he_ 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.

1. _The simple_ rise as by specific levity, not into a particular
virtue, but into the region of all the virtues.--EMERSON.

2. If _the good_ is there, so is _the evil_.--_Id._

[Sidenote: _Caution._]

NOTE.--This is not to be confused with words that have shifted from
adjectives and become pure nouns; as,--

As she hesitated to pass on, _the gallant_, throwing his cloak
from his shoulders, laid it on the miry spot.--SCOTT.

But De Soto was no longer able to abate the confidence or punish
the temerity of _the natives_.--G. BANCROFT.

[Sidenote: _One thing for its class._]

182. _The_ before class nouns may mark one thing as a representative
of the class to which it belongs; for example,--

The faint, silvery warblings heard over the partially bare and
moist fields from _the bluebird_, _the song sparrow_, and _the
redwing_, as if the last flakes of winter tinkled as they
fell!--THOREAU.

In the sands of Africa and Arabia _the camel_ is a sacred and
precious gift.--GIBBON.

[Sidenote: _For possessive person pronouns._]

183. _The_ is frequently used instead of the possessive case of the
personal pronouns _his_, _her_, etc.

More than one hinted that a cord twined around _the head_, or a
match put between _the fingers_, would speedily extract the
required information.--KINGSLEY.

_The_ mouth, and the region of the mouth, were about the
strongest features in Wordsworth's face.--DE QUINCEY.

[Sidenote: The _for_ a.]

184. In England and Scotland _the_ is often used where we use _a_,
in speaking of measure and price; as,--

Wheat, the price of which necessarily varied, averaged in the
middle of the fourteenth century tenpence _the bushel_, barley
averaging at the same time three shillings _the
quarter_.--FROUDE.

[Sidenote: _A very strong restrictive._]

185. Sometimes _the_ has a strong force, almost equivalent to a
descriptive adjective in emphasizing a word,--

No