1886.1 " [Frazer. 



changes of the weather, &c, &c, is not likely to be rewarded by striking 

 results, except to the extent which I have stated above, because these 

 curves are composed of data taken at such intervals of time that there is no 

 necessary sequence between them ; they are affected by causes which are in 

 no respect to be likened to the gradual unfolding of human expression by 

 relaxations and constrictions of the muscles, the sum of all the changes 

 not perceptibly altering the field first obtained, but altering the "values," 

 as the artist call3 it, or the relative importance of the roles assumed by 

 each unit of the image to the rest. These changes are as characteristic and 

 delicate in the line made voluntarily by a living being as in the lines 

 which its form involuntarily makes on the retina, and therefore one set is 

 as susceptible of concentration and averaging as the other. 



The merely formal and always repeated parts of a letter or other 

 document have an entirely different character value from those parts 

 which are composed of words and letters thrown together to represent 

 a certain state of things, and which may never be repeated in exactly 

 the same order. Obviously no composite of phrases can be expected un- 

 less the phrase have a technical significance, but separate words can be 

 selected to form bases of composites, or even the two or three words 

 which enter into an idiom, one of those well-trodden short cuts of lan- 

 guage to a given idea. Such partial phrases (rendered frequently in 

 other languages by a single word), as "in order that;" "as well as;" 

 "not only;" "but also," &c, will be found in the handwriting of any 

 one accustomed to write much, and may be taken as elements out of which 

 to construct composites of the words of which they consist ; but the value 

 of such elements in helping one to a knowledge of the character of the 

 person who penned them, or even of the general character of the writers' 

 handwriting is not as great in these cases as it is in the signature aud the 

 few formal words which precede it in a letter. There are several reasons 

 for this ; one is that these formulas occur in different connections with the 

 accompanying text, indicating very different attitudes of mind in the 

 several cases. The sense of what is written must have a large influence 

 in the manner of writing it, and therefore the letters composing these 

 words will be larger or lighter ; or more or less quickly and angularly writ- 

 ten as the idea of the sentence by reflex action evokes different emotions 

 in the mind of the writer. A circumstance equally noticeable will be the 

 place on the paper which the words occupy ; whether there is an abund- 

 ance of room to write the words, or whether they are cramped in order to 

 bring them into a smaller space. In cases where the words of such a sub- 

 phrase are divided between two lines, they will almost surely not appear 

 as they would when they follow each other in their natural order. But 

 more even than these is the fact that the signature and its connected 

 words, "Yours truly," &c, are always indicative of the task completed, 

 the information conveyed. They are words of ceremony and endorse- 

 ment, no matter what the contents of the letter may be. They are invari- 

 ably repeated and come to be a purely conventional sign, of which the 



