ich the others
would be more appropriate. But there are some peculiarities of ancient
usage in English, which, for the information of the young reader, it is
proper in the first place to explain.

2. With respect to the letters, there are _several changes_ to be
mentioned. (1.) The pages of old books are often crowded with capitals: it
was at one time the custom to distinguish all nouns, and frequently verbs,
or any other important words, by heading them with a great letter. (2.) The
letter Ess, of the lower case, had till lately two forms, the long and the
short, as [tall-s] and s; the former very nearly resembling the small f,
and the latter, its own capital. The short _s_ was used _at the end of
words_, and the long _[tall-s]_, in other places; but the latter is now
laid aside, in favour of the more distinctive form. (3.) The letters _I_
and _J_ were formerly considered as one and the same. Hence we find
_hallelujah_ for _halleluiah, Iohn_ for _John, iudgement_ for _judgement_,
&c. And in many dictionaries, the words beginning with _J_ are still mixed
with those which begin with _I_. (4.) The letters _U_ and _V_ were mixed in
like manner, and for the same reason; the latter being a consonant power
given to the former, and at length distinguished from it by a different
form. Or rather, the figure of the capital seems to have been at last
appropriated to the one, and that of the small letter to the other. But in
old books the forms of these two letters are continually confounded or
transposed. Hence it is, that our _Double-u_ is composed of two _Vees_;
which, as we see in old books, were sometimes printed separately: as, VV,
for W; or vv, for w.

3. The _orthography_ of our language, rude and unsettled as it still is in
many respects, was formerly much more variable and diverse. In books a
hundred years old or more, we often find the most common words spelled
variously by the same writer, and even upon the very same page. With
respect to the forms of words, a few particulars may here be noticed: (1.)
The article _an_, from which the _n_ was dropped before words beginning
with a consonant sound, is often found in old books where _a_ would be more
proper; as, _an heart, an help, an hill, an one, an use_. (2.) Till the
seventeenth century, the possessive case was written without the
apostrophe; being formed at different times, in _es, is, ys, or s_, like
the plural; and apparently without rule or uniformity in respect to