The Grammar of English Grammars Part 115

15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th, on the Cla.s.ses of Adjectives.

NOTE IV.--When the comparative degree is employed with _than_, the latter term of comparison should _never include_ the former; nor the former the latter: as, "_Iron is more useful_ than _all the metals_"--"_All the metals are less useful_ than _iron_." In either case, it should be, "all the other metals,"

NOTE V.--When the superlative degree is employed, the latter term of comparison, which is introduced by _of_, should _never exclude_ the former; as, "A fondness for show, is, of all _other_ follies, the most vain." Here the word _other_ should be expunged; for this latter term must _include_ the former: that is, the fondness for show must be one of the follies of which it is the vainest.

NOTE VI.--When equality is denied, or inequality affirmed, neither term of the comparison should _ever include_ the other; because every thing must needs be equal to itself, and it is absurd to suggest that a part surpa.s.ses the whole: as, "_No writings whatever_ abound _so much_ with the bold and animated figures, _as the sacred books_."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 414. Say, "No _other_ writings whatever;" because the sacred books are "_writings_"

See _Etymology_, Chap, iv, Obs. 6th, on Regular Comparison.

NOTE VII.--Comparative terminations, and adverbs of degree, should not be applied to adjectives that are not susceptible of comparison; and all double comparatives and double superlatives should be avoided: as, "_So universal_ a complaint:" say rather, "_So general_."--"Some _less n.o.bler_ plunder:" say, "_less n.o.ble_"--"The _most straitest_ sect:" expunge _most_.

See _Etymology_, Chap, iv, from Obs. 5th to Obs. 13th, on Irregular Comparison.[374]

NOTE VIII.--When adjectives are connected by _and, or_, or _nor_, the shortest and simplest should in general be placed first; as, "He is _older_ and _more respectable_ than his brother." To say, "_more respectable_ and _older_" would be obviously inelegant, as possibly involving the inaccuracy of "_more older_."

NOTE IX.--When one adjective is superadded to an other without a conjunction expressed or understood, the most distinguis.h.i.+ng quality must be expressed next to the noun, and the latter must be such as the former may consistently qualify; as, "An _agreeable young_ man," not, "A _young agreeable_ man."--"The art of speaking, like _all other practical_ arts, may be facilitated by rules,"--_Enfield's Speaker_, p. 10. Example of error: "The Anglo-Saxon language possessed, for the _two first_ persons, a _Dual_ number."--_Fowler's E. Gram._, 1850, p. 59. Say, "the _first two_ persons;" for the _second_ of three can hardly be one of the _first_; and "_two first_" with the _second_ and _third_ added, will clearly make _more_ than three. See Obs. 12th, above.

NOTE X.--In prose, the use of adjectives for adverbs, is a vulgar error; the adverb alone being proper, when _manner_ or _degree_ is to be expressed, and not _quality_; as, "He writes _elegant_;" say, "_elegantly_."--"It is a _remarkable_ good likeness;" say, "_remarkably good_."

NOTE XI.--The p.r.o.noun _them_ should never be used as an adjective, in lieu of _those_: say, "I bought _those_ books;" not, "_them_ books." This also is a vulgar error, and chiefly confined to the conversation of the unlearned.[375]

NOTE XII.--When the p.r.o.nominal adjectives, _this_ and _that_, or _these_ and _those_, are contrasted; _this_ or _these_ should represent the latter of the antecedent terms, and _that_ or _those_ the former: as,

"And, reason raise o'er instinct as you can, In _this_ 'tis G.o.d directs, in _that_ 'tis man."--_Pope_.

"Farewell my friends! farewell my foes!

My peace with _these_, my love with _those_!"--_Burns_.

