But what is the wonderful peculiarity in the meaning and use of these two little words that makes them so unlike every thing else, as to demand a separate “part of speech?” You may be surprised when I tell you that there are other words in our language derived from the same source and possessed of the same meaning; but such is the fact, as will soon appear.  Let us ask for the etymology of these important words. A signifies one, never more, never less.  In this respect it is always definite.  It is sometimes applied to a single thing, sometimes to a whole class of things, to a [one] man, or to a [one] hundred men.  It may be traced thro other languages, ancient and modern, with little modification in spelling; Greek eis, ein; Latin unus; Armoric unan; Spanish and Italian uno; Portuguese hum; French un; German ein; Danish een, en; Dutch een; Swedish en; Saxon, an, aen, one—­from which ours is directly derived—­old English ane; and more modernly one, an, a.  In all languages it defines a thing to be one, a united or congregated whole, and the word one may always be substituted without affecting the sense.  From it is derived our word once, which signifies oned, united, joined, as we shall see when we come to speak of “contractions.”  In some languages a is styled an article, in others it is not.  The Latin, for instance, has no article, and the Greek has no indefinite.  But all languages have words which are like ours, pure adjectives, employed to specify certain things.  The argument drawn from the fact that some other languages have articles, and therefore ours should, is fallacious.  The Latin, which was surpassed for beauty of style or power in deliverance by few, if any others, never suffered from the lack of articles.  Nor is there any reason why we should honor two small adjectives with that high rank to the exclusion of others quite as worthy.

The is always used as a definitive word, tho it is the least definite of the defining adjectives.  In fact when we desire to “ascertain particularly what thing is meant,” we select some more definite word.  “Give me the books.”  Which?  “Those with red covers, that in calf, and this in Russia binding.” The nations are at peace.  What nations? Those which were at war.  You perceive how we employ words which are more definite, that is, better understood, to “point out” the object of conversation, especially when there is any doubt in the case.  What occasion, then, is there to give these [the?] words a separate “part of speech,” since in character they do not differ from others in the language?