as, “My Father is greater than I.”—­John, xiv, 28.  That is, “My Father is greater than I am;”—­or, perhaps, “than I am great.”  But if it appear that some degree of the same quality must always be contrasted with the comparative, there is still room to question whether this degree must always be that which we call the positive.  Cicero, in exile, wrote to his wife:  “Ego autem hoc miserior sum, quam tu, quae es miserrima, quod ipsa calamitas communis est utriusque nostrum, sed culpa mea propria est.”—­Epist. ad Fam., xiv, 3.  “But in this I am more wretched, than thou, who art most wretched, that the calamity itself is common to us both, but the fault is all my own.”

OBS. 6.—­In my Institutes and First Lines of English Grammar, I used the following brief definitions:  “The comparative degree is that which exceeds the positive; as, harder, softer, better.”  “The superlative degree is that which is not exceeded; as, hardest, softest, best.”  And it is rather for the sake of suggesting to the learner the peculiar application of each of these degrees, than from any decided dissatisfaction with these expressions, that I now present others.  The first, however, proceeds upon the common supposition, that the comparative degree of a quality, ascribed to any object, must needs be contrasted with the positive in some other, or with the positive in the same at an other time.  This idea may be plausibly maintained, though it is certain that the positive term referred to, is seldom, if ever, allowed to appear.  Besides, the comparative or the superlative may appear, and in such a manner as to be, or seem to be, in the point of contrast.  Thus:  “Objects near our view are apt to be thought greater than those of a larger size, that are more remote.”—­Locke’s Essay, p. 186.  Upon the principle above, the explanation here must be, that the meaning is—­“greater than those of a larger size are thought great.” “The poor man that loveth Christ, is richer than the richest man in the world, that hates him.”—­Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, p. 86.  This must be “richer than the richest man is rich.”  The riches contemplated here, are of different sorts; and the comparative or the superlative of one sort, may be exceeded by either of these degrees of an other sort, though the same epithet be used for both.  So in the following instances:  “He that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.”—­Eccl., v, 8.  That is, “He that is higher than the highest earthly dignitaries, regardeth; and there are higher authorities than these.” “Fairer than aught imagined else fairest.”—­Pollok. “Sadder than saddest night.”—­Byron.  It is evident that the superlative degree is not, in general, that which cannot be exceeded,