Part 35 (1/2)
OBS 9--The definite article is often used by way of euish some particular individual emphatically, or to apply to hiirite_,”--that is, Aristotle; ”_The Psalmist_,” that is, David; ”_Alexander the Great_,”--that is, (perhaps,) Alexander the Great _Monarch_, or Great _Hero_ So, sometimes, when the phrase relates to a collective body of islature_,”--”_The Honourable, the Senate_;”--that is, ”The Honourable _Body_, the Legislature,” &c A si sentences, makes a most beautiful and expressive fors of thy heart, O Lyttleton, _the friend_”--_Thoenerous_ and _the rich_”--_Id_ In this last exaain after ”_rich_;” for, the article being an index to the noun, I conceive it to be i reference to one unrepeated word Dr
Priestley says, ”We sometimes _repeat the article_, when the epithet precedes the substantive; as He was istrates”--_Gram_, p 148 It is true, we occasionally y as this; but the question is, how is it to be explained? I i equivalent, must be understood after _worshi+pful_, and that the Doctor ought to have inserted a comma there
OBS 10--In Greek, there is no article corresponding to our _an_ or _a_, consequently _man_ and _a man_ are rendered alike; the word, [Greek: anthropos] inal, these texts: ”There was _a man_ sent from God,” (_John_, i, 6,) and, ”What is _man_, that thou art mindful of him?”--_Heb_, ii, 6 So of other nouns But the _definite_ article of that language, which is exactly equivalent to our _the_, is a declinable word, enders, and cases; so that it assumes more than twenty different forms, and becoree entirely destitute of grammatical rareeranorant; since they prescribe a rule, wherein they say, it ”_agrees_,” ”_ree_,”
with its noun Nor has the indefinite article any variation of fore from _an_ to _a_, which has been made for the sake of brevity or euphony
OBS 11--As _an_ or _a_ conveys the idea of unity, of course it applies to no other than nouns of the singular nules_ denotes les_,” if such a phrase were invented? Harris very strangely says, ”The Greeks have no article correspondent to _an_ or _a_, but _supply its place by a NEGATION of their article_ And even in English, _where_ the article _a_ cannot be used, as _in_ plurals, _its force is exprest by the sarammar is this! Besides several minor faults, we have here a _nonentity_, a NEGATION _of the Greek article_, e, and to express _force!_ The force of what? Of a plural _an_ or _a,!_ of such a word as _ans_ or _aes!_ The error of the first of these sentences, Dr Blair has copied entire into his eighth lecture
OBS 12--The following rules of agreerammars, are not only objectionable with respect to the sense intended, but so badly written as to be scarcely intelligible in any sense: 1 ”The article _a_ or _an agrees_ with nouns _in_ the singular number _only, individually, or collectively_: as, A Christian, an infidel, a score, a thousand” 2 ”The definite article _the_ ular_ AND[135] _plural nuarden, the houses, the stars”--_Murray's Gram_, 8vo, p 170; 12mo, 139; _Fish's Murray_, 98; _a Teacher's_, 45 For the purpose of preventing any erroneous construction of the articles, these rules are utterly useless; and for the purpose of syntactical parsing, or the grammatical resolution of this part of speech, they are aard and inconvenient The syntax of the articles may be much better expressed in this manner: ”_Articles relate to the nouns which they li of the articles upon other words is properly that of si to the sense, and not that of _agreement_, not a si all the works of earlier graht correctly the _application_ of the two forms of the indefinite article _an_ or _a_ Murray, contrary to Johnson and Webster, considers _a_ to be the original word, and _an_ the euphonic derivative He says: ”_A_ becomes _an_ before a vowel, and before a silent _h_ But if _the h be_ sounded, _the a only_ is to be used”--_Murray's Grainal note, ”_A instead of an_ is _now_ used before words beginning with _u_ long It is used before _one
