Y4 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences^ Arts, and Letters. 



Of presumable latent relatives the most remarkable, perhaps^ 

 appears in the expression "A is greater than B," an expression 

 not merely curious, but also difficult to such a degree, that I ven- 

 ture only to indicate the possibility of applying to its solution the 

 methods thus far utilized. That in this expression a relative ele- 

 ment is really hidden, may be suspected from the occurrence of 

 quam and its derivatives in the equivalent expressions of Latin 

 and the neo-Latin languages. Moreover history reveals the orig- 

 inal value of " than" (Anglo-Saxon Jeanne) as '^that" accusative. 

 Kemembering the constant passage of demonstrative into rel- 

 ative values, I feel that the door at least is open to a relative- 

 value of ^^than." 



Again in ''A is greater than B" it is plain that I do not express- 

 myself directly. The direct expression of my thought is ob- 

 viously ^'The magnitude of A (not, e. g., its color-intensity) 

 exceeds the magnitude of B." In departing from such direct- 

 ness, I first have overlooked, for the instant, my genuine subject 

 ^^magnitude (1)," and substituted ^A." Continuing my ob- 

 liquity, I have centrally announced that ^^A is great." For 

 "greater" expresses the idea of greatness subjected merely to aug- 

 mentative determination. That is "A is greater," does not mean 

 that A possesses greatness of any type you please, but only of a 

 major type. In other words, the announcement made by my 

 first three words amounts to this, tluit "A is great to a degree 

 surpassing." This announcement, futile in itself, I may utilize 

 by developing it into "A is great to a degree surpassing that de- 

 gree to which B is great." ^ 



In showing the possible equivalence of this expression to "A is 

 greater than B," I need the aid of a rare expressional method il- 

 lustrated in ravTa 'exoVrws, that is, ^^tlie same things havingly." 

 In this, an adverb, derived from a verbal adjective (participle), 

 retains the verbal power of governing an object. In short, there 

 is such a thing as a verbal adverb. ^ Availing myself of this ex- 



^The somewhat figurative use of "surpassing" is nearly allied to the figure 

 believed to be employed in the Latin ablative, when quam is omitted. In the lat- 

 ter case it is felt that the ablative is the point of departure in reckoning, or 

 that the major degree is reached by a withdrawal "from" the minor. In the 

 present case the major is felt to overtake and pass beyond the m'inor. , A dif- 

 ference is in one case figured as a shunning, and in the other as an outstripping. 



2 Even in English the same construction appears in compounds, thus, "She 

 Bang ear-splittingly," 



