reach the heart."—Blair's Rhet., p. 439. Better: "He knows how to reach the heart by a single stroke."

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION.

FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XXIII.

EXAMPLES UNDER NOTE I.-CHOICE OF PREPOSITIONS.

"You have bestowed your favours to the most deserving persons."-Swift, on E. Tongue. [FORMULE. Not proper because the relation between have bestowed and persons is not correctly expressed by the preposition to. But, according to Note 1st under Rule 23d, " Prepositions must be chosen and employed agreeably to the usage and idiom of the language, so as rightly to express the relations intended." This relation would be better expressed by upon; thus, "You have bestowed your favours upon the most deserving persons."]

"Though

"But to rise beyond that, and overtop the crowd, is given to few."-Blair's Rhet., p. 351. "This also is a good sentence, and gives occasion to no material remark."-lb., p. 201. Cicero endeavours to give some reputation of the elder Cato, and those who were his cotemporaries."-Ib., p. 245. "The change that was produced on eloquence, is beautifully described in the Dialogue."-Ib., p. 249. "Without carefully attending to the variation which they make upon the idea."-Ib., p. 367. "All of a sudden, you are transported into a lofty palace."-Hazlitt's Lect., p. 70. "Alike independent on one another."-Campbell's Rhet., p. 398. "You will not think of them as distinct processes going on independently on each other"-Channing's SelfCulture, p. 15. "Though we say, to depend on, dependent on, and independent on, we say, independently of."-Churchill's Gram., p. 348. "Independently on the rest of the sentence."-Louth's Gram., p. 78; Guy's, 88; Murray's, i, 145 and 184; Ingersoll's, 150; Frost's, 46; Fisk's, 125; Smith's New Gram., 156; Gould's Lat. Gram., 209; Nixon's Parser, 65. "Because they stand independent on the rest of the sentence."-Fisk's Gram., p. 111. "When a substantive is joined with a participle in English independently in the rest of the sentence."-Adam's Lat. and Eng. Gram., Boston Ed. of 1803, p. 213; Albany Ed. of 1820, p. 166. "Conjunction, comes of the two Latin words con, together, and jungo, to join."—Merchant's School Gram., p. 19. "How different to this is the life of Fulvia!"-Addison's Spect., No. 15. "Loved is a participle or adjective, derived of the word love."-Dr. Ash's Gram., p. 27. "But I would inquire at him, what an office is?"-Barclay's Works, iii, 463. "For the capacity is brought unto action."-Ib., iii, 420. "In this period, language and taste arrive to purity."- -Webster's Essays, p. 94. "And should you not aspire at distinction in the republick of letters."-Kirkham's Gram., p. 13. "Delivering you up to the synagogues, and in prisons."-Keith's Evidences, p. 55. "One that is kept from falling in a ditch, is as truly saved, as he that is taken out of one.”—Barclay's Works, i. 312. "The best on it is, they are but a sort of French Hugonots."—Addison, Spect., No. 62. "These last Ten Examples are indeed of a different Nature to the former."-Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 333. "For the initiation of students in the principles of the English language."ANNUAL REVIEW: Murray's Gram., ii, 299. Richelieu profited of every circumstance which the conjuncture afforded,"-Bolingbroke, on Hist., p. 177. "In the names of drugs and plants, the mistake in a word may endanger life."-Murray's Key, ii, 165. "In order to the carrying on its several parts into execution."-Butler's Analogy, p. 192. "His abhorrence to the superstitious figure."-HUME: Priestley's Gram., p. 164. "Thy prejudice to my cause."-DRYDEN: ib., p. 164. "Which is found among every species of liberty.". ."-HUME: ib., p. 169. "In a hilly region to the north of Jericho."-Milman's Jews, Vol. i, p. 8. "Two or more singular nouns, coupled with AND, require a verb and pronoun in the plural."-Lennie's Gram., p. 83.

"Books should to one of these four ends conduce,

For wisdom, piety, delight, or use."-Denham, p. 239.

UNDER NOTE II.-TWO OBJECTS OR MORE.

