[§ 598]. From whence, from thence.—This is an expression which, if it have not taken root in our language, is likely to do so. It is an instance of excess of expression in the way of syntax; the -ce denoting direction from a place, and the preposition doing the same. It is not so important to determine what this construction is, as to suggest what it is not. It is not an instance of an adverb governed by a preposition. If the two words be dealt with as logically separate, whence (or thence) must be a noun=which place (or that place); just as from then till now=from that time to this. But if (which is the better view) the two words be dealt with as one (i. e., as an improper compound) the preposition from has lost its natural power, and become the element of an adverb.
CHAPTER XXV.
ON PREPOSITIONS.
[§ 599]. All prepositions govern an oblique case. If a word cease to do this, it ceases to be a preposition. In the first of the two following sentences the word up is a preposition, in the second an adverb.
1. I climbed up the tree.
2. I climbed up.
All prepositions in English precede the noun which they govern. I climbed up the tree, never I climbed the tree up. This is a matter not of government, but of collocation. It is the case in most languages; and, from the frequency of its occurrence, the term pre-position (or prefix) has originated. Nevertheless, it is by no means a philological necessity. In many languages the prepositions are post-positive, following their noun.
[§ 600]. No preposition, in the present English, governs a genitive case. This remark is made, because expressions like the part of the body=pars corporis,—a piece of the bread=portio panis, make it appear as if the preposition of did so. The true expression is, that the preposition of followed by an objective case, is equivalent, in many instances, to the genitive case of the classical languages.