"From these various causes, which in greater or _lesser_ degree,
affected every individual in the colony, the indignation of the people
became general."--Robertson's _History of America_.

"The _extremest_ parts of the earth were meditating a submission."
--Atterbury's _Sermons_.

"The last are indeed _more preferable_ because they are founded on some new
knowledge or improvement in the mind of man."--Addison, _Spectator_.

"This was in reality the _easiest_ manner of the two."--Shaftesbury's
_Advice to an Author_.

"In every well formed mind this second desire seems to be the _strongest_
of the two."--Smith's _Theory of Moral Sentiments_.

In these examples the superlative is wrongly used for the comparative.
When only two objects are compared the comparative form must be used.

Of impossibility there are no degrees of comparison, yet we find the
following:

"As it was impossible they should know the words, thoughts and secret
actions of all men, so it was _more impossible_ they should pass judgment
on them according to these things."--Whitby's _Necessity of the Christian
Religion_.

A great number of authors employ adjectives for adverbs. Thus we find: