ter of
curiosity, to engrave a signature of his which is twenty-three years
old, being taken from a letter bearing date 1806."

W. WORDSWORTH: "a good hand, more worthy of the author of the best
parts of 'The Excursion,' than of the puerilities of many of the Lyrical
Ballads."

DUGALD STEWART: "a hand worthy of a moral philosopher--large, distinct,
and dignified."

W. JERDAN: Editor of the _Literary Gazette_; free and facile as
his vein of criticism, and one of the finest signatures in the page.

J. BAILLIE: "it will be perceived that it has less of the delicate
feebleness of a lady's writing than any of the others. It would have
been sadly against our theory had the most powerful dramatic authoress
which this country has produced, written like a boarding-school girl
recently in her teens. This is decidedly not the case. There is something
masculine and nervous in Miss Baillie's signature; it is quite a hand in
which 'De Montfort' might be written."

PERCY B. SHELLEY: Free as its author's wild and beautiful poetry; but
it is not the hand of a very clear or accurate thinker.

THOMAS CHALMERS: "We know of few more striking examples of character
infusing itself into hand writing, than that presented by the autograph
of Dr. Chalmers. No one who has ever heard him preach, can fail to
observe, that the heavy and impressive manner in which he forms his
letters is precisely similar to the straining and energetic style in
which he fires off his words. There is something painfully earnest
and laborious in his delivery, and a similar sensation of laborious
earnestness is produced by looking at his hard pressed, though manly
and distinct, signature. It is in a small space, an epitome of one of
his sermons."

A. ALISON; the author of "Essays on Taste," and other works of sound
discrimination.

WASHINGTON IRVING; the graceful author of the "Sketch Book," free as a
crayon drawing, with all its exquisite light and shade.

JANE PORTER: a fully more masculine though less tasteful hand than
Washington Irving, with whom she happens to be in juxtaposition; and
the fair authoress of "Thaddeus of Warsaw," and "the Scottish Chiefs"
certainly appears to have as masculine a mind as the elegant but perhaps
somewhat effeminate writer of "the Sketch Book."

W. TENNANT: "full of originality, and in this resembles his own 'Anster
Fair.' The notion may be a fanciful one, but there seems to be a sort
of quiet humour in the writing, which m