OBSERVATIONS.
OBS. 1.—Grammarians differ considerably in their tables of the English prepositions. Nor are they all of one opinion, concerning either the characteristics of this part of speech, or the particular instances in which the acknowledged properties of a preposition are to be found. Some teach that, "Every preposition requires an objective case after it."—Lennie, p. 50; Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., p. 69. In opposition to this, I suppose that the preposition to may take an infinitive verb after it; that about also may be a preposition, in the phrase, "about to write;" that about, above, after, against, by, for, from, in, of, and some other prepositions, may govern participles, as such; (i. e. without making them nouns, or cases;) and, lastly, that after a preposition an adverb is sometimes construed substantively, and yet is indeclinable; as, for once, from afar, from above, at unawares.
OBS. 2.—The writers just quoted, proceed to say: "When a preposition does not govern an objective case, it becomes an adverb; as, 'He rides about.' But in such phrases as, cast up, hold out, fall on, the words up, out, and on, must be considered as a part of the verb, rather than as prepositions or adverbs."—Lennie's Prin. of E. Gram., p. 50; Bullions's, p. 59; his Analyt. and P. Gram., p. 109. Both these sentences are erroneous: the one, more particularly so, in expression; the other, in doctrine. As the preposition is chiefly distinguished by its regimen, it is absurd to speak of it as governing nothing; yet it does not always govern the objective case, for participles and infinitives have no cases. About, up, out, and on, as here cited, are all of them adverbs; and so are all other particles that thus qualify verbs, without governing any thing. L. Murray grossly errs when ha assumes that, "The distinct component parts of such phrases as, to cast up, to fall on, to bear oat, to give over, &c., are no guide to the sense of the whole." Surely, "to cast up" is to cast somehow, though the meaning of the phrase may be "to compute." By this author, and some others, all such adverbs are absurdly called prepositions, and are also as absurdly declared to be parts of the preceding verbs! See Murray's Gram., p. 117; W. Allen's, 179; Kirkham's, 95; R. G. Smith's, 93; Fisk's, 86; Butler's, 63; Wells's, 146.
OBS. 3—In comparing the different English grammars now in use, we often find the primary distinction of the parts of speech, and every thing that depends upon it, greatly perplexed by the fancied ellipses, and forced constructions, to which their authors resort. Thus Kirkham: "Prepositions are sometimes erroneously called adverbs, when their nouns are understood. 'He rides about;' that is, about the town, country, or something else. 'She was near [the act or misfortune of] falling;' 'But do not after [that time or event] lay the blame on me.' 'He came down [the ascent] from the hill;' 'They lifted him up [the ascent] out of the pit.' 'The angels above;'—above us—'Above these lower heavens, to us invisible, or dimly seen.'"—Gram., p. 89. The errors of this passage are almost as numerous as the words; and those to which the doctrine leads are absolutely innumerable. That up and down, with verbs of motion, imply ascent and descent, as wisely and foolishly imply wisdom and folly, is not to be denied; but the grammatical bathos of coming "down [the ascent] from the hill" of science, should startle those whose faces are directed upward! Downward ascent is a movement worthy only of Kirkham, and his Irish rival, Joseph W. Wright. The brackets here used are Kirkham's, not mine.
OBS. 4.—"Some of the prepositions," says L. Murray, "have the appearance and effect of conjunctions: as, 'After their prisons were thrown open,' &c. 'Before I die;' 'They made haste to be prepared against their friends arrived:' but if the noun time, which is understood, be added, they will lose their conjunctive form: as, 'After [the time when] their prisons,' &c."—Octavo Gram., p. 119. Here, after, before, and against, are neither conjunctions nor prepositions, but conjunctive adverbs of time, referring to the verbs which follow them, and also, when the sentences are completed, to others antecedent. The awkward addition of "the time when," is a sheer perversion. If after, before, and the like, can ever be adverbs, they are so here, and not conjunctions, or prepositions.
