

GRAMMAR, &C. 273 



each particular individual idea ; so does the necessity 

 of the preposition (or some equivalent invention) fol- 

 low, from the impossibility of having in language a 

 distinct complex term for each different collection of 

 ideas, which we may have occasion to put together in 

 discourse. 



To supply, therefore, the place of the complex 

 terms which are wanting in a language, the preposi- 

 tion is employed. For having occasion to mention a 

 collection of ideas, for which there is no single com- 

 plex term in the language, we either take up that 

 complex term which includes the greatest number, 

 though not all, of the ideas we would communicate ; 

 or else we take that complex term which includes 

 all, and the fewest ideas more than those we would 

 communicate ; after which, by the help of the prepo- 

 sition, we either make up the deficiency in the one 

 case, or retrench the superfluity in the other. For 

 instance- 



1 . ** A house with a party-wall." 



2. " A house without a roof." 



In the first instance the complex term is deficient, 

 and the preposition directs to add what is wanting. 

 In the second instance the complex term is redun- 

 dant, and the preposition directs to take away what 

 is superfluous. 



Collectives. 



Nouns of number, or collectives, may have a sin- 

 gular or plural verb, though themselves be singular ; 

 as, the mob is or are unruly ; the parliament is or are 

 sitting ; part of the army mas or were slain. 



Particles. 



Wherever the evident meaning and origin of the 

 particles of a language are to be found, there is the 

 certain origin of the whole. 

 T 



