2083080 GRAPHOMETER Copyright, Hugo von Ha gen, 1919. ft t6 /4 n to 9 t> + z '4 /a /o P r > a. f r j__. /Z /*- / c 4 /4. /i 10 a 4 4 2. -^ 2 3 f b r, 4_ i 1 e /f a 6 rf 4 4 3, 5 z f i 8 Jo /Z 2 ^, Z 4 4 * /o /t /4 A /8 ZO ,4 ^ ^ ^ i fl A /, 9 > * 2 . * <> ? i o '4 4 '9 Zo t+ IZ 10 8 64 Z TELEIV i ^ ^ 8 to U 14- [ETER Copyright, Hugo von Hagen, 1919. KLINOMETER Copyright, Hugo von Hagen, 1919. " '0987654321 PACHOMETER Copyright, Hugo von Hagen, i<)i<). GRAPHOLOGY HOW TO READ CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING Studies in Character Reading" A TEXT-BOOK OF GRAPHOLOGY FOR EXPERTS, STUDENTS AND LAYMEN BY HUGO J. VON HAGEN, PH.D., M.Tn.D. President "American Graphological Society" and member of " Societe Graphologique " With illustrations including reproductions of writing from the earliest ages to the modern penmanship, showing the growth and progress made in the art of handwriting. NEW YORK ROBERT R. ROSS, PUBLISHER 1919 COPYRIGHT, 1919, by Hugo von Hagen. All Rights Reserved. DEDICATED TO MY FRIEND GEORGE W. BREFFIT CONTENTS GRAPHOMETER Frontispiece KLINOMETER . . . . . . '. . . . Frontispiece TELEMETER . . . . . ... . . . Frontispiece PACHOMETER Frontispiece PAGE SCIENCE OF READING CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING ... 1 HISTORY OF GRAPHOLOGY * . . 4 GENERAL POINTS 7 GRAPHOLOGICAL PORTRAIT OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 8 GRAPHOLOGICAL PORTRAIT OF EMILE ZOLA 10 GRAPHOLOGICAL PORTRAIT OF LORD ROSEBERRY 11 GRAPHOLOGICAL PORTRAIT OF CARMEN SYLVA ...... .12 GRAPHOLOGICAL PORTRAIT OF GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH ... 13 SIMPLIFIED GRAPHOMETER 15 MARGIN ON PAGE ............. 17 LINES .24 HEIGHT OF WRITING 30 SLOPE OR SLANT OF WRITING 36 WORD ENDINGS . . ' 44 ROUND AND ANGULAR WRITING . 50 PLAIN AND FANCY WRITING 54 REGULAR AND IRREGULAR WRITING ........ 62 WIDE AND NARROW WRITING 68 THIN AND THICK WRITING . . . . . . . . . 73 SEPARATE AND CONNECTED LETTERS 81 FIRST STROKES OF LETTERS . . So LAST OR END STROKES OF LETTERS 94 UPPER AND LOWER PARTS OF LETTERS 101 PUNCTUATION . ..-.'. 105 SIGNATURES 107 HISTORICAL SIGNATURES 120 UNUSUAL WRITERS 135 FAMILY RESEMBLANCE 140 GRAPHOLOGICAL ALPHABET . . . . 147 SPECIAL LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET . 187 DEVELOPMENT OF WRITING FROM EARLIEST TIMES TO PRESENT DAY, INCLUDING GRAPHOLOGICAL SKETCHES ...... 189 INDEX TO CHARACTERISTICS . . . 318 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT MY DEAE DOCTOR, You have been kind enough to dedicate to me your new book on Graphology, and, in thanking you for this token of friendship, I wish to add that the subject is especially interesting to me, as through all my life I have been fasci- nated with the study of handwriting, and I have never ceased to be astonished at the immense variety met with. Every day there appear fresh proofs of the truth of your deductions, but what strikes me most forcibly is that the formation of written letters is so frequently symbolical of the physical and psychic characteristics of a writer. This leads me to advise the student of Graphology to seek for peculiarities of this nature and thereby enlarge his own field of observation and deduction, to the ultimate benefit of this branch of science. Having had the privilege of reading this book in manu- script, I have been greatly impressed with the simplicity of its arrangement, and I feel sure it will be found by all readers to be of practical value in business, social and other walks of life. In past years you have often pointed out tendencies to- ward certain characteristics in individuals which, though not apparent at the time, sooner or later became evident. In particular, I remember the case of that young clergyman charged with murder, a delineation of whose character from his handwriting you gave me, indicating that he would do and say certain tilings all of which actually occurred dur- ing his trial. The excellent examples you have reproduced of the earlier stages of the Art of Writing cannot fail to be of interest to all lovers of literature. With my earnest hope that your book will meet with the popularity it deserves, I am, Sincerely yours, GEOKGE W. BEEFFIT. New York City, 4 January, 1919. PEEFACE " Surely people must know them- selves, so few ever think about any- thing else. Yes, they think what they have, what they shall get, how they shall appear, what they shall do, per- chance now and then what they shall be, but never, or hardly ever, what they are." Guesses at Truth. IN 1902 I wrote a volume on GRAPHOLOGY, THE SCIENCE OF READING CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING, which was so well received that a second edition was published in 1903, which also was soon exhausted. The many requests by my friends for another volume on so interesting- a subject finally induced me to launch the present book to fill the demand of a constantly growing number of students of graphology. Entirely new illustrations are now used and the arrange- ment has been improved, making this book more helpful to the student and more interesting to the general reader. I have moreover added about fifty rare reproductions illustrating the history of the Art of Writing which will interest graphologists as well as others. To the many friends who have so kindly, directly or indirectly, contributed specimens of their handwriting, I express my hearty thanks and the hope that in this external analysis of self they will learn to detect unerringly the internal reality. HUGO J. VON HAGEN, Pn.D. Atlantic City, N. J. January, 1919. WHEN you have read and studied this book, you are qualified to go further in the study of the Science of Graphology. For your particular benefit, a correspondence course, consisting of twenty lessons, is being prepared. This course will consist of written lectures and include practical work under the supervision of expert graphologists in making character delineations from speci- mens of handwriting. Students will also have the privilege of submitting their individual graphological problems. This book is used as the text. The period of instruction will cover about four months. On completion of this course, an examination will be held and students securing satisfactory grade will be awarded a certificate of pro- ficiency by the American Graphological Society. The Publisher maintains a staff of expert Graphologists and would be pleased to receive requests from readers for Character- Delineations to be made from specimens of handwriting. Character-Delineations Vocational Guidance Credit-Character Analysis Disputed Signatures Identification of Documents Forgeries Anonymous Letters For information as to terms, etc., address ROBERT R. Ross, 110 West 40th Street, New York, N. Y., U. S. A. GRAPHOLOGY: THE SCIENCE OF READING CHAR- ACTER FROM HANDWRITING A PERSON'S HANDWRITING IS A PHOTOGRAPH OF HIS CHARACTER As long as we are studying penmanship in school or at home it is a merely mechanical operation ; we simply follow the copy-book or the blackboard letters written by the in- structor, but after we have mastered the art of penman- ship, we become independent and write and form letters of the alphabet to suit our personal taste and ability. Our hand then becomes the unconscious instrument of our brain and merely transcribes into letters, words and sentences, the active thoughts as they are formed. Having become used to writing the various letters of the alphabet, our hand ceases to record our thoughts, which is really done by the ever-active, thinking brain. Our individual personality will therefore unconsciously form letters greatly at variance with the school copy-book, by changing some letters either through the addition or the omission of strokes which, in the school-room, we were taught to make. We find just as many different kinds of handwriting as there are people. Just as no two human beings in the world are exactly alike, so no two handwritings are similar in every detail. Through brain-activity we express unconsciously in our 1 2 HOW TO BEAD handwriting, our feelings, our desires and our will. If we even tried, when writing, to conceal them, we could not do so, for we cannot change our character overnight and a master of this science can easily detect, by a single analysis, the real thought, feeling or will-effort dictating its obvious counterfeit. Graphology, if not absolutely infallible, is at least most reliable as a means of self-knowledge and self-develop- ment in business and in private life, revealing, as it were, from moment to moment, in one's self and in others in all his various relations with them, controlling influences that, by its application, lead to salutary development or dis cipline, corresponding to their nature and intensity. Parents may thus discover in the handwritings of their young and growing children, characteristics, the culture or elimination of which may be of vital importance in their future lives. To cultivate the good, generous and noble qualities of children and to help them to guard against evil inclinations is a religious duty, and the early revelation of such tendencies is indispensable to parents, for upon it principally depend health or disease, success or failure, happiness or misery for the home and its inmates. Employers can, by studying the handwriting of their employees, guard against laziness, deception, gambling and dishonest tendencies, for an analysis of their handwriting will surely reveal these, if present. Physicians and other healers also may be frequently assisted in their diagnoses by a study of their patients' handwriting. Obviously, if a physician can detect in his patient's handwriting indications of a threatened nervous relapse, or an athletic heart, he can, with greater accuracy and confidence, treat and possibly prevent an actual attack involving the nervous system, the heart, or even produc- ing insanity. Lastly, the study of Graphology will, by its engrossing nature and its wide applicability to the details of daily life, public and private and without regard to age, sex, profession or occupation, amply repay the moments of habitual observation and analysis devoted to its pursuit whether for pleasure or from a scientific point of view. My more than thirty years' experimental and scientific analysis and study of over ten thousand specimens of the handwriting of men, women and children of all nationali- ties, classes and conditions, ranging from emperors, kings and other rulers of men, through millionaires and pro- tagonists in all fields of human industry and achievement down to hod-carriers and criminals, have unerringly and convincingly indicated the certain rules and methods of interpreting and reading character which have subsequently withstood successfully further exhaustive tests, and are now therefore recorded and presented in this book for public use and approval. HISTORY OF GRAPHOLOGY IT may not be generally known that investigations for drawing conclusions as to character from handwriting, reach back into the first century. The Roman historian Suetonius is supposed to be the first writer on record to have pointed out a handwriting peculiarity. Suetonius writes in A.D. 76 that the Roman Emperor (Octavius) Augustus, always connected closely the letters of the last word on a line, in order to get the complete word on the line. This trait, or graphological sign, indicates economy, and a practical mind, which historians all agree were two characteristics of the Emperor Augustus. As the art of writing gradually ceased to be a monopoly of the professional writers of the Middle Ages, and entered into general use, we find that a corresponding interest was taken in handwriting peculiarities. In the year 1622, Doctor Camillo Baldo of Bologna published a small book entitled "Trattato come da una lettera missiva si cognos- cano la natura e qualita des-crittore." (How to judge the nature and character of a person from his letter). A trans- lation of his book into Latin was published in 1664 in Bologna. France came next in taking up this interesting subject and during the reign of Louis XIV a graphologist in Versailles gave readings of character from handwriting. Among these was a remarkable presentment of the gallant Grand Monarque, as indicated by a specimen of his hand- 4 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 5 writing furnished by a lady of his Court who was quite ignorant of its royal source, and in which the King's foibles and vices were so faithfully pointed out and identified that the graphologist was imprisoned for a time and even came near losing his head. The Poet Goethe, in 1820, wrote a small pamphlet on graphology, which was much used in later years. Lavater, Goethe's intimate friend, also wrote a booklet on grapho- logical readings, in which he discussed the more logical deductions of characteristics from handwriting. So did the Abbe Flandrin while Georges Sand also took much interest in the subject. The German, Adolf Henze, was one of the best known graphologists and handwriting experts of his time 1860 to 1866 but his delineations were more the result of intui- tion than of logical deduction. A practical system, however, based upon psychical and psychological foundations, was for the first time worked out by Abbe Michon and Crepieux-Jamin, both French, in the year 1881. About the same time the French Jesuit Martin, wrote a pamphlet on a system of graphology. All these, however, fell short of laying down any fixed and definite system, or method, consisting of rules for deduc- tions from habitual peculiarities of handwriting. Never- theless, Abbe Michon 's system did evolve a set of logical deductions in writing and as this was the first undertaking of the kind, he might, notwithstanding his many inaccura- cies, be regarded as the father of graphology. His en- thusiasm on the subject started others, and in France to- day there are perhaps more graphologists than in any other country. On September 26, 1885, the Paris paper, " Figaro," in its literary columns, published graphological character-readings of the principal candidates for high office and these delineations greatly assisted its readers in making their selections. Hans Busse of Bavaria, and J. J. Dilloo and L. Meyer of Germany, also have contributed largely to the success of graphology in Europe. In Paris the "Societe de Graphologie" and in Berlin the ''Bureau der Graphologie," which teach only graphology, keep up the general interest in this practical and useful science and train its members and students as handwriting experts and graphologists for the law courts. In the United States the "American Graphological Society" with headquarters in the "World Tower Build- ing" in New York City, has but recently been organized, and it is hoped that the society will soon have its own club house and graphological journal for the use of its members. GENERAL POINTS ON GRAPHOLOGICAL CHAR- ACTER DELINEATION THE writing to be analyzed should be preferably written in ink on plain paper. It is better to have a specimen of handwriting which was not written expressly to be analyzed. Intimate and personal letters are better than those of a formal and official character. Business letters, aside from their signatures, are not so good for the purpose. It is desirable when analyzing, to consider separately, each one by itself with its respective indication, all the habitual peculiarities of the specimen; after which to take a general view and consider them together as a single unit, and draw a general deduction covering all character- istics. This book is written in a plain and simple manner so that a layman and beginner may at once take up the study and in a short time be able to draw accurate deductions and make a complete analysis of a writer's character. The diagrams in the frontispiece illustrate some of the appliances used by graphologists. A, is a graphometer for measuring the slopes of letters, the numbers being the degrees above or below the line as the case may be. B, a klinometer, is used for measuring the slope of the lines. C, is a telemeter for measuring the height of the letters above or below the line. D, is a pachometer to measure the thickness of the strokes. To assist the beginner I give five readings which show 7 8 HOW TO READ the manner of making analysis. The first is a handwriting specimen of Emile Zola, the French author, critic and poet. The second is the writing of Lord Rosebery, one of the prime ministers of England. The third is the writing of Carmen Sylva, Queen of Roumania, famous as poetess and author. The fourth is that of the late General Booth, of the Salvation Army. In addition to these, I give a character delineation of our martyred President, Abraham Lincoln. ABKAHAM LINCOLN The graphological reading of Lincoln was made from the letter reproduced, and is of interest to the student of graphology, who can compare the historical sketch with the graphological reading and see how closely one resembles the other in the familiar characteristics of the great martyr President, Abraham Lincoln. The principal characteristics, which stand out promi- nently in Lincoln's handwriting, are : Activity Idealism ^Estheticism Individuality Aggressiveness Levelheadedness Ambition Love of Family Life Carefulness Love of Justice Cautiousness Love of Outdoor Life Clearness Memory, good Common sense Mental depression Combat iveness, not openly Modesty Concentration Nobility of purpose Courage of his convictions Perseverance Deduction Persistence Diligence Plainness Eccentricity Prudence Economy Reserve Energy Resisting power, strong Enterprise Sadness Exactness Sensitiveness Faithfulness Simplicity */. / CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 9 Forethought Spirituality Geniality Suavity Harmoniousness Suffering Humor Versatility Humility Will-power, strong From these we deduce, that his versatility and ability to adapt himself to whatever conditions arose, added power to his acts, for long before his opponent had finished pre- senting a matter, Lincoln had definitely decided what he should do regarding it. He rarely changed his opinion and almost never expressed it until he had had time to think it over, for his long forceful t dashes extending far ahead of the t, indicate not only energy, enterprise and protectiveness, but deep thinking and precision. There was little conceit in Lincoln; there are no fancy flourishes or unnecessary strokes. There was no preten- sion and almost no expression of enthusiasm, for the downward signature is an indication that he was inclined to depreciate his own achievements, to be pessimistic, perse- vering, however, with a determination not easily lessened. While Lincoln possessed and used a fair amount of logic, it was largely his "looking ahead" and not the ques- tion of the immediate future that decided his actions, for in each word is shown by the various slants, pressure of the pen, the immense amount of energy he applied. Economy was a pronounced trait; this seems to have been interlinked with his lack of independence in regard to unnecessary expenditure. Wliile independent