Before _a_, _o_, _u_ (that is, before a full vowel), _c_ is sounded as _k_; before _e_, _i_, and _y_ (that is, before a small vowel), it has the power of _s_. This change of sound according to the nature of the vowel following, is so far from being the peculiarity of the English, that it is common in all languages; except that sometimes _c_, instead of becoming _s_, becomes _ts_, _tsh_, _ksh_, in other words, some other sibilant; _but always a sibilant_. A reference to p. 153 will explain this change. At a certain time, _k_ (written _c_, as is the case in Latin) becomes changed by the vowel following into _ksh_, and from thence into _s_, _ts_, or _tsh_. That the syllables _cit_, _cyt_, _cet_, were at one time pronounced _kit_, _kyt_, _ket_, we believe: 1. from the circumstance that if it were not so, they would have been spelt with an _s_; 2. from the comparison of the Greek and Latin languages, where the words _cete_, _circus_, _cystis_, Latin, are [Greek: kete, kirkos], [Greek: kustis], Greek. In the words _mechanical_, _choler_, &c., derived from the Greek, it must not be imagined that the _c_ represents the Greek _kappa_ or [kappa]. The combination _c_ + _h_ is to be dealt with as a single letter. Thus it was that the Romans, who had in their language neither the sound of [chi], nor the sign [kappa], rendered the Greek _chi_ ([chi]), just as by _th_ they rendered [theta], and by _ph_, [phi]. The faulty representation of the Greek [chi] has given rise to a faulty representation of the Greek [kappa], as in _ascetic_, from [Greek: asketikos]. "_C_, according to the English orthography, never ends a {194} word; therefore we write _stick_, _block_, which were originally _sticke_, _blocke_. In such words _c_ is now mute."--_Johnson._ Just as there was a prejudice against _i_ or _e_ ending a word there seems to have been one in the case of c. In the word _Frederick_ there are three modes of spelling: 1. Frederic; 2. Frederik; 3. Frederick. Of these three it is the last only that seems, to an Englishman, natural. The form Frederic seems exceptionable, because the last letter is _c_, whilst Frederik is objected to because _k_ comes in immediate contact with the short vowel. Now the reason against _c_ ending a word seems this. From what has been remarked above, _c_ seems, in and of itself, to have no power at all. Whether it shall be sounded as _k_ or as _s_ seems undetermined, except by the nature of the vowel following. If the vowel following be small, _c_=_s_, if full, _c_=_k_. But _c_ followed by nothing is equivocal and ambiguous. Now _c_ final is _c_ followed by nothing; and therefore _c_ equivocal, ambiguous, indefinite, undetermined. This is the reason why _c_ is never final. Let there be such words as _sticke_ and _blocke_. Let the _k_ be taken away. The words remain _stice_, _bloce_. The _k_ being taken away, there is a danger of calling them _stise_, _blose_.