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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 modern change; for, in Saxon, an was used before articulations as well as vowels; as, an tid, a time, an gear, a year."—Webster's Octavo Dict., w. A. A modern change, indeed! By his own showing in other works, it was made long before the English language 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," means the Norman Conquest, in 1066; but English 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 term "indefinite." Murray has answered him well enough, 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 admit no interchange. 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 sometimes a conjunction, signifying if; as, "Nay, an thou'lt mouthe, I'll rant as well as thou."—Shak. "An I have not ballads made on you all, and sung to fifty tunes, may a cup of sack be my poison."—Id., Falstaff. "But, an it were to do again, I should write again."—Lord Byron's Letters. "But an it be a long part, I can't remember it."—SHAKSPEARE: Burgh's Speaker, p. 136.

OBS. 20.—In the New Testament, we meet with several such expressions as the following: "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 improver of Murray's Grammar, and editor of the Pronouncing 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 simply this: "And his disciples hungered." And that the sentences above, taken either way, are not good English, must be obvious to every intelligent reader. An, as I apprehend, is here a mere prefix, which has somehow been mistaken in form, and erroneously disjoined from the following word. If so, the correction ought to be made after the fashion of the following passage from Bishop M'Ilvaine: "On a certain occasion, our Saviour was followed by five thousand men, into a desert place, where they were enhungered."—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 same as the French à, signifying 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 example: "A pack of rascals that walk the streets on nights."—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 à Becket, Thomas à Kempis, Anthony à Wood, where it means at or of.

"Bot certainly the daisit blude now on dayis Waxis dolf and dull throw myne unwieldy age."—Douglas.

OBS. 22.—As a preposition, a has now most generally become a prefix, or what the grammarians 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; amain, at main strength; amidst, in the midst; akin, of kin; ajar, unfastened; ahead, onward; afield, to the field; alee, to the leeward; anew, of new, with 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, "Imagination is like to work better upon sleeping men, than men awake."—Lord Bacon. "Man alive, did you ever make a hornet afraid, or catch a weasel asleep?" And sometimes the compound governs 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 à still retains its place as a separate word; and none have been more perplexing to superficial grammarians, than those which are formed by using it before participles in ing; in which instances, the participles are in fact governed by it: for nothing is more common in our language, than for participles of this form to be governed by prepositions. For example, "You have set the cask a leaking," and, "You have set the cask to leaking," are exactly equivalent, both in meaning and construction. "Forty and six years was this temple in building."—John, ii, 20. Building is not here a noun, but a participle; and in is here better than a, only because the phrase, a building, might be taken for an article and a noun, meaning an edifice.[137] Yet, in almost all cases, other prepositions are, I think, to be preferred to à, if others equivalent to it can be found. Examples: "Lastly, they go about to apologize for the long time their book hath been a coming out:" i.e., in coming out.—Barclay's Works, Vol. iii, p. 179. "And, for want of reason, he falls a railing::" i.e., to railing.—Ib., iii, 357. "That the soul should be this moment busy a thinking:" i.e., at or in thinking.—Locke's Essay, p. 78. "Which, once set a going, continue in the same steps:" i.e., to going.—Ib., p. 284. "Those who contend for four per cent, have set men's mouths a watering for money:" i.e., to watering.—LOCKE: in Johnson's Dict. "An other falls a ringing a Pescennius Niger:" i.e., to ringing.—ADDISON: ib. "At least to set others a thinking upon the subject:" i.e., to thinking.—Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 300. "Every one that could reach it, cut off a piece, and fell a eating:" i.e., to eating.—Newspaper. "To go a mothering,[138] is to visit parents on Midlent Sunday."—Webster's Dict., w. Mothering. "Which we may find when we come a fishing here."—Wotton. "They go a begging to a bankrupt's door."—Dryden. "A hunting Chloë went."—Prior. "They burst out a laughing."—M. Edgeworth. In the last six sentences, a seems more suitable than any other preposition would be: all it needs, is an accent to distinguish it from the article; as, à.

OBS. 24.—Dr. Alexander Murray says, "To be a-seeking, is the relic of the Saxon to be on or an seeking. What are you a-seeking? is different from, What are you seeking? It means more fully the going on with the process."—Hist. Europ. Lang,, Vol. ii, p. 149. I disapprove of the hyphen in such terms as "à seeking," because it converts the preposition and participle into I know not what; and it may be observed, in passing, that the want of it, in such as "the going on," leaves us a loose and questionable word, which, by the conversion of the participle into a noun, becomes a nondescript in grammar. I dissent also from Dr. Murray, concerning the use of the preposition or prefix a, in examples like that which he has here chosen. After a neuter verb, this particle is unnecessary to the sense, and, I think, injurious to the construction. Except in poetry, which is measured by syllables, it may be omitted without any substitute; as, "I am a walking."—Johnson's Dict., w. A. "He had one only daughter, and she lay a dying."—Luke, viii, 42. "In the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing."—1 Pet., iii, 20. "Though his unattentive thoughts be elsewhere a wandering."—Locke's Essay, p. 284. Say—"be wandering elsewhere;" and omit the a, in all such cases.

