But the most forcible passages in M. Meyer's own plea for simplification are in response to the various arguments urged in behalf of the existing orthographic confusion:
1. Every change in spelling distresses us. We dislike to alter our habits. Books printed in a new spelling are distasteful to us. Besides, we have had enough trouble to learn the current spelling; why should we be obliged to learn another?
2. Words in their very form and independently of their sound, have an esthetic beauty, which would be lost as soon as the appearance was modified.
3. The proposed changes would result, in many cases, in causing all trace of the etymology to disappear. We love the g of doigt, which reminds us of the Latin digitus; the p of temps, behind which we can see the Latin tempus; and physique written fisique seems barbarous to us. Further, these changes would obscure the derivation of words of the same family.
4. These same changes will lead to lamentable confusion, since we shall no longer be able to distinguish corps (a body) written without p from cors (a corn).
It is apropos of arguments of this kind that a great English linguist, A. *L Ellis, said: "These are very sweeping assertions, and those who have given serious attention to the subject for many years feel astonished that any person of ordinary intelligence and linguistic attainments could commit himself to such statements."
1. Let us take up these feeble arguments one by one. We shall not attempt to dispute the fact that any suddenly introduced innovation shocks us. When the fashion of crinolines came in during the Second Empire it seemed at first utterly ridiculous. But people became accustomed to it; the reason it disappeared was not that people disliked it, but because the fashionable dressmakers had to have new styles. It will be somewhat similar with the alterations in spelling that we propose. Assuredly, they will arouse a more general feeling of instinctive and inexplicable opposition than they would have a hundred years ago, for the number of people who know spelling, or at least who have studied it, is infinitely greater than formerly. The changes introduced by the third edition of the academic dictionary do not seem to have been combatted; those which we are proposing would scarcely have met with objections had they been brought to the attention of the revisers of the sixth edition (1835). But the longer we wait the more difficult it will be both to repair the harm done to the language by the bad spelling in vogue to-day, and to overcome the repugnance to any change. . . . It is inconceivable that, out of respect for opinions which are only prejudices, children and foreigners should be forever condemned to commit to memory complicated and contradictory rules whose only result is to pervert the reasoning faculty. Life is too short to waste a part of it in such absurdities. Besides, the transition will be made in a very simple way which will spare the prejudices of the present generation. . . . When we have to write a book, a memorandum, simply a letter, it is quite certain that we shall not stop at every word to ascertain how it ought to be written, according to the new spelling. In this matter changes can not be imposed by law or by decree, like those regulating public accounts. But although the generation that has reached maturity will continue to follow the usage with which it is familiar from childhood, the younger generation and foreigners who have not unalterable habits will learn the new spelling and spare themselves useless labor. Proof-readers, with the help of a printer's dictionary, will conform to it. . . . Thus the change will take place in the course of a generation, without wounding the deep-rooted sentiments of any one.
2. The second objection may be dealt with briefly. It consists in saying
