COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE FORMS.

[Sidenote:  Use of the comparative degree.]

428.  The comparative degree of the adjective (or adverb) is used when we wish to compare two objects or sets of objects, or one object with a class of objects, to express a higher degree of quality; as,—­

     Which is the better able to defend himself,—­a strong man with
     nothing but his fists, or a paralytic cripple encumbered with a
     sword which he cannot lift?—­MACAULAY.

     Of two such lessons, why forget
      The nobler and the manlier one? 
     —­BYRON.

     We may well doubt which has the stronger claim to civilization,
     the victor or the vanquished.—­PRESCOTT.

     A braver ne’er to battle rode.—­SCOTT.

     He is taller, by almost the breadth of my nail, than any of his
     court.—­SWIFT.

[Sidenote:  Other after the comparative form.]

429.  When an object is compared with the class to which it belongs, it is regularly excluded from that class by the word other; if not, the object would really be compared with itself:  thus,—­

     The character of Lady Castlewood has required more delicacy in
     its manipulation than perhaps any other which Thackeray has
     drawn.—­TROLLOPE.

     I used to watch this patriarchal personage with livelier
     curiosity than any other form of humanity.—­HAWTHORNE.

Exercise.

See if the word other should be inserted in the following sentences:—­

     1.  There was no man who could make a more graceful bow than Mr.
     Henry.—­WIRT.

     2.  I am concerned to see that Mr. Gary, to whom Dante owes more
     than ever poet owed to translator, has sanctioned,
     etc.—­MACAULAY.

     3.  There is no country in which wealth is so sensible of its
     obligations as our own.—­LOWELL.

     4.  This is more sincerely done in the Scandinavian than in any
     mythology I know.—­CARLYLE.

     5.  In “Thaddeus of Warsaw” there is more crying than in any novel
     I remember to have read.—­THACKERAY.

     6.  The heroes of another writer [Cooper] are quite the equals of
     Scott’s men; perhaps Leather-stocking is better than any one in
     “Scott’s lot.”—­Id.

[Sidenote:  Use of the superlative degree.]

430.  The superlative degree of the adjective (or adverb) is used regularly in comparing more than two things, but is also frequently used in comparing only two things.

Examples of superlative with several objects:—­

     It is a case of which the simplest statement is the
     strongest.—­MACAULAY.

     Even Dodd himself, who was one of the greatest humbugs who ever
     lived, would not have had the face.—­THACKERAY.