PHRASE PREPOSITIONS

308. Sometimes we have a preposition made up of several words which we have used so commonly together that they are used as a single word and we call the entire phrase a preposition. As, for example: According to—on account of—by means of, etc.

  1. He answered according to the rule.
  2. I could not go on account of illness.
  3. He won the election by means of fraud.
  4. The strike was won by help of all the comrades.
  5. You can learn to spell only by dint of memory.
  6. We speak incorrectly by force of habit.
  7. He went to New York by way of Chicago.
  8. Ferrer died for the sake of his ideals.
  9. In consideration of this payment, we will send you the set of books.
  10. Germany issued her ultimatum in defiance of the world.
  11. In view of all the facts, we are convinced of his innocence.
  12. He will gladly suffer in place of his comrade.
  13. In conformity with the information contained in your letter,
  14. I will join you on the 10th.

Exercise 5

Mark the prepositions in the following quotation. In the first three paragraphs the prepositional phrases are printed in italics. Determine whether they are used as adjective phrases or as adverb phrases. Underscore the prepositional phrases in the remainder of the quotation and determine which word is used as the object of the preposition.

THE SUNLIGHT LAY ACROSS MY BED

In the dark one night I lay upon my bed. And in the dark I dreamed a dream. I dreamed God took my soul to Hell.

And we came where hell opened into a plain, and a great house stood there. Marble pillars upheld the roof, and white marble steps led up to it. The wind of heaven blew through it. Only at the back hung a thick curtain. Fair men and women there feasted at long tables. They danced, and I saw the robes of women flutter in the air and heard the laugh of strong men. They feasted with wine; they drew it from large jars which stood somewhat in the background, and I saw the wine sparkle as they drew it.

And I said to God, "I should like to go up and drink." And God said, "Wait." And I saw men coming into the banquet house; they came in from The back and lifted the corner of the curtain at the sides and crept inquickly; and they let the curtain fall behind them; they bore great jars they could hardly carry. And the men and women crowded round them, and the newcomers opened their jars and gave them of the wine to drink; and I saw that the women drank even more greedily than the men. And when others had well drunken they set the jars among the old ones beside the wall, and took their places at the table. And I saw that some of the jars were very old and mildewed and dusty, but others had still drops of new must on them and shone from the furnace.

And I said to God, "What is that?" For amid the sounds of the singing, and over the dancing of feet, and over the laughing across the winecups, I heard a cry.

And God said, "Stand away off."

And He took me where I saw both sides of the curtain. Behind the house was a wine-press where the wine was made. I saw the grapes crushed, and I heard them cry. I said, "Do not they on the other side hear it?"

God said, "The curtain is thick; they are feasting."

And I said, "But the men who came in last. They saw?"

God said, "They let the curtain fall behind them—and they forgot!"

I said, "How came they by their jars of wine?"

God said, "In the treading of the press these are they who came to the top; they have climbed out over the edge and filled their jars from below; and have gone into the house."

And I said, "And if they had fallen as they climbed—?"

God said, "They had been wine."

I stood away off watching in the sunshine, and I shivered.

And after a while I looked, and I saw the curtain that hung behind the house moving.

I said to God, "Is it a wind?"

God said, "A wind."

And it seemed to me that against the curtain I saw pressed the forms of men and women. And after a while, the feasters saw it move, and they whispered one to another. Then some rose and gathered the most worn-out cups, and into them they put what was left at the bottom of other vessels. Mothers whispered to their children, "Do not drink all, save a little drop when you have drunk." And when they had collected all the dregs they slipped the cups out under the bottom of the curtain without lifting it. After a while the curtain left off moving.

I said to God, "How is it so quiet?"

He said, "They have gone away to drink it."

I said, "They drink it—their own!"

God said, "It comes from this side of the curtain, and they are very thirsty."

And still the feast went on.

Men and women sat at the tables quaffing great bowls. Some rose, and threw their arms about each other and danced and sang. They pledged each other in the wine, and kissed each other's blood-red lips.

Men drank till they could drink no longer, and laid their heads upon the table, sleeping heavily. Women who could dance no more leaned back on the benches with their heads against their lovers' shoulders. Little children, sick with wine, lay down upon the edge of their mothers' robes.

I said, "I cannot see more, I am afraid of Hell. When I see men dancing I hear the time beaten in with sobs; and their wine is living! Oh, I cannot bear Hell!"

God said, "Where will you go?"

I said, "To the earth from which I came; it was better there."

And God laughed at me; and I wondered why He laughed.—Olive Schreiner.

SPELLING

LESSON 18

There are a number of words that are ordinarily followed by a preposition with its phrase. We make a great many mistakes in the use of the proper preposition with these words. Our spelling lesson this week covers a number of these words with examples illustrating the appropriate preposition to be used with each word. Learn to spell these words, look up their meaning in the dictionary and use each word with its proper preposition in sentences of your own construction.

