\V\E UN'IVERV/; ^HIBRAI ^UIBRARY^ C6e Science of tfte J>and d. / Fsycru Library 2D**fcatfon, fe . . canam. S&uamqtiam me cocnita birtua ferret lit infirmae baleant 0ubgi0tere bire0, 3(ncipiam tamen* 3t merita0 0i carmina Iaulie0 SDeficiant, tanti0 fjumilis 0i confcitor acti0, jftec tua t te ptaeter, c!)atti0 intejcere qui0quam JFacta qtieat, Uicti0 tit non majora 0uper0int : 0t nobi0 tjolui00e 0ati0 /I9ec numeta patta IRe0pueri0 # * * * BDarbaque coelc0te0 placabit mica ; nee HIi0 Semper tnaurato taunts tanit i)o0tia cormi* $ic quoque 0it eratu0 pattju0 labor, lit tibi po0ieim alio0 aliosque memor componere quoticumque meae poterunt autiere Camoenae tibi pat poteriint, 0eu qtioti 0pe0 abnuit ultro, minu0, certeque canent minu0, omne bobemus U)oc tibi ; nee tanto careat mil;i catmine cfjatta* * * # * >um quolicumque ttium e0t ? no0tri 0i patbula cuts &it tibi quanta Itbet : 0i 0it raotio : non mibi recsna iia, non maeni potior 0it fama (Splippi ; ,fKeletaea0 nee mallem mittere cbarta0. 3D not) tibi 0i ber0ti0 nodter totiwbe, mimi0be t (Hel bene 0it n0tti0 t 0ummo bel inerret in ore : JltJulIa mifji 0tatuent n'nem te fata tanenui, uin etiam mea cum tumulu0 contejcerit 0003; Seu matitra tJie0 eelerem properat mif)i mortem, SDuantiocumque Jjominem me longa receperit aeta0 3Incepti0 De te 0ubte;cam carmina clwtt0 [Tib., "Poema," i.] 965S47 PREFACE. HEIROGNOMY, the science of declaring the characters, aptitudes, and mental conditions of men by a glance at the formations of their hands, came suddenly into existence, without any known precedent. Adrien Desbarrolles, the cheiromant, whose death has created only recently so much stir among cheirosophists, not only in Paris, but all over the world, tells us in his book " Les Mysteres de la Main " [p. 107], that one day he asked d'Arpentigny how he had discovered his system. " By a Divine inspiration," quoth he. However this may be, we know how our author tabulated his system, and from what materials. M. Gourdon de Genouillac has told us how his attention was first drawn thereto in Spain. M. Desbarrolles has told us how he completed his investigations, and how he formulated his observations so as to be able to act upon his experience. It appears that when he was still quite young and living in the country, he was in the habit of going to the parties of a rich land- owner who lived near him. This gentleman being imbued with a strong taste for exact sciences in general and mechanics in particular, his assemblies 8 PREFACE. were mainly composed of geometricians and mechanicians. His wife, on the other hand, was passionately fond of art, and received none but artists ; the natural result was, that each of them received on different days, and d'Arpentigny, being neither a mechanician nor an artist, went to the receptions of both. Having himself hands which were very beautiful {vide Appendix A., p. 417], he continually contrasted the hands of the people by whom he was surrounded with his own, and it gradually occurred to him that the fingers of the arithmeticians and ironworkers were knotty, whilst those of the artists were smooth [vide "if no]. Having made this observation, he com- menced to develop it, examining as many hands' as he came across, with the invariable result that he found the hands of manual labourers to be prominent-jointed, whilst those of artists were smooth. He studied and observed for thirty years before he considered that he had sufficiently established his system to render it capable of reliable practice. He did not try to account for his science as I have done in the Introductory Arguments to this volume, and to " A Manual oj Cheirosophy; " all he said was, " Here are facts ; here are indications which are invariably connected with certain characteristics ; these things speak for themselves." There is a great tendency in the present day to dress up old dogmata in new forms and cry " Ecco ! a new science ! " a constantly recurring state of things that reminds one of the grim, gigantic helmet in Dry den's "Battle of the Books" in the farthest corner of which was found a tiny head the size of a walnut ; but in this science I PREFACE. 9 do not think there are to be found as there are in the newer cheiromancy, traces of a long-disused cultus, "an old idea," as Longfellow says in "Hyperion" "folded in a new garment, which looks you in the face and pretends not to know you, though you have been familiar friends from child- hood." In vam has Desbarrolles endeavoured to surround this branch of the science with a proto- plasm of gnostic mysticism by devoting several pages [275-282] of his book to a process of what he calls "enriching the system of M. d'Arpen- tigny by means of the Kabbala." When, how- ever, he tabulates the cheirognomical indications of the seven cardinal sins, he becomes interesting, and when in his larger and more recent volume, "Suite et Fin " (Paris : 1879), he gives a few pages on how to put the science rapidly into practice [p. 90], he becomes most valuable, and I can warmly recommend a perusal of those pages to all who are interested in the subject-matter of this volume. It will be noticed, as M. Desbarrolles has remarked [vide p. 420], that our author, being of Bacon's opinion that " it is good to vary and intermingle speech of the present occasion with arguments, tales with reasons, asking of questions with telling of opinions, and jest with earnest," betrays a continual tendency to fly off at a tangent and talk delightfully and interestingly about some- thing else concerning which he has somewhat to say, with the natural result that he frequently loses and frequently repeats himself. I have endeavoured, by appending an extremely full index, to reduce as far as possible the irritation resulting from this state of things, which the IO PREFACE. philosophically-minded reader will naturally evince, rather than to say with Omar Khayyam " They who by genius and by power of brain The rank of man's enlighteners attain, Not even they emerge from this dark night, But tell their dreams, and fall asleep again !" [Whinfield} a verse whose original terminates this work on P- 439- Again, in alluding to living and dead celebrities as illustrations of certain types of hands, he has often thought it sufficient merely to mention a name, or a place, or an event, assuming that it is already familiar to his readers. All of us, how- ever, not being on a par with M. d'Arpentigny in the matter of erudition or of scholarship, I have deemed it expedient to verify all, and in some cases to correct, his allusions, and to give for the benefit of my readers references to works where they may, if they choose, pursue the suggestions of our author. The result of this has been an enormous mass of notes, carefully selected from a much larger quantity which I have collected during the past five years with a view to their ultimate utilisation in this form. It may strike the reader at the first glance that I have some- what overdone this matter, but a few moments' perusal of these pages will, I think, convince him [or her] that in amplifying my completion of the labours of M. d'Arpentigny I have added interest as well as biographical and bibliographical value to his work. " There be some," said Don Quijote to Sancho, " who weary themselves in knowing and verifying things which, after knowing and verifying, are not PREFACE. I I worth a farthing to the mind or the memory." I trust I have avoided such a reproach as this, and I hope that I am not like Orhaneja, the painter of Ubeda, who, when he had painted a cock, found it necessary to write underneath it, " This is a cock." I had rather be considered [to follow up Don Quijote], " some sage enchanter, from which kind of people nothing is hid on which they wish to write." To such gibes I would answer as the Knight of the Rueful Visage did to Sancho, when the latter said to him, " I say of a verity that your worship is the devil himself, for there is nothing you do not know;" "'Tis necessary to know everything," answered Don Quijote, "in the office which I profess." Seriously, I have been obliged in my notes to follow the style of M. d'Arpentigny, who seems to have studied like Imlac in Johnson's " Rasse/as" considering that " he who knows most will have most power of diversifying his scenes and of gratifying his reader with remote allusions and unexpected instruction." This volume is, as it were, illustrative to "A Manual of Cheirosophy" \ have established throughout a series of cross references to that volume, so that those of my readers who already possess it will find as it were a still more amplified commentary to this text therein. It is for this reason that I have carefully avoided in any way repeating any of the indications which are laid down in that volume, excepting so far as the first section of the "Manual" owes its origin to the work of M. d' Arpentigny. This book might, therefore, be entitled " A Manual of Biographical Cheirosophy," or, " The Natural History of Hands." Professor Drum- 1 2 PREFACE. mond, in the work which I have had occasion several times to quote during the composition of the pages which follow, has very justly remarked that biography is practically a branch of natural history ; it is in this light that I have treated it in this new volume of the great book of Nature, and I hope that I might, like Lavater, inscribe upon the title-page of my book that it is " destined to promote the knowledge and the love of mankind." In conclusion, I wish to record my thanks to the very large number of the readers of " A Manual of Cheirosophy" who have written me letters expressing their interest in, and sympathy with, my work. I should like to have printed some extracts from some of the letters I have received from some of the most eminent thinkers and scientists of the day, but I feel that they were not sent to me with this object, and I merely consign this new volume to the tender hands which received my last so kindly, saying to it in the words of Herrick : " Make haste away, and let one be A friendly patron unto thee, Lest rapt from hence, I see thee lie Torn for the use of pastery ; Or see thy injured leaves strive well To make loose gowns for mackerel ; Or see the grocers in a trice, Make hoods of thee to serve out spice ! " ED. HERON-ALLEN. ST. JOHN'S, PUTNEY HILL, S.W., 22nd April, 1 886. PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1865. THE accomplished author whose name we find inscribed upon the title-page of this book was a man of a strongly-marked individuality. A man of refinement in every sense of the expression, he became, almost unconsciously, a man of science ; gifted with an ardent desire for knowledge, and singularly adapted by the nature of his highly-impressionable organisation for the rapid assimilation and comprehension of things, he was readily attracted by the revelations of a Science, the dicta of which struck his mind forcibly, and concerning which he determined, with the singleness of purpose which was with him a leading characteristic, to become the leading authority. Before proceeding further, however, let us briefly review the life of this attractive man, who, as the poet Barthelemy has said, " was equally expert with the pen and with the sword." By this means will be demonstrated to the reader the chain of circumstances which led him to become the high priest of the Science of CHEIROGNOMY. Born on March I3th, 1798, at Yvetot, Casimjr Stanislas d'Arpentigny., destined from his earliest "years i'or a military career, entered the military 14 PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1865. college of St. Cyr, where he began immediately to attract attention to himself, not only on account of his rapid progress in mastering the curriculum, but by reason, particularly, of the malicious humour which inspired his biting epigrams, against the stinging sarcasms of which no one in the institution was proof, not even the commander-in- chief, who woke one day to the fact that he had been lampooned after a fashion so drastic and effectual, that he felt himself bound to punish the offender with a severity which sufficiently revealed the depth of the wound which had been inflicted upon his self-esteem. D'Arpentigny, who was on the point of being gazetted to a sub-lieutenancy, was ignominiously expelled. He had, however, the consolation of knowing hat he would be amply revenged by his epigram, which became popular in every barrack throughout France. Still, baulked of the epaulette which he was, as it were, in the act of grasping, it was clear to him that he must use every en- deavour to regain his right thereto, and nerved by this consideration he enlisted in the 29th regiment of the line. Three years later he obtained his commission, and, having been taken prisoner at Dantzic, he returned to France in 1814, and was placed upon the retired list. Gazetted to the 66th regiment in 1815, he was again disbanded in the ordinary course of events, and re-entered the service in 1818. In 1820 he served as lieutenant in Spain, and on his return was made a member of the royal body-guard [Compagnie de Croy]. With the revolution of 1830, the throne being overturned, its supporters were scattered, and D'Arpentigny entered the PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1865. 1 5 4Oth regiment with the rank of captain ; he was decorated with the Cross of the Legion of Honour in 1833, and served until his retirement in 1844, after an honourable service of thirty years' dura- tion. At the end of his military career his literary one commenced. We saw him taking part in the Peninsular War ; it was during this campaign that his cheirognomi- cal studies had their origin. One day whilst the young officer was walking along one of the high roads of Andalu$ia he was accosted by a gitaHa, who offered to read for him his fortune by the inspection of his hands. This girl, a perfect specimen of the pure Moorish type, was extremely beautiful, and D'Arpentigny, willingly submitting to her powers of persuasion, laughingly extended his hand and listened to the string of experimental ratiocinations which the gipsy poured forth with a complimentary eloquence and euphemism, which was in a direct ratio to the liberality of the lieu- tenant, who, as he pursued his walk, began to find much food for thought in this form of divination by the lines of the hand, and in some of the quaintly-suggestive terms of which the fortune- teller had made use, which had forcibly attracted his attention. 1 He reflected that allowing Cheiro- 1 Our author might have compared himself to the chevalier Duguesclin, to whom a nun [a converted Jewess] predicted that he would be honoured above all men in the kingdom of France* "We are told that astronomy confirmed the predictions of cheiromancy, and that Duguesclin, in consequence, always kept a wise divining- sibyl at his side through all his enterprises" \yide H. Martin's " Histoire de France" (Paris : 1878), vol. v., p. 244 ; and G. de Berville, " Histoire de Ber- trand du Giiesclin " (Paris : 1767)]. 1 6 PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1865. mancy, as practised by gipsies and ignorant mountebanks, to be merely an innocent fraud cultivated and perpetrated with a view to the extraction of coppers from the wayfarer, it was none the less significant that in practising their pretended "science," these people merely repeated phrases which they had learnt from their fathers, who, in turn, had learnt them from their fore- fathers. Running through the chaotic nonsense which the gipsy recited, the listener had been struck by the recurrence of certain expressions which seemed to him to be echoes of a forgotten language, of a language whereof the essential character retained much of its ancient force. Reflecting thus, D'Ar- pentigny set himself thoroughly to sift the matter to the bottom, and he left no stone unturned to discover the truth, which he wished to prove to be clearly and palpably evident. For twenty years he devoted himself with enthusiasm and energy to this arduous task, for, as is usually the case under similar circumstances, in proportion as his ideas advanced like pioneers before his studies, losing themselves in the profound obscurities of the road, so did the horizon enlarge itself, and so did new openings and obstacles in the way present themselves. He examined the writings of Avicenna and of Fraetichius, and by their means he corroborated the opinions of Antiochus, Tibertus, and Taisnier; he dived into Plato and Aristotle, he interrogated Ptolemy, and sought inspiration from Averroes; 2 in short, he mas- tered the literature of the subject, learnt all that * Vide notes 19 - J91 , p. 169-71. PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1865. 1 7 was to be learnt from others, and then, having stored his mind with the observations of his predecessors, he came to the conclusion that nothing but doubt could result from his studies until he had certified his knowledge by actual experience. It was then that he commenced to compare the hands of all those in whose company he was thrown, and that he commenced to note the most infinitesimal details of their conformations, that he analysed their aspects, and that he, for the first time, formulated an exact system based upon logic and upon reason. 3 And after having minutely examined the obscurest arcana of the Mysteries of the Hand, from which, day by day, his intelli- gent perspicacity rent the veil of doubt, he finally resolved to publish his book; a book which is clear and precise, and which possesses the great advantage of being easily obtainable by all classes of readers; which calls things clearly by their right names, and which does not aim at the marvellous. There is no childish and pretentious mise-en- sccne; it is simply and neatly expressed, con- cise, and a quality which in no wise detracts from its value as a philosophical work it is written with that fascinating charm, which carries away the reader by the spontaneity of its treat- ment, the power of its expression, and the wealth of its ideas. If further recommendation were desired let us see what the most eminent literary men of the day have thought of this ingenious 3 Vide on this point p. 7 in the Preface to this volume. 1 8 PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1865. and unique volume ; here, for instance, we have a letter which the author of " Elvire " 4 addressed to the author of " La Science de la Main," when the work first made its appearance : " I have read your work with great interest, for your style would recommend to my consideration the most hypothetical science. Even if there be not complete theoretical certainty in the system, there is a singular charm in your exposition thereof. I have delayed writing this to you, because I did not know your address, but many mutual friends will have conveyed to you these compliments and my regrets that you should have had to wait so long for them. If there is, indeed, revelation in the hand, believe, I pray you, in mine when it acknowledges all the pleasure which you have given me. We were comrades in the Royal Body-guard, and I congratulate myself that we 4 I presume that it was not without reason that M. de Genouillac names "Elvira" in this place *' Elvire " being one of the obscurest of De Lamartine's unfinished works. It may be found in vol. i. of the " (Euvres de Lamartine " [" Meditations poe"tiques avec Commentaires "] (Paris : 1849, F. Didot, 14 vols.), on p. 109 of which the author says : " This Meditation is merely a fragment of a much larger piece which I composed a long while before I wrote the real ' Medita- tions.' 1 It consisted of some love verses addressed to a young Neapolitan girl whose death I have related in ' Les Confidences' Her name was Graziella. These verses formed part of a collection in two volumes of the poems of my earliest youth, which I burnt in 1821. My mends had preserved a few of them, and restored to me this one, when I printed my ' Meditations.'' I separated these verses and wrote the name ' Elvire ' above them instead of that of ' Graziella. 1 It is obvious that they are not born of the same inspiration." A most interesting commentary to my mind. PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1865. 19 continue to be so in the study of natural philosophy. " Recevez, Monsieur, etc., etc., LAMARTINE. "zgthjttne, 1857." Jules Janin 5 also pays a tribute of respect to the author in a few amiable lines as follows : " Take care ! You give me a book ! if I were not of a considerate turn of mind I could over- whelm you with it ; especially as you have con- structed a theory which is charming, ingenious, probable, we'll expressed, and curious. I shall profit by it on the spot. When I have read your book with the care that it deserves, I hope you will allow me to talk to my readers about it in the Journal des Debats. It will give me great pleasure to testify publicly my appreciation of your civilities to me ; meanwhile, under all circum- stances, and in all places, believe me to be very absolutely, Yours, "J. JANIN." I do not propose in this place to publish all the sympathetic testimonials which were sent to M. d'Arpentigny on the publication of this volume. 6 * Member of the Academic Fran$aise and editor of the " Journal des Debats" author of " Bar 'nave''' (Paris: 1860), "La Bretagne" (1844), ^ Les Cata- com&es" (1839), " Chefs d'CEuvres Dramatiques du xvtii' Stecle" (1879), " Le Livre" (1870), and of a vast quantity of novels and novelettes. 6 I omit as superfluous along letter in the same style, written 'under date 23rd March, 1858, by J. M. Dargaud, the historian, author of " Histoire d ' ElizabetJi d 1 Angle- terre " (Paris : 1866) ; " His to ire de Lady Jane Grey " (1863) ; " Histoire de Marie Stuart" (1850) ; " Histoire cT Oliver Cromwell" (1867), etc., etc. 2O PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 186$. . . . The above letters give a good idea of the impression which was made upon the public by its appearance, which was heralded with delight by the world, and by the friends of the author, who were a host in themselves, for he was on terms of friendship with the whole of the Parisian aristocracy, whether of birth or of talent. His profoundly witty and incisive pen took a pleasure in recalling the numberless recollections of his military life, and he has left his pages sparkling with strokes of wit and sarcasm. When I knew him it was towards the end of his life, he was a fine old man, full of energy and health, whose lips scarcely ever opened without letting fall flashes of exquisite satire. His whims often wounded, and his caustic humour* often over- whelmed with sharply-pointed missiles, even his best friends, who were, however, perfectly willing to stand fire, reflecting that no one was exempt from the thick hail of his witticisms, and besides they appreciated the wit which supplied the weapons. He was an accomplished talker, and he con- versed with a gaiety which was absolutely juvenile. He had made a minute study of men, with the result that he came to the positive conclusion that women are infinitely superior to them ; it is not surprising, therefore, that he was extremely fond of women, and that they entirely reciprocated the sentiment. The noblest and most influential dames of Parisian society made it their study to surround the old age of this incorrigible cynic [who never abdicated his right to tyrannise over them] with delicate and touching attentions. One evening he went peacefully, and quietly to PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1865. 21 sleep, and in the morning they found him sunk in the perfect slumber from which there is no awakening on this side of the grave. And his lips had closed, wreathed as was their wont in a cynic smile. [From the French o/] H. GOURDON de GENOUILLAC. JLlpon " Love, like a gypsy, lately came, And did me much importune To see my hand, that by the same He might foretell my fortune. He saw my palm ; and then, said he, ' I tell thee, by this score here, That thou, within few months, shalt be The youthful Prince d" Amour here.' I smiled, and bade him once more prove, And by some cross-line show it, That I could ne'er be Prince of Love, Though here the princely poet. " HERRICK, " Hesperides. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGES PREFACE 7 PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1865 . " . .13 INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION AND ARGU- MENT 29 SECTION t- INTRODUCTORY REMARKS . . 87 SUB-SECTION I. THE CLASSIFICATION OF HANDS . 95 SECTION II. THE HAND IN GENERAL . . 99 SUB-SECTION II. THE SIGNIFICATIONS FOUND IN THE PALM OF THE HAND. . 101 III. THE SIGNIFICATIONS FOUND IN THE FINGERS OF THE HAND . 105 IV. THE THUMB . . . ,138 V. HARD AND SOFT HANDS . . 153 24 CONTENT'S. PAGES SECTION III. A FEW MISCELLANEOUS OB- SERVATIONS ... . . 167 SUB-SECTION VI. A FEW WORDS ON THE SCIENCE OF CHEIROMANCY . . .169 VII. REFLECTIONS, EXPLANATIONS, AND DIGRESSIONS . . . .175 SECTION IV. THE ELEMENTARY TYPE . . 197 SUB-SECTION VIII. ELEMENTARY HANDS . . 199 SECTION V. THE SPATULATE TYPE . . 219 SUB-SECTION IX. SPATULATE HANDS . . .221 X. [The like] NATIONAL CHARACTER- ISTICS AND HANDS . . . 230 XL [ The like] CATHOLICS AND PROTES- TANTS, LYRICISM AND MYSTICISM 245 XII. [The like] ENGLISH HANDS' . . 252 XI 1 1.- -[The like] THE HANDS OF THE NORTH AMERICANS . . . 262 XIV. [The like] THE VENERATION OF ALL PEOPLE FOR POINTED FINGERS . 267 XV. [The like] ROMAN HANDS . . 269 SECTION VI. THE CONIC TYPE . . , ,285 SUB-SECTION XVI. ARTISTIC HANDS . . .287 XVII. [The like] THE ARTISTIC HANDS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY . 303 CONTENTS. 25 PACES SECTION VII. THE SQUARE TYPE . . .317 SUB-SECTION XVIII. USEFUL HANDS . . , 319 XIX. [The like} CHINESE HANDS . 341 SECTION VIII. THE KNOTTY TYPE . . .347 SUB-SECTION XX. PHILOSOPHIC HANDS. . . 349 SECTION IX. THE POINTED TYPE . .361 SUB-SECTION XXI. PSYCHIC HANDS . . . 363 SECTION X. THE MIXED TYPE ... 383 SUB-SECTION XXII. MIXED HANDS . . . 385 XXIII. {The like} ARTISTICO - ELE- MENTARY HANDS, ETC. . 390 CONCLUSION . 399 SUB-SECTION XXIV. A FEW WORDS UPON THE HANDS OF WOMEN . , 401 APPENDIX A. THE HAND OF M. LE CAPITAINE C. S. D'ARPENTIGNY . . . 417 APPENDIX B. BIBLIOTHECA CHEIROSOPHICA , .421 DINEX TO THE TEXT AND NOTES . , .435 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PLATE PACK I. OSTEOLOGY. THE BONES OF THE HAND Frontispiece Fig. i . Transverse section of bone . . .72 2. Earthy matter of bone. Longitudinal section ...... 74 II. MYOLOGY. THE MUSCLES OF THE DORSAL SURFACE OF THE HAND . . facing 76 Fig. 3. Voluntary muscular fibre . . . -77 III. THE LIKE, OF THE PALMAR SURFACE facing 78 Fig. 4 . Vertical section of the skin . . .80 5. Section of skin showing the deeper layers 8l ,, 6. Surface of the skin, showing the sweat pores 82 IV. THE ELEMENTARY HAND . . . facing 199 V. THE SPATULATE HAND ... ., 221 VI. THE CONIC HAND .... ,,287 VII. THE SQUARE HAND . ,, 319 VIII. THE KNOTTY HAND .... ,, 349 IX. THE POINTED HAND . . . . ., 363 X. THE ARTISTICO-ELEMENTARY HAND . ,, 385 XI. A FEMALE HAND ,,401 HEAD-PIECES. THE SEVEN AGES OF HANDS. THE CHEIRO- STEMON. THE LEGEND OF THE MONK RICARDUS. HAND-SHAPED ROOTS. ISosanwntr Brunei ^orsleg, tnbt. et ttelfe Introductory Dissertation .anti argument ego bentosae benru 1 suffragta plebis." HORACE. " Say that thou pour'st them wheat, And they will acorns eat : Tivere simple fury still thyself to waste On such as have no taste I To offer them a surfeit of pure bread, Whose appetites are dead I No, give them grains their fill. Husks, draff to drink and swill : If they love lees, and leave the lusty wine, Envy them not, their palate's with the swine 1 " BEN JONSON. AN INTRODUCTORY EXPOSITION OF THE BASES OF THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND HAND CUSTOMS AND SUPERSTITIONS AND A FURTHER ARGUMENT UPON THE CLAIMS OF CHEIROSOPHY TO RANK AS A PHYSICAL SCIENCE. KCU yap iron/res oi avOpdtirot. avareivofitv TOS \etpas els rbv ovpa.vbv eu\as iroioujU.ei'Oi . ARISTOTLE, HEPI K02MOY. THE philosopher to whom we are indebted for the above quotation spoke with truth when he described the hand as the member of the members the opyavov Trpo opydvw. 1 From the earliest ages, and in all nations, homage has been paid to its importance by teachers in their writings, by priests in their ^fl. ceremonies, and by the common people in their ^andTupTr^ superstitions ; and this will not, I think, be wondered stitions and at when we reflect upon the part which is played by our hands upon the theatre of our existence, when we consider that there exists scarcely a single inci- dent of our lives in which the hand is not the prime agent, the apparatus whereby we practically live, move, and have our being. It will not, I think, be taken amiss if as an introduction to this volume I devote a few moments to the consideration of, and the tabulation of a few notes upon, the superstitions 7 IIEPI ZflON MOPIQN A'., i. 3O THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [IT i] and customs which have grouped themselves round this all-important member. 8 ^2. When we consider the absolute perfection of the PerfeC hSd. 0fthehand ' whose entire structure > as Galen remarks, 9 is such that it could not be improved by any con- ceivable alteration, we cannot but realise the value of any study which draws our attention more closely Sir C. Bell, to it, and we are impelled to ask with Sir Charles Bell, 10 " Is it nothing to have our minds awakened to the perception of the numerous proofs of design which present themselves in the study of the hand, to be brought to the conviction that everything in its structure is orderly and systematic, and that the most perfect mechanism, the most minute and curious apparatus, and sensibilities the most delicate and appropriate, are all combined in operation that we may move it?" ^f 8. It is not in any way strange that in days of old, as Sudden sensa- steevens has observed, all sudden pains of the body uons of the body. * which could not be naturally accounted for, were assumed to be presages of something that was shortly to happen, an idea which we find expressed in the Piautus. Miles Gloriosus of Plautus, in the line : " Timeo quod rerum gesserim hie ita dorsus totus prurit ! " How much more, therefore, should men have attached importance to sudden sensations of their all- important hands. Who has not heard of the itching palm, "itching palm," which seems originally to have been regarded as a sign of coming fortune rather than, as 8 The following remarks upon " Hand Superstitions and Customs " form the substance of a lecture delivered on the 4th December, 1885, before the " SETTE OF ODD VOLUMES." 9 " De Usu Partium Corporis Humani" book i. 10 " I^he Hand, its Mechanism and Vital Endow- ments" (London : 1832). INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 31 [II 3] it is to-day, a sign of avarice ? u and Shakespeare's Shakespeare, lines, " By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes" [Macbeth, iv., i.] have become a proverb. This pricking of the thumbs as a warning of 1[4- , , i u Pricking of the coming danger constantly recurs in old romances : thumb, perhaps one of the best known is the story of the Irish hero Fingal, whose Gargantuan master, having Fingal. devoted many years to the attempt, at length caught a fish, the properties of which were, that whoso should first taste thereof should immediately be endowed with the gift of foresight. This finny phenomenon was handed to Fingal to be cooked ; and during this operation, he having turned away himself, and in so doing having forgotten to turn the fish, a blister rose upon its side. Fingal, terrified at the prospective consequences of his inattention, pressed down the blister with his thumb : in so doing, the scorched fish adhered thereto and burnt it, whereupon our hero not unnaturally put his thumb into his mouth. The mischief [or rather the good from Fingal's point of view] was instantaneous, he was the first to taste the fish, and consequently he was the depositary of the coveted power ; he fled from the scene of his dereliction, and, of course, the giant followed vowing vengeance, but in vain, for whenever he approached his victim the pricking of the latter's thumb warned him of the coming danger, and 1 JOHN MELTON, " Astrologaster, or the Figure Caster" (London: 1620): "When the palme of the right hande itcheth it is a shrewde signe he shall receive money." This would seem to have originated in the East, judging by a custom quoted by G. Atkin- son in his " Customs and Manners of the Women of Persia" translated from a Persian MS. (London: 1832), which reads : "If the palm of the hand itches, rub it on the head of a boy whose father and mother are still living, and a present of money will be the consequence." THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [14] 15. Galen. Fingal pursued his way continually forewarned, and by consequence continually forearmed. Successive generations of authors have called Uses of the hand. attent i on to t h e paramount importance of the hands in the human ceconomy ; with them man fashions all the implements and accessories which give him his vast superiority over every other created thing, "and lastly, by means of the hand man bequeaths to posterity the intellectual treasures of his own Divine imagination, and hence we who are living at this day are enabled to hold converse with Plato and Aristotle and all the venerable sages of antiquity ; " 12 and indeed we need only reflect for a single moment to congratulate ourselves upon the ipse scripsit of the most famous men that the world has known, from the apostles and prophets even to the robber who said to Don Quijote, " Know that I am Gines de Pasamonte, whose life is written with these pickers and stealers" 13 [Duffield's translation (London: 1881), vol. i., p. 292]. The writings of the wise, said Charles Lamb, are the only riches our posterity cannot squander : and we might almost say in support of the theory of the descent of man from the ape, that man hangs monkey-like, by his hands, to the branches of the tree of knowledge. Cervantes, we are told, in the battle of Lepanto in 1571, had his left hand so much injured that he never recovered its use ; I never remember this without wondering, almost with that sickening feeling that comes over one when a great danger has gone by, whether his immortal works would ever have been written with Don Quijote. Chas. Lamb. Loss of one or both hands. Cervantes. 2 Galen, op. '/., lib. i. 13 " Sepa que yo soy Gines de Pasamonte, cuya vida esta escrita por estosflu/gares." " Don Quijote? part i., cap. xxii. As to the expression "pickers and stealers," compare Hamlet, Act III., sc. 2 : " So do I still by these -pickers and stealers.'" INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 33 LIT 6] his left hand ; whether, like Nelson, he would have Nelson, overcome the loss of the right hand, or whether at this moment Don Quixote and Sancho Panza would have been sleeping in the Walhalla of unborn heroes of romaunt, waiting still to be galvanised into life by the touch of the magic quill of some latter-day genius. Whether Caitis Mucius Scsevola really went through Mucius Soevola. the traditionary performance of burning off his own right hand for having mistaken Lars Porsena's secre- tary for that " by-the-nine-gods-swearing " potentate himself, is, I think, highly problematical ; at all events, we know that the cutting off of hands has been a universal and dreaded punishment from the days of Horatius in Rome until within a couple of centuries in England. I have recorded elsewhere the instance of the Roman poltroon of the time of Augustus Caesar, Poltroon, who cut off the thumbs of his sons, lest they should be sent to fight [whence the word " poltroon "pollice truncafus], and the gentle Norman barons would seem Norman and to have been impressed with the importance of this s P anish tonuies. particular digit when they hung up their enemies thereby, an operation which did not escape the observation of the chivalrous Spaniard who invented the instrument of persuasion known as the thumb screw. Next after the thumb, the most important finger ^r 7. has always been the third, which, as I have elsewhere The thirtl pointed out, 14 was always alluded to as " medicum " by the ancients The lustralis saliva was always applied to the infant's forehead, as a preventive against the evil eye, with the third finger. As late as the sixteenth century the thumbs of forgers ^ . and seditious writers were cut off by the common Cutting cff hands and hangman, and much later than that the punishment thumbs in for drawing a sword in a court of justice or assaulting England. 14 Vide "A Manual, etc," ^ 37, and note 112, p. 189. 3 34 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [I 8 ] an officer of the Crown, or alderman of the City of , London, was amputation of the hand. In Lord Chief Justice Ireby's " Notes to Dyer's Reports " I recently found the following delightfully quaint account of the narrow escape of Sir Thomas Richardson, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, alluded to by Pepys under date September 8th, 1667 : " Richardson, Chief Justice de C. Bane., al Assizes at Salisbury in Summer 1631, fuit assault per prisoner la con- demne pur felony ; que puis son condemnation ject un brick-bat a le dit Justice, qui narrowly mist ; et pur ces immediately fuit indictment drawn, per Noy envers le prisoner, et son dexter manus ampute, and fix at gibbet, sur que luy meme immediatement hange in presence de Court." Coustard de Massi, in his "History of Duelling " i5 tells us that among the canons of duelling it was forbidden to the spectators to sit, even on the ground, during a duel, on pain of the loss of a hand. ^f 8a. I have elsewhere alluded to the Eastern punishment ThC S E^t' n thC of cuttin S off hands [vide If 257 and note, and compare " A Manual of Chcirosophy " ^[ 22] ; we find it con- tinually alluded to in the Qur'an in passages like that which occurs in the seventh chapter, and Mr. Sale [note 2U , p. 184] gives many very interesting notes on the subject. If 9- The assassins of Cicero, when they killed him at Moratory. Caieta in 43 B.C., paid a rare tribute of homage to the Cicero. powers of the hand in oratory, when they cut oft" his hands as well as his head and sent them to Rome to be hung up in the Forum ; for what is more striking than the action of the hands in speaking, a function of j. Buiwer. jjjg member which inspired Bulwer's curious opuscu- 18 Vide ''History of Duelling in all Countries" translated from the French of M. Coustard de Massi, with introduction and concluding chapter by " Sir Lucius O'Trigger " (London: n.d.}, p. 22. INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 35 [IT 9] lum " Chirologia,'' 16 and which called forth the glorious panegyric of Quintilian, " Nam ceteras paries Quimilian. loquentem adjuvant, hae [prope est ut dicam] ipse 'oquuntur. An non his poscimus ? pollicemur ? vocamus ? dimittimus ? minamur ? supplicamus ? /c.r.X.," 17 which has been imitated by Montaigne in Montaigne, that celebrated passage of the " Apologie de Raimond Sebond" " Quoy des mains ? nous requerons, nous promettons, appelons, congedions, menaceons, prions, etc., etc." 18 The preference that is felt for a medium-sized or ^rio. delicately-modelled hand over that hard, rough, and -Admiration red paw which, as Sir Philip Sydney remarks, denotes hands. " rude health, a warm heart, and distance from the metropolis," is, I think, universal in these latter days, when we prefer delicacy of mind shown by the former to the brute force indicated by the latter, though it was the latter that inspired Don Quijote with such Don Qmjote. respect in the Cave of Montesinos, when on the sepulchre of Durandarte he beheld that warrior extended " with his hand [which was somewhat hairy and of much muscle a sign of great strength in its owner] laid across the side of his heart." 19 The ruse and elegant Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, and Small-handea the Sultan Mahmoud II., renowned for his ghastly cruelties, had both of them small and delicate hands. We are told by Leigh Hunt in terms of sarcastic bad taste 20 that Lord Byron was similarly gifted, and Lord Byron, successive historians have recorded that Queen Queen Elizabeth. Elizabeth prided herself to the like effect. Sir Henry 18 J. BULWER, " Chirologia ; or the Naturall Lan- guage of the Hand ' ' (London : 1644). 17 M. F. QUINCTILIANI " De Institutione Oratorio, Libri Duodecim, lib. xi., c.iii. 18 "jEssat's de Montaigne" (Paris: 1854). v l- "> P- 2 % 2 > book ii., ch. 12. 19 "Don Quijote" parte ii., cap. 23 "~" Vide note 137 , p. 127. 36 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [*] Ellis 2l quotes a letter from a Venetian minister, who, describing our virgin sovereign, says, " E sopra 1' tutto bella mano de la quale fa professione " [and above all the beautiful hand which she exposed to our view\. The LeoX. celebrated Pope Leo X. had equally fine hands, 22 as may be seen by his picture in the Pitti Palace at Florence hands which have been duly celebrated by Gradenigo in Cogliera's " Nnova Raccolta degli Opuscoli " (Venice : 1719). ^[11. A certain mystical loveliness has always been White hands : attac h e d to white hands : the Persians do not translate Persia. in the verse Exod. iv. 6 "leprous, as white as snow'" (R.V.), but take the " White hand of Moses" [a symbol of beauty and purity with them] to be a synonym for the white May-blossom which always blooms with them at their New Year (which begins with the vernal equinox). This, therefore, is the interpreta- Omar-i-Khay- tion of Omar-i-Khayyam's exquisite verse : yam. " Now the New Year reviving old desires, The thoughtful soul to solitude retires, Where the WHITE HAND OF MOSES on the bough Puts out, and Jesus from the ground suspires." M The white hand has always been looked upon as 21 Original Letters illustrative of English History " (London : 1846). " William Roscoe calls special attention to the whiteness and elegance of the hands of Leo X. in his "Life and Pontificate of Leo X." (London: 1846, vol. ii., p. 377). ride also note' 91 , p. 242. 23 " The Rubaiydt of Omar-i-Khayydm, etc." (Lon- don : 1879), quatrain iv. " Les Quatrains de Kheyam,' traduits du Persan par J. B. Nicolas (Paris : 1867), i86th quatrain. &c. &c. Orientalists will note the signification of the phrase, P tiails and Romans. that of fidelity ; and yet further back, how the mystic intensity of the warning to Belshazzar must have been tenfold increased by " the fingers of a man's hand," which the maddened monarch imagined that he saw writing its awful message in letters of living flame. Bacon has compared the will of the Bacon. 21 On the subject of swearing by the hand vide note 202 , p. 179, and "A Manual, etc." H 21. It is one of the commonest forms of oath in old English plays, as, for instance, in Ben Jonson's Alchemist, where Kas- tril says [act iv., sc. 2] : " By this hand you are not my sister, if you refuse ! " '* Burton's translation \vide note 117 , p. 112], vol. iv., p. 185. 26 Venice 1555 ; Eel. 2, Delle Marchesane. 38 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. If "1 people to the hundred hands of Briareus, 27 but it is not necessary in this place to advert to the hand as a symbol of power [" Manual," ^[ 15, etc.]. We find the same motif in the expression " At a dear hand," signifying expense?* and "At an even hand," denoting equality.- 9 Perhaps some of the most beautiful symbolisms con- ceremonies fleeted with the hand are found in the use made of the member in the ceremonies of the Church, in the invocation of the blessing, in making the sign of the cross, and in the laying on of hands. We have the priestly blessing with the whole hand, and the epis- copal blessing with the thumb and two fingers only extended, in the manner in which we see them arranged in the charms which are sold in Naples for the repulse of the evil eye; 30 and we find it laid down by the great authority Durand 3l that the sign of the cross is to be made with these three digits. " The poets faigne, that the rest of the gods would have bound Jupiter ; which he hearing of, by the Coun- sell of Pallas, sent for Briareus with his hundred hands, to come in to his Aid. An Embleme. no doubt, to shewe, how safe it is for Monarchs, to make sure of the good Will of Common People." BACON, " Of Seditions and Troubles." 28 Ibid., " Of Despatch." 29 Ibid., " Qf Envy," and " Of Expence." 30 Vide "A Manual of Cheirosophy" (London: 1885), p. 32 ; and vide note '" 3 , p. 183. 31 GULIELMUS DURANDUS, " Rationale Divinorum OJficiorum" (Venice: 1589), p. 140, verso, lib. v. " Quid sit Officium," cap. i., sect. 12.* * "Est autem signum cnicis tribus digitis exprimendum, quia sub invocatione Trinitatis imprimitur. De qua propheta ait : Qui appendit tribus digitis molem terret [Es. 40]. Pollex tamen supereminet ; quoniam totam fidera nostram ad Deum unum et trinum referimus et mox post ipsam invocationem Trinitatis potest dici versus ille. . . . Secundo ad notandum, quod Christus de Judaeis transivit ad Gentes. Tertio, quia Christus a dextra, id est, a patre veniens, diabolum, qui per sinistram significatur, in cruce peremit," INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. J9 tl 3] Eugene Schuyler, in his "Peter the Great"* 2 recounts that the orthodox make the sign of the cross with the thumb and two fingers, whereas the benediction is given with the first, second, and fourth fingers, the thumb meanwhile holding down the third. Havanski, in his interview \yide loc. citJ\ with the Dissenter Sergius, calls attention to the fact that he makes the sign of the cross in the orthodox manner, as opposed to the Dissenters, who signed with the first and second fingers only. The most precious relic of the Knights of St. John of Malta was a mummied hand, said to have been Knights' of that of St. John the Baptist, which had been given to Malta - the Grand Master d' Aubusson by the Sultan Bajazet. We are told that a dragon, who resided at Antioch, once displayed the want of foresight to eat a frag- ment of this relic, and was punished for his ill-advised temerity by the most unpleasant after-effects ; we are told that the said dragon swelled visibly to a prepos- terous size, and presently exploded with terrific violence. Whatever may be the credence rightfully attaching to this account, we know that this hand was carried through the Island in solemn procession once a year, and if the fingers opened, the harvests of the following season were plentiful and the year was prosperous; if, however, this miracle did not take place, the worst results were to be anticipated. At the dis- persion of the order in 1798 by the French, it was taken away by the Grand Master, and subsequently restored to its original shrine. The most interesting custom which has obtained in 15 this country with regard to the laying on of hands Touching for has been, I think, that of touching for the King's Evil. Most interesting accounts of this ceremony may be 82 Berliner's Magazine, vol. xix., 1880, chap, xi., p. 910. 4O THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. HM] found in various volumes of the Gentleman's Maga- zine, notably in that for 1747 (p. 13), that for 1751, (p. 414), and that for 1829, pt. ii. (p. 499), the last con- taining a full and interesting account of the ceremony. The custom is of the highest antiquity. Suetonius and Tacitus both record an instance of a blind man at Vespasian. Alexandria, who importuned the Emperor Vespasian to anoint his cheeks and eyes with the royal saliva. Vespasian having after some demur acceded to his request, an instantaneous cure was effected, and another supplicant, who had lost the use of his hands, appearing at the same time, the Emperor touched him also with the same beneficent result. 33 I believe the last instance of this having taken place was in 1712, Queen Anne, when Dr. Johnson was " touched " by Queen Anne. Herrick. Herrick, in his Hesperides, has a charming little poem on the subject which closes with these lines : " O lay that hand on me, Adored Caesar ! and my faith is such I shall be healed, if that my King but touch The evil is not yours ; my sorrow sings, Mine is the evil, but the cure the King's." Similar cures would seem to have been performed in the seventeenth century, by one Valentine Greatrakes. Greatraks (or Greatrakes), who acquired an extremely wide renown for the cures he performed by merely " stroking " persons afflicted with disease, a power which, if the accounts of the thousands who flocked to him to be cured be true, he must have found ** This account is given fully by Godwin in " Lives of the Necromancers" (London : 1834, p. 155), and Hume also has borne testimony to its veracity and probability in section x. of part iii. of his " Essays" * * " Ex plebe Alexandria quidam, oculorum tabe notus, genua ejus advolvitur, 'remedium csecitatis' exposcens gemitu; monitu Serapidis dei, quern dedita superstitionibus gens ante alios colit : precabaturque principem ' ut genas et oculorum orbes dignaretur INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 41 [f$] extremely irksome. 34 I have before me a little work, entitled "A Brief Account of Mr. Valentine Greatraks, etc., etc. " (London : 1666), which gives the history and progress of these phenomena, which would appear to be merely an early instance of curative mesmerism or of " faith-healing." The custom of biting the thumb as a provocative of ^[ 16. strife is familiar to us all in the opening scene of Bltin s the hand or thumb. Romeo and Juliet ; it seems to have originated in France, where the practice was to bite a fragment from the thumb nail, and draw it scornfully from be- tween the teeth, this being the most deadly insult that could be offered by one man to another, at least so it is laid down at p. 44 of a most fascinatingly quaint little woik, entitled " The Rules of Civility" translated from the French (London : 1685). Con- nected with this custom it is interesting to note the Arabic rite of biting the hands as an exhibition of Arabic custom? penitence, which we find cited in the Arabian Nights, the Qur'an, and elsewhere. Thus, for instance, in "The Story of Abu al Husn and his Slave-Girl" [Burton's translation (vide note m , p. 112), vol. v., 34 I have given an account of this gentleman's cures in my " Discourse of Mesmerism, and of Thought- Reading" in Pettitt's "Early English Almanack" for 1886. respergere oris excremento. Alius manuum seger, eodem deo auctore, ' lit pede ac vestigio Caesaris calcaretur,' orabat. Ves- pasiauus primo inridere, adspernari : atque illis iustantibus modo famam vanitatis metuere, modo obsecratione ipsorum et vocibus adulantium in spem induci : postremo existimari a medicis jubet, an talis csecitas ac debilitas ope humana superabiles forent. Medici varie disserrere : " Huic non exesam vim luminis, et redituram, si pellerentur obstantia : illi elapses in pravum artus, si salubris vis adhibeatur, posse integrari." Id fortasse ccrdi deis, et divino ministerio principem electum, etc., etc. Statim cojiversa ad usum manus, ac creco reluxit dies. Utiumque, qui interfuere, nunc quoque memorant, postquam nullum mendacio pretium." TACITUS, " Historiarum" lib. iv., c. 8l. F/a^also the notes to this passage in J. J. Oberlin's " Tacitus" (London: 1825), vol. Hi., p. 313, and compare SUETONIUS, lib. viii., cap. 7. 42 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. ro '*] p. 191], in which we are told " all his goods went from him, and he bit his hands in bitter penitence ; " and again in the Qur'an, where we find the phrase, " The biting was fallen on their hands," which is generally translated, " they repented." 35 IT 17. The custom which obtains among vulgar little boys, sight!" a known as " taking a sight," is, we are told, of in- comparable antiquity. I have seen it stated (but I forget where) that the practice was known as a method of pantomimic derision among the ancient Assyrians. Now, if this is the case, I would submit that some of the curious and apparently strained Assyria. positions of the figures on the Assyrian bas-reliefs are fully explained ! Many years ago I used to think that the attitude of the exulting Assyrian warrior, with his hands extended one before the other on a level with his face, was strangely suggestive of the rude small boy, but if the explanation hinted at be the right one, why, history repeats itself et voila tout ! Rabelais. We know, many of us, Rabelais' description of the meeting of Panurge and Thaumaste, 36 where we are told " Panurge suddenly raised in the air his right hand, and placed the thumb against the nostril on that side, holding his four fingers extended, and neatly Ron Gaultier. arranged in a line parallel to the end or his nose, entirely closing the left eye, whilst he made the other wink with a profound depression of his eyebrows and i dshaking eyelids," and we have the other historic instance of the Lovelorn Youth erstwhile " coffee-milling care and sorrow, with a nose-adapted thumb." 7 After all, the hand-custom most familiar to all of us is that of hand-shaking, a custom to which I have 35 f*.^ j ^*" ' cha P' vii- ' I48> 36 RABELAIS," "Pantagruel" chap. xix. 37 SIR T. MARTIN and W. E. AYTOUN, "Bon Gaultier J3al/ads,""The Lay of the Lovelorn' (London: 1845, ist edn.). INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 43 [frt] elsewhere alluded, 38 and which arose in "the good old days," when one could never be sure that one's dearest friend had not got a weapon concealed in his hand wherewith to take a mean advantage when one's back was turned. It requires no more than a passing allusion here ; we have all experienced with regret the timid handshake of the sex which has for some unknown reason been termed " the weaker," and the eighty-one ton scrunch of the boisterous friend who cracks pebbles in his fists, and keeps in training for the performance by practising on the hands of his shrinking acquaintances (though in the two cases the causes of the regret are not identical). Also, as W. S. Gilbert sa}'s, " the people who in shaking hands, shake hands with you like that" and lastly the haughty person of whom a poet, whose name I forget, said, " With fingertips he condescends To touch the fingers of his friends, As if he feared their palms might brand Some moral stigma on his hand," so that in time one actually begins to regret " the good old days," when it was not considered bad taste to slaughter people whose idiosyncrasies did not har- monise with one's own sense of the fitness of things. A word, before I conclude these remarks upon 1*9. Hand customs and superstitions, on the subject of superstitions' ^mi finger nails, concerning which almost as many customs, superstitions and customs exist, as there are concern- ing the whole hand. Innumerable are the sayings and superstitions as to spots in the nails, "gifts" as Spots in the our nurses were wont to call them, or the varied con- tingencies expressed by the couplet, " A letter, a friend, a foe ; . . A lover, a journey to go." M "A Manual of Cheirosofihy " (London: 1885), If 4- 44 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. tt'9] A writer in that delightful repository of quaint in- British Apollo, formation, " The British Apollo " (1708, vol. i., No. 17), says : " Those little spots are from white glittering particles which are mixed with the red in the blood, and happen to remain there some time. The reason of their being called gifts is as wise an one as those of letters, winding sheets, etc., in a candle." Setting aside, however, as comparatively irrelevant, the ancient science of Onychomancy, or divination by the finger nails, we may note that the older cheiromants attached the greatest possible importance to these spots, concerning which they had a regular code of interpretations. I have gone into the question at length on p. 130 of "A Manual of Cheirosophy" 120. As to the cutting of nails the old wives are simply "nails. replete with dicta and dogmata, beginning with the old rhyme, " Cut them on Monday, cut them for health ; cut them on Tuesday, cut them for wealth, etc., etc. ; " but one and all are agreed on one vital point, and that is that " a man had better never been born, than have his nails on a Sunday shorn;" and again in the same strain, " Better thou wert never Holiday. born, than on a Friday pare thy horn." Holiday, in his " Marriage of the Arts" (London : 1618), declaims Lodge. against such absurd superstitions ; and Lodge, in his " Wifs Miserie" (London: 1596), derides a young man for that "he will not paire his nails White- Monday to be fortunate in his love." One feels that Tomkis, Tomkis " hit out pretty freely all round him " when he says in " Albumazar " (London : 1615), " He puls you not a haire, nor paires a naile, Nor stirs a foot, without due figuring The Horoscope." Nevertheless, superstitions concerning the paring of The Romans, nails are of great antiquity. The Romans never per- formed this operation save upon the Ferae Nundinae, INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 45 which took place every ninth day, and the attention paid to such minor details as this is shown by the line of Ausonius, Ausonius. " Ungues Mercuric, barbam Jove, Cypride crines." " In Hazlitt's edition of Brand's " Popular Antiquities \ 21. of Great Britain " (London : 1870) there is an account of an old woman in Dorsetshire, who always pared her children's nails over the leaves of the family Bible, in order that they might grow up honest ; and it is said to be with this object in view that for the first year of their lives children's nails are directed to be bitten off, and not on any account cut. And this notwithstanding the fact that Aristotle has clearly laid down, many Aristotle, centuries ago, 40 the obvious truth that " Nature has provided us with nails, not, as among the brutes, for purposes of offence and defence, but merely as a pro- tection to the delicate tips of the fingers." I might no doubt, had I time and space, say [g2. much upon Graphology or the science of detecting Graphology, character from the handwriting. That the hand- \ writing has certain marked characteristics in every individual, and that these characteristics, properly \ examined and interpreted according to given rules and method, will tell us much concerning the indi- vidual character of the writer, is an established fact, and the tabulation of these rules, and of this method, is now complete in the works of such acknowledged authorities as Rosa Baughan, 41 1'Abbe Flandrin, and R osa Baughan Adolphe Henze. 42 Adrien Desbarrolles, in his major Flandrin. Henze. , , T-, 7 . ,, TT . . Desbarrolles. 39 " Eclogarium, 373. Hie versus sine auctore est. 40 IIEPI ZQflN MOPIOX, A., i'. 41 ROSA BAUGHAN, " Character indicated by Hand- writing" and edit. (London: 1886), revised and enlarged from a more elementary work on the subject. 42 ADOLPH HENZE, " Handbuch der Schriftgies- serei, etc.;" in the "Neuer Schauplatz der Kiinste" Bd. 138, 1834; "Die Chirogrammatomantie, oder 46 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. work, " Les Mysteres de la Main : Revelations completes, suite et fin" (Paris: 1879), nas devoted some 220 pages to this branch of the science of the hand, besides being the author of a standard work on the subject, 43 so that Graphology, or, as it is sometimes called, " Grammatomancy," boasts a literature of its own that it is not my intention to supplement in this place. "The more I compare different handwritings," Lavater. says Lavater in his " Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beforderung der Menschenkenntniss" etc. (Leipzic : 1775-78), "the more am I convinced that hand- writing is the expression of the character of him who writes. Each nation has its national character of \ writing, as the physiognomy of each people expresses J the most salient points of character in the nation ;" and I may quote the remark of Rosa Baughan [Op. cit.y p. 2], " That the handwriting really reflects [ the personality of the writer is evident from the fact """jthat it alters and develops with the intelligence, that {it becomes firm when the character strengthens, weak and feeble when the person who writes is ill or agitated, and erratic when he is under the influence of great joy, grief, or any other passion." ^T23. Handwriting is not, of course, in the present day Origin of hand- . , , , , . , . r . . ,. , writin indeed, since the introduction 01 printing of the vital importance that it was before the invention of the printing press, and th exquisitely-written manuscript is now, excepting on rare occasions, a thing of the past. Any remarks of mine on the early history of writing must necessarily be out of place here, but the curious in such matters should consult Lehre den Charakter, etc., der Menschen aus der Handschrift zu erkennen, etc." (Leipzic: 1862); " Das Handschriften Lesebuch " (Leipzic : 1854), etc., etc. 43 AD. DESBARROLLES and JEAN HIPPOLYTE, "Les Mysteres de V Ecriture ; Art de juger les Homines sur leurs Autografihes " (Paris : n.d.}. INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 47 the works of Astle and of Humphreys. 44 Still, a great interest must necessarily attach to fine pen work ; to the elaborate script of Cocker, the originator of the expression " according to Cocker " ; 45 whilst Cocker. we should many of us like to see a specimen of the work of " Ricardus, Scriptor Anglicus," whose legend Ricardus, Miss Horsley has illustrated in the heading to this " np us! " S introduction. 46 Whilst, again, who is there of us who has not profoundly objurgated the name of the Hamlet. friend who, like Hamlet, doth " hold it, as our statists do, A baseness to write fair, and laboured much How to forget [his] learning " [Act v., .sc. 2], the incorrigible " kakographist," who is at once the bane of his correspondents, and the chief thorn in the uneasy chair of the hard-worked editor. Perhaps the most complete compendium of facts relating to this subject is contained in a recent publication of the " Sette of Odd Volumes" entitled, "Pens, Ink, and Paper, a discourse upon the Caligraphic Art with 44 ASTLE, " The Origin and Progress of Writing" (London : 1802). HUMPHREYS, "Origin atid Progress of the Art of Writing ' ' (London : 1 855 ). 43 Edward Cocker [b. 1631, d. 1677], author of " Plumes Triumphus, or the Peris Triumph" 1657; " Peris Transcendencie," 1657 ; " The Artist's Glory, or the Pcnmari s Treasure," 1659; " Penna Volans," 1664; " Vulgar Arithmetic : ACCORDING TO COCKER, ' 1677, and a quantity of other works on the same subject. * This English monk, by name " Richard," was a writer of such perfection and elegance that, his tomb having been opened twenty years after his death, his right hand was found fresh and perfect as it had been in life, though the rest of his body was reduced to dust. A full account occurs in " Illustrium Mira- culosicm et Historiarum Memorabilium Lib. XII, ante annos fere cccc a Ccssario Heisterbachiensi" (Cologne : 1591), lib. xii., cap. xlvii. ; and Miss Horsley has illustrated the passage at the point above 48 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [f 2 3] D. w. Kettle. Curiosa," etc., by D. W. Kettle (London: Oda Volume Opusculum, No. X., 1885), which contains here-anent " marvellous riches in a little roome." IF 24. Nor is it necessary for me to enter here into the Cheiromancy. -,. ,. t i_ T i i art of cheiromancy, a subject which I have discussed at its fullest length in the volume to which this is supplementary, "A Manual of Cheirosophy" (1885). Of course, the tendency to seek for indications of the destiny upon different parts of the body is universal and of incomparable antiquity [" Manual" ^[ 58], and though some nations have looked for interpretable signs in the sutures of the skull, and others [the Authorities Persians, for example], 47 have looked for them upon the forehead, like Subtle in Benjonson's "Alchemist"** by far the most universal and antique form of divina- tion has been by the hand : and notwithstanding the named.* Another most interesting story of a hand which never putrefied is that one concerning the hand of King Oswald [A.D. 644], which, on account of his many good works, was blest by the Bishop Aidanus, and thereby rendered incorruptible. It may be found at folio 169, lib. i., of "Flares Historiarum, Matthceus Westmonasteriensis monachus" 1567. 47 Vide, for instance, the couplet in thejiith "Rubai" of Orr.ar-i- Khayyam (Whinfield's translation, 1883), '"Who wrote upon my forehead all my good And all my evil deeds ? In truth, not I." is Subtle. " By a rule, captain, In metoposcopy, which I do work by ; A certain star in the forehead, which you see noi. BEN JONSON, The Alchemist, act. i., sc. i. * " In Arnisberg monasterio orclinis Prsemonstratensis, sicut auclivi a quodam sacerdote ejusdem congregationis, scriptor quidam erat Ricardus nomine, Anglicus natione ; hie plurimos libros in eodem coenobio manu propria prsestotansia coelis. Hie cum fuisset defunctus et in loco notabili sepultus. post viginti annos, tumba ejus aperta, manus ejus dextra tarn Integra et tam vivida est reperta, ac si recenter de corpora animato fuisset prsecisa ; reliqua caro in pulverem redacta fuit. In testimonium tanti miraculi manus eadem usque hodie in monasterio re- servatur," etc. INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 49 [1 4j diatribes of such authors as Mason 49 and Gaule, 50 we can trace a strong inclination in favour of the science, not only among doctors, but among all classes of men who have made their fellow-creatures their study, from John of Gaddesden Sl and Ben Jonson 52 to Coleridge 53 and Ivan Tourgueneff. 54 Among the Arabs, indeed, the physicians attach an immense Arabian importance to the condition of the hands; it is thus physicians 49 Mason drastically ridicules the science of palmis- try, "where men's fortunes are told by looking on the palmes of the hande," in his "Anatomic of Sorcerie'' (London : 1612), p. 90. M JOHN GAULE, " nva-p.avTtia : the Mag-astromancer or the Magicall-Astrologicall- Diviner posed and puzzled" (London : 1652), p. 187. 41 John of Gaddesden was, according to Freind, who gives a history of him in his "History of Physick, from the Time of Galen to the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century 1 " (London : 1726, vol. ii., p. 277), a doctor of physick, the author of the famous "Rosa A nglica," who flourished at Merton College, Oxford, and subsequently at court, at the beginning of the fourteenth century. He acquaints us [p. 284] with "his great skill in Physiognomy, and did design, if God would give him life and leisure, to write a treatise of Cheiromancy ; but, to our unspeakable grief, this excellent comment upon Fortune-telling 'is lost." s - Ben Jonson seems [in Volpone : or the Fox, act i. sc. i] to consider that in articulo mortis the hand is the last part in which any feeling remains ; when Mosca says to Corvino : '' Best shew it, sir ; Put it in his hand 'tis only there He apprehends : he has his feeling yet ! " ;a A loose, slack, not well-dressed youth met Mr. and myself in a lane near Highgate. knew him, and spoke. It was Keats. He was introduced to me, and stayed a minute or so. After he had left us a little way, he came back, and said : ' Let me carry away the memory, Coleridge, of having pressed your hand ! ' ' There is death in that hand,' I said to , when Keats was gone ; yet this was, I believe, before the consumption showed itself distinctly." Coleridge's " Table Talk," August i4th, 1832. 44 I refer to the passage in " Monsieur Francois : 50 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. that we have it in the " Alf Laylah wa Laylah " [Bur- ton's trans., vol. v., p. 220], where the learned damsel says : " A physician who is a man of under- standing looketh into the state of the body, and is guided by the feel of the hands, according as they are firm or flabby, hot or cold, moist or dry." The reverence, therefore, which is paid to the TheCheiro- h anc i being, as we have seen, practically universal, stemon. J ' it is not surprising that the Cheirostemon [XecpoWe/xov] should have been worshipped as a sacred tree by the Indians. Of this extraordinary vegetable phenomenon only a single specimen existed, at Toluca, in Mexico, until 1801, because the Indians used to gather all the flowers as soon as_ they appeared, to prevent its propagation. In 1801, however, certain scientists obtained the fertilisation of a flower and propagated the tree at Toluca. It is described by early Spanish historians of the conquest of Mexico, by whom it was called Arbol de Manitroihe Indians called it the Hand-tree. Augustin de Vetancourt 53 describes it as " bearing in the months of September and October a red flower, having the appearance of a hand, formed with such perfection as to the palm, the joints, the phalanges, and the fingers, that the most expert sculptor could not reproduce it so exactly. When it is green it is closed like a fist, and as it becomes red it expands and remains half open." Miss Horsley has reproduced a drawing of it, given by Humboldt, 56 as a heading to Sub-section II., p. ioi, 57 and I must con- Souvenir de 1843," where M. Frar^ois calls Tour- gueneffs attention to the creaking of the Line of Life in his hand, and predicts his own violent death, which suosequently comes about. 55 AUGUSTIN DE VETANCOURT, " Teatro Mexicano" 1 (Mexico : 1698), fol. * " Voyage de Humboldt. Plantes Equinoxiales" (Paris: 1808), vol. i., p. 85. 57 Besides the cheirostemon Miss Horsley has given INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 51 [1s] fess that de Vetancourt seems to have been carried away by his artistic imagination in his description. Now, with regard to the study of the hand, it is f 26. difficult, if not impossible, to say where it originated. , rie K ntal ori , gin ol cueirosophy. M. Fetis in tracing the origin of the violin, 58 has, in more than one place, remarked that there is nothing in the West that has not come there from the East, a remark in support of which Colonel Tcheng-ki-Tong Tcheng-ki-Tong. has brought forward some very interesting evidence. 59 That this science was studied very many centuries ago in the East we have abundant proofs, from the writings of Philip Baldaeus, who tells us of the daughter of a rajah who was told all her fortune by a Brahmin by an inspection of the lines of her palm G0 me as headings to Sections I. and VI. representations of two somewhat similar vegetable phaenomena, taken from p. 25 of the first issue of Messrs. Cassell's publication " The World of Wonders.'" The radish [p. 169] grew in a sandy soil at Haarlem, and was painted from the life by Jacob Penoy, whose friend Zuckerbecker presented the picture to Glandorys in 1672. From this picture an engraving was taken by Kirby, from which Messrs. Cassell's copy was taken. The parsnep [p. 95] was bought of a market woman in the usual way, and is said to have represented the back of a hand so perfectly that it could not be surpassed by any . painter. The article from which I quote gives many most interesting instances of a like nature. M Vide ED. HERON-ALLEN, " Violin Making; as it was and is" (London : 2nd edition, 1885), p. 37. 59 " Of such nature are the exact sciences which no Western nation can boast of having created ; such are the alphabetic characters which have served to delineate sounds ; the fine arts whose masterpieces date from remotest antiquity ; modern languages themselves, whose roots are derived from a common origin, the Sanskrit ; the properties of magnetism, imported from the East, and the foundation of the navigator's art; and such, lastly, the various descriptions of literary composition, all of which, without a single exception, were created in the ancient world." " The Chinese fainted by Themselves" p. 184. 40 "Es begab sich dasz ermeldterRagia sich einsmahls 52 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. ft*] [notwithstanding the express prohibition contained in the laws of Manu !], down to Godwin, who tells Apoiionius of us 61 that Apollonius of Tyana " travelled to Babylon and Susa in pursuit of knowledge, and even among the Brahmins of India, and appears particularly to have addicted himself to the study of magic." |27. Whatever reliance we can place upon either of ^fTivinad'oiT ^ ese authorities, we have only to reflect for a moment upon the universal love of any knowledge which savours of divination, which appears to be deeply implanted in the human mind. The tendency of the human intellect is to be for ever progressing, the fruit which is out of reach appears ever to us to be sweetest, and the first result of an intimate knowledge of what things are apparent and exoteric, is a burning vor seinen Einwohnern sehen liesz u. nachdem er ver- standen dasz unter andern ein erfahrner Braman ange- kommen, liesz er denselben fur sich fordern u. sagte : ' Narret' (denn also war sein Nahm) ' siehe doch meiner Tochter in die Hande u. verkiindige mir ob sie gliick- selig oder ungliickselig, arm oder reich sein, viel oder wenig Kinder bebahren werde, ob sie kurtz oder lange werde leben ; sag mir alles frey rund heraus u. nim kein Blat vors Maul.' Diese Manier in die Hande zu sehen is unter den Heyden sehr gebraulich, da von der hochgelehrte Vossius, 1. 2., "Idol.," c. 47, ' Chiro- mantes etiam manus paries singulis subjecere planetis/ etc., etc. Der Braman wie er ihr in die Hand sahe hub an und sagte : ' Herr Konig, nach aller Anzeigung der Linien allein so stehets darauf dasz von ihr sieben Kinder sollen gebohren werden, nahmlich 6 Sohne u. eine Tochter, von welchen der letzte dich nicht allein deiner Krohn in Reichs, sondern auch des Haupts in Lebens berauben wird u. sich also dann auf deinen Stuhl sitzen.' " (And so it turned out, this being the eighth transformation of " Vistnum," beginning of the third period of time.) " Wahrhaftige Ausfuhrliche Beschreibung der Ost-Indischen Kiisten Malabar, etc." Philippus Baldaeus (Amsterdam : 1672), cap. v., P- 5i3- " WM. GODWIN, "Lives of the Necromancers" (London : 1834), p. 158. INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 53 n.n] desire to become acquainted, to extend our knowledge in the direction of things that are hidden and esoteric. How many are there of us who in all sincerity might say with Democritus, that "he had rather be the Democmus possessor of one of the cardinal secrets of nature, than of the diadem of Persia." Bearing, therefore, these things in mind, we need no longer express surprise at the necessity which appears to exist, that we should give credence to some cardinal error, abandon- ing very often the one, only, as Fontenelle said, 62 to fall into another. The time is rapidly passing away when " wise men ^ 28. are ignorant of many things which in time to come ignorance of pretended every common student shall know," 63 and every day wisdom, sciences, such as the one at present under discussion, are establishing themselves more and more firmly, as physical and exact; and did Omar-i- Khayyam live in the present day, he would no longer have occasion to say, as he did in the eleventh century : " These fools by dint of ignorance most crass, Think they in wisdom all mankind surpass ; And glibly do they damn as infidel Whoever is not like themselves an ass ! " M Another great danger which at one time threatened ^ 29. the science is now passing away ; I allude to the ill- Charlatans directed enthusiasm of the ignorant, who, greedy of the marvellous, take up the science [which they are not qualified to understand], and pretend to believe in and to understand it, merely as an implement of 62 " Us subiront la loy commune et s'ils sont exempts d'une erreur ils donneront dans quelque autre." FON- TENELLE, " Entretiens sur la Pluralite des Mondes " (Amsterdam : 1701), Ent. iv. 61 ROGER BACON, " De Vigore Artis et Natures?* ["The Mirror of Alchemy. Also a most excellent and learned discourse of the admirable force and Effi- ciencie of Art and Nature ' ' (London : 1597)]. w Whinfield's translation, p, 106, vide note ", p. 70. 54 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [T>] histrionic effect. I am reminded in such instances of a Chinese proverb which tells of a company of blind men who started to climb a mountain to admire the view, which they all described and extolled long before they reached the top. ^ 20. Of the value of the study of such a science as this Value of such T , n .1 i .1 < studies. one > I hardly think there can be two opinions among people who have any right to an opinion at all. " By cultivation of the abstract-concrete sciences," says Herbert Spencer, 65 " there is produced a further habit of thought not otherwise produced, which is essential to right thinking in general. . . . Familiarity with the various orders of physical [and chemical] phenomena gives distinctness and strength to the doctrine of cause and effect." 