fication, to the highest or [the] lowest
Degree of all."--_English Syntax_, p. 28. If this is to be taken for a
grammatical definition, what definition shall grammar itself bear?

OBS. 11.--Let us see whether our later authors have done better. "The
_superlative_ expresses a quality in the greatest or [the] least _possible_
degree; as, _wisest, coldest, least wise_."--_Webster's Old Gram._, p. 13.
In his later speculations, this author conceives that the termination _ish_
forms the _first_ degree of comparison; as, "Imperfect, _dankish_," Pos.
_dank_, Comp. _danker_, Superl. _dankest_. "There are therefore _four_
degrees of comparison."--_Webster's Philosophical Gram._ p. 65. "The
_fourth_ denotes the utmost or [the] least degree of a quality; as,
_bravest, wisest, poorest, smallest_. This is called the _superlative_
degree."--_Ib._; also his _Improved Gram._, 1831, p. 47. "This degree is
called the Superlative degree, from its raising the amount of the quality
above that of all others."--_Webber's Gram._, 1832, p. 26. It is not easy
to quote, from any source, a worse sentence than this; if, indeed, so
strange a jumble of words can be called a sentence. "_From its raising the
amount_," is in itself a vicious and untranslatable phrase, here put for
"_because it raises the amount_;" and who can conceive of the superlative
degree, as "_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 the