Class _^ 
 
 Book__ 
 
 Copyrights? 
 
 CORfRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
iTp./o — ./y 
 
PHILOSOPHIC CHIROMANCY. 
 
 MYSTERIES 
 
 OF 
 
 THE HAND 
 
 REVEALED AND EXPLAINED; 
 
 THE AET OF DETERMINING, FROM AN INSPECTION OF THE HANDS, 
 
 THE PERSON'S TEMPERAMENT, APPETITES, PASSIONS, 
 
 IMPULSES, ASPIRATIONS, MENTAL ENDOWMENTS, 
 
 — CHARACTER AND TENDENCIES . — 
 
 By ROBERT ALLEN CAMPBELL. 
 
 ' He signatureth the hand of every man, 
 That all the men He hath made may know the man." — Job. 
 
 ' As is the mind, so is the form." 
 
 ^ILLUSTRATED. ^^> y ?9$ OF CG/Vg^ 
 
 tl - i / 2 
 
 K.lh — 
 
 a O* 1R7Q 
 
 SAINT LOULS ■ X/ ?y X ^ Xv> * c \^ 
 
 .1. W. CAMPBELL & CO. ^^WS*^' 
 1870. 
 

 .--':. 
 
 Copyrighted 1879, by 
 ROBERT ALLEN CAMPBELL. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
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 PRINTERS 
 
 915 N. Sixth Street, 
 St. Louis. 
 
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 BINDERS, 
 
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 St . Louis . 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ^ALMXSTEY, as a study and as a 
 practice, is old. The works upon 
 ™ it are numerous — ancient and 
 modern — and of all classes, from 
 the ponderous and scholarly Latin 
 folios of the classic, middle, and 
 dark ages, down to the flash primer 
 of the modern illiterate and pre- 
 tentious fortune-teller. So this is not a work 
 upon a novel subject. 
 
 Many of the facts and explanations here 
 given are of unmeasured antiquity. Some of 
 them are modern — belonging to the present 
 century and generation. A fair proportion 
 are presented here, so far as the author is 
 aware, for the first time. So this lays no 
 claim to being a work presenting only new 
 facts and original thoughts. 
 
 Without using " quotation marks," or an- 
 nouncing special credits in detail, the author 
 desires to say that he has culled a fact, se- 
 lected a truth, and borrowed an illustration 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 whenever and wherever found, provided only 
 that the fact, truth or illustration adopted? 
 was consonant with his experience or con- 
 firmed by his observation. The philosophy 
 ( as applied to this investigation ) underlying 
 the study — the form of presenting the facts 
 and truths — the theory of explanation — the 
 plan of development — and the method of 
 applying the art, together with the rejection 
 of many unproved and disproved conjectures, 
 as well as the announcement of numerous 
 discoveries of his own, and an attempt to 
 recognize the foundation elements of charac- 
 ter, rather than collect simply developed res- 
 ults, are the original features claimed by the 
 author. 
 
 The author will gratefully acknowledge the 
 reception of any additional facts or prin- 
 ciples, or the suggestion ( with the reasons ) 
 for any correction of statements, theories or 
 principles set forth in the following pages. 
 Any such communications, or any correspond- 
 ence upon Chiromancy, may be addressed 
 
 to— 
 
 E. A. Campbell, 
 
 P. O. Box 2468, 
 
 St. Louis, Mo. 
 
CHAPTEB L 
 
 ANCIENT PALMISTRY, 
 
 ^]HIBOMANCY, or as it is more 
 H familiarly known in our day, Pal- 
 mistry, is one of the oldest of the 
 occult arts. It is now usually 
 thought of, and spoken of, as a cheap delu- 
 sion; invented, or at least practiced only, by 
 the self-deceived or fraudulent deceivers, to 
 play upon the credulity and empty the pock- 
 ets of the ignorant, the curious, or the super- 
 stitious. In former times, however, palmistry 
 ranked among the learned arts, or was re- 
 cognized as one of the sacred and peculiar 
 gifts. It was studied and practiced by the 
 philosopher, the priest, and the oracle, among 
 whom it was an esoteric accomplishment and 
 a much prized possession. 
 
 Palmistry has been used since the earliest 
 times as a means of reading the past history, 
 and of divining the future fortune and fate of 
 the one presenting the hand. The ablest rul- 
 ers and the greatest generals have laid their 
 
12 ANCIENT PALMISTRY. 
 
 plans or modified them as directed by the 
 palmister. The best and wisest of all classes 
 have reverently held forth their hands to the 
 palmister with mingled emotions of hope and 
 fear. They thus sought to lift the veil of fu- 
 turity, hoping to catch a glimpse of their 
 general fate, or to see the result of some spe- 
 cial undertaking — yet fearing an unwelcome 
 knowledge, by the prediction of an unfortu- 
 nate, or mayhap a fatal, termination. 
 
 Nothing is certainly known concerning the 
 origin of palmistry. Some authors trace it as 
 a gift to mankind by Hermes. Who that 
 mysterious demi-god was, or when or where 
 he lived, and whom he taught we will not 
 now attempt to determine. It is certain, 
 however, that some among the learned of all 
 nations and times have been interested in, 
 and believed in palmistry. Many of them 
 have devoted much time and practice to 
 reading the " mystic lines of man^s hand." 
 Thousands of volumes, in Greek, Latin and 
 the modern languages have been written on 
 this department of the " study of mankind." 
 
 The author of the book of Job — probably 
 the oldest composition in the world — has put 
 himself on record as a believer in the truth 
 that a man's character is written in his hand. 
 He says : " The palms of the hands He cov- 
 
JOB AND MOSES. 13 
 
 ers over with light." And the same venera- 
 ble author is yet more emphatic and more 
 explicit in this matter, saying : " He signatur- 
 eth the hand of every man, that all the men he 
 hath made may know the man."* Palmistry, 
 then, is as old as the days of Job ; and Job 
 was contemporary with or preceded Abra- 
 ham ; for the book of Job was an ancient 
 book — probably classic — when Moses wrote 
 Genesis and the Law. 
 
 Palmistry was known and practiced in its 
 primitive use of divination, and probably also 
 as a means of reading character, by the an- 
 cient Egyptians. Of this ancient Egyptian 
 palmistry we have little or no direct knowl- 
 edge. We know of it, and what it was — just 
 as we know of Egyptian science, learning, 
 and grandeur — from the frequent allusions 
 to it by the early and classic writers, who, 
 though ancient to us, are, in fact, modern as 
 compared with Egyptian antiquity. These 
 early writers, however, not only allude to 
 Egyptian palmistry, but they make many quo- 
 tations of its principles and statements; 
 showing that it was a favorite and an occult 
 study with their wise men — both priests and 
 
 * The best authority sustains these translations, as being' 
 better renderings — more faithful to the original — than that given 
 in the authorized version of our Bible. 
 
14 ANCIENT PALMISTBY. 
 
 magicians. It is, therefore, probable that 
 when Moses was " Taught in all the wisdom 
 of the Egyptians ?? that chiromancy was one 
 of the special accomplishments. And Moses, 
 in his character delineations from the hand, 
 we presume, as far transcended the ordinary 
 Egyptian oracles as his miracles overshad- 
 owed their enchantments. 
 
 " Daniel was skillful in all wisdom and 
 cunning in knowledge, and understood sci- 
 ence." He was familiar with all the learning 
 and philosophy of the Chaldeans, and chiro- 
 mancy was among the necessary accomplish- 
 ments of a wise man in Babylon. Daniel 
 was the master of the Chaldean magicians ; 
 and through God's illuminating him, he knew 
 the Divine Hand when it appeared on the 
 wall, as well as the meaning of the message 
 written by that hand. 
 
 Josephus refers to the art in such a way as 
 to show that he recognized it as of high rank 
 and value. 
 
 The Greeks, who borrowed so much from 
 the Egyptians, copied their system of palm- 
 istry. To this, however, as to everything 
 else they accepted from others, they added 
 new luster, giving it enhanced attraction, 
 and clothing it in new beauties. They em- 
 bodied it among their higher esoteric accom- 
 
GftEEK PALMISTRY. 15 
 
 plishments, and among their religious rites 
 they gave it special prominence. Homer 
 wrote a complete treatise " On the Lines of 
 the Hand," which, though lost, is frequently 
 referred to by later Greek writers. The 
 probability is that this work was hidden and 
 never found, or that it was destroyed, when 
 chiromancy among the Greeks became a 
 purely esoteric study, imparted only to the 
 favored few, chosen to be instructed in the 
 mysteries of the inner Hermetic Philosophy. 
 In the u inner temple" the instruction was 
 given vocally. Some of this system was 
 written and might be known by all who chose 
 to study it; just as much of masonry in this 
 day may be learned from the Masonic Man- 
 uals and other collateral works. Like ma- 
 sonry, however, the vital foundations, the 
 keys by which to unlock the real meaning of 
 Greek palmistry, were not written, or in any 
 way recorded, except on the memories of 
 the initiated. These were kept a living and 
 a sacred secret. They were delivered only 
 in a secure place, duly guarded from all out- 
 siders and eavesdroppers, in the presence of 
 worthy and instructed 'brethren, by him who 
 had the secret — with the ability and authority 
 to impart the knowledge, to him who had 
 proven himself— and been declared— worthy 
 
16 ANCIENT PALMISTRY 
 
 to receive the instruction ; and when im- 
 parted it was from the speaking tongue 
 into the attentive ear — and probably in sub- 
 dued and solemn sentences. 
 
 Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, — in fact the 
 greater number of the eminent Greek philos- 
 ophers and authors — were palmisters. 
 
 The Eomans imported the art of palmistry 
 from the Greeks, and their priests and augurs 
 were proficient in its practice. In possession 
 of the Eomans, however, palmistry lost much 
 of its philosophical character and poetic 
 beauty, and was, by them, applied in a more 
 sensuous and material manner, and to more 
 sordid uses. It was by the Eomans again put 
 into writing, its use became more general 
 and it rapidly degenerated in character. The 
 Eoman, middle age and dark age palmistrys, 
 mixed up, as it is, with Alchemy, Astronomy 
 and Theology — slumber in a multitude of 
 ponderous volumes, which are seldom stud- 
 ied, and which are usually esteemed as being 
 pregnant with matters curious rather than 
 useful. 
 
 Always, however, there have been a few 
 like Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus, who 
 have pursued the study of palmistry — not 
 for gain — but for its own sake. It has in 
 this latter way been kept alive, and handed 
 
MODERN PALMISTRY 17 
 
 down to us in its original and developed min- 
 utia and purity. Quite a revival of palmistry 
 took place in the seventeenth century. Dr. 
 John Bothinan's work was translated into 
 English by Sir George Wharton, and into 
 most of the European languages by different 
 devotees of the art in their various countries, 
 and is the foundation for all the succeeding 
 works upon the subject until the present 
 century. 
 
 Modern palmistry has two able exponents 
 — Captain D'Arpentigney and Professor Des- 
 barrolles, both Frenchmen. Captain D ? Ar- 
 pentigney is a scholarly gentleman who has 
 won honorable distinction in the French 
 army. He pursued the study purely as a 
 pastime. He discards all the old traditions 
 of spiritual or astral influence, scouts the 
 idea of divination or fortune-telling, and 
 claims that all he teaches he has learned from 
 his own observation. He has examined many 
 thousands of hands, — carefully noting their 
 peculiarities — but totally ignoring the lines 
 of the palm — and the accompanying charac- 
 ter of mind and heart. Professor Desbar- 
 rolles, who pursues the study and practice of 
 palmistry as a profession, — in which he is 
 amassing a fortune — attempts to fuse the 
 teachings of the old chiromantists with D'Ar- 
 
18 ANCIENT PALMISTRY. 
 
 pentigney's new system. The Professor bold- 
 ly asserts and strenuously defends the astro- 
 logical theory of the planetary influence on 
 mankind through the peculiarities of the 
 hand, which is briefly as follows : 
 
 THE ASTRAL THEORY. 
 
 It is a fundamental doctrine in palmistry, 
 ancient and modern, that the sun, moon and 
 planets, each exercise a distinct, peculiar and 
 immediate influence upon man, This influ- 
 ence begins at conception and is in peculiar 
 plenitude at birth, the ruling planet at which 
 time exercises such power over the person 
 as to stamp its character upon the entire 
 life. This astral influence extends not only 
 to the whole life in general, but likewise to 
 all its particulars of feeling, thought, and 
 action, in minutia. This astral power largely 
 determines man's years, age, health, fortune, 
 friends — and in short determines his life. 
 All this power is exerted upon man by means 
 of the Astral Light. x 
 
 The Astral Light, the palmister tells us, 
 is composed of seven different fluids, just as 
 sunlight is composed of seven different rays 
 of color. These seven fluids emanate from 
 the seven primary planets respectively. 
 
THE ASTRAL THEORY. 19 
 
 These fluids, separately, and in their combi- 
 nations, are tempered by the sun and moon. 
 The individual influence of each planet acts 
 upon man by means of the fluid proceeding 
 from it to the man, reaching him through the 
 hand in general, and through the mount bear- 
 ing its name in particular. The combinations 
 of these fluids, or the aggregate force of 
 them all, working together, is exerted upon 
 man through the hand in general and through 
 the lines of the palm in particular. 
 
 The different astral fluids which act upoi 
 the hand — separately and conjointly — de- 
 termine the man's life — recording his past 
 history of disease and fortune as well as 
 deciding his future in these respects. The 
 hand is therefore the reflection of the man ; 
 showing his history, present condition and 
 foretelling his future fortune and fate. 
 
 The past and the future, the palmister 
 argues, are alike unknown without the histo- 
 rian and the prophet. The future is clearer to 
 the prophet than the past to the historian. 
 The latter must, of course, depend upon the 
 uncertain experience, and upon the still more 
 uncertain traditions of others, who are as 
 imperfect in their senses, and as wavering 
 in their memories as himself. The prophet, 
 however, is especially prepared for his office, 
 
20 ANCIENT PALMISTRY. 
 
 and clearly taught by the gods, who see clear- 
 ly and make exact revelations to their favor- 
 ite and appreciative subjects. The reflection 
 of man, therefore, painted in his hand by 
 nature and the gods, is clearer and truer than 
 any merely mortal record can be. 
 
 It is no more wonderful, then, to read one's 
 future from the hand than it is to tell the 
 past. Each is equally an unmeaning page to 
 him who is ignorant of the language and 
 characters in which the planets write the his- 
 tory and declare the future of the man. 
 These living scriptures, too, are equally plain 
 and certain to him who understands the 
 language in which nature inscribes upon 
 men's hands with uniform clearness, their 
 J whole lives — past and present. 
 
 To illustrate : it is natural and usual, the 
 palmister remarks, that a general should re- 
 port to his government the results of his 
 military operations. It is just as usual that 
 he writes out and delivers to each subordin- 
 ate definite instructions for the direction of 
 the special part required of him. And an 
 able and careful general is quite as explicit 
 in his orders for the movement of his troops, 
 as he is in reporting the manner and result 
 of their achievements. Again the able gen- 
 eral, with an overwhelming force, will as a 
 
THE ASTRAL THEORY. 21 
 
 whole, be successful in carrying out his de- 
 sign. In some minor matters his plans may 
 be moderately modified, by the opposing for- 
 ces, or by incident misunderstandings or 
 contentions among his subordinates. In like 
 manner the planets write out their plans upon 
 the hands of each man. They then carry out 
 their decrees, and again upon the hands re- 
 cord the result of their operations. And so 
 man's life and fate is substantially in accord- 
 ance with their predetermined plans. 
 
 The weak yeomanry of the country where 
 a war is carried on, may, by being warned of 
 the general's purposes and plans, and by 
 acting on this information, escape partially 
 the calamity of capture and outrage, — or by 
 heartily cooperating with these plans they 
 may more fully realize the blessings offered 
 by the friendly forces. So the man by know- 
 ing the good influences promised, and by 
 being informed of the evils threatened, may 
 court the one to a plenteous consummation, 
 and to a considerable degree escape the 
 worst results of the other. 
 
 The result of all this is that man's life 
 depends upon the astral influences, which are 
 constant. The special effect of this influence 
 will depend in each case, upon the peculiar 
 reception of the different astral fluids which 
 
22 ANCIENT PALMISTRY. 
 
 reach man in accordance with the individual 
 and combined peculiarities of the mounts and 
 lines of the hand. 
 
 Palmisters disclaim absolute fatality in the 
 signs of the hand. These signs, they say, 
 are rather warnings for man's use and bene- 
 fit. They predict the temptation and the op- 
 portunity — the threat of on& planet, the 
 favor of the other ; but it is still largely in 
 man's power to choose which he will bear or 
 accept ; or mayhap make one annul or over- 
 come the other. Hence every man may large- 
 ly determine his happiness, but cannot to any 
 great degree essentially change his trials or 
 his opportunities. 
 
 Such, in short, is the " Astral Theory, " 
 which, it is needless to say, the author of 
 this treatise unequivocally discards. 
 
 Fortune-telling by the inspection of the 
 hand is universally practiced by the Gipsy 
 women of our day, among whom it is at once 
 a traditional and an exact art. While it is 
 true that these w r anderers, like other mortals 
 less traduced, will .often " let a dollar blind 
 the eye or - quieten 'the sight" and so read a 
 a boimy fortune " to warm the heart and thus 
 open the purse of their victim; it is still un- 
 doubtedly true that two or more experienced 
 Gypsies — when there is no object in decep- 
 
THE GYPSY PALMISTERS. 23 
 
 tion — will, without any consultation with 
 each other, read substantially the same for- 
 tune from the same hand. Notice. — I am not 
 claiming for them any ability to foretell the 
 future — or even to recite the past — but 
 simply that they' work by uniform and w r ell 
 defined rules, which enables any number of 
 experienced Gipsies — though separated and 
 non-communicating — to see in any certain 
 hand the same peculiarities, and to read from 
 it substantially the same fortune and fate. 
 That is, their art is, when fully understood, 
 an exact one. Whether it is a truthful one, 
 or whether it has in it any elements of truth, 
 as a foundation, is entirely another question. 
 Palmistry, as a method of fortune-telling, 
 is now practiced by many in Europe and a 
 few in America — among them are numerous 
 scholarly gentlemen and ladies who eloquent- 
 ly and plausibly defend the Astral theory, 
 and claim for their divinations all the cer- 
 tainty of science. Those who practice it are 
 patronized by people in all stations of life, 
 ability and intelligence. Many of undoubted 
 learning, and general ability, occupying re- 
 spectable and responsible stations in life, 
 gladly and repeatedly consult the palmister, 
 and often make or modify their plans in ac- 
 cordance with his reading, most of whom 
 
24 ANCIENT PALMISTRY. 
 
 would scarcely admit full faith in his fore- 
 telling. 
 
 Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington, Sir 
 Walter Scott, Washington, Webster, Stewart, 
 Vanderbilt, and hosts of others just as able, 
 successful, sensible and celebrated, have con- 
 sulted palmisters and acted, more or less con- 
 fidently, upon their predictions and sugges- 
 tions. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ARGUMENT AND ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 ^HE Astral palmister believes, with 
 Anaxagoras, that man's superior- 
 ity over the animal kingdom is 
 due to his having hands ; that 
 each man's peculiar wisdom, vir- 
 tue and fortune depend upon the 
 peculiar character of, and are re- 
 corded on the lines and mounts of his hands. 
 Many of these Astral palmisters, like their 
 contemporaries, the alchemists and astrolo- 
 gists, have been careful observers. They 
 have discovered and recorded a great num- 
 ber and variety of curious facts connected 
 with the human hand. These facts we can, 
 upon careful confirmation, accept without 
 accepting their false theory of explanation 
 or their method of application. While there- 
 fore the mystical influence of the planets 
 upon man, by means of an astral fluid, or 
 otherwise, is entirely repudiated, still the 
 facts recorded by these astral palmisters may 
 
26 ARGUMENT AND ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 be recognized and used just as the earlier 
 astronomers and chemists recognized and 
 used the facts recorded by the astrologers 
 and alchemists. 
 
 CHARACTER DETERMINES THE HAND. 
 
 Man is not wise because he has hands, but 
 being wise he has hands by which to use that 
 wisdom. A man is not a poet, a musician, 
 an orator, a mechanic, or a laborer as a result 
 of any special features or combinations of 
 lines and mounts in his hands. A man, how- 
 ever, being of a certain character, and in 
 possession of certain powers, has hands re- 
 vealing that character, and best adapted to 
 use those powers. 
 
 The soul is the real man and the body is 
 the material manifestation of the man. The 
 body is, as it were, the clothing and the in- 
 strument of the spirit and is developed by 
 the real man for his protection, habitation 
 and use. The body exists and subsists from 
 the spirit, and for its use ; tod changes natu- 
 rally, only and solely in obedience to the 
 power and direction of the spirit. 
 
 It is true that the body may be changed, 
 mechanically, by outside forces. It may be 
 wounded or worn, distorted or curtailed by 
 
MIND AND FORM. 27 
 
 accidental objective forces playing upon it. 
 It can be developed only by the spiritual and 
 vital forces working within it. That is, the 
 body may be injured — made less a human 
 body by the powers and acts of the outside 
 world. It can be mended or healed, or im- 
 provingly developed — made more a human 
 body — or a more human body — only by the 
 indwelling spiritual and vital forces ; and the 
 form of the indwelling spirit will determine 
 the shape of the living habitation which it 
 generates and sustains. 
 The poet tells us : 
 
 * ' The mind hath features as the body hath ." 
 
 He might much more truly have said : 
 
 The body hath the features of the mind, 
 Because the mind hath veiled itself therein. 
 The outward and the inward worlds are like; 
 As like as any act is to its thought— 
 As like as matter can to spirit be. 
 
 They correspond in truth as words to 
 thoughts. The soul is constantly developing 
 its body of flesh. Every outline and peculiar- 
 ity, not the result of some objective opposi- 
 tion or injuring accident, is the result of 
 the character and development of the inner 
 man. The color and contour of the cheek, 
 the texture and luster of the hair, the depth 
 and light of the eye, every expression of the 
 
28 ARGUMENT AND ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 face, each and all correspond to the features 
 of the soul ; and this is true because they 
 are each the incarnation of some affection or 
 thought. 
 
 The innocent smile of the child mouth, the 
 restless wanderings of the eye, the curl of 
 the cherry lip, the pure and peaceful face of 
 age, the flushed countenance, the agitated 
 air, all have their meanings, and are each the 
 expression of some inner character or ex- 
 perience. 
 
 Our common conversation, in describing 
 or criticizing those we meet shows how fully 
 we all recognize this truth. What more com- 
 mon, or more full of meaning than such ex- 
 pressions as : "a sweet face," " a benevolent 
 countenance," " a friendly air," u a sympathiz- 
 ing look," "a gracious demeanor," "a stiff 
 upper lip," "a hard mouth," " stiff-necked," 
 " thin skinned," u long-headed," " close-fisted," 
 " open-handed," and so on indefinitely? Every 
 one of these is a literal description of the 
 fleshly body or its action, and every one of 
 them is also a vivid description of the char- 
 acter incarnated in that body ; and they are 
 equally true whether as applied to the body 
 or spirit. This is so clearly seen — though 
 not always understood — that the use of these 
 and kindred expressions does not call to 
 
^THE HUMAN TRINITY. 20 
 
 our mind the lineaments of the body de- 
 scribed, but presents to our imaginations 
 the mental or moral character of the person 
 mentioned. 
 
 The body is a representation — a revelation 
 if you will — of the man and a record of his 
 life. Every one, all the life long, is constant- 
 ly incarnating desires, thoughts and acts in 
 fleshly lineaments, into quality and form, into 
 color and expression. The affections — good 
 and bad, the thoughts — true and false, the 
 acts — virtuous and vicious — growing out of 
 these affections and thoughts, are all plainly 
 written out in the body. The reader, only, is 
 wanting. The page is open, the characters 
 are distinct. The record is indelible. No 
 spiritual chemistry can ever fully erase these 
 eternal histories in the "book of life." The 
 book is clear, exact, and fully posted up to 
 date ; some of its characters are known ; 
 some of the pages can be translated with tol- 
 erable accuracy; some are imperfectly un- 
 derstood; many are as yet obscure; and 
 many are totally unintelligible. We wait the 
 seer to interpret fully the meaning of all. 
 the pages. Will he ever come, and if so 
 when? 
 
 The trinity of human essentials, without 
 any one of which humanity could not exist, 
 
30 Argument and illustration. 
 
 are the will, the understanding, and the action. 
 These are manifested in the affections, 
 the intellect and the life : in the desires, the 
 plans and the works. Man might be endowed 
 with affection, and, hence, with desires and 
 emotions, but could never know, much less 
 use them, without intellect. He might be 
 endowed with intellect, and, hence, with 
 thought, possibly with reason and plan ; but 
 he could not know himself — much less any 
 other — in short would not be human without 
 action — and the hands are the organs of 
 action. The affections might warm the intel- 
 lect and incite the thought, and the intellect 
 might embody the affections in the truest 
 and clearest plans, but without manifesting 
 these affections and thoughts there would be 
 no humanity — and the hands are the organs 
 of manifestation. 
 
 The hand is the immediate servant of the 
 will, obeying its orders as planned and di- 
 rected by the intellect. The hand is the 
 promptest of servants, moving when com- 
 manded, and instantly ceasing to act when 
 the will through the intellect ceases to order. 
 As there is no speech without thought, so 
 there is no action of the hand without orders. 
 The will desires, the intellect plans, the hand 
 executes, and one is as essential to humanity 
 
THE HUMAN TRINITY. 31 
 
 as the other. Pure desires and clear thoughts 
 are not known until ultimated, and the hand 
 is the executive of the man. 
 
