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[Illustration: Ornamental Penmanship.]

ORNAMENTAL PENMANSHIP


Charming and fascinating are the graceful and harmonious curves
produced, when, wielded by some trained and skillful hand, the pen
becomes an instrument of beauty. As by the power of speech, men may
pass from the common tone of conversation up to the melodious strains
of music, or may soar in flights of oratory into the sublime, until
the multitude is entranced; so the capabilities of the pen are not
limited to the common uses of life, but may take on forms of beauty in
elegant outlines of bird, or landscape, or graceful swan or bounding
stag.

Ornamental writing is not a practical art, and has no connection
whatever with the practical business of life. It is in the realm
of poetry. The imagery of graceful outlines must first be seen by a
poetic imagination. While the great masses may acquire a good style
of plain, practical penmanship, few have the necessary conception
of mind, combined with the skill and dexterity of hand to become
successful ornamental penmen.

The ornamental pages which follow are given, not as models for
imitation or practice by the learner, but merely to show the
possibilities of the pen in the hand of a master, and as a fitting
closing to this, our chapter on penmanship.