Note 4.—A preposition, following a verb, constituting with it what has been termed a compound active verb, is sometimes suppressed. We say, “he hoped for a reward,” “you wondered at his courage.” Addison, Steele, and Johnson, with several other reputable writers, say, “It is to be hoped,” instead of “to be hoped for;” and Johnson very generally says, “It is not to be wondered,” for “not to be wondered at.” The latter form of expression seems to have been adopted, in order to avoid the abrupt and inelegant conclusion of the clause, especially when followed by the word that.
Note 5.—The prepositions in, on, for, and from, are often understood before nouns of time and place; thus, “this day,” “next month,” “last year,” are often used elliptically for “on this day,” “in next month,” “in last year.” We say, also, “He was banished England,” i.e. “from England.”
Care, however, should be taken that the omission create no ambiguity. If we say, “He was deaf some years before he died,” referring to a temporary deafness, and a point of time at which it occurred, the expression is not improper, though the meaning might be more clearly expressed; but if we intend to signify a continued deafness, we ought to say, “for” or “during some years.”
Note 6.—The preposition is improperly omitted in the following line of Pope’s:
“And virgins smiled at what they blush’d before.”
It should be, according to the rules of syntax, “smiled at what they blushed at before,” both verbs requiring at after them, thus, “they smiled at that, at which they blushed before.”
Note 7.—Prepositions should be placed as near as possible to each of the words, whose relation they express. The following sentence from Hume is, in this respect, faulty: “The ignorance of the age in mechanical arts, rendered the progress very slow of this new invention.” It should be, “the progress of this new invention.” The following sentence from Johnson, is, for the same reason, chargeable with faulty arrangement: “The country first dawned, that illuminated the world, and beyond which the arts cannot be traced of civil society or domestic life.”—Rasselas. It should be, “the arts of civil society or domestic life cannot be traced.” Priestley has censured the following clause from Harris, “being in no sense capable of either intention or remission.” If it be considered, however, that the word either properly means “the one or the other,” and in truth denotes the subject, being, therefore, in strict propriety, the regimen of the preposition, the arrangement of Harris, though now not so common as the other, will not appear exceptionable. Nay, whatever may be the future decision of usage, that great arbitress of all language, (for at present she is divided,) Harris’s arrangement seems more conformable to the strict meaning of the words, as well as to Priestley’s own rule, than that, which the latter recommends; thus, “capable of either (i.e. of the one or of the other), intension, or remission.”
Rule XX.—Adverbs have no government.
Note 1.—They are sometimes improperly used for adjectives, as, “After those wars of which they hoped for a soon and prosperous issue.”—Sidney. “A soon issue” is not English; an adverb cannot agree with a substantive; it should be “a speedy and prosperous issue.” Such expressions likewise as the following, though not destitute of authority, are exceedingly inelegant, and irreconcilable with analogy: “the then ministry,” for “the ministry of that time;” “the above discourse,” for “the preceding discourse.”
Note 2.—They are sometimes used like substantives, as, “a little while,” for “in a little time,” or “for a little time.” “Worth while,” “some how,” “any how,” “any where,” are examples of the same kind.