as best we felt able?

[thetazuo]

This sentence is from The Scole Report:

Then, after complying as best we felt able with Manu's request to pass the energies mentally anti-clockwise(usually it is clockwise when there are no visitors, we were told)...

What does "as best we felt able" mean here? Same as "as best we can"?

Thank you.

 

[Thomas Tompion]

This (as best subject-verb) is quite a contentious point of grammar, but is very old and regarded by many as acceptable - here's a discussion on it - Source.

In your sentence, Thetazuo, as best we felt able means as well as we felt we could.

I'm entirely happy with as best we felt able, but I wouldn't be with the other phrase discussed in that article, as best as we felt able.

 

[thetazuo]

This (as best subject-verb) is quite a contentious point of grammar, but is very old and regarded by many as acceptable - here's a discussion on it - Source.

In your sentence, Thetazuo, as best we felt able mean as well as we felt we could.

I'm entirely happy with as best we felt able, but I wouldn't be with the other phrase discussed in that article, as best as we felt able.

Thank you. So although many consider "as best one can" ungrammatical, this usage is widely accepted. So is "as best we felt able" just another version of "as best we can" and both of them mean the same thing?

 

[Thomas Tompion]

Thank you. So although many consider "as best one can" ungrammatical, this usage is widely accepted. So is "as best we felt able" just another version of "as best we can" and both of them mean the same thing?

There actually little point in declaring ungrammatical a usage which dates back to the 14th century.

As best we felt able means as best we felt we could - you've altered the tense, Thetazuo.

 

[thetazuo]

There actually little point in declaring ungrammatical a usage which dates back to the 14th century.

As best we felt able means as best we felt we could - you've altered the tense, Thetazuo.

Thank you. I meant to say "as best we could", my mistake. So dropping "we felt", "as best we were able" is "as best we could" are the same, right?