“raising the amount of the quality above that of all other qualities?” Or, if it be supposed to mean, “above the amount of all other degrees,” what is this amount?  Is it that of one and one, the positive and the comparative added numerically? or is it the sum of all the quantities which these may indicate?  Perhaps the author meant, “above the amount of all other amounts.”  If none of these absurdities is here taught, nothing is taught, and the words are nonsense.  Again:  “The superlative degree increases or diminishes the positive to the highest or [the] lowest degree of which it is susceptible.”—­Bucke’s Classical Gram., p. 49.  “The superlative degree is generally formed by adding st or est to the positive; and denotes the greatest excess.”—­Nutting’s Gram., p. 33.  “The Superlative increases or diminishes the Signification of the Positive or Adjective, to a very high or a very low Degree.”—­British Gram., p. 97.  What excess of skill, or what very high degree of acuteness, have the brightest and best of these grammarians exhibited?  There must be some, if their definitions are true.

OBS. 12.—­The common assertion of the grammarians, that the superlative degree is not applicable to two objects,[177] is not only unsupported by any reason in the nature of things, but it is contradicted in practice by almost every man who affirms it.  Thus Maunder:  “When only two persons or things are spoken of comparatively, to use the superlative is improper:  as, ’Deborah, my dear, give those two boys a lump of sugar each; and let Dick’s be the largest, because he spoke first.’  This,” says the critic, “should have been ‘larger.’”—­Maunder’s Gram., p. 4.  It is true, the comparative might here have been used; but the superlative is clearer, and more agreeable to custom.  And how can “largest” be wrong, if “first” is right?  “Let Dick’s be the larger, because he spoke sooner,” borders too much upon a different idea, that of proportion; as when we say, “The sooner the better,”—­“The more the merrier.”  So Blair:  “When only two things are compared, the comparative degree should be used, and not the superlative.”—­Practical Gram., p. 81.  “A Trochee has the first syllable accented, and the last unaccented.”—­Ib., p. 118.  “An Iambus has the first syllable unaccented, and the last accented.”—­Ibid. These two examples are found also in Jamieson’s Rhetoric, p. 305; Murray’s Gram., p. 253; Kirkham’s, 219; Bullions’s, 169; Guy’s, 120; Merchant’s, 166.  So Hiley:  “When two persons or things are compared, the comparative degree must be employed.  When three or more persons or things are compared, the superlative must be used.”—­Treatise on English