ARTICLE.
The Article is a word prefixed to substantives, to point them out, and to shew how far their signification extends.
In English there are but two articles, a, and the: a becomes an before a vowel or a silent h.
A is used in a vague sense to point out one single thing of the kind, in other respects indeterminate: the determines what particular thing is meant.
A substantive without any article to limit it is taken in its widest sense: thus man means all mankind; as,
“The proper study of mankind is man:”
Pope.
where mankind and man may change places without making any alteration in the sense. A man means some one or other of that kind, indefinitely; the man means, definitely, that particular man, who is spoken of: the former therefore is called the Indefinite, the latter the Definite, Article[1].