"The Anglo-Saxons, however, soon quarrelled between themselves for precedence."-Consta ble's Miscellany, xx, p. 59. "The distinctions between the principal parts of speech are founded in nature."-Webster's Essays, p. 7. "I think I now understand the difference between the active, passive, and neuter verbs."-Ingersoll's Gram., p. 124. "Thus a figure including a space between three lines, is the real as well as nominal essence of a triangle."-Locke's Essay, p. 303. "We must distinguish between an imperfect phrase, a simple sentence, and a compound sentence."-Lowth's Gram., p. 117; Murray's, i, 267; Ingersoll's, 280; Guy's, 97. "The Jews are strictly forbidden by their law, to exercise usury among one another."-Sale's Koran, p. 177. "All the writers have distinguished themselves among one another."-Addison. "This expression also better secures the systematic uniformity between the three cases."-Nutting's Gram., p. 98. "When a disjunctive occurs between two or more Infinitive Modes, or clauses, the verb must be singular."-Jaudon's Gram., p. 95. "Several nouns or pronouns together in the same case, not united by and, require a comma between each."-Blair's Gram., p. 115. "The difference between the several vowels is produced by opening the mouth differently, and placing the tongue in a different manner for each."-Churchill's Gram., p. 2. "Thus feet composed of syllables, being pronounced with a sensible interval between each, make a more lively impression than can be made by a continued sound."-Kames, El. of Crit., Vol. ii, p. 32. "The superlative degree implies a comparison between three or more."-Smith's Productive Gram., p. 51. "They are used to mark a distinction between several objects.”—Levizac's Gram., p. 85.

UNDER NOTE III.-OMISSION OF PREPOSITIONS.

"The tents of the Arabs

"This would have been less worthy notice."-Churchill's Gram., p. 197. "But I passed it, as a thing unworthy my notice."-Werter. "Which, in compliment to me, perhaps, you may, one day, think worthy your attention."-Bucke's Gram., p. 81. "To think this small present worthy an introduction to the young ladies of your very elegant establishment."-Ib., p. iv. "There are but a few miles portage."-Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, p. 17. "It is worthy notice, that our mountains are not solitary."-Ib., p. 26. "It is of about one hundred feet diameter."-Ib., 33. "Entering a hill a quarter or half a mile."-Ib., p. 47. "And herself seems passing to that awful dissolution, whose issue is not given human foresight to scan."--Пb., p. 100. "It was of a spheroidical form, of about forty feet diameter at the base, and had been of about twelve feet altitude."-Ib., p. 143. "Before this it was covered with trees of twelve inches diameter, and round the base was an excavation of five feet depth and width.”—Ibid. "Then thou mayest eat grapes thy fill at thine own pleasure."-Deut., xxiii, 24. "Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary."-Ezekiel, xliv, 1. "They will bless God that he has peopled one half the world with a race of freemen."-Webster's Essays, p. 94. "What use can these words be, till their meaning is known ?"-Town's Analysis, p. 7. now are black, or a very dark colour."-The Friend, Vol. v, p. 265. "They may not be unworthy the attention of young men."-Kirkham's Elocution, p. 157. "The pronoun that is frequently applied to persons, as well as things."-Merchant's Gram., p. 87. "And who is in the same case that man is."-Sanborn's Gram., p. 148. "He saw a flaming stone, apparently about four feet diameter."-The Friend, vii, 409. "Pliny informs us, that this stone was the size of a cart."-Ibid. "Seneca was about twenty years of age in the fifth year of Tiberius, when the Jews were expelled Rome."-Seneca's Morals, p. 11. "I was prevented* reading a letter which would have undeceived me."-Hawkesworth, Adv., No. 54. "If the problem can be solved, we may be pardoned the inaccuracy of its demonstration."-Booth's Introd., p. 25. "The army must of necessity be the school, not of honour, but effeminacy."-Brown's Estimate, i, 65. "Afraid of the virtue of a nation, in its opposing bad measures."—Ib., i, 73. "The uniting them in various ways, so as to form words, would be easy."-Music of Nature, p. 34. "I might be excused taking any more notice of it."-Watson's Apology, p. 65. "Watch therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come."--Matt., xxiv, 42. "Here, not even infants were spared the sword." -MIlvaine's Lectures, p. 313. "To prevent men turning aside to corrupt modes of worship."— Calvin's Institutes, B. I, Ch. 12, Sec. 1. "God expelled them the Garden of Eden."-Burder's Hist., Vol. i, p. 10. "Nor could he refrain expressing to the senate the agonies of his mind' Art of Thinking, p. 123. "Who now so strenuously opposes the granting him any new powers." -Duncan's Cicero, p. 127. "That the laws of the censors have banished him the forum."-Ib., p. "We read not that he was degraded his office any other way."--Barclay's Works, ii, 149. "To all whom these presents shall come, Greeting."-Hutchinson's Mass., i, 459. "On the 1st, August, 1834."-British Act for the Abolition of Slavery.

