long on this part of grammar, which, though very important, is rather
dry and uninteresting, for it has nothing to do with parsing and
analyzing language. And, therefore, if you can _spell correctly_, you
may omit Orthography, and commence with Etymology and Syntax.

Orthography treats, 1st, of _Letters_, 2ndly, of _Syllables_, and 3dly,
of _Words_.

I. LETTERS. A letter is the first principle, or least part, of a word.

The English Alphabet contains twenty-six letters.

They are divided into vowels and consonants.

A vowel is a letter that can be perfectly sounded by itself. The vowels
are _a, e, i, o, u,_ and sometimes _w_ and _y_. _W_ and _y_ are
consonants when they begin a word or syllable; but in every other
situation they are vowels.

A consonant is a letter that cannot be perfectly sounded without the
help of a vowel; as, _b, d, f, l_. All letters except the vowels are
consonants.

Consonants are divided into mutes and semi-vowels.

The mutes cannot be sounded _at all_ without the aid of a vowel. They
are _b, p, t, d, k_, and _c_ and _g_ hard.

The semi-vowels have an imperfect sound of themselves. They are _f, l,
m, n, r, v, s, z, x_, and _c_ and _g_ soft.