Part 49 (2/2)
”Words are obviously voluntary signs: and they are also arbitrary; excepting a few simple sounds expressive of certain internal ees, must be the work of nature: thus the unpremeditated tones of admiration are the same in all men”--_Kames, Elements of Crit_, i, 347
”A stately and ht not to be gaudy, nor croith little ornahly adorned, and yet shows best in a plain dress”--_Ib_, p 279 ”Of all external objects a graceful person is the raceful, who is deficient in amiable qualities”--_Ib_, p 299
”The faults of a writer of acknowledged excellence are erous, because the influence of his exa requires that they should be discovered and stigmatized, before they have the sanction of antiquity bestowed upon them, and become precedents of indisputable authority”--_Dr Johnson, Raht to be more learned than witty, more reverend than plausible, and rity is their portion and proper virtue”--_Bacon's Essays_, p 145
”The wisest nations, having the most and best ideas, will consequently have the best and es”--_Harris's Hermes_, p 408
”Here we trace the operation of powerful causes, while we reoes on with such regularity and har proof of a coence”--_Life of W Allen_, Vol i, p 170
”The wisest, unexperienced, will be ever Timorous and loth, with novice modesty, Irresolute, unhardy, unadventurous”--_Milton_
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION
ERRORS OF ADJECTIVES
LESSON I--DEGREES
”I have the real excuse of the honestest sort of bankrupts”--_Cowley's Preface_, p viii
[FORMULE--Not proper, because the adjective _honestest_ is harshly coe 283d concerning the regular degrees, ”This method of comparison is to be applied only to monosyllables, and to dissyllables of a smooth termination, or such as receive it and still have but one syllable after the accent” Therefore, _honestest_ should be _most honest_; thus, ”I have real excuse of the _most honest_ sort of bankrupts”]
”The honourablest part of talk, is, to give the occasion”--_Bacon's Essays_, p 90 ”To give him one of his own uage is now certainly properer and more natural, than it was formerly”--_Bp Burnet_ ”Which will be of most and frequentest use to him in the world”--_Locke, on Education_, p 163
”The same is notified in the notablest places in the diocese”--_Whitgift_
”But it was the dreadfullest sight that ever I saw”--_Pilgriress_, p 70 ”Four of the ancientest, soberest, and discreetest of the brethren, chosen for the occasion, shall regulate it”--_Locke, on Church Gov_ ”Nor can there be any clear understanding of any Roman author, especially of ancienter time, without this skill”--_Walker's Particles_, p x ”Far the learnedest of the Greeks”--_Ib_, p 120 ”The learneder thou art, the humbler be thou”--_Ib_, p 228 ”He is none of the best or honestest”-- _Ib_, p 274 ”The properestit to others”-- _Burn's Gra hath powerfullest to send against us”--_Paradise Lost_ ”Benedict is not the unhopefullest husband that I know”--SHAK: _in Joh Dict_ ”That he should is himself”--RAY: _in Johnson's Gra the faonistes: ib_ ”Those have the inventivest heads for all purposes”--ASCHAM: _ib_ ”The wretcheder are the contemners of all helps”--BEN JONSON: _ib_ ”I will now deliver a few of the properest and naturallest considerations that belong to this piece”--WOTTON: _ib_ ”The mortalest poisons practised by the West Indians, have some mixture of the blood, fat, or flesh of man”--BACON: _ib_ ”He so won upon him, that he rendered him one of the faithfulest and most affectionate allies the Medes ever had”--_Rollin_, ii, 71 ”'You see before you,' says he to him, 'the most devoted servant, and the faithfullest ally, you ever had'”--_Ib_, ii, 79 ”I chose the flourishi+ng'st tree in all the park”--_Cowley_
”Which he placed, I think, soht fit to place it afterwards”--_Bolingbroke, on History_, p 53
”The Tiber, the notedest river of Italy”--_Littleton's Dict_
”To fartherest shores the ambrosial spirit flies”
--_Cutler's Gram_, p 140
----”That what she wills to do or say, Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best”
--_Milton_, B viii, l 550
LESSON II--MIXED