_the_ that has originated out of the Anglo-Saxon _th['y]_ is one
word; whilst the _the_ that has originated out of the Anglo-Saxon _the_,
another. The latter is the common article: the former the _the_ in
expressions like _all the more_, _all the better_ = _more by all that_,
_better by all that_, and the Latin phrases _eo majus_, _eo melius_.

That _why_ is in the same case with the instrumental _the_ ( = _th['y]_)
may be seen from the following Anglo-Saxon inflexion of the interrogative
pronoun:--

_Neut._ _Masc._
_N._ Hwaet Hw['a]
_A._ Hwaet Hwone (hwaene).
\_____ _____/
\/
_Abl._ _Hwi_
_D._ Hw['a]m (hwaem)
_G._ Hwaes.

Hence, then, in _the_ and _why_ we have instrumental ablatives, or, simply,
_instrumentals_.

s. 216. _The determination of cases._--How do we determine cases? In other
words, why do we call _him_ and _them_ accusatives rather than datives or
genitives? By one of two means; viz., either by the _sense_ or the _form_.

Suppose that in the English language there were ten thousand dative cases
and as many accusatives. Suppose, also, that all the dative cases ended in
-m, and all the accusatives in some other letter. It is very evident that,
whatever might be the meaning of the words _him_ and _them_ their form
would be dative. In this case the meaning being accusatives, and the form
dative, we should doubt which test to take.

My own opinion is, that it would be convenient to determine cases by the
_form_ of the word _alone_; so that, even if a word had a dative sense only
once, where it had an accusative sense ten thousand times, such a word
should be said to be in the dative case. Now the words _him_ and _them_ (to
which we may add _whom_) were once dative cases;[48] -m in Anglo-Saxon
being the sign of the dative case. In the time of the Anglo-Saxons their
sense coincided with their form. At present they are dative forms with an
accusative meaning. Still, as the word _give_ takes after it a dative case,
we have, even now, in the sentence, _give it him_, _give it them_, remnants
of the old dative sense. To say _give it to him_, _to them_, is unnecessary
and pedantic: neither do I object to the expression, _whom shall I give
it?_ If ever the _formal_ test become generally recognised and consistently
adhered to, _him_, _them_, and _whom_ will be called datives with a
latitude of meaning; and then the only true an