the young writer, than the voice
of relentless criticism. Hope stimulates, but fear depresses the
active powers of the mind; and how much have they to fear, who have
continually before their eyes the mistakes and disgrace of others; of
others, who with superior talents have attempted and failed! With a
multitude of precepts and rules of rhetoric full in their memory, they
cannot express the simplest of their thoughts; and to write a sentence
composed of members, which have each of them names of many syllables,
must appear a most formidable and presumptuous undertaking. On the
contrary, a child who, in books and in conversation, has been used to
hear and to speak correct language, and who has never been terrified
with the idea, that to write, is to express his thoughts in some new
and extraordinary manner, will naturally write as he speaks, and as he
thinks. Making certain characters upon paper, to represent to others
what he wishes to say[124] to them, will not appear to him a matter of
dread and danger, but of convenience and amusement, and he will write
prose without knowing it.

Amongst some "Practical Essays,"[125] lately published, "to assist the
exertions of youth in their literary pursuits," there is an essay on
letter-writing, which might deter a timid child from ever undertaking
such an arduous task as that of writing a letter. So much is said from
Blair, from Cicero, from Quintilian; so many things are requisite in a
letter; purity, neatness, simplicity; such caution must be used to
avoid "exotics transplanted from foreign languages, or raised in the
hot-beds of affectation and conceit;" such attention to the
mother-tongue is prescribed, that the young nerves of the
letter-writer must tremble when he takes up his pen. Besides, he is
told that "he should be extremely reserved on the head of pleasantry,"
and that "as to sallies of wit, it is still more dangerous to let them
fly at random; but he may repeat the smart sayings of others if he
will, or relate _part_ of some droll adventure, to enliven his
letter."

The anxiety that parents and tutors frequently express, to have their
children write letters, and good letters, often prevents the pupils
from writing during the whole course of their lives. Letter-writing
becomes a task and an evil to children; whether they have any thing to
say or not, write they must, this post or next, without fail, _a
pretty letter_ to some relation or friend, who has exacted from