The Grammar of English Grammars, page 530 by Gould Brown
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OBS. 14.--It is the sound only, that governs the form of the article, and not the letter itself; as, "Those which admit of the regular form, are marked with an R."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 101. "A heroic poem, written by Virgil."--_Webster's Dict._ "Every poem of the kind has no doubt a historical groundwork."--Philological Museum, Vol. i, p. 457. "A poet must be a naturalist and a historian."--_Coleridge's Introduction_, p. 111. Before h in an unaccented syllable, either form of the article may be used without offence to the ear; and either may be made to appear preferable to the other, by merely aspirating the letter in a greater or less degree. But as the h, though ever so feebly aspirated has something of a consonant sound, I incline to think the article in this case ought to conform to the general principle: as, "A historical introduction has, generally, a happy effect to rouse attention."-- _Blair's Rhet._, p. 311. "He who would write heroic poems, should make his whole life a heroic poem."--See Life of Schiller, p. 56. Within two lines of this quotation, the biographer speaks of "an heroic multitude!" The suppression of the sound of h being with Englishmen a very common fault in pronunciation, it is not desirable to increase the error, by using a form of the article which naturally leads to it. "How often do we hear an air metamorphosed into a hair, a hat into a gnat, and a hero into _a Nero!_"--_Churchill's Gram._, p. 205. Thus: "Neither of them had that bold and adventurous ambition which makes a conqueror _an hero._"--_Bolingbroke, on History_, p. 174.
OBS. 15.--Some later grammarians are still more faulty than Murray, in their rules for the application of an or a. Thus Sanborn: "The vowels are _a, e, i, o_, and u. An should be used before words beginning with <