t is customary now to begin with oral composition,--quite rightly, for
one difficulty at a time is enough. But when children have to write for
themselves the most natural beginning is by letters. A great difference
in thought and power is observable in their first attempts, but in the
main the structure of their letters is similar, like the houses and the
moonfaced persons which they draw in the same symbolic way. Perhaps both
are accepted conventions to which they conform--handed down through
generations of the nursery tradition--though students of children are
inclined to believe that these symbolical drawings represent their real
mind in the representation of material things. Their communications move
in little bounds, a succession of happy thoughts, the kind of things
which birds in conversation might impart to one another, turning their
heads quickly from side to side and catching sight of many things
unrelated amongst themselves. It is a pity that this manner is often
allowed to last too long, for in these stages of mental training it is
better to be on the stretch to reach the full stature of one's age
rather than to linger behind it, and early promise in composition means
a great deal.

To write of the things which belong to one's age in a manner that is
fully up to their worth or even a little beyond it, is better than to
strain after something to say in a subject that is beyond the mental
grasp. The first thing to learn is how to write pleasantly about the
most simple and ordinary things. But a common fault in children's
writing is to wait for an event, "something to write about," and to
dispose of it in three or four sentences like telegrams.

The influences which determine these early steps are, first, the natural
habit of mind, for thoughtful children see most interesting and strange
things in their surroundings; secondly, the tone of their ordinary
conversation, but especially a disposition that is unselfish and
affectionate. Warm-hearted children who are gifted with sympathy have an
intuition of what will give pleasure, and that is one of the great
secrets of letter-writing. But the letters they write will always depend
in a great measure on the letters they receive, and a family gift for
letter-writing is generally the outcome of a happy home-life in which
all the members are of interest to each other and their doings of
importance.

What sympathy gives to letter-writing, imagination gives to the first