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They're truly good, and rife fupremely bleft, Who lend to Heav'n by fuccouring the diftreft.

To the Rev. JOHN HORNE,
Minifter of BERNTFORD,

[ With a Copper-Plate annexed. ]
Ex Diva Socus proprius quique affidet ipfi
Dux magnus fortifque et pectore notus aperto
Et contra ftare, incurrat fi turba Cyclopum !

TEMPLUM LIBERTATIS.

O fent by Heav'n in these difhoneft days,
In ev'ry breast to kindle Freedom's blaze,
To fnatch the cov'ring from the ftatefman's
heart,

And awful truths, without a fear, impart!
Tho' minifterial thunders round thee roll,
They roll in vain, nor fhock thy manly
foul:

Thy country's rights, thy midnight labours
claim,

And with a Sidney's join thy honour'd

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True to thy confcience, to thy country true,
Thou shalt detect and dash her conquefts too,
P-fhalt, blufhing, all his failings own,
Sigh o'er his lofs, and o'er his triumphs
groan ;

His hir'd affaffins fill his breaft with fhame,
And trembling own the error of thy name.
Proceed, great Sir, in Freedom's glorious
caufe,

Q! fave thy country and thy countries laws!
The wiles of Statefmen without fear difclofe,
And be a foe to all thy country's foes.
So fhall thy friend, who in confinement
fighs,

Smile in his pains, and great in fuff'ring

rife:

In health, an honest patriot own in thee,
And, dying, joy to leave his country FREE.
Phileleutheros Oxonienfis,

EXTEMPORE.
On the report that a certain Clergyman bas a
View to a Seat in the House of Commons.
AND is it true? and can it be?

Does Freedom fo inflame him?
Exalt the Horne of Liberty ;-

No Minifter fhall tame him.
Grant Heav'n we fee it prove no Jeft,
But find, ere next November,
The Man who makes a Patriat priest,
Become a righteous Member.

To our CORRESPONDENT S.

M'

THE Recipe to cure Sleep, the Preamble to a Grant from an Indian King, T. Warwick's Paraphrafe, the Scribbler, No. II. the Epiftle from Confians to the Rev. Mr. W. the Lines figned Tacitus, thofe figned J. A. and those on seeing an Engraving of Lady Charlotte Cranfield and her Child, fhall be inferted in the Supplement. Mr. Lowe's Computations of the Eclipfes for 1769, are rendered ufelefs by the Publication of the Almanacks, and thofe for 1770, we prefume, will not be interefting to our Readers at fo difiant a Period. Carolus bas miftaken the Enigma in our laft: We should be obliged to him if he would try again, as bis Defcription is very pretty, though he is entirely mistaken. A. R. afks the following Queftion, Whether if there bad never been any Vice, there would have been any Virtue ?

On Monday the 16th of January, 1769, will be published, Price Six-pence,

TH

HE SUPPLEMENT to the OXFORD MAGAZINE, Volume I. Containing great Variety of interefting Matter, together with a complete Index, and three very curious Copper-Plates from Original Defigns,

Foreign

Mine Horn shall be exalted, like the Horn ofantlnicorn. Pfalm.93.

aTreatise

on Indosing Commons

Addrefs'd lo

fn Gibbins

Millener
Brentford
B: Procter
Fashion by
after the Court

Mobs made

The Parson of Brentford –

H

ON

[ 213 ]

ON ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

LETTER V. (Continued from p. 180.)

N account of the imperfect manner in which the article A defines, the Greeks, who have no articles correfpondent to it, fupply its place by fuppreffing or omitting their definitive article. Agreeable to this doctrine is that obfervation of Apollonius. 66 Thofe things which are fometimes understood indefinitely, become definite as to their perfon, by the infertion of the ARTICLE.". But Gaza is more explicit; "the article, fays he, caufes, a review within the mind, of fomething known before in the texture of the discourse." Thus if any one fays, according to the Greek form, man came, which is the fame as when we fay in English A man came," it is not evident of whom he fpeaks: but if he fays, " THE man came," then it is evident; for he fpeaks of fome perfon known before, "-Even in English, where the article A cannot be ufed, as in plurals, its force is expreffed by the omiffion of it as in the Greeks. "Thofe are THE men," means that they are individuals of whom we have fome knowledge. Thofe are men, with out the ARTICLE, means no more than that they are so many vague and uncertain individuals.

