+Hints for Oral Instruction+.--In the preceding Lessons, the little words
that were placed before nouns, thus forming phrases, belong to a, class of
words called +Prepositions+. You noticed that these words, which you have
now learned to call prepositions, served to introduce phrases. The
preposition shows the relation of the _idea_ expressed by the principal
word of the phrase to that of the word which the phrase modifies. It serves
also to connect these words.

In the sentence, _The squirrel ran up a tree_, what word shows the relation
of the act of running, to the tree? Ans. _Up_.

Other words may be used to express different relations. Repeat, nine times,
the sentence above given, supplying, in the place of _up_, each of the
following prepositions: _Around, behind, down, into, over, through, to,
under, from_.

Let this exercise be continued, using such sentences as, _The man went into
the house; The ship sailed toward the bay_.


+DEFINITION.--A _Preposition_ is a word that introduces a phrase modifier,
and shows the relation, in sense, of its principal word to the word
modified+.

+Analysis and Parsing+.

+Model+.--_Flowers preach to us_.

For +Analysis+ and +Diagram+, see Lesson 31.