different nines. (See
_Etymology_, Chap, iv, Obs. 7th, on the Degrees of Comparison.) When one of
the adjectives merely qualifies the other, they should be joined together
by a hyphen; as, "A _red-hot_ iron."--"A _dead-ripe_ melon." And when both
or all refer equally and solely to the noun, they ought either to be
connected by a conjunction, or to be separated by a comma. The following
example is therefore faulty: "It is the business of an epic poet, to form a
_probable interesting_ tale."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 427. Say, "probable
_and_ interesting;" or else insert a comma in lieu of the conjunction.

"Around him wide a sable army stand,
A _low-born, cell-bred, selfish, servile band_."
--_Dunciad_, B. ii, l. 355.

OBS. 13.--Dr. Priestley has observed: "There is a remarkable ambiguity in
the use of the negative adjective _no_; and I do not see," says he, "how it
can be remedied in any language. If I say, '_No laws are better than the
English_,' it is only my known sentiments that can inform a person whether
I mean to praise, or dispraise _them_."--_Priestley's Gram._, p. 136. It
may not be possible to remove the ambiguity from the phraseology here
cited, but it is easy enough to avoid the form, and say in stead of it,
"_The English laws are worse than none_," or, "_The English laws are as
good as any_;" and, in neither of these expressions, is there any
ambiguity, though the other may doubtless be taken in either of these
senses. Such an ambiguity is sometimes used on purpose: as when one man
says of an other, "He is no small knave;" or, "He is no small fool."

"There liv'd in primo Georgii (they record)
A worthy member, _no small fool, a lord_."--_Pope_, p. 409.

NOTES TO RULE IX.

NOTE I.--Adjectives that imply unity or plurality, must agree with their
nouns in number: as, "_That sort, those sorts_;"--"_This hand, these
hands_." [373]

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 hav