KAlIVi; NATURAL HISTORY. 



man i one man an contrasted with the man, that is, DOOM par* 

 tioulor man ; ami one man is a man M contracted with many 

 in. :i. A aitnply indicates one of a olaM of objects, e.y., a book, 

 a horso, a noodle j one indicate* a single object an the opposite 

 ral. These statements may be illustrated in an example : 

 I 1. .,11 -ht ,i book." " Yes, but not tlie book you want* 



i iook." " Indeed ! I thought you had bought many." 

 , I bought but one." 



The differs from this an being less demonstrative without 

 !'iii^ lima definite. The declares, thi points ont ; the is the 

 declaration of tho tongue, this is the declaration of the finger. 

 " 1 have sold the table." " Tlui table ! what table P "The 

 tiihl.- you mentioned." " \Vhat ! thit table P " " Yes." 



umlrrgoca no change by inflection, remaining tho same 

 whether HID noun is singular or plural, masculine or feminine, 

 tho Hubjeot or the object 



An, for tho sake of euphony, drops tho n before a consonant, 

 or consonantal sound ; thus wo say an empire and a kingdom. 



By a " consonantal sound " I mean a sound which baa more 

 or loss tho force of a consonant. Thus h when aspirated, as in 

 torse, is a consonantal sound. U (pronounced you) as in uni- 

 versity, is a consonantal sound. Consequently we say "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 universal (custom). A usurper. 



A ewer. A university. A utilitarian. 



A uniform. A usage. A Utopian (theory). 



A union. A use. A humorous (.story). 



A unit. A useful (instrument). A humour. 



A Unitarian. A usual (hour). A horseman. 



A united (company). A usurer. 



So wo 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 ; for example : 



An BEFORE WORDS BEGINNING WITH A SILENT h. 

 An heir. An hospital ? An honest (man). 



An herb ? An hostler. An bumble (friend). 



An honour. An hour. An honourable (man). 



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 li is aspirated by some authorities, whose practice in this 

 particular seems to be increasing in prevalence. When the h is 

 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 ; for example : 



"Tho proper study of mankind is man." Pope, 

 A noun is also without the article when it is nsed in a general 

 flense, and in cases when the word some may be supplied ; as : 



"To buy food are thy servants come." Geneti*. 

 A may denote a class, and the may denote the particular class ; 

 as : 



" A bird which I saw in America sang the sweetest of all the songs 

 I hare 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 tho 

 people in question were not numerous ; " o 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." " Oh, 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 crnel as the emperor 

 so colled. The is also used before such names in tho plural 

 number ; e. g., " The Neros, thank God, are not numerous." 



The is put before a noun in the singular, when a particular 

 species ia intended ; as, " The horse is a noble animal." The 



meaning would be wholly changed by converting UM singular 

 noon into a plural one ; as, " Tkt horsn are BOOM anisials," 

 that u, the horses in question. 

 X. the article, most not be ooiif onndad with a, the old prepo- 



sition or particle ; (or example : 



"They (o bents* to a bukntpf* doer.~-ly*. 

 Nor mnst an, the other form of a, be eonfoonded with am. UM 

 old conjunction j for example : 



" Nay. an thoa'lt months. I'll imat as well M ** ** P -\rjsf-f. 



In snob phranes M " four miles an boar." " twenty leagues a 

 day," a doubt has been Mpummd whether the a* and the a *ro 

 the article or the preposition. I incline to the opinion that <*. 

 a, in Mich cases is the article. This sisma probable from the 

 fact that an, not a, stands before a noon beginning with 

 vowel, or an h not pronounced ; for UM preposition a U in- 

 variable ; for example : 



" Krery one eat off a piece and (sD s eatinc/' 



Tho meaning of " four miles on boor " is not " four miles an or 

 tit hour," which has no sense, but four miles in on hour, that is. 

 four miles in one hour, foir miles each or every hour, the article 

 being used dUtributivcly, as in the phrase " a guinea a head." 

 that is, a guinea to every bead or person. 



The form " a many " is found in Shalnpeare : 



"A care-cnz'd mother of a Mmy children." 



" A many " is still Tory common in the north of England fat 

 instances where it is now more usual to say " a great many." 

 " Many a," as in 



" Full many a gem of purest ray seres*/* 

 is customary and good. 



Some have denied to an and the tho honour of being a 

 separate part of speech, alleging that the article U merely an 

 adjective. Thus they say that in the chair and moAooony ekair. 

 Hie and mahogany perform the same functions, namely, they 

 qualify chnir. 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. 

 Suroly there is a material difference of meaning between these 

 three forms of words : green chair, a green chair, and tht green 

 chair. At least the article qualifies the qualifier as well as the 

 object qualified, inasmuch as it tells us that a rinyU green chair 

 is meant, or the particular green chair in which some one eat. 

 There is consequently solid grounds 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 



RECREATIVE NATURAL HISTORY. 



so MI: 



WORM*, AXD 



LAND, SEA, AND FRESHWATER SHELLS, 



TUBE-DWELLERS (continued). 



NOT far from the hornet of these sea rock-borers we shall, by 

 dint of a little searching about, find, on some fiafuieni of 

 broken shell or detached stone, a mass of coiled up, twisted. 

 and irregular-looking white tubing, like lilipntian tobacco-pipe 

 stems, or tiny ram's horns. Each of these minute dwellings will 

 be found to hold an inhabitant ( Serpula contortuplteata), whose 

 beautiful scarlet fringe-like gills, or cilia, wave and n*nHn^t 

 as the fresh sea-water flows over it, bearing the mierosoopie 

 elements on which it subsists. It is deeply interesting to trace 

 the gradual increase in the capacity of these tubes from their 

 first appearance in the form of hollow pipes, no larger than a 

 hair, until, by the untiring industry of the little tube dweller 

 within, the length and capacity of his twisted mansion increases 

 until at length it becomes as we see it repiessutsd in Fig. 1 ; 

 and here we have an example of the fixed form of tube, 

 needing no shield beyond its own natural calcareous wall*. 

 Should fortune favour our search among the rooks and rook- 

 pools, we shall probably find some fragment of broken spar or 

 piece of wood which, sea-borne, ha* voyaged from afar to be 

 cast np by the tide at last. On examining this we shall find it 

 perforated in every direction by tabular orifices, the dwelling- 

 place* of the Teredo movata. On looking closely we shall per* 

 ceivo that each tube has a lining to it, but that the lining differs 

 in character according to the position it occupies in the interior 

 of the tube. Within an inch of the mouth of the canal or 

 orifice, it will be found to consist of a viscid paint-like mncna. 

 Beyond this distance, and extending inwards, the tab* will be 



