man will naturally entertain a more particular kindness for the men, with whom he has the most frequent intercourfe; and enter into a still closer union with the man, whofe temper and difpofition fuit beft 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 fingle thing of the kind, leaving it ftill uncertain which; the determines which it is, or, of many, which they are. The firft therefore can only be joined to fubftantives in the fingular number [4]; 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

Thefe remarks may ferve to fhew the great importance of the proper use of the Article ; the near affinity there is between the Greek Article and the English Definite Article; and the excellence of the English Language in this refpect, which by means of its two Articles does most precisely determine the extent of fignification of Common Names: whereas the Greek has only one Article, and it has puzzled all the Grammarians to reduce the use of that to any clear and certain rules.

[4] "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 tattered colours.” Addison, Dial. I. on Medals.

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latter

latter chiefly with the word great before it,) which though joined with plural Subftantives, yet admit of the fingular Article a: as, a few men, a great many men.

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

Shakespear. The reafon of it is manifeft from the effect, which the article has in thefe phrafes it means a fmall or great number collectively taken, and therefore gives the idea of a Whole, that is, of unity [5]. Thus likewife a hundred, a thousand,

[5] Thas the word many is taken collectively as a Subftantive :

"O Thou fond Many! with what loud applaufe
Didft thou beat heav'n with bleffing Bolingbroke,
Before he was what thou wouldst have him be!"
Shakespear, 2 Henry IV.

But it will be hard to reconcile to any Grammatical propriety the following phrafe: "Many one there be that fay of my foul; There is no help for him in his God." Pfal. iii. 2.

"How many a message would he fend!"

Swift, Verses on his own Death. "He would send many a message," is right: but the question how seems to deftroy the unity, or collective mature, of the Idea; and therefore it ought to have been expreffed, if the measure would have allowed of it, without the article, in the plural number; "hots many messages."

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 Subftantive; as, a hundred years [6]. "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 fometimes applied to Adverbs in the Comparative and Superlative degree; and its effect is to mark the degree the more ftrongly, and to define it the more precifely as, "The more I examine it, the better I like it. I like this the leaft of any."

SUBSTANTIVE.

A

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

[6] There were flain of them upon a three thoufand men:" that is, to the number of three thoufand, Macc. iv. 15. "About an eight Days:" that is, fpace of eight days. Luke ix. 28. But the expreffion is obfolete, or at least vulgar; and, we may add likewise, improper: for neither of thefe numbers has been reduced by use and convenience into one collective and compact idea, like a hundred, and a thoufand; each of which, like a dozen or a score, we are accuffomed equally to confider on certain occafions as a fimple Unity.

Subftantives

Subftantives are of two forts; Proper, and Common, Names. Proper Names are the Names appropriated to individuals; as the names of perfons and places: fuch are George, London. Common Names ftand for kinds, containing many forts; or for forts, containing many individuals under them; as, Animal, Man. And thefe Common Names, whether of kinds or forts, are applied to exprefs individuals, by the help of Articles added to them, as hath been already. fhewn; and by the help of Definitive Pronouns, as we shall fee 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 Con querors are called Alexanders; and fome great Conqueror 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 perfons of the fame name: as, The two Scipios.

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

In English, the Subftantive Singular is made Plural, for the most part, by adding to it s; or es, where it is neceffary for the pronunciation: as king, kings; fox, foxes; leaf, leaves; in which laft, and many others, f is alfo changed into v, for the fake of an easier pronunciation, and more agreeable found.

Some few Plurals end in en ; as, oxen, children, brethren, and men, women, by changing the a of the Singular into [7]. This form we have retained from the Teutonic; as likewife the introduction of the e in the former fyllable of two of the laft inftances; weomen, (for fo we pronounce it,) brethren, from woman, brother [8]: (fomething like which may be noted in fome other forms of Plurals: as, moufe, mice; loufe, lice; tooth, teeth; foot, feet; goofe, geefe [9].)

The words sheep, deer, are the fame in both Numbers.

[7] And antiently, eyen, fhoen, houfen, hofen : so likewife antiently foren, cowen, now always pronounced and written favine, kine.

[8] In the German, the vowels, a, o, u, of monofyllable Nouns are generally in the Plural changed into diphthongs with an e: as die band, the hand, die bände; der but, the hat, die büte; der knopff, the button, (or knob,) die knöpffe ; &c.

[9] Thefe are directly from the Saxon: mus, mys; lus, lys; toth, teth; fot, fet; gos, ges.

Some