NOTE XIII.--The p.r.o.nominal adjectives _either_ and _neither_, in strict propriety of syntax, relate to two things only; when more are referred to, _any_ and _none_, or _any one_ and _no one_, should be used in stead of them: as, "_Any_ of the three," or, "_Any one_ of the three;" not, "_Either_ of the three."--"_None_ of the four," or, "_No one_ of the four;"

not, "_Neither_ of the four." [376]

NOTE XIV.--The adjective _whole_ must not be used in a plural sense, for _all_; nor _less_, in the sense of _fewer_; nor _more_ or _most_, in any ambiguous construction, where it may be either an adverb of degree, or an adjective of number or quant.i.ty: as, "Almost the _whole_ inhabitants were present."--HUME: see _Priestley's Gram._, p. 190.[377] Say, "Almost _all_ the inhabitants." "No _less_ than three dictionaries have been published to correct it."--_Dr. Webster_. Say, "No _fewer_." "This trade enriched some _people more_ than them."--_Murray's Gram._, Vol. i, p. 215. This pa.s.sage is not clear in its import: it may have either of two meanings. Say, "This trade enriched some _other_ people, _besides_ them." Or, "This trade enriched some _others_ more than _it did them_."

NOTE XV.--Participial adjectives retain the termination, but not the government of participles; when, therefore, they are followed by the objective case, a preposition must be inserted to govern it: as, "The man who is most _sparing of_ his words, is generally most _deserving of_ attention."

NOTE XVI.--When the figure of any adjective affects the syntax and sense of the sentence, care must be taken to give to the word or words that form, simple or compound, which suits the true meaning and construction.

Examples: "He is _forehead bald_, yet he is clean."--FRIENDS' BIBLE: _Lev._, xiii, 41. Say, "_forehead-bald._,"--ALGER'S BIBLE, and SCOTT'S.

"From such phrases as, '_New England scenery_,' convenience requires the _omission_ of the hyphen."--_Sanborn's Gram._, p. 89. This is a false notion. Without the hyphen, the phrase properly means, "_New scenery in England_;" but _New-England scenery_ is scenery in New England. "'_Many coloured wings_,' means _many wings which are coloured_; but '_many-coloured wings_' means _wings of many colours_."--_Blair's Gram._, p. 116.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE IX.

EXAMPLES UNDER NOTE I.--AGREEMENT OF ADJECTIVES.

"I am not recommending these kind of sufferings to your liking."--BP.

SHERLOCK: _Lowth's Gram._, p. 87.

[FORMULE.--Not proper, because the adjective _these_ is plural, and does not agree with its noun _kind_, which is singular. But, according to Note 1st under Rule 9th: "Adjectives that imply unity or plurality, must agree with their nouns in number." Therefore, _these_ should be _this_; thus, "I am not recommending _this_ kind of sufferings."]

"I have not been to London this five years."--_Webster's Philos. Gram._, p.

152. "These kind of verbs are more expressive than their radicals."--_Dr.

Murray's Hist. of Lang._, Vol. ii, p. 163. "Few of us would be less corrupted than kings are, were we, like them, beset with flatterers, and poisoned with that vermin."--_Art of Thinking_, p. 66. "But it seems this literati had been very ill rewarded for their ingenious labours."--_Roderick Random_, Vol. ii, p. 87. "If I had not left off troubling myself about those kind of things."--_Swift_. "For these sort of things are usually join'd to the most noted fortune."--_Bacon's Essays_, p.

101. "The nature of that riches and long-suffering is, to lead to repentance."--_Barclay's Works_, iii, 380. "I fancy they are these kind of G.o.ds, which Horace mentions."--_Addison, on Medals_, p. 74. "During that eight days they are prohibited from touching the skin."--_Hope of Israel_, p. 78. "Besides, he had not much provisions left for his army."--_Goldsmith's Greece_, i, 86. "Are you not ashamed to have no other thoughts than that of ama.s.sing wealth, and of acquiring glory, credit, and dignities?"--_Ib._, p. 192. "It distinguisheth still more remarkably the feelings of the former from that of the latter."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, Vol. i, p. xvii. "And this good tidings of the reign shall be published through all the world."--_Campbell's Gospels, Matt._, xxiv, 14. "This twenty years have I been with thee."--_Gen._, x.x.xi, 38. "In these kind of expressions some words seem to be understood."--_Walker's Particles_, p.

179. "He thought these kind of excesses indicative of greatness."--_Hunt's Byron_, p. 117. "These sort of fellows are very numerous."--_Spect._, No.

