Ye or you, is the second person.
They, is the third person.
This account of persons will be very intelligible when the following Pastoral Fragment is reflected on:—
HE.
I love thee, Susan, on my life:
Thou art the maiden for a wife.
He who lives single is an ass;
She who ne’er weds a luckless lass.
It’s tiresome work to live alone;
So come with me, and be my own.
SHE.
We maids are oft by men deceived;
Ye don’t deserve to be believed;
You don’t—but there’s my hand—heigho!
They tell us, women can’t say no!
The speaker or speakers are of the first person; those spoken to, of the second; and those spoken of, of the third.
Of the three persons, the first is the most universally admired.
The second is the object of much adulation and flattery, and now and then of a little abuse.