OBS. 24.—­Dr. Alexander Murray says, “To be a-seeking, is the relic of the Saxon to be on or an seeking.  What are you a-seeking? is different from, What are you seeking?  It means more fully the going on with the process.”—­Hist.  Europ.  Lang,, Vol. ii, p. 149.  I disapprove of the hyphen in such terms as “a seeking,” because it converts the preposition and participle into I know not what; and it may be observed, in passing, that the want of it, in such as “the going on,” leaves us a loose and questionable word, which, by the conversion of the participle into a noun, becomes a nondescript in grammar.  I dissent also from Dr. Murray, concerning the use of the preposition or prefix a, in examples like that which he has here chosen.  After a neuter verb, this particle is unnecessary to the sense, and, I think, injurious to the construction.  Except in poetry, which is measured by syllables, it may be omitted without any substitute; as, “I am a walking.”—­Johnson’s Dict., w.  A.  “He had one only daughter, and she lay a dying.”—­Luke, viii, 42.  “In the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing.”—­1 Pet., iii, 20.  “Though his unattentive thoughts be elsewhere a wandering.”—­Locke’s Essay, p. 284.  Say—­“be wandering elsewhere;” and omit the a, in all such cases.

   “And—­when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
    His greatness is a ripening—­nips his root.”—­Shak.

OBS. 25.—­“A has a peculiar signification, denoting the proportion of one thing to an other.  Thus we say, The landlord hath a hundred a year; the ship’s crew gained a thousand pounds a man.”—­Johnson’s Dict. “After the rate of twenty leagues a day.”—­Addison.  “And corn was at two sesterces a bushel.”—­Duncan’s Cicero, p. 82.  Whether a in this construction is the article or the preposition, seems to be questionable.  Merchants are very much in the habit of supplying its place by the Latin preposition per, by; as, “Board, at $2 per week.”—­Preston’s Book-Keeping, p. 44.  “Long lawn, at $12 per piece.”—­Dilworth’s, p. 63.  “Cotton, at 2s. 6d. per pound.”—­Morrison’s, p. 75.  “Exchange, at 12d. per livre.”—­Jackson’s, p. 73.  It is to be observed that an, as well as a, is used in this manner; as, “The price is one dollar an ounce.”  Hence, I think, we may infer, that this is not the old preposition a, but the article an or a, used in the distributive sense of each or every, and that the noun is governed by a preposition understood; as, “He demands a dollar an hour;” i. e., a dollar for each hour.—­“He comes twice a year:”  i. e., twice in every year.—­“He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses:”