any

no time to make observation upon the manner of their formation, the organs being always left in the pofition neceffary to produce the found of the vowel which is the laft: thus in pronouncing be de ge ve, the organs are always found in the fame pofition, that which belongs to the found ee-but in pronouncing them thus, eb, ed, eg, ev, we may keep them as long as we please in the pofition neceffary to the formation of those founds; till we can with accuracy determine what it is. In this way we fhall find that in founding eb, the lips are gently preffed together but not fo as fuddenly to cut off the found, which continues a little while; whereas in founding ep, the lips are by a rapid junction preffed together so close, as inftantaneously to cut off all found. In founding ed, we shall find in like manner, that the tip of the tongue is preffed gently against that part of

the

the gum which immediately touches the upper teeth, in fuch a way as to continue the found a little while; and in forming et we shall find that the action and position of the tongue are exactly the fame, only more rapidly performed, fo as at once to cut off all communication of the voice. And fo on of the reft. Whoever will take the trouble of going through all the confonants in this way, may in a fhort time with due attention be thoroughly mafter of the mode of their formation.

Now let us fee what good confequences will follow from teaching the rudiments of fpeech after this manner.

In the first place children would be taught much fooner to pronounce their alphabet in this way, as they who are flow in catching founds by the ear, would be made to utter them as foon as they could be shewn the proper pofition of the organs

to form them. This is what I can affirm upon repeated experiments, for I never yet found a child, whofe organs had arrived at fufficient maturity, that I could not make pronounce all the founds in our tongue diftinctly in the fpace of a month, which in the common way might coft them a year or two. And what is ftill more extraordinary, I have had many occafions to try the fame experiments upon perfons advanced in life, and never found an instance of any that could not in a fhort time be made to pronounce certain letters, which they had never before founded in their lives. Nothing retards the progrefs of children. fo much in their endeavours to articulate as the prefent mode of teaching the alphabet in that confused order, into which chance had originally thrown the letters; for many contiguous letters as they now lie are performed in fuch different feats, and with

fuch

fuch different exertions of the organs as for a long time to baffle all the efforts of the noviciate tongue. Whereas if we follow the order of nature, beginning with the la bials, and fo proceeding through the dentals, to the palatines, the work will be accomplished with ease and certainty. That this is the natural order, and that the lips are the first organs of fpeech exerted by children, may be known from this, that the words papa or baba and mama are the terms used by children for father and mother in almost all the languages of the world. Nor is there any other way of accounting for this univerfal practice, but the general obfervation of the facility with which children pronounce thofe founds, before they can utter any of the rest: and whoever attends to the firft endeavours in children to articulate, will find that the words they aim at contain one of the three labials

D 4

labials bp or m. And indeed the reafon of this is obvious; for as the lips are the only organs employed in the formation of thefe, they must be fuppofed from their continued action in taking in food to be strong and fit for ufe, long before the other principal organ of fpeech, the tongue. Accordingly we find that a long interval fucceeds between their uttering founds of this nature and any others. The cutting of the teeth afterwards gives employment and exercife to the tongue, and thus prepares and fits it for action; which is exerted at first in the easiest and fimpleft way, by applying the tip to the upper gums, an action to which it was long accustomed from the pain felt there whilft the teeth were producing, and thus the founds d and are produced. Accordingly we find that da and ta, or the fame founds doubled, as dada tata, are the firft uttered after the labial. The