OBS. 17.—J. W. Wright, with some appearance of analogy on his side, but none of usage, everywhere adds ly to the questionable word according; as, "We are usually estimated accordingly to our company."— Philosophical Gram., p. 127. "Accordingly to the forms in which they are employed."—Ib., p. 137. "Accordingly to the above principles, the adjective ACCORDING (or agreeable) is frequently, but improperly, substituted for the adverb ACCORDINGLY (or agreeably.)"—Ib., p. 145. The word contrary he does not notice; but, on the same principle, he would doubtless say, "He dares not act contrarily to his instructions." We say indeed, "He acted agreeably to his instructions;"—and not, "He acted agreeable to his instructions." It must also be admitted, that the adverbs accordingly and contrarily are both of them good English words. If these were adopted, where the character of according and contrary is disputable, there would indeed be no longer any occasion to call these latter either adverbs or prepositions. But the fact is, that no good writers have yet preferred them, in such phrases; and the adverbial ending ly gives an additional syllable to a word that seems already quite too long.
OBS. 18.—Instead is reckoned an adverb by some, a preposition by others; and a few write instead-of with a needless hyphen. The best way of settling the grammatical question respecting this term, is, to write the noun stead as a separate word, governed by in. Bating the respect that is due to anomalous usage, there would be more propriety in compounding in quest of, in lieu of, and many similar phrases. For stead is not always followed by of, nor always preceded by in, nor always made part of a compound. We say, in our stead, in your stead, in their stead, &c.; but lieu, which has the same meaning as stead, is much more limited in construction. Examples: "In the stead of sinners, He, a divine and human person, suffered."—Barnes's Notes. "Christ suffered in the place and stead of sinners."—Ib. "For, in its primary sense, is pro, loco alterius, in the stead or place of another."—Lowth's Gram., p. 65.
"If it may stand him more in stead to lie."
—Milt., P. L., B. i, l. 473.
"But here thy sword can do thee little stead."
—Id., Comus, l. 611.
OBS. 19.—From forth and from out are two poetical phrases, apparently synonymous, in which there is a fanciful transposition of the terms, and perhaps a change of forth and out from adverbs to prepositions. Each phrase is equivalent in meaning to out of or out from. Forth, under other circumstances, is never a preposition; though out, perhaps, may be. We speak as familiarly of going out doors, as of going up stairs, or down cellar. Hence from out may be parsed as a complex preposition, though the other phrase should seem to be a mere example of hyperbaton:
"I saw from out the wave her structures rise."—Byron.
"Peeping from forth their alleys green."—Collins.
OBS. 20.—"Out of and as to," says one grammarian, "are properly prepositions, although they are double words. They may be called compound prepositions."—Cooper's Gram., p. 103. I have called the complex prepositions double rather than compound, because several of the single prepositions are compound words; as, into, notwithstanding, overthwart, throughout, upon, within, without. And even some of these may follow the preposition from; as, "If he shall have removed from within the limits of this state." But in and to, up and on, with and in, are not always compounded when they come together, because the sense may positively demand that the former be taken as an adverb, and the latter only as a preposition: as, "I will come in to him, and will sup with him."—Rev., iii, 20. "A statue of Venus was set up on Mount Calvary."—M'Ilvaine's Lectures, p. 332. "The troubles which we meet with in the world."—Blair. And even two prepositions may be brought together without union or coalescence; because the object of the first one may be expressed or understood before it: as, "The man whom you spoke within the street;"—"The treatment you complain of on this occasion;"—"The house that you live in in the summer;"—"Such a dress as she had on in the evening."
OBS. 21.—Some grammarians assume, that, "Two prepositions in immediate succession require a noun to be understood between them; as, 'Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes, From betwixt two aged oaks.'—'The mingling notes came softened from below.'"—Nutting's Gram., p. 105. This author would probably understand here—"From the space betwixt two aged oaks;"—"came softened from the region below us." But he did not consider all the examples that are included in his proposition; nor did he rightly regard even those which he cites. The doctrine will be found a very awkward one in practice; and an other objection to it is, that most of the ellipses which it supposes, are entirely imaginary. If there were truth in his assumption, the compounding of prepositions would be positively precluded. The terms over-against and round-about are sometimes written with the hyphen, and perhaps it would be well if all the complex prepositions were regularly compounded; but, as I before suggested, such is not the present fashion of writing them, and the general usage is not to be controlled by what any individual may think.
OBS. 22.—Instances may, doubtless, occur, in which the object of a preposition is suppressed by ellipsis, when an other preposition follows, so as to bring together two that do not denote a compound relation, and do not, in any wise, form one complex preposition. Of such suppression, the following is an example; and, I think, a double one: "They take pronouns after instead of before them."—Fowler, E. Gram., §521. This may be interpreted to mean, and probably does mean—"They take pronouns after them in stead of taking them before them."