G R A M M A R. 77l 
fonably be referred t® ,'when fonder of^the Ger¬ 
mans, of fimilar import, leems to have the fame rela- 
tiondiip to fondern, the verb. 
Thorough, thourough, thorou), through, or thro', is no other, 
fays Horne Tooke, than the, Gothic fubftantive dauro, 
or the Teutonic fubftantive thuruh, and, like them, 
means door, gate, pajfage. So that the fentence cited by 
him, refolved upon his principles, Hands thus : “ The 
fplendid lun— -join liis,beams—genially vvarineth— pajfage 
• the air, (or, the air being the pajjage or medium) —the 
fertile earth.” And in the fame manner may we tranf- 
fate the prepofition through in every inftance where through 
is ufed in Englifli, or its equivalent prepolition in any 
language ; as from the Latin and Italian word porta (in 
Spanifli puerta and in French porte), have come the La¬ 
tin and Italian prepofition /ler, the French par, and the 
Spanifli por. 
Up, upon, over, hove, above, have all, fays the fame phi- 
lologirt, one common origin and fignification. In the 
Anglo-Saxon, ufa, ufera, ufemafl, are the adjedlives 
altus, altior, allif[imus. Ufa or ufan, up ; comparative 
ttfera, ofere or ofer, over or upper ; fuperlative ufemaf, 
upmofl: or uppermoft. Beufan, bufan, on-hufan, bove, 
above.—If this be a juft account of the origin of thefe 
words, the fentences where upon, over, and above, occur, 
will run thus : “The ftatue ftood on high a pedeftal 
‘'The river rana fand “ The fun is rifen or 
the hills.” And here we may obferve, that the mere 
relation between ftanding, running, &c. and place, is 
rather inferred from the verb itfelf than exprelfed by a 
feparated word ; and the reafon is obvious. For if a 
ftatue Hand, every one knows that it muft ftand on fome 
thing as well as at fome time. There is therefore no 
neceflity, whatever elegance there may be in it, for em¬ 
ploying any word to denote that relation, which is com¬ 
monly believed to be fignified by on ; but it is neceflary 
to infert, between the verb and pedeftal, a word fignifi- 
cant of place, that pedefal may not be miftaken by an 
ignorant perfon for a portion of time, or any thing elfe 
Connedted with the ftanding of the ftatue. 
Our very belt writers are extremely incorredl in the 
life of the prepofition. Few names ftand higher in our 
language than thole of Swift, Dryden, Bentley, Bo- 
lingbroke. Pope, and Addifon. We might therefore 
reafonably expect that the writings of thefe eminent 
men would afford a ftandard of propriety. Swift wrote 
upon tlie fubjedl of the Englifli tongue, and was re¬ 
markably attentive to grammatical precifion. Dryden 
was the firft poet, Englifli critic, and profe-writer, of 
his time, Bentley’s literary charadter was well-known 
through Europe. Bolingbroke and Pope were both 
very elegant, and generally very corredi, writers. And 
joiinfon concludes Addifon’s Life with faying, that 
“ whoever wiflies to attain an Englifli ftyle, muft give 
his days and nights to the volumes of Addifon.” But 
yet thefe authorities, though cladical, might lead a 
writer into many grofs errors ; for they are all guilty of 
faults, or rather of anomalies. The inaccuracies moftly 
noticed are in the-ufe of the prepofition. Swift writes: 
“ Value thenifelves drawing your charadler;—beftow 
favour to the moft deferving ;■—fell into their cogni¬ 
zance ;—fadtions into which we are engaged.” Dry¬ 
den: “ Reftore into the good graces ;—accufed yor lux- 
uriancy ;—may congratulate to themfelves.” 'Boling- 
broke : “Reproached to Tacitus;—fwerve out of the 
path.” Bentley: “Refolved of going;—made much 
on." Addifon : “ Policy prevail’d upon force ;—diffent 
zuitk the examiner.” Pope : “ And virgins fmiPd at 
what they blufli’d [at] before.” 
At length bifliop Louth gives one rule upon the fub¬ 
jedl refpedling the government of nouns, viz. that nouns 
generally require after them the fame prepofition as the 
verb from which they are formed. We exceedingly la¬ 
ment that he did not give us a chapter upon the ufe of 
the prepofition after the verb itfelf. 
