De stylo epistolari.—­Inventio.—­In writing there is to be regarded the invention and the fashion.  For the invention, that ariseth upon your business, whereof there can be no rules of more certainty, or precepts of better direction given, than conjecture can lay down from the several occasions of men’s particular lives and vocations:  but sometimes men make baseness of kindness:  As “I could not satisfy myself till I had discharged my remembrance, and charged my letters with commendation to you;” or, “My business is no other than to testify my love to you, and to put you in mind of my willingness to do you all kind offices;” or, “Sir, have you leisure to descend to the remembering of that assurance you have long possessed in your servant, and upon your next opportunity make him happy with some commands from you?” or the like; that go a-begging for some meaning, and labour to be delivered of the great burden of nothing.  When you have invented, and that your business be matter, and not bare form, or mere ceremony, but some earnest, then are you to proceed to the ordering of it, and digesting the parts, which is had out of two circumstances.  One is the understanding of the persons to whom you are to write; the other is the coherence of your sentence; for men’s capacity to weigh what will be apprehended with greatest attention or leisure; what next regarded and longed for especially, and what last will leave satisfaction, and (as it were) the sweetest memorial and belief of all that is passed in his understanding whom you write to.  For the consequence of sentences, you must be sure that every clause do give the cue one to the other, and be bespoken ere it come.  So much for invention and order.

Modus.—­1.  Brevitas.—­Now for fashion:  it consists in four things, which are qualities of your style.  The first is brevity; for they must not be treatises or discourses (your letters) except it be to learned men.  And even among them there is a kind of thrift and saving of words.  Therefore you are to examine the clearest passages of your understanding, and through them to convey the sweetest and most significant words you can devise, that you may the easier teach them the readiest way to another man’s apprehension, and open their meaning fully, roundly, and distinctly, so as the reader may not think a second view cast away upon your letter.  And though respect be a part following this, yet now here, and still I must remember it, if you write to a man, whose estate and sense, as senses, you are familiar with, you may the bolder (to set a task to his brain) venture on a knot.  But if to your superior, you are bound to measure him in three farther points:  first, with interest in him; secondly, his capacity in your letters; thirdly, his leisure to peruse them.  For your interest or favour with him, you are to be the shorter or longer, more familiar or submiss, as he will afford you time.  For his capacity, you are to be quicker and fuller