402 HISTORY OF CERTAIN 
exact superlative of the Anglo-Saxon “ feor”— 
the origin of our English far. ‘“ First’ hence is the 
farthest one from us—the leading one. And not- 
withstanding, as first expresses also the nearest, 
as well as the farthest, we might object to this 
deduction—still, the cognate dialects of Anglo- 
Saxon confirm it. The Old Norse has its ‘“fyrsti’” 
directly from “fyrer.”” And the Danish derives 
its forst, from for—farther having no positive, and 
perhaps from this Danish word, has been derived 
the Lancashire “ fur’ as a comparative, which is 
probably its legitimate state. The Anglo-Saxon, 
has a synonyme so far as the latter sense of first is 
concerned, which, may by being explained, throw 
some light upon this ‘‘lucus a non lucendo’”—and 
this is “er,” “erer,” and ‘ zreste’’ or “erst” 
which, if I might be allowed to translate, though 
almost untranslatable—would in modern ungram- 
matical English be, “ere,” before, erer, beforer, 
and “ erst’? beforest—z. e. nearest. Now in Ger- 
man, ‘‘erst” is first, in this latter sense. The 
English “ erst” may hence be merged in the Eng- 
lish ‘first,’ and thence both senses be admissible 
by our indiscriminately confusing the terms. Our 
preposition “ for” is also deduced from this root, 
and keeps strict to the literal meaning as exem- 
plified in—“ Where are you for?” that is, whi- 