 Without hands humanity might be a latent 
 warmth — not developed, a light not shining, 
 a tone not sounded. Without hands man 
 might be, perhaps, an impulse, possibly a 
 thought, certainly not a fact. The trinity 
 then, affection, thought, action — heart, brain, 
 hand — is each one equally essential to hu- 
 manity. Without either one of them there 
 could be no humanity, much less any pro- 
 gress of humanity. 
 
 THE HAND REPRESENTS THE MAN. 
 
 Anatomists have not yet determined the 
 physical home of the affections. The brain, 
 the assumed habitation of the intellect, can 
 not be examined while the master of the 
 house is at home ; and a dead brain is cer- 
 tainly a dim and darkened page of indistinct 
 images from which to read — or attempt to 
 read — the living character of the shining 
 intellect. The other member of the human 
 trinity — the action — resides in the hand, 
 and the hand may be seen and studied in life. 
 Not only so, but, aside from its mere anatomy, 
 the hand can be best seen and studied in life. 
 
32 ARGUMENT AND ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 And further the hand is most expressive 
 when it is most the active agent of the warm- 
 est affection and the clearest thought. 
 
 It may be questioned whether it is correct 
 to speak of man's affections as located in the 
 heart ; or whether the brain is the exclusive 
 seat of intelligence; but there is no doubt 
 that in literature, sacred and profane, prose 
 and poetry, and in speech, classic and provin- 
 cial, the hand is recognized as representing 
 the whole powers of the man. Poets and 
 prophets have perceived this truth. The in- 
 tuitive men of all ages have recognized the 
 truth w r hen presented to them. There is no 
 suggestion of any manual action, but unmis- 
 takable reference to the conduct, when the 
 poet says : 
 
 c * Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, 
 To silence envious tongues,' ' 
 
 Thousands of times in the Bible the hand 
 is used to represent all the powers of the 
 hand. It is so used in every classic, and in 
 nearly every sacred and standard writing of 
 every age and people. No one mistakes the 
 meaning when it is said : " His hand was 
 against every man, and every man's hand was 
 against him." " He ruled them with a heavy 
 hand." " He held him with an iron hand." 
 No woman was ever so ignorant of this truth 
 
THE HAND IN DETAIL. 33 
 
 as to think of any surgical operation when 
 one of the sterner sex asked for a bestowal 
 of her hand. 
 
 THE HAND IN DETAIL REPRESENTS THE 
 MIND IN MINTJTIA. 
 
 Now the hand not only represents the 
 whole man in the way above referred to, but 
 also in a much more marvelous and detailed 
 way. In short the hand is a true index of the 
 mind in minutia. This index is clear, full and 
 distinct. There is no pretense, however, that 
 this index is fully understood, or that it can 
 in all cases be easily read. We can read the 
 character from the hand just so far as we 
 understand the mind and its laws, affection 
 and impulse and their laws, and also know 
 how they are delineated in the hand. With 
 these knowledges we are in possession of the 
 elements from which, and by which, to read 
 the character. 
 
 The problem is, from the hand to find the 
 physical peculiarities, the mental idiosyn- 
 crasies, the impulses and affections — in short 
 the abilities, aspirations, and opportunities — 
 and from these to deduce the resulting life. 
 This cannot be done easily or perfectly. The 
 only claim is that a good beginning has been 
 
34 AR&UMENT AND ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 made and considerable progress has been ac- 
 complished. 
 
 Just here the very proper and pertinent 
 question may be asked, " Is there any reason 
 why the hand should index the mind V 7 The 
 simple answer is, there is no known a priori 
 reason why the hand should index the mind, 
 any more than there is a reason why the 
 sense of touch should be connected with the 
 nerves rather than with the blood-vessels. It 
 is only known as a fact, learned from obser- 
 vation and experience. Having the statement 
 of this indexing once made, however, we find 
 innumerable facts and abundant illustrations 
 to confirm the truth. 
 
 FACTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 There is nothing in nature, and, therefore, 
 cannot be in art, which can be successfully 
 compared to the hand in strength and mobil- 
 ity, or in beauty and usefulness. The accu- 
 racy and perfect proportion of the bony 
 sleleton of the hand ; its muscles, so intricate, 
 and yet so perfectly adjusted, with their won- 
 derful interlacings ; its unraveiable network 
 of nerves — sensational, volitional and sym- 
 pathetic ; its skin, at once the strongest and 
 most sensitive on the body ; its corpuscles of 
 
I'OUCH. 35 
 
 touch, so completely covering some parts of 
 the surface, responding to the lightest pres- 
 sure, and yet so guarded that only violence 
 can injure them — all these parts and others 
 that might be mentioned, — each so per- 
 fect in itself and in its separate function, and 
 still so exquisitely adapted to harmonious 
 and concurrent action, make the human hand 
 at once, the most intricate and symmetrical, 
 as well as the most useful, expressive and 
 beautiful feature of the human body. 
 
 TOUCH. 
 
 It is said that seeing is believing. But 
 whenever sight is doubted we confirm the 
 fact by touch. So we ma}' without fear of 
 question assert, that if seeing is believing, 
 then, touching is knowing. And touch is 
 most sensitive and exquisite, as well as most 
 delicate and available in the hand. 
 
 True, the nerves of sensation are common 
 to the entire surface of the body. These 
 nerves of sensation, however, cognize but 
 two qualities — pressure and temperature. 
 They give but two conceptions — pleasure 
 and pain; the one for our enjoyment, the 
 other for our protection. The nerves of 
 touch are endowed with the superior func- 
 
36 ARGUMENT AND ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 tion of giving conceptions of form, size and 
 locality. All these qualities learned by touch 
 are given through the hand, and almost ex- 
 clusively through " the eyes of the hand ?? — 
 the finger-tips. # The touch corpuscles, it is 
 true, are found on the ball of the great toe, 
 on the heel 5 on the lips, and on the edges of 
 the tongue. But, except in rare cases of 
 special development, the touch corpuscles 
 found in those localities are like those in the 
 hands of infants — rudimentary, and their 
 aggregate number, in ordinary cases, will not 
 equal those found on the tip of one finger, f 
 
 The blind reading from raised letters, and 
 in some cases distinguishing the color of 
 fabrics, is a familiar illustration of the possi- 
 bilies of the sense of touch. 
 
 * The total independence of the nerves of touch and the 
 nerves of sensation is seen in the many instances of persons 
 acute in one respect and dull in the other. Lepers, who are 
 often delicate in their sense of touch, and expert in the use of 
 their hands, are not sensible to heat or pressure — even when 
 the hand is crushed or destroyed by fire. 
 
 t A very novel and pretty experiment is to place the tip of 
 the first linger in the ear — or in both ears. There will first be a 
 buzzing sound, then a perfectly distinct but irregular crackling 
 sound. The finger of another person will produce a different 
 sound — and the irregularities of the crepitations will be modi- 
 fied; that is each person will produce a sound characteristic of 
 the individual owning the finger. Some are so sensitive, as to 
 be able, in this way, to distinguish the sex, age, temperament 
 aud somewhat of the condition of health. 
 
THE HAND AS A MACHINE. 37 
 
 Sir Charles Bell has written a book on the 
 hand, which is standard authority, alike with 
 the anatomist, the mechanician, the artist 
 and the theologian. He says : " We ought 
 to define the hand as belonging exclusively 
 to man ; corresponding in sensibility and mo- 
 tion with that intelligence which converts the 
 being who is weakest in natural defense, to 
 ruler over animate and inanimate nature." 
 He quotes from Eay, saying: 
 
 " Some animals have horns, some have 
 hoofs, some teeth, some talons, some claws, 
 some spurs, some beaks ; man hath none of 
 all these, but is weak and feeble, and sent un- 
 armed into the world. Why ? A hand with 
 reason to use it supplies the place of all 
 these.'' 
 
 It were truer if he had said : reason, with 
 hands by which to use it is incomparably 
 above all these. 
 
 THE HAND AS A MACHINE. 
 
 The human hand is the most perfect ma- 
 chine in existence. Examine any instrument, 
 any piece of mechanism, simple or intricate, 
 and notice the limitations and the imperfec- 
 tions. Contrast these with the universality 
 and superiority of the hand. See how hap 
 
38 ARGUMENT AND ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 pily the different proportions and properties 
 of all instrumentalities are combined in the 
 hand. Or rather notice how, even the most 
 perfect mechanism does only one or a few of 
 the innumerable things done by the hand. 
 
 In the hand the sensibility to touch and 
 temperature is united with a facility in the 
 joints of unfolding, grasping and moving in 
 every possible degree and direction, without 
 abruptness or angularity, and in a manner 
 and with a varied force inimitable by any ar- 
 tifice of joints and levers. Attention to our 
 most common manipulations will show how 
 the divisions into fingers adapt the hand to 
 an innumerable variety of uses otherwise 
 impossible. 
 
 Not quite so obvious, at first sight, perhaps, 
 but just as clearly true, upon careful examin- 
 ation, is the fact, that upon the length and 
 strength, proportion and mobility of the 
 thumb depends the power of the hand. The 
 large fleshy ball formed by the muscles of 
 the thumb, which gives it strength, is one 
 of the distinguishing characteristics of the 
 strong hand. 
 
 The hand can wield the sledge of the miner, 
 or draw the finest and fairest line for the 
 engraver. It will for the sailor splice the 
 cable of the Great Eastern, or for the engin- 
 
MOSES, DANIEL, JOHN. 39 
 
 eer stretch the spider thread across the field 
 of the telescope. It may be trained to re- 
 main motionless in one position, or hold firm 
 in one grasp for hours, while for the musician 
 it will strike nearly a thousand notes a min- 
 ute. 
 
 THE HAND AS A SYMBOL. 
 
 Moses and Daniel have been referred to as 
 understanding the hand. The former tells us 
 that " Israel went out with a high haud," 
 "Jehovah led us forth with a mighty hand." 
 In his last great speech to the assembled 
 hosts of Israel, gathered about him in the 
 plain, east of the Jordan, he rehearsed to 
 them the laws, saying : " Thou shalt bind 
 them as a sign upon thine hand, and they 
 shall be as frontlets between thine eyes." 
 That is, let the laws be a sign for your hand 
 — a guide to your life — put them in practice 
 by doing them ; and then they shall be front- 
 lets — bright and beautiful — attractive and 
 luminous — before your perception. 
 
 John tells us, in the Apocalypse, that in 
 the heavens he saw a great multitude * * * 
 clothed in white, and with palms in their 
 hands. The white robes are often referred 
 to as emblems of innocence, purity, virtue, 
 intelligence in divine truths. The palms in 
 
40 ARGUMENT AND ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 the hands — not so often explained — mean 
 the hands working the works of peace, an 
 active life, not controlled by authority, but 
 the outgrowth of pure affection. 
 
 The false beast is represented as marking 
 his subjects in the foreheads and in the 
 hands — that is they exhibit themselves as 
 false thinkers and impure livers — ignorance 
 and sin. David, the poet-king of Israel, 
 speaks of the man with u clean hands and a 
 pure heart." The hands are clean because 
 the heart is pure; and they could not be 
 really clean doing the work of an impure 
 heart. 
 
 The unwilling and weak Pilate washed his 
 hands of the greatest crime ever committed 
 against the Divine Humanity. Jesus cured 
 diseases and blessed little children by touch 
 of the hand. 
 
 Jacob Boehm, the German seer, says : " The 
 hands signify God ? s omnipotence, for as God 
 in nature can change all things, and make of 
 them what he pleases, so inau, also, can with 
 his hands, change all material things, and 
 change them as he pleases. He rules with 
 his hands the operations of nature, and so 
 they very well signify the omnipotence of 
 God." 
 
 Swedenborg, in his Divine Philosophy, 
 
SWEDENBGRG AND MONTAIGNE. 41 
 
 says : u The potency of the whole man, being 
 determined chiefly to the hands # * * there- 
 fore, in the Word, the hands signify power, 
 and the right hand superior power." 
 
 The grand old observer, philosopher and 
 skeptic, Montaigne, pays a deserving tribute 
 to the hand. In speaking of its uses and 
 possibilities, he says : 
 
 " With the hand we require, promise, call, 
 pray, dismiss, threaten, supplicate, deny, re- 
 fuse, admire, interrogate, number, confess, 
 repent; express fear, confusion, confidence, 
 doubt. Instruct, command, incite, encourage, 
 swear, testify, accuse, condemn, absolve, 
 abuse, despise, defy, provoke, flatter, applaud, 
 bless, submit, mock, reconcile, recommend, 
 exact, entertain, congratulate, complain, de- 
 spair, grieve, wonder, exclaim, and — what 
 not. And all this with a variety and multi- 
 plication emulating speech. With the hand 
 we invite, welcome, honor, demand, rejoice, 
 reject, lament, caress, rebuke, give the lie, 
 inquire, accuse, threaten." 
 
 It should be remembered, too, that while 
 the hand can and does express these various 
 thoughts, that it does so in a natural, and, 
 therefore, in a universal language. Speech 
 is understood only by those using the lan- 
 guage of that speech ; but the expression of 
 
42 ARGUMENT AND ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 the hand is common to and understood b^ 
 humanity. 
 
 SHAKING HANDS. 
 
 // 
 
 Every one of ordinary perception has been 
 more or less interested in noticing the differ- 
 ent ways in which people shake hands. There 
 is more of individuality exhibited in the per- 
 formance of this common ceremony of social 
 courtesy than in any other unstudied action 
 of ordinary life. All have experienced the 
 numberless and diverse sensations which are 
 received through this customary method of 
 greeting. Comparatively few, perhaps, have 
 fully analyzed the accompanying emotions or 
 connected them clearly with the subtle 
 sources. 
 
 One in this salutation seizes the hand with 
 a hard, cruel grip, and tosses it off with a 
 spasm of turbulent energy that leaves the 
 other physically pained and mentally discom- 
 fited. Another lazily extends an inert palm, 
 and with a weak, listless touch makes pre- 
 tense of conforming to the conventional re- 
 quirements of the occasion, but with a dead 
 apathy and carelessness which at once dis- 
 appoints and exasperates a more earnest na- 
 ture. What happens when two such persons 
 meet is not known; perhaps because neither 
 
SHAKING HANDS. 43 
 
 have the sensations to feel, the perception to 
 notice, or the energy to record, the negative 
 nature of the impression. A not uncommon 
 character is the selfishly receptive absorbant, 
 who holds out a willing hand, expectantly 
 still, to receive whatever greeting is be- 
 stowed, but which never once offers a gener- 
 ous pressure or responds to a hearty clasp. 
 Then there is the affected reaching out of the 
 gingerly finger tips, as if to say, I graciously 
 condescend to a common custom — or to an 
 inferior person — but a touch is all I bestow 
 or allow. After meeting these, or any one of 
 numerous other equally repellant types, how 
 gladly the noble nature meets the firm, hearty 
 clasp of a morally magnetic hand, all sensi- 
 tive of reception, and bounding in generous 
 strength of health and heart which imparts a 
 thrill of kindly kinship and instantly puts the 
 two en rapport with the best characteristics 
 of each other, and so brings them into com- 
 radeship with the rich personality of all that 
 is noblest in humanity. How full of meaning 
 the remark of one lady to another, "I drew 
 courage and comfort from the very shake of 
 your hand when I first met you." Contrast 
 this with the u fishy hand" of Uriah Heep, 
 whose irritating touch David Copperfield felt 
 forced to wipe off with his handkerchief, it 
 
44 ARGUMENT AND ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 was so vilely odorous of deceit, selfishness 
 and treachery. 
 
 THE HAND IN ART. 
 
 Poets and painters, sculptors and musicians, 
 have immortalized the hand, and the hand in 
 turn has been the instrumentality through 
 and by which they have immortalized them- 
 selves. Job and David, Moses and John, Ho- 
 mer and Hesiod, Shakespeare and Goethe, 
 Milton and Dante, Browning and Emerson 
 have written or sung of the hand. 
 
 The Egyptian and Grecian sculptors, the 
 one symbolic, the other representative, have 
 given us innumerable and characteristic hands 
 full of meaning. The painting of human 
 hands by Eaphael and Corregio, by Durer 
 and Eubens, by Vandyke and Rembrandt are 
 full of human history. A master's power is 
 shown in every prominent hand delineated by 
 these wonderful men. They displayed the 
 true artistic genius by which they saw the 
 truth, and so, without the dull and imperfect 
 plodding of sensuous experience, or the slow 
 process of deduction, they were enabled, by 
 the inner light, to give the appropriate hand 
 to each great character. And with them, as 
 with all seers, the poet is first to perceive 
 and state the advanced truths. The scientist 
 
POET AND SCIENTIST. 45 
 
 then comes along and confirms while the lo- 
 gician demonstrates its certainty, and man- 
 kind accept as they have ability. The poet 
 lights on the mountain peaks of clear truths, 
 the scientist and logician build connecting 
 highways upon which the masses may travel. 
 The musician not only must needs use his 
 own hand to write out his score when invent- 
 ed, but he depends almost exclusively on the 
 hands of many others, as the means of vital- 
 izing these notes, until their rendition thrills 
 the thousands into an ecstacy harmonious 
 with his own delight. 
 
 HOW WE USE THE HAND. 
 
 The hand and its work is everywhere. Be- 
 hind the glass, which fate holds up before us, 
 imagination dimly pictures the shadow of a 
 hand. We are led, we depart or remain, we 
 meet or we do not meet, as the unseen hand 
 determines. 
 
 To us, as to the Egyptians, the hand is an 
 emblem of strength. To us, as to the Chal- 
 deans, it is an emblem of invincible power. 
 The king, midst his revelry and feasting, 
 started back aghast, sobered and trembling, 
 at the hand as it wrote on the wall ; the writ- 
 ing, which was not understood, surprised 
 
46 ARGUMENT AND ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 him ; but the hand, he knew, meant power, 
 and hence struck him with terror. To us, as 
 to the Eomans, the hand is an emblem of 
 fidelity. Transitory matters are discussed, ex- 
 hortations are delivered and minor bargains 
 are made by the tongue ; history is recorded, 
 deep reasoning carried on, intricate calcula- 
 tions made and real estate conveyed by the 
 hand. Our ancestors swore by the hand, and 
 we testify uplifting the hand. Men and wo- 
 men are married clasping hands. Friends 
 salute by the hand. Favor, respect and 
 affection are manifested by pressing, and still 
 more by kissing, the hand. 
 
 DIFFERING HANDS. 
 
 What a difference in hands. Look at the 
 little innocent baby fingers, rosy and clinging 
 — the quick, eager hands of childhood — the 
 restless, busy hands of youth — the dainty, 
 delicate hand of woman, warm with its flut- 
 tering pulsations — the firm hand of manhood, 
 strong to strike and tender to caress — the 
 feeble and uncertain hand of age — the cold, 
 dead hands, folded in rest. 
 
 What a difference in the same hand, under 
 a change of circumstances ! That hand 
 which is strongest for work, which holds 
 
fiAKDS TRUE TO LIFE. it 
 
 more firmly than fetters the offending culprit, 
 or strikes to death the opposing enemy, may 
 still be the most delicate to soothe, the most 
 congenial to quiet the fevered friend; it may, 
 by its kindly pressure, and tender touch, ex- 
 press more eloquently than words, the deep- 
 est sympathy in the death-chamber, and may, 
 by its love foldings, impart more confidence 
 than the uttered vows at the nuptial altar. 
 
 The hands are always true to the life, and 
 change as the life changes in growth, quality 
 and decay. They are the true index of the 
 inner man, for his daily life has incarnated it- 
 self in them. Every desire and the thought 
 in which it is embodied, thrills instantly from 
 the soul, through all the nerves and fibres of 
 the hands and leaves its impress upon them. 
 When warm palm meets warm palm, in the 
 grasp of friendship, or in the clasp of love, 
 it is the soul of the one greeting the soul of 
 the other. 
 
THE HAND IN OUTLINE. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE HAND IN GENERAL. 
 
 JANDS differ indefinitely in size, rang- 
 
 |B|»|I ing from the extreme of large to 
 >£u^§£s> small. This variation extends to 
 ;^lp\* each of the three dimensions ; so 
 that hands may be anywhere from long to 
 short, from broad to narrow and from thick 
 to thin. 
 
 Hands may be of any condition from fleshy 
 to lean. If fleshy they may be plump or 
 flabby. If lean they may be trim and smooth 
 or skinny and wrinkled. 
 
 Hands, again, are of almost infinite variety 
 as to being hard, firm, yielding, soft or plas- 
 tic ; elastic or inert ; rigid or supple ; stiff or 
 flexible; nervous or passive; muscular, sin- 
 ewy or neither; electric, magnetic or nega- 
 tive ; dry, normal, damp or moist ; hot, 
 warm, normal, cold or clammy. 
 
 The skin of the hand is of innumerable 
 variations and combinations of thickness, 
 texture, quality, sensitiveness, and color. 
 
50 HANDS IN GENERAL. 
 
 These differences of the hand in general also 
 apply to the palm as a principal division of 
 the hand, and some of them to the thumb 
 and fingers individually. 
 
 It is well known that no two faces are alike, 
 in fact, that no single face is so perfectly 
 balanced that one side is an exact duplicate 
 of the other side. It is just as true that no 
 two persons have hands alike, and just as 
 certain that no pair of hands are exact dupli- 
 cates. The differences to be found in that 
 pair of hands which are most alike are neither 
 few nor doubtful. It requires no expert to 
 see the variations. Any pair of hands will 
 exhibit marked differences, which will, when 
 pointed out, be readily recognized by any one 
 of ordinary perception. Usually the hands 
 are of different size and vary in many of the 
 points mentioned above. The fingers are 
 often — generally — of different comparative 
 lengths and exhibit other divergent peculiar- 
 ities. A slight examination of any pair of 
 hands will show that even the principal lines 
 are not exactly alike in the right and left 
 palms. A careful examination will usually 
 show that no single line is exactly like its 
 fellow in the other hand. 
 
 Usually the variations in a pair of hands 
 are tangible as well as visible, so that even a 
 
RIGHT AND LEFT HANDS. 51 
 
 blind man can, with his finger ends, note 
 many differences in that pair of hands which 
 are most alike. 
 
 The difference between the two hands must 
 be carefully noted, and the meaning and val- 
 ue of the variation should be kept constantly 
 in mind while deducing the person's charac- 
 ter.* 
 
 The Bight Hand points out the direction 
 which the individual is traveling, and the 
 progress made in the modification of original 
 tendencies and abilities into actual character. 
 \ The Left Hand indexes the person's nat- 
 ural inclinations and peculiarities) which in a 
 greater or less degree have been modified in 
 the direction shown by the right hand. 
 
 In case of " left-handed v people this rule 
 is reversed. In short, the passive hand ex- 
 hibits the character from which the person is 
 growing; while the active hand indexes the 
 character as developed. 
 
 * The ancient palmisters teach that if the lines are equally 
 fair in both hands they show that the person resembles the 
 father as to physical form, and is like the mother in mental 
 and moral endowments. The right hand being the clearer and 
 fairer -shows that the person resembles the father in physique 
 temper and mind ; ' this resemblance increases as the right 
 hand is fairer and clearer than the left. The left hand exhibit- 
 ing the fairer lines asserts the person to be like the mother 
 physically, mentally and morally, the more so as the left hand 
 is manifestly clearer than the right. 
 
52 HANDS IN GENERAL. 
 
 Divisions of the Hand. — The hand is made 
 up of three essential parts — the palm, the 
 thumb, and the fingers — each of which in- 
 dexes essential elements in the character and 
 life. 
 
 In speaking of the hand, palm or fingers, 
 up is towards the finger-tips, and down is to- 
 wards the wrist. East is the edge of the hand 
 bearing the thumb, and west is the edge bear- 
 ing the little finger. 
 
 The Palm indexes the physical strength, 
 endurance, activity and temperament. It is, 
 also, to a great extent, a bulletin of the health, 
 past and present : and, hence, in some meas- 
 ure, shadows forth the future in this respect. 
 The palm shows the animal appetites and in- 
 clinations ; the instinctive desires, affinities 
 and repulsions; the sensuous tendencies, 
 aptitudes and impulses; all theee in their 
 various combinations of strength and inten- 
 sity. As the palm dominates over the fingers 
 it shows a preponderance of the animal over 
 the man ; as it is extremely hard, especially 
 if horny, it attests approaching brutishness ; 
 as it is extremely small it shows lack of mus- 
 cular strength; as it is extremely soft it' in- 
 dexes lack of endurance and an extreme 
 impressionability. The thick palm shows 
 strength ; the broad palm, endurance. 
 
LARGE HANDS. 53 
 
 The Ideal Talm is of fair size, in due pro- 
 portion and condition to harmonize with the 
 person in stature and flesh. It is trim, well 
 rounded, firmly elastic, pliant without being- 
 weakly flexible, clearly and evenly colored, 
 moderately and regularly warm, dry without 
 being parched. The skin is soft and flexible 
 without being velvety or plastic, smooth but 
 not glossy. The touch is delicate, kindly 
 soothing, invitingly clinging. The mounts 
 and lines well defined and, favorable. Such 
 a palm will herald the perfection of strength, 
 health, endurance, activity and sensibility. 
 
 In general terms the lower part of the 
 palm shadows forth the animal strength and 
 instincts ; the middle portion shows the pow- 
 er and quality of the brain and nerves ; and 
 the upper part indicates the force and char- 
 acter of the emotions. From the compara- 
 tive firmness of the palm is learned the per- 
 son's power of physical endurance. 
 
 The indications of the palm in minutia are 
 fully discussed under the subsequent sub- 
 headings of this chapter, and in the chapters 
 treating of the mounts and lines of the hand. 
 
