ART 



til's latter article, which tacitly infinuates a kind of pnv'ious 

 ac uaintaiice, by referring the p.efent perception to a like 

 p rception already pall. The articles a and the are both of 

 them definitives, as they circumfcribe the latitude of genus 

 and fpecies, by reducing them for the mod part to denote 

 individuals ; with 'his difference, that the article a leaves 

 the indlvia'ua! ilfelf imafcertaimd., whilft the article the, afcer- 

 ta'ins the individual alfo ; and on that account is the more 

 accurate definitive of the two. Hence the former article 

 a, being apphed to objetls or names taken in their more 

 vague and general figuification, is called indtdnits ; and ac- 

 cordingly fomc have derived it by contraction, from <7;yr ; 

 whereas the article the is called definite., bccaufe it appro- 

 priates or fixes the lenfe of the ivord to which it is prefixed 

 to one individual thing. 



Beii'es, the article a, as it feparates one individual from 

 the clals tu which it belongs, cannot be applied to plurals ; 

 but tlie article the, fpecifying or defining objects diihncl 

 from others of the fame clafs, is alike applicable to both 

 numbers. To this rule, however, there is an exception, as 

 in the ufe of the adjectives yJw and inany, which though 

 joined with plural fubftantives, yet admit of the article a, as 

 a few men av.d a great mnn\ men. Mr. Lindley Murray 

 (Grammar, p-Sl-) ohlenres, that the realon of this is mani- 

 feil ; from the effect which the article has in thefe phrafes, it 

 means a fmall or great number collectively taken, and there- 

 fore gives the idea of a whole, that is, of unity. — Thus like- 

 wife, a dozen, a fcore, a hundred, a thoufand, is one whole 

 number, or a:i aggregate of many collectively taken; and there- 

 fore Itill retains the article a, though joined as an adjcdlive to a 

 plural fubitantive. The indefinite article is much more limited 

 in its ufe than the definite: and ther fore the Greek and He- 

 brew languages have it not, though they both have the defi- 

 nite article. The Greek o corr^fpn;ids preciftly to our /^^; as 

 o Bxa-iAsti; the king, to Ji'§o» the gift ; however they differ in 

 this refpeCl, that the Greek article admits of variation 

 adapted to number and gender, whereas the Engli!h the is 

 invariable. It has been already oblerved, that the article 

 has no meaning but when it is affociattd to fome other word ; 

 and the words to which it may be annexed are thofe which, 

 though indefinite, are yet capable by means of the articles 

 of becomisig definite. Upon this principle it is abfurd to 

 fay O E711, the I, or O Su, the thou, bccaufe nothing can 

 make thofe pronouns more definite than they are. The 

 fame is true of proper names. By the fame rule we cannot 

 fay in Greek Oi Ajijo'/sfoi, or the both, becaufe thefe words 

 are in their own nature perfectly defined ; hence the nume- 

 ral tiuo, when it is indefinite, is found to affume the article 

 whenever it would become definite : thus the two in En- 

 glifh, and w Am in Greek, mean nearly the fame thing ' 

 as both or Au-p-'tif^ii. As fome words admit of no ar- 

 ticle, becaufe they are oy nature as definite as may be, 

 there are others that do not admit it, becaufe they are not 

 to ^e defined at all : of this lort are all inlerrogatives. 

 Upon the whole, the natural affociates with articles are all 

 tliofe common appellatives which denote the feverai genera 

 and fpecies of beingi!. The definite article the is irtqucntly 

 applied to adverbs in the comparative and fupcrlative de- 

 gree, and its cffcdt is to mark the degree more flrongly, 

 and to define it the more ptecifely ; as " the more 1 examine 

 it, the better I like it:" — " I like this the Icafl; of any." 

 Bcfides the articles already enumerated, which are articles 

 ftrictly fo called, there are the pronmiinal articles, fuch as t/iis, 

 that, any, other, fome, all, no or none. Sic. whiclr may be 

 fometimes taken as pronouns, and fomctimes as articles ; 

 but if it be the effence of an article to define and afccrtain, 

 they are much more properly articles than any liung tlfe. 

