changed in form: 'a good boy,' 'a good girl,' 'a good book,' 'good boys,' 'good girls,' 'good books.'

420. An adjective is sometimes used as an abstract noun:

This age still retains enough of beautiful, and splendid, and bold, to captivate an ardent, but untutored, imagination. Coleridge.

So much of death her thoughts

Had entertained as dyed her cheeks with pale.

Milton.

Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear.—Id.
Dark shall be my light, and night my day.

Shakspere.

Those antique Cæsars sleeping long in dark.

Spenser.

421. In old English, and occasionally in modern English poetry, an adjective is employed as a concrete

noun:

Thou rewest on every sinful in distress.-Chaucer.
Such place eternal Justice had prepared

For those rebellious.-Milton.

A band

Of stern in heart and strong in hand.-Longfellow. 422. An adjective is sometimes used, especially in poetry, instead of an adverb:

Trip it deft and merrily.-Scott.

The green trees whispered low and mild.-Longfellow.
Soft, no haste.-Shakspere.

From out the trees the sabbath-bell

Rings cheerful far and wide.-Dana.

423. As adjectives have no suffixes to mark gender, number, or case, it is important to observe their position in a sentence.

They usually stand before the nouns they qualify:

There eternal summer dwells,

And west winds with musky wing

About the cedar'd alleys fling

Nard and cassia's balmy smells.-Milton.

424. In poetry they frequently follow the noun: And the Spring arose on the garden fair-Shelley. With a slow and noiseless footstep

Comes that messenger divine.-Longfellow.

Once upon a midnight dreary.-Poe.

425. When several adjectives qualify one noun, they are often placed after it:

His mind, ardent, susceptible, naturally disposed to admiration of all that is great and beautiful, was fascinated by the genius and accomplishments of Bacon.-Macaulay.

A stillness deep,

Insensible, unheeding, folds you round.-Dana.

426. When two or more adjectives connected by the conjunction and qualify a noun, it is not unusual in poetry and old English prose for one to precede the noun, the others to follow it:

Titles are marks of honest men and wise.-Young.
They the holy ones and weakly

Who the cross of suffering bore.-Longfellow.

A dark prince and infinitely suspicious.—Bacon.

427. When qualifying words or phrases are dependent upon an adjective, the latter always follows the noun it qualifies:

He had to calm the rage of a young hero incensed by
multiplied wrongs and humiliations.-Macaulay.
Out flew

Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty cherubim.-Milton.

428. When qualifying words are prefixed to an adjective, it is usually placed after the noun:

A sovereign whose temper, never very gentle, had been rendered morbidly irritable by age.-Macaulay.

A land more bright

Never did mortal

eye behold.-Moore.

429. An adjective forming part of a predicate is often placed emphatically first:

Silent they lie with the deserts round.-Hemans.
Richer by far is the heart's adoration,

Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.-Heber.

Comparison of Adjectives.

430. Comparative. The comparative implies that one of two objects, or sets of objects, possesses a certain quality in a greater degree than the other:

An acre in Middlesex is better than a principality in
Utopia.-Macaulay.

Hence we must be careful not to employ the comparative when more than two objects are compared.

431. The word than in comparative sentences is a later form of the adverb then. Hence, 'This is better than that' means, 'First this is better; then that is better.' Shakspere always wrote then in such sentences, but modern editors introduce the more recent form.

432. The Rhine is more beautiful than the Thames;' 'the Rhine is purer than the Thames.'

The latter mode of expression is usually employed with words of one syllable, and with dissyllabic words ending in -y or -ly.

433. In old English writers a double comparative is not unfrequently found:

He shall find

Th' unkindest beast more kinder then mankind.

Our worser thoughts Heaven mend!—Id.

Shakspere.

434. The object with which the comparison is made is often omitted in the comparative sentence:

Vainly we offer each ample oblation,

Vainly with gifts would His favour secure ;

Richer by far is the heart's adoration,

Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor (Heber);

i. e. richer than the ample oblation, and dearer than the gifts.

435. Superlative. The superlative implies that one of more than two objects, or sets of objects, possesses a certain quality in a greater degree than all the rest:

The most eminent of our recent geologists and mineralogists have acknowledged with respect, and even with expressions of wonder, the performances of Aristotle as the first clearer and breaker-up of the ground in natural history.-Coleridge.

Hence the superlative should not be employed, as in the following passage, when two objects only are specified :

The question is not whether a good Indian or bad Englishman be most happy, but which state is most desirable, supposing virtue and reason to be the same in both.-Johnson.

436. In old English we frequently meet with a double superlative :

This was the most unkindest cut of all.-Shakspere.

It is not improbable that such expressions were often intentionally employed for the purpose of increasing the natural emphasis of the superlative.

Numerals.

437. When numeral adjectives qualify a noun, the suffix of plurality may be omitted:

I'll give a thousand pound to look on him.

Shakspere.

A thousand horse, and none to ride. Byron.

Or in pure equity, the case not clear,
The Chancery takes your rents for twenty year.

Pope.