 Large Sands are the hands that do or 
 work ; that naturally, patiently, lovingly put 
 forth manipulating activity. The person with 
 large hands naturally executes his plans ; acts 
 
54 HANDS IN GENERAL. 
 
 out his impulses; materializes his thoughts. 
 Large hands belong to him who naturally 
 finishes one thing before beginning another ; 
 to him who carries out his own plans, unless 
 judgment or necessity leads him to employ 
 an assistant or substitute ; to him who does 
 not consider his work complete until the 
 thought or feeling is incarnated into action. 
 Large hands are characterized by complete- 
 ness in the performance rather than by the 
 fertility of theories. They indicate a mastery 
 of what is undertaken, rather than a wide 
 range of abilities. 
 
 The Long Sands indicate an appreciation, 
 love and performance of details ; a care for, 
 and an ability in the minutia of one's profes- 
 sion. They show persons who will know 
 many details about whatever interests them. 
 (See "Long Fingers/') 
 
 Small Hands show the man who plans great 
 things, who aspires after the colossal, who 
 sees the result to be attained and the general 
 plan by which to accomplish his ends ; who 
 readily states his views in general terms, but 
 who rarely of his own accord goes into de- 
 tails; who is satisfied with completing the 
 plan, and naturally calls upon his larger 
 handed neighbor to put in the minutia, and to 
 finish that part of the work requiring routine, 
 
MEDIUM HANDS. 55 
 
 plodding and muscular endurance. Small 
 hands like light work, dainty work ; work not 
 tied down to rule and minutia ; they delight in 
 work which requires grace rather than exact- 
 ness, activity rather than continuity, and 
 work in which invention and care are con- 
 stant elements. (See "Short Fingers.") 
 
 The Slim Hands, warm and dry, show ac- 
 tivity, moderate muscular power, and usually 
 accompany a kindly disposition. This hand, 
 lean, sinewy, and dry, shows little muscular 
 power, nervous irritation, and, hence, may 
 mean — depending on other characteristics — 
 irritable temper, cowardice, or quarrelsome- 
 ness. The slim hand, soft, indicates a weak 
 physique, love of ease ; and if it is also cold 
 or damp or moist, bodily weakness and inac- 
 tivity are more fully indicated. 
 
 Minutia, finish, elegance, work, belong to 
 large hands. Magnitude, grace, generalities, 
 are the characteristics of small hands. Per- 
 sons with small hands see the whole, the 
 mass, and work for the grand effect, and 
 hence with a long, free, graceful stroke and 
 with independent, rapid motion. The person 
 with large hands sees the parts, the factors, 
 and works with an eye to the perfection of 
 each one, with an exact and calculated 
 stroke and a careful, steady motion. 
 
56 HANDS IN GENERAL. 
 
 The medium-sized hand, the one in fair pro- 
 portion with the body, is the one that will 
 naturally do, or delegate the doing, as judg- 
 ment or necessity may designate as best. 
 
 James B. Eads, who originated the great 
 tubular steel bridge over the Mississippi, at 
 St. Louis, and who secured the aid of capital- 
 ists to build it, has very small hands. 
 
 Henry Flad, who worked out the details of 
 construction, and who calculated the details 
 of strain and tension, has very large and very 
 effective hands. The former conceived the 
 grand idea, and, both as an engineer and as 
 an organizer, dealt in comprehensive state- 
 ments made up of golden generalities, while 
 the latter filled these general plans full of the 
 needed sinews and nerves of detail. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, who was peculiar in the 
 matter of giving personal attention to many 
 minor matters, usually delegated to subordin- 
 ates, had very long hands. Jay Gould, who 
 forms immense plans, who aims at grand 
 effects, but who does all his work through 
 subordinates, has small and short hands. 
 
 Eedoute, the illustrious French flower 
 painter, who is especially celebrated for the 
 wonderful detail, minute manipulation, and 
 elegant and exact finish of his pictures, has 
 very large, long hands. Oorot, on the other 
 
GREECE, EGYPT, INDIA. 57 
 
 hand, who paints with no attempt at detail or 
 elegance of finish, rather avoiding both, but 
 who aims at the grand effect which many can 
 feel, but which few can see, and fewer under- 
 stand, has very small hands. The Greeks 
 always associated beauty and strength, de- 
 manding a living force great enough to con- 
 trol itself in grand repose. They founded 
 only small States, where all took part in mak- 
 ing and executing the laws. They wor- 
 shiped deities with well-defined and clearly 
 limited characteristics. Their monuments 
 and statuary are unapproachable in perfec- 
 tion of finish, elegance. and beauty, but they 
 are all of limited dimensions. The model 
 Greek hand, as shown in the statuary ideals 
 by their best sculptors, is large, with a mod- 
 erately thick palm and a prominent thumb. 
 The fingers are of medium length, strong, 
 smooth and tapering with mixed oval and 
 square phalanges. 
 
 The pyramids and monoliths of Egypt, and 
 the temples of India — as noted for their mag- 
 nitude, grandeur and sublimity as are the 
 Greek works of art for their finish, elegance 
 and beauty — were planned and their con- 
 struction superintended by a people celebrat- 
 ed as having the smallest and most delicate 
 hands in the world. The ideal hand of these 
 
58 HANDS IN GENERAL. 
 
 races — as seen in the contemporary sculp- 
 ture with which their vast works are usually 
 adorned, as well as shown by the mummies, 
 which were of the ruling classes — are small, 
 of medium width, having short, smooth, ta- 
 pering fingers, with square and spatulous 
 ends. 
 
 The Hard Hand will indicate one who easily 
 puts forth continued action ; one who is en- 
 during at physical effort; who delights in en- 
 ergetic activity. The hard hand with elastic- 
 ity also, not only expends muscular strength 
 and puts forth continuous activity, but is un- 
 happy if denied that necessary privilege. 
 
 The Elastic Hand which may also be called 
 the sinewy hand, although the former is the 
 more truthful term, is capable of, and loves, 
 rapid skillful activity. It is characterized by 
 energy rather than by endurance. Persons 
 with an elastic hand are capable of massing 
 much power for short periods of time; capa- 
 ble of expending — under excitement or ne- 
 cessity — all the power of the day in a few 
 hours, and sometimes in one grand effort. 
 Such an one will not, when interested in 
 work, realize that he is becoming weary, but 
 his task finished or his strength spent, he 
 will find himself exhausted. This is the 
 hand of the advanced thinker and worker. 
 
SOFT AND PLASTIC HANDS, 59 
 
 Soft Hands belong to one who labors with 
 fatigue and weariness, to whom heavy work or 
 continued activity is a hardship. Continued 
 activity at light service is, however, easier 
 than the expenditure of strength. Its char- 
 acteristics of work are like the elastic but less 
 enthusiastic and less enduring and without 
 the rapid recuperative power of the latter. 
 
 The Plastic Sand which is very soft and 
 non-elastic, announces one lacking in physic- 
 al strength and activity — void of endurance 
 — a low state of muscular and vital forces. 
 The plastic hand, warm — a very rare occur- 
 rence — will suggest a diseased brain, a weak 
 mind, indolence and selfishness* Moderately 
 warm will suggest a recent severe illness, 
 with promise of restored health. Cold, it will 
 show long continued ill-health with little pros- 
 pect of immediate improvement. Cold and 
 damp — or worse if moist — will indicate dis- 
 ease of the lungs, and, in some cases, secret 
 vices undermining the vitality and destroy- 
 ing the health. 
 
 Resume. — The hard hands show strong 
 enduring muscular power and continued ac- 
 tivity. The elastic hand is vital rather than 
 muscular; energetic rather than enduring; 
 inclined to crowd its work into a short time, 
 or mass the entire strength and vitality into 
 
60 HANDS IN GENERAL. 
 
 sharp, rapid, effective effort. The soft hand 
 has little muscular endurance, but is graceful, 
 delicate and active in light work. It is im- 
 pressionable and often accompanies clear, 
 continuous mental effort. The plastic hand 
 is weak, passive, and inert. Hard hands love 
 travel and adventure. Soft hands love to 
 hear of them. Hard hands may be strong in 
 their attachments, self-denying and helpful, 
 without much show of tenderness. Soft 
 hands will exhibit more tenderness, more pas- 
 sive endurance, without being more faithful; 
 more ardent without being more firm in their 
 affection. Hard hands show little impres- 
 sionability — appreciate exact and tangible 
 realities. Soft hands are impressionable, and 
 given to reverie and imagination, loving the 
 marvelous and the mysterious. Hard hands 
 have power, and use it for active resistance; 
 soft hands excel in passive endurance. Hard 
 hands with smooth and pointed fingers will 
 suggest traders and trainers of horses and 
 other animals, while soft hands of like form 
 will tell of one who loves to engage in like 
 pursuits theoretically — adventure in the 
 library or on the stage. 
 
 Women with large palms, especially as they 
 are elastic or soft, and particularly if the lines 
 show good health and recuperative power ? 
 
THE SKIN. 
 
 61 
 
 will bear children with comparative ease. On 
 the contrary women with small palms, es- 
 pecially as they are firm or hard, and parti- 
 cularly if the lines show ill health or low vi- 
 tality, will suffer much in child-bearing. 
 
 The STcin of the hand, fairly warm, evenly 
 colored, delicate and clinging, indicates good 
 health. The skin too white suggests a cold 
 temperament, lack of strong attachments, 
 selfishness and egotism ; too red, shows heat- 
 ed blood, coarseness, violent anger, strong- 
 passions. Both extremes are very undesira- 
 ble. 
 
THE THUMB. 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 ^Po> 
 
 b"UNTCit:ni'U-| 
 
 THE THUMB. 
 
 HE superior animal is found m the 
 hand, humanity in the thumb, says a 
 celebrated authority. "In default of 
 other proofs," said Newton, "the 
 thumb would convince me of the existence of 
 God." Many expressions in literature and in 
 the popular, as well as the provincial idioms, 
 refer to the supposed power and influence of 
 the thumb. Superstitious people cover the 
 thumb to avoid the danger threatened by the 
 4 'evil eye." In all occult matters the thumb 
 plays a prominent part. Shakespeare fre- 
 quently refers to the thumb. Biting the 
 thumb, as noticed in Eomeo and Juliet, is an 
 old and forcible method of bestowing an in- 
 tentional insult. The witches consulted their 
 thumbs as prophetic, and are made to say 
 
 "By the pricking of my thumbs 
 Something wicked this way comes." 
 
 History and the Bible refer to the heathen 
 and Israelitish practice of mutilating their 
 
64 THE THUMB. 
 
 prisoners of war by cutting off their thumbs. 
 When the fallen and vanquished gladiator, in 
 the Eoman arena, saw the spectators with 
 "thumbs up v his heart rejoiced, for he then 
 knew that his bravery, though overcome, had 
 won for him life and freedom. But when the 
 thumbs pointed downward he shut his eyes, 
 resigning hope, and closing his fingers over 
 his thumb, awaited the ordered and speedily 
 given death blow. 
 
 In idiots, who are guided by impulse only, 
 the thumbs are small and often withered or 
 deformed, and are usually concealed beneath 
 the overclasping fingerSe Infants and feeble- 
 minded people, in closing the hand, double 
 the fingers over the thumb. In both cases, 
 however, as intelligence dawns, and as there 
 is any exhibition of will or choice, the thumb 
 asserts its supremacy by doubling over the 
 fingers. When the premonitions of an epi- 
 leptic fit come on, the thumb becomes inert, 
 and during the spasm the thumb is usually 
 hid in the palm under the fingers. When 
 the great darkness of death settles about the 
 glazing eye, the fingers shut over the thumb 
 and bury it. 
 
 Upon the length and strength, proportion 
 and mobility of the thumb depends largely 
 the powers and adaptability of the hand. 
 
THE LARGE THUMB. Bo 
 
 The large fleshy ball formed by the muscles of 
 the thumb in the lower part of the palm upon 
 which its strength depends is the distinguish- 
 ing characteristic of the human hand, and es- 
 pecially of the. strong and expert hand. 
 
 The thumb acts as a controlling helper of 
 the fingers, either singly or in any combina- 
 tion, and in a hand of average flexibility can 
 touch any phalange of any finger. The 
 thumb, too, at once controls and cooperates 
 with the fingers, by acting in opposition to 
 them. It thus beautifully symbolizes, what 
 it also represents, the intellectual force, which 
 clearly appreciates and wisely directs the 
 other powers, which by firm control — some- 
 times by kind repression, often by friendly 
 opposition — developing the mental peculiar- 
 ities and affectional impulses and utilizing the 
 animal powers. 
 
 The thumb indicates the intelligent will. 
 In general, a large thumb shows decision of 
 character, persistency of purpose, and, there- 
 fore one likely to succeed. A small thumb 
 will, therefore, show one who is vacillating 
 and uncertain in his aims, and intermittent as 
 well as changeable in his efforts. 
 
 The First Phalange of the thumb represents 
 the will — the power of decision,, continuity 
 of purpose, and executive force. Persons 
 
66 £HE THTTM3. 
 
 who have this phalange long and strong will 
 have a powerful and energetic will, great con- 
 tinuity of purpose and an extreme desire, ex- 
 pressed in persistent effort, to carry out any 
 project undertaken. They will be able to con- 
 trol their appetites, passions and impulses; 
 to continue in a project undertaken even 
 though it be disagreeable, wearisome, or dis- 
 couraging. This phalange long and the sec- 
 ond short will indicate one who is disposed 
 
 The Thumb— First phalange long, second short. 
 
 towards domination, arbitrary rule and tyr- 
 anny. If very large and rounding — ball- 
 shaped— it attests extreme rashness and un- 
 governable fits of passion and combativeness. 
 If the second phalange is weak it will show 
 quarrelsomeness, petty cruelty, &c. 
 
 The first phalange medium represents pas- 
 sive resistance — inertia — and shows a per- 
 son moderate in will, yet sometimes subject to 
 outside pressure or to the force of emotion 
 and appetite. 
 
 This phalange short shows lack of steadfast 
 
Me first phalange. 67 
 
 resolution ; indicates one who does not and 
 cannot always control himself; one who is 
 disposed to adopt the opinions and be con- 
 trolled by the will of others. 
 
 This phalange short and broad indicates 
 obstinacy and prejudice. The short phalange 
 indicates indecision and unfixedness, and the 
 breadth shows strength of will. Extreme 
 in its joys and sorrows, and above all in its 
 passions, this phalange is the index (the sec- 
 ond phalange weak) of ungoverned and ever- 
 changing whims and prejudice. 
 
 The first phalange very short and feeble 
 shows powerlessness to resist, indifference to 
 the duties of life — discouragements and en- 
 thusiasms by turn, sadness and gayety with- 
 out adequate cause. 
 
 One with this phalange weak can never be 
 implicitly relied upon for steadfastness even 
 in friendship or love. Such an one may be de- 
 voted but not constant — honest and ardent, 
 but not consistent and persistent. 
 
 The Second Phalange represents the intel- 
 lect, judgment, plan. This phalange long and 
 strong, shows that the intellect is clear and 
 reliable ; the power of planning and organiz- 
 ing is present in superior measure. This 
 phalange short and weak, indexes little intel- 
 lectual stamina? defective and sluggish judg- 
 
68 
 
 THE THUMB. 
 
 ment, dim and vacillating views, with chang- 
 ing purposes. 
 
 The first and second phalanges of equal 
 length and strength and a thumb in full pro- 
 portion to the balance of the hand, shows in- 
 telligent use of knowledge, powers of planning 
 and organizing, with will and continuity of 
 purpose to execute, and may well be denom- 
 inated the "ideal thumb." 
 
 The Thumb— Second phalange long, first short. 
 
 The second phalange long and strong and 
 the first weak, indicates one with more judg- 
 ment than will, more plan than execution. 
 His ideas and purposes may be excellent, but 
 a hesitancy to act prevents their execution. 
 His perception may suggest the propriety of 
 the plan while his judgment approves and 
 points out the necessity of immediate and 
 persistent advance; but he lacks the resolution 
 to proceed. Caution, prudence and indecis- 
 ion become the apologies for vacillation and 
 inaction. Such an one may be a good coun- 
 
THE THIRD PHALANGE. 69 
 
 sellor but a poor executive, a good subordi- 
 nate but a poor leader. 
 
 The Third Phalange of the thumb — the 
 "Mount of Venus' 7 — will be fully described 
 and interpreted under that heading. This 
 phalange represents the physical man as to 
 strength and vitality. Large, full and bound- 
 ing, it attests great physical strength; firm- 
 ness asserts corresponding endurance; a fair 
 temperature and color shows large vitality ; 
 extreme hardness suggests strong and persist- 
 ent animal appetites ; if sinewy and elastic, it 
 shows activity, vigor, impetuosity; softness 
 indicates impressionability, delicacy and 
 keenness of appetite and passion, and inten- 
 sity of sensuous impulses; very soft— which 
 rarely occurs with a full development — sug- 
 gests as other characteristics determine, the 
 indolent dilettante, the epicure, the gour- 
 mand, the voluptuary — the one dreaming of 
 sensuous exercises which he is too indolent 
 or too impotent to make sensuous realities. 
 Most debauchees, voluptuaries, lecherous 
 men and wanton and abandoned women have 
 the root of the thumb full and the other 
 phalanges, especially the first, short or feeble. 
 
 The third phalange feeble or flat marks lit- 
 tle physical strength, low vitality, lack of en- 
 durance and a deficiency in sensuous appetite- 
 
70 THE THUMB, 
 
 Resume. — The whole thumb more fully de- 
 veloped than in proportion with the hand, 
 shows a tendency to domination; very large, 
 indicates calculating tyranny. Under medi- 
 um size it indicates passive resistance, and 
 very small shows a person subject to his own 
 passion or impulse, and to the direction and 
 control of others. 
 
 The first phalange strong with the second 
 weak, indicates one who is erratic, rash, im- 
 pulsive, dominant, arbitrarily tyrannical, self- 
 assertive, &c, as the other peculiarities de- 
 termine. The second phalange strong, the 
 first weak, will show one of good judgment, 
 plan, and intelligence, but of little executive 
 ability and of vacillating purpose, lacking 
 continuity and persistance of application. 
 
 The purposes for which, and the directions 
 in which, the qualities thus indicated are ex- 
 pended must be determined from the other 
 peculiarities, of the affections and thoughts. 
 
 He who has the third phalange of the thumb 
 full — showing great physical power, elastic 
 — showing strong sensuous impulse, the sec- 
 ond also full and long, indicating intelligent 
 plan and definite purpose, with the first like- 
 wise fully developed — telling of firm decision 
 and persistent and continuous effort, must be 
 a leader. He may develop into the daring 
 
THE LARGE THUMB. 71 
 
 general, leading armies ; the successful man- 
 ager of large concerns, molding the muscu- 
 lar powers of the many into material pro- 
 ducts, profitable to them and himself: the 
 philanthropist, spending his strength for the 
 race ; the missionary or martyr, devoting his 
 life enthusiastically to his faith; or he may 
 be the calculating, persistent, successful ene- 
 my of virtue — the confirmed sensualist. 
 
 One thing may always be certified, the per- 
 son with the three phalanges of the thumb 
 full and strong, and equally developed, will 
 be no ordinary individual. Such an one will 
 always be forcible, intelligent and effective. 
 Barely, however, will such an one bear a 
 character of unmixed good or evil. Such a 
 thumb always belongs to one of marked 
 power; and, usually, to one who, whatever 
 his general character, has great physical 
 strength, sensuous keenness, and dominating 
 tendencies — great temptations, clear and de- 
 cided plans, indomitable perseverance — and, 
 hence, unusual success. 
 
DIVISION OF THE FINGERS. 
 
OHAPTEE V. 
 
 THE FINGERS. 
 
 ||HE fingers have special features easily 
 |^^^g recognized. They may be anywhere 
 between the extremes of long and 
 short ; smooth, undulating, or knotted 
 at the joints; fleshy, and then firm, puffy or 
 flabby — or lean, and then trim, skinny or 
 shrunken; uniform in size or tapering; spat- 
 ulate, square, oval or pointed at the ends; 
 straight, curved or crooked ; symmetrical or 
 ill-shapen. Any one finger may be of almost 
 any combination of the above peculiarities, 
 and other fingers on the same hand of some 
 other combinations. It will usually be found 
 that one finger is more tapering and pointed 
 than the others, another more knotted than 
 its fellows, and one knot larger than the 
 other, and that the corresponding fingers on 
 the right and left hands are of different 
 lengths, actually and in proportion to their 
 fellows. These peculiarities are all to be 
 
74 THE FINGERS. 
 
 noticed, as each one of them indicates some 
 characteristic of the person. 
 
 The fingers index the tastes, direction of 
 abilities, and manipulating peculiarities. The 
 lower phalanges tell of the material and self- 
 ish tendencies ; the middle, of the intellect- 
 ual character; and the upper ones, or first 
 phalanges, indicate the inspirational and man- 
 ipulating abilities and show the direction 
 naturally followed in the activities of life. 
 
 . Short Fingers indicate one who sees in 
 general, examines only the mass, recognizes 
 the whole, comprehends the tout ensemble. 
 Persons with short fingers see the whole 
 effect, and comprehend it, before they notice 
 or appreciate the parts ; they love the large, 
 the majestic, the sublime, but do not equally 
 value the details. They work in general with 
 a long, free, swinging stroke, and produce 
 strong effects. Their work will usually be 
 graceful — not exact or intricate. They value 
 a person as a whole, before they know his 
 detailed accomplishments. They admire 
 friends for acceptable strong points, notwith- 
 standing minor faults, which they either do 
 not see; or seeing, ignore. They know many 
 persons and their strong peculiarities, but 
 notice few of their ordinary characteristics. 
 They know if a person is good-looking or 
 
LONG FINGERS. 75 
 
 well-dressed, but often not the color of the 
 hair or eyes, or the material or style of the 
 dress. 
 
 All these peculiarities attested by short 
 fingers are intensified if the fingers are 
 smooth or tapering and the hand soft. Cruel- 
 ty is suggested by very short, thick, stubbed 
 fingers, especially with a hard hand and the 
 lines full and red. 
 
 Long Fingers indicate a person who sees 
 the parts, appreciates the details and under- 
 stands the minutia, and from their considera- 
 tion determines the whole. Such persons will 
 prefer the exact to the colossal, thorough 
 finish to greatness of plan, the elegant to the 
 grand. As mechanics they excel in intricate 
 work, nice adjustment and completeness of 
 finish ; as artists they are characterized — 
 much like the large hands — by their excel- 
 lence in minute work, and by the care be- 
 stowed upon exact finish ; as orators or con- 
 versationists they will be characterized by 
 the use of illustrations, digressions, particu- 
 larity of statement, fullness of description, 
 which in excess may obscure the argument 
 or hide the main point in a multitude of un- 
 important trivialities. 
 
 Long, knotted and straggling fingers will 
 suggest intrigue, chicanery, querulousnes, use- 
 
76 THE FINGERS. 
 
 less care on unimportant side-issues, unnec- 
 essary labor spent in unproductive minutia, 
 
 These characteristics are shown strength- 
 ened as the Angers are knotted and the palm 
 is long and firm. The average middle finger 
 is in length nearly equal to the palm. 
 
 There is no fixed, or even medium propor- 
 tion for the lengths of the different fingers. 
 The middle one is, almost without exception, 
 the longest, and the little finger the shortest. 
 The first finger is generally shorter than the 
 third, often, however, equal to it, frequently 
 longer, but very rarely as long as the middle 
 one. The third finger is usually longer than 
 the first, but seldom as long as the middle 
 one. 
 
 The variation between the lengths of the 
 fingers on the right and left hands, both ac- 
 tually and comparatively, may best be seen 
 by compaiing the first and third with each 
 other, and with the middle finger ; and the 
 little one with the third finger. 
 
 Any finger as it is long intensifies the char- 
 acter of the mount at its base, which also is 
 modified in turn by the peculiarity of the fin- 
 ger. 
 
 Smooth Fingers signify intuition, immediate 
 perception, rapid comprehension of ideas and 
 things presented. Persons with smooth fin- 
 
KNOTTED FINGERS. 77 
 
 gers will at once incline to accept or reject 
 the thought brought forward. They largely 
 depend upon their perception — more easily 
 see and understand than demonstrate or an- 
 alyze. They appreciate and use clear state- 
 ments, illustrations and examples, rather than 
 arguments and deductions. They see human 
 nature rather than judge it. They know peo- 
 ple by perception rather than estimate them 
 by calculation. Their first impressions are 
 usually not only clear but also true. 
 
 Smooth fingers, if pointed, have little or- 
 der; if square, they love the sight and idea 
 of order; if spatulated they will have mod- 
 erate order — if time allow. Smooth and 
 transparent fingers suggest curiosity — if 
 pointed, levity. All the indications of the 
 smooth fingers are strengthened as they are 
 also tapering ; and intensified as the hand is 
 soft and the skin delicate, showing also im- 
 pressionability — suggesting also the artist 
 and poet. 
 
 Knotted Fingers indicate order, logic, de- 
 duction — and in excess, with other charac- 
 teristics concurring, — skepticism, distrust, 
 suspicion, etc. Persons with knotted fingers 
 want the logic of truths and facts — the mo- 
 tive for doing — the why and wherefore of 
 belief. 
 
?8 
 
 THE FINGEES. 
 
 
 Knotted Fingers— Square and Oval. 
 
 The Logical Knot, below the first phalange, 
 attests order in intellectual work, arrangement 
 of ideas, classification of moral and mental 
 causes and results, method in philosophical 
 and religious researches and deductions. 
 Persons with this knot doubt, reason, deduce, 
 conclude. They may value evidence, but 
 
0?HE LOGICAL KNO0\ ?9 
 
 want arguments. They may desire testimony, 
 but they require demonstration. Without 
 ignoring experience they exalt logic. 
 
