LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
LETTERS 
 
 AND 
 
 LETTER WRITING 
 
 As Means to the Study and Practice of 
 English Composition 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARITY DYE 
 
 Teacher of English in Shortridge High School, Indianapolis 
 Author of "The Story Teller's Art" 
 
 'Sir, all letters, methinks, should be free and easy 
 as ones discourse; not studied as an oration, nor 
 made up of hard words like a charm" 
 
 DOROTHY OSBOENB TO 
 
 SIB WILLIAM TEMPLE IN 1653 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS 
 
 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
COPYRIGHT, NINETEEN HUNDRED THREE 
 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 
 
 DECEMBER 
 
 PTfJJTD, 
 
 : a*fl/ 
 
TO 
 
 MISS GEORGIA ALEXANDER 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 PREFACE 1 
 
 INTRODUCTORY: THE VALUE OF THE PERSONAL ELE- 
 MENT IN COMPOSITION WRITING. Composition an 
 Art-Subject; The Personal Element Fundamental; 
 Doubtful Uses of Personification; The Pathetic 
 Fallacy ; Valid Uses of Personification ; Personifi- 
 cation Natural to the Child; Uses of Impersona- 
 tion ; The Personal Quality of Style ; Aids to the 
 Cultivation of the Personal Element; Daily Prac- 
 tice; Material Selected on the Basis of Interest; 
 Organization of Material; The Lesson Assignment; 
 Epistolary Writing and the Personal Element; Let- 
 ters ; The School Rich in Motives for Letters ; The 
 Fostering of Interest ; Summary 3 
 
 PART I 
 
 I. A GROUP OF LETTERS INTERESTING TO YOUNGER 
 
 PEOPLE 15 
 
 II. GROUPS OF LETTERS INTERESTING TO OLDER PEOPLE 34 
 
 i. Letters of Introduction 34 
 
 ii. Letters of Greeting 37 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 / iii. Letters of Congratulation 39 
 
 iv. Invitational Letters 41 
 
 v. Letter of Presentation 47 
 
 vi. Letters of Acknowledgment 48 
 
 vii. Letters of Recommendation 64 
 
 viii. Letters of Bequest 66 
 
 ix. Letters of Advice 69 
 
 x. Letters of Appreciation 75 
 
 xi. Letters in Connection with Literature Study 94 
 
 * xii. Letters of Sympathy 98 
 
 xiii. Letters of Farewell 100 
 
 xiv. Special Letters for Arbor Day 102 
 
 xv. From the Journal of Rev. William Emerson 112 
 
 III. ANNOTATED LIST OF LETTERS, JOURNALS AND 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHIES 115 
 
 PART II 
 PREFATORY NOTE 136 
 
 CHAPTER I. LETTER WRITING IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 NATURE STUDY 137 
 
 i. Autumn 137 
 
 ii. Winter 145 
 
 iii. Spring 151 
 
 CHAPTER II. LETTERS CHARACTERIZED BY THE USE OF 
 
 DIFFERENT DISCOURSE FORMS 160 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 i. Letters in Which the Use of the Narrative is 
 
 Prominent 160 
 
 ii. Letters Characterized by Their Descriptive 
 
 Quality 163 
 
 iii. Letters Explanatory in Character 167 
 
 iv. Letters Employing Discussion 168 
 
 v. Letters in Which Variety of Expression is 
 
 Secured with Reference to the Same Subject 174 
 
 CHAPTER III. LETTERS DEALING WITH SOCIAL RELA- 
 TIONS 181 
 
 i. Invitational Letters 181 
 
 ii. Letters of Acknowledgment and Sympathy 184 
 
 iii. Letters of Appreciation 187 
 
 iv. Letters Showing Interest in Public Affairs 191 
 
 v. Letters of Business 196 
 
 CHAPTER IV. LETTERS AND JOURNALS IN CONNECTION 
 
 WITH HISTORY, READING AND LITERATURE 198 
 
 i. In Connection With History and Reading 198 
 
 ii. In Connection With Reading and the Study of 
 
 Literature 206 
 
t c 
 
 Letters . . . such as are written .from wise men, are, 
 of all the words of man, in my judgment, the best" 
 
 BACON 
 
 To my .friend I write a letter; from him I receive a 
 letter . . . a spiritual gift worthy of him to give and 
 me to receive ' ' EMERSON 
 
PREFACE 
 
 < 
 
 This book has been prepared in the belief that 
 there is a place for the emphasis of heretofore un- 
 developed possibilities in composition writing, and 
 that contributions yet to be made to the teaching 
 of English will consist of chapters on single topics 
 thoroughly treated, rather than of books covering 
 the whole subject and containing a re-statement of 
 what has already been so well and so satisfactorily 
 said. 
 
 The specimen letters in Part I commend them- 
 selves by their own value; many of them have not 
 before been given to the general public ; some of them 
 are old and very well known ; all of them are precious. 
 
 The annotated list of letters at the end of this part 
 calls attention to many letters not given in the text. 
 
 The work in Part II aims to show what practical 
 use can be made of the letters in Part I, as models 
 for composition through letter-writing, and to illus- 
 trate the adequacy of the epistolary forms for secur- 
 ing ease and fluency in written expression. It 
 further aims to show that the average school situa- 
 tion through its studies, through the experiences of 
 its student life, and through the larger social life 
 surrounding it, is rich in genuine motives for letters. 
 
 1 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 Grateful acknowledgments are hereby made to the 
 publishers who have so kindly granted permission 
 for the use of copyrighted letters; to those friends 
 who have given the use of letters heretofore unpub- 
 lished ; and to other friends who have written letters 
 by request for this volume. Especial indebtedness 
 is acknowledged to Professor Fred N. Scott of the 
 University of Michigan., to Professor E. H. Lewis 
 of Lewis Institute, Chicago, to Miss Frances Perry 
 of Wellesley College and to Miss Anna M. Locke of 
 Shortridge High School, Indianapolis, for advice and 
 assistance in the preparation of this book. 
 
 CHARITY DYE. 
 
 Indianapolis, November, 1903. 
 
Utfiv :>!TV 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 ~ 
 
 THE VALUE OF THE PERSONAL ELEMENT IN COMPOSI- 
 TION WRITING 
 
 1. Any discussion of the personal element in 
 composition writing must be based upon the assump- 
 tion that composition is an art-subject, that it grows composition 
 out of the desire, natural or acquired, for self-ex- rt-subject 
 pression ; that it is a self-revealment through the im- 
 pulse to give forth, in the terms of life, the varied 
 experiences that have become one's own. If this 
 assumption be true, the student feels the same 
 pleasure in transferring his idea to his composition 
 paper that he feels in transferring his mental picture 
 to his drawing paper; the two subjects differing es- 
 sentially in that the medium of expression in the 
 first is words and in the second lines. 
 
 The personal element understood as a vital atti- The Personal 
 tude, as a tendency to project self into whatever one 
 does, lies at the bottom of human nature. It is 
 the communication of his interests to beings like 
 himself that gives man his highest joy and that 
 marks him as a distinctly social being. The vast 
 structure of society is the achievement of the ages, 
 and for this all other results of human effort are 
 made subservient. The cave-dweller had no society 
 
 3 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 as we understand it. "The hermit," says Lowell, 
 "has no news," and Emerson has relegated the telling 
 of news to the poet, the man who utters the word of 
 God. The personal element in writing has many 
 variations; but it can be classed in a general way 
 under personification, impersonation, and that elusive 
 element known as the personal quality of style. 
 
 2. Personification is one of the simplest means of 
 expressing the personal attitude, and it is now used 
 to such an extent in composition that serious-minded 
 educators have their doubts as to its value, and fear 
 the dangers that may arise from an overdoing at 
 Doubtful this point. One who is an authority in matters of 
 Personified- education and philosophy feels that the putting of 
 science work in an "ultra personal and dramatic form 
 causes children to lose the scientific or truth value 
 of the materials used, and having everything system- 
 atically translated into a form that soon becomes con- 
 ventional, hardens the child to the actual poetry of 
 living things." 
 
 This note of warning is certainly worthy of serious 
 thought, and the employment of personification in 
 nature work may already be pressed beyond the nor- 
 mal limit. Mr. Ruskin also has much to say upon 
 a healthy use of figurative expression, which of course 
 includes personification, in his essay, "The Pathetic 
 Fallacy," and his protest against untrue figures of 
 speech has done much to correct sentimental tenden- 
 The Pathetic cies in English teaching. He even classifies poets 
 with reference to their power to perceive poetic con- 
 ceptions, into those who see truly because they do not 
 
 4 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 feel; those who see untruly because they feel, and 
 those who see truly in spite of their feelings. We 
 recognize the truth of this classification when we re- 
 call the Peter Bells; when we think of those who see 
 everything but the primrose in their effusion of feel- 
 ing at its presence, and those who see it as the simple 
 flower and at the same time feel the mystery that it 
 enfolds. Dr. Henry van Dyke speaks of Tennyson's 
 power to be true to nature in his imagery; he cites 
 the lines in Maud, 
 
 "For her feet have touched the meadows 
 And left the daisies rosy'' 
 
 and says that the second line would have been sheer 
 nonsense in an American poet, because the American 
 daisy is all yellow and white; there is nothing pink 
 about it ; but the English daisy is pink on the under 
 side of the petals, and so Maud left footprints of pink 
 in the upturned flowers where she had trodden. Dr. 
 van Dyke used this illustration in showing the 
 students that truth to nature in figurative language 
 is most pleasing. Every lover of wholesome, vigorous 
 English heartily sympathizes with the effort toward 
 a return to a true use of words. 
 
 But there certainly is, on the other hand, a justifi- Valid uses 
 able use of personification. It lies in the nature of 
 mind and in the process of thinking to attribute per- 
 sonal qualities to things. When the penetrative 
 imagination seizes upon an object, it at once goes 
 to the heart of it and discovers new analogies be* 
 
 5 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 tween it and things ; it makes figures that tally with 
 the forces of nature and condenses vistas into short 
 space. Darwin wrote many pages to make plain the 
 theory that was announced long before by Emerson 
 in the six lines : 
 
 "A subtle chain of countless rings 
 The next unto the farthest brings; 
 The eye reads omens where it goes, 
 And speaks all languages the rose; 
 And, striving to be man, tine worm 
 Mounts through all the spires of form." 
 
 This subtle grasp of an idea usually belongs to 
 poets of the first order, poets who are balanced and 
 sane and who exercise the penetrative imagination 
 tempered by judgment, right feeling and proper re- 
 straint. To train students into true perception 
 mellowed by right feeling is the problem of the 
 school. 
 Personified- Normal children have, as a rule, poetic tem- 
 
 tion Natural / r . 
 
 to the child peraments. Tennyson said at the age of six, "I hear 
 a voice that's speaking in the wind," and he is no 
 exception in this respect. To the child of active 
 imagination, the earth is peopled with creatures of 
 his fancy, and pagan that he is, he lives again the 
 life of his ancestors when man saw the divine in the 
 visible forces of nature. Personification of natural 
 objects brings home to the child a sense of the 
 ongoing processes of nature ; by it his poetic feelings 
 are aroused and his sympathies enlisted. He catches 
 
 6 
 
LETTEKS AND LETTEE WETTING 
 
 the message from the returning bird and the opening 
 bud, and with Wordsworth verily thinks that "every 
 flower enjoys the air it breathes/' 
 
 3. Impersonation involves personification but it 
 includes more; it calls for identity; one is, for the 
 moment, some other-person than one's self. Brown- 
 ing is verily the villain, the priest, and the innocent 
 maiden by turns in The Ring and the Boole. Vital 
 poets have the power of impersonation in a marked 
 degree. The novelists bear witness to this fact in 
 their writings and in their lives. It enabled Charles 
 Dickens, as David Copperfield, to live beyond the 
 four walls of his blacking-shop and imagine himself 
 a British lord. Ernest Thompson S'eton's animal 
 stories have impersonation for their chief charm; he 
 is the Sandhill Stag and Wahb. There is no ele- 
 ment in writing that does more to cultivate the 
 imagination than the power to impersonate, to put 
 one's self in another's place or feel another's feelings ; 
 it forms the basis for true character-study and for the 
 highest literary interpretation; it is the very essence 
 of the dramatic sense and enables one to be the per- 
 son that would naturally belong in a given situation. 
 The culture-epoch theory takes advantage of this 
 when it encourages the child to act the part of the 
 Mound Builder now, of the North American Indian 
 later, then of the Eevolutionary patriot, and so on 
 through the stages that link the present with the past. 
 The employment of impersonation vitalizes the study 
 of history, of geography, and of reading. The stu- 
 dent that can imagine himself John Smith, or Eoger 
 
 7 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 Williams, or Balboa at the moment of his discovery 
 of the Pacific Ocean, is learning history in a vital 
 way, is receiving training in creative reading, and is 
 being prepared for written expression. The employ- 
 ment of impersonation in reproduction does away for 
 ever with the paraphrase that has been such a stum- 
 bling-block in English teaching. 
 
 The Personal 4. The personal quality of style is more subtle 
 style and more charming than all others; it differs from 
 personification and impersonation in being a quality 
 rather than a method of treatment and in that it 
 belongs under every form of writing. It is felt 
 rather than described, and without it words are as 
 ^empty symbols and sentences a mere aggregation of 
 words. The highest expression of this quality pro- 
 ceeds from a simple, sincere utterance of a simple, 
 sincere soul. It is not marked so much by the 
 amount of knowledge displayed as by the writer's 
 personal touch, imaging his very self in his produc- 
 tion and making it thereby a work of art. 
 Aids to the 5. In order to cultivate successfully the personal 
 
 Cultivation 
 
 of the elements discussed in the foregoing pages, one should 
 
 Personal . . . r . 
 
 Element keep constantly in mind certain points common to 
 all English teaching. First of these is the necessity 
 for setting aside a part of each school day for the 
 student to write something which he wishes to say 
 to some one who wishes to hear it. Since writing 
 for a short period every school day throughout the 
 eight years of the graded schools has never, to my 
 knowledge, been tried, the gains and the losses aris- 
 ing from such a practice can not now be compared 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WHITING 
 
 with, the present system of writing one day in five 
 or when the spirit moves the teacher ; but it has been 
 tried long enough in some schools to show results 
 beyond expectation. The most vital argument for Daily 
 daily practice is that it cultivates the writing habit, 
 that is, it makes written expression a natural and an 
 easy thing; it coordinates the mind with the muscles 
 employed in writing as it is coordinated with those 
 employed in speaking. The nervous flow from the 
 brain finds an easy channel through the pen, and the 
 impediments that beset the unpractised hand are 
 overcome. One learns to write by writing, and the 
 good writer is called the "exact man." 
 
 Another help is the selection of material on the Material 
 
 m, . . Selected on 
 
 basis of interest, when the occasion is ripe. The time the Basis of 
 
 ., . , Interest 
 
 when the birds are on the wing from their winter 
 home, when the cocoons are opening or the buds are 
 bursting, is the time to study these things. When the 
 state or the nation sets apart a day in honor of an 
 event or a hero, the school should fall into step with 
 the larger civic life of the community and share the 
 honor ; when favors are received, no better motive for 
 a note of thanks can be found than the acknowledg- 
 ment of such favor ; when a school is making any spe- 
 cial study, it adds to the interest and pleasure of the 
 study to communicate the knowledge gained there- 
 from to some one kindly disposed to the school. 
 
 The basis of interest should also govern the acquir- 
 ing of a vocabulary as language material. The mind 
 seems to cling to the word that suits it, and if words 
 are linked with experiences, or new content is put in- 
 
 9 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 to words already acquired, one gradually comes to a 
 sensing of language that marks the beginning of 
 literary taste. This may proceed from a simple start 
 in connection with an exercise of the senses and a re- 
 port of the results. 
 organization Not only should material be selected on the basis of 
 
 of Material J 
 
 interest to the student, but its organization should 
 show a larger recognition of the individual tastes of 
 the various students. Composition plans should not 
 only set forth the logic of the situation, but should 
 help the student to see dependence and sequence, teach 
 him how to narrow his theme, and to know the power 
 of selection by preferring, in a short space, to treat 
 thoroughly one attribute of a character rather than to 
 treat superficially the whole character; to give the 
 crucial moment in a story with point, rather than to 
 tell the whole story aimlessly ; all these things lead in 
 turn to a sense of proportion, or the relation between 
 an important point and the time and space allotted to 
 its elaboration. 
 
 Children have commenced to organize their ma- 
 terial when they begin to select from and arrange 
 what they know with reference to a given sub- 
 ject; and when plan-making has been successfully 
 carried out, the composition reading will illumi- 
 nate the subject for every listener and reveal as many 
 The Lesson plans as there are students. One of the most ef- 
 
 Assignment .. . . -11,1 n 
 
 fective means of organizing material by the teacher 
 is in her lesson assignment, which, rightly done, takes 
 much time. By it the student is to be put in sym- 
 
 10 
 
LETTEES AKD LETTEE WETTING 
 
 pathy with his subject; is to have models placed be- 
 fore him ; is to have the directions for his work made 
 so definite that he will do exactly what the teacher 
 has in mind for him to do, because nothing else will 
 satisfy the requirements given. Lesson assignment 
 may often, with profit, take the place of technical 
 instruction by the placing of requirements instead of 
 employing technical terms. 
 
 6. The fostering of the personal elements in com- The 
 position is greatly dependent upon suitable condi- interest 3 
 tions for writing ; and all theory and all the materials 
 at hand count for nothing if the situation does not 
 beget in the mind of the student a love for his work 
 and a belief that the task set for him to do is within 
 his comprehension and consistent with his powers of 
 performance. He is to be left absolutely free with his 
 thought expression, and neither the domination of 
 the writing master, of the spelling book, of the gram- 
 mar drill, nor the pressure that he must write so much 
 in the given time, should have a place in the com- 
 position exercise. These points, along with the errors 
 made in writing, belong to drill lessons which have a 
 place set apart for them on the regular program. 
 Interest in his theme will settle these questions for 
 the student, and there are also many cooperative in- 
 fluences in connection with the school life itself that 
 stimulate him to vital work in composition writ- 
 ing; among these may be mentioned the exchange 
 of papers between members of the same class, be- 
 tween classes in the same building, or in different 
 
 11 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 buildings or cities. There is also at present a prac- 
 tice among teachers of writing with their pupils, 
 which gives a zest to the lesson that nothing else does. 
 Epistolary 7. The form that most happily employs the per- 
 
 Writingand r /. 
 
 the Personal sonal element in composition and that cultivates ease, 
 
 Element r . 
 
 grace, and fluency of expression is epistolary writing, 
 under which may be placed letters, journals, auto- 
 biographies, imaginary conversation, and table-talk. 
 Epistolary writing is used here to express one's atti- 
 tude toward what one has to say ; it is a form of writ- 
 ing that grows out of a point of view, or a manner of 
 thinking. It has to do with the communication of 
 one's thought to some one who is interested in that 
 thought. The writer may assume a situation or im- 
 personate a character and write out of himself therein. 
 The most frequent sharing of ideas in epistolary writ- 
 ing is to be found in letters. 
 
 Letters Letters from a distinct department of literature. 
 The list of all the noble letter writers from Cicero 
 to our own time can not be mentioned at one sit- 
 ting ; but in such a list are letters for young and old, 
 letters to suit the varying tastes of all classes of 
 people. The young person that does not know Phil- 
 lips Brooks's letters of travel written to Gertie, or Vic- 
 tor Hugo's letters to his children, or Hans Andersen's 
 letter to Marie, will hardly make up for what he has 
 missed. What music lover could afford not to know 
 the letters of Sidney Lanier, giving his musical im- 
 pressions to his wife? The letters of Huxley and 
 Darwin are valued by every scientist, and people of 
 literary taste can scarcely forego the fine charm and 
 
 12 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WETTING 
 
 literary flavor of the letters of James Eussell Lowell, 
 John Lothrop Motley, Henry D. Thoreau, George 
 William Curtis, Celia Thaxter, Charles Lamb, Lord 
 Tennyson, Eobert Louis Stevenson, and of Gilbert 
 White's journal, making Selborne from that time 
 famous to the world. The very nature of a letter 
 makes it a means of securing spontaneity. Letters 
 as literature have for their aim the communication 
 of good will, the increasing of sympathy and the 
 finer social instincts; the sharing of knowledge and 
 the promotion of intelligence and higher aims. 
 Surely these purposes belong to composition writing 
 as it is treated in this book. It may be undeniably 
 claimed, however, that the letters cited as models 
 were not written as exercises in composition ; that they 
 grew out of a personal occasion ; that writings begin- 
 ning with "Dear friend/' followed by dreary passages, 
 and ending with words of affection do not consti- 
 tute a letter ; and also that letters can not be written 
 in cold blood. While all these things are true, it can 
 not be claimed that the school situation is incapable 
 of furnishing to the student warm-blooded conditions 
 for epistolary writing. Genuine motives for letters 
 abound wherever life is lived in the interest of work Motives for 
 
 Letters 
 
 and social contact. The school life calls for an ex- 
 change of good will and opinion on the basis of mu- 
 tual interest. The life of a well-regulated school is 
 healthy and has a distinctive character of its own; 
 and while students have varied purposes and em- 
 ployments, they meet on a human plane, and their 
 studies pursued in common with other children give 
 13 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 them a basis for interchange of thought. There is 
 also a mutual bond in the larger civic life outside the 
 school and in the natural phenomena about them, 
 which furnishes to students abundant stimulus and 
 proper motives for all forms of epistolary writing. 
 Summary 8. It is not then too much to claim that compo- 
 sition should be looked upon as an art-subject; that 
 opportunity for daily practice in writing should be 
 given to the teaching of it ; that materials for it should 
 be selected on the basis of interest and organized to 
 suit the individual aptitudes of the students ; that un- 
 trammeled conditions should be furnished the student 
 when he writes ; and that the school situation is rich 
 in motives for epistolary writings which foster grace, 
 ease and fluency of expression. 
 
 14 
 
A GEOUP OF LETTEES INTEEESTING TO 
 YOUNGEE PEOPLE 
 
 VICTOR HUGO TO HIS LITTLE DIDINE 
 
 Good morning, my pet ; good morning, my dear lit- 
 tle girlie. I promised to write to you. You see I am 
 keeping my word. 
 
 I have seen the sea, some fine churches, and some 
 pretty country. The sea is large, the churches are 
 handsome, the country is pretty; but the country is 
 not as pretty as you, the churches are not as hand- 
 some as your Mamma, and the sea is not as great as 
 my love for you all. 
 
 My pet, I have often given half -pence to poor chil- 
 dren walking barefooted by the roadside, for your 
 sakes, my little ones. I love you all dearly. 
 
 A few hours more and I shall be kissing you on 
 your two dear little cheeks, and also my big Charlie 
 and my little Dede, who will give me a smile, I hope, 
 and my beloved Toto. 
 
 Good-by for the present, my Didine. Keep this 
 
 letter. When you are grown up, I shall be old, you 
 
 will show it to me, we shall love each other dearly; 
 
 when you are old, you will show it to your children, 
 
 15 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 and they will love you as much as I do. We shall 
 soon meet. YOUR OWN DADDY. 
 
 By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 From Letters of Victor Hugo. 
 
 FROM HANS ANDERSEN 
 
 Dear Little Marie: 
 
 Papa and Mamma can read this letter to you, as 
 you can not read it yourself yet; but only wait till 
 this time four years; ah, then you'll be able to read 
 everything, I know. I am in the country now like 
 you. . . . It is so nice, and I have had some 
 strawberries large, red strawberries, with cream. 
 Have you had any? One can taste them right down 
 in one's stomach. Yesterday I went down to the sea 
 . . . and sat on a rock by the shore. Presently a 
 large white bird that they call a gull came flying 
 along. It flew right toward me, so that I fancied it 
 would have slapped me with its wings ; but, mercy on 
 us, it said, "Mamaree !" "Why, what's the matter?" I 
 asked. "Mama-ree!" it said again, and then, of 
 course, I understood that "Ma-ma-ree" meant Marie. 
 "Oh," said I, "then you bring me a greeting from 
 Marie, that's what it is, eh?" "Ya-ya! Ma-ma-ree, 
 Ma-ma-ree," it said. It couldn't say it any better than 
 that, for it only knew the gull language, and that is 
 not very much like ours. "Thanks for the greeting," 
 said I, and off flew the gull. After that, as I was walk- 
 ing in the garden, a little sparrow came flying up. "I 
 suppose you now have flown a long way?" said I. 
 16 
 
1 ^ ~l 
 LETTEES AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 "Vit, vit" (far, far), it said. "Did you see Marie," I 
 asked. "Tit, tit, tit" (often, often, often), it said. 
 "Then give my greeting to Marie, for I suppose you 
 are going back?" I said. "Lit, lit" (a little, little), 
 it replied. If it has not come yet, it will come later 
 on, but first I'll send you this letter. You may feed 
 the little bird, if you like, but you must not squeeze 
 it. Now greet from me all good people, all sensible 
 beasts and all the pretty flowers that wither before I 
 see them. Isn't it nice to be in the country, to paddle 
 in the water, to eat lots of nice things, and to get a 
 letter from your sweetheart. H. C. ANDERSEN. 
 
 By permission of Dodd, Mead & Co. 
 
 SIDNEY LANIER TO HIS SECOND SON, SIDNEY, AGED 
 TEN YEARS 
 
 (Not before published.) 
 
 435 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, Md., 
 
 November 12, 1880. 
 My dearest Sidney: 
 
 What a long time has passed since I have been able 
 to write you ! And, mercy upon us, what an age it is 
 since I have seen my dear slender tall boy ! It seems 
 BO long that I am wondering if you have had time to 
 
 grow as tall as my long-legged friend, Dr. C , who 
 
 has to stoop in order to walk under our parlor chan- 
 deliers. I suppose it is a very good thing to have 
 long legs when one is riding a horse. A great French 
 17 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 writer, named Dumas, tells a terribly wild story of his 
 father, who was a great horseman, and who so Du- 
 mas says could break a horse's ribs merely by the 
 pressure of his legs. Have you learned to jump your 
 horse over ditches and fences yet ? 
 
 I expected to send you a text-book in Latin several 
 days ago, but have not been able to find the one I 
 wanted you to study. I hope to get it soon, and I 
 feel sure you will enjoy learning to speak a little of 
 this wonderful old language. I am going to ask you 
 to find out who the people were that spoke Latin, and 
 what language of the present day is most like it, so 
 that you can tell me when you come home. 
 
 It gives me great pain to tell you that Eatsy is 
 dead. He suddenly grew sick, some weeks ago, and 
 we did what we could for him. But, poor fellow, he 
 couldn't tell us where he felt badly ; and we were not 
 able to discover any symptoms that would enable us 
 to treat his disease. We have missed him sadly, and 
 the back-lots around us seem quite desolate without 
 his very striking figure. 
 
 I have just received your letter, and am glad to 
 know you liked the St. Nicholas. The next one will 
 have an article by me on King Arthur. 
 
 Mother and I are indulging in many a fine dream 
 of the week before Christmas, when we expect to 
 bring you and our other two men home. You must 
 caper about and grow as fat and strong as possible be- 
 fore that time, so that we may be able to hug a great 
 deal of you at once and thus make up for the time 
 when our arms have been empty. 
 
 18 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 I send Charley a copy of the last Scribner's to- 
 day, and write him by the same mail. I wish I could 
 tell you how much love goes with it, to him, and to 
 my little man Hal, and to you, from 
 
 Your father, S. L. 
 
 "Fatsy" was a pet chicken of little Sidney's, who had 
 grown into a tall, superb Dominique cock, the delight 
 and pride of that intense, tenacious little heart. To 
 "break the news" consolingly had been our problem, and 
 was really the raison d'etre of this letter. 
 
 By permission of Mrs. Sidney Lanier. 
 Rights reserved. 
 
 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, AT THE AGE OF NINE YEARS, 
 TO HIS BROTHER, ROBERT T. S. LOWELL 
 
 November 2, 1828. 
 My dear Brother: 
 
 I am now going to tell you melancholy news. I 
 have got the ague together with a gumbile. I pre- 
 sume you know that September has got a lame leg, 
 but he grows better every day and now is very well 
 but still limps a little. We have a new scholar from 
 round hill, his name is Hooper and we expect an- 
 other named Penn who I believe also comes from 
 there. The boys are all very well except Nemaise, 
 who has got another piece of glass in his leg and is 
 waiting for the doctor to take it out, and Samuel 
 Storrow is also sick. I am going to have a new suit 
 of blue broadcloth clothes to wear every day and to 
 play in. Mother tells me that I may have any sort 
 19 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 of buttons I choose. I have not done anything to 
 the hut but if you wish I will. I am now very 
 happy; but I should be more so if you were there. 
 I hope you will answer my letter if you do not I 
 shall write you no more letters, when you write my 
 letters you must direct them all to me and not write 
 half to mother as you generally do. Mother has given 
 me the three volumes of tales of a grandfather, 
 farewell, Yours truly, 
 
 JAMES R. LOWELL. 
 
 From Letters of James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Copyrighted, 1893, by Harper & Bros. 
 
 HAWTHORNE TO HIS LITTLE DAUGHTER, ROSE 
 
 My dear Little Rosebud: 
 
 I have put a kiss for you in this nice clean paper. 
 I shall fold it up carefully, and I hope it will not 
 drop out before it gets to Lisbon. If you can not 
 find it, you ask Mamma to look for it. Perhaps you 
 will find it on her lips. Give my best regards to your 
 Uncle John and Aunt Sue, and to all your kind 
 friends, not forgetting your nurse. 
 
 Your affectionate father, N. H. 
 
 MR. BURROUGHS TO A LITTLE SCHOOL-GIRL 
 
 WEST PARK, N. Y., October 21, 1901. 
 
 My dear Little Friend: 
 
 Your letter gave me real amusement and pleasure. 
 I think you are a nice little girl. I wish I had one 
 20 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WRITING 
 
 like you. I have never had a little girl. I have one 
 boy, and he has just graduated from Harvard College. 
 I often observe the insects, but- 1 have never made 
 a study of them. This early September I noted a 
 large caterpillar, probably one of the swallow-tailed 
 butterflies, that bad-hanging to its body a great num- 
 ber of small white objects that looked like ant eggs. 
 Every one who saw them thought they were the cater- 
 pillar's eggs. But you know the caterpillar does not 
 lay eggs. These small white objects were the cocoons 
 of some small ichneumon fly that had laid its eggs in 
 the flesh of the caterpillar. The young grubs lived 
 upon the fat of the caterpillar and then had come 
 out and spun their cocoons all over its body. The 
 caterpillar was very feeble and soon died from the 
 effects of the little grubs. You might have great 
 fun in studying up the ichneumon flies and all that 
 they do. Tell the other boys and girls in your room 
 that I have not time to write to them now. Give my 
 
 love to Roy M , Diedrich N , Katie H , 
 
 Marie H , and to your teacher. I hope I can 
 
 come some time to see your school. 
 
 JOHN BURROUGHS. 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON" TO THOMAS JEFFERSON SMITH, 
 A BABY NAMESAKE 
 
 This letter will, to you, be as one from the dead. 
 
 The writer will be in his grave before you can weigh 
 
 its counsels. Your affectionate and excellent father 
 
 has requested that I would address to you something 
 
 21 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WETTING 
 
 which might possibly have a favorable influence on 
 the course of life you have to run; and I, too, as a 
 namesake, feel an interest in that course. Few words 
 will be necessary with good dispositions on your part. 
 Adore God. Eeverence and cherish your parents. Love 
 your neighbor as yourself, and your country more 
 than yourself. Be just. Be true. Murmur not at 
 the ways of Providence. So shall the life into which 
 you have entered be the portal to one of eternal and 
 ineffable bliss, and if to the dead it is permitted to 
 care for the things of this world, every action of your 
 life will be under my regard. Farewell. 
 Monticello, February 21, 1825. 
 
 (Appended to this letter, he gives a poem and a 
 dialogue of Canons for observation in practical life.) 
 
 By permission of Harper & Bros. 
 
 From The Domestic Life of Jefferson. 
 
 JEFFERSON TO HIS DAUGHTER 
 
 (Extract) 
 Dear Patsy: 
 
 . . . With respect to your time, the following 
 is what I approve : 
 
 From 8 to 10, practise music. 
 
 From 10 to 1, dance one day and draw the next. 
 
 From 1 to 2, draw on the day you dance, and 
 write a letter next day. 
 
 From 3 to 4, read French. 
 
 From 4 to 5, exercise yourself in music. 
 
 From 5 till bed time, read English, write, etc. 
 22 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WRITING 
 
 . . . I expect you to write me by every 
 post. . . . Take care that you never spell a 
 word wrong. Always, before you write a word, con- 
 sider how it is spelled, and if you do not remember 
 it, turn to the dictionary. 
 
 In another letter he writes: I omitted to advise 
 you about dress. Above all things, and at all times, 
 let your clothes be neat, whole and properly put on. 
 
 By permission of Harper & Bros. 
 
 From The Domestic Life of Jefferson. 
 
 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES TO MRS. STANTON 
 
 My dear Mrs. Stanton: 
 
 I wish you would explain to your little nephew 
 that the story of the poor fellow who almost died 
 laughing was a kind of dream of mine, and not a 
 real thing that happened, any more than that an old 
 woman "lived in a shoe and had so many children 
 she didn't know what to do," or that Jack climbed 
 the beanstalk and found the giant who lived at the 
 top of it. You can explain to him what is meant by 
 imagination, and thus turn my youthful rhymes into 
 a text for a discourse worthy of the Concord School 
 of Philosophy. I have not my poems by me here, 
 but I remember The Height of the Ridiculous ended 
 with this verse : 
 
 Ten days and nights, with sleepless eye, 
 
 I watched that wretched man, 
 And since, I never dare to write 
 
 As funny as I can. 
 23 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 But tell your nephew he mustn't cry about it any 
 more than because geese go barefoot and bald eagles 
 have no nightcaps. The verses are in all the editions 
 of my poems. 
 
 Believe me, dear Mrs. Stanton, 
 
 Very truly and respectfully yours, 
 
 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 LYDIA MARIA CHILD TO A CHILD 
 
 NORTHAMPTON, August 16, 1840. 
 Dearest Nony: 
 
 Now I will write to you. I have no kitten to purr 
 aloud ; and my great black cat is not sufficiently well- 
 behaved to deserve a written description. But my 
 swallows still keep about the house. Almost every 
 evening one or two of them come in at dark in search 
 of flies ; and they go circling around my head, so that 
 I sometimes feel their wings fan my face. Once in 
 a great while they come in now to look at the old 
 nest, and squat down in it for a minute or two ; just 
 as children love to go back to the old homestead to 
 see the place where they were born. But the pleas- 
 antest sight of all was when the little ones were learn- 
 ing to fly. Such a twittering and bustling! And 
 when the baby birds, in spite of the mother's unwea- 
 ried efforts, still continued too timid to drop down 
 from the edge of the nest, she brought in eight or 
 ten of her neighbor swallows to instruct and encour- 
 age them. She did this three times in succession. 
 The woodshed seemed full of birds, for a few min- 
 
 24 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 utes at a time, flying and perching, and clinging to 
 the beams, in all manner of pretty attitudes. I don't 
 know but you grow tired hearing about my birds; 
 but it seems as if I could watch them for ever. Every 
 day I fear it is the last time I shall see them ; for they 
 will soon go away to-the South to find a warmer home 
 for winter. . 
 
 By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 From Letters of Lydia Maria, Child. 
 
 SIR THOMAS MORE TO HIS CHILDREN 
 
 . . . The merchant of Bristow brought unto 
 me your letters, the next day after he had received 
 them of you; with the which I was exceedingly de- 
 lighted. For there can come nothing, yea, though 
 it were never so rude, never so meanly published, 
 from this your shop, but it procureth me more de- 
 light than any others' works be they ever so eloquent : 
 your writing doth so stir up my affection towards 
 you. But, excluding this, your letters may also very 
 well please me for their own worth, being full of fine 
 wit and of a pure Latin phrase: therefore none of 
 them all but joyed me exceedingly. Yet, to tell you 
 ingenuously what I think, my son John's letter 
 pleased me best ; both because it was longer than the 
 other, as also for that he seemeth to have taken more 
 pains than the rest. For he not only painteth out 
 the matter decently and speaketh elegantly, but he 
 playeth also pleasantly with me and returneth my 
 jests upon me again, very wittily. Hereafter I ex- 
 25 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 pect day letters from every one of you : neither will 
 it be amiss, if you first indite it in English ; for then 
 it may more easily be translated into Latin, whilst 
 the mind, free from inventing, is attentive to find 
 apt and eloquent words. ... I enjoin you, by 
 all means, that you diligently examine what you have 
 written before you write it over fair again ; first con- 
 sidering attentively the whole sentence, and after, 
 examine every part thereof. ... By this your 
 diligence you will procure, that those, your trifles, 
 will seem serious matters. For, as nothing is so 
 pleasing but may be made unsavory by prating gar- 
 rulity, so nothing is by nature so unpleasant, that by 
 industry may not be made full of grace and pleasant- 
 ness. Farewell, my sweetest children. 
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY TO HIS LITTLE DAUGHTER, ROSE 
 
 My dear Miss Rose : 
 
 I am writing in such a curious place a mill, and 
 such a funny little room in it, full of stuffed birds. 
 And there is a flamingo, such a funny bird, with long 
 legs and a long neck, as big as Miss Rose. And now 
 I will tell you about the stork. He is called Peter, 
 and here is a picture of him. See what long legs he 
 has, and a white body and black wings, and he 
 catches all the frogs and snails, and eats them, and 
 when he is cross, he opens his long bill and makes 
 such a horrible clattering like a rattle. And he 
 comes to the window at tea time to eat bread and 
 butter, and he is so greedy, and he gobbled down a 
 
 26 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 great pinch of snuff from Daddy's box, and he was 
 so sick, and we all laughed at him for being so foolish 
 and greedy. . . . And do you know, when Mr. 
 Thurwall saw me drawing the stork, he gave me a 
 real live stork of my own to bring home to Miss 
 Rose, and we will Jfut him in the kitchen garden to 
 run about what fun! And to-morrow Daddy is 
 going to see the beautiful pictures at Fitzwilliam 
 Museum, and the next day he is going to fish at 
 Shelford, and the next day, perhaps, he is coming 
 home to his darlings at Eversley Rectory, for he does 
 not know what to do without them. 
 
