The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1868-10-30
MisGel1aMenMs.
For The 4ais C hteAiaencer,
Letter Writing.

1t is q very easy and very difficult
thing to write an interesting letter. It is a
very easy thing, if we wish and aim, only
to express the natural feelings, fancies and
incidents with which we are wont to re-
gale our friends 1t is very difficult
thing if we strain after some particular
style of composition, and in our efforts
with rhetorical stills we lose all the beauty
of propriety and the nice Judgment Of ma
ture. Like those specimens Of the human
species who are so eager in the strife of
fashion that they outstrip the boundaries
of nature and of art, SO that instead of rea-
izing that high ambition of being
| 1.-THE glass of fashion and tho mould ofform,"
such persons become objects on which
ridicule spends its small change Is
1t is curious to note the mighty labor
letter writing is to some intelligent people.
1t is really labor of love to peruse their
epistles, ! have not doubt that any less
violent passion than that of love could in
duce sane person to wade through many
letters he receives. Here are indeed the
well known characters of my friend. They
can never meet my eye without touching
my heart with tender emotion, for are not
these markings 80 many talismans sum-
moning up the absent loved ones But
this composition, 80 stiff, so cold, 80 arti-
| ficially worded, is no more like my friend
"than to Hercules !" My friends spirit
breathes not in these formal words and
carefully constructed sentences, for if it
were 80 ordinary in all its manifestations I
would not be beneath its potent influence.
No, my friend when writing aims to be
literary. In this noble flight of fancy he
strays so far from reasons boundaries and
above imagination's heights that he be-
wilders himself and astonishes the reader.
My friend forgets himself in the meander-
ings of his composition, and, what like
least of all, he forgets me, and seems to be
ddressing-barring mere formal mention
"a stranger or an editor. Mr. friend is
fond FIGURING into my sympathising ear in
our conversations his hopes, his fears, his
views, his satire, his humor, his affection
But here, in my friends letter, find q
great deal-well, not news-I am apt to
take cognizance of the state of the weather,
on which subject he exhausts himself but
he deals in general observations to such q
great extent that he might, with greater
propriety, embody his letters in a series Of
essays and publish them for the delectation
and enlightenment of the public. do not
regard his letters though directed rs ad-
dressed to me. No-his genius as q
scribe cannot be fettered in the narrow
cage of letter writing. Like the American
eagle, it scars above human sense.
Such are the reflections we all at times
indulge, when reading the letters of certain
friends. Reflections that suggest them
selves most obtrusively, even to those of Us
who live in glass houses" Let us exam
inc those letters we have found interesting,
apart from the pleasureable associations
the handwriting calls up, and sec what
makes letter agreeable to us,
The first letter take up is that of one
whom like, for no other or higher motive
than like begets like, and her oddities
amuse me. There is not one other of my
correspondents for whom have so little
,, affection, and yet these letters of this
friend find more entertaining than those