66 And this remark applies not only to a science so fixed and physical as the one under discussion, but even, I contend, to its most legendary and traditional branches, even going so far as the gipsy cheiromancy, by which the coppers of the servant girl are diverted by the eloquence of the itinerant sorceress and peddler. " If we would know Godwin. man in all his subtleties, " says Godwin in the preface to his " Lives of the Necromancers" " we must deviate into the world of miracles and sorcery. To know the things that are not, and cannot be, but have been imagined and believed, is the most curious chapter in the annals of man. To observe the actual results of these imaginary phaenomena, and the crimes and cruelties they have caused us to commit, is one of the most instructive studies in which we can possibly be engaged." ^[31. Of course, the training which is necessary as a Necessity of precursor to the study of a science such as this, is special training. . . ' somewhat special, must be in some way conducive to 65 HERBERT SPENCER, " The Study of Sociology" (London : nth edn., 1884), p. 318. ** Compare " Manual," ^ 65, 66, 69, and 89. INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 55 [130 a habit of analytical thought. Different people will study the question from different standpoints. "There are acquired mental aptitudes for seeing things under particular aspects as there are acquired bodily apti- Spencer. tudes for going through evolutions after particular ways. And there are intellectual perversities pro- duced by certain modes of treating the mind, as there are incurable awkwardnesses due to certain physical activities daily repeated " [Herbert Spencer, op, ct'f., p. 314]. A certain sense of relation is requisite to the student who would study the science, a sense which develops itself as the subject unfolds itself, " viresque acquirit eundo." It may perhaps be argued that were the science ^[32. really entitled to the encomia which I have bestowed Value j p f h yk eir upon it, it would long ago have been investigated and brought to perfection ; but in answer to such an argu- ment as this I may cite a hundred reasons for its non- development, of which, however, a few will suffice. As long ago as 550 B.C., Confucius remarked that " the Kung-fu-uu. study of the supernatural is injurious indeed ; " and throughout the intervening centuries there has always existed a strong prejudice against any study that can give to the student such advantages as are to be derived from this one. Besides this it has been very per- tinently remarked that a continued habit of self-analysis has a strong tendency to lead one to self-deception : Self-dejeption. the arguments which arrive at persuading others have passed that point, and have become exaggerated and deceptive in our own cases, and from a know- ledge of what we are, to a conviction that we are what we are not, is with a feeble mind a very easy and inappreciable transition. Such causes as this, therefore, have warred against ^[33. the full development of our science, but now that ^^he'sdenw! mankind has reached a century in which a calm and self- restrained habit of mind has become a leading 56 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. FT 33] characteristic, I feel every confidence in submitting to the world the principia contained in the science, saying with the author of " Hertnippus Redivivus" 61 " These are my principles which I submit to the strictest examination ; if they can be demonstrated to be false or precarious, I shall be sorry for myself and for mankind, since undoubtedly they carry in them a strong appearance of truth, and of the most pleasing kind of truth that which attributes glory to God by displaying His goodwill to man." ^34. I have endeavoured in the pages which follow to Explanation gj ve a satisfactory explanation of the scientific bases Longfellow, of the science, [in defiance of Longfellow's opinion that explanations of a beautiful theory are superero- gatory, 68 ] an explanation more complete and minute, and in some measure supplemental to those which I have given in the Introductory Argument to "A Manual of Cheirosophy" I have thought it far better to adopt this course, relying on a certain amount of probability of success, than to shelter myself behind the arguments which I have advanced in 5[ 97 of that introductory argument, contenting myself in this Drummond. connection with merely quoting Henry Drummond's authority for saying that a science without mystery, 67 [JOHN COHAUSEN], " Hermippus Redivivus ; or, the Cage's Tritimph over Old Age and the Grave" (London: 1744), p. 14. Recently reprinted by Mr. Ed- mund Goldsmid (Edinburgh : 1885). 68 "And why should one always explain? Some feelings are quite untranslatable. No language has yet been found for them. They gleam upon us beauti- fully through the dim twilight of fancy, and yet, when we bring- them close to us, and hold them up to the light of reason, lose their beauty all at once ; as glow- worms, which glimmer with such a spiritual light in the shadows of evening, when brought in where the candles are lighted, are found to be only worms like so many others." H. W. LONGFELLOW, "Hyperion," bk. Hi., chap. 6 (Boston : 1881 edn., p. 253). INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 57 [1341 i.e., a fully-explained science, is not only unknown, but non-existent. 69 \Vide note 10 , p. 91.] " Mystery," says Bain \yide note M , p. 66], " is ^ 35. correlated to explanation : it means something intel- M y. bter y m science. ligible enough as a fact, but not accounted for, not Bain, reduced to any law, principle, or reason. The ebb and flow of the tides, the motions of the planets, satellites, and comets, were understood as facts at all times ; but they were regarded as mysteries until Newton brought them under the laws of motion and gravity. Earthquakes and volcanoes are still mys- terious ; their explanation is not yet fully made out. The immediate derivation of muscular power and of animal heat is unknown, which renders these phaeno- mena mysterious." And such is the case with the science which we have before us. This being the case, though I have said in another I 3 ?- place [" Manual" ^f 93] that the tabulation and mar- f a " t * l n d shalling of facts alone will not by itself be sufficient principles, for the establishment of this science upon a firm basis, still a proper observation of the facts of a case will very generally conduce to a great extent to an appre- ciation of its principles. " In the earlier centuries," says Drummond, in the opening paragraph of his Drummond. " Natural Law, etc." " before the birth of science, phenomena were studied alone. The world then was a chaos, a collection of single, isolated, and indepen- dent facts. Deeper thinkers saw, indeed, that relations must subsist between these facts, but the reign of law was never more to the ancients than a far-off vision." So it has been in the case of cheirosophy ; the " palmistry " of the ancients was merely the interpretation of certain isolated facts arising from fortuitous concatenations of circumstances, but the 69 HENRY DRUMMOND, " Natural Law in the Spiritual World" (London: i5th edn., 1885), pp. 28 and 88 58 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1 36J cheirosophy of to-day is something more ; it is the tabulation of certain received principles, upon certain rules approved by physical science, in obedience to a recognised system which has received the support of reason and of experience. Only, instead of treating our data as isolated truths, useful only by way of illustration and support, we are careful to verify our Fontcneile. facts as we go, like Fontenelle's " true philosophers, who are like elephants, who as they go never put their second foot to the ground until their first be well fixed." 70 37 And after all, the more drastic the investigation to Value of which such truths are submitted, the more clearly will investigation. . . T . their verity become apparent. " It is the great beauty of truth that the more we examine it, the more dif- ferent lights in which we place it, the more pains we take in turning and twisting it, the more we perceive its excellence and the better the mind is satisfied about it" \f' Hennippus Redivivus," p. 45] ; but the method of investigation pursued must be the right one, for, as Coleridge very justly remarked, to set up for a states- man upon historical knowledge only, is about as wise as to set up for a musician by the purchase of some score of flutes, fiddles, and horns. In order to make music you must know how to play ; in order to make your facts speak truth you must know what the truth is which ought to be proved the ideal truth, the truth which was consciously or unconsciously, strongly or weakly, wisely or blindly, intended at all times. 71 m 38 As for those persons who despise and ridicule the Ridicule of the science, I have said enough concerning them else- science. 70 "En fait de decouvertes nouvelles, il ne faut pas trop se presser de raisonner, quoy qu'on en ait toujours assez d'envie, et les vrais philosophies sont comme les elephans, qui en marchant ne posent jamais le second pied a terre, que le premier n'y soit bien afferme." FONTENELLE, op. cit., vi me soir, p. 139. 71 "Table Tajk " of S. T. Coleridge, April i4th, 1833. INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 59 11USJ where [" Manual" ^^ 71, 78] ; we must bear in mind Fontenelle's very just remark to the effect that "every species despises what it wants" [Op. cit., vi me soir], and it is of very little consequence that single sceptics make light of a science the importance of which is acknowledged by a vast body of their fellow-men, 72 for we can class them all with the Pococurante, of whom Candide said to himself, " What a surprising Vo'.taire. man, what a genius is this Pococurante ! Nothing can please him ! " 73 Under the same, or almost the same, category we ^ 39. may class those who declaim "against the wickedness Wickedness f of the science ["Manual" ^[ 81 84], people who to quote Candide once more are like the father of Zenoida, who was wont to say, " 111 betide those wretched scribblers, who attempt to pry into the hidden ways of Providence " [" Candide," part II., ch. xiii.]. It is true that among the younger and abler minds of to-day there exists, as Drummond has Drummond. said in the Preface to his "Natural Law, etc." a " most serious difficulty in accepting or retaining the ordinary forms of belief. Especially is this true of those whose culture is scientific. And the reason is palpable. No man can study modern science without a change coming over his view of truth. What impresses him about nature is its solidity. He is there standing 72 "There is no people, rude or learned, among whom" [such things as this] " are not related and believed. This opinion which prevails as far as human nature is diffused could become universal only by its truth ; those that have never heard of one another would not have agreed in tales which nothing but experience can make credible. That it is doubted by single cavillers, can very little weaken the general evidence, and some who deny it with their tongues confess it with their fears." SAMUEL JOHNSON, " Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia," chap. xxi. 73 VOLTAIRE, "Candide, ou r Optimisme" Ed. Ori- ginate: reprint (Paris : 1869), chap. xxv. 60 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. 11139] upon actual things, among fixed laws. And the integrity of the scientific method so seizes him that all other forms of truth begin to appear comparatively unstable." But this form of the free-thought of youth and ability is a very different thing to that SchkgeU against which Schlegel so drastically inveighs in the opening pages of his " Philosophy of Life" A habit of thought engendered by a minute observation of the fixity of the laws of nature, so far from being pernicious or even undesirable, is calculated to advance us on rapid sails across what Professor Sir Richard Owen has called "the boundless ocean of unknown truth" u ^[40. And of the actual fixity of these laws it is not "nature S necessary for me, in this place, to bring forward authorities. " The pursuers of exact science to its Sir w. Scott, coy retreats," says Sir Walter Scott, " were sure to be the first to discover that the most remarkable phenomena of nature are regulated by certain fixed laws, and cannot rationally be referred to super natural agency, the suffering cause to which super- stition attributes all that is beyond her own narrow Godwin. power of explanation ; " 75 and Godwin has commenced his "Lives of the Necromancers " with the words, " The improvements that have been effected in. natural philosophy have by degrees convinced the enlightened part of mankind that the material universe is every- where subject to laws, fixed in their weight, measure, and duration, capable of the most exact calculation, and which in no case admit of variation and exception." And it is upon this fixity of natural laws which Newman Smyth. Newman Smyth has described as the expression of r4 SIR RICHARD OWEN, " On the Nature of Limbs" (London: 1849), p. 83. Vide "Manual," H 90. 75 "Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft," letter vi. INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 6 I [1 40] " the Divine veracity of nature " 76 that our science of cheirosophy has its foundation. The books which contain the principia of this 1l 41 - science are legion. The volumes catalogued in the ^denTe. 1 ^ " Bibliotheca Cheiromantica" Appendix B, at the end of this book, dealing of course as they do principally with cheiromancy "pur [mat's pas] simple," contain a great mass of data which are of very little value to the cheirosophist. It is not enough to buy a book upon the science, or half a dozen books, and devour them with unreflecting avidity, a process which must inevitably result in intellectual indigestion. We must bear in mind Bacon's excellent advice, in his Bacon essay " Of Studies" to the effect that " some bookes are to be read onely in parts ; others to be read, but not curiously ; and some few to be read wholly and with diligence and attention," and so on. Of course, the vast majority of books hereon are old and fre- quently obsolete, and great care is required in select- ing and rejecting the data which they give. Still, both Sampson and Don Juan pointed out to Don Don Quijote Quijote that there is no book so bad that it does not contain some good thing, 77 and a comparatively short study and practice of the science of cheirosophy will direct the student in his researches in this matter. For it does not suffice merely to read books on the subject; it must be continually practised, that the principia laid down in the manual may be impressed upon the mind by their verification in actual experi- ence. " Personal experiment," said Coleridge ["Table Coleridge. Talk" October 8th, 1830], "is necessary in order to 76 NEWMAN SMYTH, " Old Faiths in New Light" (New York : 1879) (London : 1882), p. 252. 77 " No hay libro tan malo dijo el bachiller que no tenga algo bueno." "Don Quijote," parte ii., cap. 3. " Con todo eso dijo el Don Juan sera bien leerla, pues no hay libro tan malo, que no tenga alguna cosa buena." Ib., parte ii., cap. 59. 62 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. correct our own observation of the experiments which nature herself makes for us I mean the phsenomena of the universe. But then observation is, in turn, wanted to direct and substantiate the course of ex- periment. Experiments alone cannot advance know- ledge without observation ; they amuse for a time, and then pass off the scene and leave no trace behind them." Verb. sap. The student must, of course, be prepared, in this in "nescience? 5 as in everv other science, to find occasional baffling inconsistencies. 78 I have laid down elsewhere the preparatory notes for the treatment of such contin- gencies ; a young science possesses no more the perfection of the established science, than the human infant possesses that of the human adult, and the student will speedily learn to derive as much infor- mation from his failures as from his successes just as in learning a language nothing impresses a phrase so firmly on the mind as to forget it suddenly, and to be obliged to dissect and re-acquire it. ^[44. And finally you must be prepared to take, as it Necessity of were fa e rO ugh with the smooth, to learn both the learning good and evil in the evil and the good which centres herein, for without nce ' the contrast of evil you cannot appreciate the good. It is continually argued to me that it is not good to know one's fellow-men as accurately and completely as one is enabled to do by means of this science ; that people are, as a rule, much more charming as they seem, than as they are. If such thoughts as this disturb you, lay down these volumes, O gentle- hearted reader, for the science of cheirosophy is not for you ! ^[45. I may perhaps incur the charge of undue insistence, Biassed argu- j advancing these arguments in favour of this science. raents for one s own cause, as an introduction to this volume, but without wish- Vide U 433 and note ^ p. 282. INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 63 [IT 45] ing it to be said in the words of Ben Jonson's Sir Epicure Mammon, that "if I take you in hand, sir, with an argument, I'll bray you in a mortar." 79 I am anxious to escape the censure bestowed upon Fonte- nelle by his marchioness, who complained of his convincing her only with his weaker erguments, and keeping his stronger ones in the background. 80 I wish to avoid as much as possible the very easily ^f 16. fallen-into sin of advancing biassed or favourably rhe llke * exaggerated arguments in favour of my own case, and I wish to say everything which has to be said upon the subject, indifferently to its effect upon the reader's mind ; not, like the Delphic pythoness, 81 to divide what it is judicious to say from what it is prudent to omit ; to dwell upon one thing, and slur over another, as suits the purpose in hand; but that I may deal honestly with my subject and with the student, saying, as Drummond has said in the preface to his " Natural Drummond Law " : " And if with undue enthusiasm I seem to magnify the principle at stake, the exaggeration like the extreme amplification of the moon's disc when near the horizon must be charged to that almost The Alchemist, act ii., sc. i. 80 " Je vous ay pourtant pas dit la meilleure raison qui le prouve, repliquay-je. Ah ! s'ecria-t-elle, c'est une trahison de m'avoir fait croire les choses sans m'en apporter 'que de foibles preuves. Vous ne me jugiez done pas digne de croire sur de bonnes raisons ? Je ne vous prouvois les choses repondis-je qu'avec de petits raisonnements doux, et accomodez a vostre usage ; en eussa.y-je employe d'aussi solides et d'aussi robustes que si j'avois eu a attaquer un Docteur ? Oui, dit-elle, prenez moy presentement pour un Docteur, et voyons cette nouvelle preuve du mouvement de la Terre." FONTENELLE, op. cit., vi soir. Placing-, therefore, my reader in the place of the marquise, I propose to treat him as a doctor whom I labour to convince. 81 Vide HORACE, " De Arte Poetica," vers. 148 et seq. 64 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [I 46] necessary aberration of light which distorts every new idea, while it is yet slowly climbing to its zenith." f 47. Again, reflecting that arguments may often ruin the Statement cf facts. cause they desire to advance, by perplexing when they do not convince, I shall prefer to state the facts, the truth of the case, without comment, rather than to cover the light of the science with a bushel of argument. 82 I 48 - And lastly, I desire not to incur the charge of Danger of recording only recording only successes and not failures of the system, successes. SQ that t k e stu dent may not paraphrase to me the words of the Roman to whom were pointed out the votive tablets of those who, "in consequence of their prayers to Neptune," had not been drowned in shipwreck, as a proof of the efficacy of such prayers, and who somewhat significantly replied, "Yes ; but where are the votive tablets of those who have been drowned?" ^[49. I would call particular attention to the now gene- A^ds^Ti. rall y accepted fact that man is formed almost wholly environment, by his environment, 83 that his organisation, like that of the animals, conforms to the necessities of his life. Perhaps the data upon which such a dictum as this may be amply supported, have never, in a condensed form, been put before the world more clearly than by the author of a now somewhat obsolete but most 82 " Some in their discourse desire rather commenda- tion of Wit, in being able to hold all arguments, than of Judgment in discerning what is true : As if it were a praise to know what might be said, and not what should be thought." BACON, " Of Discourse" 83 "The Influence of Environment may be investi- gated in two main aspects. First, one might discuss the modern and very interesting question as to the power of Environment to induce what is known to recent science as variation. A change in the surround- ings of any animal, it is now well known, can so react upon it as to cause it to change. By the attempt, con- scious or unconscious, to adjust itself to the new con- ditions, a true physiological change is gradually wrought within the organism. Hunter, for example, in a classical INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 65 C|4f] interesting opusculum, " The Hand, Phrenological ly Considered" (London : 1848), chap. iii. of which is mainly devoted to a clear and progressive essay on the subject, entitled " Appendages to the Trunk, a Key to the entire Organisation and Habits of Animals" [pp. 22-43]. This essay terminates with the words: " From this cursory examination of the animal world we may gather the important conclusion, that from the structure of an extremity we may obtain a com- plete insight into the entire organisation of an animal; and thus the paws furnished with sharp retractile claws of the lion, indicate at once to a naturalist its strong teeth, its powerful jaws, and its muscular strength of limb ; while from the cleft foot of the cow the complicated structure of its stomach, the definite peculiarities of its jaws, and its vegetable diet may with equal certainty be predicated " [p. 48]. A mass of interesting information, germane to this matter also, may be found in the chapter on " Relations," contained in Paley's " Natural Theology" At present Paley. the point to be established is this, that man is formed by his environment, his actions, and his manner of life ; and that, therefore, by a discriminating examina- tion of the man himself that environment, those experiment so changed the Environment of a sea-gull by keeping- it in captivity that it could only secure a grain diet. The effect was to modify the stomach of the bird, normally adapted to a fish diet, until in time it came to resemble in structure the gizzard of an ordi- nary grain-feeder, such as the pigeon." DRUMMOND, " Natural Law m the Spiritual World,'" chapter on " Environment," p. 255. Professor Drummond goes on to cite several other most interesting similar instances. Vide also KARL SEMPER ["Die Natiirlichen Existenz- Bedingungen der 2"hiere, 1880] " The Natural Condi- tions of Existence as they affect Animal Life " (Lon- don : 1881), and C. DARWIN, "The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication " (London 1868, 2nd edn., 1875). 5 66 TH"E SCIENCE OF THE HAND. If 49] actions, and that manner of life may, with practical certainty, be inferred. " / am a part of all that I have met" [" Odyssey"}. <^ go. It may also be said contrariwise, that the mind is Body formed by f orme d by the body as much as the body by the the mind and vice vers&, mind ; i.e., that a deformity of the body will very often result in a perversion of the mind, and that certain physical peculiarities will produce certain individualised habits of thought and action. The matter is entirely one of reciprocity, a reciprocity which, so far from confusing us, renders our science more and more clear as we find more and more points of connection between mind and body. 84 "According to the definition of the physiologist Muller, the temperaments are peculiar permanent conditions, or modes of mutual reaction of the mind and organism, and they are chiefly dependent on the relation which subsists between the strivings or emotions of the mind and the excitable structure of the body. Even if we may be disposed to contend that they are not absolutely dependent on any par- ticular constitution of the body, it must still be conceded that they are at least associated with certain peculiarities of outward organisation, by which they may be speedily recognised, so that the physical structure, the mental tendency, and the character of ideas are always intimately connected." 85 f 51. " There is no example," says Bain [vide note 84 ], refaf^ofbody " of two a g ents so closely united as mind and and mind 84 Dr. Alexander Bain's work, " Mind and Body, the Theoriesof their Relation " (London: ;th edit., 1883), is probably well known to many of my readers, as deal- ing exhaustively with the many theories which have been advanced in explanation with this relation. M "The Hand Phrenologically Considered" (Lon- don : 1848), p. 6. Vide also Herbert Spencer's " Study of Sociology" (London : 1873), chap, xiii., " Discipline" [nth edit., 1884, p. 324]. INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 6? Dody, without some mutual interference or adapta- tion. . . . On a theme so peculiar and so difficult the only surmise admissible beforehand would be that the two distinct natures could not subsist in their present intimate alliance and yet be wholly indifferent to one another ; that they would be found to have some kind of mutual co-operation ; that the on-goings of the one would be often a clue to the on-goings of the other. . . . We can begin at the outworks, at the organs of sense and motion, with which the nervous system communicates ; we can study their operations during life, as well as examine their intimate struc- ture; we can experimentally vary the circumstances of their operation ; we can find how they act upon the brain, and how the brain reacts upon them. Using all this knowledge as a key, we may possibly unlock the secrets of the anatomical structure; we may compel the cells and fibres to disclose their meaning and purpose." 86 I will close this section of my argument with this retrospective remark of Milne-Edwards,; "That the I J^Sn^ faculties of the mammalia are the more elevated in extremities, proportion as their members are the better constructed for prehension and for touch," 87 an axiom the truth of which I think most of what has gone before has sufficiently established, an axiom which entirely clinches the data referred to in ^[ 49 and note 83 , p. 64. It may perhaps be argued that these data may have ^[ 53. been tabulated in error; that the real nature of man Disclosure cf man s real nature. 86 " The form and posture of the human body, and its various organs of perception, have an obvious reference to man's rational nature ; and are beautifully fitted to encourage and facilitate his intellectual improvement." DUGALD STEWART, " Outlines of Moral Philo- sophy" (Edinburgh: 2nd edit., 1801), p. 68, sect, xi., 1188. ' H. MILNE-EDWARDS, "A Manual of Zoology 1 * (London : 2nd edit., 1863), 306 343. 68 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [lS3] very seldom appears upon the surface ; and that the deductions which are set down in the following pages may be founded upon misapprehension. I have only to say that, carefully watched, all men must at some time or another allow their true natures to appear, Bacon. " for Nature," as Bacon said [" Of Nature in Men "], " will lay buried a great time and yet revive upon occasion or temptation;" and again [" Of Negotiating"], " Men discover themselves in trust, in passion, at unawares, and of necessities, when they would have somewhat done, and cannot finde an apt pretext ; " and it is by watching for such occasions as these that we attain to the verification of our principia, my task being principally to state those principia clearly and correctly. By inapplicable phraseology many a question has been darkened and mystified to the point of despair. In the history of philosophy we find numerous instances of contradictions being brought about by inappropriate language, and in no case more fatally than in the tabulation of the data upon which to found such sciences as this one. T 54. Of the value of this science it is not necessary for Value of the t j^j place to say any more than I have already science m human J J J intercourse, had occasion to say [" Manual" ^[^[ 85-6], Alas ! that, as Sir Walter Scott found it necessary to say, 88 truth should not be natural to man; were it so, one of the great arguments in our favour would be annulled ; and again, one's first impressions being practically 88 "The melancholy truth that 'the human heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,' is by nothing proved so strongly as by the imperfect sense displayed by children of the sanctity of truth. . . . The child has no natural love of truth, as is experienced by all who have the least acquaintance with early youth. If they are charged with a fault while they can hardly speak, the first words they stammer forth are a false- hood to excuse it." "Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft," letter vii. INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 69 [1 34] indelible, 89 is it not of vital importance that they should be correct, so that we may not start in our intercourse with our fellow-men at the prime dis- advantage of having formed a mistaken idea of their characters and modes of thought? It is these two great advantages that I claim to confer upon you by the inculcation of the principles of this SCIENCE OF CHEIROSOPHY ; it is this that I desire to impress upon thinking minds ; it is this superiority that I claim to be existent in the HANDS as the outward indicators of the inner characteristics of man. Before proceeding to consider the principles and practice of the science of cheirognomy, I think it is nat haifd? f ' necessary that we should clearly understand what we are working upon, we should know thoroughly the anatomical construction of the hand, and that we should be in a position to say upon what develop- ment of what particular muscles and bones par- ticular forms of hands depend. I have already [^[ 52] quoted Milne-Edwards' ^[56. remark upon the progression of intellect in a direct M , " ' he most . perfect created ratio to the articulation of the extremities of animals, being. a remark which finds a curious parallel in the second subsection of M. d'Arpentigny's work [^f 99]. How obviously may we carry the observation further, and at length, contemplating the perfectly-articulated hands of MAN, say with the Persian tent-maker : " Man is the whole Creation's summary, The precious Apple of great Wisdom's Eye, The circle of Existence is a Ring Whereof the Signet is Humanity. Ten Powers, and nine Spheres, eight Heavens made He, And Planets seven, of six sides we see, Five Senses, and four Elements, three Souls, Two Worlds but only ONE, Oh MAN ! like thee ! " w 89 As Fontenelle remarks on the sixth evening of the " Entretiens " I have already quoted, passim. 90 "The Rubaiydt of Omar-i-Khayydm," Rubaiyat 70 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. But though a Power of which we can know nothing Observation of . environment. m tn e present finite condition of our intellects has brought us to this state of perfection, still we must not lose sight of the great principle continually laid down, to which I have before [^[ 49] referred, i.e., that man is formed to a great extent by his en- vironment; and the pre-natal conditions of his existence are only a further development of this same principle. The development of any organism in any direction is dependent upon its environment. A living cell cut off from all air will die. A seed- germ apart from moisture and an appropriate tem- perature will make the ground its grave for centuries. Human nature likewise is subject to similar con- ditions. It can only develop in presence of its environment. IF 58 - In the human embryo the hand is the first member F.arly develop- .... . ment of the hand, which in any way suggests its final development. In the embryo of a month, though the hand resembles a fin more than anything else, it is still distinctly apparent, and the illustration given of a stage three weeks later on [p. 126 of vol. i of the eighth edition of Quain's "Elements of Anatomy " (London : 1876)] represents this elementary development very clearly and well. The hand is perfect at birth, save that the palm is always out of proportion with the fingers, itself an interesting factor in the establish- ment of the science, regard being had to the remarks of our author in 51 94- It is at about the age of fourteen, both in men and women, that the hand assumes the permanent form as the indicator of the characteristics which will follow a subject through life. 91 [Vide f f 65 to 67.] 340 and 120 of Whinfield's translation [note 47 , P- 48]- 91 We are not discussing the lines of the palm in this volume, but I beg to call attention to the following INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 71 It is now that the art of the cheiromant comes ^f 59. into requisition. " I can never see any difference in Differentiation of hands. hands ; I cannot tell whether my hands are big or small ; I cannot tell whether my thumb is large or not; I do not know whether my fingers bear the . right proportion to my palm." Such things as this are said to me every day, and it is of course only after a small amount of observation that the student is able to determine these points for himself, to distinguish differences which are imperceptible to the unpractised eye, just as the banker's clerk detects a forged banknote after it has deceived persons more clever intellectually, but less practised in this par- ticular direction than he. The whole matter turns stages of first upon the question of comparison or discrimina- examination tion, then of agreement, and finally of memory. " When we have anything new to learn," says Bain [note ", p. 66], " as a new piece of music or a new proposition in Euclid, we fall back on our previously combined combinations, musical or geometrical, so far as they apply, and merely tack certain of them together in correspondence with the new case. The method of acquiring by patchwork sets in early and predominates increasingly" [p. 87]. This then is the manner in which the science of cheirosophy is to be acquired. paragraph which occurs on page 214 of vol. ii. of Quain's "Anatomy " : " The free surface of the corium " [or horny layer of the skin] " is marked in various places with larger or smaller furrows, which also affect the superjacent cuticle. The larger of them are seen opposite the flexures of the joints, as those so well known in the palm of the hand, and at the jointure of the fingers. The finer furrows intersect each other at various angles, and may be seen almost all over the surface. These furrows are not merely the conse- quence of the frequent folding of the skin by the action of muscles or the bending of 'joints ', for they exist in the embryo" 72 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. Of what elements, therefore, are the hands of man thehand? composed ? Of bones, muscles, and nerves, the whole being vivified by a complete and complex arterial and venous system. T 61. To begin with the basis of the fabric the bone ; Composition of l e t us consider what is its composition, and how does bone. it play its part in the human ceconomy. " Bone," says Holden, 92 " is composed of a basis of animal matter impregnated with ' bone earth ' or phosphate of lime." The first ingredient makes it tenacious and FIG. i. TRANSVERSE SECTION OF BONE [Radius], elastic ; the second gives it the requisite hardness, the animal part forming about one-third, and the earthy two-thirds. The general construction of long and round, broad and flat, and short and irregular bones need not occupy us, but the microscopic structure is of interest to us in our present study. Fig. i represents a transverse section of a bone. [All bones present the same characteristics, and I have chosen a section from the radius, as its peculiari- ties are perfectly shown.] The big black spots are 92 LUTHER HOLDEN, "Human Osteology " (London : 4th edit., 1879), pp. 2, 14, 15, 22. INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 73 sections of the canals [called Haversian canals], which transmit bloodvessels to the substance of the bone. The small dark spots are minute reser- voirs, called "bone corpuscles," "bone cells," or " lacunce." The Haversian canals vary considerably in size and shape : they are generally round or oval, and whilst those nearest to the circumference of the bone are small, towards the centre they grow gradu- ally larger, at length opening into the hollow which occupies the centre of the bone, and is filled with the marrow. Round the Haversian canals are disposed the " lacunce " in concentric rings, known as " laminae," which are formed of concentric layers of bone, which have been developed within the Haversian canal. The lacunce are microscopic tubes, connected spider- like with one another by means of tinier tubes still, called " canaliculi." All these bunches, as it were, of canaliculi anastomose, i.e., are connected with one another, so that by these means a constant connection is kept up between the Haversian canal and its con- centric layers of bone, by means whereof the nutrient iuices are continually distributed to every part of the bone. Each Haversian canal, with its layers of bone, lacunce, and canaliculi, is called a " Haversian system," each system being to a great extent in- dependent of the others. Besides these there are the triangular spaces between the systems [caused by their circularity], which, being filled up with bone layers and lacunce similar to the Haversian systems, are known as Haversian interspaces. Fig. 2 repre- sents a longitudinal section of a similar bone. Between the articulations of the bone and the car- tilage there exists another species of bone containing Articular bone no Haversian canals ; the lacunce are larger than in the subjacent bone, and have no canaliculi ; the result of this is, that, not being vascular, it is much less porous than common bone, and consequently forms a much 74 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [H 6*] stronger and unyielding surface for the support of the cartilage. With this bone, however, which is called articular bone, we need not deal in this place, as it does not concern the present discussion. It is not necessary either for us to enter into the structure and development of embryonic bone, as we are dealing with the fully-developed hand exclusively [vide thereon HOLDEN, op. cit., p. 23]. ^[63. The skeleton of the hand [Plate I., Frontispiece} Skeleton of the . . - . , 09 ,. ,, . , . consists of twenty-seven bones. 93 The first eight are FIG. 2. EARTHY MATTER OF BONE. Longitudinal section showing the Haversian canals. the little bones of the carpus; the five succeeding bones constitute the metacarpus; these support the bones of the fingers. Each finger has three bones, termed, in order from the wrist, the first, second, and third or ungual phalanx. The thumb has only two phalanges. f 64. It may be seen that the eight bones of the carpus The carpus. are arran g e( j j n t wo rows of four each, so as to form a broad base for the support of the hand. The reason of this mass of small bones is dual : it is to K Holden's " Osteology" pp. 148-157. INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 75 permit extended motion, and also to confer elasticity ; for each articular surface [vide ([ 62] is covered with cartilage, which, by preventing jarring, reduces the risk of fracture or dislocation to a minimum. This beautifully-constructed and flexible " buffer " [as it were] is called the " carpal arch ; " all these bones articulate with one another by plane surfaces con- nected by strong ligaments, and the second row support, in like manner, the bones of the metacarpus, giving them by their varied shapes and positions different degrees of mobility, the thumb being the most, and the third finger the least, movable of the digits, on account of the arrangements of the carpus which give them motion. The carpus, which is entirely cartilaginous at birth, does not become fully ossified and perfect as we see it in Plate I., until the end of the twelfth year [vide ^[ 58]. No muscles are attached to the back of the wrist, but the palmar surface of the carpus gives rise to the main muscles of the fingers. The metacarpus consists of the five bones that ^[65. support the phalanges of the thumb and fingers. The metacarpus. The shafts of these bones are slightly hollow as seen from the palmar surface, the bases of the bones articulating, not only with the carpus, but laterally with one another. The metacarpal bone of the thumb is distinguished by a characteristic saddle- shaped surface at its base. There are no less than nine muscles to work the thumb, and its great mobility depends upon this saddle-shaped joint at its base. Each of the metacarpal bones have certain distinguish- ing characteristics by which they are known to the osteologist It is interesting also for us to note that every metacarpal bone has an epiphysis {i.e., a mass of bone ossified from a separate centre of ossification] at the lower end, and sometimes at the upper ; these appear at different ages up to the fourth year, but 76 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1 65] none of them join on to the shafts of the bones until about the twentieth year, so that the skeleton of the hand cannot be said to be perfect and complete until that age. ^[66. Each finger consists of three bones, termed the The fingers, phalanges. The two of the thumb correspond to the first and third of the fingers. The shafts of the phalanges are concave on their palmar surface [like the metacarpal bones] for the convenient play of the flexor tendons, and on each side of the flat or concave surface there is a ridge for the attachment of the fibrous sheath which keeps the tendons in place. As in the metacarpus, the perfect ossification, and the attachment of the epiphyses of these bones, is not com- plete until about the twentieth year. TT 67. Besides the above bones we often find small bones Sesamoid bones. bedded in the tendons of the joints of the thumb, called sesamoid bones. These give greater leverage and strength to the joints, and where you can see or feel them in a hand, they are always a great sign of strength. 1 68. It would, of course, be beyond the limits of a work system^ l^e tne present to enter into anything like a complete survey of the muscles of the hand and the principal muscles of the arm which are connected with them, but, seeing that on the development of these muscles quite as much as upon the development of the bones the shapes of the hand depend, a few passing re- marks will not, I think, be out of place. For any more complete survey the reader should refer to such works as Quain's " Anatomy" etc.* 4 ^69. Every muscle constitutes a separate organ, com- ^"muscies. 1 P ose d chiefly of a mass of contractile fibrous tissue, with other tissues and parts which may be called 94 Quain's "Elements of Anatomy" (London: 8th edit., 1876), vol. i., pp. 183, 218-225. Superficial muscles and tendons on the back of the hand and wrist. The deep muscles of the back the wrist and hand. The principal tendons of the fingers have been re- moved. PLATE II. MUSCLES OF THE DORSAL ASPECT INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 77 accessory. Muscular fibres \yide Fig. 3] are con- nected together in bundles or fasciculi, and these fasciculi are again embedded in, and united by, a quantity of connective tissue, the whole " muscle " being usually enclosed in a sheath of the same material. Many of the muscles are connected at their more or less tapering extremities with tendons by which they are attached to the bones or hard parts, and tendinous bands, as a rule, run into the substance, or over the surface of a muscle. Bloodvessels are ^-inch. I inch. A. Eyepieces. FIG. 3. VOLUNTARY MUSCULAR FIBRE. largely distributed through the substance of a muscle, carrying the materials necessary for its nourishment and changes, and there are also lymphatic vessels. Nerves are ramified through every muscle, by which the muscular contractions are called forth, and a low degree of sensibility is conferred upon the muscular substance. It is, of course, quite impossible, as it would be inappropriate, to give in this place a full account of the various muscles of the hand. They are as fully represented as is necessary by Plates II. and III., and f 70. 78 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1 70] they are there described. I wish merely to call particular attention in Plate II. to the great strength and variety of the tendons which support the muscles of the thumb and first finger, and in Plate III. to the enormous substance and importance of the muscles of the thumb and of the palm proper, which send off the most important digital muscles, an arrangement made especially clear to us by the differentiation in the two cuts of the superficial and of the deep-seated muscles. A glance at these two plates will be of more value to the student in cheirosophy than many pages of description. IT 71. The arteries and venous system of the hand must venous'tystem necessarily interest us, as *it varies continually in of the hand, various individuals, and, as I have elsewhere pointed out [" Manual" ^[^[ 38 and 72], this very variation pos- sesses of itself a very significant meaning for us. I have given a short account of the main arteries of the hand in " A Manual of Cheirosophy; " a fully detailed account may be found on pp. 410-419 of Quain's work already cited, containing practically all that is known concerning the various constituent parts of the super- ficial and deep palmar arches. ^ 72. Nothing can be more interesting or significant to N rT" u sy !, tem the student than the study of the nervous system of of the hands. the hands, a subject which I have discussed at length in my former volume, and to which it is not, therefore, necessary for me to do more than merely refer here. On the structure and arrangement of nerve fibres, cells, and centres, Bain [vide note S4 , p. 66] has given us some most interesting data on pp. 28-32 of his work already cited. "There are," says he, "some signi- ficant facts regarding the arrangement of the nerve elements. It is to be noted, first, that the nerve fibres proceed from the nerve centres to the extremities of the body without a break, and without uniting or fusing with one another ; so that each unfailingly Muscular ten- dons of the palmar aspect. Parts of the superficial flexor muscles have been cut away to show the deep flexor and lumbrical muscles and their tendons. Deep muscles rf the palm ; the abductor muscles of the thumb and little finger ; the anterior annular ligament. The long flexor ten- dons in the palm have been re- moved. In the forefinger the ten- dons of both super- ficial and deep flexors remain ; in the others only the deep flexors remain. PLATE III. MUSCLES OF THF, PALMAR ASPECT. INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 79 n 7i Delivers its separate message. Without this the greatness of their number would not give variety of communication. The chief use of the two coatings or envelopes appears to be to secure the isolation of the central axis. "Remark, next, that the plan of communicating from f 73. one part of the body to another as from the skin ner v e et CO mmu: : of the hand to the muscles of the arm is not by a cation, direct route from one spot to the other, but by a nervous centre. Every nerve fibre rising from the surface of the body, or from the eye or ear, goes first of all to the spinal cord or to some part of the brain, and any influence exerted on the movements by stimulating these fibres passes out from some nervous centre. As in the circulation of letters by post there is no direct communication between one street and another, but every letter passes first to the central office ; so the transmission of influence from one member of the body to another is exclusively through a centre, or [with a few exceptions] through some part of the nervous substance contained in the head or backbone. " Every nerve ends in a corpuscle, and from the IT 74- same corpuscle arises some other fibre or fibres, terux i n atk,ns. either proceeding back to the body direct, or proceed- ing to other corpuscles, whence new fibres arise with the same alternative. The corpuscles are thus the medium of connection of ingoing with outgoing nerves, and hence of communication between the outlying parts of the body. They are the crossings or grand junctions, where each part can multiply its connection with the remaining parts. There is not a muscle of the body that could not be readied directly or indirectly by a pressure on the tip of the forefinger ; and this ramified connection is effected through the nerve cells or corpuscles." We are, therefore, in examining and dealing with the hands, concerned with the most It 74 1 hand. So THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. highly sensitive, the culminating point of this great system by which practically our whole lives are governed. The hand is principally supplied by the two great nerves of the arm, the ulnar and the median, the latter doing most of the work. Branches of the median nerve mainly supply the thumb, the first and Papilla with tactile corpuscle terminat- ing nerve fibres. Papilla with capillary blood-vessel. Duct of sweat gland. Horny layer. Rete Mucosum. FIG. 4. SECTION OF SKIN [Diagrammatic], (Highly magnified.) second, and one side of the third fingers ; the other side of the third and the little finger are supplied mainly by branches of the ulnar. The dorsal surface of the hand is mainly supplied by the musculo-spiral and the radial nerves, principally by the latter, the action of the former being confined principally to the thumb and forefinger [vide further on this point of neurology "Manual," 5FH 37, 39 4 1 ]- This short sketch has, I think, been sufficient to give us INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. ' 8 I CI7S] a general idea of the manner in which the nervous connection of the hand with the brain is carried out ; it follows, therefore, merely to consider the culminat- ing point of this nervous system, the skin, which plays so important a part in the anatomy of the sense of touch \yide also "Manual," ^[ 40-51]. The skin is divided into the cud's vera [the true skin] and the cuticle [the epidermis or scarf skin], These are shown diagrammatically by Figs. 4 and 5. The structure of the cuticle is best shown by Fig. 4, FIG. 5. SECTION OF SKIN, SHOWING PAPILLARY SURFACE OF CORIUM, SWEAT GLANDS, AND PACINIAN CORPUSCLES. \\-inch objective A eyepieces.} and is as follows: It is composed of cells agglutinated together in irregular layers, the lower ones of which x as may be seen in the figure, are arranged vertically, the cells, as they approach the surface, becoming more and more flattened till at last they lose their distinctive cellular formation, and become the flat horny scales of the scarf skin or cutis vera. This is clearly shown in Fig. 4 ; at the base we have the deep layer of vertical cells, above that the distinctive cells, known as the Malpighian layer or rete mucosutn, and above this the epidermis or horny layer. 82 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. IT 77 - The cutis vera or true skin is best seen in Fig. 5, Cutis vera and , . ,. , . . ... sensory an d consists of a fibrous mass terminating in papillae apparatus. j" o f a p a j r o f w hich Fig. 4 gives a magnified view], upon which the cuticle is moulded, and on the surface of which is spread an infinitesimally fine network of bloodvessels, generally running up into the papillae, as in Fig. 4. The sensibility of the skin, its connection with the brain \yide "A Manual "\ is due to the presence of nerve terminations, of which the largest are termed pacinian corpuscles [Fig. 5], and FIG. 6. HORIZONTAL SECTION OF SKIN, SHOWING PERSPIRATION PORES. the smaller, which are found in the papillae, touch cotpuscles or end bulbs [Fig. 4]. IT 78. The sweat glands, of which 2,500 are to be found Sweat glands. in every square j nc h o f the skin of the palm, are shown in both figures, consisting of tubules coiled up in balls in the cutis vera, and proceeding by spiral ducts to the surface, where they can be seen with a strong magnifier, arranged in rows upon the curvilinear ridges [formed by the papillae of the cutis], as shown in Fig. 6. ^[ 79. The nails are merely a thickening of the outer horny The nails, layer or cuticle, growing from matrices formed by folds INTRODUCTORY ARGUMENT. 83 Li 79] of that cuticle. They are formed from above as well as from below at the root, so that the nail is con- tinually pushed forward by the new growth at the base. It is interesting to note that, if the nails are neglected for years, they will grow as thick as they are broad, and curl over towards the digit like a claw. Here, therefore, we have the complete physiology ^[80. of the hand so far as it is necessary for us to be con- complete versant with it, a physiology upon which we can base that sense of touch which, as Sir Walter Scott has said, it is impossible to deceive, 95 a quality which is peculiar to it of all the senses of man, and a quality which we find more highly developed in white- skinned races than in any other ; 96 that sense of touch which affords us perhaps the best evidence of 95 " The sense of touch seems less liable to perver- sion than either that of sight or smell, nor are there many cases in which it can become accessory to such false intelligence as the eye and ear, collecting as they do their objects from a greater distance, and by less accurate inquiry, are but too ready to obey." "Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft" letter i. 96 " As regards the darker-coloured races, we know that they differ somewhat from the white in the texture of their skin : it is coarse in its structure, provided with a larger number of sebaceous glands, and covered by a thicker layer of cuticle, so that the sentient termina- tions of the nerves being less exposed; its general sensi- bility must be considerably less than the skin of white people." [" The Hand Phrenologically Considered" p. 56.] Attention has been drawn by Ur. Wm. Ogle to the fact that pigment occurs in the olfactory regions, and he traces to this fact an increase in the acuteness of smell. Dr. Ogle* attributes the acuteness of the smell of the negroes to their greater abundance of pig- ment. Albinos and white animals neither see nor smell so delicately as creatures that are dark-coloured [BAIN, op. cit., p. 35]. * "Anosmia" by Dr. Wm. Ogle, in Medico-Chirur%ical Transactions, vol. liii. 84 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. the connection of mind and body, and which is most highly developed in the human hand ["Manual," f 47]- The foregoing pages contain, I think, all that it is Conclusion. ne cessary for me to say by way of introduction to this volume, regard being had to the fact that I have already somewhat exhaustively argued the point [though along different lines] in the Introductory Argument to " A Manual of Cheirosophy" If the above remarks are borne in mind during the perusal of the following pages, I think that it will be found that a new light is shed upon the Science of Cheiro- sophy, and that it has advanced yet another step towards a pre-eminence among the sciences which aim at a comprehension of man's inner nature by the observation of his (physical peculiarities. April 22nd, 1886. SECTION I. 3lntrotiuctorp SEATTON. KNOW THYSELF. Beautiful and wise maxim IT 82 - .... .. - . . Know thyself. which the generality of men find it more easy to applaud and admire than to put into practice ! In Ionia, where the earth yields almost of her own 1" 83. . ., , . , The maxim in accord all that is necessary to man, and where, by Greece and reason of the warm climate, a greater part of the needs in Northern Europe. which are indigenous to our latitudes are unknown, they were able to carve this maxim 97 upon the portico of their temple as a precept which every one in the 97 " Know thyself." This maxim was engraved in letters of gold upon the front of the Temple at Delphi ; it was a dictum of the philosopher Socrates, accord- ing to the very interesting note at p. 1076 of Valpy's Variorum Juvenal (London : 1820); and, having been given as a maxim to Crcesus by the Delphic Pythoness, was inscribed, as above mentioned, on the front of the temple.* It is this circumstance which is referred to by Juvenal, when he says, "The maxim 'Know thyself descended from heaven ;"t and it is also recorded by Xenophon as a saying of Socrates, whom he causes to say (in the Memorabilium, bk. ii., cap. 2), "Tell me then, O Euthydemus, were you ever in Delphi?" " Certainly," replies Euthydemus, " twice." " Do you remember seeing ' Know thyself ' inscribed upon the * " Ghilonis et Socratis praeceptum tanquam oraculum e coelo delapsum prse foribus templi Delphici aureis litteris scriptum fuit." Valpy's "Juvenal" (London: 1820, p. 1076). f "E coelo descendit yvuOt treavrbv. Juvenal, " Safire" xi., 1.27. 88 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. LI 8 3 ] best interests of his or her own happiness is bound to put into practice : but in our own inclement lands, where we can get nothing from the soil excepting by the sweat of our brows, where the energies of our bodies and of our minds exhaust themselves in an endless struggle against the eternal aggressions of cold and damp, we have no time to devote ourselves to this beautiful esoteric study, recommended to us so long ago. At the same time it is in our foggy west, and it is since our population, augmenting itself in an ever-increasing ratio, has made manual labour more and more incumbent upon us, and more and more painfully exacting to us, that there have arisen amongst us the theories destined to reveal to us by the simple examination of a few physical signs the secrets of our inclinations and of our mental capacities. ^f 84. Who has not read the works of Gall, the phreno- jSSJS^' legist, and of his enthusiastic disciples ? 98 But their altar?" etc.* Croesus was a great benefactor of the Temple at Delphi ; he recounts the reception of this oracle "Know thyself" to Cyrus, relating that the oracle said to him, " If thou knowest thyself, O Croesus, thou shalt live happily, "f Compare also Cicero, " Tus- culanum," i., n. 52, and ii., n. 63 ; Pliny, vii., 32 ; and Persius, " Satire " iv., last line. 88 Franz Joseph Gall was born in Tiefenbrunn, Baden, on the gth March, 1758. He began lecturing on cranio- logy in Vienna in. 1796; but after six years of constant labour to inculcate his new theories was stopped by the Government in 1802. He lectured in various cities in company with Spurzheim, from 1807 till 1813, when he retired from public life. ; he died in the year 1828. * Kcu 6 SwK/odrijj, EtVe /*oi, tyy, G> Et^tfSf/te, et's ir&irore d irpbs ry j'ay TTOU yeypa/jLutvov rb TNfiGI SEATTON ; "Eywye. II6re- pov o$i> ovSev (rot rov ypd/ji/J.a.TOS t(j,t\ii, K/30?cre, irepdveis. Xenophon, KTPOT HAIAEIAS B t p\. 2', INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 89 Cf 4l study is difficult, and their conclusions frequently con- tradictory. Who has not read the works of Lavater Lavater. Johann Caspar Spurzheim, his most eminent pupil, was born at Longrich, on the Moselle, on the jist December, 1776. In the year 1804 he joined Gall as dissector and demonstrator, and in 1808 (i4th March) they presented a Memoire upon their science to the Institut de France, which was published in 1809. In 1810 they published the first edition of their joint work, "A natomie et Physio- logic du Systeme Nerveux en general et du Cerveau cu particulier, avec des observations sur la possibilite de reconnaitre plusieurs dispositions intellectuelles et morales de r ho mine et des animaux par la configura- tion de leurs teles" (Paris : 1810-19). In 1813, on the retirement of Dr. Gall, Spurzheim came to London, and delivered a series of lectures on craniology, which attracted much attention and criticism, both hostile and friendly. Dr. Abernethy fully recognised the importance of the new science, and delivered a most interesting address thereupon before the Court of Assistants of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1821, which was printed under the title " Reflection s on Gall and Spurzheim 's System of Physiognomy and Phrenology" (London : 1821). In this opusculum he highly appreciates the theory, but con- demns the arbitrary dogmata laid down by its exponents. I have before me an amusing little satire, written by Lord Jeffery and Lord Gordon, entitled "The Craniad; or Gall and Spurzheim illustrated" (London : 1817), which was one of the many publications which sought to extinguish the new cultus. Whilst he was in London, J. C. Spurzheim published "The Physiognomical System of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim, founded on an anatomical and physiological examination of the Nervous System in general and of the Brain in particular ' ' (London : 1814), a work which was terrifically attacked by the press Also "A Sketch of the New Anatomy and Physiology of the Brain and Nervous System of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim " (London : 1816). In the meanwhile he pub- lished in Paris his " Encephalotomie, ou du cerveau sous scs rapports anatomiques" (Paris: 1821). The great work left behind us by Spurzheim's master, Gall, is en- titled " Sur les Fonctions du Cerveau et sur celles de chacune de ses parties, avec des observations sur la possibilite de reconnaitre les instincts, les penchans, les talens, ou les dispositions morales et intellectuelles des hommes et des animaux par la configuration de leur cerveatiet de leurtete" (Paris : 1825, 6vols.). This 90 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. and of the other physiognomists?" But their indications are vague in their apparent precision, and their de- cisions are often entirely misleading. Nevertheless, the one theory assisting the other, physiology has made a step in advance. It is thus that the light in a crypt becomes more decided, and that the vault be- comes more clearly illuminated, as, one by one, lamps are lit beneath its arching roof. Yet another discovery, work was translated into English by W. Lewis under the title " On the Functions of the Brain and of Each of its Parts'" (London: 1835, 6 vols). Since this time in- numerable volumes have appeared in every language based upon the works above cited.* 03 Johann Caspar Lavater was born at Zurich on the I5th November, 1741, and died on the 2nd January, 1800. Educated originally for the Church, he went as a student to Berlin, where he made himself widely known by his theological and polemical works, many of which are recognised as standard authorities. But he is, however, far better known as a physiognomist ; he took eagerly to this study at the age of twenty-five, and his magnum opus, " Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beforderungder Menschenkenntniss und Menschen- Izebe" (Leipzig: 1775-8, 4 vols.), is still the great leading work upon the science. It was translated into French by Mme. de la Fite and MM. Caillard and Henri Renfner under the title, " Essats sur la Physio- gnomie, destines a faire connoitre Vhomme et a le faire aimer" (La Haye : 1781-3, and 1803, 4 vols.), and an English translation was made by Dr. H. Hunter, entitled, "Essays on Physiognomy destined to pro- mote the Knowledge and the 'Love of Mankind" (London : 1789-93, 3 vols.). Lavater had preceded this work with a smaller one, and innumerable con- densations of it have appeared, of which perhaps, in English, ' 'Physiognomy, or the Corresponding A nalogy between the Formation of the Features and the Ruling Passions of the Mind" (London : 1800 and 1827), and in French " L'Art de connaitre les Hommes par la Physionomie ; Nouvelle edition par M. Moreau," are the best and most handy. * Vide. A. CARMICHAEL : " A Memoir of the life and Philo- sophy of Spurzheim" (Dublin: 1833), and N. CAPEN : " Kc- Hiiniscences of Dr. Spunhdm " (New York : 1881). INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 91 [If 3 4 ] and perhaps this science will reach a sufficient, if not a perfect degree of certainty. 100 Very well then, the signs indicative of our inclinations and of our instincts, which Gall discovered in the bumps of the skull, and which Lavater discovered in the features of our faces, I claim to have found not all of them, but those which concern the intelligence in the formation of the hand. And, indeed, after speech [which Charron calls the 1 85 - hand of the spirit], 101 is not the hand, particularly on the i^ t plane of materialism, the principal instrument of our the mind - intelligence ? It can, therefore, reveal to us a great 100 Herbert Spencer, in his " Study of Sociology" (London : 1873), has made some remarks which afford an interesting corollary to this passage. "Only a moiety of science," says he, "is exact science; only phenomena of certain orders have had their relations expressed quantitatively as well as qualitatively. Of the remaining orders there are some produced by factors so numerous and so hard to measure that to develop our knowledge of their relations into the quantitative form will be extremely difficult, if not impossible. But these orders of phenomena are not therefore excluded from the conception of science. In geology, in biology, in psychology, most of the pre- visions are qualitative only ; and where they are quanti- tative, their quantitativeness, never quite definite, is mostly very indefinite. Nevertheless, we unhesitatingly class these previsions as scientific." Chap, vi., " Intel- lectual Subjective Difficulties." I have dealt with this passage at length in 98-99 of "A Manual of C heir o- sophy" (London: 1885). Henry Drummond also has said, "A science without mystery is unknown."* 101 PIERRE CHARRON, "De la Sages se Livr es trois." (Bordeaux: 1601) p. 109. "Pour le regard de tous la parole est la main de 1'esprit, par laquelle, comme le corps par la sienne, il prend et donne, il demande conseil et secours, et le donne." Chap. xiii. " Du voyr, ouir, parler." * HENRY DRUMMOND, "Natural Law in the Spiritual World " (London : 1884), at p. 28 of his ' Natural Law" and again at p. 88, " Even science has its mysteries, none more inscrutable than around this Science of Life." 02 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [185] deal concerning the attractions and repulsions, and the intellectual aptitudes of each individual. ^f 86. For, just as animals have organisations conform- .-uijusiedto the a ^ e to their several instincts ; just as the beaver and uses man makes the ant, who are endowed with the instincts, in the one case of building, and in the other of burrowing in wood, have at the same time been furnished with the instruments, in the one case for building, and in the other for burrowing ; just as we find that among the animals of a particular family, whose instincts are identical, the organisation is also identical, whilst among animals of the same species [such as, for in- stance, dogs or spiders], whose instincts are partially different, the organisation is also commensurately different, so, I opine, God in giving us men different instincts, has logically given us hands of diversified formations. 102 The hand of a poet cannot resemble that 102 This is the tenour of the long preamble which intro- duces Galen's great work, " Claudii Galeni Pergameni, secundum Hippocratem Medicorum Principia, Opus de Usu Partium Carports Humani, magna euro, ad cxemplaris Greed veritatem castigattim universo ho- minum generi apprime necessarium Nicalao Regio Calabro interprete" (Paris : 1528), in which he points out that : " The hands are themselves the implements of the arts, as are the lyre to music, and the tongs to the smith. And just as the musician was not instructed by the lyre, nor the smith by his forceps, but each of them is skilled in producing works which he could not produce without these accessories, no one can do the work he is born to do without the necessary tools for doing it, ... but every animal performs the functions of his own pecu- liar instinct without requiring any instruction therein. . . . On which account it seems to me that animals perform their various functions by nature rather than by reasoning (as for instance the complicated habitations and occu- pations of bees, of ants, and of spiders), and to my mind without any instruction."* Vide also "A Manual of Cheirosophy" 6-7. * " Manus autem ipsse sunt artium organa sicut lyra musicis, et forceps fabri. Sicut igitur lyra musicum no*i docuit nee INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 93 [f 86] of a mathematician, nor can the hand of a man of action resemble that of a man of contemplation. When I lay this down as an axiom I must not be misunderstood ; I do not mean the hand of a poet or mathematician by cultivation, but of a poet whom nature has made poetic, and of a mathematician to whom nature has given a mathematical mind. And again, it would argue a very weak idea of the prevision of the Omnipotent Creator, of His justice and of His power, to believe that the instruments with which He has furnished us are not appropriated by the variety of their forms to the variety of our intelligences. 103 It is upon this great truth, and starting from this If 87. point, that I have based my system. Cleverer men c h e irognomy than I, if they consider it worthy of their attention, starting again ab initio, will enunciate and develop it better than I have been able to do. For myself I claim only the honour of having been the first to catch a glimpse of the fertile regions of this new science. 103 " There is as much diversity and want of resem- blance between the forms of the hands as there is between varied physiognomies. This truism is founded on experience, and requires no proof; . . . the form of the hand varies infinitely, according to the relations, the analogies, and the changes to which it is amenable. Its volume, bones, nerves, muscles, flesh, colour, out- lines, position, movement, tension, repose, proportion, length, curvature, all of them offer )'ou distinctions which are apparent and easy to recognise." "' IS Art de connaitre les Homines par la Physionomte," par Gaspard Lavater (Paris : 1806), vol. iii., p. i. forceps fabrum, sed est uterque ipsorum artifex per earn qua pro- clitus est vationem agere autem non potest absque organis, ita et una qualibet anima facilitates quasdam a sua ipsius animre facili- tates, ac in quos usus paries sure polleant maxime nullo doctore prsesentit . . . Qua propter csetera quadam animalia mihi nalura magis quam ratione artem aliquaquam exercere videntur (apes, videlicet, plasmare fingereque alveolos, thesaurus vero quosdam et labyrinthos formica? fabricare, nere autem et texere araneae) ut autem conjecto sine cloctore," lib. i. 7 94 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. AUTHOR'S NOTE. Perhaps I should say "re- discovered" for Anaxagoras is said to have seen significant signs of the tendencies of the mind in the formations of the hand. 104 The Greeks have, almost without exception, been gifted with the faculty of prevision. 101 Anaxagoras was the first, unless I am mistaken, who is said to have pointed out the fact that man was the wisest of all animals, because he had hands. I do not know where he made the remark, nor do I think it occurs in any of the works which remain to us of him ; but Aristotle alludes to the statement, correcting him by saying that it was because he was the wisest of all ani- mals that he was given hands.* Galen in the work cited above, agrees with Aristotle. f * " 'Avaj-ay^pas [lev ol'v fryuv &v6pti)wov' fC\oyov S 5;d TO ^>poftftu:T9TW elvai Xt'ipas Xa/xjsdwi'." ARISTOTLE, IIEPI ZftON MOPIflN, Bi/3X. A'.. KCffi. i. f " Ita quidem sapientissimum animalium cst homo. Ita autem et manus sunt organa sapienti animalia convenientia. Non enim quia manus habuit, propterea est sapientissimum, tit Anaxagoras clicebat ; sed quia sapientissimus erat, propter hoc manus habuit, ut rectissime censuit Aristotelei." " De Usu Par tin in Cor for is Huinani" lib. i. ^k^oxJ^t foot- of ' A TaavsvOo. SUB-SECTION I. THE CLASSIFICATION OF HANDS. HANDS may be divided into seven classes or types, ^f 83. e -; even I of hands. which are sufficiently distinct from one another j n lhe - even their peculiar formations to be clearly and distinctly described. I have classified them as follows : - The Elementary, or Large-palmed hand. The Necessary, or Spatulated hand. The Artistic, or Conical hand. The Useful, or Squared hand. The Philosophic, or Knotted hand. The Psychic, or Pointed hand. The Mixed hand. These types, like the separate breeds of the canine 1 89 race, cannot alter or modify themselves beyond a O f th certain point, in obedience to an occult force similar to that which brings about the fact that the man of to-day is the prototype of the man of the patriarchal times, and which continually brings them back to their original purity and distinctness of characteristic. 105 From the various ways in which these types strike Their influence 103 Desbarrolles has said upon this paragraph : "We will not follow M. d'Arpentigny in his classification, because we consider it to be useless. Hands may resemble one another, but nature never repeats herself, 96 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. out in new lines and mix themselves together, result the various civilisations which succeed one another upon the surface of the globe. 1i 91. In his primeval forests, with their alternate lights Illustrations. j i_ j r u L t_ and shadows, Fan on his pipes, which never alter their primitive form, is constantly ringing the changes upon new tunes. A nation consisting exclusively of two, or three, types, would resemble a lyre with only two or three chords. Humanity is an argosy of which God is the pilot ; and man is a passenger on board this argosy, a passen- ger governed by his own instincts and inclinations. He obeys, like the little planet which he inhabits, two great forces ; the one general and exoteric, and the ether particular and esoteric. ^[ 92. Laws are evolved by the knowledge that we have Ongmofiaws. of the ^^ powers of our instincts ; but they demonstrate our freedom in this sense, that they sum up and codify the reflective forces which reason opposes to the spontaneous forces of our instincts. If 93. Each type asserts itself by the invincible persist - Recognition of r , , . , . , . , ., . the types. ence of the tendencies which it exhibits. From the day that he ceased to give utterance to the sighing harmony which testified to his divinity, Memnon ceased to be looked upon as a god 106 . and in objects apparently the most similar she places, sometimes by an imperceptible touch, a complete diversity of instinct^." " Les Mysteres de la Main" (Paris : I5th edn., "n.d., p. 176). But I do not think that the remark is called for, because it is sufficiently guarded against by the minuteness of M. d'Arpentigny's analysis and differentiations. 106 This is the statue referred to by Juvenal (" Sat.," xv., 1. 4), when he says : "Effigies sacri nitet aurea cercopitheci, Dimidio magicas resonant ubi Memnone chordae, Atque veins Thebe centum jacet obruta portis." In John Pinkertons " Voyages and r J ravels in All THE CLASSIFICATION OF HANDS. 97 If 931 Parts of the World" (London : 1814, i/vols.), in the fifteenth volume, containing " Pocock's Travels in Egypt," he says: "Strabo, speaking of Thebes, says that there were in his time several villages on the site of it, part of them on that side which was in Arabia, where the city then was, part on the other side, where the Memnonium was. Here were two colossal statues of one stone near one another, one being entire ; the upper part of the other was fallen down from the seat, as it was said occasioned by an earthquake. It was thought that once a day a sound was heard as of a great blow from that part which remained on the seat and base. When he was there with ylius Gallus and others he heard the sound, and whether it came from the base or the statue or the people around it he could not tell, the cause not appearing ; he would rather believe anything than that a sound could be occasioned by any particular manner in which the stone is com- posed."* Pausanias says that Cambyses broke it, and hat when the upper part from the middle was seen lying on the ground, the other part every day at sun-rising uttered a sound like the breaking of a string of a harp when it was wound up.f Philostratus, in his " De Vita Apollonii Tyanei" lib. vi., c. 3, describes the statue as being of black stone, with its feet set together, in the manner, I presume, usual to sitting colossi ; and Pliny, in speaking of basalts, reckons among celebrated statues of this stone that of Memnon now under consideration.^ Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, in his " 2*opography of Thebes" (London: 1835, p. 36), gives some very in- teresting notes on the statue, and makes some very * STRABO, rEDrPAIKON, B t/ 3X. 17." Mefpos d'evrlv tv ry TTfpaia, oirou rb Me/wJi'toj'' 'EvravOa 8 dvoiiv KoXoaa&v o\> TUJV fj.ovo\iOd}v a\\ri\ti3v ir\r)fflov. 6 nev vu^eTcu, TOV d'irtpov rd avu(j.tpr) TO. airo TTJS Kadtdpas TrcVAw/ce cmcrjUoD yevrjOevTOS ws 0acrt. lIe7ri eKaffT-qv ^o TrX-rjyrjs ou /j.eya\r)s airon Xen-cu aTro roD fj.tvoi>Tos ev ry Opovip Kal TTJ /3aa\7Js es ^aov crwjUa rjv d.Treppifjiti'Oi', TO de Xfurbv KadrjTai T Kai ava Tracrav i]fj.^pa.y aviK&i>TOs'H\iov ftoiji, *rai Tbv ^x ot> V-a-^KrTa. el Kaffti Tls KiOdpa ^ Xi^pas paydffi)S xP^ s -" J PLINY, " Naturalis Historia," lib. xxxiv., c. 7, " Non ab- similis illi narratur in Thebis delubrio, ut putant. Memnonii statua dicatur, quern quotidiano solis ortu contactum radiis crepare dicunt." 98 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. 93] pertinent observations on the probable solution of the mystery, which is probably explained by the heat of the sun acting upon the cracked and porous stone. Memnon himself was the son of Tithonus and Aurora, or, as Diodorus says, of some Eastern princess. He was evidently one of the most celebrated rulers of Egypt, and one of the most respected ; for we find long accounts of him in Suidas, Diogenes Laertius, and Virgil. We also find mention of him in the works of Dictys Cretensis, Simonides, and Josephus. Philostratus tells us that he assisted Priam at the siege of Troy, and was killed by Achilles. SECTION II. Cbe JE>anti in General. SUB-SECTION II. THE SIGNIFICATIONS FOUND IN THE PALM OF THE HAND. THE PALM. BEFORE tabulating the deductions I have drawn from the observation of the various types, I propose to say a few words upon the significations to be traced in the various parts of the hand. On the palm of the hand are found the indications\ IT 94. r .1 i i L '\ c i / Indications ol ot the physical appetites of men, and, up to a certain \ the palm. point, those of the intensity of the intellectual aptitudes V which these appetites determine. ^/ Too slim, too narrow, too meagre, it indicates a ) 1 95. c i i p r , ( Narrow and feeble and unfruitful temperament, an imagination } lacking warmth and force, and instincts without any I settled object. 