As the words of a sentence are often transposed, so are also its members.  Without attending to this circumstance, the learner may sometimes be at a loss to perceive the connecting power of a preposition or conjunction, for every preposition and every conjunction connects either words or phrases, sentences or members of sentences.  Whenever a sentence begins with a preposition or conjunction, its members are transposed; as, “In the days of Joram, king of Israel, flourished the prophet Elisha;” “If thou seek the Lord, he will be found of thee; but, if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.”

  “When coldness wraps this suffering clay,
  “Ah, whither strays the immortal mind?”

That the words in, if, and when, in these examples, connect the members of the respective sentences to which they are attached, will obviously appear if we restore these sentences to their natural order, and bring these particles between the members which they connect:  thus, “Elisha the prophet flourished in the days of Joram, king of Israel;” “The Lord will be found of thee if thou seek him; but he will cast thee off for ever if thou forsake him:” 

  “Ah, whither strays the immortal mind,
  “When coldness wraps this suffering clay?”

As an exercise on this lecture, you may now answer these QUESTIONS NOT ANSWERED IN PARSING.

From what words is the term conjunction derived?—­What is a sentence?—­What is a simple sentence?—­What is a compound sentence?—­Give examples.—­In what respect do conjunctions and prepositions agree in their nature?—­How many sorts of conjunctions are there?—­Repeat the lists of conjunctions.—­Repeat some conjunctions with their corresponding conjunctions.—­Do relative pronouns ever connect sentences?—­Repeat the order of parsing a conjunction.—­Do you apply any Rule in parsing a conjunction?—­What Rule should be applied in parsing a noun or pronoun connected with another?—­What Rule in parsing a verb agreeing with two or more nouns singular, connected by a copulative conjunction?—­What Rule when the nouns are connected by a disjunctive?—­In parsing a verb connected to another by a conjunction, what Rule do you apply?—­Is a conjunction ever used as other parts of speech?—­Give examples.—­What is said of the words for, since, and before?—­What is said of the transposition of sentences?

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    PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES.

On scientific principles, our connectives, commonly denominated prepositions and conjunctions, are but one part of speech, the distinction between them being merely technical.  Some conjunctions unite only words, and some prepositions connect sentences.  They are derived from nouns and verbs; and the time has been, when, perhaps, in our language, they did not perform the office of connectives.