major and minor:  as, The elder’s advice,—­One of the elders,—­His betters,—­Our superiors,—­The interior of the country,—­A handsome exterior,—­Your seniors,—­My juniors,—­A major in the army,—­He is yet a minor.  The word other, which has something of the nature of a comparative, likewise takes the form of a noun, as before suggested; and, in that form, the reader, if he will, may call it a noun:  as, “What do ye more than others?”—­Bible.  “God in thus much is bounded, that the evil hath he left unto an other; and that Dark Other hath usurped the evil which Omnipotence laid down.”—­Tupper’s Book of Thoughts, p. 45.  Some call it a pronoun.  But it seems to be pronominal, merely by ellipsis of the noun after it; although, unlike a mere adjective, it assumes the ending of the noun, to mark that ellipsis.  Perhaps therefore, the best explanation of it would be this:  “’Others is a pronominal adjective, having the form of a noun, and put for other men; in the third person, plural number, masculine gender, and nominative case.”  The gender of this word varies, according to that of the contrasted term; and the case, according to the relation it bears to other words.  In the following example, it is neuter and objective:  “The fibres of this muscle act as those of others.”—­Cheyne.  Here, “as those of others,” means, “as the fibres of other muscles.”

OBS. 16.—­“Comparatives and superlatives seem sometimes to part with their relative nature, and only to retain their intensive, especially those which are formed by the superlative adverb most; as, ’A most learned man,’—­’A most brave man:’  i. e. not the bravest or the most learned man that ever was, but a man possessing bravery or learning in a very eminent degree.”—­See Alexander Murray’s Gram., p. 110.  This use of the terms of comparison is thought by some not to be very grammatical.

OBS. 17.—­Contractions of the superlative termination est, as high’st for highest, bigg’st for biggest, though sometimes used by the poets, are always inelegant, and may justly be considered grammatically improper.  They occur most frequently in doggerel verse, like that of Hudibras; the author of which work, wrote, in his droll fashion, not only the foregoing monosyllables, but learned’st for most learned, activ’st for most active, desperat’st for most desperate, epidemical’st for most epidemical, &c.

   “And th’ activ’st fancies share as loose alloys,
    For want of equal weight to counterpoise.”—­Butler’s Poems.

    “Who therefore finds the artificial’st fools
    Have not been chang’d i th’ cradle, but the schools.”—­Ib., p. 143.