Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/172

 140 NOTES AND QUERIES. 112 s. vn. AUG. u. 1020. general way, the notion would approximate English to an oriental plan of writing. The scheme has some obvious advantages, and nve should even be prepared to recommend it for type-written commercial correspondence within English-speaking countries. But the possession of a common alphabet has always seemed to us 'to be a modest but real and important bond of union between the countries of the Western world. We confess ourselves loth to forgo this possession at Dr. Perrett's bidding. We would rather frankly condone eccentric spelling. After all we allow a ^difference between colloquial and literary speech : why should we not accept some divergence -between literary and private writing ? Our author entertains a vehement objection to the names of letters. What " spelling ' ' is required in the future will consist in a voiceless utterance of the actual letter, or so we understand. Alas ! lor our light-hearted use of initials if he succeeds In introducing this reform ! We shall have to "name things precisely and people who dislike the -use of initials may begin to look for satisfaction. For ourselves, having rather an affection for the quite elaborate names of the Greek alphabet, we letter having a name. No doubt his now vowel- symbols would not easily be provided for in that respect. We cannot but think that too much is made of 'the difficulty of English spelling. After all "virtually the whole population is able to read. As for writing, usually an inability to spell proceeds -either from real illiteracy or from want of practice ; and to gain ability if that is necessary more reading and more writing must be done. But we think this would equally be the case under Dr. Perrett's system. Nor do we fancy children would be so much affected as he seems to imagine. 'Some of thorn are late in catching the trick of reading, but once they have caught it they are "better aided by memory than are most adults, being less dependent for remembrance on associa- tion and system. We should expect the new 'vowels to prove about as troublesome for them to learn in the first instance as is the present system though, of course, differently. Dr. Perrett's work opens up several further interesting inquiries as, for example, whether the writing down of vowels is absolutely and "invariably necessary. If his system were adopted iit would possibly develop a secondary system for ordinary writing in which vowels were, for the most part, omitted. .The History of the Title Imperator under the Roman Empire. By Donald McFaydcn. (Chicago, University Press.) THIS careful and convincing study disposes of several oft-repeated mistakes upon a question of great interest if not of extreme importance. 'By whom, and by what steps, was the title Imperator established as the official designation of the ruler of the Roman world ? The ' Prse- nomen Imperatoris,' according to Suetonius and Dio, was first conferred upon Caesar the Dictator ; and Dio adds that it was made hereditary in the iline of Caesar's descendants. But these state- ments have for some time been regarded as dubious. It has been shown that there is no contemporary evidence for Caesar the Dictator haying ever assumed the Praenomen Imperatoris ; while, as Mr. McFayden points out the Fasti Capitolini and the Acta Triumphalia, in which Augustus appears as Imp. Ccesar, and the Dic- tator as C. Julius C.f. C.n. Ccesar, disprove the theory of the title having been made hereditary. To account for that theory ever having arisen Mommsen, in his ' Staatsrecht,' evolved another which might be taken as an excellent example of the curious vagaries of armchair history. Belying on Dio he suggests that Caesar the Dictator adopted Imperator as a personal cog- nomen ; and that Augustus decided to drop his praenomen and nomen and transfer that cognomen to their place thus making his name Imperator Caesar instead of C. Julius Caesar Imperator, which, considering the uses of the word " im- perator " at that time, is about as likely as that a Commander-in-chief of our days should take " Field-marshal " as his Christian name. Mr. McFayden, we are inclined to think, is a little too confident in the absolute correctness of Caesar's use of the title. He works out success- fully its use and limitations under Augustus and Tiberius, and shows with judgment the part played, in its establishment as the chief designa- tion of the Roman monarch, by provincial usage and by the provincials' view of Rome and the " first citizen " of the Republic. 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 * are unable to share Dr. Perrett's displeasure at a