An_ must be used before _words_ WHERE _the h_ is not silent, if the accent is on the second syllable; as, _an heroic action, an historical account_”--_Ib_ This explanation, clumsy as it is, in the whole conception; broken, prolix, deficient, and inaccurate as it is, both in style and doctrine; has been copied and copied frorammar, as if no one could possibly better it Besides several other faults, it contains a palpable misuse of the article itself: ”_the h_” which is specified in the second and fifth sentences, is the ”_silent h_” of the first sentence; and this inaccurate specification gives us the two obvious solecis, ”_if the [silent] h be sounded_,” and of _locating ”words WHERE the [silent] h is not silent!_” In the word _humour_, and its derivatives, the _h_ is silent, by all authority except Webster's; and yet these words require _a_ and not _an_ before theoverns the form of the article, and not the _letter_ itself; as, ”Those which adular form, are marked with _an_ R”--_Murray's Grail”--_Webster's Dict_ ”Every poeroundwork”--_Philological Museum_, Vol i, p 457 ”A poet e's Introduction_, p
111 Before _h_ in an unaccented syllable, either form of the article may be used without offence to the ear; and either may bethe letter in a greater or less degree But as the _h_, though ever so feebly aspirated has _so_ of a consonant sound, I incline to think the article in this case ought to conforeneral principle: as, ”_A historical_ introduction has, generally, _a happy_ effect to rouse attention”-- _Blair's Rhet_, p 311 ”He ould write heroic poems, should make his whole life _a heroic_ poem”--See _Life of Schiller_, p 56 Within two lines of this quotation, the biographer speaks of ”_an_ heroicwith Englishmen a very common fault in pronunciation, it is not desirable to increase the error, by using a form of the article which naturally leads to it ”How often do we hear _an air_ nat_, and a _hero_ into _a Nero!_”--_Churchill's Gram_, p 205 Thus: ”Neither of them had that bold and adventurous abroke, on History_, p 174
OBS 15--Sorammarians are still more faulty than Murray, in their rules for the application of _an_ or _a_ Thus Sanborn: ”The vowels are _a, e, i, o_, and _u_ _An_ should be used before words beginning with _any of these letters_, or with a silent _h_”--_analytical Gra with _u_ long or with _h not silent_, when the accent is on the second syllable; as, _an united_ people, _an historical_ account, _an heroic_ action”--_Ib_, p 85 ”_A_ is used when the next word begins with a _consonant; an_, when it begins with a _vowel_ or silent _h_”--_lb_, p 129 If these rules were believed and followed, they would greatly multiply errors
OBS 16--Whether the word _a_ has been formed from _an_, or _an_ froramatize differently This, if it be worth the search, s of the twelfth century In the pure Saxon of an earlier date, the words _seldom occur_; and in that ancient dialect _an_, I believe, is used only as a declinable numerical adjective, and _a_ only as a preposition In the thirteenth century, both foriven thes of Robert of Gloucester; though some writers of a much later date--or, at any rate, _one_, the celebrated Gawin Douglas, a Scottish bishop, who died of the plague in London, in 1522--constantly wrote _ane_ for both _an_ and _a_: as,
”Be not ouer studyous to spy _ane_ our awin _ane_ ferrye bot can not se”
--_Tooke's Diversions_, Vol i, p 124
”_Ane_ uthir mache to him was socht and sperit; Bot thare was _nane_ of all the rout that sterit”
--_Ib_, Vol i, p 160
OBS 17--This, however, was a _Scotticism_; as is also the use of _ae_ for _a_: Gower and Chaucer used _an_ and _a_ asuse therah, says, ”_A_ and _an_ were originally _ae_ and _ane_, and were probably used at first simply to convey the idea of unity; as, _ae_ man, _ane_ ox”--_Manual of E
Grareat part of his book, he is indebted to Dr Cronify unity, or one of a class, our forefathers employed _ae_ or _ane_; as, _ae_ man, _ane_ ox”--_Treatise on Etym and Synt_, p 53 These authors, like Webster, will have _a_ and _an_ to be _adjectives_ Dr Johnson says, ”_A_, an _article_ set before nouns of the singular nunification Before a word beginning with a vowel, it is written _an_; as, _an_ ox, _an_ egg; of which _a_ is the contraction”--_Quarto Dict, w A_
OBS 18--Dr Webster says, ”_A_ is also an abbreviation of the Saxon _an_ or _ane, one_, used before words beginning with an articulation; as, _a_ table, _instead_ of _an_ table, or one table _This is a e_; for, in Saxon, _an_ was used before articulations as well as vowels; as, _an tid, a_ tiear_, a year”--_Webster's Octavo Dict, w A_ Ain other works, it was e existed! He says, ”_An_, therefore, is the original English adjective or ordinal number _one_; and was never written _a_ until after the Conquest”--_Webster's Philos Gram_, p 20; _Improved Gram_, 14 ”_The Conquest_,” lish was not written till the thirteenth century This author has long been idly contending, that _an_ or _a_ is not an _article_, but an _adjective_; and that it is not properly distinguished by the terh, but he will not be convinced[136] See _Murray's Gram_, pp 34 and 35 If _a_ and _one_ were equal, we could not say, ”_Such a one_,”--”_What a one_,”--”_Many a one_,”--”_This one thing_;” and surely these are all good English, though _a_ and _one_ here ade Nay, _a_ is sometimes found before _one_ when the latter is used adjectively; as, ”There is no record in Holy Writ of the institution of _a one_ all-controlling monarchy”--_Supremacy of the Pope Disproved_, p 9 ”If not to _a one_ Sole Arbiter”--_Ib_, p