 In excess, or in a weak hand, this knot is 
 the index of a mind prone to indulge in petty 
 distinctions, unrest, fault-finding, hair-split- 
 ting, captious and useless deductions. Per- 
 sons with this knot and a long, pointed first 
 phalange, will struggle between ideality and 
 logic, and may have by turns (other qualities 
 concurring) the ecstasies of the poet and the 
 doubts of the philosopher — the assurances 
 of the fanatic and the disbelief of the skeptic. 
 They will often feel or see one set of truths 
 from inspiration or intuition, while logically 
 they deduce and hence believe another, and 
 perhaps a contradictory doctrine,and will act 
 as one or the other rules the moment, thus 
 exhibiting erratic ideas and actions. 
 
 Persons with this knot and square finger- 
 ends will see clearly, justly, practically, and 
 test the impressions and perceptions by logic ; 
 requiring that poesy, art, religion and phil- 
 osophy be reasonable and practical. They 
 will be more pious than devout ; more moral 
 than ceremonial. They may love the beauti- 
 ful, but will be apt to identify it with the true 
 and especially with the useful — which they 
 will place parallel with the good. They will 
 
SO $HE FINGER^. 
 
 value law, defer to usage, and quote prece- 
 dent and justice. They will be effective in 
 realizing their conceptions, practical in their 
 plans and work, and careful, exact, and faith- 
 ful in their manipulations. 
 
 This knot with spatulated fingers shows 
 one who calculates how his ideas may be 
 turned into action, calculates speed, move- 
 ment, change. Such persons love independ- 
 ence, rely upon themselves, value their own 
 opinions rather than precedent, and, with 
 a large thumb, force their will and way. 
 
 The Knot of Material Order — below the 
 second phalange — shows calculation, deduc- 
 tion, reason, order, connected with material 
 and tangible interests — -the logic of ideas 
 connected with matter. Persons with this 
 knot are inclined to investigate the method 
 of a fact as well as its occurrence. In chem- 
 istry they see the experiment, but also want 
 to know the law governing it. They accept 
 the facts of sense if they appear reasonable; 
 and accept the laws of reason if they are 
 profitable. This knot belongs to the engineer, 
 architect, business man, manufacturer, ac- 
 countant, etc. In excess, and in otherwise 
 weak hands this knot will suggest indecision, 
 fussiness, petty carefulness, "too many irons 
 in the fire." 
 
TAPERING FINGERS. 81 
 
 The cliaracteristics indicated by the knot- 
 ted fingers are strengthened as the fingers 
 are long, and intensified as the hand is firm 
 or hard. Their value also depends upon 
 whether the logical knot or the knot of mater- 
 ial order predominates over the other. Their 
 particular meaning also depends upon the 
 interpretation of the finger showing the fuller 
 development. 
 
 Tapering Fingers. — Slightly tapering fingers 
 are guided more by plan and the ideal, and 
 as the taper increases, the hand and the 
 whole life is more and more subordinated to 
 ideality. When the taper is decided and 
 regular the ideal is shown and also the desire 
 to see plan or ideal in sensuous form; and 
 when such a hand carries also a graceful 
 square-ended finger it attests the superior 
 ability to sensuously express the imagined 
 forms, and, therefore, suggests the musician, 
 painter, sculptor — poet. Small or medium, 
 full, soft hands, with tapering, smooth and 
 pointed or oval fingers, may give the world 
 new ideas. The same hand with square finger- 
 ends will value and describe the experiences. 
 The larger hand with longer fingers and square 
 ends, will, (especially if the palm is elastic), 
 explain them. The u philosophic" hand, de- 
 scribed hereafter, will logically deduce the 
 
82 THE FIN&EEg. 
 
 naturally outflowing duty, action or benefit. 
 
 All peoples give their ideals tapering fin- 
 gers. They are universal emblems of purity, 
 poetry and perfection. 
 
 Large, Ungainly Fingers, of the s ime size at 
 the ends as at the roots index one who is an 
 unthinking plodder and drudge — the laborer 
 who must be cared for and directed at each 
 step by an overseer — one who puts no cal- 
 culation, and very little care into his efforts. 
 
 Fingers lying close together so that no 
 light is seen between them, especially if the 
 fingers are irregular, suggest avarice, secre- 
 cy, and general selfishness. 
 
 THE FINGER ENDS. 
 
 These 'eyes of the hand ? may be spatu- 
 late, square, oval or pointed. Most hands 
 present combinations or modifications of two 
 or more of these varieties. In fact it fre- 
 quently happens that a single hand, or pair 
 of hands, will illustrate the four classes, thus 
 forcibly exhibiting — not "the law of the 
 members warring against the law of the 
 mind," — but rather, different impulses, in- 
 clinations and ideals combating, interfering 
 with, and thus modifying, each other. 
 
 The Spntulate form indicates physical ac- 
 
SPATULATE FINGERS. 
 
 83 
 
 tivity, manual occupation, love of muscular 
 exercise, locomotion. It suggests industrial 
 pursuits and mechanics, constancy in the pur- 
 
 Spatulate Fingeks- Slightly Undulating. 
 
 suit of material advantages and material 
 comforts; adventure, riches, &c. It shows 
 resolution rather than resignation. It prefers 
 abundance to elegance, practical facts to po- 
 
84 THE FINGERS. 
 
 etic theories, the evils of labor rather than 
 those of nature; active effort in overcoming 
 hardship, rather than indolent luxury. The 
 spatulate hand founds new colonies, builds 
 up large productive industries, prefers the 
 beauties of nature to those of art, and is in- 
 clined to sink the artist intheaitizan. It de- 
 lights in abundance and comfort; and while, 
 unlike the elementary hand, considering them 
 the only necessity, still estimates them above 
 refinement and elegance. The love of the 
 spatulate hand is ardent rather than tender, 
 self-sacrificing rather than expressive, in- 
 clined to accept the good seen in the loved 
 one rather than idealize the beloved. Its 
 manners are hearty and hospitable rather 
 than formal or polished. 
 
 Hands excessively spatulate suggest petu- 
 lance. 
 
 Spatulate fingers on a hard or firm hand 
 belong to one who rises with the sun, hunts, 
 rows, swims, works ploddingly, continuously, 
 and engages in contests of strength and en- 
 durance; in a word, he likes activity which 
 also calls for the expenditure of muscular 
 power. On an elastic hand they show one 
 who works with enthusiasm, one who is ex- 
 pert and skillful, proud of his ability as a 
 marksman, his superiority as a gymnast, his 
 
SQUARE FINGERS. 85 
 
 excellence as a workman ; in short, one who 
 will weave together his muscular strength, 
 nervous activity and mental calculation. 
 Spatulate fingers on a soft hand shows one 
 who delights in seeing feats of strength and 
 skill put forth by others. One who loves 
 boating — if another rows. He will like ex- 
 peditions and adventures — if he have horses 
 or other transportation, and servants to do 
 the drudgery of the campaign. He will excel 
 in work where skill and moderate exertion is 
 required. The hand very soft and spatulate 
 will often suggest the epicure. 
 
 The Square Ended Fingers attest a mind 
 and hand working cheerfully and harmonious- 
 ly together. Persons with such fingers nat- 
 urally want employment in which brain and 
 hand, thought and action are together em- 
 bodied in the result of their labor. Whether 
 poet, philosopher or mechanic ; artist, artizan 
 or laborer; legislator, judge or executive; 
 merchant, manufacturer or producer ; the per- 
 son with square finger ends will always clothe 
 his inspirations, perceptions and calculations 
 in clear expression and precise form, aiming 
 to secure effective and definite results. The 
 brain will constantly direct the hand, and the 
 hand will be the efficient agent of the brain. 
 
 The great musical composers had square- 
 
86 
 
 THE FINGERS. 
 
 ended fingers, moderately tapering, with 
 knotted joints. Michael Angelo had similar 
 fingers, only more tapering and both knots 
 
 Square Fingers— Smooth and Tapering. 
 
 moderately large, and an immense thumb; 
 accuracy, symmetry, detail, completeness, 
 truthfulness, persistency and strength are his 
 characteristics. Raphael had smooth, very 
 
SQUARE FINGERS. 87 
 
 tapering, square ended fingers and a moder- 
 ate thumb; grace, purity of color, general 
 warmth, moderate detail, lack of faithful- 
 ness in drawing, and an unequalled appeal to 
 the perceptions and feelings belong to his 
 works. Famous instrumental musicians, cel- 
 ebrated marksmen, skillful gymnasts, arti- 
 zans and billiardists — in a word, those who 
 are noted for the precision, finish and superi- 
 ority of their manipulation — are character- 
 ized by square finger ends. 
 
 It must not be inferred that all square fin- 
 ger ends carry with them this celebrity. 
 Square finger ends, however, attest superior 
 power of manipulation, a love of practical 
 and useful results, a keen sense of symmetry, 
 rythm, truth and justice; a willingness to 
 labor not for its own sake, nor simply for the 
 pecuniary reward of labor, but rather for the 
 immediate result of a superior product, with 
 more satisfaction in the success of good 
 work than in the pay for the exertion \mt 
 forth. The excess, or rather, the ill use of 
 this power, is useless care and unnecessary 
 exactness and finish when not needed, which 
 does not belong to the finger ends, but to 
 the large knots, or perverse Jupiter. 
 
 The Oval finger-ends attest ideality, con- 
 templation, grace of posture and movement. 
 
88 
 
 THE FINGERS. 
 
 Oyal Fingers— Tapering and Smooth. 
 
 The artistic taste and the poetic sentiment 
 here rule the life. A love of sculpture, 
 painting, song, poetry, is suggested. The 
 aesthetic taste is present, with ability to ap- 
 preciate, understand and criticize, without 
 however, superior power to create. Grace is 
 valued, rather than truth, form rather than 
 
POINTED FINGERS. 89 
 
 strength, ornament rather than use, sugges- 
 tion rather than fulness, delicacy rather than 
 exactness. Imagination and ideality rule the 
 hand and its manipulations, the life and its 
 activities, and we hear the murmur: 
 
 "Come let us worship beauty.'' 
 
 Other characteristics concurring, the oval fin- 
 ger-end will suggest religion, divination, ec- 
 stasy. In a weak hand it will hint at falling 
 from artistic flights after the imagined perfec- 
 tion into dreamy and indefinite reverie, and 
 may show one who is erratic, unreliable and 
 impure, who will, however, in degradation 
 even, always exhibit fancy, grace and romance. 
 The Pointed finger-ends attest a person 
 fanciful, erratic, romantic, impractical, change- 
 able, sometimes unreliable — always peculiar. 
 Persons with pointed fingers are character- 
 ized by movements quick and graceful, but 
 not usually exact or effective. They are 
 apt to mistake a part, clearly seen, for the 
 whole ; a single instance* for a general truth. 
 
 * The person, who in New York saw an Arkansas trader in 
 leather breeches, coon-skin cap and navy revolver, and who 
 wrote "home" to England, that the people of the Mississippi 
 Valley were a peculiar race who dressed in buckskin clothes, 
 coon-skin caps and navy five-shooters, was j)i*obably endowed 
 with short, smooth, pointed fingers. 
 
90 
 
 THE FINGERS. 
 
 Pointed Fingtstcs-— Very Tapering. 
 
 They may be brilliant in some directions, 
 but not generally even or constant. The 
 flashing fancy, the brilliant sally, the burst of 
 enthusiasm, the wail of despair, exaggerated 
 danger, or magnified joy, are all suggested 
 according as other signs concur. Pointed 
 fingers may indicate an irregular and unsym- 
 
THE PHALANGES. 91 
 
 metrical genius — one eminent for a few 
 peculiar and noticeable excellencies, accom- 
 panied by just as noticeable defects — one 
 who lacks the " definite proportion of faculty." 
 
 The pointed fingers must not be confounded 
 with the tapering ones. They are often 
 found supplementing and intensifying each 
 other, but their meanings are distinct. 
 
 The fingers on any pair of hands are usu- 
 ally various in character as to knots and the 
 shape of the ends. The first finger is usually 
 the more pointed, and the middle one the more 
 spatulate. The third finger is characterized 
 by the square form, and the little one is often 
 oval. 
 
 The Phalanges are compared with each 
 other to determine which characteristic will 
 rule the others, and thus find the practical 
 development. 
 
 The First Phalange, carrying the nail, as it 
 is long indexes originality, imagination, inven- 
 tion, inspiration, fantasy. Short, the lack of 
 these endowments. 
 
 The Second Phalange long and full shows 
 perception, thought, reason — activity of 
 brain. Short, the contrary. 
 
 The Third Phalange — next to the palm — 
 long, attests material tendencies, and large or 
 full shows selfishness, avarice, etc. Short, 
 
92 THE FINGERS. 
 
 the contrary. The third phalange lean, indi- 
 cates impulsive liberality. 
 
 The First Finger indexes the qualities as 
 noted under the Mount of Apollo. As it is 
 long these qualities are shown intensified. 
 As it is short they are weak. Grills on this 
 finger suggest a merry person. Perpendicu- 
 lar lines suggest industry, love of manipula- 
 tion. 
 
 The first phalange long shows inspiration 
 and originality in art, religion and ambition ; 
 short, lack of these. Pointed shows a ten- 
 dency to contemplation, spiritism, and, other 
 signs concurring, to mysticism, fanaticism, 
 vanity, etc. Square, shows the love of truth 
 for its own sake, ideality directed to social 
 relations, the practical in art, and the actual 
 in religion, with ambition strong and attain- 
 able. Spatulate, which is rare, suggests rest- 
 less speculation, activity in ideal experiments, 
 — exaggerated mysticism, superstition. 
 
 The second phalange suggests intelligence, 
 plans, and ambition intense as the part is 
 long; strong as it is full. 
 
 The third phalange will tell of the actual 
 effort put forth to attain the ideal shown in 
 the first phalange, and planned in the second. 
 Too full and long will suggest vanity, selfish- 
 ness, desire for prominence, etc. Perpendic- 
 
THE SECOND FINGER. 93 
 
 ular lines in this phalange suggest purity, 
 warm-heartedness, etc. 
 
 The Second Finger is interpreted by and 
 also supplements and modifies the meaning 
 of the Mount of Saturn at its base. Very 
 long it shows earnestness, carefulness, sad- 
 ness, fatality, 
 
 The first phalange as it is long shows ori- 
 ginal ideas of the value, use, and happiness 
 of life ; v,ery long suggests sadness, de- 
 pressed spirits, imaginary evils. Pointed, 
 which is rare, shows inordinate selfishness, 
 frivolity and folly. Square — a mind directed 
 to the effective, practical, useful, honorable 
 in dealing. Spatulate shows one who values 
 the material aspect of life. With other signs 
 concurring, we have suggested struggles, 
 despondency, sad forebodings, painful mem- 
 ories. 
 
 The second phalange as it is long shows 
 love of science, exact and practical when the 
 fingers are knotted — the occult and specu- 
 lative when the fingers are smooth. Also 
 love of history and love of exact plan. 
 
 The third phalange marks interest in mate- 
 rial things and personal care. Full and long 
 it shows thrift, economy, riches, avarice, 
 selfish grasping as other tendencies deter- 
 mine. A star or grill here suggests an over- 
 
94 THE FINGERg. 
 
 bearing and tyrannical person — one brooking 
 no opposition. 
 
 The Third Finger long shows one who is 
 devoted to truth, art, riches, glory. 
 
 The first phalange as it is long shows inven- 
 tion and originality in the above matters. 
 Very pointed suggests one who is an idealist, 
 and moderately pointed one who rides some 
 special hobby, or else dabbles in many lines 
 of expression — as the thumb is strong or 
 weak — who may be brilliant, not exact; 
 eccentric and uneven in his work. It will in 
 some hands suggest criticism, boasting, pre- 
 judice. Square shows a love of defined art, 
 truthfulness of expression, fulness of rendi- 
 tion, ability to realize in good form the per- 
 son's ideals. Spatulate will suggest one who 
 appreciates the poetry of motion, love of 
 high colors, battle-scenes, etc. Also ability 
 and love of organizing military displays. One 
 who loves exhibitions of strength and skill, 
 speed and endurance, and who enjoys the 
 " business v in a dramatic representation. 
 
 The second phalange long exhibits the 
 reasoning in art, truthfulness of conception 
 and execution, and the effort to classify and 
 harmonize the ideas. 
 
 The third phalange long will suggest the 
 material bias in artistic work, the pursuit of 
 
THE LITTLE FINGER. 95 
 
 art for its profits, the builder of machinery, 
 the duplication of popular works — the artist 
 who thinks more of his gains and glory than 
 of his embodied ideals, more of his reputation 
 than of his ability. 
 
 The Little Finger indexes abstract sci- 
 ence and numbers. As it is long it shows a 
 love of expression and of explaining and im- 
 parting instruction ; ability and readiness to 
 assert, demonstrate and maintain one's ideas, 
 plans and position. Thus in a strong hand, 
 ability as a speaker; in a moderate hand, 
 readiness as a counsellor, friend and helper; 
 in a weak hand it will suggest the egotist, the 
 boaster, the intrusive one, the tyrant. Illy 
 formed perpendicular lines on the outer edge 
 of this finger, especially if they run through 
 all the phalanges, suggest hypocrisy, decep- 
 tion, dishonesty, theft, robbery, as other signs 
 may interpret. 
 
 Bashful and reticent people exhibit the lit- 
 tle finger falling short of the first knot of the 
 third finger. 
 
 The first phalange long suggests the theo- 
 rist who loves new laws and theories, which 
 are invented or mastered for their own sake 
 — the student. Pointed, is an inclination to 
 mysticism — often the brilliant conversation- 
 ist. Square, a love of science applied; facil- 
 
96 THE FINGERS* 
 
 ity in conveying ideas; by clear and full state- 
 ment and illustration. If the finger is undu- 
 lating or knotty and the second phalange 
 long, the presentation will be exact, careful 
 and logical. Spatulate, suggests scientific 
 movement, bodily activity, gesture and em- 
 phasis in oratory, ability in operating ma- 
 chinery, slight of hand, jugglery, &o. With 
 bad accompanying characteristics the spatu- 
 late phalange will here suggest theft. The 
 second phalange favorable indicates intelli- 
 gent industry, power of organization, manage- 
 ment of business; and with an otherwise bad 
 hand, the confidence operator and trickster. 
 The third phalange long shows, as other 
 characteristics may indicate, the use of 
 science for material results ; the acquisition 
 of property, reputation, advantage ; subtlety, 
 avarice, intrigue, dishonesty, theft. Short 
 and weak, the third phalange will indicate 
 little power of material or selfish accumula- 
 tion. 
 
 Bound Fingers, that is, fingers, cross sec- 
 tions of which, especially of the first phal- 
 anges, are circular, suggest a person who is 
 reticent, and a diffidence or unwillingness to 
 boldly express the thoughts or plans. 
 
 Elliptical Fingers, thinner from the nail to 
 the inside of the phalange than transversely, 
 
RECAPITULATION. ' 97 
 
 especially as they become flat, show open- 
 ness, frankness and ease of statement. 
 
 review. 
 
 Short Fingers appreciate and love magni- 
 tude, grace,- generalities ; they see the mass, 
 judge of the whole, and afterwards perceive, 
 examine or appreciate the parts or partic- 
 ulars. 
 
 Long Fingers, on the contrary, are charac- 
 terized by minutia, elegance, finish; they 
 perceive the details, understand the parts 
 individually, and from them appreciate or 
 estimate the mass or general effect. 
 
 Smooth Fingers signify perception, intui- 
 tion and rapid determination. They want 
 clear statement, illustration, testimony and 
 metaphor. 
 
 Knotted Fingers te^l of logic, argument, the 
 why and wherefore, the thus and therefore. 
 They demand premises, syllogisms and deduc- 
 tions. The first knot suggests order in ideas ; 
 the second, order in material things. 
 
 Tapering Fingers show the rule of the 
 ideal, and love of that ideal sensuously ex- 
 pressed. 
 
 Stubbed Fingers, the same size at ends as at 
 the palms, will indicate in good hands the 
 
98 THE FINGERS. 
 
 superior manipulator; in poor hands the 
 plodder. 
 
 THE NAILS. 
 
 The nails will repay careful study, for ex- 
 perience only will enable the reader to fully 
 appreciate the delicate shades of difference 
 between the permanent and transitory varia- 
 tions in their color and general appearance. 
 
 Long Nails indicate a peace- 
 
 maker, one who will bear much for 
 the sake of quiet ; who is stead- 
 fast in friendship. Long nails are 
 one of the indications of the diplo- 
 matist; also of the person who is 
 suspicious. 
 
 Short Nails signal one who will 
 assert and maintain his rights, and 
 insist upon the honor or deference 
 his due, and hence when perverted 
 shows a jealous and contentious 
 person. With the skin high upon 
 them they suggest pugnacity, or with a large 
 thumb malevolence, criticism, mockery, con- 
 tradiction, quizzing. 
 
 Broad Nails announce gentleness of dispo- 
 sition, a spirit of submission, bashfulness, 
 and hence, sometimes, mean cowardice. 
 Narrow Nails show activity, a love of ex- 
 
THE NAILS. 99 
 
 citement and of directing others. They in- 
 dicate a love of field sports and of practical 
 joking. The evil signs are of a mischievous 
 disposition, petty tyranny — cruelty. 
 
 Bound Nails announce an honest 
 
 O disposition, a quick temper and if 
 thin and delicate rapid reconcilia- 
 tion. Small round nails suggest 
 obstinatp anger, a tendency to 
 hatred. 
 Fan-Shaped Nails announce 
 envy and vanity. - 
 
 Oblique Nails show deceitful- 
 ness and cunning cowardice. Large tur&ed- 
 in nails suggest dishonest ambition. 
 
 Small turned-in nails suggest vanity and 
 forcible intent to achieve success. 
 
 Crooked and irregular nails signify petty 
 cruelty. 
 
 ISTails curved transversely show kindness 
 and sympathy; curved lengthwise suggest 
 rapacity. 
 
 Pink nails show a healthy, active, sanguine 
 person. Thin, pink, elastic nails show sensi- 
 tiveness, delicate organization. Extreme 
 thinness will suggest one irritable and no 
 tional. 
 
 Eed nails show an ardent temperament, an 
 active brain and sometimes br^n disease. 
 
100 THE FINGERS. 
 
 Bluish, or purple nails announce disease of 
 the liver or kidneys. 
 
 White nails show a phlegmatic tempera- 
 ment ; very white, they indicate sickness and 
 an inclination or liability to low type of fever, 
 especially if they are also long. 
 
 Large white half-moons at the base of the 
 nails announce a frank, open-hearted person 
 who naturally speaks his thoughts and tells 
 his plans and purposes ; one who naturally 
 tells what he sees or thinks, and repeats 
 what he hears or learns. He may keep a 
 secret, but it requires an effort. As this dis- 
 position decreases these " half-moons " les- 
 sen, until the naturally secretive person — 
 who is " close as an oyster," has no vestige 
 of them left. 
 
 Pale spots on the nails, especially near the 
 base, indicate disease of the nerves, and an 
 inclination to melancholy. 
 
 Bed spots or blotches show a nervous irri- 
 tation, that manifests itself in a choleric tem- 
 per and a quarrelsome demeanor. 
 
 Horny nails suggest little delicacy. 
 
 Spongy nails usually show one not given to 
 labor ; a lover of ease, selfish and envious. 
 
 Pale and dark mixed nails show disease— 
 with deceitful tendencies. 
 
 Swarthy nails suggest parsimony — a miser. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE MOUNTS OF THE HAND. 
 
 pHE palm of the hand was, by the an- 
 - cient chiromantists. ' laid off into 
 different localities, and these local- 
 ities were named in honor of their 
 principal deities. This division of the 
 hand and the naming of the mounts 
 was not an accidental or arbitrary matter, 
 but was founded upon, and was the result of, 
 careful and extended observation, They be- 
 lieved that their deities, each one of whom 
 was credited with peculiar and well defined 
 characteristics, were real and powerful per- 
 sonages. They believed that each one of 
 these deities impressed upon or communi- 
 cated to sublunary mortals his or her peculiar 
 ability or disposition by association or contact 
 with those mortals. These chiromantists 
 also believed that this association and con- 
 tact was most close, intimate and effective in 
 controlling and moulding the character 
 through the mediumship and instrumentality 
 
102 MOTJNT^F THE HAND. 
 
 of the hand. They noticed that the hands 
 of different persons were differently devel- 
 oped. Observation disclosed to them that 
 the character attributed to Jupiter was most 
 conspicuous in those persons having a full 
 and clear mount at the base of a long and 
 gracefully formed first finger. This locality 
 was therefore dedicated to that god, and 
 named the " Mount of Jupiter. 7 ' In like 
 manner they discovered which peculiarities 
 of character and which development of 
 mounts were associated together in the same 
 person's life and hand, and named the other 
 mounts accordingly. The names thus as- 
 signed have ever since been adopted and 
 retained by those who have studied or prac- 
 ticed chiromancy, either for character reading, 
 or for so-called divination. 
 
 While utterly repudiating the theory of 
 influence upon mortals by these gods and 
 goddesses : and of course repudiating, as 
 before stated, the later astrological theory of 
 planetary influence, still the names of the 
 different mounts and localities of the hand 
 then bestowed will be adopted and used in 
 this treatise. 
 
 The Mounts in General.— When inter- 
 preting a mount notice first its location — 
 whether it is in exact position, and if not 
 
MOUNTS IN GENERAL. 103 
 
 then towards what other mount or locality it 
 is drawn. Next inquire whether it is full, 
 moderate or depressed, and whether it is 
 regular — full in the centre, or uneven — one 
 part fuller than another. Then its coloy, and 
 whether even or variegated. Notice also the 
 lines — principal, secondary or accidental — 
 which point towards, touch, cut or occupy 
 the mount. The locality of the mount bears 
 the name, whether elevated or depressed. 
 
