manner that would be more honourable for them" (for KáλMOV see (aa)).

(dd) When we wish to contrast the present with the previous or general possession of the quality by the subject, we use the reflexive pronoun to indicate the standard of comparison; as (Plat. Resp. p. 411 c): ἀνδρειότερος γίγνεται αὐτὸς ἑαυτοῦ, “he grows braver in relation to himself," i. e. than he was before, or than he generally is. Id. Lach. p. 182 c: пáνта avdрa ev Toλéμ κai θαῤῥαλεώτερον καὶ ἀνδρειότερον ἂν ποιήσειεν αὐτὸν ἑαυτοῦ αὑτὴ ǹ étιotýμn, “this science would make every man in war more confident and courageous than he would otherwise be."

(ee) The possession of a quality by a subject may be exaggerated by a reference of the capacity of the individual to the general case, or to the general conceptions and expectations of men, which thus serve as a standard of comparison; hence we have such phrases as μεῖζον φορτίον ἢ καθ ̓ αὑτὸν ἀράμενος (Dem. Epist. Philipp. p. 156, 5), “having taken on him a burden beyond his strength;" Móyou μeišwv, «peioσwv (Herod. II. 148; Thucyd. II. 50), “transcending the powers of description;" μeîçov éxπídos or exis (Esch. Agam. 257; Lucian, Herod. I.), "too great to be hoped or prayed for;” ἐλπίσαντες μακρότερα μὲν τῆς δυνάμεως, èλáoow dè Tŷs Bovλńσews (Thucyd. III. 39), “forming hopes which exceeded their power, though they fell short of their wishes;" μεῖζον ἢ κατ ̓ ἄνθρωπον, ἢ κατ ̓ ἄνδρα, οι ἢ κατ ̓ ἀνθρώπων φύσιν (Plat. Resp. p. 359 D; Herod. VIII. 38; Soph. Ant. 768), "greater than in accordance with human power;” ἐπιθυμίαι μείζους ἢ κατὰ Thν Vπáρxovσav ovolav (Thucyd. vI. 15), "desires greater than in τὴν ὑπάρχουσαν οὐσίαν accordance with the property on which he had to rely."

(b) The Comparative as contrasting two Subjects.

(aa) The subject, which marks the contrast or serves as the standard of comparison, is subjoined in the genitive, or in the same case after ; as Plat. Resp. p. 360 d: λvoiteλeîv oletai tâs ảvǹp πολὺ μᾶλλον τὴν ἀδικίαν τῆς δικαιοσύνης, " every man thinks that injustice is much more profitable than justice." Herod. VII. 10: μέλλοις ἐπ ̓ ἄνδρας στρατεύεσθαι πολὺ ἀμείνονας ἢ Σκύθας, “you are going to march against men much braver than the Scythians."

(bb) If the case which should follow the is the dative, sometimes even if it is the genitive, the is omitted and the genitive substituted, or retained alone ; as Thucyd. VII. 63: ταῦτα τοῖς ὁπλίταις οὐχ ἧσσον τῶν ναυτῶν παρακελεύομαι, “I give these injunctions to the men-at-arms no less than to the sailors (ἢ τοῖς ναύταις).” Dem. Lept. § 135 : τὸ δοκεῖν ἐξηπατηκέναι τοὺς ἀγαθόν τι ποιήσαντας ὑμῖν αἴσχιον τῶν ἄλλων, “ to be thought to have deceived those who have done you good service is more disgraceful to you than to others (ἢ τοῖς ἄλλοις).” Eurip. Dic. fr. x. 4: κἂν ἀμείνονος πατρὸς Ζηνὸς πεφύκη, " even though he has sprung from a more noble father than Jove (ή Ζηνός).”

(cc) When the comparison is not with a single subject, but with a sentence involving a verb, the contrast is expressed either by with the nominative or with the simple genitive of the noun; thus on the one hand we find (Dem. de Coron. § 178), ἡμῶν ἄμεινον ἢ κεῖνοι προορωμένων (i. e. ἡ κεῖνοι προορῶνται), and on the other hand (Thuc. VIII. 52), οἱ Πελοποννήσιοι πλείοσι ναῦσι τῶν ̓Αθηναίων παρῆσαν (i.e. ἢ οἱ ̓Αθηναῖοι οι ἢ αἷς οἱ ̓Αθηναῖοι παρῆσαν).

(dd) The standard of comparison is implied but not expressed in such phrases as οἱ νεώτεροι, οἱ πρεσβύτεροι, in speaking of classes of men; and in an antithesis like the following (Thucyd. v. 111): οἵτινες τοῖς μὲν ἴσοις μὴ εἴκουσι, τοῖς δὲ κρείσσοσι καλῶς προσφέρονται, πρὸς δὲ τοὺς ἥσσους μέτριοί εἰσι, πλεῖστ ̓ ἂν ὀρθοῖντο.

