e
eighty-six monosyllables which end with _ck_, and from them about fifty
compounds or derivatives, which of course keep the same termination. To
these may be added a dozen or more which seem to be of doubtful formation,
such as _huckaback, pickapack, gimcrack, ticktack, picknick, barrack,
knapsack, hollyhock, shamrock, hammock, hillock, hammock, bullock,
roebuck_. But the verbs on which this argument is founded are only six;
_attack, ransack, traffick, frolick, mimick_, and _physick_; and these,
unquestionably, must either be spelled with the k, or must assume it in
their derivatives. Now that useful class of words which are generally and
properly written with final _c_, are about _four hundred and fifty_ in
number, and are all of them either adjectives or nouns of regular
derivation from the learned languages, being words of more than one
syllable, which have come to us from Greek or Latin roots. But what has the
doubling of _c_ by _k_, in our native monosyllables and their derivatives,
to do with all these words of foreign origin? For the reason of the matter,
we might as well double the _l_, as our ancestors did, in _naturall,
temporall, spirituall_, &c.

OBS. 11.--The learner should observe that some letters incline much to a
duplication, while gome others are doubled but seldom, and some, never.
Thus, among the vowels, _ee_ and _oo_ occur frequently; _aa_ is used
sometimes; _ii_, never--except in certain Latin words, (wherein the vowels
are separately uttered,) such as _Horatii, Veii, iidem, genii_. Again, the
doubling of _u_ is precluded by the fact that we have a distinct letter
called _Double-u_, which was made by joining two Vees, or two Ues, when the
form for _u_ was _v_. So, among the consonants, _f, l, and s_, incline more
to duplication, than any others. These letters are double, not only at the
end of those monosyllables which have but one vowel, as _staff, mill,
pass_; but also under some other circumstances. According to general
usage, final _f_ is doubled after a single vowel, in almost all cases; as
in _bailiff, caitiff, plaintiff, midriff, sheriff, tariff, mastiff_: yet
not in _calif_, which is perhaps better written _caliph_. Final _l_, as may
be seen by Rule 8th, admits not now of a duplication like this; but, by the
exceptions to Rule 4th, it is frequently doubled when no other consonant
would be; as in _travelling, grovelling_; unless, (contrary to the opinion
of Lowth, Walker, and Webster,) we wi