 Mounts are favorable when they are (1) in 
 proper position; (2) of fair size; (3) generous 
 height ; (4) well rounded on the centre ; (5) of 
 good even color ; (6) smooth ; (7) impressed 
 with the appropriate principal lines; (8) or 
 beautified with advantageous accidental lines 
 or signs. 
 
 These eight elements are each a factor in 
 the ideally perfect mount. -Their modifica- 
 tions may be to give an excess, (except in 
 position,) to lessen the perfection through all 
 the shades of decrease, until they are entire- 
 ly negative, and thus proceed to the opposite 
 extremes. 
 
 A mount out -of place is modified, some- 
 times controlled, by the mount towards which 
 it tends; and this is good or ill as the con- 
 trolling mount is favorable or not, and as it is 
 better or worse than the mount drawn, 
 
104 MOUNTS OF THE HAND. 
 
 We cannot read the effect of any line or 
 mount, or of any of its diverse modifications 
 independently of the balance of the hand, 
 but must carefully note all the powers and 
 influences, and their mutual cooperations and 
 antagonisms, and then deliberately and thor- 
 oughly calculate their combined results. 
 
 The Mount of Venus occupies the base 
 of the thumb, bounded by the vital line. 
 This mount, in connection with the vital line, 
 shows the physical man, his strength, inten- 
 sity, endurance, elasticity, rapidity and kind 
 of movement. 
 
 Venus favorable shows strong and endur- 
 ing physical powers, intensity of action and 
 animal impulse, sensuous appreciation and 
 inclinations. The fullness is more especially 
 indicative of the muscular development and 
 strength in man, and of fullness of figure and 
 beauty of form in woman ; the fine quality of 
 the mount points out grace in movement, 
 beauty of action, melody in music, desire to 
 please and be admired, ardent attachment, 
 gallantry, elegance, love of sensuous pleas- 
 ure, refined manners, or ijieai and fanciful 
 dissipation, as the other characteristics may 
 determine. Its firmness or elasticity shows 
 the enduring qualities of the person. A 
 favorable color is the announcement of pure 
 
MOUNTS OF THE HAND. 105 
 
 'mercury 
 
 I/apW^J^?" 
 
106 MOUNTS OF THE HAND. 
 
 blood, good health, vitality and energy. Full- 
 ness here is desirable, while flatness or de- 
 pression points out a weak physique, cold 
 temperament, low vitality, poor health — a 
 useless life. Whether the full mount of Ve- 
 nus shows a character of sensuality or phi- 
 lanthropy : of affection or selfish indulgence: 
 of charity and tenderness or self-care and 
 epicurianism : of debauchery or studious in- 
 dustry, depends upon the other characteris- 
 tics of the person. This fullness points out 
 the power, the endurance, the action, the 
 grace of motion, the physical attractiveness 
 of the person. The use — whether good or 
 bad — made of this capital must be deter- 
 mined by consulting the other tendencies and 
 abilities, shown in other parts of the hand. 
 This mount full at the base and much lighter 
 towards the supreme angle will show the 
 sexual impulses strong as compared with the 
 benevolent emotions, while the mount very 
 full as it rises toward the natural line is to be 
 expected in the philanthropist. 
 
 All lines on this mount parallel with the 
 vital line are indicative of strength and en- 
 durance and of a legitimate and healthy use 
 of the strength. Lines running across this 
 mount, cutting these sister vital lines at right 
 angles are of two kinds. The first are sharp- 
 
MOUNT OF JUPITER. 107 
 
 er in outline and higher in color, and are indi- 
 cations of intensity, excitement or irritation, 
 and suggest excess or impurity as they are 
 numerous, highly colored or strong, espe- 
 cially near the wrist. The second are fiuer, 
 less deep and of a paler color and tell of de- 
 pletion from illness — generally located in the 
 lungs or nerve system. This difference 
 easily seen in extreme cases, is sometimes so 
 subtle as to baffle even the experienced eye. 
 These cross-lines always point out irritation, 
 unevenness of vitality, depletion, loss of 
 power and endurance ; but whether the per- 
 son is to be pitied for his impurities or sym- 
 pathized with for his misfortunes, can only 
 be determined by determining first the cause 
 of this loss of vitality and recuperating power. 
 In doubtful cases — and they are many — 
 charity will say sympathy, while candor and 
 judgment will often say, mingled sympathy 
 and pity. 
 
 Well formed moderate sized lines on the 
 mount of Venus, diagonally as to the vital 
 line, point out an ardent and passionate per- 
 son likely to be a favorite with voluptuous 
 women. (See u Accidental Lines," and page 69.) 
 
 The Mount of Jupiter is found in the 
 upper part of the palm, between the impulse 
 line and the root of the index finger — the 
 
108 MOUNTS OF THE HAND. 
 
 finger that points, directs, orders, menaces, 
 demonstrates and aspires. 
 
 Jupiter favorable indicates ideality, sensi- 
 tiveness, refinement, enthusiasm. It may, 
 therefore, point out ambition, pride, self- 
 respect, love of art, honor, strong love 
 attachments, sentimentality, religious fervor, 
 aesthetic tastes, extremes of happiness or 
 misery, immediate and intense likes and dis- 
 likes founded upon impressionability. A fair 
 mount of Jupiter adds intensity to the intui- 
 tional and inspirational character and modi- 
 fies the rational, skeptical and suspicious 
 tendencies, lighting and warming them with 
 imagination and affection. 
 
 When Jupiter is excessive it signifies the 
 undue development of ideality and enthusi- 
 asm and may point out — as other parts of 
 the hand may exhibit the accompanying char- 
 acteristics of the person — vanity, egotism,, 
 arrogance, fanaticism or tyranny. With dif- 
 ferent associated peculiarities the prominent 
 Jupiter may show fanciful but indefinite di- 
 lettanteism, mysticism, weak diffidence, vis- 
 ionary plans, many but unsettled purposes 
 and often extremes of spiritual exaltation or 
 depression. Jupiter weak or depressed in- 
 dicates a mind lacking in or devoid of imagi- 
 nation and affection. It is thus found in the 
 
Mount of satuun. 
 
 109 
 
 routine worker who is exact but without ver- 
 satility; in him who needs a joke explained; 
 in him who is just but hard; in the hand of 
 one unjust and cruel; in him who may be 
 affected through reason or evidence but 
 without emotions. Jupiter full and smooth 
 shows a happy disposition, ideal, aspiring, 
 warm and calm. (See " Accidental Lines.) 
 
 Mounts— Jupiter, [2.] Saturn, [3.] 
 
 The Mount of Saturn is found in the 
 upper part of the palm under the root of the 
 middle finger. Saturn indicates realism, seri- 
 ousness and intensity of purpose. Saturn 
 favorable shows ability, industry, prudence 
 
110 MOUNTS OF THE HAND. 
 
 and energy in carrying out a determination. 
 The person who has this mount favorable will 
 succeed through the above qualities. This 
 mount full, smooth and clear shows tranquil- 
 lity, industry, hopeful views of life. One 
 straight, clear, vertical line on this mount 
 shows a determined, happy temperament. 
 Several lines, especially if they are crooked 
 or if they cut each other, will tell of irrita- 
 tion, cowardice, melancholy. Transverse 
 lines attest fretfulness, perversity, melan- 
 cholia, hypocondria. 
 
 In excess this mount will show a person 
 who will go to extremes in accomplishing re- 
 sults ; one who is taciturn or sad. He may 
 love solitude, fear for future results, run into 
 religious bigotry, cultivate asceticism, be 
 inclined to suicide. Hence it will indicate 
 extremes of views and efforts, which will 
 often naturally lead to extremes of success or 
 defeat. 
 
 This mount depressed or absent is just the 
 opposite of the excessive and indicates an 
 easy-going, care-nothing disposition, showing 
 one who will fail to finish his undertaking — 
 in fact a weak, often a useless, life. 
 
 Any transverse line in the hand, terminat- 
 ing under Saturn, is unfavorable. (See "Ac- 
 cidental Lines.- 7 ) 
 
MOUNT OF APOLLO. 
 
 ill 
 
 The Mount of Apollo, also called the 
 Mount of the Sun, is in the upper part of the 
 palm, under the base of the third finger. 
 Apollo is beautiful, noble, charming, the god 
 of the arts, and the patron of the artists. 
 
 Mounts— Apollo, [4 ] 
 
 Apollo favorable indicates taste and ability 
 in the arts, sculpture, music and poetry. It 
 suggests ability to formulate and express the 
 ideality, or to achieve the ambition shown by 
 Jupiter. It suggests the ability and disposi- 
 tion to put in sensuous form the fancies and 
 feelings, and to practically apply inventions : 
 and hence hints at fame, honor amd satisfac- 
 
Ii2 MOUNTS OF THE HAND. 
 
 tion through artistic or literary success, or 
 at riches through applied science. It also 
 points out a hopeful and affectionate disposi- 
 tion, serenity of mind, warmth of heart, sym- 
 pathy with humanity, and a religion affec- 
 tionate, aesthetic and tolerant, rather than 
 one of law and logic. It suggests hope 
 and serenity of soul. In excess it shows 
 vanity, vainglory, love of riches and celeb- 
 rity, love of flattery; degenerating, other 
 characteristics aiding, into boasting, levity, 
 fanaticism, envy, dishonor and disgrace. 
 
 Absent or depressed .shows lack of care or 
 love for art, insensible to the power of 
 beauty, without power to imagine or execute 
 — a sunless day. 
 
 Vertical lines, clear and good, rising at the 
 impulse line and passing up through Apollo, 
 denote ability in practical application of art j 
 powers of diplomacy and of gaining wealth. 
 (See "Accidental Lines P) 
 
 The Mount of Mercury is in the upper 
 part of the palm, under the root of the little 
 finger. Mercury favorable indicates a love 
 of clear, exact, full knowledge — hence 
 science ; persuasive eloquence ; personal in- 
 fluence through clearness of statement; gra- 
 cious manners, promptitude of action, earn- 
 estness and enthusiasm. It shows ability, 
 
MOUNT OF MERCURY. 
 
 118 
 
 and success based upon prompt, clear, per- 
 suasive presentation of the matter in hand; 
 and hence is found in the hand of successful 
 teachers, popular preachers, favorite society 
 men, merchants, speculators, sharp debaters, 
 and generally with those who talk better than 
 they write, who charm by personal presence. 
 
 Mounts— Mercury 
 
 In excess it suggests deception, pretentious 
 arrogance, dishonesty, theft, cheating and 
 swindling — especially if cut by bad lines. 
 
 The mount absent or depressed will show 
 one who speaks with diffidence, with little 
 command of language, awkward manners 
 
iu 
 
 MOUNTS OF THE HANI). 
 
 and inapt for any business where he must 
 come in contact with people. (See "Acci- 
 dental Lines.") 
 
 Mounts— Ma r,s, [C, ] Moon, [7 ] 
 
 The Mount of Mars is found in the 
 outer part of the palm between the impulse 
 line and the Mount of the Moon. It extends 
 from the percussion of the hand and losfcs 
 itself in the Plain of Mars or hollow of the 
 hand. 
 
 The Mount of Mars and the Plain of Mars 
 favorable indicate courage, coolness and 
 fearlessness in danger, self-reliance, strength, 
 
MOUNT OF THE MOON. 115 
 
 impetuosity and resignation. The mount 
 shows the§e qualities active and aggressive; 
 the plain indicates them passive, enduring 
 and resisting. This mount and plain will 
 bear a full development before there is an 
 excess. 
 
 Mars excessive will suggest fool-hardiness, 
 cruelty, violence, boorishness, tyranny and 
 the like, while its depression or absence will 
 mean non-resistance, cowardice, fear of dan- 
 ger, superstition and terror in accident.- 
 
 The "fatal lines," which when found, are 
 usually in the Plain of Mars, are noticed 
 elsewhere. 
 
 The Mount of the Moon, in the lower 
 part of the palm, opposite the Mount of Ve- 
 gus, tells us of the indefinite fancies and the 
 disposition to reveries. The Moon favorable 
 indicates fancy, sentimentality, love of mys- 
 tery, love of solitude and of nature in quiet 
 moods, vague desires, meditation, chastity, 
 harmony in music, transcendental specula- 
 tions, &c. In excess the Mount of the Moon 
 will suggest caprice, unregulated fancies, 
 sadness, irritation, excessive discontent, 
 causeless despair, superstition, fanaticism. 
 Its absence or depression is a lack of fancy, 
 inelastic thoughts, a matter-of-fact person, 
 dull imagination. 
 
116 MOUNTS OF THE HAND. 
 
 Curved or tortuous lines on the Mount of 
 the Moon show a restless and # changeful 
 fancy, and hence travels; a love of the mys- 
 terious and indefinite, hence contemplation, 
 solitary habits and melancholy ideas. 
 
 liOCALTTiES— Triangle, [8 ] Quadrangle, [9 ] 
 
 The Triangle lies in the hollow of the 
 hand, and is bounded by the vital, thought 
 and assimilation lines, retaining its name even 
 when the angles are not closed or the assimi- 
 lation line is wanting. 
 
 The triangle of good size, bounded by well 
 drawn lines, shows good health, lofty views, 
 a nobility and boldness of character. 
 
SUPREME AND RIGHT ANGLES. 117 
 
 A small triangle is suggestive of weakness, 
 pusillanimity, avarice and obstinacy. The 
 skin of the triangle wrinkled is an unfavor- 
 able indication. 
 
 A well-defined and closed triangle formed 
 by the thought, assimilation and material 
 lines, shows a love of speculative thoughts, 
 spiritual interests, natural magic and occult 
 matters generally. 
 
 The Supreme Angle formed between 
 the thumb and index finger by the union of 
 the vital and thought lines, when clear and 
 well-traced shows a good disposition— a deli- 
 cate and noble nature. This angle obtuse 
 suggests a dull perception. The two lines 
 uniting below the mount of Saturn or lower 
 in the hand, suggests extreme avarice, fear- 
 ful forebodings of want, and a plodding, 
 routine life. Confused lines in this angle 
 suggest a gambler and voluptuary. 
 
 The Eight Angle, formed by the union 
 of the vital or material line with the assimi- 
 lation, if well colored and fairly drawn, 
 shows good health and good nature. The 
 angle too sharp suggests weakened health 
 and penuriousness. Too blunt or obtuse, 
 and especially if the lines are not clear, sug- 
 gests impaired health, rudeness and indo- 
 lence. 
 
118 MOUNTS OF THE HAND. 
 
 The Left Angle, formed by tite union 
 of the thought and assimilation lines, favor- 
 able, shows a strong nervous system and 
 hence an effective active person. This angle 
 too sharp shows a nervous temperament — 
 irritable aud unprincipled. Too obtuse it 
 shows dullness of mind and inconstancy of 
 purpose. 
 
 The Quadrangle, also called the Table 
 of the hand, lies between the thought and im- 
 pulse lines. A broad Quadrangle, increasing 
 in space towards the sides of the hand, indi- 
 cates a good constitution, control of the ' 
 emotions and passions — a loyal, faithful, 
 happy person. Narrow, shows the opposite. 
 When furrowed by numerous lines, espe- 
 cially cutting each other, a weak hand. 
 
 The quadrangle absent on account of a 
 lacking impulse or thought line is a hint of 
 uneven temper, bad disposition, wickedness, 
 misfortune. 
 
 
. eia f woiia 
 
 jylif .ton eifi himd eao 
 CHAPTER VII. ,, 0J) My , |: , 
 
 ^j 8<ti ' Diizo ai euil oao 
 
 ^ 'to floilari^Y sidT Jjn&ii Tadto 
 
 ^W OP TEEM. kliUi ° dl 
 
 *\&»iMm. y\sA fo«& &fl\^SL M io grubbed 
 
 [#t>alin of the hand is traced ^th 
 lines. These lines play an important 
 part in all systems of u hancl-reacliti^ 1 
 The ancients studied the lines of ^the 
 hand long before they paid Miy 'in- 
 tention to the mounts. The^i{ft?£S 
 nbw give their palmistic divinations mainly 
 from the lines. These lines have, like the 
 &^ytttit^, been dedicated to the principal dei- 
 ties, Snll, ffr later days, to the planets. Th'£&% 
 ^n^fl [ Vell as those of a more UtkRffl 
 itffibrftf^-Tfelling character, are not only inap- 
 propriate, but most of them are misleading. 
 ¥hW^^s £: adopted and used in this w&rk, 
 will, it is hoped, be somewhat an index Wtiitk 
 rfep ; ineanmg and value of these '" signatures* 7 
 "hi 'man's life, health, impulses and peciilfift 
 "pntal endowments. ™ * &ail 
 
 ai 6 ) esides several well defined and prominent 
 lines,' the palm usually presents numerotts 
 *#6%prduous lines and marks. EvSi a 
 
120 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 slight examination, of any pair of hands, will 
 show, as elsewhere stated, that the lines in 
 one hand are not like those in the other; a 
 careful comparison will often prove that no 
 one line is exactly like its fellow — in the 
 other hand. This variation of the lines of 
 the hand is more fully described under the 
 heading of u Eight and Left Hands." 
 
 In the lines of the hand, which vary in 
 numerous particulars, the following peculiar- 
 ities must be carefully observed : 
 
 Their place and position, in the hand in gen- 
 eral, and in reference to the other lines and 
 mounts ; 
 
 Their length, breadth and depth, which are 
 all variable, even in the same hand ; 
 
 Their shape, as to straightness, curves, 
 crookedness ; whether they are uniform, 
 regularly tapering, or abruptly different in 
 form and quality. Lines may be gross, me- 
 dium or weak ; 
 
 Their color or complexion. In this it is to 
 be observed whether they are alike or differ- 
 ent, and whether each one is uniform, grad- 
 ually changing, or abruptly spotted. The 
 lines are of different shades in different per- 
 sons, in the same person at different periods 
 of life, and in different stages of health ; 
 
 Their action, as bearing towards, touching, 
 
LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 121 
 
122 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 or traversing the mounts ; also in reference 
 to the other lines, as approaching, touching, 
 uniting with, crossing or cutting them ; and 
 whether the line cut or crossed is simply 
 parted, or whether the severed ends are also 
 di ced, so that the broken ends are not 
 exactly opposite; 
 
 development, as to whether, in cutting 
 rousing another line, the direction of the 
 g line is changed or its size or com- 
 plexion altered ; 
 
 Their passivity in relation to the other lines, 
 as to being approached, touched, united with 
 or cut by them, and whether when they are 
 touched or cut they are also changed in sizfe, 
 color or direction. ^hL__ 1 
 
 The lines all vary in the above particular^. 
 Some of them — even of the principal linep 
 — may be entirely wanting, or so displace^, 
 as to be readily missed or easily mistake fcir 
 other lines, unless very carefully ex;ainiiiedJ 
 
 The lines .are favorable as\ they aj$ (l)/n 
 due location ; (2) long ; (3) clear; (4) well col- 
 ored ; (5) straight or nicely curved ; (6) qfi r en 
 or gently tapering ; (7) beautified by graceful, 
 well-defined, tapering branches ; (8) asftjifey 
 are united with, touched, or nearly ap- 
 proached by benefiting main or accidental 
 lines. 
 
MODIFICATION OF LINES. 123 
 
 The lines may be modified from the ideally 
 perfect, through all the changes, to the 
 extreme of opposite meaning by being (1) out 
 of plara ; (2) indistinct or muddy ; (3) badly 
 colored, being too red or pale, or dark, either 
 as a whole, in parts or in spots ; (4) by abrupt 
 or ungraceful changes of direction; (5) by 
 sudden changes of &ize or depth ; (6) by being 
 disfigured by scraggy, ill-looking branches ; 
 (7) by being cut, approached by or united with 
 unfavorable main or accidental lines. 
 
 A hand exhibiting many lines shows one 
 mentally active, and if the lines are confused 
 and interlacing will tell of unrest, perplexity, 
 agitation of mind, irritation, fretfulness, etc. 
 
 The value of the vital line must be 
 kept constantly in mind while interpreting all 
 the other lines, singly or in their various 
 combinations. 
 
 The hands of many laborers are smooth 
 with few lines; not because their work has 
 worn out the lines, but because their mental 
 activity or disquietudes have never written 
 them in the palm. 
 
 The lines disagreeing, but being equally 
 clear and evenly colored, shows an even and 
 regular change or growth in character. For 
 particulars of this see "Right and Left 
 Hands." 
 
124 lines of the hand. 
 
 The lines in the two hands agreeing, 
 that is, being alike in general character and 
 position, length and color, attest evenness of 
 health and character, 
 
 THE PRINCIPAL LINES. 
 
 The Vital Line, also called the Cardiaca, 
 Temporalis, Dextrse-Trianguli, and Line of 
 Life, rises at the edge of the palm, between 
 the thumb and index finger, encloses the base 
 of the thumb or mount of Venus, separating 
 it from the palm of Mars and the mount of 
 the Moon, and terminates at or near the wrist. 
 
 This line, as its name implies, and as its 
 location in the lower part of the palm also 
 suggests, especially represents the vitality of 
 the individual — his constitution, condition of 
 health, amount of energy, &c. It is, also, a 
 record of at least the more severe past ill- 
 ness, and shadows forth the liability to the 
 future development of disease. That is, it 
 publishes such sickness or accidents as have 
 left an unhealed damage upon the constitu- 
 tion, and also shows taints which may be de- 
 veloped into actual ailments. 
 
 The vital line and the mount of Venus are, 
 therefore, the keys by which to interpret the 
 physical condition and character of the per. 
 
THE VITAL LINE. 
 
 125 
 
 son, and their meaning and value must be 
 ever in the mind of the reader. Intellect, 
 emotion, and even affection are, in this life 
 any way, inhabitants of the physical man, and 
 while they are not based upon the body, they 
 are souled within it, and are therefore, modi- 
 fied in their power, purity and activity by that 
 body and its condition of strength, energy 
 and health. 
 
 ines— Vital [1]. Sister Vital [2], 
 
 The vital line clearly drawn and well- 
 formed, gently-colored, without breaks or 
 cuts, and continuing completely round the 
 mount of Venus until it unites with the wrist 
 
126 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 line, announces vigorous health, good consti- 
 tution, freedom from dangerous or trouble- 
 some diseases, and, consequently, promises 
 long life. 
 
 If this line is double, or if it is accompa- 
 nied by a sister line, it shows a still more vig- 
 orous existence. The sister line repairs the 
 defects of the main line. But if both the 
 main and sister lines are weak, then the indi- 
 cations are worse. This line long aijd slen- 
 der indicates low vitality and doubtful health. 
 If this slender line is red it suggests excite- 
 ment and irritability of temperament. If it 
 is pale it shows slow movement of the blood, 
 lack of strength and energy, and little endur- 
 ance. This line broad and pale usually signi- 
 fies a tendency to diseases of the stomach or 
 other digestive and assimilating organs. The 
 line broad and livid tells of weak and irregu- 
 lar circulation of the blood, and a tendency 
 to disease of the heart. 
 
 This line badly formed, especially splin- 
 tered or chained, is an indication of painful 
 and troublesome diseases, suggesting dis- 
 reputable ailments. 
 
 This line, cut by many little lines, suggests 
 numerous sicknesses, capillary lines showing 
 nervous troubles, headache, vertigo, &c. 
 
 The vital line indexes the health and euer- 
 
DIVISION OF THE VITAL LINE. 12? 
 
 gy not only in general, but to some extent, at 
 least, in the particulars of health. While the 
 present bodily condition is shown, the more 
 severe sicknesses passed through leave their 
 record on this line. Whether all illnesses are 
 recorded or not is an open question, but it is 
 pretty w^Il established that any illness which 
 has left an unhealed injury or a permanent 
 change in the constitution, ajso leaves a per- 
 manent mark on the vital line. This mark is 
 clear as the change is radical and yet abiding 
 — and is at least dimmed as the weakness or 
 change is overcome, and is probably obliter- 
 ated from the hand as the system regains 
 fully its normal condition. It is well known 
 that many diseases, even when entirely cured, 
 leave a radical and permanent change in the 
 constitution. Such diseases also leave an in- 
 dellible record on the vital line. 
 
 The age at which any sickness or accident 
 occurred that has left an unhealed injury, or 
 permanent effect upon the constitution, (and 
 according to the ancient palmisters, the age 
 at which any sickness or accident is threat- 
 ened,) may be approximately determined by 
 the location of the cut, break or change re- 
 cording it, on the vital line. 
 
 The vital line is divided into decades, as fol- 
 lows: — 
 
128 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 Vital Line— Marking the Decades of Life. 
 
 Take a pair of compasses, set the fixed 
 point on the middle of the root of the index 
 finger as a center, extend the movable point 
 to the middle of the root of the third finger. 
 Draw the arc of a circle, and mark this dis- 
 tance off on the vital line. That part of the 
 line between the east edge of the hand and 
 the point thus marked will represent the first 
 
^HE VITAL LINE. 129 
 
 ten years of the life. Next, extend the mov- 
 eable point to the division between the third 
 and fourth finger, and this distance marked 
 off on the vital line will note the twentieth 
 year of life, and, hence, the space between 
 the first and second markings will be the life 
 between the tenth and twentieth years. The 
 movable point extended to the middle of the 
 fourth finger — to the edge of the hand at 
 the root of the little finger — to the percus- 
 sion of the palm where it is touched by the 
 impulse line — will respectively give, when 
 marked off on the vital line, the thirtieth, for- 
 tieth and fiftieth years. Measure off on the 
 percussion of the hand below the impulse 
 line, two-thirds of the distance between the 
 root of the little finger and the impulse line, 
 extend the movable point of the compass to 
 this point and mark the distance off on the 
 vital line for the sixtieth year. For each suc- 
 cessive ten years take two-thirds of the dis- 
 tance given to the next preceding decade. 
 Cuts or breaks in the vital line, suggest sick- 
 ness or injury at the age shown, according to 
 this measurement, and the division will repay 
 close attention and careful study. 
 
