Part 48 (1/2)
”The larger here, and there the _lesser_ la for their darammarians deny the comparison of many adjectives, from a false notion that they are already superlatives Thus W Allen: ”Adjectives compounded with the Latin preposition _per_, are already superlative: as, _perfect, perennial, permanent_, &c”--_Elements of E Gra is really superlative, in English, but what has the form and construction of the superlative; as, ”The _ with _per_, is superlative by virtue of this Latin prefix ”Separate spirits, which are beings that have _perfecter_ knowledge and greater happiness than we,their thoughts than we have”--_Locke's Essay_, B ii, Ch 24, --36, This ood, but it shows that _perfect_ is no superlative Thus Kirkha_ adjectives, and _ree_; because, by expressing a quality _in the highest degree_, they carry in thenification: _chief, extre, honest, just, true, correct, sincere, vast, immense, ceaseless, infinite, endless, unparalleled, universal, supreme, unlimited, omnipotent, all-wise, eternal_” [183]--_Gram_, p 73 So the Rev David Blair: ”The words _perfect, certain, infinite, universal, chief, supreht, true, extreme, superior_, and some others, which express a perfect and superlative sense in thelish Gra to Murray's definition, which Kirkham adopts, none of these words can be at all in the superlative degree On the contrary, there are several a them, from which true superlatives are frequently and correctly formed Where are the positives which are here supposed to be ”_increased to the highest degree_?” Every real superlative in our language, except _best_ and _worst, ular word _next_, is a derivative, for _est_ or _most_; as, _truest, hind words, or any of the ”_many others_” of which this author speaks, is to be detere of good writers, and not by the dictation of a feeble pedant, or upon the supposition that if compared they would form ”_double superlatives_”
OBS 8--_Chief_ is from the French word _chef_, the _head: chiefest_ is therefore no more a double superlative than _headmost_: ”But when the _headmost_ foes appeared”--_Scott_ Nor are _chief_ and _chiefest_ equivalent ter an Edomite, the _chiefest_ of the herdsmen”--_1 Samuel_, xxi, 7 ”The _chief_ of the herds; it would be either the _leader_ of the herdsmen, or the _principal part_ of them _Chiefest_, however, has often been used where _chief_ would have been better; as, ”He sometimes denied admission to the _chiefest_ officers of the army”--_Clarendon_, let us look further at Kirkham's list of _absolute_ ”_superlatives_”
OBS 9--_Extreme_ is from the Latin superlative _extrenification is not really susceptible of increase Yet _extremest_ has been used, and is still used, by soht it the _extremest_ of evils”--_Bacon_ ”That on the sea's _extremest_ border stood”--_Addison_ ”How, to _extreo th' _extremest_ remedy to prove”--_Dryden_ ”In _extremest_ poverty”--_Swift_ ”The hairy fool stood on th' _extre it with tears”--_Shak_ ”While the _extre subs are poetical to the _extremest_ boundaries of poetry”--_Adams's Rhetoric_, i, 87 In prose, this superlative is not now very common; but the poets still occasionally use it, for the sake of their ht to be noticed that the simple adjective is _not partitive_ If we say, for the first example, ”the _extreme_ of evils;” we make the word a _noun_, and do not convey exactly the same idea that is there expressed
OBS 10--_Perfect_, if taken in its strictest sense, must not be compared; but this word, like many others which mean most in the positive, is often used with a certain latitude of ether inadmissible; nor is it destitute of authority, as I have already shown
