I sometimes think : essays for the young people / by Stephen Paget.

  • Stephen Paget
Date:
1916
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: I sometimes think : essays for the young people / by Stephen Paget. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    53/176 page 37
    this behaviour of the margin sets us thinking of the inequality between the right hand and the left hand: and we argue that a right-handed man would drive his margin to the left, but a left-handed man, with the pen in his right hand, would let his margin drift to the right. But the same man will slope his margin at one time to the right, at another time to the left: which sets us thinking of the inequality between the two sides of the brain. But I doubt whether left- handed people are merely left-handed: I believe that they are left-sided ; that their measurement is larger, and their bodily growth more active, all down the left side. A crooked margin may signify nothing, or next to nothing: but the tilting up or down of the ends of the last few lines of a page is a more serious matter. For it sometimes goes with real failure of brain-power. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. None the less, it may be a danger-signal. The underlining of words is a habit which grows apace in us, till we underline not once but twice: I have even seen a word astride of three lines: it had the air of an orator on a Hyde Park platform. Underlining is old-fashioned now. Queen Victoria made frequent use of it; and it does ease the business of letter-writing. If it be excessive, it tends to become ineffective: with moderate use, it gives a pleasant effect of simplicity. You had better under¬ line a word and have done with it, than elaborate
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image