OBS. 20.—­“Out of and as to,” says one grammarian, “are properly prepositions, although they are double words.  They may be called compound prepositions.”—­Cooper’s Gram., p. 103.  I have called the complex prepositions double rather than compound, because several of the single prepositions are compound words; as, into, notwithstanding, overthwart, throughout, upon, within, without.  And even some of these may follow the preposition from; as, “If he shall have removed from within the limits of this state.”  But in and to, up and on, with and in, are not always compounded when they come together, because the sense may positively demand that the former be taken as an adverb, and the latter only as a preposition:  as, “I will come in to him, and will sup with him.”—­Rev., iii, 20.  “A statue of Venus was set up on Mount Calvary.”—­M’Ilvaine’s Lectures, p. 332.  “The troubles which we meet with in the world.”—­Blair.  And even two prepositions may be brought together without union or coalescence; because the object of the first one may be expressed or understood before it:  as, “The man whom you spoke within the street;”—­“The treatment you complain of on this occasion;”—­“The house that you live in in the summer;”—­“Such a dress as she had on in the evening.”

OBS. 21.—­Some grammarians assume, that, “Two prepositions in immediate succession require a noun to be understood between them; as, ’Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes, From betwixt two aged oaks.’—­’The mingling notes came softened from below.’”—­Nutting’s Gram., p. 105.  This author would probably understand here—­“From the space betwixt two aged oaks;”—­“came softened from the region below us.”  But he did not consider all the examples that are included in his proposition; nor did he rightly regard even those which he cites.  The doctrine will be found a very awkward one in practice; and an other objection to it is, that most of the ellipses which it supposes, are entirely imaginary.  If there were truth in his assumption, the compounding of prepositions would be positively precluded.  The terms over-against and round-about are sometimes written with the hyphen, and perhaps it would be well if all the complex prepositions were regularly compounded; but, as I before suggested, such is not the present fashion of writing them, and the general usage is not to be controlled by what any individual may think.

OBS. 22.—­Instances may, doubtless, occur, in which the object of a preposition is suppressed by ellipsis, when an other preposition follows, so as to bring together two that do not denote a compound relation, and do not, in any wise, form one complex preposition.  Of such suppression, the following is an example; and, I think, a double one:  “They take pronouns after instead of before them.”—­Fowler, E. Gram., Sec.521.  This may be interpreted to mean, and probably does mean—­“They take pronouns after them in stead of taking them before them.”