(ee) In the contrast between two subjects there is sometimes an exaggeration of the comparative adjective by the addition of μᾶλλον; as in Eurip. Hec. 377: θανὼν ἂν εἴη μᾶλλον εὐτυχέστερος ἢ ζῶν, to which we find parallels in old English, as in Shakspere (Timon, IV. 1): "He shall find the unkindest beast more kinder than mankind." From this case we must distinguish those in which the comparative is used with a presumed, but not expressed, reference (above, (dd)); as in Thucyd. III. 65: ἐβούλοντο τοὺς ὑμῶν χείρους μηκέτι μᾶλλον γενέσθαι, " they wish that the worse citizens among you should not grow worse still."

(ff) Conversely, the paλλov is omitted with verbs which convey in themselves the idea of preference; as Hom. I. I. 117: βούλομ ̓ ἐγὼ λαὸν σόον ἔμμεναι ἢ ἀπολέσθαι; Lys. Orat. Fun. § 62: θάνατον μετ ̓ ἐλευθερίας αἱρούμενοι ἢ βίον μετὰ δουλείας.

(gg) When the standard of comparison is expressed by an infinitive with or without wore, certain adjectives appear in the positive degree, although their meaning is comparative; as Thucyd. ΙΙ. 61: ταπεινὴ ὑμῶν ἡ διάνοια ἐγκαρτερεῖν ἃ διέγνωτε, “ your spirit is too debased to abide firmly by what you have resolved." Eurip. Andr. 80: γέρων ἐκεῖνος ὥστε σ ̓ ὠφελεῖν παρών, “ he is too old to help you, if he were here."

(hh) In some few cases the numeral which is the standard of comparison is joined to πλέων or ἐλάττων (μείων) in the neuter singular without ἤ ; thus Thucyd. vi. 95: ἡ λεία ἐπράθη ταλάντων οὐκ ἔλαττον πέντε καὶ εἴκοσιν.

(2) We may sometimes substitute the adversative αλλά οι ἀλλ ̓ οὐ for the comparative ἤ after μᾶλλον and πλέον, according as they are negative or affirmative; or an affirmative form of the comparison may be followed by καὶ οὐ or καὶ μή. Thus Thucyd. I. 83: ἔστιν ὁ πόλεμος οὐχ ὅπλων τὸ πλέον, ἀλλὰ δαπάνης. Isocr. ad Nicocl. § 42: πλησιάζειν βούλονται τοῖς συνεξαμαρτάνουσιν, ἀλλ ̓ οὐ τοῖς ἀποτρέπουσιν (where βούλονται involves μᾶλλον, (above, (f)). Thucyd. 1. 74: ἐδείσατε ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν καὶ οὐχ ἡμῶν τὸ πλέον. Id. I. 120: τοὺς τὴν μεσόγειαν μᾶλλον καὶ μὴ ἐν πόρῳ κατωκημένους.

(kk) Similarly πλήν may take the place of ἤ, as in Eurip. Heracl. 233: ἅπαντα ταῦτ ̓ ἐστὶ κρείσσω πλὴν ὑπ ̓ ̓Αργείοις πεσεῖν.

(1) Το express a preference in general we may have πρό cum gen. ; to express a choice, αντί cum gen.; to indicate excess we may have παρά cum accus. or ἐπί cum dat., after the comparative; as Plat. Crit. p. 54 Β: μηδὲν περὶ πλείονος ποιοῦ πρὸ τοῦ δικαίου. Soph. Αnt. 182: μείζον ̓ ἀντὶ τῆς αὑτοῦ πάτρας φίλον νομίζειν. Thucyd. I. 23: ἐκλείψεις πυκνότεραι παρὰ τὰ μνημονευόμενα. Hom. Od. VII. 216: οὐ γὰρ στυγερῇ ἐπὶ γαστέρι κύντερον ἄλλο.

(mm) By a very singular refinement the negative où is inserted in the clause indicating the standard of comparison, when it is implied that the circumstance qualified by μâλλov is to be rejected or negatived in comparison with that to which it stands in contrast. Accordingly this idiom is generally found when the comparative clause is negative or interrogative, or contains some term of reprobation. Herod. IV. 118: ἥκει ὁ Πέρσης οὐδέν τι μᾶλλον ἐπ ̓ ἡμέας ἢ οὐ καὶ ἐπ ̓ ὑμέας, “the Persian is come against us not a whit

