CHAPTER XIV.
THE NUMERALS.
[§ 470]. The numeral one is naturally single. All the rest are naturally plural.
Nevertheless such expressions—one two ( = one collection of two), two threes ( = two collections of three) are legitimate. These are so, because the sense of the word is changed. We may talk of several ones just as we may talk of several aces; and of one two just as of one pair.
Expressions like the thousand-and-first are incorrect. They mean neither one thing nor another: 1001st being expressed by the thousand-and-first, and 1000th + 1st being expressed by the thousandth and the first.
Here it may be noticed that, although I never found it to do so, the word odd is capable of taking an ordinal form. The thousand-and-odd-th is as good an expression as the thousand-and-eight-th.
The construction of phrases like the thousand-and-first is the same construction as we find in the king of Saxony's army.
[§ 471]. It is by no means a matter of indifference whether we say the two first or the first two.
The captains of two different classes at school should be called the two first boys. The first and second boys of the same class should be called the first two boys. I believe that when this rule is attended to, more is due to the printer than to the author: such, at least, is the case with myself.