So justly as was never," is a positive degree that is not imaginable; and what is this but an absurdity?
When the positive contains but one syllable, the degrees are usually formed by adding er or est.
The common usage is, to construe the positive with as, the comparative with than, and the superlative with of.
What the state of our literature would have been, had no author attempted any thing on English grammar, must of course be a matter of mere conjecture, and not of any positive "conviction.
But, when the positive contains more than two syllables, the degrees must be formed by the use of more and most.
Again: "The superlative degree increases or diminishes the positive to the highest or [the] lowest degree of which it is susceptible.
This idea may be plausibly maintained, though it is certain that the positive term referred to, is seldom, if ever, allowed to appear.
Perspicuity, being the most important property of language, and an exemption from the most embarrassing defects, seems even to rise to a degree of positive beauty.
We are born with appetites which are static and unchangeable, but we are also born with a yearning for pleasure which is almost aspositive as an appetite and only needs cultivation to become equally imperative.
One thing I am positive about is that the journey can be taken in absolute safety.
His shilly-shallying unnerved Mary; positive desertion would have been easier to bear.
The coolness between her sisters and herself had, from no fault of hers, developed into positive anger.
This was better than the positive dislike with which she had once inspired him.
A greater misery than indifference to the amusement in which one seeks to take part, which Hamerton counts as the most wearisome of all things, is positive dislike for the work one is bound to do.
Lady Kingsborough had very positive ideas upon the subject of her children's education, and by insisting upon adherence to them she made Mary's task doubly hard.
In consequence of the positive evidence of these two men the jury gave their verdict in favour of General Wadsworth's claim, with damages to the amount of L50.
He yielded because he had a positive wish to adjust himself, as far as possible, to her wishes.
Among women she liked the positive qualities--courage, brilliance, achievement; but among men she seemed to have selected those who needed a strong controlling hand upon their destiny.
What follows is more obscure; and it is on the ensuing transactions that I venture to pronounce, that we have little or no authority on which to form positive conclusions.
Its most marked characteristic was the positive hatred which glowed in the sharp, pale-blue eyes.
The only reliable witness we had as to events in Tomlin's place was a commercial traveler, and he is positive that the house closed at ten o'clock.
She was some hundreds of yards away, and could not be positive that some man, perhaps a glazier, had not been there legitimately effecting repairs.
The subtle malignancy of that well-timed outburst was proof positive in that respect.
But the result was, that Lucy refused him in the most positive manner, then and for always.
Had there beenpositive evidence, not negative, of the abstraction of the leaf from the register, had the register itself afforded such, the aspect of affairs would have been very different.
Again the dean was positive that he was going in the wrong direction, and now he did not hesitate to interfere.
He was so positivethat he had really seen what he had seen, that no one could move him from this conviction.
The old gray-streaked cat was positive that the gray rats would bite him to death, since they were coming into the castle in such great numbers, and he scolded the black rats incessantly.
At first he thought that he was dreaming, but now he was positive that he had not fallen asleep.
The mistress was so positive he knew where Per Ola was, that she rushed after him.
Let it again be reiterated that this binding of the surface enrichment to the structure by means of the coincidence of the axes of symmetry and the inceptive axes causes the most positive kind of unity.
Sidenote: Dominant Hue] Figure 463 is typical of still another form of positive hue grouping.
First, why should it be enriched--is there a positive gain by so doing?
Some of my spokes may be blinds and until I know something positive there's no use in worrying you with confidences which are merely surmises.
The evidence at hand indicates that he did, but I want positive proof.
I don't want you to tell me whom you suspect, but when you can lay before me a positive accusation, backed by facts that can be proven, I'll take up the case and see that the lawbreaker is vigorously prosecuted.
The positive flame becoming pointed explains the fact that this will drive a small fan wheel, while a negative flame will only just move it.
If the manganese is converted into the soluble double salt, prepared by adding an excess of potassium, and submitted to the electric current, the whole of the manganese will be deposited at the positive electrode.
When charged with positiveelectricity the flame became more blue, narrower, and pointed at the top, while little or nothing of the result was observed in negative flames.
During the electrolytic decomposition, a separation of the peroxide was observed at the positive electrode, which, however, slowly disappeared.
The experiments of the author have been principally directed to the alterations in shape and color produced in a flame when under the influence of positive or negative electricity.
In both cases the characteristic coloration from permanganic acid is developed by the action of the current at the positive pole; this, however, disappears in the direction of the negative electrode.
This contact piece is connected with the positive pole of a voltaic battery, the negative pole of which is in communication with a commutator on the signal post, from which a wire leads to the ground.
