ably_ to his condition.

The study of Syntax should be _previously_ to that of Punctuation.

He introduced himself in a manner very _abruptly_.

_Conformably_ to their vehemence of thought, was their vehemence of
gesture.

I saw him _previously_ to his arrival.

LECTURE VII

OF PREPOSITIONS.

A PREPOSITION is a word which serves to connect words, and show the
relation between them.

The term _preposition_ is derived from the two Latin words, _pre_, which
signifies _before_, and _pono, to place_. Prepositions are so called,
because they are mostly placed before the nouns and pronouns which they
govern in the objective case.

The principal prepositions are presented in the following list, which
you may now commit to memory, and thus you will be enabled to
distinguish them from other parts of speech whenever you see them in
composition.

A LIST OF THE PREPOSITIONS.

of, over, at, after, betwixt,
to, under, near, about, beside,
for, through, up, against, athwart,
by, above, down, unto, towards,
with, below, before, across, notwithstanding,
in, between, behind, around, out of,
into, beneath, off, amidst, instead of,
within, from, on upon, throughout, over against,
without, beyond, among, underneath, according to.

This list contains many words that are sometimes used as conjunctions,
and sometimes as adverbs; but when you shall have become acquainted with
the _nature_ of the preposition, and of the conjunction and adverb too,
you will find no difficulty in ascertaining to which of these classes
any word belongs.

By looking at the definition of a preposition, you will notice, that it
performs a _double_ office in a sentence, namely, it _connects_ words,
and also shows a _relation_ between them. I will first show you the use
and importance of this part of speech as a connective. When corn is
ripe--October, it is gathered--the field--men--who
go--hill--hill--baskets,--which they put the ears. You perceive, that in
this sentence there is a total want of connexion and meaning; but let us
fill up each vacancy with a preposition, and the sense will be clear.
"When corn is ripe, _in_ October, it is gathered _in_ the field _by_
men, who go _from_ hill _to_ hill _with_ baskets, _into_ which they put
the ears."

From this illustration you are convinced, no doubt, that our language
would be very deficient without prepositions to connect the various
words of which it is composed. It would, in fact, amount to