But tho' the Greeks have no article equivalent to the English article A, yet nothing can be nearer related than their o, to our article THE. This will appear from the attributes of the Greek article, as defcribed by Apollonius. "The particular attribute of the article, fays our author, is that reference which implies fome certain perfon already mentioned. For nouns of themselves imply not reference, unless they take to them the ARTICLE, whofe peculiar character is reference. And again, the article indicates a pre-established acquaintance." Vop

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In order to render both parts of fpeech equally definite, i. e. the adjective as well as the fubftantive, the adjective itself affumes an ARTICLE before it, that it may fhew or intimate a reference to fome fingle perfon or thing only. Thus we fay Trypho THE Grammarian.

Even appellations, or common names, affume the force of proper names merely, by the help of the article. Thus, in English, City is a

name

common to many places; Speaker a name common to many men; and House a name common to many dwellings: but if you prefix. the article, THE city, means our me tropolis; THE Speaker, a high officer. in the British parliament; and THE houfe, the particular place wherein the members of parliament affemble.

By an easy transition the article comes to denote eminence, as well as reference. Thus, among the Greeks, THE poet meant Homer, and THE Stagyrite meant Ariftotle; not because there were not other poets befides Homer, nor because there were not many Stagyrites befides Ariftotle; but because none were equally illuftrious for their poetry and philofophy.

On this principle Ariftotle afferts, that it is not the fame thing to affert that Pleasure is a good, or the good." The firft expreffion only makes it a common object of defire, upon a level with many others, which daily raife our wifhes; the laft fuppofes it, that fupreme and fovereign good, the ultimate end of all our actions and endeavours.

It has already been faid, that "the article has no meaning but when joined with fome other word." To what words may it then be joined? To fuch as require defining; for it is by nature a definitive. And what

words

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On thefe principles we perceive the reason, why it is abfurd to fay, THE I, or THE thou, because nothing can make thofe pronouns more definite, than they are. The fame may be faid of proper names, when ufed according to their original defign. For the fame reafon, we cannot fay in English, THE both, because these words, in their own nature, are each of them perfectly defined; fo that to define them again, would be quite fuperfluous. Thus, if it be faid, "I have read BOTH poets;" this plainly indicates a definite pair, of wher fome mention has been made already. On the contrary, if it be faid, "I have read Two poets," this may mean any pair out of all that ever exifted. And this numeral, being in this fenfe indefinite (as indeed all others are) is forced to affume the ARTICLE, whenever it would become definite. Thus it is, that the two means nearly the fame thing as

ΒΟΤΗ.

When the article is placed before an adjective, followed by a fubftantive, it extends its power as well thro' the fubftantive as the adjective, and equally contributes to define them both.

As fome words admit no article, because they are, by nature, as definite as they can be, fo there are others, which admit it not, because they are not to be defined at all. Of this fort are all interrogatives. If we queftion about fubftances, we cannot fay, THE who is this? but, who is this " Hence Apollonius tiles the interrogative ho, the most contrary, or most averse to ARTICLES.

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The

fame may be faid with respect to qualities and quantities of both kinds. We fay, without an ARTICLE, "What fort of? How many? How great?" The reafon is, that the article the refpects beings already known, Interrogatives refpect beings about which we are ignorant; for interrogation is fuperfluous concerning what we know.

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From what has been delivered it will appear, that the article a is used in a vague fenfe to point out one fingle thing in other refpects indefinite, and not known, or mentioned before. THE determines what particular. thing is meaned and generally implies that it was mentioned before, or is of fome eminence. Inflead of Awe write an, before words beginning with h filent, and all the vowels excepting y and . The reason why it is omitted before y and w, is, becaufe thofe letters, as part of a diphthong at the beginning of a word, require fuch an effort in the pronunciation, as does not eafily admit of an before them. In other cafes, the article an coalefces with the vowel which it precedes; but in this the effort of pronouncing feparates the article, and prevents the difagrecable confequence of a fenfible hiatus.

66

A fubftantive without an article is taken in its wideft fenfe; thus, man means all mankind. Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live." A man means fome one of that kind indefinitely; THE man means that particular man who is fpoken of: the former has therefore, in this fenfe, been called the indefinite, and the latter the definite ARTICLE. The tranflators of the New Teftament render A&s xxii. 4. "I perfecuted this way to THE death.” But as the Apoftle does not mean any particular fort of death, but death in general, the definite article fhould have been omitted; and we fhould read unto death," without the ar

ticle.

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