involves the decay of flexion and the substitution of symbolic words in its place, so this alteration befalls particular groups of words more or less, in proportion as their functions are linked with flectional terminations. When Adverbs got them Case-endings, they incurred the liability of being translated into Phrases. A flectional word is a phrase in the bud. The sense of the termination can be expressed by a preposition, and so the inflected word can be turned into a Phrase. The adverbs have shewn themselves apt to take advantage of this chance of enlargement; and it is with them perhaps more than with any other Part of Speech, that the difference lodges which is sometimes expressed by the terms Synthetic and Analytic. In philology these terms mean as much as Compact and Detached, so that flectional languages are called Synthetic and deflectionized languages are said to be Analytic.

This expansion of language seems to call for a corresponding enlargement in the sense of the term Adverb. If willingly is an adverb in the sentence 'I gave him sixpence willingly,' then what am I to call the phrase 'with a good will,' if I thus express myself, I gave him sixpence with a good will'? In its relation to the mind this phrase occupies precisely the same place as that word; and if a different name must be given on account of form only, our terminology will need indefinite enlargement while it represents only superficial distinctions. I would call them both adverbs, distinguishing them as Flexional and Phrasal. Often we see that we are obliged to translate a flexional Greek adverb by a phrasal English one; thus—πaidióßev, Mark ix. 21, of a child; ảìŋlŵs, John vii. 40, of a truth; óμobvμadóv, Acts ii. 1, with one accord; ameрionáσтws, I Cor. vii. 35, without distraction; adiaλeinтws, 1 Thess. v. 17, without ceasing.

446. Genitival adverbs having ceased to grow in the language, their place is supplied by the formation of phrasal adverbs with the symbol of; as, of a truth, of necessity, of old.

And all be vernal rapture as of old.

Christian Year, Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity. In the modern action of the language prepositions have generally taken the place of oblique cases, and the symbol of has taken the place of the genitival flexion. Instead of evenings and mornings (434) we may say

of an evening, of a morning.

All indeed have not time for much reading; but every one who wishes it, may at least manage to read a verse or two, when he comes home of an evening, and of a morning before going to work.-Augustus William Hare, Sermons to a Country Congregation, Use the Bible.'

6

447. In like manner by supplies the place of the old instrumental case -UM. The adverbs in -meal were, as above stated, old datives, and hence they long continued, and some few still continue to stand alone, without the aid of a preposition. But in the following quotation the preposition compensates for the obsoleteness of the termination.

In the Book of Curtesye, of the fifteenth century, the 'childe' is advised to read the writings of Gower and Chaucer and Occleve, and above all those of the immortal Lydgate; for eloquence has been exhausted by these; and it remains for their followers to get it only by imitation and · extracting by cantelmele, by scraps, extracts, quotations :There can no man ther fames now disteyne: Thanbawmede toung and aureate sentence, Men gette hit nowe by cantelmele, and gleyne Here and there with besy diligence,

And fayne wold riche the crafte of eloquence;
But be the glaynes is hit often sene,

In whois feldis they glayned and have bene.

Oriel MS., E. E. T. S., Extra Series, iii.

448. When we consider the greater range of prepositions as compared with case-endings, we see that this phrasal stage of the adverb makes a great enlargement of the faculties of the language; and the more so as the rudimentary forms are often retained for optional use even after the more explicit have developed themselves. So numerous are the adverbial phrases that we cannot attempt a full list of them; the following examples will remind the student of a vast number that are unmentioned :—at best, at intervals, at large, at least, at length, at most, at random, at worst; in earnest, in fact, in good faith, in jest, in truth, in vain, in section; by chance, by turns, by all means, by the way.

at last.

So that one may scratch a thought half a dozen times, and get nothing at last but a faint sputter.-James Russell Lowell, Fireside Travels, 1864, P. 163.

in jest.

We will not touch upon him ev'n in jest.