 . . . How happy Miss Rose must be with her 
 dear mother. She must say, "Thank God, for giving 
 me such a darling mother." Kiss her for me and 
 Maurice, and now good-bye, and I will bring home 
 the stork. Your own DADDY. 
 
 By permission of Charles Scribner's Sons. 
 JOHN RUSKIN TO SUSIE 
 
 (Extract) 
 PASS OF BOCCHETTA, 1st October. 
 
 All that is wonderful and lovely in the Alps may 
 be seen without the slightest danger, in general, and 
 it is especially good for little girls of eleven, who 
 can't climb, to know this all the best views of hills 
 are at the bottom of them. I know one or two places, 
 indeed, where there is a grand peeping over preci- 
 27 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 pices, one or two where the mountain seclusion and 
 strength are worth climbing to see. But all the 
 entirely beautiful things I could show you, Susie; 
 only for the very highest sublime of them some- 
 times asking you to endure half an hour of chaise 
 a porteur, but mostly from a post-chaise or smoothest 
 of turnpike roads. 
 
 But, Susie, do you know, I'm greatly horrified at 
 the pen-wipers of peacock's feathers! I always use 
 my left-hand coat-tail, indeed, and if only I were a 
 peacock and a pet of yours, how you'd scold me ! 
 
 Sun just coming out over sea (at Sestri), which is 
 sighing in toward the window, within your drive, 
 round before the door's breadth of it, seen between 
 two masses of acacia copse and two orange trees at 
 the side of the inn courtyard. 
 
 COVENTRY PATMORE TO HIS DAUGHTER 
 
 14 Percy Street, February 1, 1864. 
 
 My dear little girl: 
 
 I have treated your snowdrops with the greatest 
 care, and I hope they will recover from the effects 
 of the fearful stamping which they have received in 
 the post. - 
 
 Spring must be forwarder in Yorkshire than here. 
 I suppose the warm smoke of Leeds protects the 
 earth from the frost, which, in our clear London air, 
 bids the flowers sleep for a month or two longer. I 
 always wonder how the snowdrops know what time 
 
 28 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 it is to get up ; for they do not mind the frost. All 
 they insist upon is that it shall be the end of January 
 or the beginning of February. They are by much 
 the most cunning little flowers I know. . . . 
 
 Your loving father, 
 _ COVENTRY PATMORE. 
 
 TO THOMAS CARLYLE, FROM NERO, THE DOG 
 
 (Written by Jane Welsh Carlyle in Mr. Carlyle's 
 absence) 
 
 5 CHEYNE Row, CHELSEA, 
 
 Tuesday, January 20, 1859. 
 Dear Master: 
 
 I take the liberty to write to you myself (my mis- 
 tress being out of the way of writing to you she says) 
 that you may know that Columbine [the cat] and I 
 are quite well, and play about, as usual. There was 
 no dinner yesterday, to speak of ; I had for my share 
 only a piece of biscuit that might have been round the 
 world ; and if Columbine got anything at all, I didn't 
 see it. I made a grab at one of two "small beings" 
 on my mistress' plate; she called them heralds of 
 morn; but my mistress said, "Don't you wish you 
 may get it?" and boxed my ears. I wasn't taken to 
 walk on account of its being wet. And nobody came, 
 but a man for "burial rate"; and my mistress gave 
 him a rowing, because she wasn't going to be buried 
 here at all. Columbine and I don't mind where we 
 are buried. This is a fine day for a run; and I hope 
 29 " 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 I may be taken to see Mohe and Dumm. They are 
 both nice, well-bred dogs, and always so glad to see 
 me, and the parrot is great fun when I spring at her ; 
 and Mrs. Lindsay has always such lots of bones, and 
 doesn't mind Mohe and Dumm and me eating them 
 on the carpet. I like Mrs. Lindsay very much. 
 
 Your obedient little dog, NERO. 
 
 ROBERT GOULD SHAW TO HIS MOTHER 
 
 (Written during his Freshman year in Harvard Col- 
 lege, describing a game of football) 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, September 5, 1856. 
 
 Last Monday we had our six annual football 
 games; Freshman kicking against Sophomores. In 
 the last three games, the Juniors help the Freshmen, 
 and the Seniors help the Sophomores. We beat the 
 third game, alone, a thing which has happened only 
 three times since the University was founded. The 
 Sophomores generally beat all six games, because they 
 know the ground, and know each other. As I think 
 a description of the whole affair would amuse you, I 
 will give it to you. 
 
 At half past six we went to the "Delta," and in a 
 few minutes the whole Sophomore class streamed into 
 the field at one end, and about as large a class of 
 Freshmen into the other, and stood opposite each 
 other about a hundred yards apart, like two hostile 
 armies. There we stood cheering and getting up our 
 
 30 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 courage until the ball was brought. It was received 
 with great cheering and hurrahing, and handed over 
 to the Sophomores, who have the first kick by rights. 
 After they had kicked once, they waited till our 
 champion, Crowninshield, had one kick, and then 
 rushed in. 
 
 They knew that we were a large class and had a 
 good many big fellows, so they determined to frighten 
 us by hard fighting; and if anything was calculated 
 to frighten fellows not used to it, it was the way in 
 which they came upon us. They rushed down in a 
 body, and, hardly looking for the ball, the greater 
 part of them turned their attention to knocking down 
 as many as they could, and kicked the ball when they 
 happened to come across it. It was a regular battle, 
 with fifty to seventy men on each side. It resembled 
 more my idea of the hand-to-hand fighting in the 
 battles of the ancients, than anything else. After the 
 first game, few had their own hats on, few a whole 
 shirt. In the beginning, I rushed into the middle 
 with the crowd, but after that I kept among fellows 
 of my own size on the outskirts. My experience in 
 the middle was this: before I had been there more 
 than a second, I had got three fearful raps on the 
 head and was knocked down, and they ran all over 
 me after the ball, which had been kicked to another 
 part of the field. Then I picked myself up, as did 
 a great many other fellows lying about me, and 
 looked for my hat among about twenty others and a 
 good many rags. I found it sometime afterwards. 
 
 . . . That was Monday, and to-day is Friday, 
 31 
 
LETTEKS AND LETTEE WRITING 
 
 but my head is not entirely well yet. I got many 
 blows which I didn't feel at all till next day. A 
 good many of our fellows were more badly hurt, be- 
 cause they had pluck enough to go into the thick of 
 it each time; once was enough for me. It was fine 
 to see how little some of them cared for the blows 
 they got. After Juniors and Seniors came in there 
 must have been two hundred on the ground. Of the 
 last three games we beat one, and one was voted a 
 drawn game. This is a much more important thing 
 than one would think, because it is an established 
 custom; and our having beaten is a great glory, and 
 gives other classes a much higher opinion of us than 
 they would otherwise have. They talked about it 
 quite amicably the next day. Several of the Sophs 
 and Seniors, who were opposed to us, came over to 
 our side the same evening, and congratulated us upon 
 having beaten them, because it was such an unusual 
 thing. 
 
 ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON TO THOMAS ARCHER 
 
 TANTIRA, ISLAND OF TAHITI, 
 
 November, 1888. 
 Dear Tomarcher: 
 
 . . . This is a much better place for children 
 than any I have hitherto seen in these seas. The 
 girls (and sometimes the boys) play a very elaborate 
 kind of hopscotch. The boys play horses exactly as 
 we do in Europe; and have very good fun on stilts, 
 trying to knock each other down, in which they do 
 
 32 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 not succeed. The children of all ages go to church 
 and are allowed to do what they please running about 
 the aisles, rolling balls, stealing mamma's bonnet 
 and publicly sitting on it, and at last going to sleep 
 in the middle of the floor. I forgot to say that the 
 whips to play horses .and balls . . . grow ready- 
 made on trees; which is rough on toy shops. The 
 whips are so good that I wanted to play horse myself ; 
 but no such luck . . . But what I really wanted 
 to tell you was this: besides the tree-top toys (Hush- 
 a-by, toy-shop, on the tree-top !) I have seen some real 
 made toys, the first hitherto observed in the south 
 seas. ... I have the honor to be Tomarcher's 
 valued correspondent, TERIITERA, which he has 
 previously known as ROBERT Louis STEVENSON. 
 
 By permission of Charles Scribner's Sons. 
 
 From The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson. 
 
 33 
 
II 
 
 GROUPS OF LETTERS INTERESTING TO 
 OLDER PERSONS 
 
 /. LETTERS OF INTRODUCTION 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON TO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 
 AMERICAN MINISTER IN FRANCE. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, 28 December, 1778. 
 Sir: 
 
 The Marquis de Lafayette, having served with dis- 
 tinction as major-general in the army of the United 
 States for two campaigns, has been determined, by 
 the prospects of a European war, to return to his 
 native country. It is with pleasure, that I embrace 
 the opportunity of introducing to your acquaintance 
 a gentleman, whose merits can not have left him un- 
 known to you by reputation. The generous motives 
 which first induced him to cross the Atlantic; the 
 tribute which he paid to gallantry at Brandywine; 
 his success in Jersey before he had recovered from 
 his wounds, in an affair where he commanded militia 
 against British grenadiers; the brilliant retreat, by 
 which he eluded a combined manceuver of the whole 
 British force in the last campaign ; his services in the 
 enterprise against Rhode Island; are such proofs of 
 
 34 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 his zeal, military ardor, and talents, as have endeared 
 him to America, and must greatly recommend him 
 to his Prince. 
 
 Coming with so many titles to claim your esteem, 
 it were needless for any other purpose, than to in- 
 dulge my own feelings, to add, that I have a very 
 particular friendship for him; and that whatever 
 services you have it in your power to render him will 
 confer an obligation on one who has the honor to be, 
 with the greatest esteem, regard, and respect, Sir, 
 etc. 
 
 RALPH WALDO EMERSON TO COVENTRY PATMORE 
 
 CONCORD, October 5, 1858. 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 I have once (and) again strained my slender claim 
 to your acquaintance, for the benefit of my friends, 
 when they were lovers of your genius, and am now 
 emboldened by my regards for the traveler to do the 
 like again. 
 
 My friend Miss Elizabeth Hoar (who should have 
 been these many years my sister), desires to see you, 
 as few have read your poems better, and I could not 
 send you easily a more discerning and more culti- 
 vated person. Miss Hoar travels in Europe for a year 
 with her brother and her friend Miss Pritchard, and, 
 though they stay in London but a short time, mean, 
 of course, to see the museum ; and I must rely on your 
 kindness to point out to them precisely those things 
 which you value most. Miss Hoar will, give you at 
 35 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 least the satisfaction of a clear intelligence and a 
 correct taste. 
 
 I confide that you will find your acquaintance with 
 my friend self -rewarding. And I hope you will im- 
 part to her some good news of yourself and your 
 literary designs, which may arrive at last at me. 
 With grateful regards, yours, 
 
 R. W. EMERSON. 
 
 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL TO NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, 
 INTRODUCING W. D. HOWELLS 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, August 5, 1860. 
 My dear Hawthorne : 
 
 I have no masonic claim upon you except com- 
 munity of tobacco, and the young man who brings 
 this does not smoke. 
 
 But he wants to look at you, which will do you no 
 harm and him a great deal of good. 
 
 His name is Howells, and he is a fine young fel- 
 low, and has written several poems in the Atlantic, 
 which of course you never read, because you don't 
 do such things yourself, and are old enough to know 
 better. ... If my judgment is good for any- 
 thing, this youth has more in him than any of our 
 younger fellows in the way of rhyme. 
 
 Of course he can't hope to rival the Consule Planco 
 men. Therefore let him look at you and charge it 
 To yours always, 
 
 J. R. LOWELL. 
 
 36 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 II. LETTERS OF GREETING 
 
 FROM 0. W. HOLMES 
 
 296 Beacon Street, March 8, 1893. 
 My dear Madam : 
 
 It gives me great pleasure to send my best regards 
 to you and your pupils and my best wishes for you 
 all. 
 
 I have a great many letters to dictate, and some, 
 like this which I feel that I must write with my own 
 hand. I can not therefore say all that I should like to, 
 if less occupied. Add as many kind expressions from 
 the dictionary as this sheet will hold, and I will be 
 responsible for every one among them. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 FROM JAMES LANE ALLEN 
 
 To the Editors of The Dawn: 
 
 In response to your kind request that I send you a 
 greeting for a number of The Dawn, I have ven- 
 tured to copy for you from one of my own stories the 
 description of a school-house, such as you never sat 
 in and will never see : 
 
 "Poor old school-house, long since become scat- 
 tered ashes ! Poor little backwoods academicians, 
 driven in about sunrise, driven out toward dusk ! 
 Poor little tired backs with nothing to lean against ! 
 37 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WRITING 
 
 Poor little bare feet that could never reach the floor ! 
 Poor little droop-headed figures, so sleepy, so afraid 
 to fall asleep !" 
 
 With the hope that you will never forget what 
 great men and women came out of the log school- 
 houses of your country, and with the wish, also, that 
 this fact may help you to realize that the real dwell- 
 ing place of a great life is never the outer building, 
 but always the noble inner temple of the spirit, I am, 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 JAMES LANE ALLEN. 
 
 Cincinnati, April 16, 1893. 
 
 BIRTHDAY GREETINGS FROM MATTHEW ARNOLD TO HIS 
 MOTHER 
 
 HAMPTON, August 19, 1852. 
 My dearest Mother: 
 
 Clough has been with me for the last few days in 
 Wales; he is likely to go to America in the autumn 
 to try his fortune there as tutor. You will receive 
 this, my dearest mother, on the morning of your 
 birthday. Accept every loving and grateful wish 
 from a son to whom you have been such a mother as 
 few sons have. The more I see of the world, the more 
 I feel thankful for the bringing up we had, so un- 
 worldly, so sound, so pure. God bless you, my dear 
 mother, and believe me your truly affectionate child, 
 
 M. ARNOLD. 
 
 38 
 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 777. LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON TO GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 October 28, 1781. 
 Sir: 
 
 I hope it will not be unacceptable to your Excel- 
 lency to receive the congratulations of a private indi- 
 vidual on your return to your native shore, and, above 
 all things, on the success which has attended it. 
 Great as this has been, however, it can scarcely add to 
 the affection with which we have looked up to you. 
 And if, in the minds of any, the motives of gratitude 
 to our good allies were not sufficiently apparent, the 
 part they have borne in this action must amply con- 
 vince them. 
 
 . . . I should certainly have done myself the 
 honor of paying my respects to you personally, but I 
 apprehend that these visits, which are meant by us 
 as marks of our attachment to you, must interfere 
 with the regulations of a camp, and be particularly 
 inconvenient to one whose time is too precious to be 
 wasted in ceremony. 
 
 I beg you to believe me among the sincerest of 
 those who subscribe themselves your Excellency's 
 most obedient and most humble servant. 
 
 TH. JEFFERSON. 
 
 By permission of Harper & Bros. 
 
 From The Domestic Life of Jefferson, by Randolph. 
 
 39 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS TO JOHN J. PINKERTON 
 
 NORTH SHORE, STATEN ISLAND. 
 
 2nd October, 1863. 
 My dear Pirikerton : 
 
 I wish you joy with all my heart, and the voice of a 
 married man of seven years ought to have weight in 
 felicitation. It has always seemed that my fancy 
 was fleet enough to outrun the fact, and yet I have 
 been always distanced. As a lover you think mar- 
 riage is a very paradise, but as a husband you will 
 feel that it is the beginning of life. But I leave the 
 sermon to the good clergyman who will breathe upon 
 you the heavenly benediction for your voyage. I 
 only stand on the shore and fling after you my well 
 worn marriage slipper, and believe all that you know 
 of your companion, and whistle for the softest and 
 most favorable gales. God bless you and yours. Al- 
 ways Your friend, 
 
 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 
 
 By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 From Gary's Life of O. W. Curtis. 
 
 40 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 IV. INVITATIONAL LETTERS 
 
 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL TO THOMAS HUGHES, 
 OF ENGLAND 
 
 ELMWOOD, July 18, 1870. 
 / My dear Hughes: 
 
 I hope you will come hither as early as you can, 
 for it will be vacation, and I can see more of you. 
 And I want you to see my trees with the leaves on 
 especially my English elms. ... I hope by the 
 middle of August our worst heats will be over, for 
 they began early this year. 
 
 Already I have an invitation for you from a friend 
 of mine at Newport (our great watering-place), 
 whom I would like you to know. . . . While you 
 are here, I will take you to Concord and show you 
 such Lions as we have. We shall be delighted to see 
 you and keep you as long as you can stay. . . . 
 Good-by and God bless you till I take you by the 
 hand. Always heartily yours, 
 
 J. R. LOWELL. 
 
 From Letters of James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Copyrighted, 1893, by Harper & Bros. 
 
 DAVID MASSON TO OSCAR C. McCULLOCH 
 
 58 GREAT KING STREET, 
 EDINBURGH, July 6, 1891. 
 My 'dear Sir: 
 
 Mrs. Masson and my daughter are away at Strath- 
 peffer at present so that I am by myself here, and 
 41 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 shall be still by myself the time you and Mrs. McCul- 
 loch expect to be in Edinburgh. But, if you will 
 excuse that unfortunate chance, I shall be glad to see 
 you any afternoon during your visit when it may be 
 convenient for you to give me that pleasure. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 DAVID MASSON. 
 
 ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON TO HENRY JAMES 
 
 SKERRYVORE, BOURNEYMOUTH, 
 
 October 28, 1885. 
 My dear Henry James: 
 
 At last, my wife being at a concert, and a story be- 
 ing done, I am at some liberty to write and give you 
 of my views. . . . 
 
 And now to the main point: why do we not see 
 you? Do not fail us. Make an alarming sacrifice 
 and let us see "Henry James's Chair" properly occu- 
 pied. I never sit in it myself (though it was my 
 grandfather's) ; it has been consecrated to guests by 
 your approval, and now stands at my elbow gaping. 
 We have a new room, too, to introduce to you our 
 last baby, the drawing-room; it never cries and has 
 cut its teeth. Likewise, there is a cat now. It 
 promises to be a monster of laziness and self-suffi- 
 ciency. . . . Now, my dear James, come come 
 come. The spirit (that is me) says, come; and the 
 bride (and that is my wife) says, come ; and the best 
 
 42 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 thing you can do for us and yourself and your work 
 is to get up and do so right away. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 ROBERT Louis STEVENSON. 
 
 By permission of Charles Scribner's Sons. 
 
 From Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson. 
 
 LONGFELLOW TO MRS. JAMES T. FIELDS. 
 
 (Acceptance.) 
 
 April 25, 1871. 
 
 We accept, Greene and myself, your kind invitation 
 to dinner on Thursday, and will present ourselves in 
 proper uniform at six o'clock. 
 
 Do not give yourself any further trouble about the 
 notices of Greene's book. . . . Already I notice 
 something like peacock's feathers growing upon my 
 friend, and have to spread my own very wide to 
 show that I still exist, am still respectable, though 
 tarnished. It is a very comical sight to see two 
 authors shut up in one room together. 
 
 However, we will be serious on Thursday. 
 
 By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 Prom Life of Longfellow. 
 
 HENRY D. THOREAU TO MR. B. 
 
 (Acceptance.) 
 
 CONCORD, January 21, 1854. 
 
 Mr. B : 
 
 My coat is at last done, and my mother and sister 
 allow that I am 50 far in a condition to go abroad. I 
 43 
 
LETTEKS AND LETTEB WKITING 
 
 feel as if I had gone abroad the moment I put it on. 
 It is, as usual, a production strange to me, the 
 wearer, . . . and the maker of it was not ac- 
 quainted with any of my real depressions or eleva- 
 tions. ... It requires a not quite innocent in- 
 difference, not to say insolence, to wear it. ... 
 I expect the time when a man . . . will get his 
 coat as perfectly fitting as a tree its bark. ... I 
 think to come and see you next week, on Monday, if 
 nothing hinders. ... H. D. T. 
 
 By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 From Letters of Thoreau. 
 
 CHARLES LAMB TO WORDSWORTH, DECLINING AN 
 INVITATION TO VISIT WORDSWORTH 
 
 January 30, 1801. 
 
 I ought before this to have replied to your very 
 kind invitation into Cumberland. With you and 
 your sister I could gang anywhere; but I am afraid 
 whether I shall ever be able to afford so desperate 
 a journey. Separate from the pleasure of your com- 
 pany, I don't care much if I never see a mountain 
 in my life. I have passed all my days in London, 
 until I have formed as many and intense local at- 
 tachments as any of you mountaineers can have done 
 with dead nature. The lighted shops of the Strand 
 and Fleet Street ; the innumerable trades, tradesmen, 
 and customers, coaches, wagons, play-houses; all the 
 bustle and wickedness round about Covent Garden; 
 the very women of the town ; the watchmen, drunken 
 
 44 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 scenes, rattles ; life awake, if you awake, at all hours 
 of the night ; the impossibility of being dull in Fleet 
 Street; the crowds, the very dirt, and mud, the sun 
 shining upon houses, and pavements, the print-shops, 
 the old bookstalls, parsons cheapening books, coffee- 
 houses, steams of spups from kitchens, the panto- 
 mimes London itself a pantomime and a masquer- 
 ade all these things work themselves into my mind, 
 and feed me, without a power of satiating me. The 
 wonder of these sights impels me into night-walks 
 about the crowded streets, and I often shed tears in 
 the motley Strand from fullness of joy at so much 
 life. All these emotions must be strange to you; 
 so are your rural emotions to me. But consider, 
 what must I have been doing all my life, not to have 
 put great portions of my heart with usury to such 
 scenes ? 
 
 My attachments are all local, purely local. I have 
 no passion (or have had none since I was in love, and 
 then it was the spurious engendering of poetry and 
 books) for groves and valleys. The rooms where I 
 was born, the furniture which has followed me about 
 like a faithful dog (only exceeding him in knowl- 
 edge), wherever I have moved, old chairs, old tables, 
 streets, squares, where I have sunned myself, my old 
 school, these are my mistresses. Have I not enough 
 without your mountains? I do not envy you. I 
 should pity you, did I not know that the mind will 
 make friends of anything. Your sun, and moon, 
 and skies, and hills, and lakes, affect me no more, or 
 scarcely come to me in more venerable characters, 
 45 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 than as a gilded room with tapestry and tapes,, where 
 I might live with handsome visible objects. I con- 
 sider the clouds above as but a roof beautifully 
 painted, but unable to satisfy the mind ; and at last, 
 like the pictures of the apartment of a connoisseur, 
 unable to afford him any longer a pleasure. So 
 fading upon me, from disuse, have been the beauties 
 of nature, as they have been confinedly called; so 
 ever fresh and green, and warm are all the inventions 
 of men, and assemblies of men in this great city. I 
 should certainly have laughed with dear Joanna. 
 
 Give my kindest love, and my sister's, to D. and 
 yourself ; and a kiss from me to little Barbara Lewth- 
 waite. Thank you for liking my play. C. L. 
 
 WILLIAM COWPER TO JOSEPH HILL, DECLINING AN 
 INVITATION 
 
 1769. 
 Dear Joe:- 
 
 Sir Thomas crosses the Alps and Sir Cowper, for 
 that is his title at Olney, prefers his home to any 
 other spot of earth in the world. Horace, observing 
 this difference of temper in different persons, cried 
 out, a good many years ago, in the true spirit of 
 poetry, "How much one man differs from another;" 
 this does not seem a very sublime exclamation in 
 English, but I remember we were taught to admire 
 it in the original. 
 
 My dear friend, I am obliged to you for your in- 
 vitation; but being long accustomed to retirement, 
 
 46 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 which I was always fond of, I am now more than 
 ever unwilling to revisit those noisy and crowded 
 scenes which I never loved and which I now abhor. 
 I remember you with all the friendship I ever pro- 
 fessed, which is as much as I ever entertained for 
 any man. But the strange and uncommon incidents 
 of my life have given an entire new turn to my whole 
 character and conduct, and rendered me incapable 
 of receiving pleasure from the same employments 
 and amusements of which I could readily partake 
 in former days. 
 
 I love you and yours ; I thank you for your contin- 
 ued remembrance of me, and shall not cease to be 
 their and your 
 
 Affectionate friend and servant, 
 
 WM. COWPER. 
 
 V. LETTER OF PRESENTATION 
 
 ROBERT BURNS TO THE EARL OF BUCHAN 
 
 (With a copy of "Bruce's Address to his troops at 
 Bannockburn") 
 
 DUMFRIES, 12th January, 1794. 
 My Lord: 
 
 Will your Lordship allow me to present you with 
 the enclosed little composition of mine, as a small 
 token of gratitude for the acquaintance with which 
 you have been pleased to honor me. Independent 
 of my enthusiasm as a Scotsman, I have rarely met 
 47 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 with anything in history which interests my feelings 
 as a man equal with the story of Bannockburn. On 
 the one hand, a cruel but able usurper, leading on the 
 finest army in Europe to extinguish the last spark of 
 freedom among a greatly daring and greatly injured 
 people; on the other hand, the desperate relics of a 
 gallant nation devoting themselves to rescue their 
 bleeding country, or perish with her. 
 
 Liberty! thou art a prize truly and indeed valu- 
 able ; for never canst thou be too dearly bought ! 
 
 ROBERT BURNS. 
 
 VI. LETTERS OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT 
 
 WHITTIER TO MISS ANDERSON, IN RECOGNITION OF HIS 
 BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION 
 
 AMESBURY, MASS., 12 Mo. 21, 1886. 
 Dear Friend: 
 
 I heartily thank thee for thy interesting letter and 
 the account of the hour devoted to myself and my 
 writings in thy school. I am glad to know that the 
 young folks so pleasantly remembered me on my 
 birthday. 
 
 I am very truly thy friend, 
 
 JOHN G. WHITTIER. 
 
 48 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 DOROTHY STANLEY TO OSCAR C. McCULLOCH, FOR A COPY 
 OF RILEY'S POEMS. 
 
 "THE COATES," KANSAS CITY. 
 
 22d December, 1890. 
 Dear Mr. McCulloch .^ 
 
 I thank you very much for your kind and gracious 
 thought, in sending me Mr. Riley's volume of poems. 
 I do not know whether the poems of William Barnes, 
 the Dorsetshire poet, are known in America, but these 
 poems of James W. Riley very much remind me of 
 our much appreciated poet, who wrote all his verses 
 in the Dorset dialect. 
 
 My mother wishes me to thank you for the paper 
 you sent her giving the wonderful list of subjects 
 and authors and poets studied at your Plymouth In- 
 stitute. Everything I see and hear in America goes 
 to prove what a great progressive people you are. 
 With Mr. Stanley's very kind regard, believe me, 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 DOROTHY STANLEY. 
 
 G. W. CURTIS TO LOWELL, UPON "THE HARVARD COM- 
 MEMORATION ODE" 
 
 ASHFIELD, MASS., 12th Sept., 1865. 
 My dear Lowell: 
 
 I thank you with all my heart for the noble ode 
 which with all my heart I have read and enjoyed. 
 Certainly you have done nothing in a loftier strain, 
 49 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 nor has anything more truly worthy of the great 
 theme been written. If it be very serious and very 
 sad it is for the same reason that the sky is blue and 
 the corn is yellow. I have read it aloud to Anna, 
 and read and re-read it to myself ; and I am sure it 
 says what the truest American heart feels and be- 
 lieves. And if that is not a work worth doing, if a 
 man can do it, what is? 
 
 Affectionately yours, and more and more, 
 
 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 
 
 By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 From Gary's Life of (7. W. Curtis. 
 
 FROM WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS, RECOGNIZING AN AP- 
 PRECIATION OF HIS WRITINGS 
 
 48 West 59th St., May 18, 1902. 
 
 My dear Miss : 
 
 Those charming letters by your pupils have reached 
 me after wandering round through Boston, and I 
 have to thank you for the very great pleasure you> 
 have done me in sending them. Several of them 
 seem to me as good criticisms as could be written of 
 the book; others mistake the intention slightly; but< 
 they are all surprisingly intelligent ; they are clearly 
 and simply expressed, and they seemed the genuine, 
 unsuggested opinions of their writers. No author 
 merits more at the hands of his critics, and for myl 
 part, I do not ask more. I have been touched, in a 
 way I could not just explain, by the apparent interest 
 shown in my work, and I wish you would tell all the 
 
 50 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 Juniors in the Shortridge High School how truly and 
 humbly proud "this was sometime a paradox" I 
 am of their liking. Without their favor I could not 
 have believed that I should care anything for the 
 voice of posterity. Give them my love along with 
 these poor thanks. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 W. D. HOWELLS. 
 
 FROM JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY 
 
 Dec. 18, 1901. 
 
 Dear Miss : 
 
 What a very great pleasure the pupils of your 
 English Class have given me, in their general voice 
 of kindly acceptance of the simple songs I have been 
 trying to sing since a student at school myself and, 
 I can but add, a poor one indeed, as compared with 
 these most worthy ones who write such very bright 
 and interesting letters all of which I have read with 
 an appreciation deeper and fonder than I can here 
 express. But I do ask you to speak for me to your 
 students. Thank them for honoring and enriching 
 me with the rare Christmas-present of their praise 
 the gift and the grace of the gift which so touches 
 and refreshes an old heart it seems made young 
 again a veritable playmate of their own. So to 
 them all my halest greetings and abiding love pray- 
 ing, with the saintliest of children, Tiny Tim, this 
 
 51 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 sacred season's very gentlest prayer; God bless us, 
 
 every one ! 
 
 Always gratefully and truly, 
 
 JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY. 
 
 JOHN BURROUGHS TO A NATURE CLUB 
 
 WEST PARK, N. Y., Oct, 12, 1892. 
 My Dear Young Friends: 
 
 Though Mr. had already -sent me a copy of 
 
 his father's book, Wood Notes Wild, yet I thank 
 you all the same for remembering me so pleasantly. 
 
 I think Mr. 's notes on the song birds very good 
 
 indeed, tho' how accurately he has rendered them on 
 the musical scale I do not know, as I do not know 
 written music. What walkers you are ten miles is 
 quite a stretch. What fun you must have, what 
 profit to your health, and what addition to your 
 knowledge of nature ! I think there is some danger 
 that you will take, or are taking, the study of nature 
 too seriously. It must not be a task, but a joy. 
 Every excursion should be a picnic. Go out for what 
 you can enjoy, rather than for what you can find out. 
 The knowledge will come. Where the heart is in- 
 cluded, the head learns easily. One may have a 
 certain bloom and freshness of feeling about nature, 
 which too much hard study, direct study of her, may 
 kill. Do not forget Wordsworth's lines in his Poet's 
 Epitaph on "a fingering slave, one that would peep 
 and botanize upon his mother's grave." I speak in 
 this way because I fear that when you grow older 
 
 52 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 and the cares of life begin to press upon you, you will 
 feel that you have exhausted nature and that you will 
 give no time to the fields and woods. Keep your 
 love fresh and eager, and remember that to love 
 nature is better than to know her; in other words, 
 your knowledge must first of all have a background 
 of love. Name the birds and flowers, but do not 
 think they are all there in your dead specimen. 
 
 If I ever come to Indianapolis we will have a walk 
 together. When you have your pictures send them 
 to me. Hoping your love for nature may never grow 
 dim, I am, Sincerely yours, 
 
 JOHN BURROUGHS. 
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN TO NOAH WEBSTER 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, December 26, 1789. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I received some time since your Dissertations on 
 the English Language. The book was not accom- 
 panied by any letter or message informing me to 
 whom I am obliged for it, but I suppose it is your- 
 self. It is an excellent work and will be greatly use- 
 ful in turning the thoughts of your countrymen to 
 correct writing. Please to accept my thanks for the 
 great honor you have done me in its dedication. I 
 ought to have made this acknowledgment sooner, but 
 much indisposition prevented me. 
 
 I can not but applaud your zeal for preserving the 
 purity of our language, both in its expression and 
 53 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 pronunciation, and in correcting the popular errors 
 several of our states are continually falling into with 
 respect of both. Give me leave to mention some of 
 them, though possibly they may have already occurred 
 to you. I wish, however, in some future publication 
 of yours, you would set a discountenancing mark 
 upon them. The first I remember is the word im- 
 proved. When I left New England, in the year 
 1723, this word had never been used among us, as 
 far as I know, but in the sense of ameliorated, or 
 made better, except once in a very old book of Dr. 
 Mather's entitled Remarkable Providences. . . . 
 But when I returned to Boston in 1733, I found this 
 change had obtained favor, and was then become 
 common; for I met with it often in perusing the 
 newspapers, where it frequently made an appearance 
 rather ridiculous. Such, for instance, as the adver- 
 tisement of a country-house to be sold, which had 
 been many years improved as a tavern ; and in the 
 character of a deceased country gentleman, that he 
 had been for more than thirty years improved as a 
 justice of the peace. This use of the word improved 
 is peculiar to New England, and not to be met with 
 among any other speakers of English, either on this 
 or the other side of the water. 
 
 The Latin language, long the vehicle used in dis- 
 tributing knowledge among the different nations of 
 Europe, is daily more and more neglected; and one 
 of the modern tongues, viz., the French, seems in 
 point of universality to have supplied its place. It is 
 spoken in all the courts of Europe ; and most of the 
 
 54 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 literate, those even who do not speak it, have acquired 
 knowledge enough of it to enable them easily to read 
 the books that are written in it. This gives a con- 
 siderable advantage to that nation; it enables its 
 authors to inculcate and spread throughout other 
 nations such sentiments and opinions on important 
 points as are most conducive to its interests, or which 
 may contribute to its reputation by promoting the 
 common interests of mankind. It is perhaps owing 
 to its being written in French, that Voltaire's trea- 
 tise on "Toleration" has had so sudden and so great an 
 effect on the bigotry of Europe, as almost entirely 
 to disarm it. 
 
 Our English bids fair to obtain the second place. 
 The great body of printed sermons in our language, 
 and the freedom of our writings on political sub- 
 jects, have induced a number of divines of different 
 sects and nations, as well as gentlemen concerned in 
 public affairs, to study it; so far, at least, as to read 
 it. ... 
 
 My best wishes attend you, being with sincere 
 esteem, Sir, etc. B. FRANKLIN. 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS TO GEORGE ELIOT, UPON RECEIPT 
 OF "SCENES FROM A CLERICAL LIFE" 
 
 TAVISTOCK HOUSE, LONDON, 
 
 Monday, 17th Jan. 1858. 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 I have been so strongly affected by the two first 
 tales in the book you have had the kindness to send 
 55 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 me, through Messrs. Blackwood, that I hope you will 
 excuse my writing to you to express my admiration 
 of their extraordinary merit. The exquisite truth 
 and delicacy, both of the humor and pathos of these 
 stories, I have never seen the like of; and they have 
 impressed me in a manner that I should find it very 
 difficult to describe to you, if I had the impertinence 
 to try. 
 
 In addressing these few words of thankfulness to 
 the creator of The Sad Fortunes of the Rev. Amos 
 Barton, and the sad love story of Mr. Gilfil, I am 
 (I presume) bound to adopt the name that it pleases 
 that excellent writer to assume. I can suggest no 
 better one : but I should have been strongly disposed, 
 if I had been left to my own devices, to address the 
 said writer as a woman. I have observed what 
 seemed to me such womanly touches in those moving 
 fictions, that the assurance on the title-page is insuffi- 
 cient to satisfy me even now. If they originated 
 with no woman, I believe that no man ever before 
 had the art of making himself mentally so like a 
 woman since the world began. 
 
 You will not suppose that I have any vulgar wish 
 to fathom your secret. I mention the point as one 
 of great interest to me not of mere curiosity. If it 
 should ever suit your convenience and inclination to 
 show me the face of the man, or woman, who has 
 written so charmingly, it will be a very memorable 
 occasion to me. If otherwise, I shall always hold 
 that impalpable personage in loving attachment and 
 respect, and shall yield myself up to all future utter- 
 
 56 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 ances from the same source, with a perfect confidence 
 in their making me wiser and better. 
 
 Your obliged and faithful servant and admirer, 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS. 
 
 GEORGE ELIOT, ESQ. 
 
 
 
 FROM GEORGE ELIOT, IN APPRECIATION OF DICKENS'S 
 LETTER 
 
 (Letter to John Blackwood, January 21, 1858) 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I am sure you will be interested in Dickens's letter, 
 which I enclose, begging you to return it as soon as 
 you can, and not to allow any one beside yourself 
 and Major Blackwood to share in the knowledge of 
 its contents. There can be no harm, of course, in 
 every one's knowing that Dickens admires the 
 Scenes, but I should not like any more specific 
 allusion made to the words of a private letter. There 
 can hardly be any climax of approbation for me after 
 this ; and I am so deeply moved by the finely felt and 
 finely expressed sympathy of the letter, that the iron 
 mask of the incognito seems quite painful in for- 
 bidding me to tell Dickens how thoroughly his gener- 
 ous impulse has been appreciated. If you should 
 have an opportunity of conveying this feeling of 
 mine to him in any way, you would oblige me by 
 doing so. 
 
 57 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 RALPH WALDO EMERSON" TO MR. J. HUTCHINSON 
 STIRLING, LL. D., GLASGOW UNIVERSITY 
 
 (The Independent Club of Glasgow University placed 
 Mr. Emerson in nomination for the office of Lord-Rector. 
 He received five hundred votes against seven hundred 
 for Disraeli, who was elected. This event showed a high 
 appreciation of Mr. Emerson's character.) 
 
