If the poet of the "Rape of the Lock" be not a wit, who deserves to be called so?—Thackeray.
He had a little brother in London with him at this time,—as great a beauty, as great a dandy, as great a villain.—Id.
A youth to fortune and to fame unknown.—Gray.
Changes material to class nouns.
191. An or a before a material noun indicates the change to a class noun, meaning one kind or a detached portion; as,—
They that dwell up in the steeple,...
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone.
—Poe.
When God at first made man,
Having a glass of blessings standing by.
—Herbert.
The roofs were turned into arches of massy stone, joined by a cement that grew harder by time.—Johnson.
Like the numeral adjective one.
192. In some cases an or a has the full force of the numeral adjective one. It is shown in the following:—