255. The article is suppressed when the noun represents a species not composed of individuals; as-Silver is lighter than gold.

EXAMPLES.

(254.) The swain is happier than his monarch. The Dane has landed. Weary of his life, he flung it away in battle with the Turk.-ROGERS. The Persian's grave.-BYRON. The proper study of mankind is man.— POPE. Man is born to trouble.-JOB.

(255.) Honour is the grace of greatness. Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile. Day set on Norham's castled steep. One sort of knife is used for fish, another for butter, a third for cheese. Parties divide on law and arithmetic as well as politics. Courage, considered by itself, and without reference to its causes, is no virtue, and deserves no esteem. A mother's love is neither to be chilled by selfishness, nor daunted by danger, nor weakened by worthlessness, nor stifled by ingratitude.

Sweet is revenge, especially to women ;

Pillage to soldiers, prize-money to seamen.-BYRON.

RULE III.

256. An article before a proper noun renders it a common one; as-a Milton, that is, a man like Milton; a Tudor, one of the Tudor family. The plural takes the article when the sense is definite, and none when it is indefinite. The Hampdens of the age. Miltons are not to be met every day.

EXAMPLES.

(256.) Subdued the reason of a Grotius, a Pascal, or a Locke.GIBBON. The genius and correctness of an Addison will not secure him from neglect.-JOHNSON; Rambler, 10. Douglases to ruin driven. -SCOTT. The patriot family of the Catos emerged from Tusculum.GIBBON. The Platos and Ciceros among the ancients, the Bacons, Boyles, and Lockes, among our own countrymen, are all instances of what I have been saying.-BUDGELL. The family of the Lambs had long been among the most thriving and popular in the neighbourhood. -W. IRVING.

What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards?

Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.-POPE.

RULE IV.

257. An article is placed before an adjective used as a noun; as-The brave. The good. Or marking an abstract; as—He studied the pathetic.

EXAMPLES.

(257.) O'er groaning heaps, the dying and the dead.-DARWIN. There lived a sage called Discipline.-COWPER. The many rend the sky.DRYDEN. The present life abounds in the poetic. No passion unfolds itself sooner than the love of the ornamental.-CHANNING.

RULE V.

258. An article is placed before a participle used as a noun and followed by of; as-In the hearing of the judge. It is wrong to say: Let us guard against the giving way to resentment;' because the participle, not admitting of after it to govern the noun following, is simply a verb.

EXAMPLES.

(258.) The waving of an enchanter's wand.-HAZLITT. The swallowing of the sword.-HAZLITT. Chills like the muttering of a dream.— MOORE. School-training, to be equitable, must be a training of minds in the mass.-I. TAYLOR.

RULE VI.

259. Before the limiting words, few, small, and little, the omission of the article increases the restriction. 'I used little severity,' means certainly not much, perhaps none; but, 'I used a little severity,' conveys certainly some, perhaps a good deal.

EXAMPLES.

(259.) Few years have passed. Few are thy days, and full of wo. -LOGAN. A few, but few there are who, &c. Few, few shall part where many meet.-CAMPBELL. A few chosen authors. He has small claim to our gratitude. I have a small claim on you. It requires little penetration to discover. This study requires a little attention.

RULE VII.

260. A is used before a comparative followed by than; asHe is a wiser man than his brother. The is used before the comparative with of; as-He is the wiser of the two.

EXAMPLES.

(260.) The press is a mightier power than the pulpit.-CHANNING.

I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two,

And wear my dagger with the braver grace.-SHAKS.

Of two such lessons why forget

The nobler and the manlier one ?-BYRON.

RULE VIII.

261. When than or as, after an adjective, connects two nouns denoting the same person or thing, the article is suppressed before the last; as-He is a better statesman than soldier.

262. But if than or as does not compare the noun following with that immediately before it (see 247), the article must be repeated; as-A terrier is a better watch-dog than a spaniel. A lawyer may be as good a man as a clergyman.

RULE IX.

263. When two or more nouns connected by and stand in apposition to another noun, the article is used only before the first of them; as-Cæsar, the consul and dictator, was killed by Brutus.

When the conjunction is suppressed, however, the article is repeated.

264. If the nouns refer to different persons, the article must be repeated.

'Cincinnatus the dictator, and the master of the horse, marched against the enemy '-conveys that the master of the horse was a distinct individual from Cincinnatus the dictator.

EXAMPLES.

(263.) Albert-Edward, the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall.
Rome,

The mistress of the world, the seat of empire,
The nurse of heroes, the delight of gods,

That set the nations free-Rome is no more.

(264.) Victoria the Queen, and the Princess Royal drove out.

RULE X.

