Harper's Catalogue,
Thoroughly revised, classified, and indexed, will be sent by mail to any address on receipt of ten cents.
Writing Letters.
III.
Young persons—and old persons too, for that matter—ought to be careful what they put down in writing. Letters are permanent things—or likely to become so. Italian, Spanish, French, and Continental Europe business men are much more cautious about signing their names and about reducing business matters to writing than the same class of men in England and America. But if these Continental business men do sign anything, they live up to it. Americans are too much given to agree to almost anything, and then—regret having done so. Young men fall into this error.
In correspondence, be very sure that you know to whom the letter is going, that it reach him, and that it will then be promptly destroyed, before you trust to paper even that indignation which the world agrees in calling righteous. Trivial matters of a personal character that ought not to be said ought much less to be written. A good rule is: Never write anything that you would blush to have all the world read.
In constructing letters, give some advance thought to the task. Avoid details, be explicit, and polite. If you ask a reply and it is your business, enclose a self-addressed and stamped envelope, but do not put into it a sheet of blank paper. Say all you have to say before you sign your name. "N. B.'s" there is no excuse for. If you find one necessary, write your letter over again. Too much trouble? Not so. It is the least troublesome in the long-run, for, having taken it a few times, you acquire the habit of constructing your letters as you wish them, and ever after avoid both re-writing and "N. B.'s" If you enclose other papers in the envelope with your letter, say so, and specify what they are.
Do not imagine yourself to be your correspondent's only correspondent. If you are writing on a business matter, begin one letter where the last one ended. Give details of your business in order that your correspondent may learn at once what you are writing about. If your letter be an answer to another letter, answer all of the questions. Don't neglect to look at the letter and think you have answered. Consult the letter and be sure about it.