PREPOSITIONS. The errors made in the use of the prepositions are very numerous. "The indolent child is one who [that?] has a strong aversion _from_ action of any sort."--Graham's "English Synonymes," p. 236. The prevailing and best modern usage is in favor of _to_ instead of _from_ after _averse_ and _aversion_, and before the object. "Clearness ... enables the reader to see thoughts without noticing the language _with_ which they are clothed."--Townsend's "Art of Speech." We clothe thoughts _in_ language. "Shakespeare ... and the Bible are ... models _for_ the English-speaking tongue."--Ibid. If this means models of English, then it should be _of_; but if it means models for English organs of speech to practice on, then it should be _for_; or if it means models to model English tongues after, then also it should be _for_. "If the resemblance is too faint, the mind is fatigued _while_ attempting to trace the analogies." "Aristotle is in error _while_ thus describing governments."--Ibid. Here we have two examples, not of the misuse of the preposition, but of the erroneous use of the adverb _while_ instead of the preposition _in_. "For my part I can not think that Shelley's poetry, except _by_ snatches and fragments, has the value of the good work of Wordsworth or Byron."--Matthew Arnold. Should be, "except _in_ snatches." "Taxes with us are collected nearly [almost] solely _from_ real and personal estate."--"Appletons' Journal." Taxes are levied _on_ estates and collected _from_ the owners.
"If I am not commended _for_ the beauty of my works, I may hope to be pardoned for their brevity." Cobbett comments on this sentence as follows: "We may commend him _for_ the beauty of his works, and we may _pardon_ him _for_ their brevity, if we deem the brevity _a fault_; but this is not what he means. He means that, at any rate, he shall have the _merit_ of brevity. 'If I am not commended for the beauty of my works, I may hope to be pardoned _on account of_ their brevity.' This is what the Doctor meant; but this would have marred a little the antithesis: it would have unsettled a little of the balance of that _seesaw_ in which Dr. Johnson so much delighted, and which, falling into the hands of novel-writers and of members of Parliament, has, by moving unencumbered with any of the Doctor's reason or sense, lulled so many thousands asleep! Dr. Johnson created a race of writers and speakers. 'Mr. Speaker, that the state of the nation is very critical, all men will allow; but that it is wholly desperate, few will believe.' When you hear or see a sentence like this, be sure that the person who speaks or writes it has been reading Dr. Johnson, or some of his imitators. But, observe, these imitators go no further than the frame of the sentences. They, in general, take care not to imitate the Doctor in knowledge and reasoning."
