among his converts. He learned
their language, at least one dialect of it, he translated part of the
Bible into it, and adopted, of necessity, a phonetic spelling. That
dialect is gradually becoming the recognized literary language of the
whole island, and his spelling is taught at school. Other dialects,
however, continue to be spoken, and they may in time influence the
literary dialect. For the present, however, the missionary dialect, as it
is called by the natives themselves, and the missionary spelling, rule
supreme, and it will be some time before a spelling reform is wanted out
there.

Among the more ancient nations of Europe, not only does the pronunciation
of language maintain its inherent dialectic variety, and fluctuate through
the prevalence of provincial speakers, but the whole body of a language
changes, while yet the spelling, once adopted in public documents, and
taught to children, remains for a long time the same. In early times, when
literature was in its infancy, when copies of books could easily be
counted, and when the _norma scribendi_ was in the hands of a few persons,
the difficulty of adapting the writing to the ever-varying pronunciation
of a language was comparatively small. We see it when we compare the Latin
of early Roman inscriptions with the Latin of Cicero. We know from Cicero
himself that when he settled among the patricians of Rome, he had on some
small points to change both his pronunciation and his spelling of Latin.
The reform of spelling was a favorite subject with Roman scholars, and
even emperors were not too proud to dabble in inventing new letters and
diacritical signs. The difficulty, however, never assumes serious
proportions. The small minority of people who were able to read and write,
pleased themselves as best they could; and, by timely concessions,
prevented a complete estrangement between the written and the spoken
language.

Then came the time when Latin ceased to be Latin, and the vulgar dialects,
such as Italian, French, and Spanish took its place. At that time the
spelling was again phonetic, though here and there tinged by reminiscences
of Latin spelling. There was much variety, but considering how limited the
literary intercourse must have been between different parts of France,
Spain, or Italy, it is surprising that on the whole there should have been
so much uniformity in the spelling of these modern dialects. A certain
local and individual freedom of spellin