2 6 × 3 5 2

CONTENTS.

Scriptural and Roman Letters,

Characteristics of Male and Female Letter-writers,

Crossing and Postscripts,

Altered Character of Correspondence,

Old English Letters,

Scottish Correspondence of Seventeenth and Eighteenth

Centuries, .

Published Correspondence of Eminent Individuals :--

I. France,

II. England,

Letters in Modern Biographies,

Quaint and Pithy Letters,

Laconic Letters,

Business and Official Letters,

Love-Letters,

Juvenile Correspondence,

Letters of the Commonalty,

Epistolary Blemishes,

Begging-Letters,

Guides to Letter-writing,

No. I. Madame de Sévigné à M. de Coulanges,

III. Letter to a Beautiful Woman,

IV. Two Characteristic Epistles,

V. Katey's Letter, by Lady Dufferin,

VI. 'Hout awa! it's the 11th February,'

VII. Do you Burn your Letters yet?

223

225

BLEST be the man! his memory at least,
Who found the art thus to unfold his breast;
And taught succeeding times an easy way
Their secret thoughts by letters to convey;
To baffle absence, and secure delight,
Which till that time was limited to sight.
The parting farewell spoke, the last adieu,
The lessening distance past, then loss of view,

The friend was gone which some kind moments gave,
And absence separated, like the grave.

When for a wife the youthful patriarch sent,
The camel, jewels, and the steward went,
And wealthy equipage, though grave and slow;
But not a line that might the lover show.
The ring and bracelets wooed her hands and arms,
But had she known of melting words and charms
That under secret seals in ambush lie

To catch the soul, when drawn into the eye!
The fair Assyrian had not took his guide,
Nor her soft heart in chains of pearl been tied.'
The Guardian, No. 172.

LETTERS AND LETTER-WRITERS.

N ancient times, the practice of letterwriting, in our modern sense of the term, was altogether unknown. To say nothing of the scarcity and cumbrous character of the materials employed for writing, the state of society was such that correspondence' was not considered necessary. Formal, stately, and even elegant epistles were, no doubt, frequently indited-usually with the view of conveying instruction; but these old-world productions do not bear the remotest resemblance to that rapid, off-hand, genial effusion, the letter of later times.

Scriptural and Roman Letters.

In the Old Testament Scriptures we find occasional allusions to what are termed 'letters,'

A