 Since the vital line especially represents 
 the physical condition of the person, and 
 since much of the character, temperament 
 
130 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 and life depends upon the physical, this line 
 is, therefore, an index also of much charac- 
 ter. Temperament depends upon a combina- 
 tion of several characteristics, among which 
 the vital line shows as follows: 
 
 The line broad and red shows a choleric 
 temperament — ■ violence and cruelty; depth 
 and length add to this value and suggest fury. 
 Decrease in size or color shows a correspond- 
 ing modification. 
 
 The sanguine temperament is shown by a 
 vital line long , clear, moderate size, and 
 warm color, with branches at the beginning. 
 A heightening of color and increase of 
 branches intensifies the sign, and a toning 
 down of the shade towards a citrine subdues 
 the value of the line and suggests bilious 
 temperament. 
 
 The line long, weak and pale indicates the 
 phlegmatic temperament. 
 
 The line broad and pale, especially if it be 
 short, broken, cut, or of a leaden hue, shows 
 melancholy temperament. 
 
 The vital line usually begins at the edge of 
 the palm about midway between the root of 
 the thumb and the root of the first finger, 
 sweeps with a moderate curve around the 
 mount of Venus, dividing the lower palm 
 into two nearly equal parts, the mount of 
 
1'HE YITAL LINE. l3l 
 
 Venus and the mount of the Moon. Its loca- 
 tion will repay careful attention, for any 
 change from this ideal position is full of 
 meaning. 
 
 As its beginning is carried towards the 
 mount of Jupiter, it shows that mount to con- 
 trol the life and its uses, and hence tells of 
 the ideal, theoretical and poetical bias, de- 
 pending on the rest of the hand. As the 
 beginning is carried down towards the thumb, 
 it will indicate a life controlled by sensuous, 
 passional or sensual instincts. 
 
 As the line passes near the mount of Venus 
 especially if Venus crowd it into the middle 
 of the hand, it will intensify the last charac- 
 teristic which is likewise increased as it 
 bends towards the thumb in passing to the 
 wrist. As the line in passing towards the 
 wrist curves far out into the plain of Mars it 
 shows resolute and successful control of the 
 passions. As it leans towards, or throws out 
 branches upon the mount of the Moon, it will 
 indicate a dreamy, uncertain, fanciful ac- 
 tivity. 
 
 Branches rising from this line towards, 
 upon or over the mount of Jupiter indicate 
 ambition, with the life, energy and will bent 
 for its attainment, and hence suggest am- 
 bition, ability, success, honor, distinction. 
 
132 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 All branches ascending from this line are 
 favorable, as they show aspirations toward 
 elevated objects and ideals — the physical 
 powers subordinated to the intellectual and 
 emotional. They must be interpreted by the 
 character of the mounts toward which they 
 tend. All branches descending from the vital 
 line are unfavorable, as indicating the rule of 
 the sensuous nature and animal instincts. ■ 
 
 The lower end — towards the wrist — bi- 
 furcated or branched is unfavorable as it 
 shows the life worried by contending pas- 
 sions and unregulated fancies. 
 
 This line connected with the thought line 
 signifies the life and the thought in harmony. 
 Connected for a long distance will therefore 
 point out a mind bound down to the material 
 plane. As they are separated it shows a lack 
 of unity between the idealities and the acts 
 of life. If the space between them is filled 
 with branches and interlacing lines it shows 
 irritation and perplexity with one's self and 
 condition, and suggests a struggle between 
 the opposing elements of character — a sub- 
 jective conflict — which will often place the 
 person in trouble of mind and self condemna- 
 tion, and hint at changing moods, variable 
 temper and vacillating purposes. As the 
 space is clear and full it shows a calmer 
 
THE VITAL LINE. 
 
 133 
 
 division of the mental and physical sides of 
 life. This open space always shows impulsive 
 
 Lines— Vital and Thought Separated [A]. 
 
 frankness, and suggests eccentricity, ideality 
 and sensuous sensitiveness. In a hand other- 
 wise good it suggests confidence in one's 
 self, dislike of restraint, and, consequently, 
 love of independence, love of ruling, and 
 faithfulness in service. In an undeveloped 
 hand this open space indicates an instinctive 
 life, running its course without guidance 
 from the judgment, hence the plodder — the 
 hewer of wood, drawer of water, shoveler of 
 dirt. In a weak hand it suggests folly, van- 
 
134 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 ity, envy, irritation, unhappy repining, melan- 
 choly, falsehood, disgrace. If with this space 
 the vital and thought lines are strong and 
 red and, especially if the impulse line is un- 
 favorable, there is shown passion and inten- 
 sity running riot without intellectual control ; 
 hence, violence, cruelty, brutality, vulgarity 
 and obscenity — still worse if the thought 
 and affection lines unite. 
 
 This separation of the vital and thought 
 lines may suggest the inspired seer, who in 
 ecstatic rapture soars in the warm empyrean 
 of spiritual contemplation, while he dwells 
 without strong protest in the midst of sin 
 and suffering. It may announce the calm 
 philosopher, surveying truth in the white 
 light of perception, crucifying his appetites, 
 and foregoing his bodily comforts, for the 
 sake of pure thinking. It belongs to the 
 absent-minded man, who in his thought wan- 
 ders far from his work ; to the theorist who 
 seldom if ever materializes his ideas; to the 
 genius, who suggests wonderful inventions or 
 improvements upon which other men build 
 fortunes ; it suggests the versatile and accom- 
 plished bohemian, who is the master critic 
 who sees and feels every delicacy of shade in 
 the good, the true and the beautiful, but who 
 frequently lacks the industry, or continuity. 
 
THE VITAL LINE. 135 
 
 or self-valuation to unify the life into the 
 grand possibility of achievement. These are 
 the bright possibilities of this striking peculi- 
 arity of the hand, and the shadows are cor- 
 respondingly dark on the unfortunate plane. 
 This separation of the vital and thought lines 
 often belongs to the hypocrite, who lives one 
 life and pretends another ; to the enthusiast, 
 who writes of the beauties of virtue and 
 revels in the bestial excesses of debauchery. 
 It is found in the hand of the clergyman who 
 separates doctrine and life, and also to him 
 who disgraces his sacred calling. It is very 
 common in the hand of that class of aban- 
 doned women who are elegant in manners, 
 refined in appearance, attractive by graces of 
 mind and culture: who understand the beau- 
 ty of holiness and recognize the worth of 
 virtue, and yet lead a life which they at once 
 detest and idolize ; mingling with men whom 
 they at the same time admire and despise, 
 From all of this and much more that might 
 be said, we find the real meaning of the open 
 space between the vital and thought lines to 
 be, that there is a lack of harmony, and usu- 
 ally little real connection between the im- 
 pulses of the heart, the thoughts of the 
 brain, and the acts of the life. As this 
 open space separates these lines the thought 
 
136 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 line is carried towards the mount of Jupi- 
 ter, while the vital line approaches the root 
 of the thumb, or the mount of Venus. This 
 shows ideality, imagination, ambition in the 
 thoughts, while the life is modified or con- 
 trolled by the sensuous and auimal propensi- 
 ties. It is all-important to decide which 
 "carries it over the other' 7 — thought or pas- 
 sion, reflection or emotion, ideas or impulse. 
 The one opens to truth and virtue, wisdom 
 and goodness, perception and inspiration; 
 the other to passion, impulse and sensuality. 
 It is often that the one or the other alternate- 
 ly rules, and then we have the conflict of the 
 two, and the person is of that peculiar char- 
 acter which many like and few fully endorse 
 — of whom it is so frequently said, "He 
 means well — but — " : " She is fascinating 
 and good — but — "; or who is like the little 
 girl who, 
 
 "When she is good is very, very good 
 And when she is had she is horrid." 
 
 The vital line united with the thought line 
 and at the same time with the impulse line is 
 usually an undesirable combination. This 
 union shows a mingling of the emotions, 
 thought and activity that is unprofitable. 
 Like the last, it is either very good or very 
 bad, always denoting a very peculiar person 
 
THE YITAL LINE, 
 
 137 
 
 — oftentimes a dangerous character. One 
 with the lines thus united will generally min- 
 gle the feelings with the thoughts and life so 
 as to make a personal application of every 
 agreement or disagreement; so as to think 
 well of those who agree with him or who 
 commend his action, and to dislike those who 
 disagree with him in thought, word or action. 
 So he defends his friends at all hazards and 
 denounces his enemies, or those whom he 
 dislikes, on all occasions. Those who agree 
 with him are saints and philosophers. Those 
 
 who differ are knaves or fools. The good 
 side of this union of the vital, thought and 
 impulse lines is that the man will make his 
 life as pure, and his thoughts as clear as his 
 ideals. 
 The vital line uneven in size, changing in 
 
138 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 direction, and varied in color, shows uncer- 
 tain health and liability to irritation, quarrel- 
 ing and violence. The vital line frequently 
 tapers and comes to an end before reaching 
 the wrist, while the material line starts from 
 the wrist full and clear, tapering as it as- 
 cends, almost touching, sometimes uniting 
 with, the vital ; thus replacing the lower end 
 of the latter line. This is found in the hands 
 of him who is good for counsel, or for plan, 
 but who dislikes the drudgery of execution. 
 The vital line bifurcated near the wrist sug- 
 gests brain troubles, insanity, dementia. The 
 
 vital line sending a branch [C] out towards 
 the junction of the thumb with the palm on 
 the east edge of the hand, suggests one easily 
 duped by fascinating and designing women. 
 A branch [D] leaving the vital line near the 
 
THE VITAL LINE. 
 
 139 
 
 wrist and running off towards the thumb sug- 
 gests dissipation and lewdness. 
 
 Lines -Thought [3], 
 
 The Thought Line, also called the Ce- 
 phalica, Cerebri Vivifica Prosperitas, Sinistra 
 Trianguli, Line of the Head and Natural 
 Line — begins at or near the edge of the 
 hand, between the thumb and the index fin- 
 ger, traverses the plain of Mars, separating 
 the triangle from the quadrangle of the hand, 
 and usually ends on the mount of Mars, or 
 curves down upon or over the mount of the 
 Moon. 
 
 This line favorable, clearly united with the 
 
UO LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 vital line, following a direct or slightly down- 
 ward curving course, signifies a lucid mind 
 working in a healthy brain ; hence clear per- 
 ception, sound judgment, and a strong will. 
 Passing through the plain of Mars and to, 
 upon or through the mount of Mars, its char- 
 acter must be interpreted by the peculiarity 
 of those localities. These localities favora- 
 ble show calmness and power with which to 
 meet all opposition and struggles, using, 
 without abusing or fearing, what the fates 
 present — the opportunities and accidents of 
 life. 
 
 A good sister line is very favorable. For 
 the meaning of the thought line, when united 
 to or separated from the vital line, see page 
 132. 
 
 If the line continues straight through the 
 palm and well over the mount of Mars it 
 marks a disposition to concentration — the 
 putting forth of one's thoughts and efforts 
 on some one line of study, occupation or 
 work. It also announces a good memory. 
 Other signs accompanying it may announce 
 the specialist in philosophy, science or busi- 
 ness. It suggests — by its calculation and 
 concentration — the specialist, the hobbyist, 
 the fanatic, the enthusiast j economy and 
 avarice, 
 
ME THOUGHT LINE. 
 
 141 
 
 This line curving down on the mount of 
 the Moon suggests fanciful projects, change- 
 able plans, capricious views, unregulated 
 and visionary causes of conduct, extrava- 
 gant and artificial ideas of life, romance, lib- 
 erality, prodigality, mysticism. This is all in- 
 creased as the line continues straight through 
 the plain of Mars, and then suddenly turns 
 down on the mount of the Moon ; and as the 
 end of the line extends towards the lower 
 part of the mount, near the wrist; also as the 
 character of that mount carries the same 
 meaning. The thought line making a clear 
 cross with the assimilation line has the same 
 general meaning — intensifying the above. 
 
142 
 
 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 If this line tends upwards towards the im- 
 pulse line it indicates that the emotions 
 bias the thoughts and plans, especially as to 
 the qualities of the mounts towards which it 
 tends. A moderate rise, in graceful curves, 
 shows the thoughts warmed by the affections. 
 
 Branches rising from the thought line have 
 the same meaning — less intense. Branches 
 falling from the thought-line are unfavorable, 
 both as indicating disease of the brain or 
 nerves, and as showing erratic and unsound 
 thinking. 
 
 If this line, or its branches, touch or unite 
 with the impulse line — especially if the lat- 
 ter is cut, and particularly if the severed ends 
 are also displaced — its interpretation will 
 partake of the bad indications of the mount 
 under which the affection line is touched or 
 cut. (See page 148.) This line formed like a 
 
1HE THOUGHT LINE. 143 
 
 Chain shows inability to fix one's ideas ; sug- 
 gests insanity, and is one of the marks of an 
 imbecile. This line long, slender, and pale, 
 suggests a weak brain, and hints at untruth- 
 fulness, infidelity, unfaithfulness, treason, &c. 
 
 As the line is short it suggests a weak will ; 
 broad and shallow, lack of concentration; 
 pale, little intellectual force, lack of circum- 
 spection ; deep, malevolence ; too red, anger, 
 violence, apoplexy. 
 
 This line bifurcated on the mount of Mars, 
 one branch going straight onward and the 
 other descending on the mount of the Moon, 
 shows an apprehension of the practical side 
 of life, and a tendency to fancy, romance and 
 mysticism. One branch of the thought line 
 risfeig towards the impulse line and another 
 descending on the mount of the Moon will 
 suggest self-deception, quaint ideas, separa- 
 tion of theory and practice, invention of plots, 
 mimicry, falsehood, hypocrisy. 
 
 This line ending or cut under Saturn is un- 
 favorable. 
 
 This line tortuous or eneven shows a vacil- 
 lating disposition and suggests weakness, 
 anger, presumption, theft — general unrelia- 
 bility. 
 
 A branch or branches arising from the 
 thought line and passing straight or grace- 
 
144 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 fully curved upon or over Jupiter, announces 
 a disposition or ability to utilize the imagina- 
 tion in a thoughtful, successful manner. If 
 this branch, however, rise under Saturn and 
 penetrate the first finger, it suggests vanity 
 and selfishness. 
 
 Points or dots on this line suggest brain 
 troubles ; red — rush of blood to the head, 
 nervous agitation or irritation — arbitrary 
 opinions, violent passions, sudden bursts of 
 temper ; sometimes, brilliant perceptions, ori- 
 ginality and invention, etc.; white — weak 
 nerves, depleted brain, fainting fits, vertigo — 
 depressed spirits, dull thoughts, etc. 
 
 The Impulse Line, also called the Men- 
 salis, Necessaria, Martis, Vesicalis, Eenalis, 
 Thoralis, Generativa, Epidemiea, Pestifera, 
 Table Line, Line of Fortune and Line of the 
 Heart, begins at the percussion of the hand, 
 under the mount of Mercury, traverses the 
 palm towards the east, separating the mounts 
 of the hand from the Quadrangle and usually 
 terminating at, passing upon, or traversing 
 the mount of Jupiter. 
 
 This line favorable, commencing in proper 
 place, clearly drawn, well colored, gracefully 
 curved, extending fairly upon the mount of 
 Jupiter, clearly and gracefully branched at 
 the terminations — indicates warm emotions, 
 
THE IMPULSE LINE. 
 
 145 
 
 Lines- -Imptilse [4], 
 
 generous nature, unselfish disposition, strong 
 friendships, ardent affection, permanent at- 
 tachments — all intensified as the line extends 
 over the mount of Jupiter. If it pass to the 
 edge of the hand under the index finger it 
 shows intense love and tenderness, suggesting 
 great happiness or misery — perhaps these 
 alternately — in affairs of the heart. 
 
 This line passing over the mount of Jupiter 
 to the edge of the hand and seeming to curl 
 round the index finger — known to ancient 
 palmisters as the " Ring of Solomon ?? — sug- 
 gests ideal attachments, romantic adventures, 
 
146 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 self-sacrifice for the loved one. It thus sug- 
 gests one who will sing — 
 
 "Amazing brightness, purity, and truth, 
 Eternal joy, and everlasting love, ' ' 
 
 and in the opposite mood, the heart all dark 
 and the perceptions dimmed, will wail, shed- 
 ding floods of — 
 
 ' ' Tears from the depths of some divine despair. " 
 
 This line terminating between the index 
 and middle finger, or under that position, in- 
 dexes a tranquil, rational, steady affection — 
 an even life. Terminating under the middle 
 finger shows a selfish bias to the love rela- 
 tions; this attachment may be strong — but 
 the suggestion is of one who desires to be 
 loved rather than love, ministered to rather 
 than minister, to have his wishes gratified 
 rather than sacrifice for another, to be looked 
 up to, asked for direction, obeyed. Ending 
 under the third finger attests a sordid as well 
 as a selfish foundation for the feelings, and 
 hints that any true love or genuine friend- 
 ship is improbable, if not impossible, and 
 suggests one who thinks of — 
 
 "Gratitude as a lively sense of future favors." 
 
 This line terminating under the little finger 
 or absent, indicates lack of sympathy, cold- 
 ness of nature, bad faith, aptness for evil, 
 
{THE IMPULSE LINE. 
 
 147 
 
 cruelty. This line showing a serpentine 
 course suggests an unreliable, faithless per- 
 son, especially in dealings with the opposite 
 sex. 
 
 This Hue and the thought line sometimes 
 run into each other in such a way as to pre- 
 
 sent only one line — clear or ragged — across 
 the hand, suggesting a person who — espec- 
 ially if the thumb is weak and the palm full 
 or hard— will be ruled by his emotions and 
 his thoughts in turn ; the character will be 
 uneven, therefore, governed by feeling with- 
 out the light or guidance of thought or 
 reason ; or, on the other hand, by cool cal- 
 culation and logic devoid of emotion or affec- 
 tion. The thought or the impulse, whichever 
 first gets control, will in each case rule with- 
 out the beneficent cooperation of the other, 
 
148 LINES OF THE HAKB. 
 
 and the person will be at one time all feeling, 
 at another all calculation — tender or cruel, 
 thoughtful or careless. This is further in- 
 tensified if the vital and thought lines are 
 not united under the index finger. (See page 
 132.) 
 
 The impulse and thought lines both present 
 in the hand and united have a special value 
 which should be interpreted by the unfavor- 
 able character of the mount under which they 
 meet. Meeting under Jupiter will suggest 
 inordinate ambition, under Saturn, melan- 
 choly; tinder Apollo, vanity, selfishness, love 
 of riches ; under Mercury, dishonesty, theft, 
 crime. 
 
 Breaks — or cuts by other than the princi- 
 pal lines, especially if the severed ends. are 
 also displaced, are unfavorable ; cuts suggest 
 an outside influence, breaks index a subjec- 
 tive cause for the undesirable characteristics 
 shown. Cuts or breaks under Saturn hint at 
 fatality, selfishness, melancholy ; between 
 that and Apollo, folly ; uuder the latter, van- 
 ity ; between Apollo and Mercury, avarice ; 
 under Mercury, ignorance, pretension, incap- 
 acity, dishonesty. Breaks in this line often 
 suggest impotency; for this compare the 
 mount of Venus and the vital line. 
 
 Branches of this line on Jupiter, if not too 
 
THE IMPULSE LINE. 149 
 
 numerous or ilhshapen,are favorable. If ris- 
 ing gracefully from this line, they are indica- 
 tions of the favor of the mount to which 
 they tend. Ill-shapen or broken branches 
 take the faults of such mounts. Branches 
 falling towards the thought line indicate a 
 much modified meaning of the union of the 
 two lines — a conflict between reason and 
 impulse — duty and affection. 
 
 This line bare of branches in a good hand, 
 shows concentration of affection on one per- 
 son or pursuit ; in a cold nature it indicates 
 selfishness — lack of tenderness, sympathy, or 
 affection. 
 
 This line chained, or with short stubbed 
 branches, or made up of fine capillary strands 
 — especially if they are overlapping instead 
 of continuous — in the order named — shows 
 lack of concentration in the ideals or objects 
 of affection, and suggests coquetry, flirta- 
 tions, instability, inconstancy, love intrigues. 
 
 This line, as it is long, shows constancy 
 and tenderness ; as it is large, strength of 
 feeling, which near the percussion of the 
 hand will suggest an amorous and sensuous 
 bias_, and near the termination an ideal and 
 sentimental tendency. As it is broad it shows 
 dissipation of energy ; as it is red, intensity ; 
 pale, weakness of impulse or feeling. 
 
150 
 
 
 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 Spots or knots on this line suggest abrupt, 
 sudden and violent emotions, especially in 
 relation to the opposite sex ; red, if intense 
 anger, grief, jealousy, revenge ; white, hints 
 at cowardice, fear and selfishness. 
 
 The absence of this line shows a cold na- 
 ture and suggests, as the vital line or mount 
 of Venus may corroborate, one impotent, or 
 a eunuch. 
 
 Lines— Sister Impulse, [5] 
 
 The Sister Impulse Line, when present 
 in the hand, is drawn between the impulse 
 line and the roots of the fingers. Its usual 
 location is to begin between the little and 
 
THE SISTER IMPULSE LINE. 151 
 
 third fingers, inclosing or traversing the 
 mounts of Apollo and Saturn and terminating 
 between the middle and index fingers. 
 
 This line has usually been called the Girdle 
 of Venus, and palmisters have heretofore, 
 without exception, given it only a sensuous, 
 impure or disgraceful meaning. It is, how- 
 ever, a sister, or supplementary, ta the im- 
 pulse line, and should, therefore, be inter- 
 preted by the character and value of the lat- 
 ter — the meaning of which it intensifies and 
 deepens. 
 
 This line indicates vehement yet delicate 
 impulses, appetites and passions ; showing 
 one who loves all that is sensuously beauti- 
 ful, brilliant, exciting and intense ; and sug- 
 gests one who will at once minister to the 
 appetites and passions under the impulse of 
 feeling rather than under the guidance of 
 thought. With these ardent passions and 
 delicate sensibilities regenerated and purified, 
 this line may show ideal delicacy, fervid pur- 
 ity and enthusiastic self-sacrifice for others. 
 
 This line doubled is thereby intensified. 
 
 One with this line will always have a pecul- 
 iar, and, in some respects, an unevenly devel- 
 oped character. 
 
 This line tortuous, broken, or cut by acci- 
 dental lines, shows irritation and contention 
 
152 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 of impulses, and suggests impurity, refined 
 and brilliant profligacy, voluptuous debauch- 
 ery, gilded depravity, artistic obscenity — 
 never low or filthy vulgarity. One end lean- 
 ing towards Mercury shows one who loves 
 finesse, intrigue, love-making, etc., but can, if 
 he will, control his appetites. Traversing 
 
 Mercury and ending at the root of the little 
 finger, suggests depraved licentiousness, 
 using falsehood, artifice or force to secure its 
 victims, and hints strongly at theft and 
 swindling. 
 
 SECONDARY LINES. 
 
 The Material Line, also called "the line 
 of Saturn, Line of Fate, and (when broken, 
 distorted' or much cut) Via Oombusta, may 
 
THE MATERIAL LINE. 
 
 153 
 
 Lines— Material, [6] 
 
 originate almost anywhere in the lower part 
 of the palm. Its base is usually found on 
 the vital line, in the plain of Mars, or on the 
 mount of the Moon. Its general course is 
 towards the mount of Saturn, near or upon 
 which it generally ends. 
 
 The ideally favorable material line is one 
 which rises near the wrist, in close proximity 
 to a good vital line, passes clearly and direct- 
 ly on, gracefully closing in a single, double 
 or triple termination, on the highest part of a 
 clear and favorable mount of Saturn. Such 
 a line attests a practical, industrious, happy 
 
154 
 
 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 person wlio will intelligently and successfully 
 employ his abilities and opportunities to at- 
 tain his favorite object and position in life. 
 
 The material line always partakes of the 
 character and meaning of the line or locality 
 from which it starts. Eising on the vital line 
 it partakes of the value of that line, showing, 
 too, the work of life based on practical and 
 material foundations, and that the life and 
 character is much governed by the sensuous 
 and vital peculiarities of the man. Eising on 
 or near the wrist, luxuriant natural ability 
 
 and untiring industry. Eising on the mount 
 of the Moon indicates a life much guided or 
 
THE MATERIAL LINE. 
 
 155 
 
 swerved by indefinite, fanciful or illy-defined 
 plans. Eising in the mount of Venus tells of 
 
 a strong* sensuous bias to the life, and sug- 
 gests excessive impurity. Eising in two 
 
 branches, one on the mount of Venus and 
 the other on the mount of the Moon, and 
 uniting in the hollow of the hand, indicates 
 
156 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 strong sensual power and intensity, with 
 wild and impure imagination, suggesting gross 
 lewdness, selfishness and malevolence. Ris- 
 ing in the plain of Mars, suggests a plodding, 
 busy, routine worker, who bears bravely the 
 ills he cannot overcome. Eising on the 
 mount of Mars tells of an aggressive, battling, 
 defiant character who will attempt, at least, 
 to overcome all opposition, and in a weak 
 hand shows the braggart, petty tyrant, and 
 parade soldier. Eising at the thought line 
 indicates one whose life and plans have an 
 intellectual object — philosophy, logic, sci- 
 ence. Beginning at the impulse line it sug- 
 gests one whose life is for the sake of his 
 affections, impulses, or emotions ; one whose 
 plans are founded in and controlled by his 
 loves and friendships. 
 
