12 NOVEMBER 1892, Page 12

HANDWRITING AND CHARACTER.

THERE are few observant people who have not formed, instinctively perhaps, some kind of system by which they judge the character of strangers, though very often they would find themselves quite incapable of stating upon what reasoning their judgment was based. In most cases, they are simply aware of being prejudiced against or in favour of another person, without having made any conscious analysis of the actions, words, or outward appearances which have so prejudiced them. For a man's character cannot help revealing itself more or less in his actions ; and the methods by which it finds expression are so various that, in seizing their general import, one loses sight of the particular and individual in- stances. Setting aside the spoken word, by which we fancy that we can judge a man's disposition and thought most surely, we form many a just conclusion from the expression of a face and the movements of the body. From gesture, in fact : for facial expression is nothing but the gesture of facial muscles, stereotyped by use and habit, and the movements of the body are as much controlled by the owner's will and character as are those muscles by which he more immediately expresses his emotions. We are all agreed that a man's face generally betrays him ; why, then, should we doubt that his handwriting is equally tell-tale ? If his expression of face reveals the habit of the play of his emotional muscles, then is his handwriting the registration of his gesture, and a man's hand is almost as expressive of his immediate emotion or habitual disposition as are his facial muscles. The world was willing to admit that Lavater's studies of physiognomy were capable of leading to useful results, and it might well admit the same of the new science of graphology. M. Crepieux- Jamin, whose book, " l'Ecritnre et le Caractere," has been recently translated into English, has certainly done his best towards raising the pursuit of graphology from the level of an interesting but useless pastime to that of a scientific inquiry, in that he treats of his subject after a reasonable fashion, and in a scientific spirit. Whether or not it is capable of further development and promotion to the rank of an exact science, remains to be seen; for one cannot prophesy of the future of an inquiry which is yet in its infancy.

If, indeed, the study of graphology could lead to such results as M. Crepieax-Jamin expects, then it would be one of the greatest interest and of the widest utility. Experts in handwriting would be as much in request for consul- tation as doctors, and their verdicts would be fraught with even more importance to those who consulted them. We should trust no man ; we should take to ourselves no partners, matrimonial or otherwise, without first asking the opinion of graphologists ; and, naturally, we should hasten to consult them as to our own mental condi- tion, and strive vigorously to get rid of those besetting sins and failings whose influence might mar our caligraphy. Happily for our peace of mind, graphology, we think, is never likely to attain to the importance that its students predict for it. In the first place, the main principle upon which they base their theories is not altogether beyond dispute, and, even if it were, it would be insufficient by itself to support all the arguments that they have built upon it. This is the pro- position which M. Crepieux-Jamin and his friends expect us to accede to. and upon which the whole of their inquiry practically depends. "Handwriting may be considered as a combination of gestures expressive of personality, and thus a relation exists between character and handwriting of the same order as between character and gesture." We do not deny that there does exist a certain relation between character and gesture, and that it is one so generally accepted that most people are influenced by its manifestations. Nor would we deny that character can find an expression in the minute gestures of the hand, which evidence themselves in the action of writing, as well as in the larger and more visible gestures of the limbs. But we know that our interpretation of gesture is not only a purely arbi- trary one, founded upon no certain and assured truths, but also one that it is largely modified and corrected by all kinds of attendant circumstances. A. shy young man and a half-detected pickpocket may show their nervous discomfort by exactly the same bodily signs, even by the same facial display ; and we are enabled to distinguish between the two manifestations by knowledge that is in no way derived from gesture. In the case of handwriting, we have nothing to judge from but the record of pure gesture. Moreover, there are exceptions to every rule, and to the rules that we construct for ourselves in the interpretation of gesture there are very many 'exceptions. All men do not express the same emotion in the same way, neither do they express a like character by the same gesture. One has only to look round a gambling-table to be convinced of the difficulty of making any hard-and-fast law in either respect. It is impossible to associate the idea of a 'consuming passion, combined with a miserably weak will and a sickening anxiety of mind, with a face that is as coldly im- passive as that of the croupier himself, or to guess that the trantic gestures upon the other side of the table are made by a man who cares nothing for his losses, but is merely addicted to an exaggerated display of every passing feeling, although

• he himself is as little capable of feeling his own troubles as he is insensible towards those of his neighbour. How often, too, do we find an abrupt, hectoring manner in one who is absolutely incapable of bullying; and a hesitating, suave, • and gentle demeanour in another whose obstinate self-will - does not stop at gaining its end by cruelty ? It is true that we instinctively express emotion and character after certain forms ; but Nature, that has given man the instinct of expression, has also given him the instinct of self-pre- servation, and the latter prompts him with the desire _ to hide and disguise expressions which may call a dan- gerous attention to his weakness. Hence it is that the nervous man will often put on the appearance of the bully, and the coarse-minded brute will strive to hide his real nature by an almost exaggerated gentleness and delicacy of action,—both very often with a very fair measure of success. It may be urged in answer, that in the matter of handwriting a man is off his guard, and therefore incapable of this deceit. We do not think so : unconsciously the same instinct that con- trols his greater gestures will also control even the most minute ; indeed, if it does not, the main proposition of the graphologist breaks down. But when we come to consider the system which M. Crepieux-Jamin has based upon this proposition, and the part that is played in it by pure conjecture, our faith in this would-be science is rudely shaken. Nevertheless, it is, we admit, an extremely ingenious one; far more ingenious, indeed, than convincing. There are, he says, in every different handwriting certain general signs which distinguish it from another, such as the hand- writing ascending or descending across the page, signs, respectively, of hopefulness or depression ; large writing and small writing betokening high aspirations and pettiness ; -angular letters and rounded letters showing obstinacy and gentleness ; and many others. There are also "particular signs "—one hundred and seventy distinct ones have been dis- covered so far—which relate to the separate letters, the finals, dots, crosses, &c. Combinations of general and particular -signs give what he calla "resultant characteristics." These modify each other in certain proportions, and from them is deduced the character of the writer. This system he works

• out with great elaboration, and with very considerable plausi- bility. So plausible does it sound, that one has to remind oneself continually that there is no proof of the true signifi- cance of these signs at all, and that it is merely by guess- work that a long bar to a "t," beginning thickly, and ending in a point, is assumed to show maliciousness of dis- position, that a serpentine bar shows gaiety, and a hooked bar tenacity in action. It may be that a man who dots his " i's " -very high is possessed of a religious spirit, and that another, who scatters the dots indiscriminately, suffers from asthma ;

• but, after all, we have only M. Crepieux-Jamin's word to sup- - port that belief.

The scientific graphologist is eager to disclaim the assistance of any occult law in his divination of character by hand- . writing. For our part, if a graphologist were ever really suc- cessful in giving a faithful account of an unusual character, • based solely upon the view of the subject's handwriting, and without any other means of forming an opinion, we should be quite as disposed to believe that he did it by some occult means, akin to thought-reading, as to give the credit to an exact science of graphology.

• Still, as we have already said, the study is capable of yielding certain broad results, which are of no small interest to students of human characteristics. In the meantime, to judge from the columns of certain weekly journals, graphology is by no means unpopular, and its professors seem to reap a con- siderable harvest from its pursuit. We fear, however, that these latter gentlemen hardly follow it in the same earnest spirit and with the same singleness of purpose displayed by M. Crepieux-Jamin.