OBS. 5.—But the great Compiler proceeds: "The prepositions, after, before, above, beneath, and several others, sometimes appear to be adverbs, and may be so considered: as, 'They had their reward soon after;' 'He died not long before;' 'He dwells above;' but if the nouns time and place be added, they will lose their adverbial form: as, 'He died not long before that time,' &c."—Ib. Now, I say, when any of the foregoing words "appear to be adverbs," they are adverbs, and, if adverbs, then not prepositions. But to consider prepositions to be adverbs, as Murray here does, or seems to do; and to suppose "the NOUNS time AND place" to be understood in the several examples here cited, as he also does, or seems to do; are singly such absurdities as no grammarian should fail to detect, and together such a knot of blunders, as ought to be wondered at, even in the Compiler's humblest copyist. In the following text, there is neither preposition nor ellipsis:
"Above, below, without, within, around,
Confus'd, unnumber'd multitudes are found."—Pope, on Fame.
OBS. 6.—It comports with the name and design of this work, which is a broad synopsis of grammatical criticism, to notice here one other absurdity; namely, the doctrine of "sentential nouns." There is something of this in several late grammars: as, "The prepositions, after, before, ere, since, till, and until, frequently govern sentential nouns; and after, before, since, notwithstanding, and some others, frequently govern a noun or pronoun understood. A preposition governing a sentential noun, is, by Murray and others, considered a conjunction; and a preposition governing a noun understood, an adverb."—J. L. PARKHURST: in Sanborn's Gram., p. 123. "Example: 'He will, before he dies, sway the sceptre.' He dies is a sentential noun, third person, singular number; and is governed by before; before he dies, being equivalent in meaning to before his death."—Sanborn, Gram., p. 176. "'After they had waited a long time, they departed.' After waiting."—Ib. This last solution supposes the phrase, "waiting a long time," or at least the participle waiting, to be a noun; for, upon the author's principle of equivalence, "they had waited," will otherwise be a "sentential" participle—a thing however as good and as classical as the other!
OBS. 7.—If a preposition can ever be justly said to take a sentence for its object, it is chiefly in certain ancient expressions, like the following: "For in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God."—Rom., vi, 10. "My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh."—Gen., vi, 3. "For, after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."—1 Cor., i, 21. Here, in, for, and after, are all followed by the word that; which Tooke, Webster, Frazee, and some others, will have to be "a substitute," or "pronoun," representing the sentence which follows it, and governed by the preposition. But that, in this sense, is usually, and perhaps more properly, reckoned a conjunction. And if we take it so, in, for, and after, (unless the latter be an adverb,) must either be reckoned conjunctions also, or be supposed to govern sentences. The expressions however are little used; because "in that" is nearly equivalent to as; "for that" can be better expressed by because; and "after that," which is equivalent to [Greek: epeide], postquam, may well be rendered by the term, seeing that, or since. "Before that Philip called thee," is a similar example; but "that" is here needless, and "before" may be parsed as a conjunctive adverb of time. I have one example more: "But, besides that he attempted it formerly with no success, it is certain the Venetians keep too watchful an eye," &c.—Addison. This is good English, but the word "besides" if it be not a conjunction, may as well be called an adverb, as a preposition.
