_Skeptic_ for _sceptic_ is mere pedantry; a modern change that has no advantage for its object. The Greek derivation will be pleaded as an authority; but this will not warrant the innovation, without extending it to _scene_, _scepter_, and many others. Will the advocates write and pronounce the latter _skene_, _skepter_? If not, they should be satisfied with analogy and former practice. It is remarkable however, that notwithstanding the authority of almost all the modern dictionaries is in favor of skeptic, no writer of reputation, whose works I have seen, has followed the spelling. The old orthography, _sceptic_, still maintains its ground. _Sauce_ with the fourth sound of _a_ is accounted vulgar; yet this is the ancient, the correct, and the most general pronunciation. The _aw_ of the North Britons is much affected of late; _sawce_, _hawnt_, _vawnt_; yet the true sound is that of _aunt_, _jaunt_, and a change can produce no possible advantage. The words _advertisement_ and _chastisement_ are differently accented by the standard authors, and by people on both sides of the Atlantic. Let us find the analogy. The original words, _advertise_ and _chastise_, are verbs, accented uniformly on the last syllable. Let us search thro the language for verbs of this description, and I presume we shall not find another instance, where, in nouns formed from such verbs, by the addition of _ment_, the seat of the accent is changed. We find amusement, refinement, refreshment, reconcilement, and many, perhaps all others, preserve the accent of their primitives; and in this analogy we find the reason why _chastisement_ and _advertisement_ should be accented on the last syllable but one. This analogy is a substantial and permanent rule, that will forever be superior to local customs.[64] Similar remarks may be made respecting _acceptable_, _admirable_, _disputable_, _comparable_, which our polite speakers accent on the first syllable. The first is indeed accented on the second syllable, by most authors, except Sheridan, who still retains the accent on the first. It was an old rule of grammarians, that the genius of our language requires the accent to be carried as far as possible towards the beginning of the word. This is seldom or never true; on the contrary, the rule is directly opposed to the melody, both of poetry and prose. Under the influence, however, of this rule, a long catalogue of words lost their true pronunciation, and among the rest, a great number of adjectives derived from verbs by an addition of the termination _able_. Some of these are restored to their analogy; others retain the accent on the first syllable.