"And—when he thinks, good easy man, full surely

His greatness is a ripening—nips his root."—Shak.

OBS. 25.—"A has a peculiar signification, denoting the proportion of one thing to an other. Thus we say, The landlord hath a hundred a year; the ship's crew gained a thousand pounds a man."—Johnson's Dict. "After the rate of twenty leagues a day."—Addison. "And corn was at two sesterces a bushel."—Duncan's Cicero, p. 82. Whether a in this construction is the article or the preposition, seems to be questionable. Merchants are very much in the habit of supplying its place by the Latin preposition per, by; as, "Board, at $2 per week."—Preston's Book-Keeping, p. 44. "Long lawn, at $12 per piece."—Dilworth's, p. 63. "Cotton, at 2s. 6d. per pound."—Morrison's, p. 75. "Exchange, at 12d. per livre."—Jackson's, p. 73. It is to be observed that an, as well as a, is used in this manner; as, "The price is one dollar an ounce." Hence, I think, we may infer, that this is not the old preposition a, but the article an or a, used in the distributive sense of each or every, and that the noun is governed by a preposition understood; as, "He demands a dollar an hour;" i.e., a dollar for each hour.—"He comes twice a year:" i.e., twice in every year.—"He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses:" (1 Kings, v, 14:) i.e., ten thousand, monthly; or, as our merchants say, "per month." Some grammarians have also remarked, that, "In mercantile accounts, we frequently see a put for to, in a very odd sort of way; as, 'Six bales marked 1 a 6.' The merchant means, 'marked from 1 to 6.' This is taken to be a relic of the Norman French, which was once the law and mercantile language of England; for, in French, a, with an accent, signifies to or at."—Emmons's Gram., p. 73. Modern merchants, in stead of accenting the a, commonly turn the end of it back; as, @.

OBS. 26.—Sometimes a numeral word with the indefinite article—as a few, a great many, a dozen, a hundred, a thousand—denotes an aggregate of several or many taken collectively, and yet is followed by a plural noun, denoting the sort or species of which this particular aggregate is a part: as, "A few small fishes,"—"A great many mistakes,"—"A dozen bottles of wine,"—"A hundred lighted candles,"—"A thousand miles off." Respecting the proper manner of explaining these phrases, grammarians differ in opinion. That the article relates not to the plural noun, but to the numerical word only, is very evident; but whether, in these instances, the words few, many, dozen, hundred, and thousand, are to be called nouns or adjectives, is matter of dispute. Lowth, Murray, and many others, call them adjectives, and suppose a peculiarity of construction in the article;—like that of the singular adjectives every and one in the phrases, "Every ten days,"—"One seven times more."—Dan., iii, 19. Churchill and others call them nouns, and suppose the plurals which follow, to be always in the objective case governed by of, understood: as, "A few [of] years,"—"A thousand [of] doors;"—like the phrases, "A couple of fowls,"—"A score of fat bullocks."—Churchill's Gram., p. 279. Neither solution is free from difficulty. For example: "There are a great many adjectives."—Dr. Adam. Now, if many is here a singular nominative, and the only subject of the verb, what shall we do with are? and if it is a plural adjective, what shall we do with a and great? Taken in either of these ways, the construction is anomalous. One can hardly think the word "adjectives" to be here in the objective case, because the supposed ellipsis of the word of cannot be proved; and if many is a noun, the two words are perhaps in apposition, in the nominative. If I say, "A thousand men are on their way," the men are the thousand, and the thousand is nothing but the men; so that I see not why the relation of the terms may not be that of apposition. But if authorities are to decide the question, doubtless we must yield it to those who suppose the whole numeral phrase to be taken adjectively; as, "Most young Christians have, in the course of half a dozen years, time to read a great many pages."—Young Christian, p. 6.

