McLeod. — ''Giotto's Circle" and Writing. 491 



Akt. LX. — " Giotto's Circle " and Writing. 

 By H. N. McLeod. 



[Read before the Wellington Plnlosophical Society, 15th Jajiuary, 1901.] 



By the statement that " the ability to form a perfect circle 

 with pen or pencil is the ability to write well," by which this 

 note might be summarised, it may appear that a similar 

 principle underlies proficiency in handwriting to that which 

 lay in the art of Giotto, the correctness of whose belief in 

 the efficacy of a perfect circle as his sole testimonial to his 

 being an expert in his art was justified not only by his 

 receiving the commission, but, more than that, in the fame 

 which the incident has acquired. The connection between 

 this famous circle and handwriting, or the phase of hand- 

 writing dealt with herein, is put forth in the light that there 

 is nothing new under the sun ; for, though the point to be 

 brought under notice is original as far as it goes, it must 

 frequently have been acted on in principle, and probably to 

 some extent in practice, the point being the offering for con- 

 sideration a simple means by which to counteract the en- 

 vironment, if this term may be applied, which adversely 

 besets many who desire to write well. If it be granted that a 

 circle was the keynote of the art of Giotto, then I wish to 

 suggest that a circle may also be the keynote of good hand- 

 writing. 



The probability of an average writer improving by ordi- 

 nary intelligent practice until his penmanship is above the 

 average for legibility and grace is beyond question, and it is 

 quite possible that, in some modification or other, what is 

 herein set forth has been put into practice before. 



On considering illegibility, it seemed to me chiefly caused 

 by angularities ; this, it may be stated, being the case where 

 it occurs among the scores of handwritings which I have 

 the opportunity of seeing in the course of ordinary daily 

 routine. This being so, the way to meet and overcome this 

 illegibility, or tendency towards it, is clearly to replace the 

 angles with curves, and the most perfect curve for the pur- 

 pose is a circle. Moreover, angularity in style appeared to 

 be but the efforts of the muscles used in writing, restricted 

 by the bones of the fingers and thumb, to take the line of 

 least resistance, which is a straight, or nearly straight, 

 line, to which must be added the lateral motion of the 

 wrist ; for this may be seen by the ease in making " 1 " 

 well more easily than " 0." Another point, too, in writing 



