There are always two divisions of handwriting, the formal hand employed for clerk’s work, and a freer, less mechanical, less careful style, used for private correspondence.  Writing was a profession only understood by a few, and as late as the sixteenth century, when it was necessary to communicate with persons at a distance, a professional scribe was employed to write the letter.  But letter-writing was rare and did not become general till after the close of the sixteenth century, and even then it was restricted to the upper classes of society.

Fashion changes in everything.  Every generation had its own particular type of writing.  Compare, for instance, any bundle of letters taken at random, out of an old desk or library.  It is quite easy to sort them into bundles in sequence of dates, and also guess accurately the age and position of the writers.  The flowing Italian hand, used by educated women early in the nineteenth century, has now developed into a bold, decisive, almost masculine writing.

It will be found that most professions have special characteristics in writing and these are all liable to change, according to circumstances and writing is the clearest proof of both bodily and mental condition, for in case of paralysis, or mental aberration, the doctor takes it as a certain guide.

The most noticeable movement by which cultured people recognize one another are the play of the features, the gait, talking and writing.  Of these evidences the last named is the most infallible, for by a few hasty lines we may recognize again a person whom we neither see nor hear, and enjoy in addition the advantage of being able to compare quietly and at our leisure the traits of one individual thus expressed with the characteristics of another.  There are not many men to be found in any walk of life who do not endeavor to conceal to some extent, however slight, their true views and emotions, when brought into close contact with their fellow-beings.  But the mind photographs itself unsuspectingly in the movements of the hands, by the use of pen and ink away from all alien observation, and with the rigid unchangeable witness in our possession the character of the author of the manuscript lies open to the gaze of the intelligent reader.

In this way handwriting becomes much more individual than any other active sign of personality.  It varies more, it is more free, it represents the individual less artificially than voice or gesture.  There must exist between the form and arrangements of letters in words and lines, on the one hand, and certain individual peculiarities of the writer, on the other, some kind of connection.  It is strange that no scientific writing has ever yet been undertaken, for it seems conclusive that handwriting is a kind of voiceless speaking, consequently a phenomenon, and therefore an operation which lies within the province of physiology.

Yet there are no books or studies on the subject of disputed handwriting up to the present time, short newspaper and magazine articles and sketches being the only contributions the public has been favored with up to the publication of this work.