"in like manner" v. "in the like manner"

1."in like manner"

or

2."in the like manner"

I thought that the latter is correct, but more digging points to the former.

In Leviathan,of Hobbes, in like manner is used twenty five times, whereas in the like manner appears only four times, e.g.

And these are Pleasures Of The Mind of him that draweth those consequences; and are generally called JOY. In the like manner, Displeasures, are some in the Sense, and called PAYNE; others, in the Expectation of consequences, and are called GRIEFE.

According to the research I did manner is countable in this phrase, and it is only when it means type that it is uncountable. Therefore, I would think that the definite article is needed.

Which of the phrases is correct and why? Are both of them correct?

Solution 1:

Neither is "incorrect", but "in like manner" is more common (not only in Leviathan, but also in other works); see this Google Ngram Viewer Chart:

You can see that the red line for "in the like manner" is overshadowed by the blue line for "in like manner". It also seems that both have become less common over the past two centuries.

As you know from your previous questions, there are a number of expressions in English where an articles is not used, even though the usual rules would call for one. "In like manner" is such an expression.

In general, the adjective "like" is rather strange (see the related question Is "like" used as an adjective by native speakers?). There are other similar expressions involving a preposition and the word "like", such as "in like fashion", "in like vein", "in like sort", "of like kind", "with like effect", "with like result".

For some of these, variants with an article (not always "the"; it might be "a" instead) are possible.