lent quality cannot be _perfect_, surely
nothing can. The words which Dr. Bullions thinks it "improper to compare,"
because he judges them to have "an absolute or superlative signification,"
are "_true, perfect, universal, chief, extreme, supreme_, &c."--no body
knows how many. See _Principles of E. Gram._, p. 19 and p. 115.

[184] The regular comparison of this word, (_like, liker, likest_,) seems
to be obsolete, or nearly so. It is seldom met with, except in old books:
yet we say, _more like_, or _most like, less like_, or _least like_. "To
say the flock with whom he is, is _likest_ to Christ."--_Barclay's Works_,
Vol. i, p. 180. "Of Godlike pow'r? for _likest_ Gods they
seem'd."--_Milton, P. L._ B. vi, l. 301.

[185] This example, and several others that follow it, are no ordinary
solecisms; they are downright Irish bulls, making actions or relations
reciprocal, where reciprocity is _utterly_ unimaginable. Two words can no
more be "_derived from each other_," than two living creatures can have
received their existence from each other. So, two things can never
"_succeed each other_," except they alternate or move in a circle; and a
greater number in train can "_follow one an other_" only in some imperfect
sense, not at all reciprocal. In some instances, therefore, the best form
of correction will be, to reject the reciprocal terms altogether--G. BROWN.

[186] This doctrine of punctuation, if not absolutely false in itself, is
here very badly taught. When _only two words_, of any sort, occur in the
same construction, they seldom require the comma; and never can they need
_more than one_, whereas these grammarians, by their plural word
"_commas_," suggest a constant demand for two or more.--G. BROWN.

[187] Some grammarians exclude the word _it_ from the list of personal
pronouns, because it does not convey the idea of that personality which
consists in _individual intelligence_. On the other hand, they will have
_who_ to be a personal pronoun, because it is literally applied to _persons
only_, or intelligent beings. But I judge them to be wrong in respect to
both; and, had they given _definitions_ of their several classes of
pronouns, they might perhaps have found out that the word _it_ is always
personal, in a grammatical sense, and _who_, either relative or
interrogative.

[188] "_Whoso_ and _whatso_ are found in old authors, but are now out of
use."--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 76. These antiquated words are equivale