This hypothesis however will be confirmed by the fact, that the English article _a_, "is nothing more than a corruption of the Saxon adjective, _ane_ or _an_ (one) before a substantive beginning with a consonant." Editor of Chaucer's works, Gloss. p. 23. And the article _a_ and the numeral _one_ have still the same signification. That _ane_ or _an_, and _one_ are originally the same, is a point not to be controverted. We have therefore the strongest reason to believe that _a_ in the phrases _a going_, _a hunting_, _a fishing_ is derived from _one_. _On_, as a contraction of _upon_, has, in modern language, a different sense, and cannot be well substituted for _a_; for _on going_, _on fishing_, have an awkward appearance and will not obtain in the language, to the exclusion of _a going_, _a fishing_. The vulgar practice is more correct than Lowth's correction, and ought by no means to be rejected. "O let my life, if thou so many deaths _a coming_ find, With thine old year its voyage take."---- Cowley's Ode to the New Year. "But these fantastic errors of our dream, Lead us to solid wrong; We pray God, our friend's torments to prolong, And wish uncharitably for them, To be as long _a dying_ as Methusalem." Cowley. If the foregoing opinion of the origin of _a_ in such phrases, should not be deemed satisfactory, we may perhaps ascribe its origin to a mere custom of forming expletive sounds in the transition from one word to another.[104] The following phrases, _three shillings a piece_, _a day_, _a head_, _a bushel_, it is said are elliptical forms of speech; some preposition being implied, as, _for_ or _by_. This assertion can proceed only from an imperfect view of the subject. Unless grammarians can prove that some preposition was formerly used, which is now omitted, they cannot prove that any is implied, nor should they have recourse to implication to find a rule to parse the phrases. The truth is, no such preposition can be found, nor is there need of any. _A_, in this form of speech, carries the full meaning of the Latin _per_, and the substitution of the latter, for want, as it is said, of an English word, in the phrases, _per day_, _per head_, _per pound_, is a burlesque upon the English to this day. We see continually a wretched jargon of Latin and English in every merchant's book, even to the exclusion of a pure English phrase, more concise, more correct, and more elegant. It is to be wished that _a_ might be restored to its true dignity, as it is used by some of the purest English writers. "He had read almost constantly, twelve or fourteen hours _a day_;" that is, _one day_.---- Bolingbroke on History, letter 4. "To the sixteen scholars twenty pounds _a piece_."----Cowley. This is pure elegant English, and the common people have the honor of preserving it, unadulterated by foreign words. +VERB.+