19
OBS 19--_An_ is so _if_; as, ”Nay, _an_ thou'lt mouthe, I'll rant as well as thou”--_Shak_ ”_An_ I have not balladsto fifty tunes, may a cup of sack be ain, I should write again”--_Lord Byron's Letters_ ”But _an_ it be a long part, I can't reh's Speaker_, p 136
OBS 20--In the New Testa: ”And his disciples were _an hungred_”--SCOTT'S BIBLE: _Matt_, xii, 1 ”When he was _an hungred_”--_Ib_ xii, 3 ”When he had need and was _an hungered_”--_Ib Mark_, ii, 25 Alger, the i Bible, taking this _an_ to be the indefinite article, and perceiving that the _h_ is sounded in _hungered_, changed the particle to _a_ in all these passages; as, ”And his disciples were _a hungered_” But what sense he thought he had made of the sacred record, I know not The Greek text, rendered word for word, is siered_” And that the sentences above, taken either way, are _not good English_, ent reader _An_, as I apprehend, is here a mere _prefix_, which has somehow beenword If so, the correction ought to be e from Bishop M'Ilvaine: ”On a certain occasion, our Saviour was followed by five thousand ered_”--_Lectures on Christianity_, p 210
OBS 21--The word _a_, when it does not denote one thing of a kind, is not an article, but a genuine _preposition_; being probably the sa _to, at, on, in_, or _of_: as, ”Who hath it? He that died _a_ Wednesday”--_Shak_ That is, _on_ Wednesday So sometimes before plurals; as, ”He carves _a_ Sundays”--_Swift_ That is, _on_ Sundays ”He is let out _a_ nights”--_Id_ That is, _on_ nights--like the following exahts”--_Id_ ”He will knap the spears _a_ pieces with his teeth”--_More's Antid_ That is, _in_ pieces, or _to_ pieces So in the compound word _now-a-days_, where it means _on_; and in the proper names, Thomas _a_ Becket, Thomas _a_ Kempis, Anthony _a_ Wood, where it means _at_ or _of_
”Bot certainly the daisit blude _now on dayis_ Waxis dolf and dull throw las_
OBS 22--As a preposition, _a_ has now rammarians call an inseparable preposition; as in _abed_, in bed; _aboard_, on board; _abroad_, at large; _afire_, on fire; _afore_, in front; _afoul_, in contact; _aloft_, on high; _aloud_, with loudness; _ath; _amidst_, in the midst; _akin_, of kin; _ajar_, unfastened; _ahead_, onward; _afield_, to the field; _alee_, to the leeward; _anew_, of neith renewal ”_A-nights_, he was in the practice of sleeping, &c; but _a-days_ he kept looking on the barren ocean, shedding tears”--_Dr Murray's Hist of Europ Lang_, Vol ii, p 162
Compounds of this kind, in most instances, follow verbs, and are consequently reckoned adverbs; as, _To go astray,--To turn aside,--To soar aloft,--To fall asleep_ But sometimes the antecedent term is a noun or a pronoun, and then they are as clearly adjectives; as, ”I men, than _men awake_”--_Lord Bacon_ ”_Man alive_, did you ever make a _hornet afraid_, or catch a _weasel asleep?_”
And sooverns a noun or a pronoun after it, and then it is a preposition; as, ”A bridge is laid _across_ a river”--_Webster's Dict_, ”To break his bridge _athwart_ the hellespont”--_Bacon's Essays_
”Where Ufens glides _along_ the lowly lands, Or the black water of Pomptina stands”--_Dryden_
OBS 23--In several phrases, not yet to be accounted obsolete, this old preposition _a_ still retains its place as a separate word; and none have been ra it before participles in _ing_; in which instances, the participles are in fact governed by it: for nothing is e, than for participles of this foroverned by prepositions For exa,” and, ”You have set the cask _to_ leaking,” are exactly equivalent, both inand construction ”Forty and six years was this te_ is not here a noun, but a participle; and _in_ is here better than _a_, only because the phrase, _a building_,_an edifice_[137] Yet, in almost all cases, other prepositions are, I think, to be preferred to _a_, if others equivalent to it can be found Exa ti out--_Barclay's Works_, Vol iii, p