two primary ideas, and
suffer no change of termination in our language, and therefore suggest
no secondary ideas.

Mr. Locke observes, that languages consist principally of general
terms; as it would have been impossible to give a name to every
individual object, so as to communicate an idea of it to others; it
would be like reciting the name of every individual soldier of an
army, instead of using the general term, army. Now the use of the
article _a_, and _the_ in English, and _o_ in Greek, converts general
terms into particular ones; this idea of particularity as a quality,
or property of a noun, is one of the primary ideas suggested by these
articles; and the other is, that of its appertaining to some
particular noun substantive, without which it is not intelligible. In
both these respects these articles correspond with adjectives; to
which may be added, that our article _a_ may be expressed by the
adjective one or any; and that the Greek article _o_ is declined like
other adjectives.

The perpetual use of the article, besides its converting general terms
into particular ones, contributes much to the force and beauty of our
language from another circumstance, that abstracted ideas become so
readily personified simply by the omission of it; which perhaps
renders the English language better adapted to poetry than any other
ancient or modern: the following prosopopoeia from Shakspeare is thus
beautiful.

She let Concealment like a worm i' th' bud
Feed on her damask cheek.

And the following line, translated from Juvenal by Dr. Johnson, is
much superior to the original, owing to the easy personification of
Worth and Poverty, and to the consequent conciseness of it.

Difficile emergunt, quorum virtutibus obstat
Res angusta domi.
Slow rises Worth by Poverty depress'd.

3. A third class of adjectives includes what are termed PARTICIPLES,
which are allied to the infinitive moods of verbs, and are formed in
our language by the addition only of the syllable _ing_ or _ed_; and
are of two kinds, active and passive, as loving, loved, from the verb
to love. The verbs suggest an idea of the noun, or thing spoken of;
and also of its manner of existence, whether at rest, in action, or in
being acted upon; as I lie still, or I whip, or I am whipped; and,
lastly, another idea of the time of resting, acting, or suffering; but
these adjectives called participles, suggest only two primary ideas,
one of the noun, or th