The readers of the professor's paper will notice that in a large number of words the usual terminal _ed_ is changed to _t_. This is in accordance with one of the rules recommended by the Spelling-Reform Association and laid down authoritatively by the American Philological Association. The phraseology of the rule is to make the substitution where-ever the final _ed_ "has the sound of _t_." It is to the professor's application of this rule that I now desire to call the attention of the reader. The "reformers" write _broacht, ceast, distinguisht, establisht, introduct, past, prejudict, pronounct, rankt, pluckt, learnt, reduct, spelt, trickt, uneartht_, and assert that they write the words as they pronounce them. In the rule given by the A.P.A. for the substitution of _ed_ for _t_, _lasht_ and _imprest_ are given as examples. All of us are undoubtedly aware of the ease with which the sound represented by _ed_ can be reduced to a _t_-sound in vocalization. But even if the sound of _t_ is given at the termination of the words named, not much is gained by the "reform" in the actual use of the words. On the contrary, it adds another tangle in the skein which children at school must untangle. It either forms another class of regular verbs, or swells the already almost unmanageable list of irregular verbs. In either case it is shifting the burden from the shoulders of adults to those of children, already, as the reformers tell us, overburdened and overworked. When a man really and sincerely asks himself the question, "Do I pronounce _lashed_ as though written _lasht_?" and tests his own practice in that respect, it will not take him long to determine that he does not know. It requires a very delicate ear to make the determination. This may also be said of most of the words quoted above. The terminal _ed_ means something: it means what it purports to mean when used. The _t_ may have a meaning, but that meaning cannot accompany it when it acts as a substitute for _ed_. The common-sense view would be, in cases of doubt, to use letters with a significance you desire to convey by their use.