d a part of these in modifying
substantives.

How was I to pay _such a_ debt?--THACKERAY.

_Many a_ one you and I have had here below.--THACKERAY.

_What a_ world of merriment then melody foretells!--POE.

[Sidenote: _With_ not _and_ many.]

195 LIST III.

A few of comparative form but not comparative meaning:--

After Over Under Nether.

_Not_ and _never_ with _a_ or _an_ are numeral adjectives,
instead of adverbs, which they are in general.

_Not a_ drum was heard, _not a_ funeral note.--WOLFE

My Lord Duke was as hot as a flame at this salute, but said
_never a_ word.--THACKERAY.

NOTE.--All these have the function of adjectives; but in the last
analysis of the expressions, _such_, _many_, _not_, etc., might be
considered as adverbs modifying the article.

[Sidenote: _With_ few _or_ little.]

196. The adjectives _few_ and _little_ have the negative meaning of
_not much_, _not many_, without the article; but when _a_ is put
before them, they have the positive meaning of _some_. Notice the
contrast in the following sentences:--

Of the country beyond the Mississippi _little_ more was known
than of the heart of Africa.--MCMASTER

To both must I of necessity cling, supported always by the hope
that when _a little_ time, _a few_ years, shall have tried me
more fully in their esteem, I may be able to bring them
together.--_Keats's Letters_.

_Few_ of the great characters of history have been so differently
judged as Alexander.--SMITH, _History of Greece_

[Sidenote: _With adjectives, changed to nouns_.]

197. When _the_ is used before adjectives with no substantive
following (Sec. 181 and note), these words are adjectives used as
nouns, or pure nouns; but when _an_ or _a_ precedes such words, they
are always nouns, having the regular use and inflections of nouns; for
example,--

Such are the words _a brave_ should use.--COOPER.

In the great society of wits, John Gay deserves to be _a
favorite_, and to have a good place.--THACKERAY

Only the name of one obscure epigrammatist has been embalmed for
use in the verses of _a rival_.--PEARSON.

Exercise.--Bring up sentences with five uses of the indefinite
article.

HOW TO PARSE ARTICLES.

198. In parsing the article, tell--

(1) What word it limits.

(2) Which of the above uses it has.

Exercise.

Parse the arti