Do we compare with - or to?

The Court of Peeves, Crotchets & Irks resumes its April assizes withthe pet peeve of Arthur W. Holst of Woodstock, Va. He is irked bythe misuse of "to compare" and asks the court to set everyonestraight.

The court, which has tried for 50 years to master "to comprise"without success, will do its best with "to compare." As thepetitioner rightly suggests, the problem lies not so much with theverb as it lies with the preposition that follows the verb.Sometimes we compare to, and sometimes we compare with, and the courturges all writers to take proper notes.

When our purpose is to emphasize similarities, the better choiceis almost always to. Thus in Sonnet 18, …