Notice two signatures of Napoleon:

Figure 4A was made at the time of his triumph. The signature shows an extremely ascending writing, properly reflecting his state of elation. Figure 4B was made at the time of his abdication, and its downward, fallen fashion reflects his state of depression.

The bobbing and weaving example in Figure 5 is called the varying base line. There is no real way of predicting this writer’s next move. He is inconsistent, prey to mood swings. It is difficult for him to hold a job or perform any function-requiring steadiness. Others will have difficulty getting along with him, for one moment, he is ambitious and aggressive, and the next depressed. The mood of the writer reflects a great deal of his total personality, so the base line is quite important for purposes of analysis. But it is useful for the graphologist to have samples of the subject's writing done at different times, so that the variations in it can be taken into consideration. The base line and word that are particularly stressed drop very subtle hints as to the writer's feelings. This idea needs explanation. Not all the words of a letter are of the same importance. And those which are important are not equally so to everyone. In the sentence: "All the evidence tends to suggest that he went home alone and remained alone at least until after the first visit of the postman next morning, for he had come downstairs barefoot and in his wrinkled pajamas, and was reading a letter out of the morning mail when he was shot," the reader receives all the information he needs to understand and enjoy the paragraph from one word, "alone," and that is why Alexander Woollcott repeated it; for, as a good writer, he enjoyed his story as a reader would. To both the average reader and the writer the key word here is "alone." To the murderer who might have written this passage, the key word would be "shot," and to his defense lawyer it would be "evidence," whereas if the laundryman had written this story in his leisure time, the words "wrinkled pajamas" would have special emotional value.

Hence, the key word in a written document, which the writer singles out for special speed or hesitancy, is characteristic of his true relation and particularly his immediate aims in relation to what that key word stands for. Such changes of pace are detected either through a change in slant or the position on the page, which the writer gives to such key word. An increase in right-slantedness is indicative of a (perhaps unadmitted) warm feeling, and a lifting up into a higher zone is characteristic of hope, joy, and elation; a slower, joyless pace can be recognized through a decrease of right-slantedness and a dropping of the word. In this signature the first name is well placed, the family name markedly dropped; the interpretation suggests itself.

In one case, an application for employment, I found that the name of the former employer had been almost imperceptibly dropped below the line more or less as in the above sample. Upon questioning, the applicant admitted that she had left her previous position after a series of disagreements with her former employer.

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