ions are misunderstood,
or their terms misconceived; how shall we estimate the importance of a
right explanation, and a right use, of this part of speech?

OBS. 3.--The grammarian whom Lowth compliments, as excelling all others, in
"acuteness of investigation, perspicuity of explication, and elegance of
method;" and as surpassing all but Aristotle, in the beauty and perfectness
of his philological analysis; commences his chapter on conjunctions in the
following manner: "Connectives are the subject of what follows; which,
_according_ as they connect _either Sentences or Words_, are called by the
different _Names_ of _Conjunctions_ OR _Prepositions._ Of these Names, that
of the Preposition is taken from a _mere accident_, as _it_ commonly stands
in connection before _the Part, which it connects._ The name of the
Conjunction, as is evident, has reference to its essential character. Of
these two we shall consider the Conjunction _first_, because it connects,
_not Words_, but Sentences."--_Harris's Hermes_, p. 237.

OBS. 4.--In point of order, it is not amiss to treat conjunctions before
prepositions; though this is not the method of Lowth, or of Murray. But, to
any one who is well acquainted with these two parts of speech, the
foregoing passage cannot but appear, in three sentences out of the four,
both defective in style and erroneous in doctrine. It is true, that
conjunctions generally connect sentences, and that prepositions as
generally express relations between particular words: but it is true also,
that conjunctions _often_ connect words only; and that prepositions, by
governing antecedents, relatives, or even personal pronouns, may serve to
subjoin sentences to sentences, as well as to determine the relation and
construction of the particular words which they govern. Example: "The path
seems now plain and even, _but_ there are asperities and pitfalls, _over
which_ Religion only can conduct you."--_Dr. Johnson._ Here are three
simple sentences, which are made members of one compound sentence, by means
of _but_ and _over which_; while two of these members, clauses, or
subdivisions, contain particular words connected by _and._

OBS. 5.--In one respect, the preposition is the _simplest_ of all the parts
of speech: in our common schemes of grammar, it has neither classes nor
modifications. Every connective word that governs an object after it, is
called a preposition, _because it does so_; and in etymological parsing, to