The Roman _c_ some writers suppose was hard, like _k_, before all the vowels and diphthongs. It certainly was so before all except _e_ and _i_; where, there is reason to suppose, it had the sound of _ch_ or _ts_. It is very evident that it had not the sound of _s_, which we now annex to it in _civil_, _cellar_. When the Roman alphabet, therefore, took place of the primitive English characters, the Greek _k_ should have been always written before _a_, _o_, _u_, as in _cat_, _cord_, _cup_; and _s_ before _e_ and _i_. Or _c_ should have been called _ke_, limited to one sound, and always used instead of _k_. If our ancestors had retained the Roman pronunciation of _c_ before _e_ and _i_, they would probably have spelt _cera_, _civilis_, _chera_, _chivilis_,[35] _ch_ having its English sound of _tsh_, as in _charm_. But if they pronounced these words as we do, they should have substituted _s_, _sera_, _sivilis_. In short, they should have limited every character to one sound; in which case, one of the three letters, _c_, _k_, _s_, would have been entirely omitted as useless. This would have delivered us from a large class of difficulties. Whether the _ph_ and _ch_, in Greek derivatives, were originally introduced into English, because our ancestors preserved the aspirate; or whether the _h_ was retained merely to show the etymology of words, it is not easy to decide. The probability is, that these letters were never aspirated in English, but that _ph_ has ever been pronounced _f_, and _ch_ generally _k_; as in _Philip_, _chorus_. It is probable however that the Romans, from whom the English borrowed their characters, preserved the aspirate; for they very scrupulously retained the _h_ after _p_ and _c_; and they attempted to copy exactly the Greek pronunciation.[36] They borrowed all words in _ph_, _ch_ and _th_ from the Greeks. We have preserved the characters, but have mostly lost the aspirate; _ph_ has invariably the sound of _f_; _ch_, in Greek derivatives, generally that of _k_; and _th_ has become the representative of two simple consonants. With this change of pronunciation, the orthography should have changed; _philosophy_ should now be written _filosofy_; and _chorus_, _korus_; _th_ might become a single character and be called _Eth_.[F] But it was the fate of our language to be shaken by violent revolutions, and abandoned to accident or the caprice of unskillful heads. The operation of imperceptible causes, common to all languages, in all ages, has also been gradually changing the spelling and pronunciation.