nd of this sort of words we have a much greater number than were
ever known in Latin. A few we have borrowed from the French: as, _tenable,
capable, preferable, convertible_; and these we write as they are written
in French. But the difficulty lies chiefly in those which are of English
growth. For some of them are formed according to the model of the Latin
verbals in _ibilis_; as _forcible, coercible, reducible, discernible_; and
others are made by simply adding the suffix _able_; as _traceable,
pronounceable, manageable, advisable, returnable_. The last are purely
English; and yet they correspond in form with such as come from Latin
verbals in _abilis_.

OBS. 21.--From these different modes of formation, with the choice of
different roots, we have sometimes two or three words, differing in
orthography and pronunciation, but conveying the same meaning; as,
_divis'ible_ and _divi'dable, des'picable_ and _despi'sable, ref'erable_
and _refer'rible, mis'cible_ and _mix'able, dis'soluble, dissol'vible_, and
_dissol'vable_. Hence, too, we have some words which seem to the mere
English scholar to be spelled in a very contradictory manner, though each,
perhaps, obeys the law of its own derivation; as, _peaceable_ and
_forcible, impierceable_ and _coercible, marriageable_ and _corrigible,
damageable_ and _eligible, changeable_ and _tangible, chargeable_ and
_frangible, fencible_ and _defensible, pref'erable_ and _referrible,
conversable_ and _reversible, defendable_ and _descendible, amendable_ and
_extendible, bendable_ and _vendible, dividable_ and _corrodible,
returnable_ and _discernible, indispensable_ and _responsible, advisable_
and _fusible, respectable_ and _compatible, delectable_ and _collectible,
taxable_ and _flexible_.

OBS. 22.--The American editor of the _Red Book_, to whom all these apparent
inconsistencies seemed real blunders, has greatly exaggerated this
difficulty in our orthography, and charged Johnson and Walker with having
written all these words and many more, in this contradictory manner,
"_without any apparent reason_!" He boldly avers, that, "The perpetual
contradictions of the same or like words, _in all the books_, show that the
authors had no distinct ideas of what is right, and what is wrong;" and
ignorantly imagines, that, "The use of _ible_ rather than _able, in any
case_, originated in the necessity of keeping the soft sound of _c_ and
_g_, in the derivatives; and if _ible was confined_ to that