for prepositions, in
English, govern no other case than the objective.[364] But the learner
should observe that most of our prepositions may take the _imperfect
participle_ for their object, and some, the _pluperfect_, or _preperfect_;
as, "_On opening_ the trial they accused him _of having defrauded_
them."--"A quick wit, a nice judgment, &c., could not raise this man _above
being received_ only upon the foot _of contributing_ to mirth and
diversion."--_Steele_. And the preposition _to_ is often followed by an
_infinitive verb_; as, "When one sort of wind is said _to whistle_, and an
other _to roar_; when a serpent is said _to hiss_, a fly _to buzz_, and
falling timber _to crash_; when a stream is said _to flow_, and hail _to
rattle_; the analogy between the word and the thing signified, is plainly
discernible."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 55. But let it not be supposed that
participles or infinitives, when they are governed by prepositions, are
therefore in the _objective case_; for case is no attribute of either of
these classes of words: they are indeclinable in English, whatever be the
relations they assume. They are governed _as participles_, or _as
infinitives_, and not _as cases_. The mere fact of government is so far
from _creating_ the modification governed, that it necessarily presupposes
it to exist, and that it is something cognizable in etymology.

OBS. 2.--The brief assertion, that, "Prepositions govern the objective
case," which till very lately our grammarians have universally adopted as
their sole rule for both terms, the governing and the governed,--the
preposition and its object,--is, in respect to both, somewhat
exceptionable, being but partially and lamely applicable to either. It
neither explains the connecting nature of the preposition, nor applies to
all objectives, nor embraces all the terms which a preposition may govern.
It is true, that prepositions, when they introduce declinable words, or
words that have cases, always govern the objective; but the rule is liable
to be misunderstood, and is in fact often misapplied, as if it meant
something more than this. Besides, in no other instance do grammarians
attempt to parse both the governing word and the governed, by one and the
same rule. I have therefore placed the _objects_ of this government here,
where they belong in the order of the parts of speech, expressing the rule
in such terms as cannot be mistaken; and have also given, in its proper
place, a