41. In the town near which his posterity dwelt.-SCOTT, The Antiquary ii.

42. To be created like to us.-MILTON, Paradise Lost ii. 348. 43. You would be taught your duty.-SHAKESPEARE, Richard III i. 3. 250.

NOTE. On this construction see Section 279.

44. We were shown a room.-GOLDSMITH, Vicar iii.

45. If I had been told this I should not have believed it.-FIELDING, Amelia vi. 5.

46. Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be

What thou art promised.-SHAKESPEARE, Macbeth i. 5. 16–7. 47. He was offered and refused the title.-BULWER, Rienzi iiì. 2. 48. Me lists not tell what words were made.

-SCOTT, Last Minstrel v. 25. 49. It repented the Lord that he had made man.-Genesis vi. 6. My brother it beseems

50.

To show himself forever great and princely.

-COLERIDGE, The Piccolomini i. 9. 24-5.

-BULWER, The Lady of Lyons ii. 1.

51. Me thinks thou wouldst be only made more dear.

52. I'd foot it with e'er a captain in the county.-SHERIDAN, The Rivals iii. 4. 35-6.

53. Fight it out to the last.-ADDISON, Cato ii. 1.

54. Come, and trip it as you go

On the light fantastic toe.-MILTON, L'Allegro.

55. Ask him his purposes.-SHAKESPEARE, Lear v. 3. 118.

56. Let me request thee this.-MARLOWE, The Jew of Malta iii. 4.

57. Him ye believe not.—John v. 38.

58. Nor durst any man ask him more questions.-Matthew xxii. 46. 59. His enemies, he said, he forgave.—MACAULAY.

60. O blackbird! sing me something well.

-TENNYSON, The Blackbird. 61. Let me suppose you the first lord of the treasury.-GOLDSMITH, The Good-Natur'd Man iii.

62. I warrant him a warrior tried.—SCOTT, Marmion vi. 5.

63. 'Tis the last desperate resource of those

Cheap souls, to whom their honour, their good name
Is their poor saving, their last worthless Keep.

-COLERIDGE, The Piccolomini v. 2. 84-6.

64. Know thou me for thy liege lord and head.

-SCOTT, Last Minstrel iv. 11. 65. If I had suspected him for a man, I would have seized him. -FIELDING, Joseph Andrews iv. 14.

66. Rome holds him and his as rebels and traitors.-BULWER, Rienzi ii. 8.

67. His uncle received him on board the Triumph.-SOUTHEY, Life of Nelson.

68. Are they not on the other side Jordan?-Deuteronomy xi. 30. 69. On either side the river lie

Long fields of barley and of rye.

-TENNYSON, The Lady of Shalott. 70. They all lie on the other side of the city.-DICKENS, Pictures from Italy, Rome.

71. But never let me harbour a thought of making her unhappy, by a connection with one so unworthy her merits as I am.-GOLDSMITH, The Good-Natur'd Man i.

72. Fox beat half the lawyers in the house.-MACAULAY, Essays. 73. There is a little town . . . hundreds of feet below the road. --DICKENS, Pictures from Italy, Rome.

74. Bide some little space

In this poor town with me.-SCOTT, Marmion i. 14.

75. Her fate is fixed this very hour.-BYRON, Bride i. 3.

76. The sentence amounts to a whipping once a fortnight.-MACAULAY, History of England ii. 217.

77. Her younger brother sixteen summers old.

-CAMPBELL, Theodric.

78. A place four miles distant.-BULWER, Rienzi v. 3. 79. Gaze your fill.-SHAKESPEARE, Taming of the Shrew i. 1. 73. 80. You have consented to go halves.-GAY, Beggar's Opera ii. 2. 81. Where is my prince the Dauphin?-SHAKESPEARE, John v. 5. 9. 82. Learning, that cobweb of the brain. BUTLER, Hudibrasi. 3.1339. 83. The great gates of the Lateran, then the palace of the world. -BULWER, Rienzi iv. 6.

84. 'Tis Jove's world-wandering herald, Mercury.

-SHELLEY, Prometheus i. 325.

85. Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence. -POPE, Essay on Man iv. 79-80. 86. Alfred's name, the father of his age.-Cowper. 87. But not in flimsy Darwin's pompous chime, That mighty master of unmeaning rhyme.

-BYRON, English Bards. 88. When I roved, a young highlander, o'er the dark heath.

89. The daughter of a hundred earls, You are not one to be desired.

-BYRON.

-TENNYSON, Lady Clara Vere de Vere.

90. They . . . tore the lead from the roof of the magnificent ca

thedral to make bullets, an act for which they might fairly plead the necessities of war.-MACAULAY, History of England ii. 170.