in affairs of the nation, of public interest, his writing shows sensitive- ness and a tendency to shrink from any resemblance to an argument in personal matters. Secretive to some extent and yet an able, influential talker, especially when prompted by what he thought was duty. 10 HOW TO READ Lincoln was keenly appreciative of music, his biographers say, but in his handwriting more than love of music, was musical inclination, and undoubtedly, had there been any development along this line, Lincoln would have produced pleasing results. GRAPHOLOGICAL, CHARACTER READING or EMILE ZOLA Author. Born in 1840 in Paris; son of an Italian engineer. Many-sided brilliancy. Gifted, harmonious, philosophical mind. Highly idealistic : Enthusiastic toward all noble, beautiful and great thoughts in his own life, in others and in nature. Clear observer; allowed little to escape him. Oratorical gifts; eccentric and steadfast in his own way, proud and above others. A nature which is either one way or the other. Decisive. A proud heart. Either desires to be immensely happy, or desperately miserable, and the latter he has been frequently by the choice of his nature. Dependent upon others. Denies his own originally great, beautiful nature. Quarrels with God and Fate. Merciless critic, especially of all religious ideas. Pities all people. Angry with himself. Curses the day on which he was born. Refuses arbitration; remains angry; pledges to re- CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 11 venge his fate; fights in sharp attacks; bitter, fanatical, diabolical; stabs with doubly sharpened tongue; full of hatred, and all this from mere self-pity, perhaps on account of unreturned love, just because things did not occur ac- cording to his way of thinking. Obstinately nervous, some- times losing control of his temper. LORD ROSEBEEY Born in 1847 in London. Son of Lord Dalmeny, British Prime Minister. High above others; unapproachable; a God upon earth. Takes for granted that he will find in others absolute obedi- ence and subservience. Looks after interests of his friends and servitors. Spendthriftily generous. Likes himself afi' patron and philanthropist. Coldly polite and courteous; polished in manners. Strategical; always at the front. Woe to evildoers. Is a collector of curios; farsighted, makes sacrifices; aggres- sive and cannot be scared when attacked. Good investiga- tor ; makes others follow him. Practical ; denies the means 12 HOW TO READ more than the end or aim. Determined equanimity and coolness. Will and nerve-power ; influence over others. Poetical taste; sense of the beautiful in Art and Nature. Clean, critical, logical reasoner. Seeks and uses light and truth in order to obey. Converses with his God. Willing to listen to others but impatient. Lives with a clear conscience. Knows what he wants and must do. Works sincerely and with pleasure. Thinks and acts without caring for opinion of the world. Needs room for his own expansion. Rules a great world of thought and ideas. CABMEN SYLVA Queen of Roumania, born in 1843 as Ottilie Luise Eliza- beth. Princess of Wied; married 1869 to King Charles of Roumania. Poetess, under name of Carmen Sylva. 13 Hothouse plant; very sensitive, nervous nature. Runs with head against wall and pities the wound thus made. Cannot adapt herself to circumstances but wants circum- stances to adapt themselves to her. Eternally desiring; never satisfied. Artistic soul. Never understood by others, as she does not care to understand them. Influenced by impressions and sentiments. Must be handled carefully with gloves. Loves to be worshipped. Wants to be ad- mired and sought, but seems outwardly indifferent and cold, although most anxious to be found. Admires her- self. Pities herself in a rough, coarse world. Sighs dream- ingly. Undertakes large and wonderful things in thought, but comes down considerably when executing them. Puts blame upon others, demands perfection in others but can- not see faults in herself. Desires to direct others and make them subservient to her. Hysterically inclined. En- forces her way in all seeming humility. Never gives up a wish or desire once made. Loves warmly and sincerely as long as she can be the only queen of the heart she loves at the time. GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH Salvation Army Head. Severe, hard, despotic, autocratic over earth. Pleased with himself, self-loving, self-justified, feels his power, desires to climb still higher. 14 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING Naked, practical character. Likes himself in his posi- tion; lost himself in it. Rather narrow, one-sided, pedan- tic; constructive and executive power. Inventive mind, loves intrigues, possessed with ideas. Sensational; with- out taste and no harmony. Hard upon himself and others. Never has enough. Holds fast what he has. Enlarges his successes. Does not let his right hand know what his left hand does. Plays two numbers at same time, that is, he always has two strings to pull on same matter. Always sees two yolks in his egg. Shrewd and careful, reserved, never loses his place in argument. Untiring nerve and working power. Soul built up at cost of body and mind. Afraid of his own real character. "And if I talked with tongues of men and angels, but had not charity, I would be as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. ' ' THE GRAPHOMETER To make a thorough analysis of a specimen of handwriting it is well to use the simplified graphometer as illustrated L/NE to CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 19 sess great evenness of mind and temper. See the next illustration, Fig. 10, which is the usual handwriting of a charming gentleman, one of America's best living writers and poets. Very uneven margins, as in illustration Fig. 11, especially on the left of the page, indicate irregularity, unevenness in thought and action, carelessness, a changeable character and fickleness. Sometimes, if extremely uneven and ir- regular, we have great nervous unrest; and if such ex- ceedingly uneven margins are made suddenly by persons who previously never used them, we have signs of a coming nervous breakdown and prostration. ^ If the left margin begins narrow and grows wider toward the bottom of the page, as in Fig. 12, especially with the lines growing smaller and narrower, we can be sure that the writer wishes to control his natural tendency toward 20 HOW TO READ generosity and spending, but that this tendency will break out sooner or later. The opposite to this last is found in the space being very wide at the top of the page and then narrowing down to a very small or almost no margin at the bottom of the page, as in Fig. 13. Such writers are likely to play "big" among outsiders, but they are very "small" spend thousands as "a good fellow" at home; they will or in liberal charity CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 21 donations, but they actually suffer pain and are grouchy if forced to give a few pennies for their regular household expenses. Wives have hard work getting household allow- ances to pay grocery and butcher bills from husbands who write thus. Frequently we find the margin small at the top of the page, widening toward the center, and then growing smaller again toward the bottom, as in Fig. 14. Such writers are by nature careful and economical; finding themselves in some way spending more than they ought, they stop to consider, they think matters over and form new resolu- tions; they reform and thus begin to save again and be- come thrifty. 14 22 The opposite to the foregoing is seldom found; Fig. 15 however is an illustration of this style. Such writers act outwardly quite liberally, they start however to save, cut down and economize, become rather over-careful, on ac- count of their natural tendency to do so ; then they remem- ber perhaps their social or business standing, and again display liberality. If the margin on the right hand side of the page is used up carefully, as in Fig. 16, intermittent economy is indi- / '7*~+ 23 cated, just as if the writer was afraid his money would not hold out. The Roman Emperor Augustus wrote thus. It is very interesting to notice how a poor struggling person, who, through some change of fortune, suddenly becomes wealthy, at once, unconsciously, as it were, en- larges the margin on the page of his letter in "sympathy" with his suddenly acquired riches, while a spendthrift who is by circumstances forced to economize, will simultane- ously narrow down the margin of his letter. LINES WHEN analyzing handwriting, specimens are always pre- ferred which are written on paper without lines, as im- portant characteristics of the writer are found in the align- ment of a page. Of course, there are persons who seem to be unable to write at all, except on lined paper, or with a heavily ruled paper underneath; nearly all such writers may at once be set down as being rather weak, helpless and dependent natures, who like to lean upon others for sup- port and advice. Others again, even if forced by circumstances to use lined or ruled paper, do not follow the printed lines but write above, between or below them. Such writers possess an independent character which enables them to cut out their own way in life or to use an Americanism: "they paddle their own canoe." CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 25 Writers who always write a straight and steady hori- zontal line, even without lined or ruled paper, as in illus- tration Fig. 17, are as a rule steadfast characters who pro- ceed on their daily way with an equanimity that is not disturbed by commonplace events ; they are generally trust- worthy and sincere. We execute centrifugal movements in writing whenever we make upward or rising lines, pen-strokes or word-end- ings. Such upward or rising tendencies, as in illustration Fig. 18, especially when noticed throughout a whole page, indicate great diligence, confidence, activity, hopefulness, enthusiasm, and ambition, and when combined with strong, well marked pen-strokes, show courage and daring also. Downward movements, in pen-strokes, word-endings and lines, similar to the next illustration, Fig. 19, are executed by the writer through centripetal movements. They ex- press the opposite psychic characteristic to the upward or rising lines and strokes. Psychic and physical depression, anguish and weariness, discouragement, lack of enterprise, laziness and cowardice, are some of the characteristics of such writers, especially when in addition to downward 26 HOW TO READ lines they write a very thin round hand. Many such writers carry themselves, even when Walking on the street, in an unsteady, weak way, with body bent forward. 19 Others write upward and downward on the same line, causing a "wavy" line, similar to Fig 20. Careful study 20 &L^ / / - 20a CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 27 and weighing of other signs are necessary when analyzing such wavy-line writers. Wavy lines when accompanied by round, fine, thin or w r eak pen-strokes, indicate weak- ness, uncertainty and lack of independence. When such wavy lines are written with regular, even- pen-strokes, as in Fig. 21, we can be quite sure that chief among the writer's characteristics, are not only cunning, hypocrisy, diplomatic ability, power of deception, but also adaptability, smoothness and suavity of speech and manner. 21 // lines are made in upward curves, as in Fig. 22, we have a character who may have to use great effort to start new undertakings or perform duties, but who will surely carry out and fulfill them, no matter at what cost. 22 // the lines form a downward half -circle that is, open below as in Fig. 23, which was written by one of Amer- ica's foremost statesmen, we find characteristics opposite 28 HOW TO READ to those of the previous writer. There is always much passing interest and enthusiasm shown in matters of labor, enterprise, love and duty by such writers, but little real will-power an denergy. They always begin with great am- bition many more enterprises than they are able to com- plete, see also Fig. 24. So-called " hustlers" who seem 23 A 24 always very busy, but in reality accomplish very little, are in this class. Many writers are so easily impressed that they write their lines and word-endings upward when they have heard zs CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 29 good news, and downward when bad news has been re- ceived. See illustration Fig. 25. Others, again, have a ten- dency to change suddenly their usually even or upwardly slanted lines to a strong downward line when becoming ill or when facing a sudden sorrow or trouble. I have among my own friends a score of writers who have thus given premonitions of impending illness, es- pecially of liver and kidney troubles, several days or even weeks before actual medical treatment, by a progressing tendency to write their lines and word-endings with a down- ward tendency. They unconsciously return to their former and usual style of writing after convalescence. News of the sudden death of a dear one usually causes a temporary tendency to downward strokes and lines. The specimen of 25-a was the abnormal result of such a cause, the normal handwriting of the writer being quite different. HEIGHT OR SIZE OF THE WRITING WE call a writing, or penmanship specimen, "large" when both the capitals as well as the small letters are broad and long. It is called "small" or "fine" when both capitals and small letters are narrow and short. If the small let- ters are longer than usual, the specimen may be considered " large"; when not so, it may be considered "small." A large hand, similar to Fig. 26, Fig. 26-a and Fig. 26-b, is characteristic of royal and other personages, the aris- tocracy, and noble-minded men and women. Accordingly a large, elegant handwriting is frequently called "aristo- cratic." 26 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 31 26 B The suddenly rich also develop a tendency to large hand- writing soon after the turn of the wheel of fortune. They seem all at once to be obsessed with a desire to employ and exercise authority and power, which they manifest by a corresponding physical enlargement and elegance of handwriting. Specimens of writing of such newly rich persons taken ''before and after" are most interesting to the graphologist. Fig. 27 was written by a mining man 32 HOW TO READ when he was a " Captain" of a Prairie Schooner in the West, w y hile Fig. 28 was written by him in a letter to the author after he had amassed a fortune of many millions of dollars. The contrast between his old and his new life is most faithfully reflected by the respective specimens. 28 Extremely large letters, similar to illustration Fig. 29, are used frequently by fantastic persons, by many poeti- cally inclined natures and by the affected and conceited writer whose estimate of himself far exceeds that of his acquaintances, and who depends for success in life, rather upon "luck" or bluff than upon real ability. This style of handwriting is also affected by so-called "over-edu- cated" persons, and extreme egotism bordering on and eventually developing into real insanity, is often preceded CHARACTER PROM HANDWRITING 33 and indicated by an enlarged and extremely sloped hand- writing, years previous to an actual outbreak. A large and at the same time an elegant hand, indicates a desire to be someone of consequence or importance, and it is a mark of pride, self-consciousness, love of power and glory. Writers who use this style in a natural way gen- erally have a wide and broad horizon, and look at life as a whole unit, never caring much for details. Small writing, as in Fig. 30, naturally indicates the op- posite to the large. Those who are much preoccupied with 34 HOW TO READ details, for example jurists, professors, literary and art critics, teachers and others who are habitually segregated from their fellowmen, often write a small hand; as do eco- nomical and parsimonious persons. A sudden change from a large to a small hand may frequently indicate a tendency to affection of the brain. Nearsighted persons often write a small hand, but as a complete analysis includes the consideration of all indi- cated characteristics it is easy to distinguish this condition. Small writing, when plain and without any loops and other fanciful unnecessary decorations, similar to specimen Fig. 31, stands for simplicity, modesty, preference for family life, economy, little desire for power; a well de- veloped faculty of observation, but limited horizon. Ladies whose handwriting is of this kind, delight in home work, like lacemaking and embroidery. If only the capital or first letters of a word are very large but the other letters very small, as in Fig. 32, so that the contrast is made prominent and obvious, vanity, egotism, selfishness and affectation will be surely found. CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 35 Hence, snobs and creatures whose only title to superiority is limited to their own belief, are easily detected by this "earmark." 32 THE SLOPE OR SLANT OF THE WRITING THE observation of the slope of handwriting is essential. The graphometer (Fig. 5) is taken from my book: "Graph- ology," published in 1902. The correctness and value of the instrument have been repeatedly tested and finally es- tablished so that it is now used universally by grapholo- gists as the acid test of the real inner, or soul-life of the writer. This feature is indispensable to experts in cases of forgery where abnormal variation of slope or slant in the forged instrument has convincingly proved the offense. Illustration Fig. 33 shows a " strong slanting hand"; Fig. 34 an upright, almost vertical writing, and Fig. 35 illus- trates a backhand writing. 35 Graphologists have proved that the greater the slope or slant, the more sensitive, nervous and irritable the CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 37 writer. Women and girls as a general rule, write more slantingly than males. Suffragettes are no exception and even students of vertical handwriting incline toward slant- ing their letters. The psychological explanation of this sex difference in regard to handwriting consists in the fact that the female generally has the stronger and more sensitive feeling and temperament. The above specimen, Fig. 36, indicates that the writer has a fair amount of sensitiveness, but little passion. The nexi specimen, Fig. 37, with a slant of about 30, indicates great sensitiveness, in fact, a nervous irritability; 37 38 HOW TO READ intolerance of contradiction, which, followed by argument, finally ends in tears. If such slanting writing consists also of strong, regular and heavy pen-strokes, as in the next specimen (illustration Fig. 38), not only sensitiveness, but a strongly passionate nature are indicated. The writer will not tolerate contradiction : his will must prevail, other- wise tears, hard words, or even blows will ensue- When the slope or the slant of the writing becomes less than 25 as in Fig. 39 then we look for sickly-soul con- ditions and a pathological irritability, especially if the CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 39 writing is very thin, sharp and angular. Such writers have no control over their feelings and change quickly with surroundings hysterically inclined persons are similarly characterized and indicated. Writers who are able to keej cool and control their feelings, both in business and in private affairs, make a rather straight slant say from 70 to 80, as in specimen Fig. 40, similar to that found in the next specimen. They make good business men and 40 business women. They reason deliberately and fully be- fore allowing their hearts to run away with or even qualify their judgment. They are cool natures who completely repress sentiment. An even, almost vertical hand like Fig. 41 and Fig. 42 rather neat and round, without many angular, left and backhand strokes, indicates politeness and courtesy to strangers and natural good heartedness. Such writing is 4I 40 HOW TO READ frequently adopted by ladies in middle life with "histories" behind them. See Fig. 43. These naturally become more distant and reserved, as is indicated not only in their writing but also by their facial expression. 