Here note well, that in the Schools this very thing would be of great use, chiefly when they are taught Languages, whose Letters are expressed by whole words, as _Alpha, Omega, Gimel, double u, zet, &c._ For more time is lost, and the desire of Learning taken away from Children, before they are able to abstract the Letters of these Sounds, and to connect them together in _Reading_; so that it is very much to be wonder'd at, that this most eminent short way of reading hath hitherto lain hid in the dark.
The other _Nasalls_ [_u_] and [_ng_] have nothing peculiar, unless it be that I shew the Deaf the posture of the _Tongue_ in a Looking-Glass, and put their Hand to my _Nose_, whereby they may be sensible, that there comes forth thorough the _Nostrils_ a _Sounding Breath_. When I teach them [_l._] I bid them to apply the _Tongue_ to the _upper Teeth_; but to the _Cutters_, and to the _Dog-Teeth_ only, that then they may emit a _Voice_ thro' the Mouth I make a Sign with my Hand; but least, instead of [_l._] they should pronounce [_n._] which comes to pass when the _Tongue_ doth so hinder the coming forth of the _Voice_, that it returns to get out by the _Nostrils_; therefore, till they are better accustomed, I gently compress the _Nostrils_ with my Fingers.
The Letter [_r_] is the most difficult of all the rest, yet amongst six Deaf Persons, which I have hitherto instructed, four of them pronounce it with the greatest easiness; the other two cannot form it, but in their Jaws; but I teach them, by moving the Hand one while to the _Throat_, and another while to the _Mouth_, whereby they may, as it were, feel the subsulting and interrupted Expulsion of the _Voice_; also I bid them to look often in the Glass, to observe the tremulous and fluctuating Motion of the _Tongue_; but no one can expect at the first trial, the genuin Pronounciation of this Letter.
When the _Vowels_ and _Semi-vowels_ are well inculcated into them, _the Consonants_ are learnt without any trouble almost, for they are a _Simple and Mute Breath_, coming forth, either successively, or suddenly, according to the various _Openings of the Mouth_, and only with putting the Hand to the Mouth almost, they may all easily be learned.