CHAPTER VI.

OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF WRITTEN DISCOURSE.

(47.) Of Letters.

FIRST among the kinds of written discourse we have enumerated Epistolary writing, or letters, which, if we may use the phrase, is the most natural of them all. To write a letter is but one remove from holding a conversation with a person; and generally the subjects of a letter, and our treatment of them, are very much what we would say, and very much the manner we should use in saying it to the person himself were he present. After oratory, it approaches most nearly a personal address.

Letter writing enters so largely into all the affairs of life, that it constitutes by far the greatest amount of written discourse.

There are as many kinds of letters as there are forms of association, or relation, domestic, social, civic, or official; and each peculiar circumstance will dictate the character and manner of the letter; thus, in letters of business, or official letters, the design of

the writer is to express himself firmly, clearly, and concisely to introduce nothing episodical, or foreign to the subject; and, above all, to be brief; remembering that busy men have not time to read long let

ters.

contrary, are kind,

Letters of friendship, on the tender, diffuse, and gossipping. They should be of the kind referred to by Cowper, when he says he likes talking letters.

Letters of a high civic or official character, such as those that pass between ambassadors, or ministers of state, should be formal, grave, and particularly courteous; for it is as though two nations, through their ambassadors, were holding converse by this means, and all the pomp and circumstance of national glory are concerned in the ceremony and the result.

A few general directions on the subject of letterwriting may not be amiss.

I. All proper letters should be answered as soon as received. Attention to this caution would have saved many persons a great deal of discomfort, regret, and loss. Although no part of Rhetoric, the caution will be pardoned on account of its practical use; and, indeed, the rhetorical character of the answer depends somewhat upon the freshness of the impression made by the letter upon the mind; and the freshness is entirely lost by delay.

II. All letters should be carefully written. A habit is not uncommon, among men who write carefully on all other subjects, of slighting their letters; of making the subject-matter unintelligible and slovenly; of neglecting the date, and address; of putting no punctuation marks except dashes, which mean nothing; and of writing in a hand almost or quite illegible. All this is wrong, and can very easily be avoided.

III. Say exactly what you mean without circumlocution or affectation. Many persons write letters as though they were writing a novel or a history; pitching them in too high a key for the occasion and the subject; such are the sentimental letters, written in the romantic periods of life, and under fanciful rather than real influences.

But, it is evident, the form of a letter may be used to present any subject to the public. Sometimes such a communication is addressed to the editor of a newspaper; sometimes to the public in pamphlet form; and sometimes to some scientific body; but, besides the mere form, these have nothing of the letter about them, and might as well be put in the shape of essays or disquisitions.

Of this nature also are military or naval despatches, the design of which is to describe the movements of an army or corps, or of a fleet of ships; but which

are addressed to the secretary of war or the navy. Candidates for public office address their peculiar views to the public also in letter form.

By means of the letters of great men, and particularly of men great in literature, published after their death, we are enabled to see them as they really were, and as they could have had no expectation of being presented to the world; thus letters constitute the best material for biography, and are in themselves the best portrait of the writer, giving us the exact traits of character which the biographer might overlook, or fail faithfully to transfer; but which the writer himself has uttered "out of the fulness of the heart."

The letters of Cowper, witty, poetical, tender, but very sad at times, are such a faithful index to his pure but unhappy life. Those of Sterne show us his easy, careless, and unclerical career, more fully than his works or his autobiography. Indeed, the characters of most great men have been portrayed most faithfully by means of their letters.

Among the most charming letters are those of Madame de Sévigné. The letter-form is often used to embody political instruction, or to convey political satire and rebuke. A remarkable example of this is found in the Persian Letters (Lettres Persanes) of Montesquieu.

(48.) History.

Next in the order of written discourse we consider History, which, in its comprehensive acceptation, may be defined the Narrative of Man's social life. Those who would limit it to being the Record of past events, would trammel the philosopher, who uses history somewhat in the light of prophecy; who regards it as constantly going on around us, and as determining, to a certain extent, from what has been and is, what is to be. History, which thus claims to tell all that is known of man, and all that can be predicted by human means, has been called Scientia Scientiarum, the Science of Sciences: it is consequently the most important of the forms of written discourse; and, were it rightly written, would conduce greatly to the benefit of mankind.

There are various degrees of the value of history, according to its philosophy. Thus, the historian may only choose to give a faithful narrative of the facts which his research has discovered, and to leave the reader to combine them, and draw his own conclusions. Or he may describe the great men, the battles, the sieges, the treaties, the courts, and lose sight of the condition of the people, who form really the subject of history. His narrative may be current, interesting, and entertaining; in its effect, not unlike the rapid journey through just such scenes, if they