Example: “Man was made for society, and ought to extend his good-will to all men: but a man will naturally entertain a more particular kindness for the men with whom he has the most frequent intercourse; and enter into a still closer union with the man, whose temper and disposition suit best with his own.”
It is of the nature of both the Articles to determine or limit the thing spoken of: a determines it to be one single thing of the kind, leaving it still uncertain which; the determines which it is, or of many which they are. The first therefore can only be joined to Substantives in the singular number[2]; the last may also be joined to plurals.
There is a remarkable exception to this rule in the use of the Adjectives few and many, (the latter chiefly with the word great before it) which, though joined with plural Substantives, yet admit of the singular Article a: as, a few men, a great many men;
“Told of a many thousand warlike French:”—
“The care-craz’d mother of a many children.”
Shakespear.
The reason of it is manifest from the effect which the Article has in these phrases: it means a small or great number collectively taken, and therefore gives the idea of a Whole, that is, of Unity. Thus likewise a hundred, a thousand, is one whole number, an aggregate of many collectively taken; and therefore still retains the Article a, tho’ joined as an Adjective to a plural Substantive: as, a hundred years;[3]
“For harbour at a thousand doors they knock’d;