SECT.

II.

Of the ARTICLE.

HE words, that become fignificant by being joined to other words, I divided, in the beginning of this chapter, into two claffes, the Neceffary, and the Ufeful. The former, called Connectives, being now confidered, it only remains, that I explain the latter, which are known by the name of Articles.

The word article, articulus, † arthron, properly fignifies a joint. It would feem, that the first Grammarians thought there was fomething of a joining power in the words of this order. But, if they thought fo, they were mistaken. The article is no connective. It is a Definitive: being used for the purpose of defining, afcertaining, or limiting, the fignification of thofe words to which it is prefixed. Perhaps, however, they may have given it this name, with a view to fome metaphorical allufion.

In order to discover its ufe, we must recollect, that all nouns, proper names excepted, are general terms, or common appellatives. The word mountain

mountain is equally applicable to all mountains, and the word man to all men. Every veffel of a certain fize and form, which is made for failing, may be called ship: and the terms valour, bounty, wifdom, belong to every perfon, who is vali ant, bountiful, wife.

But, though it is true, of the names of things, that they are of general meaning, things themselves are all individuals. No one man is either lefs or more than one; and every man has peculiarities, whereby he may be diftinguished from all others.

How, then, are we to reconcile the univerfality of names with the individuality of things? In other words: when we make ufe of a common appellative, as man, houfe, mountain, what method do we take to intimate, that we speak of one, and not of many; of an individual, and not of a fpecies? There are feveral ways of doing this: and, particularly, it may be done by Articles, or Definitives.

For example: I fee an animated being, which has no proper name, or of whofe proper name I am ignorant. In fpeaking of it, therefore, I muft refer it to its fpecies, and call it man, dog, horfe, or the like; or, if I know not the fpecies, I refer it to its genus, and call it animal. But this animated being is itself neither a ge nus, nor a species; it is an individual: and therefore, in fpeaking of it, fo as to mark its individuality, I call it a horse, a man, a a dog, an animal: which intimates, that I fpeak of one, and not of many; of an individual being, and not of a clafs of beings. This article, therefore, or An, has the fame fignification nearly with the numerical word one. And accordingly,

cordingly, in French and Italian, the fame word that denotes unity is alfo the article of which I now speak. Nay, in fome of the dialects of old English, this feems to have been the cafe; for an is the fame with one in the Saxon; and the vulgar in Scotland ftill ufe a (pronouncing it, as in the word name) in the fenfe of one; as a day, "a morning I was early out," for, one morning. -Now obferve, that, when it is faid, I fee a man, I fee an animal, the a or an, though it afcertains the individuality, gives no further intimation concerning the thing fpoken of. It is therefore called the Indefinite article.

Again I fee a certain animal, which I never faw before, or of which, though I may know to what species it belongs, I have no previous acquaintance; and I fay, I fee an elephant, a dwarf, a bear, &c. Next day, the fame animal comes again in view; and I fay, recognizing it as the fame, There is the elephant, the dwarf, the bear changing the former indefinite article. into another, which not only intimates individuality, but also implies previous acquaintance. This, from its power of afcertaining fome one individual, in preference to others of the fame fpecies, is called the Definite article and it will, appear in the fequel to be much more useful than the other.

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We have, therefore, in English, two articles or definitives, A or An, and The: the former applicable to any one of a kind or fort; the other ufed for the purpose of diftinguishing fome particular one. In French and Italian there are two correfpondent articles.

VOL. II.

P

In

In Greek, there is no indefinite article; the noun without an article having the fame meaning with our indefinite article prefixed to a noun; as *anër, a man: but there is a definite article + ho, hê, to, which is for the most part of the fame import with our English the; as ‡ bo anêr, the

man.

In the Hebrew, as in Greek, there is no indefinite article; but there is a definite article, which they prefix to the noun fo as to make one word with it; and which, like the English article, has no diftinction of gender or number.

In the Erfe or Gaelick tongue, they have alfo a definite, but no indefinite, article. And the ufe of the article feems to have been pretty general in all the primitive tongues of the north of Europe, the Gothick, and Teutonick, as well as the Celtick; from which we may account for the prevalence of thefe little words in our modern tongues. For it is remarkable, that, though all the languages derived from the Latin have articles, yet the Latin itfelf has none. Whence then did they get theirs? I anfwer, from thofe northern nations who overturned the empire of Rome, and who, though they in part adopted the language of the vanquithed Romans, did alfo introduce into it a great variety of their own words and idioms.

That which is very eminent is fuppofed to be generally known. Hence the definite article may convey an idea of eminence, as well as of previous acquaintance. A king is any king; but the

the king is that perfon whom we acknowledge for our fovereign. So when we fay fimply, the kingdom, the nation, the government, we of Great Britain mean the British government, nation, kingdom, &c.

Sometimes we denote eminence by omitting the article: we fay, a member of parliament; an act of parliament; rather than, of the parliament. In this cafe, the thing spoken of is fo very eminent, that it needs no article to make it more fo and befides, a parliament in our sense of the word, is an inftitution peculiar to British policy. The twelve French Parliaments are rather courts of justice than legiflative affemblies. And, among the vulgar of North Britain, whose language abounds in French idioms, the fame idea appears to be ftill annexed to the term: for they speak of appealing to the British parliament from a fentence of the Court of Seflion; though they know, that the appeal is made, not to the Parliament, (in the English sense of the word) but to the Houfe of Lords.

In Greek too, as in English, the article is a mark of eminence: ho poiêtês, the poet, is ufed for Homer, the greatest of poets; and † bo Stageirites, the Stagyrite, for Ariftotle, who was the most famous of all the natives of the city Stagyra.

That which is nearly connected with us, or which from its vicinity we have been long acquainted with, becomes eminent in our eyes, even though, in itfelf, and compared with other P 2 things