MODIFICATIONS.

Adjectives have, commonly, no modifications but the forms of comparison.  Comparison is a variation of the adjective, to express quality in different degrees:  as, hard, harder, hardest; soft, softer, softest.

There are three degrees of comparison; the positive, the comparative, and the superlative.

The positive degree is that which is expressed by the adjective in its simple form:  as, “An elephant is large; a mouse, small; a lion, fierce, active, bold, and strong.”

The comparative degree is that which is more or less than something contrasted with it:  as, “A whale is larger than an elephant; a mouse is a much smaller animal than a rat.”

The superlative degree is that which is most or least of all included with it:  as, “The whale is the largest of the animals that inhabit this globe; the mouse is the smallest of all beasts.”—­Dr. Johnson.

Those adjectives whose signification does not admit of different degrees, cannot be compared; as, two, second, all, every, immortal, infinite.

Those adjectives which may be varied in sense, but not in form, are compared by means of adverbs; as, fruitful, more fruitful, most fruitful—­fruitful, less fruitful, least fruitful.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—­“Some scruple to call the positive a degree of comparison; on the ground, that it does not imply either comparison, or degree.  But no quality can exist, without existing in some degree:  and, though the positive is very frequently used without reference to any other degree; as it is the standard, with which other degrees of the quality are compared, it is certainly an essential object of the comparison.  While these critics allow only two degrees, we might in fact with more propriety say, that there are five:  1, the quality in its standard state, or positive degree; as wise:  2, in a higher state, or the comparative ascending; more wise:  3, in a lower, or the comparative descending; less wise:  4, in the highest state, or superlative ascending; most wise:  5, in the lowest state, or superlative descending; least wise. All grammarians, however, agree about the things themselves, and the forms used to express them; though they differ about the names, by which these forms should be called:  and as those names are practically best, which tend least to perplex the learner, I see no good reason here for deviating from what has been established by long custom.”—­Churchill’s Gram., p. 231.