teaze) names are names given to persons in the way of amusement, derision, or contempt. The age of Charles II. was an age of nicknames-the king himself was known as "Old Rowley," in allusion to an ill-favoured but famous horse in the royal mews. Nor was the cognomen at all disagreeable to him. Mrs. Holford, a young lady much admired by the king, was in her apartments singing a satirical ballad upon Old Rowley the king," when he knocked at her door. Upon her asking who was there, he, with his usual good humour, replied, "Old Rowley himself, madam." Hobbes he called "The Bear," "Here comes the Bear to be baited," was his remark, as soon as he saw the great philosopher surrounded by the wits, who rejoiced in his conversation. A favourite yatch received from him the name of "Tubbs," in honour of the Duchess of Portsmouth, who was plump and full in her person. The queen he called "a bat," in allusion to her short, broad figure, her swarthy complexion, and the projection of her upper lip from a protuberant foretooth. THE ARTICLES. THE word article, coming from the Latin artus, a joint, is in form a diminutive (articula), and according to its etymology or derivation signifies a little joint. The articles may have been called "little joints" because of their smallness as articulations, or because, being small, they, as limiting the application of nouns, are the points or pivots on which discourse turns. The article the does not essentially differ from what is called the demonstrative pronoun this, for "the man" and "this man are phrases of kindred import. Indeed, the appears to be an abbreviated form of this (from the Saxon, thes, as in these) being softened down from this, into thic (thic is still common among the peasantry of the south), and thae Scotch into the. In the Anglo-Saxon, the article the is connected in origin as well as signification with this and thaet (that). The article an (a before a consonant), the same with the German ein, the Greek en, the Latin unus, the French un, and the Scotch ane (ae), in all of which the n is a radical letter, denotes unity. From these etymological statements we are led to the exact import of the articles. In English there are two articles. Of these the one, namely the, is called the definite article, the other, namely an, is called the indefinite article. The indefinite article points out one object, as an apple, a man, thus limiting the noun to a single object of its kind. Such a limitation at first sight seems very definite; but an or a, while it indicates one, leaves it uncertain, that is undetermined (or indefinite), what one is meant. The office of determining what object is meant belongs to the definite or determining article the, e. g. "I saw a man.' "What man?" "The man whom you and I met yesterday." a man A man is one 1 has the same origin as one. But a differs from one, 66 and " one man " do not signify exactly the same. man as contrasted with the man, that is some particular man; and one man is a man as contrasted with many men. A simply indicates one of a class of objects, e. g., a book, a horse, a needle; one indicates a single object as the opposite of several. These statements may be illustrated in an example: "I bought a book." 'Yes, but not the book you wanted." "I bought one book." "Indeed! I thought you had bought many." "No, I bought but one." The differs from this as being less demonstrative without being less definite. The declares, this points out; the is the declaration of the tongue, this is the declaration of the finger. "I have sold the table." "The table! what table?" "The table you mentioned." "What! this table?" "Yes." The undergoes no change by inflection, remaining the same whether the noun is singular or plural, masculine or feminine, the subject or the object. An, for the sake of euphony, drops the n before a consonant, or consonantal sound; thus we say an empire and a kingdom. By" a consonantal sound" I mean a sound which has more or less the force of a consonant. Thus h when aspirated as in horse, is a consonantal sound. U (pronounced you) as in university, is a consonantal sound. Consequently we say 66 a horse,' "a university," as well as "a tiger," a school." I give a list of Words the initial letter of which has a consonantal sound. A European, A ewer, A uniform, A union, A unit, A unitarian, A united (company), A universal (custom), A university, A usage, 66 " So we also say "such a one and " a once beloved friend." An is required before what is called a silent h, that is h which is not aspirated; e. g. An before words beginning with a silent h. An heir, An herb ? An honour, An hospital? An hostler, An hour, An honest (man), An humble (friend), In regard to some of these words usage is not strict or uniform. In those that I have marked with a note of interrogation, the initial h is aspirated by some authorities; whose practice in this particular seems to be increasing in prevalence. When the his aspirated, of course not the full form an, but the shortened form a, is required. The adjectives formed from some nouns in which the h is aspirated, drop the aspirate and so take an instead of a; thus we say, "a history" but "an historical narrative;" "a heretic" but "an heretical book." A common noun, when taken in its widest sense, admits no article; e. g." "The proper study of mankind is man"-Pope. A noun is also without the article when it is used in a general sense, and in cases when the word some may be supplied, e. g., "To buy food are thy servants come."-Genesis. A, may denote a class, and the may denote the particular class; e. g. "A bird which I saw in America sang the sweetest of all the songs I have ever heard." "What bird?" "The yet unnamed species described in my new work." A, though denoting a single object, may stand before a noun of multitude, provided the idea of unity predominates; thus we say "a hundred men," that is, "a band of a hundred men," a hundred men considered as a total. So "a few days' means a certain indefinite period. There is a difference between "few people" and "a few people;" "few people" says that the people in question were not numerous; a few people" declares that there was present a company, in opposition to their being present no persons at all; e. g., "few people were at the play.' "Few? None." 66 "O, I beg your pardon, there was a few.' A, prefixed to the name of an eminent personage, denotes one of a class; thus, "a Nero" is a person as cruel as the emperor so called. The, is also used before such names in the plural number, "The Neros, thank God, are not numerous." e. g., The is put before a noun in the singular, when a particular species is intended; e. g., "The horse is a noble animal." The meaning would be wholly changed by converting the singular noun into a plural one; c.g. "The horses are noble animals," that is, the horses in question. A, the article, must not be confounded with a, the old proposition or particle, e. g., 66 They go a begging to a bankrupt's door."