Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/551



NOTE II.--When the adjective is necessarily plural, or necessarily singular, the noun should be made so too: as, "Twenty pounds" not, "Twenty pound;"--"Four feet long," not, "Four foot long;"--"One session" not, "One sessions."

NOTE III.--The reciprocal expression, one an other, should not be applied to two objects, nor each other, or one the other, to more than two; as, "Verse and prose, on some occasions, run into one another, like light and shade."--Blair's Rhet., p. 377; Jamieson's, 298. Say, "into each other" "For mankind have always been butchering each other"--Webster's Essays, p. 151. Say, "one an other" See Etymology, Chap, iv, Obs. 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th, on the Classes 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 surpasses 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 nobler plunder:" say, "less noble"--"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 distinguishing 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 pronoun 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]