Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/214

204 with it was imperfect, difficulties, ſmall in themſelves, operated as great ones in obſtructing their progreſs. A book, for example, ill printed, or a pronunciation in ſpeaking not well articulated, would render a ſentence unintelligible, which from a clear print, or a diſtinct ſpeaker, would have been immediately comprehended. If, therefore, we would have the benefit of ſeeing our language more generally known among mankind, we ſhould endeavour to remove all the difficulties, however ſmall, that diſcourage the learning of it. But I am ſorry to obſerve that, of late years, thoſe difficulties, inſtead of being diminiſhed, have been augmented.

In examining the Engliſh books that were print- ed between the reſtoration and the acceſſion of George the Second, we may obſerve, that all ſubſtantives were begun with a capital, in which we imitated our mother tongue, the German. This was more particularly uſeful to thoſe who were not well acquainted with the Engliſh, there being ſuch a prodigious number of our words that are both verbs and ſubſtantives, and ſpelt in the ſame manner, though often accented differently in pronunciation. This method has, by the fancy of printers, of late years been entirely laid aſide; from an idea, that ſuppreſſing the capitals ſhews the character to greater advantage; thoſe letters, prominent above the line, diſturbing its even, regular appearance. The effect of this change is ſo conſiderable, that a learned man of France, who uſed to read our books, though not perfectly acquainted with our language, in converſation with me on the ſubject of our authors, attributed the greater obſcurity he found in our modern books, compared with thoſe of the period above mentioned, to a change of ſtyle for the worſe in our writers; of which