ands of words by a different arrangement of the
letters of the alphabet, are familiar examples. When a child knows the
ten numerals, he requires no more teaching to ascertain the precise
amount of any one number among all the millions which these figures can
represent. The value of such an acquirement can only be appreciated by
considering the labour it would cost a child to gain a knowledge of all
these sums individually, and the overwhelming burden laid upon his
memory if each of the millions of sums had to be remembered by a
separate character. By the knowledge and various groupings of only ten
such characters, the whole of this mighty burden is removed.

In the art of writing, the same principle is brought into operation with
complete success, by the combination, or various groupings of the
twenty-six letters of the common Roman alphabet in the formation of
words. The value of this adaptation of the principle will be obvious, if
we shall suppose, that a person who is acquainted with all the modern
European languages, had been compelled to discriminate, and continue to
remember, a distinct arbitrary mark or character for the many thousands
of words contained in each. We may not be warranted, perhaps, to say
that such a task would be impossible; but that it would be inconceivably
burdensome can admit of no doubt. We have, indeed, in the writings of
the Chinese, although it is but one language, a living monument of the
evil effects of the neglect of this principle in literature, and the
unceasing inconveniences which daily arise from that empire continuing
to persevere in it. There is comparatively but little combination of
characters in their words, and the consequences are remarkable. In that
extensive empire, the highest rewards, and the chief posts of honour
and emolument, are held out to those who are most learned, whatever be
their rank or their station; and yet, amidst a population immersed in
poverty and wretchedness, not one person in a thousand can master even
one of their books; and not one in ten thousand of those who profess to
read, is able to peruse them all. The reason of this simply is, the
neglect of this natural principle of grouping letters, or the signs of
sounds, in their written language. With us, the elements of all the
words in all the European languages are only twenty-six; and the child
who has once mastered the combination of these, in any one of our books,
has the whole of our literature at