course, the remaining
half cannot be parsed by any of the rules which they give. The lack of a
comprehensive rule, like the one above, is a great and glaring defect in
all the English grammars that the author has seen, except his own, and such
as are indebted to him for such a rule. It is proper, however, that the
different forms of expression which are embraced in this general rule,
should be discriminated, one from an other, by the scholar: let him
therefore, in parsing any nominative absolute, tell _how it is put so_;
whether with a _participle_, by direct _address_, by _pleonasm_, or by
_exclamation_. For, in discourse, a noun or a pronoun is put absolute in
the nominative, after _four modes_, or under the following _four
circumstances_: (of which Murray's "case absolute," or "nominative
absolute," contains only the first:)

I. When, _with a participle_, it is used to express a cause, or a
concomitant fact; as, "I say, _this being so_, the _law being broken_,
justice takes place."--_Law and Grace_, p. 27. _"Pontius Pilate being_
governor of Judea, and _Herod being_ tetrarch of Galilee, and his _brother_
Philip tetrarch of Iturea." &c.--_Luke_, iii, 1. "I _being_ in the way, the
Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren."--_Gen._, xxiv, 27.

---------"While shame, _thou looking on_,
Shame to be overcome or overreach'd,
Would utmost vigor raise."--_Milton, P. L._, B. ix, 1, 312.

II. When, _by direct address_, it is put in the second person, and set off
from the verb, by a comma or an exclamation point; as, "At length, _Seged_,
reflect and be wise."--_Dr. Johnson._ "It may be, _drunkard, swearer, liar,
thief_, thou dost not think of this."--_Law and Grace_, p. 27.

"_This said_, he form'd thee, _Adam!_ thee, O _man!_
_Dust_ of the ground, and in thy nostrils breath'd
The breath of life."--_Milton's Paradise Lost_, B. vii, l. 524.

III. When, by _pleonasm_, it is introduced abruptly for the sake of
emphasis, and is not made the subject or the object of any verb; as, "_He_
that hath, to him shall be given."--_Mark_, iv, 25. "_He_ that is holy, let
him be holy still."--_Rev._, xxii, 11. "_Gad_, a troop shall overcome
him."--_Gen._, xlix, 19. "The _north_ and the _south_, thou hast created
them."--_Psalms_, lxxxix, 12. "And _they_ that have believing masters, let
them not despise them."--_1 Tim._, vi, 2. "And the _leper_ in whom the
plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare