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To go back to the very beginning, what is the first thing to do in writing any business letter?

Before you put pen to paper, before you ring for your stenographer, decide in your own mind what effect you want to produce on your reader—what feeling you must arouse in him.

If you want your readers to say, as the crowds did of Demosthenes' famous rival: "What a clever speaker!"—then it is quite all right to start with catch-phrases and the like. But if you want to emulate Demosthenes, whose hearers forgot all about him in their interest in his message, then your whole effort must be centered on arousing the feeling in them: ''Let's go!”

For back of every successful letter, as back of every sale, is a created feeling that impels the reader to act as you want him. It is the whole purpose of every business letter, whether it be sales, collection, adjustment or complaint, to make your reader want to do the thing you are urging upon him.

How are you to arouse that feeling in him? How would you have to feel yourself before you would place such an order as you have in mind, before you would grant such an extension, before you would send a payment to this man in preference to all others, at a time when it was an effort to send a dollar to anyone?

What would you want first to know? What about the proposition would interest you most? What would you feel you had to gain by accepting? What would you lose by refusing?

They say the Parisians have a formula for love letters: "Begin without knowing what you are going to say, and end without knowing what you have said." That may be good medicine for love letters, but it was never meant for business. Though, to do the Frenchmen justice, such of their letters as appear in print indicate that while they may not know what they are going to say, they have a pretty clear idea of the emotion they want to arouse in their reader, and they leave no stone unturned in the doing of it.

And after all, isn’t that the whole purpose of a letter? Books have been written about the importance of attention, and interest, and argument, and clinchers, but aren’t these mere details? When you come down to it, isn’t the prime requisite arousing the feeling in your reader that he must have the thing you are offering, or that he can not rest until he has done the thing you are urging him to?

Consider the two following letters, for instance. The first follows all the rules. It wins attention, it creates interest, it describes what it has to offer, it has argument, conviction, clincher, yet it was only moderately successful, whereas the second letter literally pulled its head off. Why the difference?

Because the first letter was aimed only at the intellect, whereas the second, while it tried to convince the intellect, aimed its real appeal at the emotions! And when it is action you want, go after the emotions every time!

The Finally Revised, Illustrated

Edition of WELLS’ HISTORY in 4 vols.

At 1/4 less than the Original Price of Two!

DEAR READER:

At last H. G. Wells’ famous "Outline of History" has been put into its finally revised form, illustrated with 100 famous historical paintings, and brought out in four regular, library-size books. A million copies of the Outline were sold in the bulky one and two volume editions. A million more people wanted it, but they waited for a lighter, more easily handled volume. Here it is—a brand new edition, freshly revised, of four standard library-size books, for 25% less than the price of the original two-volume set.

And that isn’t all.

For a long time Mr. Wells felt that parts of his history needed re-writing— that other parts should be clarified, and the whole thoroughly revised. This was his chance. Starting from the very beginning, he changed every single page of the text, re-wrote whole chapters, added page after page of additional matter. This is his final revision. In discussing this edition with a friend while in America, Mr. Wells said that the revisions would make the original English edition look like a Stone Age effort.

There are a hundred new illustrations, reproductions from historical paintings from the great art galleries of the world. Not only New York, but the Art Stores and Galleries of London and Paris were searched through for these. It is the finest edition of the "Outline of History" that has ever been brought out. Yet you may have it—if you mail the enclosed card at once—at an amazingly low price.

One-Fourth Off!

Think of it! Finally revised, printed from brand new, clear, readable plates, with a hundred new pictures besides those that were in the discarded editions, and bound up into 4 beautiful, library-size volumes—all for 25% less than the original two-volume set would cost you even now in any book store!

Here is our offer:

H.G. Wells’ remarkable History, the most engrossing story ever told, being the complete romance of Mother Earth, bound up into 4 regular library-size books, illustrated with a hundred famous paintings, and A year’s subscription to the Review of Reviews,

Both Together for $12

payable in easy, never missed payments of $1 a month, or $10.50 cash.

Wells begins with the dawn of time. Before there were men. Before there were even reptiles. In broad, magnificent strokes he paints the picture, bringing you straight down to today. In a few vivid pages, he brings the whole past back to life, and makes you live through it. More—he makes it all one connected story, shows you the thread of human purpose binding men together the world over from one age to another.

