rather than impossible:  “Ever so little of the spirit of martyrdom is always a more favourable indication to civilization, than ever so much dexterity of party management, or ever so turbulent protestation of immaculate patriotism.”—­Wayland’s Moral Science, p. 411.  “Now let man reflect but never so little on himself.”—­Burlamaqui, on Law, p. 29.  “Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.”—­Ps., lviii, 5.  The phrase ever so, (which ought, I think, to be written as one word,) is now a very common expression to signify in whatsoever degree; as, “everso little,”—­“everso much,”—­“everso wise,”—­“everso wisely.”  And it is manifestly this, and not time, that is intended by the false phraseology above;—­“a form of speech handed down by the best writers, but lately accused, I think with justice, of solecism. * * * It can only be defended by supplying a very harsh and unprecedented ellipsis.”—­Johnson’s Dict., w.  Never.

OBS. 23.—­Dr. Lowth seconds this opinion of Johnson, respecting the phrase, “never so wisely,” and says, “It should be, ‘ever so wisely;’ that is, ‘how wisely soever.’” To which he adds an other example somewhat different:  “’Besides, a slave would not have been admitted into that society, had he had never such opportunities.’  Bentley.”—­Lowth’s Gram., p. 109.  This should be, “had he had everso excellent opportunities.”  But Churchill, mistaking the common explanation of the meaning of everso for the manner of parsing or resolving it, questions the propriety of the term, and thinks it easier to defend the old phrase never so; in which he supposes never to be an adverb of time, and not to relate to so, which is an adverb of degree; saying, “’Be it never so true,’ is resolvable into, ’Be it so true, as never any thing was.’[431] ‘I have had never so much trouble on this occasion,’ may be resolved into, ‘I have never had so much trouble, as on this occasion:’  while, ’I have had ever so much trouble on this occasion, cannot be resolved, without supplying some very harsh and unprecedented ellipsis indeed.”—­New Gram., p. 337, Why not?  I see no occasion at all for supposing any ellipsis. Ever is here an adverb of degree, and relates to so; or, if we take everso as one word, this too is an adverb of degree, and relates to much:  because the meaning is—­“everso much trouble.”  But the other phraseology, even as it stands in Churchill’s explanations, is a solecism still; nor can any resolution which supposes never to be here an adverb of time, be otherwise.  We cannot call that a grammatical resolution, which makes a different sense from that which the writer intended:  as, “A slave would not have been admitted into that society, had he never had such opportunities.”  This would be Churchill’s interpretation, but it is very unlike what Bentley says above.  So, ‘I have never had so much trouble,’ and, ‘I have had everso much trouble,’ are very different assertions.