76 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



clearly shows that A and B are not at all compared, nor even 

 their respective qualities, but solely the intensities of these. For 

 it may be assumed that were A and B compared or their respec- 

 tive redness and blueness, the discovered difference would not 

 be expressed in terms of either color. That is, I should hardly 

 tell you that an A is redder than a B which is not red at all, 

 or that the redness of an A is redder than the blueness of a B. 



The current interpretation of "than" as "then" I have slighted be- 

 cause it does not appear to be historically defended, because it does not 

 seem to fit the requirements of English context and because it is ap- 

 parently unavailable with the correspondent expressions of other Indo- 

 European languages. These expressions bear so strongly the marks of 

 original equivalence, that any explanation of a single one is open to 

 suspicion, unless it applies to all. Such general application must, I ap- 

 preciate, be proven of my own explanation before it can be accepted; 

 and, as I have not the means for a complete verification, this explana- 

 tion must rank as a pure hypothesis, useless till confirmation except 

 for working purposes, and ultimately, perhaps, at most, as a mere sug- 

 gestion that existing explanations are inadequate. 



Once started in the formation of comparisons, the mind pro- 

 ceeds to astonishing feats. Beginning with separate manifesta- 

 tions of a single quality, it readily notes them, as indicated 

 above, either in their equivalence or in the contrary. It easily 

 also deals with separate manifestations of diiferent qualities, 

 and even compares with ease the rates at which diiferent degrees 

 are acquired. It establishes a norm of quality and compares 

 amounts of deviation therefrom, as in ^'A's intemperance is as 

 great as (or more so than) that of B.'' Deviations in oppo- 

 site directions appear as merely plus and minus aspects of ex- 

 tension in a single dimension. In "A is as tall as B is short" 

 comparison is made between positive and negative departures 

 from a nomi. Comparison is even effected between terms es- 

 sentially incomparable. Beauty and wit pan no more be put in 

 comparison, which resembles subtraction of one from the 

 other, than they can be added or multiplied. Yet I shrink not 

 from saying that ^'He is as handsome as she is witty." If the 

 claim be made that after all it is his departure from a norm of 

 beauty that is compared with her departure from a norm of 

 wit, the difficulty is little relieved. For I have but an imaginary 



