Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/179

* LETTEE. 161 LETTERS IN LITERATTJBE. randum relative to some bargain as to mercan- tile matters, or as to the sale of land or houses or the letting of land. Letter of request, in Eng- lish ecclesiastical law, means a writ which com- mences a suit in the Court of Arches against a clergj-man, instead of proceeding, in the first in- stance, in the consistory court. Letter of safe conduct means a writ, under the great seal, to the subject of a State at war with any country, au- thorizing and protecting such subject, while deal- ing or traveling in that countr3-, so that neither he nor his goods may be .seized, as they otherwise might be. Letter testamentary is an instrument issued by a judge who has jurisdiction of pro- bate matters, declaring that a certain will has been admitted to probate, and giving the executor power to administer the estate. Such an instru- ment granted to the administrator of a person dying intestate is called a letter of administra- tion. See Letters Patent; Letters Rogatory; Administration ; Executor. LETTER-CARRIERS,. National Associa- tion OF. An association organized at Milwaukee iu 1S80, and subsequently incorporated under the laws of Tennessee, with the object of uniting all the letter-carriers of the t'nited States in a fra- ternal society, securing to them their '"rights as Government employees," improving the postal ser- vice in conjunction with the Post Office Depart- ment, and establishing the Letter-Carriers' Mu- tual Benefit Association, and the Letter-Carriers' Eetirement Association. The National Associa- tion at one time took an active part in the Knights of Labor — withdrawing, however, after a bitter contest. It has been charged with ex- cessive political activity directed toward the election of Congressmen favorable to its interests: but its principal function is the maintenance of the Mutual Benefit Association, an auxiliary so- ciety with separate officers and organization, but under the general control of the Xational Associa- tion. In 1902 the Mutual Benefit Association had 452.5 members and expended .$.54,000 in insur- ance benefits. The Retirement Association has not yet been formed. At the end of 1902 the National Association had about 900 branches and 1.5,117 members. The official organ is the Postal Record, published monthlv at Washing- ton, D. C. LETTER OF CREDIT. See Credit. Letter OF. LETTERS. The characters of written speech. Letters are therefore the components of the alphabet (q.v. ). They are quite inadequate to represent the sounds for which they stand, al- though there have been repeated attempts to make a system of letters which would answer the requirements of phonetics (q.v.). In these so-called phonetic alphabets, as well as in the transcription of alphabets which differ in a marked degree from the Roman script, as Rus- sian. Armenian. Hebrew. Chinese, and many others, it is both customary and necessary to associate various diacritical marks with the Roman letters to approximate their phonetic value in the foreign alphaliets in question. LETTERS, Proportionate Use of. The fol- lowing tables represent the conclusions based on the experience of printers, with regard to the relative frequency of use of the letters of the alphabet in English composition. The first table exhibits the general use: E l.ouO , 770 728 704 680 67'8 670 540 528 392 360 296 11.. F... W.. Y... P... G... V... B... K.. J... Q.. X.. 272 236 190 184 168 168 1.58 120 88 55 50 46 22 C 280 Z The proportion of their use as initial letters is as follows: 1,194 937 804 574 571 505 463 430 388 377 340 R... W.. G... C... O... V... N... J... Q... K.. Y... Z... X.. 291 282 266 228 206 172 153 69 58 47 23 18 4 LETTERS IN LITERATURE. The letter belongs to the mo.st 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. Aleiphron 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 Caesar, 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 nuich to say that the letter as a literan.- species, with its own style and form, dates from Cicero. After Cicero the next mo.st notable collection, in order of time, is the series of 124 letters from Seneca to Lucil- ius. Seneca's letters are, however, rather moral obser^•ations and aphorisms put into epistolary form. Tlw letters of the yovuiger 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 Symmaehus 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 ancient mas- ter. The early fathers of the Church left a large body of theological correspondence. Particularly prized are the letters of Gregory Nazianzen. Basil. Chrysostom, Ambrose. Augustine. .Ternme. Zosi- mus, Leo I., and Gregory T. In the letters of Heloise to Al)flard (twelfth century) there was displayed an intense love passion, the counter- part in real life of the great romance of Tris- tan and Tseult. All through the Renaissance period, when classical ideals played havoc with