LETTER -WRITING. 
requefts, modeft; in commendations, friendly; in prof- 
perity cheerful, and mournful in adverfity. In a word, 
the ftyle ought to be accommodated to the particular na¬ 
ture of the thing about which it is converfant. 
Befides, the different ch a rafter of the perfon, to whom 
the letter is written, requires a like difference in the mode 
of exprefiion. We do "not ufe the fame language to pri¬ 
vate perfons, and jhofe in a public ftation ; to fuperiors, 
inferiors, and equals. Nor do we exprefs ourfelves aiike 
to old men and young, to the grave and facetious, to 
courtiers and philofophers, to our friends and Grangers. 
Superiors are to be addreffed with refpeft, inferiors with 
courtefy, and equals with civility; and every one’s cha¬ 
racter, ltation, and circumftances -in life, with the relation 
we Hand in to him, occafton forne variety in this refpeft. 
But, when friends and acquaintances correfpond by let¬ 
ters,.it carries them into all the freedom and good-humour 
of converfation ; and the nearer it refeinbles that, the bet¬ 
ter, fince it is defigned to fupply the room of it. For, 
when friends cannot enjoy each other’s company, the next 
fatisfaftion is to cdnverfe with each other by letters. In¬ 
deed, fometimes greater freedom is ufed in epiftles, than 
the fame perfons would have taken in difeourfing toge¬ 
ther ; becaufe, as Cicero fays, “ A letter does not bind).” 
But ft ill nothing ought to be faid in a letter, which, confi¬ 
de red in itfelf, would not have been fit to fay in d.i'fcourfe ; 
though tnodefty perhaps, or fome other particular reafon, 
might have prevented it. And thus it frequently happens in 
requefts, reproofs, and other circumftances of life. A man 
can afk that by writing, which he could not dp by.words., if 
prefent ; or blame what he thinks amifs in his friend with 
greater liberty when abfent, than if they were together. From - 
hence it is eafy to. judge of the fitnefsof any exprefiion to 
hand in an epiltle, only by conndering, whether the fame 
way of (peaking would be proper in talking with the fame 
perfon. Indeed, this difference may be allowed, that, as 
perfons have more time to think when they write than 
when they fpeak, a greater accuracy of language may 
fometimes be expected in one than the other. However, 
this makes no difference as to the kind of ftyle ; for every 
one would choofe to fpeak as correftly as he writes, if he 
could. And therefore all fuch words and expreflions as 
are unbecoming in converfation, fiiould be avoided in let¬ 
ters ; and a manly fimplicity, free of all affectation, plain, 
but decent and agreeable, fhould run through the whole. 
This is the ufual ftyle of Cicero’s epiftles, in which the 
plainnefs and fimplicity of his diction is accompanied 
with fometbing fo pieafant and engaging, that he keeps 
up the attention of his reader, without differing him to 
tire. On the other hand, Pliny’s ftyle is fuccinft and 
witty; but generally fo full of turns and quibbles upon 
the found of words, as apparently render it more ftiff and 
affefted than agrees with converfation, or than a man of 
fenfe would choofe in difeourfe, were it in his power. 
You may in fome meafure judge of Pliny’s manner, by 
one fliort letter to his friend, which runs -thus: “How 
fare you ? As I do in the country ? pieafantly ? that is, 
at leifure? For which reafon I do not care to write long 
letters, but to read them ; the one has the effect of nice- 
nefs, and the other of idlenefs. For nothing is more idle 
than your nice folks, or curious than your idle ones. 
Farewell.” Every fentence here confifts of an antithefis, 
and a jingle of words, very different from the ftyle of con¬ 
verfation, and plainly the effect of ftudy. But this was ow,- 
jng to the age in which be lived, at which time the Roman 
eloquence was funk into puns, and an affectation of wit ; 
for he was otherwife a man of fine fenfe and great learning. 