 CONCORD, 5th January, 1875. 
 My dear Dr. Stirling : 
 
 I can not forgive myself for my tardiness in telling 
 you how deeply I have felt your interest and care 
 in my behalf at Glasgow. Yet I was, and am, deeply 
 sensible of your heroic generosity in the care of my 
 interest in the late election. I could never, from the 
 first to the last act in the affair, bring myself to be- 
 lieve that the brave nomination of the independents 
 would succeed, and could hardly trust the truth of 
 the telegram, which at last brought me so dignified 
 a result as five hundred votes in our behalf. I count 
 that vote as quite the fairest laurel that has ever 
 fallen on me ; and I can not but feel deeply grateful 
 to my young friends in the university, and to your- 
 self, who have been their counselor and my too par- 
 tial advocate. Of course such an approach to success 
 gave me lively thoughts of what could have been at- 
 tempted and at least approached in meeting and 
 dealing with the university, if my friends had suc- 
 ceeded ; but I hope the stimulus they have given me 
 will not be wholly lost. Probably I have never seen 
 58 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 one of these five hundred young men; and thus they 
 show us that our recorded thoughts give the means 
 of reaching those who think with us in other coun- 
 tries, and make closer alliances sometimes than life- 
 long neighborhood. To be sure, the truth is hack- 
 neyed, but it never came to me in so palpable a form. 
 It is easy to me to gather from your letters, and from 
 those of Mr. Herkless, and from the printed papers, 
 how generously you have espoused and aided my 
 champions; and it only adds one more to the many 
 deep debts which I owe to you. I never lose the 
 hope that you will come to us at no distant day, and 
 be our king in philosophy. 
 
 With affectionate regards, 
 
 R. WALDO EMERSON. 
 MR. J. HUTCHINSON STIRLING, LL. D. 
 
 By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 
 From Ralph Waldo Emerson, by G. W. Cooke. 
 
 CARLYLE TO EMERSON 
 
 (Extract) 
 
 5 GREAT CHEYNE Row, CHELSEA, LONDON, 
 
 12th August, 1834. 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 Some two weeks ago I received your kind giftv 
 from Frazer. To say that it was welcome would be V 
 saying little: is it not as a voice of affectionate re- 
 membrance, coming from beyond the ocean waters, 
 first decisively announcing for me that a whole new 
 59 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 continent exists that I, too, have part and lot there ! 
 "Not till we can think that here and there one is 
 thinking of us, one is loving us, does this waste earth 
 become a peopled garden." Among the figures I can 
 recollect as visiting our Mthsdale hermitage, all like 
 apparitions now, bringing with them airs from 
 heaven, or else blasts from the other region, there is 
 perhaps not one of a more undoubtedly supernal 
 character than yourself: so pure, and still with in- 
 tents so charitable; and, then, vanishing too so soon 
 into the azure Inane as an apparition should ! Never 
 has your address in my note book met my eye but with 
 a friendly influence. Judge if I am glad to know 
 that there, in infinite space, you still hold by me. 
 . . . And so here, looking over the water, let me 
 repeat once more what I believe is already dimly the 
 sentiment of all Englishmen, cisoceanic and trans- 
 oceanic, that we and you are not two countries, and 
 can not for the life of us be ; but only two parishes of 
 one country. . . . Continue to love me, you and 
 my other friend ; and as packets sail so swiftly, let me 
 know it frequently. All good be with you. 
 
 Most faithfully, 
 
 T. CARLYLE. 
 
 By special permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 
 From The Correspondence of Emerson and Carlyle, 
 
 1834-1872. 
 
 60 
 
LETTEKS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL TO R. W. EMERSON 
 
 ELMWOOD, Oct. 14, 1868. 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 If you had known what a poem your two tickets 
 contained for me, how much they recalled, how many 
 vanished faces of thirty years ago, how much grati- 
 tude for all you have been and are to us younger men 
 (a debt I always love to acknowledge, though I can 
 never repay it), you would not have dreamed of my 
 not being an eager hearer during the whole course. 
 Even were I not sure (as I always am with you) of 
 having what is best in me heightened and strength- 
 ened, I should go out of loyalty to what has been one 
 of the great privileges of my life. I, for one, 
 
 "Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime" 
 and you may be sure of one pair of ears in which the 
 voice is always musical and magisterial, too. . . . 
 I am gratefully and affectionately, 
 
 Your liegeman, 
 
 J. R. LOWELL. 
 
 From Letters of James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Copyrighted, 1893, by Harper & Bros. 
 
 MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE TO DR. FRANKLIN 
 
 HAVRE, 29th August, 1779. 
 Sir: 
 
 Whatever expectations might have been raised 
 from the sense of past favors, the goodness of the 
 61 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 United States for me has ever been such, that on 
 every occasion it far surpasses any idea I could have 
 conceived. A new proof of that flattering truth I 
 find in the noble present, which Congress has been 
 pleased to honor me with, and which is offered in 
 such a manner by your Excellency, as will exceed 
 anything but the feelings of my unbounded gratitude. 
 
 In some of the devices I can not help finding too 
 honorable a reward for those slight services, which 
 in concert with my fellow soldiers, and under the 
 Godlike American hero's orders, I had the good luck 
 to render. The sight of these actions, where I was 
 a witness of American bravery and patriotic spirit, 
 I shall ever enjoy with that pleasure, which becomes 
 a heart glowing with love for the nation, and the most 
 ardent zeal for their glory and happiness. Assur- 
 ances of gratitude, which I beg leave to present to 
 your Excellency, are much too inadequate to my feel- 
 ings, and nothing but those sentiments may properly 
 acknowledge your kindness toward me. The polite 
 manner in which Mr. Franklin was pleased to de- 
 liver that inestimable sword, lays me under great ob- 
 ligations to him, and demands my particular thanks. 
 
 With the most perfect respect, I have the honor to 
 be, etc. LAFAYETTE. 
 
 62 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 DECLINATION TO ACKNOWLEDGE FAVOR 
 DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON TO LORD CHESTERFIELD 
 
 (When Dr. Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the 
 English Language? 17 55, was about to be published, Lord 
 Chesterfield wrote in praise of it, hoping to secure the 
 dedication of it to himself; but Johnson remembered 
 Chesterfield's refusal of favor to him at a former time of 
 need, and wrote the following letter, which is remark- 
 able for its sarcasm, vigor, and well-chosen diction, and 
 serves as a sample of Johnson's style.) 
 
 My Lord: 
 
 fV I have been lately informed, by the proprietor of 
 The World, that two papers in which my Diction- 
 ary is recommended to the public, were written by 
 your Lordship. To be so distinguished, is an honor 
 which, being very little accustomed to favors from 
 the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what 
 terms to acknowledge. . . . 
 
 Seven years, my Lord, have now passed since I 
 waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed from 
 your door; during which time I have been pushing 
 on my work through difficulties, of which it is use- 
 less to complain, and have brought it, at last, to the 
 verge of publication, without one act of assistance, 
 one word of encouragement, or one smile of favor. 
 Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a 
 patron before. ... Is not a patron, my Lord, 
 one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling 
 for life in the water, and when he has reached the 
 ground, encumbers him with help? 
 63 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 The notice which you have been pleased to take of 
 my labors, had it been early, had been kind; but it 
 has been delayed till I am indifferent, and can not 
 enjoy it, ... till I am known, and do not want 
 it. I hope it is n6 very cynical asperity ... to 
 be unwilling that the public should consider me as 
 owing that to a patron which Providence has enabled 
 me to do for myself. 
 
 Having carried on my work thus far with so little 
 obligation to any favor of learning, I shall not be 
 disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be 
 possible, with less. 
 
 VII. LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION 
 FROM JOSIAH QUINCY 
 
 HARVARD UNIVERSITY, CAMBRIDGE, 
 
 March 26, 1838. 
 To whom it may concern : 
 
 I certify that Henry D. Thoreau, of Concord, in 
 this state of Massachusetts, graduated at this semi- 
 nary in August, 1837; that his rank was high as a 
 scholar in all branches, and his morals and general 
 conduct unexceptional and exemplary. He is rec- 
 ommended as well qualified as an instructor, for 
 employment in any public or private school or private 
 family. JOSIAH QUINCY, 
 
 President of Harvard University. 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 CICERO TO CAESAR IN GAUL 
 
 ROME, February. 
 
 Cicero greets Caesar, Imperator. Observe how far 
 I have convinced myself that you are my second self, 
 not only in matters which concern me personally, but 
 even in those which concern my friends. It had been 
 my intention to take Caius Trebatius with me for 
 whatever destination I should be leaving town, in 
 order to bring him home again honored as much as 
 my zeal and favor could make him. 
 
 But when Pompey remained at home longer than 
 I expected, and a certain hesitation on my part (with 
 which you are not unacquainted) appeared to hinder, 
 or at any rate to retard, my departure, I presumed 
 on what I will now explain to you. I begin to wish 
 that Trebatius should look to you for what he had 
 hoped from me, and, in fact, I have been no more 
 sparing of my promises of good will on your part 
 than I had been wont to be of my own. Moreover, 
 an extraordinary coincidence has occurred which 
 seems to support my opinion and to guarantee your 
 kindness. For just as I was speaking to our friend 
 Balbus about this very Trebatius at my house with 
 more than usual earnestness, a letter from you was 
 handed to me, at the end of which you say: "Mis- 
 cinius Rufus, whom you recommend to me, I will 
 make king of Gaul, or, if you choose, put him under 
 the care of Lepta. Send me some one else to pro- 
 mote." ... I therefore send you Trebatius, and 
 on two grounds, first, that it was my spontaneous idea 
 65 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WETTING 
 
 to send him, and secondly, because you have invited 
 me to do so. ... As for him I guarantee . . . 
 that no honester, better, or more modest man exists ; 
 added to this, he is at the top of his profession as 
 jurisconsult, possesses an unequaled memory and the 
 most profound learning. For such a man I ask 
 neither a tribuneship, prefecture, nor any definite 
 office ; I ask only your good will and liberality. . . 
 Be careful of your health and continue to love me 
 as ever. 
 
 7/77. LETTEES OF REQUEST 
 
 ROBERT BURNS TO ROBERT GRAHAM, ESQ. 
 
 Sir: 
 
 When I had the honor of being introduced to you 
 at Athole House, I did not so soon think of asking a 
 favor of you. When Lear, in Shakespeare, asked old 
 Kent why he wished to be in his service, he answered : 
 "Because you have that in your face which I would 
 fain call master." For some such reason, Sir, do I 
 now solicit your patronage. You know, I dare say, 
 of an application I lately made to your Board to be 
 admitted an officer of Excise. I have, according to 
 form, been examined by a supervisor, and to-day I 
 gave in his certificate, with a request for an order 
 for instructions. In this affair, if I succeed, I am 
 afraid I shall but too much need a patronizing friend. 
 Propriety of conduct as a man, and fidelity and at- 
 tention as an officer, I dare engage for; but with 
 66 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 anything like business, except manual labor, I am 
 totally unacquainted. 
 
 I had intended to close my late appearance on the 
 stage of life in the character of a country farmer; 
 but after discharging some filial and fraternal 
 claims, I find I could only fight for existence in that 
 miserable manner which I have lived to see throw 
 a venerable parent into the jaws of a jail; whence 
 death, the poor man's last and often best friend, res- 
 cued him. 
 
 I know, Sir, that to need your goodness is to have 
 claim on it ; may I, therefore, beg your patronage to 
 forward me in this affair till I be appointed to a 
 division, where by the use of rigid economy, I will try 
 to support that independence so dear to my soul, but 
 which has been too often so distant from my sit- 
 uation? ROBERT BURNS. 
 
 REFUSAL TO COMPLY WITH REQUEST 
 FROM JOHN RUSKIN 
 
 BRANTWOOD, CONISTON, LANCASHIRE, 
 
 May 19, 1886. 
 Sir: 
 
 I am scornfully amused at }^our appeal to me, of all 
 people in the world the precisely least likely to give 
 you a farthing! My first word to all men and boys 
 who care to hear me is "Don't get into debt. Starve 
 and go to heaven but don't borrow. Try first beg- 
 
 67 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 ging I don't mind, if it's really needful, stealing! 
 But don't buy things you can't pay for !" * * * 
 Ever, nevertheless, and in all this saying, 
 Your faithful servant, 
 
 JOHN RUSKIN. 
 
 FROM RICHARD WATSON GILDER, WITH THE RETURN OF 
 A MANUSCRIPT 
 
 MARION, MASS., August 19, 1885. 
 My dear : 
 
 The little MS. book you let me see (and I thank 
 you for the compliment) interested me greatly. 
 
 The criticism I would make on it is similar to the 
 one I remember making on a poem by a charming 
 young woman to whom I lately returned her manu- 
 script. I find color here, poetic color, as I find it on 
 the palette of a painter, it has a rich look, but it 
 has not been put on canvas in the form of a picture. 
 In other words, I find lovely thoughts and poetic 
 lines, but seldom, if ever, what seemed to me a com- 
 plete and satisfying poem. I may be mistaken in 
 this but the person who wrote that little book can, 
 and will, if he buckles to it, write genuine and fin- 
 ished poems. So mote it be ! 
 
 Sincerely, 
 
 R. W. GILDER. 
 
 68 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 IX. LETTERS OF ADVICE 
 
 LORD CHESTERFIELD TO HIS SON 
 
 4 
 
 LONDON, July the 26th, 1748. 
 Dear Boy: 
 
 There are two sorts of understandings; one of 
 which hinders a man from ever being considerable, 
 and the other commonly makes him ridiculous; I 
 mean the lazy mind, and the trifling, frivolous mind. 
 Yours, I hope, is neither. The lazy mind will not 
 take the trouble of going to the bottom of anything, 
 but, discouraged by the first difficulties (and every- 
 thing worth knowing or having is attended with 
 some), stops short, contents itself with easy, and con- 
 sequently, superficial, knowledge, and prefers a great 
 degree of ignorance to a small degree of trouble. 
 These people either think or represent most things 
 as impossible, whereas few things are so to industry 
 and activity. But difficulties seem to them impossi- 
 bilities, or at least they pretend to think them so, by 
 way of excuse for their laziness. An hour's attention 
 to the same object is too laborious for them; they 
 take everything in the light in which it first presents 
 itself, never consider it in all its different views, and, 
 in short, never think it thorough. The consequence 
 of this is, that when they come to speak upon these 
 subjects before people who have considered them 
 with attention, they only discover their own ignor- 
 ance and laziness, and lay themselves open to answers 
 69 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 that put them in confusion. Do not, then, be discour- 
 aged by the first difficulties but resolve to go to the 
 bottom of all those things which every gentleman 
 ought to know well. Such are languages, history, 
 and geography, ancient and modern; philosophy, ra- 
 tional logic, rhetoric; and, for you particularly, the 
 constitution, and the civil and military state of 
 every country in Europe. This, I confess, is a pretty 
 large circle of knowledge, attended with some diffi- 
 culties, and requiring some trouble; which, how- 
 ever, an active and industrious mind will overcome, 
 and be amply repaid by. Read only useful books, 
 and never quit a subject till you are thoroughly 
 master of it, but read and inquire on till then. When 
 you are in company, bring the conversation to some 
 useful subject. Never be ashamed nor afraid of 
 asking questions; for if they lead to information, 
 and if you accompany them with some excuse, you 
 will never be reckoned an impertinent or rude ques- 
 tioner. Adieu. 
 
 FROM JOHN" BURROUGHS 
 
 WEST PARK, N. Y., April 3d, '93. 
 Dear Boys and Girls: 
 
 I write you this line on my birthday, my fifty- 
 sixth. And the best thing I can say about myself is 
 that I am at heart a boy still. One may lose wealth 
 and regain it, one may lose health and regain it, 
 one may lose friends and find others, but youth once 
 
 70 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 gone is gone for ever. The best receipt I know of 
 to keep the heart young is love of nature. Love, 
 anyway, is the great preserver, while hate, envy, jeal- 
 ousy, are the real destroyers. To keep your hearts 
 young keep them full of love. 
 
 Always your friend, 
 
 JOHN BURROUGHS. 
 
 EDWARD ROWLAND SILL TO A PUPIL 
 
 Your question of 26th May was too good a one to 
 leave so long unanswered. It was not left as being 
 too hard to answer, but I have been very busy, and 
 really could not find time to settle myself to say any- 
 thing on so important a question till to-night, and 
 now it must be a brief note. 
 
 The real value of "being well read" seems to me 
 to be in the wider and truer life it gives us. By 
 "wider" I mean that our thoughts and feelings and 
 purposes are more complex and more consonant with 
 the complexity and manifoldness of the universe we 
 live in: the microcosm gets a little even if a very 
 little nearer in quantity and quality to the macro- 
 cosm. The crystal leads such a narrow life just 
 along one little line a single law of facet and angle ; 
 the plant a little wider; the fish a little wider; and 
 the different sorts of people widening and widening 
 out in their inner activities and much according to 
 their reading (since living human contact is not pos- 
 sible, except with a few relatives and neighbors). 
 
 71 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 And by truer life, I mean truer to nature ; more as 
 we were meant to be; the inner relations between 
 ideas corresponding closer to the outer relations, or 
 "real" relations, between things. These real-thing- 
 relations are in fact very complex and vastly inclu- 
 sive ; so must the thoughts and feelings be, if "true," 
 or truly correspondent or mirror-like to them. 
 
 I don't see that culture (unless you spell it wrong 
 [cult your]) needs, or tends at all, to cut one off 
 from human warmth. Are not some of the "best- 
 read" people you know or hear of some of the broad- 
 est-hearted also? The very essence of culture is 
 shaking off the nightmare of self-consciousness and 
 self-absorption and attaining a sort of Christian 
 Nirvana lost in the great whole of humanity, 
 thinking of others, caring for others, admiring and 
 loving others. 
 
 I should like to have you write me more fully 
 about it some time. 
 
 Taken from A Memorial of Edward Rowland Sill, printed 
 for private circulation and containing, together with a few of 
 his letters, the papers read at the memorial meeting held by 
 the Berkeley Club at Oakland, California, 14th April, 1887. 
 
 FROM CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER 
 
 UNIVERSITY CLUB, MADISON SQUARE, 
 
 NEW YORK, March 11, 1893. 
 Dear Indianapolis Children: 
 
 It is your privilege to be young. It is a great op- 
 portunity. The world is also before you, and you can 
 make it for yourselves, substantially, what you will. 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 For, remember, this world you are to live in and see 
 the work of is yourselves. I pity a boy and still more 
 a girl who is not good company for himself or her- 
 self. And the person who is not good company for 
 himself will not ha good company for anybody else. 
 
 Most of you will live in the twentieth century. It is 
 going to be a great century. I hope you are getting 
 ready for it, and will help to make it a good deal 
 better than the nineteenth. 
 
 With cordial greetings, yours sincerely, 
 
 CHAS. DUDLEY WARNER. 
 
 FROM EDWARD EGGLESTON 
 
 Dear Boys and Girls: 
 
 My advice to you is to try to have a good time in 
 the world. Get your pleasure always at your own and 
 not at other people's expense; let it always be good, 
 honest, clean happiness, with nothing wrong about it. 
 But don't, on any account, fail to have a good time. 
 If life should go hard with you, so that you can't have 
 a very good time, why, then have just as good a time 
 as you can at all hazards. 
 
 EDW. EGGLESTON. 
 
 New York, March, 1893. 
 
 73 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WRITING 
 
 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL TO EDWARD M. DAVIS 
 
 ELMWOOD, July 24, 1845. 
 My Dear Friend: 
 
 . . . If you had cast about for a hard question 
 to ask me, you could not have been more successful 
 than in desiring my advice in a course of reading. 
 I suppose that very few men who are bred scholars 
 ever think of such a thing as a course of reading 
 after their freshman year in college. Their situation 
 throws books constantly in their way, and they select 
 by a kind of instinct the food which will suit their 
 mental digestion, acquiring knowledge insensibly, as 
 the earth gathers soil. This was wholly the case 
 with myself. ... If I were in your case, I 
 should read History. Hume and Smollett for Eng- 
 land, Robertson for Scotland, Niebuhr and Gibbon 
 for Rome, Mitford for Greece, Bancroft for America, 
 Thucydides and Livy and Herodotus you can read in 
 translations, also Tacitus. Read them always with a 
 modern eye and note how exactly alike men have 
 been in all ages of the world, as far as the external 
 motives of life go. In the internal you will find a 
 steady progress. You will see men in every age with 
 high moral principle . . . with inspiration. 
 . . . After you have once begun to read you will 
 need no advice. One book will lead to another and 
 that to a third. . . . Farewell. 
 
 I remain, with true love, your friend, 
 
 J. R. L. 
 
 From Letters of James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Copyrighted, 1893, by Harper & Bros. 
 
 74 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 X. LETTERS OF APPRECIATION 
 
 1. Of Music 
 
 * 
 
 SIDNEY LANIER TO HIS WIFE 
 
 (Extracts) 
 
 1874. 
 
 To-day I played for the great Dr. Damrosch, and 
 won him. I sang the Wind Song to him. When I 
 finished he came and shook my hand, and said it was 
 done like an artist: that it was wonderful, in view 
 of my education ; and that he was greatly astonished 
 and pleased with the poetry of the piece and the en- 
 thusiasm of its rendering. He then closed the door 
 on his next pupil, and kept him waiting in the front 
 parlor a half-hour, while giving me a long talk. I 
 had told him that I wished to pursue music. He 
 said, "Do you know what that means? It means a 
 great deal of work; it means a thousand sacri- 
 fices. It is very hazardous." I replied, I knew all 
 that; but it was not a matter of mere preference, it 
 was a spiritual necessity, I must be a musician, I 
 could not help it. This seemed to please him ; and he 
 went on to speak as no other musician here could 
 speak, of many things. He is the only poet among 
 the craft here; and is a thoroughly cultivated man. 
 in all particulars. He offered to do all he could in 
 my behalf; and was, altogether, the gentleman and 
 the wise artist. 
 
 75 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 NEW YORK, August 15, 1870. 
 Ah, how they have belied Wagner ! I heard Theo- 
 dore Thomas's orchestra play his overture to Tann- 
 hduser. The "Music of the Future" is surely thy 
 music and my music. Each harmony was a chorus of 
 pure aspirations. The sequences flowed along, one 
 after another, as if all the great and noble deeds of 
 time had formed a procession and marched in review- 
 before one's ears, instead of one's eyes. These "great 
 and noble deeds" were not deeds of war and states- 
 manship, but majestic victories of inner struggles of a 
 man. This unbroken march of beautiful-bodied tri- 
 umphs irresistibly invites the soul of a man to create 
 other processions like it. I would I might lead a so 
 magnificent file of glories into heaven. 
 
 MACON, GA., March 3, 1870. 
 
 If the year were an orchestra, to-day would be the 
 calm-passionate, even, intense, quiet, full, ineffable 
 flute therein. In this sunshine one is penetrated 
 with flute-tones. 
 
 The passion of the struggling births of a thousand 
 spring-germs mingles itself with the peaceful smiles 
 of the heavens and with the tender agitation of the 
 air. It is a mellow sound, with a shimmer of light 
 trembling through it. 
 
 To-day is a prophecy of the new earth : as ... 
 Music is a prophecy of another life. To-day floats 
 down Time as one petal of a Lily on the bosom of a 
 swift stream, silently it tells, at once, of the gap it 
 has left in the full Lily, and of the ocean whither it 
 
 76 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 drifts to be engulfed, to die, and to live again in 
 other forms. 
 
 To-day comes as a friend with some serene great 
 joy in his eyes. He whispers his sacred exultation: 
 and will not speak k aloud, for its holiness. 
 
 From The Letters of Sidney Lanier. 
 
 Coyprighted by Charles Scribner's Sons. 
 
 2. Of Nature 
 
 MARIA WHITE TO MRS. HAWTHORNE 
 
 (Extracts) 
 
 . . . Is not June the crown of the year, the Car- 
 nival of Nature, when the trees pelt each other with 
 blossoms, and are stirring and bending when no wind 
 is near them, because they are so full of inward life, 
 and must shiver for joy to feel how fast the sap is 
 rushing up from the ground ? On such days can you 
 sing anything but "Oh, beautiful love ?" Doesn't it 
 seem as if Nature wore your livery and wished to 
 show the joy of your heart in every possible form? 
 The everlasting hum and seething of myriad life 
 satisfies and soothes me. I feel as if something were 
 going on in the world, else why all this shouting, and 
 bedecking of every weed in its best, this endless 
 strain from every tiny weed or great oaken flute? 
 All that can not sing, dances; the gnats in the air 
 and the long-legged spider on the water. Even the 
 77 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 ants and beetles, the workers that are quoted for ex- 
 amples by hoarding men,, run about doing nothing, 
 putting their busy antenna? into everything, tum- 
 bling over the brown mold for sheer enjoyment, 
 and running home at last without the little white pa- 
 per parcel in their mouths which gives them so re- 
 spectable an air. Doubtless the poor things are 
 scolded by their infirm parents, who sit sunning 
 themselves at the door of their house. 
 
 . . . Beetles seem to me to have a pleasant life, 
 because they, who have fed for two or three years 
 underground upon the roots, come forth at last 
 winged, and find their nourishment in the blooms of 
 the very same tree. It comforts me, because we have 
 ourselves to eat many bitter roots here, whose per- 
 fect flower shall one day delight us. This, dear 
 Sophia, has been a long ramble. 
 
 I promised to copy that sonnet of James's for you, 
 so I enclose it. 
 
 With true sympathy and love, 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 MARIA WHITE. 
 
 By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 
 From Memories of Hawthorne, by Rose Hawthorne 
 Lathrop. 
 
 WILLIAM COWPER TO JOHN JOHN, ESQUIRE 
 
 WESTON, March 11, 1792. 
 My Dearest Johnny: 
 
 You talk of primroses that you pulled on Candle- 
 mas day; but what think you of me who heard a 
 
 78 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 nightingale on New Year's day? Perhaps I am the 
 only man in England who can boast of such good for- 
 tune; good, indeed; for if it was at all an omen, it 
 could not be an unfavorable one. The winter, how- 
 ever, is now making himself amends, and seems the 
 more peevish for having been encroached on at so 
 undue a season. Nothing less than a large slice out 
 of the spring will satisfy him. 
 
 Lady Hesketh left us yesterday. She intended, in- 
 deed, to have left us four days sooner; but in the 
 evening before the day fixed for her departure, snow 
 enough fell to occasion just so much delay of it. 
 
 Forget not your promised visit. 
 
 W. C. 
 
 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL TO CHARLES ELIOT NORTON 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, 2d day of Holy Week, 
 
 May, 1859. 
 
 . . . I miss you like thunder ga va sans dire 
 especially in this George-Herbert's-Sunday kind of 
 weather, which is cool and calm and bright as can be 
 thought. I fancy you listening to the bobolinks 
 among the fresh grass on the lawn. I heard them 
 yesterday on my way to the printing-office for the 
 first time this spring. That liquid tinkle of theirs 
 is the true fountain of youth, if one can only drink 
 it with the right ears, and I always date the New 
 Year from the day of my first draught. Messer Eob- 
 erto di Lincoln, with his summer alb over his shoul- 
 79 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WRITING 
 
 ders, is the chorister for the bridals of earth and sky 
 . . . The robin sings matins and vespers some- 
 what conscientiously, but Bob squanders song like a 
 poet. . . . Yesterday, I indulged in my favorite 
 pastime of sitting on a fence and basking. The 
 landscape was perfect. . . . Sweet Auburn pink 
 with new-leaved oaks. Corey's Hill green in the 
 hayfields, and brown with squares of freshly turned 
 furrows (versus, the Farmer's poem), the orchards 
 rosy with apple-blooms, the flowering grasses just 
 darkening the meadows to set off the gold of the 
 buttercups, here and there pale splashes of Houstonia 
 dropt from the Galaxy, and the river all blue and 
 gold. This is Cambridge, sir! What is Newport to 
 this? But I am bobolinking, instead of attending 
 to business. 
 
 From Letters of James Russell Lowell. 
 
 Copyrighted, 1893, by Harper & Bros. 
 
 EMERSON TO CARLYLE 
 
 (Extract) 
 
 CONCORD, 14th May, 1846. 
 Dear Friend: 
 
 . . . I, too, have a new plaything, the best 1 
 ever had a wood lot. Last fall I bought a piece of 
 more than forty acres on the border of a little lake, 
 half a mile wide and more, called Walden Pond a 
 place to which my feet have for years been accus- 
 tomed to bring me once or twice a week at all sea- 
 
 80 
 
LETTEKS AND LETTEK WETTING 
 
 sons. My lot, to be sure, is on the farther side of the 
 water, not so familiar to me as the nearer shore. 
 Some of the wood is an old growth, but most of it 
 has been cut off within twenty years and is growing 
 thrifty. In these May days, when maples, poplars, 
 oaks, birches, walnut and pine are in their spring 
 glory, I go thither every afternoon and cut with my 
 hatchet an Indian path through the thicket all along 
 the bold shore, and open the finest pictures. My two 
 little girls know the road now, though it is nearly 
 two miles from my house, and find their way to the 
 spring at the foot of a pine grove. 
 
 At a good distance in from the shore the land 
 rises to a rocky head perhaps sixty feet above the 
 water. Thereon I think to place a tent; perhaps it 
 will have two stories and be a pretty tower, looking 
 out to Monadnock and other New Hampshire moun- 
 tains. There I hope to go with book and pen when 
 good hours come. . . . What have we to do with 
 old age? Our existence looks to me more than ever 
 initial. We have come to see the ground and look 
 up materials and tools. The men who have any 
 positive quality are a flying advance party for rec- 
 onnoitering. We shall yet have a right to work, as 
 kings and competitors. 
 
 With ever affectionate remembrance to your wife, 
 Your friend, 
 
 K. W. EMERSON. 
 
 By special permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 
 From The Correspondence of Emerson and Carlyle, 
 1834-1872. 
 
 81 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 N. P. WILLIS TO THE UNKNOWN PURCHASER AND NEXT 
 OCCUPANT OF GLENMARY 
 
 Sir: 
 
 In selling you the dew and the sunshine ordained 
 to fall hereafter on this bright spot of earth the 
 waters on their way to this sparkling brook the 
 tints mixed for the meadow, and the songs bidden 
 to be sung in coming summers by the feathery 
 builders in Glenmary, I know not whether to won- 
 der more at the omnipotence of money, or at my 
 own impertinent audacity toward Nature. How 
 can you buy the right to exclude at will every other 
 creature made in God's image from sitting by this 
 brook, treading on that carpet of flowers, or lying 
 listening to the birds in the shade of these glorious 
 trees how I can sell it to you, is a mystery not un- 
 derstood by the Indian, and dark, I must say, to 
 me. . . . 
 
 First of all, sir, let me plead for the old trees of 
 Glenmary ! Ah ! those friendly old trees'! the col- 
 lege stands belted in with them, a thousand visible 
 from the door, and of stems and branches worthy of 
 the great valley of the Susquehannah. For how 
 much music played without thanks am I indebted 
 to those half -organs of changing tone? for how 
 many whisperings of thought breathed like oracles 
 into my ear? for how many new shapes of beauty 
 molded in the leaves by the wind? for how much 
 companionship, solace and welcome? Steadfast and 
 constant is the countenance of such friends. God 
 
 82 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 be praised for their staid welcome and sweet fidelity ! 
 If I love them better than some things human, it 
 is no fault of ambitiousness in trees. They stand 
 where they did. . ^ . . One may be glad of dumb 
 friendships. 
 
 Spare those old trees, gentle sir. 
 
 N. P. WILLIS. 
 
 A PICTURE OF TENNYSON, FROM EDWARD FITZGERALD 
 TO FANNY KEMBLE 
 
 WOODBRIDGE, Sept. 21, 1876. 
 Dear Mrs. Kemble: 
 
 Have your American Woods begun to hang out 
 their Purple and Gold yet? on this Day of Equinox. 
 Some of ours begin to look rusty, after Summer 
 Drought, but have not turned yellow yet. I was 
 talking of this to a Heroine of mine who lives near 
 here, but visits the Highlands of Scotland, which 
 she loves better than Suffolk and she said of those 
 Highland Trees, "0, they give themselves no dying 
 Airs, but turn Orange in a Day, and are swept off in 
 a Whirlwind, and Winter is come." . . . And 
 now who should send in his card to me last week 
 but the old Poet [Tennyson] himself he and his 
 elder Son Hallam passing through Woodbridge from 
 a Tour in Norfolk. "Dear old Fitz," ran the Card in 
 Pencil, "We are passing thro'." I had not seen him 
 for twenty years he looked much the same, except 
 for his fallen Locks: and what really surprised me 
 83 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 was, that we fell at once into the old Humor, as if 
 we had only been parted twenty Days instead of 
 so many years. . . . He stayed two Days, and 
 we went over the same old ground of Debate, told 
 some of the old Stories, and all was well. I suppose 
 I may never see him again; and so I suppose we 
 both thought as the Rail carried him off: and each 
 returned to his ways as if scarcely diverted from 
 them. ... I liked Hallam much; unaffected, 
 unpretending no slang, none of Young England's 
 nonchalance speaking of his Father as "Papa" and 
 tending him with great Care, Love, and Discretion. 
 Mrs. A. T. is much out of health, and scarce leaves 
 Home, I think. . . . Ever yours, 
 
 E. F. G. 
 
 3. Of Scenes 
 
 LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU TO THE COUNTESS OF 
 MAR 
 
 VIENNA, Sept. 8, 0. S. 1716. 
 I am now, my dear sister, safely arrived at Vienna 
 . . . We traveled by water from Ratisbon a 
 journey perfectly agreeable, down the Danube, in 
 one of those little vessels that they very properly 
 call wooden houses, having in them almost all the 
 conveniences of a palace, stoves in the chambers, 
 kitchens, etc. They are rowed by twelve men each, 
 and move with an incredible swiftness, so that in the 
 same day you have the pleasure of a vast variety of 
 84 
 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 prospects ; and within a few hours' space of time one 
 has the different diversion of seeing a populous city 
 adorned with magnificent palaces and the most ro- 
 mantic solitudes. . . . This town, which has the 
 honor of being the "emperor's residence, did not at 
 all answer my idea of it. ... The streets are 
 very close, and so narrow one can not observe the fine 
 fronts of the palaces, though many of them very 
 well deserve observation, being truly magnificent, all 
 built of fine white stone. . . . They are com- 
 monly a suite of eight or ten large rooms, all inlaid, 
 the doors and windows richly carved and gilt, and 
 furniture such as is seldom seen in the palaces of 
 sovereign princes in other countries, they hang the 
 finest tapestry of Brussels, prodigious large looking- 
 glasses in silver frames, fine Japan tables, beds, 
 chairs, canopies and window-curtains of the richest 
 Genoa damask or velvet, almost covered with gold 
 lace or embroidery, the whole made gay by pictures 
 and vast jars of Japan china, and almost in every 
 room large lusters of rock crystal. . . . 
 
 LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU TO THE LADY 
 
 ADRIANOPLE, April 1, 0. S. 1717. 
 
 I am now into a new world, where everything I xYK' 
 see appears to me a change of scene . . . but 
 I must not omit what I saw remarkable at Sophia, 
 one of the most beautiful towns in the Turkish Em- 
 pire, and famous for its hot baths. ... I 
 stopped here one day to see them. Desiring to go 
 85 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WHITING 
 
 incognito, I hired a Turkish coach. ... In one 
 of these covered wagons I went to the bagnio about 
 ten o'clock. It was already full of women. . . . 
 I was in my traveling habit, which is a riding dress, 
 and certainly appeared very extraordinary to them. 
 Yet there was not one of them that showed the least 
 surprise or impertinent curiosity, but received me 
 with all the obliging civility possible. I know no 
 European court where the ladies would have behaved 
 themselves in so polite a manner to a stranger. 
 . . . There were many amongst them as exactly 
 proportioned as ever any goddess was drawn by the 
 pencil of Guido or Titian. 
 
 SHELLEY TO T. L. PEACOCK 
 
 NAPLES, December 22, 1818. 
 My dear P: 
 
 . . . Since last I wrote to you, I have seen 
 the ruins of Rome, the Vatican, St. Peter's, and all 
 the miracles of ancient and modern art contained 
 in that majestic city. The impression of it exceeds 
 anything I have ever experienced in my travels. 
 . . . We visited the Forum and the ruins of the 
 Colosseum every day. The Colosseum is unlike any 
 work of human hands I ever saw before. It is of 
 enormous height and circuit, and the arches, built 
 of massive stones, are piled on one another, and jut 
 into the blue air, shattered into the forms of over- 
 hanging rocks. It has been changed by time into 
 the image of an amphitheater of rocky hills over- 
 
 86 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WRITING 
 
 grown by wild olive, the myrtle, and the fig-tree, 
 and threaded by little paths, which wind among its 
 ruined stairs and immeasurable galleries: the copse- 
 wood overshadows you as you wander through its 
 labyrinths, and the wild weeds of this climate of 
 flowers bloom under your feet. The arena is covered 
 with grass, and pierces like the skirts of a natural 
 plain, the chasms of the broken arches around. But 
 a small part of the exterior circumference remains 
 it is exquisitely light and beautiful and the effect 
 of the perfection of its architecture, adorned with 
 ranges of Corinthian pilasters, supporting a bold 
 cornice is such as to diminish the effect of its great- 
 ness. The interior is all ruin. I can scarcely be- 
 lieve that when encrusted with Dorian marble and 
 ornamented by columns of Egyptian granite, its 
 effect could have been so sublime and so impressive 
 as in its present state. It is open to the sky, and 
 it was the clear and sunny weather of the end of 
 November in this climate when we visited it day 
 after day. 
 
 SHELLEY TO T. L. PEACOCK 
 
 (His Impressions of the Alps) 
 (Extract) 
 
 . . . From Servoz three leagues remain to 
 
 Chamouni, Mont Blanc was before us the Alps, 
 
 with their innumerable glaciers on high all round, 
 
 closing in the complicated windings of the single 
 
 87 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 vale forests inexpressibly beautiful, but majestic 
 in their beauty intermingled beech and pine, and 
 oak, overshadowed our road, or receded, whilst lawns 
 of such verdure as I have never seen before, occupied 
 these openings, and gradually became darker in 
 their recesses. Mont Blanc was before us, but it was 
 covered with cloud ; its base, furrowed with dreadful 
 gaps, was seen above. Pinnacles of snow intolerably 
 bright, part of the chain connected with Mont Blanc, 
 shone through the clouds at intervals on high. I 
 never knew I never imagined what mountains 
 were before. The immensity of these aerial summits, 
 excited, when they suddenly burst upon the sight, a 
 sentiment of ecstatic wonder, not unallied to mad- 
 ness. And remember this was all one scene, it all 
 pressed home to our regard and our imagination. 
 Though it embraced a vast extent of space, the 
 snowy pyramids which shot into the bright blue sky 
 seemed to overhang our path; the ravine, clothed 
 with gigantic pines, and black with its depth below, 
 so deep that the very roaring of the untamable 
 Arve, which rolled through it, could not be heard 
 above all was as much our own, as if we had been 
 the creators of such impressions in the minds of 
 others as now occupied our own. Nature was the 
 poet, whose harmony held our spirit more breathless 
 than that of the divinest. . . . 
 
 As we entered the valley of Chamouni, clouds 
 hung upon the mountains at the distance perhaps of 
 6000 feet from the earth, but so as effectually to 
 conceal, not only Mont Blanc, but the other aiguilles, 
 
 88 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 as they call them here, attached and subordinate to 
 it. We were traveling along the valley, when sud- 
 denly we heard a sound as of the burst of smothered 
 thunder rolling above; yet there was something in 
 the sound, that toTd us it could not be thunder. Our 
 guide hastily pointed out to us a part of the moun- 
 tain opposite, from whence the sound came. It was 
 an avalanche. We saw the smoke of its path among 
 the rocks, and continued to hear at intervals the 
 bursting of its fall. It fell on the bed of a torrent, 
 which it displaced, and presently we saw its tawny- 
 colored waters also spread themselves over the ravine, 
 which was their couch. 
 
 4- Of Character 
 FROM DAVID STARR JORDAN, UPON AGASSIZ 
 
 STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CAL., 
 
 December 13, 1901. 
 Dear friends: 
 
 In response to Miss 's request I take pleasure 
 
 in giving a few recollections of mine of the great 
 teacher Agassiz, which I have used elsewhere. 
 
 He was above all else a teacher. His work in 
 America was that of a teacher of science, of science 
 in the broadest sense as the orderly arrangement 
 of the results of all human experience. He would 
 teach men to know, not simply to remember or to 
 guess. He believed that men in all walks of life 
 89 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WRITING 
 
 would be more useful and more successful through 
 the thorough development of the powers of observa- 
 tion and judgment. He believed that the sense of 
 reality should be the central axis of human life. 
 He would have the student trained through contact 
 with real things, not merely exercised in the recol- 
 lection of the book descriptions of things. "If you 
 study Nature in books/' he said, "when you go out 
 of doors you can not find her." 
 
 The boundless enthusiasm which surrounded 
 Agassiz like an atmosphere, and which sometimes 
 gave the appearance of great achievement to the 
 commonest things, was never lacking. He was al- 
 ways an optimist, and his strength lay largely in his 
 realization of the value of the present moment. He 
 was a living illustration of the aphorism of Thoreau, 
 that "there is no hope for you unless the bit of sod 
 under your feet is the sweetest in this world in any 
 world." The thing he had in hand was the thing 
 worth doing, and the men about him were the men 
 worth helping. 
 
 He was always picturesque in his words and his 
 work. He delighted in the love and approbation of 
 his students and his friends, and the influence of his 
 personality sometimes gave his opinions weight be- 
 yond the value of the investigations on which they 
 were based. With no other investigator have the 
 work and the man been so identified as with Agassiz. 
 No other of the great workers has been equally great 
 as a teacher. His greatest work in science was his 
 
 90 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 influence on otHer men. He was a constant stimulus 
 and inspiration. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 DAVID STARR JORDAN. 
 
 GEORGE W. CURTIS TO JOHN J. PINKERTON 
 
 (Lincoln) 
 
 NORTH SHORE, RICHMOND Co., N. Y. 
 
 July 9, '61. 
 My dear Pirikerton : 
 
 I have been long meaning to say how d'ye do, and 
 now your note is most welcome. 
 
 I have two brothers at the war, and my wife has 
 one. My neighbor and friend, Theodore Winthrop, 
 died at Great Bethel, as he had lived. Many other 
 warm friends are in arms and I hold myself ready 
 when the call comes. I envy no other age. I be- 
 lieve with all my heart in the cause, and in Abe Lin- 
 coln. His message is the most truly American mes- 
 sage ever delivered. Think upon what a millennial 
 year we have fallen when the president of the United 
 States declares officially that this government is 
 founded upon the rights of man ! Wonderfully 
 acute, simple, sagacious, and of antique honesty ! I 
 can forgive the jokes and the big hands, and the ina- 
 bility to make bows. Some of us who doubted were 
 wrong. This people is not rotten. What the young 
 men dream, the old men shall see. 
 91 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 My wife sends her kind remembrance. We have 
 a little girl, born on the day of the Proclamation. 
 Yours always, 
 
 GrEORGE WlLLIAM CURTIS. 
 
 By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 From Gary's Life of G. W. Curtis. 
 
 FROM THE REV. JENKIN LLOYD JONES 
 
 (Lincoln) 
 
 CHICAGO, ILL., February 20, 1902. 
 My dear Friend: 
 
 Last night I was at the University Congregational 
 Church at a Washington-Lincoln memorial meeting. 
 I thought of you and must ease my heart by telling 
 you of the meeting. I spoke of the "sad humorist 
 of the Sangamon." What a message there is to the 
 young people of our day in that story. Lincoln, the 
 debater, the orator, the great president, the most 
 benignant commander, is becoming better and better 
 known. Our children will know him better than we 
 do, but the Lincoln of the backwoods, the child of 
 the pioneer, the humble, lonely student, is passed 
 away because his life is fading away. The boys and 
 girls in modern school-houses, overwhelmed with the 
 new education, can little realize how it was once 
 possible for bare-footed children, crowded into log 
 school-houses, sitting on puncheon benches, with 
 faces to the wall, to revel in their stories of Demos- 
 thenes and Cicero, rejoice in bits of Greek and Latin 
 
 92 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 eloquence, court familiarity with the heroes and he- 
 roines of Shakespeare, dream of future culture and 
 public usefulness ; but such was possible to thousands 
 upon thousands of children belonging to the pioneer 
 life of the middle' West in the forties and fifties. 
 
 In those days the pioneer was not the adventurer 
 cresting the forward wave of emigration with drunk- 
 enness, gambling and profanity, as was the case 
 with the settlements of our farther West when the 
 settler was anticipated by the railroad and the 
 saloon; but those emigrants were home-seekers; they 
 did not seek to make fortunes, but to make a living. 
 The Bible and hymn-book were their consolation 
 and the groves were indeed their first temples. To 
 this life did Lincoln belong, out of it did he come, 
 and to it his genius was related. Just now my 
 heart has warmed again to the "sad humorist of the 
 Sangamon," in whom sadness was so allied to laugh- 
 ter. Always cordially yours, 
 
 JENKIN LLOYD JONES. 
 
 93 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WETTING 
 
 XL LETTERS IN CONNECTION WITH LIT- 
 ERATURE STUDY 
 
 1. Tennyson 
 
 HENRY VAN" DYKE TO THE JUNIOR CLASS IN THE 
 SHORTRIDGE HIGH SCHOOL AT INDIANAPOLIS 
 
 AVALON, PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY. 
 M y dear friends : 
 
 Your very kind letters have been forwarded to me 
 
 by Miss , and have interested me greatly. Your 
 
 teacher evidently believes that English Literature 
 is a living subject, and is not to be studied by 
 "laboratory methods," but by vital methods. This 
 seems to me the right way. Great authors are not 
 algebraic symbols; they are real men. Great books 
 are not chemical products to be analyzed: they are 
 messages from life to life ; they are reflections of the 
 human heart ; they are works of art, to be valued for 
 the joy they give and the meaning they impart. 
 
 I am glad that you think and speak of Tennyson's 
 characters as living persons, so that you have your 
 favorites among them, and even have disputes and 
 friendly quarrels about the comparative merits of 
 your heroes and heroines. [I knew two schoolmates 
 who had a regular fight about David Copperfield and 
 Henry Esmond. We did not "fight to a finish," so 
 it did us no harm; but I still think Esmond by far 
 the finer character.] 
 
 94 
 
LETTEKS AND LETTEE WKITING 
 
 Tennyson is rightly considered the most perfect 
 artist among Nineteenth Century English Poets. 
 But this is not merely because his verse is rich and 
 musical: it is because his work is also true, even in 
 the smallest details. You remember that beautiful 
 bit in Maud: 
 
 "Her feet have touch' 'd the meadows 
 And left the daisies rosy"? 
 
 If an American poet had written that about an 
 American girl, it would have been sentimental non- 
 sense. Why? Because the American daisy is all 
 white and yellow. There is nothing rosy about it. 
 But the English daisy is really pink on the under 
 side of its petals. So when Maud crossed the field 
 she really left her foot-prints marked in rose-color 
 in the upturned flowers where she had trodden. 
 
 If you are going to write about anything, the first 
 thing to do is to see it as it really is ; then you may 
 let your imagination illuminate it, and interpret the 
 bare fact in 
 
 "The light that never was on sea or land, 
 The consecration and the poet's dream." 
 
 It will not be possible to answer each of your let- 
 ters separately; and to pick out one for a response, 
 would hardly be fair to the other one hundred and 
 twenty-four. But I would like to tell you all a 
 little story about Tennyson, and leave you to say 
 
 95 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 whether you think it throws any light on his charac- 
 ter. 
 
 When I was staying at his house in 1892, (a few 
 weeks before the last illness,) he promised to write 
 an autograph for his portrait for me. "What shall 
 I write?" he asked. Thinking of his good life and 
 his great fame, I suggested a line from the Welling- 
 ton Ode: 
 
 "The path of duty is the way to glory." 
 
 He wrote it, and then turning over the sheet he said, 
 "Now I will write what I prefer/' This was his 
 choice : 
 
 "Love took up the Harp of Life and smote on all the 
 
 chords with might, 
 Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, past in 
 
 music out of sight." 
 
 Will you give my sincere regards to your teacher, 
 and my thanks to her for the pleasure she has given 
 me ? I think, if you are wise, you will give her also 
 your own thanks for the work she has done to make 
 your studies interesting and your interests studious. 
 I am glad if any of you like my books. They are 
 all about the same subject, the only one that seems 
 to me worth writing about, Life. And this is what 
 I hope you all will have, (in the real sense,) and use 
 it for the highest ends, and enjoy it for ever. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 HENRY VAST DYKE. 
 Jan. 25, 1902. 
 
 96 
 
LETTEKS AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 2. Shakespeare 
 
 HAMILTON" WRIGHT MABIE TO A HIGH SCHOOL GIRL 
 
 The Outlook, 287 Fourth Avenue, New York. 
 My dear Friend: 
 
 Shakespeare's women are often adorable, some- 
 times detestable, occasionally terrible; but always 
 consistent and significant. Even when they seem to 
 lack individuality they heighten the individual 
 quality of some other character. To understand 
 Volumnia I think one must not only study of her 
 bearing and words, but must look at the reflection of 
 her character in the mind of her son. The key of a 
 man's nature is sometimes found in his influence 
 upon others. Volumnia is not elaborately sketched ; 
 hers is not one of the highly finished portraits; she 
 does not stand out as a sharply defined type of 
 Eoman motherhood. She has the Eoman ideals of 
 her son, she gives him the Eoman pride, but she has 
 a more complex nature. To her heroic spirit she 
 unites a clear mind and a hold upon realities, which 
 keep her pride in check and give it proportion. Her 
 son has her pride but lacks her intellect and flings 
 himself with blind obstinacy against the facts of his 
 situation. She would urge his pride to the height 
 of a great achievement, but when the height of its 
 legitimate unfolding is reached she urges control, 
 acceptance, recognition of other wills. In the su- 
 97 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 preme moment the son yields to the mother because 
 temperamentally they are in perfect sympathy, 
 while in intellect she is the stronger. He is a blind 
 force, she is an intelligent power. She is as proud 
 as he ; she has "a brain that leads (her) use of anger 
 to better vantage." 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 HAMILTON W. MABIE. 
 April 20, 1902. 
 
 XII. LETTERS OF SYMPATHY 
 
 L. M. CHILD TO MRS. S. B. SHAW 
 
 WAYLAND, 1876. 
 
 Whittier, in one of his letters to me, expresses 
 himself about your beloved Eobert thus: "I know 
 of nothing nobler or grander than the heroic self- 
 sacrifice of young Colonel Shaw. The only regiment 
 I ever looked upon during the war was the 54th, on 
 its departure for the South. I shall never forget 
 the scene. As he rode at the head of his troops, the 
 very flower of grace and chivalry, he seemed to me 
 beautiful and awful as an angel of God come down 
 to lead the host of freedom to victory. I have longed 
 to speak the emotions of that hour, but I dared not, 
 lest I should indirectly give a new impulse to war. 
 For his parents I feel that reverence which belongs 
 to the highest manifestations of devotion to duty 
 and forgetfulness of self, in view of the mighty in- 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WRITING 
 
 terests of humanity. There must be a noble pride 
 in their great sorrow. I am sure they would not 
 exchange their dead son for any living one." 
 
 By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 
 From Letters ofLydia Maria Child, by Whittier. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN TO A MOTHER WHO HAD LOST FIVE 
 SONS IN THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 Nov. 21 '64. 
 Mrs. Bixby, Boston. 
 
 Dear Madam: 
 
 I have been shown in the files of the War depart- 
 ment a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massa- 
 chusetts that you are the mother of five sons who 
 have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel 
 how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine 
 which should attempt to beguile you from the grief 
 of a loss so overwhelming. But I can not refrain 
 from tendering to you the consolation that may be 
 found in the thanks of the Republic they died to 
 save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may as- 
 suage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave 
 you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, 
 and the solemn pride that must be yours to have 
 laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. 
 Yours very sincerely and respectfully, 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 By permission of the Century Company. 
 
 99 
 
LETTEKS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 XIII. LETTERS OF FAREWELL 
 
 G. W. CURTIS TO J. R. LOWELL, JUST APPOINTED 
 MINISTER TO SPAIN 
 
 ASHFIELD, July 9, 1877. 
 My dear James: 
 
 I must not let you go without a word of love and 
 farewell, although I have meant to write you a let- 
 ter. I told Charles that on every ground, except 
 that you go away, I am delighted that you are going. 
 With me the case is very different. I happen to be 
 just in the position where I can be of infinitely 
 greater service to the good old cause, and to the ad- 
 ministration that is meaning and trying to advance 
 it, than I could possibly be abroad. Nothing has 
 done this administration more good, nor rejoiced so 
 many hearts as your appointment. You will be 
 blown on to your castles in Spain by a whirlwind of 
 benedictions. 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 G. W. C. 
 
 By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 From Gary's Life of Q. W. Curtis. 
 
 100 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 JOHN BROWN S LAST LETTER TO HIS FAMILY 
 
 CHARLESTOWN PRISON, JEFFERSON Co., VA., 
 
 - November 30, 1859. 
 
 My Dear Beloved Wife, Sons and Daughters, Every 
 
 One: 
 
 As I now begin, probably what is the last letter 
 I shall ever write to any of you, I conclude to write 
 to all at the same time. ... I am waiting the 
 hour of my public murder with great composure of 
 mind and cheerfulness; feeling the strong assurance 
 that in no other possible way could I be used to so 
 much advantage to the cause of God and humanity, 
 and that nothing that either I or my family have 
 sacrificed or suffered will be lost. The reflection 
 that a wise and merciful as well as a just and holy 
 God rules not only the affairs of this world but of all 
 worlds, is a rock to set our feet upon under all cir- 
 cumstances. I have now no doubt but that our seem- 
 ing disaster will ultimately result in a most glorious 
 success. So, my dear shattered and broken family, 
 be of good cheer, and believe and trust in God with 
 all your heart and with all your soul; for He doeth 
 all things well. ... To God and the work of 
 his grace I commend you all. 
 
 Your affectionate husband and father, 
 
 JOHN BROWN. 
 
 By permission of Little, Brown & Co. 
 
 101 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 ROBERT GOULD SHAW'S GOOD-BY . TO HIS FATHER, IN 
 EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-ONE 
 
 STATEN ISLAND, April 18, 1861. 
 My Dear Father: 
 
 When you get home you will hear why I am not 
 here to receive you. Badly as I feel at going before 
 you come, it seems the only way, unless I give it up 
 altogether, which you could not wish any more than I. 
 You shall hear from me as often as I possibly can 
 write, if only a few words at a time. We go to-mor- 
 row afternoon, and hope to be in Washington the fol- 
 lowing day. I want very much to go ; and with me, as 
 with most of the others, the only hard part is leaving 
 our friends. God bless you all, dear father. Excuse 
 the shortness of this farewell note. 
 
 [ROBERT SHAW.] 
 
 XIV. SPECIAL LETTERS FOR ARBOR DAY 
 
 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS, VICE-CHANCELLOR OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, TO W. 
 
 H. BENEDICT, ELMIRA, N. Y., FOR ARBOR DAY, 
 
 MAY THIRD, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND 
 
 EIGHTY-NINE 
 
 WEST NEW BRIGHTON, STATEN ISLAND, 
 
 April 17, 1889. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I am very glad that you propose fitting observance 
 of Arbor Day, which I think may be easily made one 
 102 
 
''31TY : 
 
 LETTERS V AJS T D LETTER WRITING 
 
 of the most interesting of our holidays. There is 
 probably not one of the pupils in your school who has 
 not a fondness for pet animals, for horses, dogs, cats, 
 squirrels, rabbits, and the charm lies largely in its life 
 and its dependence*upon its master. Arbor Day will 
 enlarge this friendly relation, so as to include trees. 
 They too are living and for their proper growth and 
 development they will depend largely upon the care 
 and intelligence of the boys and girls who are in- 
 terested in them. 
 
 This interest will be fostered as in the care of the 
 pet animals by the individual relation between the 
 trees and those who plant them. It will be stimulated 
 by the names to be given to the trees, and by the de- 
 sire to honor distinguished men and women and by 
 carefully tending the trees that bear their names. 
 All this will gradually lead inevitably to special 
 knowledge of the structure, character, growth and uses 
 of trees, to enjoyment of the allusions to them in lit- 
 erature, and their association with historical events, 
 like the Charter Oak in Hartford, and Sir Philip 
 Sidney's oak at Penshurst, which was planted at his 
 birth and which Ben Jonson and Edmund Waller 
 commemorated, and the Abbot's oak, and William the 
 Conqueror's oak at Windsor Park. 
 
 With this will come a keener interest in the signifi- 
 cance of trees and plants in national usages, and in 
 popular belief and proverbs, "There's rosemary, that's 
 remembrance." To be clad in mourning was to wear 
 the Willow. Old Fuller, the English worthy, calls 
 the willow a sad tree, and the forsaken lover sang, 
 103 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 "All around my hat I wear a green willow." The 
 Jews in captivity hung their harps upon the willows, 
 and to describe a melancholy landscape Sir Walter 
 Scott in The Lay of the Last Minstrel sings of "along 
 the wild and willowed shore." It was upon the Beech 
 tree that lovers, long before America was discovered, 
 carved the names of their sweethearts, and it was 
 upon the tree of which Amiens sung that Shakes- 
 peare's Orlando hung his verses to Rosalind. It 
 was the trees of Ardennes that wound their leaves over 
 the soldiers marching to Waterloo, "Grieving, if 
 aught inanimate e'er grieves over the unreturning 
 brave." Thus in every way trees are enwrought with 
 literature as with art. 
 
 "The groves were God's first temples," and Gothic 
 architecture reproduces the long drawn aisles and 
 fretted vault of the pine forest. 
 
 As the student advances into Latin and Greek, he 
 will find trees springing up all around him in the 
 form of allusions to the chaplets, wreaths and crowns 
 that were woven from their leaves, although they 
 do not appear in the classic poets as figures of beauty 
 in the landscape. The conscious enjoyment of nat- 
 ural beauty is a modern sentiment, but it is from the 
 association of Greek and Roman usage that "bays" 
 and "laurel" derive their modern significance. Apol- 
 lo's tree, the bay, furnished the wreaths for Roman 
 victors, at their triumphs. The Greeks crowned with 
 laurel the victors in the Pythian game and with a 
 wreath of wild olives the Olympic victor. 
 
 All such facts, familiar to school-boys, will acquire 
 104 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 a kind of interest which they never had before when 
 those boys establish personal relation with trees and 
 shrubs by planting them and giving them names. 
 When they watch to see how Bryant and Longfellow 
 are growing ; whether Abraham Lincoln wants water, 
 or Benjamin Franklin is drying up, whether Asa 
 Gray puts out his leaves as early as last year, and 
 whether Maria Mitchell and Abigail Adams and 
 Dorothea Dix hold in their ample and embowering 
 arms as many singing birds as usual, they will dis- 
 cover that a tree may be as interesting as the squirrel 
 that skims along its trunk, or the thrush that calls 
 from its leafy covert like a muezzin from a minaret. 
 
 It is pleasant to remember on Arbor day that 
 Bryant, our oldest American poet and the father of 
 our American literature, is especially the poet of trees. 
 
 He grew up among the solitary hills of western 
 Massachusetts when the woods were his nursery and 
 the trees his earliest comrades. The solemnity of the 
 forest breathes through all his verse, and he had al- 
 ways, even in the city, a grave rustic air as of a man 
 who heard the bubbling brooks and to whom the trees 
 told their secrets. His poems will be so naturally 
 read on Arbor Day that it will keep his memory 
 green, and the poet of the trees will become the famil- 
 iar friend of American boys and girls who, by tender 
 nurture of the trees, will have learned to say with 
 him: 
 
 "Nay, doubt we not that under the rough rind, 
 
 In the green veins of their growth of earth,, 
 
 105 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 There dwells a nature that receives delight 
 From all the gentle processes of life. 
 And shrinks from loss of being/' 
 
 Bryant liked to think himself as associated with 
 trees, and modestly forecasts his name blended with 
 trees and the fruit so precious to all us American 
 girls and boys, or men or women ! 
 
 "Who planted this old apple tree?' 
 The children of that distant day 
 Thus to some aged man shall say; 
 And, gazing on its mossy stem,, 
 The gray-haired man shall answer them, 
 'A poet of the land was he, 
 Born in the rude but good old times; 
 
 'Tis said he made some quaint old rhymes, 
 On planting the apple tree' '' 
 
 With every good wish for the boys and girls who 
 will plant the trees, and for the trees which they will 
 plant, I am Very truly yours, 
 
 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 
 
 From Arbor Day Manual. 
 
 Copyrighted by C. W. Bardeen. 
 
 106 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WRITING 
 
 FROM DONALD G. MITCHELL 
 
 ("Ik Marvel," an American Author) 
 
 - EDGEWOOD, April 27, 1889. 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 Your favor came duly and I feel very much hon- 
 ored by the association of my name in even so slight 
 a degree with your proposed good work of tree- 
 planting, and suppose that I owe the nattering atten- 
 tion of which you speak, to my often-declared allegi- 
 ance to country pursuits, and a steady faith in the 
 good that comes from every-day familiarity with the 
 flowers and the trees and the sunshine. 
 
 I'm not sure but I love trees even better than 
 books; love them young and love them old; and 
 those misshapen and of foul growth, I love to cut and 
 burn (wishing I could do the same for many books I 
 encounter) . 
 
 Please commend me to your young bands of tree- 
 lovers, and believe me, Yours very truly, 
 
 DONALD G. MITCHELL. 
 
 From Arlor Day Manual. 
 
 Copyrighted by C. W. Bardeen. 
 
 FROM JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL 
 
 DEERFOOT FARM, S'OUTHBOROUGH, 
 
 March 28, 1888. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I can think of no more pleasant way of being re- 
 membered than by the planting of a tree. Like what- 
 107 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 ever things are perennially good, it will be growing 
 while we are sleeping, and will survive us to make 
 others happier. Birds will rest in it and fly thence 
 with messages of good cheer. I should be glad to 
 think that any word or deed of mine could be such a 
 perennial presence of beauty, or show so benign a 
 destiny. I beg you and your pupils to accept my 
 hearty good wishes. Faithfully yours, 
 
 JAMES EUSSELL LOWELL. 
 
 From Arbor Day Manual. 
 
 Copyrighted by C. W. Bardeen. 
 
 FRANCIS PARKMAN, AMERICAN HISTORIAN, TO W. H. 
 BENEDICT 
 
 BOSTON, April 26th, 1889. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I am much obliged to the pupils of the schools un- 
 der your direction for their intention to dedicate a 
 tree to me on Arbor Day. I could wish for no more 
 pleasant form of commemoration, for a tree is the 
 most charming of monuments. 
 
 I hope your Arbor Day will be a great success. We 
 once had on this continent such a superfluity of trees 
 that our forefathers almost learned to regard them as 
 enemies, rather than as friends. If the present gen- 
 eration does not quickly learn to take a different view, 
 the country will have cause to rue it. If the state 
 and national governments do not preserve with care 
 the forests about the sources of the great streams, in- 
 cluding your admirable Adirondack country, the re- 
 108 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 gions watered by them will be the victims of alternate 
 floods and droughts. It is not only that the beauty of 
 the landscape will suffer, but many industrial inter- 
 ests will be sorely injured, and the more this is im- 
 pressed on the rninSs of the rising generation, the bet- 
 ter it will be for them and their successors. 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 FRANCIS PARKMAN. 
 
 From Ar&or Day Manual. 
 
 Copyrighted by C. W. Bardeen. 
 
 MRS. M. R. MOORE TO W. C. BRYANT 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., July 17th. 
 
 On a recent visit to the Mammoth Grove in this 
 state, as I entered the forest proper of the so-called 
 'big trees/ my first feeling was one of awe, of wor- 
 ship, if you will, and involuntarily there rose in my 
 mind these words : 'The groves were God's first tem- 
 ples;' and never did they seem so appropriate as 
 when, standing in the midst of this patriarchal forest, 
 the mind attempted to trace their history far back on 
 the stream of Time. Three thousand years of life! 
 
 As we passed through the grove we saw that many 
 trees bore names of which all Americans are proud 
 Webster, Clay, Everett, Starr King Grant, Sherman, 
 Sheridan, our lamented Lincoln, if not as brethren; 
 Richard Cob den and John Bright statesmen, war- 
 riors, scholars, and men, whose names are household 
 words. But, as I remarked that as yet no poet had 
 been so honored, a feeling of joy rose in me that per- 
 109 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 haps the proud privilege might be mine of christening 
 one of these magnificent growths. I made inquiries 
 of the owner of the grove in regard to it, and was in- 
 formed that all that was necessary was to send a mar- 
 ble tablet appropriately lettered, and it should be 
 placed on the tree I might select. Accordingly, I se- 
 lected the second tree at the right hand of the path 
 very near the entrance of the grove, a very old tree, 
 one of the largest, and one that has not only braved 
 the storms of centuries, but which has felt the scourge 
 of the savage fire. It is a splendid specimen of a 
 green old age, still strong, still fresh, the birds yet 
 singing in its lofty top, a fitting emblem of the poet 
 of the forest, Bryant. 
 
 By permission of D. Appleton & Co. 
 
 From Life of William Cullen Bryant. 
 
 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT TO MRS. M. R. MOORE, 
 
 IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF A TREE NAMED FOR 
 
 HIM IN MAMMOTH GROVE, CALIFORNIA 
 
 THE MAMMOTH "BRYANT" TREE 
 
 ROSLYN, August 30th, 1886. 
 My dear Madam : 
 
 I thank you for the great honor you have done me 
 in giving my name to one of the venerable trees in 
 the Mammoth Grove of California. I hope the tree 
 which you found vigorous and flourishing will be 
 none the worse for it. 
 
 The portion of the bark which you were so kind 
 to send me, as well as the cone and the seeds, reached 
 110 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WRITING 
 
 me safely through the kindness of Mr. Brown. The 
 seeds shall be committed to the ground, in the hope 
 that they will sprout in due season ; the cone and the 
 bark are placed among my curiosities. 
 
 I do not much wonder that, in naming these trees, 
 political and military celebrities should be first 
 thought of. The events of the last four years have 
 kept the public attention fixed upon the actors in our 
 political stage, and the gallant deeds of our com- 
 manders in war have, for the moment at least, thrown 
 all other kinds of fame into the shade. That I should 
 be the first of our poets whose name is inscribed on 
 one of these giants of the forest is an honor which, I 
 fear, if it had been left to the arbitration of public 
 opinion instead of the partiality of an individual, 
 would not have been awarded to me. Perhaps, how- 
 ever, the length of time during which, I have been 
 before the public as an author more than half a 
 century had its weight with you in connecting my 
 name with one of the most remarkable productions of 
 our country. 
 
 And really it is a most magnificent region that 
 you inhabit; such a genial and charming climate, 
 scenery amazingly beautiful, and vegetation of won- 
 derful richness and vigor! In certain respects your 
 climate resembles, in others surpasses, that of the 
 same latitude of the Old World. May you find in 
 that region, when your social relations shall have 
 taken a permanent form, a nobler Europe, freer, more 
 virtuous, and more happy. 
 
 Ill 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 Thanking you for the kind wishes expressed at the 
 close of your letter, etc. 
 
 (WILLIAM CULLED BRYANT.) 
 
 By permission of D. Appleton & Co. 
 
 From Life of William Cullen Bryant. 
 
 XV. FROM THE JOURNAL OF REV. WIL- 
 LIAM EMERSON 
 
 (Written on April 19, 1775) 
 
 This morning between one and two o'clock we 
 were alarmed by the ringing of the church bell, and, 
 upon examination, found that the troops to the 
 number of 800 had stolen their march from Bos- 
 ton in boats and barges from the bottom of the 
 Common over to a point in Cambridge near to In- 
 man's Farm, and were at Lexington Meeting House 
 half an hour before sunrise, where they had fired upon 
 a body of our men, and, as we afterward heard, had 
 killed several. This intelligence was brought to us 
 at first by Dr. Sam'l Prescott, who narrowly escaped 
 the guard that were sent before on horses purposely 
 to prevent all posts and messengers from giving us 
 timely information. He, by the help of a very fleet 
 horse crossing several walls and fences, arrived at 
 Concord at the time above mentioned, when several 
 posts were immediately dispatched, that, returning, 
 confirmed the presence of the regular army at Lexing- 
 ton, and that they were on their way to Concord. 
 Upon this a number of our Minute Men belonging to 
 112 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 this town, and Acton and Lincoln with several others 
 that were in readiness, marched out to meet them. 
 
 While the alarm company were preparing to meet 
 them in the town, Captain Minot, who commanded 
 them, thought it prTfper to take possession of the hill 
 above the Meeting House as the most advantageous sit- 
 uation. No sooner had we gained it than we were met 
 by the company that were sent out to meet the troops, 
 who informed us they were just upon us and that we 
 must retreat, as their number was more than thribble 
 to ours. We then retreated from the hill near Liberty 
 Pole and took a new post back of the town upon a 
 rising eminence, where we formed into two battalions 
 and waited the arrival of the enemy. Scarcely had 
 we formed before we saw the British troops at the 
 distance of a quarter of a mile, glittering in arms, 
 advancing toward us with the greatest celerity. Some 
 were for making a stand notwithstanding the superi- 
 ority of their numbers, but others more prudent 
 thought best to retreat till our strength should be 
 equal to the enemy by recruits from neighboring 
 towns who were continually coming in to our assist- 
 ance. Accordingly we retreated over the bridge, when 
 the troops came into the town, set fire to several car- 
 riages for the artillery, destroyed sixty barrels of 
 flour, rifled several houses, took possession of the 
 Town House, destroyed 500 pounds of ball, set a 
 guard of 100 men at the North Bridge and sent up 
 a party to the house of Colonel Barrett, where they 
 were in expectation of finding a quantity of warlike 
 stores; but these were happily secured just before 
 113 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEK WRITING 
 
 the arrival by transfer into the woods and other by- 
 places. In the meantime, the guard set by the en- 
 emy to secure the pass at the North Bridge were 
 alarmed by the approach of our people, who had re- 
 treated, as mentioned before, and were now advancing 
 with special orders not to fire upon the troops unless 
 fired upon. These orders were so punctually ob- 
 served that we received the fire of the enemy in three 
 several and separate discharges of their pieces before 
 it was returned by our commanding officer. The fir- 
 ing then soon became general for several minutes, in 
 which skirmish two were killed on each side and 
 several of the enemy wounded. It may here be ob- 
 served, by the way, that we were the more careful to 
 prevent beginning a rupture with the king's troops 
 as we were then uncertain what had happened at 
 Lexington, and knew not that they had begun the 
 quarrel there by first firing upon our party and kill- 
 ing eight men upon the spot. The British troops 
 soon quitted their post at the Bridge and retreated in 
 great disorder and confusion to the main body who 
 were soon upon the march to meet them. For half 
 an hour the enemy, by their marches and counter- 
 marches discovered great fickleness and inconstancy 
 of mind, sometimes advancing, sometimes returning 
 to their former posts, till at length they quitted the 
 town and retreated by the way they came. In the 
 meantime a party of our men (150) took the back 
 way through the great fields into the East Quarter 
 and had placed themselves to advantage, lying in 
 ambush behind walls, fences and buildings ready to 
 fire upon the enemy on their retreat. 
 114 
 
III. 
 
 ANNOTATED LIST OF LETTERS, JOURNALS' 
 AND AUTOBIOGRAPHIES 
 
 1. Letters and Journals. 
 
 ADAMS, J. AND MRS. ABIGAIL Familiar Letters. 1774-82. 
 Written during the Revolution by President John 
 Adams and his wife. Valuable for insight into the 
 social life of the United States of that time. 
 
 AGASSIZ, Louis Life and Correspondence. A record of a 
 broad-minded man. See letter to Emerson, Vol. II, 
 page 619, and Emerson's reply to Agassiz, Vol. II, 
 page 621. For expository letters, see letters to Dar- 
 win, Lyell, Dana, and others. Note his account of 
 his college life at Heidelberg at the age of nineteen. 
 See letters to his father on his decision to be a natu- 
 ralist. (Argumentation.) 
 
 ALCOTT, LOUISA MAY Life and Letters, by Mrs. Edna D. 
 Cheney. These letters show the heroic struggle 
 with poverty, made by a young girl. For some of 
 Miss Alcott's hitherto unpublished letters, see Ladies' 
 Home Journal, beginning September, 1901. There is 
 a facsimile letter in the October number. 
 
 ALLSTON, WASHINGTON Letters and Life, by J. B. Flagg. 
 A glimpse into the life of one of the most eminent 
 of early American artists. 
 
 AMIEL, HENRI FREDERIC Journal; translated with intro- 
 duction by Mrs. Humphry Ward. "Not a volume of 
 memoirs, but the confidences of a solitary thinker. 
 115 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 . . . Philosophy, science, letters, art, he has 
 penetrated the spirit of them all." Mrs. Humphry 
 Ward. 
 
 ANDERSEN, HANS Story of My Life. His letters to young 
 people have the same airy fancy and charm that his 
 fairy tales have. See the one to a naughty boy, p. 
 427, and to Marie, p. 428. 
 
 ARBLAY, MME. FRANCES (BURNEY) D' Diary and Letters 
 with Notes, by W. C. Ward. "As a diarist Miss Bur- 
 ney is with Pepys and Evelyn, as a letter-writer with 
 Walpole and Chesterfield. And unlike all these, ex- 
 cept Horace, she is a novelist as well." George 
 Saintsbury. 
 
 ARNOLD, MATTHEW Letters. 1848-1882. 2 vols. "His 
 friendly, chatty, confidential letters combine the 
 simplicity of a child with all the mental and imag- 
 inative resources of a scholar, a philosopher, and a 
 man of the world." Herbert Paul. 
 
 AUDUBON, JOHN JAMES Audubon and His Journals, by 
 M. R. Audubon, with Notes by Elliott Coues. This 
 book is said to be an important addition to the his- 
 torical and zoological literature of America. 
 
 BASHKIRTSEFF, MARIE Journal of a young artist, remark- 
 able for enthusiastic expression and realistic detail. 
 
 BISMARCK, OTTO EDW. LEOPOLD Letters to his Wife, his 
 Sister, and Others. See also his Love-Letters. 
 
 BOOTH, EDWIN Letters, pp. 31-38. Letters to his daugh- 
 ter; they show the home life of an actor, and the 
 tenderness of a father. 
 
 BRYANT, W. C. Letters of Travel. Serious but entertain- 
 ing; they illuminate geography. See ones upon 
 Southern States. Letter XI, on the interior of 
 South Carolina. 
 
 BROOKS, PHILLIPS Letters of Travel. Those to Gertie 
 
 in A Year of Travel in Europe and India make 
 
 geography a living thing. See the ones written to 
 
 Gertie from Kandy in Ceylon; to Gertie from Jey- 
 
 116 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WETTING 
 
 pore; his visit to Tennyson, and his picture of the 
 streets of Cairo, and of Athens, and of Rome. 
 
