But, except, and save, in such a sentence as, All but or except or save him were lost, are usually classed with prepositions.
The phrases aboard of, according to, along with, as to, because of (by cause of), from among, from between, from under, instead of (in stead of), out of, over against, and round about may be called compound prepositions. But from in these compounds; as, He crawled from under the ruins, really introduces a phrase, the principal term of which is the phrase that follows from.
Many prepositions become adverbs when the noun which ordinarily follows them is omitted; as, He rode past; He stands above.
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LESSON 96.
CONSTRUCTION OF PREPOSITIONS.
+To the Teacher+.—Most prepositions express relations so diverse, and so delicate in their shades of distinction that a definition of them based upon etymology would mislead. A happy and discriminating use of prepositions can be acquired only by an extended study of good authors. We do below all that we think it prudent or profitable to do with them. He should he a man of wide and careful reading who assumes to teach pupils that such prepositions, and such only, should be used with certain words. Nowhere in grammar is dogmatism more dangerous than here. That grammarian exceeds his commission who marks out for the pupils' feet a path narrower than the highway which the usage of the best writers and speakers has cast up. [Footnote: Take a single illustration. Grammarians, in general, teach that between and betwixt "refer to two," are used "only when two things or sets of things are referred to." Ordinarily, and while clinging to their derivation, they are so used, but are they always, and must they be? "There was a hunting match agreed upon betwixt a lion, an ass, and a fox."— L'Estrange. "A Triple Alliance between England, Holland, and Sweden."— J. B. Green. "In the vacant space between Persia, Syria, Egypt, and Ethiopia."—Gibbon. "His flight between the several worlds."—Addison. "The identity of form between the nominative, accusative, and vocative cases in the neuter." —G. P. Marsh. "The distinction between these three orders has been well expressed by Prof. Max Mueller."—W. D. Whitney. "Between such dictionaries as Worcester's, The Imperial, and Webster's."— B. G. White. "Betwixt the slender boughs came glimpses of her ivory neck."—Bryant. With what clumsy circumlocutions would our speech be filled if prepositions could never slip the leash of their etymology! What simple and graceful substitute could be found for the last phrase in this sentence, for instance: There were forty desks in the room with ample space between them?
"We observe that between is not restricted to two."—Imperial Dictionary. "In all senses between has been, from its earliest appearance, extended to more than two. It is still the only word available to express the relation of a thing to many surrounding things severally and individually—among expressing a relation to them collectively and vaguely: we should not say, 'The choice lies among the three candidates,' or 'to insert a needle among the closed petals of a flower.'"—The New English Dictionary.
We have collected hundreds of instances of between used by good writers with three or more.
Guard against such expressions as between each page; a choice between one of several.]