OBS. 25.—­In Dr. Webster’s “Collection of Essays and Fugitiv Peeces,” published in 1790, we find, among other equally ingenious improvements of our orthography, a general omission of the final e in all words ending in ive, or rather of all words ending in ve, preceded by a short vowel; as, “primitiv, derivativ, extensiv, positiv, deserv, twelv, proov, luv, hav, giv, liv.”  This mode of spelling, had it been adopted by other learned men, would not only have made v a very frequent final consonant, but would have placed it in an other new and strange predicament, as being subject to reduplication.  For he that will write hav, giv, and liv, must also, by a general rule of grammar, write havving, givving, and livving.  And not only so, there will follow also, in the solemn style of the Bible, a change of givest, livest, giveth, and liveth, into givvest, livvest, givveth, and livveth.  From all this it may appear, that a silent final e is not always quite so useless a thing as some may imagine.  With a levity no less remarkable, does the author of the Red Book propose at once two different ways of reforming the orthography of such words as pierceable, manageable, and so forth; in one of which, the letter j would be brought into a new position, and subjected sometimes to reduplication.  “It would be a useful improvement to change this c into s, and g into j;” as, piersable, manajable, &c.  “Or they might assume i;” as, piercibe, managible, &c.—­Red Book, p. 170.  Now would not this “useful improvement” give us such a word as allejjable? and would not one such monster be more offensive than all our present exceptions to Rule 9th?  Out upon all such tampering with orthography!

OBS. 26.—­If any thing could arrest the folly of innovators and dabbling reformers, it would be the history of former attempts to effect improvements similar to theirs.  With this sort of history every one would do well to acquaint himself, before he proceeds to disfigure words by placing their written elements in any new predicament.  If the orthography of the English language is ever reduced to greater regularity than it now exhibits, the reformation must be wrought by those who have no disposition either to exaggerate its present defects, or to undertake too much.  Regard must be had to the origin, as well as to the sounds, of words.  To many people, all silent letters seem superfluous; and all indirect modes of spelling, absurd.  Hence, as the learner may perceive, a very large proportion of the variations and disputed points in spelling, are such as refer to the silent letters, which are retained by some writers and omitted by others.  It is desirable that such as are useless and irregular should be always omitted; and such as are useful and regular always retained.  The rules