Does "struck the harder" mean... 1) or 2)?

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1) "struck the harder" means "struck more fiercely"
2) it means "struck the harder-minded opponents"

Context:

of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic
aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I
freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.' Creationists gleefully
quote this sentence again and again. Needless to say, they never
quote what follows. Darwin's fulsomely free confession turned out
to be a rhetorical device. He was drawing his opponents towards
him so that his punch, when it came, struck the harder. The punch,
of course, was Darwin's effortless explanation of exactly how the
eye evolved by gradual degrees. Darwin may not have used the
phrase 'irreducible complexity', or 'the smooth gradient up Mount
Improbable', but he clearly understood the principle of both.
'What is the use of half an eye?' and 'What is the use of half a

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Type: Question • Score: 5 • Views: 571 • Replies: 11

[+3] - McTag - 05/27/2014 Yes, but there's more to it. It's a more elegant phrase: I did not succeed at first, which only made me try all the harder.

View best answer, chosen by oristarA

The first.

Joe(Look up 'sucker punch')Nation

1 Reply

@Joe Nation,

Joe Nation wrote:

The first.

Joe(Look up 'sucker punch')Nation

Can we just use "struck harder"?

1 Reply

It's a comparison to what might have been, so 'struck harder' is okay, but 'struck even harder..' might be better.

It's a great analogy. Picture your boxing opponent avoiding your sweeping left hand only to be met with your right, square on his jaw.

Joe(poor creationist!)Nation

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@oristarA,

Yes, but there's more to it. It's a more elegant phrase:

I did not succeed at first, which only made me try all the harder.

1 Reply

@McTag,

"Whoso beset him round
With dismal stories
Do but themselves confound
His strength the more is"

Hymn- To Be A Pilgrim

2 Replies

@McTag,

In other words, this construction describes a kind of intensifier. Because of one action or event, the resulting action is greater.

...I tried all the harder
...I loved her all the more

1 Reply

@McTag,

McTag wrote:

Because of one action or event, the resulting action is greater.

This is the essence of it: we use 'the' before a comparative adverb or adjective to link a cause and an effect. We can use 'all' 'any' or 'more' as modifiers:

Oh! What big eyes you have, Grandma!" said Little Red Riding Hood. "All the better to see you with", said the wolf.

The robbery was all the more distressing because the robbers broke up a lot of our furniture.

Sunday mornings were all the more enjoyable because Susie used to come around to breakfast.

That murder attempt made it all the more important to seek police protection.

He doesn’t seem to be any the better for his experience.

He explained everything carefully, but I was none the wiser.

1 Reply

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

This is the essence of it: we use 'the' before a comparative adverb or adjective to link a cause and an effect. We can use 'all' 'any' or 'more' as modifiers:

Oh! What big eyes you have, Grandma!" said Little Red Riding Hood. "All the better to see you with", said the wolf.

Sunday mornings were all the more enjoyable because Susie used to come around to breakfast.

Good stuff.
Two questions:
1)"see you with" means "see you with the big eyes"?
2) "to come around" means "to wake up"?

1 Reply

@oristarA,

Quote:

Two questions:
1)"see you with" means "see you with the big eyes"?
2) "to come around" means "to wake up"?

1. Yes (?). It means I've got big eyes now, so I can see (you) better. It's from a fairy tale.

2. No. To come around, in this case, means to visit. She came round to their house to have breakfast with them.

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@McTag,

McTag wrote:

"Whoso beset him round
With dismal stories
Do but themselves confound
His strength the more is"

Hymn- To Be A Pilgrim

I tried to understand the poem as:
Whoever (suppose it is Joe) uses bleak stories to confuse him, (Joe) himself is confused - the worse, the more strength Joe has, the more he's confused.
Am I on the right track?

1 Reply

@oristarA,

I don't think so. Read the whole hymn:

Who would true valour see,
Let him come hither;
One here will constant be,
Come wind, come weather.
There’s no discouragement
Shall make him once relent
His first avowed intent
To be a pilgrim.

Whoso beset him round
With dismal stories
Do but themselves confound;
His strength the more is.
No lion can him fright,
He’ll with a giant fight,
He will have a right
To be a pilgrim.

Hobgoblin nor foul fiend
Can daunt his spirit,
He knows he at the end
Shall life inherit.
Then fancies fly away,
He’ll fear not what men say,
He’ll labour night and day
To be a pilgrim.

The language is old-fashioned, and poetic in style, but its meaning should be fairly clear to you at this stage.

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Does "struck the harder" mean... 1) or 2)?

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