with respect to person, subject, or predicate; the insertion or repetition of them, diversity.

Note 6. The word to which a or an refers must always be expressed; that to which one refers may be understood. Pointing to books, we can not say, "Give me a or an;" but we may say, "Give me one."

Note 7. When the meaning of a term is general, it should not be limited by the use of the article; as, "Man is born to trouble," that is, "all men." "God Almighty has given reason to a man, to be a light to him." The article here should be suppressed. "Who breaks a butterfly upon wheel?" It is not any wheel that Pope meant, but a known instrument of torture, or "the wheel."

SYNTAX OF THE ARTICLE "THE."

§ 469. RULE XIV.-The Article THE, called the Definite Article, is used before nouns, both in the Singular and Plural number, to specify and define their meaning; as, "The President;""the Senate ;"" the Representatives."

Note 1. The omission of this article, when the sense is restricted, creates ambiguity; as, "All words which are signs of complex ideas furnish matter of mistake." This may mean either that all words are signs of complex ideas, and furnish matter of mistake, or that such a part of them as are the signs of complex ideas furnish matter of mistake. The ambiguity is removed by the use of the article; as, "All the words which are signs of complex ideas furnish matter of mistake."

Note 2. The Definite article is likewise used to distinguish between things which are individually different, but have one generic name, and things which are, in truth, one and the same, but are characterized by several qualities: "The red and white roses were most admired." It may be doubtful whether two kinds of roses are here indicated, or roses with two colors. By repeating the article the ambiguity is removed: "The red and the white roses." In this phraseology two kinds of roses are indicated. The expression, "The ec clesiastical and secular powers concurred in this measure," is ambiguous so far as language can make it so. By repeating the article or varying the phraseology the ambiguity is re

moved: "The ecclesiastical and the secular powers;" or "the ecclesiastical powers and the secular;" or "the ecclesiastical powers and the secular powers."

It

Note 3. When an additional epithet or description of the same subject is intended, the Definite article should not be employed. For this reason the following sentence is faulty: "The Apostle James, the son of Zebedee and the brother of St. John, would be declared the Apostle of the Britons." should be "and brother of St. John." When a diversity of persons or a change of subject is intended to be expressed, the definite article is necessarily employed; as, "Cincinnatus the Dictator, and the master of the horse, marched against the Equi." Were the article omitted, the expression would imply that the dictator and the master of the horse were one and the same individual.

Note 4. In general, it may be sufficient to prefix the Article, whether definite or indefinite, to the former of two words in the same construction; as, "There were many hours both of the night and day which he could spend without suspicion in solitary thought." It might have been of the night and of the day. And, for the sake of emphasis, we often repeat the article in a series of epithets; as, "He hoped that this title would secure him an ample and an independent authority." The article is repeated before titles ; as, "The Honorable the Lord Mayor."

Note 5. The Definite article gives energy and precision when applied to Comparatives and Superlatives: "The more frequently I see him, the more I respect him."

Note 6. As Proper names are already determinate, they do not admit the article, except, 1. When a particular family is distinguished; as, "He was a Stuart," or "of the family of the Stuarts." 2. When eminence is implied; as, “A Brutus," meaning a patriotic person. 3. When a Common name

is understood; as, "The (river) Hudson."

Note 7. The use of the Definite article before the relative which, has become obsolete: "Where there was a garden, into the which he entered."-John, xviii., 1.

Note 8. Formerly, to express death in general, authors would say the death: "I will not do it to the death."

Shakspeare. So expressions like "the Douglas," "the Lady
Anne," were in use.

Note 9. Articles often precede quotations from foreign lan guages; as," The yvw0i σeavτóv;" "A ne plus ultra."

Note 10. As showing the value of the Article in giving definiteness, the following phrase may be cited from the Latin language, which has no article. Filius regis is suscepti ble of four different meanings: A son of a king; a son of the king; the son of a king; the son of the king.

PROMISCUOUS EXAMPLES OF THE PROPER AND IM
PROPER USE OF THE ARTICLES.

§ 470. "And the Pharisees and Scribes murmured." The should be inserted before "Scribes," to signify that they were a class distinct from the Pharisees.

"Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of Truth, shall come, he will guide you into all truth." The passage should have run, all the truth, that is, the truth concerning the Christian religion.

"There are few words in the English language which are employed in a more loose and circumscribed sense than those of the fancy and the imagination."-Spectator. The words those of the are worse than superfluous.

"If I but stretch this hand,

I heave the gods, the ocean, and the land!"-POPE.

The objects here are distinct, and are properly marked as such by the repetition of the definite article.

"A cool head, an unfeeling heart, and a cowardly disposition prompted him, at the age of nineteen, to assume the mask of hypocrisy, which he never laid aside." The repetition of the article distinctly marks the three properties in Augustus which Gibbon wished his readers to notice.

"But the great triumphs of modern ingenuity and art are those astronomical clocks and watches, in which the counted vibrations of a pendulum or balance-wheel have detected periodical inequalities even in the motion of the earth itself."Arnot's Physics. A pendulum is not a balance-wheel. The

distinction should have been marked by the insertion of the article a before the word balance-wheel.

"And the contention was so great among them, that they departed asunder one from another."—Acts, xv., 39. As Paul and Barnabas only are here spoken of, the word an is improperly used for the.

"Surely this was the Son of God." To express the thought of the centurion, who was a believer in a plurality of Gods, the expression should be, "Surely this was a Son of a God." The article ó is not in the Greek.

COLLOCATION.

§ 471. The articles are placed before words to which they are applied, except the Adjectives all, such, many, and those that are preceded by the words too, so, as, how; as, "All the men;" such a man," &c. See § 459, 462.

EXERCISES IN THE SYNTAX OF THE ADJECTIVE.

§ 472. RULE V.-To Christian nations belong the exclusive cultivation of learning and science, and the assiduous advancement of every useful and ornamental art. C. S. 1. Beautiful June has come: June is beautiful. C. S. 2. To calumniate is detestable; to be generous is commendable. C. S.

3. No such original Convention of the people was ever held antecedent to the existence of Civil Government. C. S.

4. I never met with a closer grained wood. C. S.
5. He described a beautiful young lady. C. S.
6. Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring. C. S.
7. If she is not one of the immortals, she is like them. C. S.
8. He enjoys the goods of fortune with a grateful heart.

C. S.

9. Having leaped the stone wall, he drank spring water C. S.

10. He is the strongest of the two, but not the wisest. F. S. He is the wisest of men. C. S.

11. I understood him the best of all others that spoke on the subject. F. S.

He was graver than the other Frenchmen.

C. S.

12. His work was perfect, his brother's more perfect, and his father's the most perfect of all. F. S.

one.

It is more easier to build two chimneys than to maintain
F. S.

13. You had scarce gone when he arrived. F. S.
The Tutor addressed him in terms rather warm, but suit
ably to his offense. F. S.

14. To be trifling in youth is a bad omen. F. S. § 473. RULE VI.-These sort of actions injure society. F. S.

Those kind of injuries bring with them an appropriate pun ishment. F. S.

1. Frugality is one mean of acquiring a competency. F. S.

2. I have not been in Washington this five years. C. S. RULE VII.-Each of them in their turn receive the benefits to which they are entitled. F. S.

1. Every person, whatever be their station, is bound to obey the laws of morality. F. S.

2. Are either of those men worthy of public confidence? F. S.

3. Neither of those men are aware that their opinions are false. F. S.

RULE VIII.-Many daughters have done virtuously. C.S. RULE IX.-Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. C. S.

§ 474. No religion is better than the Mohammedan. (State each of the two meanings which this ambiguous sentence may express.)

RULE X.-One man esteemeth one day above another.

C. S.

RULE XI.-There were six pair of doves. C. S.

RULE XII.-They came and departed by twos. C. S.
RULE XIII.-I have traveled through a beautiful valley.

C. S.

1. They visit the North once a year. 2. He will come in a few hours.

C. S.

C. S.