Page:Theory and Practice of Handwriting.djvu/103

Rh the last written downstroke, then for all four positions of the Copy Book the proposition holds good that downstroke and line of direction approximately coincide. This relation can be confirmed by measurement in every School, where the children write without being subject to influence or constraint. Experiments made by Dr. Schubert with 316 Scholars embracing some 1586 measurements fully supported this hypothesis. It would lead too far to pursue in detail the process of movement in writing, in order to explain the agreement of the downstrokes with their lines of direction in every position of the Copy Book. Suffice it to say that the relation put forward is abundantly approved. Since therefore in Middle position the downstrokes stand perpendicular to the edge of the desk, they will stand perpendicular also to the edge of the Copy Book and to the writing line if the Copy Book is placed straight.

If however the latter be turned with its upper edge towards the left, the writing lines rise from left (below) to right (above) but the downstrokes remain as before perpendicular to the edge of the desk, hence they come to stand in a right oblique position as regards the writing line, and their obliquity depends on the degree of the turning of the Copy: we repeat consequently that Vertical Writing can be written in Straight Middle Position, and Sloping Writing  in the oblique. In all right positions the downstrokes like their lines of direction stand right oblique to the edge of the desk. If now the edge of the Copy Book is parallel to the latter the letters stand just as oblique to the writing line also. Should the Copy Book be turned towards the left the inclination of the down strokes towards the writing line increases. But never in right position can vertical writing be produced; for to attain this object, the Copy Book would have to be turned in the direction in which the hands of a watch move, so that the lines would run from left above to right below. To write in this way is impossible.

Consequently in straight and oblique positions, only sloping writing can be produced.

From this standpoint we then advance to the principal