The Sound A (_a_ in f_a_ther) is made farther back in the mouth, with the mouth stretched quite open, and is the richest and most harmonious of the Vowel Sounds--the Queen of the Vowels. It is the Italian A, the sound most allied with Music and Euphony, and yet a sound which is greatly lacking in the English Language. The English Reader must guard himself from confounding the Vowel-Sound of which we are here speaking, with the Consonant R, the alphabetical name of which is by a lax habit of pronunciation made to be nearly identical with this Vowel-Sound; while for this beautiful and brilliant and leading Vowel in the Alphabet of Nature we have no distinct letter in English, and reckon it merely as one of the values or powers of the Letter A, to which we ordinarily give the value of E (_a_ in m_a_te, _ai_ in p_ai_n). This Vowel A (_ah_, _a_ in f_a_ther) is made with the mouth so open that the form of its production suggests the insertion of a stick or other elongated object in a perpendicular direction to retain the jaws in their position; a practice said sometimes to be resorted to by the Italian Music Teacher, in order to correct the bad habit of talking through the teeth, common among his English pupils. This height and depth involved in the Sound of the Vowel A (ah) relates it to THICKNESS, the Third Dimension of Extension; as the Sound I is related to _Length_, the First of these Dimensions, and the Sound E to _Breadth_, the Second of them. _Thickness_ is again related to _richness_ and _sweetness_, to _fulness_ and _fatness_, as of the good condition of an Animal in flesh, or of rich and productive soils. And these ideas are again related to _wealth_ or to _riches_ generally; and, hence, again to SUBSTANCE. The objects of wealth are called _goods_, and a wealthy man is said to be a '_man of substance_.' A (ah) is the representative or pivotal Vowel; that one which embodies most completely the _Vowel Idea_. Its inherent meaning is especially, therefore, that of SUBSTANCE or REALITY, which, is, in a more general way, as we have seen, the meaning of all the Vowels. The most real, tangible, sensible substance from an ordinary point of view being. Matter, this Vowel-Sound allies itself also with _Matter_ or _Materiality_ as contrasted with _Spiritual_ Substance.