phrase, as I have before suggested, is almost obsolete; but Murray, in one place, adopts it from Dr. Beattie:  “For that those parts of the verb are not properly called tenses.”—­Octavo Gram., p. 75.  How he would have parsed it, does not appear.  But both words are connectives.  And, from the analogy of those terms which serve as links to other terms, I should incline to take for that, in that, after that, and besides that, (in which a known conjunction is put last,) as complex conjunctions; and also, to take as for, as to, and because of, (in which a known preposition is put last,) as complex prepositions.  But there are other regular and equivalent expressions that ought in general to be preferred to any or all of these.

OBS. 10.—­Several words besides those contained in the list above, are (or have been) occasionally employed in English as prepositions:  as, A, (chiefly used before participles,) abaft, adown, afore, aloft, aloof, alongside, anear, aneath, anent, aslant, aslope, astride, atween, atwixt, besouth, bywest, cross, dehors, despite, inside, left-hand, maugre, minus, onto, opposite, outside, per, plus, sans, spite, thorough, traverse, versus, via, withal, withinside.

OBS. 11.—­Dr. Lowth says, “The particle a before participles, in the phrases a coming, a going, a walking, a shooting, &c. and before nouns, as a-bed, a-board, a-shore, a-foot, &c. seems to be a true and genuine preposition, a little disguised by familiar use and quick pronunciation.  Dr. Wallis supposes it to be the preposition at.  I rather think it is the preposition on.”—­Lowth’s Gram., p. 65; Churchill’s, 268.  There is no need of supposing it to be either.  It is not from on; for in Saxon it sometimes accompanied on:  as in the phrase, “on a weoruld;” that is, “on to ages;” or, as Wickliffe rendered it, “into worldis;” or, as our version has it, “for ever.”  See Luke, i, 55.  This preposition was in use long before either a or an, as an article, appeared in its present form in the language; and, for ought I can discover, it may be as old as either on or at. An, too, is found to have had at times the sense and construction of in or on; and this usage is, beyond doubt, older than that which makes it an article. On, however, was an exceedingly common preposition in Saxon, being used almost always where we now put on, in, into, upon, or among, and sometimes, for with or by; so, sometimes, where a was afterwards used:  thus, “What in the Saxon Gospel of John, is, ‘Ic wylle gan on fixoth,’ is, in the English version, ‘I go a fishing.’  Chap, xxi, ver. 3.”  See Lowth’s Gram., p. 65; Churchill’s, 269.  And a is now sometimes equivalent