43 *, 41 When the slant is backward as in Fig. 43-a we may be sure of the writer's deceitfulness and hypocrisy. I have never in my 30 years' graphological experience, found a single case of backhand writing where the writer did not, sooner or later, conform to my graphometer. Such writers are untrustworthy and unreliable, with a streak of deceit, hypocritical cunning and willingness to stab their best friend in the back, in business or in love. The above specimens, Fig. 44 and Fig. 45, are those of two co-partners in a law firm; both pleasant, sociable fel- lows under certain circumstances; both smooth and over- polite when occasion demands; yet both succeeded for sev- eral years, in deceiving their best friends with hypocrisy inspired by criminal selfishness. When analyzing backhand specimens, the graphologist must always make due allowance for naturally left-handed writers and librarians who have perhaps honestly con- tracted a vertical style. See illustration Fig. 46, written by a librarian of 30 years' experience. 42 HOW TO READ If, in a writing, letters of a line or of a word vary from backhand and straight to slanting as illustrated in the next specimen, Fig. 47 a constant conflict between the heart and the brain is indicated. Many persons write thus who do not live under congenial conditions. JL, i 47 If the vertical letters of a script are more frequent than the slanting letters, as shown in specimens Fig. 48, Fig. 49 and Fig. 50, it may be taken for granted that reason and self-control are in the saddle ; but if the slanting letters are more numerous, then passion, anger and touchy irri- CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 43 tability predominate. Exclamation-points and question- marks must be similarly read. Quick-tempered and pas- sionate persons generally slant these very much, as is shown in the third illustrated specimen. / 46 49-50 WOEDS WITH LARGER AND SMALLER ENDINGS Children will generally write the letters of a word, es- pecially one of two or more syllables, longer and larger toward the end of the w r ord than at the beginning, some- what like the next specimen, Fig. 51. In spite of the frequency or severity of correction, chil- dren will always resume this habit until it is outgrown. If we find such writing in cases of adults, we may safely put them down as persons with small and backward minds who nevertheless are likely to have positive, but narrow, childish views and ideas. Simple-minded people write in this manner, also elderly men and women with incipient dotage. This simply means that the persons are in their second childhood, able to reproduce with wonderful ac- curacy what they did in their early years, while their mem- ory fails to serve them in regard to how they did things later in life. The last illustration, Fig. 51, is that of a seven year old child, the next two are those of men over 44 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 45 seventy-five years of age who, when ten years younger, wrote an even and correct hand. See Fig. 52 and Fig. 52-a. Forgetfulness has now become a characteristic. 52 52a Such writers are garrulous and tedious in company, while it may be added, a person of middle age or younger who thus writes, and who may seem bright, active and cultured, will probably be a victim of paresis Or paranoia at no distant day. The next illustration, Fig. 53, is taken from a letter written by Oscar Wilde, when he was in his 28th year. It shows strong individuality, loquaciousness and imagina- tion, self-consciousness and unconventionality, bordering en abandon, and a desire to overstep liberty and conven- tion ; also a very active nervous system, or what the French call: "Une nature toujours vibrante." The script also reveals aesthetic sensuousness and a lack of resistance- power; a dreamer, to whom work is repugnant. View the next specimen, Fig. 54, written by him ten years later and observe how the weak sides of his character have become 4(5 HOW TO READ more pronounced than the few strong characteristics he evinced when he wrote the first letter. Excitement per- vades the whole writing. His sensuousness has developed considerably with a strong propensity to abandon him- self to his proclivities, most unconventional and unnatural. The opposite to the increasing is the diminishing endings of words and lines. Shrewd, cunning, ' ' smart ' ' people and CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 47 many diplomats write thus. The next three specimens il- lustrate this point fully, see Fig. 55-a, Fig. 55-b and Fig. 55-c. This writing creates the impression that the writer is actuated by the desire to retain possession, as it were, of the last syllable of his words or the endings of his sen- tences. This brings to mind the case of diplomats, who exemplify this constant effort to retain, or conceal, thoughts when ostensibly parting with, that is, expressing them. This means that they expressly conceal by their language, and retain buried deep in their souls that which they pro- fess to openly express. 55 a, /^C^C^L^ 55 b 55 c If words or syllables end with a horizontal dash or line uniformly and not here or there throughout the script, as in Fig. 56, we may safely include among the charac- 48 HOW TO READ 56 teristics of the writer, secretiveness and ability to disguise real feelings with the mask of an outward smile. Such people employ great cunning in their dealings. // word-endings diminish only slightly and do not any- where run out into a horizontal line, as in Fig. 57, prudence *^* 57 and reserve are indicated, as in the case of worldly-wise characters who never tell all they know at one time, and who learn quickly through experience. When we find in the same specimen both increasing and diminishing word-endings, as shown in illustration Fig. 58, CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 49 the writer is reserved and secretive as well as open and conscientious. Larger growing word-endings finishing with a heavy, thick, downward pen-stroke, which sometimes crosses the other letters of a word, as in Fig. 59, indicate energy and < ambition; also violence and passion. Such writers never stop to contemplate the consequences of their acts upon others, whom they hardly ever consider. Whenever we find words with letters of an even length or height, as in Fig. 60, growing neither larger nor smaller, we may always feel safe in giving the writer a clean bill of health as to morals and conscience. They are as a rule trustworthy and upright. ROUND AND ANGULAR WRITING All handwritings are either round or angular. It is easy for even a layman to understand that a jovial person of easy going habits, with smooth conversational ability and a peace-loving nature, will write a round, smoothly flowing hand, somewhat like the next specimen, Fig. 61. Con- 61 versely, the energetic, serene, stern, cold and hard-hearted person would naturally make rather angular letters with many sharp corners and points, like the following illus- tration, Fig. 62. 62 60 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 51 If handwriting of rounded and curved letters consists of thin, weak pen-strokes with the lines having downward tendency, similar to the specimen Fig. 63, we may safely analyze it as that of a very easy going and lazy person who possesses little or no physical or moral courage. A distinct graphological sign of love of justice and fair- ness is found in sharp or angular writings that end at each word with the last pen-stroke forming a right angle, similar to Fig. 64. Such handwriting indicates persons who are generally most sincere, honest and good-hearted; they are the soul of justice and fairness, and they generally express themselves with a frankness which is bordering on rude- ness. 52 HOW TO READ Cruelty, brutality and animal instincts are expressed in angular handwritings, where all edges and corners of the various letters look like sharp, prickling thorns, as in Fig. 65. All cruel natures write thus. I have examined per- *^*^^^^*^-c Persons of a strong and powerful intellectuality gener- ally write a very plain and simple hand. They have no time to think of how they write but only of what they are writing. They produce, as a rule, clear, easily read chiro- graphy. Plain writing indicates clearness and level-headedness, while intermixed and interwoven letters and pen-strokes, 54 55 like Fig. 68, signify either a muddlehead or a cunning, tricky mind. Persons who write very plain, pointed capital letters, as in Fig. 69, or the first letters of whose words throughout their writing are plain and pointed, always have much love for art and the beautiful in nature; they see at once only the beauty and goodness of their environment before even noticing the unpleasant side. fe 9 tl 56 HOW TO READ They have good taste in general and a desire to be cor- rect and exact as well as plain in their daily life; they rarely care much for outward show. There are not many women of this class; when you find one, cultivate her. One's occupation is frequently very plainly indicated in his handwriting. The writing of persons with large coarse hands, who are obliged to do manual labor, is generally heavy and clumsy, while others with delicate, thin taper- ing fingers, generally write in daintier style. The latter can, if required, make heavier strokes, but the heavy, clumsy or vulgar person cannot very well write an elegant hand. 70 Musicians frequently indicate their profession in their handwriting by unconsciously making letters similar to musical notes and cleffs. Fig. 70 is the signature of Pad- erew T sky, the well-known pianist Many musicians make marks like violin bows or note- CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 57 keys as part of their signatures. Illustration Fig. 71 is the signature of the famous tenor, Caruso, and Fig. 72 that of the violinist, Fritz Kreisler. Fig. 73 is the signa- ture of the opera singer, Geraldine Farrar. All plainly show their musical proclivities in their handwriting. Professors and students of Latin, Greek and other dead or oriental languages frequently make in their writings letters that originated in the ancient alphabets and which are similar to Greek letters. Fig. 74 is the signature of a professor of Latin and Greek. Physicians and druggists often fashion certain of their letters to resemble chemical signs, just as employed when they are writing prescriptions. Figs. 75, 76 and 76-a are 58 HOW TO READ specimens of chemists and assayers ; Fig. 77 that of a promi- nent and successful physician and Fig. 77-a of a student of biology. 76 J~* X_-/CA^O- > 76a 77 77a The same characteristic holds good with regard to teach- ers of mathematics and to accountants. They very often make letters single or combined with others that much re- CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 59 semhle figures. The signatures Fig. 78 and Fig. 79 are those of a railroad accountant and a comptroller. ^Vt-v->. <*./.;/ /kA/JL^ When one's writing, especially that of a female, shows sudden thickening of various down strokes, similar to Fig. 80, we may safely interpret this peculiarity as a yearning for someone to love. Many spinsters write thus, and the 60 HOW TO READ further they plod through life, the more do they emphasize this sudden thickening of the downward strokes of one or more letters of a word. Such writers attach much impor- tance to outward show and to etiquette. They love to fondle and caress little children and members of the opposite sex. Tendency to vanity and a desire to please are among their characteristics. Of course there are also many men, espe- cially in professional and student life, and widowers, who write in this style; friends often call them "fussy." (See Fig. 81.) 81 A very plain copy-book hand, like Fig. 82 such as many clerks, bookkeepers and professionals write is of little value for analyzing character. It is better to get an intimate let- ter from such a person. If however, he always uses such a regular school-hand, even in his friendly and love letters, CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 61 we may deduce that he has little or no originality, ingenuity or intuition, nor should it puzzle him to explain why he never attains a higher position in life than that of a clerk or bookkeeper. There are "dirty" handwritings, like the specimen Fig. 83 ; that is to say, we receive such an impression with our first look at the specimen. For instance there are exceed- ingly heavy penstrokes combined with ink-spots and finger- marks scattered here and there, just as if greasy finger- tips impressed the paper; little or no care is taken to preserve margin or space; all of which imparts to the whole letter a soiled appearance. Such writing we would of course at once ascribe to persons of careless, even un- cleanly habits, in their daily life; they frequently allow their clothing to be without buttons; their finger-nails and other parts of their person manifest an innocence of soap and water, and they display indifference to comeliness, cleanliness, and order. SPECIMENS of handwriting which are regular throughout, similar to Fig. 84, indicate a steady, constant character. Persons who love to pursue "the even tenor of their way" in life; whose views and thoughts and ideals are not changed quickly by any chance misadventure of the mo- ment, write thus; their letters maintain from beginning to end a uniform width and length. Of course, if we happen to find writings where the regu- larity of the letters, the margins on the left of the page, the distance between the lines, and especially the placing of ^\r^Okr-oCcxJoofr-^>. CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 77 gratified, may frequently lead to pathological and criminal cases in later life. Very energetic, courageous and initiatively active per- sons often make both the up and down strokes of letters heavy and with even pressure, as in specimen Fig. 111. \\\ On the other hand, the hesitating, diffident and bashful person, generally intuitively, makes hardly any heavy strokes ; his pen just glides over the paper, as in Fig. 112. 7 /z? ' Then again we find specimens of handwriting where here and there a down stroke is made very thick and heavy, in striking contrast to the previous or subsequent strokes of perhaps the same letters, as illustrated in Fig. 113. This /O~<^^ 78 HOW TO READ peculiarity we can interpret as characteristic of a person who has energetic inclinations at intervals, but no con- tinuity. Where the up and down strokes of the various letters are made deliberately plain and distinguishable, and the whole hand is strong, steady and even, and not too sloping similar to Fig. 114 a very strong passionate nature, which is however always under control, is indicated. 114 Strong-willed men and women of great force and desire write thus. They have acquired control of their feelings and desires, but have not completely suppressed or sub- dued them. It is also found that persons who write a strong, thick hand which stands out in bold relief from the paper, some- what like Fig. 115 and Fig. 116, generally like heavy, bright and deep colors in their surroundings and, on the other U5 CHARACTER PROM HANDWRITING 79 ff J hand, persons who write a fine, thin hand like Fig. 117, always prefer light and delicate colors. l\7 89 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING When strong, heavy and thick writing also shows com- mon inharmonious forms, especially in its capital letters, as in Fig 118, we can safely contend that the writer, al- though a gourmet, yet loves loud, glaring, contrasting colors, and has little good taste in general. SEPARATE AND CONNECTED LETTERS As a general rule indorsed by all graphologists, people who connect all their letters and sometimes even their words, as in illustrations Fig. 119 and Fig. 120, are practical, logi- 1 20 cal thinkers and reasoners. Such writers have good memo- ries and easily seize and assimilate the ideas of others, but they are stubborn, more set in their ways and harder to convince than writers who disconnect their letters and keep 81 82 HOW TO READ them separate, as in Fig. 121 and Fig. 122, and sometimes even divide the parts of each letter. These writers have J2I little or no logic, but are generally quite intuitive and per- ceive and apprehend quickly. Persons who are naturally inclined toward occultism, astrology and clairvoyance write their letters with separate strokes. I have often discovered and denounced palmists and astrologists as fakers and mountebanks because their handwriting gave no indication of intuitive ability; they posed as professors of the occult merely as a money-making business and their professional capital was strictly limited to a general knowledge of the rules of palmistry. In making analyses we, of course, come upon handwriting where letters are partly connected and partly separated. In such cases we must make our own deductions. If, as in the specimen illustrated here, Fig. 123, the connected and separated letters are equally divided, in CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 83 number or quantity on a page, we have a character in ideal equilibrium. The writer has the ability to organize his own ideas and thoughts into valuable units as well as to seize what is valuable in other people's ideas and utilize it. We have here idealism and realism, observation and judgment, adaptability as well as psychic independence. 