Martine's Sensible Letter-writer: Being a Comprehensive and Complete Guide and Assistant for Those who Desire to Carry on an Epistolary Correspondence : Containing a Large Collection of Model Letters, on the Simplest Matters of Life, Adapted to All Ages and Conditions, Embracing Business Letters ...

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Dick & Fitzgerald, 1866 - 206 pages

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Page 102 - I would advise you to read with a pen in your hand, and enter in a little book short hints of what you find that is curious, or that may be useful ; for this will be the best method of imprinting such particulars in your memory, where they will be ready, either for practice on some future occasion, if they are matters of utility ; or at least to adorn and improve your conversation, if they are rather points of curiosity.
Page 31 - When you write a letter, give it your greatest care, that it may be as perfect in all its parts as you can make it. Let the subject be sense, expressed in the most plain, intelligible, and elegant manner that you are capable of. If in a familiar epistle you should be playful and jocular, guard carefully that your wit be not sharp, so as to give pain to any person; and before you write a sentence, examine it, even the words of which it is composed, that there be nothing vulgar or inelegant in them....
Page 103 - ... are matters of utility ; or at least to adorn and improve your conversation, if they are rather points of curiosity. And as many of the terms of science are such as you cannot have met with in your common reading, and may therefore be unacquainted with, I think it would be well for you to have a good dictionary at hand, to consult immediately when you meet with a word you do not comprehend the precise meaning of.
Page 29 - ... promises, kindly stepped in, and carried him away, to where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest ! It is during the time that we lived on this farm, that my little story is most eventful.
Page 16 - Much has been said on the epistolary style, as if any one style could be appropriated to the great variety of subjects which are treated of in letters. Ease, it is true, should distinguish familiar letters, written on the common affairs of life, because the mind is usually at ease while they are composed. But even in these, topics incidentally arise which require elevated expression and an inverted construction.
Page 102 - I SEND my good girl the books I mentioned to her last night. I beg her to accept of them as a small mark of my esteem and friendship. They are written in the familiar, easy manner, for which the French are so remarkable ; and afford a good deal of philosophic and practical knowledge, unembarrassed with the dry mathematics, used by more exact reasoners, but which is apt to discourage young beginners. I would advise you to read with a pen in your hand, and enter in a little book short hints of what...
Page 30 - Any extravagant flattery should be avoided, both as tending to disgust those to whom it is addressed, as well as to degrade the writers, and to create suspicion as to their sincerity. The sentiments should spring from the tenderness of the heart, and, when faithfully and delicately expressed, will never be read without exciting sympathy or emotion in all hearts not absolutely deadened by insensibility. DECLARATION OF AFFECTION. Dear Nellie: Will you allow me, in a few plain and simple words, respectfully...
Page 16 - Much has been said on the epistolary style; as if any one style could be appropriated to the great variety of subjects which are treated of in letters. Ease, it is true should distinguish familiar letters, written on the common affairs of life ; because the mind is usually at ease while they are composed. But, even in these, there incident!}7 arises a topic, which requires elevated expression and an inverted construction.
Page 135 - Jan. 1, 1742. Dear Mrs. Donnellan, Though there is no day of the year in which one does not wish all happiness to one's friends, this is the day in which the heart goes forth in particular vows and wishes for the welfare of those we love. It is the birth of a new year, whose entrance we \vould salute, and hope auspicious.
Page 80 - ... glad, yea, happy to find it so. Useful instructions are never too often inculcated, and, therefore, give me leave again to put you in mind of that duty the performance of which alone can make you happy both in time and in eternity. Religion, my dear, is a dedication of the whole...

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