107 107 Aristotle, in his treatise upon physiognomy, points out this indication of a long and graceful hand, in a passage commented upon at much length by Camillo Baldi in his " In Physiognomica Aristotelis Com- mentarii" a Camillo Baldo .... lucubrati (Bono- niae : 1621, fol.), p. 69 (33). Vide also "A Manual, etc.," <[ ii2. small. 102 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. 1[ 96. If your palm is supple, of a medium thickness and { Medium and - , c c *.*.!.* *. N. normal consistency of surface, that is to say, if it is in N proper proportion with the size of the fingers and thumb, you will be capable of enjoying all pleasures [incalculable privilege !], and your senses, easily excited, will keep pace with the faculties of your imagination. f 97. If, whilst still supple, its developments are too pro- *\ Large- nounced, egoism and sensuality will be your domi- ; nating instincts. T 98. Finally, if its amplitude is utterly out of proportion r- development with the reSt f the hand > and if it: is at the Same time excessively hard and excessively thick, it will indicate instincts and individualities verging upon an animality which is destitute of ideas. ^ 99. Look, for example, at the animals whose solid and Articulation and ii/-i c j c i -11 intelligence in rounded feet are formed of a single nail, cloven or proportion to solid-ungulous, as, for instance, the ox, the horse, the ) one another . .. ass, the camel ; does not the fact that we men make x use of their powerful strength, of which God has with- / held from them the knowledge and the power to use it for their own advantage, afford ample evidence of their want of intellect ? It is not the same -thing with regard to the animals whose feet are articulated, V. like those of lions, tigers, and so on ; the superiority / of their organisation is proved and verified by the >* superiority of their intelligence, which is demonstrated \ by the state of liberty in which they live. 108 108 Helvetius has made some very interesting- and analogous observations upon this point in his treatise " De I* Esprit" (Londres : 17/6), ch. i, which are as follows : "The human faculties which I regard as the productive causes of our thoughts, and which we have in common with the animals, would supply us with but a very small share of ideas, if they were not, with us, combined with a certain external organisation. If nature, instead of with flexible hands and fingers, had terminated our anterior extremities with a horse-like hoof, what doubt is there that men, without art, without / SIGNIFICATIONS FOUND IN THE PALM. 103 By the amount of liberty which they enjoy one can ^! 100. also form an estimate of the moral forces of a nation ; 'ing^moraiT' for liberty pre-supposes morality. You will weigh, if you please, the importance of 1 101. these comparisons and similes, notwithstanding the ^^es^re-^ succinctness with which they are placed before you, Hminaries. and then we will go a step further. You will close this volume at once if your mind cannot grasp any- thing which is not amplified and minutely developed in the exposition. The indications furnished by the palm are, ot course, ^[ 102. modified or confirmed by the indications furnished by M ? d | fic ^ ion of * J indications. the other parts of the hand. habitations, without defence against animals, entirely occupied by the cares of providing their nourishment and of avoiding wild beasts, would be still wandering in the forests like wild herds ? " And to this he appends the following note : "All the feet of animals terminate either with a horn, like those of the ox or stag, or in nails, as in the dog and wolf ; or in claws, like the lion and cat. Well,, this difference of organisation between our hands and the paws of animals deprives them, not only, as M. de Buffon says, almost entirely of sense or tact, but also of the skill necessary to handle any tool, or to make any discovery which requires hands for its development " Vide 51 52 and note **, p. 67. SUB-SECTION III. THE FINGERS. THE SIGNIFICATIONS FOUND IN THE FINGERS OF THE HAND. ^f 103. PUTTING aside the doubtful or unimportant signs, I Pr!nd t 1 ioL indica ~ will concern myself only with the leading significa- tions, the practically infallible indicators of the leading instincts. f 104. Fingers are either smooth, or knotty [i.e., with de- Fingers veloped joints!, generally. n 105. ^ * ne latter class some fingers have only one joints. joint developed, whilst others have two. Joints which carry with them meanings for us, are not those which are only apparent to the sense of touch, but those which the eye easily perceives at the first glance. ^1 106. O ur fingers terminate either () in a spatule, i.e., The finger-tips, are slightly enlarged at the tips ; () squarely, i.e., by a phalanx whose lines extend parallel to a more or less square tip ; and (c) in a cone, whose rounded tip is more or less accentuated. ^[ 107. To these different formations belong as many The tips and different interpretations ; but before interpreting them let us say a few words concerning the joints. the end towards which they are goaded by material interests, they will always proceed by inspiration rather than by reason, by fantasy and sentiment rather than by knowledge, by synthesis rather than by analysis. Taste [from the intellectual point of view] resulting ^[ 111. / as it does from consideration, belongs essentially to j knotty fingers; and grace, unreasoning and instinctive S as it surely is, belongs essentially to smooth fingers. There are people who sacrifice superior to inferior H.H2- . . , , Excessive order. orderliness ; they ruin themselves so as to have a well-ordered household. Louis XIV. sacrificed well- Louis XIV - being to symmetry, merit to rank, the State to the Church. 109 He probably lacked the upper joint [that of philosophy]. 109 A better illustration of a mind absorbed by an attention to trifles and punctilios, which blinded it to all the great considerations which should have occupied it, than the Grand Monarque who immortalised himself by the sentence " L'Etat, c'est moi ! " could not have been found. This pettiness of spirit in the midst of his grandeur is especially noted by MM. A. Roche and P. Chasles in their " Histoire de France" (Paris : 1847, vol. ii., p. 274); and Voltaire's "Histoire" tome iv., "Siecle de Louis XIV." (Paris: 1856, chap, xxv., p. 176), abounds in illustrations and instances of the trait we have under consideration. "He had a manner of bearing himself," says Voltaire, " which would have sat ill upon any one else ; the embarrassment which he caused to those with whom, he conversed, secretly IO6 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. ohgnac. was shown by his aquiline nose and high colour. His shoulders were broad, his chest deep, and his figure was well proportioned, but his lower limbs did not come up to the standard of the rest of his body ; with large feet and bowed legs he had a general appearance of boorishness, which gave one an idea of a swan out of the water. In his youth so great was his muscular strength and his agility that on one occasion, having been attacked by a bear, he succeeded in throwing it on the ground and killing it On another occasion he held his own against a pack of the huge mountain dogs which the cowherds on the Ural slopes had set at him. As a final instance we may cite that one day, before he knew how to swim, he laid a wager that he would cross the Volga at a is to be found in a little work entitled, " Le Mechanisme duFluteur Automate, avec la Description d'un Canard Artificiel et celle d'une autre Figure jouant du Tam- bourin et de la Flute" (Paris : 1738). A translation of this work by J. T. Desaguliers appeared Mn 1742, entitled, "An Account of the Mechanism of an Automaton flaying on the German Flute, etc." (London : 1742). Vaucanson died in the year 1782 (November). 114 1 may add here a comment of Adrien Desbarrolles on the above paragraphs. " Let us add a most important remark, which M. d' Arpentigny has not made, viz., that exaggerations in the forms of the tips of the fingers, or in the development of the joints, announce always an excess, and, therefore, a disorder of the qualities or instincts represented by those developments." " Les Mysteres de la Main" (Paris : i5th edn., n,d.}, p. 160. SIGNIFICATIONS FOUND IN THE FINGERS. I I I III i] point of its greatest width, sustained only by a hand placed beneath his chin, and this he succeeded in doing." 8 Such athletes as this are but little fitted to < govern nations of varied individualities ; equally ready ^ to devise sudden expedients, to make unpremeditated ( plans and to put them into execution, they are very prone to lose themselves in the unlimited wastes of abstract ideas. 119 Their fingers are spatulated and __snjpoth. If their empire requires a prime minister they burden it with a Wazir; 117 if their sails require a gentle breeze, they let loose a hurricane. i Spatulated hands with the joints developed have IT 122. '(the talents of practical and mechanical sciences Spa ^h7oin / brought to perfection, such as statics, dynamics, developed 115 The eminence of Prince Jules de Polignac in all feats of athletic skill was a fruitful theme for the satir- ists of the empire. The following is from a political squib, entitled, " Feu partout, voild, le Ministers Polignac " (Paris: 1829, p. 10) : " Qu'il etait fort surtout au jeu de paume, Nul n'eut ose lui disputer le prix ; Depuis Nemrod quel chasseur du royaume Abattait mieux au vol une perdrix ? Voil comment sa grandeur se fit homme !'* 116 " Le prince etait un de ces hommes comme les gouvernements savent en choisir aux jours de leur de- cadenceset quinefont que hater leur chute et precipiter les revolutions. Loyal et conscientieux, mais d'une pro- fonde incapacite, aveugle par ses prejuges de caste et ses opinions retrogrades, il ignorait absolument 1'esprit, les tendances, et les besoins de la France nouvelle, ct marcha en sens contraire de 1'opinion publique." LAROUSSE, "Dictionnaire Universel du XIX' Siecle " (Paris : 1866-7;), Art " POLIGNAC." 117 The author has, I think, hardly appreciated the true signification of the word , [pronounced by various authors vizier, wuzeer, wezeer, vizir, vizir], being derived from a root jj) (wizr], meaning "a burden* or "load" and thev^/^l_j; [grand-wiziriate], or pre miership, is in no sense an autocratic office. Sale, in his translation of the Qu'ran,* translates the word "Coun- * " The Koran, commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed, translated by G. Sale (London : 1865 . 112 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [IT iaa] navigation; military, naval, and utilitarian archi- tecture, as for instance bridges, streets, and so on, illustrations, great industries and combined strategies, /c.rA. I might quote, as examples of the type, Vauban, Monge, Carnot, Cohorn, and Arago. H 123. Here we have a hand whose smooth fingers termi- Square hands. nate square iy } ^ by a nailed phalanx whose lateral sides prolong themselves parallel to one another ; and again, this other hand which we have here [which is also square as to its finger-tips] has its joints ap- parently developed. IT 124. Both of them, by reason of the square tips, are the 'squarT tip. endowed with the tastes for moral, political, social, and philosophic sciences ; didactic, analytic, and dra- matic poetry ; grammar, form, languages, logic, geometry ; love of literary exactitude, metre, rhythm, symmetry, and arrangement, strictly-defined and con- ventional art. Their views of things are just^ rather _tban^wide; they have great commercial talent ; tfcey are great respecters of persons, and have positive but moderate ideas ; they have the instincts of duty and of the respect due to authority, of the cultivation of practical truths and of good behaviour, with a strong paternal instinct ; in fact, generally speaking, having more brains than heart, they prefer what they dis- cover to what they imagine. seller," and appends anote: "Wazir: one who has the chief administration under a prince," a rendering in which he follows J. M. Rodwell I" If or an," chap, xx., 30, p. 256, ed. 1865]. Captain Sir R. F. Burton, in his recent translation of the Arabian Nights,* gives an extremely interesting note upon the word. It must not be understood in the sense implied by the above passage. * " The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night : A plain and literal translation of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, with introduction, explanatory notes . . . and a terminal essay, " by Richard F. Burton (Benares : 1885, FOR PRIVATE CIRCU- LATION), vol. i., p. 2. SIGNIFICATIONS FOUND IN THE FINGERS. 113 / Square fingers are responsible for theories, for 125. ( methodical registration of facts : and not for the higher Th 6 '/ tastes. / flights of poetry, to which they never attain, but for ] literature, sciences, and some of the arts. The name \ of Aristotle is embroidered upon their banner, 118 and they march in the van of the four faculties. This type does not shine by the effulgence of its ^ 126. imagination as the term is understood by poets. Their want of imagination. That which results from this faculty belongs essen- tially to smooth fingers, as for instance literature properly so called, literature whose sole aim is its own perfection ; whilst that which results from reasoning and from combination [as for instance social science and history] belongs essentially to knotted fingers. The fingers of Descartes and Pascal illustrations, were jointed, whilst those of Chapelle and Chaulieu were smooth. To fingers which terminate in a spatule belongs ^ 127. action, instinctive tact, and knowledge. There are Spatulate fingers. in France more square than spatulate hands, i.e., more talkers than workers, more brains particularly adapted for the evolution of theories than men fit to put those theories into practice. The hand of the ex-minister M. Guizot is large, 129. The square type. 118 Of all the classic authors none could have afforded M - Guizot - a more perfect illustration of the habits and instincts of the square-handed subject than the Stagyrite philo- sopher. Those of my readers who are familiar with his works cannot fail to have been struck, not only by the astounding extent of his knowledge, but also by the marvellous symmetry and order exhibited in the way in which he marshals his facts and unrolls his theories with all the exactitude and terseness of a proposition of Euclid ; never repeating himself, excepting, as Bacon says, " to gain time."* * ' ' Iterations are commonly losse of time ; but there is no such gaine of time, as to iterate often the state of the question. For it chaseth avray many a frivolous speech, as it is coming forth." FRANCIS BACON. Essay on ''Despatch" 1625. 114 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. with highly developed joints, and large square ter- minal phalanges to the fingers. His is one of those retrospective minds whose light casts its rays in a backward direction only, which seeks to obtain from the dead the secrets of the living, and for whom the present is obliterated by the past. Bred for the pro- fessorate, he has acquired the disdainful bearing and pedantic manner of the professor; two things have always been particularly objectionable to him, war, because it throws into shadow talkers who do not act ; and the people, because it is not enough in his eyes that a man should be endowed with a high spirit for him to be great. Then, biliously complexioned, his head large, and well-filled rather than well-made, as Montaigne has expressed it, 119 with large features, and clever at excusing his defalcations by specious maxims, he has made himself by words, and has sustained him- self by corruption. Seeing that one only knows what one really loves, he knows by heart his legal, mechani- cal England ; but our France, which is as variable as its own climate, diversified like its various Depart- ments, eager for lofty emotions, fatigued by uniformity, impregnated by storms, which to sophists without patriotic or national emotions are repugnant, he has never understood her, and he never will. 120 119 This is the text upon which Montaigne bases two of his most celebrated essays : " Du Pedantisme " and " De I' Institution dcs Enfants." ESSAIS.* 120 M. le Capitaine d'Arpentigny in this paragraph reflects the opinions of many contemporary and recent writers upon Guizot ; the following passages may serve as examples : " C'est a Geneve qu'il apris ces manieres gourmees, ce ton pedant, ces mceurs roides et cas- santes." Eugene de Mirecourt.\ " La figure toujours grave jusque dans son sourire . . . tel il apparaissait * " Essais de Montaigne, suivis de sa Corrhpondance, etc." (Paris : 1854. 2 vols.), Hvre i., chap. 23-4. f " Les Contcmporains " (Paris : 1857), Art. " GUIZOT," p. 12. SIGNIFICATIONS FOUND IN THE FINGERS. I I 5 With more talents and less chivalry than the prince If 129 of papal creation, whose influence was so fatal to the p ii g na c elder branch of the Bourbons, 181 Guizot has become the contrasted. Poiignac of the younger branch, with this difference, however, between them, M. le Prince de Poiignac, a man of action, fell with his sword in his hand, whilst M. Guizot, a man of words, fell with an oration on his lips. On the one hand fingers smooth and spatuiate, on the other fingers knotty and square. There is more simplicity but less politeness, more Manners of square and dans toute la raideur de son dogmatisme austere, lais- spatuiate sant tomber de sa levre dedaigneuse des paroles, tour a tour mordantes et glacees." E. Langeron.* " Le lourd pedantisme de son precede . . . j'aime a trouver dans un critique un homme qui me fait part de ses im- pressions, et non pas un pedagogue." Hifipolyte Castile.^ 121 It was by the counsels and frightful extravagances of the father of Prince Jules de Poiignac that the revo- lution of 1789 was hastened on. Mirabeau is reported to have said of him : " Mille ecus a la Famille d'Assis pour avoir sauve 1'Etat ; un million a la Famille Poiignac pour 1' avoir perdu ! " The article in the " Dictionnaire Universel du XIX' Siecle, quoted in note " 6 , continues, " On sait le resultat ; les ordonnances de Juillet 1830, contre-signees par lui, firent eclater une revolution qui consomma la ruine de la branche ainee ! " quite a parallel passage to the above. Eyre Evans Crowe, in his "History df France" (London: 1868, vol. v., p. 381), says : " The very name of Poiignac as minister was a declaration of war against the nation," and Berlin, in an article in the Journal des Debats (ist August, 1829), a paper described by Martin \ as " un journal attach^ aux Bourbons par des liens que son ardente opposition n'avait point brises jusque la," says gloomily, "The glory of the dynasty was its moderation in the exercise of authority. But moderation is hence- forth impossible ; the present ministry could not observe * "Portraits Contcmporains" (La Rochelle : 1875), p. 15. f " .Les Homines et les Maurs en France sous le Regne de Louis Philippe" (Paris: 1853), pp. 47-53. J HENRI MARTIN, " Histoire de France" (Paris: 1879), vol. iii., p. 408. I 1 6 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. IH '30] / freedom but less elegance, among people whose hands are principally spatulate than among those in which ^ the square type predominates. If 131. This fifth hand has smooth fingers whose terminal _J lg ^ s ' phalanges present the form of a cone, or of a thimble. Plastic arts, painting, sculpture, monumental archi- tecture, poetry of the imagination and of the senses [Ariosto], 18 ^ultivation of the beautiful in the solid and visible form, romantic charms, antipathy to rigorous deduction, desire of social independence, propensity to enthusiasm, \subjection to phantasy. ^ 132. This same Trand, but with jointed fingers, betrays The same with , i , i , u , , joints. the same instincts, but with more combination and moral force. ^[ 133. This other hand has knotty fingers with the ex- Ph finge P rs. iC ternal phalanges partaking of the natures both of the it, however much they might desire it." The author of " Les Omnibus du Nouveau Minislere " (Paris : 1829, p. 98), speaking of Prince Jules, makes the portentous remark : " II y a des noms qui sont fatals a des etats ! " These notes will show that " the younger branch " had already a Polignac, and, therefore, Guizot was simply an aggravation. "" Ludovico Ariosto [born at Reggio, in' 1474, died at Ferrara in 1533,] was perhaps the most romantic, enthusiastic, and phantastic poet that Italy has ever seen, and is, therefore, very happily introduced here as an illustration. He was bred for the law, but aban- doned it to become a poet. In 1503 he became attached to the court of Cardinal Hyppolytus d'Este, at Ferrara, and, after a labour of about ten years, produced his " Orlando Furioso" of which the first edition was printed at Ferrara in 1516, 4to, and which appeared in its present completed form in 1532 (46 cantos). The poem is described by a writer in "'Chambers' Encyclo- pedia " as "a romantic imaginative epic, marked by great vivacity, playfulness of fancy, and ingenuity in the linking together of the various episodes." The best English rendering of the "Orlando Furwso" was made by W. S. Rose, in 1823 ; the translations of Sir John Harrington [1634], and John Hoole [1783], being of doubtful merit. SIGNIFICATIONS FOUND IN THE FINGERS. 'I I? [1 133] square and of the conic, the tipper joint giving the terminal phalanx almost an oval formation. It indicates a genius inclining towards speculative ^ 131. ideas, meditation, the higher philosophical sciences, Their inslin cts. and the rigorous deductions of verbal argument, love of the absolutely true, poetry of reason and of thought, advanced logic, desire of political, religious, and social independence ; deism, 123 democracy, and liberty. This is the Philosophic hand ; it examines itself m 135 rather than ifs surroundings, and is more taken up Their tasles - with ideas than with things^It hates the soldier and the priest, the former because his existence is anti- pathetic to liberty, and the latter because he is a stumbling-block athwart the path of progress. Finally, this last hand has smooth fingers terminal- 135. ing in a long-pointed cone. Contemplation, religious Pointed hands, feeling, and idealism; indifference to material interests, poetry of soul and of heart, lyric inspirations, desire of love and liberty, cultivation of all things beautiful, by their form and by their essence, but particularly by the latter. I have given to this hand, by reason of its attributes, the appellation " Psychic." 123 I wish this word to be noted as a characteristic of the philosophic type. There is a strong tendency in the present day to regard everything un-absolutely-ortho- dox as atheistical, and atheistical has become a syno- nym for unfamiliar,* a state of things recognised by Bacon, and concerning which he says, " For all that impugne a received religion or superstition, are by the adverse part branded with the name of Atheists" (Essay on '' Atheisme," 1625) ; and I have emphasised the word " deism " in the above paragraph, for it will be immediately apparent to the reader how a philosophical mind may come to true reverent deism, when it cannot accept any recognised dogma. * A friend of mine once tried the experiment of wearing a green hat and announcing that it was the symbol of his religious opinions ; in four days from its first appearance a well-meaning acquaintance deplored to me his atheistical views ! I 1 8 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. ^f 137. Thus God has given to fingers which are spatulate Spatulate and ,. ... . . square, or conic or square, matter, i.e., materialism and the appreciation and pointed o f things real, as exemplified by the useful and the fingers- ... . , . . necessary arts, action, theory in undertakings, the comprehension of attual facts, and the pure sciences ; and thus to fingers which are conic and pointed He has opened the gates of the illimitable ideal : to conic fingers, by giving them the intuition of the beautiful according to its outward aspect, i.e., Art ; and to pointed fingers by endowing them with the intuition of the true and of the beautiful, according to their inner meanings, as exemplified by the higher forms of poetry, by ideal philosophy, and by lyric ab- straction. \ 138. The hand which is hard and stiff, and which finds H hand& lff a difficulty in extending itself to its utmost limit of extension, indicates a stubborn character and a mind without versatility or elasticity. * 139. I shall state further on, what must be, in each type, sjvufiesisin the ^ e proportions of the various parts of the hand to study. one another, but meanwhile you must not forget what I have said concerning the palm and the joints ; con- cerning the palm, which tells us all .we want to know concerning the temperament and the intensity of the developed instincts; and concerning the joints, whose influence is always in harmony with the genius indicated by the outer phalanx, and which announce at once to the Cheirosophist the existence in the subject of a spirit of calculation and combination. ^f 140. Large hands, therefore, are endowed with a spirit Large hands o f m i nu tiae and detail^/ From the love of trifles which and minutiae. fj Frederick he displayed to his dying day, we know that Frederick Wiiham. the First of Prussia, known as the Sergeant-King, who reigned with a scourge in his hand, who used to cudgel his son when he was displeased, and into whose graces a pair of well-polished boots would carry SIGNIFICATIONS FOUND IN THE FINGERS. I 19 [1 '41 a man a long way, had very large hands. 124 In the same way, from the surname of " Long-handed," which was applied to one of the kings of Persia [whose Artaxerxes name I do not know], one may infer that this sovereign, whose politics were shuffling and petty rather than grandly arranged, had essentially the spirit of detail. 123 124 Carlyle, in his " History of Frederick II. of Prussia " (London : 1858-, vol. i., p. 579), speaks of Frederick William I. as the " great drill sergeant," and gives many instances of the manner in which he ill- treated his son and the rest of the family. In vol ii. [chap. 8, p. 113,] we find an account by Dubourgay under date November 28th, 1729 of his " raining showers of blows upon his son." (Vide also vol. ii., pp. 61, 71, 87, 253.) Compare L. P. de Segur's " Ge- heime Nachrichten fiber Russland" (Paris: 1800), Noten zum Funften Heft, vol. i., p. 430. 123 Artaxerxes I. [who succeeded his father Xerxes, after having slain Artabanus, his father's murderer] was surnamed " Longimanus," or " iiaKpo^fip, " from the fact that one of his hands the right was longer than the other.* Strabo tells us that when standing 1 upright, he could touch his knees without bending his body [like Rob Roy]. A writer in the " Encyclopedia Britannica" says, "His surname /ua [*'*> fi msn i n execution] ; his fingers are very prominently jointed, [i.e., precision] ; his external phalanges present a highly-developed spatulation, there we have the power by which he takes by storm the approbation of all who hear him. Lean and slim,- with a head which is long and severe of aspect, with a sharply-cut profile, he stands with his arms crossed, with an air which is at the same time courteous and cavalier, shaking back his long lank hair, which reminds one of Buonaparte the First Consul, and indeed he is perfectly willing to be placed in the same category of individualities. He seats himself and the concert commences : a concert without any instrument but his, and without any performer but himself. His fingers fly over the key- board, and one thinks involuntarily of the tramp of an army ; one remembers Attila, 13 and one imagines 1884), p. 322] : "The analytical habit of mind has to be supplemented by the synthetical habit of mind. Seen in its proper place, analysis has for its chief function to prepare the way for synthesis, and to keep a due mental balance, there must be not only a recognition of the truth that synthesis if the end to which analysis is the means, but there must also be a practice of synthesis along with the practice of analysis." isi ATTILA, a celebrated King of the Huns, who in- vaded the Roman Empire in the reign of Valentinian SIGNIFICATIONS FOUND IN THE FINGERS. 123 CT M4] that the Scourge of God is sent upon us ; or again, it seems as if a tempest howled across the desert whilst his fingers thrash the ivory keys like a downpour of living hail. We realise then that he has not over- rated his powers of entrancing us, for his fingers have the powers qf a whole orchestra; but, 'ardent and impetuous as he is, he never loses his self-possession, for his hand is not only that of an instrumentalist, it is the hand of a mathematician, of a mechanician, and, by a natural development, that of a metaphysician, i.e., of a man whose genius is more pre-arranged than spon- taneous in its exhibition, a man more clever than passion- ate, and gifted with more intelligence than soul. 133 / Genius which is subtle and critically disposed, a \ 145. C strong love of polemic discussions, and an instinct of Cntlcal s enilis - / controversy, often gather themselves together in the y individuality of the man whose large hand is fur- L nished with square fingers of which the joints are prominent. When, shorn of all its most active and most power- f 146. Decline and fall with an army of 500,000 men, and laid waste the oft J? e 9 reek T-r . t ,1 T 1-1 trnpire. provinces. He took the town of Aquileia, and marched against Rome, but his retreat and peace were purchased with a large sum of money by the feeble emperor. Attila, who boasted in the appellation of the ' ' Scourge of God, ' ' died A.D. 453. (Lempriere}. For an account of this monarch and of his operations upon Rome, see Gibbon's " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" chap. xxiv. 1!f - It is difficult, if not impossible, to annotate a pas- sage like the above, dealing, as it does, with the name of a man now living, who even as I write is creating a stii in our very midst. His compositions and his biographies are innumerable. Mr. Arthur Pougin, in his " Supple- ment et Complement" (Paris: 1881) to the "to- graphie Universe lie des Musiciens et Bibliographic Genera le de la Miisique" by M. F. J. Fetis (Paris: 1860-65), gives a list of ten biographical works dealing with this artist known to the world as M. 1' Abbe Liszt, the only ones of which that I know and can re- commend being J. Schuberth's " Franz Liszts 124 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [t 46] ful colonies, left like a head without a body, the Greek Empire, reduced to a single city, became at length extinguished, engulphed in the vortex of an absolutely abnormal state of government, it was ruled no doubt by hands such as I have just described. Until the last moment even, 133 when the scimitar of the second Muhammad hung over their devoted heads, its citizens were involved in the most incomprehensible quarrels, in abstractions, in un- differentiated distinctions, in theological disputes, to the exclusion of the duties which they owed to their mother country, not from want of courage [with which, of a sort, they were well provided], but from stupidity. 11 147. To small and finely narrowed hands belongs the Small hands, faculty of synthesis. IT 148. The taste, so prevalent in France in the present Modem French day, for historic and literary works which abound in details, is a proof of the intellectual advancement of the democracy, for democracy is the laborious pro- Biographie" (Leipzig: 1871), and " L 1 Abbe Liszt" (Paris: 187:), which are as satisfactory as biographies of living celebrities can be. M. Pougin, in the work above cited, says of him : "Get artiste prodigieux, fan- tasque, mais d'une trempe intellectuelle singulierement vigoureuse, n'a cesse, depuis plus d'un demi siecle, d'occuperle monde de sapersonne, de sestravaux, et de ses excentricites. . . . Dans ces dernieres annees, ayant presque epuise tous les moyens ordinaires, il n'en a pas trouvl de meilleur que de faire croire qu'il entrait en religion. . . . Tout porte a croire pourtant qu'il n'en est rien, et que les pratiques de devotion qu'on a remar- quees chez le grand artiste ne sont encore de sa part qu 'une nouvelle occasion de reclame et un de"sir toujours plus intense de faire parler de lui. . . . M. Liszt est un type a part dans 1'histoire musicale du 19 siecle, et si Ton peut regretter ses defauts artistiques et intellectuels, on n'en doit pas moins appr6cier ses etonnantes qualites et les facultes admirables quoique mal equilibrees, qui constituent sa personnalite." 133 In the fifteenth century. SIGNIFICATIONS FOUND IN THE FINGERS. 125 [I M8J genitor of large hands, just as aristocracy is the indolent fountain head of small ones. Thus, a little while before the Revolution, hardly any literature was produced save for the aristocracy, which naturally preferred books which were synthetical to books which were analytic. Our admiration for the works of artists or of authors 1 14 9. is in a direct ratio to the sympathy which exists literature!" to a greater or lesser degree between our physical organisation and theirs. To spatulated, and even to square hands, prominent ^f 150. joints are an additional beauty, seeing that they are bet^eerTfin^rs by nature destined to the cultivation of the useful arts, and joints, which are those of combination and of calculation ; but to pointed or to conic hands developed joints would be a deformity, seeing that they are destined to the prosecution of the liberal arts, which are those of intuition and inspiration. At the same time, predominance of the intuitive *|[ 151. faculties does not necessarily presuppose an entire uslon types> absence of all the talents which depend upon the faculty of combination, any more than the predomin- ance of the talent of combination necessarily implies complete absence of all inspiration. Alexander proceeded, as Bossuet has remarked, by 1 152. great and impetuous sallies. 134 He favoured poets, GreaTandCsesar 134 This reference is made, I presume, to the passage in Bossuet's " Discours sur V Histoire Universelle" (Paris: 1786), where, after comparing Alexander with Darius, the author describes his entry into Babylon, saying: "And after having with incredible rapidity subjugated the whole of Persia, to secure the safety of his new empire on all sides, or rather to gratify his ambition and render his name still more famous than that of Bacchus, he entered India, where he pushed his conquests even further than those of that celebrated conqueror. He returned to Babylon feared and re- spected, not like a conqueror, but like a god." Vol. ii., p. 277. 126 THE SCIENCE OE THE HAND. [1 '5*] whilst he merely esteemed philosophers. 1 " 5 Caesar, on the other hand, regarded philosophers with favour, whilst he looked upon poets merely with cold appro- bation. Both of them reached the zenith of glory, the one by inspiration supported by combination, the other by combination supported by inspiration. Alexander was a man with a great soul, Csesar was a man with a great mind. ^T 153. Regard being had to the fact that the sense of external touch is most highly developed at the tips of the fingers, 136 and that man is naturally prone to 135 Vide Plutarch's "Life of A lexander." "He loved polite learning too, and his natural thirst of knowledge made him a man of extensive reading". The 'Iliad,' he thought, as well as called, a portable treasure of military knowledge ; and he had a copy corrected by Aristotle, which is called the casket copy* Onesicritus informs us that he used to lay it under his pillow with his sword. As he could not find many books in the upper provinces of Asia, he wrote to Harpalus for a supply, who sent him the works of Philistus, most of the tragedies of Euripides, Sophocles, and ^Eschylus, and the Dithy- rambics of Telestus and Philoxenus." So much for his love of poets ; as to his mere esteem of philosophers, in the same life we find : "Aristotle was the man he ad- mired in-'his younger years, and, as he said himself, he had no less affection for him than for his own father. . . . But afterwards he looked upon him with the eye of suspicion. He never indeed did the philosopher any harm ; but the testimonies of his regard being neither so extraordinary nor so endearing as before, he discovered something of a coldness. However, his love of philo- sophy . . . never quitted his soul, as appears from the honours he paid Anaxarchus, the fifty talents he sent to Xenocrates, and his attentions to Dandamis and Calanus " (Langhorne). 138 Vide Julius Bernstein's physiology of the sense of touch: "The Five Senses of Man" (London: 1883, 4th edit., p. 17), " The nerves of the skin which ter- * He used to keep it in a rich casket found among the spoils of Darius. " Darius," said he, "used to keep his ointments in this casket ; but I, who have no time to anoint myself, will convert it to a nobler use." SIGNIFICATIONS FOUND IN THE FINGERS. 127 11 'S3J exercise that sense which, by the accuracy of its per- ceptions, he feels to be the most perfect and complete, it is obvious that the desire for those employments in which the physical sense is more utilised than the moral, will be the more pronounced in proportion as the spatule is the more developed in hands of that type. And in like manner, the more the conic phalanx is 7 154. drawn out in artistic or psychic hands, the more ^d hands. unpractical and unworldly will be the peculiar bent of the genius. Lord Byron's hands were remarkable Lord Byron, for extremely pointed fingers, 137 and in the same way minate in single fibres extend only to the dermis, and here they are observed to end in a peculiar manner in the papillae. Many of them contain, for instance, an egg-shaped particle, which a nerve-fibre enters, and in which it is lost after several convolutions round it. They are called tactile corpuscles, and there can be no doubt that they act as the instruments of the sensation of touch. . . . They are extraordinarily numerous at the tips of the fingers, where in the space of a square line about a hundred can be counted" [vide 5[ 77]. And the same thing is laid down by Jan. E. Purkinye in his ".Commentatio de Examine Physiologico'" (Leipsic : 1 830), 'and by Arthur Kollmann in his recent work, " Der Tast-apparat der Hand der Menschlichen Rassen und der Affen in seiner Entivickelung und Gliederung" (Hamburg und Leipsic: 1883). For a complete phy- siology of the sense of touch as regards the hand vide "A Manual of Cheirosophy" (London: 1883), 39-51- 37 Leigh Hunt, in his bitter and ungrateful volume upon his best friend, " Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries, etc." (London: 1828, p. 91), says: " He had a delicate white hand, of which he was proud, and he used to call attention to it by rings. He thought a hand of this description almost the only mark remain- ing nowadays of a gentleman." In another place the same writer says : " My friend George Bustle used to lament that, in consequence of the advancement of knowledge and politeness, there was no longer any dis- tinguishing mark of gentility but a white hand." Sir Cosmo Gordon tells us that all his life Byron was dis- 128 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. LI >54] Moreau. the hand of Hegesippe Moreau was beautifully modelled. 138 '. The exterior phalanges are the eyes of the hand. * - phalanges. Each type has certain formations, which an enforced \ If ls>6. labour, a labour utterly at variance with the genius / Invariable forms. of which the hand is the born instrument, can very / appreciably modify; but which it cannot transform to / such an extent as to render them unrecognisable. 157. One finds convincing examples of this in villages Modifications of s ]^ u ^ j n oa a \\ sides by forests, and peopled exclusively a leading type. jf r by charcoal burners [for instance] ; or in the hamlets perched upon the rocks of little barren islands where fishing is the sole industry. Unless the population . of these places has derived its ancestry from a com- mon source, all the types of hands will be represented with all their varieties, and the continued pursuit of an occupation which is imposed upon them, rather than chosen by them, will never change a conic finger into a spatulated one. The hand may sw may thicken, and may lose its suppleness and its \ elasticity, but the innate formation will remain, just as ^/ does the instinct which is inseparable from it. To speak truly, the poet or the logician, in these hands thus altered and in these instincts thus combated and falsified, is hidden nearly as completely as is the tinguished by an intense sensitiveness,* which showed itself particularly concerning his deformed foot, which he was continually striving to conceal, t 138 The same sensitiveness has been recorded of the ill-starred young poet Moreau, who has been compared by Ste. Marie Marcotte to our poet Chatterton (in the 1 8s i edition of his poems). Sainte-Beuve in the edition of 1860, and Louis Ratisbonne in the edition of-i86i, both call attention to his extremely unpractical and un- worldly characteristics. * SIR COSMO GORDON, " Life and Genhis of Lord Byron " (London : 1824). f Vide J. GALT'S "Life of Lord Byron" (London : 1830), p. 24. SIGNIFICATIONS FOUND IN THE FINGERS. I 29 oak in the acorn, as is the butterfly in the chrysalis, or, as is the delicately-moulded goddess in the roughly chiselled-down block of marble ; but a chance phrase in a homely conversation, or a chance opinion ex- pressed in the rudimentary debates of the conclave of village worthies, will reveal the hidden potentialities to an observing and penetrating intelligence. 139 Finally, if, in practising this science a lingering IT 158- i i. . . , , n-. c , Effacement of doubt remains in your mind as to the effect of the characteristics. habitual labour upon a hand submitted for your examination, you must either relinquish your task, or base your judgment on the forms which the hand originally displayed, carefully described by its owner. " But," you say, " these signs which you have just ^f 159. i MI, ,1 f iiM i i. f Certainty of the described to us ; are they in fact infallible indices of indications. our intellectual tendencies ? in other words, does the standard always declare the nationality ? is the voice of the oracle always that of God ? " In my opinion Yes. But do not take my word 1 160. for it ; let your convictions result from your personal ^1^^ observations ; only, do not allow yourself to be prejudiced beforehand, and do not allow a few mixed hands which are difficult to decipher, because they have momentarily confused the pilot, cause you to deny the accuracy of the compass. Let us now, forsaking cities and their inhabitants. TF *61. & The practical follow this company of surveyors and engineers, hand. these representatives of a class of men who are any- thing but poetic, and who worship God in the form of a triangle ; there they go, backwards and forwards across the country, armed with poles, measuring- planks, and chains ; one can tell by the joyous activity with which they pursue their task that they are exer- cising a pursuit of their own choice and entirely to their own taste, and that their souls, like the birds - 1S9 Vide "A Manual of Cheirowpn/ ' "|| >o 130 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. n i] among the boughs overhead, or like the gazelle upon the sea-shore, lose themselves in the enjoyment of these trapezoids and squares which they map out with such ease and dexterity. ^f 162. Their hands are square or spatulated. Its shape. Whether spatulate or square, they have knotty fingers, jewelled as if with rings, with the equations which daring modern science attaches boldly to the blazing locks of asteroids and comets. ^[ 163. Now let us penetrate into the workshops of the ^jSJSST artiller y schools and of the sciences of military engineering, into the circus and the hippodrome, theatres for the prowess of the loud-voiced descend- ants of Alcmene and of Leda ; 140 into the gymnasia of the acrobat, the fencer, and the equilibrist ; into the haunts of the poacher, of the jockey, and of the horse-trainer. Here we find hands which terminate in a spatule, and also large conic hands which are very hard : these latter combine a vague sentiment of grace with their feats of strength. *k 164. The most expert horse-trainer of to-day, the Illustration : , , , , , i.e vicomte cleverest, the most progressive, and the most elegant, d'Aure. M. le Vicomte d'Aure, author of -several excellent works upon horsemanship and horse-training, has a hand which is decidedly spatulate, but extremely .supple. 141 110 Alcmene was the daughter of Electryon, King of Argos, and Anaxo [called Lysidice by Plutarch, " De Rebus Grcecoriim" and Eurymede by Diodorus (i., c. 2)], and was the mother of Hercules, by Jupiter. Leda was the mother of Castor and Pollux, who were also sons of Jupiter. 141 M. le Vicomte d'Aure, one of the leading authori- ties on horsemanship, at the date at which the above was written, was the author of a " Traite d' Equita-, tion ' ' ( Paris : 1 8;ul . Vide also M. C. Raabe's du Cours d 1 Equitation de M. d'Aure, etc" SIGNIFICATIONS FOUND IN THE FINGERS. 131 If now, leaving the crowd and bustle of our ^ 165. / 11 , **! Th e scholarly fellow-men, we go and. pursue our investigations in hand, the crystallising solitude of large libraries, beneath the inspiring tiles of aerial garrets, in the narcotising atmosphere of laboratories, within the bare walls of the schools where ushers and pedants stalk up and down among the scholars, if, I say, we go into these different places and examine the hands of the philosophers, the artists, the poets, the mathematicians, the professors, all of whom an irresistible vocation has forced to follow the pursuits implied by the titles of these professions, we shall find them to present the appearances I have described ; that is to say : Those of lyric poets and of romance writers who jgg aim at ideality, such as Georges Sand, Leconte de The poetic 1'Isle, Chateaubriand, Hugo, De Vigny, Lamartine, etc., will be more or less conic as to their tips. Those of grammarians, critics, didactic, analytic, ^ 167. and dramatic poets, those of doctors, lawyers, geo- lhe methodlca! ' } hand. metricians, artists of the rule and line school, will have hands whose fingers are square or even spatulate. As for the polytechnic schools ; if you find in those m igs. of dynamics, mechanics, and applied science, a hand Hands out of place. which is finely moulded or pointed, pity the ill- luck of an unfortunate poet who has strayed from his rightful vocation of a sun-worshipper or follower of Astarte, constrained to offer sacrifice to the Cyclops and the Gnome. i ^ x In a word, what more can I say? Without ILLUSTRATIONS. fatiguing you with a study whose elements are to Artistic type. be found on all sides, cast your eyes on your own immediate surroundings. Observe the hands of your friends, of your neighbours, and of your relations : This one devotes his whole attention to intellectual pursuits his characteristics are poetry of soul far 132 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. '69] more than analysis of mind ; he has an absorbing passion for pictures, music, monuments, statuary, and poetry ; he prefers that things should be beautiful rather than that they should be useful : he is easily exalted, there is in his expression, in his gestures, in his language, and in his dress an undefined element of strangeness and of inspiration ; he can do without necessaries, but not without luxuries ; his purse, open to all who require assistance, is hermetically sealed to his creditors. At an age when most men have left behind them the illusions of youth and have got a grip of real life, giving themselves up with ardour to the fruitful pursuits of a working existence, his heart, ever young, ever accessible to the most exalted and impractical ambitions, remains dominated by ideas of romance and of Utopianism ; he regards the world by the light of the antique hypotheses of spiritualism, and is profoundly ignorant of the real meanings and values of the things of this life. For him, the mountain tops shower down holy thoughts from their beetling crests, he loves high-flown language and beautiful senti- ments ; he prefers charm to intellect, and he prefers grace to beauty. He see a poetic sentiment every- where in the raindrops which &treak the heavens with innumerable sparkling arrows, in the window panes which weep with the sobs of the tempest, in the hoarse cry of the weathercock, in the figures of light like snowy doves, which the sun traces upon the green sward through the leaves of the forest when they are kissed into motion by the winds. By night, when the moon has extinguished her feeble beams below the watery horizon, he loves to wander, his heart filled with a voluntary melan- choly, along the moist sands of the deserted shore. He is credulous, fond of the unforeseen, and his soul is like the spark which, if it is not allowed to burst into flame, dies away. SIGNIFICATIONS FOUND IN THE FINGERS. 133 re i9i Very well ; this friend, this relation, this neighbour, inevitably fingers which are conic or pointed, and a small thumb. Here is another subject. This one likes to work f 170. with his hands; he digs, he hews, he prunes. He lives standing on his feet as it were, always on the move, always wittf a knife, a hammer, or a gun in his hand. He despises those visionaries who, -~^^ continually wandering in dreamland, drag out their existence watching the stream flowing to the sea, the clouds passing overhead, and the trees swaying and whispering to one another. He likes the noise of the-^~-" hunting horn and the yelping of the pack ; he is passionately fond of horses, his courtyards abound with dogs, with peacocks, with poultry, with magni- ficently coloured cocks strutting hither and thither with their scarlet combs jerked to one side. He is an early riser, he is a hunter, he is an angler. He can tell you, without a moment's consideration, all ^__^ about everything within ten leagues of his habitation in the way of lakes abounding with fish, or heaths and moors abounding with game. He loves the sight of the restless sea ; he loves all that assists locomotion or produces activity. He likes physics and mechanics, and the turmoil of the timberyard and of the work- shop. Don't bother him about gardens aromatic with the 171 perfumes of mystic verse, retreats heavy with silence The same , , , , continued and shadows, whose ornaments are perchance a saintly statue, a sculptured well and fresh-leaved avenues, where the laurel and the cypress embrace one another, and the dragon-fly and the dove disport themselves. He would much rather see fruit-laden orchards and wide kitchen gardens, fringed with walls on which innumerable espaliers are trained symmetrically upon tHe greeh trellis-work. Here, beneath glass, ripen the pine-apple and the cantaloup, 134 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. lH 7] and here in its stony bed the limpid streamlet pursues its even way, keeping up a running accompaniment to the songs of the bullfinches. Arbours, rustic seats, shutters, swings, and what not ? all that furnishes his bowers, his terraces, his arbours, and his house has received from his industrious and natty fingers its form or its finishing touches. He is not super- stitious, he describes himself as living for the present day and for his own country, and he shakes his head at the words of apostles of religion and travellers alike ; he requires comfort, and looks for things that are useful, of good quality, and sound construction. Veterinary surgeons, masters of the noble arts of self-defence, horse dealers, iron-masters, turners, and huntsmen, et hoc genus omne, find in him an adept, a patron, and a friend. His manners are frank and open, he is gifted with the qualities of power, rectitude, and sincerity, and he is governed by his affections rather than by his judgment. \M Need I say that such a man will have hands which terminate in a spatule, with a firm palm and a large thumb ? ^[ 172. Listen now to the lucubrations of yonder parvenu : Elementary < < p} e ^ as b een m h j s t { me a cowherd, a porter, and a spatulate tyr* smuggler, and he is proud ol it," says he with a swagger ; " he could live on ortolans if he wanted to, he is rich enough, goodness knows, but he prefers pork ; let each man please himself." His clothes are always too big for him, and he has his hair cropped short like that of a labourer. Of his three sons his favourite is the one who blacks his own boots, and saddles and grooms his own horse. " That's a man," says he ; " he could carry an ox ; the others read and think and fiddle, but they can't even make wine ! " He will marry his sons, if possible, to women who like to cook and to do their own washing, and who would despise the luxury of a parasol. SIGNIFICATIONS FOUND IN THE FINGERS. 135 [1 7] None of your mincing, attitudinising, dancing, singing, dolly- faced misses for him ! Music ? Bah ! it sends him to sleep. These people who are profuse in their salutations and civilities, and full of the minor courtesies of life the very sight of them, like that of rats or of custom-house officials, horrifies and irritates him. He likes to feed in his shirt sleeves, and with his dress in disorder ; he admires big women and big dogs. In days gone by, when he frequented fairs and markets, he was concerned in every quarrel, and was to be found in every gang of roysterers; he is so far a philosopher as not to believe in the "mummeries of religion." He is no-v connoisseur of pictures or of statues, they are all nonsense, but he has an unerring judgment in beasts and farm produce. Sciences and arts ! fine things xy indeed, but they have no value on 'Change or in the market. In his garden you find squares of cabbages / / and ranks of sunflowers. He does his own market-.' / ing, hews his own wood, K.r.X. A large, thick hand with a hard palm, spatulate fingers, and a large thumb. But here is another subject whose dress and whose r 173 deportment argue a wholly different class of mind. Thft U5eful He possesses to the highest degree the sentiment of respect of persons; he has a pompous manner, highly-starched linen, and spectacles. He inhabits a little town, destitute alike of commerce and of popu- lation, where one's footsteps echo on the deserted street, where the country squire is lord of all he surveys, and sacristans abound. In speaking of his patrons and of his superiors his voice becomes grave and subdued. He knows Latin, geometry, natural history, botany, geography, archaeology, a little medicine, a little jurisprudence a little, in fact, of everything which is capable of being learnt, but hardly anything which requires to be instinctively 136 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. n '73] acquired. He is not in the habit of joking, and his sparks of wit, clogged by a viscid protoplasm of pedantry, have no spontaneity, even when they are just and to the point. To words capable of the \. widest interpretation as regards their intellectual meanings, such as liberty, order, poetry, and so on, / he insists upon giving their strictly literal and material significations. Constantly arranging, brus ing, and dusting, he piles his own linen in its p after having carefully verified the marking of it, ever since attaining his majority he has kept all his re- , ceipted bills carefully locked up. He is exact, formalX / methodical, punctual ; a martyr to regulations, and *\ [ submissive to generally accepted usages, who regu- lates his life by these qualities, who is annoyed and disconcerted by any form of innovation, and whose thoughts wander at ease merely within the narrow limits of vulgar common sense. He consults his mind ^N^ more than his heart, and he denies that beauty can / exist in a thing which cannot be reduced to a definite theory. He likes gardens with box-bordered cross paths, which one can take in at a glance, whose trees, annually trimmed by the gardener's art, have no movement and make no rustle, and round which thickly-planted hedges, like heavy folding-screens, extend themselves in a rectangular figure. 174. Such is the " proprietor " who is predestined to tinuTd t * le hn urs of the municipal scarf of office, the churchwarden who is conscientiously regular in his attendance at the board ; where there is legality he recognises equity, where there is diplomacy he sees science. He reveres equally the rules of syntax and the penal code. Such is the provincial academician, with his barometer, his thermometer, his telescope, his sun-dial, and his bottled monsters ; at the same time lazy and fussy, instructed and shallow-minded. > Such a man do we find among people of second-rate SIGNIFICATIONS FOUND IN THE FINGERS. 137 LI 174] minds, a man whose fingers are square, with de- ^veloped joints and a large thumb. And if these indications are to be found, perfectly ^ 175. according with the tastes and pursuits of the subject, A ^ 1 ^ t e n m f and centred in the person of a man who, being independent, or even rich, would not be forced to these habits of life, were it not that they entirely suit his inclinations, what stronger proof can you require of the truth and trustworthiness of this system ? AUTHOR'S NOTE. Out of four characters I have ^f 176. described, I have emphasised the bad qualities in parti- a^v^ iHustra- cular of two, and the good qualities in particular of the tions. other two ; but as there is no type which exhibits only the good or the evil tendencies of its nature and instincts, it will be easy for the reader to rectify any obvious bias in the above descriptions, whether for good or evil, and to complete the portraits accordingly. SUB-SECTION IV. THE THUMB. THE THUMB. f 177. THE Thumb, on account of the clearness and the ewtom importance of the indications which it presents, deserves to be made the subject of a distinct chapter. "In default of any other proofs," said Newton, " the thumb would convince me of the existence of God." 112 ^ 178. Just as, without the thumb, the hand would be emblematic* of defective and incomplete, so, without moral force, moral force, logic, and decision [faculties of which the thumb in 142 This paragraph, which has been freely quoted from M. d'Arpentigny, occurs thus in the original : " ' A de- faut d'autres preuves,' disait Newton, ' le pouce me convaincrait de 1'existence de Dieu ' " [edition 1865, p. 59] ; and speaking" from what I think I may say is a fairly intimate acquaintance with the works of Newton, I have very little hesitation in recording that Sir Isaac never said it at all ! Certainly, it does not occur in his " Four Letters to Dr. Bentley, etc. 1 ' (London : 1756), or in his " Treatise of the System of the World'" (Lon- don: 1731), and I have searched the complete edition of his works published in 1779 (London) in vain. He states his convictions of the existence of God, and the reasons for those convictions, at the end of " The Mathe- matical Principles of Natural Philosophy, ' ' translated by Andrew Motte (New York: 1848, p. 504-556), in a passage beginning and ending : " This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets could only pro- ceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent THE THUMB. 139 1.1 '78] different degrees affords the indications] the most fertile and brilliant spirit would be a gift entirely without value. In the same manner as the inferior animals, we have VKffav ol irtvre ; dip' ov irp68T}\oi>, cos, &x.P' r l ffrov avrCiv iyiyvero rb Tr\Tj6os ; Seirat yap rb \afj.[3ivjfj.ei>ov &<7aXt3s )) iravraxvOtv Kara KIJK\OV, %, rrdv-rtas y' tvavriuv dvo'.v Tbiruv Sia\a/j.^di>eff0ai. Tour' otiv diruXfr' &V eiwtp eirl /was tuQfias efcjjs ttiravres tirf6Kffav ff&ferat 5' d/c/u/JtDj vvv, tvbs rots dtXXotj avTiraxOfrros, ovru yap Hx fl Otvcw re /cat Ktv/iffftus 6 els oOros &. 7, et passim. THE THUMB. 145 reflectors of the human heart : Montaiene. whose ' Montaigne. device was " What do I know ? " 5 and who pre- ferred supporting an opinion to stating it ; La Fon- La Fontaine. taine, who hesitated between royalism and social- apply himself rigidly to work, in order that he should earn money and leave it to her. I have often chidden her myself for her wickedness, and warned her, and also predicted what the end of it would be."* Vide also " The Artist's Married Life" translated from the German of Leopold Schafer by Mrs. Stodart (New York : 1862), supposed to have been written by Pirkheimer. 155 Blaise Pascal tells us that Montaigne, "not wishing to say ' I know not,' said ' What do I know ? ' of which saying he made himself a device," etc. f Vide also Bigorie de Leschamps, " Michel Montaigne, sa Vie, etc." (Paris: 1860, p. 2). On p. 493 [Appendix] of this volume, de Leschamps, speaking of the inscriptions which Montaigne had carved everywhere upon the lintels of his library, called attention to the fact that " he had particularly caused to be there inscribed the maxim TvS>6i o-fcivTov, which antique wisdom had inscribed upon the porch of the temple at Delphi " (vide note 97 , P. 87). * " Reliquienvon Albrecht Diirer." (Niirnberg, 1828), Doktor Friedrich Campe. " Eigene Handschrift Wilibald Pirkheimers." Auszug eines Briefes an Tzerte, Kaiserl. Baumeister zu Wien . . . ' ' dasz er (A. D.) so eines hartseligen Todes verstorben ist, welchen ich, nach dem Verhangniss Gottes, niemanden denn seiner Haus- frauen zusagen kann, die ihm sein Herz eingenagen und dermassen gepeinigt hat, dasz er sich des schneller von hinnen gemacht hat, denn er war ausgedorrt wie eine Schraub, durft nirgend keinen guten Muth mehr suchen oder zu den Leuten gehen, also hatte das bose Weib seine Sorge, das ihr doch warlich nicht Noth gethan hat, zu dem hat sie ihn Tag und Naclit angelegen, zu der Arbeit hartiglich gedrungen, allein darum, dasz er Geld verdiente und ihr das liese . . . Ich habe sie selbst oft fiir ihr argwohnisch straflich Wesen gebeten. und sie gewarnt, auch ihr vorgesagt was das Ende hiervon seyn wiirde,'' etc. etc. f Ne voulant pas dire "Je nt sais." il dit " Qne sais-je?" De quoi il fait sa devise en la mettant sous des balances, qui, pesant les. contradictions, se trouvent en parfait equilibre .... Sur ce principe roulent tous ses Discours et tous ses Essais, et c'est la seule chose qu'il pretende bien etablir." " (Euz'res Com- pletes de Blaise Pascal" (Paris : 1858), vol. i., p. 426. Entretien avec M. de Sad sur Epictele et Montaigne. 146 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1 '96] Louis xvi ism ; 56 and Louis XVI., who owed all his troubles to his indecision of mind, 157 must certainly have had small thumbs. f 197. With a large and well-formed thumb, however, you ' are your own master, and such being the case, your master is often -a fool, as Henri IV. used to say. 158 Your principles are your laws, but you are inclined to despotism. You are truthful, but you are not innocent 156 Martin [" Htstozre de France" (Paris: 1879), vol. xiv., p. 252] tells us of La Fontaine : " II n'avait des opinions serieusement negatives que sur quelques points de Theologie et de politique ou il repoussait, soit par raison, soit par sentiment, les doctrines officielles. On se rapelle ses disputes avec Racine sur la monarchic absolue." He showed his loyalty by writing several " eloges " upon Louis XIV., and his indifference by remaining friends with the Prince de Conti, who was disgraced in consequence of the discovery of some of his letters reflecting on the government, f There is a letter written by La Fontaine to Conti during the latter' s exile, in the " (Euvres Completes de La Fon- taine' 1 '' (Paris: 1837, epitre xx., p. 552). The league above referred to is of course that of Augsbourg, of which La Fontaine speaks in an epitre, according to Walcknaer [" Vie de La F." op. cit., vol. ii., bk. v., p. 102]. "Non la ligue d'Augsbourg, que je sais moins encore," etc. 157 Martin {pp. cit., vol. xvi., liv. ciii., p. 313] tells us: "Louis XVI. is everything which is contrary to what he would himself wish to be, i.e., the very embodi- ment of indecision. Later the vacillations of feebleness will be looked upon in his case as treacherous combina- tions which will land him upon the scaffold;" and Carlyle, in his "History of the French Revolution" (London: 1837), makes continual allusion to this monarch's fatal indecision of mind. Vide, e.g., vol. i., p. 28, vol. ii., pp. 127 and 152 : " Louis ... if thy heart ever formed, since it began beating under the name of heart, any resolution at all, be it now, then, or never in this world," etc. IM Henri Quatre rencontra un jour dans les apparte- * Fables de La Fontaine, liv. vii. and xi., epitre xviii. and xix. t Vide hereon, C. WALCKNAER, " liistoire de la Vie de La " (Paris : 1858), vol. ii., chap, v., p. 188. i THE THUMB. 147 [1 '97] in the intellectual acceptation of the term. Your power does not lie in your capacity to charm, for grace can only exist in that which is pliant. SouvarolT, renowned for the intensity of his will; 159 ^ 198. Danton, the magnanimous soul who underwent the Danto'n"^" opprobrium of a crime in the hope of saving his et c. country; 160 Galileo, Descartes, Newton, Leibnitz, Saint-Simon the reformer, Charles Fourier, Robert mens du Louvre un homme quilui etoit inconnu, et dont I'exterieur n'annoncoit rien de fort distingue. II lui demanda, ' A qu'il appartenait ? ' le croyant de la suite de quelque seigneur. ' J 'appartiens a moi meme,' lui dit ce personnage d'un ton fier et peu respectueux. ' Mon ami,' reprit le roi, en lui tournant le dos, ' votis avez un sot maitre.' " "L 'Esprit de Henri IV" (Paris: 1775), p. 271. lj9 L. M. P. Tranchant de Laverme, in his " Histoire de Souvarqf" (Paris : 1809), lays great stress upon Souvaroff's indomitable will. " He had a decision of will, that no obstacle could cause to swerve" (p. 455). Compare also the passages dealing with the same characteristic upon pp. 438-499, and 453 (chap. vii.). Mr. E. N. Macready also, in his work "A Sketch of Suwarow " (London : 1851, p. 28), says : " With him . . . the simple term ' duty ' was equivalent to, and exacted, the utmost devotion of which a man was capable." IBO This is a somewhat uncommon view of the character of Danton ; I conclude M. le Capitaine d'Arpentigny has been led away by the grand rhetoric of a speech of Danton's, made on March zoth, 1793, recorded in MM. E. Buchez and P. Roux's " Histoire Parlemcn- taire de la Revolution Fran$aise. Journal des Assemblies Nationales defiuis 1789 jusqii'en 1815 " (Paris : 1836, 40 vols.), in which he cries out : " What to me is my reputation ? so long as France is free, let my name be wounded. What do I care about being called ' drinker of blood '! Good! let us drink the blood of the enemies of the human race," etc. * " Eh ! que m'importe ma reputation ! Que la France soil libre, et que mon nom soit fletri ! Que m'impoite d'etre nppele Imveur tie sang ! Eh bien ! luivons le sang des enernis de I'humanite s'U le faut ; combattons, conquerons la liberte," elg, 148 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [f 198] Owen, all of them profound reasoners and bold in- ventors, had infallibly very large thumbs. ^[ 199. Voltaire, who of all men who ever lived sub- o tairc. ordinated the promptings of his heart to those of his head, had, as his statue in the Theatre Fran9ais bears witness, enormous thumbs. Certainly, the sculptor Houdon, an artist of the keenest and most delicate taste, cannot have given such thumbs to this marble statue, had not the well-known hands of his model imposed upon him the obligation to do so. 151 ^[ 209. The shaven-headed lama, clad in the robe of yellow Thibetan WO ol, which enhances the brilliancy of his scarlet stole customs. and violet dalmatic, benignly salutes his superiors after the manner of the Thibetans, i.e., by putting out his tongue, and scratching his ear. Beneath those eyebrows, arched like the . leaf of the peach-tree, his little beady eyes sparkle with pure contentment, by reason of the fact that he has successfully ejaculated before the assembled multitudes that sacred phrase, deeply fraught with mystic profundity, " Oh, Buddha, jewel of the lotus ! Oh, Buddha, jewel of the lotus !" IF 201. His science also is on a par with his devotion, and if he knows that he is forbidden to lay hold of a cow's tail to help him to ford a river which is deep and rapid, none the less is he aware of the healing and preservative powers of the flesh of the griffin and the horn of the winged unicorn ; besides this, Buddha has appeared' to him in a dream, and he knows that after his death he will not be thrown to the sturgeons of the Yellow River, neither will his body be exposed upon a mountain, nor burnt, nor eaten by Thibetan worms ; but that he will be cut into pieces and given to dogs to eat an apotheosis only 161 There exists of this statue a well-known print, which I have before me. In it the hands are certainly thoroughly philosophic, and the thumbs, as M. d'Ar- pentigny says, are very large. THE THUMB. 149 if 201] vouchsafed to those people whose high moral qualities are evidenced by a red bead on the top of the hat, or a peacock feather swaying in the breeze ! Hugging himself in the certainty of so glorious a fate, his heart expands, his pride increases, he compares himself with the kings of the earth, and to give himself a correct and striking and withal a dignified sense of his own merits, he raises proudly on high his right- hand thumb and exclaims, "Thus am I." 1G2 The Corsicans, a stubborn race, obstinate by respect 1 202. f ,-.. . i T-> (-111 Corsican and for tradition, and not, as with our Breton folk, by i} re ton reason & an obstinate instinct, all have very large obstinacy thumbs. 163 162 M. d'Arpentigny has evidently taken his informa- tion concerning- Thibetan customs from works like those of M. Hue [" Souvenirs cTun Voyage dans la Tartarie, le Thibet, et la Chine " (Paris : 1850),] and the " Corre- spondance de Victor Jacqziemont avec sa Famille, etc., pendant son Voyage dans L 1 Inde" (Paris: 1846, 4th edn., 1869, 2 vols.), works, which though interest- ing and valuable in themselves, rather come under the category of the books of travel described by Colonel Tcheng-ki-Tong in his recent work " The Chinese, painted by Themselves " (London : translated by James Millington, 1886), in which he says : "Nothing is more imperfect than a note-book of travels : the first fool one meets gives a- physiognomy to the whole nation whose customs are to be described. The recorded conversa- tion with an outcast may perhaps be considered a \aluable document by a traveller. . . . The fact is, the book is often written before the travels are under- taken, for the simple reason that the aim of the journey is the book to be published," etc. The sketch of Buddhism and of the Thibetan worship, which is more properly Lamaism, whkh is given above is highly coloured by our author from an already highly-coloured original account. Those who are interested in the subject should read the works of Stanislas Julien and of Barthelemy St. Hilaire. and Rhys David's " Hibbert Lectures'" 1881, or his Manual " Buddhism " (London : 1882). 163 The Corsicans and the Bretons have always had the reputation of obstinacy. As regards the former, ISO THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. ^ 203. In La Vendee a large thumb is looked upon as a sure Vendean super- . c ILI ^-^ i r t i stition. s 'S n * a remarkable aptitude for the occult sciences. According to the peasants of the Bocage, no sorcerer can fail to be gifted with a rolling eye and large thumbs; the rolling eye by. reason of the malicious mobility of his spirit, and large thumbs because it is on his thumbs that the full weight of the upper half of his body is supported when, after having transformed himself into a were-wolf/ he goes at dead of night to howl and to gambol at the cross roads ! f201. With a small thumb and smooth fingers, whatever Artistic instinct. , , /. /-,/ . ^ / j r L f\ may be the form of the exterior phalanges \tiota bem!\ one will have within oneself, not necessarily the actual talents of poetry or art, but most certainly the germs of these faculties. Only, naturally attracted as they are towards the ideal, conic phalanges will this is said of them by the author of "A General Account and Description of Corsica" (London : 1739), who describes them as having " always had the character of a clownish, rough, stubborn people; " and Strabo gives a vivid account of their obstinacy and stupidity in his TEiirPA^IKON (book v., chap. 2.) As to the Bretons, A. de Courson, in his " Histoire des fieuples Bretonnes" (Paris: 1846), speaks of "'the obstinacy which distinguishes them . . . whence come the extraordinary contrasts of the national character," in describing the contradictions to be found in their religious observances and superstitions. The poet Briseux also speaks of the Bretons as : " La race, sur le dos portant de longs cheveux, Que rien ne pent dompter quand elle dit ' je veux." " The same characteristics are called attention to by M. Daru, in his " Histoire de Bretagne" (Paris : 1826), ' P- 356. * " Quo fit ut montana colentes, qui latrociniis vitam sustenant, ipsis si ut inhumaniores bestias. Itaque, quum Rorrani duces in insulam hanc incursionem faciunt, ac munitiones adorti, magnum mancipiorum numerum ceperunt, viclere Romse cum admiratione licet, quantum in eis feritatis ac indolis plane sit bellissima: ac stupiditate dominos obtendunt, ut impensere poenitet etiam si quis minimo emerit." Strabo, loc. ct'f., Didot's translation. THE THUMB. 151 f *M J incline to a mode of expression, or, if you prefer the term, a manifestation of the talent, which is more spiritualistic than spiritual. As for instance Rafaelle, Illustrations Correggio, Perugino, and so on ; and among writers Tasso, Georges Sand, and others. And as to the others, CI mean those whose fingers .terminate in a spatule or / in a square, seeing that they are attracted by what is true and real, i.e., towards commonplace in the world of things, and towards custom in the world of ideas, they will incline to a mode of expression which is more spiritual than spiritualistic, such as, for instance, Teniers or Callot, Scarron, Regnard, Lesage, Beranger, and so on, whose arts lie more in the expression of real life than in the interpretation of what is really beautiful. They interest the mind and sometimes the heart, but never the soul. One appreciates them and likes them, but one does not really admire them. i Hands which are conic or pointed, with a large 1T 205. / ., , , . Methodical art. / thumb, proceed in art by method, by logic, and by I deduction, almost after the manner of persons with square hands and a small thumb. Such were David [the painter], Voltaire, Fontenelle, and others, all people distinguished by little or no naivete. If, therefore, you remember what I said about the T 20e - it.. . f. . Confirmations of indications found in the joints and upon the outer tendencies, phalanges, you will remember that he who has conic phalanges, smooth fingers, and a small thumb, is trebly predestined to a poetic existence, whilst trebly predestined to scientific pursuits is he who, to square or slightly spatulated finger-tips, joins knotty fingers and a large thumb. It is more easy for large-thumbed subjects [by , J. . L J Modification of reason of the strength of will with which they are tendencies, gifted] to overcome the tendencies of their natures than for people with small thumbs. 164 Again, many 161 Mark S. T. Coleridge's words [" Table Talk," Sept. 152 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. 1 207] philosophers and learned professors have formulated their systems in verse of a higher or lower quality of inspiration. But there has never lived an eminent poet who has excelled in abstract sciences. a8th, 1830] on this subject : " Why need we talk of a fiery hell ? If the will, which is the law of our nature, were withdrawn from our memory, fancy, understanding, and reason, no other hell could equal for a spiritual being what we should then feel from the anarchy of our powers. It would be conscious madness! " SUB SECTION V. HARD AND SOFT HANDS. CONSISTENCIES You have before you two hands of the same thickness, ^f 208. Variations consistency. the same size, the same development of parts, and terminating similarly [for instance] in spatulate , exterior phalanges ; only there is this difference \ between them : one is supple even to flabbiness, ' whilst the other is so firm as to be absolutely hard. You must observe that the difference lies in the IT 209. V, temperament and manner of life, and that, though Differentiated r similarities. the intellectual tendencies of these two subjects may be the same [by reason of their similarly spatulated finger-tips], their aptitudes and their moral natures will nevertheless be different^ for, as Fontenelle has said, from a basis of resemblance may rise infinite differences. 165 In the love of action, of 165 This remark of Fontenelle's occurs in his " Entre- tiens sur la Pluralite des Mondes" [" CEuvres Com- pletes de M. de Fontenelle" (Paris: 1766), vol. ii., p. 146], "Ne faut-il pas pourtant que lesmondes, malgr6 cette egalite, different en mille choses ? Car un fond de ressemblances ne laisse pas de porter des differences infinies." These " Entretiens " were published at Amsterdam in 1701, and an English translation was subsequently made by William Gardiner, entitled, " A Week's Conversation on the Plurality of Worlds" (London: 3rd ed., 1737). 