Having seen from the foregoing extracts the principles that should govern the composition of familiar letters, we shall be better able to judge of the merits or demerits of the specimens that follow; and we will take this opportunity of saying that we have preferred to choose our examples from little known sources, rather than from such well-known volumes as the correspondences of Walpole, Gray, or Cowper. The celebrated Mrs. Elizabeth Carter was much troubled by one of her most intimate and early friends always writing to her in terms of great respect. In order to show her correspondent the absurdity of her conduct, and to obtain an easier kind of intercommunication, she wrote the following letter:—
'Nov. 29, 1742.
'To Miss ——
'It is with the utmost diffidence, dear Miss ——, that I venture to do myself the high honour of writing to you, when I consider my own nothingness and utter incapacity of doing any one thing upon earth. Indeed, I cannot help wondering at my own assurance in daring to expose my unworthy performance to your accurate criticisms, which to be sure I should never have presumed to do if I had not thought it necessary to pay my duty to you, which, with the greatest humility, I beg you to accept. Unless I had as many tongues in my head as there are grains of dust betwixt this place and Canterbury, it is impossible for me to express the millionth part of the obligations I have to you; but people can do no more than they can, and therefore I must content myself with assuring you that I am, with the sublimest veneration, and most profound humility,
'Your most devoted,
'Obsequious,
'Respectful,
'Obedient,
'Obliged,
'And dutiful,
'Humble servant,
'E. Carter.
'I know you have an extreme good knack at writing respectful letters; but I shall die with envy if you outdo this.'
Aaron Hill expresses in elegant words what many have felt when they have received a letter from one who was separated from them by time and space:—
'Letters from absent friends extinguish fear,
Unite division, and draw distance near;
Their magic force each silent wish conveys,