OBS. 15.—­Some later grammarians are still more faulty than Murray, in their rules for the application of an or a.  Thus Sanborn:  “The vowels are a, e, i, o, and u. An should be used before words beginning with any of these letters, or with a silent h.”—­Analytical Gram., p. 11. “An is used before words beginning with u long or with h not silent, when the accent is on the second syllable; as, an united people, an historical account, an heroic action.”—­Ib., p. 85. “A is used when the next word begins with a consonant; an, when it begins with a vowel or silent h.”—­lb., p. 129.  If these rules were believed and followed, they would greatly multiply errors.

OBS. 16.—­Whether the word a has been formed from an, or an from a, is a disputed point—­or rather, a point on which our grammarians dogmatize differently.  This, if it be worth the search, must be settled by consulting some genuine writings of the twelfth century.  In the pure Saxon of an earlier date, the words seldom occur; and in that ancient dialect an, I believe, is used only as a declinable numerical adjective, and a only as a preposition.  In the thirteenth century, both forms were in common use, in the sense now given them, as may be seen in the writings of Robert of Gloucester; though some writers of a much later date—­or, at any rate, one, the celebrated Gawin Douglas, a Scottish bishop, who died of the plague in London, in 1522—­constantly wrote ane for both an and a:  as,

   “Be not ouer studyous to spy ane mote in myn E,
    That in gour awin ane ferrye bot can not se.”
        —­Tooke’s Diversions, Vol. i, p. 124.

   “Ane uthir mache to him was socht and sperit;
    Bot thare was nane of all the rout that sterit.”
        —­Ib., Vol. i, p. 160.

OBS. 17.—­This, however, was a Scotticism; as is also the use of ae for a:  Gower and Chaucer used an and a as we now use them.  The Rev. J. M. M’Culloch, in an English grammar published lately in Edinburgh, says, “A and an were originally ae and ane, and were probably used at first simply to convey the idea of unity; as, ae man, ane ox.”—­Manual of E. Gram., p. 30.  For this idea, and indeed for a great part of his book, he is indebted to Dr. Crombie; who says, “To signify unity, or one of a class, our forefathers employed ae or ane; as, ae man, ane ox.”—­Treatise on Etym. and Synt., p. 53.  These authors, like Webster, will have a and an to be adjectives.  Dr. Johnson says, “A, an article set before nouns of the singular number; as, a man, a tree.  This article has no plural signification.  Before a word beginning with a vowel, it is written an; as, an ox, an egg; of which a is the contraction.”—­Quarto Dict., w.  A.