Chapter XI: Letter I: Philadelphia,

_Dear Sir_,--I regret that you had the trouble of addressing me twice respecting the Review of your publication. The truth is it was only yesterday I enjoyed the opportunity of reading it, and bearing public testimony to its merits. I think the work might have a wider circulation if, in the next edition, it were printed _without_ the preface. Of your talents and other merits I have long entertained a high opinion.

Respectfully, your faithful servant,

JOSEPH A. MILLER, ESQ.

There is nothing very peculiar in the _physique_ of this letter. The hand-writing is bold, large, sprawling, and irregular. It is rather rotund than angular, and is by no means illegible. One would suppose it written in a violent hurry. The t's are crossed with a sweeping scratch of the pen, giving the whole letter an odd appearance if held upside-down, or in any position other than the proper one. The whole air of the letter is _dictatorial_. The paper is of good but not superior quality. The seal is of brown wax mingled with gold, and bears a Latin motto, of which only the words _trans_ and _mortuus_ are legible.