s, alas_, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one
hour is thy judgement come."--_Rev._, xviii, 10.

"_Ah me!_ forbear, returns the queen, forbear;
_Oh!_ talk not, talk not of vain beauty's care."
--_Odyssey_, B. xviii, l. 310.

OBS. 2.--Interjections, being in general little else than mere natural
voices or cries, must of course be adapted to the sentiments which are
uttered with them, and never carelessly confounded one with an other when
we express them on paper. The adverb _ay_ is sometimes improperly written
for the interjection _ah_; as, _ay me!_ for _ah me!_ and still oftener we
find _oh_, an interjection of sorrow, pain, or surprise,[321] written in
stead of _O_, the proper sign of wishing, earnestness, or vocative address:
as,

"_Oh_ Happiness! our being's end and aim!"
--_Pope, Ess. Ep._ iv, l. 1.

"And peace, _oh_ Virtue! peace is all thy own."
--_Id., ib., Ep._ iv, l. 82.

"_Oh_ stay, O pride of Greece! Ulysses, stay!
O cease thy course, and listen to our lay!"
--_Odys._, B. xii, 1 222.

OBS. 3.--The chief characteristics of the interjection are independence,
exclamation, and the want of any definable signification. Yet not all the
words or signs which we refer to this class, will be found to coincide in
all these marks of an interjection. Indeed the last, (the want of a
rational meaning,) would seem to exclude them from the language; for
_words_ must needs be significant of something. Hence many grammarians deny
that mere sounds of the voice have any more claim to be reckoned among the
parts of speech, than the neighing of a horse, or the lowing of a cow.
There is some reason in this; but in fact the reference which these sounds
have to the feelings of those who utter them, is to some extent
instinctively understood; and does constitute a sort of significance,
though we cannot really define it. And, as their use in language, or in
connexion with language, makes it necessary to assign them a place in
grammar, it is certainly more proper to treat them as above, than to follow
the plan of the Greek grammarians, most of whom throw all the interjections
into the class of _adverbs_.

OBS. 4.--Significant words uttered independently, after the manner of
interjections, ought in general, perhaps, to be referred to their original
classes; for all such expressions may be supposed elliptical: as, "_Order!_
gentlemen, _order!_" i.e., "Come to or