g the Romans--will always be implied.
The small or "minuscule" letters, which present nomenclature includes under
the general title of "Roman" letters, and which will be considered in the
following chapter, were of later formation than the capitals; and indeed
only attained their definitive and modern form after the invention of
printing from movable types.

The first point to be observed in regard to the general form of the Roman
capital is its characteristic squareness. Although the letter as used
to-day varies somewhat in proportions from its classic prototype, its
skeleton is still based on the square.

Next to this typical squareness of outline, the observer should note that
the Roman letter is composed of thick and thin lines. At first sight it may
seem that no systematic rules determine which of these lines should be
thick and which thin; but closer investigation will discover that the
alternate widths of line were evolved quite methodically, and that they
exactly fulfil the functions of making the letters both more legible and
more decorative. Arbitrary rearrangements of these thick and thin lines,
differing from the arrangement of them in the classic examples, have, [2]
indeed, been often attempted; but such rearrangements have never resulted
in improvement, and, except in eccentric lettering, have fallen into
complete disuse.

The original thickening and thinning of the lines of the classic Roman
capitals was partly due to the imitation in stone inscriptions of the
letter forms as they were written on parchment with the pen. The early
Latin scribes held their stiff-nibbed reed pens almost directly upright and
at right angles to the writing surface, so that a down stroke from left to
right and slanted at an angle of about forty-five degrees would bring the
nib across the surface broadwise, resulting in the widest line possible to
the pen. On the other hand, a stroke drawn at right angles to this, the pen
being still held upright, would be made with the thin edge of the nib, and
would result in the narrowest possible line. From this method of handling
the pen the variations of line width in the standard Roman forms arose; and
we may therefore deduce three logical rules, based upon pen use, which will
determine the proper distribution of the thick and thin lines:

I, Never accent horizontal lines. II, Always accent the sloping down
strokes which run from left to right, including the so-called "swash"
lines, or