The article a serves to distinguish between two subjects compared with each other, and two subjects compared with a third. “He is the author of two works of a different character.” If the writer meant to say that he was the author of two works of a different character from that of one previously mentioned, the expression would be correct. But he intended to signify a dissimilarity between the two productions. He should, therefore, have omitted the article, and said, “of different character,” or “of different characters.”
Note 3.—The indefinite article, though generally placed before the adjective, as, “a good man,” is put after the adjective such; and where these words of comparison occur, as, so, too, how, its place is between the adjective and substantive, thus, “Such a gift is too small a reward for so great a service.” When the order is inverted, this rule is not observed, as “a reward so small,” “a service so great.” The definite article is likewise placed before the adjective, as “the great king.” All is the only adjective which precedes the article. “All the servants,” “all the money.”
Note 4.—Pronouns and proper names do not admit the definite article, themselves sufficiently determining the subject of discourse; thus we cannot say, the I, the Alexander. If we employ the definite article with a proper name, an ellipsis is involved; thus, if I say, he commands the Cæsar, I mean, he commands the ship called “Cæsar.”
Note 5.—The definite article is used to distinguish the explicative from the determinative sense. The omission of the article, when the sense is restricted, creates ambiguity. For this reason the following sentence is faulty: “All words, which are signs of complex ideas, furnish matter of mistake.”—Bolingbroke. Here the clause, “which are signs of complex ideas,” is not explicative, but restrictive; for all words are not signs of complex ideas. It should, therefore, be “all the,” or “all those words, which are signs of complex ideas, furnish matter of mistake.”
“In all cases of prescription, the universal practice of judges is to direct juries by analogy to the Statute of Limitations, to decide against incorporeal rights, which for many years have been relinquished.”—Erskine on the Rights of Juries. This sentence is chargeable at once with ambiguity and error. In the first place, it is doubtful whether a regard to this analogy governs the directions of the judge, or is to rule the decision of the jury. 2ndly. By the omission of the definite article, or the word those before the antecedent, he has rendered the relative clause explicative, instead of being restrictive; for, as all incorporeal rights are not abolished, he should have said, “against those incorporeal rights.”
There are certain cases, indeed, in which the antecedent clause admits the definite article, though the relative clause be not restrictive, thus,
“Blest are the pure, whose hearts are clean
From the defiling power of sin.”
Here the relative clause is merely explanatory, yet the antecedent admits the article. Thus also, in the following sentence, “My goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the saints, and the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.” The relative clause is not intended to limit the meaning of the antecedent terms, and yet they admit the definite article. In all examples, therefore, like these, where the explanatory meaning admits the article, it is necessary, for the sake of perspicuity, to mark the determinative sense by the emphatic words that or those. Thus, had the clause been determinative in the latter of these examples, it would have been necessary to say, “those saints, and those excellent ones, in whom is my delight.”
Note 6.—The definite article is likewise used to distinguish between things which are individually different, but have one generic name, and things which are, in truth, one and the same, but are characterized by several qualities. For example, if I should say, “the red and blue vestments were most admired,” it may be doubtful whether I mean that the union of red and blue in the same vestments was most admired, or that the red and the blue vestments were both more admired than the rest. In strictness of speech, the former is the only proper meaning of the words, though the latter sentiment be often thus expressed. If the latter be intended, we should say, “the red vestments and the blue,” or “the red and the blue vestments,” where the article is repeated. If I say, “the red and blue vestments,” it is obvious that only one subject is expressed, namely, “vestments,” characterized by two qualities, “redness,” and “blueness,” as combined in the subject. Here the subject is one; its qualities are plural. If I say, “the red vestments and the blue,” or “the red and the blue vestments,” the subjects are plural, expressed, however, by one generic name, vestments.