From The New Hyperion, 1875.

Forget how many angels can dance upon the point of a needle (for St. Thomas Aquinas' answer, see our previous post.)  How many angels can play see-saw on a quill?  We find our answer in The Wilful Willoughbys by Evelyn Everett Green, 1893.

"Mixes with anything," from Canadian Grocer, 1908.

Inkwell gazing is lesser-known than crystal ball divination, but it's a direct way into the inky depths.  From Na Úsvitě Nové Doby by Josef Jakub Touzinsky, 1848.

From Belle and the Dragon by Arthur Edward Waite, 1894.

Angels write with quills and devils with dip pens [how could it be otherwise?], as we learn in this piece from Zwei Reisen in der Türkei, 1899.

From The Penman's Art Journal, 1890.

From Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour, 1892.

An inkblot personified, from an ad in The Lanthorn yearbook of Susquehanna University, 1917.  See our Inkblot Oracle at https://www.oneletterwords.com/inkblot/, as well as How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.

Here's a precursor to the mechanical pencil — the mechanical quill.  From Penman's Art Journal, 1898.

Rorschachism begins at a very young age, as we see in 'Round the Hearth, edited by Robert Ellice Mach, 1889.  The caption reads, "A big, black blot."

By the way, the parlor game of Klexographie inspired the famous Rorschach inkblot test, and here's our online widget for using inkblots to answer deep questions.

You've seen the cliché of a frustrated writer tossing away page after crumpled page, but here's one tossing the ink, too.  From Colorado College Nugget yearbook, 1909.  See How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.

The pen is mightier than the [s]word-smith.  From Le Chemin des Écoliers by X. B. Saintine, 1861.