more, as compared with the manner or degree in which he has not also come against you." Xen. Hellen. vi. 3, § 15: тí ovv deî ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον ἀναμένειν, ἕως ἂν ὑπὸ πλήθους κακῶν ἀπείπωμεν, μᾶλλον ἢ οὐχ ὡς τάχιστα εἰρήνην ποιήσασθαι; “why should we wait until we are worn out by the multitude of our misfortunes, rather than (why should we) not make peace as soon as possible?" Thucyd. III. 36: ὠμὸν τὸ βούλευμα πόλιν ὅλην διαφθεῖραι μᾶλλον ἢ οὐ τοὺς αἰτίους, " that the resolve was savage to destroy a whole city, rather than not (in colloquial English “rather nor") the guilty persons,” so that it is really equivalent to μάλλον πόλιν ὅλην καὶ οὐ μᾶλλον τοὺς αἰτίους οι οὐ τοὺς αἰτίους μόνον ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ὅλην Tóλiv (cf. (j)). In Aristot. Eth. Nic. IV. 1, § 9, we find κaì pậov δὲ τὸ μὴ λαμβάνειν τοῦ δοῦναι· τὸ γὰρ οἰκεῖον ἧττον προϊενται μᾶλλον ἢ οὐ λαμβάνουσι τὸ ἀλλότριον, where the οὐ has its proper force, and this idiom is only apparent; for the meaning is, “people find it easier to abstain from receiving, than to give what they already have; for they less readily part with their own property, than they fail in receiving what belongs to somebody else."

§ X. The Superlative Degree.

416 The main distinction between the comparative and superlative adjective in Greek consists in this, that, while the comparative and superlative may both express the degree in which the quality is possessed by the subject simply, as yeλolóτepós Tis,

a somewhat ridiculous man;" kaλλíσтη yvvý, “a very beautiful woman" the comparative always presumes or expresses a relation to some standard of comparison from which the subject is for the time separated, and the superlative implies that the subject, to which this highest degree of a quality is attributed, forms the last term of a series containing all the lower degrees, so that the Greek superlative may sometimes be connected with a genitive plural, denoting a class of things to which the subject could not belong. This occasionally produces an apparent contradiction when we apply the English idiom, which often coincides with the Greek in the use of the superlative, to those special cases, where the English always reverts to the comparative. For example, Herod. IV. 142, κακίστους καὶ ἀνανδροτάτους κρίνουσιν εἶναι ἁπάντων ἀνθρώπων, may be rendered literally, "they judge them to be the basest and most cowardly of all men." But when Thucydides says (I. 1)

of the Peloponnesian war, that he expected it to be ağıwλoywτaτOV Tŵν πρoyevnμévwv, we cannot render this "most worthy of mention of all those that had gone before it," for the present and future do not, according to our view, admit of classification with the past: but we must either translate, "a war most worthy of mention of the long series of wars preceding and ending with it," or "worthy of mention in the highest degree, if compared with the previous wars," which is much the same as "more worthy of mention than its forerunners." Similarly when Eschylus makes Atossa say (Pers. 180) that the two visionary women, whom she saw in her dream, were μεγέθει τῶν νῦν εὐπρεπεστάτα πολύ, we cannot render this "most conspicuous in stature of those who now exist," for they obviously did not exist; but we must either translate it. conspicuous in stature in the highest degree, if compared with existing women," or "more conspicuous in stature than any living

women.”

The following usages of the Greek superlative are most deserving of notice:

(aa) The genitive, which follows the superlative, may denote not the class or series to which the subject belongs, but some other standard of comparison suggested by the sentence; thus Plat. Gorg. p. 461 Ε: τῆς Ἑλλάδος πλείστη ἐστὶν ἐξουσία τοῦ λέγειν 'Alnmow, "there is a liberty of speech at Athens in the highest degree as compared with the rest of Greece." Dem. de Coron. § 78: σίτῳ πάντων ἀνθρώπων πλείστῳ οἱ ̓Αθηναῖοι χρῶνται ἐπεισάκτῳ, "the Athenians consume imported corn to the largest amount as compared with the rest of the world." Xen. Symp. VII. 40: oŵμa ἀξιοπρεπέστατον ἰδεῖν τῆς πόλεως ἔχεις, “ you have a person stately in the highest degree as compared with (the other persons in) the city."

(bb) As in the comparative (415, (dd)), so in the superlative we may use the reflexive pronoun to indicate the standard of comparison, when we wish to contrast the highest with the usual condition of a person or thing; as Plat. Leg. p. 715 D: véos v πᾶς ἄνθρωπος τὰ τοιαῦτα ἀμβλύτατα αὐτὸς αὑτοῦ ὁρᾷ, “ when young, every man is at his dullest with regard to seeing such things.” Xen. Mem. 1. 2, § 46: εἴθε σοι τότε συνεγενόμην ὅτε δεινότατος σαυτοῦ ταῦτα ἦσθα, “I wish I had enjoyed your society at the time when you were at your cleverest in these things."