 BROWN, THOS. EDW. Letters; edited by S. T. Irwin. 
 2 vols. "A delightful book of letters, by a scholar, a 
 humorist, a man full of noble qualities." See index 
 to Vol. II for letters of comment upon writings of 
 contemporary and ancient authors; upon the man's 
 life and character; upon his walks and tours and 
 studies. See pp. 145-147; see his comment on The 
 Talisman; his pictures on his bedroom walls; let- 
 ter to E. M. Oakley, p. 247, appendix. 
 
 BROWN, JOHN Life and Letters, by Frank Sanborn. 
 His letters show the man's religious zeal. 
 
 BROWNING, ROBERT AND MRS. ELIZABETH (BARRETT) Let- 
 ters, 1845-1846. 2 vols. "For solid value as a contri- 
 bution to psychology, as a revelation of the inmost 
 thoughts and impulses of two noble natures, for the 
 wholesomeness of their display of simplicity, unsel- 
 fishness and goodness of heart, interpreted in the 
 finest literary medium, we do not, for the moment, 
 recollect anything parallel to these letters of R. B. 
 and E. B. B." Saturday Review. 
 
 BROWNING, ELIZABETH BARRETT Letters; edited by Fred- 
 eric G. Kenyon. 2 vols. To read these letters is to 
 live for the time with a sensitive, imaginative, bril- 
 liant woman; it is to share her appreciation of peo- 
 ple and books and things and all the while to ad- 
 mire her vitality and grace of statement. 
 
 BURNS, ROBERT Poems, Songs and Letters; edited by 
 Alexander Smith. The letters in this volume con- 
 tain all the moods of feeling found in Burns's 
 poems; they are filled with love of nature, love of 
 freedom, and love for his fellow beings. 
 
 BYRON, LORD Letters. Byron's letters record his moods 
 in a most remarkable way; they have in them an 
 abandon that lends to them a great charm for many 
 readers. 
 
 117 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 CAELYLE AND EMERSON Correspondence. 2 vols. This 
 correspondence pictures two great men clasping 
 hands across the Atlantic: Carlyle on his lonely 
 moor thundering at the abuses of his age; Emerson, 
 in lonely Concord, waiting for the word of the 
 spirit. Every letter in the book is interesting. 
 
 CARLYLE, JANE W. Letters and Memorials of Jane 
 Welsh, by J. A. Froude. Vol. I, page 369. Letter to 
 Nero, her dog amusing. Her visit to Father Math- 
 ew, p. 163, shows her enthusiasm. To her uncle, p. 
 148; to T. Carlyle, pp. 158, 161, 197. Vol. II, page 
 154. All of Jane W. Carlyle's letters are fascinating 
 and have a witchery about them. (Suitable for 
 High School students.) 
 
 CARLYLE, T. Early Letters. They give insight into the 
 heart of the man in his home and in his early strug- 
 gles. Like his other prose they have titanic force. 
 
 CHESTERFIELD, LORD Letters to his son. Advice to young 
 men upon the externals of life; directions as to how 
 one should deport himself in society. They have 
 been reprinted for the agreeable form in which they 
 are expressed. 
 
 CHILD, LYDIA MARIA Letters; edited by Whittier. A 
 collection of most delightful letters written in a 
 most graceful style. They give a fine picture of the 
 anti-slavery movement. The letters about Col. Rob- 
 ert G. Shaw are of especial interest. 
 
 CICERO, M. T. (106 B. C.) Letters (Trans.) "Cicero 
 wrote letters before daybreak, and at meal-time, and 
 while taking exercise, and on his journeys. Whole 
 volumes of them have perished, but we have some 
 eight hundred left, and they are among the most in- 
 teresting remains of all antiquity." Library News- 
 Letter. 
 
 COWPER, WILLIAM Letters. See pp. 36-37. On p. 38 a 
 budget of home news more cheerful than many of 
 Cowper's letters even entertaining to young peo- 
 118 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 pie, giving an insight into the mind of one of Eng- 
 land's most sensitive poets; read p. 43, pp. 65-66, on 
 seeing the ocean. "For a combination of delightful 
 qualities, Cowper's letters have no rivals." 
 
 CURTIS, GEORGE WILLIAM By Edward Gary, in Amer- 
 ican Men of Letters. The letters of this book have 
 the grace shown in Prue and I f and the earnest- 
 ness of the civil service reformer. The following 
 letters give an interesting view of the man: Let- 
 ters to his father about Nile Notes of a Howadji; 
 letters on pp. 84-85; pp. 86-89 show his humor; let- 
 ters upon Civil War, pp. 130-155; letter of marriage 
 congratulations, p. 166; the National Convention at 
 Baltimore, p. 178; note to Lowell upon Harvard 
 Commemoration Ode, p. 192; upon receipt of The 
 Cathedral from Lowell, p. 211; to Lowell just ap- 
 pointed minister to Spain, p. 255; about his resigna- 
 tion as editor of Harper's Weekly, p. 275; letter on 
 the presidential canvass of 1884, p. 289. 
 
 DARWIN, C. Life and Letters. 2 vols. Vol. I, Darwin's 
 letters from the Ship Beagle. A good book to inter- 
 est pupils in science and to lead them to the book, 
 What Darwin Saw on the Ship Beagle. 
 
 DE QUINCEY, THOMAS Memorials; being letters and 
 records; edited by Tapp. 2 vols. De Quincey's let- 
 ters, like his essays, furnish examples of finished 
 writing. 
 
 DICKENS, CHARLES Letters. Show the man in his hu- 
 mor and in his business aspects. See letter to George 
 Eliot herein given as typical of his insight and fine 
 appreciation. 
 
 DICKINSON, EMILY Letters. 1845-46. 2 vols. Her let- 
 ters are full of exalted thought expressed in her 
 own characteristic manner and energy. 
 
 Dix, DOROTHEA Life, by Francis Tiffany. An account 
 of an heroic life; her letter to Mr. Howe, p. 114, 
 shows her power to carry a point. 
 119 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 DONNE, JOHN Life and Letters; edited by Edmund 
 Gosse. 2 vols. The letters of this famous Jacobean 
 poet and metaphysician have still a quaint grace 
 and charm, and were regarded in his own day as 
 models of epistolary deportment. The elaborate let- 
 ters of consolation to his mother, Vol. II, p. 88, and 
 to Lady Kingsmell, Vol. II, p. 210, are characteristic. 
 
 ELIOT, GEORGE (Pseud.) Life, by J. W. Cross. The let- 
 ters in these volumes, like the writings of George 
 Eliot, are full of valuable comment and philosophy; 
 they tell her life history. 
 
 EMERSON. R. W. For Mr. Emerson's best letters, see 
 Cabot's biography; Emerson in Concord, by his son, 
 Dr. Edward Emerson; and also a charming letter 
 by Mrs. Emerson in Sanborn's Familiar Letters of 
 Thoreau; and the Emerson-Carlyle correspondence. 
 All of Emerson's letters have the lofty strain; and 
 one feels with Mrs. Carlyle that he never ceases to 
 be a "sky messenger." 
 
 EVELYN, JOHN Diary and Correspondence (1641-1706). 
 4 vols. Valuable for historical information and for 
 a picture of the social customs of the time. The 
 court of Charles II is vividly described. 
 
 EWING, JULIANA HORATIO Letters. See p. 124 for an in- 
 teresting account of how she papered the room. 
 
 FARRAGUT, DAVID GLASGOW Story of his life, by Loyall 
 Farragut, from his letters and journal. An inter- 
 esting story of an interesting life. 
 
 FITZGERALD, EDWARD Letters. 2 vols. 1823-83. Very 
 delightful letters of an English lover of literature, 
 and full of reminiscences of the author's intercourse 
 with the cultured circles of his time. The tone of 
 the scholar pervades the entire collection. See let- 
 ters to C. E. Norton. 
 
 FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN By Jared Sparks. 10 vols. The 
 letters of Franklin in these volumes are mines of 
 wealth; they show the broad-mindedness of the man 
 120 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 in his love, for scientific investigation, for politics, 
 and for questions of general culture. 
 
 GOETHE AND CARLYLE Correspondence, edited by 
 Charles Eliot Norton. Carlyle was twenty-nine 
 years old and Goethe seventy-five. It was Carlyle's 
 finest day-dream* to see Goethe before he died, and 
 this correspondence shows the ardent reverence of 
 a younger for an older and a wiser man. Goethe 
 writes out of the wisdom of his years upon the lit- 
 erature and thought of the nineteenth century. See 
 Goethe to Carlyle, pp. 133-137; Carlyle to Goethe, 
 pp. 152-159. German students will be interested in 
 these letters. See also the correspondence between 
 Schiller and Goethe. 
 
 GORDON, GEN. CHARLES GEORGE The Story of, by A. E. 
 Hake. Letters show the life of a man who sup- 
 pressed the Tai-ping rebellion in China, and gave 
 himself to the extermination of the slave trade in 
 the Sudan. 
 
 GRAY, ASA Letters. Valuable for giving insight into 
 the busy life of a scientist. 
 
 GRAY, THOMAS Letters; edited by D. C. Torey. 2 vols. 
 "If Gray ceased to write poetry, let us be thankful 
 that he continued to write letters. . . . They 
 are mines of acute observation and sharp-edged 
 criticism upon style. Cowper said, 'I once thought 
 Swift's letters the best that could be written; but I 
 like Gray's better.' " J. R. Lowell. 
 
 GUERIN, MAURICE DE Journal. (Trans.) With a bio- 
 graphical and literary memoir by Sainte-Beuve. 
 A book showing a rare appreciation of nature; Mat- 
 thew Arnold attributes to its author "a sense of 
 what there is adorable and secret in nature." Some 
 of the especially interesting passages from his jour- 
 nal are: P. 67, about Brittany and the snow; p. 
 68, of primroses; p. 76, for 28th of March; p. 91, 
 for the 28th of April; pp. 92-93, 1st of May; p. 95, 
 121 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 gladness of nature; p. 105, the 14th of August; p. 
 117, for Dec. 8th, the ocean; see pp. 130-131, pp. 170- 
 171, influence of nature. The journal of Eugenie de 
 Gue"rin is a companion piece to that of Maurice. 
 
 HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL Memories, by Rose Hawthorne 
 Lathrop. A volume containing a view of Haw- 
 thorne's inner life as man and husband. There are 
 letters from Maria White, Curtis, Alcott and others. 
 
 HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL Hawthorne and his Wife. 
 2 vols. See Vol. I, p. 329, about Una; bits from pp. 
 272-280, 326, show the depth of his feeling. A most 
 exquisite picture of family life. 
 
 HERSCHEL, CAROLINE L. Memoir and Correspondence. 
 She shared the scientific work of her brother, Sir 
 William Herschel, and their names are known to- 
 gether. 
 
 HOLLAND, J. G. To the Jones's Under the surname 
 "Jones" and a given name symbolic of certain types 
 of character, Holland has found excuse to give ad- 
 vice upon money making and saving to Stephen 
 Gerard Jones upon musical education to Beethoven 
 Jones, and upon painting, to Washington Allston 
 Jones, etc. (Expository Prose.) 
 
 HOLMES, O. W. Letter to School Children in Cincinnati 
 in Riverside Literature. Series No. 666. Also, the 
 Life of Holmes. There are fine letters from Holmes 
 in the correspondence of John Lothrop Motley. 
 
 HOWELLS, WILLIAM D. Letters Home. A story told by 
 means of letters written from New York by a num- 
 ber of people who come there from different parts of 
 the country. The life of the great metropolis is 
 vividly pictured, and the character development re- 
 veals the author's usual acute observation. 
 
 HUGO, VICTOR Letters. 2 vols. These letters are all 
 fascinating and poetical. His letters to his chil- 
 dren show how his fatherly love unbent him. See 
 especially his letters to his little Didine, pp. 218- 
 122 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 219; 234-237, 242, Vol. I; letters to Toto, Vol. II, p. 
 17; good advice letters: to George Sand, Vol. II, 
 p. 245; to workingman and poet, Vol. II, page 3; 
 to the students in Paris, 1856, Vol. II, p. 144. He 
 addresses them as "young and courageous fellow 
 citizens"; to (Jeorge Sand, Vol. II, p. 133, on the 
 death of her child; and on p. 154, Vol. II, he writes 
 to her on the murder of John Brown, and refers 
 to the spectacle of "a free nation putting to death a 
 liberator." In his letter to Heurtelou, of Haiti, he 
 gives forth noble utterances. To Lamartine, Vol. 
 II, p. 169, he says that "Les Miserables is simply a 
 book with fraternity for its starting point, and 
 progress for its goal." 
 
 HUXLEY, THOMAS Life and Letters. 2 vols. See ex- 
 tract from his journal, telling of how he won his 
 first medal, Vol. I, p. 18; letter to his sister, giving 
 prospects of his voyage on the "Rattlesnake," Vol. I, 
 p. 28; to his mother, Vol. I, p. 49, about his return, 
 and his love for a little lassie whom he would like 
 to call "wife"; page 69 is interesting. 
 
 IRVING, WASHINGTON A compilation of letters written 
 in graceful prose and giving sympathetic impres- 
 sions of people and travels. Those under the title 
 of Jonathan Oldstyle are entertaining. 
 
 JEFFERSON, THOMAS Domestic Life, by Randolph. 
 Through reading Jefferson's letters to his daughters 
 Martha and Mary (Patsy and Polly), one gets a 
 knowledge of the education of the children of a 
 Virginia gentleman. His little girls were left moth- 
 erless when the elder was about eleven years old. 
 Mr. Jefferson, being appointed plenipotentiary to 
 Europe, left them in care of their aunt. His letters 
 to them and theirs to him, before they joined him, 
 are full of interest. His letters to Washington, La- 
 fayette, Jay and others give glints of the politics of 
 the times. 
 
 123 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 JOHNSON, SAMUEL Life, by James Boswell; edited by 
 Birkbeck Hill. Conversations, journal and letters 
 all included. "The more we study Johnson, the 
 higher will be our esteem for the power of his mind, 
 the width of his interests, the largeness of his knowl- 
 edge, the freshness, fearlessness and strength of his 
 judgments." Matthew Arnold. 
 
 KEATS, JOHN Letters. These letters serve as a key to 
 the wealth and richness of Keats's nature. The let- 
 ter to his sister Fanny, p. 146, is typical of this 
 spirit. It gives an account of a trip and is inter- 
 spersed with ballads about the naughty boy (him- 
 self) who would do nothing but scribble poetry: 
 
 took He ran. 
 
 An inkstand To the mountains 
 
 In his hand And fountains 
 
 And a pen And ghosts 
 
 Big as ten And posts 
 
 In the other And witches 
 
 And away And ditches, etc. 
 
 This letter, written in sections, ends with a most ex- 
 travagant statement about his appetite, which called for 
 clothes-baskets full of eggs, and other items in propor- 
 tion. 
 
 KINGSLEY, CHARLES Life and Letters. The record of a 
 most remarkably earnest life. To know the letters 
 in this volume is to know some of the best people 
 and the best thought of England in the nineteenth 
 century. 
 
 LAMB, CHARLES Letters. The most rare collection of 
 quaint fancy and delightful humor. Lamb's love for 
 old books lends a charm to his pen whatever be his 
 theme. Note especially his letters to Wordsworth, 
 Coleridge, Hazlitt, Southey, and mark the undivided 
 love he bore his sister. 
 
 LAMB, MARY By Anne Gilchrist. This volume contains 
 letters fom Mary Lamb and from her brother to 
 124 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 their numerous correspondents. See especially the 
 letters about their Tales from Shakespeare, pp. 154 
 to 168. Also her letters to Dorothy and William 
 Wordsworth, to Mrs. Hazlitt, and her correspondence 
 with Sara Stoddart. 
 
 LANG, A. Letters to living and dead authors contain 
 criticism given in conversational style. 
 
 LANIER, SIDNEY Letters. The letters are in four 
 groups: "A Poet's Musical Impressions," and "Let- 
 ters Between Two Poets," Bayard Taylor and Sid- 
 ney Lanier, are especially interesting. See letter, 
 p. 67, on the springtime; on Wagner's music, p. 68; 
 also pp. 69, 70, 71, 76, 77. On pp. 82-84 there is a 
 most graphic account of his evening at Peabody In- 
 stitute, Baltimore, pp. 105-106. Every letter in the 
 first-named group above is instructive to any mu- 
 sically inclined person. 
 
 LABCOM, LUCY Life and Letters. See page 165, to Jean 
 
 ' Ingelow; p. 170, to Whittier. This book gives a true 
 picture of New England girlhood, and one visits 
 with old literary friends on its pages. 
 
 Letters for Arbor Day. Arbor Day Manual, edited and 
 compiled by Charles R. Skinner. See pp. 373 to 387. 
 Here are to be found letters from many noted people 
 regarding the custom of tree-planting and in re- 
 sponse to the honor conferred upon them by the 
 naming of trees for them. There are also in this 
 book, specimen arbor-day programs, and information 
 upon the respective merits of trees. 
 
 LINCOLN, ABRAHAM Complete Works. 2 vols. Letters 
 and state papers, by Hay and Nicolay. The let- 
 ters of Mr. Lincoln are not only full of noble senti- 
 ment at every point, but they sustain the matchless 
 style of the Gettysburg address. These volumes 
 should be familiar to all the young people of Amer- 
 ica. 
 
 LONGFELLOW, HENRY W. Life; edited by S. Longfellow. 
 125 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEK WEITING 
 
 2 vols. His journals and letters justify Lowell's 
 comparison of his life to a pure temple, in which 
 no unclean thing ever entered. 
 
 LOWELL, J. R. Letters. 2 vols. Full of delightful humor 
 and a fine literary quality, revealing the man. All 
 the older students should know his letters to Miss 
 Cabot on reading, Vol. II, p. 39; his advice to his 
 nephew, Charles Lowell, Vol. 1, p. 162; to Edward 
 Davis, on the study of history, Vol. I, pp. 90-92. His 
 letter on Maria White's presentation of the temper- 
 ance banner is matchless. Also Vol. I, p. 195, to 
 Miss Shaw, playful fancy. Vol. I, p. 240, experience 
 in Germany; Vol. I, p. 265, change of home; they 
 are all good. 
 
 MACAULAY, T. B. Life and Letters, by G. O. Trevelyan. 
 2 vols. See letters to his little niece, Margaret, Vol. 
 II, pp. 202-207. Baba's letter, September 15, 1842. 
 Macaulay's letters have the grace of his easy style 
 and lose none of his spontaneity. 
 
 MADISON, DOLLY Memoirs and Letters. Letters that 
 form a picture of political and fashionable life in 
 the early part of the nineteenth century in the 
 United States. 
 
 MARSHALL, JOHN Life of Marshall, in American States- 
 men series (p. 92). Letter to Judge Archibald 
 Stuart. 
 
 MOLTKE, VON Letters to Mother and Brother. (Trans.) 
 The keenest observation of men, events and na- 
 ture are revealed in these letters in a most realis- 
 tic way. See picture of his home, p. 15; his life at 
 Griittenberg, p. 17; his impressions of the Bospho- 
 rus, p. 80; pictures of life in the east, pp. 82-85; im- 
 pressions of London, p. 166; description of Berlin 
 Museum, pp. 237-240. 
 
 MONTAGU, LADY MARY (PIERREPONT) WORTLEY Lady 
 Mary was a conspicuous member of English society 
 from 1718 to 1739, and was a friend of Pope's, Sir 
 126 
 
LETTEKS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 Horace Walpole's, and Lord Hervey's. She was a 
 companion to her husband on his embassy to Turkey 
 and her letters from there are sprightly and full of 
 observations on people and things. See letter 
 XXXVIII, p. 112, from Adrianople; to Pope, p. 133, 
 from Belgrade "Village, her best letter; from Vienna, 
 p. 77; see p. 107 about vaccination which she speaks 
 of bringing to England; the dedicatory letter to 
 Lady Mary, by the editor, is full of suggestive hints 
 about the contents and quality of the letters. 
 
 MORE, SIR THOMAS Life; by R. H. Hutton. Sir Thomas 
 More is rightly called the "Hero of Conscience." See 
 his letter to his daughter, written in prison with a 
 coal. See also his letter of rebuke to Oxford for its 
 opposition to the study of Greek (found in Froude's 
 Life of Erasmus). 
 
 MOTLEY, JOHN LOTHROP Correspondence; edited by 
 George William Curtis. 2 vols. A series of delight- 
 ful letters, including the writer's experience in Rus- 
 sia, Holland, England and Austria, and his friend- 
 ship with Bismarck and the notabilities of Europe. 
 His correspondence with Holmes forms a most in- 
 teresting group; his references to the Civil War 
 show the deep feeling at that time. The reading of 
 these volumes is a really delightful way to go abroad 
 and make acquaintance with people and places in 
 other lands. 
 
 MULLER, F. MAX Life and Letters; edited by his wife. 
 3 vols. The letters were intended to bring the man 
 rather than the scholar before the world; they reveal 
 both. 
 
 NEWMAN, JOHN HENRY Letters and Correspondence, 
 with a brief Autobiography; edited by Anne Mozley. 
 The letters of Newman are valued for the light they 
 throw on the Oxford movement as well as for the 
 masterful, finished prose in which they are written. 
 
 OSBORNE, DOROTHY Letters to Sir William Temple, 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 1652-54; edited by E. A. Perry. An old-time court- 
 ship, recorded from beginning to end in a series of 
 letters written in a most agreeable and attractive 
 style, in a time when ladies told their dreams and 
 indulged in quaint fancies. 
 
 PASTON LETTERS; edited by James Gairdner. 3 vols. 
 A series of letters written by members of the Pas- 
 ton family of county of Norfolk, England. The 
 letters extend from 1424 to 1509, and give valuable 
 fifteenth century history. 
 
 PATMORE, COVENTRY Memoirs and Correspondence, by 
 Basil Champneys. 2 vols. These letters are all in- 
 teresting and reveal a familiarity with books and 
 men which grew out of the experiences of the au- 
 thor and out of his position as assistant librarian 
 in the British Museum for twenty-one years. The 
 group of family letters in Vol. I! is especially in- 
 teresting. There are also letters from Tennyson, 
 Rossetti, Morris, Emerson, Ruskin and others. 
 
 PEPYS, SAMUEL Diary; edited by H. B. Wheatley. 9 
 vols. It is thought to be one of the most singular 
 and entertaining journals in any language. It 
 covers an interesting period from 1659 to 1669. 
 Pepys was above all else an observer and a faithful 
 recorder of men and things. 
 
 PLINY, "THE YOUNGER." Letters. Pliny's letters are said 
 to be more graphic than Cicero's. His most cele- 
 brated letter is the one to Trajan concerning the 
 treatment of the Christians in the province of 
 Bithynia, of which Pliny was governor. His account 
 of the eruption of Vesuvius, 79 A. D., is of great 
 interest to students. See also his letter to Tacitus, 
 describing his offer to assist his townspeople in the 
 establishment of a school for their youth. 
 
 ROBERTSON, F. W. Life, Letters and Addresses. 1823- 
 53. A man famous for his pure life, high thought 
 and for his ministry in Trinity chapel, Brighton. 
 128 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 ROBINSON, HENRY CRABB Diary, Reminiscences and 
 Correspondence; edited by Thomas Sadler. 2 vols. 
 His diary and letters contain reminiscences of some 
 of the most notable men of the nineteenth century, 
 and give a faithful picture of the social and literary 
 life as well. 
 
 ROSSETTI, D. G. Familiar Letters; Letters to William 
 Allingham. Interesting for what they reveal of 
 their author. 
 
 RUSKIN, JOHN Hortus Inclusus. The letters to the la- 
 dies of the Thwaite, Coniston, form a record of a 
 most beautiful friendship. All the letters to Susie, 
 and the group from Susie to Mr. Ruskin are very 
 interesting. Mr. Ruskin's letters to workingmen in 
 Fors Clavigera contain valuable contributions to 
 social science. The letter on the 14th of May, and 
 his page about wrens, and the history of a black- 
 bird in Hortus Inclusus, are all pleasing reading. 
 
 SCOTT, SIR WALTER Familiar Letters. 2 vols. Vol. I, 
 p. 36, about his dog Camp; p. 347, to his son Walter; 
 home news; Vol. I, p. 232, tutoring his son Walter; 
 pp. 247-248, to his daughter Sophia. A delightful 
 collection of letters. 
 
 SEVIGNE, MADAME DE Letters. See letters from Brit- 
 tany. "The queen of all letter-writers." Edward 
 Fitzgerald. 
 
 SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE Essays and Letters; edited by 
 Ernest Rhys. The letters of Shelley are full of in- 
 terest for their charm of description, and for 
 touches given of Byron, Leigh Hunt, his wife 
 and others in his little circle of friends on 
 the shores of the Adriatic. They also picture Shel- 
 ley as poet, and contain his opinions of his own 
 poems, and of his state of mind when he wrote 
 them. 
 
 STANTON, ELIZABETH CADY Eighty Years and More; 
 Reminiscences of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Some 
 129 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 interesting letters throwing light upon the leaders 
 in the suffrage movement. See p. 217, letter from 
 Lucretia Mott. Letter from Mrs. Stanton to the 
 New York Tribune, p. 220; also pp. 310-311. 
 
 STERLING, JOHN Life, by Thomas Carlyle. The letters 
 in this volume show the rare qualities of a rare soul. 
 See his letter to his little son from Ventnor, June, 
 1844, giving his memories of London; also his letters 
 to Carlyle and to his wife. 
 
 STEVENSON, R. L. Letters. 2 vols. See Vol. II, p. 149, 
 letters to "Tomarcher" (Tom Archer), charming 
 child's letter. More serious, pp. 183-187, to Mrs. 
 Stevenson and Sidney Colvin, tell of the leper set- 
 tlement. To Henry James, p. 253, a part of it. 
 The Vailima Letters give a picture of the Samoan 
 life and Stevenson's staving-off of death. See ad- 
 dress at end of Vol. II, on the building of the road. 
 
 STOWE, MRS. HARRIET BEECHER Life and Letters. Told 
 mainly from her letters of later life. "In our grati- 
 tude to the statesmen and soldiers of that great 
 day, let us not forget the part [taken] by this frail 
 New England woman." Dial. 
 
 SWIFT, JONATHAN Letters and Journals; edited by Stan- 
 ley Lane Poole. See also Journal to Stella, edited by 
 George Aitkin. Swift's letters abound in allusions 
 to people of all classes. His masterful use of satire, 
 his power to hate intensely and love passionately, 
 and his gift in the use of vigorous English, have 
 given him a place of his own in literature. 
 
 SYMONDS, JOHN ADDINGTON A biography compiled from 
 his papers and letters successfully put together into 
 a consecutive narrative. 
 
 TENNYSON, ALFRED LORD A Memoir, by his Son. 2 vols. 
 The letters in these volumes form a commentary 
 upon the thought of Tennyson and of the nine- 
 teenth century. They correct the earlier inadequate 
 interpretations of the master's writings and set 
 130 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 forth Tennyson, the man, in his large catholicity 
 of taste and judgment and equable temper of mind. 
 
 THAXTEB, CELIA Letters. Miss Thaxter writes most 
 charmingly about the birds. Some of her interest- 
 ing letters are: To My Darling Little Man, p. 17; 
 to Whittier, p. 458 fol.; to Bradford Torrey, Ap- 
 pledore, Isle of Shoals off Portsmouth, May, 1890, 
 p. 175, about birds; about Whittier, p. 185, to E. L. 
 Wingate; about Jefferies, p. 192; to Olive Thorne 
 Miller, p. 214 ft; to Mary Cowden Clarke, p. 216 
 fol.; about her proud children, see poem at end of 
 book. 
 
 THOREAU, H. D. Letters. While written for adults, 
 their humor, pungency, directness, insight and love 
 of nature make these letters especially attractive 
 to older boys and girls. See letters, p. 161, on going 
 over the mountain; p. 134, moralizing on sugar 
 making; p. 155, an account of a trip; p. 126, ideal- 
 ization of his life. These letters furnish specimens 
 of a straightforward style. 
 
 TICKNOR, GEORGE Life, Letters and Journals. 2 vols. 
 "The pages of Mr. Ticknor's Diary and Letters are 
 full of anecdotes, of descriptions of remarkable men 
 and women, and unusual personal experiences, so 
 well told as to form a contribution of no slight 
 value to our knowledge of the life of the times." 
 Nation. 
 
 WALLACE, HENRY Letters to a Farm Boy. Gives dignity 
 to labor, shows the farm boy that nothing need hin- 
 der him from being educated, and suggests means 
 on every hand for his development. Chapters VIII 
 and XVIII are suggestive. The author may set too 
 little store by books, but the letters are certainly 
 helpful. (Examples of expository prose.) 
 
 WALPOLE, HORACE, EARL OF ORFORD Letters. 2 vols. "It 
 is as letter-writer that he attains his highest point. 
 
 131 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 . . . Byron did not over-praise them when he 
 called them 'incomparable.' " Austin Dobson. 
 
 WASHINGTON, GEORGE The Writings of Washington; ed- 
 ited by Jared Sparks. Vol. VI contains many inter- 
 esting letters to Lafayette, to the president of 
 Congress, and to officers and statesmen in the Revo- 
 lutionary War. Washington was a letter-writer pos- 
 sessing dignity, clearness and cordiality. 
 
 WHITE, GILBERT The Natural History of Selborne. The 
 book is all good; it contains letters, observations 
 and a naturalist's calendar; also poems. His letters 
 are reprinted in more editions than those of any 
 other English worthy. (1720-1793.) 
 
 WHITTIER, JOHN GREENLEAF Life and Letters. 2 vols. 
 By S. T. Pickard. A book rich in facts, deep in feel- 
 ing, and beautiful in simplicity. 
 
 WINSLOW, ANNA GREEN Diary. A sprightly record of 
 the daily life of a school-girl in provincial Boston. 
 Filled with vivacious and witty description. 
 
 WINTHROP, J. AND MRS. M. T. Some Old Puritan Love 
 Letters. 1681-38. Letters by Governor Winthrop 
 and his wife while she was waiting to join him in 
 America. 
 
 WORDSWORTH, DOROTHY Journals, by W. Knight. Full 
 of delightful days; it "renews and deepens" one's 
 knowledge of a most rare friendship between 
 brother and sister in literary work. 
 
 2. Autobiographies. 
 
 EBERS, GEORGE Story of My Life. 1893. His autobiog- 
 raphy, which records his life to the completion of 
 his first novel, gives a touching retrospect of his 
 childhood and an account of his later education. 
 There is also a description of the famous Keilhau 
 school (founded by Froebel). 
 132 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WKITING 
 
 FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN Autobiography. Franklin is 
 said to be the only man who was his own Boswell. 
 
 GIBBON, EDWARD Autobiography. "All critics agree that 
 Gibbon's autobiography is a model in its way." 
 
 Leslie Stephen. 
 
 GRANT, GEN. ULYSSES S. Personal Memoirs. 2 vols. 
 "Grant's grandly simple record of his own life is a 
 true classic." Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
 HALE, EDWARD EVERETT A New England Boyhood, and 
 Sixty Years of My Life, contain the author's auto- 
 biography up to 1899. 
 
 HAMERTON, PHILIP GILBERT An Autobiography. 1834- 
 1858, and a memoir, by his wife. Writings that 
 have helped to create an art atmosphere of his age 
 have been left by Mr. Hamerton. His memoirs are 
 told in a lively manner. 
 
 JEFFERSON, JOSEPH Autobiography. Mr. Jefferson is 
 said to have written his book in a style that is dra- 
 matic and with a charm that is his own. 
 
 MARTINEAU, HARRIET Autobiography. "This is doubtless 
 one of the very honestest autobiographies ever writ- 
 ten, and in respect to careful self-analysis, it prob- 
 ably stands at the head of its class." The Nation. 
 
 MILL, J. S. Autobiography. A most instructive and in- 
 teresting autobiography, throwing light upon the 
 problems of education, and giving insight into the 
 life of a great philosopher. 
 
 MULLER, F. MAX Autobiography; edited by W. G. Miil- 
 ler. A most inspiring book for struggling young 
 scholars. 
 
 OLIPHANT, MRS. MARGARET Autobiography and Letters. 
 The tragic struggle of a brave woman is herein 
 portrayed with unfailing interest. 
 
 RTJSKIN, JOHN Prseterita; an autobiography told in 
 Ruskin's frank truthfulness and charming style. 
 Ruskin accounts for himself in a most convincing 
 way. 
 
 133 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 STILLMAN, WILLIAM JAMES Autobiography of a Jour- 
 nalist. The events incident to the life of a consul, 
 ventures in journalism, and foreign correspondence, 
 are all told in a captivating way. 
 
 WASHINGTON, BOOKER TALIAFERBO Up From Slavery; 
 an Autobiography. "Mr. Washington has had suc- 
 cess that would turn the head of many a white man, 
 but his own is right side up." Nation. 
 
 134 
 
PART II 
 
PEEFATOEY NOTE 
 
 The general aim of Part II has been stated in the 
 preface proper ; but it may be well to suggest that the 
 roll of the seasons and special occasions may demand 
 a use of the chapters out of the consecutive order in 
 which they have been placed for the sake of unity in 
 arrangement. 
 
 The work from the students has not been changed 
 except in the correction of spelling and of the most 
 prominent errors in grammar. The vocabulary, the 
 style, and the spirit of the writer has been carefully 
 preserved throughout. Part II has been the direct 
 outcome of school-room practice by numbers of teach- 
 ers ; this will account for the placing of the letters by 
 Mr. Woodrow Wilson and Miss Sarah Orne Jewett in 
 this part. 
 
 136 
 
- CHAPTER I 
 
 LETTER-WRITING IN CONNECTION WITH 
 NATURE STUDY 
 
 I. AUTUMN 
 OCTOBER'S BRIGHT BLUE WEATHER 
 
 suns and skies and clouds of June, 
 
 And flowers of June together, 
 Ye can not rival for one hour 
 
 October's bright blue weather. 
 
 When loud the bumble-bee makes haste , 
 
 Belated, thriftless vagrant, 
 And golden-rod is dying fast, 
 
 And lanes with grapes are fragrant; 
 
 When gentians roll their fringes tight 
 To save them from the morning, 
 
 And chestnuts fall from satin burs 
 Without a sound of warning. 
 
 When on the ground red apples lie 
 
 In piles like jewels shining, 
 And redder still on old stone walls 
 
 Are leaves of woodbine twining; 
 137 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 When all the lovely wayside things 
 Their white-winged seeds are sowing. 
 
 And in the fields, still green and fair 
 Late aftermaths are growing; 
 
 When springs run low, and on the brooks 
 
 In idle golden freighting, 
 Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush 
 
 Of woods, for winter waiting. 
 
 suns and shies and flowers of June, 
 
 Count all your boasts together, 
 Love loveth best of all the year 
 
 October's bright blue weather. 
 
 H.H. 
 
 1. THINGS TO BE OBSERVED IN AUTUMN : 
 
 a. The signs of autumn on the trees. 
 
 b. The autumn tints everywhere. 
 
 c. The scents of autumn in field and wood. 
 
 d. The fruit and grain that belong to autumn. 
 
 e. The bursting of the ripened pods and the 
 
 flying of the winged seeds. 
 
 /. The blueness of the sky, the golden sunshine, 
 the length of day. 
 
 g. The preparation for winter made by man. 
 
 h. The preparation for winter made by ani- 
 mals. Note the bee storing honey; the 
 caterpillar spinning his cocoon ; the squir- 
 rel laying up nuts. 
 138 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 i. Note the departing birds. 
 /. Note the sluggish brook. 
 
 2. READ THE FOLLOWING LETTERS IN PART I : 
 
 From : Page 
 
 John Burroughs 20, 52 
 
 N. P. Willis 82 
 
 Maria White 77 
 
 William Cowper 78 
 
 Coventry Patmore 28 
 
 J. R. Lowell 79 
 
 The Arbor Day group 102 to 112 
 
 Edward Fitzgerald 83 
 
 From Alice Chapin in Part II 154 
 
 Emerson to Carlyle 80 
 
 Consult the Bibliography and see the letters of 
 
 Henry D. Thoreau and the journal of Gilbert 
 
 White. 
 
 3. LETTER ASSIGNMENTS. 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS, IND., 
 
 October 14, 1902. 
 Dear Mr. Burroughs: 
 
 I am at School No. . Our teacher is Miss 
 
 She told us that she knew of you when she was a little 
 girl, and so I thought I should like to know you also. 
 I am a little girl. I am eight years old. 
 
 This letter is a secret. No one in the building 
 knows it but just our room. 
 139 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WRITING 
 
 So I am going to tell you about my caterpillar and 
 its cocoon. I have a caterpillar in my desk. He is 
 making his cocoon. He fastens it with the tiniest 
 threads that he can make. First he takes a leaf ; then 
 he bites all of it away until he comes to the veins and 
 then he spins his cocoon very neatly. He goes into 
 it and closes it after him very tight. When he goes 
 in his hair comes off. He fastens his hair into his 
 house and then sleeps very soundly all winter. In 
 spring the warm sunshine and the soft sweet spring 
 rains come and wake him up. 
 
 Then he unfastens his door and comes out and he 
 is a great fine butterfly. So this story is done. 
 
 Now Miss told us that you were a good, kind 
 
 man and that you studied all kinds of insects and 
 animals, so I wish that you would send us a letter 
 and tell us all about the animals that run over your 
 great farm. 
 
 Oh, I shall be so glad to get a letter from you. 
 
 There's another thing I want to tell you: Could 
 you come out here once and see our beautiful school 
 building? ... please do come and see our 
 school and when I have your letter, I am going to 
 give it to my Mamma and Papa. . . . Well, 
 good-by. Send it soon. Your little friend, 
 
 R P . 
 
 a. Write to R. P. such a letter as you think Mr. 
 Burroughs might have written in answer to hers, 
 and then find his answer in Part I. 
 
