style
is _less compact_ than that of the ancients."--_Ib._, p. 88. "They are
counted to him _less_ than nothing and vanity."--_Isaiah_, xl, 17. As the
comparatives in a long _series_ are necessarily many, and some of them
_higher_ than others, it may be asked, "How can the comparative degree, in
this case, be merely 'that which exceeds the positive?'" Or, as our common
grammarians prompt me here to say, "May not the comparative degree increase
or lessen _the comparative_, in signification?" The latter form of the
question they may answer for themselves; remembering that the comparative
_may advance from the comparative_, step by step, from the second article
in the series to the utmost. Thus, three is a higher or greater number than
two; but four is higher than three; five, than four; and so on, _ad
infinitum_. My own form of the question I answer thus: "The _highest_ of
the _higher_ is not _higher_ than the rest are _higher_, but simply
_higher_ than they are _high_."

OBS. 10.--The true nature of the Superlative degree is this: it denotes, in
a quality, _some extreme_ or _unsurpassed extent_. It may be used either
absolutely, as being without bounds; or relatively, as being confined
within any limits we choose to give it. It is equally applicable to that
which is naturally unsurpassable, and to that which stands within the
narrowest limits of comparison. The _heaviest_ of _three feathers_ would
scarcely be thought a _heavy_ thing, and yet the expression is proper;
because the weight, whatever it is, is relatively _the greatest_. The
_youngest_ of three persons, may not be _very young_; nor need we suppose
the _oldest_ in a whole college to have arrived at _the greatest
conceivable age_. What then shall be thought of the explanations which our
grammarians have given of this degree of comparison? That of Murray I have
already criticised. It is ascribed to him, not upon the supposition that he
invented it; but because common sense continues to give place to the
authority of his name in support of it. Comly, Russell, Alger, Ingersoll,
Greenleaf, Fisk, Merchant, Kirkham, T. Smith, R. C. Smith, Hall, Hiley, and
many others, have copied it into their grammars, as being better than any
definition they could devise. Murray himself unquestionably took it from
some obscure pedagogue among the old grammarians. Buchanan, who long
preceded him, has nearly the same words: "The Superlative increases or
diminishes the Positive in Signi