PROF. PHIL. Physics are that science which explains the principles of natural things and the properties of bodies, which discourses of the nature of the elements, of metals, minerals, stones, plants, and animals; which teaches us the cause of all the meteors, the rainbow, the _ignis fatuus_, comets, lightning, thunder, thunderbolts, rain, snow, hail, wind, and whirlwinds. MR. JOUR. There is too much hullaballoo in all that; too much riot and rumpus. PROF. PHIL. What would you have me teach you then? MR. JOUR. Teach me spelling. PROF. PHIL. Very good. MR. JOUR. Afterwards you will teach me the almanac, so that I may know when there is a moon, and when there isn't one. PROF. PHIL. Be it so. In order to give a right interpretation to your thought, and to treat this matter philosophically, we must begin, according to the order of things, with an exact knowledge of the nature of the letters, and the different way in which each is pronounced. And on this head I have to tell you that letters are divided into vowels, so called because they express the voice, and into consonants, so called because they are sounded with the vowels, and only mark the different articulations of the voice. There are five vowels or voices, _a, e, i, o, u_. [Footnote: It is scarcely necessary to say that this description, such as it is, only applies to the French vowels as they are pronounced in _pate, the, ici, cote, du_ respectively.] MR. JOUR. I understand all that. PROF. PHIL. The vowel _a_ is formed by opening the mouth very wide; _a_. MR. JOUR. _A, a_; yes. PROF. PHIL. The vowel _e_ is formed by drawing the lower jaw a little nearer to the upper; _a, e_. MR. JOUR. _A, e; a, e;_ to be sure. Ah! how beautiful that is! PROF. PHIL. And the vowel _i_ by bringing the jaws still closer to one another, and stretching the two corners of the mouth towards the ears; _a, e, i_. MR. JOUR. _A, e, i, i, i, i_. Quite true. Long live science! PROF. PHIL. The vowel _o_ is formed by opening the jaws, and drawing in the lips at the two corners, the upper and the lower;_ o_. MR. JOUR. _O, o_. Nothing can be more correct; _a, e, i, o, i, o_. It is admirable! _I, o, i, o_. PROF. PHIL. The opening of the mouth exactly makes a little circle, which resembles an _o_. MR. JOUR. _O, o, o_. You are right. _O_! Ah! what a fine thing it is to know something! PROF. PHIL. The vowel _u_ is formed by bringing the teeth near each other without entirely joining them, and thrusting out both the lips whilst also bringing them near together without quite joining them; _u_. MR. JOUR. _U, u_. There is nothing more true; _u_. PROF. PHIL. Your two lips lengthen as if you were pouting; so that, if you wish to make a grimace at anybody, and to laugh at him, you have only to _u_ him. MR. JOUR. _U, u_. It's true. Oh! that I had studied when I was younger, so as to know all this. PROF. PHIL. To-morrow we will speak of the other letters, which are the consonants.