And the Review of Reviews makes the history of today as alive and interesting as Wells makes the years behind us. Without waste of time, it gives you the boiled-down sap of world events, equips you to discuss national and international affairs intelligently, enables you to read your daily paper with real interest and understandingly.

Only One Condition We Make.

There is only one condition—that you send in your card within ten days after you receive this letter. Such an unusual offer as this cannot be held open long. We can give you but the one chance.

Mail the enclosed card, without money, and we will send you, subject to a week’s free examination, the new 4-volume Wells’ "Outline of History" at 25% less than the original 2-volume price. At the same time, we will enter your subscription for one full year of the Review of Reviews.

Remember, you don’t risk one penny. If for any reason you are dissatisfied with the History, if you don’t feel that it gives you the utmost of book value and satisfaction, return it at the end of the week at our expense, send 25 cents for the copy of the magazine delivered to you, and cancel the order.

The enclosed card obligates us only—Not You! Signing and mailing it puts the burden of Proof up to us.

May we hope you will mail it today?

Earnestly yours,

* * * * *

YOUR LAST CHANCE

to Get These 4 Volumes For 25% LESS

Than the Price of the First Two!

DEAR READER:

Do you know what is the really significant thing about all these pre-historic fossils and ancient civilizations that have been dug up in the past few years?—Not the fact that the Dinosaur eggs found in Mongolia may be 10,000,000 or 100,000,000 years old.—Nor whether the Temple of the Moon-God in Ur of the Chaldees was built before the Tower of Babel, or the Temple of the Sun-God in Mexico was more ancient still.—Not even whether mankind dates back to the primitive Ape-man of 500,000 years ago, or sprang full-grown from the mind of the Creator.

Not these things. They are, after all, of little consequence to us now. The really significant thing is that from them men are, for the first time, beginning to get an understanding of that infinite "life-principle" that moves the universe—and of the untold possibilities it opens up to them.

You read in Wells’ "Outline of History" how for millions of years this "life-principle" was threatened by every kind of danger—sudden climactic changes, lack of food, floods, earthquakes, droughts, volcanic eruptions.

But to it each new danger was merely an incentive to finding a new resource. Pursued through water, it sought land. Pursued over land, it sought the air. To breath in the sea, it put forth gills. Stranded on land, it made lungs. To protect itself from glacial cold, it grew fur. In temperate climes, hair. Subject to alternate heat and cold, it produced feathers. To meet one danger it developed a shell. For another, fleetness of foot or wing. But ever, from the beginning, it showed its power to meet every creature need.

All through the history of life and mankind you see this same directing Intelligence—call it Nature, call it Providence, call it what you will—rising to meet every need of life.

No man can read Wells’ without realizing that the whole purpose of existence is growth—that life is dynamic, not static. That it is ever moving forward—not standing still. That electricity, magnetism, gravitation, light, are all but different manifestations of the same infinite and eternal energy in which we ourselves live and move and have our being.

Wells’ gives you an understanding of your own potentialities. You learn from it how to work with and take advantage of the infinite energy all about you. The terror of the man at the crossways, not knowing which road to take, is no terror to the reader of Wells. His future is of his own making. For the only law of infinite energy is the law of supply. The "life-principle" that formed the dinosaur to meet one set of needs and the butterfly to meet another is not going to fail in your case. You have but to understand it—to work in harmony with it—to get from it what you need.

Your Last Chance To Get Wells' At The Low Price

The low price we have been making on Wells’ "Outline of History" was made possible only because we contracted for 100,000 sets at once.

Because we were willing to take the risk of paying the royalty on that vast quantity in advance, because we had previously sold over 150,000 copies of his one-volume edition, Wells reduced his royalties on these sets to a mere fraction of his usual amount.

But we can’t hope to sell any such quantity again. We can’t risk manufacturing on any such huge scale as to bring our costs down to anywhere near the present low figures.

Of the 100,000 sets we contracted for, 95,000 have been sold. Less than 5,000 are left. And if you had seen the orders streaming in at a 500-a-day clip last season, you would realize how quickly these 5,000 sets will melt away.

While we still have books left, we want them to go to our own old customers and friends. We cannot, of course, discriminate against outsiders; we must fill the orders as they come in. But we can urge you to speak for your set now.

Here Is Our Offer.