154 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [f 209] movement, which is common to them, the soft-handed subject will seek the fulfilment of its' desire in moderate and subdued action, whilst the hard-handed subject will develop a love of energetic movement and violent locomotion. The latter will rise with the lark, whilst the former will appreciate the charms of a comfortable bed until the risen sun suggests the necessity of exertion ; as in their pleasures, the in- fluence of their organisation Will make itself felt in the choice of their studies and of their professions. ^ ^ 210. The ideas of hard-handed artists are based upon \ haiidedlrtbtl" soun d facts, and their works have more virile strength than those of artists whose hands are soft. These latter, strongly acted upon by outward influences, are governed by ideas which are essentially those of the surface, but their works are characterised by more \ shades of sentiment, more diversity and more subtlety, . than those of artists whose hands are hard. The The finger-tips, little fleshy lumps which are found on the faces of the finger-tips are generally more pronounced and more delicately formed upon their hands than on those of the generality of people. Well, it is in this little fleshy protuberance that the sense of touch is f the most highly developed 166 the sense of touch, which is the sense of discernment, and, consequently, the outward symbol of moral tact. 3[ 211. Paris obtains from the province of Picardy, hand- The Pkardian 5ome men-servants, fair haired, and ruddy of tint, temperament. . young apprentices, with low foreheads, who, at the same time credulous and defiant, headstrong and shallow-minded, perform their duties in accordance with the promptings of their instincts, either inertly or obstinately. Vulgarity, which is the leading feature of the physiognomy of the province, is written on every feature of their faces. Born beneath the 186 Vide hereon H 153 and note m , p. 126. \ HARD AND SOFT HANDS. 155 f .] thatched roofs of muddy and dilapidated hamlets, wherein ghostly visitors hold nightly revels in all the panoply of shrouds and chains, they are principally noted for want of manual dexterity, for a highly developed vanity of mind which is at once shamefaced and sullen, and by that hare-brained freedom peculiar to this class of people which is at the same time the result of maliciousness and folly. Their hands are large, red, and very hard. In the immense forests which clothe the banks of ^[ 212. the Dnieper, here and there are found little villages, built of wood, of the most squalid appearance, in- habited by low-class Jews and rough cowherds. Their staple industry is the rearing of huge packs of gigantic dogs, which they let loose by night for protection against wolves. With the exception of those of the Jews [who are a f 213. race peculiarly endowed with the talents of commerce], E ^he jew" all the hands one meets with in these localities are extremely hard. In the reign cf He-Sou, Emperor of China, men ^ 214. lived at peace with one another, not bothering them- Chinese han selves about what they did or where they went. They wandered about in a satisfied sort of way, pat- ting their chests as if they had been drums ; and more or less always eating, they were supremely con- tented : they were ignorant of even the most elementary principles of good and evil. Hands of the soft type. 107 117 I am not acquainted with the monarch recorded by the author, and he is no.t [as far as I can see] mentioned by Giles,* or by any of the standard authors upon ancient Chinese history. He may be one of the fifteen sages who formed the privy council of the Emperor Fou- Hi, who was one of the rulers of the Celestial Empire, in "fabulous" times. M. J. A. M. de Moyriac de Mailla, in his " Histoire Generate de la Chine," traduite du * H. A. GILES, "Gems of Chinese Literature" (London and Shanghai : 1884). 156 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. The expiring races whom, with their red-chalked ike Hottentots. ' arid soot-streaked faces, Levaillant lauds and reveres for their stagnating indolence; 108 the fattened monks, Ecclesiastics corpulent caryatids of the holy kitchens of the Roman Church, whose love of the plethoric delights of an ever-somnolent laziness has obtained for them such celebrity at the hands of Erasmus and Rabelais ; 1B9 the flabby-visaged gate-keepers who, ensconced behind a glazed window sash, go through their innocent lives like oysters, perpetually opening and shutting a door, all these have naturally soft hands. ^f 216. The chase of wild cattle amid the jungles of the ihe Guachos. savannans of La Plata is the sole occupation, the Tong Kien Rang Mon (Paris : 1777, 13 vols.), tells us, after giving a list of emperors who reigned B.C. 2953 2689, the first of whom were Fou-Hi and Ching-Nong, that the historian Ouai-Ki places between them the names of fifteen rulers, who reigned for 17,798 years (!) ; but he informs us that these fifteen were councillors and officers of Fou-Hi [who was a most exemplary monarch], and in the list which he gives of them appears the name of He-Sou.* 168 It is fortunate for Le Valliant that they had some redeeming points in his eyes, for he says of these savages : " Constantly seeing the Hottentots has never been able to accustom me to their habit of painting their faces with a thousand different designs, which I find hideous and repulsive." Le Valliant, " Voyage dans I' fnterieur de I'Afrtqtee" (Paris : 1/90), vol. ii., p. 44. 59 It is not surprising that Rabelais was acrid on the subject of monks, seeing that he began life himself as a Cordelier, from which order he was expelled for personating the image of St. Francis in his niche on a saint's day, and playing various uncanonical tricks to the stupefaction of the assembled worshippers. By a bull of Pope Clement VII. he afterwards became a Benedictine, but soon abandoned a profession for which he was pre-eminently unsuited. Erasmus fulminated * "Alors Fou-hi composa son conseil de quinze d'entr'eux qu'il jugea les plus sages et les mieux instruits," etc. Vol. i.. p. 5, note. HARD AND SOFT HANDS. 157 It "6J unique industry, of the Gauchos, who, leathern lasso in hand, and with their heels armed with huge spurs, devote themselves entirely to this form of exercise, mounted on superb wild horses. They are a race by nature nervous, agile, irritable, and prompt in expe- dients where prompt action is necessary, beneath an exterior which is phlegmatic ; a race which is con- sumed by a thirst for strife and for action, and a love of boundless horizons and unchecked liberty. A horse- or buffalo-skin forms their bed, and analogously the desiccated heads of horses or buffaloes form their chairs and tables ; in fact, their domestic furniture is constructed almost exclusively of buffalo and horse bones. 170 Their hands are very hard. You have probably remarked ere now that a taste f 217. for agriculture and horticulture gains upon us as we t^tes for'man grow old. This taste, feebly developed as it is at labour, first, -potently warred against to the last by the smiles which shine upon us from gentle lips, and by the soft hands which by their touch inspire us with patriotic, poetic, and scientific enthusiasm, grows gradually stronger and stronger, and develops its against monks more seriously and to better purpose than Rabelais. Among the Elzevirs on my bookshelves I find a little work, entitled " Desid. Erasmi Roterdami Colloguia" (Amsterdam: Elzevir, 1677), on p. 238 of which, during a colloquy between some Franciscans and one PANDOCHEUS, an inn-keeper, the latter refusing to take them in, exclaims, " Quia ad edendum et biben- dum plus quam viri estis, ad laborandum nee manus habetis nee pedes," etc. Any one who is sufficiently interested to care to know the exact opinions of Erasmus on the holy Fathers of the Church, had better read from pp. 156173 of his "MQPIA2 EFKflMION : Stultifies Laus. Rot. declamatio" (Basle: 1676). 170 Captain Head has recorded this in his " Journeys to South. America 1 ' (London: 1829, p. in), where describing the family meal of buffalo-flesh, he says: "The family and guests sit round it on the skeletons of horses' heads, handle their long knives, and cut away." 158 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [f7] intensity in proportion as the faculties of our imagi- nations grow weaker ; and it is when our hands, stiffened and bony and bereft of their delicate tactile organisation, offer a faithful reflex of our impoverished imaginations, that this inclination to garden, to labour with our hands, acquires more and more dominion over us. 171 ^T 218. I n 1'ke manner we become more steady, less credu- Phiiosophy in l u u S) and more logical in proportion as the joints of our fingers emphasise themselves by their develop- ment, and become more prominently visible. 172 -^ 2} q Though not dead to love, hands which are very Love of hard hard are seldom capable of much tenderness ; and aJsoft hands. ^ contrast, soft hands are generally more capable of tenderness than of love. 3-53 Callosity in a hand seems always to cast a shadow J Callosity. upon the mind. ' f 221. For my part let me see hands which are firm with- \ Ldvamages of a fc being hard, and elastic without being flabby. / medium con- * sistency. They indicate an intelligence which is pre-eminently / wide and active in its scope, having at the same time the faculties of theory and of action, and in addition to this, whatever may be the material occupations with which they may be employed, they only harden , very gradually; whilst, on the contrary, hands which "*^ are naturally very firm rapidly become extremely / hard. 17 Vide "A Mammal of Cheirosofihy" ^[210. m "M. d'Arpentigny holds a theory," says Adrien Dcsbarrolles [" Mysteres de la Main" (Paris: i5th edn., n.d.}, p. 241], "that the joints develop upon hands, or may tend to diminish, and he gives as an example the hand of Madame Sand, whose fingers, once very smooth, have developed the lower joints since she has taken to philosophy and serious literature. Very well then. If the hands which contain the destiny can modify themselves by the direction of the will, Destiny can also modify itself, and is not irrevocably Lxed." Compare " A Manual, etc." f ^f 89- 91 HARD AND SOFT HANDS. 159 The same remarks apply to the skins and coats of ^ 222. highly-bred horses, which although much finer than illustration. , . Horses. those of commonly-bred horses, are always less subject to variations of texture, or to disease. How admirable is the foresight of Nature, which, in ^f 223. proportion as the aims of created beings are higher Ada P tatlon of nature. and purer, supplies them with instruments and ' weapons of a keener edge and finer temper. 173 According, therefore, to the development of their ^ 221. intelligences, the individuals of a particular type classification of intelligence. divide themselves into classes, and adopt for them- selves the sciences and labours which are most adapted to capacities of their particular class. Thus, for instance, though all are equally well ^ 225 constituted for the race, the finely-moulded horses of DiT ereiniated similarities. the high table-lands of Central Arabia [El Nejed] are not all equally well-gifted with swiftness of foot ; m thus, although very widely differing in physical power, the common house-cat and the royal tiger are none the less members of the same family ; in like manner it is from the same learned hands of scientific appre- ciation that Lavoisier, 175 and Jean Maria Farina, of 173 Vide f 86. 174 " Nejedean horses are to Arab horses in general what Arab horses are to those of other countries."- W. G. PALGRAVE, "A Jotirney through Central and Eastern Arabia " (London : 1865), chap, ix., p. 432. 175 Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, the eminent chemist, was born in Paris in 1743. At the age of twenty-three he re- ceived the gold medal of the Academic for a new system of town illumination, and at twenty-five was admitted a member of that august body. A most interesting biography of Lavoisier was Written by A. F. Fourcroy, after his 4eath, entitled, "Notice sur la Vie et les Travaux de Lavoisier'" (Paris: 1796); in which his biographer tells us that " all branches of mathematical and physical science had their places in the studies of his waking hours." He was made a Fermier-Gen6ral by the Government, a post which he accepted, as it gave him leisure in which to pursue his studies. Having been l6o THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. If 5j Cologne, have received the laurel-wreath, highest mark of academic distinction ; in fact, it comes to this, that, as Sganarelle remarks, " there are faggots and faggots." 176 ^f 226. You must not, however, conclude that because you Rarity of versa- . , i t_ j t j r? L - tile talents, have a large thumb and jointed fingers terminating in spatule, you are necessarily gifted with the capacity of excelling in all practical sciences and occupations ; nor that because you have a small thumb and smooth fingers you are necessarily gifted with pre-eminent talent in every branch of the fine arts ; on the contrary, the pursuit of a single science, or of a limited number of sciences [to an extent limited by the scope of the faculties of each in- dividual] absorbs, as a rule, the whole of the stock of genius with which God has endowed the generality arrested with the rest of the Fermiers-Generaux in 1794, the most strenuous efforts were made to save his life, to all of which the judge replied, " The country has no longer any need of savants' ' [ Vide ED. FLEURY, ' 'Dufiin de rAt'sne" (Laon: 1852), pp. 22-3.] He was guillotined on the 5th May, 1794, having laboured night and day in prison at the completion of his discoveries in chemistry, until summoned by the executioner. His most celebrated works are " Memoires de la Chimie (Paris : 1805), and a " Traite Elementaire de la Chimie " (Paris : 1789) ; of which an English translation appeared at Edinburgh in 1790. M. d'Arpentigny's classification of his eminent countryman with Johann Maria Farina, who received the same distinction as Lavoisier from the Academy for his Eau de Cologne, is truly an exquisite piece of sarcasm.* 178 " II y a fagots et fagots; vous en pourrez trouver autre part a moins, mais pour 9eux que je fais " Valere. " Eh ! monsieur, laissons la 90 discours." MOLIERE, " Le Medecin Malgre Lui" act i. , sc. 6. * " Comme Lavoisier, c'est des doctes mains de la science que lean Marie Farina, dc Cologne, a refu son ridicule laurier (voir ses Prospectus)." D'ARI'ENTIGNY. HARD AND SOFT HANDS. l6l [1 M6] of men. One has, indeed, known of individuals like Caesar, Napoleon, Michael Angelo, Humboldt, Vol- taire, Cuvier, Leibnitz, and others, whose colossal intellects have embraced within their comprehension nearly all the talents specially adapted to their types of character, but these examples are rare very rare. The large, fat, soft, spatulate hand among the middle 1" 227. classes in France, untroubled by the moral excitements ch^ha-nds in of high-class education, finds pleasure after its own France. heart in the hum of conversation which hovers over the crowded cafes, and the subdued gesticulations of the lower class of clubs. Driving in a nail here, strengthening the treacherous leg of a dilapidated table there, or again, drumming listlessly on the window-panes, it is in such phlegmatic employ- ments that they are content to pass their irre- sponsible days, and pursue the even tenor of their ways. The dull and stupid contentment of insig- nificant towns is less irksome to them than it is to people whose hands are hard. Such subjects find a pleasure in the noise and turmoil of fairs and markets ; you may see them any day, marching along, erect of gait and stick in hand, keeping military step with the evening fanfaronade of the garrison trumpeters. You may see them calmly en- joying themselves,, engrossed in the dissipations of draughts, of backgammon, and of bagatelle, relinquish- ing to their harder-handed neighbours all wearying exercises and laborious pleasures. They do not do much themselves, but they like to see others working hard ; they like [remaining quiescent themselves] to watch the spectacle of action ; they do not travel themselves, but they like to read of voyages, tra- versing the habitable globe, riding, as one might say, on the shoulders of the energetic and actual traveller. Like D'Anville, who went evervwhere without once 1 62 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. It 22 7] leaving his study, 177 such subjects find the energy to travel in the activity of their brains. 178 t 228. Among subjects whose intelligences are wholly ^etopm^ntof" inferior, the types of nature, as a rule, hardly exhibit negative their positive characteristics at all ; it is not so, how- characteristics. . , , . . . . _,, . ever, with their negative peculiarities. The eagle and the ostrich have alike wings and legs, but in escaping from the hunter, or in attacking their prey, the eagle knows instinctively that he can only rely upon his wings, and the ostrich that he must trust only to his legs. Every animal is automatically conscious of the portions of their organisation whose powers are the most highly developed, whereas many human beings are absolutely ignorant [from the moral point of view] of the particular direction in which liey their strength. It is, therefore, the office of education to enlighten them hereon. t*[ 229 233. " In this world," says Tseu-sse, a commentator of An illustration Confucius, 179 " man alone of all created beings is from Chinese progressive philosophy. 177 At the time when the above was written, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville was perhaps the most celebrated geographer whom France had ever seen ; he was, besides, an eminent antiquary. He is chiefly known to-day by his " Antiquite Geographiqzie etc V Inde ctdeplusieurs autres Contrees de la Haute Asie" Gtographie Ancienne " (Paris : 1768). " Notice des Uuvrages de M. DAnville prfaedee par son Eloge" by MM. J. D. Barbie and B. J. Dacier (Paris : 1802). 1-8 The p 0e t has his Rome, his Florence, his whole glowing Italy within the four walls of his library. He has in his books the ruins of an antique world, and the glories of a modern one." LONGFELLOW, "Hyperion ' ' (Boston : 1881, p. 82), bk. i., ch. viii. 179 The passage here quoted, which is a grand exemplar of the subtle casuistry and log-ic of the Chinese philo- sophers, comes from the }Jrj jf|l (" Ta ffto"}, of which perhaps the best translation that exists is G. Pauthier's " Le Ta Hio, ou la Grande Etude. Ouvrage de Kung- HARD AND SOFT HANDS. 163 [f "9.1 possessed of a sovereign intelligence which is capable of fully comprehending his own peculiar nature, the laws by which his life is governed, and the duties he owes to society. " Gifted with this knowledge of his own nature, ^[ 230. and of the reciprocal duties which he is bound to perform, he can, by this very fact, thoroughly com- prehend his fellow-men, and the laws by which they in turn are regulated, and can thus instruct them in the duties which it is necessary for them to perform in order to carry out the mandates of the Most High. "Again, being gifted with this same knowledge of T 231. his fellow-men, and being able therefore in these matters and in this manner to instruct them, he can by analogy arrive at an understanding of all other living things, whether animal or vegetable, and can help them to carry out the mandates of the laws under fu-tzu (CONFUCIUS) et de son disciple Thseng-tzu," avec un commentaire par Tchou Hi (Paris: 1837). The passage quoted above is from chap, iv., " Sur le Devoir de connoitre et de distinguer les Causes et les Kffets." " To know the root or the cause, that is the perfection of knowledge." That is all that remains of the fifth chapter of the commentary. It explained what one must understand by "to perfect one's moral know- ledge, by penetrating the principles of actions." It is now lost. To perfect one's moral knowledge consists in penetrating the principle and the nature of actions. We must devote ourselves to a profound investigation of actions, and examine to their foundations their principles or causes Only, these principles. these causes, these raisons d'etre have not yet been submitted to sufficiently profound investigations ; that is why the sciences of men are not complete, absolute \vide note lo , p. 91] ; it is for that reason also that the " 'la Ifi'o" commences by teaching men that those among them who study moral philosophy must submit all the objects of nature and human actions to a long and pro- found examination, to the end that, starting from what they know already of the principles of actions, they can 1 64 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1 *3i] which they live, in accordance with the requirements of their particular natures. 1[ 232. "Yet again, being able thus by knowledge to direct the existences of all things, animal and vegetable, as aforesaid, he is able by this very knowledge, and by means of his superior intelligence, to assist Providence itself in its direction of the evolution and bringing together of beings, to the end that they may reach their fullest and highest developments. ^ 233. " And finally, being able to assist heaven and earth in the evolution of the laws of natural causation, he is able by this power alone to stand up in the character of a third force or potentiality, ranking equally with heaven and earth." f 234. ^ * s not necessary for me to call attention to the A contrast, circumstance that Tseu-sse did not live under the rule increase their knowledge, and penetrate into their inmost natures. ' ' In applying oneself thus to exercise for a long time all one's energy, all one's intellectual faculties, one arrives at last at the possession of a knowledge, of an intimate comprehension of the true principles of actions. Then the intrinsic and extrinsic natures of all human actions, their most subtle essentials, as well as their most gross particles, are penetrated : and for out- intelligences thus exercised and applied by a sustained effort, all the principles of actions become clear and manifest." Another commentator, Ho Kiang, says on this passage of the "Ta Hio " : " It is not said that it is necessary to seek to know, to scrutinise profoundly principles and causes ; but it is said that it is necessary to seek to understand perfectly human actions. In saying that one must seek to know, to scrutinise pro- foundly, principles and causes, one may easily draw the mind into a chaos of inextricable incertitudes. But in saying that one must seek to understand perfectly human actions, one leads the mind to a search after truth." I have amplified this note with comparatively full translations of the Commentaries of Tchou Hi and of Ho Kiang, as they afford an extremely characteristic and interesting example of the systems of Chinese philosophy. HARD AND SOFT HANDS. 165 [1 234] of He Sou of whom we spoke a short while since. In my opinion neither Condorcet nor Saint-Simon, nor illustrations. Hegel nor Chas. Fourier, have ever excelled him in the enunciation of this definition of the illimitable perfectibility of humanity and of all nature. SECTION III. jfeto Miscellaneous D&sertmtions. SUB-SECTION VI. A FEW WORDS UPON THE SCIENCE OF CHEIROMANCY. CHEIROMANCY. CHEIROMANCY, looked down upon as it is by the present generation, was in former days studied by philosophers and scholiasts of eminent celebrity and worth. Among them we may mention the names of such men as Plato, 180 Aristotle, 181 Galen, 183 Albertus m I do not know of any direct mention of the hand in any of the dialogues of Plato. Our author may have considered that the remarks which Socrates makes to Alcibiades in the ''First Alcibiades" or the dialogue " Ufion the Nature of Man" upon the use of the hands, and the custom of wearing rings, are sufficient basis upon which to claim Plato as a cheirosophist. 181 Aristotle certainly seems to have taken a consider- able amount of notice of the science. Vide, for instance, the passages in which he calls attention to the fact that length of life is indicated by the lines of the hands, which occur notably in the "History of Animals,"* and in his "Problems."^ I have paid much attention to his science of the hand in "A Manual of Cheirosofihy" in the first index to which complete re- ferences may be found sub ARISTOTLE. 182 In the same way Galen has remarked at much * IIEPI TA ZflA 'I2TOPION, B/3X. A.', K^. irj." IIPO- BAHMATBN A A'., i. [235. Aristotle. 170 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. it -35] Magnus, 183 Ptolemy, 184 Avicenna, 180 Averroes, 186 Anti- ochus Tibertus, 187 Tricasso, 188 Taisnier, 189 Belot, 190 length upon the hand, but more, I think, upon its im- portance as a member than upon the indications afforded by it. Vide notes 10 -, 101 , and '", pp. 92 and 140, and " A Manual of Cheirosophy" index i, sub GALEN. K3 Albertus Magnus does not seem to have paid more attention to the hand than would ordinarily be required of a mediaeval sorcerer or alchemist. Godwin does not tell us anything about it in his "Lives of the Necro- mancers" (London: 1834, p. 260); nor does. Naude in his " Apologie pour tous les Grands Personnages qui ont ete faussement soufyonnes de Magie" (Paris : 1625, chap. 1 8), though both of them give accounts of Albertus Magnus. If anywhere it would be in the " Parva Natiiralia" " De Motibus Animalium," lib. ii., tract, i., c. v., and " De Unitate Intellectus," cap. v. Vide also "Albertus Magnus, Geheimer Chiromant, etc." (Leipzig: 1807). 181 Many of the Ptolemies were celebrated for their literary tastes and studies of esoteric philosophy. Th.e Ptolemy alluded to above would probably be Ptolemaeus Lagus, the founder of the Alexandrine library. 185 Husain ibn Ab'd'allah ('ill j. c .jJ commonly called Ibn Sina, or Avicenna, one of the best known of the Arabian writers of medicine, physics, and metaphysics, lays great stress upon the importance of the hand in his numerous commentaries and treatises upon the works of Galen, of Aristotle, and of Hippo- crates. Oriental scholars who feel interested in this subject may find the animadversions to which I allude in his Jl L~- ^i ij-^1 ^~iJI J c j>y S^' (3 oy^ '-r' 1 -^' (" The Medical Canons (jjilall [!]) of Avicenna, with treatises on Logic, Physics, and Metaphysics "), which were published at Rome in 1593. 186 Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd (ji . ^ j^s.1 ^ .}*') commonly called Ibn Rushd, or Averroes, like Avicenna a commentator of Aristotle, was an Arabian philosopher, who lived at Corduba in the twelfth century. His chief work &<.. j^* J-JjJl y\ , published in Rome in 1562, contains very little on the passages of Aristotle to which I have called attention in "A Manual, etc." 187 Antiochus Tibertus was the pseudonym of one of A FEW WORDS UPON CHEIROMANCY'. 171 LI -35 | Frcetichius, De Peruchio, 131 K.T.X., all of whom have handed down to us reflections, and, in some cases, long treatises on the art of divination by the obser- vation of the lines traced upon the palms of the hands, treatises which amply prove the high esteem with which they regarded the science. We are told that Aristotle, having found upon an altar dedicated to Hermes a treatise on this subject, engraved in letters of gold, made a great point of transmitting it to Alexander, as a study worthy the attention of the earliest of the cheiromants who have left behind them works on the subject. The principal of these are t( Ad I I lustre in Principem Octaviamim Ubaldinum Merchatelli Comitcm A. 'lyberti Epistola " (Bononio? : 1494), and " Anttochi Tyberti de Cheiromantid Libri HI., denuo recogniti. Ejus idem Arguments Cheiromantics, etc." (Moguntiae : 1541). lss Tricasso, commonly known as Patritio Tricasso da Cerasari, was one of the most celebrated cheiromants that the world has known. His principal works were " Chyro mantia de Tricasso de Cerasari . . . . nuova- mente revista" (Venice: 1534), and " Enarratio Pulcherrima Principiorum Chyromantice, etc.' 1 (Noribergae : 1560). For a fuller catalogue of his works vide in " Bibliographid Cheirosophicd" p. 421. IS9 The most celebrated work of Taisnier now extant is his " Opus Mathematicum. Octo libros .... quorum sex priores libri absolutissimce Cheiromantice theoricam .... continent, etc., etc." (Colonise Agrippina? : 1562), [vide Appendix : Bibliographid Cheirosophica}, a work which has been freely epito- mised and translated from by authors of the seven- teenth century. iso VIDE " Les CEtivres de M. Jean Belot, Cure de Milmonts, Prqfessettr atix Sciences Divines et Celestes, contenant la Chiromence, etc." (Lyon : 1654), pp. 118; (Rouen: 1669), pp. 480; and (Liege: PP- 5 2 - 191 Le Sieur de Peruchio was the author of one of the most leading works on cheiromancy proper that has reached us to-day; it is called "La Chiromence, la Physionomie, et la Geomence, etc." (Paris : 1656, 1657, 1663). I have quoted some of his aphorisms in "A Manual of Cheirosophy," p. 116. 172 .THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [t =35] some highly- cultivated and developed intelligence. This treatise, written originally in Arabic, has been translated into Latin by Hispanus. 192 IT 236. Starting, however, from a few readily admissible from ^correct' 5 P r i nc ipi a > principia admitted in fact by physicians of note to be incontestable, the Cheiromants have de- duced arguments so utterly absurd, that they have ended by causing themselves to be discredited even by the most ignorant and the most credulous. At the same time, however, one finds here and there among their mummeries decisive indications resulting from 192 I do not know where this statement originated ; probably among the vaticinations and literary irrespon- sibilities of some of the older cheiromants ; certainly for many years every writer on the subject has repro- duced the statement which I have myself recorded in "A Manual of Cheirosophy" \ 58. The " Ciromancia Aristotelis" there referred to, as also the MS. [Brit. Mus. Eg., 547], is recognised as a supposititious work only, having probably been compiled by some student or commentator from Aristotle's multiplied references to the hand [vide note IW , p. 179]. I presume that the account arose in this way : There is no doubt that when Aristotle subsidised by Alexander made his expedi- tion into Asia for the purpose of compiling his "His- tory of Animals, 1 ' he was in the habit of sending the results of his investigations to Alexander, as they were completed, and in the course of this journey visiting yEgypt, he there picked up a quantity of the occult know- ledge of the ^Egyptian magi cheiromancy among them. I have called attention in another place \_Maiinal, ^f 58] to, the fact that Aristotle's works, IIEPI ZQQN MOPIQN and IIEPI TA ZOA I2TOPION, teem with references to the hand and to the art of cheiromancy. Now, as to the connection of Hermes, two hypotheses present them- selves to my mind. First, the worship of Hermes [under the name Teti, Thoth, or Taut] occurs earlier in ./Egyptian records than in any others ; he occurs as early as the eleventh dynasty, and being regarded as the inventor of hieroglyphics, all literary compositions were dedicated to him. Hermetic philosophy is said to have originated with him, and Clement of Alexandria mentions 42, lamblichus mentions 20,000, and Manetho mentions 36,525 books devoted to this particular cult. A FEW WORDS UPON CHEIROMANCY. 1/3 [f 236) repeated observation which it is convenient to admit. 193 Such as, for example, the following : Persons whose fingers are supple, and have a ten- 1[ 237. j L. i -A j 'it. -i -i Fingers turned dency to turn back, are gifted with sagacity, curiosity, back. and address. [Manual, ^[ 151.] Persons whose fingers seem clumsily set upon their .1 238. hands, and whose fingers all differ as to their ter- minal phalanges, are wanting in strength of mind. The cheiromants condemn them to misery and to in- tellectual ineptitude. [Manual, ^[ 149.] If your hand held before a candle shows no chinks ^ 239. or crannies, i.e., your fleshy fingers adhere to one fibers'" 2 another parallel throughout their length, it is a sign of avarice. [Manual, ^[ 152.] , Very short and very thick fingers are a sign of IT 240 / cruelty. [Manual, f I33-] 194 ^finger'!' 1 Astrology and medicine were particularly in his line, and undoubtedly any papyrus or tablet dealing with cheiromancy would have been dedicated to him. It is more than probable that the altar was merely a votive tablet or a papyrus hanging in one of the temples of Ibis \Hermes\, and that this is what has given rise to the statement which is under discussion. The second hypothesis yields, I think, to this one in the matter of probability, viz., Aristotle was a great friend of Hermias, the tyrant of Atarnea, and spent some time with him on this same journey [vide Diogenes Laertius]. It is possible that it was here that he learnt what he did of cheiromancy, but I think the hypothesis given above is the more probably correct one. Vide on this point E. A. W. Gnefenham, " Aristoleles Poeta ; sive Aristotelis Scolion in Ifermiam" (Mulhusae : 1831), a most fascinatingly interesting and scholarly little work. 193 It must be remembered that at the time when the above was written the only works on the science of Cheiromancy were those of such authors as are cited in the immediately preceding notes. M d'Arpentigny had not seen the works of Desbarrolles [with whose labours he was then unacquainted], which were not pub- lished until some years afterwards. 191 Such a hand as this was the hand of Marchandon, 174 THE SCfENCE OF THE HAND. ^f 241. Long and thin fingers are usually those of diplo- fingers. in matists, of deceivers, of card-sharpers, and of pick- pockets. [Manual, ^[ 135 141.] IF 242. A. tendency to theft is indicated by a flattened con- Fiat fingers. 1Q . dition of the outer or nailed phalanges. 193 ^[ 243. Curiosity and indiscretion are the leading charac- Sinooth fingers. . . r tenstics of persons whose fingers are smooth and transparent. [Manual, ^[ 153.] 1 244. Smooth and conic fingers are an indication of Smooth and , ., j i . r* j loquacity and levity of mind. conic. ^f 245. Strong and large-jointed fingers are a sign of pru- dence and of ability. [Manual, ^[ 163.] *ti 246. To move the arms about violently with the fists clenched whilst walking is a mark of promptitude and of impetuosity. The habit of keeping the thumb hidden beneath the other fingers indicates a sordid and avaricious mind. [Manual, ^[ 248.] 19G the murderer, whose atrocious crime struck Europe with horror in July 1885. A cast of the hand is preserved in the museum of anthropology in Paris, and a descrip- tion of it, with some cheirosophic notes, appeared in La Republique Fran$aise for i5th August, 1885. 195 I do not know where M. d'Arpentigny can have found this interpretation of a spatulate (?) finger-tip. Compare "Manual, etc.'' ^ 169. 196 The mobility of the hand is not its least expressive property. It is, of all the parts of the body, the most movable and the most rich in articulations ; over twenty joints concur in the production of this multiplicity which furnishes its physiognomical character. It cannot help denoting the character of the body to which it is so nearly attached, of the temperament, and consequently of the heart and of the mind.'" GASPARD LAVATER, ' Z' 'Art deconnaitre les Hommes, etc. " (Paris : 1806), vol. iii., p. i. SUB-SECTION VII. REFLECTIONS, EXPLANATIONS, AND DIGRESSIONS. MISCELLANEA A PARTICULAR system of education, applied exclu- 1 247. sively to a particular class of mind, often results in training^!* the perversion and abnegation of that intellect by its after-life, possessor himself. How fortunate, therefore, are those whose intellectual aptitudes, having been ap- preciated and understood early in life, have served as a basis upon which their early training has been founded and built up. They become at once a happy fusion of the man who has learnt [i.e., the man of education], and the man of inborn faculties {i.e., the man of innate talent] ; thus they have two impulses to direct their lives which are practically one; they come upon the stage of life armed with ideas which they have acquired, and supported by an intelligence, by instincts which harmonise with those ideas ; and, whilst those whose talents have been stunted by an illogical form of education are constantly retarded and embarrassed by doubt, the former subjects attain practically without effort the front rank in any pro- fession they may take up. But how few young people there are who are suffi- T218. ciently fortunate to have been understood when they takmsfn yout? were young enough to be guided in the path most advantageous for them, and how few teachers of youth there are who are ready to abandon all stereotyped 176 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. CT -.48] rules and methods, and to adopt a separate system for each individual genius. It would not be too much to expect this from a parent, but it is obvious that such an effort, generous as it must necessarily be, must always be beyond the venal solicitude of a stranger. ,1" 249- . If this volume has any value, it must lie, as I have Early recognition . ofgenius. before remarked, in the fact of its furnishing the means of recognising the physical signs [signs which I think I have described with sufficient clearness] of the special bent of every man's individual intelligence. At eight years old, or even at six years old, a child's hand is sufficiently developed to render practicable the interpretation of its particular aptitudes and faculties ; whether he will be a man of contemplation or a man of action, whether he will affect the study of ideas, or the practice of actual things. I trust that my observations have placed me in the path of truth, and that the primary cause of unnatural and improper educations will now disappear. ^1 250. By the formation of a dog's foot you can tell for He'rcu'lem, what particular kind of chase he is most fitted ; by the shape of a horse's hoof you can tell what is his breed, and what qualities particularly distinguish him. In the same way, by examining our hands with care, we cannot help recognising the fact that they sum up, as it were, the whole of our minds, and that the tracing, the diagram, as it were, they afford us of our intelligence, cannot fail to be an interpretation which is at the same time profound and true. 197 It is in this sense, and not in the sense which is given to 197 " Every hand, in its natural state i.e., without taking into consideration unforeseen accidents, is in perfect analogy with the body of which it is a member ; . . . the same blood circulates in the heart, in the brain, and in the hand! " GASPARD LAVATER, " L'Art de connalire les Hommes ar la Physionomie " (Paris : 1806), vol. iii., p. i. REFLECTIONS, EXPLANATIONS, ETC. 177 LI so] it by the Cheiromants, that we must interpret the celebrated passage from the Book of Job xxxvii. 7 : " In manu omnium Deus signa posuit ut noverint singuli opera sua." 108 Nature, in endowing the whole monkey-tribe with . IF 251. Imitative hands identical instincts, has equally endowed them with identical hands ; and whilst mentioning these animal imitators, I may add that jugglers, conjurers, mimics, and actors have nearly all of them, like the monkey, spatulate fingers. There is a saying to the effect that a man has ^ 252261. "hidden his thumbs," which signifies that he has ^r2ions. abdicated all strength of will to act for himself. A young girl, in " giving her hand," yields up her ^[ 253. liberty ; the man in the marriage ceremony does not Gmng the hand 183 I have considered and discussed this passage at much length on pp. 55-58 of "A Manual of Cheiro- sophy." The quotation which I have left in Latin, as quoted in the text by M. d'Arpentigny, translates : " In the hands of all men God has placed signs, that each man may know His (God's) works," and is a most unfortunate misquotation of the text as it appears in the Vulgate, " In manu omnium hominum signat, ut noverint singuli opera sua," which translates: "who signs [or seals'] the hand of every man," etc. In our Authorised Version the verse is rendered : " He sealeth up the hand of every man ; that all men may know His work," or, as the Revised Version hath it, " That all men whom He hath made may know [#]." Anyone who will read the preceding and following verses (6 and 8) will see that no idea of cheirosophy or divination of any kind was in the writer's mind. I have cited the leading commentators on the verse in "A Mamial, etc." It has always surprised me that so exact and learned a writer as d'Arpentigny should have fallen even half-way as it seems he has into this hackneyed error. It is, of course, one of those cases in which, as Sir Walter Scott says [" Letters on Demon- ology and Witchcraft," vi.], people claim the support of Scripture for their own theories without regarding in any way the niceties of translation which should be examined in such matters. 1 78 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND it 53] give his hand ; thus he does not swear obedience, but undertakes to protect. IF 254. Almost any verbal slander can be overlooked, but A blow. . . . . once a man has raised his hand against another the insult is past forgiveness. It is true that neither Diogenes nor Christ preached a doctrine such as this, but man is governed by rules which are other than those established by cynic or Divine utterances. 199 ^ 255. The ancient Persians, as a sign of absolute submis- 'hands 111 * s5on > kept their hands constantly hidden in the folds of their robes when in the presence of the king. 200 :o1 199 < And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek, offer also the other." Luke vi. 29. " For ye bear with a man, if he smiteth you on the face/' 2 Cor. xi. 20. The passage of Diogenes to which I conclude our author refers, is the account of his celebrated remark to Anti- sthenes, which is thus rendered by M. C. Zevort in his " Vies et Doctrines des Philosophes, DiogenedeLaerte" (Paris : 1847, vol. ii., p. n, book iv. , c. 2). " One day Antisthenes threatening him with his stick, he (Diogenes Laertius) stretched out his head, saying, ' Strike on ! you will not find a stick hard enough to drive me away from you when you are speaking.' "* But Diogenes did not always show the same meekness to his assailants : on p. 35 of M. Zevort's book we find, "A man having jostled him with a beam and cried ' Take care ! ' Diogenes struck him with his stick, crying in turn 'Take care ! ' ' So that one of the author's illustra- tions is at least doubtful. -W w e g n( j a p assa g e which tells us of this custom in the "CyropUBaia" where we are told that Cyrus in the procession [alone] kept his hands outside his robes, f and the custom of concealing the hands in the presence of superiors obtains even to this day. Sir John Malcom, in his "History of Persia " (London : * AIOFENOTS AAEPTIOT BIftN KAI TNOMflN TON EN 4>IAOSOIA, etc., Bt/3X. P., /3'., btoytv/is. Didofs Edition, p. 138. f XENOPHON, KTPOT HAIAEIAS BijSX. H'., /re0. -y. "Koi ol iTTTrets 5 irdvres irapijcrav /cara/3e/3i7K'6Tej (ford rCov 'iiriruv, KCU SietprjicdTes T&S x e ?P a * 8ta TWV TravStiuv, &virep /cot vvv Uri diftpovaw, &TO.V bpq, (3a TTV\WI> irpov (paivero 6 Kfpos . . . rds 5 ^etous w TUV xeipiSuv fix 6 -" REFLECTIONS, EXPLANATIONS, ETC. As a mark of abnegation, to express the knowledge T 256. which we instinctively possess of our weakness and hands^prayei. of our insignificance, we clasp our hands in praying to God. 203 For, after all, what is a man if he be without hands? 203 Very little, according at any rate to the opinion of ^ 357. Lysander, who put to death the Athenian prisoners Cutting off the liquid. captured at ^Egos-Potami, because they had decreed that they would cut off the thumbs of all prisoners of war who should fall into their hands in the victory which they regarded as a certainty. 204 1829, vol. ii., ch. xxiii., p. 399), says, "Looks, words, the motions of the body, are all regulated by the strictest forms. When the king is seated in public, hib sons, ministers, and courtiers stand erect with their hands crossed." The custom is not mentioned by Brechillet Jourdain [" La Perse" (Paris: 1814)], but there are many of my readers who must have observed it among the members of the suite during the visit of the Shah to Europe in 1873-4. 201 Among the Arabs the posture of the profoundest submission and respect is standing with the hands behind the back, the right grasping the left. Sir R. F. BURTON, " Arabian Nights," vol. iii., 218. 102 It has often occurred to me that the Moslem attitude, i.e., standing with the palms of the hands turned upwards, is the more appropriate and symbolical. When reciting the Fatihah [the opening chapter of the Qur'an], the hands are held in this position as if to receive a blessing falling from heaven ; after which both palms are passed down the face to distribute it over the eyes and other organs of sense [BURTON, " Arabian Nights ;" vol. v., p. 80]. *" Compare " A Manual of Cheirosophy, "15. i01 M. d' Arpentigny quotes Thucydides as his authority for this passage ; as a matter of fact, Thucydides never mentioned either Lysander or the battle of ^Egos-Potami in his "History of the Peloponnesian War." It is Xenophon who gives us the account of Lysander having made this slaughter of Athenian prisoners, because they had decreed that, should they win, all the prisoners they took should have their right hands cut off, Adimantos only being spared, because he had opposed ISO THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. ^ 258. It is the right, and not the left hand, which is raised antHnThe law in ta king the oath in the law-court, because the right courts. hand, being the one of which we make the most use, it affords for this reason a more perfect representation of our physical, intellectual, and moral worth, than the left. 205 f 259. In like manner the foreman of the works, who over- e> looks the whole of the process of construction, is a better personification and representative of the absent master-builder than the labourer, who is employed only upon some secondary but exclusive task. f 260. The hand of Justice, which figures among the Hand in the insignia of our [French] royal families, is always a Royal Arms L of France. right hand. 206 this horrible decree in the Assembly. Vide "A Manual of Cheirosophy" \ 22.* 205 This formality will have doubtless been observed by many of my readers who have frequented the courts of the " Palais de Justice." Until comparatively recently the custom obtained in this country, and in Scotland it is the practice to this day, to raise the right hand in taking the oath in court. " In taking a. great oath . . . the gods used to lift up their hands, as Apollo in the poet bids Lachesis xTpas avartivai. Little thought he how the Scripture makes the like action of the true God in several places. Men, when they swore a great oath, laid downe their handes upon the altar as we do upon the New Testament, whereas in a lesse, or in a private oath, made to such or such man, according to the Roman fashion, they laid their hand upon the hand of the party to whom they swore. This ceremony, I remember, Menelaus in Euripides demanded of Helen besides the words of her oath " [Helen, v., 834]. F. Rous, "Arch. Att.," p. 278. 206 This emblazonment of the House of Orleans was unknown to me. I have, however, received a document on the subject from M. A. Daubree, Ex-President of * XENOPHON, 'EAAHNIKON, B tj 8\. B'.,^. d (31): "'E?- raC#o 8}) Karyyopfai tyiyvovro iro\\al rSiv 'Adyvatuv 8. re tfdt) rav Kal & ^Tj^/oyxepoi jjffav iroifiv. d Kpar^ffeiav REFLECTIONS, EXPLANATIONS, ETC. l8l When one feels a presentiment of the wrath of God, IT 261. and of the approach of the chastisement by which it God" will be manifested, one says, He is going to stretch forth His right hand, i.e., He is going to strike with intelligence and discernment. 207 We kiss the hand of a prince in token of our sub- If 262. mission, 208 that of a father or of a protector in token of Kissing hands respect and gratitude, those of holy men in token of veneration, those of fair women in token of adora- tion; and all this because royalty, paternity, sanctity, and beauty are real powers, and all real power has the attribute of enchaining and of subjecting indi- viduals. L'Institut de France, of which the following is a tran- script and translation : " From the moment when the Due d'Orleans ascended the throne in August 1830, he retained for a few days the arms of his family, that is to say, three fleurs de lys. He soon considered that he ought to adopt others, the tables of the law upon an escutcheon, on either side of which are banners, and on one side the royal sceptre, and on the other the Hand of Justice. It is this latter which is a right hand upraised. It cannot be said that it forms part of the arms of France ; it is an accessory of the escutcheon, according to the Marquis de Flert." A. DAUBREE. This information was obtained from the Marquis de Flert, at present the head of the House of Orleans. 207 T ne savm g strength of His right hand." Psalm xx. 6. " Why drawest Thou back Thy right hand ?" Psalm Ixxiv. n. " The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly." Psalm cxviii. 16. "When Thou stretchest forth Thy hand to heal." Acts iv. 30. " Behold therefore I have stretched forth My hand over thee and have diminished thy food" Ezek. xvi. 27. "Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against His people, and He hath stretched forth His hand against them, and hath smitten them." Isa. v. 25, K.T.\. A vast collection of phrases in which the word " MANUS " figures sym- bolically may be found in Ducange's " Glossarium Medics et Infimce Latinitatis" (Niort and London, re- print : 1885), vol. v. 208 One of the oldest tributes of respect and submis- sion. Vide several instances recorded by Xenophon in 1 82 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. ^f 263. From which data I deduce this maxim : that the Symbol of power. , , . , and universal hand is the symbol of all power. The study of the study of the hand has at some time or another engrossed the hand. attention of every race of living men. \ 264. " Creatures which are passive," says Manou, " are y ^fSSf r the natural prey of those who are active ; creatures without teeth are the natural prey of those which have those weapons ; creatures who have no hands are the natural prey of those who have those members ; " 2C ' J and he continues to the effect that the part of the hand situated at the root of the thumb [which, as I have said, is the seat of reasoning will], 210 is con- secrated to the Vedas ; that the part consecrated to the Creator is at the root of the little finger [which being the finger of the heart is always pointed, because the heart is always more or less poetic, and consequently credulous] ; and that the part devoted to the lesser gods [probably looked upon as the symbols of action, as manifested in the arts, sciences, and liberal professions],. is to be found at the lips of the seventh book of the Cyropaedia. * F. Rous also, in his " Archeologicce Attica" (London: 1685, p. 278), says, " It was either this kisse, or a kisse of their owne hande which they anciently termed labratum. I have read of a kisse of the hande when they did the reverence to the gods, with putting- the forefinger over the thumb [perhaps upon the middle joynt], and then giving a turn on the right hande, as it is in Plautus \_In Ciirculi~\ : "Quo me vortam nescio, si deos salutas vorsam censeo." Compare with this note "A Manual, etc.," ^ 18 and 19, and notes thereto. 209 This passage, which is implied by the order of creation and superiority laid down in the first lecture of Manu, may be found in the edition of "The Ordi- nances of Manu " cited in note a5 , p. 202. 1 88. roO Ktipov ti\ovv Kal xftpa.$ Kal iroSas, iro\\a Sanptovres," etc. etc. , and so on, passim. REFLECTIONS, EXPLANATIONS, ETC. the fingers.' 11 I did not know this explanation |m which I find the germs of my system] when I established the bases upon which I started to write this book. Abd-el-Kader bears on his banner a red hand ^f 265. blazoned upon a blue field. 212 Arms of Abd-ei Kader. In Tripoli they hang a little metal hand upon all ^ 266. objects, such as temples, houses, or palaces, which lheevile > c - they wish to preserve against the effects and influence of the evil eye. 213 211 The best translation of this passage to cite as a commentary to the above is to be found in " Manava- Dharma-Shastra, or, the Institutes of Manu," by Sir Wm. Jones (Madras: 4th edition, 1880), lecture ii., vers. 58 and 50. " Let a Brahman at all times perform the ablution with the pure part of his hand denominated from the Veda, or with the part sacred to the lord of creatures, or with that dedicated to the gods; but never with the part named from the Pitris. The pure part [of the hand] under the root of the thumb is called Brahma, that at the root of the little finger Kaya, that at the tips of the fingers Daiva, and the part between the thumb and index Pitrya. 212 A red hand is a very favourite emblem of conquest in the East. A legend connected with this is a great favourite in Constantinople, and is thus referred to by Th6ophile Gautier in his " Constantinople of To- day" (London: translated by R. H. Gould : 1854): " I sought in vain in St. Sophia for the imprint of the bloody hand, which Mahomet II., dashing on horseback into the sanctuary, imprinted upon the wall, in sign of taking possession as conqueror, while the women and maidens were crowded round the altar as a last refuge from the besieging army, and expecting rescue by a miracle, which did not occur. This bloody imprint of the conqueror's hand is it an historical fact or only an idle legend ? " [p. 281 .] 218 A superstition which is not by any means confined to Tripoli. It is generally supposed to have had its origin in Naples, where, as a preservative against the jettatura, a little coral or metal hand is in great request and favour, being either cast in the position known as the devil's horns, or in the position prescribed for the invocation of the episcopal blessing \jvide ^[ 13 1 84 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. ^[267. The Turks, a nation essentially contemplative and symbolisms" inert, have only been able to find in the hand a kind of rosary, of which the fourteen joints constitute the beads; God is represented by the entirety of the hand, and each finger represents one of the cardinal maxims : e.g. : Belief in- Allah and his Prophet, Prayer, Alms, Observation of ^the Ramadan, and the Hadj pilgrimage. 211 ^f 268 Hands which are large, dry, wrinkled, very knotty, uar ands. an{ j pointed-fingered, irresistibly suggest ideas of uncanniness and isolation, which are to the last degree unattractive/ When hailstones, like an in- surgent mob, or like a tribe of gipsies striking camp, roll and dance about on the pavement in the streets, and on the sounding tiles of the roof, it is hands of this type which the benumbed sorceress strives vainly to warm, muttering beneath her cloak of owl feathers. ^T 269. For the hand has its physiognomy like the face, C ph r yiogno m a y d with this difference > that as Jt reflects only the immut- compared. able bases of the intelligence, it has all the permanence ante and " A Manual, etc." ^ 23 and 24]. The hand- charm most in use along the north coast of Africa has all its fingers extended ; a description thereof may be found in Chas. Holme's recent "ODD VOLUME MISCEL- LANY,". No. 15 (London : 1886). 214 Compare' Al Qur'an of Muhammad, chap, il., in which these directions are all specified for the guidance of true believers. George Sale, in the Preliminary Discourse which precedes his translation of the Qur'an (London: with a Memoir of the Translator : 1865), says in the 4th section: "The Muhammadans divide their religion, which they call Islam, into two distinct parts : Iman, i.e., faith, or theory ; andZ>/, i.e., religion, or practice ; and teach that it is built upon five funda- mental points, one belonging to faith, and the other four to practice. The first is the confession of faith, that ' There is no God but the true God ; and that Muhammad is His prophet ' . . . The four points relating to practice are: i. Prayer; 2. Alms; 3. Fasting; 4. the Pilgrimage to Mecca." REFLECTIONS, EXPLANATIONS, ETC. 185 [f 269] of a material symbol. 215 Mirror as it is of the soul, of the heart, of the mind, and of the spirit, the physio- gnomy of the face is endued with all the charms of variety, but as it is, to a certain extent, subject to the dictates of our will, the accuracy of its indications cannot be guaranteed ; whereas the physiognomy of the hand always bears the stamp, whatever it may be, of our genius. 216 217 / There are hands which naturally attract us, and ^ 270. { there are hands which excite in us repulsion. I have Characteristic hands. seen hands which seemed covered with eyes, so sagacious and so penetrating was their appearance. / Some, like those of the sphinx, suggest an idea of mystery; some betray folly and strength combined I with activity of body ; others again indicate laziness, ^ joined to feebleness and cunning. 218 There are people who fancy they are serious, If '271. because they are of a lugubrious and miserable state Pecul ' ar y a " etl J of mind. of mind ; there are others who, like the Abbe Galiani, Abbd Gaiiani. resembling clocks which keep good time, but whose 215 Vide " A Manual, etc.," f 78. 2i p ar ticular hands can only belong to particular bodies. This is easy enough to verify ; choose a hand for an example, compare it with a thousand others, and amid this number there will not be a single one that could be substituted for the first. ... It is just as much as the other parts of the body an object for the attention of physiognomy ; an object so much the more significant and striking from the facts that the hand cannot dissemble, and that its mobility betrays it at every moment. I say that it cannot dissemble, because the most accomplished hypocrite, the most experienced deceiver, could not alter the forms of his hand, nor its outlines, proportions, or muscles, nor even of a part of it ; he could not protect it from the gaze of the observer, save by hiding it altogether." GASPARD LAVATER, " L? Art de connaitre les Hommes, etc. " (Paris : 1806), vol. iii., p. i. 217 Compare also Desbarrolles "Les Mysteres de la Main," I5th edn., pp. 419 421. 218 "Whether in motion or in "a state of repose the 1 86 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1 7i] striking apparatus is out of order, contradict the wisdom of their behaviour by the folly of their con- joseph de versation. 219 Joseph de Maistre fancies he is an ardent Maistre. , . ,. M .. , .. . . ..... _ admirer of truth, whilst m reality it is power of which he is so assiduous a votary. His mind is like the tower at Pisa, grandly proportioned, solid, and crooked. Again, there are people who are expression of the hand cannot be misunderstood. Its most tranquil condition indicates our natural propen- sities ; its flexions, our actions and passions. In all its movements it follows the impulse given to it by the rest of the body. It attests, therefore, the nobility and the superiority of the man ; it is at the same time the inter- preter and the instrument of our faculties." LAVATEK, loc. cit. 219 In this respect the celebrated Abbe Galiani was a most extraordinary contradiction. Eugene Asse, in his " Lettres de I' Abbe Galiani avec une Notice Bio- graphique" (Paris: 1881, vol. ii., p. xxxviii.), "If Galiani was often a regular Neapolitan clown, he was also, and most often, a true savant, a profound thinker," etc.; and in another place he says (p. xxv.): " L'Abbe Galiani entra, et avec le gentil abbe, la gaiete, la folie, la plaisanterie, et tout ce qui fait oublier les peines de la vie." His greatest friend, Grimm, said of him : " It is Plato with the whims and the gestures of Harlequin " Correspondence Litteraire " (Nov bre 15, 1764), tome vi., p. 116. 220 Joseph de Maistre was the Piedmontese ambassador to the Court of St. Petersburg. Finding that the philosophers of his day were attacking the Catholic religion, he entered the lists with enthusiasm as the defender and apologist of the See of St. Peter, and wrote in its defence his two books, " Du Pape" (Lyon : 1836), and " De V Eglise Gallicane dans son Rapport avec le Souverain Pontif" (Lyon : 1837). Immediately he was violently attacked on all sides by the progres- sive writers of the French philosophical schools, and as many works were written in his defence as were written against him. M. du Lac, in his preface to R. de Sezeval's " Joseph de Maistre, ses Detracteurs et son Genie" (Paris: 1865), commences with the words : "Pendant de longues annees les 6crivains du liberalisme se sont plu a repandre sur le nom de M. de Maistre la haine, le ridicule, et le mepris, .... sous quelques ineptes REFLECTIONS, EXPLANATIONS, ETC. 1 87 tt 7i] moral, not for the good of their souls, but for the pleasure of talking about it; others there are who make the foibles of great men their particular study/ 21 all that they know of Vincent de Paul being that he cheated at cards. 22 - These, like Balzac, because they J Honore de are of a subtle mind, fancy themselves spiritualists ; 223 Balzac those affect concealment that they may preserve an in- sarcasmes n'ont-ils pas tente" d'etouffer sa parole et sa gloire ? " M. d'Arpentigny, whose whole work teems with liberalism of the most pronounced description, would naturally follow in the wake of these detractors of a writer who wrote in defence" of the most bigoted conservatism which it is possible to imagine. 221 "Note, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "that wher- ever virtue may be in a high degree, there it is hunted down. Few or none of the past but were calumniated of malice ; for examples : Julius Caesar, most cou- rageous, most prudent," etc., etc. "Don Quixote? pt. ii., ch. ii. K1 I cannot conceive what our author is hinting at here ; St. Vincent de Paul has been cited by numberless authors as a model of all that is pure and good. Louis Abelli, Bishop of Rodez, cites many instances of his having been calumniated, and of his imperiousness under the circumstances, but does not mention this particular slander,* and it is difficult to imagine a thing of the sort of a man, one of whose most celebrated dicta was, " Gentlemen, let us payas much attention to the interests of our fellow-men, as to our own ; let us act loyally and equitably, let us be straightforward" (Abelli, book iii., c. 17, p. 260). M. Capefigue, also, in his work " St. Vincent de Paul" (Paris: 1865, p. 9), says: "What motive caused his sea voyage to Marseilles ? Some say that he had taken flight before an abominable calumny (the most holy men have always been calumnied, etc.) ; " this may be the matter referred to in the text. 333 There is no doubt that Balzac was endowed with one of the most subtle mental organisations that France has ever produced ; but throughout his life he fostered the idea that it was in spiritual, intuitive writing that he excelled, and thought his " Comedie Htimaine " and his " Cousin Pons" vastly superior to such wonderful works as his " Illusions Perdues " which give us per * " Vie du Venerable Serviteur de Dieu, Vincent de Paul, par Louis Abelli, Evesque de Rodez (Paris : 1664), liv. iii., p. 168. 1 88 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [f *7ij cognito, and disguise themselves that their faces may not become familiar. The hand will not reveal such shades of character as these. ^ 272. Of all the antique statues which are to be found bund hfscuip- * n European museums, two only have reached us tures. with their hands remaining, or rather wjth one hand remaining, on each. Without these precious relics we should be absolutely ignorant of the Greek standard of beauty as applied to the hand. As it is, we know that they required that it should be large, with strong smooth fingers, a large thumb, a medium palm, and square finger-tips. Such, at all events, is the single hand of the exquisite statue of the son of Niobe, which one sees at Florence. 224 ^f 273. The Greeks, surrounded as they were by barbarous Greek, ap>precia- nations, and continually in danger of seeing their lion of physical J strength. fragile and lightly-constructed republic overwhelmed by war, held physical strength in high esteem ; and with good reason. In the course of their education wrestling, racing, boxing, fencing, and swimming were held to be of equal, if not of more, importance than the training of the mind. 225 This being the case, their haps the best possible illustration of the subtlety of his imagination. Vide also Th6ophile Gautier's " Honore de Balzac " (Paris : 1859). 224 It must be borne in mind that the above was written before 1843, and that since then excavations have brought to light many beautiful specimens of Greek statuary with their hands in their original conditions. At the moment, indeed, that I write, the labours of Count Charles Lan9koronski are drawing to a close ; and the illustrations to his work, describing his discoveries of Greek statuary in Asia Minor, at Idalia, and in Rhodes, will show us many representations of Greek hands. For the rest, many such maybe seen in the British Museum ; the statue cited above by M. d'Arpentigny certainly presents an exquisitely-modelled hand, but I do not think it is necessary to go to the Uffizii Palace for an unique illustration. 225 Perhaps the most complete and curious, and at the same time pedantic and diffuse epitome of the educa- REFLECTIONS, EXPLANATIONS, ETC. 189 [If 73] idea of beauty was naturally different to what ours is, seeing that we are not threatened by the same dangers as they were, that we make use almost exclusively of projectile weapons, which are easy of manipulation, and that, brought up in the focus as it were of spiritual Christianity, we are surrounded by Christian and civilised nations like ourselves. Forgetfulness of self, and calmness in danger, are IT 274 - , , . , Necessity of to-day more necessary to our soldiers even than calmness in physical strength and bravery. action. / Large hands, particularly if they be hard, are a If 275 - f . if, Greek love of a sign of physical strength, and as the Greeks could not large hand. tion of Greek youths is Francis Rous' " A rcheologice A tticcz Libri Septem " (Oxford : 1658). The training of children was, of course, very different in different states of Greece : thus, for instance, in Sparta babies were not wrapped in swaddling clothes, the prime object being to harden the body of the young warrior against the influences of pain and exertion. Among the Doric tribes it was, therefore, customary to expose weakly chil- dren in some open place, when, if they were strong' enough to bear the test, they were brought up either by their parents, or by anyone who would rescue them from the exposure. This subject is treated of at much length by Rous [cap.viii., lib. v., "De Expositione Infantum"]; and it is to this custom, of course, that Creusa refers in the Ion of Euripides : " The son she bore, she also did cast forth;" and again, " She came where sheexpos'd and found him not."* Among the Ionian tribes, on the other hand, the graceful and harmonious development of the body and mind, ease of bearing and demeanour, were particularly aimed at. This was especially the case at Athens, where children were always accompanied by an older companion who taught them good behaviour, and respect to their elders. Their education consisted principally of letters, music, and gymnastics. Lucian, in his apology of gymnastics [Luciani ' ' De Saltatione Dialogus"~\, lays great stress upon the value of gymnas- tics in the training of youths, as a preventive against laziness and its accompanying vices. Vide hereon E. Guhl and W. Koner's work, "The Life of the Greeks and Romans" translated by F. Hueffer (London : 1873). * Wodhull's "Euripides," ;< The Greek Tragic Theatre.' (London : 1809), vol. v., p. 109. 13 I9O THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. conceive beauty without strength, a large hand was to them a great beauty, following the same analogy which with us accounts for the fact, that to us a small hand is the most beautiful by reason of the greater delicacy of mind which it reveals. It is, of course, a matter of common knowledge that the Greeks, whatever their station in life, never rode when they might walk, did their own cooking, and otherwise performed a great deal of manual labour which would to-day be looked upon with aversion and contempt. They performed these labours not only without repugnance, but even with pleasure, by reason of the inherent love of detail which, as I have said, is the special attribute of large hands. 226 From all of which facts I gather that in Greece, not only at the time when princes tended the flocks, and princesses washed their own linen, and when the clergy excelled in the professions of butcher and baker, but even in the time of Pericles, large hands were abundant. r 376 Large hands whose palms are of a medium develop- Love of finish, ment prefer that which is finishedyand exquisite, to that which is grand and large. ^The Greeks only founded small states, and erected no monuments ^ remarkable size. 227 226 The principal occupations of the men being", as I have indicated in the last note, of the more active and virile description, it is in the manners of the women that we notice principally the simplicity of which our author speaks. " The chief occupations of women, beyond the preparing of meals, consisted in spinning and weaving. In Homer we see the wives of the nobles occupied in this way ; and the custom of the women making the necessary articles of dress continued to prevail, even when the luxury of later times, together with the degeneracy of the women themselves, had made the establishment of 1 workshops and places of manufacture for this purpose necessary. Antique art has frequently treated of these domestic occupations." E. GUHL and W. KONER, op. cit., p. 186. 227 It is difficult to say whether in this passage \ REFLECTIONS, EXPLANATIONS, ETC. 19 1 In Paris, notwithstanding their enormous hands, ^f 277. the Flemish journeymen-tailors are immensely sought er ^ n after, on account of the fineness of their work. Redoute, our celebrated flower painter fa school IT 278. n 1-1 Redoute, the of painting naturally mmutej had great big hands flower painter like a bricklayer. He used to laugh at the innocence of provincial poets and journalists, who, arguing by the delicacy of his work, used to compare his fingers to those of Aurora, "scattering roses as he went." 228 Now, little hands, on the contrary, affect not only ^ 279. the large, but the colossal ; in fact, one is inclined Vast w rk * of small hands. to come to the conclusion that everything must be ordered in obedience to the laws of contrast. It is towards the dwarf that the giant is irresistibly attracted, and in like manner it is by the giant that the dwarf is invariably fascinated. The Pyramids, The Pyramids, the temples of Upper Egypt, and of India, have all etc -> etc< been built up by people .whose staple comestibles have been rice, gourds, and onions, that is to say, by the people who are the most delicate, and whose hands are the most delicate in the world. These hands were small and narrow, spatulated and smooth, as is evidenced by the representations of them which we find in the contemporary bas-reliefs with which these structures are ornamented. d'Arpentigny refers to the fact that the Greek nation consisted of many small states, each with its separate government, and so on, but united by community of race and religion ; or that the Greek colonies consisted only of towns round the shores of the Mediterranean, with but small territorial possessions attached to them. Again, the author must have overlooked the Parthenon and the other majestic buildings of the Acropolis. 228 Joseph Redoute, born in 1759, was a celebrated flower painter attached to the court of Louis XVI. He was known as " le Raphael des Fleurs," and died at Paris in 1840. Vide Ch. Dezobry and Th. Bachelet's " Dictionnaire de Biographic et d' Histoire " (Paris: 1857), an d " Annales de la Societe" (tome xiii.), "Notice sur J. Redoute." 1 92 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. The sculptor Preault, having a small thumb and the sculptor, smooth fingers which are delicately spatulated, pro- ceeds entirely by enthusiasm and inspiration; and as his hands are very small [for a sculptor], ample proportion, power, and energetic treatment are more important to him than exact measurements and grace; 229 his sculptured horse on .the bridge known as the "Pont de Jena" seems from his springing position to carry away with him the whole block from which he was carved ; it is not so much a prancing horse as a rock. 1l 281 T - Balzac, with his large conic hands, liked to count Balzac : Love ' c of minutia. the fruit on the espalier, the leaves on the hedge, the separate hairs in his beard; he took a delight in physiological details, and might have invented the '" t microscope had it not been invented before he was born. 2 " H 283. Madame Sand, whose hands are very small, excels Georges Sand's . . ' . breadth of treat- especially in psychological developments : her very ment. 229 Auguste Preault, the sculptor [b. 8th October, 1809 ; d. nth January, 1879], of whom a most minute and interesting account may be found in Ernest Chesnau's " Pemfres / Statuaires Romantiques " (Paris : 1880, p. 1 19," Auguste Preault"), has been described as the Dore of sculpture. Weird , morbid, fantastic, and enormous, his work seems to have been the reflection of his intellectual organisation, which his biographer describes as " ner- vous as a woman, sensitive, and impressionable." On p. 1 19 he says, " There exists a precious cast of the right hand of Preault. It is remarkable for its smallness and the elegance of its proportions. By the absence of developed joints, and the fineness of the phalanges, Desbarrolles, the cheiromant, would recognise rapid intuition ; the short,' thick, spatulate thumb is that of a man of action and of stubborn will ; in the confused and multiplied lines of the palm we recognise the fatal im- print of a destiny doomed to the agitation of a continual struggle [" Manual" 1(421] ; the line of art deeply traced, and the Mount of Jupiter high in the hand" {^"Manual" H H" 429, etc., and 614, etc.]. 230 Honore de Balzac was very proud of his hands. REFLECTIONS, EXPLANATIONS, ETC. 193 LI *8 3 ] details are immense ; in like manner she might have invented the telescope. There are laws which seem to be equitable, but 1 234. which are not so in reality; the law of conscription ""-^1"^^ is one of these. The duties, the necessities imposed scription. by it, light and easy for spatulate and large-palmed hands, are overwhelming for conic and pointed hands, more especially so if they are also soft. What does it matter to hands which have a large hard palm, that the barrack rooms are hideously bleak and bare ; that the life of the camp is brutalizing in its monoton- ous slothfulness ; what to them is the coarseness and the insipidity of the food, the passive obedience and the automatic life ? What do they matter to hands that are spatulate, with a large thumb, these eternal exercises, the monotonous activity of the work of mines, tunnels, and trenches, and the everlasting agitation of the 'tween-decks ? But this same noise, these scenes, these labours are inexhaustible sources of moral and physical anguish for souls whose out- ward and visible signs are hands which are narrow and pointed. And what shall we say of the Indian laws which ^ 285. compel a son to take up and follow the same handicraft ^"Jsfon f as his father ? Is it not obvious that the legislature would do better to order that men whose hands that is to say, whose implements of labour are identical, should adopt identical pursuits ? 231 Theophile Gautier, in his " Honorede Balzac " (Paris : 1859), tells us [p.n] : " We remarked his hands, which were of a rare beauty, regularly clerical hands, white, with medium and dimpled fingers, with brilliant rosy nails. He was proud of them, and smiled with pleasure when any one noticed them. He invested them with a symbolism of aristocracy. . . . He had even a kind of prejudice against those whose hands and feet were wanting in delicacy." Compare note !EB , p. 187. Fzi¬e 218 , p. 185. 194 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. 1 286 - But, tyrannous and unnatural as is such a law as Injustice of ',.... .t_' "' *i_ ^.i. L. property tms > it is not more so than the one that in our own franchise. country makes property the sole qualification for electoral franchise. It is a matter of common know- ledge that fortune is more quickly and surely acquired by the exercise of manual skill, and of physical forces and activity, than by the pursuit of science, and the practice of moral forces and activity ; and the result is, that this franchise is nothing more than the oft-told story of the predominance of interest over principles, of industry over art, science, and philosophy ; the superiority of working over thinking hands. f 287. For many years past the university of Caen, an Illustration. ...... /, , r institution notable for its eminent professors, has har- boured among all the persons it employs one single elector, the gate-keeper ! 