d, are
used without articles: as, 'This is not _beer_, but _water_;' 'This is not
_brass_, but _steel_.'"--See _Dr. Johnson's Gram._, p. 5.

_An_ or _a_ before the genus, may refer to _a whole species_; and _the_
before the species, may denote that whole species emphatically: as, "_A
certain bird_ is termed _the cuckoo_, from _the sound_ which it
emits."--_Blair_.

But _an_ or _a_ is commonly used to denote individuals as _unknown_, or as
not specially distinguished from others: as, "I see _an object_ pass by,
which I never saw till now; and I say, 'There goes _a beggar_ with _a long
beard_.'"--_Harris_.

And _the_ is commonly used to denote individuals as _known_, or as
specially distinguished from others: as, "_The man_ departs, and returns a
week after; and I say, 'There goes _the beggar_ with _the long
beard_.'"--_Id._

The article _the_ is applied to nouns of cither number: as, "_The_ man,
_the_ men;" "_The_ good boy, _the_ good boys."

_The_ is commonly required before adjectives that are used by ellipsis as
nouns: as, "_The young_ are slaves to novelty; _the old_, to custom."--_Ld.
Kames._

The article _an_ or _a_ implies _unity_, or _one_, and of course belongs to
nouns of the singular number only; as, _A_ man,--_An_ old man,--_A_ good
boy.

_An_ or _a_, like _one_, sometimes gives a collective meaning to an
adjective of number, when the noun following is plural; as, _A few days,--A
hundred men,--One hundred pounds sterling_.

Articles should be _inserted_ as often as the sense requires them; as,
"Repeat the preterit and [_the_] perfect participle of the verb _to
abide_."--Error in _Merchant's American School Grammar_, p. 66.

_Needless articles_ should be omitted; they seldom fail to pervert the
sense: as, "_The_ Rhine, _the_ Danube, _the_ Tanais, _the_ Po, _the_ Wolga,
_the_ Ganges, like many hundreds of similar _names_, rose not from any
obscure jargon or irrational dialect."--Error in _Dr. Murray's Hist. of
Europ. Lang._, Vol. i, p. 327.

The articles can seldom be put _one for the other_, without gross
impropriety; and of course either is to be preferred to the other, as it
better suits the sense: as, "_The_ violation of this rule never fails to
hurt and displease _a_ reader."--Error in _Blair's Lectures_, p. 107. Say,
"_A_ violation of this rule never fails to displease _the_ reader."

CLASSES.

The articles are distinguished as the _definite_ and the _indefinite_.

I. The _definite articl