never be placed after its noun, nor can two articles ever properly relate to one noun, in any particular construction of it.  Priestley observes, “Some writers affect to transpose these words, and place the numeral adjective first; [as,] ‘The first Henry.’  Hume’s History, Vol. i, p. 497.  This construction is common with this writer, but there seems to be a want of dignity in it.”—­Rudiments of E. Gram., p. 150.  Dr. Webster cites the word Great, in “Alexander the Great” as a name, or part of a name; that is, he gives it as an instance of “cognomination.”  See his American Dict., 8vo.  And if this is right, the article may be said to relate to the epithet only, as it appears to do.  For, if the word is taken substantively, there is certainly no ellipsis; neither is there any transposition in putting it last, but rather, as Priestley suggests, in putting it first.

OBS. 10.—­The definite article is often prefixed to comparatives and superlatives; and its effect is, as Murray observes, (in the words of Lowth,) “to mark the degree the more strongly, and to define it the more precisely:  as, ‘The more I examine it, the better I like it.’  ’I like this the least of any.’”—­Murray’s Gram., p. 33; Lowth’s, 14.  “For neither if we eat, are we the better; neither if we eat not, are we the worse.”—­1 Cor., viii, 8.  “One is not the more agreeable to me for loving beef, as I do; nor the less agreeable for preferring mutton.”—­Kames, El. of Crit., Vol. ii, p. 365.  “They are not the men in the nation, the most difficult to be replaced.”—­Priestley’s Gram., p. 148.  In these instances, the article seems to be used adverbially, and to relate only to the adjective or adverb following it. (See observation fourth, on the Etymology of Adverbs.) Yet none of our grammarians have actually reckoned the an adverb.  After the adjective, the noun might perhaps be supplied; but when the word the is added to an adverb, we must either call it an adverb, or make an exception to Rule 1st above:  and if an exception is to be made, the brief form which I have given, cannot well be improved.  For even if a noun be understood, it may not appear that the article relates to it, rather than to the degree of the quality.  Thus:  “The deeper the well, the clearer the water.”  This Dr. Ash supposes to mean, “The deeper well the well is, the clearer water the water is.”—­Ash’s Gram., p. 107.  But does the text specify a particular “deeper well” or “clearer water?” I think not.  To what then does the refer, but to the proportionate degree of deeper and clearer?

OBS. 11.—­The article the is sometimes elegantly used, after an idiom common in the French language, in lieu of a possessive pronoun; as, “He looked him full in the face; i. e. in his face.”—­Priestley’s Gram., p. 150.  “Men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.”—­Rom., xi, 4.  That is, their knees.