[Sidenote:  Kinds.]

176.  Articles are either definite or indefinite.

The is the definite article, since it points out a particular individual, or group, or class.

An or a is the indefinite article, because it refers to any one of a group or class of things.

An and a are different forms of the same word, the older an.

USES OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE.

[Sidenote:  Reference to a known object.]

177.  The most common use of the definite article is to refer to an object that the listener or reader is already acquainted with; as in the sentence,—­

Don’t you remember how, when the dragon was infesting the neighborhood of Babylon, the citizens used to walk dismally out of evenings, and look at the valleys round about strewed with the bones?—­THACKERAY.

     NOTE.—­This use is noticed when, on opening a story, a person is
     introduced by a, and afterwards referred to by the:—­

     By and by a giant came out of the dark north, and lay down on
     the ice near Audhumla.... The giant frowned when he saw the
     glitter of the golden hair.—­Heroes of Asgard.

[Sidenote:  With names of rivers.]

178. The is often prefixed to the names of rivers; and when the word river is omitted, as “the Mississippi,” “the Ohio,” the article indicates clearly that a river, and not a state or other geographical division, is referred to.

     No wonder I could face the Mississippi with so much courage
     supplied to me.—­THACKERAY.

     The Dakota tribes, doubtless, then occupied the country southwest
     of the Missouri.—­G.  BANCROFT.

[Sidenote:  To call attention to attributes.]

179.  When the is prefixed to a proper name, it alters the force of the noun by directing attention to certain qualities possessed by the person or thing spoken of; thus,—­

The Bacon, the Spinoza, the Hume, Schelling, Kant, or whosoever propounds to you a philosophy of the mind, is only a more or less awkward translator of things in your consciousness.—­EMERSON.

[Sidenote:  With plural of abstract nouns.]

180. The, when placed before the pluralized abstract noun, marks it as half abstract or a common noun.

[Sidenote:  Common.]

     His messages to the provincial authorities.—­MOTLEY.

[Sidenote:  Half abstract.]

     He was probably skilled in the subtleties of Italian
     statesmanship.—­Id.

[Sidenote:  With adjectives used as nouns.]

181.  When the precedes adjectives of the positive degree used substantively, it marks their use as common and plural nouns when they refer to persons, and as singular and abstract when they refer to qualities.