In respect to euphony, however, these terminations have certainly nothing to boast; nor does the earliest period of the language appear to be that in which they were the most generally used without contraction.

That degree of smoothness of which the tongue was anciently susceptible, had certainly no alliance with these additional syllables.

The long sonorous endings which constitute the declensions and conjugations of the most admired languages, and which seem to chime so well with the sublimity of the Greek, the majesty of the Latin, the sweetness of the Italian, the dignity of the Spanish, or the polish of the French, _never had_ any place in English.

The inflections given to our words never embraced any other vowel power than that of the short _e_ or _i_; and even, this we are inclined to dispense with, whenever we can; so that most of our grammatical inflections are, to the ear, nothing but consonants blended with the final syllables of the words to which they are added.

_Ing_ for the first participle, _er_ for the comparative degree, and _est_ for the superlative, are indeed added as whole syllables; but the rest, as _d_ or _ed_ for preterits and perfect participles, _s_ or _es_ for the plural number of nouns, or for the third person singular of verbs, and _st_ or _est_ for the second person singular of verbs, nine times in ten, fall into the sound or syllable with which the primitive word terminates.