"It will then be impossible
you can _have_ any _hold upon_ him."--SWIFT: _ib._ "The court of Rome
gladly _laid hold on_ all the opportunities."--_Murray's Key_, ii, p. 198.
"Then did the officer _lay hold of_ him and execute him."--_Ib._, ii, 219.
"When one can _lay hold upon_ some noted fact."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 311.
"But when we would _lay_ firm _hold of_ them."--_Ib._, p. 28. "An advantage
which every one is glad to _lay hold of_."--_Ib._, p. 75. "To have _laid_
fast _hold of_ it in his mind."--_Ib._, p. 94. "I would advise them to lay
aside their common-places, and to _think_ closely _of_ their
subject."--_Ib._, p. 317. "Did they not _take hold of_ your
fathers?"--_Zech._, i, 6. "Ten men shall _take hold of_ the skirt of one
that is a Jew."--_Ib._, viii, 23. "It is wrong to say, either 'to _lay_
hold _of_ a thing,' or 'to _take_ hold _on_ it.'"--_Blair's Gram._, p. 101.
In the following couplet, _on_ seems to have been preferred only for a
rhyme:

"Yet, lo! in me what authors have to _brag on_!
Reduc'd at last to hiss in my own dragon."--_Pope_.

OBS. 19.--In the allowable uses of prepositions, there may perhaps be some
room for choice; so that what to the mind of a critic may not appear the
fittest word, may yet be judged not positively ungrammatical. In this light
I incline to view the following examples: "Homer's plan is still more
defective, _upon_ another account."--_Kames, El. of Crit._, ii, 299.
Say--"_on an other_ account." "It was almost eight _of the_ clock before I
could leave that variety of objects."--_Spectator_, No. 454. Present usage
requires--"eight _o_'clock." "The Greek and Latin writers had a
considerable advantage _above_ us."--_Blair's Rhet._, p. 114. "The study of
oratory has this advantage _above_ that of poetry."--_Ib._, p. 338. "A
metaphor has frequently an advantage _above_ a formal comparison."--
_Jamieson's Rhet._, p. 150. This use of _above_ seems to be a sort of
Scotticism: an Englishman, I think, would say--"advantage _over_ us," &c.
"Hundreds have all these crowding upon them from morning _to_ night."--
_Abbott's Teacher_, p. 33. Better--"from morning _till_ night." But Horne
Tooke observes, "We apply TO indifferently to _place_ or _time_; but TILL
to _time_ only, and never to _place_. Thus we may say, 'From morn TO night
th' eternal larum rang;' or, 'From morn TILL night.' &c."--_Diversions of
Purley_, i, 284.

NOTES TO RULE XXIII.

NOTE I.--Prepositions must be chose