Occaſions. Theſe have been always eſteemed as the moſt valuable Parts of Hiſtory, as they are not only the moſt authentic Memorials of Facts, but as they ſerve greatly to illuſtrate the true Character of the Writer, and do in a manner introduce the Perſon himſelf to our Acquaintance.
A Second Kind owe their Merit not to Truth, but to Invention; ſuch are the Letters which contain ingenious Novels, or ſhorter Tales, either pathetic or humorous; theſe bear the ſame Relation to the former, as Romance doth to true Hiſtory; and, as the former may be called ſhort Hiſtories, ſo may theſe be ſtyled ſhort Romances.
In the next Branch may be ranked thoſe Letters, which have paſt between Men of Eminence in the Republic of Literature. Many of theſe are in high Eſtimation in the learned World, in which they are conſidered as having equal Authority to that, which the political World allows to thoſe of the firſt Claſs.
Besides theſe three Kinds of Letters, which have all their ſeveral Merits, there are two more, with which the Moderns
