of not requiring to be sounded (being mute), and of showing that the _c_ has the sound of _s_ (being small). "It is the peculiar quality of _s_ that it may be sounded before all consonants, except _x_ and _z_, in which _s_ is comprised, _x_ being only _ks_, and _z_ only a hard [flat] or gross _s_. This _s_ is therefore termed by grammarians _suae potestatis litera_, the reason of which the learned Dr. Clarke erroneously supposed to be, that in some words it might be doubled at pleasure."--_Johnson._ A reference to the current Greek Grammars will indicate another reason for [sigma] being called _suae potestatis litera_. It will there be seen that, whilst [pi], [beta], [phi]--[kappa], [gamma], [chi]--[tau], [delta], [theta]--are grouped together, as _tenues_, _mediae_, and _aspiratae_, and as _inter se cognatae_, [sigma] stands by itself; [zeta] its media (flat sound) being treated as a double letter, and _sh_, its so-called aspirate, being non-existent in the Greek language. The sound of _ti_ before a vowel, as in _salvation_, is explained in p. 153. "_Th_ has two sounds; the one soft [flat], as _thus_, _whether_; the other hard [sharp], as _thing_, _think_. The sound is soft [flat] in all words between two vowels, as _father_, _whether_; and between _r_ and a vowel, as _burthen_."--_Johnson._ The reason of the latter statement lies in the fact of both the vowels and _r_ being _flat_ (see p. 152), and so exerting a flattening influence upon the sounds in contact with them. In the substantives _breath_ and _cloth_, the _th_ is sharp (_i.e._, as _th_ in _thin_); in the verbs _breathe_ and _clothe_, the _th_ is flat (_i.e._, {199} as _th_ in _thine_).--A great number of substantives may be made verbs by changing the sound of their final consonant. However, with the words _breathe_ and _clothe_, a second change has taken place, _viz._, the vowel has been lengthened. Now of these two changes, _viz._, the lengthening of the vowel, and the flattening of the consonant, which is the one represented by the _e_ mute, in _clothe_ and _breathe_, as compared with _cloth_ and _breath_? I imagine the former. Hence an exception is taken to the following statement of Dr. Johnson:--"When it (_th_) is softened [flattened] at the end of a word, an _e_ silent must be added, as _breath_, _breathe_, _cloth_, _clothe_." The sounds of the _s_ in _sure_, of the _t_ in _picture_ (when pronounced _pictshure_), and of the _z_ in _azure_ and _glazier_, are explained in p. 153. The present chapter is intended not to exhaust the list, but to illustrate the character of those orthographical expedients which insufficient alphabets, changes in language, and the influences of etymology engender both in the English and in other tongues. * * * * * {200} CHAPTER X. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE ENGLISH ALPHABET.