But thus it is that when Grammar comes at length (for its application is always late) to be applied to a language; fome long preceding corruption caufes a difficulty: ignorance of the corruption gives rise to some ingenious fyftem to account for these words which are confidered as original and not corrupted. Succeeding ingenuity and heaps of misplaced learning increase the difficulty, and make the error more obftinate, if not incurable.

B.

Do you acknowledge the prepofition to be an indeclinable word?

No.

H.

B.

Do you think it has a meaning of its own?

So Menage." Fermato l'ufo di quefto troncamento di CA per CASA, "familiare a noftri antichi.-Sarae fimile all' ucmo favio, il quale edifica la ca Jua fopra la pietra. Vangel di San matteo volgare.-Vinegia, ne' quali "paefi fi dice ca in vece di CASA." Silvano Rozzi. Many other instances are alfo given from Dante, Boccacio. Giovan Villani. Franco Sachetti, &c.

H. Yes

H.

Yes most certainly. And indeed,

*

And indeed, if prepofitions had no proper meaning of their own, why several unmeaning prepofitions ; when one alone must have answered the purpose equally? The cypher, which has no value of itself, and only serves (if I may use the language of Grammarians) to connote and confignify, and to change the value of the figures, is not feveral and various, but uniformly one: and the fame..

B.

I gueffed as much whilft you were talking of Con-junctions; and supposed that you intended to account for them both in the fame manner t..

*

H. You:

Speaking of Prepofitions, Cour de Gebelin fays, Gram. Univerf. page 238. "Mais comment des mots pareils qui femblent ne rien peindre, ne "rien dire, dont l'Origine eft inconnue, & qui ne tiennent en apparence a "aucune famille, peuvent ils amener l'harmonie & la clarté dans les "tableaux de la parole & devenir fi neceffaires, que fans eux le langage "n'offriroit. que des peintures imparfaites? Comment ces mots peuvent ils "produire de fi grands effets & repandre dans le difcours tant de chaleur, "tant de fineffe ?"

* In a Letter to Mr. Dunning, published in the year 1778, I afferted in a note (page 23) that " There is not, nor is it poffible there should be, "a word in any language, which has not a compleat meaning and fignifi

H.

You were not mistaken, Sir. For though Voffius and others have concurred with the cenfure which Prifcian paffes on the Stoics for claffing Prepofitions and Conjunctions, &c. together under one head; yet in truth they are both to be accounted for in the fame way.

"cation even when taken by itself. Adjectives, Prepofitions, Adverbs, &c. "have all compleat, feparate meanings, not difficult to be discovered."

Having in that letter explained the unmeaning conjunctions, with which alone I had at that time any perfonal concern; and not forefeeing that the equally unmeaning Prepofitions were afterwards by a folemn decifion (but without explanation) to be determined more certain than certainty; I was contented by that note to fet other perfons who might be more capable and more at leifure than myfelf, upon an enquiry into the fubject: being very indifferent from whofe hand the explanation might come to the public. I muft acknowledge myfelf a little difappointed, that in eight years time, no perfon whatever has purfued the inquiry; although the fuccefs I had had with the Conjunctions might reasonably have encouraged, as it much facilitated, the fearch. But though all men (as far as I can learn) have admitted my particular proofs concerning the Conjunctions, none have been inclined (as I wished they might be) to push the principle of my reasoning farther, and apply it to the other Particles. The ingenious author of Effays Hiftorical and Moral, published in 1785, fays, (page 125)—" Poffibly Prepofitions were, "at firft, fhort interjectional words, fuch as our carters and fhepherds make "ufe of to their cattle, to denote the relations of place. Or perhaps a more skilful Linguist and antiquarian may be able to trace them from "other words, as the Conjunctions have been traced by the author above " mentioned."-It is therefore manifeft, that the principle of my reasoning was either not fufficiently opened by me, or has not taken fufficient hold of the minds of others; and that it is neceffary ftill farther to apply it to the other Particles.

The

The Prepofitions as well as the Conjunctions are to be found amongst the other Parts of Speech. The fame fort of corruption, from the fame cause, has disguised both : and ignorance of their true origin has betrayed Grammarians and Philofophers into the mysterious and contradictory language which they have held concerning them. And it is really entertaining, to obferve the various shifts used by those who were too fharp-witted and too ingenuous to repeat the unfatisfactory accounts of thefe Prepofitions, handed down by others; and yet not ingenuous enough to acknowledge their own total ignorance on the subject.

The Grammarian fays, it is none of his bufinefs; but that it belongs to the philofopher: and for that reason only he omits giving an account of them. Whilft the Philofopher avails himself of his dignity; and, when he meets with a stubborn difficulty which he cannot unravel, (and only then), difdains to be employed about Words: although they are the neceffary channel through which his most precious liquors must flow.

"Grammatico fatis eft, fays Sanctius, fi tres has partes "posteriores (fcil. Adverbia, Præpofitiones, Conjunctiones, "vocet Particulas indeclinabiles; & functus erit officio "perfecti grammatici.-Significationes enumerare, magis Philofophi

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"Philofophi est quam Grammatici: quia grammatici "munus non eft, tefte Varrone, vocum fignificationes in❝dagare, fed earum ufum. Propterea nos in arte hæc "prætermiffimus."

Mr. Locke complains of the neglect of others in this particular; denies it to be his business "to examine them "in their full latitude :" and declares that he "intends "not here, a full explication of them." Like ScaligerNon in animo eft.—And this serves him as an apology for not examining them at all in any latitude; and for giving no explication of them whatever in any place.

. The Author of the Port Royal philofophical grammar, faves himself by an Almost. "Ce font prefque les mêmes ❝rapports dans toutes les langues, qui font marqués par "les Prepositions." And therefore he will content himfelf to mention fome of the principal French Prepofitions, without obliging himself to fix their exact number. And as Sanctius had his reafon for turning the business over to a philosophical grammar, whilst he was treating of a particular language: fo this author, who was writing a general grammar, had his reason for leaving it to those who wrote particular grammars." C'est pourquoi je me contenterai

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