applies not justly to our language; for, with us, the vocative case, is unknown, or not distinguished from the nominative.  In English, all nouns of the second person are either put absolute in the nominative, according to Rule 8th, or in apposition with their own pronouns placed before them, according to Rule 3d:  as, “This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders.”—­Acts, iv, 11.  “How much rather ought you receivers to be considered as abandoned and execrable!”—­Clarkson’s Essay, p. 114.

   “Peace! minion, peace! it boots not me to hear
    The selfish counsel of you hangers-on.”
        —­Brown’s Inst., p. 189.

    “Ye Sylphs and Sylphids, to your chief give ear;
    Fays, Faries, Genii, Elves, and Daemons, hear!”
        —­Pope, R. L., ii, 74.

OBS. 4.—­The case of nouns used in exclamations, or in mottoes and abbreviated sayings, often depends, or may be conceived to depend, on something understood; and, when their construction can be satisfactorily explained on the principle of ellipsis, they are not put absolute, unless the ellipsis be that of the participle.  The following examples may perhaps be resolved in this manner, though the expressions will lose much of their vivacity:  “A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!”—­Shak. “And he said unto his father, My head! my head!”—­2 Kings, iv, 19.  “And Samson said, With the jaw-bone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass, have I slain a thousand men.”—­Judges, xv, 16.  “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.”—­Matt., v, 38. “Peace, be still.”—­Mark, iv, 39.  “One God, world without end.  Amen.”—­Com.  Prayer.

   “My fan, let others say, who laugh at toil;
    Fan! hood! glove! scarf! is her laconic style.”—­Young.

OBS. 5.—­“Such Expressions as, Hand to Hand, Face to Face, Foot to Foot, are of the nature of Adverbs, and are of elliptical Construction:  For the Meaning is, Hand OPPOSED to Hand, &c.”—­W.  Ward’s Gram., p. 100.  This learned and ingenious author seems to suppose the former noun to be here put absolute with a participle understood; and this is probably the best way of explaining the construction both of that word and of the preposition that follows it.  So Samson’s phrase, “heaps upon heaps,” may mean, “heaps being piled upon heaps;” and Scott’s, “man to man, and steel to steel,” may be interpreted, “man being opposed to man, and steel being opposed to steel:” 

   “Now, man to man, and steel to steel,
    A chieftain’s vengeance thou shalt feel.”—­Lady of the Lake.