LETTERS IN LITERATURE. The letter belongs to the most personal branches of litera ture, represented also by the journal and the con fession.
Letters were not unknown in ancient Greece, where they circulated mainly between philoso phers and their disciples. Among the writers were Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. Demosthenes, and Isocrates. At a later period there came into vogue among the Greeks the purely fictitious letter embodying a character sketch or a brief satire on manners. Alciphron was particularly clever in these little pictures of contemporary life. But of the letters that have survived from antiquity. those of Cicero to Atticus and other friends make the widest appeal. Covering, as they do. the great civil war between Pompey and Cxsar. they are precious historical documents. Cicero himself is always present in his hopes and perplexities: and withal there is a sane reflection on conduct and the course of public affairs. It is perhaps not too much to say that the letter as a literary species. with its own style and form. dates from Cicero. After Cicero the next most notable collection, in order of time, is the series of 124 letters from Seneca to Lucil ius. Seneca's letters are, however. rather moral observations and aphorisms put into epistolary form. The letters of the youiver Pliny likewise rank high as literature: Besides details in the life of the rich and genial author, they also con tain interesting facts concerning the treatment of Christians. Among later Roman letter-writers whose work has great historical. if not literary. interest, were Symmachus and Cassiodorus. From the Romans comes, too, the verse epistle. in which the poet addresses his patron or friend on private or public events. often with a satirical intent. Of this art Horace was the aneient ter.
The early fathers of the Chureh left a large body of theological correspondence. Particularly prized are the letters of Gregory Nazianzen. Chrysostom. Ambrose. Augustine. .Terome. Zosi mus, Leo 1., and Gregory 1. In the letters of Htsloise to Abillard (twelfth century) there was displayed an intense love passion. the counter
part in real life of the great romance of Tris tan and Iseult. All through the period, when classical ideals played havoc wit'l medheval notions, letters in Latin numer ous. For Holy there are the famous epistles of Dante and Tetrarch: and for Germany, the theological and controversial epistles of Reueldin, Melanchtlnal, Erasmus, and Pipsius. A most cc lkction is the Epistohr Obscimoula irorati, (• parts, 1315-17), in which IZeueldin's friends (-'rotus IZubianus and Ulrich von Mitten satirized in comic Latin the ignorance and stu pidity of the monks. Though not a very noble defense of classical learning, this vulgar satire was effective in paving the way to a new age.
English literature is extremely rich in letters. At the very threshold of modern times are the Past on which passed bet \ Tell members of a Norfolk family and their friends from the beginning of the reign of Ilenry VI. on into the reign of Henry W11. The correspondence pre sents a vivid picture of social life at the dawn of the English Renaissance. The Eton boy writes to his 'right and reverent and worshipful brother' for money and clothes; and mingled with public and private incidents detailed by the elders are references to Latin manuscripts and translations passing from hand to hand. Less sincere, but of liner literary quality, are the letters of James Howell. published in installment; under the title Episiohr llo-cliunw; Familiar The best of them, abounding in shrewd observation and humorous anecdote, are written with a graceful pen. Long considered genitim•. it now seems that they were mostly literary exercises put into form. Howell's success led at once to fictitious collections by Robert Loveday and Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle. By 17-10 imaginary letters on a great variety of topics were much sought by publishers. It was at this time that Samuel Richardson. when asked to write such a collec tion, wove into the correspondence the story Pamc/a, and thus transformed a bundle of letters into the novel of manners.