OBS. 1.—­Grammarians differ considerably in their tables of the English prepositions.  Nor are they all of one opinion, concerning either the characteristics of this part of speech, or the particular instances in which the acknowledged properties of a preposition are to be found.  Some teach that, “Every preposition requires an objective case after it.”—­Lennie, p. 50; Bullions, Prin. of E. Gram., p. 69.  In opposition to this, I suppose that the preposition to may take an infinitive verb after it; that about also may be a preposition, in the phrase, “about to write;” that about, above, after, against, by, for, from, in, of, and some other prepositions, may govern participles, as such; (i. e. without making them nouns, or cases;) and, lastly, that after a preposition an adverb is sometimes construed substantively, and yet is indeclinable; as, for once, from afar, from above, at unawares.

OBS. 2.—­The writers just quoted, proceed to say:  “When a preposition does not govern an objective case, it becomes an adverb; as, ’He rides about.’  But in such phrases as, cast up, hold out, fall on, the words up, out, and on, must be considered as a part of the verb, rather than as prepositions or adverbs.”—­Lennie’s Prin. of E. Gram., p. 50; Bullions’s, p. 59; his Analyt. and P. Gram., p. 109.  Both these sentences are erroneous:  the one, more particularly so, in expression; the other, in doctrine.  As the preposition is chiefly distinguished by its regimen, it is absurd to speak of it as governing nothing; yet it does not always govern the objective case, for participles and infinitives have no cases. About, up, out, and on, as here cited, are all of them adverbs; and so are all other particles that thus qualify verbs, without governing any thing.  L. Murray grossly errs when ha assumes that, “The distinct component parts of such phrases as, to cast up, to fall on, to bear oat, to give over, &c., are no guide to the sense of the whole.”  Surely, “to cast up” is to cast somehow, though the meaning of the phrase may be “to compute.”  By this author, and some others, all such adverbs are absurdly called prepositions, and are also as absurdly declared to be parts of the preceding verbs!  See Murray’s Gram., p. 117; W.  Allen’s, 179; Kirkham’s, 95; R.  G. Smith’s, 93; Fisk’s, 86; Butler’s, 63; Wells’s, 146.

OBS. 3—­In comparing the different English grammars now in use, we often find the primary distinction of the parts of speech, and every thing that depends upon it, greatly perplexed by the fancied ellipses, and forced constructions, to which their authors resort.  Thus Kirkham:  “Prepositions are sometimes erroneously called adverbs, when their nouns are understood.  ‘He rides about;’