framed into such or such _Letters_; for the _Voice_ and _Breath_ are
alone the material part of _Letters_, but the form of them is to be
sought out from the various Configurations of those hollow Channels,
thorough which they pass; _Letters_ therefore, not as they be certain
Characters, but as they are Pronounced or Spoken, are the _Voice_ and
_Breath_, diversly Figured by the Instruments ordained for the Speech.

But here we must be pre-admonished concerning the _Letters_; that
there is a great Latitude almost amongst them all, and that one and
the same Character is not pronounced by one and the same Configuration
of the Mouth, yea, in one and the same Language; thus [_a_] and [_e_]
sometimes are sounded open, and sometimes close; also [_o_] hath its
own Latitude, so as many other Letters also may have; yea, as many as
are the divers Modes, by which the _Voice_ and _Breath_ can be
Figured, by the Organs of Speech; but the most easie, only, and the
most Conspicuous are received by all Nations, whose number never
almost exceedeth Twenty four, and have certain Characters annexed to
them: But seeing that these Characters are not every where pronounced
alike, yea, one and the same Letter sometimes is variously sounded by
one and the same People, therefore I have made choice of the _German
Letters_, which are of my Mother-Tongue, and the most _Simple_ of all
Letters, to be examined in this place: in as much as they are for the
most part sounded every where alike, their _Vowels_ are very _Simple_,
and agreeable to the nature of the thing, the _Diphthongs_ compounded
of them, do retain the Nature of their compounding _Vowels_, because
they are always heard pronounced in them, otherwise, than as it is in
most other Languages, which they stile living ones; for sometimes they
make their _Diphthongs_ out of the most _Simple Vowels_, as are [_au_]
[_ou_] [_ai_] amongst the _French_, and [_oe_] and [_eu_] amongst the
_Dutch_, or else they have such improper _Diphthongs_, that scarce