Very few words in our language end in _th_ which are not of purely native growth. _Frith_ is questionable exception. Besides the monosyllable _plinth_, we have imported from the Greek _colocynth_, _hyacinth_, _labyrinth_, with the proper names _Corinth_, _Erymanth_, all terminating in _nth_. In the ending _the_ our language does not rejoice. Most of such words are verbs, so distinguished from their cognate substantives, as _wreathe_ from _wreath_. We have, as substantives, _lathe_ (A.-S. [Saxon: leeth]), _hythe_ ([Saxon: hyeth]), _scythe_ (more properly _sithe_, [Saxon: siethe]), _tythe_ ([Saxon: tyethe]); as adjectives, _blithe_ ([Saxon: bliethe]), _lithe_ ([Saxon: lieth]). There may be one or two more. In all these the sounds is [Saxon: eth] (_th_ in _this_) not [Saxon: þ] (_th_ in _thick_). This appears worth notice. On the whole, I should venture to say that so uncouth a slip as _mythe_, when set in our soil, was unlikely to thrive. Still _m[)y]th_ is objectionable, though we at Cambridge might quote _g[)y]p_ However I may seem to be a breaker of my own laws, I suggest, if we must have an English form of the word, that we should write and pronounce _m[=y]th_. Several words ending in _th_ have the preceding vowel lengthened, _e.g._ _both_, _sloth_, _ruth_, _truth_ (though with the inconsistency attributed to us, one, by the way, generally of orthography rather than pronunciation, we shorten the diphthong in _breath_, _death_). Compare also the sound of the endings _ild_ and _ind_. I have already troubled you with a very long Note; but, before I close, allow me to add that in what I have advanced I have had in view only our modern mode of spelling, without binding {576} myself to an opinion of its inferiority or superiority to that of our forefathers. I beg also to protest against MR. KEIGHTLEY'S wish to banish _mythical_ from our vocabulary. It may be _hybrid_, but equally so are _critical_, _grammatical_, _musical_, _physical_, _poetical_, with a long string of et ceteras. CHARLES THIRIOLD. [Footnote 5: Except _x_ (=_cs_). Compare _flax_, _wax_, _ox_.] [Footnote 6: From serv-us (after the French) we form _serf_.] [Footnote 7: _Rebus_, _overplus_, and _surplus_ may, if not satisfied, take an _omnibus_, bring their action at the _Nisi Prius_, and meet there with a _nonplus_.] * * * * * "INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF THE UNION, BY THE WEDNESDAY CLUB IN FRIDAY STREET." (Vol. vii., pp. 261. 409.)