Note 146 — THE CATHOLIC WORLD. VOL. XVIII., No. 106.—JANUARY, 1874.[138]

We advisedly employ the preposition from. There is a vast difference between depending on and depending from. To depend from is properly to be hanging from, as a lamp from the ceiling; but nothing forbids the use of the phrase in a metaphorical sense in order to translate the Latin phrase, pendere ab, for which we have no other equivalent. The usual English phrase, to depend on, corresponds to the Latin pendere ex. Were we to employ it also for pendere ab, a confusion would arise of the two different meanings. Certainly, the two phrases, Homo pendet a Deo, and Exitus pendet ex adjunctis express different kinds of dependence; and we cannot translate them into English in the same manner without setting their differences at naught. We would, therefore, say, that Man depends from God, and that Success depends on circumstances. In philosophy, both prepositions are needed, and, if used with proper discrimination, they will save us the trouble of many useless disputes.