CONSTRUCTION OF PREPOSITIONS—CONTINUED.
+Caution+.—Great care must be used in the choice of prepositions.
+Direction+.—Correct these errors:—
1. This book is different to that. 2. He stays to home. 3. They two quarreled among each other. 4. He is in want for money. 5. I was followed with a crowd. 6. He fell from the bridge in the water. [Footnote: In denotes motion or rest in a condition or place; into, change from one condition or place into another. "When one is outside of a place, he may be able to get into it; but he cannot do anything in it until he has got into it.">[ 7. He fought into the Revolution. [See previous footnote] 8. He bears a close resemblance of his father. 9. He entered in the plot. 10. He lives at London. 11. He lives in the turn of the road. 12. I have need for a vacation. 13. The child died with the croup. 14. He took a walk, but was disappointed of it. 15. He did not take a walk; he was disappointed in it. 16. He was accused with felony. 17. School keeps upon Monday. 18. Place a mark between each leaf. 19. He is angry at his father. 20. He placed a letter into my hands. 21. She is angry with your conduct. 22. What is the matter of him? 23. I saw him over to the house. 24. These plants differ with each other. 25. He boards to the hotel. 26. I board in the hotel. 27. She stays at the North. 28. I have other reasons beside these. [Footnote: Beside = by the side of; besides = in addition to.] 29. You make no use with your talents. 30. He threw himself onto the bed. 31. The boys are hard to work. 32. He distributed the apples between his four brothers. 33. He went in the park. 34. You can confide on him. 35. He arrived to Toronto. 36. I agree with that plan. 37. The evening was spent by reading. 38. Can you accommodate me in one of those? 39. What a change a century has produced upon our country! 40. He stays to school late. 41. The year of the Restoration plunged Milton in bitter poverty. 42. The Colonies declared themselves independent from England. 43. I spent my Saturdays by going in the country, and enjoying myself by fishing.
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LESSON 99.
CONSTRUCTION OF PREPOSITIONS—CONTINUED.[Footnote: "A preposition is a feeble word to end a sentence with," we are told. Sentences (10) and (13), Lesson 59, (2), Lesson 60, and many in succeeding Lessons violate the rule so carelessly expressed.
Of this rule, laid down without regard to usage and thoughtlessly repeated, Prof. Austin Phelps says, "A preposition as such is by no means a feeble word;" and he quotes a burst of feeling from Rufus Choate which ends thus: "Never, so long as there is left of Plymouth Rock a piece large enough to make a gunflint of!" "This," Professor Phelps says, "is purest idiomatic English." He adds, "The old Scotch interrogative, 'What for?' is as pure English in written as in colloquial speech."
Sentences containing two prepositions before a noun are exceedingly common in English—"The language itself is inseparable from, or essentially a part of, the thoughts." Such sentences have been condemned, but the worst that can be urged against them is, that they lack smoothness. But smoothness is not always desirable.
Sentences containing a transitive verb and a preposition before a noun are very common—"Powerless to affect, or to be affected by, the times.">[