265. When two or more adjectives qualify a noun denoting the same object, the article is used only before the first; but if different objects are intended, the article must be repeated. A tall, an old, and a fat mun, refer to three men; a tall, old, fat man, indicates but one. I like the red and green tartan, has not the same meaning as-I like the red and the green tartan.

EXAMPLES.

(265.) The distress under which a strong, proud, and powerful mind is compelled, &c.-SCOTT. The man wore a large, dark, faded cloak.DICKENS.

The red rose and the white are on his face,
The fatal colours of our rival houses.-SHAKS.

The tortoise here and elephant unite,

Transformed to combs, the speckled and the white.-POPE.

RULE XI.

266. The indefinite article must be repeated before several nouns when the same form of it would not agree with all.

We can say a man, woman, and child; but we must say a cow, an ox, and a pig, because a may not be used before ox.

F

Exercise.

Underline the articles, or mark where they are suppressed; doubly underline the words to which they belong, and refer to the particular rule in each case:

There was again the smacking of whips, the clattering of hoofs, and the glittering of harness.-W. IRVING. Party is the madness of many for the gain of a few. Tells of a few stout hearts that fought and died. Angels' visits, few and far between.-CAMPBELL. I mean the steamer with the red funnel. The sun went down. The moon o'er a dark cloud shone clear. The isles of Greece.-BYRON. The Pyrrhic dance.-BYRON. The Douglas thus his counsel said.-SCOTT. The many rend the skies with loud applause.-DRYDEN. Many a time and oft. Many and many a way to the wreaking of malice. He was perfumed like a milliner. A hollow sound and a red-hot hiss attended the contact.-W. IRVING. Almost all the fictions of the last age will vanish, if you deprive them of a hermit and a wood, a battle and a shipwreck.-JOHNSON. Then shrieked the timid, and stood still the brave.-BYRON. This odious fashion is produced by a conspiracy of the old, the ugly, and the ignorant, against the young and beautiful, the witty and the gay.-JOHNSON; Rambler, 15. There is a law above all the enactments of human codes: it is the law written by the finger of God on the heart of man.-BROUGHAM. The now despised nation rose to the height of grandeur, effected extensive conquests, enjoyed flourishing manufactures and commerce, and possessed magnificent palaces and temples, &c.-MACAULAY.

And earn a new bonnet by bringing a bough

From the alder that grows in the aisle.-SOUTHEY.

VI. ADJECTIVE AND NOUN.

RULE I.

267. An adjective agrees with the noun which it qualifies; as-This book. These books.

This is a rule of universal grammar; but the only English adjectives capable of inflection in obedience to it are the demonstratives. However, the selection of suitable adjectives, and the management of comparatives and superlatives, is properly the subject of several rules.

EXAMPLES.

(267.) I would express him simple, grave, sincere;
In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain,
And plain in manner; decent, solemn, chaste,
And natural in gesture; much impressed
Himself, as conscious of his awful charge,
And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds
May feel it too; affectionate in look
And tender in address, as well becomes
A messenger of grace to guilty man.-COWPER.

The world was void,

The populous, and the powerful was a lump,

Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless.-BYRON.

These were thy charms, sweet village, sports like these.-GOLDSMITH. These abominable principles, and this more abominable avowal of them, demand the most decisive indignation.-CHATHAM. Brethren they are in those rude huts, in that wild attire.-CHANNING. I have not wept. these forty years.-DRYDEN.

(For observations on these sort, those sort, &c., see 207.)

RULE II.

268. The distributive adjectives, each, every, either, neither, agree only with singular nouns; as-Each man. Every day.

EXAMPLES.

(268.) Every hour brings additions to the original scheme.-JOHNSON. Either sex and every age was engaged in the pursuits of industry.— GIBBON, ch. 10. Neither party yielded.

(See note under 65, page 18.)

RULE III.

269. Indefinite adjectives denoting quantity, accompany nouns in the singular; those of number, if more than one, must be used before plurals; thus

270. Whole, as an indefinite adjective, agrees only with singular nouns; several, only with plurals; all, some, no, any, other, with either singular or plural.

We say whole as an indefinite adjective, for as a common one it may agree with a plural noun-The whole cups, meaning the unbroken ones. But if we mean the whole number of them, we must say all the cups. We say the whole population, but not the whole inhabitants, or the whole of the inhabitants.

EXAMPLES.

(269.) There are many ways of telling a secret.-JOHNSON. Nor less has been his temerity by land, nor fewer his hazards.-JOHNSON. Much needless difficulty has been raised respecting the results.-WHATELY. So many crimes, and so much misery, have seldom been accumulated in so short a space.-HALLAM. So many laws, argue so many sins. Full many a gem. Beats back the current many a rood. Many an aged wanderer has perished here.

* Many, followed by a, precedes a singular noun, and takes a singular verb→ Many a man has seen.