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

OBS. 27.—The numeral words considered above, seem to have been originally adjectives, and such may be their most proper construction now; but all of them are susceptible of being construed as nouns, even if they are not such in the examples which have been cited. Dozen, or hundred, or thousand, when taken abstractly, is unquestionably a noun; for we often speak of dozens, hundreds, and thousands. Few and many never assume the plural form, because they have naturally a plural signification; and a few or a great many is not a collection so definite that we can well conceive of fews and manies; but both are sometimes construed substantively, though in modern English[139] it seems to be mostly by ellipsis of the noun. Example: "The praise of the judicious few is an ample compensation for the neglect of the illiterate many."—Churchill's Gram., p. 278. Dr. Johnson says, the word many is remarkable in Saxon for its frequent use. The following are some of the examples in which he calls it a substantive, or noun: "After him the rascal many ran."—Spenser. "O thou fond many."—Shakspeare. "A care-craz'd mother of a many children."—Id. "And for thy sake have I shed many a tear."—Id. "The vulgar and the many are fit only to be led or driven."—South. "He is liable to a great many inconveniences every moment of his life."—Tillotson. "Seeing a great many in rich gowns, he was amazed."—Addison.

"There parting from the king, the chiefs divide,

And wheeling east and west, before their many ride."—Dryden.

OBS. 28.—"On the principle here laid down, we may account for a peculiar use of the article with the adjective few, and some other diminutives. In saying, 'A few of his adherents remained with him;' we insinuate, that they constituted a number sufficiently important to be formed into an aggregate: while, if the article be omitted, as, 'Few of his adherents remained with him;' this implies, that he was nearly deserted, by representing them as individuals not worth reckoning up. A similar difference occurs between the phrases: 'He exhibited a little regard for his character;' and 'He exhibited little regard for his character.'"—Churchill's Gram., p. 279. The word little, in its most proper construction, is an adjective, signifying small; as, "He was little of stature."—Luke. "Is it not a little one?"—Genesis. And in sentences like the following, it is also reckoned an adjective, though the article seems to relate to it, rather than to the subsequent noun; or perhaps it may be taken as relating to them both: "Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep."—Prov., vi, 10; xxiv, 33. But by a common ellipsis, it is used as a noun, both with and without the article; as, "A little that a righteous man hath, is better than the riches of many wicked."—Psalms, xxxvii, 16. "Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure and trouble therewith."—Prov., xv, 16. "He that despiseth little things, shall perish by little and little."—Ecclesiasticus. It is also used adverbially, both alone and with the article a; as, "The poor sleep little."—Otway. "Though they are a little astringent."—Arbuthnot. "When he had gone a little farther thence."—Mark, i, 19. "Let us vary the phrase [in] a very little" [degree].—Kames, Vol. ii, p. 163.

OBS. 29.—"As it is the nature of the articles to limit the signification of a word, they are applicable only to words expressing ideas capable of being individualized, or conceived of as single things or acts; and nouns implying a general state, condition, or habit, must be used without the article. It is not vaguely therefore, but on fixed principles, that the article is omitted, or inserted, in such phrases as the following: 'in terror, in fear, in dread, in haste, in sickness, in pain, in trouble; in a fright, in a hurry, in a consumption; the pain of his wound was great; her son's dissipated life was a great trouble to her."—Churchill's Gram., p. 127.

OBS. 30.—Though the, an, and a, are the only articles in our language, they are far from being the only definitives. Hence, while some have objected to the peculiar distinction bestowed upon these little words, firmly insisting on throwing them in among the common mass of adjectives; others have taught, that the definitive adjectives—I know not how many—such as, this, that, these, those, any, other, some, all, both, each, every, either, neither—"are much more properly articles than any thing else."—Hermes, p. 234. But, in spite of this opinion, it has somehow happened, that these definitive adjectives have very generally, and very absurdly, acquired the name of pronouns. Hence, we find Booth, who certainly excelled most other grammarians in learning and acuteness, marvelling that the articles "were ever separated from the class of pronouns." To all this I reply, that the, an, and a, are worthy to be distinguished as the only articles, because they are not only used with much greater frequency than any other definitives, but are specially restricted to the limiting of the signification of nouns. Whereas the other definitives above mentioned are very often used to supply the place of their nouns; that is, to represent them understood. For, in general, it is only by ellipsis of the noun after it, and not as the representative of a noun going before, that any one of these words assumes the appearance of a pronoun. Hence, they are not pronouns, but adjectives. Nor are they "more properly articles than any thing else;" for, "if the essence of an article be to define and ascertain" the meaning of a noun, this very conception of the thing necessarily supposes the noun to be used with it.

OBS. 31.—The following example, or explanation, may show what is meant by definitives. Let the general term be man, the plural of which is men: A man—one unknown or indefinite; The man—one known or particular; The men—some particular ones; Any man—one indefinitely; A certain man—one definitely; This man—one near; That man—one distant; These men—several near; Those men—several distant; Such a man—one like some other; Such men—some like others; Many a man—a multitude taken singly; Many men—an indefinite multitude taken plurally; A thousand men—a definite multitude; Every man—all or each without exception; Each man—both or all taken separately; Some man—one, as opposed to none; Some men—an indefinite number or part; All men—the whole taken plurally; No men—none of the sex; No man—never one of the race.