If it be faid that tlicfe errors might have.been avoid¬ 
ed, we a(k, through what means ? Had thefe authors 
ever been told, that the prepofitions they thus made ule of 
were improper ? or had^it ever been fettled, that the re¬ 
gimen of fuch words as were naturalized fliould follow 
that ot the parent language ? It may be faid, that wc 
are not likely again to fall into the fame errors, becaiife 
tlie bifliop has pointed out the inniro]iriety. But it 
would not be difficult to quote from living authors, of 
great ability and cladical education, inaccuracies as 
grofs as thofe mentioned in the bifliop’s note, which, 
we conceive, can arife only from the want of fome rule 
or ftandard of acknowledged authority. We fliall veii- 
ture to notice a few expreffions which appear incorredl, 
in Johnfon, Harris, and others of the fame date : 
“Turned their thoughts upon the modes of virtue; — 
Johnfon expatiates freely into whatever is collateral ;—• 
fatisfied in the works.” Preface to the Hermes. “ Cen- 
fured of vanity.” Shenftone. “ Contrafted to." IVarton. 
“Compliance to.” More. “Congenial to; —antipathy 
at ;—eloquent of.” Mackenzie. 'I'hefe writers are of con- 
flderable authority ; and the expredions are taken from 
fliort edays, a fpecies of literary produilion in which 
perlpicuity, accuracy, and expremon, are more parti¬ 
cularly attended to. 
We have now only to fpeak of the Interjection. 
The genuine interjections are very few in number, and 
of very little importance, as they are,thrown into a fen¬ 
tence without altering its form either in fyntax or figni- 
fication. In the words of Horne Tooke, “ The brutifli 
inarticulate interjeClion has nothing to do with fpeech, 
and is only the miferable refuge of the fpeechlefs. 
The dominion of fpeech (according to the fame author) 
is erected on tlie downfal of interjections. Without 
the artful contrivances of language, mankind would 
have nothing but interjections .with which to commu¬ 
nicate orally any of their feelings. The neighing of a 
horfe, the lowing of a cow, the barking of a dog, the 
purring of a cat, fneezing, coughing, groaning, Ihriek- 
ing, and every other involuntary convulflon. witli oral 
found, have almoft as good a title to be called parts oi 
fpeech as interjections. In the intercourfe of language, 
interjections are employed only when the fuddennefs or 
vehemence of fome affeCtion or padion returns men to 
their natural date, and makes them for a moment forget 
the ufe of fpeech ; or when, from fome circumftance, 
the fliortnefs of time will not permit them to exercifa 
it.” The genuine interjection, which is always ex¬ 
predive of fome very ftrong fenfution, fuch as .rl/iwhen 
we feel pain, does not owe its charaCteriftical exprellion 
to the arbitrary form of articulation, b.ut derives its 
whole force from the tone of voice and modification of 
countenance and gefture. Of confequence, thefe tones 
and geftures exprefs the fame meaning, without any re¬ 
lation to the articulation which they may alfume ; and 
are therefore univerfally underflood by all mankind. 
Voluntary interjeCtions are ufed in books only for em- 
belliffiment, and to mark forcibly a ftrong emotion. 
But where fpeech can be employed, they are totally 
ufelefs; and are always infufficient for the purpofe of 
communicating thought. Dr. Beattie ranks frange, 
prodigious, amazing, wonderful, 0 dear, dear me, &c. when 
ufed alone and without apparent grammatical fyntax, 
among the interjeCtions : but he might with as much 
propriety have confldered hardly, truly, really, and even 
many Latin verbs, as interjections ; for thefe too are 
often ufed alone to fupply the place of whole I'entences. 
The truth is, that all men, when fnddenly and violently 
agitated, have a ftrong tendency to Ihorten their dif- 
courfe by employing a fingle word to exprefs a lenti- 
ment. In fuch cafes, the word employed, whetlier 
noun, adjective, or verb, would be the principal word 
of the fentence, if that fentence were completed ; and 
the agitation of the fpeaker is fuch, and the caufe of it 
fo obvious, that the hearer is in no danger of miftaking 
