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 more perfect in the knowledge 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 Gram., p. 168. But if these are wrong, so is the following 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 compared by good writers; though we sometimes see such phrases as more right and more wrong, and such words as rightest and wrongest: "'Tis always in the wrongest sense."--Butler. "A method of attaining the rightest and greatest happiness."--PRICE: Priestley's Gram., p. 78. "It is no more right to steal apples, than it is to steal money."--Webster's New Spelling-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 Criticism is more correct than any thing 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 more correct in the following form."--Murray's Gram., i, p. 223. "Elegance is chiefly gained 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 more vast is certainly as good English 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, more learn'd, more just, more-everything."--Pope. Universal is often compared by the adverbs, but certainly with no reënforcement of meaning: as, "One of the most universal precepts, is, that the orator himself should feel the passion."--Adams's Rhet., i, 379. "Though 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 comparison: they are not "superlatives" at all. A man might just as well teach, that good is a superlative, and not susceptible of comparison, because "there is none good 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. Examples: "Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty 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 man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening 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, may be parsed as representing them in person, number, gender, 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 may be said, "Many is a pronominal adjective, meaning many persons; of the third person, plural number, masculine gender, and objective case." Or those who will take the word simply as an adjective, may say, "Many is a pronominal adjective, of the positive degree, compared many, more, most, and relating to persons understood." And so of "one," which represents, or relates to, person understood. Either say, "One is a pronominal adjective, not compared," and give the three definitions accordingly; or else say, "One is a pronominal adjective, relating to person understood; of the third person, singular number, masculine gender, and objective case," and give 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 some have represented old as having a two-fold comparison; and have placed it, not very properly, among 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 minor. The word other, which has something of the nature of a comparative, likewise takes the form of a noun, as before suggested; 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 Omnipotence laid down."--Tupper's Book of Thoughts, p. 45.
