ifying_ or _defining
adjectives_.

The history of this part of speech is very brief. As there are but two
articles, _a_ or _an_ and _the_, you will know them wherever they occur.

A noun used without an article, or any other restrictive, is taken in
its _general_ sense; as, _"Fruit_ is abundant;" "_Gold_ is heavy;"
"_Man_ is born to trouble" Here we mean, fruit and gold _in general;_
and _all men_, or _mankind_.

When we wish to limit the meaning of the noun to _one_ object, but to no
_particular_ one, we employ _a_ or _an_. If I say, "Give me _a_ pen;"
"Bring me _an_ apple;" you are at liberty to fetch _any_ pen or _any_
apple you please. _A_ or _an_, then, is _indefinite_, because it leaves
the meaning of the noun to which it is applied, as far as regards the
person spoken to, _vague_, or _indeterminate_; that is, _not definite_.
But when reference is made to a _particular_ object, we employ _the_,
as, "Give me _the_ pen;" "Bring me _the_ apple, or _the_ apple." When
such a requisition is made, you are not at liberty to bring any pen or
apple you please, but you must fetch the _particular_ pen or apple to
which you know me to refer. _The_ is, therefore, called the _definite_
article.

"_A_ star appears." Here, the star referred to, may be known as a
_particular_ star, _definite_, and distinguished from all others, in the
mind of the _speaker_; but to the _hearer_, it is left, among the
thousands that bedeck the vault of heaven, _undistinguished_ and
_indefinite_. But when the star has previously been made the subject of
discourse, it becomes, in the minds of both speaker and hearer a
_definite_ object, and he says, "_The_ star appears;" that is, that
_particular_ star about which we were discoursing.

"Solomon built _a_ temple." Did he build _any_ temple, _undetermined
which?_ No; it was a _particular_ temple, pre-eminently distinguished
from all others. But _how_ does it become a definite object in the mind
of the _hearer_? Certainly, not by the phrase, "_a_ temple," which
indicates _any_ temple, leaving it altogether _undetermined_ which; but
supposing the person addressed was totally unacquainted with the fact
asserted, and it becomes to him, _in one respect only_, a definite and
particular temple, by means of the associated words, "Solomon built;"
that is, by the use of these words in connexion with the others, the
hearer gets the idea of a temple distinguished as _the one erected by
Solomon_. If the speaker