The two grand modes of making conversation interesting, are to enliven it by recitals calculated to affect and impress your hearers, and to intersperse it with anecdotes and agreeable relations.
ADDRESS OF LETTERS, DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING, ETC.
A letter addressed to a person of eminence should have a seal on the envelope; for other letters the ordinary envelope is sufficient. Letter paper (other than for business) with designs of any kind is in questionable taste, as are seals ornamented with flowers and figures. Perfectly plain paper should be preferred: it may be embossed with the writer's initials. On the birth-days of your relations, and on the festival of the New Year, you can hardly dispense with written congratulations.
In writing to a superior employ paper of full "letter" size; write the name, and in the line underneath the words, "Dear Sir." Leave a line between this word and the first line of your letter. Always write to the point—using not a superfluous or meaningless word, and be as brief as possible. Abbreviations are admissible in notes entered in a book of reference, but not elsewhere, except in commercial correspondence.
Letters of invitation and circulars should always be franked; and if the distance be not too great, they should be sent by hand.
A letter given to a third person, if it be a letter of introduction, should not be sealed.
In writing to an official, leave a large margin, for he may need it for marginal notes.
A young man writing to one advanced in years, should not conclude his letter with the common phrase, "Receive, sir, the assurance of my regard." It should be, "Accept, sir, this expression of the regards of your very humble servant."
This formula may be employed in writing to an equal, "Accept, sir, the assurance of my highest esteem;" or, "I have the honor to be yours, very truly."