This phenomenon explains why a positive flame will burn through wire gauze, while a negative flame remains below the gauze.
There is, it will have to be admitted, little of a positive character that can be done toward the installation of a régime of peace and good-will.
Stated from the positive side it would be freedom from restraint by or obedience to any authority not constituted by express advice and consent of the governed.
Now if you would take my advice, I know this will not oblige his wife; and, besides, I am positive she resolves to go with him.
This conversation past at a little distance, and out of the hearing of the supposed Amelia; when Booth, looking stedfastly at the lady, declared with an oath that he was positive the colonel was in the right.
Is not such a man guilty of the highest ingratitude to that most beneficent Being, by a direct and avowed disobedience of his most positive laws and commands?
Indeed, he is one of the best economists in the world: but yet I am positive he never was at any time possessed of five hundred pound, since he hath been a man.
When I praised the British Constitution, and wished it to be well studied, I did not mean that its exterior form and positive arrangement should become a model for you or for any people servilely to copy.
Their negative declaration obliges me to have recourse to the books which contain positive doctrines.
But such constructive whole, residing in a part only, is one of the most violent fictions of positive law that ever has been or can be made on the principles of artificial incorporation.
Such, indeed, every commonwealth must be, without a positive law to recognize in a certain number the will of the entire body.
He meant to demonstrate that the French scheme was not a comparative good, but a positive evil.
This is an impregnable citadel, to which these gentlemen retreat, whenever they are pushed by the battery of laws and usages and positive conventions.
The countenance given from a spirit of controversy to that negative religion may by degrees encourage light and unthinking people to a total indifference to everything positivein matters of doctrine, and, in the end, of practice too.
Now let us fairly see what course has been taken relative to those against whom, in part at least, the king has sworn to maintain a church, positive in its doctrine and its discipline.
In short, the Germanic body is a vast mass of heterogeneous states, held together by that heterogeneous body of old principles which formed the public law positive and doctrinal.
Habits of life such as lodgings of the kind now common among London workmen foster and encourage are a positive danger to the whole of society.
The chairman of the local committee was, as I thought, appointed as a positive obstructer of sanitary measures; at all events he acted as such.
This enabled the hunter to keep closer to his work and not travel long distances, when furs were prime, for some positive requirement, such as the replacing of a broken gun.
I questioned a couple of hunters (brothers) this summer, as to the results of their hunting adventures of the past season, and as I wanted to find out their positive net gains, I got the following figures from them.
I have tried both and I say for division of labor, for good comradeship and for positive safety select and join fortune with "A Good Pard.
She saw how useless it was to try to build a theory without at least one positive fact to go on.
During the fifteen months since his arrest he had been either too busy, or too anxious, or too sorely puzzled at finding himself in so odd a position, to have leisure for positive anger.
But by the 11th the Boers had brought their guns nearer, had found the range, and were becoming a positive nuisance to quiet citizens.
To them incarnation was a positive fact, and death was simply a change of residence.
Mastin in regard to this case, which he considers the most positive evidence of a case of maternal impression that he has ever met.
A second medical opinion confirmed the first, and the tenth month found her of immense size and still positive as to her condition.
About the first half of the eighteenth century what might be called the positive period of teratology begins.
The doctor was evidently anxious to give all the information in his power, but was positive that he had never been exposed to any sexual risk, and as he had retired from practice, no possibility of infection in that manner existed.
The regatta is over, and Nadar’s balloon is in the sky, but seeming no bigger than other balloons, so soon does the mind fail to appreciatepositive size when the object you look at is seen alone.
Permanent and positive good may have been done by the reading of their contents; at any rate, they opened up conversation, gave scope to courteous intercourse, often leading to kinder interest.
Is the positive piggery of the lowest stratum of our fellows part of the price we pay for glorious freedom as guaranteed by our “British Constitution”?
Then for a time I would resolutely insist upon attention—every moment of slumber being a positive wandering from the course; but no, the outer self that demands a nap will not be denied by the inner nobler self that commands alertness.
Is there not a “cant” of the vague and complacent denial, quite as bad as that of the toopositive and assumed belief?
I am not positive that I entirely succeeded in suppressing my laugh.
Captain Mason had not observed it, lacking my opportunity, and I decided to be more positive and to find evidence before laying the matter before him.
Moreover it should be remembered that the Ash`arite discriminate between positive and existent on the one hand, and non-existent and negative on the other.
There is certainly a relation between the existent and the non-existent, but there is absolutely no relation between the positive and the negative.
