“Letters are the memory of friendship, and are to be reckoned among the
chief links in the social chain that binds parent and child, lover and
sweetheart, friend and friend, in harmonious accord.”
A letter may, from a business point of view, make or mar the fortunes
of its sender, while none the less surely, from a social standard, will
our epistles approve or condemn our claim for consideration. Every
position in life, and every occasion which may arise therein, demand
more or less exercise of our epistolary powers, and while but few can
hope for the grace, the wit, the repartee that sparkle in the missives
of a de Staël, a Récamier, a Walpole, a Macaulay, every one can and
should learn to write a clear, concise, intelligent, appropriate letter.
A Rare Accomplishment.
To do this properly is a social accomplishment, and one of the greatest
boons that education confers. A graceful note, a kindly, sparkling
letter, are each the exponent of a true lady or gentleman, though it
must be confessed, since our country furnishes no so-called “leisure
class,” the art of letter-writing has, in great measure, fallen into
feminine hands, the cares of business and professional life ofttimes
preventing the sterner half of creation from mere friendly exercise
of the pen. It is among women, therefore, that we will find in the
present, as we have found in the past, the best and most fluent of
correspondents.
A certain dread of letter-writing, however, seems to haunt a large
class of people. This dread, arising either from imperfect education,
a lack of practice or a fear of “nothing to say,” can be overcome in
great measure by careful study of the few main requisites of the art,
as embraced in style, orthography, forms to be adopted and stationery
to be used for certain occasions.