Mail

"The Post Office Department is like a great root spreading many feet under ground and nourishing the mighty oak. It is the tap root of civilization."

"Belshazzar had a letter,— He never had but one; Belshazzar's correspondence Concluded and begun In that immortal copy The conscience of us all Can read without its glasses On revelation's wall."

"Carrier of news and knowledge Instrument of trade and industry Promoter of mutual acquaintance Of peace and of goodwill Among men and nations Messenger of sympathy and love Servant of parted friends Consoler of the lonely Bond of the scattered family Enlarger of the common life"

"'s innovations—charging by weight (instead of number of letter sheets), prepayment, and a uniform low rate of postage—long predated and provided a successful local-scale molde for Victorian postal reform."

"It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day's journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed."

"Soon as thy letters trembling I unclose, That well-known name awakens all my woes."

"Line after line my gushing eyes o'erflow, Led thro' a sad variety of woe: Now warm in love, now with'ring in my bloom, Lost in a convent's solitary gloom!"

"Heav'n first taught letters for some wretch's aid, Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid."

"We beg leave to transport the reader to the back-parlour of the post-master's house at Fairport, where his wife, he himself being absent, was employed in assorting for delivery the letters which had come by the Edinburgh post. This is very often in country towns the period of the day when gossips find it particularly agreeable to call on the man or woman of letters, in order, from the outside of the epistles, and, if they are not belied, occasionally from the inside also, to amuse themselves with gleaning information, or forming conjectures about the correspondence and affairs of their neighbours."

"The letter is too long by half a mile."

"Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words That over blotted paper!"

"Tell him there's a post come from my master, with his horn full of good news."

"What! have I 'scaped love-letters in the holiday-time of my beauty, and am I now a subject for them?"

"I have a letter from her Of such contents as you will wonder at: The mirth whereof so larded with my matter, That neither singly can be manifested, Without the show of both."

"Jove and my stars be praised! Here is yet a postcript."

"If this letter move him not, his legs cannot. I'll give 't him."

"Let me hear from thee by letters."

"I read Of that glad year that once had been, In those fall'n leaves which kept their green, The noble letters of the dead: And strangely on the silence broke The silent-speaking words."

"Thou bringest * * * * * letters unto trembling hands."

"(He) put that which was most material in the postscript."

"He whistles as he goes, light-hearted wretch, Cold and yet cheerful; messenger of grief Perhaps to thousands, and of joy to some."

"The welcome news is in the letter found; The carrier's not commission'd to expound; It speaks itself, and what it does contain, In all things needful to be known, is plain."

"Carrier of news and knowledge, Instrument of trade and industry, Promoter of mutual acquaintance, Of peace and good-will Among men and nations."

"Messenger of sympathy and love, Servant of parted friends, Consoler of the lonely, Bond of the scattered family, Enlarger of the common life."

"Every day brings a ship, Every ship brings a word; Well for those who have no fear, Looking seaward well assured That the word the vessel brings Is the word they wish to hear."

"Sent letters by posts … being hastened and pressed on."

"Thy letter sent to prove me, Inflicts no sense of wrong; No longer wilt thou love me,— Thy letter, though, is long."

"Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

"Letters, from absent friends, extinguish fear, Unite division, and draw distance near; Their magic force each silent wish conveys, And wafts embodied thought, a thousand ways: Could souls to bodies write, death's pow'r were mean, For minds could then meet minds with heav'n between."

"An exquisite invention this, Worthy of Love's most honeyed kiss,— This art of writing billet-doux— In buds, and odors, and bright hues! In saying all one feels and thinks In clever daffodils and pinks; In puns of tulips; and in phrases, Charming for their truth, of daisies."

"A piece of simple goodness—a letter gushing from the heart; a beautiful unstudied vindication of the worth and untiring sweetness of human nature—a record of the invulnerability of man, armed with high purpose, sanctified by truth."

"A strange volume of real life in the daily packet of the postman. Eternal love and instant payment!"

"My days are swifter than a post."

"Kind messages, that pass from land to land; Kind letters, that betray the heart's deep history, In which we feel the pressure of a hand,— One touch of fire,—and all the rest is mystery!"

"Good-bye—my paper's out so nearly, I've only room for, Yours sincerely."

"Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parceque je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte."

"Ev'n so, with all submission, I * * * * * Send you each year a homely letter, Who may return me much a better."

"And oft the pangs of absence to remove By letters, soft interpreters of love."

"I will touch My mouth unto the leaves, caressingly; And so wilt thou. Thus, from these lips of mine My message will go kissingly to thine, With more than Fancy's load of luxury, And prove a true love-letter."

"A woman seldom writes her Mind, but in her Postscript."

"Go, little letter, apace, apace, Fly; Fly to the light in the valley below— Tell my wish to her dewy blue eye."