1f288. It is not right that it should be thus; nor would it Necessity for , . , .,. , . r . , combination, " e right if the contrary were the case ; for universal life is not to be governed simply by exalted and philosophic ideas ; it has to be directed also by the common and vulgar ideas of which big spatulate hands have a far clearer perception [even though their intelligence is limited to this alone] than those more finely cut types among which all kinds of high-flown ideas and colossal schemes abound. We must hear what each has to say ; so-called " representative governments," in which every primordial instinct requires for its development and for the defence of the interests of which it is the fundamental principle to satisfy conditions which are unnatural to it, are " representative " in name only. Man is a creature of mixed composition ; he has a soul and he has a body, and both the agencies which support his body and those which support his soul must be equally attended to. There can be no valid reason for debarring either of them from taking part in the mental debates which have for their object the physical and moral REFLECTIONS, EXPLANATIONS, ETC. 195 [1 88] advantages and improvement of the man. Certain things there are which can only be well done by hands, and with instruments, which are homely and common ; and again, there are certain others that can only be perfected with the most finished and delicate tools. One can cut paper better with a wooden paper knife than with a blade of gold ; one can only engrave fine stones with highly tempered implements of steel. 232 In the United States, where they appreciate the f 289. value of wooden paper-knives [i.e., of ordinary minds], ^J^T? 1 th*" and of steel instruments [i.e., of subtle intelligences], United States, both are equally called upon to direct the conduct of public affairs ; and what has been the result of this co-operation within the space of a half century even ? The well-being of the individual and the prosperity of the community, moral greatness, and material power, invincible proofs that as regards government, and the due appreciation of human faculties, the people of the United States are on the right road. There are truths which apply equally to all the H 290. types of humanity, there are others again which toleration! appeal only to particular classes and communities. The first unite mankind upon a common ground, the second divide them into separate classes ; from which we deduce the necessity of toleration, and the duty of not looking askant upon the good fortune of others. We must endeavour to appreciate the good points even of those whom we endeavour in vain to understand ; even if merely from motives of curiosity, for appreciation will often lead to an understanding. I have as yet made but little progress with my ^f 291. subject, and I have already repeated myself many R eitera . tlon f ' these principles times ; but I have done so intentionally. One has to 232 A commentary to the French and Italian proverbs : " A gens de village trompette de bois," and " A villa no da dono da villano." 196 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. it 291] impress a new idea in much the same manner as one teaches a foreign language ; the words, the idioms, and the principles of grammar must be frequently remembered and repeated, so that the ear may become accustomed to them, and the mind may become familiar with them. 233 I pass now to the description of the various types. 233 " Iterations are commonly loss of time. But there is no such Gaine of Time, as to iterate often the State of the Question : For it chaseth away many a frivolous Speech as it is coming forth." F. BACON, " Of Dis- fatch," 628. SECTION IV. &e (Elementary SUB-SECTION VIII. ELEMENTARY HANDS. [Plate IV."| ELEMENTARY FINGERS big and wanting in suppleness, the thumb short and turned back [as a rule], the palm extremely 1T 292. i i-i j i j r^i i \i i z. Characteristics. big, thick, and hard [this last is their most prominent and characteristic peculiarity]. In Europe they undertake manual labour, the care ^[293. ,ii 1,11 r i Capabilities of of stables and the long programme of coarse work, e type which may be carried out by the dim flickerings of the light of instinct, to them belongs war, when there is no personal prowess called into requisition ; to them belongs colonisation, when it is merely a matter of mechanically watering the soil of a foreign land with the sweat of the labouring brow. Shut in on all sides by material instincts, they attach no importance to political unity, save from the physical point of view. Their convictions are formed in a groove, which is inaccessible to reason, and their virtues are generally those of a negative description. Governed as they are by routine, they proceed more by custom than in answer to their passions. In those of our provinces in which these hands ^"294. , , _ ,-. . j T Superiority of abound, as for instance m Brittany and in La ma n ua i labour Vendee, instinct and custom, which are the bases and in the provinces, mainsprings of genius in the country, preponderate over reason and the spirit of progress, which latter are 2OO THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [t 2 94] the bases and mainsprings of genius in towns. In the provinces manual labour is more honourable than professional skill. If 295. Beware of seeking such climes as these, O you Romantic hands. ' Gypsies. who love the ornamental sides of life, silken shoon, and the tinkle of the guitar at night beneath the flower-laden balcony ; the races with sallow com- plexions and flowing locks, with melancholy faces which peer from beneath huge drooping hats, who have left the print of their footsteps in this gloomy country, upon commons decked with the soft green tufts of the broom, and have left behind them nothing more valuable than the Homeric luxury of the cabin of Eumaeus. 233 " If 296. Strangers to anything like enthusiasm, elementary Dulnessofthe , , . ,. , ' . . type> hands indicate feelings which are heavy and sluggish in rousing themselves, a dull imagination, an inert soul, and a profound indifference. They were much more common among the people of Gaul when the 23sa ft g u j. Ulysses found Eumaeus sitting in the portico of his lofty dwelling, which was built in a beautiful and spacious position for the accommodation of his swine, out of stones which he had carried thither, and he had crowned it with sloe bushes. And outside he drove in stakes at frequent intervals, and inside he made twelve styes for the swine close to one another. . . . And having brought him (Ulysses] in, "he made him rest upon a great thick couch of rushes and wild goat's skin."* " fbv 8' dp' M 7rpo5o/oio avoKTOS ecnro/j'Tjs, Kal Aatprao \dfffffi, etc., etc. *fij etTT&v dvopovcre' rl Oei S'&pa oi wvpbs tyyvs EVVTJV. Iv 8' olCov re Kal atywv Sfp/jLar' H(3a\\V IlvKvqv Kal fifyd\r]v, ij ol 7rapeX- i t i nto Sapania. Anatolia [the ancient BithymaJ : " At last we entered the town, and I took up my abode in a tavern, the sole hostelry to be found in these parts. Once installed, after having arranged my carpet, and having sat myself down cross-legged, holding my pipe in one hand and the inevitable coffee in the other, I entered into conversation with mine host, who lost no time in giving me the customary welcome, 248 and plying me with a string of questions, The Osman welcome. to which I had by this time become thoroughly of the above paragraph is afforded by the following sentence from Samuel Jacob's "History of the Ottoman Empire'' 1 (London: 1854, P- 433) : "A- few weeks afterwards the fleet, under Achmet Capitan Pacha, was carried to Alexandria by that traitor, and delivered up to the Pacha of Egypt." 217 From V. Fontanier's " Voyages en Orient cntre- pris par Ordre dn Gouvernement Fran^ais de faunee 1821 a. I'amiee 1829" (Paris: 1829), p. 16, " It is needless to say that to become captain-pacha of the fleet, no knowledge of the sea is in any way necessary. To give an instance of this, in 18.21 the Tchoban-bachi," etc. 248 The Turkish salutation is as follows : The visitor bends low, extending the right hand, with which he touches his breast, lips, and forehead, saying, as he does so, " Selam alei'kum ; " the master of the house simultaneously imitates this motion, repeating, " Ve aleikum selam." This is only among Turks. To a Christian, or Ghiaour, the ordinary nod of the head and the Turkish "Good-day" [*&J\ p' f V*J is considered sufficient. 210 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1 319] acclimatised, and to all of which I had the necessary answers on the tip of my tongue, thus, What is going on ? What is not going on ? Whence do you come ? Whither do you go ? Have you much money ? Have you a passport ? Are you a spy ? "Four or five Turkish travellers, separated from me by a wooden railing which divided the raised floor of the caravanserai into various compartments, listened with indifference, and smoked with imper- turbable gravity. Then each one in turn, without making any further draft on his imagination, gravely put to me the same questions of which they had just received the answers. On my side it was merely a question of memory, and above all of patience, for had they been twenty I should have had to repeat the same answers twenty times." 249 % 320. And throughout every class among the Turks we find Ct "uAs ' ' e * nl ' s same mental lethargy ; only read their rorhances, only listen to the recital of their dreams, eternally filled with accounts of diamonds by the bushel, and of voluptuous houris by the troop, of hidden treasures suddenly discovered by the aid of some sorcerer whose good graces have been won by some spontaneous act of common hospitality, and you will amply realise that nothing is more repugnant to them than mental effort of any kind, which they avoid making by throwing the blame of all things upon fatality; and manual labour, against which they protest by their fondness for, and their belief in, talismans and charms.- 50 ^ 321. This manner of looking at things they owe to their its causes physical constitutions^l^hich owe their equability to their civil and religious institutions. They feel them- 2 * V. FONTANIER, " Voyages en Orient, etc.," " Deuxierne Voyage en Anatolic" (Paris: 1834). Vicfe note ", p. 183. ELEMENTARY HANDS. 2 I I [t 3] selves that any attempt to regenerate them as a nation would be futile, and that the tide of civilisa- tion [as we understand the word] would be as fatal to them as the waters of the ocean would be to river fishes. 25 In 1817 some one remarked to Fasle-Bey, Colonel f 322. of the Imperial Guard, that the reforms of Mahmoud Fasle '- Be y n the conservatism seemed to be achieving considerable progress. "The of the Turks. Osmanlis," replied he, " remain buried in their pre- judices; they are like madmen to whom the right road has been pointed out, but who persist in travelling in a different direction." " But still, one sees many Mussulmans adopting the European costume, and surely that proves that they seek after civilisation." " Those Mussulmans," replied Fasle- Bey, " are like men dressed as musicians, but who have no idea of music. Turkey is at the present moment in a wretched condition ; she is like a cistern from which water is constantly being drawn, but into which none is ever put back." " Your opinion of the country is a very despondent one." He replied by this verse of the Qur'an, " Unto every nation is a fixed term decreed ; when their term, therefore, is expired they shall not have respite for an hour, neither shall their punishment be an- ticipated." 252 M This work bears internal evidence of having been written between the years 1835 and 1838, when the reforms of Mahmoud II. [vide note 243 , p. 206] had not yet had time to make themselves felt with all their force as they are now. ^- This occurs in the tenth chapter of the Qur'an. I do not know whence M. d'Arpentigny obtained his version, which reads : " Aucun peuple ne peut avancer ni reculer sa chute ; chaque nation a son terme fixe ; elle ne saurait ni le hater ni le retarder d'un instant ; Dieu seul est eterne]."' The above conversation is con- densed from B. Poujoulat's " Voyage d Constantino-pie" (Paris : 1840), vol. i., pp. 234-5. 212 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. ^[ 323. If a man is a Christian he hopes [positive force] ; if he "idaS ai i s a Muhammadan he resigns himself [negative force]. ^1 324. It is part of the nature of every type to revel in proudof to* 5 own * ts idiosyncrasies, and to despise and mistrust any- characteristics. thing which is foreign to it. [I shall have occasion to recur to this observation.] Where we find the combination of reason and science, intuitive in- stinct is frightened at itself. Among nations in which the elementary type predominates, they pride themselves on not being able to read or write; and they are taught concerning a god who is the friend of ignorance and poverty of soul. ^f 325. Thus, for instance, in Barbary, the possession of illustrations. a book j s ] oo k e d upon as a crime, 253 and in Turkey idiotcy is looked upon with reverence, as being some- thing holy. 254 Among the Kalmuks each family has in its tent a machine called the Tchukor, consisting of a cylinder 253 Wicked from the point of view of its being a strange and uncanny possession. The Rev. M. Russell, in his " History of the Barbary States' 1 '' (Edinburgh : 1835), says of the inhabitants with every show of reason : " Since the sun of knowledge rose again in Europe, the shades of intellectual night appear to have fallen with increased obscurity upon all the kingdoms of North Africa" [chap, iv., p. 145]. The same remark applies all over the Ottoman Empire. Dr. Shaw, in his " Travels r dating to Barbary" \vo\. xv. of " Pinker ton's Voyages and 7rave/s" (London: 1814), p. 637], remarks : "As for the Turks, they have no taste at all for learning, being- wonderfully astonished at how the Christians can take delight, or spend so much time and money, in such empty amusements as study and speculation. ... If we except the Koran, and some enthusiastic comments upon it, few books are read or inquired after by those persons of riper years, who have either time or leisure for study and contemplation." 251 Edmond de Amicis, in his chapter " Galata " \pfi. cit., note 241 , p. 207], gives an account of the consternation produced by the continual appearance of idiots in the streets of Constantinople without any let or hindrance. ELEMENTARY HANDS. 213 -covered with manuscript prayers and hymns, which ^[326. is put into motion by means of a mechanical arrange- a '^'heeis^ ment, which is wound up like a roasting-jack. This apparatus, by turning, blesses and prays to God for the whole family, an extremely convenient manner of attaining everlasting happiness without making too great an effort over the process. 253 2M p er haps the most marvellous invention which the Thibetan has devised for drawing- down blessings from the hypothetical beings with which his childish fancy has filled the heavens, are the well-known praying wheels, those curious machines which, filled with prayers, or charms, or passages from holy books, stand in the towns in every open place, are placed beside the footpaths and the roads, revolve in every stream, and even [by the help of sails like those of windmills] are turned by every breeze which blow over the thrice sacred valleys of Thibet." T. W. RH. DAVIDS, " Btiddhism, being a Sketch of the Life and Teachings of Gautama, the Euddha" (London: 1882), ch. iii., p. 210. Every Kalmuk or Thibetan Buddhist has also a private prayer- wheel of his own, which, being filled with a tight roll of parchment, on which is inscribed many thousands of times the formula, " O Buddha, Jewel of the Lotus I" he constantly revolves from right to left. A friend of mine tried very hard to purchase one of these apparatus, but in vain, for the owners believe that, should anyone turn them from left to right, all their prayers will pro- portionately be cancelled ! Vide also concerning this curious superstition Hue and Gabet's " Voyages" (Paris: 1850, vol. i.,p. 324); General Alexander Cun- ningham's " Ladak" (London: 1854), P- 3.74! Davis in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. ii., p. 494 ; Klaproth's " Reise in den Kaukasus " (Halle: 1812-14), vol. i., p. 181 ; and Jas. Ferguson's " Tree and Serpent Worship " (London : 1868). " So also," says T. W. Rh. Davids {pp. cit., p. 210], "these simple folk are fond of putting up what they call ' Trees of Law,' that is, lofty flagstaffs with silk flags upon them, blazoned with that mystic charm of wonder- working power, the sacred words, ' Om Mani padm? hum'' ['Ah! the jewel is in the Lotus']. Whenever the flags are blown open by the wind, and ' the holy six syllables ' are turned towards heaven, it counts as if a prayer were uttered, not only upon the pious devotee at whose expense it was put up, but also upon the whole country side." 214 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. 1 327. Some nations there are, who have left behind them characteristics. a glorious reputation for superlative horsemanship, such, for instance, as the Parthians, 256 the Persians, 257 the Thessalians, 258 etc., or for having left behind them the most stupendous and indestructible monuments, like the Cyclops, Egyptians, 259 etc., or for having lived free, and valiantly maintained the democratic form of government, e.g., the Athenians. Again, we know concerning the Sybarites that they dressed horses to perfection ; that theirs was a republican form of government ; that they were adepts at the precise hewing and elegantly magnificent super- imposition of huge stones. Nevertheless the word Sybarites. " Sybarite," classed in the present day among de- rogatory epithets, is no longer applied to a man excepting as an insult. Whence comes this state of things ? Is it because they slept upon beds of roses ? A moment's reflection will show us that, besides the fact that such beds could not be in very general use, a bed of roses could not be more com- fortable than one of straw, and would be more a 258 The superlative horsemanship of the Parthians, and their custom of firing their arrows whilst pretending to fly [whence our term "a Parthian shot"], have been a theme to almost every poet and prose writer of anti- quity. Thus we have the passages in Horace, book i., Ode 19, v. n, and book ii., Ode 13, v. 17; Herodian, " His tor ia rum Romanarum" book iii. ; Lucan,^j- sim ; Virgil, " Gcorgic." iii., 1. 31 ; " ^Eneid" vii., 1. 606. 207 Referring no doubt to the "immortal guard" of 10,000 horsemen who were attached to the person of the king of Persia. 258 The Thessalian cavalry was, after the Parthian, the finest in the ancient world. 2.09 Tne most solid walls and impregnable fortresses were said, among the ancients, to be the work of the Cyclops, to render them more respectable" {Lemfiriere}. The builders of the Pyramids of Thebes, of Carnac, and of Luxor, hardly require a note to illustrate their masonic capacities. ELEMENTARY HANDS. 215 [1 37 matter of experiment or of pageantry than of effemi- nacy or sensuality. No, the Sybarites, a rich and a civilised nation, having been overwhelmed and destroyed by barbarians, were slandered by their conquerors, 260 who execrated in them all the instincts of civilisation in the same way that the Cimbrians and the Teutons,* who were overwhelmed by civil- ised conquerors, have been calumniated by their exterminators, who loathed in them their barbaric instincts. 261 Like that of the other types, the Elementary Type, ^[328. whilst it remains irresistibly attached to the tendencies ^^jf^!^ 260 The luxury and fastidiousness of the Sybarites have been chanted by many a writer ; by none more than by yElian,who,in his accounts of Smindarides ["Far. Hist." ix. 24, and xii. 24], aims at the whole nation. Of their valour, however, and of their power as a nation, there is no question. Sybaris was finally reduced, 508 B.C., by the disciples of Pythagoras, after a long and vigorous resistance against the town of Crotona. Ztil The brazen bull to whom the Cimbri and Teutons were in the habit of making their sacrifices of human blood is thus mentioned by Plutarch in his "Life of Caius Marius " : " The barbarians now assaulted and took the fortress on the other side of the Athesis, but admiring the bravery of the garrison, who had behaved in a manner suitable to the glory of Rome, they dismissed them upon certain conditions, having first made them swear to them upon a brazen bull. In the battle which followed this bull was taken among the spoils, and is said to have been carried to Catulus' house, as the first- fruits ' of the victory" [Lang-home's Translation], Strabo^'G^tf^vv///^," bookvii., cap. ii. (3)] describes the rite of the Cimbrians sacrificing their prisoners, and catching their blood to draw auguries from, but does not mention the brazen bull. The best quasi-classic account which we have of the Cimbri and Teutons is Christophorus Cellarius' " Dissertatio Historica de Cimbris et Teutonis" (Magdeburg: 1701). * They used to sprinkle with human blood the altar of a brazen bull, their principal idol, but barring this they were just, content, brave, and devoted to their leaders and to their friends. AUTHOR'S NOTE. 2l6 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1 3-8] of its nature, modifies and transforms itself according to the times and places in which it lives. ^f 329. Greece, still in a condition of barbarism and Personifications governed by instinct fas is natural to every society of national . . n J J characteristics, which exists m a state of syncretism], saw the em- bodiment of its idiosyncrasies in the formidable Klementary types. features of Polyphemus ; later on she saw it adorned with the natural grace and repose of rustic moralities. Caliban in rough and foggy England, Maelibaea beneath the scented pines of the Sabine hills, Sancho amid the joyous turmoil of the Castilian hostelries, are after all merely different re-incarnations of this same idea. ^f 330. The General Rapp seems to me to have been the illustration, j^ggj. expression of the conico-elementary type, as it elementary, has manifested itself among the upper classes of our app ' society under the Empire. He was a man in appear- ance round, broad, highly-coloured, and of striking individuality, with manners at the same time sumptuous and rustic, theatrical and soldierly, who required either a luxurious bed and a delicate arrange- ment of furniture, or a truss of hay and a wooden spoon. In Dantzig, in i8i2, 202 where we used to call him the Pasha on account of his pomp and peculiar order of merit [that of the sword], he liked to drive about in an open vehicle, magnificently dressed, lounging rather than sitting with his mistress, an affected German with prominent cheek bones, to whom his inferior officers used to pay court as if she had been a queen. His magnificent feasts, at which there figured daily a hypocritical and despised dish of boiled horse-flesh, were an insult to the miseries 262 General Jean Rapp [b. 1772, d. 1821], was re-in- stated in the command of Dantzig in December 1812 by Napoleon. Here he sustained one of the most memorable sieges of the century [January 1813 Janu- ary 1814]. LAKOUSSE "Dictionnairedu XIX e Sicde" Art. " Rapp.") See also Martin's "Histoire de France " (Paris: 1879), vol. iv., p. 67. ELEMENTARY HANDS. [f 33o] of the soldiers, to whom he would habitually and willingly give money with his own hands, but whom he abandoned in his carelessness to the rapacity of writers, and of commissariat agents. At the theatre, where the subaltern epaulette could only gain admis- sion to the pit, eight or ten boxes were ornamented with the colours of his startling and vividly-insolent liver}'. In the same way that his own henchmen, beneath the rustling plumes of their aigrettes of cock feathers, had his name always on "their lips, the name of the Emperor, his master, was always on his ; he owed his promotion, firstly, to his exalted fetish- worship of the Hero of November; 263 secondly, to his grand audacity; and, lastly, to a kind of rough flattery, seasoned with a kind of capricious good-fellowship, which he used to great advantage. Without any cultivated talents, but not without tact and subtlety, he had recourse in all circumstances of difficulty to a faculty for dissembling which he summoned to the aid of his incapacity and of his ignorance. Such, however, was his opinion of himself that he con- sidered us well paid for our hardships, and considered himself quit of any obligation to us for our troubles, when he had said to us on parade " that he was M3 Napoleon was known as " L'Heros de Brumaire," because it was on the gth November, 1799, that he brought about the coup d'etat from which he emerged First Consul, and which was the first step towards the establishment of the empire. Vide H. Martin's " Hist. Franc." vol. iii., pp. 80-88. Rapp, in his own Memoirs [" Metnoires du General Rapp " (Londres : 1823), chap, i. , p. 4], says concerning the friendship which existed between him and Napoleon: "Zeal, frankness, and a certain aptitude in arms, gained for me his confidence. He has often said to those around him, that it would be difficult to have more natural good sense and discern- ment than Rapp. They repeated these praises to me, and I confess that I was flattered by them. ... I would have died for him to prove my gratitude ; and he knew it." On pp. 217-90 he describes the siege of Dantzig. 2l8 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [H 33J satisfied with us." Beyond these peculiarities he was a good man, hating set speeches, serviceable, always ready with similes and parallels, and generous often to a fault. ^f 331. Elementary hands are; for the most part, more Susceptibilities access ibl e to the charms of poetry than to those of of the type. J science. It was to the lyric measures of Orpheus, and to the harmonies of the flute of Apollo, that in the old Greek world the first communities of men were formed, and the first towns were built. 2Ji . H 332. i n the depth of the forest, or on the deserted sea- Superstitions of the ryp shore, by night, when the boundless ocean moans with the murmur of the tempest, hands which are elemen- tary are the more troubled by phantoms, spectres, and pallid apparitions, in proportion as their finger- tips are more or less conical. But whatever be the form of the terminal phalanx, the type is always much influenced by superstition. Finland, Iceland, 265 and Lapland abound with wizards and sorcerers. 1"333. Elementary-handed subjects, whom neither inertia \ Weakness^ of the nor i nsens ibility have been able to protect from pain j and sorrow, succumb the more readily to their attacks, / from the fact that they are generally entirely wanting/ in resources and in moral strength. 261 In allusion, I presume, to the legends that Orpheus was one of the Argonauts, from whom the Lemnian and other races are said to have sprung ; and that Apollo, the god of music, is said to have assisted Neptune in raising the walls of Troy. ^ Icelandic legends are full of tales of sorcerers and elves. Several occur in Mr. C. Warnford Lock's volume, " The Home of the Eddas" (London : 1879), which may be taken as specimens of the kind of legend which is most popular. The curious in such matters should consult also Dr. Wagner's " Manual of Norse Mythology. Asgard and the Gods, the Tales and Traditions of our Northern A noes tor s, ' ' adapted by M. W. Macdonall, and edited by W. S. W. Anson (London : 1884), which is a complete epitome of Norse, Finnish, and Icelandic superstitions. SECTION V. Cfce ^patulate Cppe. SUB-SECTION IX. SPATUI ATE HANDS. [Plate V.] r IN this chapter I propose to deal only with spatulate V hands whose thumbs are large that is to say. with those in which the instinct which is peculiar to these hands, supported by the promptings of the brain, makes itself the most clearly manifest. The intel- ligent reader, after what I have said anent small thumbs, will be able easily to appreciate the intricacies of the mixed types which form themselves upon the groundwork of a spalulate hand. By a spatulate hand I mean one, the outer phalanges of whose fingers present the appearance of a more or less flattened-out spatula (to borrow a term from the dispensing chemist). \Vide Plate V.] The spatulate hand has undoubtedly its origin in the latitudes where the inclemency of the climate, and the comparatively sterile nature of the soil, render locomotion, action, movement, and the practice of the arts whereby the physical weakness of man is pro- V 15 SPATULATE TYPE. ^ 333. ^ge-thumbe subjects. f 336. The spatulate hand. f 337 Its origin. 222 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1 337] tectctl, more obligatory upon man than they are under more southern skies. ^ 338. Resolute, rather than resigned, the spalulate characterUtfcs. nas resources for the resistance and conquest of physical difficulties, of which the conic hand is S absolutely ignorant. The latter, more contemplative than active, prefer [especially among meridional nations] the ills to which the flesh is heir, to the exertions requisite to overcome them. The self-Vx confidence of spatulate subjects is extreme ; they aim) at abundance and not [like the elementary subjects] / merely at sufficiency. They possess in the highest degree the instincts of real life ; and by their naturaM intelligence they rule matters mundane, and material / interests. Devoted to manual labour and to action, V and consequently endowed with feelings which are more energetic than delicate, constancy in love is more easy to them than it is to minds which are poetic, and which are more attracted by the charms of youth and beauty than by a sense of duty and by ethics. All the great workers, the great navigators, the great hunters, from Nimrod to Hippolytus and Bas-de-Cuir, have all been renowned for their sobriety and continence. 266 ^1 339. Of the goddess of the dazzling forehead, Diana, Greek ''m'ythc* * ne white- footed, the finely-formed, whose immortal logy. life devoted to the chase is spent in the liberty and activity of the woods, the Greeks made a personifica- tion of chastity. 267 :66 I do not know upon what episodes Nimrod, " the mighty hunter before the Lord" [Gen. x. 9], and Bas- de-Cuir base their claims to sobriety and continence. The Hippolytus mentioned is, I presume, the son of Theseus and Hippolyte, the Joseph of profane literature. Compare the passages in the 3rd book of Ovid's '''Fasti"'' [1. 268], and in the ;th "sEnetd" [1. 761, etc.]. : ' w According to Virgil \Joc. ctt.~\, Diana restored to life Hippolytus, named in the preceding note, as a reward for his exemplary chastity. THE SPATULATE TYPE. 223 r With smooth fingers, spatulate subjects like comfort 1 340. ... c r , . With smooth as well as elegance, but their elegance is ot a fashion- fingers. able rather than an artistic kind. Our colonists of the Antilles, people for the most 1 341. ... . <- j j i- L. Illustration. part luxurious and sparkling, who find delight in Colonists of the movement, in dissipation, in dancing, and in billiard Antilles. and .fencing saloons, who love to struggle for the mastery with vicious horses, whose sole amusements are hunting, fishing, and conquests in love, these colonists, I say, necessarily the descendants of ad- venturers distinguished by a love of hazard and of action, have, probably almost all of them, hands like those of our circus riders and of the satellites of our jockey-club stables, that is to say, smooth -fingered and spatulate. Larger spatulate hands are much more numerous in 1 342 Scotland than they are in England, in England than '""iuude^ they are in France, and in France than they are in Spain, and in mountainous than in flat countries. The painter Ribera, whose natural bent always led 1 "43. Painters of iht him to paint more or less ugly people, always gave type. the people he painted [as also did Murillo and Zurbaran] fingers which were more or less pointed ; which would certainly not have been the case had it not been that the generality of the hands that he saw around him, being thus pointed, gave him as it were a law in the matter. Big, square, and spatulate hands abound, on the contrary, in the pictures of the Dutch and German schools. In Spain it is in Galicia and Asturia that one sees 1344. the most spatulate hands, and it is from this rocky M . untaineers J in bpain. and mountainous district that all the muleteers, and all the labouring people that one finds in the penin- sula originally come. The Kabyles inhabit, as we know, the slopes and 1345. 11 t- . i A.I .1 North African valleys of the Atlas range ; they are the most spatu- ^-^^ late-handed, and also the most hardworking people to 224 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1 345] be found in Algeria. The Bedouins of the desert, an indolent and ferocious race, are hardly more than shepherds, and their hands are enormous. Super- stition is the sole sentiment by which they are in any way affected. ^f 346. The Swiss are actuated alike by the love of labour, Swiss hands. . j i , T>I c i patience, and obstinacy. They are a race of people only very slightly poetic, upon whom God, who has placed them upon a soil which is subject to landslips and avalanches, has bestowed by way of compensation a love of mechanics and dynamics. 268 Tf347. Among the Russians the elementary hand is the Ow'sacks most common, and among the Cossacks [who are a Elementary and Mongolian race], the spatulate. The Russians lead spatulate hands. , ,. ... , sedentary lives, and travel in carriages ; the Cossacks lead an active life, and travel on horseback. The Russians are mercers, innkeepers, -shopkeepers, and bankers ; the Cossacks are artizans, and construct for themselves the implements and utensils of which they make use. The Russians owe their military glory to their discipline, it is a characteristic which distinguishes them as a race; among the Cossacks, who aim at renown as the result of personal prowess, glory is a thing which attaches only to individuals. , ^[348. For the following reasons the most stable colonies >y o/theTy'pewi are f rme d by spatulate-handed people rather than colonists. " m At this point we find in the original a paragraph which reads as follows : " ' The wants of man,' says Lady Morgan, 'are his most powerful masters, and the means adopted for the satisfaction of his wants are infallible indices of the real position of a nation upon the ladder of civilisation ; for the highest possible point of social refinement is no more than a more perfect development of certain physical resources ; and the most lofty aspiration of human knowledge is simply a more judicious application of the faculties which have been given us for the support of our existence.' " I do not know the works of the "Lady Morgan" referred to, so I have no means of identifying the passage. THE SPATULATE TYPE. 22$ d 348] by others : (a) Almost insensible to art or to poetry, they are endowed with a very small share of the instincts which lead to moral instability, (ft] They ^/ attach themselves to a country merely for the material benefits which accrue to them therefrom, (y) Manual labour is agreeable to them rather than antipathetic ; and it is the same with all kinds of active exercise. (8) They suffer from the absence of abundance, but not from absence of the superfluous, for they are only slightly sensual. They are more greedy than epicurean, and you will find among them more faithful husbands than gallant " sigisbes," 269 more Freres Jean than Panurges. 270 (e) Their love of loco- motion renders them comparatively insensible to the annoyances, I will not say of exile, but of expatria- tion. () Accustomed as they are by the multiplicity of the wants which assail man in our northern lati- tudes [their indigenous habitations] to rely principally on their own exertions, they have no innate objection to solitude. (77) Finally, they are apt at sciences which / are merely those of physical necessity, and which in ( ordinary life affect only those things which are con- and immovable. 271 France, after having populated with hands of this 1349. , .. -~, .... - T . . Effect of emi description, Canada, and certain districts or Louisiana, gration on France and 269 This word [the Italian cicisbed}, derived from the Spain ' old French chiche and beau, meaning the caraliere sen'enfe of the Middle Ages, is rapidly becoming [socially and philologically] extinct. A most interest- ing article upon the word is to be found in Larousse's "Dictionnaire du XIX* Siec/e" (Paris : 1866-77). 270 M. d'Arpentigny has, I think, adopted extreme illustrations in citing Frere Jean and Panurges as examples of the glutton and of the gallant. Vide If 215, and note I6a , p. 157. 271 Compare with these paragraphs Bacon's Essay " Of Plantations" [1625], and the very interesting remarks on colonists, which are recorded in S. T. Cole- ridge's " Table Talk," under date I4th August, 1831. 226 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1 349] felt [her feelings have often saved her by checking her ideas] that she could go no further in that direction without injuring herself; and Spain, having consigned nearly all her hands of this description to America, and having thus deprived herself, not only of soldiers and agriculturists, but also of that moral counterpoise which the ideas which these hands represent, afford to ideas which are mystic, sensual, artistic, and poetic, has only just stopped short of absolute extinction from physical and moral ex- haustion. 5 350. Whence conies the severely practical common- \ North A men an hands. sense of the North Americans, if it is not from these "working hands," scattered over a space which they can comprehend without enervating themselves, and from resting their faith upon institutions which har- S monise with their instincts ? <[ 351. jj a( j j t not been for the intervention of northern Dutch and Spanish hands genius by the hands of the Flemish and Walloons in contrast.^ the affairs of Southern Europe in the sixteenth cen- tury, the glory of Charles V., deservedly great as it was, might perhaps have been nothing more than that of an ordinary victorious prince.* 7 - Certainly Spain owes much of her solidity to the qualities which she found among her Flemish, and which were absolutely wanting among her Spar is i subjects. To this day these two nations are distinguished by the most startling contrasts : the Spaniards are prompt and " r - Charles V. of Germany, being the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, took possession of the Spanish throne as Charles I. of Spain on the death of his gfandfather in 1516, his grandmother being mentally deranged. He ascended the throne of Germany in 1519, and was one of the most victorious and chivalrous princes that the world had seen since Alexander the Great. It was in his reign that the celebrated diet at Worms was held [1521], at which Luther made the great declaration of his principles. He relinquished the crown of Spain in 1556 to his son Philip II. THE SPAfULATE TYPE. 227 Ct 3Si] violent, but constitutionally indolent ; the Dutch, on the other hand, are slow and cold-blooded, but con- stitutionally laborious ; the Spanish are only stubborn under the influence of passion, the Dutch are so only under the influence of self-inlerests. Beneath an appearance of inertia which is almost stupid, the Dutch hide an extremely keen intelligence of positive facts; the Spaniards beneath an air of phlegmatic gravity, conceal an imagination constantly running upon excitements and adventures. The Dutch can only thoroughly comprehend what appertains to real life, and they take a special pride in wanting for nothing; the Spanish can only appreciate phases of life which are romantic and contemplative, and pride themselves on being able to do with very little. Before the gifts of hard work, such as science and wealth, which are so dear to the Flemish, the Spaniards esteem those of chance, such as beauty, valour, genius, and good birth. It was with his large, square-handed Dutchmen ^[352. that Charles V. established, turned to good account, ^ tw ^ and organised the countries which he had conquered with his thin and pointed-handed Spaniards. 17 * In proportion as the love of arbitrary facts forms l! 353 - ,.._... .. i.,-,/. Liberty of the the basis of the instincts of every man who is fond of t>TW . material power [just as action requires liberty for its exercise, and spatulate-handed people are always active, or at any rate restless], so is liberty, wher- ever they are in majority as they are in England and the United States, a political institution ; a fact which does not prevent, but rather proves, that of all people in the world the English and the Americans are the most prone to exclusiveness and individuality. M. Dupin the elder, whose motto is, " Every man *" Dupin aiac. 1=1 Vide the preceding note. 228 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. LI 354] for himself and by himself," has large, ugl\ hands, which are knotty and spatulate. 274 ^[355. It is from the restless crowd of spatulate subjects Predilections of .. , .. , ... the type. that we S e ^ these eternal gangers and everlasting measurers, whose admiration for works of architec- ture measures itself by the greater or less extent of the surface of those monuments ; their instinct of grandeur is not in the form, it is in the number ; they are governed by arithmetic. That which does not astonish them [and they are not easily surprised] does not please them, but you will always find them going into ecstasies over those colossal monoliths, whether ornamented or not, whose unearthing, whose transport, or whose erection awakens in their minds ideas of muscular effort and mechanical industry, which are pleasant to them. ^[356. In the north, where spatulate and square hands ine amst and j majority, the artist is swallowed up by the the artizan. J J > J artizan ; in Italy, in Spain, and even in France the artizan is effaced by the artist. In the north there is more opulence than luxury, in the south there is more luxury than wealth. ^[357. You are a man of cultivation, but still you do not H ' ' " f P art i cu l ar ly care f r tne beauties of architecture and - 74 A. M. Jean Jacques Dupin, known as Dupin Aine, to distinguish him from his brothers Charles and Philippe, was born in February 1783, and died in November 1865. He was one of the most eminent lawyers that France has ever known, though his reputa- tion has mainly survived as a politician of the "Vicar of Bray " school, by reason of an elastic political con- science, which gained for him the appellation of " le chamelion political." He was elected a depute 'in 1827, and became a member of the council of Louis Philippe in July 1830. In 1832 we find him President of the Chamber of Deputies, and in 1848 President of the Legislative Assembly. After the Coupd'Efatoi 1851, he disappeared fora while, re- appearing, successful and energetic as ever in a new cause, on the restoration of the house of Orleans in 1857. THE SPATULATE TYPE. 22 9 [1 357] of antique monumental sculpture. A town is fine in your eyes, if it is divided by long straight streets, cutting each other at right angles ; if it has sym- metrical squares filled with uniformly-built houses, and public gardens planted with regularly-trimmed trees. As for statues, you do not find them neces- sary, and you can do without marble basins, columns, and caryatids ; but you like green shutters, neat pavements, and white walls, whose painted doors are ornamented with shining brass knockers. You require that the town, regular and prosperous, shall suggest to the observer respectability, felicity, and order. It' has been built and decorated by people notable for good sense rather than for imagination. Nothing that is either useful or even comfortable is missing, but the " family fool " will seek there in vain for his Divine pastures poetry. Well, these predilections announce in you a hand which is spatulate or square; it is in England, in Belgium, or in the north of France, countries where your type predominates, and where consequently its concomitant genius is alone appreciated, that you must fix your abode. Start thither at once ! and may this inexorable symmetry rest lightly upon your soul ! ! SUB-SECTION X. SPATULATE HANDS [continued]. National Characteristics and Hands. IF 358. WHEN society is dominated by a single idea, the men Increase of the type. who embody and personify that idea naturally achieve power and wealth, and with power and wealth they win women of their own kind. Thus the idea becomes supported by a number of ad- herents who are bound to it by ties of organisation and relationship, and becomes far more powerfully- supported than it would have been if the idea had not already become powerful. It is a well-known axiom in stud-farms that the horse generally [though not always] hands down with his physical form his mental intelligence to his progeny. To a certain extent the same remark applies to men. ^f 359. Left alone, men remain at a standstill, like the Effect of peoples who prevent the infusion of foreign blood into exclusivenesj. . their veins by the enforced seclusion of their woman- kind, and by the separation of their race into castes, m- 3gQ On the one hand, nations among whom these Progressive and usages do not exist have made progress by their unprogressive r , . , , , ., , nations. wars [which have, by a great poet, been described as the motive-power of the human race] and by invasion ; whilst, on the other, those who have been 275 As, for instance, the Turks \yide note 242 , p. 206] and the Indians. THE SPATULATE TYPE. 231 [f 360] deprived of the salutary influences of the infusion of foreign blood have degenerated, instead of trans- forming themselves, as a natural result of the constant reiteration of the same causes. Distinguished only by a downward tendency, the people of the Indies are to-day practically what they were in the time of Alexander. 276 ^ 361. And we may remark by the way. that if the force Permanence a ' sign of of the genius of a man may be measured by the excellence, greater or less permanence of his work, what ad- miration we must feel for the high and penetrating intelligence which constructed the yoke beneath which, for five thousand years, succeeding genera- tions of Hindoos have consented to bow. 277 276 If proof were wanted of this statement, it might be found in the Laws of Manu, of which a scholarly English translation and edition has been made by Dr. A. C. Burnell : "The Ordinances of Manu; translated from the Sanskrit" (London : 1884). These laws, by which the entire native populations of the East Indies are governed, are of incomparable antiquity, though it is probable that the first regular codification and tabu- lation of them took place somewhere between Anno Domini and A.D. 700. The question with all the evidence is discussed at length in Dr. Burn ell's translation above cited; in India they refer their origin to 1250 B.C. and this date was accepted as correct by Sir William Jones. (Professor Monier Williams, in his "Indian Wisdom,''' London : 1875, p. 215), put the date at 500 B.C. ; Johaent- gen[" Ueber das Gesetzbuch des Manu " (Berlin: 1863), p. 950] dates them at 350 B.C. ; and Schlegel at 1000 B.C. Following, however, the line of argument adopted in his Introduction by Dr. Burnell, his date is, I should think, approximately correct for the tabulation, but I understand from a Brahmin of very advanced Oriental and European education that their origin is probably correctly dated by Sir William Jones. 277 Vide the preceding note. The origin of Buddhism is lost in the shadows of the remotest antiquity ; as much as can be known on the subject may be gathered from Rhys David's "Buddhism'" (London: 1882), or from Spence Hardy's ^ Manual of Buddhism" (London: 1853 and 1880). 232 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. 1 362. In the United States, whither new people continually unchangeable betake themselves from all parts of the world, the laws laws. undergo, every year, modifications suggested by the changes which have taken place in the temperament of the nation, 278 whereas in China and Japan, empires hermetically sealed against any influences of foreign extraction, the laws [however important or un- important they may be] remain stationary, like the national wants from which they take their origin, a state of things brought about by the unchanging nature of the national organisation. 279 ^f 362a. These things prove the correctness of Montesquieu's Definition of , . . . T , . law. definition of law : " Law, says he, ' is a necessary relation among men, resulting from the existent nature of things." 280 27S It will probably occur to the reader that this might be said of any nation among whom the constitutional form of government exists. 7D The present centralised form of government was substituted for the previous feudal form about 2,000 years ago ; Thomas Meadows, in his work " The Chinese and their Rebellion " (London : 1856, ch. ii., p. 22), says : "All Chinese law is carefully codified and divided into chapters, sections, and sub-sections. Some parts of this law are as old as the Chinese administrative system itself [y. su^pJ]. One of the oldest, and by the people most venerated, of the codes is that which most nearly concerns themselves the penal. This, commenced 2,000 years ago, has grown with the nation," etc. Sir Rutherford Alcock, in " The Capital of the Tycoon " (London: 1863, ch. ii., p. 62), gives us the same informa- tion concerning the antiquity of these laws [p. 223], and makes on the subject of Japanese legislation the following remark [p. 410] : " A land so strangely governed by unwritten laws and irresponsible rulers I say unwritten, for though the ministers tell me a written code exists, I have been unable to obtain a copy. A country without statute law or lawyers does seem an anomaly with a civilisation so advanced." 280 T n j s aphorism occurs in Montesquieu's book " De FEsfirit de la Loi r (Paris: 1816, liv. i., ch. i.), where he says : " Laws, in the widest acceptation of the term, THE SPATULATE TYPE. 233 The harsh and inflexible laws of Sparta were well If 363. adapted to the spatulate descendants of the Hera- Athens" elides, just as the elastic laws of the Athenians were contrasted. well framed for the brilliant and mobile genius of that nation, that nation " enslaved by the extra- ordinary and loathing the commonplace ; who in their fondness of fine oratory, trusted their ears even more than their eyes, and who, not reasoning with ordinary perspicacity upon any of the things which concerned them nearly, always led away by brilliant speech, and thus, as one might say, drawn about by the pleasures of their ears, seemed in their assemblies to be spectators ranged in a theatre to hear a sophis- tical discussion, rather than citizens deliberating upon matters which concerned the state."'- 81 M. Souvestre tells us that in the district of Leon, in 1361. Brittany, there are some villages whose inhabitants live Bre '" . Vllla s es a Ijfe which is a continual round of activity, excite- formity. are the relations rendered necessary by the nature of things ; and in this sense all living things are subject to laws."* M. d'Arpentigny has not transcribed as' correctly as he might have done. - sl The above paragraph is the substance of the 38th chapter of the 3rd book of the " Peloponnesian War " of Thucydides, in which Cleon tells the Athenians that their orators, who wish to stir up the question of the Mytileneans again, must either maintain a paradox to display their talents, or must be bribed to make the worse appear the better cause. He tells them that it is their own folly that gives them encouragement ; their passion for novelty ; their admiration of talent ; tempt- ing the orators to labour to gratify their craving for intel- lectual excitement rather than to propose sound sense to them in simple language. f * " Les lois, clans la signification la plus etendue, sont les rapports necessaires qui derivent de la nature des choses ; et dans ce sens tons les etres ont leurs lois." f Tir/TovfTfS re &\\o TI wj elwelv 7} ev ols fw/uej', povoui>Tes 5 ovde ireftl r&v TrapbisTUv IKO.VUS' O,TT\US re aKofjs ySovfj rjaffu/j-fvoi Kai ffoiffrwi> 6ia.ra.ls eotK&res KaOr]/ji.ei>ois /j.a\\ov fj irepl s." 00TKTAIAOT ST1TPA*HS Bi/3\. F (38). 234 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [f 364] ment, and holiday-making, whilst there are others which are entirely populated by people who are chronically melancholy, discontented-looking, and morose ; and he attributes this state of things very reasonably to the religiously-followed custom of the exclusive inter-marriage of people of the same village. 283 f 3G5. Communism, as understood and defined by certain communism, theoreticians of the present day, might be practicable in a small nation whose racial idiosyncrasies are kept pure from the influences of foreign blood. Indeed, what was the government of Sparta at the bottom, but a kind of wisely-organised communism well, the Spartans alone, of all the Greek tribes, never admitted a stranger to the freedom of their city. 283 282 Emile $ouvestre, "es Derniers Bretons " (Paris: 1854, vol. i., p. 20), speaking of the inhabitant of Leon, says : " His joy is serious, and only breaks out in flashes, as if in spite of himself. Grave and concen- trated, he shows but little interest in his dealings with the external world." And later on [p. 45], speaking- of the inhabitant of Cornonaille, he says : " As in the rest of Brittany, the religious taint is perceptible, it is mingled everywhere with a light-hearted gaiety. I have already said that it is in the festive solemnities of life, rather than in lugubrious ceremonies, that you must seek his character. Poetic and bright in pleasure, he is awkward and trivial in sorrow ; it would seem as if the ' Leon-ard ' and he had shared life between them, to the one joys, and to the other sadness. Thus, if you go into the neighbourhood of Leon, ask to assist at a deathbed scene or a funeral ; but if you are among the mountains of Artres, go in for betrothals and wedding- breakfasts." It is evidently from these passages that M. d'Arpentigny has taken this paragraph. 283 This is what we find in Plutarch's " Life of Lycurgus." He says : " He would not permit all that desired it to go abroad and see other countries, lest they should contract foreign manners, acquire traces of a life of little discipline, and of a different form of govern- ment. He forbade strangers, too, to resort to Sparta who could not assign a good reason for their coming, THE SPATULATE TYPE. 255 The strange epoch which extended from the ninth ^[366. to the twelfth century, was essentially that of hard, ^^xt spatulate hands. On the death of Charlemagne, who centuries had endeavoured to reconstruct the principles of Roman civism, the hard, spatulate subjects relapsed into the individualism which characterises them. The state of society which they brought about, a society divided into innumerable little groups, each independent of the others, could only realise the meaning of an idea by the examination of its outward and visible form.'- 84 Each group had its peculiar leader, catchword, device, and standard ; every pro- fession had clothes peculiar to itself. Without these external signs all would have been chaos, for, when all are enveloped in an equally dense haze of ignorance, order and civilisation [when they exist] are apparent in matters material rather than in matters ideal. Besides, all these hands, clothed as it were in gauntlets of brass, aspire to command ; they desire, they search after war, war, or else its simulacra, tournaments and the chase. To them are these long not [as Thucydides says] out of fear that they should imitate the constitution of that city, and make improve- ments in their own virtue, but lest they should teach his own people some evil. For along with foreigners come new subjects of discourse ; new discourse produces new opinions ; and from these things necessarily spring new passions and desires which, like discords in music, would disturb the established government. He, there- fore, thought it more expedient for the city to keep out of it corrupt customs and manners, even than to prevent the introduction of a pestilence." Langhorne's Translation. Compare also what Bacon says on this peculiarity of the Spartans in his Essay "OfGreatnesse of Kingdomes and Estates," contrasting their exclu- siveness with the liberalism of the Romans. 281 This state of things which ensued, as our author says, was entirely owing to the rise of the feudalism which Charlemagne [v. sup.~\ had always endeavoured to repress. Henri Martin in his " Histoire " [vol. ii., 236 THE SCIENCE OF . THE HAND. If 366] cavalry rides and warlike commotions of steel, especially dear. Glory and honour to the strong, shame and misfortune to the weak. What is overt licence but the offspring of power ? and the less it is restrained by law or philosophy, the more fascinating it is. Thus they attain to the enjoyment of the mere pleasures of the senses the only pleasures capable of being appreciated at a time when intellectual enjoy- ments are utterly ignored, except in the retirement of the cloister. ^[367. Spatulate hands are valiant, industrious, and Characteristics , ' . , . . i 1,1 r- ^i of the type, active ', they have the power and the genius of the hands of Cyclops ; they forge impregnable armour, and cover the earth with battlemented castles which rear themselves upon the crests of rocky promon- tories, protected by deep waters and impenetrable forests. They build huge dungeons, theatres of orgies and terrible tragedies, haunts everlastingly ringing with shouts, haunts which they attack, defend, and Contrast, contend for, with a ferocity which is terrific. At rare intervals, pointed- handed subjects devoted to prayer liv. xiii., p. 364] says: " Le Genie de 1'Empire Frankain, en remontant au ciel, laissait les peuples occidentaux a 1'entree d'une des plus longues et plus douloureuses crises qu'ait eue a traverser I'humanite, de la crise qui enfanta la societe feodale." Eyre Evans Crowe [" History of France" (London: 1858), vol. i., p. 38], speaking of the commencement of the ninth century, says: "The development of wealth and the accumulation of money came to give society a new and different impulse. That of the first ages of the modern world was limited to the destruction of the classification of society which existed in the ancient world. In it men were slaves, citizens, functionaries, or emperor ; the modern world came forth without these. It presented a territorial aristocracy, replacing the functionary, and exercising his authority, nullifying the emperor, ignoring the citizen; and with an agricultural class of many grades, but never descending to the abjectness of a slave." THE SPATULATE TYPE. 237 [II 367] and to celibacy, opening the gateways of the monas- teries, implore the benefits of the peace of God. The real peace of God, it has been properly observed, belongs to the twelfth century. If these powerful hands had not conquered all ^[368. women with whom they were thrown into contact, O f tbe'type. their reign would have been of shorter duration. They raised themselves, and in a manner multiplied, by means of the axe and the sword, and it was the axe and the sword which, precipitating them in turn, one after another, from the heights of their rugged deserts, put an end at last to their brutal and savage domination. In Russia the nobles have acquired such rights 1F 269- r , Russian sooia [whether by custom or by law] over the women on science. their estates, that the population hardly resents at all the periodical enforced sale of all the young people in their villages.- 85 Well, these nobles, a proud and rampant class of men, ostentatious and avaricious, full of vices and of cunning, say that they are of a 285 "It is especially in the remoter provinces that the power of the rich nobles is unrestrained, and the oppressed would accuse his oppressor in vain. The master can, if the caprice so takes him, sell his serfs or change them like any other merchandise," etc. M. CHOPIN, " Russie" (Paris : 1838), vol. i., pp. 25 and 31. The Marquis de Custine, in his work 'La Russie en 1839 " (Paris : 1843, vol. i., p. 331), says : " The serf is the chattel of his master ; enrolled from his birth until his death in the service of the same master, his life represents to this proprietor of his labour merely a part of the sum necessary for his annual capricious expenditure." Sir A. Alison, on the other hand, approved rather than otherwise of the institution of serfdom, on the ground that serfs were attached to the soil, and, though they could be sold with it, they could not be sold without it, "a privilege of incalculable value, for it prevents the separation of husband and wife, parent and child." "History of Europe" (Lon- don : 1854). Serfdom was abolished by Alexander II. in 1861. Alfred Rambaud ["History of Russia," 16 238 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. LI 369] race superior to that of the people ; in this way they are bringing about the ruin of their influence, by multiplying among the masses the number of in- dividuals, already not a few, to whom they have transmitted their spirits with their blood. The in- continence of the great is the hotbed in which are developed the germs of the liberty of the humble. 280 ^[370. You can tell those people who pride themselves' The hand as an . , ,. ,. ,, indication of upon a descent in the direct line from the hardy race. braggarts of the ninth century, and who at the same time pride themselves upon the possession of a hand which is fine and pointed, that the two pretensions are incompatible. Every gentleman descended from the old fighting nobility, has necessarily a spatulateX hand. If his hand be pointed and fine, he must \ search his pedigree for some infusion of gentle or \ ecclesiastical blood, or else he must resign himself to I the presence of a bar sinister in his escutcheon,/ whether it be properly quartered or not. 287 1 371. Encumbered with untidy servants and yelping "owners" hounds, the habitations of the small landowners of Brittany exhale, just as they did in the time of Duguesclin, a continual odour of animals and litter. As ignorant of new ideas as are Chinese artists of translated by Leonora Lang (London: 1879), vol. ii., p. 392] tells us that " the new imperial commission . . . admitted the principle that the emancipation should not take place gradually, but that the law should ensure the immediate abolition of serfdom ; that the most effectual measures should be taken to prevent the re- establishment of the seignorial authority under other forms. . . . From these deliberations resulted the new law" [February igth March 3rd, 1861]. ' m The above was, of course, written before the abolition of serfdom in 1861. Since he wrote, the events foretold as above by M. d'Arpentigny have taken place, as he points out in this paragraph. 287 Compare on this point "Hf I0 ar >d J 54> ar >d " -A Mamial of Cheirosofihy" \\ 78 and 108. THE SPATULATE TYPE. 239 [If 370 the [for them incomprehensible] rules of perspective, these families, which I believe to be extremely ancient, which drink to excess, which blow horns, which understand their broad-shouldered horses, and are connoisseurs of their short-legged terriers, and whose connoisseurship stops short at these things, have always spatulate hands. The Tcherkesses consider the chase, pillage, and If 372. .... . , ,, . , , , The Tcherkesses. military exercises to be the most honourable occupa- tions possible for young men. Laws and obedience are unknown to them, and they can be governed only by eloquence and by the inspiration of respect and admiration. A handsome woman, a fine horse, an illustrious ancestry, a hardy -constitution and sparkling accoutrements, all of which inspire one with courage only to look upon them, are in the eyes of the whole nation the most precious benefits that can be conceived. There the serf waits upon the free man, who waits upon the noble, who, in his turn, waits upon the prince. The despotism which is exercised makes what they have to suffer tolerable. Spatulate hands ! 288 Each type looks for assistance in all its decisions ^f 373. of any importance to the resources with which it is typ^upon^their most richly endowed. We have seen that elementary characteiistics. hands obtain from their physical inertia [as regards obedience to law] the wages of innocence; whilst, appealing to address and to bodily strength, hands which are spatulate and hard think that they are appealing to the judgment of God. And note this, 188 M. le Capitaine has taken his views on the Tcher- kesses from H. J. von Klaproth's " Reise in den Caucasus" (Halle : 1812-14), of which a French epitome, entitled " Tableau Historique, Geographiqzie, Ethno- graphtque, et Politique du Caucase et des Provinces Limitrophes entre la Russie et la Perse" (Paris and Leipsic : 1827), on p. 70 of which a minute account of the Tcherkesses and their peculiar views may be found. 240 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1 373] that, however much the salient characteristics of each type may be, in the present day, effaced by the com- bined effects of the crossing of races, of civilisation, and of education, if, of two persons with whom you converse, one is remarkable for a profound apathy about anything which does not immediately concern him, and the other is remarkable for a spontaneous sympathy with prowess, whether well-directed or not, and with physical strength, a highly-developed palm will infallibly be the possession of the first, and a spatulate, or at all events a square hand will characterise the second. ^[ 374. In the same manner that if foxes and lions were Dominant members of society [as in the days of La Fontaine], classes L J the power would be in the hands of the most cunning among the former and the strongest among the latter : so each type when it is dominant, when it governs, never fails to select as its agents of all kinds, in- dividuals in whom its genius is the most perfectly reproduced. This is what I have just now [but in different words] expounded; but this eccentric tendency of each type of mankind, being the natural explana- tion of the differentiated civilisations which have governed upon earth, I have thought it necessary to emphasise my point to obtain for it the attention which it deserves. In the tenth century, which was the epoch of a civilisation directed by hard, spatulate hands, the all-powerful cohort of the ecclesiastics recruited itself from among the ranks of soldiers and Gcibcrt. mechanicians. Gerbert, who afterwards became pops [under the name of Sylvester II.], was raised from the rank of a simple monk to that of archbishop, because he had invented a clock with a balance movement.'- 89 is, I think, too arbitrarily stated by our author, probably for the sake of forcible illustration. There is no doubt that,, as C. F. Hock justly remarks: "Gerbert THE SPATULATE I VTE. 24! The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were under IF 375. the rule of psychological ideas, the reins of the world church. " were held by priests and theologians, such as Sugcr, Psychology. St. Bernard, Abelard, and so forth. r90 Francis I. and Leo X. are reputed "great," because 1376. their tastes, chiming in with those of the age in which LecTx they lived [which was one in which civilisation was Art - was far in advance of his age in the extent of his know- ledge and the aptitude with which he applied it .... this scientific activity bore its fruits." [" Histoire du Pape Sylvestre //.," traduit de 1'allemand par J. M. Axinger (Paris : n. d.}, p. 385]. Gerbert was a monk in the monastery of Fleury, in Burgundy, who made a journey to Cordova, in Spain, for the purpose of learning- some of their foreign arts. He is said to have been the first to have introduced Arabic numerals into north- western Europe, as also the clock with the balance action.* P. F. Lausser, in his " Gerbert, Etude Historique sur le Xe' s tne greatest possible stress upon the enormous influence of Suger over Louis VI. and the country in general Of his connection with St. Bernard he says [chap, xxxvi., p. 210] : " St. Bernard and Suger, these two lights of the Church in the twelfth century, . . . were destined to * " On Ini attribue aussi la construction de la premiere horologe mue pardes jjoids." Lnrousse, '"Dictionnaitedit XIX* 242 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. n 3 7 e] governed by artistic hands], led them to elevate above everything else beauty of external construction.- 91 ^[377. With square hands at the head of affairs, the genius Colbert and _ . . . .... . . Louvois. of material order and administrative science triumphed Order. j n t h e seventeenth century. No longer are artists sent forth as ambassadors, and no longer do they rise to the cardinalate. Colbert and Louvois hold the reins of government, and on all sides we find etiquette, arithmetic, regularity, and tact : bow down to them, harmonise the two great interests of which they were then the representatives. . . . Suger was the most clever and equitable mediator in the interests of Europe. [P- 374] Inventor of the science of politics in an age which knew but very little of its real secrets, he applied himself to the renaissance of public justice. By the help which he gave to St. Bernard he helped ecclesiastical reforms at the same time that he put political interests in harmony with those of religion, . . . but a glory which is due to him alone is that of having established the first foundations of public administra- tion and finance." Abelard was more of a philosopher than either Suger or St. Bernard, and it was as such that he influenced the destinies of the empire in the twelfth century. Charles du Remusat ["Abelard" (Paris : 1845), vol. i., p. 270] says of him : " Voltaire alone, perhaps, and his position in the eighteenth century, would give us some idea of what the twelfth century thought about Abelard. . . . Scholarship, the philosophy of five centuries, cites no greater name than his." 291 Concerning Francis I.'s love of art and his influence on letters in general, M. Capefigue's work, " Francois I. et la Renaissance" (Paris: 1845), gives us volu- minous particulars. Martin, in his history [vol. viii., bk. xlviii., p. 125, op. '/.], tells us that a taste for an elegant, accomplished, picturesque, and versatile civilisation was the sole affection to which Francis always remained faithful ; he deserved the title of u Pere des lettres" far more than that of " Roi Chevalier," and points out that, with all his faults, Francis never ceased to promote the interests of art. In the same way Leo X. [vide ^f 10, p. 36] was a great patron of the arts. " The claims of Leo X.," says William Roscoe, in his "Life a?id Pontificate of Leo A 7 "." (London: THE SPATULATE TYPE. 243 LI 377] O ye people ! for they hold the sceptre of adminis- tration. 292 To-day we elect our senators, our ministers, and 1 M*- _ , - . Materialism of our statesmen, from the ranks of lawyers, financiers, t o-day. and public caterers. A very small proportion of prin- Spatuiate type. ciple is sufficient for the wants of human society; the south has discovered and proclaimed them to the world. It was its mission to do so. Now we have arrived at an age of practical actualities ; it is the task of the north, sovereignly endowed with the intelligence of things real, to practise and incul- cate these principles. Well, public caterers, mer- chants, engineers, and industrial labourers belong almost exclusively to the types which govern in the north. In France, under the Empire, the advent of hard, 1 379 spatulate hands at the head of society was a mis- Rul< : f !] ar< i * spatulate hands fortune, for there is only one class of ideas which in France. stands lower in the scale of intelligence than those The Revc. cit., p. 21]. 17 254 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. LI 393] of the chase, their mathematical, musical, and astro- nomical instruments, display in their arid perfection such a pre-occupation concerning the possibly hostile influences of physical nature, such a poverty of artistic invention, and an imagination so prosaic and so dull, that we cannot choose but look upon them as a people distinct in themselves, specially devoted to the enterprises and to the struggles com- manded by the taciturn requirements of material existence. f 394. The English are commended for their love of a count" Till count:r y life> as if it were with them a taste acquired contrasted. by education : it is nothing of the sort. They like the country, because in the country, more easily than in town, they can satisfy their craving for the fatiguing exercises which are necessary to their natures. The Spaniards, to whom corporeal action and agitation are highly antipathetic, prefer, to a greater extent even than we [inclined as we are by our climate and our organisation to a moderate form of locomotion], the life of the city to that of the country. ^| 395. Speech alone, is not, for nations of an artistic tem- Sesticulation n rr> i- c ,1 in speech. perament, an all-sufficient medium tor the expression of their thoughts ; they accompany every word as it were, with a gesture intended to pourtray clearly and rapidly shades of thought which mere words are powerless to convey ; the more artistic the people the more do they gesticulate in speech. Thus the English, who in conversation adorn nothing, and among whom enthusiastically to express a sentiment is looked upon as an affectation, move their entire bodies all in one piece as it were, and hardly ever gesticulate in speaking. They have so little sense of the fitness of things as regards the outward form and inward signification of the embodiment of an idea, that they see nothing ridiculous or false in the spectacle of THE SPATULATE TYPE. 255 [f 395] a clergyman dancing, a thing which is very common in England. 303 In the matter of costume, and again as regards f 396. deportment [setting aside what is sumptuous and characteristi " correct " qualities of which their natures afford them an infallibly sure instinct], they never fail to confuse singularity with distinction, ostentation with grandeur, coldness and insolence with dignity. They pride themselves upon their love of strange feats and grotesque wagers ; upon their taste for strong meats, strong wines, and foreigners of eccentric behaviour; upon that calm ferocity with which they can find pleasure in the sight of two men fighting for a few shillings. Europe, which is kept awake by the con- tinual hubbub of their clubs, their receptions, and their workshops, gazes from its windows to see them drinking huge bumpers, and becoming purple in the face, feasting to excess, and exhausting themselves and their horses in the everlasting fox hunt and the never- ending race for money ; and they mistake the gloomy and silent astonishment which they provoke for ad- miration ! " The English," says Bulwer, " make business an ^ 397. enjoyment, and enjoyment a business : they are born English f J J , J ,. J , recreations. without a smile ; they rove about in public places like Bulwer Lytton so many easterly winds cold, sharp, and cutting ; or like a group of fogs on a frosty day, sent out of his hall by Boreas for the express purpose of looking black at one another. When they ask you, ' How do you do?' you would think they were measuring the length of your coffin. They are ever, it is true* labouring to be agreeable ; but they are like Sisyphus* The stone they roll up the hill with so much toil runs 503 One is reminded in reading the above passage of Dr. Johnson's remark, when he saw certain reverend gentlemen enjoying themselves, "This merriment of parsons is extremely offensive " [!] 256 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. IH 397] down again and hits you a thump on the legs. They are sometimes polite, but invariably uncivil; their warmth is always artificial, their cold never ; they are stiff without dignity, and cringing without manners. They offer you an affront, and call it " a plain truth ; " they wound your feelings, and tell you it is manly " to speak their minds ; " at the same time when they have neglected all the graces and charities of artifice they have adopted all its falsehood and deceit. While they profess to abhor servility, they adulate the peerage ; while they tell you they care not a rush for the minister, they move heaven and earth for an invitation from the minister's wife. There is not another court in Europe where such systematised meanness is carried on, where they will even believe you when you assert that it exists. Abroad, you can smile at the vanity of one class and the flattery of another ; the first is too well bred to affront, the latter too graceful to disgust; but here the pride of a noblesse [by the way, the most mush- room in Europe] knocks you down with a hailstorm, and the fawning of the bourgeois makes you sick with hot water." 304 ^ 398. The conical artistic type is so rare in England that England! 