140.

"Whether you had not some time in your life

Err'd in this point which now you censure him.”—Shak.

UNDER NOTE IV.-OF NEEDLESS PREPOSITIONS.

"And the apostles and elders came together to consider of this matter."-Barclay's Works, i, 481. "And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter."—Acts, xv, 6. "Adjectives in our Language have neither Case, Gender, nor Number; the only Variation they have is by Comparison."-Buchanan's Gram., p. 27. "It is to you, that I am indebted for this privilege; that is, 'to you am I indebted ;' or, 'It is to you to whom I am indebted."-Sanborn's Gram., p. 232. "Books is a noun, of the third person, plural number, of neuter gender."-Ingersoll's Gram., p. 15. "Brother's is a common substantive, of the masculine gender, the third person, the singular number, and in the possessivo case."-Murray's Gram., i, 229. "Virtue's is a common substantive, of the third person, the singular number, and in the possessive case.”—Ib., i, 228. "When the authorities on one side greatly preponderate, it is in vain to oppose the prevailing usage."-Campbell's Rhet., p. 173; Murray's Gram., i, 367. "A captain of a troop of banditti, had a mind to be plundering of Rome."-Collier's Antoninus, p. 51. "And, notwithstanding of its Verbal power, we have added the to and other signs of exertion."-Booth's Introd., p. 28. "Some of these situations are termed CASES, and are expressed by additions to the Noun instead of by separate words."-Ib., p. 33. "Is it such a fast that I have chosen, that a man should afflict his soul for a day, and to bow down his head like a bulrush?"-Bacon's Wisdom, p. 65. "And this first emotion comes at last to be awakened by the accidental, instead of, by the necessary antecedent."- Wayland's Moral Science, p. 17. "At about the same time, the subjugation of the Moors was completed."-Balbi's Geog., p. 269. "God divided between the light and between the darkness."-Burder's Hist., i, 1. "Notwithstanding of this, we are not against outward significations of honour."-Barclay's Works, i, 242. "Whether these words and practices of Job's friends, be for to be our rule."—Ib., i, 243. "Such verb cannot admit of an objective A few of the examples under this head might be corrected equally well by some preceding note of a more specific character; for a general note against the improper omission of prepositions, of course includes those principles of grammar by which any particular prepositions are to be inserted. So the examples of error which were given in the tenth chapter of Etymology, might nearly all of them have been placed under the first note in this tenth chapter of Syntax. But it was thought best to illustrate every part of this volume, by some examples of false grammar, out of the infinite number and variety with which our literature abounds.

case after it."-Lowth's Gram., p. 73. "For which God is now visibly punishing of these Nations."-Right of Tythes, p. 139. "In this respect, Tasso yields to no poet, except to Homer."Blair's Rhet., p. 444. "Notwithstanding of the numerous panegyrics on the ancient English liberty."-HUME: Priestley's Gram., p. 161. "Their efforts seemed to anticipate on the spirit, which became so general afterwards."—Id., ib., p. 167.

UNDER NOTE V.-THE PLACING OF THE WORDS.