123 When more letters are separated than connected, as in the next specimen shown, Fig. 124, the writer is more intuitive &s V / 184 than deductive. He has his own ideas of matters ; likes to occupy himself, now with this and now with that plan or undertaking, but lacks the logical or deductive ability to profit by comparing them. Practical persons generally connect more letters than 84 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING they separate in their writing, as shown in specimen Fig. 125. A strong sense of the practical and useful has con- tracted, but not entirely minimized, in such writers their desire for speculation and theory, and they are often fooled by the glib, smooth talk or "slick" plans of designing per- sons. Many letters and even words are often connected or strung together, that is to say, they are written in one pen- stroke, as appears in the next illustration, Fig. 126. They 12* who write thus ha?e very little ability or initiative to origi- nate ideas, but they excel in adopting those of others and in even utilizing them more successfully than the originators, and they often do this quite intuitively. Writers who always keep the first letter of a word sepa- rated while the rest of the letters of the word are connected, as in Fig. 127, have a fine sense of direction and locality; 127 they are careful to pause and determine " whether a bridge is safe or not before they attempt to cross it." They are close observers and able to form correct judgment of per- sons and conditions. There are many different ways of making the first stroke in writing or forming a letter of the alphabet. Some writ- ers use a long straight line; others use a curved stroke; still others use no first stroke at all, but start right in with the body itself of the letter. Writers who do not make a first or initial stroke, in which case the formation is started at once with a downstroke, as in Fig. 128, generally have a 128 positive nature ; they can, as a rule, concentrate . their thoughts quickly and grasp immediately the point in ques- tion or at issue; they have therefore little love for pre- liminary details, which they generally consider unnecessary. It is consequently not surprising to find that such writers are very efficient as fighters in war or business. Long horizontal initial strokes, when combined with angu- lar and sharp writing, similar to Fig. 129, indicate con- siderable spirit in opposition, in argument, in debate or any matter in which the \vriter takes part. He -may be depended upon to take the opposite view on every question and is 85 86 what the French term terms with. HOW TO READ difficile" or hard to be on good '&*> G cu. //> Or AoJ (** ott^/ - ,C- ' DEED FKUAI ARS1NUE A.D. 30 BRITISH MUSEUM A COPY of a receipt in Greek for produce of land, as rent in kind, paid by Petantis, Pethis and Maries, farmers, to Chaeremon, dated the 30th of the month of Caesarius (Sep- tember) in the eighth year of Tiberius (A.D. 20). Written in rough uncials of generally normal shapes. The most fruitful source of Greek papyri from Egypt are the excavations which were made near the end of the last century. These are even now in progress, but a large find was uncovered in 1877 on the site of Arsinoe, and evidently of a late date the Byzantine period. Unfortunately, although the documents were abundant, they were not in a sound condition, being fragmentary and not of a literary character. The period covering the history of Greek writing begins with the Second Century B.C. and extends to the Fifteenth Century. As far as we are able to discover from the Greek MSS. which have survived, writing passed through two stages, exemplified by the uncial or large letters, running from the earliest specimens to the Ninth Century; and by the minuscules or small letters, from the Ninth Century to the discovery of printing. 199 200 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING THE OLDEST GREEK BIBLE, EXTANT FOURTH CENTURY A.D. BIBLIOTHECA VATICANA, ROME THIS Bible has been in the Vatican Library at Rome since 1448, for it is entered in the Catalogue compiled by Pope Nicholas VI. It was written, probably in the Fourth Century, on fine vellum in triple columns of 42 lines and on 759 leaves, each 10 Yz by 10 inches. It is well preserved for a handwritten book 1,600 years old. To the Hellinistic Jews of Alexandria, we are indebted for the Septuagint, the earliest Greek Bible. The word "Septuagint" was intended to apply only to the Pentateuch, but was afterwards extended in its appli- cation to the other books as they were translated. This version was accepted as Scripture by the Jews about the First Century A.D., when it was also accepted as such by the Christian Church. It was not long however before the authority of the Sep- tuagint was questioned. This resulted partly from the early disputations that arose between the Christians and the Jews, but principally from the disagreements that arose between it and the Hebrew version, which had been estab- lished by Rabbi Akiba and his school. This questioning of authority led to the introduction of three new versions 201 202 HOW TO READ Symmachus, Aquila and Theodotion (Second Century A.D.). Aquila's version was favorably accepted by the Hellenistic Jews and soon superseded the old Septuagint, but unfortu- nately no trace of it has come down to us. The only part of the Septuagint* version which has been preserved is a manuscript of the Book of Daniel. CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 203 v gfe f r^^^;^'^t ; ? AK - . . i . i f t GREEK LETTER GREEK LETTER 350 A.D. BRITISH MUSEUM THIS letter, written in Greek, is from Actius to his "lord and brother" about a shipment of a supply of corn, oil and hides. It was on papyrus, measuring 9% by 4 inches, written in an upright, cursive hand in mixed uncials and minuscules. 204 205 GRANT TO THE CHURCH OF RAVENNA SEVENTH CENTURY A.D. LIBRARY OF THE EARL OF CRAWFORD AND BALCARRES THIS document, written on papyrus, early in the Seventh Century, shows a part of a grant from Captain Johannes to the Church of Ravenna. It was in the form of a roll, five feet four inches long and twelve inches wide. The writing is medium-sized Roman cursive. Some letters are joined to those following, but b, d, h, i, m, n, w, x, are never joined, but stand out separately. In this grant to the Church at Ravenna, which was during the period of Roman rule, the writing is characterized by roundness of style, in strong contrast to the stiffness and rigid linking of the Ptolemaic hand. Curves take the place of straight strokes in the individual letters and even liga- tures are formed in pliant sweeps of the pen. This transi- tion from the stiff to the flexible, finds something of a parallel in the development of the curving charter-hand of the Fourteenth Century from the rigid hand of the Thir- teenth Century; following, it would seem, the natural law of relaxation. Roundness of style is characteristic of Greek cursive writing in the papyri of the first three centuries of the Christian Era, however much individual hands, or groups of hands, might vary. 206 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 207 After the Third Century of the Christian Era, if we may judge from the meager material that has been recovered, there appears to have been a reform of the Roman hand which marks the entry of Greek writing into the new phase of the Byzantine period. The characteristic features of the new style are its large scale and its formality a de- liberate calligraphic effort which culminated in the bold or artificial hand of the Sixth and Seventh Centuries. 208 CHARACTEE FROM HANDWRITING THE KORAN EIGHTH CENTURY BRITISH MUSEUM THIS is part of a page from a fragment of a manuscript copy of the Koran made in the Eighth Century A.D. It is written on vellum in an easy, flowing style. The part repro- duced here tells of the advice Mohammed gave to "the faithful," to the effect that they must beware of poets as deceivers. The principal feature of the Koran may be said to be Mohammed's claim that it was sent down to him by God, and that this "sending down" was not done at any one or at any particular time, but at different times and in dif- ferent pieces or "revelations." One of these pieces, like the entire collection, was called "Kor'an" or "recitation" hence the familiar term applied to the book. Like other oriental visionaries, who had led austere and ascetic lives, whose nervous systems therefore had been made acutely sensitive and responsive to an emotional and imaginative temperament, Mohammed was thoroughly qualified for spasmodic visits from angels bearing to him messages from Heaven and commanding him to reveal them as the "word of God." It is believed that Mohammed never recorded anything in writing but that he had, through the services of others at 209 210 HOW TO READ Mecca, where the art of writing was more widely practiced than at Medina, started the written record of his "reve- lations." The subject matter of the Koran varies widely. We have in some parts pious moral reflections, not very unlike those of Marcus Aurelius, though more primitively expressed, interlarded with the detailed manifestation of the omni- potence, the goodness and righteousness of God in Nature, in His inspired messengers and especially in Mohammed. Then there are vivid pictures of celestial paradise, the tor- tures of Hell, and the arraignment and judgment of the world on the "last day." Nor does he fail to propound large instalments of religious and moral instruction accom- panied by solemn warnings and threats to sinners, and the unfaithful, not neglecting to prove to and convince the un- believer that "Allah is Allah and Mohammed is His Prophet." Other parts of the book are devoted to laws for the regulation of various religious and social cere- monies, in which Mohammed's harem is included. At the time of Mohammed's death, the Koran existed in different pieces of material which were widely scattered. The Calif-Abu-Bekr under the persuasion of Omar, com- mitted to one of the prophet's amenuenses, Zaid, the task of collecting these parts into one whole, of which he wrote a fair copy and gave it to Abu-Bekr. From him it descended to Omar, his successor, who again bequeathed it to his daughter Hafsa, one of the widows of the Prophet. This copy, however, was not received with entire favor so that the Calif Othman (A.D. 650-651) intrusted this work to Zaid, the compiler of the former collection, and he prepared a canonical edition of the work, dictating to three associates from the copy he had previously made. These three manu- CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 211 scripts, according to tradition, were sent as standard copies to the metropolitan cities, Basra, Kufa and Damascus, and a copy was retained at Medina. There have been other manuscripts, but they have all been derived from these four. 212 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING ' ' " nt e- m p ^ I ii i fec-e & ' *"* I V :$&;^<5me^ (pa mm gemfe ' fco/i p.tttrrajft: l; on BEOWULF BEOWULF A.D. 1000 BRITISH MUSEUM THE Epic of Beowulf forms parts of a single MS. written about 1000 A.D. and is a remarkable relic of old English literature. This poem, which is remarkable for its lucidity, skill of construction and for the vivid imaginative and nar- rative power of its author, tells of the prowess, daring and physical accomplishments of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who, with fourteen companions, went over to Denmark and delivered its king from the ravages of a terrible monster, Grandel, that rendered his hall uninhabitable. Beowulf returns to his native land and becomes its king. After reigning many years, his country is ravished by a fiery dragon. Beowulf, in spite of his now being an aged mon- arch, goes forth, with eleven chosen warriors, and gives battle. Beowulf is almost overpowered when Wiglat, a mere youth, inexperienced in arms, saves him. The dragon is killed, Beowulf receiving a fatal wound. Episodes are introduced which have no relation what- soever to the hero, apparently for the purpose of including and preserving Germanic myths and traditions. This work is obviously a poetical blending of fact and fable ; of myth and history ; of the mythical Beaw with the historical Beowulf, the former a Scandinavian fiction, the latter an English personage. 213 214 HOW TO READ The existing MS. is written in the West-Saxon dialect, but the prevailing opinion is that it was transcribed from an Anglican that is, from a Northumbrian or Mercian original. CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 215 o __ p \** ^\ ^ \JJ vx> >, 2 ~~n r ^ ^ r- ? "^ r- ^ DOMESDAY BOOK 1086 A.D. EXETEE LIBRARY A PART of a page of the "Exon Domesday," written on vellum. The handwriting changes frequently in a single page, where several scribes made their entries, showing a narrow cramped hand with last strokes drawn to a point and also rounder forms of writiDg with shorter vertical strokes. The Domesday Book no doubt suggested itself to William as a means of ascertaining and determining the King's fiscal rights after such a political upheaval as the Norman Conquest and the wholesale confiscation of estates that resulted from it. This record contained not only the names of the new landholders, but an estimated annual valuation of all the land subject to assessment first, at the time of King Edward's death, second, at the time when the Norman successors received it, and, third, at the time when the survey was made. On account of its very early date, the "Domesday" is not generally interesting except as a relic of the past; on this account it is unintelligible to all but the archaeologist. It however was frequently invoked as testimony in the middle ages, and is, at this day, used for this purpose but with no appeal from its record, to which circumstance its name 316 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 217 11 Domesday" or " Doomsday" is due. Another interesting feature connected with this ancient register is that it records the list of landowners by their Christian names only, thus failing to serve the pretentious claims of families whose "origins" date from the Conquest. 218 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING I ' ~~ " ol&u, 9 ^S* ?' .r K < in TIRONIAN LEXICON TIRONIAN LEXICON TENTH CENTURY BRITISH MUSEUM THIS plate represents the Notae Senecae, a lexicon of the Tironiaii shorthand signs, as invented by Marcus Tullius Tiro, the freedman of Cicero. This Tironian system was apparently partly alphabetic, partly ideographic and partly arbitrary. 219 220 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING PU PIPE ROLL A.D. 1130 PART of the Great Roll of the Exchequer, or Roll of the Pipe, for the thirty-first year of Henry I, i.e. from Michael- mas 1129 to Michaelmas 1130. Written in a bold official hand, guided by ruled lines, with many large letters, many of which are stilted. There were two sources in England for the derivation of a national hand the Irish monasteries in the north and the Roman missionaries, who taught their style of writing in these monasteries. The former prevailed throughout Britain and was finally adopted as the national hand after receiving the distinctive marks as such from the English scribes. The first stage of English writing was the round hand of which there were two kinds bookwriting of a very beau- tiful character of which the Lindisfarne Gospels or "Dur- ham Book" is a fine specimen. This style of hand prevailed in the north. In the south a less pretentious and plainer style was employed. The next stage, that of the more con- venient pointed hand, was reached about the Eighth Cen- tury, and continued during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries, when the foreign minuscules became a controlling element in English writing. From this time the evolution of the national hand in the progressive changes of the pointed style can be easily traced in the Facsimiles of Ancient Charters in the British Museum and in the Facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon MSS of the Rolls series. 221 222 THE ANGLO-SAXON POEM OF CAEDMON ELEVENTH CENTURY BODLEIAN LIBRARY A PAGE of the poems in Anglo-Saxon which bore Caed- mon 's name. The Saxon minuscules are rather square but change toward the end. It was probably executed by Ailfivine, Abbot of New Minster or Hyde Abbey at Win- chester A.D. 1035. All that we know of Caedmon, the earliest English Chris- tian poet, is derived from Baeda, "The Venerable Bede," who informs us that Caedmon was a herdsman and that he received his call as a poet in a dream. Having failed, from lack of ability, to comply with a request, which was made upon him on a particular occasion, to sing to the harp, he went to bed and fell asleep. He then had a dream in which some one appeared to him and requested him to sing " of the beginning of created things." He objected, alleg- ing inability, but was compelled to obey, and found himself uttering verses that he had never before heard. Baeda has given a prose paraphrase of this song, but tells us that it represents the sense only, not the words them- selves nor their arrangements ; in fact, not the poetry, be- cause, of course, no poem can be rendered in a foreign tongue without losing much of its beauty. Upon awaking, all the verses of the poem that Caedmon had sung in his 223 224 HOW TO BEAD- dream came to him, to which he made additions. He told all this to his employer, who thereupon took him to a neigh- boring monastery at Streanaeshalch, now called Whitby, where the Abbess discovered that Caedmon had received the divinus afflatus from Heaven. She tested him by proposing certain portions of sacred history for poetical treatment. He complied, fulfilled his task and took up his abode at the monastery, where thenceforth the learned monks expounded to him scripture history and Christian doctrine, all of which he rendered into exquisite poetry. He reproduced The Creation and The Fall of Man, The Departure from Efiypt and The Entrance into the Promised Land, The Immaculate Conception, The Passion, The Resurrection, The Ascension of the Savior of Mankind, The Coming of the Holy Ghost' and The Teaching of the Apostles. He also wrote many songs of the terrors of the coming judgment, of the horrors of hell, of the sweetness of Heaven and of the mercies and judgments of God. The song which Caedmon is said to have composed in his dream, is still extant and is preserved in the poet's own dialect in a MSS. of the Eighth Century. It is the only one of his abundant works that can be identified with certainty. CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 225 T*-* ^> , rA v. Pf^-v., ff ' 14 & - T ^^i -4*1 ^ t^ 1 ^ .