 6. Using R. P/s letter as suggestion write to 
 
 140 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 your mother and tell her what you have been study- 
 ing at school in the way of nature observation. 
 
 c. The following letter was written by a High School 
 student who endeavored to interest Mr. Burroughs in 
 the outdoor life around Indianapolis: 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS, IND., Oct. 10, 1902. 
 Dear Mr. Burroughs: 
 
 I have been hearing and thinking a great deal about 
 you lately and in order to feel better acquainted I 
 have decided to write you a short letter. Books say 
 that you are fond of nature in its uncultivated form, 
 so I know you love the woods, especially in this sea- 
 son of the year. I think the trees are more beautiful 
 in the autumn than at any other time, and then, too, 
 it is the nutting season. I wish that you would come 
 here to live, for we High School students know so 
 many fine places around Indianapolis to get nuts and 
 see pretty woods, and you could go with us and tell 
 us things about nature, which we can never get in 
 Botany and Science books. 
 
 Just north of the city there is a splendid big wood 
 and the fact that a high fence has to be climbed to 
 get into it adds to it charm, at least to me, for I 
 feel so much more "Indianish" and uncivilized than 
 if I walked in through an open gateway. Here you 
 can get both walnuts and hickory nuts, providing, of 
 course, that you get there in time. 
 
 The main pleasure though is not in the nut-gather- 
 ing, but in finding puff balls and odd leaves and in 
 hearing the leaves rustle as you walk in them. On 
 141 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 the way out there you can find golden-rod and a 
 pretty blue wild flower whose name I do not know. 
 Last Saturday we found a mole burrowing in the 
 ground out there and I think whenever I hear the 
 expression "son of the soil" I shall always think of 
 that mole. 
 
 Have you ever read Mrs. Browning's poem of The 
 Swan's Nest among the Reeds? It is only a short 
 poem about a little girl, who in all her high-flown day 
 dreams of a knightly lover kept in mind the fact that 
 she must show him the swan's nest among the reeds, 
 which only she knew where to find. I think "Little 
 Ellie," as she was called, was a true nature lover, don't 
 you? 
 
 This is rather a long letter for a stranger to write, 
 but I don't feel like a stranger, as in our English 
 class we have talked so much about you. Besides, 
 people who like the same things ought to know and 
 like each other, which sounds like an axiom in Geom- 
 etry. Please believe that in Indianapolis, you have 
 a sincere friend in Yours truly, 
 
 B V . 
 
 Using the above letter as suggestive, write to some 
 friend and interest him in your outdoor surroundings. 
 
 d. Select some correspondent, and in your letters 
 to that person make use of the following suggestions : 
 (i) The story of Proserpina, 
 (ii) Of a nutting-party that you had. 
 (iii) Of a thistle-down, or the milk-weed pods 
 on your common. 
 U2 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 (iv) Write to some one living in another zone 
 and tell of the autumn where you live. 
 
 (v) Write an imaginary letter from some 
 grandmother inviting her children or 
 her grandchildren to the old home for 
 Thanksgiving dinner. Make reference to 
 the past in your letter. 
 
 (vi) Write a farewell to the departing birds. 
 
 (vii) Write the imaginary reflections of a 
 
 Thanksgiving turkey. 
 
 (viii) Write letters to the principal of your 
 building and name therein the tree that 
 you wish to be planted for fall Arbor 
 Day. (See letters on Arbor Day.) State 
 the special merits of the tree that you 
 select. 
 
 (ix) Write a letter in the name of the "Dis- 
 contented Leaf." (See Henry Ward 
 Beecher's story by that name.) 
 
 (x) Read Bryant's Planting of the Apple-tree 
 and embody the ideas of the poem in a 
 letter of "Reminiscences of My Early 
 Life." 
 4. JOURNALS. 
 
 a. Keep a weather journal for October, noting 
 the warmth, light, length of day, the 
 clouds, the signs of the season, the woods, 
 the nuts, trees, leaves, and grass, the 
 brook, and the birds in their flight. 
 [In journals for all seasons, note, in ad- 
 dition to above, the temperature (heat 
 143 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEK WKITING 
 
 and cold), moisture and dryness, clear 
 and cloudy weather, the appearance of 
 the sky, the sunrise, sunset, stars, moon; 
 the winds, their direction and what they 
 bring; read the reports of the weather 
 bureau and find out where the cold or hot 
 wave comes from. Form conclusions 
 from your observations, and discover re- 
 lations between moisture and tempera- 
 ture, wind and cloud and mountain. 
 Note the effect of the weather upon the 
 world about us.] 
 
 b. Write the journal of a squirrel getting ready 
 
 for winter. 
 
 c. Of a honey bee. 
 
 d. Of a grasshopper. 
 
 e. Of a Puritan maiden during the early times 
 
 in New England. 
 
 f. Of Hiawatha's friendship with the animals. 
 
 g. Of an early settler at Thanksgiving time, 
 h. Of a student in Ichabod Crane's school. 
 
 i. Of an old Dutch housewife making ready for 
 
 winter. 
 5. AUTOBIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 a. Write the autobiography of a girl's straw 
 
 hat. 
 
 b. Of a Thanksgiving turkey. 
 
 c. Of an old stump. 
 
 d. Of a lichen. 
 
 e. Of the Dandelion in Hiawatha. 
 
 f. Of an apple-seed. 
 
 144 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 g. Of the month of October. 
 h. Of a bit of pampas grass. 
 
 IP. WINTER. 
 
 WINTER SONG 
 
 Summer joys are o'er; 
 Flowerets bloom no more., 
 Wintry winds a-sweeping; 
 Through the snowdrifts peeping, 
 
 Cheerful evergreen 
 
 Rarely now is seen. 
 
 Now no plumed throng 
 
 Charms the woods with song; 
 
 Ice-bound trees are glittering; 
 
 Merry snowbirds twittering, 
 Fondly strive to cheer 
 Scenes so cold and drear. 
 
 Winter, still I see 
 
 Many charms in thee, 
 
 Love thy chilly greeting, 
 
 Snowstorms fiercely beating, 
 And the dear delights 
 Of the long, long nights. 
 
 1. THINGS TO BE OBSERVED: 
 
 a. Frost and the work it does. 
 
 b, Snow : its formation, shape of its crystals. 
 
 145 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 c. Snowstorms ; the earth after a snowstorm. 
 
 d. Formation of ice crystals icebergs. 
 
 e. Sports in connection with frost, snow, and ice. 
 
 f. Fireside enjoyments in winter. 
 
 g. The earth as it appears in winter and the es- 
 
 pecial appearance of the bare trees and win- 
 ter scenes. 
 
 2. EEAD THE FOLLOWING LETTERS IN PART I : 
 
 From : Page 
 
 Coventry Patmore 28 
 
 William Cowper 78 
 
 3. LETTER ASSIGNMENTS. 
 
 My dear Mary : 
 
 That was an interesting little letter that you wrote 
 me. Yes,, I know Jack Frost ; he has been here, too. 
 I am going to tell you what happened early one 
 morning. It was a very cold morning and I was just 
 ready to go downstairs when I stepped to the window 
 to look out; but I at once forgot what I was looking 
 to see, for there before me was the window covered 
 with pictures. There were mountains, and boats, and 
 windmills and bridges ; there were queer little houses 
 and trees and a church with steeple so tall and so 
 crooked that I thought it surely would fall. But 
 what do you think I saw next? the most beautiful 
 picture of all ! a dainty little girl. I looked at her a 
 long time ; she had on a white hood and coat. "Good 
 146 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WETTING 
 
 morning/' I said and stooped over to kiss her. But 
 would you believe it ? that very minute she was gone, 
 frightened away by a kiss which I never dreamed 
 would do any harm. I have been so sorry ever since, 
 because I know she*will never come back. Who do 
 you suppose she was? She was Jack Frost's little 
 child, and it was he that made the picture ; but I can 
 not tell you any more about it now. I shall write to 
 you again soon and tell you of a snow scene we had 
 last week. Give my love to all. 
 
 Your sincere cousin, EMILY. 
 
 a. After reading the above letter, write the one to 
 which you think it might have been an answer. Also, 
 write the letter that might have followed this one, 
 describing the snow scene promised. 
 
 ALASKA. 
 My dear Clyde: 
 
 Would you like to come visit us ? You would have 
 a fine time. I could take you riding on my sled made 
 of walrus bones. My dogs go very fast over the 
 sparkling snow. Our house is an odd looking mound 
 of stone. It has two openings in it, a door and a 
 window. We do not have a furnace as you have; 
 but we are heated by a lamp which has a shallow 
 plate. Mamma cooks the food on this plate. I know 
 things must be different in your country. Will you 
 write me a letter and tell me how you live? Come 
 and see me. Your Alaska friend, SIPSU. 
 
 147 
 
LETTEKS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 b. Answer the above letter, giving Sipsu as good a 
 picture of your life as he has given you of his. 
 
 January 24, 1902. 
 Dear Friend: 
 
 This morning I noticed the snowflakes coming 
 down. They were fluffy and soft. Before some of 
 them reached the ground they danced and whirled 
 and fluttered about lazily, as if they were in no hurry 
 to come down. Some of them came down zigzag. 
 Some of them hovered in the air. They made me 
 think of the leaves in autumn and the snowbirds in 
 the winter. Have you ever watched the snowflakes 
 coming down? Isn't it a pretty sight? To-night I 
 am going to play snow-ball on the sidewalk in front of 
 our house. I have a nice sled, too, and I am going to 
 take Fred on it up the hill and let him slide down. 
 I love winter for its fun. I hope you do, too. Please 
 write soon to your devoted friend, A. J. 
 
 c. Answer the above letter. 
 
 d. Correspond with Gemila, the child of the des- 
 ert, and in exchange for her account of her climate 
 and surroundings tell her in separate letters the fol- 
 lowing points : 
 
 (i) How the snow looks and how it comes down, 
 (ii) How the earth looks when it is covered with 
 
 snow. 
 
 (iii) What plays you have with the snow. 
 (iv) What ice is. How it looks. 
 148 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 (v) What plays you have on ice. 
 (vi) If it is true that you can make ice in sum- 
 mer. 
 
 (vii) What you enjoy most about snow and ice. 
 (viii) How you skate. 
 e. Tell her of Jack Frost: 
 
 (i) As painter, designer, and carver on the 
 
 window panes, 
 (ii) As a player of pranks and a performer of 
 
 feats, 
 (iii) As assistant in preparing the earth for 
 
 sports, 
 (iv) As a useful agent in making the soil ready 
 
 for the seeds. 
 /. Speak of : 
 
 (i) The breaking up of the ice periods as shown 
 
 in the streets. 
 
 (ii) The miniature river systems and glacial 
 forms seen in the streets after the frozen 
 water has commenced to melt, 
 (iii) Note the power of the water to carry sand 
 
 and earth. 
 
 (iv) The frost-foliage everywhere, 
 (v) The sounds peculiar to cold weather, 
 (vi) Cold-weather signs that can be detected by 
 
 the eye. 
 
 (vii) The animal life visible, 
 (viii) The trees in winter. 
 
 g. (From Saint Nicholas.) Jing-a-ling, jing-a- 
 ling. Whoa! Prancer. Whoa! Dancer. Let me 
 149 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 drop this letter for Miss 'a children into the box. 
 
 Here's what I've said to them : 
 
 Dear Little Boys and Girls: 
 
 So you are looking for me Xmas morning. I'll 
 not disappoint you. Did I forget Picciola? Your 
 eyes are as bright as hers, and you will not fail to find 
 what I bring for you to love. 
 
 I'll ring the Xmas bells, too, that you may hear 
 the song the angels sang of "Peace on Earth Good 
 Will to Men." 
 
 And now a "Merry, Merry Xmas to you all." 
 Your loving friend, 
 
 SAINT NICHOLAS. 
 
 4. JOURNALS. 
 
 a. A weather record of the winter months. 
 
 &. Write leaves from an imaginary journal of a 
 
 raindrop, telling of: 
 (i) Its encounter with the heat, the cold, the 
 
 wind; 
 
 (ii) Its sail in the clouds and what it saw; 
 (iii) Its fall to earth and what then became of it; 
 (iv) Its final meeting with another drop from 
 another part of the country, giving its 
 different experiences. 
 
 c. Imagine that you are visiting in the arctic re- 
 gions and make journal entries of what im- 
 presses you most. (Get your ideas from the 
 Geography and The Seven Little Sisters.) 
 
 150 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 5. AUTOBIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 Write the autobiography of a lump of coal. 
 Of a Christmas tree. 
 
 Of some hibernating animal. 
 
 ^ 
 
 6. SUGGESTIVE READING. 
 
 Archibald Story of the Atmosphere. 
 Buckley Fairyland of Science. Two great 
 
 Sculptors water, ice. 
 Burroughs Signs and Seasons. Snow storm, 
 
 pp. 99-107. 
 Bryant The Snow Storm. (See his Wind 
 
 and Sea poems.) 
 Cheney Winter. 
 
 Chambers The Story of the Weather. 
 Emerson The Snow Storm. 
 Harrington About the Weather. 
 Longfellow Snow Flakes. 
 Lovejoy Poetry of the Seasons. (See Index 
 
 to Saint Nicholas.) 
 Tyndall Forms of Water in Clouds and 
 
 Rivers. 
 van Dyke Nature for Its Own Sake. 
 
 III. SPRING. 
 
 . . . Earth is a wintry clod: 
 But spring-wind., like a dancing psaltress, passes 
 Over its breast to waken it., rare verdure 
 Buds tenderly upon rough banks, between 
 151 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WRITING 
 
 The withered tree roots and the cracks of frost, 
 
 Like a smile striving with a wrinkled face. 
 
 The grass grows bright, the loughs are swoln with 
 
 blooms 
 
 Like chrysalids impatient for the air, 
 The shining dorrs are busy, beetles run 
 Along the furrows, ants make their ado; 
 Above, birds fly in merry flocks, the lark 
 Soars up and up, shivering for very joy; 
 Afar the ocean sleeps; white fishing gulls 
 Flit where the strand is purple with its tribe 
 Of nested limpets; savage creatures seek 
 Their loves in wood and plain and God renews 
 His ancient rapture. Thus he dwells in all, 
 From life's minute beginnings, up at last 
 To man the consummation of this scheme 
 Of being, the completion of this sphere 
 Of life;-" 
 
 BROWNING ; Paracelsus. 
 
 1. THINGS TO BE OBSERVED : 
 
 a. Signs of spring everywhere. 
 
 b. The return of the birds. 
 
 c. The passage of the wild geese. 
 
 d. The mounting of the sap. 
 
 e. The bursting of the buds. 
 /. The pussy-willows. 
 
 g. The blooming wild flowers. 
 h. The new-born (butterfly) moth. 
 i. The appearance of the hibernating animals 
 from their winter quarters. 
 152 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WEITING 
 
 j. Birds nesting. 
 
 k. Seed-sowing in garden and farm. 
 /. Sugar-making, 
 ra. Tree-planting (Arbor Day a fine time for the 
 
 study of -trees and their legends). 
 n. The new-born lambs. 
 o. The Easter thought everywhere in the return 
 
 of light and the newly-awakened life. 
 p. The myths of Proserpina, of Freya, of Psyche. 
 q. The legends of the spring flowers. 
 r. The waters bursting their icy bounds. 
 s. The earth putting on her green covering. 
 t. The gladness of nature everywhere. The true 
 
 joys of living (see Lowell's "And what is so 
 
 rare as a day in June"). 
 
 2. BEAD THE FOLLOWING LETTERS IN PART I : 
 From : Page 
 
 Coventry Patmore 28 
 
 William Cowper 78 
 
 Charles Lamb 44 
 
 Maria White 77 
 
 3. LETTER ASSIGNMENTS. 
 
 March 7, 1902. 
 Dear Bluebird: 
 
 Good morning! Welcome back! We heard your 
 happy note in the old maple-tree this morning. We 
 looked out and saw that your feathers were as blue 
 as they were last year and that you flitted about and 
 chatted with your mate just as gaily as you did then. 
 153 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 Have you had a pleasant winter? Will you tell us 
 something about it? Do build near our school! 
 We will bring you crumbs and grain in return for 
 your sweet songs. 
 
 YOUR LOVING FRIENDS IN ROOM E. 
 
 a. Answer the above letter for the Bluebird, and 
 tell the students what they wished to hear about your 
 winter South. 
 
 Dear friend Carrie: 
 
 I am going to tell you my dream. I dreamed that 
 my legs were changing and my hair was all coming 
 out, and that my wings were coming out. I thought 
 I was flying around the fields and the little boys and 
 girls were chasing me. Then the spring mother 
 called me, but I did not want to come. The wind be- 
 gan to blow and seemed to say, "Get up, Get up!" 
 When I came out I saw that my dream was true. I 
 will close. Yours truly, THE BUTTERFLY. 
 
 &. Use the above letter for a suggestion and write a 
 wild flower's dream. 
 
 My dear little Elizabeth: 
 
 So you have found your first butterfly, and it was 
 all yellow! I am glad, dear. It is always good to 
 find a yellow butterfly. People are so absurd ! They 
 think caterpillars turn into butterflies ! 
 
 I'll tell you how it is. When a pure loving deed 
 is done, with no thought of self, a butterfly is born. 
 If one thinks of self a little, it makes a moth, of 
 154 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 course, and everybody knows selfish deeds make mos- 
 quitoes and flies. 
 
 One day, out by Fall Creek, I saw so many butter- 
 flies little yellow ones those are the kind things 
 you do to children^ you know orange ones, beautiful 
 red ones, lovely purple ones, bright blue ones, all 
 busy and happy together. What fairies do for the 
 poor garden flowers, butterflies do for all the free 
 flowers of the fields. I liked to think how many 
 kind people there must be in your part of town, and 
 watched as I came home to see where they stopped, 
 for you know these deed children come back often 
 to bless their makers, and like to watch over them at 
 night. 
 
 As the butterflies fluttered along together, one flew 
 off one way and one another, and, Elizabeth, I saw 
 one fly over to your house. It was a beautiful blue 
 one, so I thought maybe it was something you did 
 for Grandma. A good many came to that little 
 house on the corner covered with honeysuckle and 
 clematis and morning-glory vines. An old man and 
 little boy sat close together on the doorstep. I asked 
 him if he made all those butterflies. He said he was 
 only a poor cobbler who could not do half as much 
 as he wished for any one; that the butterflies loved 
 his flowers and gave him great pleasure by coming. 
 But after he went in the little boy told me that some- 
 times when he waked in the moonlight, he saw but- 
 terflies hovering around Grandpa's head, and 
 Grandpa smiled in his sleep. 
 
 Your loving friend, ALICE CHAPIN, 
 
 155 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 c. Write a letter to Miss Chapin, thanking her for 
 the beautiful story in the above letter. Tell her of 
 a story of something else that you have heard. 
 
 SOUTH BEKWICK, MAINE, 
 
 March 21, 1902. 
 My dear Children of the Grammar Schools: 
 
 One of your friends has written me that you have 
 read my story of Sylvia and the little white heron 
 and have liked it. You can not know how much 
 pleasure this news gives me if I do not write and 
 tell you, so I give you my best thanks, now, and my 
 kindest wishes. 
 
 I should like very much to know what each one of 
 you liked best in the story and what seemed to you 
 the best part of it, and if you think Sylvia would 
 always be glad because she had been the heron's 
 friend? I am sure that you do think so, as the 
 writer of the story did. You see that the best thing 
 in the world is to be self -forgetful, and Sylvia was 
 just that when she took care of the bird. 
 
 I wish that I knew whether you know the different 
 kinds of birds that live near you, and how many you 
 have learned to know by sight or by their songs, 
 for even if you live in a large city like Indianapolis 
 you must have many birds for neighbors. Some of 
 you may have seen very strange and interesting birds, 
 when you have been away from home, or have seen, 
 what is still better, something very interesting about 
 the birds that live in the trees that you know best. 
 
 156 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 Perhaps you will each write a letter to tell me ! Be- 
 lieve me always, 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 SARAH ORNE JEWETT. 
 
 d. Answer Miss Jewett's letter and tell her of the 
 spring birds, what ones you know and when they 
 usually come. Write a letter that will interest her 
 in your surroundings. Mention the story of the 
 White Heron, as she asks you to do. 
 
 e. Write an imaginary letter from the grass, in 
 which it tells of the visits made it by the sun, the 
 rain, and the winds. (For suggestion, read the 
 poem: The Voice of the Grass.) 
 
 f. Write an invitation to the country to some town- 
 lover. Picture country joys in such a way that he 
 will wish to come. 
 
 g. Imagine that you are a wild fowl in passage, and 
 write a letter to some one telling of your flight and 
 what you see below you. 
 
 h. Write a letter to the person (if living) for 
 whom you wish to name your tree on spring Arbor 
 Day, and ask his permission to name the tree for him. 
 Tell him why you selected the certain tree. (See 
 fall Arbor Day.) 
 
 i. Write to a friend in the country and tell of the 
 games played by a child in the city in springtime. 
 
 /. Tell the story of Psyche in a letter to some 
 friend. 
 
 157 
 
LETTEKS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 5. JOURNALS FOR SPRING AND SUMMER MONTHS. 
 
 a. Weather record. (See fall assignment.) 
 
 b. Notes upon birds nesting (giving detail). 
 
 c. Write leaves from a farmer boy's journal, dur- 
 ing crop-planting, garden-making, sugar-making. 
 
 d. Note the dates upon which you see the first 
 spring birds; see how many come to your vicinity; 
 try to catch their calls and imitate them if you can. 
 
 e. Note the dates of the appearance of the differ- 
 ent spring flowers. Keep the record for a permanent 
 calendar. (See Thoreau's journal of spring in Mas- 
 sachusetts.) 
 
 /. Note the great events and the birthdays of great 
 men that occur in the respective months. 
 
 g. Note all the signs of the season that you see in 
 nature and in human life. 
 
 h. Write entries of a day's fishing, of a wild flower 
 hunt, of going swimming, going boating. 
 
 i. Read Burns's poem on the field-mouse and give 
 an imaginary leaf from its journal at plowing time. 
 
 6. SUGGESTIVE READING. 
 
 Adams Through the Year with the Poets. 
 
 Bryant The Gladness of Nature, An Invi- 
 tation to the Country, March, The Yellow 
 Violet. 
 
 Burroughs The Bluebird: Scribner's, Au- 
 gust, 1873. 
 
 Emerson The Ehodora, Mayday. 
 
 Hunt In April. 
 
 Larcom The Sister Months. 
 158 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 Longfellow An April Day. 
 
 Lowell The Dandelion, and What Is so Rare 
 as a Day in June ? 
 
 Whittier First Flowers. 
 
 Wordsworth To the Small Celandine, The 
 Daffodils, The First Swallow. 
 From St. Nicholas When the Apple Blos- 
 soms Stir, Waiting for May, Forward 
 March, The Bluebird's Song, Waiting to 
 Grow, Daffy Down Dilly, Ready for Duty. 
 
 See Wisconsin Free Library Commission for 
 Suggestions for Nature Study. 
 
 159 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 LETTERS CHARACTERIZED BY THE USE OF 
 THE DIFFERENT DISCOURSE-FORMS 
 
 7. LETTERS IN WHICH THE USE OF TEE 
 NARRATIVE IS PROMINENT. 
 
 1. READ THE FOLLOWING LETTERS IN PART I : 
 From : Page 
 
 Hans Andersen 16 
 
 Lydia Maria Child 24 
 
 Charles Kingsley 26 
 
 Alice Chapin (Part II) 154 
 
 Sidney Lanier 17 
 
 John Burroughs 20 
 
 2. LETTER ASSIGNMENTS. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, MASS., 
 
 November 8, 1902. 
 Dear Children: 
 
 Are you really interested in my life? and do you 
 really wish to hear my story so much ? Well, I have 
 not always been an Arm-Chair as I am now. I can 
 remember when I was a tree near the blacksmith 
 shop and my branches bent over it and covered it 
 with its beautiful green leaves. The bees came 
 among my leaves and made me happy and my blos- 
 160 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 soms filled the air with sweet fragrance. In the 
 autumn when I had on my satin burs, the children 
 used to call out, "Oh, the chestnuts are falling," 
 and they would gather them and take them home, 
 and the mother wotlld say, "Where did you get the 
 chestnuts ?" and the children would answer, "Oh, the 
 grand old tree gave them to us." 
 
 I never shall forget the smith when I was to be 
 cut down. He wept very bitterly; but the school 
 children of Cambridge paid some man to make me 
 into an arm-chair, as you see me now, for the poet. 
 I was given to him on his birthday, and old and 
 white-haired as he was, he felt like a youth again. 
 My life has been a very happy one and all because 
 of the poet who sang of me when I was a young 
 flourishing tree. Now good-by, I am glad that you 
 asked me to tell you about myself. 
 Your friend, 
 
 THE OLD ARM-CHAIR. 
 
 a. After the manner of the above letter write to 
 some one in the name of the Washington Elm at Cam- 
 bridge. 
 
 &. Use the following data for stories that you tell 
 to some particular person : 
 
 (i) Time: Early summer evening after a hard 
 
 rain. 
 
 Place : Under a railroad bridge in Illinois, 
 three miles from the nearest station. 
 
 161 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 Chief Personage: A boy of seventeen 
 
 years. 
 Circumstances: The young man noticed 
 
 that the rain had loosened a pier of the 
 
 bridge. 
 Supply setting; fill out incident and invent 
 
 an ending to suit yourself. Write to 
 
 some friend of the event, 
 (ii) Time: Early evening. 
 
 Place : Front doorstep of a city. 
 
 Persons: A lady visitor and a telegraph 
 
 messenger. 
 Circumstances : The boy returns to the lady 
 
 a five-dollar gold piece which she through 
 
 mistake had given him the day before, for 
 
 a penny, in making the change. 
 
 c. Write the story : 
 
 Of the petrified Fern. 
 
 Of the horse in The Bell of Atri. 
 
 Of some family relic, as a clock, a chest, an old 
 
 spoon. 
 Of the Poet's Arm-Chair. 
 
 d. Write from Fredericksburg in the time of Bar- 
 bara Frietchie, and tell her story as if you had been 
 an on-looker as she waved the flag out the window. 
 
 e. Reproduce as if a participant in the event, any 
 one of the following selections : 
 
 (i) Paul Revere's Ride. 
 162 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 (ii) Horatius at the Bridge. 
 
 (iii) Pheidippides (by Browning). 
 
 (iv) Echetlos (by Browning). 
 
 (v) Donald (by Browning), also, The Pied 
 Piper. - 
 
 (vi) Hawthorne's (Stories from) Twice Told 
 Tales, The Wonder Boole, Mosses from an 
 Old Manse. 
 
 (vii) Longfellow's The Wreck of the Hesperus,*' 
 The Legend Beautiful, Birds of Killing- 
 worth , stories from Hiawatha. 
 (viii) See Beasley's stories from Rome; Baldwin's 
 stories of Siegfried and of Roland; 
 Southey's The Inchcape Rock, Kipling's/' 
 The Brushwood Boy, stories from the 
 Bible, from the Iliad and Odyssey; War- 
 ner's Hunting of the Deer, and Ernest 
 Thompson Seton's stories. 
 
 (ix) Whittier's Nauhaught the Deacon, Abraham 
 Davenport, Conductor Bradley, The 
 Witch's Daughter. 
 
 (x) Wordsworth's Heart Leap Well, We are 
 Seven. 
 
 II. LETTERS CHARACTERIZED BY THEIR 
 DESCRIPTIVE QUALITY. 
 
 1. READ THE FOLLOWING LETTERS IN PART I : 
 
 Page 
 
 From Robert Gould Sfyiw 30 
 
 From Shelley 86, 87 
 
 163 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 From James Lane Allen 37 
 
 From Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. 84, 85 
 
 From James Russell Lowell 79 
 
 The group of letters under character 
 appreciation 89-93 
 
 2. LETTER ASSIGNMENTS. 
 
 IN THE EASTERN SKY 
 Dear little children: 
 
 Did you know that in the morning just before the 
 sun is up, I rise from my feathery couch and place 
 a silvery star in my forehead ? Then I throw a robe 
 of fiery clouds around my shoulders and start on my 
 journey across the sky. Now it is a little lighter 
 and I throw open wide the gates of dawn. Then in 
 rolls the glistening chariot of the sun-god, and he be- 
 gins to shout to his shining horses, and the light of 
 them brightens up the dreary earth and makes every- 
 thing happy. Then I go sailing through the soft 
 blue air to be ready to greet the sun-god at eventide, 
 when he drives into the western gates and softly 
 goes to rest. Yours truly, 
 
 AURORA. 
 
 a. Imagine that you are Diana, and answer the 
 above letter from Aurora. Describe your nightly sail 
 in the sky and what you see. 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS, June 11, 1902. 
 My dear Mr. Steele: 
 
 Do you remember Shakespeare's Coriolanus? I 
 wonder if I could get you to paint for me a picture 
 164 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 of a woman in that play ! The woman is Volumnia, 
 famous in history as a Roman mother. It was she 
 who said, "Had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike 
 and none less dear than my own good Marcius, I had 
 rather eleven die nobly for their country than one 
 voluptuously surfeit out of action." Do you think 
 you can paint the portrait of a woman capable of 
 saying such words ? 
 
 I have pictured her in my mind as tall and erect, 
 strong and perfectly formed. Every feature in your 
 picture should, I think, express action and energy, 
 every curve and muscle strength and vitality. The 
 head (for that is the most important of all) must be 
 poised in such a way as to express the utmost dignity 
 and pride. Do not paint the face of a Madonna. 
 No, my Volumnia must bear the stamp of a hero ; she 
 was a patrician of the highest rank and her features 
 must show their noble lineage. The hair must be 
 dark gray and very abundant, falling over the shoul- 
 ders. How can I describe the face? It must be 
 neither too delicate nor too harsh and manly; but 
 that of a strong, noble woman capable of the tenderest 
 affection. The forehead is high and purely patri- 
 cian, and the eyes are a beautiful gray, as clear and 
 bright as an eagle's, capable of showing pride, anger 
 and determination, and again capable of sending 
 forth the light of love. The nose and mouth are 
 typically Roman. You will paint her in the loose 
 garment worn by the Roman matrons. It will be in 
 oils, of course, and about two-thirds of life size. 
 
 165 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 Entrusting all other details to your own judgment, 
 I am most sincerely yours, 
 
 F. L. 
 
 &. Using the above letter for suggestion write to 
 some artist ordering a picture of : 
 Some landscape. 
 Some historic scene. 
 An illustration of some sentiment. 
 Of some homestead. 
 Of some friend. 
 
 c. Describe in a letter to a friend the face of your 
 father, of your mother, your own face as you see it in 
 the glass, the face of your friend. 
 
 d. Write your parents a description of your school- 
 room. 
 
 e. Write your teacher a description of your room. 
 
 /. Describe your feelings when you do good work; 
 when your teacher looks pleased over your work. 
 
 g. Describe the finest horizon line in your land- 
 scape, or down a street. 
 
 166 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WRITING 
 
 ///. LETTERS EXPLANATORY IN CHAR- 
 AGTER 
 
 LETTER ASSIGNMENTS, 
 
 At Home, 
 
 3 January, 1902. 
 Dear Helen : 
 
 Have you had anything new at your school lately ? 
 We have. We are explaining maxims by applying 
 them to life. I guessed five that were written up the 
 other day ; but nobody guessed mine. Can you guess 
 it? Here it is. In Athens there was a young man, 
 named Alcibiades, who was very rich. He was also 
 very handsome, and was loved by the people of 
 Athens. After he had won the confidence of the 
 Athenians and had even succeeded in making plans 
 for the capture of several cities in Sicily, he turned 
 traitor, and showed the enemy how to upset the plans 
 of the Athenians; so in his case. " . . . 
 What is the maxim that belongs in the blank space? 
 Make me out a maxim to guess. Write soon. Write 
 often to Your devoted friend, 
 
 C. E. 
 
 a. Answer the above letter, granting the request of 
 the writer, and substituting the name of some ac- 
 quaintance instead of "C. E." 
 
 ft. Use the following maxims for suggestions in 
 writing out guesses for your school-mates. 
 (i) Make hay while the sun shines. 
 167 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 (ii) Birds of a feather flock together, 
 (iii) A thing of beauty is a joy for ever, 
 (iv) In union there is strength. 
 
 (v) Those who live in glass houses ought not to 
 throw stones. 
 
 c. Write to some friend and give directions for: 
 playing the games of marbles ; of ball ; of puss wants 
 a corner ; of hide and seek ; of thimble. 
 
 d. Write to some one giving directions how to 
 make garden, how to study. 
 
 e. Explain to some one younger than yourself the 
 meaning of a word, or how to use the dictionary. 
 
 /. Write an account of a magazine article that you 
 have read; of a book that you have read. (Give al- 
 ways name, publisher, author, or volume and page 
 of magazine.) 
 
 IV. LETTERS EMPLOYING DISCUSSION 
 
 My dear Teacher: 
 
 You ask me to write you a letter and tell you 
 what I think about playing marbles for keeps. I do 
 not think we ought to play marbles for keeps, be- 
 cause it is the same as gambling. You may put three 
 marbles in and another boy three, and as luck will 
 have it, the other boy gets all six of them. He is 
 getting something for nothing. It may be all right 
 168 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WRITING 
 
 for the one who wins, but he is not getting them by 
 toil and honesty. 
 
 Some boys think they have as much right to play 
 marbles for keeps as they have to eat; but it is gen- 
 erally those who win. I think that when boys play 
 marbles for keeps they are only getting ready for 
 gambling when they become men. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 L. M. 
 My dear Miss : 
 
 I beg leave to differ with L. M. I think we should 
 be allowed to play marbles for keeps. Some people 
 think it is gambling and say it is all luck. I think 
 it is not luck; it is skill in shooting. And as to 
 getting something for nothing, it is not easy to bend 
 over and shoot a marble straight. And if you are 
 a shot good enough to hit when you shoot, I think it 
 all right to take the other man's marbles. This is 
 what I think. There may be two sides; but I am on 
 the side of "keeps." 
 
 Your respectful pupil, 
 
 J. T. 
 
 Dec. 3, 1901. 
 Dear Karl: 
 
 Karl, why do you want to play for fun ? I like to 
 play for keeps. I don't care if I do lose all my 
 marbles. I will buy some more. When you play 
 for fun that is a baby game. Keeps is a big boy's 
 game. Your schoolmate, 
 
 C.B. 
 169 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 a. Read the discussions in the above letters, weigh 
 them, and detect the weak points in the reasoning. 
 Which letter does not touch upon the question? 
 Write out a real argument for the side that you are 
 on, in a letter to your teacher. Try to get at the 
 heart of the matter. Is there any other way to play 
 for keeps besides in marbles ? 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 21, 1902. 
 My dear Friend: 
 
 Of course I could not say what the man said who 
 convinced the people that it was wrong to kill the 
 song birds. I know what I think about it. It seems 
 to me the birds would look quite as pretty in the 
 trees as they would on women's hats. I think it 
 would be better to let the birds live, because then you 
 could see their beautiful feathers and could also hear 
 their lovely songs, while, if they are killed, their 
 feathers can only be seen on women's hats. Then all 
 the song is gone, and the feathers do not look half 
 so nice on a hat as they do on the birds. 
 
 Your loving friend, 
 
 F.D. 
 
 &. F. D. was asked to tell in the above letter what 
 he thought the speaker said in his plea for the life of 
 the birds. Will you write to some mate and make 
 a plea using other points than those given by F. D. ? 
 
 170 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 816 N. NEW JERSEY ST., 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. 
 Dear Father: 
 
 Your letter was a great disappointment to me, for 
 I thought that yeu would consider the profession I 
 had chosen one that was particularly well suited for 
 me; but instead you offer the strongest objections. 
 You say that you are surprised that I should choose 
 a profession which is so overcrowded and one in 
 which it is almost impossible for a young inex- 
 perienced physician to gain a good practice. I can 
 but think that the world will always recognize a man 
 or woman who, by his ability, shows that he is de- 
 serving of recognition. It is only in recent years 
 that women have taken up the study of medicine, and, 
 therefore, the field for lady doctors can not be over- 
 crowded. 
 
 You tell me that there are many occupations which 
 are better suited for a woman than that of a doctor. 
 It seems to me that a woman is admirably suited for 
 that profession if she has a cheerful, willing disposi- 
 tion and if she be careful and confident of herself. 
 A woman can enter into almost any occupation with- 
 out losing any of her womanliness. It is the woman 
 that makes an occupation suitable for her and not 
 the occupation that mars her character. 
 
 I can not agree with you that there is no need of 
 lady doctors. I had occasion recently to speak to 
 
 Dr. about this very subject. I asked him if he 
 
 could give any reason why a woman should not be a 
 
 doctor; he said, "I can not, but I can give you many 
 
 171 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WETTING 
 
 reasons why there should be women physicians." He 
 said, also, that there was an increasing demand for 
 lady doctors. It has been found that they are very 
 successful in treating women and children. And 
 again, a woman has an opportunity of choosing any 
 branch of this profession and specializing on that. 
 Father, I hope you will reconsider your decision and 
 examine this question from every side. With much 
 love, I am, as ever, Your daughter, 
 
 c. Using the above letter for suggestion, write to 
 some friend who is interested in your future career, 
 from any one of the following situations, proving the 
 wisdom of your choice of a life-work. 
 
 (i) A professional career, as lawyer, as doctor, 
 as preacher. 
 
 (ii) The life of a sailor, a miner, a missionary, 
 an actress. 
 
 (iii) The life of a farmer, or a dairyman. 
 
 (iv) A rich young person wishes to be self-sup- 
 porting. Give his arguments in an im- 
 aginary letter to his father. 
 
 d. Exchange letters with your mates and discuss 
 therein any of the following questions : 
 
 (i) Examinations should be abolished. 
 (ii) All students should have hand-work, 
 (iii) Foot-ball is a game not suited to the graded 
 schools. 
 
