Chapter 140

THE NUMERALS.

§ 470. The numeral _one_ is naturally single. All the rest are naturally plural.

Nevertheless such expressions--_one two_ ( = _one collection of two_), _two threes_ ( = _two collections of three_) are legitimate. These are so, because the sense of the word is changed. We may talk of several _ones_ just as we may talk of several _aces_; and of _one two_ just as of _one pair_.

Expressions like _the thousand-and-first_ are incorrect. They mean neither one thing nor another: 1001st being expressed by _the thousand-and-first_, and 1000th + 1st being expressed by _the thousandth and the first_.

Here it may be noticed that, although I never found it to do so, the word _odd_ is capable of taking an ordinal form. The _thousand-and-odd-th_ is as good an expression as the _thousand-and-eight-th_.

The construction of phrases like the _thousand-and-first_ is the same construction as we find in the _king of Saxony's army_.

§ 471. It is by no means a matter of indifference whether we say the _two first_ or the _first two_.

The captains of two different classes at school should be called the _two first boys_. The first and second boys of the same class should be called the _first two boys_. I believe that when this rule is attended to, more is due to the printer than to the author: such, at least, is the case with myself.

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