use, it would
be an easy and simple rule."--_Red Book_, p. 170. Hence, he proposes to
write _peacible_ for _peaceable, tracible_ for _traceable, changible_ for
_changeable, managible_ for _manageable_; and so for all the rest that come
from words ending in _ce_ or _ge_. But, whatever advantage there might be
in this, his "easy and simple rule" would work a revolution for which the
world is not yet prepared. It would make _audible audable, fallible
fallable, feasible feasable, terrible terrable, horrible horrable_, &c. No
tyro can spell in a worse manner than this, even if he have no rule at all.
And those who do not know enough of Latin grammar to profit by what I have
said in the preceding observation, may console themselves with the
reflection, that, in spelling these difficult words entirely by guess, they
will not miss the way more than some have done who pretended to be critics.
The rule given by John Burn, for _able_ and _ible_, is less objectionable;
but it is rendered useless by the great number of its exceptions.

OBS. 23.--As most of the rules for spelling refer to the final letters of
our primitive words, it may be proper for the learner to know and remember,
that not all the letters of the alphabet can assume that situation, and
that some of them terminate words much more frequently than others. Thus,
in Walker's Rhyming Dictionary, the letter _a_ ends about 220 words; _b_,
160; _c_, 450; _d_, 1550; _e_, 7000; _f_, 140; _g_, 280; _h_, 400; _i_, 29;
_j_, none; _k_, 550; _l_, 1900; _m_, 550; _n_, 3300; _o_, 200; _p_, 450;
_q_, none; _r_, 2750; _s_, 3250; _t_, 3100; _u_, 14; _v_, none; _w_, 200;
_x_, 100; _y_, 5000; _z_, 5. We have, then, three consonants, _j, q_, and
_v_, which never end a word. And why not? With respect to _j_ and _v_, the
reason is plain from their history. These letters were formerly identified
with _i_ and _u_, which are not terminational letters. The vowel _i_ ends
no pure English word, except that which is formed of its own capital _I_;
and the few words which end with _u_ are all foreign, except _thou_ and
_you_. And not only so, the letter _j_ is what was formerly called _i
consonant_; and _v_ is what was called _u consonant_. But it was the
initial _i_ and _u_, or the _i_ and _u_ which preceded an other vowel, and
not those which followed one, that were converted into the consonants _j_
and _v_. Hence, neither of these letters ever ends any English word, or is
ever doubled. Nor do they