varying inflections of voice have gone, but we still possess the
self-registered and characteristic tracings of Charles Dickens's
hand-gesture.


[Illustration: NO. 1.--FAMILIAR "BOOK COVER" SIGNATURE.]

[Illustration: NO. 2.--WRITTEN IN 1825.]

In No. 1 we have the signature of Dickens as he wrote it when aged
forty-five to fifty; in No. 2 there is the boy's signature at the age of
thirteen, written to a school-fellow. This youthful signature shows the
existence in embryo form of the "flourish" so commonly associated with
Dickens's signature. It is interesting to note that the receiver of this
early letter has stated that its schoolboy writer had "more than usual
flow of spirits, held his head more erect than lads ordinarily do," and
that "there was a general smartness about him." We shall perhaps see
that the direct emphasis of so many of Charles Dickens's signatures
which is given by his "flourish" may be fitly associated with certain
characteristics of the man himself. We may also note that high spirits
and vigorous nervous energy are productive of redundant nerve-muscular
activity in any direction--hand gesture included.

[Illustration: AGE 18. _From a Miniature by Mrs. Janet Barrow_.]

Let us look at some other early signatures. Hitherto they have been
stowed away in various collections, and they are almost unknown.

[Illustration: NO. 3.--WRITTEN IN 1830.]