Letter-copying Machine. —In the year 17S0, the ingenious 
Mr. Watt, of Birmingham, invented a method of copying- 
letters and other writings, which we believe is very much 
ufed in merchants’ counting-houfes, where it is neceflary 
to retain copies of letters lent to their correfpondents ; 
and mult be the means of faving a great deal of valuable 
time. A patent (the term of which is expired) was taken out 
for the invention, and the mode of proceeding is deferibed 
Vol. XII. No. 851, 
O 
as follows: “Take a piece of thin paper which contains 
no fize, or glue, or gummy or mucilaginous matter, or 
which at lealt does not contain fo much fize,or other matter, 
as would make it fit for being written upon. Cut this pa¬ 
per to the lize and fhape of the writing of which a copy is 
wanting; moiften or wet the faid thin paper with water, 
or other liquid, by means'of a fponge or brufb, or by dip¬ 
ping, or otherwife, Having moiftened or wet the thill 
paper, lay it between two thick unfized fpongy papers, or 
between two cloths, or other fubftances capable of abforb- 
ing the fuperfiuous moifhire from the thin paper; when 
it has been (lightly prefled between fuch thick fpongy pa¬ 
pers, or other -fubftances, by the hand or otherwife, lay 
the faid thin paper, fo moiftened and preffed, upon or un¬ 
der the fide of the writing which is to be copied, and in 
fuch manner that the one fide of the laid moiftened paper 
•fliall be in contact all over the fide of the (hid writing, fo 
intended to be copied ; and that to the other fide of the 
faid moiftened thin paper there fliall be applied a piece of 
clean writing-paper, or cloth, or other fmooth uniform 
fublfarice. Lay'the, faid writing intended to be copied, 
with the thin moiftened paper intended to receive tiie 
copy, (placed refpeft ively as above directed,) upon the 
board of a common rolling-prefs, or of that of which a de- 
feription and drawing are contained in the fpecification, 
and prefs them once, or oftener, through the rolls of the 
faid prefs, in the fame manner as is ufed in printing by 
copper-plates ; or, inftead of ufing the faid or any rolling- 
prefs, fqueeze the faid papers, placed refpeftively in the 
manner above deferibed, in a ferew-prefs; or fubjeft them 
to any other preffure fufficient for the purpofe ; by means 
of which preffure, in whatever manner applied, part of the 
ink of the writing intended to be copied fliall prefs from 
the laid writing into, upon, and through, the faid thin 
moiftened paper, fo that a copy of the laid writing, more 
or lefs faint, according to the quality of the ink and pa¬ 
per employed, (hall appear imprefi'ed on both fides of the 
faid moiftened paper, viz. upon one of the fides in the na¬ 
tural or proper order and direction of the lines, as they 
are in the original writing, and on the other fide in the 
reverfe order and direction. But, in order to make the 
impreffion or copy of the writing more ftrong, legible,, 
and durable, it is proper and ul'eful to moiften the faid 
thin paper, which is to receive the copy or impreffion, 
with the following liquor, inftead of water or other liquid, 
and to proceed in all other refpeits as'is above direfted ; or 
to moiften the faid thin paper with the following liquor, 
and to dry the faid paper; and, when a copy of a writing 
is required to be taken, the faid paper, thus previoufly 
prepared and dried, ought to be moiftened with water or 
other liquid, and to be proceeded with in all other refpefto 
as has been directed. The faid liquor to be ufed for 
moiftening the faid thin paper, or for preparing the laid- 
paper previoufly to its being ufed, is made in the follow¬ 
ing manner : Take of diftilled vinegar two pounds weight, 
dilfolve it in one ounce of the fedative fait of borax ; then 
take four ounces of oyfter-(hells calcined to whitenefs, 
and carefully freed from their brown cruft; put them 
into the vinegar, (hake the mixture frequently for four- 
and-twenty hours, then let it ftar.fi until it depofits its fe- 
diment; filter the clear part through unfized paper into a 
glafs veffel 5 then add to the faid mixture or folution two 
ounces of the beft blue Aleppo galls bruiled ; and place 
the liquor in a warm place, fhaking it frequently for 
twenty-four hours; then filter the liquor again through 
unfized paper; and add to it, after filtration, one quart, 
ale-meafure, of diftilled or other pure water. It imill then 
Hand twenty-four hours, and be filtered agajn if it fhovvs 
a dif'pofition to depofit any fediment, which it generally 
does. The liquor, thus compounded and prepared, is to 
be ufed as hath been directed. In place of the vinegar, 
any other liquor impregnated with a vegetable .acid may 
be ufed ; and, in place of the galls, oak-bark, or any other 
vegetable aftringent, or fubftance which is capable of be¬ 
coming black, or deep-coloured, with dilutions of iron 5 
6 Z and. 
