great Creator, imploring his forgiveness and blessing; his smiles on American councils and arms. My duty to your Uncle Quincy; your papa, mamma, and mine; my brothers and sisters, and yours. To the Teacher.-Have your pupils write complete letters and notes of all kinds. You can name the persons to whom these are to be addressed. Attend minutely to all the points. Letters of introduction should have the word Introducing (followed by the name of the one introduced) at the lower left-hand corner of the envelope. This letter should not be sealed. it to the one addressed. The receiver may seal it before handing Continue this work of letter-writing until the pupils have mastered all the details, and are able easily and quickly to write any ordinary letter. BIOGRAPHIES.—A biography is a written work descriptive of one's life and character. It is a history, setting before us what manner of man the subject of it was and what he did. If a statesman, a distinguished general, or one in any way eminent in public life, a biography of him is largely a history of his times. A biography pictures the early and the later life of its subject, tells us what were his talents, his natural bent and surroundings, what his environment did in shaping his character and determining his life, what he became in consequence or in spite of it, what he did, and what was his influence upon his times. Biography deals much with character. In this work the biographer is helped by the letters of his subject. In these the man speaks more fully and frankly than in his public efforts. His hopes and fears, his struggles, defeats, and triumphs have tongue in his letters, and in these he opens himself to us. And so, especially in recent times, letters form a large part of biographies-often the most valuable part. Biographies abound in personal incidents and anecdotes which turn the flash of an electric light upon one's character, which give us the key to what might remain locked without them. The works of literature cannot be rightly read till we know under what circumstances they were written, what was the author's natural fitness for his task, and what were his limitations. What would not the admirers of Shakespeare's plays give to know more of his early life and training at Stratford, and his later life in London! An autobiography is a biography written by the subject of it. A memoir is a brief sketch of one's life and character. It has been, and is still, a question whether the lives of men great in intellect and in executive ability, but not eminent in moral virtues, should be fully portrayed. It is difficult to see what good can come from an exhibition of one's vices, unless out of these some of his noteworthy achievements sprang. While the biographer should not, in what he says of him, misrepresent the man, he is not bound fully to present him. The man's private life does not belong to the public, it is his own. De mortuis nil nisi bonum—of the dead nothing should be spoken save what is good-may carry suppression to the point of distortion; but certainly the biographer wrongs no one in drawing a veil before so much of a man's evil nature as had little or no influence in shaping his public career. Great interest will always be felt in this department of literature. "The proper study of mankind is man,” and certainly no study has greater fascination for us. The lives of others teach us invaluable lessons, and are an incentive to honest and even heroic endeavor. Biographies are of essential service to the historian, and constitute a most important part of literature. ESSAYS.-An essay is a short composition upon any subject. The subject may be of any kind whatever, one fit for treatment, and with great fulness, in any of the species of discourse described above, or one without sufficient dignity for such treatment. No other species of writing ranges over so wide and varied a field of topics-nothing less than that of all others combined—and none other allows such freedom and diversity in the handling. In style of thought the essay may be dreamy and semipoetical, and charm by its beauty, it may be simply instructive or critical, it may blaze with its brilliancy, sting with its satire, convulse with its humor, convince with its logic, inflame with its appeal and move to instant duty. The author may wander off in leisurely excursions to the right and the left, and load his pages with gleanings by the way; or, like the orator, he may keep his eye on the point he would reach, and move, with the directness of an arrow's flight, toward it. The style of expression should fit the thought, and October woods are not more varied in color than this department of literature in utterance. Essays, as the name indicates, are not ambitious works. Their subjects are specific, and the view the author allows himself to take is narrow rather than comprehensive. They are monographs, aiming each to present a single thing in a clear light. Most modern writers spend their probation in essay-writing, and no better training for larger works can be devised. Essays are usually written for the monthlies or the quarterlies, and hence are prepared for readers of scholarly tastes and some culture. If they have met with favor, they are gathered together and issued in book form, and so pass in permanent shape into our libraries. A SCHEME FOR REVIEW. The three Departments of Mind determining the three Divisions of Discourse. PROSE. ORAL. WRITTEN. I. Conversation-Three Things it Ac complishes. II. Debate-Burden of Proof and Pre sumption. III. Oration-Subject, Framework, Treatment, Parts. IV. Speeches-Style and Value. Campaign and After-Dinner Speeches, and Harangues. V. Lectures and Addresses. VI. Pleas. VII. Sermons. I. Treatises. II. Histories Topics, Spirit, Style. III. Books of Travel. IV. Fiction-Purpose, Place. Allegories, V. Letters-Purpose and the five Parts- VI. Biographies. Autobiographies and LESSON 79. POETRY. Two of the three great divisions of discourse we have spoken of oral prose, which addresses itself to the will, and leads to action; and written prose, which is mainly intended to instruct the intellect. We come now to the second division of written, and to the last of the three divisions of all, discourse POETRY.-Poetry is that division of discourse which is rhythmical and metrical, and is addressed to the feelings. Poetry differs from prose in three particulars (1) in its mission, (2) in its style, and (3) in its form. I. ITS MISSION.-The mission of poetry is to bring sustenance to that part of our nature which lies in between the intellect and the will-that part which enjoys and which suffers, which is open to every disturbing influence and responds to every touch of impression—the feelings. Poetry, the most artistic department of literature, is near of kin, in its effects, to music and to painting. The poet is an artist, sensitive to impressions to which ordiPary nerves do not tingle. His eye detects a beauty, and a meaning in things-a beauty and a meaning which escape ordinary vision. His effort is to put this meaning into a picture, in which words are his colors, bringing ail parts of it into symmetry, knowing that the many, blind to what he sees, will see and appreciate what he does. The most of poetry is too ethereal in spirit to inhabit a body so gross as that of prose. Prose is masculine and matter-of-fact, the "common drudge 'tween man and man." You can harness it to the light vehicles |