_He gave the house to a father._--Here the words _father_ and _house_ stand in another sort of relationship; the relationship being expressed by the preposition _to_. The idea _to a father_ differs from the idea _of a father_, in being expressed in one way only; _viz._, by the preposition. There is no second mode of expressing it by a change of form, as was done with _father's_. _The father taught the child._--Here there is neither preposition nor change of form. The connexion between the words _father_ and _child_ is expressed by the arrangement only. Now if the relation alone between two words constitutes a case, the words or sentences, _child_; _to a father_; _of a father_; and _father's_, are all equally cases; of which one may be {235} called the accusative, another the dative, a third the genitive, and so on. Perhaps, however, the relationship alone does not constitute a case. Perhaps there is a necessity of either the addition of a preposition (as in _of a father_), or of a change in form (as in _father's_). In this case (although _child_ be not so) _father's_, _of a father_, and _to a father_, are all equally cases. Now it is a remark, at least as old as Dr. Beattie,[39] that if the use of a preposition constitute a case, there must be as many cases in a language as there are prepositions, and that "_above a man_, _beneath a man_, _beyond a man_, _round about a man_, _within a man_, _without a man_, shall be cases, as well as _of a man_, _to a man_, and _with a man_." For etymological purposes it is necessary to limit the meaning of the word case; and, as a sort of definition, it may be laid down that _where there is no change of form there is no case_. With this remark, the English language may be compared with the Latin. _Latin._ _English._ _Sing. Nom._ _Pater_ _a father._ _Gen._ _Patris_ _a father's._ _Dat._ _Patri_ _to a father._ _Acc._ _Patrem_ _a father._ _Abl._ _Patre_ _from a father._ Here, since in the Latin language there are five changes of form, whilst in English there are but _two_, there are (as far, at least, as the word _pater_ and _father_ are concerned) three more cases in Latin than in English. It does not, however, follow that because in _father_ we have but two cases, there may not be other words wherein there are more than two.