[3] Metaphysics originally signified the science of the causes and principles of all things. Afterwards it was confined to the philosophy of the mind. In our times it has obtained still another meaning. Metaphysicians became so abstruse, bewildered, and lost, that nobody could understand them; and hence, metaphysical is now applied to whatever is abstruse, doubtful, and unintelligible. If a speaker is not understood, it is because he is too metaphysical. "How did you like the sermon, yesterday?" "Tolerably well; but he was too metaphysical for common hearers." They could not understand him.
[4] In this respect, many foreign languages possess a great advantage over ours. They can augment or diminish the same word to increase or lessen the meaning. For instance; in the Spanish, we can say Hombre, a man; Hombron, a large man; Hombrecito, a young man, or youth; Hombrecillo, a miserable little man; Pagaro, a bird; Pagarito, a pretty little bird; Perro, a dog; Perrillo, an ugly little dog; Perrazo, a large dog.
The Indian languages admit of diminutives in a similar way. In the Delaware dialect, they are formed by the suffix tit, in the class of animate nouns; but by es, to the inanimate; as, Senno, a man; Sennotit, a little man; Wikwam, a house; Wikwames, a small house.—Enc. Amer. Art. Indian Languages, vol. 6, p. 586.
[5] Mr. Harris, in his "Hermes," says, "A preposition is a part of speech, devoid itself of signification; but so formed as to unite two words that are significant, and that refuse to coalesce or unite themselves."
Mr. Murray says, "Prepositions serve to connect words with one another, and show the relation between them."
[6] "Me thou shalt use in what thou wilt, and doe that with a slender twist, that none can doe with a tough with."
Euphues and his England, p. 136.
"They had arms under the straw in the boats, and had cut the withes that held the oars of the town boats, to prevent any pursuit."
Ludlow's Memoirs, p. 435.
"The only furniture belonging to the houses, appears to be an oblong vessel made of bark, by tying up the ends with a withe."