To every room there was an open and a secret
     passage.—­JOHNSON.

Notice that in the above sentences (except the first) the noun expressed is in contrast with the modified noun omitted.

[Sidenote:  One article with several adjectives.]

437.  Usually the article is not repeated when the several adjectives unite in describing one and the same noun.  In the sentences of Secs. 433 and 436, one noun is expressed; yet the same word understood with the other adjectives has a different meaning (except in the first sentence of Sec. 436).  But in the following sentences, as in the first three of Sec. 435, the adjectives assist each other in describing the same noun.  It is easy to see the difference between the expressions “a red-and-white geranium,” and “a red and a white geranium.”

Examples of several adjectives describing the same object:—­

     To inspire us with a free and quiet mind.—­B.  JONSON.

     Here and there a desolate and uninhabited house.—­DICKENS.

     James was declared a mortal and bloody enemy.—­MACAULAY.

     So wert thou born into a tuneful strain,
     An early, rich, and inexhausted vein. 
     —­DRYDEN.

[Sidenote:  For rhetorical effect.]

438.  The indefinite article (compare Sec. 434) is used to lend special emphasis, interest, or clearness to each of several nouns; as,—­

     James was declared a mortal and bloody enemy, a tyrant, a
     murderer, and a usurper.—­MACAULAY.

     Thou hast spoken as a patriot and a Christian.—­BULWER.

     He saw him in his mind’s eye, a collegian, a parliament man—­a
     Baronet perhaps.—­THACKERAY.

VERBS.

CONCORD OF VERB AND SUBJECT IN NUMBER.

[Sidenote:  A broad and loose rule.]

439.  In English, the number of the verb follows the meaning rather than the form of its subject.

It will not do to state as a general rule that the verb agrees with its subject in person and number.  This was spoken of in Part I., Sec. 276, and the following illustrations prove it.

The statements and illustrations of course refer to such verbs as have separate forms for singular and plural number.

[Sidenote:  Singular verb.]

440.  The singular form of the verb is used—­

[Sidenote:  Subject of singular form.]

(1) When the subject has a singular form and a singular meaning.

     Such, then, was the earliest American land.—­AGASSIZ.

     He was certainly a happy fellow at this time.—­G.  ELIOT.

     He sees that it is better to live in peace.—­COOPER.

[Sidenote:  Collective noun of singular meaning.]