In the classical languages we have the same forms. 1. in _uter_, _neuter_, _alter_, [Greek: poteros], [Greek: leptoteros]. 2. In the adverb _magis_, Lat. In Bohemian and Polish, _-ssj_ and _-szy_ correspond with the Sanskrit forms _-[^i]yas_. Thus we collect, that, expressive of the comparative degree, there are two parallel forms; _viz._, the form in _tr_, and the form in _s_; of which one is the most in use in one language, and the other in another. s. 311. Before we consider the Gothic forms of the comparative, it may be advisable to note two changes to which it is liable. 1. The change of _s_ into _r_; the Latin word _meliorem_ being supposed to have been originally _meliosem_, and the _s_ in _nigrius_, _firmius_, &c., being considered not so much the sign of the neuter gender as the old comparative _s_ in its oldest form. 2. The ejection of _t_, as in the Latin words _inferus_, _superus_, compared with the Greek [Greek: leptoteros] (_leptoteros_). {264} s. 312. Now, of the two parallel forms, the Gothic one was the form _s_; the words _other_ and _whether_ only preserving the form _tr_. And here comes the application of the remarks that have just gone before. The vast majority of our comparatives end in _r_, and so seem to come from _tr_ rather than from _s_. This, however, is not the case. The _r_ in words like _sweeter_ is derived, not from _tar_--_t_, but from _s_, changed into _r_. In Moeso-Gothic the comparative ended in _s_ (_z_); in Old High German the _s_ has become _r_: Moeso-Gothic _aldiza_, _batiza_, _sutiza_; Old High German, _altiro_, _betsiro_, _suatsiro_; English, _older_, _better_, _sweeter_. The importance of a knowledge of the form in _s_ is appreciated when we learn that, even in the present English, there are vestiges of it. s. 313. _Comparison of adverbs._--_The sun shines bright._--Herein the word _bright_ means _brightly_; and although the use of the latter word would have been the more elegant, the expression is not ungrammatical; the word _bright_ being looked upon as an adjectival adverb. _The sun shines to-day brighter than it did yesterday, and to-morrow it will shine brightest._--Here also the sense is adverbial; from whence we get the fact, that adverbs take degrees of comparison.