282 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



thoughts, our instincts, our very natures find expression in the tones 

 of the voice; we are familiar with the effeminate voice, the manly voice, 

 the sympathetic voice, the mean voice. Our hands also tell similar 

 stories, hut we have never learned to recognize them because we have 

 not thought the matter worth considering. No facts whatever are yet 

 settled concerning the relation between character and writing, yet that 

 need not trouble us. It is a well-established law that our mind seeks 

 expression by movements and that the practise of the movements tends 

 to confirm the condition of mind that produces them. Certain atti- 

 tudes are connected by repetition with devotional impulses; the mere 

 assumption of such an attitude will arouse the same impulses. The 

 careful putting of our best instincts into our writing on every occasion 

 can not but have some of the moral effect attributed to such a practise 

 by the Japanese, and the constant effort at clearness, correctness and 

 gracefulness in expression must inevitably have some influence on our 

 inner selves. 