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

It is easy to sit in the sunshine

And talk to the man in the shade;

It is easy to float in a well-trimmed boat,

And point out the places to wade.

But once we pass into the shadows

We murmur and fret and frown;

At our length from the bank, we shout for a plank,

Or throw up our hands and go down.

It is easy to sit in a carriage

And counsel the man on foot;

But get down and walk and you'll change your talk,

As you feel the peg in your boot.

It is easy to tell the toiler

How best he can carry his pack;

But not one can rate a burden's weight

Until it has been on his back.

The up-curled mouth of pleasure

Can preach of sorrow's worth;

But give it a sip, and a wryer lip,

Was never made on earth.

PLAIN ENGLISH

LESSON 19

Dear Comrade:

In this lesson we are completing our study of the preposition. The preposition is one of the last parts of speech which we take up for study and it is also one of the last parts of speech to be added to our vocabulary. The child does not use the preposition when it first begins to talk. It uses the names of things; words of action; words that describe objects and actions. It does not begin to use prepositions until it begins to relate ideas.

The relation of ideas means that we are thinking; combining ideas into thoughts. Then we begin to need prepositions, which are words of relation, connecting words, expressing the relationship between ideas. The measure of the fullness and richness of our lives is the measure of our understanding of the world about us, of the relationship existing between the different phases of that world and of our relationship to it all.

So words do not mean much to us until we can relate them to our own lives and our own experiences. When you look up a word in the dictionary, do not study the word alone; study also the thing for which it stands. A person with a good memory might acquire a vocabulary by sheer feat of memory; but what good would it do unless each word could be related to practical experience? It is only in this way that words become alive to us. We must have an idea, a concept and knowledge of the thing for which the word stands.

So let us use our dictionary in this way. Do not be satisfied when you have looked up a word simply to know how to spell and pronounce the word and understand somewhat of its meaning. Do not be satisfied until it has become a live word to you. Have a clear image and understanding of just what each word stands for. Use the words in sentences of your own. Use them in your conversation. Make them a part of your every-day life.

Do not pass over any of the words in the lesson without understanding their meaning. Study the poem Abou Ben Adhem in this week's lesson. After you have read it over a number of times, close the book and rewrite the poem in prose in your own language. Then compare your version with the poem. Note where you have used different expressions and decide which is the better, the words used in the poem or your own words. Rewrite it several times until you have a well-written version of this poem.

Exercises such as this will increase your vocabulary and quickly develop the power of expression. No power can come in any department of life without effort having been expended in its acquisition. Our great writers have been careful students. Robert Louis Stevenson says that he has often spent a half a day searching for the particular word which he needed to express precisely the idea in mind. Stevenson is a master of the English and this power came to him by this sort of studious and earnest work.

Yours for Education,

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.

AN IMPORTANT WORD

309. Things are not always to be judged by their size. Sometimes the most important things are very small and unimportant in appearance. A great machine is before you. You see its giant wheels, its huge levers. These may seem to be the most important parts of the machine, but here and there throughout this great machine are little screws and bolts. These bind the giant parts together. Without these connecting links, the great wheels and levers and revolving belts could not work together. Let a little bolt slip out of its place in the mechanism, and the great wheels stop, the throbbing machinery comes to a standstill. No work is possible until this little bolt has been replaced.

So in our sentence building, the preposition is the bolt that joins words together. The importance of the preposition in a language increases just in proportion as the nation learns to think more exactly and express itself more accurately.

We found in our last lesson that by changing a preposition we can change the entire meaning of the sentence. A man's life may depend upon the use of a certain preposition. You may swear his life away by bearing testimony to the fact whether you saw him within the house, or without the house; or before dark, or after dark.

310. The preposition is an important word in the sentence. We can use it to serve our purpose in various ways. We have found, for instance, that we can use it:

First, to change an adjective into an adjective phrase. As, for example:

Second, to change an adverb into an adverb phrase. As, for example:

Third, to express a meaning which we can express in no other way; as, for example, They are fighting for their country. There is no single word which we can use to express the meaning which we express in the phrase, for their country.

311. So the preposition has given us a new means of expression, the prepositional phrase. We can, by its help, use a phrase in place of an adjective to modify a noun or a pronoun, and in place of an adverb to modify a verb or an adjective. And we can also use the prepositional phrase to express relationship which we cannot express by a single adjective or adverb.

If I want to tell you that I see a bird in yonder tree, such an expression would be impossible without that little preposition in. By the use of various prepositions, I can express to you the relationship between the bird and the tree. I can tell you whether it is under the tree, or in the tree, or over the tree, or flying around the tree, or near the tree. By the use of the various prepositions, I can express accurately the relationship that exists between the bird and the tree.

Exercise 1

Look up the list of prepositions in Section 306, on page 184. Use the following pairs of words in sentences and use as many different prepositions as you can to express the different relationships which may be expressed between these words. For example, take the two words, man and house. You may say:

enemycity
soldierscannon
manmachine
womanfactory
childrenschool
governmentpeople