OBS. 8.—There are but few words in the list of prepositions, that are not sometimes used as being of some other part of speech. Thus bating, excepting, concerning, touching, respecting, during, pending, and a part of the compound notwithstanding, are literally participles; and some writers, in opposition to general custom, refer them always to their original class. Unlike most other prepositions, they do not refer to place, but rather to action, state, or duration; for, even as prepositions, they are still allied to participles. Yet to suppose them always participles, as would Dr. Webster and some others, is impracticable. Examples: "They speak concerning virtue."—Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., p. 69. Here concerning cannot be a participle, because its antecedent term is a verb, and the meaning is, "they speak of virtue." "They are bound during life." that is, durante vitâ, life continuing, or, as long as life lasts. So, "Notwithstanding this," i.e., "hoc non obstante," this not hindering. Here the nature of the construction seems to depend on the order of the words. "Since he had succeeded, notwithstanding them, peaceably to the throne."—Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 31. "This is a correct English idiom, Dr. Lowth's criticism, to the contrary notwithstanding."—Webster's Improved Gram., p. 85. In the phrase, "notwithstanding them," the former word is clearly a preposition governing the latter; but Dr. Webster doubtless supposed the word "criticism" to be in the nominative case, put absolute with the participle: and so it would have been, had he written not withstanding as two words, like "non obstante;" but the compound word notwithstanding is not a participle, because there is no verb to notwithstand. But notwithstanding, when placed before a nominative, or before the conjunction that, is a conjunction, and, as such, must be rendered in Latin by tamen, yet, quamvis, although, or nihilominus, nevertheless.
OBS. 9.—For, when it signifies because, is a conjunction: as, "Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth."—Prov., xxvii, 1. For has this meaning, and, according to Dr. Johnson, is a conjunction, when it precedes that; as, "Yet for that the worst men are most ready to remove, I would wish them chosen by discretion of wise men."—Spenser. The phrase, as I have before suggested, is almost obsolete; but Murray, in one place, adopts it from Dr. Beattie: "For that those parts of the verb are not properly called tenses."—Octavo Gram., p. 75. How he would have parsed it, does not appear. But both words are connectives. And, from the analogy of those terms which serve as links to other terms, I should incline to take for that, in that, after that, and besides that, (in which a known conjunction is put last,) as complex conjunctions; and also, to take as for, as to, and because of, (in which a known preposition is put last,) as complex prepositions. But there are other regular and equivalent expressions that ought in general to be preferred to any or all of these.
OBS. 10.—Several words besides those contained in the list above, are (or have been) occasionally employed in English as prepositions: as, A, (chiefly used before participles,) abaft, adown, afore, aloft, aloof, alongside, anear, aneath, anent, aslant, aslope, astride, atween, atwixt, besouth, bywest, cross, dehors, despite, inside, left-hand, maugre, minus, onto, opposite, outside, per, plus, sans, spite, thorough, traverse, versus, via, withal, withinside.
OBS. 11.—Dr. Lowth says, "The particle a before participles, in the phrases a coming, a going, a walking, a shooting, &c. and before nouns, as a-bed, a-board, a-shore, a-foot, &c. seems to be a true and genuine preposition, a little disguised by familiar use and quick pronunciation. Dr. Wallis supposes it to be the preposition at. I rather think it is the preposition on."—Lowth's Gram., p. 65; Churchill's, 268. There is no need of supposing it to be either. It is not from on; for in Saxon it sometimes accompanied on: as in the phrase, "on á weoruld;" that is, "on to ages;" or, as Wickliffe rendered it, "into worldis;" or, as our version has it, "for ever." See Luke, i, 55. This preposition was in use long before either a or an, as an article, appeared in its present form in the language; and, for ought I can discover, it may be as old as either on or at. An, too, is found to have had at times the sense and construction of in or on; and this usage is, beyond doubt, older than that which makes it an article. On, however, was an exceedingly common preposition in Saxon, being used almost always where we now put on, in, into, upon, or among, and sometimes, for with or by; so, sometimes, where a was afterwards used: thus, "What in the Saxon Gospel of John, is, 'Ic wylle gan on fixoth,' is, in the English version, 'I go a fishing.' Chap, xxi, ver. 3." See Lowth's Gram., p. 65; Churchill's, 269. And a is now sometimes equivalent to on; as, "He would have a learned University make Barbarisms a purpose."