of the world call Quixotic opinions; for,
if I read the history of the world rightly, the victory of reason over
unreason, and the whole progress of our race, have generally been achieved
by such fools as ourselves "rushing in where angels fear to tread," till,
after a time, the track becomes beaten, and even angels are no longer
afraid. I hold, and have confessed, much more Quixotic theories on
language than this belief--that wh