Good writers sometimes use the superlative in comparing two things; as, This is the best of the two. But in such cases usage largely favors the comparative; as, This is the better of the two.
+Direction+.—Study the Caution and the Remarks, and correct these errors:—
1. Solomon was the wisest of all the other Hebrew kings.
+Correction+.—Of (= belonging to) represents Solomon as belonging to a group of kings, and other excludes him from this group—a contradiction in terms. It should be, Solomon was the wisest of Hebrew kings, or Solomon was wiser than any other Hebrew king.
2. Of all the other books I have examined, this is the most satisfactory. 3. Profane swearing is, of all other vices, the most inexcusable. 4. He was the most active of all his companions.
(He was not one of his own companions.)
5. This was the most satisfactory of any preceding effort. 6. John is the oldest of any boy in his class.
+Caution+.—Avoid double comparatives and double superlatives, and the comparison of adjectives whose meaning will not admit of different degrees.[Footnote: Many words which grammarians have considered incapable of comparison are used in a sense short of their literal meaning, and are compared by good writers; as, My chiefest entertainment.—Sheridan. The chiefest prize.—Byron. Divinest Melan- choly.—Milton. Extremest hell.—Whittier. Most perfect harmony—Longfellow. Less perfect imitations.—Macaulay. The extension of these exceptional forms should not be encouraged.]
+Direction+.—Correct these errors:—
1. A more beautifuler location cannot be found. 2. He took the longest, but the most pleasantest, route. 3. Draw that line more perpendicular.