5. Former and foremost. Former is a corruption of the old word forma, the Superlative of fore, which meant 'first.' Here a Superlative Adjective has been mistaken for a Comparative, and a Superlative ending tacked on to it. Foremost, therefore, is a Double Superlative. 6. Further and furthest have been stated to be the Comparative and Superlative of forth (Adv.). Here the th is quite natural, unlike the th of farther and farthest (from far). Farther refers to the more distant of two (stationary) objects. Further to the more advanced of two objects in motion.

7. Later and latter, latest and last. Late has two Comparatives and two Superlatives. Later and latest refer to time; latter and last refer, though not exclusively, to position in a series.

8. Little, less, least. Little (lytel) is a diminutive of lyt. Less and least are from a root las, meaning 'infirm.' 9. Much, more, most. Much is the modern form of the A.S. micel great, softened into michel or muchel. More and most (A.S. mara, mæst) are from an old Aryan root mah. Much once meant large, great, but the sense of magnus was gradually superseded by that of multus. In Early English (and Shakespeare) moe is found for more when referring to number. Moe is derived from ma, which was the Comparative form of the Adverb, as mara was of the Adjective.

10.

In near, nearer, nearest, we start by taking the Com. parative of another word for the Positive. The modern Positive near is really the Comparative of the A.S. neah -nigh. The three degrees should properly be nigh, near, next. It follows, then, that nearer is a Double Comparative. The Comparative near is found more than once in Shakespeare, as in

The near in blood, the nearer bloody.'-Macbeth. Next is a contraction of nighest. In Chaucer we find hext for highest.

11. Old, older and elder, oldest and eldest. Elder and eldest exhibit vowel change as well as inflection. This is the only remaining instance of an Adjective in which

Comparison is accompanied by a change of the rootvowel. Older is an ordinary Adjective of the Comparative degree. Elder denotes not so much greater age as the relation of precedence, which is a usual consequence of being older.

12. Rather is now an Adverb. It was once an Adjective. Milton speaks of the rathe primrose.' Tennyson reproduces it in 'The men of rathe and riper years.' 13. After only occurs as an Adjective in a few expressions like after-growth, after-math. The word should be divided after, not after. After is from of, with the addition of a Comparative suffix.

Not all Adjectives admit of comparison.

Certain Adjectives from their nature cannot be compared, eg. a lunar rainbow, the morning star, a monthly holiday.

It would be clearly impossible for a lunar rainbow to be any more lunar, or for one monthly holiday to be more monthly than another. Again, a man is either English or else he is not English, and it is impossible for a figure to be more or less triangular. So that all these Adjectives, as long as they are used in their strict literal sense, are incapable of comparison.

Adjectives that do not admit of comparison may be classified as follows:

1. All Demonstratives.

2. All Numerals.

3. Some Quantitatives, as enough, whole.

4. Adjectives denoting material, as silken, flaxen, etc.

5. Nouns used as Adjectives, as the church door.

6. Adjectives denoting situation, as the submarine telegraph. 7. Adjectives derived from Proper Nouns, as 'the Papal edict,' 'the English race.'

8. Adjectives denoting definite shape, as circular, rectangular. 9. Many Participial Adjectives, as the condemned criminal,' 'the sleeping child.'

10. Adjectives denoting equality, identity, or extremity of Degree, as equal diligence,' 'same man,' everlasting, extinct top, bottom.

Nouns used as Adjectives.-Sometimes a noun is con verted into an Adjective by mere juxtaposition with another Noun, and without any inflection or affix, as

A gold watch.
A silver spoon.
An iron ship.

A copper kettle.

A hospital surgeon.
A church mouse.

Participles used as Adjectives may be termed Participial Adjectives, e.g.

A loving child, a singing bird, a reading man.

In many cases they may be compared, e.g. 'A most loving companion.'

Comparatives without 'than '—

Certain Adjectives, though they have the Comparative form, do not admit of being followed by than.

These are

(a) Certain Latin Adjectives which have been adopted in their Comparative form, such as junior, senior (which are followed by to), major, minor, interior, exterior. (b) The English Adjectives inner, outer, hinder, latter, etc. An imperfect degree of a quality is expressed by using either the termination ish (in A.S. -isc), or the auxiliary Adverb rather, e.g.

'whitish'
and
'rather white'

both mean 'inclined to whiteness.'
This is sometimes called the
Sub-Positive Degree.

A degree of a quality more than ordinary, expressed without relation to another thing or the rest of a class, may be called the Comparative Absolute; and in like manner, a degree of a quality the utmost conceivable may be called the Superlative Absolute. (Compare Latin usage, where melior may mean 'too good,' and optimus may mean 'very good' or 'excellent.' These are sometimes expressed by the help of Adverbs, as— Somewhat long; too long; very long; a most beautiful woman; Most mighty Cæsar!

It is perhaps worthy of remark that the Superlative may sometimes be expressed by a mode borrowed from the Hebrew, as 'King of kings,' 'Lord of lords,' 'Book of books.' Here a comparison is expressed without the use of an Adjective. This construction was not unknown even in the earliest English, e.g.

'God is ealra cyninga cyning, and ealra hlaforda hlaford.' 'God is King of all kings, and Lord of all lords.'

What Adjectives admit of Inflection for the
Comparative?

Rules intended to restrict the use of -er and -est are given in many English grammars, but are not generally obeyed. Some of the more concise of these rules allow the use of suffixes with (1) monosyllables, (2) dissyllables ending with -le or -y, preceded by a consonant. It is generally assumed that the use of the inflection is inadmissible after the endings -ain, -al, -ate, -ed, -ent, -ing, -id, -ous, and that words with these endings should be compared with more and most. But the so-called rule is frequently set aside.

Our older writers never scrupled to affix er and est to words of any length: hence virtuousest (Milton), honourablest (Bacon), etc. Carlyle follows the same practice.

Other Observations on the Adjectives.

Vowel-change (Umlaut) is to be found in the comparison of the Anglo-Saxon Adjectives, e.g.—

eald (old)

geong (young)

lang (long)

yldra

gyngra

lengra

yldesta

gyngesta

lengsta

When coupled with a Noun, an Adjective of the Comparative degree belonged to the weak declension.

tive of heard (hard) was—

Thus the Compara

heard-ere

But the Superlative might take either the strong or the weak declension.

A trace of the weak declension remains in the Adjective olden.

We have no instance of the case-ending of an Adjective later than Shakespeare, who employs the Gen. plur. in alder-liefest= dearest of all.

For highest, Chaucer writes hext. The gh in nighest was sounded. Hence nig-st, nixt, next.

In Chaucer, the Comparative generally ends in -re, as ner-re, her-re, fer-re, etc.

Preposition.

As the Preposition belongs both to the Noun and Verb group, we defer its consideration to a later period.

IV.

VERBS.

QUESTIONS ON THE VERB.

[IN PROMISCUOUS ORDER.]

1. What is the use of the Verb, and why is it the most important word in the sentence?

2. Explain the distinction between Finite Verb and Verb Infinite.

3. What parts of the Verb express, respectively-(1) Action alone; (2) Action and Time; (3) Action, Time, and an

Assertion?

4. To what other part of speech is the Infinitive of any Verb equivalent, and why?

5. Distinguish between Strong and Weak Verts. Is it correct

to speak of Verbs as 'Regular and Irregular'?

6. Give the Past Tense and Past Participle of drink, spin, break, see, shake, ride, shoot, throw, fall, beat.