not imply precisely the same thing
as _more prudent_; or _more brave_, the same as _less cowardly_."--_New
Gram._, p. 231.

OBS. 3.--The definitions which I have given of the three degrees of
comparison, are new. In short, I know not whether any other grammarian has
ever given what may justly be called a _definition_, of any one of them.
Here, as in most other parts of grammar, loose _remarks_, ill-written and
untrue assertions, have sufficed. The explanations found in many English
grammars are the following: "The positive state expresses the quality of an
object, without any increase or diminution; as, good, wise, great. The
comparative degree increases or lessens the positive in signification; as,
wiser, greater, less wise. The superlative degree increases or lessens the
positive to the highest or [the] lowest degree; as, wisest, greatest, least
wise. The simple word, or positive, becomes [the] comparative by adding _r_
or _er_; and the superlative by adding _st_ or _est_, to the end of it.
And the adverbs _more_ and _most_, placed before the adjective, have the
same effect; as, wise, _more_ wise, _most_ wise."--_Murray's Grammar_, 2d
Ed., 1796, p. 47. If a man wished to select some striking example of bad
writing--of thoughts ill conceived, and not well expressed--he could not do
better than take the foregoing: provided his auditors knew enough of
grammar to answer the four simple questions here involved; namely, What is
the positive degree? What is the comparative degree? What is the
superlative degree? How are adjectives regularly compared? To these
questions I shall furnish _direct answers_, which the reader may compare
with such as he can derive from the foregoing citation: the last two
sentences of which Murray ought to have credited to Dr. Lowth; for he
copied them literally, except that he says, "the adverbs _more_ AND
_most_," for the Doctor's phrase, "the adverbs _more_ OR _most_." See the
whole also in _Kirkham's Grammar_, p. 72; in _Ingersoll's_, p. 35; in
_Alger's_, p. 21; in _Bacon's_, p. 18; in _Russell's_, p. 14; in
_Hamlin's_, p. 22; in _J. M. Putnam's_, p. 33; in _S. Putnam's_, p. 20; in
_R. C. Smith's_, p. 51; in _Rev. T. Smith's_, p. 20.

OBS. 4.--In the five short sentences quoted above, there are more errors,
than can possibly be enumerated in ten times the space. For example: (1.)
If one should say of a piece of iron, "It grows cold or hot very rapidly,"
_cold_ and _hot_ could not be in the "_po