The attempt here made will not be considered unimportant, by those who have known the difficulties attending the study of language.  If any course can be marked out to shorten the time tediously spent in the acquisition of what is rarely attained—­a thoro knowledge of language—­a great benefit will result to the community; children will save months and years to engage in other useful attainments, and the high aspirations of the mind for truth and knowledge will not be curbed in its first efforts to improve by a set of technical and arbitrary rules.  They will acquire a habit of thinking, of deep reflection; and never adopt, for fact, what appears unreasonable or inconsistent, merely because great or good men have said it is so.  They will feel an independence of their own, and adopt a course of investigation which cannot fail of the most important consequences.  It is not the saving of time, however, for which we propose a change in the system of teaching language.  In this respect, it is the study of one’s life.  New facts are constantly developing themselves, new combinations of ideas and words are discovered, and new beauties presented at every advancing step.  It is to acquire a knowledge of correct principles, to induce a habit of correct thinking, a freedom of investigation, and at that age when the character and language of life are forming.  It is, in short, to exhibit before you truth of the greatest practical importance, not only to you, but to generations yet unborn, in the most essential affairs of human life, that I have broached the hated subject of grammar, and undertaken to reflect light upon this hitherto dark and disagreeable subject.

With a brief sketch of the outlines of language, as based on the fixed laws of nature, and the agreement of those who employ it, I shall conclude the present lecture.

We shall consider all language as governed by the invariable laws of nature, and as depending on the conventional regulations of men.

Words are the signs of ideas.  Ideas are the impressions of things.  Hence, in all our attempts to investigate the important principles of language, we shall employ the sign as the means of coming at the thing signified.

Language has usually been considered under four divisions, viz.:  Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody.

Orthography is right spelling; the combination of certain letters into words in such a manner as to agree with the spoken words used to denote an idea.  We shall not labor this point, altho we conceive a great improvement might be effected in this department of learning.  My only wish is to select from all the forms of spelling, the most simple and consistent.  Constant changes are taking place in the method of making words, and we would not refuse to cast in our mite to make the standard more correct and easy.  We would prune off by degrees all unnecessary appendages, as unsounded or italic letters, and write out words