Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1858-08-07
Gbe 1Dolpnesiau.
Letter Writing.
Extracts from the Atlantic Monthly. J

EXTRACTS from the Atlantic MOnthyl
Sc friend, who happens to have an idea or two
of his own, constantly advising his acquaintances
in no case to become parties to regular cores
pondence. He is a great letter-writer him.
self, but never answers an epstle, unless it con-
tain queries as to matters of fact, or be an invita-
tion to a ball or dinner,-unlcss, in word real,
not what he considers conventional, politeness
quires; in which event, his reply is despatched at
once. Under all other circumstances, he ignores
the last missive from him or her to whom his en-
velope is addressed. He studiously frames his own
communications in such wise, that they do not call
for an answer. He will totally neglect an intimate
friend for months, then let fly at him epistle after
epistle, and then give no sign of life for long
while again. If asked to exchange letters once a
week or once a fortnight he solemnly inquiries
whether the wind goes by machinery, and is, after
given interval, invariably at such o'clock
adding, that it is his aim, to keep up, but to
keep down correspondence If accused of '' owing
letter. he repudates the obligation, and afirms
that he will go to Jail sooner than pay it Off If
taxed with heartlessness, he retorts by asking
whether it can be the duty of moral being to in
suit man by writing to him when there is moth
ing to say"
Correspondence is conversation carried on un-
der certain peculiar conditions, but subject to the
same rules as conversation by word Of mouth, ex-
cept SO far forth as they may be modified by those
necessary conditions. You do not take your part
ners bright saying home with you and bring a
partee at the next ball, by which time she has for
gotten what her bon mot was. and has another
every whit as good, upon her lips; yon do not
turn lead in whist at the next rubber; you do
not postpone the laugh over the jokes of the din
ner-tabe. as is fabulOusly narrated of Washington
until you have retired for the night. In social
intercourse, minds must meet before one person
can be brought to anothers mood or both to u mid
die ground it is the friction of contact that Gre
ates conversation. \ remark, not answered the
instant after it has been made, is never answered.
The bores and Doors Of society, not the gentlemen
and ladies, ruminate upon what has been said,
elaborate replies at leisure, and serve them up
unseasonably."
Lovers, of all persons, it would seem, might
with least danger postpone answering each others
missives, since their common topic of interest is
always with them, and the billet-dOur, after hav-
ing been carried in the bosom week, is as fresh
as when taken from the post-Ofhce. What need
for ''sweet sixteen" to consume the very night of
its reception in essaying a reply, which she might
have written next week well, since next week
they two will stand in substant tally the same re-
lations to one another as now! ''Sweet sixteen
smiles at such cold blooded-logic. To you 9TH
ers," thinks she to herself, 90 all sunsets may be
alike; but in our horizon are constant changes,
delicate tones of color, each
Shade so finely touched loves seize it,
The mood into which Walter Scott's note put me
may never return again. Now it is correspondent
to the mood in which he wrote now or never
must | reply. In this way alone can we keep up
a correspondence between our natures"
But the stupid world will not accept, cannot
even understand, these fine sayings. 1t looks at
the question with very different eyes from those
of lovers, boarding-school misses, and persons in
the first moon of first marriage. The peculiar
relations between them may supply inspiration
and vitality to such correspondence. But would
Dean Swift have put the daily record of his life
upon paper for another than Stella to peruse
Would Leander have swum the Hellespont for the
sake of meeting any girl but Hero on that distant
shorel As it was, he was drowned for his pains.
The rest of us cannot swim HellespOnts, keep dia-
ries, nor correspond, as foolish young people have
done and do We have books to read, business
to attend to- duties to perform, tastes to crafty,
ambitions to feed. Who could bear to have his
correspondents always upon his handsa Who
could endure such tax upon his patience as they
would becOmel Who would send for his letters
Who would not rather run away from the postmen,
for fear of the next discharge!
In the analogy between conversation and cor
respondence may, perhaps, be found key to the
problem. Those of us who are not lovers, school
girls, or spnsters, are not desirous of keeping up
cOlloquy, day in and day out. Nor are we in
the habit of resuming subject, in the next inter-
view, at the precise point where we left it. A
regular conversation after the fashion of n reg
ular correspondence, is as between two individuals
mutually unknown, or among a number, inva-
riably failure. However recently persons may
have parted company, at meeting they commence
de moro; new talk grows out of the circumstan-
ces and thoughts of the moment, which ends as
naturally as 1t began, when the takers get tired
or are obliged to stop. Sometimes but one of two
or three opens her lips, but conversation, never
theless, goes on since an open ear is the most
pointed question, and sympathy is the same, wheth-
er or not put into words.
To conversation carried on at distance Of space
and time, through the pen, not the lips, the sim
pie and obvious principles upon which people act
in the drawing the fire-side circle easi
ly applied. Between those who really wish to
talk together, letters should fly as rapidly the
post can deliver them. If only one feels like wri-
ting he should pour forth his heart to his friend,
although that friend remain as silent as the grave.
1t would be as absurd to say that either party
80 owes the letter" as to charge him who had the
penultimate word in dialogue with the duty of
making the first remark the next time he encoun-
ters her who had the last word. When the topic
of immediate interest has been disposed of, a cor
respOndence is over. 1t matters as little who
tributed the most to a dialogue. When the end
is reached, the story is done 1t is for the party
who is first in the mood of writing after an inter-
val of silence, to open a new correspondence, in
which there shall be no reference to previous COM
munications, and which may die with the first let
ter, or be protracted for week or a month"
1.-The employment of printed formula in all
cases, indeed, where one feels not impeled, but
obliged to write, would save both time and temper.
We lay down nine out of ten of our letters with
feelings of disappointment. Were we to initiate
the Scoth servant who returned hers to the post
master, after a glance at the address had assured