Another class of our words are in a gradual state of reform. They are those Latin nouns ending in _or_, which having past thro France on their way from Rome, changed their _o_ into _eu_. The Norman English writers restored the Latin _o_, but retained the French _u;_ and tho the latter has been since rejected in most of these words, yet in others it is still retained by many writers. It is quite useless in pronunciation; and propriety as well as analogy requires that the reform should be carried thro. No writer at this day retains the _u_ in _actor_, _author_, _emperor_ and the far greater part, perhaps nine tenths, of this class of nouns; why then should it be continued in the few that remain, such as _labor_, _honor?_ The most accurate authors reject it in all these, and I have followed the example. I have also respectable authorities in prose as well as poetry for expunging the three last letters in _though_ and _through;_ they being totally disregarded in pronunciation and awkward in appearance. The long sound of _o_ in many words, as _go, fro_, puts it out of doubt with respect to _tho;_ and its sound of _oo_, which, frequently occurs, as in _prove, move_, is an equal justification of _thro_. All the British poets, from Pope downwards, and several eminent prose writers, including Shaftsbury and Staunton, have by their practice supported this orthography. Some verbs in the past tense, where the usual ending in _ed_ is harsh and uncouth, hare long ago changed it for _t_, as _fixt_, _capt_, _meant_, _past_, _blest_. Poetry has extended this innovation to many other verbs which are necessarily uttered with the sound of _t_, tho in prose they may still retain for a while their ancient _ed_. I consider this reform as a valuable improvement in the language, because it brings a numerous class of words to be written as they are spoken; and the proportion of the reformed ones is already so considerable that analogy, or regularity of conjugation, requires us to complete the list. I have not carried this reform much farther than other poets have done before me. Examples might perhaps be found for nearly all the instances in which I have indulged it, such as _perisht_, _astonisht_, tho I have not been solicitous to seek them. The correction might well be extended to several remaining verbs of the same class; but it is difficult in this particular case to fix the proper limit. With regard to the apostrophe, as employed to mark the elision in the past tense of verbs, I have followed the example of the most accurate poets; who use it where the verb in the present tense does not end in _e_, as _furl'd_, because the _ed_ would add a syllable and destroy the measure. But where the present tense ends in _e_, it is retained in the past with the _d_, as _robed_, because it does not add a syllable.