Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/425

* PREPOSITION. 363 PRE-RAPHAELITES. ponere, to place). In grammar (q.v.), an in- declinable word preceding a noun or a pronoun in an oblique case and showing the relation of such a noun or pronoun to another noun, pronoun, adjective, or verb. Originall3' the preposition was only a specialized form of the adverb, and is con- sequently in the last analysis a stereotyped case-form of a noun. Thus the Indo-Cxermanic pari, Greek irepl, Latin per, Gothic fair, and German rer- in such verl)s as vergehen, 'to go to destruction,' was primarily the locative case of an inferred noun *per-, connected with the verbal root ^per, 'to cross.' The adverbial nature of prep- ositions is shown by their use in verbal com- pounds, as Latin per astra, 'through the stars,' beside pcrirc, 'to go through, to perish.' In an earlier period the preposition did not "govern its case." The preposition was purely adverbial and the case of the noun depended altogether on other syntactic considerations. In such a sentence as Latin it ad ftuinen, 'he goes to the river,' ad primarily jjointed out the direction, while flumen was an accusative denoting in itself the end of the motion implied in the verb. The decay of feeling for the force of in- flectional endings led to an increased value of prepositions, which developed from local ad- verbs to words which actually governed case relations. The term preposition is a faulty one, as these words may in many languages stand after the noun which they govern, and they are then sometimes called postpositives or postposi- tions. In English the preposition has lost in great part its adverbial character, although traces of tliis value survive in such uses as 'to see a thing thruugh,' as compared with 'to see through a thing.' As connectives they govern the ob- jective ease only, as in the house, to the house, from the house, where more conservative lan- guages would employ a locative, an accusative, and an ablative respectively. The possessive ease has been sujiplanted in great measure bj' the ob- jective ease with of. The principle is frequently maintained that a phrase or sentence should not end with a preposition, on account of the weak terniinatinu thus given. Many of the best lit- erary authorities, however, disregard this, and there is no good reason for a rigid observance of such a rule either on stylistic or on historical grounds. Consult Delbriick, Yergleichende Syn- tax der indogermanischen Sprachen, vol. i. (Strnssl)urg. lS!i:?). PREPOTENCY (Lat. prwpotentia. superior power, from prwposse, to be superior in power, from pr(e, before -- posse, to be able). Tlie power of exerting a preponderating influence in the act of reproduction. Thus some one male an- cestor excelling in some physical or mental char- acter, such as form, color, and disposition, is known to have transmitted his qualities through many generations. Xot only may the individuals of a normal species thus transmit their marked or superior qualities, but also aberrations or 'sports' may thus be transmitted, imless bred out by crossing. In certain historic families some one ancestor, and after him others in the same family have shown great power in transmitting their likeness through the male line, as in the case of the Aistrian emperors of the House of Hapsburs. and so with the mental qualities of certain Roman families. It is especially notice- able .among domesticated animals, where qual- VoL. XVI.— 2i. ities and ancestry have long been recorded. The famous bull 'Favorite' is said to have e.xerted a prepotent infl<[ience on the short-horned race of cattle. A ram of a goat-like breed of sheep from the Cape of Good Hope had offspring scarcely distinguishable from himself when crossed with ewes of twelve other breeds. Other cases arc mentioned by Darwin. Darwin says that the law of prepotency acts when species as well as when races or individuals are crossed, giving examples among plants. The jackal is prepotent over the dog, the ass over the horse, and this runs more strongly through the male than the female ass. The intricacy of prepotencj' is reiterated by Ewart, and is likely to be difficult to understand luitil the laws of heredity are better understood. He says the leader of any given wild herd may be decidedly prepotent, but unless he is njated with members of some other herd presenting dif- ferent characters the prepotency may escape no- tice. The .Jews are more prepotent than the Eng- lish race, are of better, i.e., purer breed, but the prepotency only declares itself when intermar- riages take place. In nature prepotency may ( 1 ) arise spontaneouslj- and al)ruptly along with sports in one or more directions, or gradually with the help of natural selections; (2) it may be gradually acquired when a few individuals of any given species or variety are so isolated that inbreeding is inevitable. In eases of crosses be- tween different breeds, says Redfield, prepotency appears to lie with that breed which has had its characters most firmly fixed by in-and-in breed- ing. Hence animals of pure blood are prepotent over mongrel stock. In the life of an individual a character is more firmly fixed in middle life than in youth, and observation has shown among horses that the older individual is or tends to be more prepotent than young males. Consult: Darwin, The VnriaHons of Animals and Plants Under Domestication (London, 1888) ; Ewart, The Pengeuik Experiments (London, 1899). PRERADOVIC, prft-ril'd(>vlch. Peter (1818- (10). . Croatian poet, born at Grabonitza. He entered the Austrian Army in 18.30 and rose to the grade of general (1800). When he was sta- tioned in Dalmatia (1842), he took up the study of his native tongue, which he had almost for- gotten, and began to write in that language. His works, which rank him as the greatest Croatian poet of the century, include Proenci (1840), 7or^e pjesme (1851), and the epics Prori Ijtirti and SJavenslci Dioslcuri. The collected edition, published at national expense (1872), contains a biogi'aphy and criticism of Preradovic by Trnski. A few of his poems were turned into German bv Spicer (189.5). PRE-RAPHAELITES. A term which, prop- erly signifying the Italian painters before Ra- phael, is now commonly applied to their imitators in the nineteenth century. It was first used in this sense of a grou]) of yoiuig CJerman artists who, after their expulsion from the Vienna Acad- emy in 1810, established themselves in the de- serted Franciscan convent of San Isidoro at Rome. They formed an art brotherhood which was to live in seclusion and sanctity, and were nicloiamed "The German Lay Brothers," and aft- erwards "The Kazarenes." Their object was the restoration of Christian art to its media'val purity, and they took as their guides the Pre- Raphaelite masters. They regarded the mental
 * peri, 'around,' which is represented by Sanskrit