The same natural aversion to loquacity has of late years made a very
considerable alteration in our language, by closing in one syllable
the termination of our preterperfect tense, as in the words
"drown'd," "walk'd," "arriv'd," for " drowned," "walked," "arrived,"
which has very much disfigured the tongue, and turned a tenth part
of our smoothest words into so many clusters of consonants. This is
the more remarkable because the want of vowels in our language has
been the general complaint of our politest authors, who nevertheless
are the men that have made these retrenchments, and consequently
very much increased our former scarcity.
This reflection on the words that end in "ed" I have heard in
conversation from one of the greatest geniuses this age has
produced. I think we may add to the foregoing observation, the
change which has happened in our language by the abbreviation of
several words that are terminated in "eth," by substituting an "s"
in the room of the last syllable, as in "drowns," "walks,"
"arrives," and innumerable other words, which in the pronunciation
of our forefathers were "drowneth," "walketh," "arriveth." This has
wonderfully multiplied a letter which was before too frequent in the
English tongue, and added to that hissing in our language which is
taken so much notice of by foreigners, but at the same time humours
our taciturnity, and eases us of many superfluous syllables.
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