f former toil, that they once understood grammar, but it is all
gone from them. Poor souls! their memory is very treacherous, else they
have never learned language as they ought. There is a fault somewhere.
To us it is not difficult to determine where it is.

That certain words are prepositions, there can be no doubt, because the
books say they are; but _why_ they are so, is quite another matter. All
we desire is to have their meaning understood. Little difficulty will
then be found in determining their use.

I have said they are derived from verbs, many of which are obsolete.
Some are still in use, both as verbs and nouns. Take for example the
word =with=. This word signifies _joined_ or _united_. It is used to
show that two things are some how joined together so that they are spoke
of in connexion. It frequently occurs in common conversation, as a verb
and noun, but not as frequently in the books as formerly. The farmer
says to his _hired_ man, "Go and get a _withe_ and come and _withe_ up
the fence;" that is, get some pliant twigs of tough wood, twist them
together, and _withe_ or bind them round these posts, so that one may
stand firm _with_, or _withed_ to, the other. A book _with_ a cover, is
one that has a cover _joined_, bound, or attached to it. "A father
_with_ a son, a man _with_ an estate, a nation _with_ a constitution."
In all such cases _with_ expresses the relation between the two things
mentioned, produced by a _union_ or connexion with each other.[6]

=In= is used in the same way. It is still retained as a noun and is
suspended on the signs of many public houses. "The traveller's _inn_,"
is a house where travellers _in_ themselves, or go _in_, for
entertainment. It occurs frequently in Shakspeare and in more modern
writers, as a verb, and is still used in common conversation as an
imperative. "Go, _in_ the crops of grain." "_In_ with you." "_In_ with
it." In describes one thing by its relation to another, which is the
business of adjectives. It admits of the regular degrees of comparison;
as, _in_, _inner_, _innermost_ or _inmost_. It also has its compounds.
_In_step, the _inner_ part of the foot, _in_let, _in_vestment,
_in_heritance. In this capacity it is extensively used under its
different shades of meaning which I cannot stop to notice.

=Of= signifies _divided_, _separated_, or _parted_. "The ship is _off_
the coast." "I am bound _off_, and you are bound _out_." "A part _of_ a
pencil," is that