Illustration number eight is worthy of close study and imitation. This boy was looking at some object at a distance. In this position you should practice the movement. Test the movement here, and see if you can feel the action of the muscle of the forearm as it rests on the desk.
DEFINITION OF MOVEMENT
Muscular movement as applied to writing, is the movement of the muscles of the arm from the shoulder to the wrist, with the larger part of the arm below the elbow on the desk, the fingers not being held rigid, but remaining passive, and neither extended nor contracted in the formation of letters. In this movement the driving power is located above the elbow in the upper muscles of the arm.
Examine your right arm. Notice the increasing size from the wrist to the elbow. Note particularly the elasticity of the muscles. On the elasticity and development of those muscles depends your success in learning a good style of writing. (Reread this and make sure that you thoroughly understand what muscular movement means before going ahead, because your success depends upon it.)
HOW TO DEVELOP MUSCULAR ACTION
Place your arm on the desk and close the fingers of the right hand tightly. (Number nine.) See how far you can move the hand forward and backward without slipping the sleeve or without any motion of the wrist or fingers.
Can you move that hand through space a sufficient distance to make any capital? Could you make a capital through two or three lines of the paper, two or three times larger than necessary, without any action of the fingers?
To the Teacher: You should again examine your students on lesson one and also on this lesson.
