Nothing Less Than Salvation Itself

From Cappelørn, Garff and Kondrup’s Written Images: Søren Kierkegaard’s Journals, Notebooks, Booklets, Sheets, Scraps, and Slips of Paper:

‘A general trait of Kierkegaard’s handwriting is that the middle zone – that is, the area occupied by the smaller letters (a, c, e, i, m, n, etc.) – is narrow or thin and sharp. Kierkegaard did not express himself much in this area but did so instead in the lower area and especially the area above, where the long Gothic ss are striking. They rise up above the smaller letters with great energy, but then they break or bend towards the right in a powerful, stress-laden hook, an excited and rapid movement, the likes of which the graphologist had not seen elsewhere. She interprets this as an expression of the writer’s wish to seize hold of something spiritual – nothing less than salvation itself.’