+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.

For +Written Parsing+, see Lesson 22. Add the needed columns.

+Oral Parsing+.—Flowers is a noun, because——; preach is a verb, because——; to is a preposition, because it shows the relation, in sense, between us and preach; us is a pronoun, because it is used instead of the name of the speaker and the names of those for whom he speaks.

1. The golden lines of sunset glow. 2. A smiling landscape lay before us. 3. Columbus was born at Genoa. 4. The forces of Hannibal were routed by Scipio. 5. The capital of New York is on the Hudson. 6. The ships sail over the boisterous sea. 7. All names of the Deity should begin with capital letters. 8. Air is composed chiefly of two invisible gases. 9. The greater portion of South America lies between the tropics. 10. The laurels of the warrior must at all times be dyed in blood. 11. The first word of every entire sentence should begin with a capital letter. 12. The subject of a sentence is generally placed before the predicate.

Impromptu Exercise.

(The teacher may find it profitable to make a separate lesson of this exercise.)

Let the teacher write on the board a subject and a predicate that will admit of many modifiers. The pupils are to expand the sentence into as many separate sentences as possible, each containing one apt phrase modifier. The competition is to see who can build the most and the best sentences in a given time. The teacher gathers up the slates and reads the work aloud, or has the pupils exchange slates and read it themselves.