[60] “Which rule, if it had been observed, a neighbouring Prince would have wanted a great deal of that incense, which hath been offered up to him by his adorers.” Atterbury, Vol. I. Serm. 1. The Pronoun it is here the Nominative Case to the Verb observed; and which rule is left by itself, a Nominative Case without any Verb following it. This manner of expression, however improper, is very common. It ought to be, “If this rule had been observed, &c.”
[61] Adjectives are sometimes employed as Adverbs; improperly, and not agreeably to the Genius of the English Language. As, “extreme elaborate:” Dryden, Essay on Dram. Poet. “marvellous graceful:” Clarendon, Life, p. 18. “extreme unwilling;” “extreme subject:” Swift, Tale of a Tub, and Battle of Books. “I shall endeavour to live hereafter suitable to a man in my station.” Addison, Spect. Nᵒ 530. “Homer describes this river agreeable to the vulgar reading.” Pope, Note on Iliad, ii. v. 1032. So exceeding, for exceedingly, however improper, occurs frequently in the Vulgar Translation of the Bible, and has obtained in common discourse. “We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.” Tit. ii. 12.
“O Liberty, Thou Goddess heavenly bright.”
Addison.
On the other hand an Adverb is improperly used as an Adjective in the following passage: “We may cast in such seeds and principles, as we judge most likely to take soonest and deepest root.” Tillotson, Vol. I. Serm. 52.
[62] “How much soever the Reformation of this corrupt and degenerate Age is almost utterly to be despaired of, we may yet have a more comfortable prospect of future times.” Tillotson, Vol. I. Pref. to Serm. 49. The first part of this Sentence abounds with Adverbs, and those such as are hardly consistent with one another.
[63] “We are still much at a loss, who civil power belongs to.” Locke. It ought to be whom.
[64] Pope, Preface to his Poems.
[65] With in composition retains the signification, which it hath among others in the Saxon, of from and against: as to withhold, to withstand. So also for has a negative signification from the Saxon: as, to forbid, forbeodan; to forget, forgitan.
[66] Examples of impropriety in the use of the Preposition in Phrases of this kind: “Your character, which I, or any other writer, may now value ourselves by [upon] drawing.” Swift, Letter on the English Tongue. “You have bestowed your favours to [upon] the most deserving persons.” Ibid. “Upon such occasions as fell into [under] their cognisance,” Swift, Contests and Dissensions &c. Chap. 3. “That variety of factions into [in] which we are still engaged.” Ibid. Chap. 5. “The utmost extent of power pretended [to] by the Commons.” Ibid. Chap. 3.⸺“Accused the ministers for [of] betraying the Dutch.” Swift, Four last years of the Queen, Book ii. “Ovid, whom you accuse for [of] luxuriancy of verse.” Dryden, on Dram. Poesy. “Neither the one nor the other shall make me swerve out of [from] the path, which I have traced to myself.” Bolingbroke, Letter to Wyndham, p. 252. “They are now reconciled by a zeal for their cause to what they could not be prompted [to] by a concern for their beauty.” Addison, Spect. Nᵒ 81. “If policy can prevail upon [over] force.” Addison, Travels, p. 62. “Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.” Matt. xxiii. 24. διυλιζοντες, “which strain out, or take a gnat out of the liquor by straining it:” the impropriety of the Preposition has wholly destroyed the meaning of the Phrase. Observe also, that the Noun generally requires after it the same Preposition as the Verb from which it is formed: “It was perfectly in compliance to [with] some persons, for whose opinion I have great deference.” Swift, Pref. to Temple’s Memoirs. “Not from any personal hatred to them, but in justification to [of] the best of Queens.” Swift, Examiner, Nᵒ 23. In the last example, the Verb being Transitive and requiring the Objective Case, the Noun formed from it seems to require the Possessive Case, or its Preposition, after it. Or perhaps he meant to say, “in justice to the best of Queens.” “No discouragement for the authors to proceed.” Tale of a Tub, Preface. “A strict observance after times and fashions.” Ibid. Sect. ii. So the Noun Aversion, (that is, a turning away,) requires the Preposition from after it; and does not properly admit of to, for, or towards, which are often used with it.