The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-03-27
The Art OF Writing


through q mass of correspondence,
whether it is possible to teach good
writing. The doubt may seem absurd,
considering that the majority of civil
lied mankind can write, that every
qualified teacher among 100000 or
100000 in Western Europe thinks him
self or herself competent to teach the
art, and that there must be some hun
dreds of men in England, or possibly
some thousands, who make a living of
some sort by practicing this speciality.
Everybody, we shall be told. is taught,
and some few people write well, and
consequently to teach people to write
well must be possible. Still, we have
this little bit of evidence in favor of
hesitation. Nobody ever saw any
body who wrote thoroughly good
hand, and who had been regularly
taught to do so. Good handwritings
exist, undoubtedly, and are, we should
say, rapidly on the increase; but the
possessors of the art never admit that
they acquired it through teaching, and in
the majority of cases never were taught.
When cross-examined they always af-
firm that some man or woman taught
them to write, and that then a certain
inclination or compulsion of circum-
stance, or desire to do everything well,
or, in frequent instances, q caste-feel-
ing, provoked them to teach them
selves to write well. They were not
taught, except in the most rudimen-
tary sense of the word, and we don't
know how they should be. Tutors and
governesses have all caught up a sys-
tenn from the professional writing mas
tiers, and the professional writing mas
tiers are all dominated by two ideas,
which are radically false. We always
glance over the books they publish,
and have read through new one this
week, which we do not intend to ad-
vertise in this article, as they are all
alike. They all think that cooper
plate writing" the special hand of
writing masters and bank clerks, is
good writing, which it is not, being
devoid of character, far too regular in
form and, from the multiplicity of fine
upstrokes, not easy to read; and they
all believe that certain mechanical mo-
tions, if carefully taught, will produce
clear writing. They will not and they
do not. There never were two
people yet in this world of ours
who wrote exactly alike or who
have the same control of their
fingers or who ought, in order to
produce good writing, to have held
their pens alike, and the effort to make
them do it only spoils their natural ca
liabilities. No doubt those capabilities
are often naturally very small. The
number of persons who are by nature
not deft with their fingers is very large,
and so is the number of those who can
not fix their attention; while the num-
Der of those who can do nothing well
which they must do rapidly probably
exceeds both. The difficulty of teach
! ing grown man to write decently is
almost inconceivable-he seems never
to see what is wanted-and something
of that difficulty attaches to a vast pro-
portion of children. Still, all persons
not deformed or crippled in the hand,
or deficient in eyesight, can be taught
to write, and the reason why they are
| not taught properly must be some in.
herent defect in the system. We be.
lieve it to be the one we mentioned, the
effort to enforce certain method, in.
stead of trying to secure certain re.
suit. The unhappy child, who is almost
always, we admit necessarily, taught
too early, is instructed to hold himself
orherself in particular attitude, which
is sure to be the wrong one for five
sights in ten, the proper attitude de.
pending on the length of the child's
vision; to hold the pen at a particular
angle, which is also wrong, The fitting
angle depending on the character Of
the pen and holder, and to grasp the
pen at certain distance from the nib.
which is arbitrarily fixed, whereas the
distance must be governed by the for.
nation and strength of the child's fin.
gers, and would be infinitely better left
to his or her own instinct. Above all.
there is perpetual worry about the
resting" of the hand, though the
easiest position varies with every child,
and though no two men with much
writing to do rest the fingers quite
alike. The pupil is then taught to
make lines in certain direction, and
to copy characters so large that thew
have no resemblance to writing at ali,
and to care particularly about ur
strokes and down strokes, and all man.
ner of minutie, which, if they are Of