the great Compiler proceeds: "The prepositions, after, before, above, beneath, and several others, sometimes appear to be adverbs, and may be so considered: as, 'They had their reward soon after;' 'He died not long before;' 'He dwells above;' but if the nouns time and place be added, they will lose their adverbial form: as, 'He died not long before that time,' &c."Ib.

23.In French, the infinitive is governed by several different prepositions, and the gerundive by one only, the preposition en,which, however, is sometimes suppressed; as, "en passant, en faisant,il alloit courant."Traité des Participes, p. 2.

R. Johnson, like many others, erroneously thinks it a noun, even when it governs an objective, and has merely a preposition before it; as, "For the sake of seeing them.