if we add, that the former do _severally_ require
some object after them, it is clear that any word which precedes a
preposition, must needs be something else than a preposition. But this
destroys all the doctrine of the preceding paragraph, and admits of no such
thing as a _complex preposition_; whereas that doctrine is acknowledged, to
some extent or other, by every one of our grammarians, not excepting even
those whose counter-assertions leave no room for it. Under these
circumstances, I see no better way, than to refer the student to the
definitions of these parts of speech, to exhibit examples in all needful
variety, and then let him judge for himself what disposition ought to be
made of those words which different grammarians parse differently.

OBS. 15.--If our prepositions were to be divided into classes, the most
useful distinction would be, to divide them into _Single_ and _Double_. The
distinction which some writers make, who divide them into "_Separable_ and
_Inseparable_," is of no use at all in parsing, because the latter are mere
syllables; and the idea of S. R. Hall, who divides them into "_Possessive_
and _Relative_," is positively absurd; for he can show us only _one_ of the
former kind, and that one, (the word _of_,) is not always such. A _Double
Preposition_, if such a thing is admissible, is one that consists of two
words which in syntactical parsing must be taken together, because they
jointly express the relation between two other terms; as, "The waters were
dried up _from off_ the earth."--_Gen._, viii, 13. "The clergy kept this
charge _from off_ us."--_Leslie, on Tithes_, p. 221. "Confidence in an
unfaithful man in time of trouble, is like a broken tooth, and a foot _out
of_ joint."--_Prov._, xxv, 19. "The beam _out of_ the timber shall answer
it."--_Hab._, ii, 11. _Off_ and _out_ are most commonly adverbs, but
neither of them can be called an adverb here.

OBS. 16.--Again, if _according to_ or _as to_ is a preposition, then is
_according_ or _as_ a preposition also, although it does not of itself
govern the objective case. _As_, thus used, is called a conjunction by
some, an adverb by others. Dr. Webster considers _according_ to be always a
participle, and expressly says, "It is never a preposition."--_Octavo
Dict._ The following is an instance in which, if it is not a preposition,
it is a participle: "This is a construction _not according_ to the rules of
grammar."--_Murray's Gram._, Vol. ii, p