1 * the hi g her development of its instincts and of its reason, shocks the feelings of the masses. Byron, who belonged to this type, was obliged to seek among the poetic races of the East the justice, the esteem, and even the peace, that his compatriots, urged by the 801 This passage the concluding paragraph of chapter Ixvi. of Bulwer Lytton's " Pelkam" is reproduced above as Bulwer Lytton wrote it, not as M. d'Arpentigny trans- lated it. It is, I think, one of the most offensive speeches which the arch- puppy Pelham delivers during- the course of that instructive work, and its use against us by a foreign author " points a moral," if it does not " adorn his tale." THE SPATULATE TYPE. 257 hard and prosaic spirit of their latitude, obstinately refused to accord to him. 305 Our nation owes to the artistic type, which is ex- tremely widely diffused among us, the caprice and the brilliancy which characterises it ; but as regards the disdain which this type evinces for all that is merely useful, we owe to the artistic type the spirit of frivolity for which we are reproached. The English, continually pre-occupied concerning their material advantage, continually alter and improve their machines and their industries ; to us, who are blest with a less inclement atmosphere, material innovations are as repugnant as moral innovations are to our neighbours. The reason of this is, that material improvements require a continual physical labour, whilst the moral ones require a constant in- tellectual labour. We are progressive in ideas, they in things. Our ability exhibits itself in the logic of theories ; theirs, in utilitarianism and the opportunity for applying their faculties. We sacrifice interests to principles, they sacrifice principles to interests. The expansion of the English mind proceeds like that of water, outwards rather than upwards ; whereas our intellectual progress proceeds like that of fire, upwards rather than outwards. The English aim at well-being by the increase of the domination of the 805 Our author seems to disregard, or to be unaware of, the fact that Byron first went to Greece in 1807, in the midst of the storm of praise and adulation which assailed him on the appearance of his answer to Lord Brougham's attack in the Edinburgh Review, upon his first volume of verse, "Hours of Idleness." It was after his return in 1812, after the publication of " Childe Harold," "The Giaour," "The Bride of Abydos," and " The Corsair," and after his marriage with Miss Milbank_ and his subsequent separation under the most disgraceful circumstances, that he left England and lived in Italy till 1823, when he sailed to Greece, to find death at Missolonghi in April 1824. [1 398] 1 399. Artistic type in France. 1400. French and English mind? contrasted. The same. Illustration?. 258 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [f 4oi] Bacon. man over physical forces. They gave birth to Bacon, and they carry on the plan of the Romans ; they people and they cultivate the world, we civilise it. 306 Descartes. We gave birth to Descartes, and carry on the plan of the Greeks; we aim at good fortune *by the multiplica- tion and the progress of things which interest the mind. 307 Where our neighbours send traders, we send missionaries ; where they carry utensils, we carry books and art-treasures. ^[402. Let the artistic type multiply itself in England, Effect of art in, 1.11 ti_ i t r L i England. an " we sna H see tne l ast [up to a certain point] of its eccentricity, and, as a natural consequence, of a great portion of its power. The governing principle being left without universal acquiescence, she would of Heaven is compared, not to any .great Kernel or Nut, but to a Graine of Mustard seede ; which is one of the least Graines, but hath in it a Proper- tie and Spirit hastily to get up and spread. So there are States great in Territory, and yet not apt to Enlarge or Command; And some that have but a small Dimmension of Stemme, and yet apt to be the Foundations of Great Monarchies." F. BACON, " Of Grealnesse of King- domes and Estates" (London : 1625). 307 Rene Descartes [or Renatus Cartesius], born in 1596, has been justly called one of the reformers of philo- sophy. At an early age he became dissatisfied with all the accepted teaching of the schools, and all the methods and dogmata of existing philosophy, and set himself resolutely to discard the teaching of the s^avants of his day, with a view to developing a new method of study and analysis. His processes and their results appear in his " Dzscours sur la Methode" (Amsterdam : 1637) and the bases of his philosophical system may be found in his " Meditationes de Primd Philosophia" (Amsterdam : 164 1) and his " Principia Philosophies" (Amsterdam : 1644). From 1621 to 1649 ne lived in Holland, in which latter year, having repaired to the court of Sweden at the invitation of Queen Christina, he died in 1650. In "An Oration in Defence of the New Philosophy" spoken in the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford, in July 1693, by Joseph Addison [printed, in English, at the end of the third edition of Gardner's translation of Fontenelle's work " On the Plurality of THE SPATULATE TYPE. 259 [f 4*] then have, like us, more nationalism than patriotism, that is to say, more inert force, than power of action. In countries where activity and handiness clearly 1[403. characterise the spirit of the masses, and shine at the ^hTregard'To* head of all their attributes, people are ashamed of poverty, poverty, because it indicates, up to a certain point, the absence of these qualities. This is what one sees in England, where the avowal of misery is painful, and equivalent to the confession of a crime ; every man thinks that he raises himself in the estimation of others in saying that he is rich. In Spain, where neither activity nor handiness are inborn characteris- tics of the people, poverty is for no one a brand of disgrace. In France, where knowledge is more esteemed than handiness ; meditation than action ; and where intellectual capacity need only demonstrate itself to gather riches, poverty is acknowledged with- out much scruple. Goodwill [i.e., liberty of action] and liberty, says ^"404. Bcehme, are the same thing, but goodwill and sociability Liberty of action are two very different things. 308 One is more free but less sociable where liberty of action is strongly de- Worlds" (London: 1738), p. 198] we find the follow- ing : " At length rose Cartesius, a happier genius, who has bravely asserted the truth against the united force of all opposers, and has brought on the stage a new method of philosophising. ... A great man indeed he was, and the only one we envy FRANCE. He solved the difficulties of the universe almost as well as if he had been its architect," etc., etc., etc. [A most interesting oration on the reformation of science which occurred in the seventeenth century.] 308 I do not know exactly whence M. d'Arpentigny takes this quotation from the lucubrations of Bcehme. The 1764 edition of his works the only one I have by me consists of 200 folio pages of " dissertation " upon Will and Liberty, of which the following is not only an excellent sample, but seems near the point which our author desires to illustrate. "And in the breaking of the Darkness, the reconceived Will is free, and dwells 26O THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [t 44] veloped, as in England, where originality is highly esteemed ; one is more sociable but less free where liberty of action is restricted, as in France, where English drama, conformity is appreciated. The English drama is passionate and farcical, whereas ours is restrained and humorous ; they exhibit more poetry and con- trast, whilst we exhibit more art and harmony. ^[ 405. You can apply these principles of cheirognomical AP theabove f P m ' loso p h y to tne study of other nationalities; as for principles, instance Germany, a blonde and cold country, which ' any ' extols the triple intoxication of contemplation, music, and tobacco. There people live seriously, and dream enormously; there they drink out of huge goblets and read out of huge books. The enormous folios of the Encyclopaedia open uniform with equally minute dissertations upon the words God, universe, and dandelion. It is the country of inflated poetry, of rigid military minds, of enthusiastic metaphysicians, and of phlegmatic postillions. The ideas which are honourable there, are too positive for us, or are not sufficiently so, for we experience as much repugnance for people who are absorbed in the esoteric essences of things and whose minds attach themselves only to the incomprehensible, as for people whose thoughts cannot soar above the levels of absolute matter. Ger- many would not offer the afflicting spectacle of a noble and learned nation governed by absolutism, if the reasoning portion of its population was more without the Darkness in itself; and the Flash which there is the Separation and the Sharpness and the Noise (or Sound) is the Dwelling of the Will free from the Darkness. And the Flash elevates the Will, and the Will triumphs in the Sharpness of the Flash, and the Will discovers itself in the Sharpness of the Sound in the Flash of the Light, without the Darkness, in the Breaking, in the Infinity," etc., etc., etc. " The Works of Jacob Boshmen " [or Behmen}, " The Three Principles of the Divine Essence " (London : 1764), vol. i., p. 136. THE SPATULATE TYPE. 26 1 [f 405] capable of action, and if the active portion of its population was more capable of reason. She is" full of worthy folk who, gifted with more soul than intelligence, are more fit for good fortune than plea- sure. Self-contained in their joy, and lyric in their moments of intemperance, they surpass all other nations in freedom, in innocence, and in good nature. With them comedy is a matter of sentiment ; ^ 406. pathetic and expansive, it pourtrays man directed Ge^Tncomedy. by his heart and by his instinct. With us it is a matter of judgment ; discreet and restrained, it ex- hibits man as he is formed by education and by society.. Romantic and synthetic on that side of the Rhine, historic and analytic on this. In France it aims at the true, and proposes to redress evils by mockery and laughter; witty rather than tender, it amuses, and, appealing to the mind, it instructs. In Germany it aims at the beautiful, and aims at the redress of evils by tears ; tender rather than witty, it interests, and, appealing to the heart, it improves. From which data I conclude that comedy is the f 407 - , r i , /- j c Comedy writers' domain of conic hands in Germany, and of square hands, hands in France. See only, in the vestibule of the Theatre Francais, the busts of Moliere, of Regnard, of Dancourt, of Lesage, of Marivaux. They have all of them the aquiline nose, which almost invariably accompanies a square formation of the fingers. SUB-SECTION XIII. CONTINUATION SPATULATE HANDS The Hands of the North Americans. T 408. To a higher degree even than the English, from whom American they originally sprung, the inhabitants of North character. J J America pay the greatest attention to that instruction which teaches them how to act upon matter so as to utilise it. Listen to the description of them Chevalier by Michael Chevalier in his " Dixieme Lettre sur les fetats Unis : " ^[409. "The Yankee is reserved, concentrated, defiant. American pjj s humour is pensive and sombre, but unchangeable. manners and . morals. His attitude is without grace, but modest and without baseness. His manner of addressing one is cold, often but little prepossessing ; his ideas are narrow but practical ; and he appreciates what accords with the fitness of things, but not what is grand. He is absolutely devoid of chivalrous feeling, but yet he is adventurous. He delights in .a wandering life, and has an imagination which gives birth to original ideas, ideas which are not poetic, but eccentric. The Yankee is the prototype of the hard-working ant ; he is industrious and sober, economical, cunning, subtle, cautious, always calculating, and vain of the tricks with which he takes in the inattentive or confiding pur- chaser. He is rarely hospitable; he is a ready speaker, THE SPATULATE TYPE. 263 IT 409] but at the same time he is not a brilliant orator, but a calm logician. He lacks that largeness of mind and of heart, which, enabling him to understand and appreciate the natures of his fellow-men, would make him a statesman ; but he is a clever adminis- trator and a man of huge enterprise. If he is but slightly capable of managing men, he has not his equal in the administration of things, in the arts of classifying them, and of weighing them one against the other. " Though he is the most consummate trader, it is ^ 410. pre-eminently as a colonist that the Yankee excites ^J s t" our admiration ; impervious to fatigue, he engages in a hand-to-hand struggle with Nature, at the end of which his tenacity always renders him victorious. He is the first mariner of the world, the ocean is his slave. The most tender passions are slain in him by his religious austerity, and the pre-occupations of his worldly profession. To the spirit of trade, by the aid of which he derives advantage from what he gets out of the earth, he joins the genius of labour which makes it fruitful, and of mechanics which give form to the fruits of his labour." 309 In a nation such as this there cannot exist any but hands which are spatulate, and fingers which are square. The good which has been done to the poor by 1f4H- spatulate hands in Russia, in England, and in America spa "u^ r ^ has been very small. In Sclavonic Russia, where Russia. they have reigned uncontrolled since the invasion by 309 The above passage is considerably condensed from pp. 1 68 72 of Michael Chevalier's " Lettres sur FAmerique dti Nord" (Paris : 1836, 2 vols.), of which there exists a translation, entitled "Manners and Politics in the United States, being a Series of Letters on North America" translated from the 3rd Paris edition (Boston: 1839), on pp. 116 17 of which the passage quoted may be found. 264 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [t 4] the Scandinavian Rurik, 310 and where the elementary hand, which is that of the masses, is in a state of slavery, the soldier, harshly subjected to 'the punc- tilious exigencies of an iron-handed discipline, har- assed in turn by the evil genius of barbarism and by the evil genius of civilisation, dares not to allow his glances to wander beyond the limit proscribed by England. t j je ever . v i s ibi e shadow of the knout. In England, where the great majority of the people have no other pole-star than the commissariat, the insatiable voracity of the great, leaves but very inadequate relief for America that of the humble. In puritanical America the workman's life is a free one, but repose and pleasure are interdicted to him. The life of a Catholic con- vent is not more gloomy or rigid than that of the manufactories of Lowel for instance. At Pittsburg, work ceases only at necessary intervals for food ; and the longest meal during the day does not last more than ten minutes. Man there is reputed only to possess a stomach and two arms. . The rest of him does not count. H 412. j n the same W ay that the Laplander could not form The dominant . , , .... , class in America, any idea of a paradise without snow, the Yankee could not understand happiness without labour. Pursuing the same logical method as ours, when we relegate political power to thinkers, i.e., to the people of physical leisure, who are always few in number, 810 It was at the call of the Slavs in 861 that Rurik, Sineons, and Trouvor [whose names signify the Peaceful, the Victorious, and the Faithful] crossed the Baltic from Scandinavia, and established in Russia a rule which lasted down to the reign of the son of Ivan the Terrible in the sixteenth century. Vide Alfred Rambaud's "History of Russia" translated by L. Lang (London : 1879), vol. ix., p. 56, and compare " La Chroniqiie de Nestor " [a Russian monk of the eleventh century], traduite en fran9ais par L. Paris (Paris : 1834), v l- : ->P- 2O - THE SPATULATE TYPE. 265 [because in our opinion pre-eminence belongs to thought], the Yankee has granted the same power to workers, who always constitute the larger half of the community, because, in his opinion, pre-eminence belongs to labour. In his love of labour he has branded as immoral 4"] IT 413. American refinement. ^[415. French and English providence. everything that could hinder his work, even to the Amer!can love of J work. pastimes which we regard as the most innocent and the most allowable. As yet the Americans are simply a nation of super- cargoes, of pioneers, of farmers, ot mercers ; their .... . i . i 11 c laughable pretensions to high tone and elegance of manner are a sufficient proof of this. Cooper has written whole pages where this punctilious self- sufficiency is spread out in long and heavily-worded periods, in a manner which, symmetrical and pedantic, is strenuously opposed to the freedom and toleration of good society. Whilst the French, a nation relatively lazy, deprive themselves of a quantity of material comforts so as to bequeath to their children the means of living an idle life, the English, on the other hand, spend and consume their substance with a commensurate lack of scruple ; having no fear of penury themselves, they do not consider it a misfortune for their children to be made heirs of necessity. From which facts I conclude that our good qualities as well as our vices [if such we have], oppose them- selves with equal force to the increase of the pro- , ... TTT ductive instinct among us. We consume and, by consequence, produce by manual labour less than the English, but more than the Spanish, who, in their turn, do less work than us, but more than the Arabs. It has always been thus ; and in the same way we must seek in the instincts peculiar to our nation, and not in the continually recommended imitation of the materialistic procedure of the English, the counter- ^[ 416. labour contrasted. 266 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. poise of the remarkable increase of power and pros- perity which they have derived from the more complete development of the genius which is peculiar to them. The same thing may be said of the types as of Necessity of . , , , . ,. , . ,, . . proper plants i.e., that they do not shine forth in all their environment, brilliancy, and do not bring forth all their fruits, excepting beneath certain latitudes. Where moral requirements are more regarded than physical neces- sities [and this is what happens in the rich and fertile countries of the South] nature has given pre-eminence to the types of men characterised as "southern." Where, on the other hand, physical necessities require to be more attended to than moral [and this is what occurs in sterile countries and in the North], nature has given the pre-eminence to "northern " types of character. SUB-SECTION XIV. SPATULATE HANDS [continued], CONTINUATION The Veneration of All People for Pointed Fingers. ALL nations, however different [physically and ^f 418. morally! they may be from one another, whatever Universal love J J J J of beauty as may be the form of their government, the spirit of exemplified by their culture, or the nature of their ideas upon beauty, worth, truth, and usefulness, agree unanimously in / giving pointed or conical fingers to pictorial or sculptured representations of angels or good genii, ^ with which each race, according to its education, con- siders the heavens to be peopled. Even down to the Chinese and Japanese, unprogressive nations which measure beauty, goodness, and good fortune by the extent of the corporeal development, 311 and for whom the fine arts and liberty, as we understand them, do not exist, all peoples are agreed in this common admiration. The entire human race sees nothing but I beauty and elegance in a pointed-fingered hand. 311 ' The people of China are divided into four classes or categories of citizens, according to the merits and honours that custom and the law of the land attribute to each. These classes are the literary, the agricultural, the manufacturing, and the commercial. Such is the order of the social hierarchy in China. ... In point of fact, the two classes esteemed and honoured are the two 268 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. ^f 419, The fact is that our one great loss [sanctioned by Leisure as the ,, .^ - , , -, . ,. ,. . , ., . emblem of tne necessity of labourj is above all things exhibited mental to us by this cruel and humiliating necessity : and it superiority . . ... is hence that arises our instinctive respect for leisure, and the sentiment which impels us to presuppose, as the attributes of the beings which are the objects of our love and adoration, hands which to our minds convey the impressions of the ideality, and quasi- divine instincts of contemplation and repose. f 420. Among barbarous tribes, as among civilised nations, Respect for . idleness m * ne eves * the masses, the man who does least for himself excites a respect which is secondary only to that paid to the man who does nothing. Is this a circumstance without significance ? first ; they constitute the aristocracy of mind and of labour. Our nobility could only inscribe upon their blazon a pen i.e., a paint brush or a plough: in one, Heaven for .field ; in the other, Earth. . . . The Chinese hierarchy is not founded upon seniority, but upon merit. The degree fixes the position, and the higher the posi- tion, the higher must be the merit of its occupant." TCHENG-KI-TONG, " The Chinese Painted by Them- selves" (London: 1885, pp. 61 and 69). The national characteristic of the Chinese hand is its extreme pointed- ness, a formation [vide ^ 136-7] entirely in accordance with the contemplative psychological mind of the Chinaman. SUB-SECTION XV. SPATULATE HANDS [continued]. CONTINUATION Roman Hands, SUCH hands as I described in the last chapter were If 421. not, such could never be, the hands of the Sovereign actWty^f People. Devoted to war, and to continual move- Roman . . hands. ment by the peculiar organisation transmitted to them by the heroes and the warriors who came together at the call of the child of the Brazen Wolf, the Romans have received as their portion, the talent of the arts necessary to men of action ; they excelled in bodily action and in the handling of arms, in the construction of aqueducts, of bridges, of high roads, of camps, of engines of war, and of fortresses. For poetry they had but a reflex and passing fancy, for the fine arts merely a taste born of vanity, despising speculative notions, and respecting nothing but war, political eloquence, history, jurisprudence, and sensual pleasures. As soon as the powerful hands which they had ^ 422. kept for so long gripped upon the enslaved world, ^[/gi^d turned at last from their specialty by Christian culture upon spiritualism, began to be raised towards heaven, the warhl world escaped from their dominion. And it is mere repetition of an opinion which has frequently been expressed, to say that Platonism was not more fatal 18 2/0 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND, [f 421 to the Greeks as a nation devoted to the cultivation of the beautiful, and governed by ideas proper to artistic hands, 312 than was Christianity to the Romans as a people governing the universe by the power of ideas proper to square and spatulate hands. Speaking politically, the murders of Socrates and of Christ were necessary acts of justice. Regard being had to the good which their systems of morality have since produced, the human race takes no thought of their socialist incendiarism ; but Athens and Rome, mortally wounded in the ideas upon which they existed by the ultramontane spiritualism of the principles of these two reformers, principles which aimed at nothing less than the substitution of individual intelligence for that of the masses, aristocracy for democracy, were bound to condemn them to death. Among the 312 This is not a place in which to discuss the effects of Platonism, or even of Neo-Platonism, uj^pn the Greek character and constitution. " The ethics of Plato," as Mr. G. Ii. Lewes says in his "History of Philosophy" (London: 1880, vol. i., p. 271), "might suit the inha- bitants of another world ; they are useless to the in- habitants of this." It was, however, Neo- Platonism which led to the downfall of the Greek Empire, rather than Platonism : for the latter, following as it did, and becoming to a certain extent mingled with, the tenets of the Stoic philosophers, produced a system of philo- sophy than which little could have been more perfect. "Stoicism," says Lecky [" History of European Morals" by William Lecky (London: 1877, vol. i., P- 3 2 5)] "placed beyond cavil the great distinctions between right and wrong. . . . The early Platonists corrected the exaggerations of Stoicism, gave free scope to the amiable qualities, and supplied a theory of right and wrong, suited not merely for heroic characters and extreme emergencies, but also for the characters and circumstances of common life." It was when the Neo-Platonists, such as Apuleius, Ammonius Saccas, Plotinus, Porphyrius, and the rest of them, began to preach their doctrines, that the evil influence of the new school began to make itself felt, doctrines which as Lecky says [p. 328], "made men credulous, because they suppressed that critical spirit which is the sole barrier THE SPATULATE TYPE. 2/1 [1 "] thirty tyrants which Anytus, the enemy of Socrates, 313 assisted Thrasibulus to overthrow, there were three disciples of that philosopher; well, is it not well known that these thirty spilled in eight months more innocent blood than the people had shed during many centuries ? Xenophon has written upon the Athenian republic ^[423. some reflections which, to my mind, utterly refute the x no p^ on on Socialism. opinion which he has expressed upon the injustice of the condemnation of his illustrious master : " There are men," says he, " who are astonished to see that, as a rule, they favour [in Athens] artizans, the poor, and the common people more than the honest citizens. It is, however, the surest way to preserve the popular condition of things ; in fact, if the poor, the plebeian, and lower classes are happy, they increase in numbers, and there you have the strength of a democracy. If, on the contrary, it is the rich and the well-born who are the most considered, democracy raises against herself an inimical power. They say that we ought to the ever-encroaching imagination ; . . . because it found a nervous, diseased, expectant temperament, ever prone to hallucinations, ever agitated by vague and un- certain feelings that were readily attributed to inspiration. As a moral system, indeed, it carried the purification of the feelings and imagination to a higher perfection than any preceding school, but it had the deadly fault of separating sentiment from action. . . . The early Platonists, though they dwelt very strongly on mental discipline, were equally practical" \i.e., as practical as the Stoics], so surely it was Neo-Platonism which was to blame. 313 It was Anytus, who with Melitus and Lycon, en- couraged by the delight with which the Athenians had received Aristophanes' comedy, "The Clouds" [which had been written at their instigation in ridicule of the teaching of Socrates], first stood forth and accused Socrates of making innovations in the accepted religion of Greece before the tribunal of the five hundred, the accusation which brought forth the glorious "Apology of Socrates" 2/2 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. 11 4*3l not to allow all men indiscriminately to harangue and to be members of the council, but only those who are distinguished by the most talent and the most virtue. There is, however, nothing more wise than to allow even the lowest plebeian to speak in public. If the first citizens only had the exclusive right to harangue and to sit in council, it would be a benefit for their class, but not for the populace ; instead of which the humblest artizan, being allowed to rise and harangue the assembly, brings before it ideas and suggestions which conduce to the welfare of himself and of his class. ^f 424. " But," people reply, " what will a man of this sort Valu ^ r t f o ^ pular say which can be useful either for himself or for the people of his class ? In the opinion of the masses, this man, be he whom he may, with his ignorance, but with his zeal for the democracy, is worth more than a well-to-do citizen with grandiose views and keen penetration, but perfidious intentions. *|f 425. " Perhaps this plan is not the best possible ; at tsa vantages. j eagt -^ ten( j s to t ke perpetuation of the democracy. The people requires, not a learned administration which would enslave it, but liberty and sovereignty in itself. Given this, the constitution may be vicious, but that is the least of its troubles. What seems to you to be defective in the political system, is precisely what makes the people powerful and free." 314 814 The above paragraphs are condensed from the " Atheniensium Respublica " of Xenophon, and con- sist of the passages cited below.* * ""ETreira 5, fit l-vioi davftdfewrtf 6Vt iravraxov ir\ov $1 rots XPW'S> & O-&TV yap Tr^vrjre KO.I ol Srj/ji&Tai KO.I ol xelpovs, tv irpaTrovres, KO.I TroXXot ol Toiovroi ytyvv/Atvoi, rty SrifjioKpaTtav ad-owif " etc., etc. "'Ei fitv yap ol x/Mjoroi ^70^ /cat e/ftoiAeiwro rots 6/j.otcns ." A6HNAIftN HOAITEIA, K e na cl thrown open its windows, I had the good fortune to catch " in the act " a major of the pure local type undergoing the process of digestion after his midday meal. Even at Rotterdam the formidable development of his corporation was a theme for admiration ; half asleep he smoked, filling with clouds of tobacco the room where continually seated he passed his life with the crushing immobility sculptures are sometimes masterpieces of elegance, a singularity which we have had occasion to remark in speaking of the savage tribes which live on the west coast of North America." The above passage, from Adrien Balbi's " Elemens de Geographic Generate" (Paris : 1843, "Oceanic," p. 497), is evidently the source of the above paragraph. The learned author goes on to speak in the highest terms of the decorative effect of the tattooing of the natives of Tasmania and Polynesia. Compare Levaillant's remarks, note 168 , p. 156. 341 M. Porcii Catonis " Fragmenta," ex libro ii., fragm. 34. "Chart's" ii., p. 202, k. M. Cato, "Origi- num," ii. Vide H. Peter's " Historicorum Romanorum Fragmenta " (Leipsic: 1883), p. 49. THE CONIC TYPE. 29 1 IT 44] of an Egyptian monolith. This vegeto-military phenomenon was said to absorb six thousand pints of beer per annum, and was said only to become conscious of the existence of his soul when he had drunk largely ; at other times this same soul lay curled away somewhere, inert and dead, in the abysses of this huge ganglion, like a ship in the basin of a dock when the sea is at low water. Governed by the instincts of material advantage ..I 443 -. and heraldic fetichism, the English army is full of Irm"* 1 " hands which present scarcely anything but the defects s P atuIat hands, of the spatulate type, which are, coarseness, intemper- ance, moral inertia, temper, and so on. For them war is but a trade, pay is its sole object, and the appetite its motive force ; it is by the merit of hecatombs of the slain that it expects to be victorious, certain of defeat if the roaring of the bull Apis be not heard amid the blare of its trumpets. Subjected on account of its brutality to a degrading discipline and corporeal services, it would stand in danger of destruc- tion in the atmosphere of liberty and gentleness which surrounds our armaments. 342 Beneath our flag the soul sustains the body, 1 4 *4. beneath the English and German flags the body En a nd h Gern h supports the soul ; we obey the spirit and act with armies ... .. ,-. contrasted. intelligence, the Germans obey the letter and act automatically. We are the first marchers of the world ; is it not a recognised axiom [of Maurice de w2 The whole of the above paragraph is absurd, and its presence is especially to be regretted as, taken as a whole, M. d'Arpentigny's chapter on " English Hands" [xii.] is a clever and interesting piece of analytical writing. What he means by his allusion to the bull Apis I am completely at a loss to comprehend. The passage runs in the original : " C'est par le merite des hecatombes qu'elle pretend a la victoire ; certaine d'etre vaincue si les mugissements d'Apis ne se melent au bruit de ses clairons." (!?!) 2p2 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. LI 444] Saxe] that battles are won not with the hands but with the feet ? 343 As a nation we are warlike rather than military; 344 the Germans are military rather than a nation of warriors. 1i 445. Generals who have the elementary hand pique Generals of the . . . . elementary themselves upon little points of discipline and hand - management ; they know how many blades of grass go to a truss of hay ; they attach importance to the manner of carrying the arms, and the perfect con- dition of the uniform ; they admire a harsh voice and clownish manners ; like the spider in the shady corner of a dusty barn, they are only happy where there is no splendour. They tend to Caesarism and their doglike loyalty recognises, as Tacitus says, only the hand which feeds, which fattens them. 345 80 I do not find this axiom recorded as coming directly from the Marechal Saxe in any of the accepted biographies of this great soldier, such, for instance, as those of Scilhac, Neel, Espagnac, or Perau. In his own work " Mes Reveries? par Maurice, Comte de Saxe (Amsterdam: 1757, vol. i., book i., cap. vii., p. 144), we find the following : " M. de Turenne has always gained a superiority with armies infinitely inferior to those of the enemy, because he could move about with greater facility. ' ' 341 Ivan Tourgueneff has placed practically the same sentiment into the mouth of M. Francois in his " CEuvres Dernieres" " M. Francois ; Souvenir de 1848 " (Paris : 1885, p. 103), when he says : "We are not a military nation. That astonishes you. We are a brave nation, very brave, but not military. Thank God, we are worth something more than that." It is interesting to note the parallel which exists between these passages of d'Ar- pentigny and Tourgueneff and the dissertation of Bacon upon the same subject in his Essay " Of Greatnesse of Kingdomes and Estates " to which the reader is par- ticularly referred [W. Aldis Wright's ed. (Macmillan}, 1883, pp. 125-127]. 45 M. d'Arpentigny refers, I presume, to the remarks which Tacitus makes concerning mercenaries, and upon the methods of buying the favour of the common soldiers. Vide " Historiarum " lib. iii., c. 61, and lib. iv., c. 57. THE CONIC TYPE. 2Q3 Tactics, manoeuvres, encampments, sieges, estimates, If *&& military and naval architecture, the strategy of tern- S patuiate porisation and delay, are the especial qualities of military hands, hands which are spatulate and square. They have theory, method, and science, and they care more for success than for glory. Generals of the conical artistic hand proceed by ^^'(-. .. , ... c . j ,, Conical militar. inspiration, and move by sallies ; they are gifted with hands, prowess, promptitude, passionate instincts, boastful- ness, and the talent of acting impromptu; they attach equal importance to success and to glory. Murat, at the battle of Smolensk, commanded a ^"448. regiment of heavy cavalry, mounted on a grand black Mat. stallion, full of strength and grace, calm, caparisoned in gold and covered with the long shining locks of his mane. The king wore a helmet whose golden crest was ornamented with a white plume ; immobile, he watched the battle from afar, letting his jewelled sabre trail in the roadway with an air of haughty indiffer- ence. Suddenly he becomes excited, his eyes flash, he raises himself in his stirrups, and cries in a loud voice, " Left turn ! Quick march ! " Then the earth trembled, and a noise as of thunder was heard, and those black squadrons, flashing as if with lightning, rushed forward like a torrent, as if they had been dragged forward by this slender white plume. The victory of that day was in great part due to this movement. 346 340 Joachim Murat, Marechal de France and King of Naples, born 25th March, 1771, and shot at Pizzo I3th October, 1815, was renowned throughout Europe for the magnificent manner in which he handled his cavalry. " II contribua," says Larousse, " a forcer 1'Autriche de demander la paix par 1'audacieuse manoeuvre qu'il fit executer sa cavalerie le 13 Mars, 1797." He distin- guished himself similarly at the taking of Alexandria and at the battles of the Pyramids and of Ostrowno, Smolensk, and Moskow in the Russian campaign. 294 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. ^[449. Murat, the most lyrical of the warriors of the M ju a n p. 73), where he says of that author, " Nearly all he has told us on the authority of others is fabulous ; . . . when Herodotus retails the stories which he has heard, his book becomes nothing but a romance resembling the Milesian fables." Again, in the " Fragments sur r Histoire" he says, "Amateurs of the marvellous say, ' These facts must necessarily be true, because so many monuments support them.' I say, ' They must necessarily be false, because the vulgar have believed in them.' A fable is told a few times in one generation, it establishes itself in the second, it becomes respected in the third ; the fourth raises monuments to it. There was not, in the whole of profane antiquity, a single temple that was not founded on a folly; " and again he cites the history of Herodotus as an example. Voltaire had the greatest respect for the monuments mentioned by d'Arpentigny. In the " Dictionnaire Philosophiqite" [ed. 1837, v l- vn -> P- 68i]i he says, " To know with a certain amount of certitude something of ancient history, there is only one method, i.e., to see whether there remain any incontestable monuments; " and he then quotes as authentic instances Babylon and the monuments of ancient Egypt, and in his " Essai sur les Mceurs" [ed. 1837, vol. iii., pp. 13, 15, 22, and 27], he discourses interestingly and at length concerning 1 Babylon, Egypt, and the monuments of ancient India. 300 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1! 457] age, therefore, as it extinguishes itself, carries neces sarily away with it the secrets of a notable portion of the ideas which animated it. f458. Herculaneum and Pompeii, rediscovered after Hercuianeum seven t een centuries with their obscene signs and and Pompeii audacious frescoes, beneath the ashes under which they both found a living tomb upon the same day, have furnished us with more details concerning the inner and familiar life of the ancients, their tastes, their current ideas, than all the books which they have left to us. 366 ^[459. The most important details of the habits and domestic life customs of an epoch are the points which are the least remarked by the people whom they signalise ; they do not record them, and posterity can only obtain information concerning them, as it were by accident. - 460 From an artistic point of view, what could be Distinctive finer than the organisations of Sardanapalus, of Nero, govern!. of Heliogabalus, of the Borgias [father and son], and of Catherine II. ? As they remained to the last day of their lives faithful to the logic of their type, I do not think they can ever have known remorse. ^f 461. Carpocras of Alexandria, and Basilides, the founders The Gnostics. o f the sect of the Christian gnostics 356 [a species of 354 Those of my readers who have visited Herculaneum and Pompeii, and who are familiar with the museum at Naples, will recognise the exactitude of all that our author says in this paragraph. 356 I should hardly have cited either Carpocras [or Carpocrates] or Basilides as founders of the enormously divergent creeds known as Gnosticism. Gnosticism was the immediate outcome of the universal and highly- organised systems of dissent from the old narrow Judaism, which obtained in the first and second cen- turies after Christ. The old pagan creeds and the old philosophies made to use the words of the writer of the article in " Chambers' Encyclopedia "' " a last stand, and produced in their and the ancient world's dying hour gnosticism. The wildly-opposite ideas of jpoly- theism, pantheism, monotheism, the most recondite Abyssinia. THE CONIC TYPE. 3 but it was not practised for the century. benefit of a single idea. It had the enthusiasm, the movement, and the individuality of this epoch of duels and of civil wars, of wild Jove-adventures and C THE CONIC TYPE. 305 n 4 fi 7] of glittering cavalcades, of carousals and of deeds of daring, performed by little bands of adventurers. Formerly, art had had more solid basis than visible exterior, now the conditions were reversed ; the people of whom it was almost the unique industry, loved it for its own sake, and also for that of the material good of which it was the source. Women, whom it adulated, gave it their love in return ; and it afforded the main delights of those kings clad in velvets and satin so spruce and so sensual, by whom the France of that period was so well represented. Art, by reason of its variety, and of its immensity, ^ 468. not being a thing that one can teach, that one can of^co'mmu'n inculcate into the masses like a common industry, it is necessary, in order that a whole generation should highly appreciate art and practise it with success, that it should be born artistic; and I say that, having minds organised for the development of a single end, viz., art, its hands will also be constituted for the same end. The hand of Francis I. was artistic in this sense, 1 469. that its palm was large, the thumb small, and the Francis * fingers smooth [vide the statue of this prince at St. Denis], but the fingers were quite appreciabty spatulated. Such is the hand of men who are active and fond of horses, 359 who are governed by their own fantasies, and whose changeable humours have no other motors than the suggestions of their tempera- ments. These inconstant minds submit more than others to the influences of their surroundings. Well, the sixteenth century being essentially the age of art and literature [by reason of the immense number of artistic hands that existed then in the south of Europe], Francis I. encouraged the individuals who practised these callings, not on account of the " Vide IT 164. 306 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. LI 469] possibly resultant intellectual progress, that was the least in his thoughts, but on account of the pleasure which he expected from them, and which in effect they gave him. 360 ^[ 470. The sixteenth century was the epoch of splendid Tastes of the .... ,.. . . - ,. ,. sixteenth oligarchies, of baronies and of grand seigneurs, of century. aristocratic republics and monarchies, of holy wars, i.e., of strife concerning forms of worship, of political tricks and ambuscades, of bold voyages and dis- coveries, of sorcerers and of astrologers, of enormous vices and debaucheries, and of knights without fear rather than without reproach ; in a word, of horrible slaughters, where the manner of killing was of greater importance than the mere death itself; an epoch full of contradictions, at the same time serious and bantering, clad in embroideries and in rags, running after finely-executed missals and chalices, reading Rabelais and Gerson, surrounded by outlaws and artists, ivory crucifixes and mythological nudities, whilst miserable and deformed dwarfs, and beautiful girls played about upon gorgeous carpets with tame tiger-cubs. ^f 470a. Passionate love of order, prudence, and usefulness aSitk ty P e he * the S ift neither f nations nor of individuals who are governed by the artistic instinct. ^"471. In its capricious grace and its florid opulence a Architecture of lace of th R enaissance i s a sort o f temple raised the Renaissance. * to the glory of some deity, incarnate indeed, but in- accessible to the wants of human nature, the in- fluences of cold and of heat, of shadows, and of dampness. It suggests grandeur, power, and riches rather than contains them, windows, staircases, galleries, colonnades, terraces, and porticoes, all are arranged for display and nothing for comfort, as we understand it to-day, when the humblest 860 Vide notes 291 , p. 242, and 388 , p. 311. THE CONIC TYPE. 307 ft 47i] peasant, more refined than the nobles of the time of Charles VIII., eats with a fork rather than with his fingers. So the independent classes have long since abandoned to the lower orders those abodes so richly sculptured, carved, starred, and emblazoned, in which, among delicate statuettes and beneath aerial turrets, the aristocracy of brilliant appanage, but still of the rude and coarse hands, of the six- teenth century used to struggle and fight as was their wont. Under the last of the Valois it was the same of ^[472. costume as of architecture; it was more important Costum< v s f the period. to be elegantly than to be thoroughly dressed. They paid more attention to their ornaments than to their clothes, and they preferred the bodily discomfort of an awkward fashion of garments to the offence which would be caused to their taste by an inelegant vesture. Still, costumes are not invented, they are born [ 473. spontaneously, and, like legal institutions, are the Fr ^ 1 ' t s ai I re and necessary results of the nature of things. 361 Francis I. Costume, and Voltaire typical representatives of their re- spective centuries were in turn so completely ex- pressed by their costumes that one could not imagine Francis in the costume of Arouet, or Arouet in the costume of Francis. 362 361 Compare the explanation given to Colonel Cheng Ki Tong by the lady to whom he complained of the plainness and uniformity of modern dress, to the effect that "a plain coat is much more convenient to turn. She observed that formerly the costumfe designated a political party, and if the fashion remained to-day, men would ruin themselves with dress!" " The Chinese fainted by Themselves," pp. 161-2. 384 There are but few works on costume that do not cite Francois I. and Fra^ois Marie Arouet [better known as Voltaire] as exponents of the costumiers' art in their respective centuries ; but both overdid the matter, and dressed with an extravagance, in advance even of the extravagance which reigned supreme around them. 308 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. ^f 474. Constant to type among peoples who are un- C costiune f changeable and in institutions which pride them- selves upon non-progress, like the Romish Church, costume is continually changing among changeable peoples not by reason of a concerted will, but by the necessary effect of a contemporary moral state ; for man alone is capable of thought, man alone is gifted with the sense of decency, and man alone dresses himself. ^[ 475. There is this to be said in favour of the fashions : Fashions. they encourage uniformity. ^f 476. The nakedness of niggers, regard being had to The negroes, ^eir colour, which clothes them as it were in a shadow, and serves them as it were as a garment, is less immodest than that of white people. The negro does not come into the world wholly clad like the animals, but quasi-clad, a circumstance which places him between the ape and the man in the scale of creation. 363 The Hindoos, almost as dark in colour as the negroes, are similarly nearly as stationary as the latter. Immobility is the supreme attribute of the animal world. 64 ^[477. Uniformity, so dear to the Russians, is disdained c6sturne.' by free nations, because it classifies and restrains. Our costume, because it represents the most en- 303 Dr. Benjamin Moseley ["A Treatise on Tropical Diseases'" (London: 1803), p. 492] has observed that "Negroes are void of" [bodily] " sensibility to a sur- prising degree. They sleep soundly in every disease, nor does any mental disturbance ever keep them awake. They bear chirurgical operations much better than white people ; and what would be the cause of insupportable pain to a white man, a Negro would almost disregard," a curious illustration of the theory that high develop- ment of one sense is generally accompanied by absence or deterioration of another. 884 The colour of the negro is not without its constitu- tional advantages. Attention has been drawn by Dr. William Ogle to the fact that pigment occurs also in the THE CONIC TYPE. 309 [1 477] lightened social state in the universe (!!), is precisely the one which is the least suited to. the blacks, and to people who have remained primitive. x Spatulate-handed subjects viewing things as they f 478. f are, and conic-handed subjects viewing things as they \ imagine them to be, the former dress themselves in Vhe manner which actually becomes them best, the latter in the manner which they think suited to their imaginary attributes ; whence we get the extravagant costumes of the flowing-haired artist, the provincial poet, and the restaurant ham ! all three of a race which is eccentric and conic-handed. People of real action and of clear good sense have, . , , , , , , , Common sense. as we have said, as a rule, spatulate hands. Under the later Valois, costume suggesting always 1[ 480. the nude, the art and literature of the time recalled those of the Greeks, who lived semi-nude [as a matter of taste, not on account of coarseness of mind], and were always ignorant of the prudery and false modesty inherent to the peoples of our colder climes. Flaunting, alert, sensual, and scantily clothed, the H *81. Poetry of the French Muse of that century, richer in words and epoch. idioms, more highly coloured, less bashful and less pedantic than she of the seventeenth century, teems with the strong and lusty youth of a nation predes- tined to every class of success. In those days the ideas of the South being in a _. \ 4 .j 2 ' . * French ideas in majority, France naturally sought her models of art art. in Spain and Italy. Now, Northern ideas being in olfactory regions, and he traces to this fact an increase in the acuteness of smell. Dr. Ogle attributes the acuteness of the smell of the negroes to their greater abundance of pigment [vide "Anosmia," by Dr. William Ogle in " Medico-Chirurgical Transactions" vol. 53]. Albinos and white animals neither see nor smell so delicately as creatures that are dark-coloured. ALEXANDER BAIN, " Mind and Bvdy, the Theories of their Relation" (London: ;th edn., 1883). 3IO THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1 48 2 ] the majority, we seek them in England and in Ger- many; French genius is like the Janus of the ancients, it has a dual intelligence and two faces. ^"483. The Paris of to-day, regard being had to the in- Pans> telligence proper to the nations of the North, is well off as she is. This intelligence gives to the nation the kind of moral strength which suits the manners of the present day. In the sixteenth century she would have been better off had her situation been more southerly. ^[484. In 1793 the Revolution, turned by the brilliant in 1 793. " S oratory of the Girondins from the object prescribed to it by the needs of the epoch, would infallibly have perished, had it not been for the Mountain, whose members, born nearly all of them in the North, saved the situation by dissipating the clouds of romance in which it was becoming enveloped, and by restoring in its midst the sentiment of reality. 365 f 485. Art, among highly-civilised nations, emanates from tne individual or from universal reason. Among nations governed by instinct it emanates from God or 865 The "Mountain" [Les Montagnards~\ were the "ultra" party in the Convention during the French Revolution. " The partisans occupied the right side of the assembly, the national guard, and the club of the Feuillans ; the Girondins possessed the majority in the assembly, but not in the clubs, where plebeian violence carried the day ; and, finally, the most extravagant demagogues of this new epoch, seated on the highest benches of the assembly, and thence named "The Mountain," were all powerful in the clubs and with the mob. " The moderate party " were called the Plain in opposition to the left side, which was styled the Moun- tain, where all the Jacobins were heaped up, as one ^ may say, one above the other. On the graduated * benches of this mountain were to be seen all the deputies of Paris, and those of the departments who owed their nomination to the influence of the clubs, and of those whom the Jacobins had gained over since their arrival, by persuading them of the necessity of giving no quarter to the enemies of the revolution. In this party were also THE CONIC TYPE. 3 I I [1 485] by inspiration. Immature in the eighteenth, which was the most humanly-intellectual century, it was highly developed in the sixteenth, which was the most divinely-intellectual century. Art flourishes par- ticularly at the periods when the nations on the march of progress have one foot upon the territory of barbarism, and the other on that of civilisation, when they believe as much in miracles and in occult sciences as in daily occurrences and exact sciences. Art is then sufficiently human and sufficiently Divine, and develops itself by reliance equally upon science and upon inspiration. Barbarous nations affect festivals and splendour, ^f 488. civilised nations substitute luxury and good taste. Barbaric J splendour. Such was the court of Francis I. at a time still rude, but already civilised ; and such were the accompany- ing appliances of civilisation, that it took five days to go from Paris to Fontainebleau. 366 In the centre of an oval lawn, surrounded by trees ^ 487. of graceful growth and massy foliage, there rises in .^ ^ T '!" the gardens of the Tuileries a pedestal on which is gardens. included some men of distinguished abilities, but of precise, rigorous, and positive characters, who dis- approved of the philanthropic theories of the Girondists, as mystical abstractions." Thiers, "History of ths French Revolution" (London: 1877). "The Legisla- tive Assembly," ch. i., and " The National Convention," ch. i. 366 Exempli gratia, the meeting of Francis I. and Henry VIII. of England, when, as Adolphus says in his " History of France" (London: n.d.} "the magnifi- cence which was displayed by two princes equally splendid, profuse, and vain, made the spot on which they met retain the name of the " Field of the Cloth of Gold " [vol. ii., p. 75]. " The magnificence which accom- panied him through life deserted him not at his death ; his funeral obsequies were performed with unusual pomp ; and the proclamation which announced his death dis- played his character; ' a prince mild in peace and victorious in war ; the father and restorer of learning and the liberal arts.' " 312 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. L1M7] an excellent replica in marble of the beautiful group of the Dioscuri. These immortals are undraped, the elements had no power to injure the gods, their movements have the appearance of being slow and graceful, time, and the causes which drive men to hurry and to physical exertion, being non-existent for them. They are equal in age, as in beauty, but one of them, more self-contained than the other, wears a more imposing air; it is the one who reverses his torch at the moment of descent into the kingdom of the dead. Farewell, for a time, to the fleet coursers and the native stream, beloved of swans and of rose-laurels. Exempt from our cares, freed from our solicitudes, their life, very different to ours, prolongs itself in the absolute calm which is given by their aethereal natures, and in the cultivation of the attri- butes of unending youth ; carried away by an unlimited and mutual love, they enjoy it without reflection in an indolence full of security, with a gentleness which is as innocent as it is profound. They are naked, as I have said, but their heads are covered with flowers, as if in symbolism of eternal happiness, and the eternal fruitfulness of the race of immortals. From whatever position one contemplates this group, we find nothing but harmonious lines accentuating their calm, their eloquence, and their suppleness ; but strength makes itself startlingly apparent, underlying this attitude of repose, and one realises that these are indeed the tutelary deities of manly exercises, in whom the Greeks honoured the celestial pro- tectors of her athletes, of her horsemen, and of her mariners. 367 367 This group, which will doubtless be remembered by many of my readers, stood near the Terrasse du Bord de 1'Eau, close to the Orangeries ; it was destroyed by the Communards in May 1871. Vide note uo , on Castor and Pollux, p. 130. Those who know the Eternal City THE CONIC TYPE. 313 The inspired, reflective, logical, enthusiastic, exact f 488. , . . i . i The crroup and artist to whom we owe this masterpiece had without its any doubt fingers with developed joints, a large thumb, and conical finger-tips. Nor was it an ordinary man, who, going back to the rustic cradle of the gods of the heathen mythology, and inspiring himself with memories of antiquity, placed this group upon a spot recalling the umbrageous arenae of Olympus and the holy' pastures of " the verdant Elis, abounding in horses." In France the action of the Southern conical type ^[ 489. upon those of the North, is naturally less than that of Reciprocal effects the Northern types upon the Southern. The result follows that this artistic type, too much modified, has not among us the value of specialism which dis- tinguishes it in countries where, instead of being merely tolerated, it is encouraged ; as for instance in Ital}'. Nations among whom as among us all the types ^[ 490. are largely represented have more shades and . Natl ns of mingled types. gradations of character than fixed and determinate characteristics. Those among whom two types alone form an immense majority have more fixed peculiari- ties, and more originality of procedure than shades of character. We are more easy-going and tolerant than these last, because it has been given to us to identify ourselves without effort with all characters a thing impossible to the masses of a population, who are carried away by the ascendency of a too exclusive t genius. The usefulness of what strikes one at first / sight as being merely beautiful entirely escapes the I observation of the spatulate nations of the North ; and \conversely, what is beautiful^ in things which appear will remember the original group, which, taken origi- nally from the Villa of Pompey, stands now at the top of the steps of the Church of Sta. Maria Aracceli, in the Piazza del Campidoglio, on the Capitoline. 314 THE SCIENCE OF TPIE HAND. Ll 49] at first to be merely useful, escapes the comprehension of the nations of the South. 068 1[ 491- If you hate interminable wars of words, those Incompatibility , . -i L .^i -n i i of types. loquacious and sterile battles, you will avoid throwing together, not only people of different types, but even people representing two distinct shades of an identical type. Each of them being permeated with sentiments of which the other knows not how to form an exact idea, the misunderstanding will be unresolvable. Thus among persons of an identical type small hands generalise too much, whilst large hands do not do so sufficiently. In the eyes of Victor Jacquemont, the naturalist and geologist, for whom art and poetry are as nothing, and who, surrounded by the luxury of the nabob, regrets the little chamber of his father, where he partook of the humble family dinner, Asia, the vaunted of poets and mystics, is the most miserable and unfortunate continent of the globe. In like man- ner ceconomists judge of the prosperity of a country by the number of its machines, and of its artists by the number of its monuments, and so on with the rest of it. H *92. There are more elements of contradiction, of dis- French and . . English cussion, and consequently of moral agitation in France character. than in England, where the quasi-similitude of tenden- cies is proven by the quasi-uniformity of types ; and as a too great conformity of ideas is not a slight cause of boredom, it follows that the English, who at home are verbose only upon matters of interest, are, when not surrounded by the turmoil of voyages and of business, the most bored people in the world. ; If we were not the most civilised and the most Causes of trench perfection. 888 This reminds me of a celebrated axiom of one of the most celebrated leaders of modern aesthetic taste, to the effect that " a mind cannot be said to be really artistically appreciative, until it can see beauty in the perfect construction of the common wheelbarrow." THE CONIC TYPE. 3 I 5 W 493] cultivated nation of Europe, i.e., the most voluntarily subjected to the rules agreed upon by reason, we should be the most turbulent and the most divided. And it is this high state of civilisation, this lofty abnegation of our individual instincts in favour of reasonable measures, which causes less advanced nations than us to look upon us as over-refined almost to the point of being factitious. If it is true that we enter more readily than any 1 434 - other people into the characteristics of other nations ; perfect nation 3 ' if it is true that there exists no nation that does not in the world ' Causes of this prefer us to any nation other than itself, it is evidently (continued), because beneath our medium sky there is no type either of the North or of the South which is entirely foreign to us. A point of moral conformity reveals our relationship with all peoples a relationship which the Romans, having mingled with all races, have transmitted to us with their blood. Why, such is the case even to the savages, whose fantastic humour we have understood, together with their bizarre instincts, and this to such a point that our fortunate colonists, for the purpose of establishing and ex- tending their influence in the New World, have not been obliged, like the Anglo-Americans, to come to the terrible expedient of a war of extermination. English approval is sufficient for an Englishman; as for us, our consciences are uneasy if we do not obtain universal approbation, whence our nation derives the generous duty, which she imposes upon herself, of referring more to the inspirations of universal chivalry than to those which are suggested by national indivi- dualism ; and whilst, after having inoculated Italy with the sacred fever of liberty, and having broken the fetters of America and of Greece, we conquer Algeria only to regenerate her, the English have never interfered in the affairs of foreign nations save to render them tributaries to their commerce and 316 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. LI 494] their industry. It has been said that Germany is the heart of Europe ; so be it, but we are the head. Our sun illumines the march of the civilisation of the whole world, and this continent, of which we are at once the hope, the light, and the joy, acknowledges that it has made a new conquest, when art, science, or liberty have advanced a step among us, for alone of all nations we know how to impress upon our conceptions the seal of universality (!!). SECTION VII. be Square Cppe, ie.r SUB-SECTION XVIII. USEFUL HANDS. [Plate VII.] THE USEFUL TYPE. IT is of medium size, but large rather than small, 1 495. ,, .Its appearance knotty fingers, the outer phalanx square, that is to say, its four sides extend parallel to the tip [you must not take any notice of the curve which nearly always finishes off the points of the fingers], a large thumb, with the ball thereof well developed, the palm of medium dimension, hollow and rather firm. I do not propose to consider these hands with a small thumb, for the reason I have given at the head of Sub-Section IX. If I have made myself clearly understood, the reader will have gathered that a type characterises itself no less by its repugnances than by its inclina- tions ; by its defects than by its qualities. Well then, perseverance, foresight, and the spirit of order and conventionality, which I have pointed out as being nearly absolute strangers to artistic hands f 496. Square and conic hands contrasted. 496] 1 497. Characteristics of the square type. 320 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. f'498. Conservatism. K499. Limited intelligences of the type. hands which the beautiful and the pleasant occupy / far more than the serviceable and useful, abound, \ on the contrary, in the intelligences signalised by \ square fingers. To organise, to classify, to arrange, and to render symmetrical are the mission, the duties of the useful > hand. It has no conception either of beauty or truth, N things which differ are similar, and the points in which things that seem similar in reality differ ; which ^/ faculty, as Montesquieu says', constitutes the spirit in which the various degrees of hierarchy range themselves in clearly-defined lines, and in which, according to them, lie the principles of political power and wisdom. They intentionally confound discipline with civilisation, 369 i.e., prescribed with agreed order. They feel things harshly, or at least severely, ranging*^ all things as duties, subjecting thoughts to thought, men to man, and only tolerating such impulses of the mind, the soul, and the heart as reason [considered _, from its narrowest aspect] accepts and permits. One law of all others is dear to them, that of con- tinuity, and it is above all things according to that rule, that is to say, by tradition and transmitted law, that their extension takes place. Such intelligences, otherwise vigorous, have no wings; they can expand, but they_cannot rise^ < ^*^_ are shod with seven-leagued boots, but the fiery chariot of Elijah is foreign to their natures. The earth is 389 "If the people is kept in order by fear of punish- ment, it will be circumspect in its conduct, without feeling ashamed of its evil actions ; but if it is kept in order by principles of virtue and the laws of social politeness, it will feel ashamed of a culpable action, and will advance in the path of virtue." (Confucius). AUTHOR'S NOTE. THE SQUARE TYPE. 321 [T 499] pre-eminently their abode, they can see nothing beyond the social life of man ; they know no more of the world of ideas than what the naked eye can know of heaven. Beyond this they are always ready to deny all that they cannot feel or understand, and to look upon the limits of their understanding as the limits of nature. 370 In France it was not until the seventeenth century. H &0. . , , ... 111- Square hands of the period devoted especially to method and etiquette, t h e seventeenth which were at this time reduced to a science, that century. the ideas of which square hands are the almost exclusive active instruments began to manifest them- selves in the usages of society. 371 Architecture under their sway no longer represented themes of poetry or of imagination, as it had in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, 372 but displayed a tendency to symmetry and material usefulness ; like the man of the world who marries and settles down, architecture cut her connection with fantasy, and settled down into the cold lines of stern reality. The monuments of Louis XIV., stripped of all ^"501. architectural idealism, half palaces, half convents, and * Bunder" 6 part barracks, grand in surface but not in character/ 73 Lpuis xiv. suggested by their uniformity and by their aridity the '' ^ spirit of the inexorable and vain despot, whom the care of his own person and of his false splendour kept all his life far from the battlefield, far from the ways of heroism and popularity, 374 and to whom toleration and clemency, those virtues of great souls and of 370 How often, whilst putting into practice the science of cheirosophy, will the cheirosophist recall this para- graph ! 371 Vide ^Hf 112 and 502 and the notes to those para- graphs. 372 Vide ^47 1. 3 Vide note , p. 243. 374 M. d'Arpentigny is not quite accurate here, for Louis XIV., as is well known, led his army in person in 322 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1 Soi] great minds, were as unknown as they were to Philippe II. 375 f 502. "The mind of Louis XIV.," says St. Simon, "was Louis xiv. below mediocrity, glory was for him throughout his life more a foible than a taste. Born moderate, secretive, and complete master of his tongue, his love of order and regularity were immense, and he was always on his guard against high merit and supe- riority of mind, talent, or sentiment. He judged men by their love and aptitude for detail, sunk as he was himself in trifles, and losing his time, as he did, in the examination of minutiae. Loving symmetry, he fancied himself gifted with an appreciation of the beautiful. He settled every morning the work of the day, and gave his orders with precision, keeping punctually to the hours which he had prescribed. Whatever happened, he took physic once a month, heard mass every day, and took the Sacrament five times in the year. He liked walking and riding ; he sat his horse well, shot magnificently, danced well, and played racquets and billiards to perfection. His smile, his language, and even his looks were always under control ; his politeness, always full of gradations, was unvarying ; to ladies he removed his hat entirely, but Holland and in the reduction of the Franche Comte. \Vide (Adolphus') "History of France'' (London: n.d.}, vol. ii., p. 443]. Still, his biographer [pp. cit., p. 502] says : " Though he frequently took the field, and reduced in person Franche Comte, and several of the strongest towns of the Netherlands, yet his personal courage has not escaped imputation ; and in repeated campaigns he never exposed his life or reputation to the hazard of a battle." 375 It is true that the discipline and inflexibility of Philip II. were such as to have become proverbial, but at the same time France had not seen, until the time of Louis XIV., a ruler whose statesmanship, or whose patriotism and splendour, were greater than those of this monarch. THE SQUARE TYPE. 323 [1 502] removed it more or less far according to their rank. To the lower orders of nobility he held it in the air or close to his head for a few moments, carefully pre-considered. To knights or persons of lower rank he contented himself with touching his hat with his hand ; to princes of blood royal he uncovered as if to a lady ; at meals he half rose for each lady-in- waiting who arrived. He required that his mistresses and the ladies of the court should eat heartily for no one was ever less romantic than he when it was his pleasure to see them feed. When he was travelling he did not like them to feel either heat or cold ; they ingratiated themselves with him by an ever-equable temperament, and he required that they should be always gay, and ready to walk, dance, or follow him wherever he pleased to go. He was always dressed in more or less quiet colours, with very little ornamentation ; he never wore rings or jewels of any kind save upon the buckles of his shoes, garters, and hats ; he wore his orders underneath his coat, excepting on special or festive occasions, when he wore them outside, jewelled to a value of from eight to ten millions of francs." 376 If the large-thumbed square type of hand [which ^[503. is the only one to which these characteristics can Hlst ? nans _ a " d * courtiers of the belong] had not been in an immense majority in period France during this reign, the name of Louis XIV. would not have come down to us surrounded by such a mass of eulogy. The men of this generation, similar in organisation and in temperament, were also similar, not only in mind, but also to a great extent physically ; if we read their works, and look at their portraits, 378 The above is extracted from a quantity of different places [pp. 32, 35, 118, 119, vol. i., etc., etc.] in the " Memoires de M. le Due de St. Simon, I' Observateur Veridique sur le Regne de Louis XIV" (Londres : 2 6me edition, 1789). 324 THE SCIENCE O* THE HAND. [1 5JJ they might all be members of a single family. They have all the same lai*ge aquiline noses and stern mouths, the same positive, methodical, reasonable, and restrained minds. f 504. Round faces, tip-tilted noses, free glances, lively f^hr^ht'eenth behaviour, both physically and morally, belong essen- century. tially to the philosophic race of the eighteenth century. f 504a. And noses like eagle's beak, faces like the lion's nineteenth 6 muzzle, round eyes like wild beasts, and glowering century. eyebrows, belong to the warlike and turbulent times of the Empire. llN ^505. Even in literature what of ideality these useful LUera |y^e f the nands can comprehend stops short at a very nar- j row limit. They keep away from idealism just as J they do from boldness of thought or novelty of form. ' Their timorous and conceited muse, whose knowledge is far in advance of her seeming innocence, never adventures herself save upon well-worn roads, pre- ferring to proceed by memory, rather than by senti- ment, being spirited rather than imaginative. Such, subjects prefer words which describe objects with reference to their use, rather than those which merely describe their form [thus, for instance, they will use the generic terms " bark," or " ship," rather than junk, sloop, brig, etc.]; whence comes, of course, the want of local colouring that we find in their writings. In the style of what they call poetry, they like above everything else clearness and cor- rectness, rhythm, the balance which results from careful arrangement and combination ; in social relations they require security and exactitude; in life, moderation. ^[506. Circumspect and far-seeing, they like what is of'the'type 1 ' 68 c l ear ty known, and suspect the unknown. Born for the cultivation of medium ideas, they pay less atten- tion to the actually real than to the apparently real ; they recommend themselves by their good sense, THE SQUARE TYPE. 325 111 56J rather than by their genius ; by their spirit and cultivated talents, rather than by the faculties of imagination. In their eyes eminently fitted to give an opinion on the point the most sociable man is not the one who appreciates most the good qualities of his fellow-men, but the one who cares least about their defects. They do not seek after beauty, which is a requirement of the soul, but after good, which is V a requirement of the mind. This kind of teasing despotism, which has its ^[507. source in the love of order and regularity ; hypocrisy Defe ^ ts of tht and conceit, which result from an exaggerated love of reserve and appreciation of good behaviour ; this sort of pedantry, which is born of respect of persons ; coldness, which resembles moderation ; flattery and adulation, vices peculiar to spirits endowed with the hierarchical instinct; stiffness of manner and bearing; harshness of punctuality; and abject submission in view of the objects of one's ambition these are the principal defects of persons belonging to the useful type. Such subjects will accept none but the man who f 508. is cultivated, well taught, disciplined, moulded, and Language of tK type, trimmed upon a certain pattern. Where the man of learning shows himself in all his glory, they go to seek their models and their examples. When the nation, like an open-handed parvenu, desired at length to speak a language worthy of her fortunes and the height of her glory, it was not to the hidden sources of the chivalrous epics of the middle ages, that the square hands of the seventeenth century appealed ; Se\-;nteenth they turned their eyes towards Athens and Rome, atury. towards the sanctified names of Euripides, of Virgil, of Demosthenes, and of Cicero. From that time forth power, reinforced by the talent of the universities, had its own literature, just as it had its own architecture, both of them characterised by imitation 326 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. LI 508 - and reflection of other styles. 577 But in the country, the natural stronghold of elementary liberty and truth, men held fast to the ingenuous poetry of the land, and despising the strange gods of the capital remained Gaulish, Christian, and romantic. 378 f 509. "Every country," says Philip de Commines. speaking Nationalism. . - , . _ . , ' *_ . in one ot his works of the long sojourn of the English in France, and of the Germans in Burgundy, " what- ever men may do, ends invariably by remaining the property of the peasantry, i.e., to the nationalists." 379 It is the same of the schools of literature. 877 Voltaire says of this century : " In eloquence, poetry, literature, and in books of morality, the French were the legislators of Europe. . . . Preachers quoted Virgil and Ovid ; barristers quoted St, Augustin and St. Gerome. The mind that should give to the French language the turn, the rhythm, and the clearness of style and grandeur had not yet appeared. A few verses of Malherbes showed that it was capable of grandeur and of force, but that was all. The same genii who had written in excellent Latin, as for instance the President de Thou and the Chancellor, were no longer the same when they dealt with their own language ; " and he goes on to point out that it was in this century that the works of Voiture, of Vaugelas, and of La Rochefoucauld, really commenced the regeneration of the French language. " Sieclede Lottis XIV." chap, xxxii. 378 An interesting and curiously parallel passage to this commences the opening chapter of Walter Pater's recent work, " Martus, the Epicurean " (London : 1885, ch. i., p. i), which reads as follows : "As in the triumph of Christianity the old religion lingered latest in the country, and died out at last as but paganism the religion of the villagers before the advance of the Christian Church ; so in an earlier century it was in places remote from town life that the older and purer forms of paganism survived the longest. While in Rome new religions had arisen with bewildering com- plexity around the dying old one, the earlier and simpler patriarchal religion, 'the religion of Numa," as people loved to fancy, lingered on with little change amid the pastoral life, out of the habits and sentiment of which so much of it had grown." 