486. "Whereas these sort of men cannot give account of their faith."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 444. "But the question is, whether that be the words."--_Ib._, iii, 321. "So that these sort of Expressions are not properly Optative."--_Johnson's Gram. Com._, p. 276. "Many things are not that which they appear to be."--_Sanborn's Gram._, p. 176. "So that every possible means are used."--_Formey's Belles-Lettres_, p. iv.

"We have strict statutes, and most biting laws, Which for this nineteen years we have let sleep."--_Shak_.

"They could not speak; and so I left them both, To bear this tidings to the b.l.o.o.d.y king."--_Id., Richard III_.

UNDER NOTE II.--OF FIXED NUMBERS.

"Why, I think she cannot be above six foot two inches high."--_Spect._, No.

533. "The world is pretty regular for about forty rod east and ten west."--_Ib._, No. 535. "The standard being more than two foot above it."--BACON: _Joh. Dict., w. Standard_. "Supposing (among other Things) he saw two Suns, and two Thebes."--_Bacon's Wisdom_, p. 25. "On the right hand we go into a parlour thirty three foot by thirty nine."--_Sheffield's Works_, ii, 258. "Three pound of gold went to one s.h.i.+eld."--_1 Kings_, x, 17. "Such an a.s.semblage of men as there appears to have been at that sessions."--_The Friend_, x, 389. "And, truly, he hath saved me this pains."--_Barclay's Works_, ii, 266. "Within this three mile may you see it coming."--SHAK.: _Joh. Dict., w. Mile_. "Most of the churches, not all, had one or more ruling elder."--_Hutchinson's Hist. of Ma.s.s._, i, 375. "While a Minute Philosopher, not six foot high, attempts to dethrone the Monarch of the universe."--_Berkley's Alciphron_, p. 151. "The wall is ten foot high."--_Harrison's Gram._, p. 50. "The stalls must be ten foot broad."--_Walker's Particles_, p. 201. "A close prisoner in a room twenty foot square, being at the north side of his chamber, is at liberty to walk twenty foot southward, not to walk twenty foot northward."--LOCKE: _Joh.

Dict., w. Northward_. "Nor, after all this pains and industry, did they think themselves qualified."--_Columbian Orator_, p. 13. "No less than thirteen _gypsies_ were condemned at one Suffolk a.s.sizes, and executed."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 333. "The king was pet.i.tioned to appoint one, or more, person, or persons."--MACAULAY: _Priestley's Gram._, p. 194.

"He carries weight! he rides a race! 'Tis for a thousand pound!"--_Cowper's Poems_, i, 279. "They carry three tire of guns at the head, and at the stern there are two tire of guns."--_Joh. Dict., w. Gallea.s.s_. "The verses consist of two sort of rhymes."--_Formey's Belles-Lettres_, p. 112. "A present of 40 camel's load of the most precious things of Syria."--_Wood's Dict._, Vol. i, p. 162. "A large grammar, that shall extend to every minutiae."--_S. Barrett's Gram._, Tenth Ed., Pref., p. iii.

"So many spots, like naeves on Venus' soil, One jewel set off with so many foil."--_Dryden_.

"For, of the lower end, two handful It had devour'd, it was so manful."--_Hudibras_, i, 365.

UNDER NOTE III.--OF RECIPROCALS.

"That _shall_ and _will_ might be subst.i.tuted for one another."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 131. "We use not _shall_ and _will_ promiscuously for one another."--_Brightland's Gram._, p. 110. "But I wish to distinguish the three high ones from each other also."--_Fowle's True Eng. Gram._, p. 13. "Or on some other relation, which two objects bear to one another."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 142. "Yet the two words lie so near to one another in meaning, that in the present case, any one of them, perhaps, would have been sufficient."--_Ib._, p. 203. "Both orators use great liberties with one another."--_Ib._, p. 244. "That greater separation of the two s.e.xes from one another."--_Ib._, p. 466. "Most of whom live remote from each other."--_Webster's Essays_, p. 39. "Teachers like to see their pupils polite to each other."--_Webster's El. Spelling-Book_, p. 28. "In a little time, he and I must keep company with one another only."--_Spect._, No. 474. "Thoughts and circ.u.mstances crowd upon each other."--_Kames, El.

of Crit._, i, 32. "They cannot see how the ancient Greeks could understand each other."--_Literary Convention_, p. 96. "The spirit of the poet, the patriot, and the prophet, vied with each other in his breast."--_Hazlitt's Lect._, p. 112. "Athamas and Ino loved one another."--_Cla.s.sic Tales_, p.

