our alphabet the more defective, but is unnecessary, and not sustained by our best and most popular orthoepical [sic—­KTH] authorities.  The sound of a in liar, (and in rival too, if made “obscure”) is a borrowed one, pertaining more properly to the letter u.  In grass, pass, and branch, properly uttered, the a is essentially the same as in man.  In care and hare, we have the first sound of a, made as slender as the r will admit.

OBS. 5.—­Concerning his fifth sound of a, Wells cites authorities thus:  “Walker, Webster, Sheridan, Fulton and Knight, Kenrick, Jones, and Nares, give a in care the long sound of a, as in late.  Page and Day give it the short sound of a, as in mat.  See Page’s Normal Chart, and Day’s Art of Elocution.  Worcester and Perry make the sound of a in care a separate element; and this distinction is also recognized by Russell, Mandeville, and Wright.  See Russell’s Lessons in Enunciation, Mandeville’s Elements of Reading and Oratory, and Wright’s Orthography.”—­Wells’s School Grammar, p. 34.  Now the opinion that a in care has its long, primal sound, and is not properly “a separate element,” is maintained also by Murray, Hiley, Bullions, Scott, and Cobb; and is, undoubtedly, much more prevalent than any other.  It accords, too, with the scheme of Johnson.  To count this a by itself, seems too much like a distinction without a difference.

OBS. 6.—­On his sixth sound of a, Wells remarks as follows:  “Many persons pronounce this a incorrectly, giving it either the grave or the short sound.  Perry, Jones, Nares, Webster, and Day, give to a in grass the grave sound, as in father; while Walker, Jamieson, and Russell, give it the short sound, as in man.  But good speakers generally pronounce a in grass, plant, etc., as a distinct element, intermediate between the grave and the short sound.”—­School Gram., p. 34.  He also cites Worcester and Smart to the same effect; and thinks, with the latter, “There can be no harm in avoiding the censure of both parties by shunning the extreme that offends the taste of each.”—­Ib., p. 35.  But I say, that a needless multiplication of questionable vowel powers difficult to be discriminated, is “harm,” or a fault in teaching; and, where intelligent orthoepists [sic—­KTH] dispute whether words have “the grave or the short sound” of a, how can others, who condemn both parties, acceptably split the difference, and form “a distinct element” in the interval?  Words are often mispronounced, and the French or close a may be mistaken for the Italian or broadish a, and vice versa; but, between the two, there does not appear to be room for an other distinguishable