o write
'woud' and 'det', because they pronounce so; and to deal in like manner
with all other words, in which there exists at present a discrepancy
between the word as it is spoken, and the word as it is written?

{Sidenote: _Phonetic Systems_}

Here we have the explanation of that which in the history of almost all
literatures has repeated itself more than once, namely, the endeavour to
introduce phonetic writing. It has certain plausibilities to rest on; it
has its appeal to the unquestionable fact that the written word was
intended to picture to the eye what the spoken word sounded in the ear.
At the same time I believe that it would be impossible to introduce it;
and, even if it _were_ possible, that it would be most undesirable, and
this for two reasons; the first being that the losses consequent upon
its introduction, would far outweigh the gains, even supposing those
gains as great as the advocates of the scheme promise; the second, that
these promised gains would themselves be only very partially realized,
or not at all.

{Sidenote: _Alphabets Imperfect_}

In the first place, I believe it to be impossible. It is clear that such
a scheme must begin with the reconstruction of the alphabet. The first
thing that the phonographers have perceived is the necessity for the
creation of a vast number of new signs, the poverty of all existing
alphabets, at any rate of our own, not yielding a several sign for all
the several sounds in the language. Our English phonographers have
therefore had to invent ten of these new signs or letters, which are
henceforth to take their place with our _a_, _b_, _c_, and to enjoy
equal rights with them. Rejecting two (_q_, _x_), and adding ten, they
have raised their alphabet from twenty-six letters to thirty-four. But
to procure the reception of such a reconstructed alphabet is simply an
impossibility, as much an impossibility as would be the reconstitution
of the structure of the language in any points where it was manifestly
deficient or illogical. Sciolists or scholars may sit down in their
studies, and devise these new letters, and prove that we need them, and
that the introduction of them would be a great gain, and a manifest
improvement; and this may be all very true; but if they think they can
induce a people to adopt them, they know little of the ways in which its
alphabet is entwined with the whole innermost life of a people. One may
freely own that all present alphabets are