ake 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 act