OBS. 5.—­Both terms of the relation are usually expressed; though either of them may, in some instances, be left out, the other being given:  as, (1.) THE FORMER—­“All shall know me, [reckoning] FROM the least to the greatest.”—­Heb., viii, 11. [I say] “IN a word, it would entirely defeat the purpose.”—­Blair.  “When I speak of reputation, I mean not only [reputation] IN regard to knowledge, but [reputation] IN regard to the talent of communicating knowledge.”—­Campbell’s Rhet., p. 163; Murray’s Gram., i, 360. (2.) THE LATTER—­“Opinions and ceremonies [which] they would die FOR.”—­Locke.  “IN [those] who obtain defence, or [in those] who defend.”—­Pope.  “Others are more modest than [what] this comes TO.”—­Collier’s Antoninus, p. 66.

OBS. 6.—­The only proper exceptions to the foregoing rule, are those which are inserted above, unless the abstract infinitive used as a predicate is also to be excepted; as, “In both, to reason right, is to submit.”—­Pope.  But here most if not all grammarians would say, the verb “is” is the antecedent term, or what their syntax takes to govern the infinitive.  The relation, however, is not such as when we say, “He is to submit;” that is, “He must submit, or ought to submit;” but, perhaps, to insist on a different mode of parsing the more separable infinitive or its preposition, would be a needless refinement.  Yet some regard ought to be paid to the different relations which the infinitive may bear to this finite verb.  For want of a due estimate of this difference, the following sentence is, I think, very faulty:  “The great business of this life is to prepare, and qualify us, for the enjoyment of a better.”—­Murray’s Gram., Vol. i, p. 373.  If the author meant to tell what our great business in this life is, he should rather have said:  “The great business of this life is, to prepare and qualify ourselves for the enjoyment of a better.”

OBS. 7.—­In relation to the infinitive, Dr. Adam remarks, that, “To in English is often taken absolutely; as, To confess the truth; To proceed; To conclude.”—­Latin and Eng.  Gram., p. 182.  But the assertion is not entirely true; nor are his examples appropriate; for what he and many other grammarians call the infinitive absolute, evidently depends on something understood; and the preposition is, surely, in no instance independent of what follows it, and is therefore never entirely absolute.  Prepositions are not to be supposed to have no antecedent term, merely because they stand at the head of a phrase or sentence which is made the subject of a verb; for the phrase or sentence itself often contains that term, as in the following example:  “In what way mind acts upon matter, is unknown.”  Here in shows the relation between acts and way; because the expression suggests, that mind acts IN some way upon matter.