6. The pronoun I, and the exclamation O, must be written with a capital.

7. The letter.q, is never used without the letter u, next following.

8. The long, must never be inserted immediately after the short s, nor at the end of a word.

Plain and easy Rules for READING with propriety.

IN order to read well, observe the following directions: 1. Take pains to acquire a perfect knowledge of the sounds of the letters in general. 2. Do not guess at a word at first sight, if you are not well acquainted with it, lest you get a habit of reading falsely. 3. Pronounce every word clearly and distinctly. 4. Let the tone of your voice in reading be the same as in speaking. 5. Do not read in a hurry, lest you learn to stammer. 6. Read so loud as to be heard by those about you, but no louder. 7. Observe your pauses well, and never make any, where the sense will admit of none. 8. Modify your voice according to the subject. 9. Attend to those who read well, and endeavour to imitate their pronunciation. 10. Read before good judges, and be thankful when they correct you. 11. Consider well the place of the emphasis in a sentence, and pronounce it accordingly.

The great and general rule how to know the emphatical word in a sentence, is to consider the chief design of the whole; but particular directions cannot be easily given, except that when words are evidently opposed to one another in a sentence, they are emphatical, and so is oftentimes the word which asks a question, as, Who? What? When? but not always; for the emphasis must be varied according to the principal meaning.

The emphasis, in words, is generally placed upon the accented syllable, but if there be a particular opposition between two words in a sentence, whereby one differs from the other but in part, the accent is sometimes removed from its

common place, as in the following instance: The sun shines upon the just and upon the unjust. Here the stress of the voice is laid upon the first syllable in unjust, because it is opposed to just in the same sentence; but without such an opposition, the accent would lie on its usual place, that is, on the last syllable; as, We must not imitate the unjust practices of others.

For a correct pronunciation, and the division and accentuation of syllables, Walker's Dictionary is to be preferred as a guide-But for the spelling and derivation of words consult Dr. Johnson's.

[For Table of Contents, see the end of the Volume.]

THE NEW

UNIVERSAL LETTER WRITER.

PART I

LETTERS ON BUSINESS.

LETTER I.

To a Young Trader, generally in a hurry of Business, aðvising Method as well as Diligence.

Dear Nephew,

THE affection I have always borne you, as well for your own sake, as for your late father's and mother's, induces me to trouble you with a few lines, which I hope you will receive as kindly as I intend them.

I have lately called upon you several times, and have as often found you in an extraordinary hurry: which I well know cannot be sometimes avoided; but, methinks, need not be always the case, if your time were disposed of in regular and proper proportions to your business. I have frequently had reason to believe, that more than half the flutter which appears among traders in general, is rather the effect of their indolence than their industry, however willing they are to have it thought otherwise, and I will give you one instance in confirmation of this opinion in a neighbour of mine.

This gentleman carried on, for some years, a profitable business; but indulging himself every evening in a tavern society, or club, which the promotion of business (as is usu ally the case gave the first pretence for, he looked upon those engagements as the natural consequence of the approach of night; and drove on his business in the day with precipitation, that he might get there with the earliest. He

C

seldom kept very late hours, though he never came home soon. The night being gone and his bottle emptied, the morning was always wanted to dispel the fumes of the wine. Whoever therefore came to him before nine, was desired to call again; and when he rose, so many matters waited for him, as directly threw him into a flutter; so that from his rising, until dinner time, he seemed in one continual ferment. A long dinner time he always allowed himself, in order to recover the fatigues he had undergone; and all his table talk was, how heavy his business lay upon him, and what pains he took in it. The hearty meal, and the time he indulged himself at table, begat an inappetency for any more business for that short afternoon; so that all that could be deferred, was put off till next morning; and longing for the approach of evening, he flies to his usual solace; empties his bottle by eleven; comes home; gets to bed, and is invisible till next morning at nine; and then rising, enters upon his usual hurry and confusion.

Thus did his life seem to those who saw him in his business, one constant scene of fatigue, though he scarce ever applied to it four regular hours in any one day. Whereas had he risen only at seven in the morning, he would have got all his business under by noon; and those two hours from seven to nine, being before many people go abroad, he would have met with no interruption in his affairs; but might have improved his servants by his own example, directed them in the business of the day, have inspected his books, written to his dealers, and put every thing in so regular a train for the rest of the day, that whatever had occurred afterwards, would rather have served to divert than to fatigue him.

And what, to cut my story short, was the upshot of the matter? Why, meeting with some disappointments and losses (as all traders must expect, and ought to provide for) and his customers not seeing him in his shop so much as they expected, and when there, always in a disobliging, petulent hurry; and, moreover mistakes frequently happening through the hurry into which he put himself and every one about him; by these means his business dwindled away insensibly, and not being able to go out of his usual course, which helped to impair both his capacity and ardour for business, his credi-. tors began to look about them, and he was compelled to enter into an examination of his affairs;-when he had the mortification to find the balance of 9000 dolls. against him.

This was a shocking case to himself, but more so to his family; for his wife had lived, and his children had been educated in such a manner, as induced them to hope their fortunes would be sufficient to place them in a state of independence.

In short, being obliged to quit a business he had managed with so little prudence, his friends got him into a subordinate situation, which afforded him bare subsistence for himself; his children were dispersed, some one way and some another, into low scenes of life; and his wife went home to her friends, to be snubbed and reflected on by her own family for faults not her own.

This example will afford several good hints to a young tradesman, which are too obvious to need expatiating upon; and as I hope your prudence will keep you from the like faults, you will never have reason to reproach yourself on this score. But yet, as I always found you in a hurry, when I called upon you, I could not but give you this hint, for fear you should not rightly proportion your time to your business, and lest you should suspend to the next hour, what you could and ought to do in the present, and so not keep your business properly under. Method is every thing in business, next to diligence. And you will, by falling into a regular one, always be calin and unruffled, and have time to bestow in your shop with your customers; the female ones especially; who always make a great many words in their bargainings, and expect to be humoured and persuaded: and how can any man find time for this, if he prefers the tavern to his shop, and his bed to his business? I know you will take in good part what I have written, because you are sensible how much I am your truly affectionate, &c.

LETTER II.

From a Father to a Son, on Negligence in his Affairs. Dear Jemmy,

YOU cannot imagine what a concern your carelessness and indifferent management of your affairs give me. Remissness is inexcusable in all men, but in none so much as in a man of business, the soul of which is industry, diligence, and punctuality.

Let me beg of you to shake off the idle habits you have contracted; quit unprofitable company, and unseasonable