ditions, about one time; all, if I mistake not, in the year 1763; and none
of these learned doctors, it would seem, used the mode of spelling now in
question. In Ash, of 1799, we have such orthography as this: "Italics,
public, domestic, our traffic, music, quick; error, superior, warrior,
authors, honour, humour, favour, behaviour." In Priestley, of 1772:
"Iambics, dactyls, dactylic, anapaestic, monosyllabic, electric, public,
critic; author, emperor's, superior; favour, labours, neighbours, laboured,
vigour, endeavour; meagre, hillock, bailiwick, bishoprick, control,
travelling." In Lowth, of 1799: "Comic, critic, characteristic, domestic;
author, _favor, favored, endeavored, alledging_, foretells." Now all these
are words in the spelling of which Johnson and Webster contradict each
other; and if they are not all right, surely they would not, on the whole,
be made more nearly right, by being conformed to either of these
authorities exclusively. For THE BEST USAGE is the ultimate rule of
grammar.

OBS. 8.--The old British Grammar, written before the American Revolution,
and even before "_the learned Mr. Samuel Johnson_" was doctorated, though
it thus respectfully quotes that great scholar, does not follow him in the
spelling of which I am treating. On the contrary, it abounds with examples
of words ending in _ic_ and _or_, and not in _ick_ and _our_, as he wrote
them; and I am confident, that, from that time to this, the former
orthography has continued to be _more common than his_. Walker, the
orthoepist, who died in 1807, yielded the point respecting the _k_, and
ended about four hundred and fifty words with _c_ in his Rhyming
Dictionary; but he thought it more of an innovation than it really was. In
his Pronouncing Dictionary, he says, "It has been a custom, _within these
twenty years_, to omit the _k_ at the end of words, when preceded by _c_.
This has introduced a _novelty_ into the language, which is that of ending
a word with an unusual letter," &c. "This omission of _k_ is, however, too
general to be counteracted, even by the authority of Johnson; but it is to
be hoped it will be confined to words from the learned languages."--
_Walker's Principles of Pronunciation_, No. 400. The tenth edition of
Burn's Grammar, dated 1810, says, "It has become customary to omit _k_
after _c_ at the end of dissyllables and trisyllables, &c. as _music,
arithmetic, logic_; but the _k_ is retained in monosyllables; as, _back,
deck,