Half abstract.
He was probably skilled in the subtleties of Italian statesmanship.—Id.
With adjectives used as nouns.
181. When the precedes adjectives of the positive degree used substantively, it marks their use as common and plural nouns when they refer to persons, and as singular and abstract when they refer to qualities.
1. The simple rise as by specific levity, not into a particular virtue, but into the region of all the virtues.—Emerson.
2. If the good is there, so is the evil.—Id.
Caution.
NOTE.—This is not to be confused with words that have shifted from adjectives and become pure nouns; as,—
As she hesitated to pass on, the gallant, throwing his cloak from his shoulders, laid it on the miry spot.—Scott.
But De Soto was no longer able to abate the confidence or punish the temerity of the natives.—G. Bancroft.