91. "Where two things are compared or contrasted to one another."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 119. "Where two things are compared, or contrasted, with one another."--_Murray's Gram._, Vol. i, p. 324. "In the cla.s.sification of words, almost all writers differ from each other."--_Bullions, E. Gram._, p. iv.

"I will not trouble thee, my child. Farewell; We'll no more meet; no more see one another."--_Shak. Lear_.

UNDER NOTE IV.--OF COMPARATIVES.

"Errours in Education should be less indulged than any."--_Locke, on Ed._, p. iv. "This was less his case than any man's that ever wrote."--_Pref. to Waller_. "This trade enriched some people more than it enriched them." [378]--_Murray's Gram._, Vol. i, p. 215. "The Chaldee alphabet, in which the Old Testament has reached us, is more beautiful than any ancient character known."--_Wilson's Essay_, p. 5. "The Christian religion gives a more lovely character of G.o.d, than any religion ever did."--_Murray's Key_, p. 169. "The temple of Cholula was deemed more holy than any in New Spain."--_Robertson's America_, ii, 477. "Cibber grants it to be a better poem of its kind than ever was writ."--_Pope_. "Shakspeare is more faithful to the true language of nature, than any writer."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 468.

"One son I had--one, more than all my sons, the strength of Troy."--_Cowper's Homer_. "Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age."--_Gen._, x.x.xvii, 3.

UNDER NOTE V.--OF SUPERLATIVES.

"Of all other simpletons, he was the greatest."--_Nutting's English Idioms_. "Of all other beings, man has certainly the greatest reason for grat.i.tude."--_Ibid., Gram._, p. 110. "This lady is the prettiest of all her sisters."--_Peyton's Elements of Eng. Lang._, p. 39. "The relation which, of all others, is by far the most fruitful of tropes, I have not yet mentioned."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 141. "He studied Greek the most of any n.o.bleman."--_Walker's Particles_, p. 231. "And indeed that was the qualification of all others most wanted at that time."--_Goldsmith's Greece_, ii, 35. "Yet we deny that the knowledge of him, as outwardly crucified, is the best of all other knowledge of him."--_Barclay's Works_, i, 144. "Our ideas of numbers are of all others the most accurate and distinct."--_Duncan's Logic_, p. 35. "This indeed is of all others the case when it can be least necessary to name the agent."--_J. Q. Adams's Rhet._, i, 231. "The period, to which you have arrived, is perhaps the most critical and important of any moment of your lives."--_Ib._, i, 394.

"Perry's royal octavo is esteemed the best of any p.r.o.nouncing Dictionary yet known."--_Red Book_, p. x. "This is the tenth persecution, and of all the foregoing, the most b.l.o.o.d.y."--_Sammes's Antiquities_, Chap. xiii. "The English tongue is the most susceptible of sublime imagery, of any language in the world."--See _Bucke's Gram._, p. 141. "Homer is universally allowed to have had the greatest Invention of any writer whatever."--_Pope's Preface to Homer_. "In a version of this particular work, which most of any other seems to require a venerable antique cast."--_Ib._ "Because I think him the best informed of any naturalist who has ever written."-- _Jefferson's Notes_, p. 82. "Man is capable of being the most social of any animal."--_Sheridan's Elocution_, p. 145. "It is of all others that which most moves us."--_Ib._, p. 158. "Which of all others, is the most necessary article."--_Ib._, p. 166.

"Quoth he 'this gambol thou advisest, Is, of all others, the unwisest.'"--_Hudibras_, iii, 316.

UNDER NOTE VI.--INCLUSIVE TERMS. "Noah and his family outlived all the people who lived before the flood."--_Webster's El. Spelling-Book_, p. 101.

"I think it superior to any work of that nature we have yet had."--_Dr.

Blair's Rec. in Murray's Gram._, Vol. ii, p. 300. "We have had no grammarian who has employed so much labour and judgment upon our native language, as the author of these volumes."--_British Critic, ib._, ii, 299.