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labour, with the profit and knowledge which daily they shall obtain by reading upon the book, they will not refuse the pain, in consideration of the great profit that shall ensue thereof.-Old Common Prayer Book, The Preface.

over.

In a series of Acts passed over the veto of the President, Congress provided for the assemblage in each Southern State of a constituent Convention, to be elected by universal suffrage.

525. Till is from an ancient substantive til, still flourishing in German in its rightful form as ziel, and meaning goal, mark, aim, butt. Thus in some Saxon versified proverbs,

Til sceal on eðle

domes wyrcean.

Mark shall on patrimony

doom-wards work.

Two Saxon Chronicles Parallel, p. xxxv.

i.e. a borne or landmark shall be admissible as evidence. For its prepositional use, see the quotation from R. Brunne

in 515.

This preposition is now appropriated to Time: we say till then, till to-morrow; but not till there. Earlier it was used of Place, as in the Passionate Pilgrim :

She, poor bird, as all forlorn,

Lean'd her breast up till a thorn,

And there gan the dolefull'st ditty,
That to hear it was great pity.

This preposition enjoys a provincial function which is unknown in literature:

Well, Hester, do you feel tired now that there are two sets of lodgers in the house?

Yes, Sir, till night I do.

(Clevedon, Somersetshire.)

to (comparable to).

A sweet thing is love,

It rules both heart and mind;

There is no comfort in the world

To women that are kind.

Ballad Society, vol. i. p. 320.

With. This preposition had a value in the fourteenth century which is unknown in Saxon and which did not permanently root itself in English. It was used like the by of passivity, as

Who saved Daniel in the horrible cave,

Ther every wight, save he, master or knave,
Was with the leon frette, or he asterte?

The Man of Lawes Tale, 4895.

i. e. was devoured by the lion before he could stir. The isolation of this use at a particular point in our literature leads to the supposition that it may have been Danish, especially as this is the use of Danish ved to this day1.

526. The prepositions are more elevated in the scale of symbolism than the pronouns. They are quite removed from all appearance of direct relation with the material and the sensible. They constitute a mental product of the most exquisite sort. They are more cognate to mind; they have caught more of that freedom which is the heritage of mind; they are more amenable to mental variations, and more ready to lend themselves to new turns of thought, than pronouns can possibly be. To see this it is necessary to stand outside the language; for these things have become so mingled with the very circulation of our blood, that we cannot easily put ourselves in a position to observe them. Those who have mastered, or in any effective manner even studied Greek, will recognise what is meant. To see it in our own speech requires more practised habits of observation. But here I can avail myself of testimony. Wordsworth had the art of bringing into play the subtle powers of English prepositions,

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It is the preposition used in title-pages before the author's name, asBjowulfs Drape. Et Gothisk Helte-Digt af Angel-Saxisk paa Danske Riim ved Nic. Fred. Sev. Grundtvig, Præst. Kjöbenhavn, 1820.' Beowulf's Death. A Gothic Hero-Poem from Anglo-Saxon, in Danish Rime, by N. F. S. Gruntvig, Priest. Copenhagen, 1820.

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and this feature of his poetry has not escaped the notice of Principal Shairp. Here, in passing, I may note the strange power there is in his simple prepositions. The star is on the mountain-top; the silence is in the starry sky; the sleep is among the hills; the gentleness of heaven is on the sea.' Studies in Poetry and Philosophy, p. 74.

Wordsworth dedicated his Memorials of a Tour in Italy to his fellow-traveller, Henry Crabb Robinson. The opening lines are:

Companion! by whose buoyant spirit cheered,
In whose experience trusting day by day.

It was originally written 'To whose experience.' Mr. Robinson suggested that 'In' would be better than 'To,' and the poet, after offering reasons for a thing which can hardly be argued upon, ended by yielding his own superior sense to the criticism of his friend. Diary, 1837.

Flexional Prepositions.

527. A second series of prepositions are those in which flexion is traceable; for example, the genitival form, as against, besides, sithence; or comparison, as after, near, next.

after.

Full semyly aftir hir mete she raughte.

Prologue, 136.

The vintners were made to pay licence duties after a much higher scale than that which had obtained under Ralegh.-Edward Edwards, Ralegh (1868), ii. p. 23.

besides (beyond, or contrary to).

Besides all men's expectation.-Richard Hooker, Of the Laws &c. Preface, ii, 6.

sithence.

We require you to find out but one church upon the face of the whole earth, that hath been ordered by your discipline, or hath not been ordered

by ours, that is to say, by episcopal regiment, sithence the time that the blessed Apostles were here conversant.-Richard Hooker, Of the Laws &c. Preface, iv. I.

near (comparative of nigh).

The fruitage fair to sight, like that which grew
Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flam'd.

Paradise Lost, x. 562.

next (superlative).

Happy the man whom this bright Court approves,
His sov'reign favours, and his country loves,
Happy next him, who to these shades retires.

Alexander Pope, Windsor Forest, 235.

528. Perhaps we ought to range in this series such a preposition as save, which having come to us through the French sauf, from the Latin salvo, is still, at least to the perceptions of the scholar, redolent of the ablative absolute.

save.

In one of the public areas of the town of Como stands a statue with no inscription on its pedestal, save that of a single name, VOLTA.—John Tyndall, Faraday as a Discoverer.

Another instance of an old participle and a young preposition is except.

with all her unrivalled powers of mendacity, she very rarely succeeded in deceiving any one except her friends.—John Hosack, Mary Queen of Scots, p. 35.

Phrasal Prepositions.

529. A third series of prepositions are the phrasal prepositions, consisting of more than one word. In the development of this sort of preposition, we have been expedited by French tuition. A constant and almost necessary element in their formation is the preposition of. They are the analogues of such French prepositions as aupres de, autour de, au lieu de; as

in lieu of

A burnt stick and a barn door served Wilkie in lieu of pencil and canvas.Samuel Smiles, Self Help, ch. iv.

aboard of.

Every officer and man aboard of her entertained unbounded confidence in her qualities. Oct. 11, 1870.

long of; along of.

All long of this vile Traitor Somerset.

I Henry VI, iv. 3. 33.

Ibid. 46.

Long all of Somerset, and his delay.

A ruder form of this preposition was long on or along on, still heard in country places. Chaucer has

I can not tell whereon it was along,

But wel I wot gret stryf is us among.

The Canones Yemannes Tale, 16398; ed. Tyrwhitt.

out of.

. . it cannot be that a Prophet perish out of Hierusalem.—Luke xiii. 33.

in spight of; in spite of.

As on a Mountaine top the Cedar shewes,

That keepes his leaues in spight of any storme.

in despight of.

2 Henry VI, v. I. 206.

And in despight of Pharao fell,

He brought from thence his Israel.

John Milton, Psalm cxxxvi.

Antecedent to this was the genitival formula 'in my despite,' Titus Andronicus, i. 2; 'in your despite,' Cymbeline, i. 7; 'in thy despite,' 1 Henry VI, iv. 7; 'in Love's despite,' John Keble, Christian Year, Matrimony.

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