I. The From Relation.

(1) Origin or source.

     The king holds his authority of the people.—­MILTON.

     Thomas a Becket was born of reputable parents in the city of
     London.—­HUME.

(2) Separation:  (a) After certain verbs, such as ease, demand, rob, divest, free, clear, purge, disarm, deprive, relieve, cure, rid, beg, ask, etc.

     Two old Indians cleared the spot of brambles, weeds, and
     grass.—­PARKMAN.

     Asked no odds of, acquitted them of, etc.—­ALDRICH.

(b) After some adjectives,—­clear of, free of, wide of, bare of, etc.; especially adjectives and adverbs of direction, as north of, south of, etc.

     The hills were bare of trees.—­BAYARD TAYLOR.

     Back of that tree, he had raised a little Gothic chapel. 
     —­GAVARRE.

(c) After nouns expressing lack, deprivation, etc.

     A singular want of all human relation.—­HIGGINSON.

(d) With words expressing distance.

     Until he had come within a staff’s length of the old dame. 
     —­HAWTHORNE

     Within a few yards of the young man’s hiding place.—­Id.

(3) With expressions of material, especially out of.

     White shirt with diamond studs, or breastpin of native
     gold.—­BANCROFT.

     Sandals, bound with thongs of boar’s hide.—­SCOTT

     Who formed, out of the most unpromising materials, the finest
     army that Europe had yet seen.—­MACAULAY

(4) Expressing cause, reason, motive.

     The author died of a fit of apoplexy.—­BOSWELL.

     More than one altar was richer of his vows.—­LEW WALLACE.

     “Good for him!” cried Nolan.  “I am glad of that.”—­E.E.  HALE.

(5) Expressing agency.

     You cannot make a boy know, of his own knowledge, that Cromwell
     once ruled England.—­HUXLEY.

     He is away of his own free will.—­DICKENS

II.  Other Relations expressed by Of.

(6) Partitive, expressing a part of a number or quantity.

     Of the Forty, there were only twenty-one members present. 
     —­PARTON.

     He washed out some of the dirt, separating thereby as much of
     the dust as a ten-cent piece would hold.—­BANCROFT.

[Sidenote:  See also Sec. 309.]

(7) Possessive, standing, with its object, for the possessive, or being used with the possessive case to form the double possessive.