[84] The pronoun whom is not properly applicable to beasts, unless they are personified:  the relative which would therefore, perhaps, have been preferable here, though whom has a better sound.—­G.  B.

[85] “The great difference between men and brutes, in the utterance of sound by the mouth, consists in the power of articulation in man, and the entire want of it in brutes.”—­Webster’s Improved Gram., p. 8.

[86] Strictly speaking, an articulate sound is not a simple element of speech, but rather a complex one, whether syllable or word; for articulate literally means jointed.  But our grammarians in general, have applied the term to the sound of a letter, a syllable, or a word, indiscriminately:  for which reason, it seems not very suitable to be used alone in describing any of the three.  Sheridan says, “The essence of a syllable consists in articulation only, for every articulate sound of course forms a syllable.”—­Lectures on Elocution, p. 62.  If he is right in this, not many of our letters—­or, perhaps more properly, none of them—­can singly represent articulate sounds.  The looseness of this term induces me to add or prefer an other.  “The Rev. W. Allen,” who comes as near as any of our grammarians, to the true definition of a letter, says:  1.  “The sounds used in language are called articulate sounds.” 2.  “A letter is a character used in printing or writing, to represent an articulate sound.”—­Allen’s Elements of E. Gram., p. 2.  Dr. Adam says:  1.  “A letter is the mark of a sound, or of an articulation of sound.” 2.  “A vowel is properly called a simple sound; and the sounds formed by the concourse of vowels and consonants, articulate sounds.”—­Latin and English Gram., pp. 1 and 2.

[87] Of this sort of blunder, the following false definition is an instance:  “A Vowel is a letter, the name of which makes a full open sound.”—­Lennie’s Gram., p. 5; Brace’s, 7; Hazen’s, 10.  All this is just as true of a consonant as of a vowel.  The comma too, used in this sentence, defeats even the sense which the writers intended.  It is surely no description either of a vowel or of a consonant, to say, that it is a letter, and that the name of a letter makes a full open sound.  Again, a late grammarian teaches, that the names of all the letters are nothing but Roman capitals, and then seems to inquire which of these names are vowels, thus:  “Q.  How many letters are in the alphabet? A.  Twenty-six. Q.  What are their names? A.  A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z. Q.  Which of these are called Vowels?”—­Fowle’s Common School Gram., Part First, p. 7.  If my worthy friend Fowle had known or considered what are the names of the letters in English, he might have made a better beginning to his grammar than this.