The letter _k_ we borrowed from the Greek, and the _c_ from the Latin. The power of each of these letters at the end of a word is precisely the same; and the power of one is the same as that of both. Yet our early writers placed them both at the end of certain words, with the _c_ before the _k_, as _musick_, _publick_, why they did not put the _k_ first, as being the most ancient character, does not appear. Modern authors have rejected the _k_ sit the end of this class of words; and no correct writer will think of replacing such an inconvenient appendage. The idea of putting a stop to innovation in a living language is absurd, unless we put a stop to thinking. When a language becomes fixt it becomes a dead language. Men must leave it for a living one, in which they can express their ideas with all their changes, extensions and corrections. The duty of the critic in this case is only to keep a steady watch over the innovations that are offered, and require a rigid conformity to the general principles of the idiom. Noah Webster, to whose philological labors our language will be much indebted for its purity and regularity, has pointed out the advantages of a steady course of improvement, and how it ought to be conducted. The Preface to his new Dictionary is an able performance. He might advantageously give it more development, with some correction, and publish it as a Prospectus to the great work he now has in hand. The uniform tendency of our language is towards simplicity as well as regularity. With this view the final e, in words where it is quite silent and useless, is dropping off, and will soon disappear. Having long since resigned the place it held in the greater part of these words, as _joye_, _ruine_, and more recently in some others, it must finally quit the remainder where it is still found a superfluous letter, as _active_, _decisive_, _determine_. We may even hazard a prediction that our whole class of adjectives ending in _ous_ will be reformed and brought nearer to their pronunciation by rejecting the _o_. A similar change may be expected in words ending in _ss_. These words have already undergone one reform; they were formerly written with a final _e_, as _wildernesse_. They have lost the _e_ because it was useless; and as the final _s_ has now become equally useless, it might be dismissed with as little violence to the language. But these two projected innovations have not yet been ventured upon in any degree; and it is not desirable to be the first in so daring an enterprise, when it is not immediately important.