Page:A study of Ben Jonson (IA studyofbenjonson00swinrich).pdf/127

 English Grammar. It is interesting to observe an anticipation of Landor's principle with respect to questions of orthography, in the preference given to the Latin form of spelling for words of Latin derivation, while admitting that this increase of accuracy would bring the written word no nearer to the sound uttered in speaking. The passage is worth transcription as an example of delicately scrupulous accuracy and subtly conscientious refinement in explanation.

A point on which I am sorry to rest uncertain whether Landor would have felt as much sympathy with Jonson's view as I feel myself is the regret expressed by the elder poet for the loss of the Saxon characters that distinguished the two different sounds now both alike expressed, and expressed with equal inaccuracy, by the two letters th. 'And in this,' says Jonson—as it seems to me, most reasonably, 'consists the greatest difficulty of our alphabet and true writing.'

The text of the grammar, both Latin and