(See Obs 8th, p 280) ”Frohts”--_Bolingbroke, on Hist_, p 152 ”The _most perfect_”--_Adams's Lect on Rhet_, i, 99 and 136; ii, 17 and 57: _Blair's Lect_, pp 20 and 399 ”The most _beautiful and perfect_ example of analysis”--_Lowth's Gram, Pref_, p 10 ”The plainest, _most perfect_, and most useful ht is the _htful, of all our senses”--_Addison, Spect_, No 411; _Blair's Lect_, pp 115 and 194; _Murray's Gram_, i, 322 Here Murray anonymously copied Blair ”And to render natives _e of it”--_Campbell's Rhet_, p 171; _Murray's Gram_, p 366 Here Murray copied Campbell, the most accurate of all his masters Whom did he copy when he said, ”The phrases, _more perfect_, and _most perfect_, are improper?”--_Octavo Gra sentence: ”No poet has ever attained a _greater perfection_ than Horace”--_Blair's Lect_, p 398 And also this: ”Why are we brought into the world _less perfect_ in respect to our nature?”--_West's Letters to a Young Lady_, p 220
OBS 11--_Right_ and _wrong_ are not often coh we so_, and such words as _rightest_ and _wrongest_: ”'Tis always in the _wrongest_ sense”--_Butler_ ”A reatest happiness”--PRICE: _Priestley's Graht_ to steal apples, than it is to steal -Book_, p 118 There are equivalent expressions which seem preferable; as, _more proper, more erroneous, most proper, most erroneous_
OBS 12--_Honest, just, true, correct, sincere_, and _vast_, may all be compared at pleasure Pope's Essay on Criticis this modest pretender can write; and in it, he may find the comparative _juster_, the superlatives _justest, truest, sincerest_, and the phrases, ”_So vast_ a throng,”--”_So vast_ is art:” all of which are contrary to his teaching ”_Unjuster_ dealing is used in buying than in selling”--_Butler's Poems_, p 163 ”_Iniquissimam_ pacem _justissimo_ bello antefero”--_Cicero_ ”I prefer the _unjustest_ peace before the _justest_ war”--_Walker's English Particles_, p 68 The poet Cowley used the word _honestest_; which is not now very common So Swift: ”What _honester_ folks never durst for their ears”--_The Yahoo's Overthrow_ So Jucius: ”The _honestest_ and ablest men”--_Letter XVIII_ ”The sentence would be _ forained by studying the _correctest_ writers”--_Holmes's Rhetoric_, p 27 _Honest_ and _correct_, for the sake of euphony, require the adverbs; as, _more honest_, ”_most correct_”--_Lowth's Gram, Pref_, p iv _Vast, vaster, vastest_, are words as smooth, as _fast, faster, fastest_; and _lish as _more just_: ”Shall mortal man be _more just_ than God?”--_Job_, iv, 17 ”Wilt thou condemn him that is _most just_?”--_Ib_, xxxiv, 17 ”More wise, ”--_Pope
Universal_ is often compared by the adverbs, but certainly with no reenforce: as, ”One of the _most universal_ precepts, is, that the orator himself should feel the passion”--_Adah not _so universal_”--_Ib_, ii, 311 ”This experience is general, though not _so universal_, as the absence of memory in childhood”--_Ib_, ii, 362 ”We can suppose no motive which would _more universally_ operate”--_Dr Blair's Rhet_, p 55 ”Music is known to have been _more universally_ studied”--_Ib_, p 123 ”We shall not wonder, that his grammar has been _so universally_ applauded”--_Walker's Recommendation in Murray's Gram_, ii, 306 ”The pronoun _it_ is the _most universal_ of all the pronouns”--_Cutler's Gram_, p 66 Thus much for one half of this critic's twenty-two ”_superlatives_” The rest are simply adjectives that are not susceptible of coht just as well teach, that _good_ is a superlative, and not susceptible of coood but one_”
OBS 13--pronominal adjectives, when their nouns are expressed, simply relate to them, and have no modifications: except _this_ and _that_, which form the plurals _these_ and _those_; and _much, many_, and a few others, which are compared Exahty works?”--_Matt_, xiii, 54 ”But _some_ man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with _what_ body do they come?”--_1 Cor_, xv, 35 ”The _first_soul; the _last_ Ada spirit”--_Ib_, 45 So, when one pronominal adjective ”precedes an other, the former _must be taken_ simply as an adjective;” as,
”Those suns are set O rise _some other_ such!”