-Dryden. Nor must an, the other form of a, be confounded with an, the old conjunction, e. g., Nay an thou'lt mouthe, I'll rant as well as thou.-Shakspeare. In such phrases as "four miles an hour," "twenty leagues a day," a doubt has been expressed whether the an and the a are the article or the preposition. I incline to the opinion that an, a, in such cases is the article. This seems probable from the fact that an, not a, stands before a noun beginning with a vowel or an h, not pronounced; for the preposition a is invariable; e. g., "Every one cut off a piece and fell a eating." The meaning of "four miles an hour" is not "four miles an or in hour," which has no sense, but four miles in an hour, that is, four miles in one hour, four miles each or every hour, the article being used distributively, as in the phrase "a guinea a head," that is, a guinea to every head or person. The form "a many" is found in Shakspeare: "A care-craz'd mother of a many children." "A many" is still very common in the north of England in instances where it is now more usual to say a great many." "Many a, as in "Full many a gem of purest ray serene," is customary and good. Some have denied to an and the, the honour of being a separate part of speech, alleging that the article is merely an adjective. Thus they say that in the chair and mahogany chair, the and mahogany perform the same functions, namely, they qualify chair. But the two words qualify chair with a difference, the one indicating what the chair is made of, the other denoting some particular chair of whatever material it may consist. Surely there is a material difference of meaning between these three forms of words: green chair, a green chair, the green chair. At least the article qualifies the qualifier as well as the object qualified, inasmuch as it tells us that a single green chair is meant, or the particular green chair in which some one sat. There is consequently solid ground for studying the article apart from the adjective, and if only for that purpose, there is a good reason for giving the article a specific. In an epic poem, or a poem upon an elevated subject, a writer ought to avoid raising a simile on a low image. In the ode which was composed on the Queen's marriage, the poet laureat employed the most suitable images that his imagination could supply. "A Daniel come to judgment! Yea, a Daniel."-Shakspeare. He who would write heroic poems should live an heroic life. An historical introduction has generally a happy effect to rouse atten. tion. Those who contend for four per cent, have set men's mouths a watering for money. full surely "And when he thinks, good easy man, His greatness is a ripening-nips his root."-Shakspeare. "He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month, by courses." (1 Kings v. 14.) 66 For harbour, harbour, at a thousand doors they knock'd; The praise of the judicious few is an ample compensation for the neglect of the illiterate many. moon, and mother of this stars are very beautiful. -English are rich,-Irish are poor.-Father and Have you ever seen such-knife? Yes, I have seen such-one. -European differs in hue from an Asiatic. In London there isUniversity. Every family has-master; a ship has--master; when -house is built, there is-master; when-highways are repairing, there is-master. In the English language, the same sound and apparently-same word is employed both as-noun and as-verb; nay, same word may be employed as-adjective and even aspreposition, and-adverb as well as-verb and-noun. "The old oaken bucket,-iron bound bucket, -moss covered bucket arose from the well,”—Wordsworth. PARSING. The task of a schoolmaster laboriously prompting and urging an indolent class, is worse than his who drives lazy horses along a sandy road. The, the definite article qualifying task. Task, a common noun made to refer to a particular task by the use of the limiting or definite article the; task is a noun neuter, in the singular number; the subject to the verb is. Of, a preposition forming with schoolmaster, the Norman French, or false Genitive. A, from an, the indefinite article qualifying schoolmaster. Prompting, a present participle, known by its ending in ing, and agreeing with schoolmaster. And, a conjunction, connecting together prompting and urging. Urging, a present participle from the transitive verb to urge, agreeing with schoolmaster. An, the indefinite article, which before a consonant becomes a. Indolent, an adjective qualifying class; indolent is made up of two Latin terms, in, not, and doleo, I am in pain, so that indolence is taking no pains I, a part of the verb to be, present time, having for its subject, task, or in full, "the task of a schoolmaster," &c. Worse, an adjective qualifying task. Than, an adverb of comparison. His, a possessive pronoun, or the possessive case of the personal pronoun he; if regarded in the former light, his agrees with task understood; if in the latter, it is governed by a task understood. Who, a relative pronoun, the subjectof the verb drives. Drives, a transitive verb, present time, having for its subject or nominative case the pronoun who. Lazy, an adjective qualifying horses. Horses, a common noun, in the plural number, the object to the verb drives. Along, a preposition, made up of a and long. A, the indefinite article from un, employed before a singular noun beginning with a consonant. Sandy, an adjective qualifying road. Road, a common noun, of the neuter gender, singular number, dependent on the preposition along. If viewed etymologically, the sentence yields these results. Of Saxon or Teutonic origin are these words, namely, the, of, a, is, worse, than, he, who, drives, lazy, horses, along, sandy, road; of Celtic origin is task (tasg, a bond, a job); and of Latin origin are laboriously, prompting, urging, indolent. Schoolmaster is a |