of Walker, to spell with single _l_ all derivatives from
words ending in _l_ not under the accent. "No letter," says Walker, "seems
to be more frequently doubled improperly than _l_. Why we should write
_libelling, levelling, revelling_, and yet _offering, suffering,
reasoning_, I am totally at a loss to determine; and, unless _l_ can give a
better plea than any other letter in the alphabet, for being doubled in
this situation, I must, in the style of Lucian, in his trial of the letter
_T_, declare for an expulsion."--_Rhyming Dict._, p. x. This rash
conception, being adopted by some men of still less caution, has wrought
great mischief in our orthography. With respect to words ending in _el_, it
is a good and sufficient reason for doubling the _l_, that the _e_ may
otherwise be supposed servile and silent. I have therefore made this
termination a general exception to the rule against doubling. Besides, a
large number of these words, being derived from foreign words in which the
_l_ was doubled, have a second reason for the duplication, as strong as
that which has often induced these same authors to double that letter, as
noticed above. Such are bordel, chapel, duel, fardel, gabel, gospel,
gravel, lamel, label, libel, marvel, model, novel, parcel, quarrel, and
spinel. Accordingly we find, that, in his work of expulsion, Dr. Webster
has not unfrequently contradicted himself, and conformed to usage, by
doubling the _l_ where he probably intended to write it single. Thus, in
the words bordeller, chapellany, chapelling, gospellary, gospeller,
gravelly, lamellate, lamellar, lamellarly, lamelliform, and spinellane, he
has written the _l_ double, while he has grossly corrupted many other
similar words by forbearing the reduplication; as, _traveler, groveling,
duelist, marvelous_, and the like. In cases of such difficulty, we can
never arrive at uniformity and consistency of practice, unless we resort to
_principles_, and such principles as can be made intelligible to the
_English_ scholar. If any one is dissatisfied with the rules and exceptions
which I have laid down, let him study the subject till he can furnish the
schools with better.

OBS. 17.--We have in our language a very numerous class of adjectives
ending in _able_ or _ible_, as _affable, arable, tolerable, admissible,
credible, infallible_, to the number of nine hundred or more. In respect to
the proper form and signification of some of these, there occurs no small