rganized.

37. A hard-struggling, weary-hearted man was he.

ARTICLES.

171. There is a class of words having always an adjectival use in
general, but with such subtle functions and various meanings that they
deserve separate treatment. In the sentence, "He passes an ordinary
brick house on the road, with an ordinary little garden," the words
_the_ and _an_ belong to nouns, just as adjectives do; but they cannot
be accurately placed under any class of adjectives. They are nearest
to demonstrative and numeral adjectives.

[Sidenote: _Their origin._]

172. The article the comes from an old demonstrative adjective
(_se_, _seo_, _ethat_, later _the_, _theo_, _that_) which was also an
article in Old English. In Middle English _the_ became an article, and
_that_ remained a demonstrative adjective.

An or a came from the old numeral _an_, meaning _one_.

[Sidenote: _Two relics._]

Our expressions _the one_, _the other_, were formerly _that one_,
_that other_; the latter is still preserved in the expression, in
vulgar English, _the tother_. Not only this is kept in the Scotch
dialect, but the former is used, these occurring as _the tane, the
tother_, or _the tane, the tither_; for example,--

We ca' her sometimes _the tane_, sometimes _the tother_.--SCOTT.

[Sidenote: An _before vowel sounds_, a _before consonant sounds_.]

173. Ordinarily _an_ is used before vowel sounds, and _a_ before
consonant sounds. Remember that a _vowel sound_ does not necessarily
mean beginning with a vowel, nor does _consonant sound_ mean
beginning with a consonant, because English spelling does not
coincide closely with the sound of words. Examples: "_a_ house," "_an_
orange," "_a_ European," "_an_ honor," "_a_ yelling crowd."

[Sidenote: An _with consonant sounds_.]

174. Many writers use _an_ before _h_, even when not silent, when
the word is not accented on the first syllable.

_An_ historian, such as we have been attempting to describe,
would indeed be an intellectual prodigy.--MACAULAY.

The Persians were _an_ heroic people like the Greeks.--BREWER.

He [Rip] evinced _an_ hereditary disposition to attend to
anything else but his business.--IRVING.

_An_ habitual submission of the understanding to mere events and
images.--COLERIDGE.

_An_ hereditary tenure of these offices.--THOMAS JEFFERSON.

[Sidenote: _Definition._]

175. An article is a limiting word, not descrip