 See Pronoun. Harris's Hermes, p. 214. &c. 



ART 



Articles are of great fervice in a language, as they con- 

 tribute to the more neat and precife cxpici]fing of feverai 

 properties and relations, which mud otherwife be loft. 

 Without articles, or fome equivalent invention, men could 

 not employ nouns to any of the purpofes of life, or indeed 

 communicate their thoughts at all. And hence one great 

 difadvantage of the Latin above other languages which 

 have articles, is that the article being either expreffcd, or 

 left out, makes an alteration in the fenfe, which the Latins 

 cannot diftinguirti. Thus when the devil faid to our Saviour, 

 " fi tu es Filius Dei," it may cither be underftood, " if thou 

 art a Son of God," or, " if thou art the Son of God." — 

 Scaager, from the want of articles in the Latin, has con- 

 eluded them ufclefs, and bellowed upon them opprobrious 

 lar:giiagt, calling the article, " otiofum loquaciffimse gentis 

 inltiumeutum ;" and the abbe Girard has degraded them 

 to the humble llation of " avant-coureurs," merely to an- 

 nounce the approach or entrance of a noun. Mr. Home 

 Tooke, " Divtrfions of Puriey," has vindicated the 

 honour of the article, and endeavoured to reftorc it to its 

 primitive dignity. For this purpofe he recurs to the reafon- 

 ings of Mr. Locke, on the ufe and importance of general 

 terms ; and he obferves, that it is the bufinefs of the article 

 to reduce the generahty of terms, and, upon occafion, to 

 enable us to employ general terms for particulars. If, in 

 combination with a general term, it is a fubftitute, yet it is 

 a neceffary fubftitute, which (he adds) is more than can be 

 faidof Abbp.evi.aTions that have been advanced into diftinCt 

 parts of fpeech, for they are not effcntial to the commu- 

 nication of our thoughts. The Italians even prefix articles 

 to proper names, which do not naturally need any, becaufe 

 they of themfclves fignify things individually. — Thus they 



fay, d Ariojlo, ilTaJfo, il Petrarcha Even the French join 



the article to the proper names of kingdoms, provinces, &c. 

 as la Suede, la N rmandie. — And we likewife annex it to the 

 names of certain mountains and rivere ; as the Rhine, the 

 Danube, the yllps, &c. 



Fa. Buffier diftingui(hes a third kindof articles in French, 

 which he calls intermediate or partitive, fcrving to denote part 

 of the thing expreffcd by the fubftantives they are added to: 

 as, " des Icavants out cru," " fome learned men have fup- 

 poled," &c. ; I want " de la lumiere," " fome light," &c. 

 The ufe anddiftinCtion of the definite and indefinite articles 

 le or la, and tie or du, make one of the greateft difficulties in 

 the French tongue, as being utterly arbitrary-, and only to be 

 acquired by practice. — We may add, that in the Englifh, 

 though the articles be fo few, yet they are of fuch frequent 

 ufe, that they eafily difcorer any ftranger from a natural , 

 Englilhman. 



ARTICULARIS, in Medicine, an epithet applied to a 

 difeafe which more mmediately infeft-. the articuli, or joints. 

 The morbus articularis is the fame with the Greek a|.S»iTi?, 

 and our gout. 



ARTICULATE Sounds are thofe which exprefs the 

 letters, fyllables, 5cc. of any alphabet or larnjuage. 



Brutes cannot form articulate founds, or they cannot ar- 

 ticulate the founds of their voice ; excepting fome few birds, 

 as the parrot, pye, raven, ftarling, &c. 



ARTICULATED Z,;'^f/, i'dietlus articulatus, that wherein 

 the parts of a fa£l are fet forth to the judge in (hort diftinCl 

 articles. This amounts to much the fame with what is 

 otherwife called lilellus pofuionalis. 

 Articulatf.dZi-i^. See Leaf. 



Articulated Radius, in Natural Hi/lory. See Radius 

 Ailicitlalus. 



ARTICULATION, ajiO^airif, \n ylnatomy, thejunfture 

 or connection of two bones. Articulation is technically 

 dividcdinto diarthrofis, or moveable articulation j fjnarthrolis. 