"But how short are my expressions of its excellency !"-Baxter. "There is a remarkable union in his style, of harmony with ease."-Blair's Rhet., p. 127. "It disposes in the most artificial manner, of the light and shade, for viewing every thing to the best advantage."—Ib., p. 139. "Aristotle too holds an eminent rank among didactic writers for his brevity."-Ib., p. 177. "In an introduction, correctness should be carefully studied in the expression."-Ib., p. 308. "Precision is to be studied, above all things in laying down a method."—Ib., p. 313. "Which shall make the impression on the mind of something that is one, whole and entire."—Ib., p. 353. "At the same time, there are some defects which must be acknowledged in the Odyssey."-Ib., p. 437. "Beauties, however, there are, in the concluding books, of the tragic kind.”—sb., p. 452. "These forms of conversation by degrees multiplied and grew troublesome."-Spectator, No. 119. "When she has made her own choice, for form's sake, she sends a congé-d'-élire to her friends."—Ib., No. 475. "Let us endeavour to establish to ourselves an interest in him who holds the reins of the whole creation in his hand."-Ib., No. 12. "Let us endeavour to establish to ourselves an interest in him, who, in his hand, holds the reins of the whole creation."-Kames, El. of Crit., ii, "The most frequent measure next to this in English poetry is that of eight syllables.”— Blair's Gram., p. 121. "To introduce as great a variety as possible of cadences."-Jamieson's Rhet., p. 80. "He addressed several exhortations to them suitable to their circumstances."Murray's Key, ii, p. 191. "Habits must be acquired of temperance and self-denial.”—Ib., p. "In reducing the rules prescribed to practice."-Murray's Gram., Vol. ii, p. iv. “But these parts must be so closely bound together as to make the impression upon the mind, of one object, not of many."-Ib., Vol. i, p. 311; Blair's Rhet., p. 106. "Errors are sometimes committed by the most distinguished writer, with respect to the use of shall and will.”—Butler's Pract. Gram., p. 106.

53.

217

CHAPTER XI.-INTERJECTIONS.

Interjections, being seldom any thing more than natural sounds or short words uttered independently, can hardly be said to have any syntax; but since some rule is necessary to show the learner how to dispose of them in parsing, a brief axiom for that purpose, is here added, which completes our series of rules: and, after several remarks on this canon, and on the common treatment of Interjections, this chapter is made to embrace Exercises upon all the other parts of speech, that the chapters in the Key may correspond to those of the Grammar.

RULE XXIV.-INTERJECTIONS.

Interjections have no dependent construction; they are put absolute, either alone, or with other words: as, "O! let not thy heart despise me.' -Dr. Johnson. "O cruel thou!"-Pope, Odys., B. xii, 1. 333. wretched we, poets of earth !"-Cowley, p. 28.

"Ah Dennis! Gildon ah! what ill-starr'd rage
Divides a friendship long confirm'd by age?"

"Ah

Pope, Dunciad, B. iii, 1. 173.

OBSERVATIONS ON RULE XXIV.

OBS. 1.-To this rule, there are properly no exceptions. Though interjections are sometimes uttered in close connexion with other words, yet, being mere signs of passion or of feeling, they seem not to have any strict grammatical relation, or dependence according to the sense. Being destitute alike of relation, agreement, and government, they must be used independently, if used at all. Yet an emotion signified in this manner, not being causeless, may be accompanied by some object, expressed either by a nominative absolute, or by an objective after for: as, "Alas! poor Yorick !"-Shak. Here the grief denoted by alas, is certainly for Yorick; as much so, as if the expression were, "Alas for poor Yorick!" But, in either case, alas, I think, has no de

pendent construction; neither has Yorick, in the former, unless we suppose an ellipsis of some governing word.

OBS. 2.-The interjection O is common to many languages, and is frequently uttered, in token of earnestness, before nouns or pronouns put absolute by direct address; as, Arise, O Lord; 0 God, lift up thine hand."-Psalms, x, 12. "O ye of little faith!"-Matt., vi, 30. The Latin and Greek grammarians, therefore, made this interjection the sign of the vocative case; which case is the same as the nominative put absolute by address in English. But this particle is no positivo index of the vocative; because an independent address may be made without that sign, and the O may be used where there is no address: as, "O scandalous want! O shameful omission! "— "Pray, Sir, don't be uneasy."-Burgh's Speaker, p. 86.