 172 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 (iv) The curfew is not a benefit in the enforce- 
 ment of law and order. 
 
 (v) The English sparrows in our cities should be 
 killed. 
 
 (vi) It is right (or wrong) to inform on a school- 
 mate. 
 
 (vii) Congress should make an attempt upon the 
 life of our chief executive an act of high 
 treason. 
 
 (viii) Only "Union men" should be employed in 
 labor. 
 
 (ix) Make an appeal to a workingmen's club in 
 favor of education. 
 
 (x) Write a letter to girls in the name of the 
 Audubon society, against wearing birds 
 on hats. (See Firth's Voices of the 
 Speechless, The Winged Hat, The Halo, 
 pp. 227, 228.) 
 
 (xi) Write an appeal in behalf of some historic 
 object about to be destroyed. 
 
 173 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 V. LETTERS IN WHICH VARIETY OF EX- 
 PRESSION IS SECURED WITH REFER- 
 ENCE TO THE SAME SUBJECT 
 
 (Narration) 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS, IND., Oct. 29, 1903. 
 Dear William: 
 
 I heard a very beautiful story of friendship to-day. 
 It was the story of Damon and Pythias. 
 
 Dionysius was tyrant and the king of Syracuse. 
 There were many plotters against his life, and among 
 them Pythias, who was caught and tried, and con- 
 demned to die. 
 
 He wished to see his little son and beautiful wife 
 and arrange his affairs ; his friend Damon offered to 
 stay in the place of Pythias, and if Pythias did not 
 come back on a certain time limit Damon would die 
 in his place. 
 
 Pythias encountered many misfortunes on his way 
 to and from his home. Damon had his head on the 
 executioner's block when Pythias rushed in, and Da- 
 mon's life was saved. 
 
 Dionysius was so astonished at such friendship 
 that he pardoned Pythias and begged to be admitted 
 into their friendship, and Damon and Pythias were 
 firm friends after this, and Dionysius was never 
 again tyrannical. Yours truly, 
 
 R. M. 
 174 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 (Description) 
 Dear William: - 
 
 I will continue my series of letters. 
 
 When Pythias was captured he was brought into 
 the court by two guards with short, heavy broad- 
 swords and heavy armor. 
 
 Dionysius sat upon his high throne, and the prose- 
 cutor sat beside a clerk or scribe, busily writing. 
 
 The prosecutor said, "Is the cause known to you 
 for which you are to be tried ?" 
 
 Pythias answered him not. He again spoke, say- 
 ing, "You are arrested on the charge of treason 
 against his Majesty, Dionysius the First, of Syracuse. 
 It would hardly be thought that one who was favored 
 by his Majesty should want to rob the people of the 
 sovereign they loved so well." A hiss goes up from 
 the people on the outside hearing this, and Dionysius 
 frowns. The prosecutor resumes his speech and 
 says, "If you will give up the names of your fel- 
 low conspirators, your sentence will be spared." 
 Pythias frowns and says, "No, I will not." The 
 prosecutor says to Dionysius, "He will not disclose 
 the names of the conspirators," and to Pythias he 
 says, after Dionysius has nodded, "You are con- 
 demned to die. If at any time from now till to-mor- 
 row, the time of execution, you will disclose the 
 names of the other conspirators, your life will be 
 spared." 
 
 175 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 Pythias is led to his cell, and the clerks carefully 
 put away the writing materials. 
 
 I shall have to close. Yours, 
 
 G. R. M. 
 3 
 
 (Monologue) 
 Dear William: 
 
 I will again take up my pen, which is in very bad 
 condition, to write you what Pythias said after he was 
 condemned. When Pythias had been taken to his 
 dungeon in chains, he was heard to say, "The tyrant 
 will die. If I do not accomplish my duty the others 
 will. I die willingly, but oh ! how will my wife feel. 
 When I think of her all alone and think of the tears 
 rolling down her face oh! I can not think of it. 
 It is awful to think of my little son's having a stigma 
 on his name and my home confiscated for the state. 
 It would be well if it only concerned me. Oh! I 
 must see them. Fll call the guard. Guards, go 
 tell Dionysius that I wish an audience with him. I 
 must see my family and bid good-by to my home 
 for ever." 
 
 I must close, for my time is nearly gone. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 G. R. 
 4 
 
 (Dialogue) 
 Dear William: 
 
 When Pythias and Damon had walked to a little 
 bower Pythias said, "I would have come sooner but 
 176 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 my horse stumbled, and after alighting he raised 
 himself up, and I drove with all my strength and ar- 
 rived home about the midday. I arranged my affairs, 
 bade farewell to my family and found my horse dead. 
 My slave had kilted it, and I rushed with all 
 strength and power here, and when on the outside 
 of the court I saw your body, for in excitement I 
 did not see that your head was still on your shoul- 
 ders, I thought it had happened and, grabbing a 
 sword from one of the soldiers, I rushed at Dionysius, 
 but before I had reached the throne I saw that you 
 were alive and so did not go any farther, but took 
 your place on the block." 
 
 Damon said, "I would gladly have given my life 
 for you and would have died with a smile on my 
 face, but I knew it was from some mishap that you 
 were not there. It is a wonder that Dionysius par- 
 doned you. But I must now hasten home, for my 
 mother is anxious about me." 
 
 I must close, for the time is almost here. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 R. M. 
 
 a. Using the four letters preceding for suggestion, 
 treat any one of the following stories in the same 
 way: 
 
 Horatius at the Bridge. 
 
 Marcus Curtius leaping in the Gulf of the Fo- 
 rum. - 
 William Tell. 
 
 177 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WETTING 
 
 The visit of Cyrus to the court of his grand- 
 father. 
 
 Sergeant Jasper at Sullivan Island. 
 
 Arnold von Winkelried. 
 
 Stories from the Iliad, the Odyssey, and from 
 mythology. 
 
 1. 
 Dear Friend: 
 
 I will tell you a little story. The young Persian 
 prince named Cyrus was taught as other boys were in 
 the custom of his time and country. He was only a 
 little boy when he learned to eat cresses and bread and 
 water. When Cyrus was twelve years old he was taken 
 to see his grandfather, whose name was Astyages. 
 
 There was a great deal of splendor in his grand- 
 father's palace, and Cyrus was not at all surprised. 
 Once when a great feast was given, he took the place 
 of cup-bearer and put the white napkin on his shoul- 
 der and carried the tray on three fingers to his grand- 
 father quite properly, but he forgot one little cere- 
 mony of which his grandfather told him, saying : 
 
 "It is the custom for the cup-bearer to taste the 
 wine before it is given to the king, to see if it has 
 been drugged or poisoned." Cyrus said gravely, 
 "When my father is thirsty he drinks, and his thirst 
 is quenched/' 
 
 Dear Helen, I thought perhaps you would like 
 this, so I told you. We are all well and I hope you 
 are, too. Yours truly, M E . 
 
 178 
 
LETTERS AKD LETTER WRITING 
 
 2. 
 
 My dear Son: 
 
 I am writing to you to tell you that your wife and 
 son arrived safely, ancl how impressed I am with your 
 son. When I first saw him, I was pleased with his 
 comely appearance. After hearing him talk I was 
 still more pleased because of the wise remarks he 
 made. 
 
 I gave a banquet in his honor, and he told me 
 that the Persians could get enough to eat for one 
 meal with a great deal less trouble. After hearing 
 this I gave him the food to give to my officers. He 
 gave some to all, but the cup-bearer, who had offended 
 him by not allowing him to have audience with me 
 every time he wished to. I expressed sorrow at his 
 not giving the cup-bearer some of the food, because 
 he had served me so well. Cyrus says, "I will serve 
 you as well as he." So he put a napkin on his 
 shoulder, and carried the cup with such grace to me, 
 that I was very much pleased. ASTYAGES. 
 
 I. Using the story of Cyrus as a basis: 
 (i) Answer in the name of Astyages. 
 (ii) Let Cyrus write home to his father, 
 (iii) Let Cyrus write to his grandfather after his 
 return home, thanking his grandfather 
 for the courtesy shown him at court. 
 c. In connection with reading of the Trial of Soc- 
 rates : 
 
 (Place of writing, Athens, in the time of Socrates.) 
 179 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WETTING 
 
 1st letter. An account of Socrates as he was 
 known by his friends. 
 
 2d letter. Socrates as known by his enemies. 
 
 3d letter. Picture the scene of the trial of Soc- 
 rates. 
 
 4th letter. Give an account of the arguments 
 made by Socrates in his own de- 
 fense. 
 
 5th letter. Tell of the conversation between 
 Socrates and the friends who visit 
 him in the prison. 
 
 6th letter. After all is over, your reflections 
 upon the life, belief and influence 
 of Socrates. 
 
 See Grote's History of Greece, Chap. LXVIII, Vol. 
 VIII; Lord's Beacon Lights of History, pp. 208-214; Cur- 
 tius's History of Greece, Vol. V. See index to points in 
 Larned's History for ready reference and topical read- 
 ing; World's Best Literature, Vol. XXIII; Jowett's 
 Translation of Plato The Apology, The Crito, Xeno- 
 phon's Memorabilia. 
 
 180 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 LETTERS DEALING WITH SOCIAL RELA- 
 TIONS 
 
 I. INVITATIONAL LETTERS 
 
 1. READ THE FOLLOWING LETTERS IN PART I : 
 From : Page 
 
 James Russell Lowell 41 
 
 David Masson 41 
 
 Robert Louis Stevenson 42 
 
 H. W. Longfellow (acceptance) 43 
 
 Henry D. Thoreau 43 
 
 Charles Lamb (declination) 44 
 
 William Cowper (declination) 46 
 
 2. LETTER ASSIGNMENTS. 
 
 AT SCHOOL, February 21, 1902. 
 Dear Mary: 
 
 I thank you for your note asking me to come over 
 to see you. It makes no difference whether you were 
 at my house last or I was at yours. I shall be glad to 
 come. You need not have taken the trouble to say 
 we should have a good time. We always have a good 
 time when we're together. 
 181 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 I generally get one hundred in arithmetic but sel- 
 dom in spelling. Good-by till I come. 
 
 Your loving friend, 
 
 BEATRICE. 
 
 a. After reading the above note carefully, write 
 such a note of invitation to Beatrice as you think 
 drew forth this reply from her. 
 
 AT SCHOOL, December 12, 1902. 
 Mr. James Whitcomb Eiley: 
 
 Dear Mr. Riley: Being a constant and delighted 
 reader of your poems, I consider it a great privilege 
 to write to you. 
 
 I am a member of Shortridge High School, and we 1 
 would be greatly pleased if you would visit us. We 
 feel that it would be a great inspiration to have our 
 own Hoosier poet speak to us, or better still, to hear 
 him recite his poems. 
 
 If there is one of your poems I like better than an- 
 other, it is Knee Deep in June. 
 
 "Month a man Tcin railly love 
 June, you know, I'm talking of." 
 
 In some way it fascinates me, and I never stop with 
 one reading. Another poem I admire so much is 
 Griggsby Station. 
 
 182 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 "Let's go a visitin' lack to Griggsby's station 
 Back where the latch-string's a-Jiangin' from the 
 
 door, 
 
 And ever 3 neighbor round the place is dear as a re- 
 lation 
 Back where we ust to be so happy and so pore." 
 
 It is so true to life, for I know by experience. 
 Mr. Riley, I wish you a merry Christmas and hope 
 you will visit Shortridge soon. I am 
 Yours cordially, 
 
 b. Change the above to a formal invitation, omit- 
 ting unnecessary detail. (Let it be in the third per- 
 son.) 
 
 c. Write a note asking some prominent citizen to 
 visit your school. 
 
 d. Write a note inviting your teacher to spend the 
 evening with you. 
 
 e. Write a note to the superintendent of the 
 schools, asking him to the exercises at your school. 
 Tell him what you are to have. 
 
 /. Write a formal note of invitation to a stranger 
 visiting your neighborhood, inviting her to see you at 
 a stated time (a formal invitation is written in the 
 third person and omits greetings and words of affec- 
 tion). 
 
 g. Write a letter to a pupil in a school in some 
 other part of the city ; ask him to visit your school, 
 and tell him of the interesting things to be seen there. 
 183 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 h. Write a letter to your mother, asking her to 
 visit your school. 
 
 i. Write a note of acceptance to an invitation to 
 go to a picnic. 
 
 j. Write a note of regret, declining to spend the 
 night away from home. 
 
 fc. Write a letter asking a classmate who has 
 stopped school to come back to school. 
 
 I. Write a note of invitation to a friend to visit 
 the country. 
 
 ra. Write to a friend in the country who desires to 
 visit the city. 
 
 II. LETTERS OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND 
 SYMPATHY 
 
 1. READ THE FOLLOWING LETTERS IN PART I : 
 
 From : Page 
 
 Dorothy Stanley 49 
 
 Charles Dickens 55 
 
 George Eliot 57 
 
 Lydia Maria Child 98 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 99 
 
 184 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 2. LETTER ASSIGNMENTS. 
 
 (Letter of Thanks) 
 
 SCHOOL No. 14, 
 January 20, 1903. 
 
 My Dear Miss : 
 
 Our teacher asked us the other day which picture 
 in our room we liked the best. We all liked the one 
 
 with the baby Jesus and his mother. Miss said 
 
 that a lady who loved little children lent it to her 
 
 and that we might write and thank her. Miss 
 
 loves you and we love you, too; she said that she in- 
 tended sending you the best letter. I hope mine will 
 be the best, so that I can send it, and I wish that you 
 would answer it. 
 
 Your loving friend, 
 
 a. Using the above letter as a suggestion, write a 
 note of thanks to some one who has visited your 
 school and spoken to you upon the birds or some in- 
 teresting topic, or extended some courtesy to you. 
 
 &. Acknowledge the receipt of books, a picture, or 
 some gift from a friend. 
 
 c. Write a letter to a friend whom you have visit- 
 ed, mentioning your enjoyment of your visit and of 
 the courtesy received. 
 
 d. Make acknowledgments to some literary per- 
 son of the pleasure that you have received from his 
 writings. 
 
 185 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 e. Thank some friend for the inspiration that you 
 have received from him. 
 
 (Letter of Sympathy) 
 
 AT SCHOOL, 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS, IND., February 24, 1902. 
 Dear Count Tolstoy: 
 
 Yesterday morning our teacher was reading to us 
 your story, The Long Exile, and it reminded me of 
 your long exile in the sick room, away from the work 
 and the people that you love. I know how lonely and 
 cheerless it is, for I have lately recovered from a long 
 illness myself; but I also know what a great value 
 friendship is to one at this time. Flowers, little 
 notes, or messages of love poured in upon me, and 
 how grateful I was to friends who did not forget me 
 in the midst of their duties and pleasures. 
 
 Shall I send flowers ? Alas, I am but an American 
 girl living thousands of miles away from you, and 
 the blossoms would die long before they reached you. 
 But a note can be sent, and it will tell you how anx- 
 iously we look at the papers each day to see whether 
 you are recovering, and how heartily we wish for 
 your return to health and strength. Stories that tell 
 of simple, honest people, who realize that God is 
 "What Men Live By," and who in this belief, over- 
 come temptations and do good to their neighbors, can 
 not fail to help those who read them, and for this 
 reason, if for no other, we should wish you to live, 
 that the world may have more of those stories which 
 186 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 lift men up and create thoughts too deep for words. 
 Among the many of your readers will always be your 
 sincere admirer, R. M. 
 
 /. Write to R. M. in the name of Count Tolstoy 
 and thank her for ftr sympathy. 
 
 g. Write a note of sympathy and cheer to a school- 
 mate who is unavoidably out of school. 
 
 h. Write to a friend who has met some loss or has 
 had some accident. 
 
 i. Write a letter to some person who has at some 
 time given you aid or inspiration. 
 
 III. LETTERS OF APPRECIATION 
 1. LETTER ASSIGNMENTS. 
 
 (The Vicar of Wakefield.) 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS, IND., March 19, 1902. 
 My Dear Dr. Goldsmith: 
 
 Many thanks for the pleasure which you prepared 
 for us when you wrote The Vicar of Wakefield. 
 Our America is different from England at the time 
 of your story, with no debtors' prison, no taverns such 
 as those which your characters patronized, and not 
 nearly enough men like Dr. Primrose; but we can 
 appreciate your humor and the vivid pictures of 
 family life. 
 
 Anything I could say about the Vicar would prob- 
 ably sound foolish to you, who, having created him, 
 187 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 know a hundred times more about him than I. But 
 I wonder what you consider his greatest achievement. 
 Of course, his cheerfulness and strength in the bitter- 
 est adversity were admirable, and his simplicity and 
 kindness at all times were lovable; but to me the 
 greatest thing he did was to win the respect and love 
 of his fellow prisoners by publicly trying to reform 
 them. It would be exceedingly hard to find another 
 man who would, in the first place, undertake a thing 
 so dangerous to his dignity, and who would persevere 
 in his plan when it met with such decisive ridicule. 
 He showed that he was not to be terrified by a fear 
 which makes cowards of nearly all of us in these 
 days the fear of being laughed at. 
 
 One of the touches which make the Vicar dearer 
 and more real to me is his simple shrewdness in up- 
 setting the face-wash and in his deciding to work him- 
 self into a passion after he was deceived by Jenkin- 
 son. 
 
 People say, Dr. Goldsmith, that you live no more in 
 this world. They are mistaken. You have immortal 
 life here in Dr. Primrose, who amuses and helps more 
 persons than many another more pretentious char- 
 acter. Through him you live in many lives. 
 Your respectful and sincere admirer, 
 
 L. M. 
 
 a. The above letter is written after the manner of 
 Andrew Lang's Letters to Dead Authors. Read of 
 other authors in this book, and write to some one that 
 you have studied. 
 
 188 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 SHORTRIDGE HIGH SCHOOL, 
 INDIANAPOLIS, IND., December 10. 
 Mr. James Whitcomb Riley, Indianapolis, Indiana: 
 
 Dear Mr. Riley: We Hoosier people feel that 
 you belong to us more than to any one else, and as 
 you are ours we have the privilege of writing to you 
 when and of what we will. I have often seen you on 
 the streets of Indianapolis, but at the time you were 
 unconscious of being stared after. Perhaps you were 
 thinking of another story like the Boss Girl. 
 
 Do you know, I like your prose stories much better 
 than your poems. I hope this won't shock you, as it 
 has other people to whom I have mentioned it. The 
 Boss Girl and A Christmas Carol, by Dickens, are 
 the best Christmas stories I have ever read. I can 
 snuggle up in a comfortable chair before a nice fire 
 with either of them and be perfectly happy. I like 
 the Boy from Zenni and Mary Alice Smith, too, 
 but the fact is, I think all your short stories are 
 splendid. The Boss Girl, however, is my favorite. 
 I often wonder if you really did meet that little 
 newsboy and go with him to his home. If you did, I 
 envy you. Although I am not of a very emotional dis- 
 position, I cried harder at the death of "Sis" than I 
 have for acquaintances in real life. She and "Jamsy" 
 seemed so real to me that I loved them both. 
 
 Then if I could talk with you I would ask if you 
 really ever knew a "little Mary Alice Smith," and if 
 there was any truth in the story, A Boy from 
 Zenni. I often see people that would make fine 
 characters for books and wish I could write about 
 189 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 them. And every day I see people who seem to have 
 stepped right out of some books I have read. Why 
 there are modern Micawbers right here in the High 
 School, and just yesterday, on Washington Street, I 
 saw a man who was the very image of Fagin, but I 
 hope his appearance belied his real character. 
 
 There are a great number of things I would like to 
 talk to you about, but I fear it would give me more 
 pleasure than it would you, so I will stop writing and 
 think the rest. 
 
 Your admirer, . 
 
 &. Answer this in the name of Mr. Riley: 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS, IND., January 17, 1902. 
 My dear Dr. van Dyke : 
 
 Since I write to you as a champion for Tennyson's 
 Sir Galahad, I trust you will interest yourself in 
 this letter. The Junior class, of which I am a mem- 
 ber, have been reading and studying your Tennyson. 
 We have all enjoyed it very much, but I think it quite 
 time for a champion of Sir Galahad to appear. 
 
 Most of the pupils in the class said that they 
 thought Galahad had too fine an opinion of himself 
 and that he considered himself too high for the poor 
 mortals of this earth. I appeal to you, who are the 
 champion of all Tennyson's characters ! Really, poor 
 Galahad must have "turned in his grave" had he 
 heard the remarks made of him. True it is that he 
 had never felt a maiden's love nor held her hand, yet 
 that was not because he considered himself too good 
 190 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 for all. He was held by a mightier hand, his devo- 
 tion was centered in a holier love than this earth af- 
 fords. He was a devotee of chivalry, a protector of 
 all womanhood. This, it seems to me, is the true 
 spirit. And then, -Sir Galahad always has appeared 
 to me as a veritable emblem of gallantry, so light, 
 earnest and devoted, if such a combination is possi- 
 ble. 
 
 So I appeal to you to set to rights the error of my 
 comrades, and indeed we shoulpl like to hear from 
 you. I am your 
 
 Devoted reader and admirer, 
 
 M. K. 
 
 c. Answer this letter from M. K. 
 
 IV. LETTERS SHOWING INTEREST IN 
 PUBLIC AFFAIRS 
 
 1. LETTER ASSIGNMENTS. 
 
 GREAT MEN AND CIGARS. 
 
 To the Editor of the News: 
 
 Sir I have recently noticed the large number of 
 cigars called by the name of distinguished men. 
 There are many objections to attaching the names of 
 great men to tobacco. In the first place, it reflects on 
 the people of the present day, because, if they held 
 these great men in proper respect and admiration, they 
 would not permit their names to be attached to any- 
 thing so demoralizing as tobacco. We see the names 
 191 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 of Abraham Lincoln, the great statesman and our 
 martyred president; of George Childs, the great 
 philanthropist ; Thomas Moore, the famous poet, and 
 even the name of William McKinley, our late pres- 
 ident, and the names of many other distinguished and 
 good men are given to cigars. Again, it reminds us 
 that these men were slaves to the smoke habit, which 
 cheapens the esteem in which we hold them and in 
 which they should be held by the boys of to-day. 
 They think, "Oh, well, if Grant and Dewey and all 
 these great men smoked, certainly it will not hurt 
 us." Surely, for regard to the great men and to teach 
 the boys to hold them in the proper esteem, the citi- 
 zens of Indianapolis should seriously object to the 
 use of the names of famous men in this way, and 
 make some move to prevent the names of all respected 
 great men from being attached to cigars. Hoping 
 you are with me in regard to this, I am F. B. 
 
 a. Using the above letter to The News as a sug- 
 gestion, write an open letter to your paper on any of 
 the following subjects : 
 
 (i) Care for shade trees, 
 (ii) Care for streets, 
 (iii) The smoke ordinance in your city, 
 (iv) The distribution of handbills, 
 (v) The character of public advertisements, 
 (vi) The fact that parents do not visit the schools, 
 (vii) Courtesy in street cars, 
 (viii) The employment of child-labor in stores. 
 
 192 
 
LETTERS AKD LETTER WRITING 
 
 (ix) The respect due shop women, 
 (x) The visiting of art exhibits, 
 (xi) The partiality of the press. 
 (xii) Hints for household decoration, 
 (xiii) The over-crowding of cities, 
 (xiv) The preservation of some historic landmark, 
 (xv) The harmony of church bells. 
 (xvi) An erection of a proposed statue, fountain or 
 
 monument. 
 (xvii) The advantage of an art atmosphere to 
 
 any community. 
 
 (xviii) The last message of the President or notable 
 bill passed by Congress. 
 
 b. The following letter from Mr. Woodrow Wil- 
 son was written at the request of a grammar-school 
 teacher and used in the final examination in compo- 
 sition. The letter and the assignment are given be- 
 low. 
 
 PRINCETON, 1ST. J., March 31, 1903. 
 My dear Young Friends: 
 
 It seems perhaps a novel thing to write a letter on 
 the subject of "Patriotism," but that is what I am 
 going to do, because certainly a friendly letter ought 
 to be upon some subject interesting to both corre- 
 spondents, and I know of no subject, except one's be- 
 lief in God, which ought to be more interesting than 
 the love of one's country. 
 
 A great many fine words are spoken about pa- 
 
 193 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEK WEITING 
 
 triotism ; but, after all, when one comes down to sober 
 thinking about it, it is not a thing which needs big 
 words to describe it ; one should love his country as he 
 should love his friend. You love your friend no^ 
 for your own sake, but for your f riend's sake ; and you 
 do not love him well unless your desire is to be help- 
 ful to him, and to serve him in a way in which he 
 needs to be served. Something besides affection is 
 necessary in our friendships; we must be willing to 
 make sacrifices for our friends, and to tell them their 
 faults, and to make every effort to set them in the 
 right way of being happy, and that may involve much 
 that is difficult and disagreeable to us. 
 
 Our love for our country ought to be a larger sort 
 of friendship loyal affection for all who are our fel- 
 low citizens, and for the governments which are set 
 over us, and willingness for self-sacrifice in the service 
 of the country, and a steady courage to tell it when we 
 think it wrong, as well as to applaud it when we think 
 it right. We must understand the country and know 
 what it is like and what its life is in order to serve 
 it properly, just as we must know our friend in order 
 to serve him properly. That is what makes it a privi- 
 lege to study the history of our own country, and the 
 books which tell us the way it is governed, and the 
 purpose which its government was established for; 
 and patriotism is not merely a matter of shouting 
 and throwing our caps in air ; it is a matter of study 
 also, in order that we may be prepared for every day 
 of duty. 
 
 Do you not think that this is, after all, the pleas- 
 194 
 
LETTEKS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 antest idea of patriotism ? Does it not give us some- 
 thing definite to think about, and does it not please us 
 with the knowledge that there is something for every 
 one of us to do in keeping the country the pure and 
 admirable place we*all wish it to be ? 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 WOODROW WILSON". 
 
 To the Pupils of the Eighth Grade, Indianapolis 
 Public Schools. 
 
 MAY, 1903. 
 
 Mr. Woodrow Wilson, president of Princeton Uni- 
 versity, is one of the most scholarly and most power- 
 ful men in the country. He is probably the highest 
 authority in the United States on the period of the 
 reconstruction. He shows his own patriotism by his 
 desire to see it developed in the children of the coun- 
 try. 
 
 Make your letter a real answer. Show him by your 
 courtesy that you appreciate his letter, and that you, 
 too, love your country and wish to serve it. Tell him 
 some of the ways a boy or girl can be patriotic, some 
 of the things that your fathers and mothers do to help 
 the country, and of the organizations in your commu- 
 nity that exist for the benefit of the people. 
 
 The best letter will be sent to the superintendent. 
 
 195 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WRITING 
 
 V. LETTERS OF BUSINESS 
 
 1. READ THE FOLLOWING LETTERS IN PART I : 
 From : Page 
 
 Robert Burns 66 
 
 Josiah Quincy 64 
 
 Cicero 65 
 
 2. LETTER ASSIGNMENTS. 
 
 223 NORTH ALABAMA STREET, 
 INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, March 27, 1903. 
 Mr. T. B. Cameron, Manager Wulschner Music Co., 
 Indianapolis, Ind.: 
 
 Dear Sir : Having heard that there is a vacancy in 
 your stringed instrument department, I hasten to ap- 
 ply for the position of salesman. You know of my 
 work with you last summer, during the vacation of 
 your regular salesman, and I leave the recalling of 
 those two months to put me back in the place. I can, 
 however, furnish good references should you desire it. 
 I am 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 SUMNER EATON. 
 
 a. Imagine that you are one of Sumner Eaton's 
 references and write to the above firm in his behalf. 
 
 NOTE. The chief merits of a business letter are directness 
 and brevity. Nothing irrelevant to the point should be intro- 
 duced into a business letter. 
 
 Sirs: Applying for admission in your employ- 
 ment, I desire to state that I have never been in busi- 
 196 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WETTING 
 
 ness, being to school at college in Maryland, and 
 
 - in New York. My father's position is a bridge 
 
 carpenter on the railroad. I live at . I 
 
 refer to and . 
 
 -Yours respectfully, 
 
 &. Criticism: This letter gives no information 
 whatever that would be of value in determining the 
 young man's fitness for a place as bank-clerk. It does 
 not even tell his age. 
 
 The above letter and the criticism upon it were 
 taken from a leading paper. Note the criticism ; add 
 what you think necessary to the data given, and write 
 a proper letter of application for the position of 
 bank-clerk. 
 
 c. Look into the "want" columns of your daily 
 paper and answer an advertisement. 
 
 d. Make application by letter for any one of the 
 following positions : of clerk, of teacher of any kind, 
 of printer, machinist, office manager. 
 
 e. Write to a business house, commending your 
 friend for a position. 
 
 /. Write a letter of inquiry to the Patent Office 
 at Washington, D. C., asking about duplicates of an 
 invention that you are supposed to have made. 
 
 g. Order a book from Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 
 Boston. 
 
 h. Acknowledge by letter the receipt of a package 
 from a New York house. 
 
 i. Write an advertisement calling for household 
 service ; for a house to rent or sell. 
 197 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 LETTERS AND JOURNALS IN CONNECTION 
 
 WITH HISTORY, READING AND 
 
 LITERATURE 
 
 7. IN CONNECTION WITH HISTORY AND 
 READING 
 
 1. READ IN PART I : 
 
 Page 
 
 The Journal of the Rev. William Emer- 
 son 112-114 
 
 See the annotated list for journals. 
 
 2. LETTER ASSIGNMENTS. 
 
 BARCELONA, SPAIN, May 16, 1493. 
 D ear Cousin: 
 
 In your last letter you spoke as though the faith 
 I had put in the voyage of Columbus was misplaced. 
 But you were mistaken, as many others were. Colum- 
 bus has returned and brought back gold and natives 
 from India. Spain at last has a direct route to India, 
 and that route was discovered by sailing west. Many 
 mourned Columbus, thinking he was lost in the great 
 sea of darkness; but I felt almost as confident of his 
 return as when I offered my jewels to assist him. I 
 198 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 spoke of the Atlantic as a sea of darkness, but as such 
 it will no longer be known. 
 
 Knowing you will rejoice with me for Spain, I 
 remain, 
 
 Your cousin, 
 
 ISABELLA, QUEEN or SPAIN. 
 
 a. Answer the Queen's letter in the name of her 
 cousin, supplying name. 
 
 VALLADOLID, SPAIN, September 2, 1503. 
 To Their Royal Highnesses,, King Ferdinand and 
 
 Queen Isabella: 
 
 Your royal word is law and must be obeyed, I know, 
 but the pain of it is nevertheless hard to bear. I en- 
 tered your service when I was young, without a gray 
 hair mingled with my black ones. Now I have not 
 one raven lock, for they have all turned snowy from 
 sorrow of the injustices thrown upon me. The in- 
 gratitude of your Highnesses pains me more than I 
 can express. After discovering for you a direct route 
 to the riches of India, I am repaid by being placed 
 in chains as any prisoner or traitor. My one desire 
 which I wish to ask of your Highnesses is the resto- 
 ration of my former honor which has been so cruelly 
 taken away from me. 
 
 Praying you to grant my appeal, I remain 
 Humbly yours, 
 
 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 
 
 b. Answer this letter for Queen Isabella. Be true 
 to the facts of history. 
 
 199 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 SULLIVAN ISLAND, S. CAROLINA, 
 
 June 29, 1776. 
 To His Excellency, Gen. George Washington: 
 
 Dear Sir: I have the honor to report that the 
 British fleet which attacked Ft. Sullivan yesterday 
 was repulsed. Our men were encouraged by the 
 brave deed of Sergeant Jasper. During the engage- 
 ment the flag of our fort was knocked down and fell 
 on the outside. Jasper leaped over the walls and 
 replanted it. Our casualties are few; enemy's loss 
 not known. 
 
 COLONEL MOULTRIE, 
 Commander of Ft. Sullivan. 
 
 c. Using the above letter as a motive, 
 
 (i) Imagine that you are General Washington, 
 and commend Colonel Moultrie for his 
 bravery. 
 
 (ii) Imagine that you are Sergeant Jasper, and 
 write to a friend about the encounter in 
 which he won fame. 
 
 (iii) Imagine that you saw the engagement and 
 write home about it. 
 
 ROME, ITALY. 
 To Decius Mus Good Health and Greeting: 
 
 As you already know, we Romans believe bravery 
 to be the highest virtue of all, so I will tell you an 
 example of this. 
 
 Not long ago the citizens of Rome were startled 
 and distressed by the sudden and unexpected open- 
 ing of a chasm many, many feet deep. We tried to 
 200 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 fill it up with earth, but all in vain. Thinking that 
 it had been a punishment for some misdeed inflicted 
 by the gods, we consulted, asking what we could do 
 to win ourselves once more into their favor. 
 
 They replied that the most precious thing of all 
 the treasures of Rome should be offered to it as a 
 sacrifice. We were greatly puzzled, not knowing what 
 this was, some saying gold or jewels, and others corn. 
 But at last the matter was settled by a young man 
 named Marcus Curtius saying that bravery was the 
 thing that the gods wanted. Then putting on his 
 armor, he said that he would sacrifice himself, and the 
 hole closed leaving a pool of water. VETURIUS. 
 
 d. Using the above letter for suggestion, write : 
 (i) A letter in the name of Curtius. 
 (ii) What Curtius might have said to himself 
 when alone, before performing his brave 
 deed. 
 
 (iii) A letter in the name of a Roman Senator 
 commenting upon "The Gulf in the Fo- 
 rum/' 
 
 (iv) A letter reporting what you think was said 
 between Curtius and his friend, who tried 
 to dissuade him from jumping into the 
 gulf. 
 
 (v) A letter from the point of view of an on- 
 looker at the whole scene. 
 
 201 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 April 27, 1902. 
 Dear Friend: 
 
 Can you imagine what King Alfred's thoughts 
 were as he sat by the hearth in the woodcutter's hut ? 
 Of course you know how he came there and how the 
 woodcutter's wife told him to watch the cakes, but 
 he had a more important thing to think about than 
 the cakes. I will tell you what I think he was think- 
 ing about. It was this : "How am I going to defeat 
 these savage Danes? How am I going to get my 
 army together again? They are scattering far and 
 wide. I will go and find as many of my companions 
 as I can, but what can a mere handful of men do 
 against an army? Ah, I know what to do. As soon 
 as I can get a few men I will send them in every 
 direction to find as many of their companions as pos- 
 sible, and then we will suddenly fall upon the Danes 
 and defeat them." While he was thinking he did not 
 once look to see about the cakes, and they were 
 burned to a crisp. He kept on thinking what would 
 happen next day, when suddenly his dream was 
 broken by the woodcutter's wife screaming, "Oh, you 
 wretch, you have let my cakes burn. You shall not 
 have any supper." Yours truly, D. C. 
 
 In your next letter, please tell me what you think 
 Alfred's thoughts were. 
 
 e. After reading the above letter for a motive, im- 
 agine yourself in the time of Alfred the Great and 
 write any one of the letters below : 
 
 202 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 (i) A letter in the name of the woman whose 
 
 cakes he watched, 
 (ii) A letter in the name of a Dane commenting 
 
 upon the character of Alfred, 
 (iii) A letter m* the name of King Alfred's 
 
 mother, full of advice and reminiscences 
 
 of his early life and how he learned to 
 
 read, 
 (iv) A letter of advice from Alfred to some 
 
 youth in whom he is interested. 
 
 Leaves from the Journal of Darim, in "Ten Boys on 
 the Road from Long Ago to Now." 
 
 1. 
 
 BABYLON 
 
 Hurrah, hurrah ! I am five years old to-day. This 
 morning I went to school in a beautiful field outside 
 the city gates. I had a little sling with a smooth 
 pebble in it and I shot farther than the other boys. 
 Then we had a running class, and I almost won. 
 After that our teacher told us about Zoroaster. Then 
 we saw the large boys run and jump on their horses 
 and shoot at a target in a tree. Some day I shall be 
 able to do that, too. When I get large I am going to 
 be a brave warrior and fight for our great King 
 Cyrus. Then I shall ride a beautiful prancing horse. 
 My big brother is in the king's army now, and some 
 day I shall be, too. 
 
 DARIUS. 
 203 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 2. 
 
 BABYLON- 
 
 years later. 
 
 Now I am seven years old. I have learned to shoot 
 far and straight and to run swiftly. I can throw the 
 javelin, shoot the bow and arrow, and ride. Every 
 morning, we boys stand in a row and the field gate 
 is opened and beautiful horses with flowing manes 
 gallop into the field. We must jump on one of these 
 horses with our weapons in our hands. The boys of 
 twelve often go hunting and sleep in the fields. In 
 about a year I shall do that, too. I always try to do 
 my best at school. Now my school is ended for to- 
 day, but to-morrow I must get up very early and go 
 again. DARIUS. 
 
 3. 
 
 BABYLON 
 
 Same year. 
 
 After our riding lesson we kept the horse we had 
 mounted. All of us rode back to the other side of 
 our field, and turning our horses around, faced our 
 teacher, who was also on a horse. Our teacher said, 
 "To-day we are going to hunt the antelope." Then, 
 our master leading us, we galloped away. Then 
 night came and we all slept in the cool green field. 
 Bright and early with the morning we were on our 
 
 204: 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 horses again and away. That day we found the home 
 of the antelope and after killing one we made our 
 way back to the place we had slept the day before. 
 Here we made a good meal of peaches and pears 
 which grow wild. -Then it did not take us long to 
 get home. DARIUS. 
 
 4. 
 
 BABYLON 
 
 Three weeks later. 
 