--_Cowper's Task_, B ii, l 252
OBS 14--pronominal adjectives, when their nouns are not expressed, ender_, and _case_; but those who prefer it, may supply the ellipsis, and parse the adjective, _simply as an adjective_ Example: ”He threatens _many_, who injures _one_”--_Kames_ Here it_ender, and objective case” Or those ill take the word simply as an adjective, may say, ”_Many_ is a pronoree, co to _persons_ understood”
And so of ”_one_,” which represents, or relates to, _person_ understood
Either say, ”_One_ is a pronoive the _three definitions_ accordingly; or else say, ”One is a prono to _person_ understood; of the third person, singular nuive the _six definitions_ accordingly
OBS 15--_Elder_ for _older_, and _eldest_ for _oldest_, are still frequently used; though the ancient positive, _eld_ for _old_, is now obsolete Hence so a two-fold co the irregular adjectives The comparatives _elder_ and _better_, are often used as _nouns_; so are the Latin comparatives _superior_ and _inferior, interior_ and _exterior, senior_ and _junior, major_ and _minor_: as, The _elder's_ advice,--One of the _elders_,--His _betters_,--Our _superiors_,--The _interior_ of the country,--A handsome _exterior_,--Your _seniors_,--My _juniors_,--A _major_ in the army,--He is yet a _ of the nature of a coested; and, in that form, the reader, if he will, may call it a noun: as, ”What do ye more than _others_?”--_Bible_ ”God in thus much is bounded, that the evil hath he left unto _an other_; and _that Dark Other_ hath usurped the evil which Ohts_, p 45 Some call it a pronoun But it seems to be pronoh, unlike aof the noun, to mark that ellipsis
Perhaps therefore, the best explanation of it would be this: ”'_Others_ is a prono the form of a noun, and put for _other ender, and noender of this word varies, according to that of the contrasted ter to the relation it bears to other words In the following example, it is neuter and objective: ”The fibres of this muscle act as those of _others_”--_Cheyne_ Here, ”as _those of others_,” means, ”as _the fibres_ of _other muscles_”
OBS 16--”Comparatives and superlatives seem sometimes to part with their relative nature, and only to retain their _intensive_, especially those which are formed by the superlative adverb _most_; as, 'A _most learned_ man,'--'A _most brave_ man:' i e not the bravest or thebravery or learning in a very eree”--See _Alexander Murray's Graht by sorammatical
OBS 17--Contractions of the superlative terest_, though soant, and raerel verse, like that of _Hudibras_; the author of which work, wrote, in his droll fashi+on, not only the foregoing monosyllables, but _learned'st_ for _most learned, activ'st_ for _most active, desperat'st_ for _most desperate, epidemical'st_ for _most epidemical_, &c
”And _th' activ'st_ fancies share as loose alloys, For want of equal weight to counterpoise”--_Butler's Poems_
”Who therefore finds the _artificial'st_ fools Have not been chang'd _i th'_ cradle, but the schools”--_Ib_, p 143
OBS 18--Nouns used adjectively are not varied in nuree with the nouns to which they relate, but what is singular or plural when used substantively, is without number when taken as an adjective: as, ”One of the nine _sister_ Goddesses”--_Webster's Dict, w Muse_ ”He has s_ bank” The latter s-bank_ is sometimes compounded, but the hyphen does not really affect the nature of the former word It is doubtful, however, whether a plural noun can ever properly assume the character of an adjective; because, if it is not then really the same as the possessive case, it will always be liable to be thought a false form of that case What Johnson wrote ”_fullers earth_” and ”_fullers thistle_;” Chalmers has ”_fullers earth_” and ”_fuller's thistle_;” Webster, ”_fuller's-earth_” and ”_fuller's-thistle_;” Ainsworth, ”_fuller's earth_” and ”_fuller's thistle_;” Walker has only ”_fullers-earth_;” Worcester, ”_fuller's-earth_;” Cobb, ”_fullers earth_;” the Treasury of Knowledge, ”_fullers'-earth_” So unsettled is this part of our grammar, that in ht to use the apostrophe, or the hyphen, or both, or neither To insert neither, unless we make a close compound, is to use a plural noun adjectively; which form, I think, is the most objectionable of all See ”_All souls day_,”--”_All-fools-day_,”--”_All-saints'-day_,” &c, in the dictionaries
These may well be written ”_All Souls' Day_” &c
EXAMPLES FOR PARSING
PRAXIS IV--ETYMOLOGICAL
_In the Fourth Praxis, it is required of the pupil--to distinguish and define the different parts of speech, and the classes and modifications of the_ ARTICLES, NOUNS, _and_ ADJECTIVES