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There is another class or variety of words properly belonging to this
division of grammar, which may as well be noticed in this place as any
other. I allude to those words generally called "Prepositions." We have
not time now to consider them at large, but will give you a brief view
of our opinion of them, and reserve the remainder of our remarks till we
come to another part of these lectures.

Most of the words called prepositions, in books of grammar, are
participles, derived from verbs, many of which are still in use, but
some are obsolete. They are used in the true character of adjectives,
_describing one thing by its relation to another_. But their meaning has
not been generally understood. Our dictionaries have afforded no means
by which we can trace their etymology. They have been regarded as a kind
of cement to stick other words together, having no meaning or importance
in themselves.[5] Until their meaning is known, we can not reasonably
expect to draw them from their hiding places, and give them a
respectable standing in the transmission of thought.

Many words, from the frequency of their use, fail to attract our
attention as much as those less employed; not because they are less
important, but because they are so familiarly known that the operations
of thought are not observed in the choice made of them to express ideas.
If we use words of which little is known, we ponder well before we adopt
them, to determine whether the sense usually attached to them accords
exactly with the notions we desire to convey by them. The same can not
be said of small words which make up a large proportion of our language,
and are, in fact, more necessary than the others, in as much as their
meaning is more generally known. Those who employ carriages to convey