OBS. 7.—­Proper names of a plural form and signification, are almost always preceded by the definite article; as, “The Wesleys,”—­“The twelve Caesars,”—­“All the Howards.”  So the names of particular nations, tribes, and sects; as, The Romans, the Jews, the Levites, the Stoics.  Likewise the plural names of mountains; as, The Alps, the Apennines, the Pyrenees, the Andes.  Of plural names like these, and especially of such as designate tribes and sects, there is a very great number.  Like other proper names, they must be distinguished from the ordinary words of the language, and accordingly they are always written with capitals; but they partake so largely of the nature of common nouns, that it seems doubtful to which class they most properly belong.  Hence they not only admit, but require the article; while most other proper names are so definite in themselves, that the article, if put before them, would be needless, and therefore improper.

“Nash, Rutledge, Jefferson, in council great, And Jay, and Laurens oped the rolls of fate; The Livingstons, fair freedoms generous band, The Lees, the Houstons, fathers of the land.”—­Barlow.

OBS. 8.—­In prose, the definite article is always used before names of rivers, unless the word river, be added; as, The Delaware, the Hudson, the Connecticut.  But if the word river be added, the article becomes needless; as, Delaware river, Hudson river, Connecticut river.  Yet there seems to be no impropriety in using both; as, The Delaware river, the Hudson river, the Connecticut river.  And if the common noun be placed before the proper name, the article is again necessary; as, The river Delaware, the river Hudson, the river Connecticut.  In the first form of expression, however, the article has not usually been resolved by grammarians as relating to the proper name; but these examples, and others of a similar character, have been supposed elliptical:  as, “The [river] Potomac”—­“The [ship] Constitution,”—­“The [steamboat] Fulton.”  Upon this supposition, the words in the first and fourth forms are to be parsed alike; the article relating to the common noun, expressed or understood, and the proper noun being in apposition with the appellative.  But in the second form, the apposition is reversed; and, in the third, the proper name appears to be taken adjectively.  Without the article, some names of rivers could not be understood; as,

   “No more the Varus and the Atax feel
    The lordly burden of the Latian keel.”—­Rowe’s Lucan, B. i. l. 722.