Professor Foli, in his very useful work, "Handwriting as an Index to Character" (London: C. A. Pearson, Ltd.), says:
"The changes which handwriting undergoes as maturity is reached prove how directly it is influenced by the nervous condition of the writer.
"The writing proper to childhood is large, round and accompanied by a laboured pen movement; whereas that which is normal as manhood or womanhood is attained is smaller, and turned off by a more rapid and fluent motion of the hand.
"Illness, again, affects the writing. As the hand is charged with more or less of the nerve fluid, so the writing is stronger or weaker, firmer or feebler, as the case may be.
"This goes to show the important influence which the nerve current exerts in fashioning the handwriting. Small wonder that our handwriting alters day by day. Yet it does not alter either. So far as its general appearance is concerned I grant it seems to do so. But look at the really significant points of the writing written at different times. Give a glance at the height at which the 'i' is dotted, the way in which the 't' is barred, the manner in which the letters are, or are not, connected and finished off. These things will crop up with unerring uniformity time after time.
"You do, of course, get a studied handwriting now and then, just as you sometimes meet with a formed facial expression. But that does not express the true character, simply because the control over the feelings or the power of disguising what is felt is a salient point in the character; and this very fact will serve to show that there is truth in graphology.
"That the pen, whether it be a fine or a broad pointed nib, plays a certain part in determining the thickness or thinness of the strokes, I am willing to allow, but here again we have no argument against graphology, for most people have their favourite nib—just as they prefer one occupation to another—and this is the one which will best serve to define their characteristics. The same with the surface of the paper upon which they write; some will select a smooth, others a rough kind, but whatever that may be which is adopted with comfort, it will be typical of the writer."
The following are some of the more marked signs of the character they indicate. For a fuller exposition of their application it would be well to study the work of Foli, before mentioned, and of Rosa Baughan (Upcott Gill, London, 2s. 6d.), with the scholarly work of J. Crépieux-Jainin, entitled, "Handwriting and Expression," translated by J. Holt Schooling.
General Characteristic.—The fineness of an organism will be revealed by a fine light penstroke. Coarse, low natures make heavy blurred entangled lines.