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 adjective 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 dependent 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; O 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 positive 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!_'--'O Alexander! thou hast slain thy friend.' _O_ is an
interjection, _governing_ the nominative case _Alexander_."--_English
Parser_, 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_."--These two rules are in
fact contradictory, while each of them absurdly suggests that _O, oh_, and
_ah_, are used only with nouns. So J. M. PUTNAM: "Interjections sometimes