3 io DISQUISITIONS on the 



one primary radical idea was originally affixed, — that this idea 

 was for the moil part taken from fenfible objects, — and that 

 from this radical fenfe all the fecondary applications may either 

 immediately or circuitoufly be traced. In the inveftigation of 

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

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

 ticiples, mofl of them verbal adjectives, at firft ufually joined 

 with fome common fubftantive to complete the fenfe ; which 

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

 ry to be expreffed, being immediately implied and underflood. 

 from this it will likewife follow, that in the junction of thefe 

 words with other nouns, the primitive rule of conftruction by 

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

 the genitive or ablative abfolute ; a conftruction of fentences, 

 which though ftigmatized, and perhaps not unjuftly, by Lord 

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

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

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

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

 and dependence, the gradual difcovery of which afterwards gave 

 rife to more compact and connected forms of expreflion. 



Proceeding upon thefe principles, we may poilibly 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 

 iignifications afterwards branched out, it would lead far beyond 

 the bounds of a fingle paper to attempt inveftigating. 



In conducting fuch an analyfis, each prepofition muff, be fepa- 

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

 the only one by which the object can be fairly accomplished. 

 No particular arrangement being at all neceffary for our purpofe-, 



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