od men.

The Comparison of Adjectives.

The comparative degree of adjectives is formed by adding er, the
superlative by adding est, to the positive; as, fair, fairer, fairest;
lovely, lovelier, loveliest; sweet, sweeter, sweetest; low, lower, lowest;
high, higher, highest.

Some words are irregularly compared; as, good, better, best; bad, worse,
worst; little, less, least; near, nearer, next; much, more, most; many (for
moe), more (for moer) most (for moest); late, later, latest or last.

Some comparatives form a superlative by adding, most, as nether,
nethermost; outer, outermost; under, undermost; up, upper, uppermost; fore,
former, foremost.

Most is sometimes added to a substantive, as, topmost, southmost.

Many adjectives do not admit of comparison by terminations, and are only
compared by more and most, as, benevolent, more benevolent, most
benevolent.

All adjectives may be compared by more and most, even when they have
comparatives and superlatives regularly formed; as, fair, fairer, or more
fair; fairest, or most fair.

In adjectives that admit a regular comparison, the comparative more is
oftener used than the superlative most, as more fair is oftener written
for fairer, than most fair for fairest.

The comparison of adjectives is very uncertain; and being much regulated by
commodiousness of utterance, or agreeableness of sound, is not easily
reduced to rules.

Monosyllables are commonly compared.

Polysyllables, or words of more than two syllables, are seldom compared
otherwise than by more and most, as, deplorable, more deplorable, most
deplorable.

Dissyllables are seldom compared if they terminate in some, as fulsome,
toilsome; in ful, as, careful, spleenful, dreadful; in ing, as trifling,
charming; in ous, as porous; in less, as, careless, harmless; in ed, as
wretched; in id, as candid; in al, as mortal; in ent, as recent, fervent;
in ain, as certain; in ive, as missive; in dy, as woody; in fy, as puffy;
in ky, as rocky, except lucky; in my, as roomy; in ny, as skinny; in py, as
ropy, except happy; in ry, as hoary.

Some comparatives and superlatives are yet found in good writers formed
without regard to the foregoing rules; but in a language subjected so
little and so lately to grammar, such anomalies must frequently occur.

So shady is compared by Milton.

She in shadiest covert hid,
Tun'd her nocturnal note. Par. Lost.

And virtuous.

What