^^ <5 > j v> t i ' : ^ fc^rl^- !. RICHARD I A.D. 1189 BRITISH MUSEUM THIS document is from the charter of King Richard the First and confirms to his steward Alured de S. Martin certain lands in Eleham and Bensington in Oxfordshire. The deed is written in court hand, with plenty of capitals and flourished letters. This is a specimen of the second stage in the evolution of the British national handwriting, which, as has been stated in the preceding article on the Pipe Roll of the Exchequer, A.D. 1130, was reached in the Eighth Century and developed during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries, when it was superseded by the foreign element resulting in this pointed style of the national hand. 226 GRANT TO MARGAN ABBEY A.D. 1329 TALBOT CHARTER THIS is a grant from William la Zouche, Lord of Margan, and Alianora, his wife, to Margan Abbey of cer- tain lands. It is dated at Hanley, 18th of February, in the third year of the reign of Edward III (A.D. 1329), and is written on vellum, measuring 11 by 8 inches. Written in a court hand of transitional character, advancing from the round toward the later, angular style. This is a specimen of the English cursive, charter- hand, that was developed side by side with the more formal book-hand of the Middle Ages. From the Twelfth Century, distinct and clean-cut, cursive styles of hand- writing were started in the various countries, and these styles can be easily identified with corresponding politi- cal periods. The changes in the cursive hand were, how- ever, subject to the same laws of organic development that governed the evolution of the book-hand. With regard to the court-hand or charter-hand, which had been introduced into England after the Norman Con- quest, in the Twelfth Century, it is characterized by exaggeration in the strokes above and below the line a legacy of the old Roman cursive. There is also a tend- ency to form the tops of tall, vertical strokes, as. in b, h, 227 228 O 1, with a notch or cleft. The letters are well made and vigorous, though often rugged. As the century advanced the long limbs are brought into better proportion; and early in the Thirteenth Century, a very delicate fine-stroked hand comes into use, the clearing of the tops being now a regular system, and the branches formed by the cleft fall- ing in a curve on either side. This style remains the writing of John and Henry III. Towards the latter part of the Thirteenth Century, the letters grow rounder, there is generally more contrast of light and heavy strokes, and the cleft tops begin, as it were, to shed the branch on the left. In the Fourteenth Century the changes thus introduced make further progress, and the round letters and single-branched vertical strokes become normal through the first half of the century. Then, how- ever, the regular formation begins to give way, and irregu- larity sets in. 230 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING du 4L*a- ^Srt^y I duftW^" yd* ^ MANDAEAN PRAYER MANDAEAN PRAYERS A.D. 1329 BODLEIAN LIBRARY WRITTEN on paper about 5 by 4 inches, in Howaiza on the Tigris in the year 1329. This is the oldest dated Mandaean Manuscript in Europe or America up to the present time. . A most interesting, as well as remarkable, fact concerning the Mandaeans, or St. John's Christians not to mention, Sabians or Nasoreans, by which they are also known is that their religion is the only surviving composite of Chris- tian, Jewish and Pagan constituents, based upon the amal- gamation of Greek philosophy, oriental theosophy and speculative Christianity, called Gnosticism. Our knowledge of the Mandaeans dates only from the first Christian missionaries among them in the Seventeenth Century, but we have recent accounts of their manners and customs derived from a converted Mandaean and published by M. M. Siouffi in 1880. Our knowledge of their religious doctrines is obtained entirely from their sacred books, con- sisting only of ancient fragments of a still more ancient literature. The largest of these is the Sidra Rabba (Great Book) comprising two parts, the larger of which is called yamina (to the right hand), and the smaller s-mala (to the left hand). The former is for the use of the living, and 231 232 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING the latter contains only prayers for the burial service of the priests. The date of these books may be fixed as early as between A.D. 600 and 900, but the MSS. are not older than the Sixteenth Century. In the religious system of the Mandaeans, the origin of all things is Pira, with whom are Ayar ziva rabba "the great shining ether" and Mana rabba "the great spirit of glory." Mana rabba called into being the highest of the aeons properly so-called Hayye Kadmaye "Primal Life," who is the Mandaean God, and every prayer, as well as every section of the sacred books, begins by invoking him. The number of Mandaeans existing in the Eighteenth Cen- tury was about 20,000 families, but at the present day there are only about 1,200 souls. They have a peculiar death-bed rite, consisting first of a warm bath and afterwards a cold one ; the body is clothed in a shroud of seven pieces, the feet directed to the north and the head to the south facing the pole star. DANTE A.D. 1379 BRITISH MUSEUM THIS is part of one of the pages of the Divina Commedia of Dante with interlinear glosses. It was written at Fer- rara. The document is written in set Italian minuscules, regular at first but more or less carelessly written toward the end. The pivot upon which the life of this immortal poet turned was the love of Beatrice Portinari, who for thirteen years was his beacon light and whose death in 1290 was the purification of his later life and the inspiration of his poetic revelations of Paradise. He first met her when he was only nine years old and she of the same age. ' ; At that moment, ' ' he says, ' ' I saw most truly that the spirit of life which hath its dwelling in the secretest chamber of the heart began to tremble so violently that the least pulses of my body shook therewith." Beatrice, however, married another Simone de' Bardi, for which Dante, when a pris- oner and an exile, consoled himself by reading the Book of Boetius and Tully's treatise on friendship. This must have caused him to recover from the shock of her death for in 1292 he married Gemma, daughter of Marietta Donati, by whom he had two sons and two daughters, but whom he never mentions in his Divina Commedia. 234 HOW TO READ . . ^ ) CWM? find tv^ UttnC^d?crbt(b*avo .n Kcti rewind trjtTv* t v*<'k-wi tn*w* ***" l~cv'^c* r btftae Invon i?gmt; opeww. cittto co tmttx* ft >^f t t * f K '^^M Iv^.^l j- F t It J rf >< S \ A . ^ U r ** c v;i, : >- o ^4.4 r -* i k r^ t - | ^v -v THE CHURCH SLAVONIC ALPHABET ABOUT 1700 A.D. BRITISH MUSEUM A VERY curious document, in the form of a roll of paper 16 feet 6 inches long and 8% inches wide. It gives the various cursive forms of the Church Slavonic Alphabet with ornamental variations. This alphabet was the basis of the alphabets adopted by the Russians, Bulgarians and by the Illyrian division of the Slavs. It originally contained 48 symbols. The Slavonic languages employ three alphabets, corres- ponding to three respective religious rituals : the Latin for those requiring Latin services, the Cyrillic, which is used by the orthodox Slavs and is simply the liturgical Greek uncial of the Ninth Century with certain ornamentations, and the Glagolitic or form used in old Slavonic documents, which has survived in places where the Roman Church liturgy prevails, and in Montenegro. Peter the Great caused a version of the Cyrillic alphabet to be made for Russian use, which is also largely employed by Bulgaria. The first among the Slavs to adopt an adequate system of writing were the Czechs, and their alphabet has been adopted by other Slavonic peoples who use Latin letters. The Oldest Slavonic writing to be found is a Cyrillic inscription of the Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria, A.D. 993. 246 BRITISH MUSEUM THIS letter was written by Montaigne while Mayor of Bordeaux to the Marechal de Matignon, dated Bordeaux, May 22nd, 1585. This celebrated French essayist was born at the Chateau Montaigne near Bordeaux (as he is very particular in informing us) between 11 A.M. and noon on February 28th, 1533. He appears to have been the subject of great solici- tude and care, both as to his health and his education. He was put out to nurse with strong, robust peasant women, and he was provided not only with a German tutor but with servants who were skilled Latinists. It is even said that the delightful and fanciful method was employed of waking him by the ''concord of sweet sounds" and soft music, also a novel and mechanical arrangement for teach- ing him Greek was tried but without success. We must however always bear in mind that almost all that we know about Montaigne has come from himself. After a life of mixed activity as a courtier, a counsellor of parliament and a soldier, he retired to a life of study, contemplation and learned ease at Chateau Montaigne. His fame rests upon his essays. He is credited with hav- ing perfected a style all his own. It may be safely con- 247 248 HOW TO READ * <* 3 < V V* \>SX Sfe^ *4 Hx* fc&lfc v v y * CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 249 tended that the essay, such as he originated and perfected, has no modern predecessor, or ancient prototype. His style and language are modelled after Plutarch, but with an inde- pendence that makes him perfectly original in his ease and flexibility. 250 CHAEACTEE FEOM HANDWEITING ^ ^ G MICHELAGNIOLO BUONARROTI DATE 1508 BRITISH MUSEUM THIS plate shows part of a letter from Michelangelo in Rome to his father, Lodovico di Buonarroti Simoni, and was written in June 1508. It is perhaps fortunate for posterity that genius often fails at first to realize, or even to suspect, the existence of its greatest natural adaption, thereby forcing upon others the opportunity of doing for some that which they had seemingly been unable to do for themselves namely detect the particular excellence or greatness for which nature has destined them. A striking example of this is the case of Michelangelo who was easily the protagonist among the matchless painters who flourished during the revival of learning in the Fifteenth Century. Indeed it is well known that his " natural inclination turned his attention and efforts origi- nally to sculpture." A living proof of his excellence in this field is his colossal statue of "David the Giant." Again, he is also said to have confessed that painting was not his "business" not his "metier" as the French term it. It was left for Pope Julius to select Michelangelo and therefore to detect in him the abnormal, artistic ability for the execution of the greatest scheme of painting perhaps ever conceived. Such a work was the series of fresco-paint- 251 252 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING ings with which Pope Julius, by decree, intended to embel- lish the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at Rome and which he intrusted to the magical brush of the great Florentine painter. It was not without much misgiving and lack of confidence that Michelangelo entered upon the undertaking, especially as the scheme, originally confined to the apostles, was subsequently enlarged to the more ambitious effort of reproducing the whole of the Mosaic Cosmogony and Fall of Man from the Creation to the Flood, together with the accessory personages of prophets and sibyls dreaming on the new dispensation of Christ. The whole was to be in- closed and to be divided by a framework of painted archi- tecture with a multitude of nameless human shapes sup- porting its several members or reposing among them; the shapes meditating, as it were, between the features of the inanimate framework and those of the great and prophetic scenes themselves. We are now concerned with the personal characteristics that are made to stand out, in bold relief, in Michelangelo 's handwriting. These are: imagination, an imagination, daring, limitless, exalted, sublime; Spiritual grandeur, nobility, power and character, enthusiasm, transcendental- ism and piety combined with philosophical speculation con- cerning human destiny. MARTIN LUTHER DATE 1509 BRITISH MUSEUM THIS letter, in Latin, was written by Martin Luther to his friend Georgius Spalatinus, a noted German Reformer. It is dated Wittenberg, November 8th, 1519. Soon after taking holy orders and commencing to lecture, the careful thinking imposed by his spiritual obligations, gave birth to those doubts which ultimately crystallized and conflicted with the scholastic theology of his early days. His first point of attack was the sale of Indulgences, which raised the question of the Pope's supremacy in spiritual matters. Luther thus became the champion of the ortho- dox priesthood which led to his excommunication and the opening of the first Diet at Worms in January, 1521. Though Luther suddenly disappeared, the natural revolt against Rome the Lutheran movement had been organ- ized and was spreading rapidly and peaceably, when inter- rupted by the Peasants' War. This was crushed by the ruling classes and with Luther's active aid one of the few mistakes of his life. The natural movement then became an ecclesiastical one, splitting into three parts, of one of which, the Evangelical churches, Luther became the leader. In the course of the conflict, the Diet of Speyer (1529) deprived the Protestant churches of any share of the 253 254 HOW TO READ U H, U U H n j-r < n n n n ttr - rtr trr rrr SLAVONIC ALPHABET CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 255 revenues of the Medieval church, regarding which they pro- tested, thereby becoming historically known as Protestants. Then followed the conference of Luther with Zwingli, resulting in the cortinued effort to crush Protestantism, the League of Protestant Princes, the retirement of Luther, the succession of Melanchthon, and the reorganization of the Evangelical Church. Luther now suffered ill-health, but devoted himself to the task of preventing the Roman Curia from regaining its grip on his country. He was assisted in this by the Evangelical Princes, which accounts for his sanctioning the bigamy of Philip of Hesse. In 1546 he went to Eisleben. While there in a sermon he stated : 1 1 This and much more is to be said about the Gospel, but I am too weak and I must close here." This was on February 14th, he died on the 18th. Luther has been accused of profligacy and intemperance in eating and drinking. It must be admitted that he was fond of liquor and extremely convivial, so much so that he has been described as a "joyous, frolicsome companion." It is also true that his conversation, his lectures, even his sermons often contained unsavory expressions, and stories. We must, however, bear in mind that the standard of be- havior and of morality in those days was very low; that intemperance was habitual and treated with indulgence, that conversation and writing was frequently vulgar, and that other offences were immune from condemnation. Luther was, however, a devoted husband and father, and found his greatest happiness in his serene and peaceful home which, with his loving wife, he regarded as God's best gifts. Although an earnest exhorter and promoter of cheer- fulness, he was himself subject to frequent fits of de- pression and melancholy. He nevertheless devoted him- 256 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING self to the enormous labors of his life with great fervor, unremitting attention and courage, and with such indiffer- ence to personal sacrifice as to indicate a striking and fear- less personality. TORQUATO TASSO A.D. 1588 BRITISH MUSEUM THIS reproduction is from a volume entitled, "Toris- mondo, Tragedia del Signor Torquato." It is an autograph copy in a vellum binding. Tasso was, indeed, an " infant prodigy." He was born in 1544 in 1552 he was attending a school kept by the Jesuits at Naples, where his precocious intellect and re- ligious fervor attracted attention and admiration. At this age 8 years he was already famous; He became a handsome and brilliant young man with a most auspicious start in life. Success and happiness seemed certain, but they never came. In their stead he found only disappoint- ment, ill-health, insanity and premature death. It is true that for a short time from 1565 to 1570 he enjoyed the only happy period of his existence. He was then, young, handsome, accomplished, accustomed to the society of the great and learned, illustrious by his published works in verse and prose and he had become the idol of the most brilliant Court in Italy the Court of Cardinal Luigi d'Este, destined to be for him the scene of a short-lived happiness and of much suffering. It was there that he became on terms of familiar association with the Princesses Lucrezia and Leonora d'Este, with the latter of whom there 257 258 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 259 was the old, old story of love. Both sisters however un- doubtedly wielded great influence in the promotion of his interests, and it is therefore a matter of regret that he should have allowed a certain tactless freedom of speech to betray him into a difference with his patron. It was at this time that he produced his "Aminta" and completed his "Gerusalemme Liberata." He was only about 31 years old, but it appears that his most excellent work had been given to the world and with it went his last days of sunshine and good fortune. It would seem as if some malign influence led him into error from which his judgment should have recoiled. He actually sent manu- script copies of his famous poem to a number of literary notables for the purpose of securing their criticism and suggestions, which he expressed his willingness to follow if they should differ from him. Of course they differed and he unfortunately played directly into their hands. Instead of publishing his poem as he had conceived it ; instead of launching it upon the world with the touch of his genius upon it, he deliberately sacrificed himself to the critical theories of others. From this time his troubles began. His poem was laid aside. His health began to fail, his mind yielded to delusions and he was in constant fear of being denounced by the Inquisition and of being poisoned. In fact Tasso if not actually insane was now so far men- tally deranged that he was of no service to himself and was a burden to his friends. Nevertheless, the Duke of Ferrara, with whom he had quarreled, invited him to return to his court provided he would consent to a course of medi- cal treatment for his malady. Tasso accepted this friendly welcome and at first improved but his malady reappeared and he again went away and after wandering hither and 260 thither, he was finally sent to a lunatic asylum at St. Anna. During his confinement he composed numerous philosophi- cal and ethical dialogues, but little poetry. Part of his ' ' Gerusalemme " was also published; and shortly after- wards the whole poem. In six months seven editions of it were issued. Tasso was, at the intercession of Vincenzo Genzaga, Duke of Mantua, allowed to leave St. Anna in 1586, but he soon after went away to Rome feeling himself neglected by the Duke and thence he took up his residence at Mantua, where he wrote "Torrismondo." Then he went to Naples, where he wrote his "Geru- salemme Conquistata" in which he reconstructed his pre- vious poem, depriving it of its chivalrous and mystical elements. Posterity has however reversed his decision, and his fame now rests securely on the work of his early life. He died at Rome shortly after the laurel crown was con- ferred upon him by the Pope. GALILEO GALILEI DATE 1609 BRITISH MUSEUM PART of a letter from Galileo Galilei to Michelangniolo Buonarroti the younger, nephew of the painter. Galileo was occupying the chair of Mathematics of the University of