COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE FORMS.
Use of the comparative degree.
428. The comparative degree of the adjective (or adverb) is used when we wish to compare two objects or sets of objects, or one object with a class of objects, to express a higher degree of quality; as,—
Which is the better able to defend himself,—a strong man with nothing but his fists, or a paralytic cripple encumbered with a sword which he cannot lift?—Macaulay.
Of two such lessons, why forget
The nobler and the manlier one?
—Byron.
We may well doubt which has the stronger claim to civilization, the victor or the vanquished.—Prescott.
A braver ne'er to battle rode.—Scott.
He is taller, by almost the breadth of my nail, than any of his court.—Swift.
Other after the comparative form.
429. When an object is compared with the class to which it belongs, it is regularly excluded from that class by the word other; if not, the object would really be compared with itself: thus,—
The character of Lady Castlewood has required more delicacy in its manipulation than perhaps any other which Thackeray has drawn.—Trollope.
I used to watch this patriarchal personage with livelier curiosity than any other form of humanity.—Hawthorne.