parts of
speech?--Give examples.--What is said of the words _for, since_, and
_before?_--What is said of the transposition of sentences?

* * * * *

PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES.

On scientific principles, our _connectives_, commonly denominated
prepositions and conjunctions, are but one part of speech, the
distinction between them being merely technical. Some conjunctions
unite only words, and some prepositions connect sentences. They are
derived from nouns and verbs; and the time has been, when, perhaps,
in our language, they did not perform the office of connectives.

"I wish you to believe, _that_ I would not wilfully hurt a fly."
Here, in the opinion of H. Tooke, our modern conjunction _that_, is
merely a demonstrative adjective, in a disguised form; and he
attempts to prove it by the following resolution: "I would not
wilfully hurt a fly. I wish you to believe _that [assertion_."] Now,
if we admit, that _that_ is an adjective in the latter construction,
it does not necessarily follow, that it is the same part of speech,
nor that its associated meaning is precisely the same, in the former
construction. Instead of expressing our ideas in two detached
sentences, by the former phraseology we have a quicker and closer
transition of thought, and both the mode of employing _that_, and
its _inferential_ meaning, are changed. Moreover, if we examine the
meaning of each of these constructions, taken as a whole, we shall
find, that they do not both convey the same ideas. By the latter, I
assert, positively, that "I would not wilfully hurt a fly:" whereas,
by the former, I merely _wish you to believe_ that "I would not
wilfully hurt a fly;" but I do not _affirm_, that as a fact.

_That_ being the past part, of _thean_, to get, take, assume, by
rendering it as a _participle_, instead of an adjective, we should
come nearer to its primitive character. Thus, "I would not wilfully
hurt a fly. I wish you to believe the _assumed [fact_ or
_statement_;] or, the fact _assumed_ or _taken_."

_If_, (formerly written _gif, give, gin_,) as previously stated, is
the imperative of the Anglo-Saxon verb _gifan_, to give. In
imitation of Horne Tooke, some of our modern philosophical writers
are inclined to teach pupils to render it as a verb. Thus, "I will
go, _if_ he will accompany