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RIZAL BEYOND THE GRAVEthat the degree of reliability of a standard is inversely proportionalto its distante in time to the date in question, i.e., thenearer the standard is, the more reliable it is, and the further itgoes the less reliable it becomes, unless proved that the personconcerned does not change his handwriting habits.Fig. IV. variations in the forms of letter "h"found in the retraction.WRITING HABIT—It must be bDrne in mirad that writingas well as many other actions of human beings is done in an habitual,almost automatic, manner. The abcve observation applies towritings done by person or persons who are quite adept in the artof writing and not to the writings done by the novices who arejust beginning to wield their peas. Considering the fact thatRizal was not a beginner in the art of writing, neither was he aninfirm old person at the time that he was said to have written theretraction, we can therefore presume that he wrote at that time,if ever he wrote anything, with his habitual way. This is not onlya matter of speculation but principally an observation, for if weare to study and analyze the genuine writings of Rizal, we shallfind an almost fixed ha bit manifested in all of them. I say, almostfixed habit, because as everybody knows, or can know by a simpletest, the hand of an individual is not a typewriter or a printingpress that prints in the same way. The human hand admits ofvariations, slight or marked, depending upon many factors suchas time, person, surrounding circumstances, etc.Let us now consider the handwriting habits manifested bythe hand which wrote the retraction. If we shall analyze the