Send the enclosed card—without money—and we will forward to you, postpaid, a set of Wells’ "Outline of History" for a week’s Free Examination. Open it up anywhere. Read a few pages. Then try to lay it down! If you don’t find, as the New York Tribune put it, that "It’s the most exciting book ever written," send it back. Scarcely one man in twenty has been willing to part with his set, once he’s opened it!

The payments?—You will laugh at them! $1 a month for 12 months for this magnificent set of Wells’, and a year’s subscription to the Review of Reviews magazine.

You know the Review of Reviews. You know that it gives you the best that can be gotten in science, literature, drama, politics, philosophy and thought, in books, in international questions. In brief, it gives you all that is necessary to keep your mind alert and well-informed on the affairs of the day. It furnishes you the basis for sound conversation and clear thinking. It places you and keeps you among America’s "Intellectual Aristocracy."

Not tomorrow, nor after lunch—for things to be done after lunch are frequently not done at all—but now, while this letter is before you, pencil your name and address on the enclosed card and drop it in the mail.

Then the orders may come and the books may go—by the hundreds—but you will be sure of your set by immediate prepaid shipment.

"It’s been worth more to me than a College course," wrote one reader.

"If you can read but one book during the year," said President Hopkins of Dartmouth, "that book should be Wells’ "Outline of History."

The enclosed card brings it to you for a week—free.

* * * * *

Why is it a tabloid newspaper will outsell a clean, well-edited sheet by ten to one? Why? Because its appeal is to the sob sister, to the emotions. Why is it a Billy Sunday or an Aimee MacPherson can crowd great tabernacles, while your ordinary clergyman preaches to empty pews?

Emotion! The religion that brings masses of converts, that sweeps whole cities, is not an appeal to the intellect—but to the emotions! When Mohammed first preached his doctrines, they were sane and moderate—and they attracted few converts. He added the emotional features—and swept over half the world!

You may not be trying to start a new religion, but you do want action of some kind. And to get action, you need to arouse emotion on the part of your reader. You may convince his intellect that the thing you want him to do is right and is for his best advantage, but until you arouse in him an urgent desire to do it, until you make him feel that whatever effort it requires is of no account compared with the satisfaction it will bring him, your letter is lacking in its most important essential. It may have everything else, but if it lacks that faculty of arousing the right feeling, you might as well throw it away. It will never make you money.

Fifteen years ago there was a young fellow in a small Connecticut town with a book—and an idea. The book had been written for serious-minded men, to help show them the way to success. But letters and advertising telling of this marvelous secret of power had left their readers cold—so cold that the original publisher had failed. The young fellow had been his bookkeeper, and had bought the plates and stock at the sale of the publisher’s effects.

You see, this young fellow had an idea he could sell that book. He believed that a mere description of its contents, such as had been used in the letters and ads, was not enough, that the important thing was to arouse the reader’s desire through an appeal to his ambition. He had only $200 left, but he decided to gamble those $200 on selling the book.

To make a long story short, he did it. He spent his $200, and from them he got $2,000 worth of direct orders by mail! That $2,000 was the start of a small fortune. He promptly spent every cent of it in selling more books, pyramiding his receipts like a stock gambler does his winnings. In the fifteen years that have elapsed since then, that young man has sold more than $2,000,000 worth of books. His name is A. L. Pelton. The book was "Power of Will." And he sold his two millions, as he did his two thousands, by making his appeal—not merely to the intellect, but to the emotions.

And his case is typical of every great mail success. What sold the "Book of Etiquette?" It had been gathering dust on the shelves of Doubleday, Page & Co.’s stock room for ten to fifteen years when Nelson Doubleday suddenly brought it to life and sold a million copies. What caused the sudden demand? Not, you may be sure, any wave of culture or politeness sweeping over the nation, but simply the fear aroused in the readers of Doubleday’s letters and advertisements that some unconscious gaucherie might cause them embarrassment.

Why do people buy reducing belts, face creams, hair tonics? Why do they diet and go through arduous exercises? Not because their reason tells them they need these things, still less because they like them—but because their emotion of vanity impels them!

Appeal to the reason, by all means. Give people a logical excuse for buying that they can tell to their friends and use to salve their own consciences. But if you want to sell goods, if you want action of any kind, base your real urge upon some primary emotion!