91. Nor was Adams himself suffered to go home, it being a stormy night.-FIELDING, Joseph Andrews i. 13.

92. He howled till he was carried home; the whole cause of his grief being the ugliness of the child.-LEWES, Goethe i. 18. 93. I grant that, men continuing what they are,

Fierce, avaricious, proud, there must be war.

-COWPER, The Task.

94. We ranging down this lower track,
The path we came by, thorn and flower,
Is shadow'd by the growing hour,
Lest life should fail in looking back.

-TENNYSON, In Memoriam xlvi.

95. Shall, ignominious, we with shame retire, No deed perform'd, to our Olympian sire?

-POPE, Iliad xxii. 510-11.

96. Lewis marry Blanch! O boy, then where art thou?

-SHAKESPEARE, John iii. 1. 34.

97. A monarch pledge his word—and not stick to it?

-PLANCHÉ, Fortunio ii. 1.

98. The last impossible, he fears the first.-CowPER.
99.
Face to face,

And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear
The accuser and the accused freely speak.

-SHAKESPEARE, Richard II i. 1. 15–17.

100. She pressed you heart to heart.-TENNYSON.

101. Many a dry bottle have we cracked, hand to fist.-FARQUHAR, The Recruiting Officer iii. 1.

I02.

My noble father,

Three times to-day I holp him to his horse.

—SHAKESPEARE, 2 Henry VI v. 3. 7–8. 103. One that goes in a nurse may come out an angel.-HOLMES. 104. A very attractive person is that child-loving girl.—MISS MIT

FORD.

105. None but the dissolute among the poor look upon the rich as their natural enemies.-RUSKIN.

106. Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife

Their sober wishes never learned to stray.-GRAY, Elegy. 107. Virtue is worth any price.-GOLDSMITH, Vicar 11.

108.

That Power that made you king
Hath power to keep you king in spite of all.

-SHAKESPEARE, Richard II iii. 2. 27-8.

109. Think nought a trifle, though it small appear;
Small sands the mountains, moments make the year,
And trifles life.

CHAPTER IV

ADJECTIVES CLASSES AND INFLECTION

CLASSES

89. ADJECTIVES are words used to modify nouns and pronouns. They express notions of quality and quantity, and serve to describe, identify, and point out.

Those adjectives that attribute qualities to the nouns they modify are called DESCRIPTIVE adjectives; as red, bright, gay, dark. Those that express notions of quantity, and those that identify and point out are called LIMITING adjectives. Limiting adjectives are classified into INDEFINITES (Section 97), INTERROGATIVES (Section 98), DEMONSTRATIVES (Section 100), NUMERALS (Sections 101-3), ARTICLES (Sections 104-6).

COMPARISON

90. English adjectives had at one time grammatical inflection of gender, number, and case, and agreed with the nouns they modified, as German adjectives still do. They have lost all these inflections. Descriptive adjectives are inflected to express COMPARISON, or the degree of the quality possessed by the noun, and this is the only inflectional change Modern English adjectives undergo.

a. The POSITIVE DEGREE of comparison denotes the possession of the quality by the person or thing named by the substantive, without suggesting comparison with any other person or thing.

A bright child. A strong man.

b. The COMPARATIVE DEGREE denotes that the person or thing named by the substantive possesses the quality in a greater degree than some other person or thing possesses it in.

A brighter child. A stronger man.

c. The SUPERLATIVE DEGREE denotes that the person or thing named by the substantive possesses the quality in the greatest degree.

The brightest child in the family. The strongest man in the village.

91. The adjective is most often compared by adding -er to the stem to make the comparative, and -est to make the superlative.

This is an inheritance from the Old English. The Old English adjective beorht "bright" had the forms beorht, beorhtre, "brighter," beorhtost, "brightest."

Compare the adjectives tall, gay, fresh, pretty, safe, green, sweet, gentle, stony.

92. Adjectives of more than two syllables are often compared by prefixing for the comparative and superlative degrees the words more and most. This rule allows of great variation. Short adjectives are sometimes compared with more and most, and long ones with -er and -est. Study the following examples and tell which do not follow the usual form of comparison of the word:

1. A cunninger animal.-GOLDSMITH. 2. The solidest bodies.-IRVING.

3. The beautifulest race.- -SHERIDAN. 4. A cheerfuler place.-LONGFELLOW.

5. The faithfulest of all the camp.-COLERIDGE.

6. Bitterer remembrances.-BYRON.

7. Silence is the perfectest herald of joy.-SHAKESPEARE, Much

Ado ii. 1. 317.

8. Smiles more sweet.-BRYANT.

9. Most great region.-BYRON.

10. Notes more sad.-POPE.

Compare, as you hear and speak them, beautiful, handsome, extensive, majestic.

A few adjectives may be compared either way-with the inflectional suffixes or with more and most.

Swift, swifter, swiftest; or more swift (MILTON), most swift.
Tender, tenderer, tenderest; or more tender, most tender.