—Bentley, Diss. on Phalaris, p. 223. That is,—"on purpose." How absurdly then do some grammarians interpret the foregoing text!—"I go on a fishing."—Alden's Gram., p. 117. "I go on a fishing voyage or business."—Murray's Gram., p. 221; Merchant's, 101. "It may not be improper," says Churchill in another place, "to observe here, that the preposition on, is too frequently pronounced as if it were the vowel a, in ordinary conversation; and this corruption is [has] become so prevalent, that I have even met with 'laid it a oneside' in a periodical publication. It should have been 'on one side,' if the expression were meant to be particular; 'aside,' if general."—New Gram., p. 345. By these writers, a is also supposed to be sometimes a corruption of of: as, "Much in the same manner, Thomas of Becket, by very frequent and familiar use, became Thomas à Becket; and one of the clock, or perhaps on the clock, is written one o'clock, but pronounced one a clock. The phrases with a before a participle are out of use in the solemn style; but still prevail in familiar discourse. They are established by long usage, and good authority; and there seems to be no reason, why they should be utterly rejected."—Lowth's Gram., p. 66. "Much in the same manner, John of Nokes, and John of Styles, become John a Nokes, and John a Styles: and one of the clock, or rather on the clock, is written one o'clock, but pronounced one a clock. The phrases with a before participles, are out of use in the solemn style; but still prevail in familiar discourse."—Churchill's New Gram., p. 269.
OBS. 12.—The following are examples of the less usual prepositions, a, and others that begin with a: "And he set—three thousand and six hundred overseers to set the people a work."—2 Chron., ii, 18. "Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges?"—1 Cor., ix, 7. "And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting."—Num., xi, 4.
"And sweet Billy Dimond, a patting his hair up."
—Feast of the Poets, p. 17.
"The god fell a laughing to see his mistake."
—Ib., p. 18.
"You'd have thought 'twas the bishops or judges a coming."
—Ib., p. 22.
"A place on the lower deck, abaft the mainmast."—Gregory's Dict. "A moment gazed adown the dale."—Scott, L. L., p. 10. "Adown Strath-Gartney's valley broad."—Ib., p. 84. "For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect," &c.—Isaiah, xviii, 5. "Where the great luminary aloof the vulgar constellations thick,"—See Milton's Paradise Lost, B. iii, l. 576. "The great luminary aloft the vulgar constellations thick."—Johnson's Dict., w. Aloft. "Captain Falconer having previously gone alongside, the Constitution."—Newspaper. "Seventeen ships sailed for New England, and aboard these above fifteen hundred persons."—Robertson's Amer., ii, 429. "There is a willow grows askant the brook:" Or, as in some editions: "There is a willow grows aslant the brook."—SHAK., Hamlet, Act iv, 7. "Aslant the dew-bright earth."—Thomson. "Swift as meteors glide aslope a summer eve."—Fenton. "Aneath the heavy rain."—James Hogg, "With his magic spectacles astride his nose."—Merchant's Criticisms.
"Atween his downy wings be furnished, there." —Wordsworth's Poems, p. 147.
"And there a season atween June and May."
—Castle of Indolence, C. i, st. 2.
OBS. 13.—The following are examples of rather unusual prepositions beginning with b, c, or d; "Or where wild-meeting oceans boil besouth Magellan."—Burns. "Whereupon grew that by-word, used by the Irish, that they dwelt by-west the law, which dwelt beyond the river of the Barrow."—DAVIES: in Joh. Dict. Here Johnson calls by-west a noun substantive, and Webster, as improperly, marks it for an adverb. No hyphen is needed in byword or bywest. The first syllable of the latter is pronounced be, and ought to be written so, if "besouth" is right.
"From Cephalonia cross the surgy main
Philætius late arrived, a faithful swain."
—Pope, Odys., B. xx, l. 234.
"And cross their limits cut a sloping way,
Which the twelve signs in beauteous order sway."
—Dryden's Virgil.