Alfred Tennyson, Enid.

with confidence, with consternation, with disorder.

After a skirmish in the narrow passage, occasioned by the footman's opening the door of the dismal dining-room with confidence, finding some one there with consternation, and backing on the visitor with disorder, the visitor was shut up, pending his announcement, in a close back parlour.— Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, ch. 10.

without effort and without thought.

When I contemplate natural knowledge squandering such gifts among men, the only appropriate comparison I can find for her is, to liken her to such a peasant woman as one sees in the Alps, striding ever upward, heavily burdened, and with mind only bent on her home; but yet, without effort and without thought, knitting for her children.-T. H. Huxley, Lay Sermons.

Phrasal Adverbs combine cumulatively with the elder forms, and often with a forcible result. With the flexional, as 'in an instant suddenly.' With the flat, as

sudden in a minute.

Let no man think that sudden in a minute

All is accomplished and the work is done;

Though with thine earliest dawn thou shouldst begin it,
Scarce were it ended in thy setting sun.

Frederick W. H. Myers, St. Paul.

449. A phrasal adverb which has coalesced into one vocable, is that which is formed with the a-prefix, as abed, afar, afield, afoot, agog, along, aloud, apiece, aright, awork. In our earlier printed literature, and down to the close of the sixteenth century, this adverb is printed in two vocables, as a good (270):

a right.

Therefore he was a prickasoure a right.

G. Chaucer, Prologue, 189.

They turne them selues, but not a right, & are become as a broken bowe.-Miles Coverdale, Hosea vii. 16.

a laughter.

And therewithal a laughter out he brast.

G. Chaucer, The Court of Love, ad finem.

a forlorn.

And forc'd to liue in Scotland a Forlorne.

W. Shakspeare, 3 Henry VI, iii. 3. 26.

So likewise a high in Richard III, iv. 4. 86; a bed in Henry V, iv. 3. 64.

I derive this a not exclusively, but for the most part, from the French preposition à; thus afoot represents à pied.

The phrase o'clock was originally of this form a clocke. In Shakspeare (1623) we find o'clocke indeed, and of clocke, and of the clocke. But these are exceptional, and the prevailing form is a clocke1:

So likewise in Robinson Crusoe, according to the early editions, it is a clock, as may be seen in Mr. Clark's text, pp. 72, 77.

Ros. I pray you, what is't a clocke?

Orl. You should aske me what time o' day: there's no clocke in the Forrest.-As You Like It, iii. 2.

450. Another form of the phrasal adverb is where a noun is repeated with a preposition to each, or one preposition between the two, as day by day, bridge by bridge, from hour to hour, wave after wave.

Not to be crost, save that some ancient king

Had built a way, where, link'd with many a bridge,
A thousand piers ran into the great Sea,

And Galahad fled along them bridge by bridge.

Alfred Tennyson, The Holy Grail.

451. Room enough must be given to the term Adverb to let it take in all that appertains to the description of the condition and circumstances attendant upon the verbal predication of the sentence. If I say, 'I gave him sixpence with a good will,' and if the phrase 'with a good will' is admitted to a place among adverbs, then there is no reason to exclude any circumstantial adjunct, such as, with a green purse, or without any purse to keep it in. If any one objects to this as too vague a relaxation of our terminology, I would propose that for such extended phraseological adverbs we adopt the title of Adverbiation. Such a term would furnish an appropriate description for the relative position of a very important element in modern diction. At the close of the following quotation we see a couple of phrases linked together, which would come under this designation :—

I had a very gracious reception from the Queen and the Prince Consort, and a large party of distinguished visitors. The affability and grace of these exalted personages made a deep impression on me. It might be copied by some of our grocers and muffin-bakers to their great improvement, and to the comfort of others surrounding them.-The Public Life of W. F. Wallett, the Queen's Jester, 1870.

452. If the study of grammar is ever to grapple with the facts of language, one of two things must take place: either