that though the words might be the principal part of an ancient song, they are of small importance in a modern one; they are in short only a pretence for singing. I am, as ever, Your affectionate brother, B. FRANKLIN. P.S. I might have mentioned inarticulation among the defects in common speech that are assumed as beauties in modern singing. But as that seems more the fault of the singer than of the composer, I omitted it in what related merely to the composition. The fine singer in the present mode, stifles all the hard consonants, and polishes away all the rougher parts of words that serve to distinguish them one from another; so that you hear nothing but an admirable pipe, and understand no more of the song, than you would from its tune played on any other instrument. If ever it was the ambition of musicians to make instruments that should imitate the human voice, that ambition seems now reversed, the voice aiming to be like an instrument. Thus wigs were first made to imitate a good natural head of hair;---but when they became fashionable, though in unnatural forms, we have seen natural hair dressed to look like wigs. Description Description of the Process to be observed in making large Sheets of Paper in the Chinese Manner, with one smooth surface.* IN Europe to have a large surface of paper connected together and smooth on one side, the following operations are performed. 1. A number of small sheets are to be made separately. 2. These are to be couched, one by one, between blankets. 3. When a heap is formed it must be put under a strong press, to force out the water. 4. Then the blankets are to be taken away, one by one, and the sheets hung up to dry. 5. When dry they are to be again pressed, or if to be sized, they must be dipped into size made of warm water, in which glue and alum are dissolved. 6. They must then be pressed again to force out the superfluous size. 7. They must then be hung up a second time to dry, which, if the air happens to be damp, requires some days. 8. They must then be taken down, laid together, and again pressed. 9. They must be pasted together at their edges. 10. The whole must be glazed by labour, with a flint. In China, if they would make sheets, suppose of four and a half ells long and one and a half ells wide, they * Communicated by Dr. Franklin to the American Philosophical Society, in which it was read, June 20, 1788. Editor. have two large vats, each five ells long and two ells wide, made of brick, Lined with a pluster that holds water. In these the stuff is mixed ready to work. Between these vats is built a kiln or stove, with two inclining sides; each side something larger than the sheet of paper; they are covered with a fine stucco that takes a polish, and are so contrived as to be well heated by a small fire circulating in the walls. The mould is made with thin but deep sides, that it may be both light and stiff: it is suspended at each end with cords that pass over pullies fastened to the cieling, their ends connected with a counterpoise, nearly equal the weight of the mould. Two men, one at each end of the mould, lifting it out of the water by the help of the counterpoise, turn it and apply it with the stuff to the smooth surface of the stove, against which they press it, to force out great part of the water through the wires. The heat of the wall soon evaporates the rest, and a boy takes off the dried sheet by rolling it up. The side next the stove receives the even polish of the stucco, and is thereby better fitted to receive the impression of fine prints. If a degree of sizing is required, a decoction of rice is mixed with the stuff in the vat. Thus the great sheet is obtained, smooth and sized, and a number of the European operations saved. As the stove has two polished sides, and there are two vats, the same operation is at the same time performed by two other men at the other vat; and one fire serves. ΤΟ TO NOAH WEBSTER, JUN. ESQ. AT HARTFORD *. On Modern Innovations in the English Language and in Printing, DEAR SIR, Philadelphia, Dec. 26, 1789. I RECEIVED, some time since, your Dissertations on the English Language. It is an excellent work, and will be greatly useful in turning the thoughts of our countrymen to correct writing. Please to accept my thanks for it, as well as for the great honour you have done me in its dedication. I ought to have made this acknowledgment sooner, but much indisposition prevented me. I cannot but applaud your zeal for preserving the purity of our language both in its expression and pronunciation, and in correcting the popular errors several of our states are continually falling into with respect to both. Give me leave to mention some of them, though possibly they may already have occurred to you. I wish, however, that in some future publication of yours, you would set a discountenancing mark upon them. The first I remember, is the word improved. When I left New England in the year 1723, this word had never been used among us, as far as I know, but in the sense of ameliorated, or made better, except once in a very old book of Dr. Mather's, entitled Remarkable Providences. As that man wrote a very obscure hand, I remember that when. I read that word in his book used instead of the word employed, I conjectured that it was an error of the printer, who had mistaken a short I in the writing for an r, and a y with too short a tail for a v, whereby employed was converted into improved *This letter is taken from an American periodical publication entitled the Columbian Magazine. Editor. but but when I returned to Boston in 1733, I found this change had obtained favour, and was then become common; for I met with it often in perusing the newspapers, where it frequently made an appearance rather ridiculous. Such, for instance, as the advertisement of a country house to be sold, which had been many years improved as a tavern; and in the character of a deceased country gentleman, that he had been, for more than thirty years, improved as a justice of the peace. This use of the word improve is peculiar to New England, and not to be met with among any other speakers of English, either on this or the other side of the water. During my late absence in France, I find that several other new words have been introduced into our parliamentary language. For example, I find a verb from the substantive notice. I should not have noticed this, were it not that the gentleman, &c. Also another verb, from the substantive advocate; The gentleman who advocates, or who has advocated that motion, &c. Another from the substantive progress, the most awkward and abominable of the three: the committee having progressed, resolved to adjourn. The word opposed, though not a new word, I find used in a new manner, as, the gentlemen who are opposed to this measure, to which I have also myself always been opposed. If you should happen to be of my opinion with respect to these innovations, you will use your authority in reprobating them. The Latin language, long the vehicle used in distributing knowledge among the different nations of Europe, is daily more and more neglected; and one of the modern tongues, viz. French, seems, in point of universality, to have supplied its place. It is spoken in all the |