 The line straight or very moderately 
 curved, shows directness of plan and 
 promptness of execution — the effort well- 
 directed and effective. The line tortuous 
 shows conflict on the subjective side of life 
 — a change of purpose or a division of ener- 
 gies. Cut or broken tells of one who has 
 met serious obstacles which have frustrated 
 his plans and annulled or overcome his 
 efforts. This is especially attested if the line 
 is also displaced at the points of the cuts ov 
 
THE MATERIAL LINE. 
 
 157 
 
 breaks; in the lower part of the palm it 
 shows the battle to have been one with a 
 sensuous, passional or imaginative founda- 
 tion,- as the line is near Venus or the Moon. 
 Broken or cut and misplaced at the thought- 
 
 line (B) suggests one who makes many plans 
 and easily changes them on reasonable 
 ground, and hints at one who delights in 
 plans but dislikes the routine or labor of ex- 
 ecution — one who will work willingly, maybe 
 enthusiastically, so long as the brain must be 
 as active as the hand. The break or cut and 
 
158 
 
 LINES OF THE HATyjt. 
 
 the misplacement occurring at the impulse 
 line shows one whose plans are interfered 
 with by his emotions and affections — sug- 
 gesting disastrous love affairs, unfortunate 
 intrigue, disgraceful inconstancy, as other 
 tendencies may determine. 
 
 This line terminating clearly on the mount 
 of Saturn is most favorable, as it shows the 
 ideal plan and the expended effort to be in 
 unison for the desired result. A division on 
 this mount into two or three clear branches 
 is desirable; muddy, indistinct, broken or ill- 
 shapen branches, and the contrary in the or- 
 der named. Terminating at the impulse line 
 shows one whose feelings rule the life; one 
 who is generally a favorite with the opposite 
 sex; one whose plans, purposes and work 
 must yield to his emotions — to love, friend- 
 
The material line. 159 
 
 ship and humanity in the pure and true man 
 — to impulse and appetite in the impure and 
 unfaithful one. Terminating at the thought- 
 line shows one who loves theory, meditation, 
 logic ; who willingly works out an idea or a 
 plan, but who prefers not to do any merely 
 manual work. Who is enthusiastic in devel- 
 oping and teaching any new idea or inven- 
 tion, but who considers his labor at an end 
 when he has clearly finished the brain-work. 
 
 This line penetrating to the middle finger, 
 shows a positive person who will persistent- 
 ly, obstinately, arbitrarily, tyrannically, fol- 
 low his adopted course of action to obtain 
 the goal sought, and besides one who will, 
 consequently, meet with remarkable suc- 
 cesses and failures. 
 
 This line tortuous, formed like a screw, or 
 of various branches or broken parts, at the 
 root suggests one who has worried and seen 
 troublous experiences ; if the line C€»£tinues 
 bad the character is the same ; if, however, 
 the line improves as it ascends, it shows the 
 person to have overcome the subjective 
 cause of the troubles and to be leading a 
 comparatively tranquil and successful life. 
 
 A hand without this line will usually lack 
 in executive ability, material success and per- 
 sonal influence. 
 
160 
 
 LINES 0F THE HAND. 
 
 Lines— Art, [7]. 
 
 The Art Line also known as the line of 
 Apollo, and the Line of the Sun, may rise 
 upon the Vital line, or anywhere between 
 that and the percussion of the hand and pro- 
 ceeds towards or to the mount of Apollo. A 
 favorable line is straight, clearly drawn, 
 fairly colored, of medium size, and continues 
 without breaks, cuts by accidental lines, or 
 falling branches, through the mount of 
 Apollo. It indicates a love of sensuous 
 beauty, art, merit, riches, glory, fame, prom- 
 inence, personal grandeur, according as 
 other aptitudes are more or less developed. 
 
d?HE ART LINE. 1CJ 
 
 It will suggest the sculptor, painter, poet, 
 musician, singer, critic, practical scientist, in- 
 ventor of machinery and industrial applian- 
 ces, the superior artizan, as other character- 
 istics may determine. In short, this line sug- 
 gests one who readily and successfully, 
 clearly and rapidly, puts his imaginations and 
 inventions into practical and sensuous form. 
 It indicates one who loves success through 
 personal effort of brain and hand, one who 
 desires recognition for personal worth of 
 virtue, artistic merit, riches, beauty or show, 
 either actual or assumed. 
 
 This line like the others, is modified in its 
 meaning by the locality of its rise, course and 
 termination. Eising from the vital line, it 
 suggests a sensuous and material basis ; and 
 if it also terminates short of the middle of 
 the mount hints at extreme lust. Its roots 
 in the plain of Mars tells of a ready use of 
 the offered opportunities; while coming 
 from the mount of Mars will indicate one 
 who forces even opposing obstacles into his 
 own service. Eising on the mount of the 
 Moon will strongly hint at fanciful plans, 
 changing purposes, graceful but impractical 
 accomplishments. 
 
 As this line is curved or undulating it will 
 partake of the qualities of the localities to 
 
162 LINES OF THE HAND* 
 
 which it goes, or towards which it tends. As 
 its termination leans towards Mercury there 
 is a suggestion of personal persuasiveness 
 through conversational powers, magnetic 
 force, or eloquence ; while a leaning towards 
 Saturn is an indication of determined, per- 
 sistent effort, or of fearful foreboding, and 
 timidity of character, according as Saturn is 
 clear or cloudy. 
 
 Lines attaching to, impeding or cutting this 
 line, especially at its roots, suggest that obsta- 
 cles objective are not readily overcome; 
 while accidental lines, thwarting or cutting 
 across this line on the mount of Apollo show 
 serious subjective obstacles to success. This 
 line passing into two equal branches shows 
 power impaired and results modified by a di- 
 vision of effort — more plans than realiza- 
 tions. If the branches are unequal it sug- 
 gests that the effort put forth has been 
 mainly in one direction, while taste for other 
 work still remains. 
 
 Three equal terminal branches are better 
 than two — suggesting talent, industry and 
 success; this is especially desirable if they 
 branch at the impulse line, when it shows 
 strength, warmth and purity of feeling:— art 
 enlivened and controlled by affection. 
 Branching at the thought line shows clear- 
 
THE ART LINE. 163 
 
 ness of perception, rational plans, with intel- 
 ligent and effective application — art and in- 
 dustry lighted and guided by reason. 
 
 This line stronger below than on the mount 
 suggests more plan, purpose and ideality than 
 performance ; while a line, light at the root, 
 and stronger above — especially if it termi- 
 nate abruptly before reaching the middle of 
 the mount of Apollo — indicates the ardent 
 effort of one not clear in his purpose. The 
 art line terminating on Apollo in many fine 
 and graceful branches — especially if the 
 mount is also favorable — indicates intensity 
 of artistic feeling and versatility of execu- 
 tion, but not great success in any one line. 
 This line is often indistinct or lacking. 
 
 The Assimilation Line, also called the 
 Stomachi, Basis Trianguli, Hepatic, and 
 Liver Line, begins in the lower part of the 
 palm, on or near the vital line, or between 
 that and the percussion of the hand, and 
 ends near the table line under the mount of 
 Mercury, on that mount, or at the root of the 
 little finger. 
 
 The ideal assimilation line rises at the 
 wrist, near but not upon the vital line, pro- 
 ceeds directly or in graceful undulations, 
 being clearly drawn, of medium strength and 
 fairly colored, through the plain of Mars and 
 
164 
 
 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 Lines— Assimilation [8], 
 
 mount of Mercury, and terminates on the 
 upper part of that mount at the root of the 
 little finger. Such a line tells of good diges- 
 tion, good memory, love of humor and wit, 
 happy views of life, gay spirits — hence a 
 favorite in society, successful in business, a 
 good conversationist, with diplomatic ability. 
 This line winding or tortuous shows bil- 
 ious derangements, and, hence, melancholy 
 temperament. This line broken or ragged 
 tells of indigestion or dyspepsia, and sug- 
 gests an uneven temper, irritability, fault- 
 
THE ASSIMILATION LINE. 165 
 
 finding, &c. The line red shows strong' ap- 
 petite, violent craving, and, hence, anger, 
 violence, coarseness. The line pale shows 
 lack of assimilating power, low vitality, little 
 energy, and will suggest listless thought, 
 careless dress, lack of interest in the active 
 pursuits of life. 
 
 This line of unfavorable character, rising 
 on the vital line suggests heart-disease. 
 Originating on the mount of the Moon hints 
 at nervous or brain depletion, suggesting ca- 
 pricious health and fancied troubles. 
 
 This line rising on the mount of Venus and 
 passing directly to the mount of Mercury 
 well drawn and of good color, shows ardent 
 love of sensuous beauty; strong passion; 
 persuasiveness in conversation; success in 
 love-making; and suggests the one loving 
 and happy in marital relations; the graceful 
 and favorite society gentleman; the fascinat- 
 ing gallant; the insinuating deceiver; the 
 successful diplomat ; the polished confidence 
 operator; the accomplished swindler; de- 
 pending on the other characteristics to direct 
 how this personal presence and captivating 
 address shall be used. 
 
 This line lacking, which is often the case, 
 is more favorable than a poor or defective 
 line present. 
 
166 
 
 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 Lines— Nutrition [9]. Wrist [10]. 
 
 The Nutrition Line, also called the 
 Milky Way, when found in the hand, tra- 
 verses the mount of the Moon in a direction 
 nearly parallel to the assimilation line, of 
 which it is really a sister line. This line is 
 the more favorable as it rises near the wrist 
 and terminates at or near the mount of 
 Mercury, telling of robust health. This line 
 tells of strong and sentimental amative pro- 
 pensities, a love foT and favor with the oppo- 
 site sex, and suggests large families of 
 healthy and much-loved children. 
 
 This line crooked or ill-shapen, or badly 
 
ACCIDENTAL LINES. 167 
 
 colored, suggests the vital powers impaired 
 from excessive indulgence, or depletion by 
 disgraceful diseases. 
 
 The Wrist Lines, also known as the 
 Bascette and Discriminational lines, separate 
 the hand from the arm by a " single, double 
 or triple transcussion" at the wrist. These 
 lines well-drawn and favorable indicate good 
 health, a vigorous constitution, and a tran- 
 quil disposition. These lines in links or 
 chains, suggest plodding and only partially 
 enlightened labor. Falling down on the 
 mount of the Moon, they show a love of 
 travel and adventure — or in a weak hand a 
 restless discontented person. 
 
 One line on the edge of the hand between 
 the little finger and the impulse line and par- 
 allel with the latter, shows one strong in 
 attachments, firm in friendship and devoted 
 to the marital partner, home and children. 
 Two or more lines similarly situated show 
 one who, losing a friend, lover, or wedded 
 companion will naturally replace them. 
 
 ACCIDENTAL LINES. 
 
 Accidental lines of numerous forms, as 
 well as of varying importance, modify the 
 meaning of the different main lines, mounts 
 
168 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 and localities upon or near which they are 
 found in the hand. 
 
 Branches are small lines, usually pro- 
 ceeding from the commencement or termina- 
 tion of the principal or secondary lines. 
 Branches of good form rising from a main 
 line add to the good qualities of that line, and 
 to the good indications of the locality where 
 found ; while ill-shapen branches, or those 
 falling downward from the main line, tell of 
 the unfavorable characteristics of that line 
 and detract from the value of the locality 
 which they traverse. 
 
 Branches forming or tending to form chains 
 indicate hindrances, contradictions and strug- 
 gles between the good and bad qualities of 
 the line. 
 
 An Island in a line suggests the tempta- 
 tion and strong inclination towards the evil 
 use of the powers and aptitudes indicated by 
 the line, and hints at injured health in con- 
 sequence. 
 
 An island on the material line shows gen- 
 eral sensual impurity ; the part of the palm 
 where found indicating its peculiar character. 
 
 On the vital line an island suggests brutal 
 indulgences, lowering the vitality. On the 
 thought line, in the plain of Mars, it gives a 
 hint of a sanguinary disposition, cruelty, and 
 
ACCIDENTAL LINES. 169 
 
 of a rush of blood to the brain, in case of ex- 
 citement or passion. On the thought line, in 
 the quadrangle, it suggests shameful thoughts 
 and love of prurient practices. 
 
 Liases— Branches [1]. Island [2]. 
 
 An island on the impulse line shows im- 
 pure impulses, temptations to voluptuous dis- 
 sipation, and refined or elegant debauchery. 
 
 On the assimilation line, especially as it 
 tends towards the mount of Mercury, an 
 island will suggest deception, cheating, in- 
 trigue, theft, etc. 
 
 Capillary Lines which unite to form a 
 main line, indicate an impediment to effective 
 
170 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 action by dissipating the power in too many 
 channels — irritation and activity without 
 united action. 
 
 Vertical Lines.— All accidental lines, 
 clearly drawn, well formed, straight or grace- 
 fully and slightly curved, and vertical in di- 
 rection, add to the good qualities of the 
 localities upon which they are impressed. 
 This is especially true as they are single and 
 of fair size, but diminishes as the number is 
 increased, or as they dwindle in size or fail in 
 beauty. 
 
 Transverse Lines. — Accidental lines 
 crossing the mounts or cutting the main or 
 minor lines, generally indicate characteristics 
 which weaken, annul or overcome the apti- 
 tudes shown by the locality or lines traversed 
 or cut. This adverse indication is increased 
 as the lines are numerous and ill-shapen. 
 
 Curved Lines show a swerving disposi- 
 tion. 
 
 Crooked Lines show opposing forces 
 hindering each other. 
 
 Broken Lines indicate lack of continuity 
 of thought and action. 
 
 Tortuous Lines tell of opposing and 
 changing purposes and opportunities ; a de- 
 viating character. 
 
 Gbills, that is ? several lines crossing 
 
ACCIDENTAL LINES. 
 
 171 
 
 Lines— Vertical [3] . Transverse [4]. Grills [5], 
 
 and cutting each other like net- work, are gen- 
 erally undesirable, suggesting irritation, ex- 
 citability and intensity of the qualities shown 
 by the locality where found. 
 
 On the mount of Jupiter they suggest a 
 tendency to superstitioo, egotism and vanity. 
 
 On the mount of Saturn, sad forebodings 
 and fear of misfortune. 
 
 On the mount of Apollo, folly, error, desire 
 of undeserved glory. 
 
 On the mount of Mercury, deception, ly- 
 ing, theft, petty intrigue and mischief-making. 
 
172 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 On the mount of the Moon, inquietude, dis- 
 content, gloomy imaginations. 
 
 On the mount or plain of Mars, violent con- 
 tentions, sudden or intense anger. 
 
 On the mount of Venus, unchastity, coarse- 
 ness, vulgarity, obscenity. 
 
 Crosses indicate an intensity and undue 
 activity of the characteristics of the locality 
 where found, without adding to its strength, 
 and suggest irritation, sensitiveness, and un- 
 rest. This is especially true when the crosses 
 are illy formed, of crooked or broken lines, 
 or with unequal arms. Sometimes, however, 
 a well formed cross is a very desirable 
 accompaniment to other signs in the hand. 
 
 There are occasions when the intensity 
 and unrest suggested by the cross, even 
 when illy made, counterbalances some other 
 defect. 
 
 A cross on the mount of Venus shows a 
 tendency to sensuous excitement, and, there- 
 fore, suggests impurity, lasciviousness and 
 obscenity. This is especially the case as the 
 cross is found upon the lower part of the 
 mount. 
 
 A cross in the base of the hand between 
 the mount of Venus and the mount of the 
 Moon shows one who has conflicts between 
 passion and purity j suggesting that the sen- 
 
ACCIDENTAL LINES. 
 
 173 
 
 suous and the ideal are in turn triumphant, 
 and hints at a person who loves adventure 
 and romance. 
 
 Lines -Cross [6], 
 
 A cross on the mount of the Moon, well 
 formed indicates one who loves the myster- 
 ious and occult, with a lively but not well 
 balanced fancy. The cross here, illy formed, 
 hints at one who is often self-deceived and, 
 hence, one who deceives others. 
 
 A cross in the plain of Mars tells of a per- 
 son who vehemently opposes what is unpleas- 
 ant, who is irritated and easily angered. 
 
174 LINES OF THE HAND. 
 
 On the mount of Mars it asserts an actively 
 aggressive disposition, which in an impulsive 
 hand, will be dangerous; and in a philo- 
 sophical one, coolly and persistently oppres- 
 sive. 
 
 A cross on the mount of Jupiter is favorable 
 and tells of warm and strong ideal attach- 
 ments, and a genial and hearty disposition. 
 
 A cross on the mount of Saturn, sometimes 
 called the " mystic cross,' 7 suggests an erratic 
 and positive fatalism which produces strange 
 results, good and bad. 
 
 A cross on the mount of Apollo hints at 
 one whose aspirations towards, and love of 
 art are brilliant, dazzling, confusing — one 
 who gives promise of more than he can ulti- 
 mate — one " whose abilities are believed in, 
 not demonstrated." 
 
 A cross on the mount of Mercury suggests 
 intrigue, deception, theft, robbery. In a weak 
 hand, love of money, glitter, show. In a 
 cold hand, sordid or miserly tendencies. 
 
 A cross in the quadrangle under Saturn 
 suggests gloomy superstition; above Saturn, 
 toward Jupiter, one likely to be the plaything 
 of the beloved one of the opposite sex; 
 under Mercury, successful travels and change- 
 able life. 
 
 Stars are always interpreted as intensified 
 
 
ACCIDENTAL LINES. 
 
 175 
 
 Lines— Star [7.] Square [8.] Circle [9.] Triangle [10.] 
 
 crosses. They suggest intensity, activity, 
 keenness and irritation of the qualities shown 
 by the mount or locality where found. On a 
 line, a star is equal to several cuts. 
 
 A star on Jupiter indicates social qualities 
 which depend for their acceptance upon 
 genial and kindly deportment, polite attentions 
 and personal presence, appealing to and 
 winning the ideality and emotions. 
 
 Squares in the hand suggest strength, 
 coolness, regularity, and are, therefore, usu- 
 ally favorable signs. On the mount of Saturn, 
 
176 LINES OF THE HANI). 
 
 however, a square will indicate the undue 
 influence of despondency and extreme fear of 
 results. On the mount of Yen as, where 
 that is already well developed, it may indicate 
 an undue amount of passion. 
 
 Circles on the mounts and phalanges sug- 
 gest clearness, brilliancy, warmth — and are, 
 therefore, favorable. 
 
 On the lines they are, by tradition, unfavor- 
 able. 
 
 A Triangle indicates an aptitude for ac- 
 tively employing, and putting into effective 
 operation, the peculiar ability suggested by 
 the locality where it occurs. 
 
 On the mount of Jupiter it shows success 
 in inventions. 
 
 On the mount of Saturn it tells of gloomy 
 forebodings, religious asceticism and fatalism. 
 
 On the mount of Apollo, skill in art and 
 success in inventions. 
 
 On the mount of Mercury it suggests suc- 
 cess in politics, diplomacy and business. 
 
 On the mount of Venus it suggests suc- 
 cessful love schemes. 
 
 On the mount of Mars, ability in an ad- 
 ministrative capacity. 
 
 On the mount of the Moon happy chastity 
 and mysticism. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 TYPICAL HANDS. 
 
 pHILE hands may be made up of 
 ^ almost any conceivable combination 
 of the different varieties of palms, 
 /(s$)\ fingers and thumbs; and while a 
 hand is frequently met with which 
 
 rv~<J<is-VT,«J 
 
 % 
 
 defies all classification, still, as a 
 general rule, most hands will, more or less 
 clearly, fall into one of the following classes 
 of what may be called "Typical Hands," viz.: 
 Instinctive, Material, Industrious, Progres- 
 sive, Philosophic, iEsthetic, Intuitive, Psy- 
 chical. 
 
 The Instinctive Hand presents a coarse, 
 undeveloped and uninviting aspect. The 
 palm is large, thick and excessively hard ; the 
 fingers large, stubbed and ungainly; the nails 
 thick and horny. This hand is the index of 
 dull and slothful senses, ignoble and brutish 
 instincts; of a plodding animalized existence, 
 fitted onlv for the grosser routine labor of 
 
178 Typical hands. 
 
 the world. Persons with such hands, when 
 informed at all are usually superstitious, 
 credulous and bigoted. The virtues of such 
 hands are unthinking, dogged obedience; in- 
 stinctive attachments to home, kindred, and 
 to their superiors; physical courage, kind, 
 habitual persistence. The vices are lack of 
 moral courage, groveling tendencies, brutish, 
 living, besotted dissipation, harsh cruelty and 
 selfishness. 
 
 I have never met a woman with this hand. 
 The instincts and experiences of maternity 
 are not possible to this type. 
 
 This type, with fingers smoother and more 
 pointed, will revel in wild legendary stories, 
 rude poetry, and broad practical jokes, in 
 which personal physical discomfort or annoy- 
 ance is the principal element. 
 
 The Material, Hand is, in general out- 
 line, like an inferior or inelegant aesthetic 
 hand, being more thick and less supple. The 
 fingers are more gross, very little tapering, 
 with spatulate, square, or ill-formed oval tips, 
 and smooth or very moderately undulating. 
 The thumb is above the medium size or large, 
 long and conical. This hand, alike removed 
 from the stolidity of the instinctive and the 
 delicacy of the aesthetic types, exhibits a ten- 
 
THE INDUSTRIOUS HAND. 179 
 
 dency to material accumulation, avarice, craft- 
 iness and sensuality. Biches are its great 
 aim, especially riches in land, shipping, 
 houses, bullion — that is wealth that is tangi- 
 ble and visible, rather than credits, stocks 
 and bonds. This hand suggests hard work 
 for the sake of the earnings ; it looks upon 
 labor as a necessary evil with which to over- 
 come the greater evil of poverty. This hand, 
 large and short, opens slowly and shuts 
 tightly; it seizes firmly and holds fast all it 
 grasps. It is more legal than just, more de- 
 vout than pious. It suggests work, egotism, 
 thrift, avarice ; and, in otherwise concurring 
 hands, chicanery, over-reaching, theft, rob- 
 bery. It is always active, and as other char- 
 acteristics may control or modify it, is often 
 helpful; frequently connected with a strong, 
 energetic self-reliant, honorable, successful 
 man; even in such case it will suggest the 
 just but exacting dealer, the unsympathetic 
 broker, the close-fisted, hard-faced employer. 
 
 The Industrious Hand. —Ascending 
 from the stolidity of the instinctive, and 
 passing the questionable virtues of the mate- 
 rial hand, we arrive at the industrious type. 
 This hand is large, thick and strong; hard, 
 firm or elastic. The fingers are well devel- 
 
180 TYPICAL HANDS. 
 
 oped, with square or spatulate ends ; the knot 
 of material order undulating or large, the first 
 knot slightly undulating or lacking. The 
 thumb is large, especially the first phalange. 
 This hand indexes power rather than delica- 
 cy, strength rather than grace, a capacity for 
 muscular endurance, a love of physical ac 
 tivity, self-confidence and persistent applica- 
 tion. Persons with this hand desire the ma- 
 terial good things of life, and cheerfully toil 
 for comfort and abundance. They study and 
 value practical science. They admire the 
 expenditure of skillful and effective exertion. 
 They work willingly and without undue 
 fatigue, and instead of looking upon labor as 
 a curse, will pray for strength and long days, 
 by which, and in which, to earn, by legitimate 
 labor, its fairest fruits* A man with this 
 hand, if not a laborer — and he will seldom 
 be a mere laborer — will turn his attention to 
 machinery, to field engineering, building, 
 boating, hunting, ball-playing and athletic 
 sports, in which endurance and skill are 
 necessary elements. He will rise early, love 
 fresh air, generous wholesome diet, without 
 many dainties. A similar hand with pointed 
 or oval tips will suggest the horseman or the 
 animal trainer. 
 * This and the next type are especially 
 
THE PROGRESSIVE HAND. 181 
 
 common in the anglo-saxon population and 
 among their descendants. The great major- 
 ity of middle-class Englishmen, and a great 
 preponderance of Americans, will be found 
 in this or the progressive type. 
 
 The Progressive Hand is about, or a 
 little above, medium size. The palm is in full 
 proportion, but not excessive, well hollowed 
 and clearly rounded, of fair thickness, and 
 firm or elastic. The fingers are trim and 
 well-shapen, moderately regular, undulating 
 or moderately knotted, and carry clean, 
 square ends — sometimes tending towards 
 the spatulate — or some fingers square and 
 the others spatulate. One wearing this hand 
 will usually be "as regular as clock-work." 
 
 " Time is money," says this hand, and, 
 therefore, it values punctuality, continuity, 
 precedent, tradition, law, authority, rule, for- 
 mality, ceremony — as such. Persons with 
 this hand are proud of their good sense. 
 They have little imagination, little genius and 
 little appreciation or admiration for either, 
 but they possess and worship talent ; they are, 
 therefore, most delighted in opposing prac- 
 tice to theory, use to ornament, skill to 
 grace, truth to beauty. In social life they 
 look for moderation, circumspection and pru- 
 
182 TYPICAL HANDS. 
 
 dence ; for security and progress. They 
 honor law and authority, but not rank, or 
 royalty; and, hence, demand a constitutional 
 and representative government. They are 
 bound by duty, justice and usage, rather 
 than by independent feeling or personal judg- 
 ment, but will strive to put their ideas into 
 law and usage and live up to them. They 
 depend more upon experience and logic than 
 upon perception and affection, which, how- 
 ever, they regard as vital factors in life. They 
 accept the idea that the world is progressing, 
 and want to accelerate the development, but 
 are conservative in the acceptance of pro- 
 gress in details. They fully appreciate an 
 experiment or a demonstration, and are not 
 only willing but eager to witness the one or 
 listen to the other, and heartily accept the 
 success of either. They are charmed by 
 similitude, conformity, and usage. They are 
 persons of sound practical sense and ability 
 in some one specialty, but usually not pro- 
 found in general intelligence. 
 
