blow."
--_Scott, L. of L._, C. ii, st. 19.

"True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move _easiest_ who have learn'd to dance."
--_Pope, Ess. on Crit._

"And also now the sluggard _soundest_ slept."
--_Pollok, C. of T._, B. vi, l. 257.

"In them is _plainest_ taught, and _easiest_ learnt,
What makes a nation happy, and keeps it so."
--_Milton, P. R._, B. iv, l. 361.

OBS. 5.--No use of words can be _right_, that actually confounds the parts
of speech; but in many instances, according to present practice, the same
words may be used either adjectively or adverbially. _Firmer_ and _ruder_
are not adverbs, but adjectives. In the example above, they may, I think,
be ranked with the instances in which quality is poetically substituted for
manner, and be parsed as relating to the pronouns which follow them. A
similar usage occurs in Latin, and is considered elegant. _Easiest_, as
used above by Pope, may perhaps be parsed upon the same principle; that is,
as relating to _those_, or to _persons_ understood before the verb _move_.
But _soundest, plainest_, and _easiest_, as in the latter quotations,
cannot be otherwise explained than as being adverbs. _Plain_ and _sound_,
according to our dictionaries, are used both adjectively and adverbially;
and, if their superlatives are not misapplied in these instances, it is
because the words are adverbs, and regularly compared as such. _Easy_,
though sometimes used adverbially by reputable writers, is presented by our
lexicographers as an adjective only; and if the latter are right, Milton's
use of _easiest_ in the sense and construction of _most easily_, must be
considered an error in grammar. And besides, according to his own practice,
he ought to have preferred _plainliest_ to _plainest_, in the adverbial
sense of _most plainly_.

OBS. 6.--Beside the instances already mentioned, of words used both
adjectively and adverbially, our dictionaries exhibit many primitive terms
which are to be referred to the one class or the other, according to their
construction; as, _soon, late, high, low, quick, slack, hard, soft, wide,
close, clear, thick, full, scant, long, short, clean, near, scarce, sure,
fast_; to which may as well be added, _slow, loud_, and _deep_; all
susceptible of the regular form of comparison, and all regularly
convertible into adverbs in _ly_; though _soonly_ and _longly_ are now
obsolete, and _fastl