by the hand forming
the outlines described than if they were provided in pictorial form. In
other words, the student should supply this purposeful omission by
himself constructing the illustrations from the description. The
trifling extra time and trouble thus demanded will be amply repaid by
the ease and rapidity with which the various points will be fixed in the
memory. Nor is this the only advantage to be gained. The act of
reproducing the illustration cited will emphasise and render clear
technical and mechanical features that would require many words to
explain, with the attendant risk of confusing the mind by mere verbiage.

The material and opportunity for practising and studying the comparison
of handwritings are abundant. Every letter written or read affords a
subject, and in a surprisingly short space of time the student will find
himself instinctively noting and analysing peculiarities in handwriting
that probably never arrested his attention before. The principles of the
art are exceedingly simple and free from complexity, and many a person
who takes up the study will find that he possesses powers of analysis
and observation unguessed before. The most successful expert is he who
observes most closely and accurately, and the faculty needs only the
spur of an objective point for it to be developed.

After a little practice, experience will suggest many methods of
examination and test not dealt with here. For example, photographic
enlargements can be and are utilised with great advantage by bringing
out minute details, especially in signatures, erasures and alterations.
Interesting experiments can be made with a view to discovering the
effect of different kinds of ink--important in settling the question
whether the whole of a particular writing was done with one fluid, and
at the same time, or at intervals.

The study of erasures and alterations of figures or characters also
comes within the scope of developments of the art which it is not deemed
necessary to deal with at length in these pages, for after experience
will suggest their use and the best methods of procedure. For the
beginner the instructions given in the chapters that follow will be
found amply sufficient to direct him how to take up a fascinating and
practical accomplishment, and this, with no further aid than his own
judgment, perseverance and powers of observation and deduction.

CHAPTER I.

THE PRINCIPLES OF HANDWRITING ANALYSIS.