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so that the letters of the man in the street of to-day could not 
suffer by a comparison with those of his compeers of earlier 
times. As regards letters written by more able and educated 
people the letters of a man of cuiture and literary taste 
might still be as charming and well written to-day 
as those of such men of the past, though they might not 
possess the same historical value, owing to the different 
conditions under which we now live. But this absence of the 
historical element is surely not to be deplored; it does but leave 
our letters more suitable for the times in which they are 
written. It must be remembered that the functions of the 
letters of to-day differ from those of the letters of two cen- 
turies ago, as appears when a comparison is made between the 
education of the country now and that which it possessed in 
1700. The letter writing of the period of Dr. Johnson, Charles 
Lamb, Lady Mary Montagu, Cowper, Miss Burney and others 
was then discussed. An examination of their letters revealed 
many faults and flaws. Many of the letters of Lady Montagu, 
for instance, were not really letters, but were extracts from her 
diary, and often forced and unnatural because of her apprecia- 
tion of the fact that her letters would be kept; and apologies 
for dulness frequently appear. Cowper’s letters, perhaps the 
most beautifully written letters we possess, are in certain 
respects unsuitable as letters for our own times; they often 
partook so much of the nature of an essay as to lose a great 
deal of their epistolary character. This was illustrated by 
quotations. Our letters of to-day have the merit as a rule of 
confining themselves to the point at issue. This, however, 
does not entail a loss of their literary character, for a short 
letter may be as well and beautifully expressed as a lengthy 
one ; some of Cowper’s shorter letters were as well written 
as his longer ones, and were such as would not be out of place 
if written to-day. Careful reading in the best English litera- 
ture is all-important if we are to acquire an easy and graceful 
and at the same time literary mode of expression in the 
writing of our letters. 
DoS 