 This type in an otherwise weak hand does 
 not, as a general rule, properly value imagin- 
 ation, ideality and general culture. There is 
 a tendency towards heartless calculation and 
 social despotism ; also too close an adher- 
 ence to custom, a disposition to oppose 
 
THE PHILOSOPHIC HAND. 183 
 
 change until it is proven successful ; a likeli- 
 hood of being satisfied with superficial and 
 apparent knowledge and of undervaluing 
 exact and fundamental truth. 
 
 This type spatulate will show more self-re- 
 liance, more independence of thought, which 
 will recognize the use of law 5 the power of 
 habit, and the beauty of conformity, but will 
 always act with considerable answer to its 
 individual judgment. 
 
 The better this type, the more it approaches 
 the philosophic hand, and then values truths 
 as well as facts. 
 
 The Philosophic Hand presents a well 
 developed and elastic palm. The fingers are 
 moderately long, the philosophic knot and 
 the knot of material order are both well 
 defined, and the tips are partly square and 
 partly oval. The thumb is large, the two 
 phalanges of about equal length. 
 
 The index finger may be long, tending to a 
 pointed tip, and the first phalange of the 
 thumb may be only moderately developed 
 without changing the type. This variation 
 shows more pride, ideality, invention, and less 
 persistence in study. 
 
 The oval tips attest ideality, invention, con- 
 templation, taste, sentiment ; the square ends 
 
184 TYPICAL HANDS. 
 
 show formalism, medium ideas, comprehensive 
 perception and similitudes; the combination 
 shows originality and sentiment tested by 
 perception and comparison. The well devel- 
 oped knots show capacity for and method in 
 deduction, both ideal and material. The 
 large thumb marks powers of organization, 
 executive ability, and persistent effort to 
 attain the desired result. 
 
 The elastic palm shows power of massing 
 the strength into intense effort. 
 
 This hand, then, suggests originality, senti- 
 ment, perception, calculation, deduction, abil- 
 ity in organization, and power of intense and 
 persistent application; and points out one 
 who duly values exact thinking, and loves 
 essential and universal truths. This hand in- 
 dicates the inquiring mind that desires " to 
 search out by wisdom concerning all things 
 that are done under heaven ; " the mind like- 
 ly to consider "philosophy as the parent of 
 life, the mother of good deeds and good say- 
 ings, the medicine of the mind ; " the mind to 
 which reason is more sacred than either in- 
 stinct, perception or faith, and which, with 
 Socrates, believes that "whatever injures 
 that faculty wounds humanity in its noblest 
 part." This hand brings everything to the 
 test of reason, cultivates logic, inquires the 
 
THE AESTHETIC HAND. 185 
 
 if why and wherefore,*" delights in compari- 
 son, deduction, demonstration and ratiocina- 
 tion. It entertains no vain scruples, no spir- 
 itual terrors, no undue respect for the tradi- 
 tional, customary or mysterious. Instead of 
 being overwhelmed at the vast amount of 
 facts, fancies, and knowledges that are buried 
 in the uncountable books of the world, a per- 
 son with this hand will rather feel how little 
 certainty there is in the supposed facts re- 
 corded ; how wild and impossible the fancies, 
 how obscure and indefinite the supposed 
 knowledges; and how few — how very few — 
 the absolutely established truths. A person 
 with this hand, while realizing all this, will 
 still value facts only, or at least mainly, as 
 factors, experience only as evidence, and per- 
 ceptions as lights for the use of logic in the 
 deduction of truth; and while, as he thinks, 
 duly crediting all these at their full worth, 
 will still believe with Pascal, "that to think 
 rightly is the foundation of morality." 
 
 The ^Esthetic Hand is characterized by 
 a warm palm, sensitive skin, full mounts of 
 Venus, Jupiter and Apollo, and wilh shapely, 
 tapering fingers, smooth or very slightly un- 
 dulating. Among aesthetic hands there are 
 three general sub-classes, each of which ap. 
 
186 TYPICAL HANDS. 
 
 predates and manifests the beautiful in its 
 own peculiar manner. 
 
 The first has a flexible palm of moderate 
 size and medium thickness, a small thumb, 
 with the mount of Venus full, clear and firm 
 indexing impressionability, love of the sub 
 lime and grand in form, delight in the pleas 
 ures of the senses — the life largely con 
 trolled by the sensuous and emotional nature. 
 
 The second has a short thick hand with a 
 large thumb, indexing richness in combina- 
 tion ; less impressionable than the first, but 
 more intelligent and persistent; less diffuse 
 and versatile, but abler in a given direction. 
 The second, like the first, strives after the 
 general and the grand, rather than the partic- 
 ular and the finished. The first will love and 
 express a beautiful object, or scene, or form, 
 regardless of exact truthfulness; while the 
 second will equally love beauty, but desire it 
 to be harmonious with its standard of truth 
 and virtue. 
 
 The third form of the aesthetic type has a 
 large full palm — highly flexible, elastic or 
 firm; the fingers are long, tapering, and usu- 
 ally full at the third phalanges ; the thumb in 
 full proportion to the rest of the hand. This 
 type indexes the love of the beautiful in de- 
 tail, it suggests elegant finish, love of color, 
 
THE ESTHETIC HAND. 187 
 
 harmony in music, and extreme delight in the 
 sensuous expression and enjoyment of the 
 ideal. 
 
 The first proceeds by impression and en- 
 thusiasm ; the second by perception and 
 delight; the third by the promptings of sen- 
 suous pleasure, the love of elegance and fin- 
 ish, and the charm of that realization which 
 at once satisfies the imagination and the 
 senses. 
 
 As the aesthetic hand is firm it shows 
 ideality ; as it is soft it exhibits impressiona- 
 bility. As the hand and fingers are short 
 there is shown a tendency to the general ; as 
 they are long, a love of detail and finish. As 
 the fingers are pointed, they index imagina- 
 tion, without good power of definite expres- 
 sion; as they become square the ability to 
 manipulate is perfected ; and when they be- 
 come spatulate the form or method of ex- 
 pression becomes more material. 
 
 Persons with the aesthetic hand will always 
 obey the laws of inspiration, impulse or imag- 
 ination; they will love the ideal and the sen- 
 suous; have a keen dislike for the formal 
 teachings of experience, and the cold sever- 
 ity of deduction; with more or less contempt 
 for the merely useful or productive. They 
 will, with difficulty, conceive of virtue or 
 
188 TYPICAL HANDS. 
 
 truth unconnected with beauty — ideal or 
 sensuous. They will fully enter into the 
 spirit of: 
 
 "She is beautiful and therefore to beAVooed." 
 
 They will aspire to paradise, not so much for 
 its purity, as because it is 
 
 Beautiful beyond compare, 
 Bright, rich, radiant and fair. 
 
 They may be deaf to the orders of authority, 
 heedless of the claims of duty, unresponsive 
 to the invitations of affection, but they will 
 always be standard bearers where the watch- 
 word is 
 
 " 'Tis beauty calls and glory leads the way." 
 
 And, whatever their virtues, misfortunes or 
 faults, they will always feel and sing: 
 
 "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." 
 
 The Intuitive Hand is, in general out- 
 line, like the philosophic hand, except that 
 the former is characterized by medium length 
 or short fingers, quite smooth, gently taper- 
 ing, with ends square and oval — that is the 
 first and fourth finger tipped in oval or 
 pointed, and the middle and third more 
 square. The size of the thumb does not play 
 as important a part in this type as in the 
 
THE PSYCHICAL HAND. 189 
 
 philosophic, and while the second phalange 
 is usually fully developed, the first is often 
 shorter or less full. 
 
 This hand, as the name implies, shows one 
 who readily, rapidly and clearly comprehends 
 what is placed before him; who, unlike the 
 philosopher, does not deduce conclusions, 
 but sees them. Persons with such hands see 
 clearly, truthfully, rapidly, fully. They are 
 characteristically perceptive and their first 
 ideas are usually the best. They are not con- 
 vinced by argument, which may confirm or 
 shake their conclusions, but rarely change 
 them. Additional testimony, a new light 
 thrown upon the subject, an apt illustration, 
 may modify their opinion, but logic, upon 
 them, is wasted. 
 
 As this hand is soft and the skin delicate, 
 it shows also impressionability, thus adding 
 warmth and feeling to the clearness, certain- 
 ty and rapidity of their apprehension of 
 truths and persons, and shows immediate 
 and self-satisfactory conclusion of opinion or 
 plan. It thus verges towards and partakes 
 of the type psychical. 
 
 The Psychical Hand is the most rare, 
 as it is likewise the most beautiful of hands. 
 It is usually small, always under the medium 
 
190 TYPICAL HAfti)S. 
 
 size. The palm is moderately thick, fairly 
 plump, lithe, supple, soft and highly elastic. 
 The skin is soft without being tender, deli- 
 cate yet strong; usually of a semi-transpar- 
 ent rosy white ; sensitive and invitingly warm. 
 The fingers are smooth and decidedly taper- 
 ing. The first phalanges are long and oval, 
 or inclined towards the pointed, and carry 
 beautifully outlined, thin, clear, pink nails, 
 with moderate half-moons at their base. The 
 thumb is symmetrical and neither extremely 
 large or small. A thumb less than medium 
 on this hand will show sympathy, desire for 
 companionship, power of persuasion through, 
 winning the affections ; larger than medium, 
 it will indicate power of will, ability and de- 
 sire to control, showing ardent, energetic, 
 persistent leadership, which will direct, 
 rather than advise, command rather than 
 argue. 
 
 This hand tells of impressionability deli- 
 cate, distinct, and intense; of feelings warm, 
 earnest and pure; of perceptions clear 
 and satisfactory; of convictions strong and 
 persistent; of aspirations noble, far-reaching 
 and well-defined. It indicates spiritual con- 
 templation — tranquillity or activity, as the 
 other characteristics may determine. It 
 shows poetry of the affections, deep religious 
 
THE PSYCHIC A.L HAND. 101 
 
 sentiment, ardent attachment to a warm 
 ideality, which it will think of as a higher 
 life. It suggests enthusiastic labor, fervid 
 eloquence, and self-denying, unremitting 
 effort for the statement, explanation and 
 spread of the sentiments so strongly and 
 keenly felt, and of the truths so clearly seen. 
 Persons with this hand are religious; but the 
 creed of the philosopher, carefully deduced 
 and logically established, has for them no 
 satisfaction. Neither will the utilitarian 
 views of the industrious or progressive types 
 present to them any charm. The worship of 
 the beautiful by the aesthetic type may please, 
 but will never deeply impress them. The 
 clear seeing of the purely intuitive class, who 
 state the truth in all fullness and clearness, 
 in luminous and precise phraseology, will 
 deeply touch them, and, to some extent, fasci- 
 nate, with its brilliant charm ; but it will still 
 leave an uncultivated void ; for the affections 
 are, as yet, unsatisfied. No system of ethics 
 based upon experience, deduced by logic, 
 addressed to the taste simply, or to the in- 
 tellect only will for long quiet, much less sat- 
 isfy, those with the true psychical hand. 
 They demand a complete fusion of feeling, 
 thought and action; an affection warm, in- 
 tense and pure, satisfying the heart; a theol- 
 
192 TYPICAL HANDS. 
 
 ogy simple, perceptive, harmonious, the natu- 
 ral expression of admitted truths ; a charity 
 approved by the conscience; and a morality 
 the natural outgrowth of love for the ideal 
 and of sympathy with the race. 
 
 Between such persons and the advancing 
 spiritual tendencies of humanity there is a 
 beautiful and an everlasting affinity. 
 
 Whenever great moral or spiritual influ- 
 ences have been exercised in the world, the 
 movement has been begun by those of whom 
 the psychical hand is the index. 
 
 The material hand grasps after wealth; the 
 industrious hand extols labor; the progres- 
 sive hand sings the praises of improvement ; 
 the philosopher idolizes essential realities in 
 universal laws, and all these are well in their 
 places, but their places are as followers. 
 The leaders and originators are before them. 
 
 The artistic hand sees and admires the 
 beautiful; the intuitive hand recognizes and 
 esteems the true; but the psychical hand sees 
 through the beautiful, into the heart of the 
 true, and there communes with and worships 
 their common soul — the good. The human 
 trinity — like the Divine — is manifested in 
 the Good, the True and the Beautiful; and 
 the greatest of these — the soul, in fact, of 
 the other two — is The Good. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 APPLICATION. 
 
 l|l^pHE character reader must always bear 
 • in mind that the hand is considerably 
 changed according to the person's 
 condition. Exact results depend 
 upon close observations and nice discrimina- 
 tions. The true reading of the hand, there- 
 fore, will be manifest only when the person 
 is in a normal condition of body and mind. 
 
 The attempt to read a hand when first un- 
 gloved is usually unsatisfactory. It is then 
 either pale from continued pressure, and con- 
 sequent lack of blood, or else livid from con- 
 gestion, occasioned by binding at the wrist or 
 palm. In either case it is somewhat inert 
 from compression of the nerves. It, there- 
 fore, requires a little time, after ungloving, 
 for the vital forces to regain their normal con- 
 trol, thus restoring to the hand its natural 
 features and complexion. Neither is the 
 hand of one just wakqd from sleep a plain 
 page to read; and even more indistinct is the 
 
194 APPLICATION. 
 
 hand of one dull or drowsy from recent over- 
 eating, merry or excited from drinking, or 
 much heated from unusual exercise. Quite 
 as indistinct, but in the opposite direction, is 
 the hand of one who is weak from fasting, 
 wearied from exertion, depressed by grief, or 
 exhausted by mental or moral anxieties. 
 
 Careful attention, too, must be given to the 
 temperament, complexion, age and physique 
 of the consultant, for in the light of these 
 peculiarities must the hand be interpreted as 
 to its heat, color and general condition. 
 
 Each one, after learning the meaning of the 
 details of the hand, must, to a great degree, 
 use his own method in the application of this 
 information. The ability to point out a sign 
 in the hand, and to tell its meaning, does not 
 render one a chiromantist any more than the 
 knowledge of how to spell and define words 
 proves one a journalist or a poet. Knowing 
 the strength of materials, the weight of met- 
 als, the cost of labor, and the use of tables 
 and instruments does not entitle one to the 
 name of engineer. It is just as plain that 
 truly recognizing the idiosyncrasies shown 
 by the size, shape and texture of the hand, 
 knowing the meaning of each modification of 
 the fingers, and correctly cataloguing the 
 value of each mount and line, with the ability 
 
APPLICATION. 195 
 
 to read them off in order, does not constitute 
 one a reader of character from the hand. 
 These knowledges are fundamental and indis- 
 pensable, but it is the power of correct and 
 artistic application that constitutes the psy- 
 chonomist, who must not only know the 
 value of each element individually, but must 
 also appreciate the comparative value, force 
 and effect of each variable function revealed 
 by the chiromantic peculiarities. 
 
 A knowledge of the hand and its meaning 
 simply reveals the elements of the character. 
 Knowing these, the next, and more delicate 
 task, is to feel or see in these elements, and 
 calculate from them, the character associated 
 with them and developed by them. 
 
 The method of recognizing, arranging and 
 utilizing such a varied collection of facts and 
 truths, must depend upon the peculiar char- 
 acter of the reader. One with large, long, 
 firm hands and knotted fingers, with square 
 or spatulate ends, must needs pursue a differ- 
 ent course from one who has a small, short, 
 soft hand with smooth and pointed fingers. 
 
 Not only will the method of application be 
 peculiar to each reader, but the truthfulness 
 of the delineation and the symmetry of the 
 description will be commensurate with his 
 knowledge of the hand, his familiarity with 
 
196 APPLICATION. 
 
 mental and moral law, and his power of con- 
 struction and statement. 
 
 The success of each reader — after know- 
 ing the hand, and understanding the value of 
 the factors in development of character — 
 will depend upon delicacy and distinctness of 
 impressionability, clearness and rapidity of 
 perception, power and exactness of logic, 
 facility and thoroughness of combination and 
 the command of precise and perspicuous 
 language. No rule, therefore, is given or 
 even suggested. It could not be followed by 
 any one — not always, even, by the one an- 
 nouncing it. Each reader will naturally fall 
 into a general method peculiar to himself; 
 from which, however, he will frequently de- 
 viate as circumstances may determine. 
 
 It is appropriate, just here, that the author 
 — who has a medium sized elastic hand, sen- 
 sitive skin and delicate touch, smooth and 
 slightly undulating fingers, (the logical knots 
 small but clearly defined,) with square and 
 oval ends — should state how he proceeds in 
 delineating a character. 
 
THE AUTHOR'S METHOD. 
 
 I sit opposite and facing the consultant, 
 whose two hands, palms upward, I take in 
 mine. As our hands meet I carefully notice 
 any agitation, annoyance, hesitancy or buoy- 
 ancy of manner. Any such manifestations 
 are significant. They may arise from many 
 different causes, among the more prominent 
 and common of which are the following : Un- 
 usual diffidence, modesty, delicacy of feeling, 
 eager desire to learn of self, to know what 
 will be said, simple novelty of the situation, 
 vanity, anxiety to have flattering things said, 
 forward skepticism — real or assumed, super- 
 stition, fear — that known faults will be ex- 
 posed or that sacred matters will be men- 
 tioned or discussed. It is frequently a diffi- 
 cult task to determine from what cause or 
 group of causes the agitation arises. At this 
 point I simply note it, to be explained, or at 
 least considered, when summing up the final 
 conclusions, unless it is sooner plainly inter- 
 preted. All such agitation, however, must 
 be overcome or allayed — or else due allow- 
 ance made for it in the reading — without di- 
 rectly alluding to the matter, (which generally 
 
198 APPLICATION. 
 
 makes it worse,) by some commou-place ques- 
 tions or remarks. 
 
 A glance at the hands gives their size, as 
 compared with the person's body, and also 
 their general shape, showing whether the 
 consultant is one who loves the general or 
 the particular, who analyzes or synthetizes, 
 who thinks or manipulates. 
 
 A gentle and careful squeezing tells of 
 their hardness, firmness, elasticity or soft- 
 ness, and thus indicates the degree of physi- 
 cal activity or indolence, and whether the 
 strength is muscular or nervous, material or 
 vital, enduring or intermittent. 
 
 The touch, during this squeezing, also an- 
 nounces the quality of the skin, and hence 
 the degree of impressionability, whether the 
 appetites are delicate, sensitive, keen or 
 strong ; the temperature of the hand, with 
 the strength and color of the palm and lines, 
 suggest the temperament. 
 
 The comparative development of the palm 
 and fingers sets forth the relative power of 
 the sensuous, intellectual or emotional bases 
 of life, and tells whether it is under passional, 
 material, logical or spiritual control. The 
 mount of Venus, and the vital line each im- 
 parts information as to the strength, vitality 
 and health, upon each of which so largely 
 
APPLICATION. 199 
 
 depend the direction of effort and the result 
 of action. 
 
 The thumb is now questioned as to logic, 
 reason, calculation, applied intelligence, and 
 the first phalange exhibits the power of de- 
 termination, with the strength and continuity 
 of purpose. 
 
 I notice the mounts, and determine which 
 characteristic carries the power of control 
 and the ensign of direction and command. 
 
 The comparative length of the fingers, and 
 the peculiarities of their ends — spatulate, 
 square, pointed or mixed — give their testi- 
 mony; the smooth, undulatory or knotted 
 joints point out intuition, order or logic; and 
 I classify the hand accordingly. 
 
 Having now the physical and vital bases, 
 the moving and initiatory powers of passion 
 or emotion, and the guiding elements — mate- 
 rial or spiritual, the intellectual idiosyncra- 
 sies — inspirational, intuitional or logical, the 
 controlling characteristics (as shown in the 
 fuller mounts), and the incisiveness, strength 
 and continuity of purpose, I am ready to con- 
 sult and interpret the minutia of the hand in 
 such order as is applicable to the case. 
 
 The usual course here is to notice each 
 mount, the fingers as a whole group, then 
 individually, with all the peculiarities of each. 
 
200 APPLICATION. 
 
 The main lines are then carefully examined in 
 detail, noticing the difference of each one in 
 the right and left hand, and lastly, the acci- 
 dental lines, in the same manner. 
 
 I then make a resume of the whole, always 
 bearing in mind that the controlling charac- 
 teristics are the lamps to lighten my way 
 through darkness, conflict or obscurity; re- 
 membering that the ruling love : 
 
 "One master passion in the breast, 
 Like Aaron's rod, swallows up the rest." 
 
 I bear in mind, too, that the good is posi- 
 tive, the bad negative; that the strong is 
 aggressive, the weak only obstructive; that 
 truth is eternal, falsity fleeting; and that, 
 therefore, '- the good, the true, and the beau- 
 tiful" must always, achieve success in any 
 honest contest with the evil, the false and the 
 hideous. I keep continually in mind that 
 every physical and mental endowment is for 
 good; that wickedness is the perverted use 
 of good gifts; that vice is the selfish and 
 cowardly surrender of weaknesses to temp- 
 tations; that those temptations resisted 
 would develop strength; and that tempta- 
 tions overcome transforms innocence into 
 virtue. 
 
 I have now as clear and full a knowledge 
 
APPLICATION. 201 
 
 of the person as I can gain by impressiona- 
 bility and perception, and I turn to the 
 slower and less certain process of deduction. 
 I calculate the force and its direction — pas- 
 sion and control, affection and thought, im- 
 pulse and intellect, emotion and logic, action 
 and obstacle. 
 
 The decision reached, the consultant's 
 character more or less clear in my mind, the 
 next question — and a very important one — 
 is, how much to say. I must, in justice to 
 the consultant, as well as to myself, so far as 
 I say anything, set forth strictly what is ob- 
 tained by my impressions and perceptions 
 and confirmed by my judgment. The time, 
 place and circumstances, as well as the age, 
 sex, and character of the consultant, must 
 determine much of this. In a mixed compa- 
 ny, of the old and young, of both sexes, 
 where there are perhaps strangers, even 
 rivals or enemies, the character must be 
 given in a more subdued key, and painted in 
 a lower light, than in the presence of inti- 
 mate friends. In any case the surface char- 
 acter, the every-day face given to the public, 
 may be clearly announced. It is, however, 
 only when alone with the consultant, and 
 when there is a mutual confidence, that the 
 endowments most noble and sacred can be 
 
202 APPLICATION. 
 
 reverently pointed out to the fortunate pos- 
 sessor of such treasures. It is only under 
 such conditions that the weaknesses, follies 
 and vices most threatening to the welfare, 
 and most calling for our prayerful pity, can 
 be sorrowfully shown to the afflicted burden- 
 bearer. 
 
 This devious route, apparently slow, and 
 somewhat difficult, may, at first glance, seem 
 a labyrinthine maze. With careful study, 
 however, and patient practice, it will unfold 
 to the mind of the faithful student with great 
 rapidity, and will show itself quite orderly 
 and systematic. This method — or any other 
 that the intelligent student may adopt or 
 arrange — will be plain and practical just in 
 the measure that observation, study and ex- 
 perience enable him to feel distinctly, see 
 clearly and think truly. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 If some points are still left obscure, others 
 doubtful, and the system itself seems intri- 
 cate or incomplete, the reader will bear in 
 mind that while 
 
 "The proper study of mankind is man," 
 
 it is, also, an infinite and eternal study. He 
 will bear in mind, too, that man 5 as a machine, 
 simply, is most intricate, delicate and match- 
 less; as a physical being but partially ex- 
 plored, and, hence, but partially known ; as 
 an intelligent and thinking individuality but 
 imperfectly and obscurely understood; and 
 as a moral and responsible factor, in the 
 great work of creation and development, 
 only indefinitely and illusively comprehended. 
 Job asks: 
 
 "Canst thou find out the deep things of God, 
 Or find out the Almighty to perfection ?" 
 
 Nay, verily, nor can the profoundest phil- 
 osopher, the grandest seer, or the most in- 
 spired prophet — by deduction, perception or 
 revelation — find out to perfection, his hum- 
 blest fellow-man. 
 
 THE END. 
 
SHOW YOUR HAND, 
 
 The Chiromantic Album. 
 
 This is an elegant quarto volume, designed by the 
 author of " Mysteries of the Hand," and is intended 
 as a souvenir for those who take an interest in " Hand 
 Reading." 
 
 This Album is so arranged that each left-hand page 
 affords space for the tracing of a hand, showing its 
 size, shape, character of the fingers, — and in which can 
 be drawn the lines of the palm. The right-hand page 
 is a blank form which when filled out gives a complete 
 description of the hand traced on the opposite page, 
 including the person's autograph. 
 
 Each Album contains an appropriate title page, 
 index, full directions for tracing hands and filling the 
 blanks, and space for the tracing and description of 
 " Fifty Hands." 
 
 The Chiromantic Album is beautifully printed 
 upon extra heavy and a superior quality of toned pa- 
 per, is elegantly and substantially bound, and will be 
 sent to any address, postage prepaid, on receipt of the 
 following prices : 
 
 Extra Muslin, Red Edges 2 OO 
 
 Full Morocco, Gilt Edges - - * 4 OO 
 
 Full Russia, Gilt Edges ... 5 OO 
 
 J. W. CAMPBELL & CO., 
 
 32 Insurance Exchange, 
 
 St. Louis, Mo.