ames
even in Sardis."--_Rev._, iii, 4. "There are _a thousand_ things which
crowd into my memory."--_Spectator_, No. 468. "The centurion commanded _a
hundred_ men."--_Webster_. See Etymology, Articles, Obs. 26.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE I.

OBS. 1.--The article is a kind of _index_, usually pointing to some noun;
and it is a general, if not a universal, principle, that no one noun admits
of more than one article. Hence, two or more articles in a sentence are
signs of two or more nouns; and hence too, by a very convenient ellipsis,
an article before an adjective is often made to relate to a noun
understood; as, "_The_ grave [_people_] rebuke _the_ gay [_people_], and
_the_ gay [_people_] mock _the_ grave" [_people_].--_Maturin's Sermons_,
p. 103. "_The_ wise [_persons_] shall inherit glory."--_Prov._, iii, 35.
"_The_ vile [_person_] will talk villainy."--_Coleridge's Lay Sermons_, p.
105: see _Isaiah_, xxxii, 6. "The testimony of the Lord is sure, making
wise _the_ simple" [_ones_].--_Psal._, xix, 7. "_The_ Old [_Testament_] and
the New Testament are alike authentic."--"_The_ animal [_world_] and the
vegetable world are adapted to each other."--"_An_ epic [_poem_] and a
dramatic poem are the same in substance."--_Ld. Kames, El. of Crit._, ii,
274. "The neuter verb is conjugated like _the_ active" [_verb_].--_Murray's
Gram._, p. 99. "Each section is supposed to contain _a_ heavy [_portion_]
and a light portion; _the_ heavy [_portion_] being the accented syllable,
and _the_ light [_portion_] _the_ unaccented" [_syllable_].--_Rush, on the
Voice_, p. 364.

OBS. 2.--Our language does not, like the French, _require a repetition_ of
the article before every noun in a series; because the same article may
serve to limit the signification of several nouns, provided they all stand
in the same construction. Hence the following sentence is bad English: "The
understanding and language have a strict connexion."--_Murray's Gram._, i,
p. 356. The sense of the former noun only was meant to be limited. The
expression therefore should have been, "_Language and the understanding_
have a strict connexion," or, "The understanding _has_ a strict connexion
_with language_." In some instances, one article _seems_ to limit the sense
of several nouns that are not all in the same construction, thus: "As it
proves a greater or smaller obstruction to _the speaker's_ or _writer's
aim_."--_Campbell's Rhet._, p. 200. That is--"to _the_ aim of _the_ speake