378 Compare the last note. Philippe de Commines THE SQUARE TYPE. 327 Townsmen rather than citizens, men of the square- 1[ 610. . , j , ,. ,. i -7 11, Socialism of the handed type, prefer certain privileges to absolute type . liberty. Authority is the base of all their instincts, the authority of rank, of birth, of law, and of custom ; they like to feel, and to impose the yoke. " Anything which hinders a man," say they with Joseph de Maistre, " fortifies him ; he cannot obey without im- proving himself, and by the mere fact of his thus conquering himself, he is the better man." See, for instance, what a deplorable influence the IT 511. troubles of the Fronde exercised upon the square- LouisVi'v. ' handed type of men under Louis XIV. In the fear of seeing their troubles recommence, they hastened in their fanatic love of order to invest the king with autocratic powers ; they intoxicated him with splendour and voluptuousness ; they lost themselves in the dim necessitudes of servilism ; they raised the throne to the level of the altar, and proudly pro- claimed themselves to be the apostles of monarchical fetichism/ 80 From the gentle and convenient God of Preacher?, Montaigne and of Rabelais they passed to the iron- handed, harsh-voiced, and intolerant God of Pascal 381 [born 1445, died 1509] entered the service of Charles, Duke of Burgundy, in 1464, and left him to enter that of Louis XI. in 1472. The earliest known MS. of his work entitled " Cronicque et Histoire faicte et com- posee par feu Messire Philippes de Commynes, Chevalier, Seigneur d 1 Argenton" dates from the com- mencement of the sixteenth century. The first printed edition appeared at Paris in 1523, and complete editions appeared in 1528 and 1546. The best modern edition is that entitled " Choix de Chroniques et Memoires sur V 'Histoire de France" (Paris: 1536), edited by J.A. C.Buchon. The remark quoted by M. d'Arpentigny occurs in book iv. For an account of the "Guerre de la Fronde" vide Voltaire's " Histoire du Par lenient de Paris" ch. Ivi. At the end of the disturbances the parliament ceased practically to exist, and Louis XIV. held auto- cratically the reins of government [pp. cit., ch. Ivii.]. 881 Pascal, the philosopher and Jansenist, the author 328 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1 5] and of Bossuet. 382 They lacked the gift of persuasicn and their preachers, highly appreciated at court on account of their magnificent language, could only con- vert souls in the Cevennes with the aid of the Literature, arquebuse and halberd. 383 We find no impartiality, liberality, or appreciation of antique times in the works of their historians ; no lyricism among their poets ; beneath the learned tissue of their style, beneath the parsimonious sprinkling of metaphors and ornamental Latin quotations which decorate it, one catches a glimpse of souls trembling beneath the vigilant scru- tiny of literary, religious, and political pedantism, to which, by virtue of the organisation which governs them, the sublime flights of enthusiasm and liberty must remain for ever strangers. ^f 512. Thus, on the one hand, plastic art no longer existed, An m the same f or pi as tj c art is as nothing where the consent of the period masses is not regarded as important ; and, on the other, real poetry was not yet existent, for the grand Angel, whose forehead is diademed with stars, and who sits at the right hand of God, the angel of lyric of the celebrated " Pensees sur la Religion et sur quelques autres Sujets " (Paris : 1669) [complete edition (Paris : 1844)], was the author of the " Lettres Provin- ciates" preached under the pseudonym of Louis de Montalt, in 1654, which Voltaire calls the first book of real genius which the century had seen. 382 M. d'Arpentigny is wrong in attributing these characteristics to the dogma of Bossuet, whose style of preaching was always sublime and poetic to the point of real pathos. Our author would have done better in citing his successor Bourdaloue, of whom Voltaire tells us: " He was [1665] one of the first that introduced reasonable eloquence into the pulpit. ... In his style, which was more nervous than florid, without any imagination in its expressions, he seemed to desire to convince rather than to touch, and he never aimed at * pleasing his congregation." " Siecle de Louis XV. t " ch. xxxii. 883 Vide note vt , p. 247. THE SQUARE TYPE. 329 fl 5") poetry and sublime thoughts, the angel whom Racine would have invoked had his age permitted it, had not yet hovered on his fiery wings over France, pre- occupied as she was by the cares of government, and the religious scruples of her king. The artistic hand had departed, and the psychic had not yet arrived ; it was the aera of letters and of wits, of shades, of sentiment, and of literary subtlety ; of great talents no doubt, but not of great lights. Coustou, Scuipton Coysevox, and Puget the latter especially still gave life to the dull cold marble, but they did not give to it beauty. 384 Poets, too great not to be misunder- stood, Le Poussin exiled himself in Italy, Lesueur Painters shut himself up in a cloister, and Claude Lorrain in the contemplation of nature. No official of this period possessed the true sentiment of the beauties of nature; in the laying out of gardens, geometry was substituted for design, and symmetry for grace. At the theatre excessive restraint, conventionality, D.anw and artificiality, proved fatal to the drama and chilled it The tragic muse like the nation seriously shackled, refused to move forward, and seemed to realise the fact that beneath the crushing load of its innumerable rules, she must act without grace; at the same time comedy, fable, and moral romance, compositions of a medium nature, and left more free, probably for this reason attained during this epoch their highest limits of perfection. France, which together with the spirit of the artistic hands had lost her hatred of conventionality and regularity, 384 This is of course a matter of opinion ; there are no doubt those among my readers who have looked with genuine admiration upon the statues of Coustou in the Luxembourg, an his group " The Rhone and Saone " at the fountain in the Tuileries Gardens ; as also Coysevox's groups of "Mercury and Fame" on the pillars of the gate which leads into the same gardens from the Place de la Concorde. 330 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. s*J her brilliant energy, her light refrains, and the caustic wit so dear to the contemporaries of " le sire de Brantome," S85 advanced only with heavy and measured tread ; she had disciplined" even gallantry, and had theoretically turned the course of the stream of Le Fleuve de Tendre ; 86 she had assumed a grave and magisterial air, and a voluminous peruke ; she was busy, and must not be disturbed. Upon science, whose bold and logical deductions are regarded askant by the authorities; upon history, whose inquiries cause them annoyance ; and upon warlike courage, the blind ardour and adventurous enthusiasm of which have so often compromised them, square hands impose as an untransgressible limit, as an inevitable starting-point, and as a curb, official confidence, tradition, and tactics. If the instincts of recalcitrant and innovating minds urge them towards the sublime horizon of the world of ideas so much the worse for them ; this terrible square type count among their arguments spoliation, exile, fetters, and the scaffold. 513. Such was Baville, who only saw one bad point in ST** the P ublic tortures and slaughter of the Protestants 385 Pierre de Bourdeilles, Abbe and Seigneur of Bran- t6me, chronicler and writer, born in 1527, died in 1614. He passed the greater part of his life in the professions of soldier and courtier. Gentleman of the bedchamber to Charles IX. and Henry III., he seemed destined, by his character as much as by the adventures which befell him, to become the chronicler of his epoch. He has been called " Le Valet de chambre de 1'Histoire," a title well earned by his works, of which perhaps the best known and most notorious are, " Les Vies des Hommes lllustres et Grands Capitaines de son Temps " (Ley- den : 1665) ; " Memoirs contenans les A necdotes de la Cour de France sous Henri II., Francois II., and Henri III. et IV." (Leyden : 1722); and "Memoirs contenans les Vies des Dames Galantes de son Temps ' ' (Leyden : 1693). 888 The " Pays de Tendre " was an allegorical country, a good deal referred to by Romancists of the seventeenth THE SQUARE TYPE. 331 W s3] at Montpellier, 387 and that was the compassion with Dominic. which they inspired the mob. Such was Dominic, whose fanaticism suggested the idea of the extermina- D'Aihe. tion of an entire people ; 388 such was the Due d'Albe, who vaunted himself as having caused 18,800 men to perish upon the scaffold.^ 89 Such was the calm R^P"" Robespierre, petrified by logic, legality, and incor- century, a country entirely devoted to the pleasures of love, a kind of elysium of lovers and their lasses. This is the stream referred to by Boileau, in his tenth satire " Des Femmes," in the lines : " Puis bientot en grande eau sur \&fleuve de Tendre Naviger a souhait, tout dire et tout extendre," etc. 387 Montpellier was one of the most redoubtable strongholds of the Protestants, by whom it was fortified in the seventeenth century. It was, however, besieged by Louis XIII. in August 1622, and fell in the following October. The massacres of Protestants which followed, and the atrocities committed by the conquerors of Montpellier, form one of the blackest pages of the religious history of the times. 388 Dominic, the founder of the monastic order that bears his name, having despatched 1,207 mon ks into Languedoc to collect proofs of the heresy of the Albi- genses, and having found contradictions in the evidence, besought the authorities to exterminate them [EYRE CROWE, " History of France" (London : 1858), vol. v., p. 175]. Martin says of him [" Hist, de Fr? (Paris: 1878), vol. iv.,p. 25], ".Un immense anatheme poise sur la tete de ce moine, qui passe pour le genie de 1'inquisi- tion incarne; . . . il s'imagine servir le genre humain en poursuivant sans pitie les ' suppots de 1'enfer qui perdaient tant de milliers d'ames,' et crut obeir a la voix de Dieu en etouffant les murmures de sa conscience et le cri de ses entrailles." 389 This is what we find laid down in so many words in Joannis Meursi " Ferdinandus Albanus, sive de Rebus ejus in Belgio er sexennium gestis Libri IV." (Amsterdam : 1638).* * "Gloriatus alibi dicitur ; uno illo sexennio suo, lictoris maim, xviii. cio ac cio mori jussisse, prseter eos quos bella aut praesidia hausissent." Lib. iv., p. 86. 332 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1 sis] Louis xiv. ruptibility. 390 Such was Louis XIV., whose cramped spirit could never rise to doubt. 381 ..." non men che saver, dubbiar mi aggrata." ^ ^[513a. An excellent portrait of Cardinal Richelieu by Richelieu. Philippe de Champagne, belonging to the Museum of Caen, represents that prelate with pointed ringers. It is a gratuitous piece of flattery, if indeed it was so meant, for the hand being represented in profile the fingers could not appear otherwise than pointed. 393 Cardinal Richelieu, who recommends in his will that all men of a too delicate sense of honour should be banished from the conduct of public affairs, had, as we all know, a comprehension of social and politic ethics as broad as his moral sense was narrow. 394 More attentive to the interests of heaven than to " " Robespierre, who distinguished himself in the constituent assembly by the severity of his principles, was excluded from the legislative by the decree of non- election. He entrenched himself now among the Jaco- bins, where he domineered with absolute sway, by the dogmatism of his opinions, and a reputation for integrity which gained for him the epithet of the incorruptible" [Thiers, "History of the French Revolution" (Lon- don : 1877), "The Legislative Assembly," ch. i.]. Perhaps the minutest and most unbiassed account of the life and character of Maximilien Robespierre is to be found in Lamartine's " Histoire des Girondins" (Paris: 1847), of which an English translation was made by H. T. Ryde : "History of the Girondists, or Personal Memoirs of the Patriots, etc." (London : 1849), from which to a great extent Mr. Lewis' " Life of Maximilien Robespierre " (London : 1849) is taken. 391 Vide ch. xxxvi. of Voltaire's " Siecle de Louis xi vr 882 Dante, "Inferno," canto 2\,fin. * Vide H 495. 884 " Testament Politique d'Armand du Plessis, Cardinal Due de Richelieu" (Amsterdam: 1788), chap vi. [p. 211] : " C'est ce qui fait qu'au lieu de lui representer les avantages que les princes religieux ont pardessus les autres je me contente de mettre en avant THE SQUARE TYPE. 333 if 5i3a] those of the earth, he only vook up arms against the Protestants to deprive them of their material strength. 385 Though he had the mania of verse, i.e., of rhythm and measure in speech, he had not the sentiment of poetry developed to the slightest degree. He was a deeply considered, and bold enemy of inde- pendent and audacious instincts, and he was a leveller in whose eyes two things alone were sacred unity and authority. Certainly, like Aristotle, that paragon of the square ^ 514. ..ype ; like Boileau, the prototype of rhythmical poets ; Parallels, like Turenne and Vauban, generals of the scientific Richelieu, school, Richelieu had square finger-tips, and not pointed ones. Versailles, where everything is arranged in straight ^ 515. lines, and effaces itself in a tyrannical and wearisome Versailles of th square type. symmetry ; where the houses like stately dowagers stand in rows, cold and stiff, uniformly ornamented with massive facings of red brick in imitation of por- phyry ; Versailles, where one feels that one ought only to walk in one's best clothes, and at the pace of a procession ; where, to analyse the feelings to which the splendid poverty of its bastard architecture gives birth, the mind turns to arithmetic rather than to poetry; Versailles, I say, with its gardens and its palace, will always be for large-thumbed useful hands que la devotion qui est necessaire aux Rois doit etre exemte de scrupule : Je le dis, sire, parce que la delica- tesse de la conscience de V. M. lui fait souvent craindre offenser Dieu en faisant certaines choses dont assure- ment elle ne S9aurott s'abstenir sans peche." Chap, viii., sect. Hi. [p. 246.]: "La probit6 d'un Ministre Public ne suppose pas une conscience craintive et scru- puleuse : au contraire il n'y a rien de plus dangereux au Gouvernement de 1'Etat," etc; and the same spirit continually pervades the maxims contained in this extraordinary little volume. 384 22 334 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [f sis] the most perfect exemplification of monumental beauty, as it is understood by them. .->. ^f 516. The man who is a publican by nature, the bureau- \ The bureaucrat , , , A r u and civil servant. crat moulded to the true type of his race, has necessarily square fingers. Satellite of the science J of arithmetic, he gravitates around its arid sphere and draws from it its faint refulgence. His harsh and sullen pen deals only with matter of law and rule, for he is permeated by the fiscal instinct, which / with him takes the place of all natural feeling. Living \ outside the pale of thought and of events, tar from the clashing of opinions, of interests, and of swords, all his sensibilities are concentrated upon himself, as J is also everything in the way of combinations that / his mind can grasp. He is so constituted that he \ cannot feel a passion for anything; the crowd surges and murmurs in the street, it is the king who is passing ; immediately he wreathes his lips into a smile of compulsory cheerfulness, which will disappear like the flame of an extinguished candle when his master has gone by. In his eyes the best government is the one under which he can live his careful life ; he knows beforehand at what age he will marry, and how many children he will have. Having no hope of achieving glory or distinction, innovation of any kind being absolutely forbidden him, he never loses an opportunity of decrying it when it is being vaunted by popular enthusiasm. For all professions which are not literary, he has the same contempt that the peasant has for the trades which do not entail hard work. In his estimation man has only been the superior animal since the invention of paper, and he considers as problematical and hypothetical the renown of the pretended great men who have never learnt to read or write. He considers the ranks of the priest- hood and the classifications of the social scale to be far more worthy of consideration than the poet, the THE SQUARE TYPE. 335 [1 5i6] artist, or the philosopher, patricians by Divine right ; he expects that imitation and assimilation will give him a factitious aristocracy, a rank, an importance that he can never expect to derive from the eminently plebeian nature of his labours. In France the uniformed writer whose duty it is to 1517. regulate the renovation of the soldiers' shoes, and to MLlitar >' scrlbi;s count the survivors after the battle, has a right to the same decorations, distinctions, and emoluments as the general who has headed the soldiers into victory ; in this case ink has the same value as blood. We have gangers and caterers, who hold the rank of colonel, who wear decorations, stars, and ribbons. In China there is an insignium of honour conferred 1f5l8. upon men of letters, and upon the highest state Chin e f se ra nk' gfii:i officials, which France should adopt for the dis- tinction of her bureaucrats the peacock feather/ 96 The soldier appreciated by the subject of the spatu- 1 519. late type is tall, with broad shoulders, a ruddy com- sptfubtefyp'e! plexion, an equable temperament ; he is gay, frank, martial, and deliberate in manner. In the country, the chickens come of their own accord to forage for themselves in his haversack ; like the veterans of the Empire, he will not believe in the traditional goose with the golden eggs, or the cricket of good omen, but he has implicit confidence in the powers of his sword and his brandy flask. So long as he is strong and valiant, one may forgive his intemperance. The general whose large hands have square finger- ^530. tips requires that he shall be exact and orderly, Soldiers of tl)e * square type always clean, carefully attired, and scrupulously neat. He will not allow him the pleasure of an occasional dissipation ; he must not be hungry or thirsty ex- cepting at the regimental and prescribed hours. No doubt he will be brave and robust, but before all he 396 Vide f 418, and notes to the paragraph. 336 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. 11 Sao] will be obedient and submissive to discipline; he will have clear judgment, but his wit will be neither brilliant nor refined. ^"521. According as a man belongs to these two types, as Constitution of t k ev at p resen t stand in France, an army ought only to be an instrument whose perfection consists in being strong and supple, that is to say, of soldiers more vigorous than intelligent, and of inferior officers of greater docility than capacity. A highly-developed capacity in subalterns is to them more a drawback than an advantage ; it is pretended that it brings them infallibly to a state of scorning the details of things, to presumption and disregard of discipline ; and while in this connection one may cite Sallust, who has written that the soldier who affects the fine arts has necessarily a feeble understanding. 397 A high compliment, indeed, to the independence of artistic natures. ^ 522. In the barracks, towards the end of the reign of Th c h a a r r Tes x der Charles X., the guards with their elementary hands lived by themselves, calm, empty-headed, and characterised by a vulgar and inoffensive appearance. Corpulent and inert, they sat their horses boldly, but without grace ; whilst some regiments made an ornament of their uniforms, for them it was but a garment. They rose at daybreak, and went to bed 897 The passage referred to is the one in which Sallust, describing the army of L. Sulla in Asia, states that they were completely demoralised by luxuries, and by a taste for the fine arts.* * SALLUST, " Bellum Catilinarium,' 1 cap. xi : "Hue ac- cedebat quod L. Sulla exercitum quern in Asia ductaverat, quo sibi fidum faceret, contra morem majorum, luxuriose nimis- que liberaliter habuerat loca amosna voluptaria, facile in otio fcroces militum animos molliverant. Ibi primum insuevit exercitus populi romani amare potare ; signa, tabulas pictas, vasa coelata mirari. . . . Igitur hi milites, postquam victoriam adepti sunt, nihil aliqui victis fecere." THE SQUARE TYPE. 337 LI 51 early ; their windows were garnished with flowers ; they used to go for long silent walks two and two, from which they would bring back a bouquet of violets, or a branch of May-flowers. When they came in they passed a wet comb through their hair, and set to work to brush their clothes. A wicker cage shaded by a bunch of chickweed, their portraits painted in oils by a house-painter, a net for quail- catching, and a green china parrot, with a curtainless bed, a deal table, and the chest of drawers, -and three chairs provided by government, completed their modest furniture. They married women of their kind, i.e., women with large feet, of masculine propor- tions, of equable temperament, drinking everything and knowing like them how to march in line, and who shared with them their admiration for the great porringer of the Invalides. These useful-handed guards went in for the free 1 ^. . Their mental educational courses open to them, in the murky characteristics. domains of the Latin tongue ; they frequented labo- ratories, amphitheatres, and libraries, and always absorbed sciences with avidity ; they numbered her- bals and collections of insects among their possessions. One might consult them as to the time, as if they had been dials ; as to the date, as if they had been calendars ; the day of the week, as if they had been almanacks ; it flattered them. They prided them- selves on being trussed at all points conformably to the prescriptions of the regimental code. They could stammer dead languages, and on great occasions they would fire great names at you like bonbons out of a pea-shooter. ^Enthusiasm, turmoil, and the outdoor forms of life, IT 624 - /on the contrary, were the domains of the younger ^idiersf' I guards with smooth spatulate fingers; lovers of the bottle, hardy and elegant horsemen, they were pre- eminent for the graces of their persons and appoint- 338 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. f 54] ments ; they dressed beautifully, *nd alone of all men carried their whips " with an air." One met them everywhere : like wasps to the ripened fruit there flocked to them the idlers of the cafes, the eternal sippers of absinthe and of white wine ; and the English, grown tired of ale and red-haired beauties ; and the baronesses of the Holy Empire with their in- satiable requirements ; and portionless damsels in search of a beau, wearing their hearts on their sleeVes ; and the frisky and impudent members of the ballet, and all the rest of them ! In their rooms, rather less bare than those of which I have just spoken, one might see a guitar, some flowers, an assortment of pipes, a volume of Pigault-Lebrun, and silhouettes of women framed in gilt paper. ^[ 525. Whenever a nation advances in a particular direc- contributlfto ^ion, everv influence combines to forward it in that national direction, even those to the detriment of which, the advancements. . .. . _, . movement is accomplished. That is what one sees under the reign of Louis XIV., when the spirit of every class tended towards material order above all things, so as to merit the favour of the governing type, which made use of them against themselves just as navi- gators make use of a head-wind, and make it carry them forward. ^[526. One is struck by two things in reading the " Lettres The inures Edifiantes ; " firstly, by the strength of will and the Ldifiantes and their authors, spirit of self-abnegation and of patience, by the courage, and the knowledge of the missionaries who wrote them ; and secondly, by the childish faith which they reposed in the efficacy of the last ceremony of the Catholic religion. They seemed convinced that whoever was not of their Church was not only not a Christian, but was a positive Atheist. 388 So narrow- minded, so impious an exclusiveness, and the disdain " Vide note ia , p. 117. THE SQUARE TYPE. 339 [1 5261 which they always testified for human reason unil- lumined by revelation, have rendered vain all their efforts upon the infidels, among whom they have driven more people to fanaticism and to martyrdom than to civilisation. To listen to them one would believe that it is the Church, and not God, who dis- poses of human souls. One of them steals a baby from its mother and baptizes it in secret ; at the close of the ceremony the baby dies, and the missionary weeps for joy at having saved a soul from hell, as if by this formality God was prevented from a ossible misapprehension as to the baby's inno- cence. It is during the seventeenth century that the greater part of the " Lettres Edifiantes " were written ; they reflect admirably the hard and in- tolerant, hierarchic, disciplined and obstinate spirit of the useful hand. But these missionaries were nearly all gifted with simple and charitable hearts ; their genuine modesty was in no respect " the pride that apes humility," nor their benevolence towards the humble and meek, of the kind which has been defined as " the hatred of the great and powerful." 3 " These qualities have modified the defects of their type ; but, had their hearts been as exclusive as their minds, their small successes would have been smaller still. There is this difference between the love of con- f 527. stituted authority as it is understood by spatulate s P atulate and * j r usetul hands hands and by useful hands (free in either case from contrasted, the modifying influences of education), that the former attach themselves to the person of the despot, and the 899 "Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses concernant VAsie, VAfrique, et I'Amerique, etc." (Paris: 1838), publiees sous la direction de M. 1'Aime-Martin. These letters, dated principally from the seventeenth century, constitute a large collection of records of missions undertaken by French and other priests in all parts of the known world. 340 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. If 5*7] latter to the institution of despotism ; for the former the tyrant must be powerful, for the latter he need only be properly constituted. ^ 528. Artistic hands observe material order only in so far aiSuS as it: hel P s and c ntributes to beauty. Useful hands order. love it for itself, admitting freely to their lives every- thing resultant therefrom. Order as it is understood by the English and Americans chills our artistic taste, and is antipathetic to us. Excessive order reduces all principles to the level of methods, a proceeding which almost materialises them, and up to a certain point strikes them with sterility. It is thus, as Madame de Stael said, that analysis kills the spirit of a thing, that chemistry kills its life, and that reasoning kills its sentiment. 400 400 " (Euvres Completes de Madame de Stael- Hoi- stem" (Paris: 1856), passim. "La precision meta- physique, appliquee aux affections morales de 1'homme, est tout a fait incompatible avec sa nature. Le Bonheur cst dans le vague, et vouloir y porter un examen dont il n'est pas susceptible, c'est 1'aneantir comme ces images brilliantes formees par les vapeurs legeres qu'on fait disparaitre en les traversant." " Essai sur les Fic- tions," op. cit., vol. i., p. 62. "L'imagination a peur du reveil de la raison comme d'un ennemi etranger qui pourrait venir troubler le bon accord de ses chimeres et de ses faiblesses. . . . Le courage et la sensibilite, deux jouissances, deux sensations morales, dont vous detruirez 1'empire en les analysant par 1'interet personnel, comme vous fletririez le charme de la beaut6 en la decrivant comme un anatomiste.'' " De la Litterature," vol. cit., PP- 3I/-9- SUB-SECTION XIX USEFUL HANDS [continued]. CONTINUATION. Chinese Hands. SQUARE-TIPPED hands must be in an immense majority f 529. in China, and for this reason : the masses defer will- ^china" 18 '" ingly to the requirements of hierarchy and to the sovereign authority of a single man. 401 They do not weigh reason against logic, but against usage ; they esteem good sense more than genius, things ordinary more than things extraordinary, the real more than the ideal, and the middle course rather than the extremes. They prefer social and practical to speculative ^530. philosophy, history and the other moral and political sciences to metaphysics and abstract sciences. 402 The man who governs his family well, who has If 531. been a respectful and dutiful son, who has the proper * a ccuon -deference for his elders, is judged worthy and capable of governing a province, a kingdom, or an empire. 403 Vide note 3 ", p. 267. 402 "We have a religion of the literary class which corresponds to the degree of culture of the most en- lightened body in the empire. This is the religion of Confucius, or rather his philosophy ; for his doctrine is that of the founder of a school who has enunciated moral maxims, but has not meddled with speculative theories upon the destinies of man and the nature of the Divinity." Tcheng-Ki-Tong, op. cit., p. 19. 43 555. ... ,, t j ii_ .c T'I Appearance of joints well marked in the fingers. The exterior tne philosophic phalanx half square and half conic, a combination hand - producing with the upper joint a kind of egg-shaped spatule ; the thumb large and indicating the presence of as much logic as will, i.e., composed of two phalanges of equal, or practically equal, length. We have seen that the inclination of the spatulate f 556. finger-tips draws them irresistibly towards that In f tmcts . of the * philosophic type. which is materially useful ; that the inclination of the conic phalanx has as its aim, beauty of form, i.e., art ; and that that of the square finger-tips tends towards social utility, medium and practicable ideas, A pupil of Kant, he published under his influence his first work with the startling title, " Kritik alter Offen- barung" (Konigsberg: 1792). His whole life was de- voted to the exposition of what has been described as " a system of transcendental idealism," a system which may be gathered from his works " Die Wissenschaftslehre " (Konigsberg : 1795), " System der Sittenlehre" (Jena : 1798), and particularly from his " Anweisung zum Seligen Leben, oder die Religionslehre" (Berlin : 1806). He became rector of the University of Berlin in 1810 and died in 1814. " He combines," says his biographer, "the penetration of a philosopher, with the fire of a prophet, and the thunder of an orator ; and over all his life lies the beauty of a .spotless purity." Vide J. H. Fichte's " Fichte's Leben und 'Literarischer &rief- wechsel" (Sulzberg: 1830-31). 352 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. ft 556] and realisable combinations. As for the genius which accompanies phalanges which are quasi-square and quasi-conic, it is characterised by the love of and constant desire for absolute truth. ^f 557. By their joints philosophic hands have calculation, Effect of more or i ess rigorous deductions, and method; by formation. J their quasi-conic tips they have the intuition of a rela- tive form of poetry ; and by the whole combination of formations, including, of course, the thumb, they have the instinct of metaphysics. They plunge into the outer as well as into the inner world, but they seek less after the form than after the essence of things, less after beauty than truth ; more than any of the other types they show themselves greedy of the severe enthusiasm, which is diffused by the inex- haustible reservoir of the higher moral, experimental, and philosophical [sensually speaking], and aesthetic ) sciences. ^[558. You have a philosophic hand ? I conclude then that Character!" " the philosophic spirit centres in you with greater or less intensity. You feel a desire to analyse and account for your sensations ; the secret of your own existence occupies your thoughts, as also does that of the origin of all things. Your beliefs, your ideas, and yourV opinions, are not adopted on the faith of other people, I but only after having examined them from every point I of view. Reason seems to you to be a more reliable guide than instinct, than faith, even than love ; it is to the reasoning faculty, and not to custom, or education, or law, that according to you everything must be consecrated ; you think like Socrates, that that which wounds reason wounds humanity in all that it holds most holy and best. A'jove the priest, the interested propagandist of the dreams of imagination, you place the philosopher, the apostle of the morality which draws men together, and dictates to them the law oi loving one another, when all religions separate them THE KNOTTY TYPE. 353 m 5581 and make them hate one another. You know that doubt is as inevitable to us as death, and neither doubt nor the idea of death can alter your serenity. You proceed by analysis, but you aim at synthesis thereby ; you occupy your thoughts at the same time with details and with the mass, with the individual and with mankind, with the atom and with the uni- verse, in a word, with the exception and with the rule the order, which in the material world others have seen in symmetry, 3'ou find in affinities; you claim a religious liberty because you feel that God has given you the intelligence of the just and of the unjust. You ignore vain scruples and super- stitious terrors, and make use of all the pleasures with moderation. If you do not recognise all these characteristics as applying to yourself, you will at least own to possessing most of them. Subjects of the square type reproach Louis XV. for 1" 559. having allowed himself to be despoiled of the absolute type'unde^ power with which they had armed him, as if the Louis xv. spirit of the times had not always a greater influence upon an isolated individual, than [whatever may be the temper of his disposition] that which that indi- vidual can exercise upon the times ; as if princes, were not like other men, subject to the irresistible empire of the circumstances among which they live. At the time of Louis XV.'s accession to the throne, ^[560. a type of hands, sprung from the masses of the people phaowpiiic during the time of the regency/ 11 had just risen to the spirit, surface of society, with all knowledge of its strength, and the ardent egoism which drives every instinct to 411 Louis XV. was an infant at the date of the death of Louis XIV., and Philippe, Due d'Orleans, was elected regent by the Parliament in 1/15, a post which he held until 1723, when upon his death the regency was entrusted to le Due de Bourbon, and after him, in 1726, to the Cardinal de Fleury. 354 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1 56o] prefer itself openly and ostensibly to every other. They were hands of the philosophic type. J i61. Contrary to the useful hands, which for upwards of wpon France" ^ty y ears had appealed to subordination, to authority, to usage, to custom, to conventionality, to faith, and to predestination, the philosophic hands appealed to reason, to examination, to proof, to liberty, and to free thought. At these words, France, which was being crushed beneath the heavy pall of formalities, raised her head and breathed again. One saw her, like a becalmed vessel warned at last of a coming wind by an unexpected breeze, spread her sails in haste, her sails which had so long lain idle, hoisting her joyous ensigns, and saluting with magnificent flourishes of trumpets, the blessed hands who restored her to wider spaces, to innovation, and to movement. 412 f 562. Attacking first of all the despotism of religion, Jelig ;p & ofthe the philosophers said : " What distinguishes us essentially from the animals is reason; it is, therefore, from reason that the idea of God comes to us, because the animals, who are without it, have no idea of the sort. If, therefore, our reason is our sole guarantee of the existence of God, it follows that it is reason alone that should direct for us the studies which have Him for their object. He would not blame us for not holding a faith which is condemned by our reason, the faculty whereby He has been revealed to us, and without which He would be unknown to us." rf63 The intolerant Catholicism of this epoch, having Their influence been threatened by these arguments, and caused to tlcs ' totter at last upon its base, these philosophers then 412 A condition of things immediately resulting from the weak and sensual character of Louis XV., a monarch who practically took no part whatever in the conduct of the national affairs, and who was in every way supremely unfitted to carry on the system of government which had for its basis, Louis XIV.'s celebrated phrase, "L'Etat, c'est moi ! " THE KNOTTY TYPE. 355 [1 s6 3 ] turned the efforts of their aggressive dialectics against the despotism of politics. "Kings were made for the people, and not people IT 564. , . ,, . . , .., , , Socialism of the for kings. This maxim, hitherto regarded as im- type< pious, seemed just and sacred to a generation which, having arrived at the point of reasoning out its education, and making it conform to its intelligence, considered that it had so much the more the right to reason out its government. Liberty established her- self victoriously in men's minds, but it was in the sphere of ideas alone that for a long time she dared to soar with complete freedom. It was not until 1789, the epoch when she took her place in the laws of the land, that she made her way into the sphere of action. Since then art has opened to her her sanctuary; and to-day philosophers are trying to find her a way into mora'.s ; they claim for all men electoral rights, divorce, and the freedom of women* and preach the doctrine of individual Protestantism. Literature in the seventeenth century, by reason of 1" ^65. .. , i A -1.1 >j i i it> Literature of the the imposed and inflexible ideas which governed this type> epoch, had, and indeed could only have, itself as an object ; and all literature which is thus circumstanced must necessarily occupy itself more with style than with substance. For philosophic hands, devoted by their instinct to the search after the absolutely true, literature was but an instrument, with the aid of which they explored the unlimited domains of thought. 413 Their writings are brilliant from their 413 Madame de Stagl, in her treatise " De la Litter a- ture" (Paris : 1800), ch. xx., has said in this connection : "In the time of Louis XIV., the perfection of literary art itself was the principal object of men of letters, but already in the eighteenth century literature assumes a different character it is no longer merely an art, it is an instrument, it becomes a weapon of the human mind which until then she had been content simply to instruct and amuse." 356 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. LI 565] variety, utility, and extent, and from the profundity of their ideas, whilst those of the useful type shine by form and literary style. T 566. The theatre, of which the eighteenth century [bolder Drama. j n jj. g worc } s anc j thoughts than the seventeenth, but not freer in its actions] made a kind of rostrum for popular harangues, did not lose less by this innova- tion than literature had lost from the artistic point of view, when it was reduced to the secondary condition of an instrument merely. But history and philosophy, set free by the philosophic hands from the shackles of faith, of tradition, and of revelation, infinitely enlarged the radius of their investigations. In the impetus which they gave to the minds of men, new sciences were discovered, and forgotten arts were resuscitated. A monument more worthy of admira- tion, more gigantic even than the cathedrals of the thirteenth century, and which like them concentrates The in itself all the genius and science of an epoch the Encyclopaedia. " Encyclopaedia " was, amid the plaudits of the most sagacious, the most sceptic, the most learned, and the most witty that the world has yet seen, commenced and finished in less than thirty years. ^[567. Until now they had relied upon individuals, now importance of th believed in communities : the State was no the masses. J longer contained within the royal mantle. A power, until lately unknown, and high-handedly over-ridden, " public opinion " inspires at last a wholesome terror ; like the chorus in a Greek tragedy, the democracy intermeddles with the actions of kings : in defiance of history and tradition, political innova- tions are guided by pure reason ; liberty, though not yet legally constituted, enlarges the minds of men, just as toleration enlarges their hearts ; man becomes for his fellow-man the object of a grand love, of Discoveries, an enthusiastic admiration. Our fleets, directed by philosophers and men of science, plough through the THE KNOTTY TYPE. 357 Ct 567] tempests of two. hemispheres in search of nations and of islands and of continents hitherto unknown, among which to pour out the excess of our happiness and enlightenment ; even upon savages kindly glances are bestowed. The God of to-day is not the sullen, punctilious, ^"568. jealous God of former days ; it is no longer necessary to construct formulas and perform penances; to be happy is to adore Him; and the nation, less pre- occupied than formerly concerning the ill-defined benefits of the other life, scattering everywhere flowers of grace, of talent, and of wit, bearing manfully its load of alternated certitude and doubt, throws itself enthusiastically upon the pleasures of this one, but at the same time, neither are the higher sciences nor philosophy losers thereby. The manners of society, Manners of which the end of the seventeenth century had left society, harsh and cruel, softened down ; fanaticism disap- peared, etiquette relaxed itself; the barriers of the hierarchy were cleared away; the lower orders in- creased in power, and very soon it will no longer be a question of levelling, but of equality. Our villagers, hitherto so despised, come forward into the light, where the muses love to see them, with their virtues still somewhat tinselled over by the golden age. Virtue, genius, and talent assume the forms of simplicity and good fellowship; such, for instance, as we find them in Malesherbes, Franklin, Turgot, Lafayette, J. J. Rousseau, Diderot, and others : men's minds take a higher flight, lyricism comes to light, and the nation, freed at last, mirrors itself in its own intelligence and in its own beauty ; she re- joices in herself, in her moral strength, and in the universality of her genius; the other nations, struck with awe, come to it for legislators, and North America, attentive to the voices of our philosophers, prepares for herself an era of solid happiness and [t 568] f 569. Appreciation of the type. 1670. Necessity of suitable environ- ment for development. 358 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. f57I. Philosophy of the type : , 1 571a. That of other types. ^572. Analysis and synthesis. f573.. Clergymen, / unheard-of prosperity, realising in its midst the presence of their fruitful theories. The philosophic type alone, because to a certain point both worlds are known to it, can understand and appreciate the other types. As in the case with nations, individuals do not attain, excepting in ages of greater or less advance- ment, the perfect intelligence of their philosophical faculties, which, to come into being and develop themselves properly, require at least the light of experience. Philosophic hands, like those belonging to the other types, exist in all classes of society ; only the genius which they represent becomes abortive, or manifests itself but very imperfectly among persons who are chained by their ill-fortune to gross labours. The philosophy of spatulate and useful hands studies the problems of facts, of practical ideas, of realities, of politics, and so on. That of conic and pointed hands tends towards strange beliefs, speculative ideas, and so on. J^ Hands of the quasi-square and quasi-conic forma- \ tion generally reveal eclecticism, and it is for this > reason that I have given them, above all others, the name of philosophic hands. When they are large, they incline to analysis ; when they are small, they incline to synthesis; with a small thumb they are guided by heart, with a big thumb they are guided S by head. The same may be said of Churchmen, as of philo- sophers and of artists. The knowledge and direction of men is the task of the priests belonging to the types known as northern; the knowledge and the direction of sow/s is that of the priests of the types known as southern. To the first belong sciences and doctrines, to the last, faith ; the former have most authority, the latter have most love. Spatulate hands ^N s/ THE KNOTTY TYPE. 359 ^ [H 573] are pre-occupied concerning this world and about their Church ; the conic, concerning heaven and their God. For the former the priesthood is merely a trade ; for the latter it is nearly always a ministry. The confessional [which in very truth exhibits none but the worst aspects of humanity] increases the severity of the former and the leniency of the latter ; I have before me a rough black silhouette of M. le Cardinal de Clermont-Tonnerre, late Archbishop of Toulouse ; his disdain of the generation in which he lived, for its ideas and for its works, had surrounded him with an atmosphere of sanctity in the court of Charles X. 414 A priest, said he, debases himself by asking ; he must insist. He was a very small man, with a proud, even an arrogant, walk ; the gaze of the mob, whatever its expression, did not embarrass him in the least. Haughty, pacing along in scarlet upon his horse, the ornaments of his caparisons glittering with ostentation, he seemed perfectly ready to recommence the old struggle between the spiritual and temporal authorities. He had a large nose, large eyes, and large lips, on a small face ; his iron- grey hair, flattened down and dressed like the bristles of the wild boar, and cut straight across his forehead 414 Anne Antoine Jules de Clermont-Tonnerre, born in Paris 1749, died at Toulouse 1830. In 1782 he became Bishop of Chalons, and took a leading- part in the French revolution. He was made Archbishop of Toulouse in 1820, and became Cardinal in 1822. He was renowned for his ultramontane views and for his rigidity in matters of etiquette and social observance. On one occasion, having been engaged in a dispute with Feurtier, the Minister of Public Instruction, he made the following characteristic reply : " Monseigneur, la devise de ma famille, qui lui a ete donnee ent 1120 par Calixte II. est celle ci : ' Etiamsi ornnes, ego non;' c'est aussi celle de ma conscience/' After this he was forbidden the court until he should apologise, which he subsequently did by order of Leo XII. THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [I 573] just above his eyebrows, gave him an air of harsh- ness, which the habitual expression of his features, his brown complexion, his great age, and the depth of his wrinkles accentuated rather than relieved. In the barracks we used to call him the mitred ourang- outang; his great spatulate hands gave freely it is true, but without grace, without true charity. 1 574. Hildebrandt *" and La Rovere 4I6 undoubtedly be- uiustrations. j onged to the square or to tne spatulate type. 415 Hildebrandt, a German priest, who, having achieved great distinction for his activity and diplo- matic ability under all the popes from Gregory VI. to Alexander II., was crowned Pope under the name of Gregory VII. in 1073. His continual strife with Henry IV. of Germany only terminated with his death in 1085. He was remarkable all his life for his -austerity and inflexible determination. A detailed account of his life and character may be found in Bowden's "Life of Gregory VII." (London: 1840). 416 Julien de la Rovere reigned as Pope Julius II. from 1503 1513, having been born in 1441. He shines forth among the potentates of his day by reason of his vast political capacity and for the marvellous energy with which he was continually engaged in struggling to attain the objects of his ambition and to advance the interests of the Church. The records of his sovereignty contain chronicles of wars which he waged successfully against Caesar Borgia, Louis XII., and the Emperor Maximilian of Germany. He founded the Holy League of 1511, and his death, in 1513, left a state of things existent in the affairs of the Holy See which was a fit basis on which to commence the reign of Leo X. All the accounts that we have of his pontiff tell us of his inordinate pride and of his continual political struggles ; he also was a liberal patron of literature and of the arts, but this was entirely subordinated to the strife after his own political ambitions. SECTION IX. Cfje pointeti Cppe. SUB SECTION XXI. PTM ,. TV T THE POINTED PSYCHIC HANDS. [Plate IX.J TYPE. THE psychic hand is of all others the most beautiful, 1575. .1 ,i r , c Its appearance. and consequently the most scarce, for rarity is one ol the conditions of beauty. It is small and fine by relation to the rest of the body. A medium palm, smooth fingers [or fingers with the joints only just perceptible], the outer phalanx long, and drawn out to a point, the thumb small and elegant. Large and with joints it has force and combination, but it lacks ingenuousness. Let common sense be the guide of the useful hands, IT f>76. hands of which order, arrangement, and unity are oYmattersT the aims and objects ; let reason be the solitary beacon of the philosophic hands, carried, as they are, ever towards liberty and truth ; these are axioms which I have just been stating. As to psychic hands they bear to those two types the same relation the artistic bears to the spatulate type : they attach, they add to the works of the thinker in the same way that the artist adds to the works of the artizan, beauty and ideality ; they gild them with a sun-ray, they 364 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. n 576] raise them upon a pedestal, and open men's hearts to them ; the soul, forgotten and left behind by philosophic hands, is their guide, truth in matters of love and sensibility is their end, and expansiveness , of heart is their means. ^ 577. You have seen the world under the sway of spatu- e^ciusive ^ ate nan ds, and you have found movement, activity, influence of the industry, war, tumult, and cultivation of power and material good. You have seen it ruled by artistic hands, and you have found romantic enterprises [that is to say, attainment of an ordinary object by extra- ordinary means], want of foresight, brilliant folly, splendid misery, and the fanaticism of form. You have seen it ruled by square fingers, and have found fana- ticism of method, and narrow-minded and universal despotism. You have seen it governed by philo- sophic hands, and you have found fanaticism of science, doubt, mobility, and liberty, without a base on which to steady itself. ^578. In Europe, up to the present time, psychic hands Effect of psychic i iav e never been able to attain to domination. per- hands on oationai fortunes, haps because they have never desired it, disdainful as they are of material interests in the lofty sphere in which they are kept imprisoned by the genius which animates them. Nevertheless their intervention has never failed when the dramas of life, brought to their highest possible state of complication, have required a quasi-divine agency to unravel them. What insults would have been reserved for the intelli- gence and dignity of manhood, if, in electrifying the cities of Greece, these hands had not obtained for her the victories of Salami s and of Marathon. Spain, the religious and poetic, has never been violently con- vulsed save under their impulsion ; without them she would have perished in i8i2, 417 just as Germany, *" M. d'Arpentigny refers, I presume, to the liberal constitution of the Cortes of Cadiz which followed the THE POINTED TYPE. 365 LT 578] which, already vanquished as regards her princes, her crowned fetiches, was only saved by a few young enthusiasts, long-haired idealists, whose hearts were resolute, though their faces were serene, who hymning their God, their country, and liberty, threw them- selves into the field of battle, to the strains of the heavenly lyre. " Taken as a whole, these hands love grand struggles ^f 579. and despise little ones^ When Greek sensualism was alftimes' and' 11 at its height, they were represented by Plato ; when countries. Roman sensualism was at its height, they found their archetype in Christ. They do not struggle save with the grandest athletes ; to Bossuet, the biblical cham- pion of terrorism and of form, they oppose Fenelon, the evangelical champion of the inner spirits of things and of love. Against Voltaire and Diderot, who appeal to the senses and to reason, they excite the psychological opposition of Vauvenargues and of Rousseau. Finally, in our own day, you have seen them holding imperial materialism in check by the aid of Chateaubriand, of Benjamin Constant, and of Madame de Stael. The psychic hand is not, as writers of romances r have pretended, the exclusive privilege of old families. Universality of the type. V^ Always scarce, it exists nevertheless, everywhere, even among the most abject classes, where it vegetates ignorant of itself, misunderstood and disdained, on ac- count of its comparative inaptitude for manual labour. 418 Apollo, alas ! at one time was a cowherd. 419 battle of Salamanca [22nd July, 1812], at which the power of Napoleon was finally broken, a constitution which was, however, abrogated by Ferdinand VII. some years later. 418 Vide ^[ 284, and compare " A Manual > ~ ,j THE POINTED TYPE. 367 [1 58i] this matter even like the hatted angels which Sweden- Swedenborg \ borg, rapt in the spirit [according to his own account], heard lauding the purity of the doctrines of the Tartars ; 423 and, like the oracle of Delphi, which when / consulted as to the best manner in which to honour / the gods, i.e., as to the religious form best suited / for the morality of nations, answered, " Obey the laws / of the country " 423 in monarchy they see beauty, in republics they see good, and the East, dreamy, im- mobile, and silent as a desert, pre-occupied about \ its future state, and governed by a sole individual, \ seems to them to be as wise and as happy as the \ stormy West, regular and resounding like the ocean, pre-occupied about the things of the earth, and / governed by its communities. The two ideas to which the human race owes the . r Anthropo- most noble part of its good fortune and dignity, that of morphic the beautiful in art, and that of right in politics, had P 'y theism - their birth, and died in the antique world with the anthropomorphic polytheism, as it was understood 422 I do not quite follow M. d'Arpentigny's statement concerning the angels in hats [anges coiffes de chapea^lx} ; he evidently alludes to Swedenborg' s account of how certain spirits came to him in a trance, and told him about the worship and manners of the Tartars, an account of which may be found minutely given in " Eman. Swedenborgii Diarii Spiritualis " partis tertiae volumen secundum (London : 1844), p. 186, no. 6077.* us "You need not pry into the future; but assure yourselves it will be disastrous- unless you attend to your duty, and are willing to act as becomes you." f * " De Incolis Tartariae, prope Chinam, Tartaria Minor " : " Erant aliqui inde apud me, venerunt cum dormiebam. et dormie- bam tranquille, [cum] evigilatus animadvertunt quod non domi essent, sed alibi, mirati ubinam, quia non agnoscebant talia quse prorsus mundo spirituajium similia essent," etc., etc. t DEMOSTHENES, KATA $IAIIIIIOT, A'. " y&p S.TTO. TOT tffrai StT ffKOTreiv, dXX' ori 0aOX' &i> /urj irpoaf-x^Te, Tu in metaphysics [which, applying themselves to logic, teach men to think with subtlety], and the West in morals [which, applying themselves to reason, teach men to live honestly]. 428 ^|588. Asia is the land of "genii," as Europe is the land Asiatic genii. of fairies Well> the genii being individualities [or, perhaps, substantivities], gifted with an activity upon which no particular direction is imposed, they can do whatever they please, like the princes of their country, where they have always rejected any divi- sion of power. 429 The powers of our fairies, on the *~* I am not acquainted with this passage, but I pre- sume it occurs in the "Problems" of Aristotle, if any- where in his works. 429 On this word " genie " Sir Richard Burton gives a most interesting- note in his "Arabian Nights " \o. cit. (vide note 1:7 *, p. 112), vol. i., p. 10], wherein he says : " Jinni, the Arab singular (whence the French 'genie'), fern. Jinniyah ; the Div and Rakshah of old Guebre- land and the ' Rakshasa,' or 'Yaksha' of Hinduism. THE POINTED TYPE. 3/1 [If 588] other hand [which are, after all, purely adjective], are restrained to some solitary attribute : one can give beauty or courage, another strength or wealth ; whenever they dispose of one of these gifts the gift is unlimited. Enclosed between two parallels, they have only one direction, but that direction is unbounded. Gifted with every power, the genii are, as it were, hemmed in by a circle in which they can act in any manner whatsoever, but though their power is un- limited as to kind, it is limited as to quantity, their power being subject to that of a genie more powerful than them. 4SO Thus nations are revealed by their fables just as ^[589. they are by their laws and their religions. With us % m % 1 an , d J J Occidental power has a particular direction and certain defined authority. It would be interesting to trace the evident connection by no means accidental of ' Jinn ' with the ' genius ' who came to the Romans through the Asiatic Etruscans, and whose name I cannot derive from ' -yiyvopm, ' or 'genitus.' He was unknown to the Greeks, who had the daemon (Saiftcav}, a family which separated like the Jinn and the genius into two categories, the good (Agatho-daemons) and the bad (Kako-daemons). We know nothing concerning the status of the Jinn amongst the pre-Moslemitic or pagan Arabs; the Moslems made him a supernatural anthropoid being, created of subtile fire [vide Koran, chap, vi., xv., and lv.], not of earth like man, . . . the last being Jan bin Jan, missionarised by prophets, and subject to death and judgment. From the same root are ' Junun ' = madness [z.e., possession or obsession by the Jinn], and ' Majmin ' = a mad- man." Vide also vol. iii., p. 225. 430 M. d'Arpentigny makes in this place a reference to "DE FLOTTE," but I cannot identify either the author or the work referred to. He cannot refer to Ely de Flotte's work " Les Sectes Protestantes ' ' (Paris : 1850) ; I conclude he refers either to De la Flotte's " Voyages en Orient" (Paris: 1772), which was trans- lated from the London edition of " Pococ&s Voyages" or else to the same author's " Essais Historiques szir I'Inde, etc." (Paris: 1769), but I cannot find any passage bearing upon the above paragraph. 372 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. limits, it follows a given line of action ; among Oriental nations it has no particular direction, and its only limit is that of a more powerful arbitrament. f 590. It has been said that there exists an affinity be- fl c"erLn e lnd en tweci1 the German and the Sanskrit languages ; there Saniikriu exists also an affinity between the dreamy spirit of the German nation and the contemplative minds of the children of Brahma. 431 Indeed, Germany is in Europe, as India is in Asia, the country where one sees the largest number of psychic hands. ^[591. Spiritualism being the special attribute of this V hII it s h ^,vn ter noble tv P e > it nas come among us, where well-being, language. good laws, and liberty have helped it to multiply itself 488 and become understood it has come, I say, having to express sentiments and ideas of a peculiar temperament, to follow the examples of the 'artistic, the useful, and the philosophic types, all of which for the same cause, have used in turn a different lan- guage, created by each one of them for its particular use. The language of Rabelais and of Montaigne is not the language of Pascal, nor is the language of Pascal that of Rousseau. Whence, then, come the grammatical innovations of Chateaubriand and of Lamartine, those eagles of our psychological litera- ture ? have they not caused as much astonishment as scandalisation to our literature ? Let new ideas 431 It is in a great measure since the above was written that the labours of Max Miiller and other learned philologists have placed before the world the principal data concerning .the Eastern origin of the Aryan or Indo-Germanic [? Indo-European languages]. The reader who feels interested in the subject will find all he wants in Prof. Max Miiller' s " Comparative Mythology" (Oxford: 1856), and " The Science o/ Language" (London : 1681-3). ** "In 1722 France contained only 18,000,000 in- habitants. In the reign of Louis XIV. the death-rate ajnong the better classes was i in 26, to-day [1843] it is i in 52." AUTHOR'S NOTE. THE POINTED TYPE. 373 ft 590 be expressed by new forms; to extend the meaning of a few words is not to alter a language, it is to enrich it, and to condemn this theory is to rebuke the means, which, for their glory as well as for our instruction and amusement, have been used by the greatest writers of all ages. 6 You will not fully appreciate either the ideas or If 592. he language of psychological writers, O ye who jJ^J^ lave spatulate or square hands ! you will find types, among them neither the precision nor the method which are so dear to you ; their perpetual invoca- tions of glorious intelligences, splendid rivals of the stars, will bore you. You look towards war and its resulting interests, they take their pleasure in the esoteric dreams of their souls, in the contemplation of intangible realities ; your Muse, occupied by the real world, sings of flowery pleasaunces, of the shock of armies, and of armoured fleets ; she relates the escapades of young students and the fury of ancient pundits, the graces of an ideal Lisette, and the vulgar tribulations of a contemptible dinner ; she appreciates Beaumarchais, the mechanician, the duellist, the pamphleteer, the man of spirit, of wit, of action, of movement and of heart.* 33 Theirs, on the other hand, plucks flowers only to scatter them before the saints in the church porch, she takes hold of women only to cast them in ecstasy and palpitation 433 Pierre Aug'ustin Caron de Beaumarchais [born January 1732, died May 1799] was a watchmaker, and the son of a watchmaker. He became an accomplished musician, and, having taken to literature, achieved great distinction as a wit, a poet, and a satirist. His four most celebrated works are "Eugenie" [1767], " Les Deux Amis'' 1 [1770], and the libretti of II Barbiere de Seviglia \_Le Barbier de Seville, 1776], and Le Nozze de Figaro \_Le Mariage de Figaro\. Vide L. de Lomenie's "Beaumarchais and his I^imes" (London- 1856), translated by H. S. Edwards. 3/4 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [If 59*] at the feet of God ; lyricism is as natural to her as the song is to the bird, as perfume and attraction is to amber; hers is the harp of David, and the holy enthusiasms which bear our souls aloft upon the wings of the morning ; the murmurs of the ocean, of the waterfall, of the forest, and of the mountain are for her but the echoes of her own sublime voice ; lover of the ideal and of the infinite, she soars with the angels, following the blazing track of the im- petuous comet, and, of all the sounds of earth, listens only to the sighs of a simple and loving heart, which upraises itself to God. You of these^N. practical types live pre-eminently by your heads and by your senses ; they live pre-eminently by the soul, by the Jieart ; you think, they feel ; you speak, they sing ; you are composed of flesh and blood, they are of flame and light. A great gulph is fixed between you, and two different languages are not too many for two natures so diametrically opposed. ^[593. Such is the intelligence attached to psychic hands; ^cUhdT through the works of Milton, of Klopstock, of Schiller, media of o f Goethe, of Swedenborg, Chateaubriand, Lamartine and Victor Hugo, of Georges Sand, C. Didier, and De Vigny, they hold sovereign sway, if not over the greatest minds, at least over the noblest hearts ; they have given us the highest lyrics, psychological romance, intense poetry, and the inspired odes of the illumined wing and ardent flight. Their influence upon the masses has been enormous, restoring to them the enthusiasm which the analytical philosophy had killed, and rehabilitating for them the God who ' had been killed by the turpitudes of the sacerdotal sanctuary. Before they had been preached to about the necessity of self-abnegation, the psychic type spoke to them of its charms ; to draw them into the paths of their cultus they have garnished those paths with THE POINTED TYPE. 3/5 [1 593! the flowers of a poetry which is almost Divine ; like the murmuring pines of the Alpine mountain tops, they have shed in abundance tender shadows and universal harmonies. To be appreciated by the intelligent, they have taken up the lyre ; to be understood by simple minds they have plied the abundant jet of their eloquence couched in the simplest forms of words. Civilisation in Spain and in Italy is born of poetry ^[594 .. . r . . t_ i j t-'u Civilisation in and liberty, i.e., of artistic and psychic hands, which France and propose for themselves things that are grand, magni- Spam, ficent, and sublime. In France it is born of science and of authority, i.e., of useful and philosophic hands, which propose for themselves things which are useful and true. Our history is more instruc- tive than interesting; the history of Spain is more interesting than instructive. Like the Greeks, who relegated manual labour lo ^595. the infernal gods, the Spaniards think that it degrades p ty^f'S e ' the people and individuals in a direct ratio to the amount of love of it which they evince. The Italians have placed physical repose under the protection of a third of the saints of the calendar, not for the pur- pose of rendering it more respected by .the people, but to arm it against the avaricious and worrying influences of political and fiscal regulations, a state of things incomprehensible to the English or to the Americans, who, beneath their lustreless sun, can only escape from spleen by sheer hard work. The Spaniards of to-day do not understand in the *[596. j ii_ i- ..- j i-i Poetry of the least degree the artistic expression and literary Spaniards, formulation of the poetry which is with them in- born, a fact which makes them appear, intellectually, so small, though they are really greater than they seem. 434 431 Compare the opening- words of Bacon's essay, " Of Seeming Wise" which read, " It hath been an opinion 376 THE SCIENCE OF TH.E HAND. ^[597. In the South, where the climate itself is nourishing, instinct ^The an< ^ one can ^ ve on a l m st nothing, where, indeed, South and the one can live forty-five days without food, 435 man is not sufficiently necessary to man to prevent the social tie being a weak one ; but in the North, where the climate creates hunger, man, at war with a hostile nature [especially since civilisation has tended towards the unhardening of his physique], feels too strongly the need of help and support for society not to be strong. ^[698. In the towns of Norway, all the houses communi- In Norwa^ nd cate by means f inner doors or subterranean galleries. In the East Indies, on the other hand, families isolate themselves as much as possible from one another. T 699. Though poorly-gifted as regards the arts of war, The in S indi C a tyPC of the chase > of negation, of locomotion, and the cares of real life as we understand these terms, the psychic type has none the less reigned sovereign in India up to the thirteenth century, the epoch when it was dispossessed of the temporal power by the Mahometan Tartars, who drove it into the temples alone. Until that time no one arrived at power and high consideration save by piety, contemplation, and holiness, qualities and virtues which in our latitudes open for us the gates of heaven, but open no other gates than those. Thus, among us are spatulate and hard useful hands in majority, whereas in India it is the pointed and soft hands which numerically are in the ascendant. ^[600. And the same case probably exists in the heart of Character of the Bedouins. that the French are wiser than they seeme ; and the Spaniards seeme wiser than they are." 435 M. d'Arpentigny quotes the " Lettres Edifi- anfes" [vide note '", p- 339] as his authority for this statement, but does not give the exact reference. I have been unable to identify it. THE POINTED TYPE. 377 [t 6o ] the old tribes of the Bedouin Arabs of the Red Sea, people who, occupying a country almost absolutely sterile, and where for this reason large gatherings of men are impossible, cannot be naturally apt at the arts, the trades, and the sciences, which alone the life of cities is able to induce. Of what use to them would be the implements of rural cultivation and mechanical industry, in a country where rural cultiva- tion is impracticable, and where a tent, a camel, and a courser suffice for the physical needs of man, needs which mother nature has beneficently propor- tioned to the resources of the soil. But the fecundity which she has refused to their soil, and to a certain extent to their judgment, she has prodigally bestowed [as if to shield them from the worries adherent to a life without occupation] upon their imaginations ; and as a nation they are poetic, romantic, religious, chivalrous, hospitable, contemplative, and of dignified and sober manners. Their country, which is that of physical mirages, is also that of moral ones : from all these facts I conclude that their hands are psychic, but very hard. "Like Arabs in general," says le Due de Raguse, ^[601. the Bedouins of the Red Sea have a high idea of the Ex ^ e r "bs! nobility of their blood ; they intermarry only among themselves, and they would consider it beneath them to ally themselves with a stranger. They sometimes buy slaves, but these never have children by them." 436 Thus their instinct tells them that a country which can neither be ameliorated nor modified by human intelligence, cannot be inhabited with any chance of happiness, save by a special race ; and that any other race, however slightly it might differ from theirs, would run a grave danger for want of an organisation 486 " Voyage du Mar echal Viesse de Marmont, Due de Raguse, en Hongrie, . ... en Palestine, ef en Egypte" (Paris : 1834-5, 4 vols.), vol. iv., p. 174 378 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. 11 60,] in perfect sympathy with the climate and the country. I have, in another place, 437 condemned this mistrust of foreign blood, but it is evident that the Bedouins of the desert, if all that we are told of their country is true, are quite beyond the pale of the motives which suggested this condemnation. "S ^f 601a. Muhammad, according to Arabian historians, had V Immobility of alsQ y hard handg> Ris book teemg h act j on .uunammedan- ' / ism. and has the burning, monotonous, and sterile grandeur of the desert. Empty of ideas and full of repetitions, presumptuous ignorance and a kind of gloomy and solemn poetry, flow through it in a continuous stream. The water contained in this fatal cup is by no means a fountain of life ; elaborated as it was among a people necessarily immobile, it has stricken with immobility all the nations among whom fanaticism and war have introduced it. 438 But, if immobility is salutary and logical in the desert, elsewhere it engenders naught save corruption and death. ^[602. Muhammad, throughout his life, took his pleasure ia ' in war, love, and activity ; his paradise, peopled by women, is spread out beneath the shadow of the sword ; 439 he sought relief from his intellectual labours fn sweeping out his tent, in repairing his shoes, and in tending his horses and herds. ^603. There is no Mussulman town, says the intrepid and mechanical judicious Badia-y-Leblic [surnamed Ali Bey], where talent of the mechanical arts are as little known as in Mecca. There is not to be found there a workman capable of forging a lock or a key ; all the doors are closed by means of wooden pegs, trunks and cases by means of padlocks brought from Europe. The armourers can make nothing but inferior matchlock guns, curved knives, and the lances which are used in the country. 437 Vide ^[ 365, and notes to the paragraph. F*feff7 314. * Vide Al Qur'an, chaps, xlvii. and Iv. THE POINTED TYPE. 3/9 [1 603] As for the exact sciences, adds the traveller, they, are in the same condition as the mechanical arts. 440 Palmyra was built by Europeans, and if its ruins, like those of Baal-Bee, are still standing, it is only us^Sit because the Bedouins, who cannot themselves build anything which is solid, cannot even destroy anything which has been solidly built. 441 ' The racial psychic hand, liberally endowed as it ^6i)5. is, has nevertheless only a mediocre comprehension "'' of the things of the outer world and of real life ; she looks at them from too high a point to be able to see them well. Spiritualists have lyricism, mysticism, prophetic ecstasies, luminous, synthetic comprehension of all human knowledge; but the talent of applied sciences, including that of the government of men united in a common society, is wanting among them, unless, as in India, they only have to deal with people belonging to their own type. Again, it would /be a great mistake to suppose that the psychic type is V^ more guarded against the errors which are incidental 4:0 Condensed from " Voyages cTAH Bey el Abas si en Afriqiie et en Aste" (Paris : 1814, 3 vols.), vol. iii., chap, xvii., pp. 389-90. An English edition has been published, entitled " Travels of Ali Bey in Morocco, etc., between the years 1803-1807, written by Himself" (London: 1816), vol. ii., chap, vii., p. 99. " Tadmor or Palmyra, the City of Palms, was, we are told, built by Solomon in the tenth century B.C. [i Kings ix. 18, and 2 Chron. viii. 4] ; but it probably existed before his time. It was enormously enlarged and ren- dered of paramount importance as a city by the Emperor Trajan, and in the third century was the capital of Syria and Mesopotamia, under Odenathus and Zenobia. It was re-conquered in 275 by Aurelian, and re-fortified by Justinian. It was destroyed in 744 by the Saracens. I presume it is in allusion to its position and structure as a Roman city that our author asserts it to have been built by Europeans. As good a description of the city as any that exists is the one contained in Murray's " Handbook for Syria and Palestine" (London : 1858). ; the \ than/ 380 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. to the imperfections of our natures, than others ; world of ideas is not less perilous and deceitful that of things real. In the Indies, blinded by religious fanaticism, the worshippers of Siva garland themselves with flowers, clothe themselves in brilliant garments, and cast themselves as prey to the sacred sharks of the Island of Sangor ; and mothers even more exalted than they, cast their infants to these same beasts. 448 But if in their enthusiasm spiritualists are always ready to devote themselves, they require also for the triumph of their ideas unlimited devotion thereto. With their synthetic manner of thought, no isolated sentiment, no idea of detail could either touch their hearts, alter their convictions, or turn them from their object ; it is in their eyes above all that the end justifies the means ; if occasion should arise they will shed blood their own or other people's, their own without regret, that of others without remorse. The horse being, be it said as concerning the Arab, of all animals the one which impresses us the most with its brute organisation, it follows that we should hold in contempt the understandings of peoples and individuals who love it exclusively. Nations of horse- men have never freed themselves from the rude and showy shackles of comparative barbarism. Apt at raids and invasions rather than at permanent con- quests, and convinced that the cultivation of the mind destroys the energy of the heart, they have destroyed 442 Siva (= Auspicious) is the name of the third god of the Hindu Trimftrti or triad, and is looked upon as one of the most awful and venerable of the gods ; and certainly the description given of him in works of Sanskrit theology is of the most terrible description. His worshippers are called Sai'vas, and are divided into several classes, of which the Aghorins are the Sa'ivas most addicted to the sacrifices mentioned above. Vide H. H. Wilson's " A Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus" (London : 1862), pp. 188, etc. [vol. i. of his complete works, edited by Dr. R. Rost], THE POINTED TYPE. 381 [1 66] more empires than they have founded ; such for in- stance were the Parthians, the Tartars, and the Arabs. The horse was the soul of feudalism, that system IF 607. of violence and ostentation which gave to the qualities of physical force, and to the suggestions of family pride that preference which nations who live as it were on foot, have always accorded to solidity of judgment and the enlightenment of the soul. In the ancient world the life of the Centaurs was passed in intemperance, in the midst of quarrels, amid the screams of the women which they captured; in the same way in the present day brawlers, drunkards, and bullies are more numerous among our cavalry than among our infantry. 443 The special manoeuvres in which the horse is a 1608. Cavalry and necessary adjunct produce but few generals with infantry. broad views; great warriors have always come from the ranks of the infantry, the queen of bailies, the intelligent and redoubtable foundress of empires and of durable glory. 444 In course of time the ox renders the oxherd heavy ^609. and slow as he is himself; the hunter, on the other association with hand, becomes restless, active, and ferreting, like his animals. dog ; man can only perfect himself by frequenting, by knowing, and by loving his fellow-man ; and it is because in Greece, anthropomorphism was the basis of worship, that this country advanced so quickly and so far ahead of Egypt, a country brutalised by the adoration of animals. 