Example: "Man was made for society, and ought to extend his good will to all men: but a man will naturally entertain a more particular kindness for the men with whom he has the most frequent intercourse; and enter into a still closer union with the man whose temper and disposition suit best with his own."

It is of the nature of both the articles to determine or limit the thing spoken of: a determines it to be one single thing of the kind, leaving it still uncertain which; the determines which it is, or, of many, which they are. The first, therefore, can only be joined to substantives in the singular number; the last may also be joined to plurals.

There is a remarkable exception to this rule in the use of the adjectives few and many, (the latter chiefly with the word great before it,) which though joined with plural Substantives, yet admit of the singular Article a: as a few men, a great many men.

"Told of a many thousand warlike French :"
"A care eraz'd mother of a many children."
Shakespear.

The reason of it is manifest from the effect which the ar

very properly renders it: that is, like an Angel; according to Nebuchadnezzar's own account of it in the 28th verse: "Blessed be God, who hath sent his Angel, and delivered his servants." See also Luke, xix. 9.

"Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" Pope.

It ought to be, the wheel; used as an instrument for the particular pose of torturing Criminals; as Shakespear:

"Let them pull all about mine ears; present me

Death on the wheel, or at wild horses' heels."

pur

"God Almighty hath, given reason to a man to be a light unto him.” Hobbes, Elements of Law, Part I. Chap. v. 12. It should rather be, "to man," in general.

"A good character should not be rested in as an end, but employed as a means of doing still further good." Atterbury, Serm, II. 3. Ought it not to be a mean?" I have read an author of this taste, that compares a ragged coin to a tatterred colours." Addison, Dial. I. on Medals.

ticle has in these phrases: it means a small or great number collectively taken, and therefore gives the idea of a Whole, that is, of unity. Thus likewise a hundred, a thousand, is one whole number, an aggregate of many collectively taken; and therefore still retains the Article a, though joined as an adjective to a plural Substantive; as, a hundred years.

"For harbour at a thousand doors they knock'd;
Not one of all the thousand, but was lock'd."

Dryden.

The Definite Article the is sometimes applied to Adverbs in the Comparative and Superlative degree; and its effect is to mark the degree the more strongly, and to define it the more precisely: as, "the more I examine it, the better I like it. I like this the least of any."

SUBSTANTIVE.

A SUBSTANTIVE, or NOUN, is the Name of a thing; of whatever we conceive in any way to subsist, or of which we have any notion.

Substantives are of two sorts; Proper and Common Names. Proper Names are the Names appropriated to individuals; as the names of persons and places: such are George, London. Common Names stand for kinds, containing many sorts; or for sorts containing many individuals under them; as Animal, Man. And these Common Names, whether of kinds or sorts, are applied to express individuals, by the help of Articles added to them, as hath been already shown; and by the help of Definitive Pronouns, as we shall see hereafter.

Proper Names being the names of individuals, and therefore of things already as determinate as they can be made, admit not of Articles, or of Plurality of Number; unless by a Figure, or by Accident: as, when great Conquerors are called Alexanders; and some great Conqueror

An

An Alexander, or The Alexander of his Age: when a Common Name is understood, as The Thames, that is, the River Thames: The George, that is, the Sign of St. George: or when it happens, that there are many persons of the same name: as, The two Scipios.

Whatever is spoken of is represented as one, or more, in Number: these two manners of representation in respect of Number are called the Singular, and the Plural, Number.

sary

In English, the Substantive Singular is made Plural, for the most part, by adding to it s; or es, where it is necesfor the pronunciation: as king, kings; fox, foxes ; leaf, leaves; in which last, and many others, f is also changed into, for the sake of an easier pronunciation, and more agreeable sound.

Some few Plurals end in en; as, oxen, children, brethren, and men, women, by changing the a of the Singular into e*. This form we have retained from the Teutonic; as likewise the introduction of the e in the former svilable of two of the last instances; weomen, (for so we pronounce it,) brethren, from woman, brother: something like which may be noted in some other forms of Plurals: as, mouse, mice; louse, lice; tooth, teeth; foot, feet; goose, geesė. The words sheep, deer, are the same in both Numbers. Some Nouns, from the nature of the things which they express, are used only in the Singular others only in the Plural, Form: as, wheat, pitch, gold, sloth, pride, &c. and bellows, scissars, lungs, bowels, &c.

The English Language, to express different connexions and relations of one thing to another, uses for the most part, Prepositions. The Greek and Latin among the ancient, and some too among the modern languages, as the

And anciently, eyen, shoen, housen, hosen: so likewise anciently sowen, cowen, now always pronounced and written swine, kine.

German,

German, vary the termination or ending of the Substantive, to answer the same purpose. These different endings are in those languages called cases. And the English being derived from the same origin as the German, that is, from the Teutonic, is not wholly without them. For instance, the relation of Possession, or Belonging, is often expressed by a case, or different ending of the Substantive. This Case answers to the Genitive Case in Latin, and may still be so called; though perhaps more properly the Possessive Case. Thus "God's grace:" which may also be expressed by the Preposition; as, "the grace of God." It was formerly written; "Godis grace;" we now always shorten it with an Apostrophe; often very improperly, when we are obliged to pronounce it fully; as, "Thomas's book:" that is, Thomasis book," not "Thomas his book," as it is commonly supposed*.

When the thing, to which another is said to belong, iş expressed by a circumlocution, or by many terms, the sign of the Possessive Case is commonly added to the last term;

“Christ his sake,” in our Liturgy, is a mistake either of the Printers, or of the Compilers. "Nevertheless, Asa his heart was perfect with the Lord." 1 Kings, xv. 14. "To see whether Mordecai his matters would stand." Esther, iii. 4.

"Where is this mankind now? who lives to age

Fit to be made Methusalem his page." Donne.

"By young Telemachus his blooming years." Pope's Odyssey. “My paper is Ulysses his bow, in which every man of wit or learning may try his strength." Addison, Guardian, N° 98. See also Spect. No 207. This is no slip of Mr. Addison's pen: he gives us his opinion upon this point very explicitly in another place. "The same single letters on many occasions does the office of a whole word, and represents the his and her of our forefathers." Addison, Spect. N° 135. The latter instance might have shown him, how groundless this notion is: for it is not easy to conceive how the letters added to a Feminine Noun should represent the word her; any more than it should the word their added to a Plural Noun ; as, the " children's bread." But the direct derivation of this Case from the Saxon Genitive Case is sufficient of itself to decide this matter.

as,

ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

81

The King of Great Britain's Soldiers." When it is un ending in s, the sign of the Possessive Case is etimes not added; as, "for righteousness' sake*;" ever to the Plural Number ending in s; as, on "eagles' s." Both the Sign and the Preposition seem someto be used; as, "a soldier of the king's;" but here eally two Possessives; for it means, "one of the solof the king."

e English in its Substantives has but two different terions for Cases, that of the Nominative, which y expresses the Name of the thing, and that of the 3sive Case..

ngs are frequently considered with relation to the tion of Sex or Gender; as being Male or Female, her the one, nor the other. Hence, Substantives are e Masculine, or Feminine, or Neuter, (that is, r,) Gender: which latter is only the exclusion of all leration of Gender.

English Language, with singular propriety, followiture alone, applies the distinction of Masculine and ine only to the names of Animals; all the rest are er: except when, by a Poetical or Rhetorical fiction, inanimate and Qualities are exhibited as Persons, onsequently become either Male or Female; and this the English an advantage above most other languages Poetical and Rhetorical style: for when Nouns naturany Neuter are converted into Masculine and Femi

In Poetry, the Sign of the Possessive Case is frequently omitted after Proper Names ending in s or x; as, "The wrath of Peleus' Son." Pope. This seems not so allowable in Prose: as." Moses' minister." Josh. i. 1. "Phinehas' wife." 1 Sam. iv. 19. "Festus came into Felix' room." Acts, xxiv. 27.

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nine,