PRIPOSITIONS are words that express certain relations between ideas—between the idea at' an action and the idea of a thing, or between the idea of one thing and the idea of another thing. "The river runs to the sea. The glass stands on the table. The dog lies under the table. He runs round me. She runs from me. The house by the wood. The house in the wood." In all the instances just given, the relation, is of one kind— that of place or direction. And this was the original signification of all prepositions. they gradually, however. came to express other relations. Thus: "That depends on you. Subjects are under the sovereign. She got round her father. Vice springs from idleness. Wood is consumed by fire. Your enemy is in your power." The transition from the palpable, physical relation to the more abstruse mental relation, is, in most cases, obvious.
A preposition is distinguished from an adverb by its always requiring an object (a noun or pronoun) after it. In the sentence, "He runs about," about is an adverb describ
ing the mode of running; in " He rims about the house," it 's a preposition referring the direction of the running to a particular object.
Many relations are expressed by prepositional phrases; as, instead of, with regard to, apart from. The preposition beside is evidently an abbreviation of such a phrase—by the side of This tendency in phrases to become simple prepositi,,as, is manifest in other cares. Instead of the full expression, "on this side of the river," we often hear, "this side the river," where this-side has the force of a preposition, and may yet come to be written thisside.
Of the relations expressed in the modern forms of the Aryan tongues by prepositions, a great many were formerly expressed by cases. See DECLENSION, INFLECTION, PHI