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. "?

Shakspeare. The reafon of it is manifeft from the effect, which the article has in these phrases: it means a fmall or great number collectively taken, and therefore gives the idea of a Whole, that is, of Unity (1). Thus likewife a hundred, a thoufand, is one whole number, an aggregate of many collectively taken;

(1) Thus 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!",

Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV.

But it will be hard to reconcile to any Grammatical propriety Many one there be, that fay of my Pfal. iii. 2.

the following phrase:

foul; There is no help for him in his God.", «How many a message would he fend!

Swift, Verses on his own Death. « He would fend many a message,» is right: but the question how feems to deftroy the unity, or collective nature, of the Idea; and therefore it ought to have been expreffed, if the meafure would have allowed of it, without the article, in the plural number; how many messages.

C

and therefore ftill retains the article a, though

a plural Substantive ;

joined as an Adjective to a

as, a hundred years (1).

For harbour at a thousand doors they knock'd;
Not one of all the thousand, but was lock'd. "9.

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."

( I )} men:

There were flain of them upon a three thoufand that is, to the number of three thoufand. 1 Macc. iv. 15. « About an eight Days: » that is, a space of eight days. Luke, ix. 28. But the expreffion is obfolete, or at leaft vulgar; and, we may add likewife, improper: for neither of thefe numbers has been reduced by use and convenience into one collective and compact idea, like a hundred, a thousand; each of which, like a dozen, or a score, we are accustomed equally to confider on certain occafions as a Simple Unity.

and

SUBSTANTIV E.

A SUBSTANTIVE, OF NOUN, is the Name of a

་

thing; of whatever we conceive in any way to fubfift, or of which we have any notion.

Subftantives are of two forts; Proper, and Common, Names. Proper Names are the Names appropriated to individuals; as the names of perfons and places such are George, London. Common Names ftand for kinds, containing many forts; or for forts, containing many individuals under them; as, Animal, Man. And these Common Names, whether of kinds or forts, 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 fhall 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 Conquerors are called Alexanders; and fome great Conqueror An Alexander, or The Alexander of his Age when a

Common Name is underftood, 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; The two Scipios.

as,

Whatever is spoken of is reprefented as one, or more, in Number: these two manners of reprefentation 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 pronunciatiọn: as king, kings; fox, foxes; leaf, leaves; in which laft, and many others, ƒ is also 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 e (1). This form we have retained from the Teutonic; as likewife the intro

(1) And anciently, eyen, fhoen, housen, hofen : so likewise anciently fowen, cowen, now always pronounced and written Swine, kine.

duction of the e in the former fyllable of two of the laft inftances; weomen, (for fo we pronounce it,) brethren, from woman, brother (1): fomething like which may be noted in fome other forms of Plurals as moufe, mice; loufe, lice; tooth, teeth; foot, feet; goofe, geefe (2).

:

The words Sheep, deer, are the fame in both

Numbers.

Some Nouns, from the nature of the things which they exprefs, are ufed only in the Singular, others only in the Plural, Form as wheat, pitch, gold, floth, pride, &c. and bellows, fciffars, lungs, bowels, &c.

The English Language, to express different connexions and relations of one thing to another, ufes, for the moft part, Prepofitions. The Greek and Latin among the ancient, and fome too among the modern languages, as the German,

(1) In the German, the vowels, a, 0 u, of monofyllable Nouns, are generally in the Plural changed into diph thongs with an e: as die hand, the hand, die hände; der hut, the hat, die hüte; der knopff, the button, (or knob,) die knöpffe ; &c.

(2) These are directly from the Saxon : mus, mys; lus, lys; toth, teth; fot, fet; gos, ges.