Padua, when he wrote this letter. It is dated, Padua, December 4th, 1609. If it had not been for an attack of opthalmia, the world's list of remarkable astronomers would have been seriously curtailed and the Roman hierarchy correspondingly en- riched. Galileo was making rapid and brilliant progress in his studies at the Florentine monastery of Vallombrosa, when he suddenly manifested a strong inclination for religious life and actually joined the novitiate, which con- flicted so much with his father's plans for his son's career, that the former turned to account a somewhat severe in- flammation of the eyes, as a reason for withdrawing Galileo from the monastery and entering him at the University of Pisa, when he was only 18 years old. Here he displayed the same phenomenal talents ; a versatility, a natural apti- tude in various intellectual directions that undoubtedly would have brought him to the forefront in painting, music, invention, or any other of the arts or sciences. Again accident interposes, makes Galileo an unpremedi- tated listener at a court lecture which causes him to aban- 261 262 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING V CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 263 don the pursuit of medicine, for which his father had des- tined him, and follow the calling of Euclid and Archimedes. From this moment his progress is one of uninterrupted success, so that within three years after leaving the univer- sity he writes a treatise on the "Center of Gravity in Solids/' which brings him the appointment of lecturer on mathematics at the university and the title and reputation of ''The Archimedes of his time." It will be remembered that at this period the Copernican theory of the solar system was not popular ; but this did not deter Galileo from adopting it, though he refrained from publicly declaring the fact. From this restraint he was, however, soon relieved by the invention of the telescope which was really due to the genius of Johannes Lippershey, an optician of Middleburg. Its employment in the study of the heavens, and in the dissipation of many hitherto well-established theories in astronomy, reinforced by Galileo's courage of conviction, brought to a head, as a question of open and deliberate dis- cussion, the long suspected conflict between the new theories of our solar system and Scripture that had up to this moment been only hinted at and carefully avoided. Galileo, however, was not to be silenced. And so he boldly went to Rome and with his wonted enthusiasm and eloquence presented his views to the pontificial court. Its theologians rejected them, declaring his statement; that the earth revolved around the sun as an immovable center to be "absurd in philosophy and formally heretical" because expressly contrary to Scripture, and his claim that the earth revolved daily on its own axis, to be "open to the same censure in philosophy and at least erroneous as to faith." 264 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING By papal decree Galileo was enjoined not "to hold, teach or defend the condemned doctrines " ; to which he promised obedience, but he took with him from Rome a written cer- tificate to the effect that "no abjuration had been required of, or penance imposed upon him," which induced him to believe that the papal decree of 1616 would be revoked, or at least ignored. It was therefore with no apprehension or fear as to his future that he wrote and published his famous, but ill-fated work, the Dialogo dei due massimi sistemi del mondo. It was received with universal praise, throughout Europe and with good reason, for it would be difficult to find a work that could pretend to be its rival in respect of "animation and elegance of style combined with strength and clearness of scientific exposition." This only added to its offence, for it was an undisguised, forcible and persistent reassertion of Copernican principles, and as such, a flagrant flouting of the papal decree of 1616 and a violation of Galileo's pledge of conformity. Of course its sale was immediately forbidden and Galileo was summoned to appear at Rome by the Inquisition when he was con- demned as "vehemently suspected of heresy," and sen- tenced to imprisonment. The sum and substance of Gali- leo's astronomical work consisted in aiding to establish mechanics as a science, and this consisted in his being the first to "grasp the idea of force as a mechanical agent and to apply to the physical world the principle of the invaria- bility of the relation between cause and effect. ' ' BEN JONSON DATE 1609 BRITISH MUSEUM THIS is part of a manuscript by Ben Jonson entitled: 1 'The Masque of Queenes, cerebrated from the House of Fame by the most absolute in all States and titles, Anne, Queene of Great Britayne, etc., with her honorable ladyes, at White Hall, Feb. 2, 1609." Ben Jonson is best remembered by his play Every Man in his Humor and he still lives in his Conversations, for which we are indebted to the hospitality of the great Scot- tish poet, William Drummond of Hawthornden, who enter- tained Jonson during his visit to Scotland in 1618 of which visit Conversations is a record. The host had here an ample opportunity of studying his guest's character, and he tells us that he was "a great lover and praiser of him- self; a contemner and scorner of others." Further confirmation of this leading feature of Jonson 's character is furnished by Howell, who states that during a supper at the poet's house where the host had almost spoiled the relish of the feast by vilifying others and mag- nifying himself, Thomas Carew buzzed in the writer's ear that ''though Ben had barreled up a great deal of knowl- edge, yet it seemed he had not read the Ethics, which among other precepts of morality, forbid self-commendation." 265 266 HOW TO READ IJ ^ n J *>> H=. *> dl * 7 J 1 '3 \ v * ^ y L* ^ *1 **4 j ^3 \T s> x\ I : j^^ f 1 BRITISH MUSEUM THIS is part of a Notary's Certificate concerning the dis- position of the goods of Franchise Rouseau and signed by Moliere and others. Dated January 25th, 1664, in which year the celebrated comedian was 44 years old. Moliere was not the first nor the only one among promi- nent censors of public morals to pay the inevitable penalty of gibbeting the social infirmities of his day. Especially was this the case when his success as the first true comic satirist of contemporary foibles was immediate and im- mense with the production of his "Les Precieuses Ridi- cules," November 18, 1659, and by his "Le Festin de Pierre," February 15, 1665. The nature of the calumnies with which his critics and other enemies assailed him, amply attest the effectiveness of his satire. He was accused of marrying his own daughter and of insulting the King, offending the Queen-mother and corrupting virtue charges, that, independently of the disproof of direct testi- mony, were disposed of finally by the King's acting as god- father to his child and the King's adoption of Moliere 's company as his servants and pensioning them. Further confirmation of his personal worth is contributed by his actors, who indignantly repelled the effort of certain older companies to entice them away from him. They de- clared that they would always share his fortunes. It is 269 270 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING true that when this occurred, Moliere 's successful career and position were already well assured, but this was rein- forced by his rare genius, the charm of endearing manners, high sense of honor and nobility of character. Hence, as La Grange, his friend and comrade tells us, his company "sincerely loved him", while he enjoyed the patronage of a great prince. "Le Misanthrope" has been considered his masterpiece. True it is that it was not popular nor as well received by the public as by the critics but the reason is obvious. It was, at that time, something new and even offensive for a playwright to substitute the real refinement of a real civi- lization for the mock refinement of a false civilization and to "subject to its influence the eternal passions and senti- ments of human nature". This Moliere did; and was there- fore more successful with the critics than with the public. In our day the case would be reversed. Moliere 's death furnished a striking coincidence. While playing the title role in his "Malade Imaginaire", he burst a blood-vessel in a fit of coughing and died within an hour after. A profound detestation of hypocrisy is perhaps the dis- tinguishing feature of Moliere 's character, while scrupulous honor and refinement run a close second place, followed by great generosity and gentleness. He has been pronounced the greatest of all social comedy writers ; as ranking among the foremost in the literature of France, and next to Shakespeare in modern drama. He was denied all priestly ministration in his last moments and buried without any religious ceremony, without even a stone to mark his resting-place. "Unknown is the grave of Moliere." SIR ISAAC NEWTON DATE 1682 BRITISH MUSEUM PART of a letter from Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. William Briggs commenting on his "Theory of Vision". Dated Trinity College, Cambridge, June 20, 1682. Newton's achievements were those of a purely philoso- phic genius. His was not the inventive faculty nor the intuitive perception of the poet, but the incessant, patient and persevering study and labor of the philosopher. His mental qualities therefore must not be determined by the early period of life at which he plucked Nature's secrets from her repository, nor by the rapid succession of his discoveries. The world has consequently felt itself secure in the pos- session of his scientific revelations ; for in these are rooted an unparalleled industry and perseverance that have filled the human mind with a corresponding confidence and faith. Newton was highly favored at birth with a rare and in- fallible combination: the faculty of lucid simplicity and simple lucidity of statement combined with speculative pro- fundity, which is not only confined to his purely scientific writings but also beautifies and adorns even his theologi- cal treaties. Naturally enough then we find observation and experi- ment playing an important part in Newton's method of investigation, so much so, that certain over-enthusiastic 271 272 HOW TO READ v?iy ^ *$ -4 J i ^ .\V1 i^4v 3 rN;^ A NJ i > ^l^-S ^ _ CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 273 worshipers at Bacon's shrine have ascribed Newton's dis- coveries to the application of the Baconian method of in- duction, but, truth to tell, inductive research was employed by many distinguished predecessors of Bacon in the philo- sophic field. Newton therefore merely followed in the wake of Masters, whose example was also adopted and recom- mended in the No rum Organon. Newton might have cultivated with success and credit some of those eccentricities which are believed by not a few, to indicate genius, but his intellectual endowments, his modesty and his philosophic sincerity and dignity forbade this; in fact made it impossible. He was always "modest, candid and affable, suiting himself to every company and speaking of himself and others in such a manner that he was never even suspected of vanity." The key to Newton's character as a man and as a philoso- pher is furnished by those memorable words uttered by him a short time before his death: "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscov- ered before me." 274 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING <*.>< 5s. i ***. ^4 JOSEPH ADDISON DATE 1699 BRITISH MUSEUM PART of a letter from Joseph Addison to Charles Mon- tagu, Earl of Halifax, written while he was on the Conti- .nent. Dated, Paris, October 14, 1699. Addison is one of the few men of letters of the Eight- eenth Century who faithfully reflect the spirit of their day. It is therefore unfortunate that he furnishes such limited materials for biography. Johnson, Steele and Pope are amply provided for in this regard, but of Addison hardly any record can be found that gives any account of his life and character. The only con- temporary source of interest that is open to us is Pope Addison 's enemy who is not remarkable for a scrupulous regard for truth when wielding his trenchant satiric pen to describe an opponent or a foe. Addison 's own writings afford no help; his letters and his masterpiece the Spec- tator are highly polished formal dissertations; they do not touch or concern the author in his early life, conduct or intercourse. Such light as is shed upon him, reveals a man that commanded the respect and admiration of his contemporaries, notwithstanding: the fact that he was natu- rally very shy and reserved in his demeanor. It must be remembered that chief among these contempo- 275 276 HOW TO READ raries were such men as Steele, Swift, Pope all of whom have "left their mark" upon their age and were altogether unlikely to have respected and admired any one unless he at least had attained the same level of excellence as they had in all essentials of mind and energy of character. It is, however, doubtful if Addison could have accom- plished the great wo'rk that distinguished his life from that of the shining lights of the Eighteenth Century, if he had been compelled to rely merely upon elegance and refinement as a writer, upon his intellectual power to fascinate other intellects that were "haughty and cynical." Addison 's great achievement consisted in his having been the "Chief Architect of public opinion in the Eighteenth Century" a public opinion which "in spite of its durable solidity, seems like the great Gothic Cathedrals, to absorb into itself the individuality of the architect." The task was a great one. The recent Civil Wars had overthrown constituted authority, Episcopalianism had been supplanted by Pres- hyterianism and the whole population had been torn and riven asunder by Civil War. It was these, which are only a summary of the apparently unsurmountable difficulties under which Addison, with the instrumentality of the Spec- tator, restored order out of the chaos of conflict, in matters, religious, moral and artistic, which prevailed in the period between the Restoration and the succession of the House of Hanover. The individuality of the man who accom- plished this must have been indeed great, since it pre- dominated so largely as to almost completely obscure his other characteristics. CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 277 EXTRACTS IN PERSIAN AND ARABIC FROM THE KORAN 1734 A.D. A BEAUTIFULLY illuminated manuscript of extracts from Persian and Arabic authors, quoting the Koran. The first line reads : "Wealth does not escape the hands of an experi- enced man." There are no capital letters in Arabic and nothing marks the beginning of a sentence as in English. 278 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 279 FRANCOIS MARIE ARONET DE VOLTAIRE DATE 1760 BRITISH MUSEUM PART of a letter in English from Voltaire to George Keats, F.R.S., in which he expresses his admiration for the freedom of living in England. Dated, January 16, 1760. Nothing so adequately measures the genius, the mental energy, the all-inclusive universal intellectuality, the fear- less intrepidity and earnestness, the telling force of Vol- taire's assaults upon the ''persecuting and the privileged orthodoxy" of his time, as the virulence, variety, bitter- ness and malice of his critics. Foremost among them were the orthodox sectarians, who described him as "hell- sprung"; as the embodiment of "Satan, sin and death." Next we see him attacked by the inevitable type of censor, the man so utterly encased in the impenetrable armor of self-conceit, of fancied self-superiority, as to be prejudiced beyond conceding the possibility of fallibility in himself or merit in others in whose opinion infallible of course, Vol- taire and Rousseau were so equal in crime that "it would be difficult to proportion the inequality between them." The evil that such a critic does is in proportion to the extent to which he discredits, in the opinion of the average man, such genuine and effective social reformers as Voltaire. 380 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 281 The principal charge then, the charge in fact which in- cludes all those others that are laid at Voltaire's door- infidelity. This proceeds from either ignorance and in- tolerance or religious prejudice. True that Voltaire at- tacked with bitter and crushing force, the popular beliefs of his day, but this is quite a different matter from attacking religion, which he always respected. It was not religion nor even the church as such that Voltaire inveighed against. He rather sought to destroy tyranny and the superstition that disgraced the church, and indeed this evil was incorporated in the corrupt and monstrous system that prevailed everywhere, a system all the more dangerous be- cause rooted in the conventional orthodoxy that was all powerful in his day and crushed under its iron heel all opposition to its tyranny and oppression. It was this mon- ster not God, not Christ, not Christianity that he de- scribed in the phrase that recurs constantly throughout all his works even in his private letters ecrasez 1'in fame "Crush persecuting and privileged orthodoxy," but Vol- taire's own recorded words utterly refute the accusation of infidelity. For example "I believe in God," in that be- lief, "one finds difficulties." "In the belief that there is no God, absurdities." "The wise man attributes to God no human affections. He recognizes a power, necessary, eternal, which animates all Nature." Intellectually considered, Voltaire stands well-nigh alone. There is no department of literary work that he did not touch not only to adorn but to make it breathe forth his own living originality. But after all, more important than anything that Vol- taire ever thought or wrote no matter how excellent was what he did. His true title to fame, to the remembrance and 282 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING gratitude not only of his country but of the world, is, that he was chief among those who helped to earn freedom for man a freedom to think, to speak, to act, according to the dictates of conscience; a freedom that imposes no limit or restrictions other than those of protecting and assuring to our neighbor his rights, and of worshiping God as he wills. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN DATE 1784 BRITISH MUSEUM A LETTER from Benjamin Franklin, then ambassador to France, to Captain and Commodore Paul Jones, about a settlement of expenses incurred in Holland. Dated, Passy, March 23, 1784. If we wish to put our finger accurately, as it were, upon the feature which over and above all others sums up the many sidedness of Franklin's character, we may well adopt the viewpoint of "friend and benefactor to the human race." When we bear in mind that Franklin's life was lived from first to last in the limelight of the world ; that his own and subsequent generation have with cordial unanimity given him an abiding home in their hearts, which regard increases as time goes on, we can hardly fail to be convinced that, great man as he was, goodness, even grandeur, of soul, pre- dominated. A clear idea of his spiritual excellence is af- forded by the fact that although surrounded by intolerant religious sects who bitterly attacked each other, he yet lived at peace and even in friendship with them all. He could have done this only by virtue of a soul that recognized in every fellow creature, the presence of the same Eternal Principle in spite of opinions and beliefs, even of human 283 284 HOW TO READ ^\ ~S& ^o-o-eS &><*4r<, c/tfxrx *~s BENJAMIN FRANKLIN CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 285 frailties and errors. His was in fact that godlike tolerance of the spirit of Christ which enabled him to spread good wherever he went among his fellow men while at the same time he served them in public life with unremitting energy, and distinction. This unparalleled human tolerance was emphasized by an utter absence of vanity by a simplicity and modesty that distinguished him even after success and public honors had crowded thick upon him. It would indeed be difficult to find another man in whom self-love was so completely repressed. Of course, Franklin had faults ; he was only human after all, but these faults were, at their worst, essentially super- ficial, and so habitually indulged in his day that they hardly created a ripple on the moral surface. These were groSsness and vulgarity. The severest blame perhaps which has been visited upon Franklin is obviously inseparable from that narrowness, bigotry and intolerance which, in matters of religion or forms of faith, can see no difference between impiety and philosophic tolerance. It was the latter, and the latter only that explains Franklin's criticism that the " popular belief in the divinity of Christ was a beneficial error." Consistently with this philosophic indifference to orthodox intolerance, we find in him independence of thought, and social and political liberality. He was also plentifully endowed with strong common sense, a wonder- ful talent of homely ridicule of vice and prejudices, and a devotion to the practical and the useful in preference to the purely ornamental and superficial. Domestic purity and affection, cheerfulness, plentiful humor and wit, conversational charm, philanthropy, scrupulous honesty, firm faith in a Divine omniscience and 286 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING omnipotence and in man's immortality all these round out a fulness of character in which the owner plainly declared his life's purpose to " dedicate himself to virtue and the public good." ROBEET BURNS DATE 1787 BRITISH MUSEUM A LETTEK from Robert Burns to Dr. John Moore telling about his own life, dated Mauchline, August 2, 1787. All writers reveal themselves to a greater or less extent in their works, but Burns has so minutely, so completely unfolded his inner self the real man in his writings, that in them, we seem to have ever present the living, breathing author. He may, indeed, be said to "live, move and have his being" in his thoughts, creations and expressions, which are poured forth with such simple sincerity, such unself- consciousness, such obvious anxiety to declare and estab- lish the truth, that he succeeds, as it were, in "wearing his heart upon his sleeve." Spontaneity, simplicity and sin- cerity lie therefore on the surface of Burns' character. With whatever qualities were necessary to constitute a great lyric poet, he was most richly endowed. He was aglow with a poetic fervor that made luminous every feel- ing, every sentiment, every experience, everything in fine that was human. He was warm-hearted but at the same time saved from sentimentality by a robust manliness, which was most harmoniously blended with the most deli- cate sensibility to beauty not alone the beauty of the female form divine, but of nature in all her moods and 287 288 \ * ^ v* ^ ^k^wf 1^ V-liJ^M^ "T^ j?<5' rf ep t^. CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 289 aspects. She was as dear to him as the ''ruddy drops that sometimes visited his sad heart." Not only woman's tear- ful eye, or melting voice, but the sufferings of the dumb, silent, specimens of God's creative skill came in for a share of the "common-blooded affinity of his rich human heart." Burns possessed the strong common-sense, the physical and mental robustness of his countrymen, and as a result he was "strong in thought and intense in emotion." His was not the idealistic or contemplative quality of poetic temperament, nor could he boast he certainly never even claimed for himself scholarship. He was, however, skilled in the rapid reading of human thought and character; in penetrating to the innermost recesses of secret, hidden motives and sagacious and shrewd in judgment of conduct. Patriotism is also one of Burns' virtues, and no doubt intended to endear him to his countrymen at a time when, as Carlyle informs us, this quality was very much at a dis- count in the literary world of Scotland. Burns shared very largely with Goethe what has been termed "a great zest of life," which naturally accounts fo:: his social success "the universal charm of his social inter- course." The rock upon which Burns split was the indulgence of his impetuous passions and "jovial compotations in the Globe tavern at Dumfries," but above all .things, he pos- sessed great honor and nobility of character. As he himself says in one of his letters "My beloved household Gods are independence of spirit and integrity of soul," confirm- ing which Carlyle remarks, "Many poets have been poorer than Burns ; no one was ever prouder. ' ' 290 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 3 FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLEE DATE 1802 PART of a letter from Schiller to Karl Theodor Koerner, one of his warmest friends and confidants. Dated Weimar, July 5, 1802. The literary reputation which Schiller enjoys is almost entirely due to the standard that Germany adopts in deter- mining the merit and rank of her men of letters. She does not estimate them according to the general extent of their influence upon the domain of literature, but according to the degree in which they have incorporated themselves with and molded the literary life of the German people. Judged by this standard Schiller undoubtedly well de- serves his fame and name as a poet, historian and drama- tist. When we give due weight to the unlimited extollation which he received from his countrymen, we have an ade- quate explanation of his popularity. Schiller was blessed with a noble, dignified presence, with which his devotion to truth, beauty and freedom harmonized completely. He was also a model of the domestic virtues, a fond husband and father, and a firm and loyal friend. Another element that contributed very largely to his popu- larity, was his cheerfulness and hopefulness in spite of suffering and poverty, and what may be called his artistic conscientiousness which despised mercenary motives. 291 292 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING Regarding Schiller, we have extravagant eulogies from Madame de Stael and from Goethe. The former praises his virtues which were "as admirable as his talents," and his conscience which was his "muse." Goethe in his Epi- logue, confirms and reinforces this eulogy which unwit- tingly led to a war of words as to the respective genius and accomplishments of Schiller and of Goethe himself. It happened, therefore, that Schiller was doubtless exalted somewhat above his natural and just deserts and, indeed, almost canonized as a saint. If we* exclude from our considertion the struggle with ill health that he was forced to make during his life, there remains nothing that justifies any substantial claim to heroism. Nor is he entitled to extraordinary praise for his meditative philoso- phy and artistic conscientiousness as compared to certain others. It does not require a very profound analysis to discover that Schiller did not possess those sublime creative qualities that constitute poetic greatness such as would entitle him to a place among poets of the first rank. The truth appears to be that he was, as a poet, a rare interpreter and exponent of the national instincts and ideals, and that he awoke in the hearts of his countrymen vibrations which were largely in- dependent of the poet, as poet, and to which the hearts of strangers were not attuned. JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE DATE 1811 THIS is part of a letter from the German poet Goethe about returning a manuscript, dated Weimar, August 4, 1811. We are as a rule too much disposed to exaggerate the part that innate gifts play in human evolution as compared to environment and opportunity. As has been often said, the mightiest oaks require the richest soils to attain full growth. Similarly the natural birth-gifts of Goethe, ex- traordinary though they were, could neither have produced the intellectual phenomenon that he became, had he lived anywhere else than on German soil. The truth is that greatness in every field of human effort, depends upon op- portunity, and external influence as well as upon inborn qualities. It is obvious that we cannot determine the condi- tions under which we are born, but we can utilize them ; we can enrich them to an extent commensurate with our natal endowments and with our susceptibility to development. Selecting Goethe for illustration, we easily detect in the atmosphere prevailing in Germany during the latter part of the Eighteenth Century, the conditions of time and place, and in Goethe himself, the qualities of mind and heart in- dispensable for the production of his "Werther." Simi- 293 294 HOW TO BEAD CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 295 larly, an apparently accidental meeting with the Duke of Weimar furnished Goethe with a fresh field of opportunity and led to the full revelation and expression of his mighty intellect and character. This evolution resulted in an un- paralleled combination of every human element and ac- counts for his apparently extraordinary contradictions in conduct and achievement. On the one hand, his imagination attains the highest flights of poetic excellence; he lives in the unreal realm of fancy and of dreams, he loses himself in the throngs of busy men and in their practical activities. On the other hand he rivals a Newton in scientific achieve- ment, competes with the surgeon and the jurist in their respective fields, and hardly yields precedence to a Talley- rand or a Rochefoucauld in knowledge of the world and in ability to penetrate the hidden thoughts and motives of men. He creates a Faust who barters his soul for mortal love and sensual delight, but at the same moment abandons both to a mocking and triumphant Mephistopheles. Thus we may run through the long list of Goethe's vir- tues and achievements to find that we have failed to include the philanthropist, the tender and self-sacrificing friend, the idol of a home where peace and happiness are mingled with the worship, love, and homage which he receives from the cultivated and the enlightened, as well as from those that are near and dear to him. And even after supplying this omission, we are confronted with the realization that we have not done justice to Goethe by our failure to still add the negatives of all that is highest and best in human char- acter and thus completely and faithfully reproduce his seemingly contradictory nature and personality. Having done this we arrive at this summary which has been made by those who knew him best. They conclude 296 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING that he was the most humane of men, with highly developed powers of soul, and physical perfection ; a man whose physi- cal life fully retained its independence and thoroughly per- meated the spiritual all this uniting in such striking pro- portions as to impress those who knew him with the fact that they had never before met such a being. CHARLES DICKENS DATE 1835 BRITISH MUSEUM THIS letter from Charles Dickens to Thomas Fraser was in reference to writing a series of articles for the Evening Chronicle. It is dated Furnival's Inn, January 20, 1835. The secret of Dickens' universal literary popularity is that he was endowed by Mother Nature with a combination of qualities of mind and heart which demanded neither the tempering of experience, nor the evolution of labor and of years. These qualities seemed to attain their fullest devel- opment in him simultaneously, making it almost impossible to single out the predominating one. Where, for example, shall we find any other man in his sphere of human achievement who was more consummately adapted to his special work by special natural endowment, or in whom love and devotion to that work was more sin- cere in fact, consuming? Among what records, must we delve to unearth another human heart that pulsated more completely in sympathy with the frailties, the nobilities, the aspirations, the joys and sorrows of the human race? In what corner of the globe would we look for a mortal whose mental or physical eye is as keenly sharp and observ- ant, is as acutely microscopic in detecting and revealing all that serves to make up humanity in both its private and 297 298 HOW TO READ CHARLES DICKENS CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 299 public relations ; in all its complexities of character, of con- duct and experience; in the mysteries of its purpose and destiny? Nor must it be forgotten that in accomplishing his wonderful work, he has not sacrificed a single friend, wounded a human being or made one actual enemy. On the contrary, so completely has Dickens identified himself with his fellow-creatures of all sorts and conditions, that he may be truly said to have spoken with their tongue, written with their pen, felt with their heart ; thus exemplifying the dramatists characterization of ''Two souls with but a single thought; two hearts that beat as one." We therefore find in this remarkable man, the following prominent characteristics : boundless imagination exalted, noble, sublime, as well as grotesque; fantastic, wild imagery; exuberant, frolicsome, cheerful, mirth; laughter and fun; open, good-hearted capacity for full and exhaus- tive enjoyment of life in all its moods, manifestations and pleasures; delight in the enjoyment of home and family; intense sympathy with every human emotion and aspira- tion; an almost superhuman keenness of observation of human character, mannerisms, peculiarities of conduct and behavior, with an innate genius for penetrating and sym- pathizing with the joys and sorrows, the daily, domestic and intimate life of poor, uncultured, humble folk, so that he actually succeeded in revealing to them a new world of their own better than that they were familiar with, and in even inspiring them with a higher purpose. 300 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING JL WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY DATE 1849 BRITISH MUSEUM A LETTEE from Thackeray to Antonio Panizzi, Keeper of the Printed Books in the British Museum. Dated, Kensing- ton, May, 1849. Thackeray's earliest manifestation of literary talent was ' ' Timbucktoo, ' ' a burlesque of the poem with which his con- temporary and life-long friend, Tennyson, carried off the Chancellor's prize at Trinity College, Cambridge. His de- testation of the genus "snob" also came to the surface at the same stage of his career, and increased as time ran on. Although no laurels crowned his labors at school or col- lege, he was laying the foundation for his subsequent suc- cesses by omnivorous reading of the romantic literature of the day, which was the mental pabulum for which Nature had richly prepared and adapted his brain. Thackeray was endowed with the power of acute observa- tion and used his eyes to such good purpose that he stored up a rich fund of experience which, combined \.dth his close association with such men as Liddell, Tennyson, Fitzgerald, Kinglake and Monckton Milnes, could not fail to help furnish him with the necessary equipment for his subse- quent successes. Thus equipped, his patrimony dissipated, with no em- ployment to fall back upon, it was natural that he should seek refuge in the harbor of literature. As Trollope says ; 301 302 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING " It is a profession that requires no capital, no special edu- cation, no training. If a man can command a table, a chair, a pen, paper and ink, he can commence his trade as a literary man." Accordingly Thackeray entered this field armed with his romantic pen and the irresistible charm and power of that breeding and nobility which are the hall-mark of the Eng- lish university. As we should expect to find, simplicity was one of the leading characteristics of the man whose pet aversion was snobbery. His diction religiously avoids bombast, pom- posity and involved sentences. He was also utterly lacking in conceit, so much so that he did not hesitate to make this confession: "One of Dickens' immense superiorities over me is his great fecundity of imagination," and yet he him- self had a liberal amount of imagination. Not a few of his friends and admirers Charlotte Bronte for example regarded him as a social reformer, whose censure proceeded from the heart rather than the head ; for he was profoundly sincere. It must be admitted that irony and satire were habitual with him, but only as an aid to his moral purpose of regeneration. He has been accused of the very offense that he gibbeted so fiercely : snobbery, toady- ing to the great and repelling his inferiors. In so far as objecting to the familiarity of the "Bob Bowstreets" and "Tom Garbages" of Grub Street is concerned, this charge is no doubt true, for, Thackeray was not only diffident but also sensitive qualities that can be easily mistaken for pride and brusqueness, and are reconcilable with the fact that he was essentially a composite of the sentimentalist and the cynic. BRITISH MUSEUM SPECIMEN reproduced is part of a letter in French from Victor Hugo to the publisher Charles Griffin in which he declines to correct the proof of the sketch of his life in the "Dictionary of Contemporary Biography." It is dated Hautville House, March 1, 1860. We are told that Victor Hugo came into the world "color- less, sightless, voiceless and so poor a weakling that all despaired of him except his mother." Life, indeed, ap- peared about to erase from its book a child "whose short day of existence seemed destined to pass into night without a morn." These are Victor Hugo's own words his de- scription of himself as he entered upon his long and event- ful life from 1802 to 1885. That such an entity should have survived; that he should have developed into a phe- nomenal protagonist in the loftiest field of man's intellec- tual achievement, is convincing proof that nothing is im- possible. There must, indeed, have been some purpose in it possibly human progress and development through Victor Hugo's genius. There are few men of note whose inmost nature has been more difficult to reach, for the reason that he has no doubt unintentionally mystified us in this respect. He did this, for example, in his Feuilles d'Automne (Autumn Leaves), published in 1831 a work breathing throughout, sadness, melancholy, disappointment, grief, suffering. 303 304 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING S \ f '; *\ J ^ j> 5 v 'V , \ M f \t H i i j * x -I fe > J|T ^ \vj '* \ r-L I f li j .: K^ ii A Vi(|Nj^ ^ ?[li ^ 'o ^N, M * W * r i I V H )nf Si Jd /t .^ t '0 :< l>1 \ i $ < r\ k M- ^ \ .; it'l* CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 305 That Hugo should at this period of his life, when his physi- cal and mental forces were at their highest, although he was but 29 years of age ; when the whole world was before him ; when he had just published one of his greatest works : "Notre Dame de Paris" ; when his fame and name were already established and had brought him distinction and hosts of perfervid worshipers; when domestic peace and happiness were his ; that he should, at this glorious spring- time of his accumulating greatness, have sounded a note so plaintive a touching wail of his departed youth is indeed strange. The true psychological explanation is not discov- erable in his career his external life and can be found only in his inherent, temperamental sadness, and it does not matter even if in middle life and up to its close, he fought bitter enemies, political persecution, with all the hopeful- ness, tenacity and courage of a character that knew not complaint or despair. Forster, the author of a "Life of Charles Dickens", and Legouve, French Academician, coincide precisely in praise of Hugo as being "in private life what he invariably was; unaffected, amusing, full of anecdote and pleasantry." Even in later years M. Lesclide,his private secretary speaks of the "charm of his conversation which was easy, simple yet full of color, and when he was animated, of an ardent enthusiasm." De Banville also expresses his admiration for Hugo's modesty and urbanity and adds that he was "affable, full of welcome, thinking of everyone, forgetful of himself and retaining no trace of his aristocratic breed- ing, save an exquisite politeness and familiar courtesy. When in his house you felt at home, free, happy, at ease, and warmed by a pleasant atmosphere of affection and tenderness with hospitality of the right kind. 306 HOW TO READ It was after he had reached middle life, and during his exile and residence at Guernsey, that he published his great- est works. His house there was really a part of himself as was Abbotsford of Sir Walter Scott. There, was revealed the aesthetic side of his character. For example, at a time when blue china, old oak and tapestry were practically unknown, Hugo's home was plentifully adorned and embel- lished, and one can easily gauge the congeniality of his labor, its productiveness, and its phenomenal success. Victor Hugo's works give a clear insight into his moral nobility. " Les Miserables," in particular, is an open record of his abhorrence of the "social damnation creating artificial hells in the midst of civilization, and complicating destiny with an element of human fatality." It is a won- derful contribution to the solution of four problems; "the degradation of man through proletarianism, the fall of woman through hunger, and atrophy of the child through night, and social asphyxia through ignorance and misery." In 1864 Victor Hugo returned to France, still the same, faithful, loyal friend, companion and confidential comrade of his sons, their equal in alertness and activity radiant, gay and at all times gracious and good. He was kindness itself to his family, and ever indulgent to them, while his benevolence and good will extended beyond the sacred walls of home to all without its gates. He was something even more and greater than "master, pontiff, king," he was the "man, the 'kindly relation, the friend, and as each he was most lovable." Victor Hugo was essentially great in every sense of the word; in private life, gentle, simple, kind, genial; in his public relations, filled with profound convictions for which he was ever ready to fight and to suffer. CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 307 s Xr\ou*-^ UV\ Oj? C5>S V^ V "V v ^- JU t> x/ HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW HENEY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW DATED 1864 BRITISH MUSEUM THIS is a letter from Longfellow dated Cambridge, Mass., February 1, 1864, to Hiram Corson, the publisher, who issued the edition of Chaucer's "Legende of Good Women," and for a copy of which Longfellow thanks him. If Longfellow had never written a line of poetry, he would have transmitted to posterity a fame in no degree less lustrous than that which has actually been accorded him. "Evangeline," commonly considered the best of his poems, and "Tine Song of Hiawatha" won for him the ad- miration, affection and tender remembrance, not only of his countrymen, but of his friends in foreign lands, and caused them to cherish him as one of the sweetest, kindest, tender- est and noblest of men. It is indeed difficult to name a single human virtue that was not revealed in Longfellow, and the highest praise that can be bestowed upon him as a poet, and the greatest tribute that can be paid to his memory is to say that his life itself was the best, the noblest of poems. To specifically describe his character would be merely to sum up almost all that is divine in human nature. It is therefore sufficient to conclude with the statement that he "united in his strong, transparent humanity almost every virtue ; that no man ever lived more completely in the light than Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. ' ' 308 RALPH WALDO EMERSON DATE 1867 BRITISH MUSEUM REPRODUCTION of part of the original manuscript of an address read before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Harvard University, July 18, 1867, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was later published in " Letters and Social Aims" in 1876. Emerson sounded the keynote of his character at a very early period of his career, when from the pulpit he declared his rejection of the orthodox acceptance of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. He viewed this as intended merely as a token of spiritual remembrance and he therefore dropped the material elements associated with it. Here we have a fearless demonstration of uncompromising, spiritual independence and sincerity of character. Not long after, he expressed himself sincerely in his address to the grad- uating class of the Divinity School at Cambridge in 1838, in which he protested against the unquestioning acceptance of the personal authority of Jesus. This was obviously an attack upon historical Christianity as well as Unitarian- ism, and in the very citadel of puritanism, thus affording further convincing proof of that independence, self-reliance and sincerity that were the foundations of Emerson's char- acter. Starting with this strong mental and moral equipment, he came under the influences of such distinguished con- 309 310 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING 311 temporaries as Carlyle, Swedenborg and Coleridge, result- ing in the rare, finished, unique, productions as poet, philos- opher, mystic and optimist, his Doctrines crystallizing into the philosophy known as Transcendentalism. Briefly described, this philosophy taught that man con- tained within himself all evil and all good ; that the spiritual man has its material counterpart in the external w r orld or nature. It therefore follows that the purpose of life is knowledge of self, which leads to the most exalted of all revelations the God in Man. It is true that many fads and extravagancies marked Emerson's Concord School of Philosophy, and more or lass compromised such distinguished colleagues and followers as Doctor Ripley, Bronson Olcott, Theodore Parker, Mar- garet Fuller and Henry Thoreau ; but while this philosophy identified Emerson with them and subjected him to the derision that was indulged at their expense, there was in him something peculiar; something which seemed superior to all that characterized these other eminent persons, some- thing that turned the point of all weapons and made them glance harmless from him. This was the impenetrable armor of Emerson's most unique personality the very atmosphere of his personal presence, marked by imperturb- able calm, and serene expression. Then there was his placid cheerfulness and trustful repose all indicating that he had found the inner "kindly light" leading him to the spiritual freedom that completely emancipated him from all conventional, earthly restriction and limitations. 312 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING U 5-. 3 LORD ALFRED TENNYSON DATE 1873 BRITISH MUSEUM THIS is part of the original manuscript of the Epilogue to "Idylls of the King," addressed to her Majes'ty, Queen Victoria. "When the news of Byron's death reached Tennyson, it was for him "a day when all the world seemed darkened," and he straightway went into the woods and carved upon a rock : ' ' Byron is dead. ' ' He was then only 15 years old. So much for the impression that Byron had made upon him. Afterwards, and before he was permitted to leave the paternal roof and enter Trinity College, Cambridge, his father compelled him to recite from memory the odes of Horace, by no means a task, for by this time Tennyson had become very productive prematurely so having already written an epic of 6,000 lines at twelve, and a drama in blank verse at fourteen. Tennyson was a great poet at 24 years of age. His volume of poems published at the time, proclaimed him a finished genius; his "Poems Chiefly Lyrical/' brought out in 1830 when he was only 21, revealed "amazing magnifi- cence of fancy," "voluptuous pomp of imagery" and "wonderful melody." The death of Arthur Hallam, Tennyson's intimate friend, 313 314 HOW TO READ for a time seriously threatened his health and his work. On the other hand it caused him to "devote his whole soul to the art of poetry," which finally gained for him the title of leading poet of his age, this title being coincident with the publication in 1842 of a two-volume edition of his poems, including "Locksley Hall," "Ulysses" and "Sir Galahad." Another happening enfeebled Tennyson's health and blunted his pen. Through the persuasion of a promoter he was induced to invest all he possessed and a part of his brothers' and sisters' fortunes in a Patent Decorative Carving Company which collapsed and left him penniless and a victim of nervous prostration. From the effects of this he never recovered completely, although his friend Henry Hallam caused Sir Robert Peel to relieve him per- sonally with an annual pension of 200. With Tennyson's marriage in June, 1850, to Emily Sarah Ellwood, came the turning-point in his worldly fortunes and domestic affairs. It brought him ample compensation for the affliction and misery of his previous years. On the death of Wadsworth, he became poet laureate and devoted himself almost exclusively to the study of ancient literature, especially Homer and Virgil, Milton was also a favorite. With each succeeding year Tennyson continued to add laurels to his crown until he reached the summit of success with his Idylls of the King in 1859, and even in his old age he added to his popularity and greatness by his Holy Grail. Simplicity is perhaps the most prominent of all his quali- ties, a simplicity that despised convention. He was, how- ever, extremely sensitive, affectionate and shy, gentle and sweet, with a tendency to sadness and melancholy, and was keenly alive to the influence of beauty. CHARACTER, PROM HANDWRITING 315 Tennyson certainly ranked among the foremost poets of England. He achieved the maximum of excellence with the minimum of imperfection, the secret of his popularity being in the fact that he was, first of all, an artist. 316 CHARACTER FROM HANDWRITING t 7 ^L *+ ** *g Z a 4 JAPANESE DIARY JAPANESE DIAEY THE Japanese borrowed their system of writing from the Chinese, that is they borrowed rather the characters. These characters are much alike in appearance but they are so utterly different in meaning that the Japanese to-day find it more difficult to learn Chinese than English or French. 317 INDEX TO CHARACTERISTICS to 250 of the characteristics found in the specimens reproduced in this book. The number immediately following each characteristc is the corresponding number illustrated. Many more may be found by the reader. Activity, 18, 169, 323(6) Adaptability, 21, 101, 143 jEsthi-ticism, 338(6), 340(5) Affectation, 32, 298(17), 314(2) Aggressiveness, 299(6), 352(4) Ambition, 18, 59, 128, 325(2) Amiability, 326(9), 326(10) Argumentative ,297(11), 349(4) Aristocratic bearing, 26, 26 (a), 26 (b), 322(1) Arrogance, 322(5) Artistic Inclination, 69, 326(9), 306(10) Artistic taste, 323(10), 326(9) Athleticism and sport, 168, 173 Athletic heart, 309(15), 311(13) Avarice, 97, 136, 299(3) Bashfulness, 112, 294(3), 326(8) Boastfulness, 28, 299(7), 319(6) Brutality, 65, 138, 345(10) Business ability, 40, 308(10), 326(7) " Butters-in," 297(10) Can-fulness, 189 Carelessness, 11, 83 Cautiousness, 191, 314(1) Clearness, 67, 349(3) Clumsiness, 336(4) Closeness, 97, 293(1), 324(16) Coldness, 40, 62, 301(2) Commercial tendencies, 308(10) Common sense, 311(18) Combativeness, 346(17) Conceit, 145 Concentration, 307(2), 317(4), 328(2) Confidence, 18 Conventional, 337(1) Constancy, 84 Contentedness, 322(3), 325(3) Contrariness, 162, 299(6) Conversational ism, 291(3), 293(5), 301(1) Coquetry, 204, 296(5), 319(1) Courage", 111, 199, 316(13) Courtesy, 42, 142 Covetousness, 323(8), 326(7) Cowardice, 19 Criticism, 131, 159, 344(4) Cruelty, 65 Culture, 290(8), 314(5) Cunning, 21, 43(a), 55(b), 55(c), 68, 290(4) Deceitfulness, 21, 43 (a), 44, 182 (a), 324(18) Deduction, 298(16), 312(3) Despotism, 300(13), 346(20) Diligence, 18 Diplomacy, 21, 305(7) Disappointment, 137, 314(3), 342(5) Discouragement, 19, 137 Dishonesty, 65, 182 (a), 330(6), 288(6) Domineering, 196, 297(13) Earning capacity good, 312(1) Eccentricity, 323(1), 296(3) Economy, 8, 14, 30, 31, 149, 288(1) Education, 290(8), 301(5) Egotism, 32, 97, 293(6) Elegance, 292(7) Eloquence, 344(2) Energy, 22, 62, 111, 128, 326(13) Enterprise, 315(4), 342(4) Enthusiasm, 18, 161, 326(9), 315(5) Envy, 139 318 INDEX 319 Epicurean, 324(15) Exactness, 315(2) Exaggeration, 289(7) Excitability, 54, 109 Executive ability, 169 Exclusiveness, " 288(5), 301(2) Extravagance, 9, 315(6) 290(5), Faithfulness, 64, 292(9), 328(6) False pride, 321(1), 322(5), 325(4) Fantastic ideas, 296(2), 300(10) Fickleness, 11, 87, 344(5) Flattery, 141, 153 Forgetfulness, 52, 315(1) Forethought, 315(3), 340(8) Frankness, 64, 288(2), 32"6(12) Friendliness, 324(12), 326(10) Fun-loving, 131 Geniality, 357(1) Generosity, 9, 326(10), 326(11) " Good mixer," 324(13) Good taste, 9, 69, 95, 154 Gossip, 343(8) Gaudiness, 309(21) Harmoniousness, 305(6), 306(10) Harsh nature, 311(17), 319(3) Heart control, 300(8), 304(8) Hopefulness, 18 House tyranny, 307(6), 311(11) Heart trouble, 309(15), 311(13) Humor, 132, 324(14) Humility, 347(24) Hypocrisy, 21, 43 (a), 44, 65, 182 (a) Idealism, 123, 315(5) Illness, 307(5), 311(10) Imagination, 53, 134, 325(5) Immoderateness, 109 Importance, 136 Impudence, 309(19) Impulsiveness, 338(7) Individuality, 346(19) Inactivity, 170 Inconsiderateness, 65, 65 (a), 163 Indecision, 236, 348(33) Independence, 123, 183, 322(1) Inner sorrow, 293(3) Insincerity, 330(7) Intrigue, 182 (a) Intuition, 121, 122 Insolence, 312(2), 313(2) Intolerance, 346(19) Jealousy, 138 Jollity, 132, 326(12) Lack of courage, 91 Lack of independence, 20, 82, 109 Laziness, 19, 03 Leadership, 322(1) Level-headedness, 67, 171 Liar, 65, 289(7), 315 (8 f Liberality, 9, 95, 98, 99, 101, 154 Literary interests, 291(4) Literary ability, 301(5) Liveliness, 323(6), 325(5) Logic, 119, 126, 289(10), 312(3) Loquaciousness, 52, 53, 288(2) Love of admiration, 309(21) Love of flattery, 153 Love of family life, 323(10), 307(7) Love of justice, 64, 157 Love of dress, 296(5) Love of art, 304(6) Love of good eating, 291(6), 297(9), 326(12) Love of music, 332(12) Love of luxury, 108, 307(3), 308(14) Love of outdoor life, 161 Love of pleasure, 308(14) Luxuriousness, 307(3) Malice, 345(12) Maliciousness, 345(12) Materialism, 316(12) Meanness, 97, 291(5), 315(9) Memory good, 292(9), 339(12> Mentality weak, 307(5), 311(10) Mental depression, 343(6) Mental vanity, 68 Mercantile ability, 308(10) Methodical, 332(11), 338(1), 338(3) Modesty, 31, 322(2), 339(14) Money-maker, 308 (11) Morality, 303(4), 305(7) Musical inclinations, 306(10) Mischief, 345(12) Narrow-mindedness, 296(2), 300(10) 320 INDEX Nervousness, 89 Nobility, 235 Obedience, 347(27) Openness, 310(1) Opposition, 297(11), 299(6) Order, 10, 291(4) Organization, 169 Originality, 289(9), 292(7), 340(7) Palpitation of heart, 311(15) Passionateness, 38, 54, 65, 110, 114 Perseverance, 303(1), 326(13) Persistence, 347(30) Plainness, 309(20), 311(18) Poor health, 74, 311(13), (14), (15), 356(6) Positiveness, 128, 139, 300(8) Precaution, 188, 191, 355(1) Precision, 10 Pretension, 301(6), 302(9) Prevarication, 109, 288(7), 315(8) Pride, 308(13) Pride of family, 312(5), 322(1) Promptness, 315(2) Protectiveness, 210 Prudence, 57, 316(16) Quarrelsomeness, 159 Quick temper, 177, 345(14) Reasoning power, 111, 126 Reserve, 56, 57, 156, 326(14) Resisting power, strong, 156, 302(3) Resisting power, weak, 300(9) Sadness, 346(18) Satire, 324(14) Sarcasm, 319(4) Scolding person, 307(6) Secretiveness, 56, 288(1), 290(1) Self-admiration, 301(3) Self-centered, 311(12) Self-consciousness, 29, 54, 322(1) Self-control, 176, 317(1) Self-praise, 145, 173, 294(2) Self-confidence, 204 ( 1 ) Selfishness, 13, 68, 97, 145 Sensitiveness, 36, 37, 109, 323(9) Sensuality, 311(9) Sensuousness, 53, 54, 108, 109 Sexual desires very strong, 110, 316(11) Severity, 62, 314(6) Shrewdness, 55, 145 (a), 288(4) Sharp dealing, 317(3) Shyness, 312(6) Sickness, 298(15) Simplicity, 31, 185, 304(9) Sincerity, 17, 60 Snobbishness, 314 (2) , 319(2), 322(1) Sociability, 132, 324(13) Sorrow, 291 (1 ) Spendthrift ways, 99, 100 Spirituality, 167 Stinginess, 8, 97, 315(8) Strength, 294 ( 1 ) , 323 ( 7 ) Steadfastness, 17, 336(7), 339(9) Stubbornness, 303(2), 326(14) Suavity, 21 Subserviency, 322(2), 347(24) Suffering, 291(1), 293(3) Subordination, 322(2), 325(1) Superficiality, 90 Suspicion, 192, 302(7) Symmetry, 301(4), 302(6) Sybaritic, 324(15), 326(12) 291(3), 293(5), Tact, 305(7) Talkativeness, 324(13) Temper, quick, 343(9) Timidity, 336(3) Thrift, 14, 30, 149 Trustworthiness, 17, 60 Tyranny, 65 Unscrupulousness, 65, 191, 192 Vanity, 32, 80, 173, 296(5) Versatility, 101, 315(6), 332(13) Violence, 59, 150, 343(9) Wastefulness, 9 Wavering, 19 Weak character, 20, 296(1), 300(9), 346(18) Whimsicality, 109 Will-power, strong, 114, 336(6) Will-power, weak, 109 "Windy" talkers, 299(7) Wit, 132, 348(32) University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. m 19'90 REC'DCl 08 1S90 P 3 1991 < A 000 071 325 5