"A fox was taking a walk one night cross a village."—L'Estrange. "The enemy had cut down great trees cross the ways."—Knolles. "DEHORS, prep. [Fr.] Without: as, 'dehors the land.' Blackstone."—Worcester's Dict., 8vo. "You have believed, despite too our physical conformation."—Bulwer.
"And Roderick shall his welcome make,
Despite old spleen, for Douglas' sake."
—Scott, L. L., C. ii, st. 26.
OBS. 14.—The following quotations illustrate further the list of unusual prepositions: "And she would be often weeping inside the room while George was amusing himself without."—Anna Ross, p. 81. "Several nuts grow closely together, inside this prickly covering."—Jacob Abbot. "An other boy asked why the peachstone was not outside the peach."—Id. "As if listening to the sounds withinside it."—Gardiner's Music of Nature, p. 214. "Sir Knight, you well might mark the mound, Left hand the town."—Scott's Marmion. "Thus Butler, maugre his wicked intention, sent them home again."—Sewel's Hist., p. 256. "And, maugre all that can be said in its favour."—Stone, on Freemasonry, p. 121. "And, maugre the authority of Sterne, I even doubt its benevolence."—West's Letters, p. 29.
"I through the ample air in triumph high
Shall lead Hell captive maugre Hell."
—Milton's P. L., B. iii, l. 255.
"When Mr. Seaman arose in the morning, he found himself minus his coat, vest, pocket-handkerchief, and tobacco-box."—Newspaper. "Throw some coals onto the fire."—FORBY: Worcester's Dict., w. Onto. "Flour, at $4 per barrel."—Preston's Book-Keeping. "Which amount, per invoice, to $4000."—Ib. "To Smiths is the substantive Smiths, plus the preposition to."—Fowler's E. Gram., §33. "The Mayor of Lynn versus Turner."—Cowper's Reports, p. 86. "Slaves were imported from Africa, via Cuba."—Society in America, i, 327. "Pending the discussion of this subject, a memorial was presented."—Gov. Everett.
"Darts his experienced eye and soon traverse
The whole battalion views their order due."—Milton.
"Because, when thorough deserts vast
And regions desolate they past."—Hudibras.
OBS. 15.—Minus, less, plus, more, per, by, versus, towards, or against, and viâ, by the way of, are Latin words; and it is not very consistent with the purity of our tongue, to use them as above. Sans, without, is French, and not now heard with us. Afore for before, atween for between, traverse for across, thorough for through, and withal for with, are obsolete. Withal was never placed before its object, but was once very common at the end of a sentence. I think it not properly a preposition, but rather an adverb. It occurs in Shakspeare, and so does sans; as,
"I did laugh, sans intermission, an hour by his dial."
—As You Like It.
"I pr'ythee, whom doth he trot withal?"
—Ib.
"Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing."
—Ib.
OBS. 16.—Of the propriety and the nature of such expressions as the following, the reader may now judge for himself: "In consideration of what passes sometimes within-side of those vehicles."—Spectator, No. 533. "Watch over yourself, and let nothing throw you off from your guard."—District School, p. 54. "The windows broken, the door off from the hinges, the roof open and leaky."—Ib., p. 71. "He was always a shrewd observer of men, in and out of power."—Knapp's Life of Burr, p. viii. "Who had never been broken in to the experience of sea voyages."—Timothy Flint. "And there came a fire out from before the Lord."—Leviticus, ix, 24. "Because eight readers out of ten, it is believed, forget it."—Brown's Estimate, ii, 32. "Fifty days after the Passover, and their coming out of Egypt."—Watts's Script. Hist., p. 57. "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people."—Psal., cxxv, 2. "Literally, 'I proceeded forth from out of God and am come.'"—Gurney's Essays, p. 161. "But he that came down from (or from out of) heaven."—Ibid.
"Here none the last funereal rights receive;
To be cast forth the camp, is all their friends can give."
—Rowe's Lucan, vi, 166.