“The Ladies!”
Those conjunctions which have a positive and absolute signification, require the indicative mood: as, “He who fasts may be compared to a horse: for as the animal eats not a bit, so neither does the man partake of a morsel.” “The rustic is deluded by false hopes, for his daily food is gammon.”
Every philosopher has his weak points, and in the Sylva Sylvarum may be found some gammon of Bacon.
RULE XX.
When a comparison is made between two or more things, the latter noun or pronoun is not governed by the conjunction than or as, but agrees with the verb, or is governed by the verb or preposition, expressed or understood: as, “The French are a lighter people than we,” (that is “than we are,”) “and yet we are not so dark as they,” that is, “as they are.” “I should think that they admire me more than them,” that is, “than they admire them.” “It is a shame, Martha! you were thinking more of that young officer than me,” that is, “of me.”
Sufficient attention is not always paid, in discourse, to this rule. Thus, a schoolboy may be often heard to exclaim, “What did you hit me for, you great fool? you’re bigger than me. Hit some one of your own size!” “Not fling farther than him? just can’t I, that’s all!” “You and I have got more marbles than them.”
RULE XXI.