The Mystery of Handwriting. By J. Harington Keane. (Lee and
Shepard, Boston.)—Mr. Keane, like all empiricists, holds that to dub any set of disconnected observations with a Greek word ending in "elegy" is to create a new science. To talk seriously of " graphology" as though the word implied the proved results of scientific reasoning, is utter rubbish. The faintest glimmer of common-sense will at once show how slight is the foundation on which this flimsy superstructure is raised. We may all admit that handwriting (as for the matter of that the way a man ties his shoes or wears his gloves) reveals at times the inner character. A careless man usually writes carelessly, an untidy man untidily ; a neat, precise, and orderly lady will not, as a rule, pepper her note-paper, like Dick Swiveller, with blots. So far we may safely go, though even hero the exceptions are numerous. One of the most smart and feminine characters of our acquaintance writes a large, bold, aggressive, masculine hand which would do credit to Oliver Cromwell, while an eminent statesman, who is reputed to be a man of nerve and decision, writes a small, feeble, shaky hand, which might be taken for that of a nervous old lady in hourly fear of burglars. Handwriting, like all human acquirements, is a matter of education, though Mr. Keane seems to think, with Dogberry, that it comes by the grace of God. We write as a rule as we have been taught at school ; and with all of us the faculty of mere imitation largely enters into the thing. if a particular way of crossing one's " t's " or dotting one's " i's " really bore the moral significance which it conveys to this ingenious American " graphologist," then we may be sure that everybody would at once adopt so simple a method of revealing a noble mind. The book is, however, amusing, especially when the author is striving to appear serious ; while the specimens of handwriting and the signatures of eminent persons are admirably reproduced owing to the ingenious form of the volume.
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