tance, and try every inlet at which love or pity enters the heart."

"Much has been said on the epistolary style," observes Dr. Knox, in his Essays Moral and Literary; 66 as if any one style could be appropriated to the great variety of subjects which are treated of in letters. Ease, it is true, should distinguish familiar letters, written on the common affairs of life; because the mind is usually at ease while they are composed. But, even in these, topics incidentally arise, which require elevated expression, and an inverted construction. Not to raise the style on these occasions, is to write unnaturally; for nature teaches us to express animated emotions of every kind in animated language. The dependent writes unnaturally to a superior, in the style of familiarity. The suppliant writes unnaturally, if he rejects the figures dictated by distress. Conversation admits of every style but the poetic; and what are letters but written conversation? The great rule is, to follow nature, and to avoid an affected manner."

V. Scrupulously adhere to the rules of grammar. Select and apply all your words with a strict regard to their proper signification; and whenever you have any doubt respecting the correctness or propriety of them, consult a dictionary, or some good living authority. Avoid, with particular care, all errors in orthography, in punctuation, and in the arrangement of words and phrases.

Errors of this nature often obscure or pervert the meaning of the writer; and they leave on the mind of an intelligent reader a very unfavourable impression. When the rules of grammar have been thoroughly learned, a constant attention to practise them, both in speaking and in writing, will soon render them familiar; and far from occasioning (as some ap

prehend) any stiffness of style, will be promotive of real ease, simplicity, and elegance. "Let nothing though of a trifling nature," says bishop Atterbury in a letter to his son, "pass through your pen negligently. Get but the way of writing correctly and justly, time and use will teach you to write readily." The great accuracy and correctness of composition for which Dr. Johnson was so highly distinguished, and which seemed to cost him so little effort as to be almost natural to him, were owing, he used to say, to the constant care and attention with which, from early life, he avoided or corrected error in every thing he said or wrote, though on the most trivial occasion. "The effusion of a moment" becomes the just characteristic and the highest encomium of all familiar writing, when a habit of accuracy has previously been acquired.

VI. Endeavour, particularly in letters on business, to express your meaning as briefly as the nature of the subject will admit; and in such terms as are least likely to be misunderstood. Avoid unnecessary tautology, explanation, and long or frequent parentheses. Place the principle circumstances in the most prominent point of view; suppress, or slightly mention, those which are of a trivial nature. Make no quotations in foreign languages, nor any classical allusions, however apt or beautiful, except when you are writing to persons to whom they will be intelligible and pleas ing. Before you seal your letter, always read it over very attentively; and correct every inaccuracy or error which you discover in it, that might, in the slightest degree, perplex or mislead your correspondent.

A plain, concise style is the best adapted for business. Letters of sentiment, of affection, and friendship, naturally admit of more enlargement, and occasionally of embellish

ment.-Long sentences should generally be avoided in episto. lary composition. They may please the ear: but they usually occasion some degree of obscurity; and they are burthensome to the memory. Well constructed sentences that are short, or of a moderate length, strike the mind forcibly and agreeably; and the tenour of them is easily remembered.

VII. Let the exterior appearance of your letter, as well as its intrinsic qualities, be the object of your attention. Write a fair and legible hand. Be sparing in the use of dashes, interlineations, and underlinings. Make no abbreviations in orthography, except those which are warranted by the general practice of the most correct writers. Always leave a vacancy for the seal or wafer, in order that when your correspondent opens your letter, no part of the writing may be torn. Write your name at length, with particular distinctness and uniformity, and in a rather larger character than that in which your letter is written. Avoid

postscripts, except when they are necessary for the mentioning of some circumstance that occurred after your letter was written. Fold, direct, and seal your letter neatly and properly.

To write, with ease and expedition, a good, uniform, and perfectly legible hand, is indispensable in business; and is highly useful in every station, and in all circumstances, of life. Good hand-writing sets off and recommends the best composition; and is some apology for the worst. "I maintain," says an ingenious author, "that it is in every man's power to write what hand he pleases; and, consequently, that he ought to write a good one,"

* On the subject of writing, the following directions may be of use to young persons.-Form every letter and word distinctly.

Dashes, underlinings, and interlineations, are much used by unskilful and careless writers, merely as substitutes for proper punctuation, and a correct, regular mode of expression. The frequent recurrence of them greatly defaces a letter; and is equally inconsistent with neatness of appearance and regularity of composition. All occasion for interlineations may usually be superceded by a little previous thought and attention. Dashes are proper only when the sense evidently requires a greater pause than the common stops designate. And, in a well constructed sentence, to underline a word, is wholly useless, except, on some very particular occasion, we wish to attract peculiar attention to it, or to give it an uncommon degree of importance or emphasis.

Of the propriety of leaving a vacancy for the seal, the following circumstance, which is similar to what frequently occurs, affords a striking proof. "I had a letter from a friend lately," says Mr. Orten in a letter to a young clergyman, "who desired nie to transact some business for him, which was the chief purport of his letter; but he had unfortunate

As soon as you can write well, learn to write quick; not a stiff, formal hand, but a genteel and liberal one, or, what is called, a running hand, which is most favourable to ease and expedition ; but be particularly careful that your writing may be large and strong enough, to be easily legible by others, and by yourselves when you advance in life. Let the lines on every page of your letter, correspond exactly to each other; leave sufficient spaces between them, to exhibit the writing on one line quite distinct from that on the preceding and the following line; and make them even and regular, which, by attention and habit, you can readily accomplish, without accustoming yourselves to the use of ruled lines. Let your ink be good, and of a proper blackness; which contributes, very materially, to neatness and distinctness in writing. Learn to make and mend your own pens: do not, however, let your writing depend too much on your pen; but accustom yourselves, upon occasion, to write well, or at least legibly, with an indifferent or even a bad pen.

ly put the wafer on the most material part of the commission, so that I could not tell what he had desired me to do for him."

Postscripts have a very awkward appearance; and they generally indicate thoughtlessness and inattention. To make use of them in order to convey assurances of respect or affection to the person to whom you write, or to those who are intimately connected with him, is particularly improper: it seems to imply that the sentiments which you express, are so slightly impressed on your mind, that you had almost forgotten them, or thought them scarcely worth mentioning.