 To-day I came to my uncle's farm, and I shall not 
 see Zadok for a long time. While I am at the farm 
 I learned to guide the plow and to plant grain. It 
 is spring and the trees are just blossoming. My 
 uncle looks sorrowfully to the southeast, and turns 
 away only to cast a sad look upon his trees just in 
 bloom. The wind has been southeast for two days, 
 and if it does not turn, he says, the locusts will be 
 upon us. DARIUS. 
 
 b. Using the foregoing journal entries for sugges- 
 tion write leaves from the imaginary journal of : 
 (i) Roland, 
 (ii) The Witch's Daughter; Abraham Davenport 
 
 (see Whittier's poems), 
 (iii) Columbus, 
 (iv) Roger Williams, 
 (v) A song-bird whose mate has been killed for 
 
 feathers for a hat. 
 (vi) A wild goose in its passage. 
 205 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WETTING 
 
 (vii) My own life on eventful days, 
 (viii) Ivanhoe while with Cceur de Lion, 
 (ix) Eecords of data for stories from life, 
 (x) Dramatic incidents all around us. 
 
 II. IN CONNECTION WITH READING 
 
 AND THE STUDY OF 
 
 LITERATURE 
 
 1. READ THE FOLLOWING LETTERS IN PART I : 
 
 From : Page 
 
 Charles Lamb, for quaintness of diction . 44 
 Sir Thomas More to his children, for 
 dominance of the Latin element and 
 
 forceful phrase 25 
 
 Samuel Johnson, for power of sarcasm. . 63 
 Sidney Lanier, for fine literary grace and 
 
 flavor 75, 76 
 
 George William Curtis, for fine blend- 
 ing of all the elements of literary 
 
 art 40, 91, 100, 102 
 
 James Eussell Lowell, for richness in 
 thought and diction and the revelation 
 
 of the scholarly man 61, 74, 79, 107 
 
 Benjamin Franklin, for historic infor- 
 mation on the growth of the language 
 
 and diction in N. E ^ 53 
 
 Lord Chesterfield, for dignity of phrase . 69 
 Edward Eowland Sill, for the diction of 
 
 the study 71 
 
 206 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 Hamilton W. Mabie "| 
 Jenkin Lloyd Jones I for character- 
 David Starr Jordan ^ appreciation. . .89-93 
 George William Curtis J 
 Henry van DyEe, with reference to Tenny- 
 son 94.96 
 
 2. LETTER ASSIGNMENTS. 
 
 (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) 
 
 SLEEPY HOLLOW, NEW YORK, 
 
 October 31, 1820. 
 My dear Cousin: 
 
 Yes, Ichabod Crane was at the quilting party. 
 He borrowed a poor shaggy horse called Gunpowder, 
 and reached there in time. Everything seemed to 
 please him. Katrina van Tassel never looked so well ; 
 she danced a great deal during the evening. Ichabod 
 did enjoy the supper; there were all kinds of cakes 
 and they were all good. After the dance Ichabod w 
 and the older folk sat on the piazza and told ghost 
 stories about a "Headless Horseman." Ichabod was 
 never seen after that night. Did you enjoy The 
 Legend of Sleepy Hollow? What did you think of 
 the school? I liked the part best that showed how 
 Ichabod made himself at home with the housewives. 
 Tell me what you liked best when you write and 
 write soon to Your friend, M. M. 
 
 a. Using the above letter as a motive : 
 (i) Answer the request made. 
 
 207 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WRITING 
 
 (ii) Write a letter in the name of Ichabod Crane 
 telling of his various experiences either 
 at school, or in the neighborhood. 
 
 (iii) Write a letter in the name of Katrina van 
 Tassel telling about Ichabod Crane. 
 
 (iv) Write a letter purported to be from Brom 
 Bones in after years. (In all cases ad- 
 here to the main facts of the story.) 
 
 (The Last of the Mohicans.) 
 
 AMMATION, PORA, March 25, 1902. 
 Captain Lee Gordon, 45th Royal Lancers: 
 
 Dear Sir : You ask me of the Indian, of his char- 
 acter and thoughts and actions ; but I can not answer 
 you. The red man of to-day, whose blood is thin and 
 temple pale, is but the remnant of the mighty race of 
 Indians. But let the hard walls fade away into the 
 airy wigwams; let the book give way to the savage 
 weapon, and the black factory smoke become the gen- 
 tle blue wreath of the camp-fire where Uncas and I 
 rested at the close of day, and then I know the 
 Indian. Those men were noble, brave, undaunted 
 people, whose strongest virtue was their will and 
 whose strongest weapon their courage. ... As 
 a noble type of superb Indian manhood, my old 
 friend and comrade, Uncas, has no effective rival. He 
 was generous and treated men with fairness but se- 
 verity. He was ever more careful and thoughtful of 
 his friends than of himself. He was immovable in 
 dangers and but once to my knowledge did his con- 
 208 
 
LETTERS AND LETTEE WRITING 
 
 servative and reasonable parts desert him. He lived 
 the life of a hero ; but noble as it was, his death sur- 
 passed it. Seeing Cora, whom he loved, about to be 
 the victim of the knife of his bitterest enemy, he 
 cast his body from tfce precipice, and died a martyr 
 to his love, a redeemer, if need be, of his tribe and a 
 model to all men. 
 
 I am getting old fast now, My arm trembles ; my 
 trigger finger is no longer steady and my eyes can not 
 pick the trail as they used to do. But as long as 
 Hawk Eye lives, when he smokes his pipe about the 
 evening fire, his mind will go back to the days when 
 he was young, and ever before his eyes shall be the 
 noble form of Uncas. And when Hawk Eye is no 
 more, perhaps his spirit will be in the great hunting 
 ground of the Indians, where his Uncas will see him. 
 Your most sincere friend, 
 
 HAWK EYE. 
 
 &. In connection with the study of The Last of the 
 Mohicans : 
 
 (i) Using the above letter from Hawk Eye as a 
 suggestion, set forth the Indian character 
 in a communication supposed to be from 
 Duncan Hayward. 
 
 (ii) Make journal entries of what you imagine 
 the experience of a person in the story of 
 The Last of the Mohicans might have 
 been at crucial moments in the story. 
 (See journals in connection with Ten Boys Who 
 Lived on the Road from Long Ago to Now.) 
 209 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 (The Talisman.) 
 INDIANAPOLIS, IND., Feby. 26, 1902. 
 
 Dear Cousin: 
 
 Your letter telling me that you were writing on 
 your eighth birthday aroused me to the fact that I 
 can hardly call you my little cousin any longer. 
 
 I am glad you think so much of dogs, for the 
 way you used to handle the cat made me think you 
 did not care for animals, their feelings, at least. The 
 other day I read a story of a brave dog which I know 
 will interest you. 
 
 This dog was a large stag greyhound who had come 
 with his master, a knight in King Eichard's army in 
 the twelfth century, from Scotland to Palestine. One 
 day the king ordered the knight to keep watch over 
 his flag which was stationed on a knoll in a lonely 
 part of the camp. That night the master left his 
 dog to watch the flag, and while he was absent a robber 
 came to steal the flag. To do this he had to wound the 
 brave dog with his spear, and while the dog was 
 in agony, the thief ran off. When the knight returned, 
 he found his dog dying and the flag stolen. A passing 
 physician revived the dog and finally cured him, 
 much to the joy of his master. Afterward the dog 
 discovered the thief, for it is said a dog never forgets 
 an enemy, and the master erased the disgrace of hav- 
 ing deserted his post by winning a battle with the 
 robber. 
 
 The story of this noble dog is in one of Sir Walter 
 210 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 Scott's books called The Talisman, and in a few 
 more years you will likely read it yourself, and I 
 know you will enjoy it as much as I have. 
 
 Write often and tell me of all the queer tricks of 
 your two little puppies, and do not forget 
 
 Your cousin, F S . 
 
 c. Using the above letter as suggestion : 
 
 (i) Write to a friend upon Sir Walter's love for 
 dogs. Use Camp and Maida and others 
 as subject for your thought. 
 (ii) Write what you think Kenneth might have 
 said to himself just before leaving the 
 banner, in answer to the supposed sum- 
 mons of Edith, 
 (iii) Write such a letter as you think Kenneth 
 
 might have written home, 
 (iv) Write a letter home, supposed to be from 
 
 Lady Edith. 
 
 (v) Make a character study of Saladin. 
 (vi) Write a reminiscent conversation that Eich- 
 ard and Saladin might have had long 
 after, when they met. 
 (vii) A character study of Sir Kenneth, 
 (viii) Write a paper upon the dramatic situations 
 
 in The Talisman. 
 
 (Any of the above assignments can be made into 
 profitable journal entries,) 
 
 211 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 (Ivanhoe.) 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS, March 13, 1902. 
 My dear Mabel: 
 
 Now, Mabel, you're mocking me. The idea, that 
 I should send a sketch for your portfolio. You know 
 very well that I'm not an artist. You must have 
 something? I have it. Here is a pen sketch. Don't 
 look too closely; there are a good many crooked 
 lines. 
 
 This is not a picture of lady fair or brave knight. 
 It is a picture of a Jester in the court of Cedric, a 
 personage of Scott's Ivanhoe. It is a fantastic fig- 
 ure, but aside from the motley there is much more 
 in it than in these dreamily staring faces with long 
 curl hung gracefully on white shoulder. 
 
 Wamba, for so the Jester is named, is thought to 
 be a fool and yet he is one of the most quick-witted 
 persons I have ever known. Wamba is called a fool, 
 yet answers as wise as his have often escaped the 
 minds of great men. Wamba is despised as a fool, 
 yet he has the characteristics which many a great 
 man lacks. Wamba is humored as a fool, yet he does 
 many a wise act to which praise is due. Wamba is 
 scorned as a fool, yet he offers his life for that of 
 his master when others are afraid. 
 
 When you meet such a character as this, whether 
 it is in life or in fiction, you can not help but have a 
 feeling both of pity and of awe : pity for its depend- 
 ence; awe for its innocence. It is as if you were in 
 212 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 the presence of a baby with a sadly sober face ; a face 
 that does not fit a baby. Wamba is a fool in that he 
 is a man with the soul of a child. He is wise as a child 
 is wise; with a knowledge that many shun or forget 
 when they have become men and women; the knowl- 
 edge that comes from intuition. He has the confi- 
 dence of a child. He has the quick wit of a child. 
 He is playful. He is childishly unconscious of self. 
 He dreads to see sorrow, as a little child who puts its 
 tiny fist to its eyes when its mother cries., dreads it. 
 He is venturesome in the way boys are venturesome; 
 braving all danger with a sort of childish bravado. 
 And yet Wamba is a blessing to all about him. He 
 can cheer them ; he can soothe them ; and he can save 
 life, for he has saved both his master and the Black 
 Knight. 
 
 The figure of a clown seems very rude and com- 
 monplace to some people. It is not commonplace or 
 rude, though. It is quite beautiful when it is such a 
 character as Wamba, is it not, Mabel ? 
 
 Show me your book when it is finished, Mabel, I 
 am interested in it. I am truly, believe me, 
 
 d. After reading the above write a character study 
 of Wamba from a different point of view. 
 
 213 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 (Ivanhoe.) 
 
 AT SCHOOL, 
 March 12, 1902. 
 Dear Kirk: 
 
 When you get The Talisman get the mate to it, 
 Ivanhoe. You can't read in The Talisman about 
 Richard without wanting to know more about him. 
 Ivanhoe contains more. 
 
 From the manner in which Scott tells of Richard's 
 actions in Ivanhoe, he must have loved adventure. 
 His way of getting his desires is what pleased me. 
 He didn't take a large body of men with him. He 
 went alone. In Ivanhoe he came in this manner 
 from his captivity in Austria. No one knew him nor 
 even thought he was in England. He helped Ivan- 
 hoe in the tournament, but rode away from the 
 honors he had received. In the forest he drank and 
 sang with the outlaw priest. On the field he fought 
 with the commons for the freedom of the Saxons. 
 Even when he acknowledges himself king he made 
 merry with the robbers and pardoned them. As a 
 king he was willing to fight for the hated Jews. 
 
 I envy Wilfred in having had such a companion. 
 He would be a good one to associate with even if he 
 were a king. I can hardly imagine a king without 
 a throne near by ; but Richard and the woods seemed 
 as harmonious as Richard and a band of courtiers. 
 He would make an excellent American to-day. In 
 fact I think he was born about eight hundred years 
 too early; he should have been born about seventeen 
 214 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 years ago in the city of Indianapolis. See what I 
 mean? I have mentioned only a few names and 
 given no explanations of the characters., so that you 
 might be induced to read Ivarihoe for yourself. 
 Hoping you will ,en joy the book, I am, 
 
 Your affectionate friend, 
 
 N T . 
 
 e. In connection with the study of Ivarihoe: 
 (i) Answer the above letter and make comment 
 upon the portrayal of Richard made by 
 the writer. 
 
 (ii) Write journal leaves supposed to have been 
 written by a crusader in the time of 
 Coeur de Lion. 
 
 (iii) Write such a letter as you imagine Ivanhoe 
 might have written home, had letter-writ- 
 ing been the custom then. 
 
 (iv) Assume the character of Rebecca and tell 
 your various exciting experiences. Give 
 separate writings to the storming of the 
 Castle, the trial for sorcery, the visit to 
 Rowena. 
 
 (v) Take upon yourself the championship of 
 Isaac of York and write his defense. In- 
 clude as much as you can of the oppres- 
 sion of his race, 
 (vi) Write an imaginary conversation between 
 
 two Normans about Gurth and Wamba. 
 (vii) Make character studies of Ivanhoe, of Re- 
 becca, Cedric, Rowena. 
 215 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 (viii) Write a paper upon the story of Ivanhoe 
 that brings out the background of chiv- 
 alry running through the book. 
 (ix) Compare the picture of chivalry given in 
 The Talisman, with that of Ivanhoe. 
 
 (x) Compare the Templar and Front de Boeuf. 
 
 3. JOURNAL LEAVES IN THE STUDY OF TENNYSON. 
 
 a. We have begun to study Tennyson in school 
 now. He is delightful. His poetry always seems to 
 me to be written 'in warm colors. Often in other 
 reading the style is cold gray, or so transparent that 
 only the things pictured are seen. Tennyson has a 
 distinctive atmosphere; his pages are pervaded 
 though unobtrusively by his own warm personality. 
 When I open a book of his poems, I seem to have 
 passed through a gateway in a hedge, closing after me, 
 and to wander through a world very much like the one 
 without, but hand-in-hand with a large wonderful 
 man through whose eyes I see everything. 
 
 &. A day later. 
 
 Flower in the Crannied Wall. 
 
 To-day I walked with Tennyson along a little 
 nameless but well-known by-path. He spoke of the 
 ignorance of humanity. He made me stop to think 
 that even the smallest flower is enclosed in mystery. 
 We can not understand all the marvelous processes by 
 216 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 which out of a small seed and a dark soil comes a 
 lovely, pure flower, which for a time brightens its 
 lonely corner with its fragile life. It was a sweet 
 lesson in humility that the poet exemplified by his 
 own life. 
 
 c. Two days later. 
 
 The Brook. 
 
 Just imagine a playful brook, charming and lovely 
 to any one who could hear its joyous chattering and 
 see its graceful turns, but seen through the eyes of 
 my poet guide, doubly delightful ; for he looked upon 
 it as upon a person and detected rhythmic language 
 in its chattering. How I wish I could make my 
 senses more like his. 
 
 d. Four days later. 
 
 Ulysses. 
 
 Tennyson has before appealed to the emotions and 
 to the intellect; to-day he appealed strongly to the 
 will. The picture of Ulysses had the effect of mar- 
 tial music. It is a strong stimulus to see a man at 
 the close of the day, and of his life, start out "to 
 seek a newer world." The last words of Ulysses re- 
 main fastened in the memory 
 
 "strong in will 
 
 To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." 
 217 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 4. SUGGESTIONS FOR LETTERS OR JOURNALS IN CON- 
 NECTION WITH THE STUDY OF "CORIOLANUS" I 
 
 a. Eead the letter by Mr. Hamilton W. Mabie in 
 Part II (p. 97). 
 
 6. Defend Coriolanus. 
 
 MARCUS FLAVIUS TO JULIUS SEMPRONIUS. 
 IN LATIUM. 
 
 Eome A. U. C. 450. 
 
 M. Mavius desires his warmest regards to J. Sem- 
 pronius. If you are in health it is well. I am well. 
 Dost remember the dream I related in my last letter ? 
 By the will of the immortal gods it has come true, 
 for Coriolanus has yielded, and the Volscian army 
 has departed. I just returned from the Etruscan 
 Gate where Yolumnia and her train were coming 
 from the Volscian camp. The face of the heroic 
 mother was sad but calm; joy for the release of 
 Eome, sorrow for the loss of her noble son, who will 
 assuredly die, a victim to Volscian baseness and per- 
 fidy. Ah ! What a hero was he ! How noble ! How 
 courageous ! The pride of Eome when he was a boy, 
 her chief defender when a man. I knew him well, 
 therefore I will give you a strict account of his many 
 good and evil qualities. The gods endowed him with 
 the virtues of bravery, patriotism and filial love. 
 Of these great attributes his bravery, combined with 
 his patriotism, was predominant. His whole life was 
 218 
 
LETTEES AND LETTEE WEITING 
 
 devoted to his country. And what reflects greater 
 praise upon him than his tender passionate love for 
 his noble mother! He always recognized her as his 
 superior in knowledge and strength of character. He 
 always obeyed her^as a child even when death was the 
 inevitable consequence. By this we see not only 
 filial love, but a great noble nature in which are com- 
 bined the best qualities of a Eoman. 
 
 But the unfortunate characteristic that wrecked 
 his whole life and caused his once honored name to 
 be reviled and despised was his pride; except 
 for this he might have become the trusted commander 
 of the army ; the wise ruler, respected and loved and 
 honored by all classes; but instead he yielded to his 
 insatiable pride, and now he is hated, reviled, and 
 accursed ; despised by the people who once had loved 
 him. But the gods have decreed it so; therefore let 
 us drop a tear in memory of the hero, who, though 
 brave, gentle, and honorable, was passionate and re- 
 vengeful, the wreck of a true hero, a sad example of 
 what might have been. Farewell. 
 
 Written at the Villa Alba. 
 
 Eome A. U. C. 450. 
 
 c. Using the above letter for suggestion write let- 
 ters from Eome : 
 
 (i) In which you picture the plebeians as Corio- 
 
 lanus saw them ; as they saw themselves. 
 (ii) In which you picture the patricians. 
 
 219 
 
LETTERS AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 (iii) A letter from Menenius upon Coriolanus 
 (i. e., from the point of view of his 
 friend, a patrician) . 
 
 (iv) A letter from one of the tribunes upon the 
 character of Coriolanus (i. e., from the 
 point of view of the plebeians). 
 
 (v) A letter giving an account of the banish- 
 ment of Coriolanus from the point of 
 view of an eye-witness. 
 
 (vi) Tell some friend what you imagine Corio- 
 lanus might have said to himself after 
 his banishment on the way to Corioli, to 
 the home of Tullus Aufidius. 
 
 (vii) A letter in which you imagine what Volum- 
 
 nia might have said to herself on her way 
 
 out to the camp to persuade Coriolanus to 
 
 spare Rome. 
 
 (viii) Journal entries in the name of any of the 
 
 characters are profitable. 
 
 Make a list of interesting letters that might be 
 written in connection with the play of Coriolanus. 
 
 5. SUGGESTIONS FOR LETTERS OR JOURNALS IN CON- 
 NECTION WITH THE STUDY OF " JULIUS CAESAR" : 
 
 The letters to be written from the point of view of 
 an observer, or one living at the time. 
 
 Points to be brought out: 
 
 a. Letter from Cassius in which he betrays his 
 envy of Caesar. 
 
 &. Brutus gives an account of the death of Caesar, 
 quoting the words "ambition's debt is paid/' 
 220 
 
LETTEES AND LETTER WRITING 
 
 c. A letter about Caesar, the natural leader and 
 master. 
 
 d. A letter about Brutus, as the "soul of Rome," 
 the last representative of the Republic. 
 
 e. A letter about Cassius, as ambitious, seeking 
 gratification of ambition through Brutus. 
 
 /. A letter about Antony : ambitious, seeking grat- 
 ification of ambition through loyalty to Caesar, living 
 or dead. 
 
 g. About the women (Calpurnia and Portia) and 
 the servants in relation to the drama. 
 
 h. Describe to a friend the picture embodied in 
 the lines, "Even at the base of Pompey's statue . . . 
 great Caesar fell/' 
 
 i. Tell the story of Pindarus, the slave who killed 
 Cassius and received his liberty for recompense. 
 
 j. Give an account of a possible oration over Bru- 
 tus by Yolumnius (the old school fellow who refused 
 to hold the sword for Brutus). 
 
 Tc. Tell a friend what you imagine might have been 
 the soliloquy of Calpurnia after Caesar's departure for 
 the Capitol. 
 
 I. Compose, for some younger person, an allegory 
 embodying the topics, Patriotism and Ambition. 
 
 221 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbot's Oak, 103. 
 
 Acceptance, letters of, 43. 
 
 Acknowledgment, letters of, 
 48, 63, 184. 
 
 Adams, Abigail, 105, 115. 
 
 Adrianople, 85. 
 
 Advice, letters of, 69, 74. 
 
 Agassiz, Louis, 89, 90, 115. 
 
 Alaska, 147. 
 
 Alcibiades, 167. 
 
 Alcott, Louisa M., 115. 
 
 Alfred, King, 202. 
 
 Allen, James Lane, 37. 
 
 Allston, Washington, 115. 
 
 Alps, the, 27, 87. 
 
 Amiel, Henri F., 115. 
 
 Andersen, Hans, 12, 16, 115. 
 
 Annotated list, 115 to 134. 
 
 Appledore (see Thaxter), 131. 
 
 Appreciation, letters of, 75 to 94, 
 187 (see Guerin), 121. 
 
 Arblay, Mme. D', 116. 
 
 Arbor Day, 102 to 114, 125. 
 
 Archer, Thomas, 32. 
 
 Arm-chair, 160. 
 
 Arnold, Matthew, 38, 116. 
 
 (see Guerin), 121, (see John- 
 son), 124. 
 
 Art (see Hamerton), 132. 
 
 Assignment of lesson, 10. 
 
 Letters of, 146, 153, 160, 164, 
 167, 181, 185, 198, 207. 
 
 Astyages, 179. 
 
 Athens, 167. 
 
 Audubon, John J., 116. 
 
 Autobiographies, 132 to 134, 151. 
 
 Aurora, 164. 
 
 Autumn, 137, 138. 
 
 Babylon, 203-204. 
 
 Barton, Amos, 56. 
 
 Beech, the, 104. 
 
 Beetles, 78. 
 
 Berlin (see Von Moltke), 127. 
 
 Beuve, Sainte (see Guerin), 121. 
 
 Birds (see Thaxter) , 131. 
 
 Birthday, 88, 70. 
 
 Bismarck, Otto Edw., 116 
 
 (see Motley), 127. 
 Bixby, Mrs., 99. 
 Blackbird (see Kuskin), 129. 
 Bluebird, 153. 
 
 Bobolink, 79, 80. 
 
 Bosphorus (see Von Moltke), 123. 
 
 Boston (see Winslow) , 132. 
 
 Boswell, James (see Johnson), 132. 
 
 Brittany (see Guerin), 121. 
 
 Brooks, Phillips, 12, 116. 
 
 Brown, John, 101, 117 (see Hugo), 
 
 Brown, Thomas E., 117. 
 Browning, Mrs. E. B., 117, 142. 
 Browning. Robert, 7, 117. 
 Bryant, W. C., 105, 106, 109, 110, 116. 
 Burns, Robert, 47, 66, 117. 
 Burroughs, John, 20, 39, 70, 141. 
 Business, letters of, 196. 
 Butterfly, 154. 
 Byron, Lord, 117 (see Shelley), 129. 
 
 Cabott, Miss (see Lowell), 126. 
 Caesar, Julius, 65, 220. 
 Camp (the dog) (see Scott), 129. 
 Carlyle, James W., 118, 121. 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 29, 59, 80, 118. 
 Cathedral, The (see Curtis), 119. 
 Ceylon (see Brooks), 116. 
 Chapin, Alice, 154. 
 Character, appreciation of, 
 
 89 to 93, 206. 
 
 Charles II (see Evelyn), 120. 
 Charter Oak, 103. 
 Chesterfield, Lord, 63, 69, 118, 206. 
 Child, L. M., 24, 98, 118. 
 China (see Gordon), 121. 
 Christians (see Pliny), 128. 
 Cicero, 12, 65, 118. 
 Coleridge, S. T. (see Lamb), 124. 
 Colosseum, The, 86. 
 Colvin Sidney (see Stevenson), 130. 
 Columbus, Christopher, 199. 
 Composition, an art subject, 3. 
 Concord, 112. 
 Congratulations, 39, 40. 
 Coriolanus, 97, 98, 218. 
 Cowper, Wm., 46, 78, 118. 
 Criticism, 50, 68, 197. 
 Culture, 72. 
 Curtius, Marcus, 201. 
 Curtis, G. W., 13, 40, 49, 91, 100, 102, 
 
 119 (see Motley), 129, 206. 
 Cyrus, 178. 
 
 Daily Practice, 9. 
 
 223 
 
INDEX 
 
 Damon, 174. 
 Damrosch, 76. 
 Danube, The, 84. 
 Darwin, 12, 119. 
 Davis, Edward, 74. 
 Dawn, The, 37, 119. 
 Debt, 67. 
 
 De Qnincey, Thos., 119. 
 Description, 163, 175. 
 Dial, The (see Stowe), 130. 
 Dialogue, 176. 
 
 Dickens, Charles, 55, 57, 119. 
 Dickinson, Emily, 119. 
 Dictionary, 63. 
 Discussion. 168 to 170. 
 Dix, Dorothea, 105, 119. 
 Donne, John, 119. 
 Dumas, 18. 
 
 Ebers, George, 132. 
 
 Education (see Mill), 133. 
 
 Eggleston, Edward, 73. 
 
 Eliot, George (pseud.), 55, 57, 120. 
 
 Emerson, B. W., 6, 35, 58, 59, 80, 118, 
 120. 
 
 Emerson, Rev. Wm., 112 to 114. 
 
 England (see Kingsley), 124 (Mot- 
 ley), 127. 
 
 Enthusiasm, 90. 
 
 Epistolary writing, 12. 
 
 Evelyn, John, 120. 
 
 Ewing, Juliana H., 120. 
 
 Explanatory letters, 167. 
 
 Expression, variety of, 174, 177. 
 
 Farewell, letters of. 100, 101, 102. 
 Farm-boy (see Wallace), 131. 
 Farragut, David G., 120. 
 Fields, J. T., 43. 
 Fifteenth century (see Paston), 
 
 128. 
 
 Fitzgerald, Edward, 83, 120. 
 Flower in the Crannied Wall, 216. 
 Football, 30 to 32. 
 Franklin, Benj., 34, 53, 61, 62, 105, 
 
 120, 132, 206. 
 
 Froebel (see Ebers), 132. 
 Frost, Jack, 146. 
 
 Germany (see Lowell), 126. 
 
 Gibbon, Edward, 133. 
 
 Gilder, R. W., 68. 
 
 Glasgow, 68. 
 
 Glenmary, 82. 
 
 Goethe, 133. 
 
 Gordon, Gen. Charles G., 121. 
 
 Gosse, Edmond (see Donne), 120. 
 
 Grant, U. S., 133. 
 
 Gray, Asa, 121. 
 
 Gray, Thomas, 121. 
 
 Greeks, 104. 
 
 Greeting, letters of, 37-38. 
 
 Groups of Letters, 15, 34.) 
 Guerin, Maurice de, 121. 
 
 Hale, Edward E., 133. 
 Hamerton, Philip G., 133. 
 Harper's Weekly (see Curtis), 119. 
 Harvard College, 30. 
 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 20, 36, 122. 
 Hazlitt (see Lamb), 124. 
 Herbert, George, 79. 
 Herschel, Caroline, 122. 
 History and Reading, 198. 
 Hoar, Elizabeth, 35. 
 Holland, J. G., 122. 
 Holmes, O. W.,23, 37, 122. 
 Howadji Notes (see Curtis), 119. 
 Howells, W. D., 50, 122. 
 Hughs, Thomas, 4l. 
 Hugo, Victor, 12, 15, 122. 
 Hume, David, 74. 
 Hunt, Leigh (see Shelley), 129. 
 Huxley, Thomas, 12, 123. 
 
 Imagination, 5, 6, 23. 
 Impersonation, 4, 7. 
 India (see Brooks), 116. 
 Ingelow, Jean (see Larcom), 125. 
 Interest, 9 to 11. 
 
 Introduction, letters of, 34 to 36. 
 Invitational letters, 41, 46, 181. 
 Irving, Washington, 123. 
 Ivanhoe, 212, 215. 
 
 James, Henry, 42. 
 
 Jay, John (see Lafayette), 123. 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, 21, 22, 39, 133. 
 
 Jewett, Sarah Orne, 157. 
 
 Johnson, Samuel, 63, 124, 206. 
 
 Jones, Jenkin Lloyd, 92. 
 
 Jones, Stephen G. (Holland), 89, 
 
 122. 
 
 Jordan, David Starr, 89. 
 Journal, 115 to 134, 143, 150, 158, 216. 
 Journalist (se4 Stillman), 134. 
 
 Keats, John, 124. 
 
 Keeps, Playing for, 168 to 169. 
 
 Kemble, Fanny, 83. 
 
 Kent, 66. 
 
 Kingsley, Charles, 26, 124. 
 
 Lafayette, 61. 
 
 Lamartine (See Hugo), 123. 
 
 Lamb, Charles, 13, 44, 124, 206. 
 
 Lamb, Mary, 124. 
 
 Lang, Andrew, 124, 188. 
 
 Language, 53. 
 
 Lanier, Sidney, 7, 12, 75, 76, 125, 208. 
 
 Larcom, Lucy, 125. 
 
 Last of the Mohicans.The, 208, 209. 
 
 Latin, 18, 25, 54,92. 
 
 Lathrop, Rose Hawthorne, 122. 
 
 224 
 
INDEX 
 
 Laurel, The, 104. 
 
 Lear, 66. 
 
 Les Miserables (see Hugo), 123. 
 
 Letters, 12, 13, 15, 115 to 134, 139. 
 
 Lexington, 112, 114. 
 
 Lincoln, A., 91, 92, 93, 99, 125, 192. 
 
 Literature, 94-98. 
 
 London, 44-46 (see Von Moltke) 
 
 126 (see Sterling), 130. 
 Longfellow, H. W., 43, 125. 
 Lowell, J. R., 13, 19, 36, 41, 49, 61, 
 
 74, 79, 100, 107, 125, 206 (see 
 
 Gray), 121. 
 
 Mabie, H. W., 97. 
 
 Macaulay, T. B., 126. 
 
 McCulloch, O. C., 41, 49. 
 
 Madison, Dolly, 126. 
 
 March (see Guerin), 121. 
 
 Marshall, John, 126. 
 
 Martineau, Harriet, 126. 
 
 Masson, David, 41. 
 
 Materials, 9-10. 
 
 Maud, 5, 95. 
 
 Maxims, 167. 
 
 Mill, J. S., 133. 
 
 Minute-men, 112. 
 
 Mitchell, Donald G., 107. 
 
 Mitchell, Maria, 105. 
 
 Moltke, von, 126. 
 
 Monologue, 176. 
 
 Montagu, Lady Mary, 84, 85, 126. 
 
 More, Sir Thomas, 25, 127, 206. 
 
 Moore, Mrs. M. R., 109. 
 
 Morris, Wm. (see Patmore), 128. 
 
 Motives, 13. 
 
 Motley, John L., 13 (see Holmes), 
 
 122, 127. 
 Moultrie, 200. 
 
 Mountain (see Thoreau), 131. 
 Mailer, F. Max, 127-133. 
 Music, 75, 76. 
 
 Narration, 160, 174. 
 
 Nature, 77, 82, 89, 139. 
 
 New England (see Larcom), 125; 
 
 (see Hale), 133. 
 New York (see Ho wells), 122. 
 Newman, John H., 127. 
 News, Indianapolis, 191. 
 Norton, C. E.,75 (see Fitzgerald), 
 
 120. 
 
 October's Bright, Blue Weather, 
 
 137. 
 
 Ocean (see Gu6rin), 121. 
 Ode, Harvard Commemoration, 
 
 49. 
 Oldstyle, Jonathan (see Irving), 
 
 123. 
 
 Oliphant, Mrs. M., 138. 
 Osborne, Dorothy, 127. 
 
 Oxford Movement (see Newman), 
 
 Paraphrase, 8. 
 Parkman, Francis, 108. 
 Paston, letters, 128. 
 Pathetic FaUacy, 4. 
 Patmore, Coventry, 28, 35, 128. 
 Patriotism, 193, 194, 195. 
 Paul, Herbert (see Arnold), 116. 
 Peacock, T. S., 86, 87. 
 Pepys, Samuel, 128. 
 Personal Element, 3, 4, 8, 12. 
 Personification, 4, 5, 6. 
 Picture, Order for, 164. 
 Pinkerton, T. J., 40. 
 Pliny, 128. 
 Poets Classified, 4. 
 Prseterita (see Ruskin), 133. 
 Presentation, letter of, 47. 
 Primrose (see Guerin), 78, 121. 
 Prue and I (see Curtis), 119. 
 Pythias, 174. 
 
 Quincy, Josiah, 64. 
 
 Rattlesnake, The Ship (see Hux- 
 ley), 123. 
 
 Reading, 74, 151, 158. 
 
 Recommendation, letter of, 64, 66. 
 
 Request, Letters of, 66, 68. 
 
 Riley, James Whitcomb, 51, 182, 
 189. 
 
 Revolutionary War (see Washing- 
 ton), 132. 
 
 Robertson, 74, 128. 
 
 Robinson, Henry Crabb, 129. 
 
 Roman, 104. 
 
 Rome, 86, 200, 218. 
 
 Rossetti, D. G. (see Patmore), 128, 
 129. 
 
 Ruskin, John, 27, 67, 129, 133. 
 
 Russia (see Motley), 12". 
 
 Saintsbury, George, 116. 
 Saint Nicholas, 150. 
 Saint Peters, 86. 
 Saint Sophia, 85. 
 Samoa (see Stevenson), 130. 
 Sand, George (see Hugo), 123. 
 Science, 89, 90. 
 Scenes, 84 to 89. 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 129. 
 Scott, Sophia (see Scott), 129. 
 Selborne (see White), 132. 
 Sevigne, Madame de, 129. 
 Shakespeare, 66, 97, 104 (see 
 
 Lamb), 124, 125. 
 Shaw, Robert G., 30, 102. 
 Shelley, P. B., 86, 87, 129. 
 Ship Beagle (see Darwin), 119. 
 
 225 
 
INDEX 
 
 Sidney, Sir Philip, 103. 
 
 Sill, Edward R., 71, 206. 
 
 Sipsu, 174. 
 
 Slavery (see B. T. Washington), 
 
 Sleepy'Hollow, 207. 
 
 Snowdrops, 28. 
 
 Snowflakes, 148. 
 
 Social Science (Ruskin), 129. 
 
 Socrates, 180. 
 
 Southey (see Lamb), 124. 
 
 Sparks, Jared (see Franklin) , 120. 
 
 Spring, 28, 151, 152, 153. 
 
 Stanley, Dorothy, 49. 
 
 Stanton, Mrs., 23, 129. 
 
 States, Southern (see Bryant), 116. 
 
 Stella, Journal to (Swift), 130. 
 
 Sterling, John, 130. 
 
 Stevenson, Robert L., 13, 32, 42, 
 
 Stillman, William J., 134. 
 
 Stowe, Harriet B., 130. 
 
 Stuart, Judge A. (see Marshall), 
 
 126. 
 
 Style, Personal Quality of, 8. 
 Sudan (see Gordon), 121. 
 Sugar-making (see Thoreau), 131. 
 Summary, 14. 
 Sympathy, 98, 99, 184, 186. 
 Swift, Jonathan, 130. 
 Symonds, J. A., 130. 
 
 Talisman, The, 210. 
 
 Taylor, Bayard (see Lanier), 125. 
 
 TenBoys on Road From Long Ago, 
 
 203-205. 
 Tennyson, Alfred, 5, 13, 83, 94, 96, 
 
 130, 216, 217. 
 
 Thanks, letters of, 185. 
 Thaxter, Celia, 13, 131. 
 Thoreau, H. D., 43, 64, 131 (see Em- 
 erson), 120. 
 Ticknor, George, 131. 
 Tolstoy, Count Leof , 186. 
 Turkey (see Montagu), 127. 
 
 Ulysses, poem, 217. 
 
 United States (see Madison), 126. 
 
 Van Dyke, Henry, 5, 94, 190. 
 Vatican, The, 86. 
 Vesuvius (see Pliny), 128. 
 Vicar of Wakefield, The, 187. 
 Vienna, 84. 
 Volumnia, 97, 98, 164, 165. 
 
 Walden pond, 80-81. 
 Wallace, Henry, 131. 
 Walpole, Horace, 131. 
 Ward, Mrs. Humphry, 116. 
 Warner, C. D., 72. 
 Washington, B. T., 131, 134. 
 Washington, George, 34, 39 (see 
 
 Lafayette), 123. 
 White, Gilbert, 13, 132. 
 White. Maria (Lowell), 77, 136. 
 Whittier, J. G. , 48 ( see Child) , 118. 
 William, the Conqueror, 103. 
 Willis, N. P., 82. 
 Willow, The, 103. 
 Wilson, Woodrow, 193 to 195. 
 Winter, 145, 146, 151. 
 Woman, 56. 
 Woods, American, 83. 
 Wordsworth, Wm., 44 (see Lamb), 
 
 124, 132. 
 Wrens (see Ruskin), 129. 
 
 226 
 

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