the vulgar constellations thick,”—­See Milton’s Paradise Lost, B. iii, l. 576.  “The great luminary aloft the vulgar constellations thick.”—­Johnson’s Dict., w.  Aloft.  “Captain Falconer having previously gone alongside, the Constitution.”—­Newspaper.  “Seventeen ships sailed for New England, and aboard these above fifteen hundred persons.”—­Robertson’s Amer., ii, 429.  “There is a willow grows askant the brook:”  Or, as in some editions:  “There is a willow grows aslant the brook.”—­SHAK., Hamlet, Act iv, 7. “Aslant the dew-bright earth.”—­Thomson.  “Swift as meteors glide aslope a summer eve.”—­Fenton. “Aneath the heavy rain.”—­James Hogg, “With his magic spectacles astride his nose.”—­Merchant’s Criticisms.

   “Atween his downy wings be furnished, there.”
        —­Wordsworth’s Poems, p. 147.

    “And there a season atween June and May.”
        —­Castle of Indolence, C. i, st. 2.

OBS. 13.—­The following are examples of rather unusual prepositions beginning with b, c, or d; “Or where wild-meeting oceans boil besouth Magellan.”—­Burns.  “Whereupon grew that by-word, used by the Irish, that they dwelt by-west the law, which dwelt beyond the river of the Barrow.”—­DAVIES:  in Joh.  Dict. Here Johnson calls by-west a noun substantive, and Webster, as improperly, marks it for an adverb.  No hyphen is needed in byword or bywest.  The first syllable of the latter is pronounced be, and ought to be written so, if “besouth” is right.

   “From Cephalonia cross the surgy main
    Philaetius late arrived, a faithful swain.”
        —­Pope, Odys., B. xx, l. 234.

    “And cross their limits cut a sloping way,
    Which the twelve signs in beauteous order sway.”
        —­Dryden’s Virgil.

“A fox was taking a walk one night cross a village.”—­L’Estrange.  “The enemy had cut down great trees cross the ways.”—­Knolles.  “DEHORS, prep. [Fr.] Without:  as, ‘dehors the land.’  Blackstone.”—­Worcester’s Dict., 8vo.  “You have believed, despite too our physical conformation.”—­Bulwer.

   “And Roderick shall his welcome make,
    Despite old spleen, for Douglas’ sake.”
        —­Scott, L. L., C. ii, st. 26.

OBS. 14.—­The following quotations illustrate further the list of unusual prepositions:  “And she would be often weeping inside the room while George was amusing himself without.”—­Anna Ross, p. 81.  “Several nuts grow closely together, inside this prickly covering.”—­Jacob Abbot.  “An other boy asked why the peachstone was not outside the peach.”—­Id. “As if listening to the sounds withinside