443 This seems rather hard upon the memories of Bellerophon's Pegasus, Alexander's Bucephalus, Orlando Furioso's Brilladore, Reynaud de Montauban's Bayarte, Roderigo's Orelia, or any of the other celebrated horses of history ; but vide the next note. 444 The reader will bear in mind that, as M. Gourdon de Genouillac has told us in his preface, M. le Capitaine d'Arpentigny was always attached to regiments of the line. 25 SECTION X. C&e j ..o-H- of *l( ) SUB-SECTION XXII. MIXED HANDS. I GIVE this name to the hand whose undecided out- lines appear to belong to two different types. 443 Thus, for instance, your hand is of the " mixed type " if, being spatulate, the formation is so little accentuated that it might be mistaken for a hand of the square type. Again, a conic elementary hand might be taken for an artistic hand, or an artistic hand may be taken for a psychic, and so on and vice versa. O*r, in like manner, a philosophic hand may be mis- taken for a useful hand, and vice versa. The intelligence which is revealed by a mixed hand is one which partakes of the nature of the intelligences 445 It was without considering this sub-section and the next that Adrien Desbarrolles made the remarks which we find on p. 275 of the i5th edition of " Les Mysteres de la Main" in which he accuses d' Arpentigny of not having noticed the prevalence of mixed hands and of disregarding the importance of their significations. Vide also op. cit., p. 521. THE MIXED TYPE. f610. Its definition. 1611. Examples. 386 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [1 6"] attached to each of the forms represented. Without these hands, that is to say, without the mixed intelil- gence peculiar to them, society, deprived of its lights and shades, and without moral alkalis to effect the combination of its acids, and to amalgamate and modify them, would advance only by struggles and leaps. 1613. if the laws of war were cruel even to atrocity Wars between , . , r t L L i exclusive races, among the earliest peoples of whom history makes mention, it is because in those days, each nation having sprung from a single tribe or from a family free of all admixture of foreign blood, differed radically from all others in temperament and in instinct. In flooding their rivals with their own blood, and in de- stroying their cities, they obeyed the laws of antipathy which were continually urging against one another, classes destined by their organisations to a never- ending antagonism. ^614. The Arab tribes, sprung from practically identical ofth'e'ArabsTnd roots > are not P itiless in the wars in which they Kaffirs. engage between themselves, but they are so in the wars which they wage against Europeans. It is the same with the Kaffirs. "The way in which these nations fight with one another," says Lichtenstein, "bears the imprint of a generosity very different to the usages adopted by other peoples. As soon as war is declared, which is always done by an ambassa- dor bearing the tail of a lion or of a panther, the chiefs receive orders to join the king with their vassals ; when the army approaches the enemy's territory, another ambassador is sent forward to warn them of the fact, and if the enemy says he is not ready, or that his forces are not yet properly assembled, the attacking force halts and waits until the others shall be ready to fight. Finally, to render ambuscades impossible, manoeuvres which would be looked upon as dishonourable, they select as a battle- THE MIXED TYPE. 387 [t 6i 4 ] field an open space without rocks or bushes. Then they fight with -as much stubbornness as valour. When one of the armies is defeated, the same gene- rosity makes itself apparent in the conduct of the conqueror, who does not fail to send a portion of the spoil back to the vanquished, regard being had, as they say, to the fact that one must not let even one's enemy die of hunger. But this moderation," adds Lichten- stein, "only obtains between one tribe of Kaffirs and another : for if they are at war with the Boers or the Hottentots, they endeavour to exterminate them by every means in use among other nations, whether savage or civilised." 416 As regards Europe, it is evident that wars have ^[615. been less cruel in proportion as by the progress of Eur P ean wars - navigation and commerce the people have become more mixed. These ideas, thus lightly touched upon, deserve a longer discussion and a fuller develop- ment, but this book, as may be seen, is merely an essay. CJust as there are absolute 'truths and absolute beau- ^[616. ties, there are also relative ones. Between Apollo id ^^ e ^ lc and Vulcan, between the Muses and the Cyclops I take these extreme symbols on account of their clear- ness Mercury, the god of practical eloquence and industrial arts, hovers upon his petasus and talaria, and wields the caduceus. Well, it is to mixed hands that the intelligence of mixed works of inter- mediary ideas belongs ; of sciences which are not really sciences, such as administration and commerce ; of arts, which are not the outcome of poetry ; and of the beauties and the relative realities of industry. 4 * M. H. C. LICHTENSTEIN, " Reisen im Sudlichen Africa in den Jahren 1806-1807 (Berlin: 1811, 2 vols.). The passage referred to may be found on pp. 277-8 of vol i. of Anne Plumtre's translation, en- titled " Travels in Southern Africa by Henry Licli- tenstein" (London: 1812, 2 vols.). 388 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. Industry raises [or lowers] everything to the dead Industry ' 'evel of commonplace. In rendering material life lighter by the multiplication of articles of mere utility, in rendering the cultivation of the mind more easy by the multiplication of the means and instru- ments of study, industry civilises by interest indeed but she destroys art and science, which civilise by the agency of love, by materialising them, and by substituting for creation and for intellectual effort imitation by mechanical process. ^[618. One might define industry as the magical art which nd\d\antages. draws money from everything. The man who is born with the talent of industry, practises the arts, the sciences, eloquence, and even virtue, with a very few exceptions only to derive material benefits from them ; money is his aim, not glory, not perfection ; among the ancients Mercury the god of industry was also the god of liars and of thieves. f 619. Murder, by the charge at quick-step, is one of the Peculiar forms ...'-.. ~ . , , , ji_ of industries, industries of the Swiss; murder, by rhetoric and by the careful combination of phrases, was the industry of the Attorney-General Marchangy. 447 For some men the priesthood itself is only an industry. In our- 417 Louis Antoine Marchangy, a celebrated French magistrate and writer, born at Clammy (Nie-vre) 1782, died at Paris 1826. He was in turn an enthusiastic Buonapartist and a bigoted Royalist [!]. It is not clear to my mind whether M. d'Arpentigny alludes to his magisterial or to his literary eloquence in the above paragraph. His great prose epic, "La Gaule Poetigue" (Paris: 1813, 9 vols.), is one of the heaviest compositions ever published, as Larousse justly remarks, " L'emphase, les banalites pompeuses, la declamation monotone, sont les traits distinctifs de cette ceuvre ; " the same author calls him " the purveyor to the political scaffold." Under Louis XVI. he became in turn Pro- cureur du Roi and Avocat General a la Cour de Cassa- tion [1822], and in these capacities became renowned for his diabolical ingenuity in twisting and turning men's phrases so as to use them against themselves. THE MIXED TYPE. 389 [1 69 rural districts there are persons whose sole occupa- tion is to watch the grass growing, and to this labour, which they lighten with frequent potations, they give the title of an industry. There are professions in which this word industry would be a disgrace ; there are others again which it ennobles. / Apt for many pursuits mixed hands nevertheless ^[620. ( often excel in none in particular ; a great moral in- tra de s ck ,^e difference is their endowment. The hand which none, belongs to a particular type, on the contrary, is the sacred shrine in which God has placed the imperish- able germ which is destined to renew or to reveal every art, every science hitherto ignored, or for a long time lost sight of. Its promptings, too imperious to be disobeyed, too significant to be mistaken, give it the clear knowledge of itself; it knows what it wants, and, like the animals which are guided by an infallible instinct, it desires nothing that it cannot possibly attain. Pascal, Descartes, Newton, Buffon, and the rest of them who have divined so many things, must have had hands of a pronounced and single type. From their inspired brains sprang spontaneously sciences already perfected ; these great men, occupied by their . labours alone, all of them led a life which was studious and more or less esoteric for solitude is liberty. Men whose hands present the forms of a particular f 622. type have minds which are more powerful in one sing ** t yp es direction than versatile ; men whose hands are of compared. mixed types have minds which are more versatile than powerful. The conversation of the former is instructive, that of the latter is amusing ; it is for these latter above all that a powerful education, L judiciously adapted to the development of the most V prominent faculty of their minds, is an immense Nbenefit. \ SUB-SECTION XXIII. CONTINUATION, MIXED HANDS [continued], Artistico-elementary hands, etc. f 623. THICKER and less supple than the true artistic hand, The artistico- ^e ar tistico-elementary hand, whose ungraceful out- elementary hand. < lines indicate an intelligence turned towards things which are sordid, presents nevertheless neither the extreme hardness nor the rustic expansiveness of elementary hands. Its fingers are large, without prominent joints [or with one only developed] and as if swollen up, the thumb is large and the fingers are conic [vide PLATE X.]. ^[624. This hand is sufficiently numerous in Normandy its prevalence m to ^raw [ n ^ o t ne sphere of its moral action the genius Normandy. of the other types sparsely distributed throughout the province. Richness, is in the present day, the only side of art which the Normans appreciate in .their hearts and without restraint. They love it for its own sake, and sacrifice everything to it, even to their sensuality, to which they allow none but the cheaper sorts of pleasures ; they are always greedy, rather than avaricious. ^f625. The appearance of their towns -is always some- Rusticity of w hat rustic, and to see the costumes of nine-tenths Norman towns ' of their inhabitants you would say that the citizen element had been expelled by an invasion of pea- santry. Rouen, Saint-Lo, Falaise, and the rest oi THE MIXED TYPE. 391 principles. them, in the midst of the green champaign which is resplendent all around them, recall those hideous reptile carcases which the folly of the ancient Egyptians used to case in gold and porphyry. The Normans have a code of morals, if customs ^626. can constitute them, but they have none if they are u s {^ s ' constructed of principles. They are legal, but not contrasted with just ; they are devout, but not pious. Although naturally brave, war is antipathetic to them, not on account of the privations which it involves [which they could bear without complaint], but on account of the little profit which it gives. Glory without money seems to them as a vapour, vain and ridicu- lous ; it is reserved for the Bretons, a nation governed by obstinate and passionate instincts, to wage war for the maintenance of a principle ; the Normans have never drawn the sword save for a material interest. On his return from the Holy Land, whither he had been led by a pious and chivalrous idea, the brave Robert of Normandy found his throne occupied by Henry, his younger brother. He appealed to the people, but the latter turned a deaf ear to his appeal, finding it just and good that an adventurer, capable of preferring glory to actual material advantages, should pay the penalty of a so flagrant infraction of the laws of good sense, with not only a double crown, but his liberty. " A king in a state of poverty," says Euripides, " is nothing." 448 Wealth is what is most revered among 448 Our author, I presume, refers to the concluding lines of the Phcenissce, where the tyrant CEdipus, deploring- his fall, calls attention to the misery of his present state compared to his former magnificence.* f627. Robert of Normandy. f 628. Euripides * EURIPIDES, $OINI2SAI. 1. 1758, et seq, ad fin.:- " T fi irdTpas K\j>7/s TroXircu, Xevtrcrer', QldiTTove SSe, 8j rot K\flv atviy/jLar', %yvw Kal fidyicrros fjv c.vrjp 8$ fj.6vos Z01770S Karfsxov TTJS /j.iaif>nvov Kpartj, vvv dtrijUOs avros olicrpiis 392 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. U 6 **] men ; between Greek and Norman there exists but the difference of a hand. ^f 629. The Normans have an intelligence which is no character!" 1 delicate, but cunning : they calculate rather than reason; their language, generally negative, never becomes exalted, though there are times when it becomes inflated, even to bombast [Malherbes, Bre- beuf, and even Corneille, often confound emphasis with subtlety]. They are a people of clear judgment, for whom the purse represents the man ; at the same time brutal and cunning, benignant and subtle ; without art but full of artifice. Very well, then, in the same way that art is [as I have said] a means of causing the true to be appreciated, artifice is a means of causing the false to be esteemed. ^f 630. Still, it is good indispensable indeed that a great sordid mind! number of men are devoted by their instincts to the cultivation of wealth for its own sake, and laying aside the pleasures of every kind of which it is or can be the source, it is by these men, insensible as they are to every happiness save only that of being rich, that the fortunes are made and remade without which science, art, and poetry, those Muses dis- dainful of mechanical occupations and manual labour, would languish, unhappy and discouraged, for want of physical leisure. T| 631. The legislators of the western states of North Socialism in . North America. America, in proscribing domesticity, and by these measures condemning their fellow-citizens to ignoble and futile labours which are in Europe the natural occupations of weak understandings, have given a more unrefutable proof of their want of appreciation of the fine arts and of the higher sciences than any which have been furnished by barbarians or iconoclasts. ^[632. The aspect of the artistico-elementary hand pro- The aspect of , . the type with its claims its egoism and avidity ; large and short, closing character. mO re easily than it opens, it seems to have been THE MIXED TYPE. 393 lH *3<1 formed only for the purpose of grasping and holding ; it is probably from it that we derive this edifying axiom, What is good to take is good to keep. 448 Inapt at the professions which are governed by sciences, it excels at negotiation ; it is not industrious, but industrial. Normandy, full as she is of manufactories, has ^[633. not invented, nor even perfected, a single machine. Norman manufactures. There come from its factories nothing with the exception of cloths but vulgar products ; in agri- culture she is not, intellectually, as highly developed as the fertility of her soil. It is in Normandy, in the verdant and cunning ^634. country of apples, of the Forbidden Fruit, that we Norman lawyers find the lower limbs of the law, the sharp attorneys, and the loud-voiced counsellors, who will bark at anything for a crown-piece. Education, which ameliorates the Normans, a race ^[635. born, after all, for the pleasures and transactions of ^on^the society [a kind of reasonable, calm, and wise impos- Normans and . , , . . . , , . T the Bretons. ture entering largely into these things] corrupts the Bretons, on the contrary ; the character of the Breton is irreproachable in the country; the character of the Norman shows to best advantage in cities. Like the Normans, the Jews are distinguished by f 636. a great commercial capacity. These people, who for he ^ ews * so many centuries have been separated from their fellow-men by their love of the letter of the law, [a pursuit even less fruitful than that of form], and their hatred of foreign blood, are happy and flourish, 419 This reminds one of the remark of the witty young Frenchman of whom Bacon speaks in his "Instauratio Magnet," who "was wont to inveigh against the manners of old men, and would say that if their minds could be seen as their bodies are, they would appear no less deformed ... for the bending of their fingers, as it were to catch, he would bring in rapacity and covetousness." 394 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [II 636] pre-eminently in the places where ignorance, slavery, and fanaticism concur to degrade the masses. They are unimportant wherever order and good manners reign hand in hand with liberty. When Europe was in a state of barbarism they were as they are to-day ; now that it is civilised they are as they were then so petrifying is the cultivation of the letter to the exclusion of the spirit. They no longer exist as a people, but they have never lost their nationality ; Jews, wherever they are, they are citizens nowhere. 450 The greatest calamities when they do not actually touch them, are for them merely spectacles, and as they attach themselves neither to the soil nor to manners, nor to political interests, but only to the interests which are peculiarly their own, they flee before the storm to reappear with the conquerors, and proceed calmly to the increase of their fortunes amid corpses and ruins. 1637. The Jews in Poland form nearly two-thirds of the The Jews in Poland. population of the towns ; in summer they wear a tight cassock of smooth and shiny texture, in winter a velvet cap something like a thick turban, and a furred robe, which they gird about themselves with 450 I find a very interesting- commentary to this paragraph in a work to which I have referred more than once in these pages Colonel Tcheng-Ki-Tong's " The Chinese fainted by Themselves " He cites an authentic record of a colony of Jews which emigrated to China under the Han Dynasty, B.C. 200, which is in precisely the same condition now as it was then. " Here then," says he, " is an authentic tradition 2,000 years old. It is only in the Jewish people one finds such attachment to nationality. Take any people you please, at the end of four or five generations they will be com- pletely naturalised ; the Jews never. They remain the same wherever they go, attached 'to their religion, their nature, their customs ; and this permanence of a particular race in the midst of a people numbering- 400,000,000, is not an unimportant fact from the point of view of general history " [p. 191-4], THE MIXED TYPE. 395 [U 637] a band of red worsted, which serves them for a pocket. They let their hair and beards grow and straggle as they please, they have aquiline noses, and pale, oval faces ; they have almond-shaped, black eyes, which are brilliant with cupidity. They are insinuating and polite ; very thin as a rule ; one might mistake them as they stand in the corners of the shops, where they remain ordinarily immo- bile and standing upright, for shadowy cypresses or pear trees trimmed spindle-fashion. They scatter around themselves an indefinable idea of Capernaum and Jericho, which reminds one of the impression produced upon one by the prints in ancient Bibles. They do not indulge in any corporal exercise, or any agreeable pastime, making their trade their sole occupation. Lying, so as to buy in the cheapest market; lying, so as to sell in the dearest, their in- glorious lives are spent between these two lies. They also have a predilection for the professions of the factor, the broker, the agent, the stock-jobber, the publican, the banker, in a word, all the pursuits where sharpness of mind are of more consideration than the gifts of science, profound knowledge of art, or skill of hand. They trade openly upon luxury and drunkenness, but one must do them this justice, that they never lose their gravity, whether sheltered beneath the thyrsus of Bacchus or the caduceus of Mercury. Their hands are the same as those of the Normans, only with a weaker palm, and quasi-square finger-tips. Brittany contains a great number of individuals of f 638. high intelligence who. within the closed circle of T 1 * ,.? reton intelligence. material interests, would easily be overreached by a Jewish or Norman child. Humble and resigned, they ask nothing better than to be preserved from the cares of business and of figures ; they do not measure happiness by the volume of a man's belongings ; they 396 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [f 638] do not worship God in the image of a crown-piece ; and they do not hear resounding in their dreams the magic whinny of the tax-collector's mule. To wander over the flowery heath, to dream, lying in the high grass, to follow God in the woods and on the feet of the sun, to fill themselves with the poetry of old books and old legends, to bear with pleasure the yoke of faith, to prefer to luxury or even prosperity, not money [like the Normans, who are temperate only by reason of their avarice] but meditation and repose ; it is along these blest paths that we track the white foot of the Muse, that the incense of mystical roses perfumes the air, that the halo of the guardian angel illumines the way, and that the heart seeks for, and finds, happiness. These hands are psychico- elementary. ^[639. But it is perhaps germane to our subject to remark The social and here that jf ^ B re t on s have for a long time been too intellectual state of Brittany, much despised, the reaction which has taken place in their favour, consequent upon the startling apparition of a few rare genii born among them, has led many of the writers of to-day to praise them beyond all reason. No doubt they are frank, courageous, and capable of a disinterested devotion, but the social man among them is too far behind the instinctive subject. Whilst the whole of France is progressing in en- lightenment and prosperity, the sorcerer, the petty squire, and the parish priest remain amongst them the objects of their most tenacious fetich-worship; they can anticipate nothing out of the ordinary run, they can appreciate nothing which is not customary. You may see them in their dirty villages wandering about with an air which is at the same time indolent and savage, clad in shapeless garments cut from the skins of heifers and of goats. Certainly, France would march in the rear of the nations, if, persuaded by the lovers of nature in whatever form she presents her- THE MIXED TYPE. 397 [If 639] self, she were to place them at her head instead of trailing them in tow behind her. The Vendeans are a people of a limited but clear ^[640. intelligence ; opinionated rather than fanatic, they are simple without being ingenuous ; they have not in their hearts the poetry which the Bretons have, nor in their minds the imagination of the Normans. Nor do their costumes present the striking singularity, or the quasi-Oriental elegance which we encounter here and there among these two nations ; robust rather than active, without being lazy, they are slow, their humour is proud, irritable, and morose, only slightly sensual and limited in their desires, by reason of their want of imagination rather than by reason of their want of temperament, they manifest for their country a love which in their hearts is equal to none other. From La Vendee there come most estimable officers, 1[641. honest accountants, and incorruptible cellarers, but La Vendee, never men of mark. Like those wines whose flavour is not appreciable excepting upon the ground where they grew, expatriation deprives the Vendeans of all their virtue. They are very considerable as a nation, but quite inconsiderable as individuals; nature has decorated the ignorance of the Bretons with a few flowers of poetry ; theirs, on the other hand, is as arid as a sand desert. They cherish the empire of custom and usage, and are ojily remarkable for their charac- ters. Where they show themselves in all their startling originality is in the Bocage, a mysterious district bordered with the foliage of the oak [like the uniform of a marshal of France], where flow the fountains which have received from the Druids, their venerable godfathers, the not yet contested power of miraculous cures. There are so many high, quick-set hedges whence spring huge trees, so many cherry, pear, and apple trees border the roads and cluster round the houses, that one could not venture into this .26 39 8 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. 11! 641] part of the country without a guide. Almost inacces- sible to artillery, and even to cavalry, war can only be waged there on foot ; it is a theatre better suited for the development of the spirit of cunning and ruse, and to the personal prowess which belong to the soldier, than to the general's combinations in advanced strategy. The peasant lives there a free life, circum- spect and silent in these retreats, where all things are silent, the air, the water all are still ; and where, were it not for the hammer of the farrier, one would hear nothing in the villages but the song of the birds. These are elementary hands with square fingers. 1 642. Vendean hospitality, much over-rated as it has been, Norman and Vendean is prescribed by custom ; in Normandy the practice hospitality Q f tn j s v j rtue j s facultative. Among the Vendeans it is an honour to the nation, among the Normans it is an honour to the individual ; in the latter case gay as a pleasure, in the former solemn as a duty. ^[643. Whence comes it that the universe constantly has knowledge of ^ s e y es turned in the direction of the ancient Greek one's own world ? It is that the peoples of whom it was formed attributes. had, not only great instincts and great virtues, but had also a profound knowledge of those instincts and of those virtues. The Vendeans and the Bretons have also great virtues, but it is a question whether they would preserve them if they had any intelligence of them. Our own species, however, can only give us credit for those virtues which have their guarantee in the single attribute which places us above other created beings intelligence. The more soundly does the somnambulist .sleep, the more sure and certain is his step as he walks upon roofs and on the edges of precipices ; but who thinks of applauding this skill of which he is unconscious ? In the same way must we only very lightly esteem the virtues of a people plunged in the darkness of an evident in- tellectual somnambulism. SECTION X. Conclusion, PLATK XI. A FEMALE HAND. SUB-SECTION XXIV. A FEW WORDS UPON THE HANDS OF WOMEN. THE tendencies of each type are, among women, the same as they are among men, only, those which are peculiar to the spatulate and square types, are much less imperious and intense among women, by reason of the suppleness of their muscles, than they are among us ** [vide PLATE XI.]. Out of a hundred women in France, I calculate that forty belong to the conic type, thirty to the square, and thirty to the spatulate type. These two latter types, of which the all-absorbing faculty is the mind, outweigh the former, of which the all-absorbing influ- ence is the imagination. 451 " He must be," says Dr. Carus in his work, " Ueber Grund und Bedeutung der Verschiedenen For men der Hand in Verschiedenen Personen " (Stuttgart: 1846), "but a superficial observer of mankind who could not at once recognise the sex from a simple inspection of the hand. The hand of woman is smaller, more delicate, and much more finely-articulated than that of man ; it has a softer palm, and joints, which are but slightly prominent," etc. THE FEMAL^ HAND. 1644. The types among men aru women. 1645. French women's hands. 402 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. If 646. The man creates, the woman develops ; we have/n'- Man and woman , 7 / i / i > i i aple, she has form; we make laws, she makes morals. 1647. "The man is more true than the woman," said St. St. Martin. Martin, "but she is better than he. The man is the mind of the woman, but she is the soul of the man." ^"648. To compensate the woman for her weakness, says the Book of Genesis, as interpreted by Fabre-d'Olivet, God has clothed her in one of His envelopes beauty; and straightway she becomes the incarnation of the faculty of volition on the part of the man. 433 ^649. Then again, we value things with our brains, they Ma com n i^d man with their hearts ' we are the more sensual, whilst they are the more sensitive ; their instincts deceive them less often than our reasoning powers ; we have the faculty of reflection and know what can be learnt, they have intuition and know what can be divined. ^[650. Europe, where they are free, and which they fill EuropeVnd w ^ tn brilliancy and movement, owes them these three Asia - beautiful things, good morals, liberty, and opulence ; whereas Asia, where they live in a state of slavery, crouches metaphorically in a state of inertia, and loses itself in misery, despotism, and the lowest forms of passion. Light, truth, and liberty are one and the same thing. 452 This reference is to a most fascinating work, un- fortunately comparatively unknown to the general reader, " La Langue Hebera'ique restittiee et le Veri- table Sens des Mots Hcbreux retabli et prouve, ' ' by Fabre-d'Olivet (Paris: 1815-6). Part II. consists of a portion of Genesis in Hebrew, English, and French, and the passage in question occurs in Gen. ii., 21 and 23 [p. 315], which read : " Alors Sh6ah, 1'Etre des etres, laissa tomber un sommeil profond et sympathique sur cet homme universel, qui s'en- dormit soudain : et rompant I'unit6 d'une de ses enve- lopes exterieures il prit 1'un d'elles et revetit de forme et de beaute corporelle safaiblesseoriginelle;" v. 23, " Et il Fappela Ms}\a,faculte volitive efficiente ou cause du principe volitif intellectuelle, A'isha, dont elle avait 6t6 tiree en substance." CONCLUSION. 403 Few women have knotty [i.e., jointed] fingers; T 651 - i c -c, i -ii ^1 Jointed fingers synonymously few women are gifted with the talent among women. of combination. In the matter of intellectual labours, they generally choose those which require more tact than science, more quickness of conception than strength, more imagination than judgment. It would be otherwise if they had prominent-jointed fingers; then they would be less impressionable and less given to yield to the inspirations of fantasy, and like as the intoxicating qualities of wine are neutralised by the addition of water, so would theirs be by reason. It is convenient setting aside the form of the IT 652. Large and small- extenor phalanges to range women under two thumbed women principal categories : those with large thumbs, and those with small. The former, more intelligent than sensitive, extol history ; the latter, more sensitive than intelligent, are captivated by romance. For pleasure and consideration for others, recommend me to a large-thumbed woman ; love, under her clear- sighted guidance, attains its end without scandal, her passion, which she follows without consulting her head, has more root in her senses than in her heart. Leave her alone and trust to her skill, at the right moment she will come to the assistance of your timidity, not because she has much sympathy with your torments, but in the interest of her own plea- sures. Besides complete security, her many graces of mind will add to the joy of winning her. Women with a little thumb are not endowed with 1T653. ..,, - .. r~ , . ii/- Small-thumbed so high a degree of sagacity. To love is the whole of wom en their science, but the charm attached to this powerful faculty is such, that there is no delight equal to it. The cares of maternity being extremely difficult IT 654. ,. , , . . . Absence of the and complicated, their practice requires an instinct elementary hand moro: intelligent than that which is revealed by ele- among women> mentary hands ; these hands, therefore, are extremely rare among women. Women exercise an almost 404 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [f 654] absolute empire among populations in which the elementary hand is in a majority among the men [as, for instance, in Lower Brittany and La Vendee] ; for there is no type which does not dominate over the elementary, morally speaking. ^[655. The peasants of these countries marry willingly, Mide^nsTtions anc * ver y commonly, with women who are older than themselves. The same heaviness of spirit which renders them insensible to the charms of youth and beauty, delivers them over, helpless, to the superior intelligence of the woman who has reached maturity. ^[656. The Greeks of the heroic age were not more par- ticular ; Helen was nearly forty, when, on her return from Argolis, flying before Orestes who wanted to destroy her, " she went haphazard, tracing here and there her footsteps, brilliant with the splendour of her golden sandals." 4fl3 She must have been still beautiful for men to occupy themselves thus con- cerning her shoes ! ^[657. i n tne Caroline and Mariana Islands the political The Caroline and Mariana power belonged, until the conquest of these archipelagi Islands. ^y tne Spaniards, to the women, who, contrary to the men, who have very large hands, have very small ones. 454 453 Vide the exquisitely touching- account which Euripides puts into the mouth of Phryx of the terror of Helen and the agonised fury of Orestes.* 454 Arago's accounts of these islands are full of indica- tions of this consideration in which women are held. Almost the greatest crime a man can commit against Heaven is to beat his wife [J. ARAGO, " Souvenirs d'un Aveugle. Voyage antorir du Monde" (Paris: 1839), vol. iii., p. 26]; and in another place he says: * EURIPIDES, OPBSTHS : " 'A 8' l&xfv, li.-x.tv &/J.oi /uof \fVKov 5' t/j.j3a\ovaa irfjxvi> rtpvovs KT ir\aydv' TroSl rb xpwcovdvdaXov v" etc., etc. CONCLUSION. 405 Born for the dance, love, and festivals, the women of Otahiti have hands which are small and conical, but fleshy and thick. s English women have, as a rule, the finger-tips ^f 659. f delicately square ; they are contented with love as English women - they find it in the married state, and devote them- V selves even to manual labour. The institution of the Harem being immemorial iu ^[660. Asia, I conclude that the women of these countries Asiatlc women, have delicate hands with little thumbs. They devote themselves even to death. Charlotte Corday, Sophie de Condorcet, and Lucile H 661. _ ,. . , ,, Illustrations. Desmouhns had very fine fingers. The legislators of the East Indies are not, like ours, ^ 662. pre-occupied solely by the real needs of women and women." her duties, but also concerning her caprices and the fancies inherent to her nature. " Brahma," says Mann, " has endowed woman with love of rest, and of ornament, with passion, with fury, with evil instincts, and with perversity. 455 He desires that her name shall be easy to pronounce, soft, dis- tinct, agreeable, and propitiously sounding ; that it shall end in long vowels, and shall resemble the words used in a benediction. 456 She must be con- " What is quite clear, and what has been said before us by Spanish historians, is, that the women of those days had on all occasions the pre-eminence over the men, that they presided at all public deliberations, and that the code of laws had been drawn up for them alone. The Spanish rule, crushing with all its despotism this archipelago so brilliant and so variegated, has not been able to abolish this custom, which to my mind is most rational, established, as one might say, in the primitive manners." Op. cit., vol. ii., ch. 21, p. 370. Vide also the official report of this same journey, entitled " Voyage autour du Monde, entrepris par Ordre du Rot, par M. C. de Freycinet" (Paris : 1839), v l- " P- 2 - 435 " The Ordinances ofManu " [vide note 3 "', p. 202], lect. ix., 19. 456 Ibidem, lect. ii., 33. 406 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. tinually in a good humour; she must have the graceful gait of the swan or of the young elephant ; she must keep her body thin by living solely upon flowers, roots, or fruits. 457 She must be brilliantly attired, regard being had to the fact that, when a young woman is brilliant in her ornaments, her family shines by her reflected light, whilst, if she is not resplendent, her family are not honoured by her." 4B8 Mercury, said the Greeks, overcame the virtue of Penelope under the form of a goat : what must have been their ideas of women if they spoke thus of the most chaste among them. 469 ^[664. The Chinese are more just towards them, and in The Chinese. the j r eyes the death of the mot h e r of a family is not regarded as so slight an evil as the death of the father ; at least so one would infer from the text of the Chou King, 460 who does not recommend widowers less urgently than widows to the care of the mandarins. 461 457 Ibidem, lect. y., 150 and 157. 458 Ibidem, lect. iii., 55-62. 458 It was of this connection that the god Pan, the son of Penelope, is said to have been born, according- to Lucian Hyginus, and other authors. Homer, who does all in his power to exalt Penelope to the position of a model of prudence and chastity, declares that this occurred before her marriage with Ulysses. Mercury, we are told, assumed the form of a beautiful white goat when Penelope was tending the flocks of her father Icarius on Mount Taygetus. Later authors, however, discard Penelope's claims to virtue, and adduce a much more confused parentage to the birth of Pan, with a more esoteric signification to his name. 4> 27ie Shoo King, or the Historical Classic o/ China" translated by W. H. Medhurst (Shanghae : 1846). 481 "The Chinese woman is usually imagined as a pitiful being, scarcely able to walk, and imprisoned in her household among the servants and concubines of her husband. This is another flight of imagination, to be cut short, however much it may hurt the feelings CONCLUSION. 407 In France, women of the spatulate hand and small ^665. S i i^ii ^ f i p fp Spatulate and f thumb are distinguishable by a great fund of affec- smaiuhumbed tionate freedom, by an imperious desire of action and women. v of movement, and by their intelligence of real life. Theirs, among the higher classes of society, is the proud and ancestral grace of such women as Clorinde and Bradamante, 4(a and of the belted patricians; theirs, as of Diana and the magnanimous Hippo- lyte, * 63 are the swift horses and snowy hounds; theirs, among the middle classes, are these house- holds full of noisy, laughing children, whose hands are ever active and whose voices are never still, where the Persian cat lives at peace with the spaniel of veracious travellers " [vide note les , p. 149]. . . . "We consider the depths of science a useless burden to women ; not that we insult them by supposing- they are inferior to us in ability to study art and science, but because it would be leading them out of their true path. Woman has no need to perfect herself; she is born perfect ; and science would teach her neither grace nor sweetness.. . . Family life is the education which forms the Chinese woman, and she only aspires to be learned in the art of governing her family." " The Chinese painted by Themselves," op. cit., p. 45, etc. 462 Clorinde and Bradamante, the ideal amazons of French and Italian literature. The first, a fair Saracen, the beloved of Tancred, a heroine of Tasso's "Gerusa- lemme Liber ata" who clad herself in armour and fought among the Saracens, and in this disguise was killed by her unconscious lover in single combat. The second the sister of Renaud de Montauban, one of the heroines of Ariosto's " Orlando Furwso," who in a similar manner distinguished herself among the Paladins. Both these names are constantly used as synonyms for beautiful and brave women ; as, for instance, by Theophile Gautier in "Mademoiselle de Maupin" (Paris: 1869) : "On concevra que ce n'est pas trop d'un volume pour chanter les aventures de la diva, Madeleine de Maupin, de cette belle Bradamante" etc. *" A queen of the Amazons, given in marriage to Theseus by Hercules. She was the mother of Hippo- lytus, mentioned in note ^ p. 222. 408 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. and the tame dove. Theirs, in the farmstead, is the passionate love of horses, of the white-coated heifer, and of the other domestic animals, and the occupa- tion of transactions with the neighbours, and long nights of hard work. Theirs, finally, in the granary and in the barn, are the resources of an inde- fatigable physical activity, calm resignation under strokes of ill-luck, and some of the robust peculiari- ties of the women of the. Don. 484 ^[663. Madame Roland had fine large hands with spatulate ' finger-tips. With a head filled with practical ideas and a soul strongly inclined towards the ideal, she understood the beauty of passion, though she pre- ferred to it that of self-sacrifice. At the same time stoic and passionate, positive and enthusiastic, tender and austere, she loved three things with an intense devotion : her country, her liberty, and her duty. Careful always to think well, to speak well, and act well, she relieved her mind after the study of theo- retical mechanics by reading Plutarch and Rousseau. Gifted with the kind of beauty peculiar to active women she combined in herself an elegant carriage, a beauti- ful complexion, magnificent hair, and a splendidly developed figure. Her mouth, which was rather large, shone with freedom and serenity of mind. Her looks were soft and frank, her manner was open, calm, and resolute ; born brave and strong like most women of her type, she was never untrue to herself, whether in poverty, in splendour, or on the scaffold. 485 464 M. d'Arpentigny has on a previous page given a short sketch of the wives of the Cossacks of the Don, with particulars of their sangfroid and laborious and housewifely occupations. I have omitted the passage, in common with a good many others in this sub-section, as being unnecessary as illustrations, and offensive to English taste as information. K Marie Jeanne, the wife of Jean Marie Roland de la Platiere, known to history as "Madame Roland," was CONCLUSION. 409 / Order, arrangement, symmetry, and punctuality f 667. / .! ,. i i-i Square and small- / reign without tyranny in the homes which are th 4 umbed women . / governed by these calm managers with square fingers I and a small thumb. But what do I see ! children silent and gloomy, 1[ 668. , ,. .... . Large-thumbed servants trembling and sulky ; who is it, then, who women. keeps them in this state of restraint and worry. It is the peevish voice and vigilant watchfulness of petticoat government, represented most surely by a large thumb. Do you lay siege to the heart of a beautiful woman ^T 669. whose fingers are square? Speak the language of ^"^J^* 1 /common sense and of solidity of mind, and do not con- / found singularity with distinction; remember that she / has less imagination than mind, and that her mind is f more just than original. Amongst her axioms are these : V Silence is strength, and mystery is an ornament. Do not forget that she has the social instinct strongly one of the most famous of the famous women of the revolution. Born in 1754, she became at an early age remarkable for the power and extent of her intellect. Her husband, twenty years her senior, was returned to the Convention as d/pute for Lyons, and became one of the leaders of the Girondins. His wife was arrested on her husband's flight in 1793, and was guillotined in the November of that year. Hers was the celebrated phrase, " O Liberty ! what crimes are committed in thy name!" She is known to posterity by "La Corre- spondance de Madame Roland avec les Demoiselles Cannet" (Paris: 1841), and " Lettres Autographes de Madame Roland, addressees a Bancal des Issarts " (Paris: 1835). "This woman, combining with the graces of a Frenchwoman," says Thiers, "the heroism of a Roman matron, had to suffer every species of misfortune. She loved and reverenced her husband as a father. She experienced for one of the proscribed Girondists a vehement passion, which she had always repressed, . . . she considered the cause of liberty, to which she was enthusiastically attached, and for which she had made such great sacrifices, as for ever lost" [" The National Convention," chap. xv.]. This bears out M. d'Arpentigny's opinion of this heroine. 4IO THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. ri 9] developed, and that she combines with respect for what is regulated by good taste, a great love of in- fluence and of command. Her mind is as far removed from rarity as from vulgarity. 466 ^1 67C. The square type as far as women are concerned is perfectly represented by the prudish, clever, ambitious, and witty Madame de Maintenon. With the exception of Clementina, all the heroines of Richardson crea- tures, all of them, more intelligent than sensitive, who, like our Madame de Sevigne, were more sprightly than tender-hearted, belong to this type. K.67I.. Religious institutions governed by rigidly-severe Nunneries. an( j narrow rules, where nothing is left to the dis- cretion, recruit nearly all their adherents from among the subjects of the square type. w hose thumbs are small, tint your language / with glowing colours, excusing, justifying, applauding / 466 The whole of this chapter is almost as good a "lesson in love" as the speeches of Truewit in the fourth act of Ben Jonson's Silent Woman. 467 Othello. "Give me your hand. This hand moist, my lady, Desdemcna. It yet has felt no age, nor known no sorrow. Othello. This argues fruitfulness, and liberal heart : Hot, hot and moist : this hand of yours requires A sequester from liberty, fasting, and prayer, Much castigation, exercise devout ; For here's a young and sweating devil here That commonly rebels. 'Tis a good hand, A frank one. Desdemona. You may indeed say so ; For 'twas that hand that gave away my heart." OTHELLO, Act ii., Sc. 4. women. CONCLUSION. 411 [II 673] peccadilloes of the more tender description. They love all that is brilliant, and rhetoric has more empire over their minds than logic. They are governed by three things : indolence, fancy, and sensuality. The sparrows of Cupid nestle in their dimples, and they have in their hearts the prayer which the Corinthians raised every morning to Venus : " O goddess ! grant that to-day I may do nothing that is displeasing, and that I may say nothing that is disagreeable ; " for to please is their highest need, and they like to be loved and admired as much as they like to be esteemed. Such were without doubt the hands of the beautiful ^f 674. and triumphant Amazons, who composed the " flying " 1 ^J^ 11 * squadron of Catherine de Medicis. 463 Medicis. Fingers which are delicate, smooth, and pointed in ^ 675. a woman's hand, when they are supported by a palm Psychic-handed which is narrow and elastic without softness, indicate tastes in which the heart and soul have more voice than the mind or senses, a charming mixture of exaltation and of indolence, a secret distaste for the realities of life, and for recognised duties, more piety than devotion. These characters, which are at the same time calm and radiant, expend their sovereign influence upon inspiration and grace. Good sense, which of all kinds of faculty is the most prolific, but not the most exalted, pleases them far less than true genius. It is for the purpose of exposing themselves <* After the "Peace of St. Ambrose " [i2th March, 1563], Catherine de Medicis gave a series of the most magnificent fetes, at which the honours were performed by the band of one hundred and fifty young ladies of the highest families, known as " les filles de la reine," of whom she made such telling use in the struggles which immediately preceded this epoch. "Ellevoulait," says Michelet [" Hist, de Fr" (Paris: 1855), vol. xi., p.279],"travailler la noblesse, 1'amuser, la seduire. Son principal moyen, s'il faut le dire, c'etaient ' les filles de la reine,' cent cinquante nobles demoiselles, ce galant monastere qu'ellemenait et etalait partout." 412 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. [t *75] to the heavenly rays of a pure love, that they have been sown, like spotless lilies, upon the bright plains of the day. ^f 676. I have in my mind a writer whose mind is carried gorges Sand. onwar( j by her heart, and whose ideas are always intermingled with her sentiments ; she has lyricism and observation, measure and spontaneity ; expansive and passionate, she has been able to interest all hearts in the throbbing of her own. She has shown herself upon the mountain tops, and the earth has sparkled with rays of light, and towards her have risen minds elevated by love and by a great ideal ; the intoxication of distracted hearts, the calm of hearts that have become appeased, one understands them all as one reads, and one feels better after having read ; above all religions [by reason of an idea of God which is superior to those which they have evolved], she has beauty for a worship, and liberty for a code of morals ; still simple in her life, she is happy only when among simple people. What shall we regard as happy if not this master-mind with the resplendent brow and magnificent presence so dear to her surroundings, so dear to all whom the sibyl has endowed with the golden wand, and the fairy, with the magic ring which gives universal knowledge, and to whom these two sources of our best pleasures, labour and admiration, are so easy of practice and acquisition. The hand of Madame Georges Sand for it is of her that I speak realises all that I have just said, but with developed joints which modify it sufficiently appre- ciably. ^ 677. The delicate sentiments which education alone can Sentiments of give to the greater number of us men, women possess Women and their . . effects. naturally. They spring up in their tender souls, like the fine grass upon a light soil ; women have an innate knowledge of things appertaining to the heart, but the perfect intelligence of the real and positive CONCLUSION. 4 1 3 [1 677] world is wanting in them. It is less to their physical weakness than to the nature of the ideas attached to their organisation that they owe the fact that they see us reigning over them as masters. In vain should we have the strength to subdue horses, to exercise the more laborious trades, and to brave the elements of sea and sky, if our hearts, like theirs, greedy of emotions, and always ready to flee to something new, were to vacillate at the least breeze like the foliage of the aspen ; if this were so the empire which we hold would speedily slip from our grasp. ****** If these notes, all incomplete though they be, shall 1 678 - _. . i , i. CONCLUSION. help you, O reader, to escape the rocks which lie hidden beneath the deceitful waves of the River of Life, you will glorify the professor who has laid them before you. THE END. Et est completus per tin scttlpteur, moulee en platre. 3!'ai bu I'autre jour tine main 30'aspasie ou He (Eleopatre. fragment u'un cljetti'oeubre tmmatn; le iawer netgetu eatsif, (ffomme une Us par Tautie argentl, Comrnc une tlancfje a a=t-elle jou^ lians les ioucles JBfS e^ebeui lufitrrt Ire Iron u Bur le caftan tTescarboucles ^etgnl la tarfie fcu sultan ? IStt tenu, eourtwane ou reine, iSntre e Irotgts i iten He sceptre Ire la souberatne, u le sceptre Ires boluptfs? JmpSriales fantatstes, amour Ires somptuosttljj; Voluptueuses fteneuie*, li'impossitiilttes. n boit tout cela trans les Itgnrs He cette paume, libre tlanc, u Vinus a ttaci Ues stgnes, ue ramour ne lit Qu'en tremblant! GAUTIER. APPENDIX A. THE HAND OF M. LE CAPITA INE C. S. PARPEN- TIGNY. ON page 181 of the i5th edition of the late Adrien Desbarrolles' work " Les Mysteres de la Main" a description of the hand of M. d'Arpentigny occurs. I reproduce it in this place, as I think it can hardly fail to be of interest to my readers. It runs as follows : We give here a description of the hand of M. d'Arpen- tigny, drawn up by means of his system : we will explain his tastes and aptitudes by applying the pre- cepts of his own science to its inventor. We might have carried it a step farther by consult- ing cheiromancy, but everything must come in its proper order. Our only chance of clearness in so abstract a science lies in keeping even step with it, going from point to point ; and giving a condensation thereof after havirg studied separately every branch of the art. The hand of M. d'Arpentigny is, in the first place, remarkable for its rare beauty : its long and pointed fingers give it an extreme elegance, and thanks to a phalanx of logic [in the thumb], and a joint of philo- sophy [in the fingers], he is gifted with all the useful qualities of his type. We need not call attention to the inspirations of the professor, the discovery of his system of cheirognomy affords proof enough of their existence. Drawn by his pointed fingers towards a love of form, he encourages a love of the beautiful in 41 8 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. art, poetry, and works of imagination ; his taste is keen and delicate, but drawn by his attraction for all that pleases the eye and the ear, he sometimes attains to research. Though continually held in check by his great logic, which gives him a love of truth and sim- plicity, the nature of his pointed fingers regains from time to time the upper hand. He speaks well, writes charmingly and wittily, his style is never heavy, and is sometimes even characterised by brilliant inspira- tions which are sadly out of harmony with the material century in which we live. He pays but little attention to the circumstance that he is noble, he is simple, but at the same time he moves in the highest society, of which he has the easy manners. His whole personality is fraught with a natural aristocracy, and he has a horror of people who are vulgar. His conversation is charming, and always very instructive, sprinkled here and there with brilliant, though quietly expressed epigrams. His pointed fingers would lead him towards religion, but his joint of philosophy renders him essentially a sceptic; he has aspirations with which he struggles continually and savagely, one would say that he reproaches himself for secret enthusiasms of which he will not seek the causes. With fingers merely pointed he would have had only inspirations of his system ; vague and fugitive, he would certainly not have made use of them ; the philosophic joint, however, which leads him to the research of causes, has explained to him what his imagination merely hinted at, and logic has come to encourage him and to make his convictions profound. Notwithstanding his pointed fingers, his modesty is charming, and he seems almost astonished when people congratulate him on a great discovery. But the philosophic joint, useful though it un- doubtedly is, has also some grave inconveniences. It APPENDIX. 419 renders a man independent, and the love of indepen- dence which it inspires, not at all appreciated in a military career, prevented him from rising to the grade for which his superior intelligence fitted him. His fingers, smooth by reason of the absence of the joint of material order, in giving him, to a marked degree, all the qualities of the artist, naturally have not recommended to him the arrangement and ceconomy of which they have so wholesome a horror. But being large at the bases, they give him a taste for sensual pleasures ; they have by this means made life as bearable as possible for him, causing him to stoop and gather one by one, without too particular a choice, all the flowers which are to be found on the road of life. To this the softness of his hands has added the charms of an intelligent laziness. M. d'Arpentigny appreciates the charms of indolence, and thence perhaps it is that comes his indifference for success in the world, for the great reputation which ought to have accrued to him ; thence comes also his distaste for the discussions, the controversies, and the academic struggles which fall to the lot of every inventor. His road lay athwart the brilliant sunshine, he has preferred to walk in the shade ; and without the rather large upper phalanx to his thumb, which gives him a certain obstinacy, probably he would have left his system in the same shadow, as much by reason of his horror of worry and intrigue, as on account of his disdain of his fellow-men. M. d'Arpentigny was endowed with all the qualities of the inventor, the pointed fingers which receive in- spirations from on High ; causality, the great sceptic which discusses and examines them ; and the logic which finally adopts them, calmly deciding what there is of truth in the intuitions of his pointed fingers, and in the doubts of his inherent causality. His long 420 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. fingers, by the love of minutiae which they give him, have led him to his studies, making him pursue his system with care, even to its minutest details. But what is a good quality in discovering a system, may become a fault, a defect in expounding and teaching it. M. d'Arpentigny, being without the order and arrangement of square fingers, and without the material order found in a development of the second joint of the fingers, has allowed himself to wander away amid the charms of description of cita- tion and of science. Carried away by his philosophic instinct, he has discovered at every step subjects for admirable reflections, highly interesting to the reader, and doubtless equally so to himself, for he often loses sight of the point whence he started, returning to it regretfully as a thing too positive, only to lose himself once more amid the mazes of his high imagination. His pointed thumb also, a very rare form, which augments the power of his intuitions, is long enough to give him a certain amount of strength of resistance, but not enough to make him triumph over the philo- sophic indifference, by which he allows himself in other respects to be dominated very willingly. This alone prevented our inventor from becoming the high priest of a sect ; he forged for himself out of the science a sparkling ring, but it never occurred to him to make thereof a crown. With a logic which inter- feres seriously with the promptings of his will, with a philosophic joint which strips of their embroidered vestments all the splendours of the world, he came naturally to the conclusion that the science was too noble, too grand, and too proud to become a mere crutch for his ambition. It will reach posterity clad in all the greater glory. [From the French of] ADRIEN DESBARROLLES. APPENDIX B. BIBLIOGRAPHIA CHEIROSOPHICA. THE following Bibliography cannot, of course, in any way aim at completeness ; it pretends to be no more than a transcript of the catalogue of my cheirosophical library, to which I have added the titles of a few works to which I have had on various occasions to refer. I have adopted the alphabetical in preference to the chronological arrangement, as the latter necessi- tates a separate index for purposes of reference ; and also it is difficult, when that plan is adopted, to gain any idea of the collective works of a particular writer. I have drawn up this list of books in odd moments for my own use ; I publish it now in the hope that it may prove as useful to other students of cheirosophy as it has proved to me. I shall, of course, be very grateful to any reader who will call my attention to any works at present omitted from this catalogue, in order that by completing it, I may enhance its value to the cheirosophist in subsequent editions of my work. ED. HERON-ALLEN. ST. JOHN'S, PUTNEY HILL, LONDON, S.W. May ft/i, 1886. 422 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. 1. ACHILLINUS, A., and COCLES, B. (in one vol.) "Alexander Achillinus Bononiensis de Chyromantiae Principiis et Phy- sionomiae," 12 leaves; and " Bartholomaei Coclitis Chyro- mantias ac Physiognomiae Anastasis cum Approbatione Magistri Alexandri d'Achillinis." (Bononiae : 1503.) Fol., 2nd Edition (Bononiae: 1523.) Fol., 178 leaves. VideNo. 36. 2. ACHILLINUS, Alexander. "De Intelligentiis, de Orbibus, de Universalibus, de Elementis, de Principiis Chyromantie et Physionomie," etc. (Venice: 1508.) Fol. 3. ALBERTUS MAGNUS. " Geheime Chiromant. Belustigungen, Kunst aus der Hand wahrzusagen." (Leipsic : 1807.) 4. ANDRIEU, J. " Chiromancie. Etudes sur la Main, le Crane, la Face." (Paris: 1860, 1875, and 1882.) I2mo. 5. ANDRIEU, Jules. " Chiromanzia. Fisiologia sulla Mano, sul Cranio, e sul Volto." (Milan : 1880.) I2mo. 6. ANIANUS. "Compotus cum Commento. Liber qui Com- potus inscribitur una cum figuris et manibus necessariis tarn in suis locis qui in fine libri positus incipit feliciter." (Rome: 1493.) 4to, 42 leaves. Other Editions: [Paris: 1500?] 410, 40 leaves; [Basle: 1 500 ?] 410, 39 leaves. 7. ANIANUS. "Compotus Manualis Magistri Aniani Metricus cum Commento, et Algorismus." (Argu : 1488.) 410. Other Editions: (Rothomagi) [1502?] 8vo ; (Paris: 1519)410. 8. ANONYMOUS. " La Cognoissance de la Bonne et Mauvaisc Fortune, tiree de la Main." (Rouen : N.D.) 9. ANONYMOUS. " Wahrsagekunst aus den Linien der Hand. ..... Nach einer alten Zigeunerhandschrift bearbeitet." (N.D. or PL.) 10. ANONYMOUS. "Opus Pulcherrimum Chiromanticum multis additionibus noviter impressum." (Venice : 1499.) 4to, 36 leaves. 11. ANONYMOUS. Die Kunst der Chiromantzey usz Besehung der Hend ; Physiognomey usz Andblik des Menschens," etc. (Strasburg : 1523.) Fol. 12. ANONYMOUS. "La Science Curieuse, ou Traite de la Chyromance.'' (1667.) 4to. 13. ANONYMOUS. "La Chiromantie Universelle represented en Plusieurs Centaines de Figures, contenue en Ixxxviii Ta- bleaux : avec leur Explication generate et particuliere, et une Instruction exacte de la Methodc pour s'en pouvoir servir." (Paris: 1682.) 410. APPENDIX. 423 14. ANONYMOUS. "Wegweiser, Ganz neuer und accurater, Chiromantischer." (Hannover: 1707-) 8vo. 15. ANONYMOUS. "Die Chiromantie, nach Astronomischen Lehrsatzen Lehrende, nebst der Geomantie," etc. (Frankfort: 1742.) 8vo. 16. ANONYMOUS. " Die Chiromantie der Alten, oder die Kunst aus den Liniamenten der Hand wahrzusagen," etc. (Cologne: 1752.) 8vo. 17. ANONYMOUS. "Schauplatz, Neuerbffneter, geheimer philosophischer Wissenschaften : Chiromantia, Metopo- scopia," etc. (Regensburg : 1770.) 8vo. 1 8. ANONYMOUS. "The Hand Phrenologically Considered: being a Glimpse at the Relation of the Mind with the Organisation of the Body." (London: 1848.) 8vo. 19. ANONYMOUS. "Les Petits Mysteres de la Destinee. La Chiromancie, ou la Science de la Main ; la Physiognomic, ou la Science du Corps de 1'Homme," etc. (Paris : 1861.) I2mo. 20. ANONYMOUS. "Dick's Mysteries of the Hand; or, Palmistry Made Easy, etc., etc., based upon the Works of Desbarrolles, D'Arpentigny, and Para d'Hermes." Translated, etc., by A. G. and N. G. (New York : 1884.) I2mo. Vide Nos. 24 and 54. 21. ANTIOCHUS TIBERTUS. "Ad Illustrem Principem Octavi- aiuim Ubaldinum Merchatelli Comitem a Tyberti Epistola." (Bononiae: 1494.) 22. ANTIOCHUS TIBERTUS. " Antiochi Tiberti de Cheiromantia Libri III. denuo recogniti. Ejus idem argumenti de Cheiro- mantia," etc. (Moguntiae: 1541.) 23. ARISTOTLE. " Chyromantia Aristotelis cum Figuris." (Ulmae : 1490.) 22 leaves. 24. ARPENTIGNY, Casimir Stanislas d\ "La Chirognomonie ; ou 1'Art de reconnaitre les Tendences de 1'Intelligence d'apres les Formes de la Main." (Paris : 1843.) 8vo. 25. ARPENTIGNY, C. S. d\ "Die Chirognomie, oder Anleitung die Richtungen des Geistes aus den Formen der Hand zu erkennen." Bearbeitet von Schraishuon. (Stuttgart: 1846.) 8vo. 26. ARPENTIGNY, C. S. d'. "La Science de la Main, ou 1'Art," etc. (Paris : 1865.) Third Edition, 8vo. 27. BAUGHAN, R. "The Handbook of Palmistry." (London: N.D.) 8vo. 28. BAUGHAN, R. " Chirognomancy ; or, Indications of Tem- perament and Aptitudes manifested by the Form and 424 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. Texture of the Thumb and Fingers." (London: 1884.) 8vo. Vide Nos. 24 and 54. 29. BEAMISH, Richard. "The Psychonomy of the Hand; or, the Hand an Index of Mental Development, according to MM. D'Arpentigny and Desbarrolles." (London: 1865.) Second Edition, 4to. 30. BELL, Sir Charles. "The Hand : its Mechanism and Vital Endowments as evincing Design and illustrating the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God." Bridgewater Treatise. (London : 1839.) 8vo. Other Editions : [London: 1852; 1860; 1865 ; 1874, etc.] 31. BELOT, Jean. "Les CEuvres de M. Jean Belot, Cure de Milmonts, Professeur aux Sciences Divines et Celestes, contenant la Chiromence, Physionomie," etc. (Rouen : 1640; Lyon : 1654) 8vo. Second Edition (Rouen: 1669.) Third Edition (Liege: 1704.) 32. BULWER, John. " Chirologia ; or, the Naturall Language of the Hand, composed of the Speaking Motions and Discoursing Gestures thereof," etc. (London: 1644.) I2mo. 33. CAMPBELL, Robert Allen. "Philosophic Chiromancy: Mysteries of the Hand revealed and explained," etc. (St. Louis: 1879.) I2mo. 34. CARUS, C. G. "Ueber Grund und Bedeutung der Ver- schiedenen Fonnen der Hand in Verschiedenen Personen." (Stuttgart: 1846.) 8vo. 35. COCLES, B. Vide No. I. 36. COCLES, Bartholomceus. "Expositione del Tricasso sopra il Code." (Venice : 1525.) 8vo. 37- COCLES, B. "Tricassi Cerasarensis Mantuani supra Chyromantiam Coclei Dillucidationes Prseclarissimae," etc. (Venice: 1525.) 8vo. Vide Ho. 119. 38. COCLES, B. " Bartolomaei Coclitis Bononiensis, Naturalis Philosophise ac Medicinae Doctoris, Physionorniae et Chiro- mantiae Compendium." (Argentorati : 1533.) 8vo. Other Editions : (Ditto: 1534; 1554; 1555.) I2mo. 39. COCLES, B. "Physionomiae ct Chyromantiae Compen- dium." (Argentorati: 1536.) 40. COCLES, B. "Le Compendion et Brief Enseignement de Physiognomic et Chiromacie de Berthelemy Codes. Monstrant par le regard du Visage, signe de la Face et Lignes de la Main les Mceurs et Complexions des Gentz ; selon les Figures par le Livre de painctes." (Paris : 1550.) izrno, not paged, pp. 240. Si?. O. v. APPENDIX. 425 41. COCLES, B. "Ein Kurtzer Bericht der gantzen Phisio- nomey unnd (sic) Ciromancy gezogen aus . . . B. Cocliti von Bononia," etc. [(Strasburg :) 1537.] 8vo. 42. COCLES, B. " Enseignemens de Physionomie et Chiro- mancie," etc. (Paris: 1638.) 8vo. 43. COCLES, B. " La Physiognomic Naturelle et la Chiromance de B. Codes." (Rouen : 1698.) 12 mo. 44. CORVUS, Andreas* " Excellentissimi et Singularis Viri in Chiromantia exercitatissimi Magistri Andrea Corvi Miran- dulensis." (Venice: 1500.) 8vo- 45. CORVUS, A. "L'Art de Chyromance de Maistre Andrieu Corum .... Translatee de Latin en Francais par Jehan de Verdellay." (Paris: 1510.) 8vo. Reprinted sub tit. " Les Indiscretions de IK Main." (Paris: 1878.) 46. CORVUS, A. "Excellentissimi A. Corvi Mirandulensis opus . . . de Chiromantiae Facultate Destinatum." (Venice: 1513.) 8vo. 47. CORVUS, A. "Opera Nova de Maestro A. Corvo da Carpi, habitata a la Mirandola, trattata de la Chiromantiae," etc. (Marzania: 1519.) 8vo. 48. CORVUS, A. "Excellente Chiromancie rnonstrant par les Lignes de la Main les Moeurs et Complexions des Gens." (Lyon : 1611.) izmo. 49. CRAIG, A. R. "The Book of the Hand ; or, the Science of Modern Palmistry, chiefly according to the Systems of D'Arpentigny and Desbarrolles." (London: 1867.) 8vo. Vide Nos. 24 and 54. 50. CRAIG, A. R. "Your Luck's in your Hand; or, the Science of Modern Palmistry." (London and New York : N.D. [1884.]) Third Edition, 8vo. 51. CRINGLE, Tow [pseudonym of William WALKER]. "The Hand and Physiognomy of the Human Form. (Mel- bourne: 1868.) Svo. 52. CUREAU DE LA CHAMBRE, M. " Discours sur les Principes de la Chiromancie." (Paris : 1653.) Svo. 53. CUREAU DE LA CHAMBRE, Martin. "A Discourse on the Principles of Chiromancy." Englished by a Person of Quality. (London : 1658.) Svo. 54. DESBARROLLES, Adrien. "Chiromancie Nouvelle. Les * Some doubt exists whether or no " Andreas Corvus " was a pseudonym of Bartholomaeue Codes. 426 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. Mysteres de la Main reveles ct expliques." (Paris: 1859.) First Edition, 8vo. Fifteenth Edition (Paris : Dentu : N.D.) 55. DESBARROLLES, A. "Almanach de la Main pour 1869, on la Divination raisonnee et mise a la portee de tous." (Paris: 1868.) i6mo. 56. DESBARROLLES, A. " Mysteres de la Main. Revelations Completes, suite et fin." (Paris : N.D. [1879.]) Large 8vo. 57. Du MOULIN, Antoine. "Chiromance et Physiognomic par le regard des Membresde I'Homme." (1556; 1638; 1662.) 58. ENGEL. "Die Entwickelung der Menschlichen Hand." " Berichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Wienj Mathemat-naturwissenschaftl. Klasse, B. xx., p. 261. 59. FABRICIUS, Johann Albert. "Gedanken von der Erkennt- niss der Gemuther aus den Temperamenten der Chiro- mantie und Physiognomic." (Jena: 1735.) FINELLA. Vide PHINELLA. 60. FLISCO, Count M. de. " De Fato, per Phj^siognomiam et Chyromantiam," etc. (N.I>. [1666.]) 410. 61. FRITH, Henry, and HERON-ALLEN, Edward. "Chirc mancy ; or, the Science of Palmistry,'' etc. (London : 1883.) 62. GOCLENIO, Rudolphus [junior]. " Aphorismorum Chiro- manticorum tractatus compendiosus ex ipsius artis funda- mentis desumptus," etc. (Sicho : I597-) 8vo. 63. GOCLENIO, R. " Uranoscopiae, Chiroscopiae, Metoposcopiae, etc., contemplatio," etc. Editio nova. (Frankfort: 1608.) l6mo. 64. GOCLENIO, /?. " Uranoscopiorum, Cheiroscopiorum, et Metoposcopiorum, hoc est tractatus," etc. (Frankfort : 1618.) 8vo. 65. GOCLENIO,/?. "Physiognomica et Chiromantica Specialia nunc primum in lucem emissa. Accesserunt . . . obser- vationes chiromanticse cum speciali judicio." (Marpurgi Cattorum: 1621.) 8vo. (Halle: 1652.) 8vo. 66. GOCLENIO, R. "Trattato di Chiromantia." (Amsterdam : 1641.) 8vo. 67. GOCLENIO, R. " Phj siqgnomica et Chyromantica Specialia ante annos in lucem emissa. Nunc denuo recognita." (Hamburg: 1661.) 8vo. C8. GOCLENIO, R. " . . . besondere Physiognomische und Chiromantische Anmerkungen," etc. (Hamburg : 1692.) 8vo. APPENDIX. 427 69. HARTLIEB, Johann. "Die Kunst Ciromantia, 1448." (Augsbourg: 1745.) Fol. 70. HASIUS, Joannes. -"Prefatio Laudatoria in Artem Chiro- manticam : in laudem Joannis Hasii Memmingensis artis Jurium et Medicmarum Doctoris, Chyromantiae Principis." (1519.) Sm. 4to, pp. 60. 71. HEBRA, H. " Untersuchung iiber den Nagel." (Vienna: 1880.) 8vo. 72. HERON-ALLEN, Edward. "Codex Chiromantiae." Odd Volumes Opusculum, No. VII. (London: 1883.) I2mo. 73. HERON-ALLEN, Edward. " A Manual of Cheirosophy : being a Complete Practical Handbook to the Twin Sciences of Cheirognomy and Cheiromancy," etc. (London : 1885.) Sq. 8vo. 74. HERON-ALLEN, Edward. "The Science of the Hand ; or, the Art of Recognising the Tendencies of the Human Mind by the Observation of the Formations of the Hand." Trans- lated from the French of . . D'Arpentigny. With an Introduction, Appendices, and a Commentary on the Text. (London: 1886.) Sq. 8vo. 75. HOPING, Johann Abraham Adolph. " Chiromantia Har- monica, das ist Ubereinstimmung der Chiromantia," etc. (Jena: 1681.) 8vo. 76. HOPING, /. A, J. " Institutiones Chiromanticae." Mit Fleiss verfertiget durch J. A. J. Hoping. 2 vols., I2mo. 77. HUMPHREY, George M. "On the Human Foot and Human Hand." (Cambridge: 1861.) 8vo. 78. INDAGINE, Joannes ab. " Introductiones Apotelesmaticae Elegantes in Chyromantiam, Physiognomiam, Astrologiam Naturalem, Complexiones Hominum, Naturas Planetarum," etc., etc. [(Strasburg :) 1522.] Fol. (in two parts). Other Editions: (Frankfort: [1522]) I2mo; (Argento- rati: 1531 and 1541) fol. ; (Paris: 1543 and 1547) 8vo; (Ursellis : 1603) 8vo; (Augusta Trebocorum : 1663) 8vo. 79. INDAGINE, /. " Die Kunst der Chiromantzey usz Besehung der Hend, Physiognomey usz Anblick des Menschens," etc. (Strasburg: 1523.) Fol. 80. IDAGINE, J. " Chiromantia, Physiognomia, Periaxiomata de Faciebus Signorum," etc. (Argentorati : IS34-) Fol. 81. INDAGINE, J. " Feltbuch der Wund Artzney sumpt vilen Instrumenten der Chirurgen uss dem Abucasi contrafayt. Chiromantia J. Indagine," etc. (Strasburg: 1540.) Fol. 82. INDAGINE, /. " Chiromence et Physiognomic par le regard 428 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. des Membres de 1'Homme." Le tout mis en Francois par A. du Moulin. (Lion: 1556.) 8vo. Other Editions; (Rouen: 1638) 121110; (Paris: 1662) I2mo. 83. INDAGINE,./. "The Book of Palmistry and Physiognomy: being Brief Introductions both Natural, Pleasaunt, and Delectable unto the Art of Chiromancy, or Manual Divina- tion and Physiognomy," etc., etc. Written in Latine by John Indagine, Priest, and translated into English by Fabian Withers. (London: 1651.) 8vo. Sixth Edition, 1666; seventh Edition, 1676. 84. INGEBER, Joliann. " Chiromantia, Metoposcopia, et Physio- gnomia Practica ; oder Kurtze Anweisung, wie man auss denen vier Hauptlinien in der Hand . . . urtheilen kann," etc. (Frankfort A/M : 1724.) 8vo. 85. JOB, J. G. " Anleitung zu den Curieusen Wissenschaften, nemlich der Physiognomia, Chiromantia," etc. (Franck- fort A/M : 1721.) 86. KOLLMANN, Arthur. " Der Tast Apparat der Hand der Menschlichen Rassen und der Affen in seiner Entwickel- ung und Glicderung." (Hamburg u. Leipzig : 1883.) 8vo. 87. LUTZ, L. H. " Cheirosophia concentrata ; d.i., Eine Kurtze Unterweisung vermittelst deren jeden Menschens ganzten Lebens Beschaffenheit in seinen Handen vor Augen kOnne gestellet werden." (Niirnberg: 1672.) 88. MARTIN, C. "Methode de Chirogymaste, ou Gymnase des Doigts." (Paris : 1843.) ^vo. 89. MAYER, Philip. " La Chiromancie Medicinale. Accom- pagne d'un traite de la Physionomie, et d'un autre des Marques qui paroissent sur les Ongles des Doigts." Traduit de 1'Allemand par Ph. H. Trenchoes de Wezhausen. (La Haye : 1665.) 90. MAYER, Ph. " Chiromantia et Physiognomia Medica, mit einen Anhange von den Zeichen auf die Nageln der inger," etc. (Dresden: I?' 2 -) 91. MOREAU, Adele. "L'Avenir Devoile'. Chiromancie Nou- velle. Etude des Deux Mains." (Paris: 1869.) 8vo. 92. NAURATH, Lud. Ern. de. "De Manuum Morphologia et Physiologia." (Berolini: 1833.) 8vo. 93. PERUCHIO, Le Sieur de. " La Chiromance, la I hysionomie et le Geomance," etc. (Paris: 1656.) Sm. 4to. Second Edition (Paris : 1663.) 94. PEUSCHEL, C. A. " Abhandlung der Physionomie, Metopo- scopie und Chiromantie." (Leipzig: 1769.) 8vo. APPENDIX. 429 95. PHILOSOPHI [Begin] " Ex Divina Philosophorum Academia nature vires ad extra Chyromantico Diligentissime Col- lectum." \End~\ "Ex Divina Philosophorum Academia Colfecta Chyromantica scientia naturalis ad Dei laudem finit." [" Per Magistrum Erhardum Ratodolt de Augusta Venetiis."] [1480?] 410, 25 leaves, without title, pagina- tion, or catchwords. Other Editions: [1484] 26 leaves; [1490?] 32 leaves; [Venice : 1493] 24 leaves ; [Oppenheim : 1499] 32 leaves. 96. Translation : " Incomentia 1'Arte Divina de la Chyro- mantia recolta da la Schola de Philosophi." (Venice : [1480?]) 28 leaves. 97. PHINELLA or FINELLA, Philippo. " De Quatuor Signis quse apparent in Unguibus Manuum." Auctore P. P. (Naples: 1649.) I2mo. 98. POMPEIUS, Nicolaus. " Figurae Chiromanticae ad systema Nicolai Pompeii." (Hamburg : 1682.) 8vo. 99. POMPEIUS, N. "Prsecepta Chiromantica . . . praelec- ta olim ab ipso jam vero recognita." (Hamburg: 1682.) Svo. ico. PR^ETORIUS, Johann. " Cheiroscopia et Metoposcopia." (Jena: 1659.) 4to. 101. PROTORIUS, /. " Ludicrum Chiromanticum Prastorii, seu Thesaurus Chiromantiae," etc. (Jena : 1661.) Sin. 410, pp. 340. 102. PRJETORIUS, J. " Philologemata Abstrusa de Pollice; in quibus Singularia Animadversa vom Diebes-Daume, et Manu," etc. (Leipzig: 1677.) 410. 103. PR^ETORIUS, J. "Collegium Curiosum . . . oder ein sehr Niitzliches Werck darinnen curieus . . . abge- handelt wird, was zur Physiognomic, Chiromantie, etc., gehOret." (Frankfort A/JI : 1704.) Svo. 104. REQUENO, Vincenzo. "Scoperta della Chironomia, dell' Arte di Gestire con le mani." (Parma : 1797.) Svo. 105. RONPHILE [pseudonym of Rampalle], "La Chyromantie Naturelle de Ronphile." (Lyon : 1653) Svo; (Paris: 1671) Svo. 106. RONPHILE. " Die in der Natur best-gegrundete. . . . Chyromantie oder Hand-Wahrsagung." (Nurnbtrg : 1695.) Svo. 107. ROTHMANN, Joannes. " Chiromantiae Theorica Practica. Concordantia Genethliaca Vestustis Novitate addita." Autore Joanne Rothmanno Med. et Philos. (Eiphordias: 1595.) Sm. 4to. 23 430 THE SCIENCE OF THE HAND. 108. ROTHMANN,/. KeipofiavTia, or the Art of Divining by the Lines and Signatures engraven in the Hand of Man by the Hand of Nature," etc. Written originally in Latine by lo. Rothmanne, Div. Phisique, and now faithfully eng- lished by Geo. Wharton, Esq. (London: 1652.) 8vo. Vide No. 125. 109. SANDERS, Richard. " Physiognomic and Chiromancie, Metoposcopie, etc., handled ; with their natural predictive significations," etc. (London: 1653.) Fol. no. SANDERS,/?. "Palmistry, the Secrets thereof disclosed. . . . With some choice Observations of Physiognomy and the Moles of the Body," etc. (London : 1664.) I2mo. in. SCHALITZ, Christian. "Die von Aberglauben, Vanitaten und Teuscherei gereinigte Chiromantia und Physiogno- mia." (Leipzic : 1703.) 2nd edition. (Franckfort : 1729.) 8vo. 112. SCHEELER, Karl von. "Abimelech, der wunderbahre Prophet, oder die Chiromantie und Physiogmonik womit man sich und anderen aus den Linieamenten wahrzusagen im Stande ist." (Reutler : N.D.) 113. SCHOTT, Caspar. " Thaumaturgus Physicus, sive Magise Universalis Naturae et Artis Pars IV. et ultima." (Hcrbipoli : 1659.) 4to. 114. SOHN, Fr. " Kunst aus der Handhohle, den Fingern und den Nagcln wahrzusagen, oder die Chiromantie der Alten." (Berlin : 1856.) Second edition. 115. SPADONI, N. "Studio di Curiosita, nel quale tratta die Fisionomia, Chiromantia, e Metoposcopia." (Venice : 1675.) i6mo. 116. SPADONI, N. " Studium Curiosum, darinnen von der Physiognomia, Chiromantia, und Metoposcopia . . . gehandelt vvird." Vide No. 115. 117. T , J. G. D. " