NOTE XI.—­The article should not be used before the names of virtues, vices, passions, arts, or sciences, in their general sense; before terms that are strictly limited by other definitives; or before any noun whose signification is sufficiently definite without it:  as, “Falsehood is odious.”—­“Iron is useful.”—­“Beauty is vain.”—­“Admiration is useless, when it is not supported by domestic worth”—­Webster’s Essays, p. 30.

NOTE XII.—­When titles are mentioned merely as titles; or names of things, merely as names or words; the article should not be used before them:  as, “He is styled Marquis;” not, “the Marquis,” or, “a Marquis,”—­“Ought a teacher to call his pupil Master?”—­“Thames is derived from the Latin name Tam~esis.”

NOTE XIII.—­When a comparison or an alternative is made with two nouns, if both of them refer to the same subject, the article should not be inserted before the latter; if to different subjects, it should not be omitted:  thus, if we say, “He is a better teacher than poet,” we compare different qualifications of the same man; but if we say, “He is a better teacher than a poet,” we speak of different men, in regard to the same qualification.

NOTE XIV.—­The definite article, or some other definitive, (as this, that, these, those,) is generally required before the antecedent to the pronoun who or which in a restrictive clause; as, “All the men who were present, agreed to it.”—­W.  Allen’s Gram., p. 145.  “The thoughts which passion suggests are always plain and obvious ones.”—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 468.  “The things which are impossible with men, are possible with God.”—­Luke, xviii, 27.  See Etymology, Chap.  V, Obs. 26th, &c., on Classes of Pronouns.

NOTE XV.—­The article is generally required in that construction which converts a participle into a verbal or participial noun; as, “The completing of this, by the working-out of sin inherent, must be by the power and spirit of Christ in the heart.”—­Wm. Penn.  “They shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.”—­Isaiah, lxvi, 24.  “For the dedicating of the altar.”—­Numb., vii, 11.

NOTE XVI.—­The article should not be added to any participle that is not taken in all other respects as a noun; as, “For the dedicating the altar.”—­“He made a mistake in the giving out the text.”  Expunge the, and let dedicating and giving here stand as participles only; for in the construction of nouns, they must have not only a definitive before them, but the preposition of after them.