tive, which cannot
be used alone, but always joins to a substantive word to denote a
particular thing, or a group or class of things, or any individual of
a group or class.

[Sidenote: _Kinds._]

176. Articles are either definite or indefinite.

The is the definite article, since it points out a particular
individual, or group, or class.

An or a is the indefinite article, because it refers to any one of
a group or class of things.

An and a are different forms of the same word, the older _an_.

USES OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE.

[Sidenote: _Reference to a known object._]

177. The most common use of the definite article is to refer to an
object that the listener or reader is already acquainted with; as in
the sentence,--

Don't you remember how, when _the_ dragon was infesting _the_
neighborhood of Babylon, _the_ citizens used to walk dismally out
of evenings, and look at _the_ valleys round about strewed with
_the_ bones?--THACKERAY.

NOTE.--This use is noticed when, on opening a story, a person is
introduced by _a_, and afterwards referred to by _the_:--

By and by _a_ giant came out of the dark north, and lay down on
the ice near Audhumla.... _The_ giant frowned when he saw the
glitter of the golden hair.--_Heroes of Asgard._

[Sidenote: _With names of rivers._]

178. _The_ is often prefixed to the names of rivers; and when the
word _river_ is omitted, as "_the_ Mississippi," "_the_ Ohio," the
article indicates clearly that a river, and not a state or other
geographical division, is referred to.

No wonder I could face _the_ Mississippi with so much courage
supplied to me.--THACKERAY.

The Dakota tribes, doubtless, then occupied the country southwest
of _the_ Missouri.--G. BANCROFT.

[Sidenote: _To call attention to attributes._]

179. When _the_ is prefixed to a proper name, it alters the force of
the noun by directing attention to _certain qualities_ possessed by
the person or thing spoken of; thus,--

_The_ Bacon, _the_ Spinoza, _the_ Hume, Schelling, Kant, or
whosoever propounds to you a philosophy of the mind, is only a
more or less awkward translator of things in your
consciousness.--EMERSON.

[Sidenote: _With plural of abstract nouns._]

180. _The_, when placed before the pluralized abstract noun, marks
it as half abstract or a common noun.

[Sidenote: _Common._]

His messages to _t