by a hyphen; as, “A red-hot iron.”—­“A dead-ripe melon.”  And when both or all refer equally and solely to the noun, they ought either to be connected by a conjunction, or to be separated by a comma.  The following example is therefore faulty:  “It is the business of an epic poet, to form a probable interesting tale.”—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 427.  Say, “probable and interesting;” or else insert a comma in lieu of the conjunction.

   “Around him wide a sable army stand,
    A low-born, cell-bred, selfish, servile band.”
        —­Dunciad, B. ii, l. 355.

OBS. 13.—­Dr. Priestley has observed:  “There is a remarkable ambiguity in the use of the negative adjective no; and I do not see,” says he, “how it can be remedied in any language.  If I say, ’No laws are better than the English,’ it is only my known sentiments that can inform a person whether I mean to praise, or dispraise them.”—­Priestley’s Gram., p. 136.  It may not be possible to remove the ambiguity from the phraseology here cited, but it is easy enough to avoid the form, and say in stead of it, “The English laws are worse than none,” or, “The English laws are as good as any;” and, in neither of these expressions, is there any ambiguity, though the other may doubtless be taken in either of these senses.  Such an ambiguity is sometimes used on purpose:  as when one man says of an other, “He is no small knave;” or, “He is no small fool.”

   “There liv’d in primo Georgii (they record)
    A worthy member, no small fool, a lord.”—­Pope, p. 409.

NOTES TO RULE IX.

NOTE I.—­Adjectives that imply unity or plurality, must agree with their nouns in number:  as, “That sort, those sorts;”—­“This hand, these hands.” [373]

NOTE II.—­When the adjective is necessarily plural, or necessarily singular, the noun should be made so too:  as, “Twenty pounds” not, “Twenty pound;”—­“Four feet long,” not, “Four foot long;”—­“One session” not, “One sessions.”

NOTE III.—­The reciprocal expression, one an other, should not be applied to two objects, nor each other, or one the other, to more than two; as, “Verse and prose, on some occasions, run into one another, like light and shade.”—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 377; Jamieson’s, 298.  Say, “into each other” “For mankind have always been butchering each other”—­Webster’s Essays, p. 151.  Say, “one an other” See Etymology, Chap, iv, Obs. 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th, on the Classes of Adjectives.

NOTE IV.—­When the comparative degree is employed with than, the latter term of comparison should never include the former; nor the former the latter:  as, “Iron is more useful than all the metals”—­“All the metals are less useful than iron.”  In either case, it should be, “all the other metals,”