GRAMMAR. 
Than himself. The custom of our language 
makes one distinction between the compa- 
rative and superlative, which does not coin- 
cide with this grand distinction. We use 
the comparative with the force of the su- 
perlative when we speak of two ; as, he is 
the wiser of the two, and the wisest of any 
greater number. This is not an unjustifia- 
ble usage ; but it has no particular founda- 
tion in the force of the comparative and su- 
perlative. 
Few of the modern European languages 
vary the words themselves to express com- 
parison., The French, e. g. express by plus 
and le plus, what we express by more and 
most; or (what is obviously equivalent, 
though custom limits their use to particular 
cases) by the terminations er and est. What 
is the meaning of these terminations? is a 
natural question : the answer is not so easy. 
It appears, however, very probable, that er 
is nothing more or less than the word which 
we still use in the form ere, signifying be- 
fore; and, that wiser signifies wise before. 
Now, as has been well remarked by Mr. 
Dalton, then and than are the same in ori- 
gin and signification : hence, wiser than I, 
is exactly represented by, i vise before then J, 
i. e. wise before, then (that is,’ next in or- 
der) I. This derivation, if correct, explains 
the ground of the peculiarity above-stated, 
in the use of the comparative : he is the 
wiser of the two, means simply, he is wise 
before (the other) of the two. It might be 
conjectured, that the superlative termina- 
tion est, is an abbreviation of most annexed 
to an adjective, in the same manner as in 
topmost, undermost, &c. ; but Mr. H. Tooke 
has shewn, that more is merely mo-er, and 
most, mo- est, which leayes the origin of the 
terminations er and est as it was found. 
25. Those adnouns which, without ex- 
pressing qualities, vary of determine the 
extent of the signification of the nouns to 
which they belong, we call restrictives. 
Some restrictives are, by the custom of our 
language, applicable to singular nouns only ; 
as one, a or an, another, this, that, each, 
every, &c. : others to plural nouns only ; as 
two, three, these, those, other, few, all, &c. ; 
hut most restrictives, like all adjectives, 
are applicable to both singular and plural 
nouns. Of the restrictives, two are called 
articles, the and an, which last is abbre- 
viated into a before consonants, h when 
pronounced, u long as in use, and one. An 
is simply another form of the numeral one, 
still used in North Britain under the form 
i m; ajul in the French, the numeral and 
the article corresponding to one, are the 
same. But though an and one have the 
same origin and primary signification, there 
is occasionally an obvious difference in the 
mode of their employment. This difference 
is well expressed by Dr. Crombie: “ If, in- 
stead of saying, ‘ A horse, a horse, a king- 
dom for a horse,’ I should say, ‘ One horse, 
one horse, one kingdom for one horse,’ the 
sentiment, I conceive, would not be 
strictly the same. In both expressions, the 
species is named, and in both, one of that 
species is demanded ; but with this differ- 
ence, that, in the former, the name of the 
species is the emphatic word, and it op- 
poses that species to every other ; in the 
latter, unity of object seems the leading 
idea.” An is called the indefinite article, 
because it leaves undetermined what one 
individual is meant ; the determines the ap- 
plication of the noun to some particular in- 
dividual, and hence it is termed, the defi- 
nite article. It has the same primary sig- 
nification with that ; but they vary in the 
mode of their employment, the former ne- 
ver being employed without a noun, the 
latter having its noun frequently under- 
stood • and farther, that is more emphatic 
than the: these, however, are the refine- 
ments of language, and have no foundation 
in the origin of words. Mr. II. Tooke con- 
siders that as the past participle, and the as 
the imperative mood, of the verb dean to 
get, to take, to assume: and the, he observes, 
may very well supply the place of the cor- 
responding Anglo-Saxon article pe, which 
is the imperative of peon to see ; for it an- 
swers the same purpose in discourse to say, 
see man, or take man. We really like the 
import of our forefathers’ article so much 
better than that of our own, that we shall 
cheerfully give up the for sc, unless it should 
appear, that the and that have their origin 
in some verb signifying to point at. Of that 
large class of restrictives called numerals, 
the origin of some may be traced; and as 
we wish to give our readers some insight in- 
to the labours of Mr. H, Tooke, we shall 
mention his derivation of words in this class. 
It is in the highest degree probable, that all 
numeration was originally performed by the 
fingers, the actual resort of the ignorant ; 
for the number of the fingers is still the ut- 
most extent of numeration. The hands 
doubled, closed, or shut in, may therefore 
well be denominated ten (the past partici- 
ple of tynan to enclose, to shut in), for 
therein you have closed all numeration ; 
and if you want more, you must begin again’ 