OBS. 3.-Some grammarians ascribe to two or three of our interjections the power of governing sometimes the nominative case, and sometimes the objective. First, NIXON; in an exercise entitled, "NOMINATIVE GOVERNED BY AN INTERJECTION," thus: "The interjections O! Oh! and Ah! require after them the nominative case of a substantive in the second person; as, 'O thou persecutor !'-'0 Alexander! thou hast slain thy friend.' O is an interjection, governing the nominative case Alexander."-English Parser, p. 61. Again, under the title, "OBJECTIVE CASE GOVERNED BY AN INTERJECTION," he says: "The interjections O! Oh! and Ah! require after them the objective case of a substantive in the first or third person; as, 'Oh me!' 'Oh the humiliations!' Oh is an interjection, governing the objective case humiliations."—Ib., p. 63. These two rules are in fact contradictory, while each of them absurdly suggests that 0, oh, and ah, are used only with nouns. So J. M. PUTNAM: "Interjections sometimes govern an objectivo case; as, Ah me! O the tender ties! O the soft enmity! O me miserable! O wretched prince! O cruel reverse of fortune! When an address is made, the interjection does not perform the office of government."-Putnam's Gram., p. 113. So KIRKHAM; who, under a rule quite different from these, extends the doctrine of government to all interjections: "According to the genius of the English language, transitive verbs and prepositions require the objective case of a noun or pronoun after them; and this requisition is all that is meant by government, when we say that these parts of speech govern the objective case. THE SAME PRINCIPLE APPLIES TO THE INTERJECTION. 'Interjections require the objective case of a pronoun of the first person after them; but the nominative of a noun or pronoun of the second or third person; as, Ah me! Oh thou! O my country! To say, then, that interjections require particular cases after them, is synonymous with saying, that they govern those cases; and this office of the interjection is in perfect accordance with that which it performs in the Latin, and many other languages."-Kirkham's Gram., p. 164. According to this, every interjection has as much need of an object after it, as has a transitivo verb or a preposition! The rule has, certainly, no "accordance" with what occurs in Latin, or in any other language; it is wholly a fabrication, though found, in some shape or other, in wellnigh all English grammars.

OBS. 4.-L. MURRAY'S doctrine on this point is thus expressed: "The interjections O! Oh! and Ah! require the objective case of a pronoun in the first person after them. as, 'O me! oh me! Ah me!' But the nominative case in the second person: as, 'O thou persecutor!' 'Oh yo hypocrites!' 'O thou, who dwellest,' &c."-Octavo Gram., p. 158. INGERSOLL copies this most faulty note literally, adding these words to its abrupt end,-i. e., to its inexplicable "&c.," used by Murray; "because the first person is governed by a preposition understood: as, 'Ah for me!' or, O what will become of me!' &c., and the second person is in the nominative independent, there being a direct address."-Conversations on E. Gram., p. 211. So we see that this grammarian and Kirkham, both modifiers of Murray, understand their master's false verb "require" very differently. LENNIE too, in renouncing a part of Murray's double or threefold crror, "Oh! happy us!" for, "O happy we!" teaches thus: "Interjections sometimes require the objective caso after them, but they never govern it. In the first edition of this grammar," says he, "I followed Mr. Murray and others, in leaving we, in the exercises to be turned into us; but that it should be we, and not us, is obvious; because it is the nominativo to are understood; thus, Oh happy are we, or, Oh we are happy, (being) surrounded with so many blessings."-Lennie's Gram., Fifth Edition, p. 84, Twelfth, p. 110. Here is an other solution of the construction of this pronoun of the first person, contradictory alike to Ingersoll's, to Kirkham's, and to Murray's; while all are wrong, and this among the rest. The word should indeed be we, and not us; because we havo both analogy and good authority for the former case, and nothing but the false conceit of sundry grammatists for the latter. But it is a nominative absolute, like any other nominative which wo use in the same exclamatory manner. For the first person may just as well be put in the nominative absolute, by exclamation, as any other; as, "Behold I and the children whom God hath given me!"-Heb., ii, 13. "Ecce ego et pueri quos mihi dedit Deus!"-Beza. "O brave we!" -Dr. Johnson, often. So Horace: "O ego lævus," &c.-Ep. ad Pi., 301.

