316 t)l S'ilU IS I no N S on the 



one piim.iry radical idea was originally affixed, — that tliis idea 

 was for the molt part taken from fenfible obje(!Jts, — and that 

 from this radical fenfe all the fecondary applications may either 

 immediately or circuitoufly be traced. In the inveftigation of 

 this radical fcnfe of each of the prepofitions, I think it will like- 

 wifj appear, that all of them were originally either nouns or par- 

 ticiples, moll of them verbal adjedlives, at firft ufually joined 

 with feme common fubftantive to complete the fenfe ; which 

 fubftantive, by ufe, came at length to be dropped, as unneceffa- 

 ry to be expreffed, being immediately implied and underftood. 

 From this it will likewife follow, that in the jundlion of thefe 

 words with other nouns, the primitive rule of conftrudlion by 

 which they were joined in fentences, was that which is termed 

 the genitive or ablaiire abfolute ; a conftrudion of fentences, 

 which though ftigmatized, and perhaps not unjuflly, by Lord 

 MoNBODDO, as lame and gaping, yet was probably of extenfive 

 ufe in the early ftages of human fpeech, when bare co-exiftence 

 of phenomena or events, (the precife idea denoted by this mode 

 of conitrutlion), was more attended to than that mutual relation 

 and dependence, the gradual difcovery of which afterwards gave 

 rife to more compad and conneded forms of expreffion. 



Proceeding upon thefe principles, we may poffibly be able 

 to difcover the radical fenfe of each prepofition, as well as fome 

 of the leading circumftances by which, in time, many of them 

 came to be applied, to denote ideas apparently remote from their 

 original meaning. The minuter ramifications to which thefe 

 fignifications afterwards branched out, it would lead far beyond 

 the bounds of a fingle paper to attempt inveftigating. 

 ' '•■ In conducing fuch an analyfis, each prepofition muft be fepa- 

 rately examined, — a minute and tedious procefs, perhaps, but 

 the only one by which the objedl can be fairly accomplifhed. 

 No particular arrangement being at all necelTary for our purpofe, 



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