“Ah! who can tell the triumphs of the mind,
    By truth illumin’d, and by taste refin’d?”—­Rogers.

EXCEPTION FIRST.

The preposition to, before an abstract infinitive, and at the head of a phrase which is made the subject of a verb, has no proper antecedent term of relation; as, “To learn to die, is the great business of life.”—­Dillwyn.  “Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh, is more needful for you.”—­ST. PAUL:  Phil., i, 24. “To be reduced to poverty, is a great affliction.”

   “Too much to know, is, to know nought but fame;
    And every godfather can give a name.”—­Shakspeare.

EXCEPTION SECOND.

The preposition for, when it introduces its object before an infinitive, and the whole phrase is made the subject of a verb, has properly no antecedent term of relation; as, “For us to learn to die, is the great business of life.”—­“Nevertheless, for me to abide in the flesh, is more needful for you.”—­“For an old man to be reduced to poverty is a very great affliction.”

   “For man to tell how human life began,
    Is hard; for who himself beginning knew?”—­Milton.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XXIII.

OBS. 1.—­In parsing any ordinary preposition, the learner should name the two terms of the relation, and apply the foregoing rule, after the manner prescribed in Praxis 12th of this work.  The principle is simple and etymological, being implied in the very definition of a preposition, yet not the less necessary to be given as a rule of syntax.  Among tolerable writers, the prepositions exhibit more errors than any other equal number of words.  This is probably owing to the careless manner in which they are usually slurred over in parsing.  But the parsers, in general, have at least this excuse, that their text-books have taught them no better; they therefore call the preposition a preposition, and leave its use and meaning unexplained.

OBS. 2.—­If the learner be at any loss to discover the true terms of relation, let him ask and answer two questions:  first, with the interrogative what before the preposition, to find the antecedent; and then, with the same pronoun after the preposition, to find the subsequent term.  These questions answered according to the sense, will always give the true terms.  For example:  “They dashed that rapid torrent through.”—­Scott.  Ques. What through?  Ans. “Dashed through.”  Ques.  Through what? Ans. “Through that torrent.”  For the meaning is—­“They dashed through that rapid torrent.”  If one term is perfectly obvious, (as it almost always is,) find the other in this way; as, “Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.”—­Psal., xix, 2.  Ques. What unto day?  Ans.