OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—­With the interjections, may perhaps be reckoned hau and gee, the imperative words of teamsters driving cattle; and other similar sounds, useful under certain circumstances, but seldom found in books.  Besides these, and all the foregoing, there are several others, too often heard, which are unworthy to be considered parts of a cultivated language.  The frequent use of interjections savours more of thoughtlessness than of sensibility.  Philosophical writing and dispassionate discourse exclude them altogether.  Yet are there several words of this kind, which in earnest utterance, animated poetry, or impassioned declamation, are not only natural, but exceedingly expressive:  as, “Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim; cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth.”—­Isaiah, x, 30. “Alas, 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.