[Sidenote: _With plural of abstract nouns._]

180. _The_, when placed before the pluralized abstract noun, marks
it as half abstract or a common noun.

[Sidenote: _Common._]

His messages to _the_ 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