"Ah! luckless I! who purge in spring my spleen

Else sure the first of bards had Horace been."-Francis's Ior., ii, 209.

OBS. 5.-Whether Murray's remark above, on "O! Oh! and Ah!" was originally designed for a rule of government or not, it is hardly worth any one's while to inquire. It is too lame and inaccurate every way, to deserve any notice, but that which should serve to explode it forever. Yet no few, who have since made English grammars, have copied the text literally; as they have, for the public benefit, stolen a thousand other errors from the same quarter. The reader will find it, with little or no change, in Smith's New Grammar, p. 96 and 134; Alger's, 56; Allen's, 117; Russell's, 92; Blair's, 100, Guy's, 89; Abel Flint's, 59; A Teacher's, 43, Picket's, 210; Coop

er's* Murray, 136; Wilcox's, 95; Bucke's, 87; Emmons's, 77; and probably in others. Lennie varies it indefinitely, thus: "RULE. The interjections Oh! and Ah! &c. generally require the objective case of the first personal pronoun, and the nominative of the second; as, Ah me! O thou fool! O ye hypocrites!"-Lennie's Grum., p. 110; Brace's, 88. M'Culloch, after Crombie, thus: "RULE XX. Interjections are joined with the objective case of the pronoun of the first person, and with the nominative of the pronoun of the second; as, Ah me! O ye hypocrites."-Manual of E. Gram., p. 145; and Crombie's Treatise, p. 315; also Fowler's E. Language, p. 563. Hiley makes it a note, thus: "The interjections, O! Oh! Ah! are followed by the objective case of a pronoun of the first person; as, 'Oh me!' 'Ah me!' but by the nominative case of the pronoun in the second person; as, O thou, who dwellest.' "-Hiley's Gram., p. 82. This is what the same author elsewhere calls "THE GOVERNMENT OF INTERJECTIONS;" though, like some others, he had set it in the "Syntax of PRONOUNS." See Ib., p. 108. Murray, in forming his own little "Abridgment," omitted it altogether. In his other grammars, it is still a mere note, standing where he at first absurdly put it, under his rule for the agreement of pronouns with their antecedents. By many of his sage amenders, it has been placed in the catalogue of principal rules. But, that it is no adequate rule for interjections, is manifest; for, in its usual form, it is limited to three, and none of these can ever, with any propriety, be parsed by it. Murray himself has not used it in any of his forms of parsing. He conceived, (as I hinted before in Chapter 1st,) that, "The syntax of the Interjection is of so very limited a nature, that it does not require a distinct, appropriate rule."-Octavo Gram., i, 224.

OBS. 6-Against this remark of Murray's, a good argument may be drawn from the ridiculous use which has been made of his own suggestion in the other place. For, though that suggestion never had in it the least shadow of truth, and was never at all applicable either to the three interjections, or to pronouns, or to cases, or to the persons, or to any thing else of which it speaks, it has not only been often copied literally, and called a "RULE" of syntax, but many have, yet more absurdly, made it a general canon which imposes on all interjections a syntax that belongs to none of them. For example: "An interjection must be followed by the objective case of a pronoun in the first person; and by a nominative of the second person; as-Oh me! ah me! oh thou! Aн hail, ye happy men!"-Jaudon's Gram., p. 116. This is as much as to say, that every interjection must have a pronoun or two after it! Again: "Interjections must be followed by the objective case of the pronoun in the first person; as, O me! Ah me! and by the nominative case of the second person; as, O thou persecutor! Oh ye hypocrites!”—Merchant's Murray, p. 80; Merchant's School Gram., p. 99. I imagine there is a difference between 0 and oh, and that this author, as well as Murray, in the first and the last of these examples, has misapplied them both. Again: Interjections require the objective case of a pronoun of the first person, and the nominative case of the second; as, Ah me! O thou."-Frost's El of E. Gram., p. 48. This, too, is general, but equivocal; as if one case or both were necessary to each interjection!

OBS. 7.—Of nouns, or of the third person, the three rules last cited say nothing; though it appears from other evidence, that their authors supposed them applicable at least to some nouns "The Rev. Joab Goldsmith Cooper, A. M.," was the author of two English grammars, as well as of what he called "A New and Improved Latin Grammar," with "An Edition of the Works of Virgil, &c.," all published in Philadelphia. His first grammar, dated 1828, is entitled, "An Abridgment of Murray's English Grammar, and Exercises." But it is no more an abridgement of Murray's work, than of mine; he having chosen to steal from the text of my Institutes, or supply matter of his own, about as often as to copy Murray. His second is the Latin Grammar. His third, which is entitled, "A Plain and Practical English Grammar," and dated 1831, is a book very different from the first, but equally inaccurate and worthless. In this book, the syntax of interjections stands thus: "RULE 21. The interjections O, oh and ah are followed by the objective case of a noun or pronoun, as: "O me! ah me! oh me! In the second person, they are a mark or sign of an address, made to a person or thing, as: 0 thou persecutor! Oh, ye hypocrites! O virtue, how amiable thou art!"-Page 157. The inaccuracy of all this can scarcely be exceeded.

"Oh is used to express the emotion of pain, sorrow, or surprise. O is used to express wishing, exclamation, or a direct aldress to a person."-Lennie's Gram., 12th Ed., p. 110. Of this distinction our grammarians in general seem to have no conception; and, in fact, it is so often disregarded by other authors, that the propriety of it may be disputed. Since and oh are pronounced alike, or very nearly so, if there is no difference in their application, they are only different modes of writing the same word, and one or the other of them is useless. If there is a real difference, as I suppose there is, it ought to be better observed; and 0 me! and oh ye! which I believe are found only in grammars, should be regarded as bad English. Both O and oh, as well as ah, were used in Latin by Terence, who was reckoned an elegant writer; and his manner of applying them favours this distinction: and so do our own dictionaries, though Johnson and Walker do not draw it clearly, for oh is as much an "ezclamation" as 0. In the works of Virgil, Ovid, and Horace, we find O or ô used frequently, but nowhere oh. Yet this is no evidence of their sameness, or of the usclessness of the latter; but rather of their difference, and of the impropriety of confounding them. O, oh, ho, and ah, are French words as well as English. Boyer, in his Quarto Dictionary, confounds them all; translating "O!" only by "Oh!" "OH! ou HO!" by "Ho! Oh !" and "AH!" by "Oh! alas! well-a-day! ough! "A! ah! hah! ho!" He would have done better to have made each one explain itself; and especially, not to have set down "ough!" and "Aas English words which correspond to the French ah!

This silence is sufficiently accounted for by Murray's; of whose work, most of the authors who have any such rule, are either piddling modifiers or servile copyists. And Murray's silence on these matters, is in part attributable to the fact, that when he wrote his remark, his system of grammar denied that nouns have any first person, or any objective case. Of course he supposed that all nouns that were uttered after interjections, whether they were of the second person or of the third, were in the nominative case; for he gave to nouns two cases only, the nominative and the possessive. And when he afterwards admitted the objective case of nouns, he did not alter his remark, but left all his pupils ignorant of the case of any noun that is used in exclamation or invocation. In his doctrine of two cases, he followed Dr. Ash: from whom also he copied the rule which I am criticising: The Interjections, 0, Oh, and Ah, require the accusative case of a pronoun in the first Person: as, O me, Oh me, Ah me: But the Nominative in the second: as, O thou, O ye."-Ash's Gram., p. 60. Or perhaps he had Bicknell's book, which was later: "The interjections O, oh, and ah, require the accusative case of a pronoun in the first person after them; as, O, me! Oh, me! Ah, me! But the nominative case in the second person; as, 0, thou that rulest! O, ye rulers of this land !”—The Grammatical Wreath, Part I, p. 105.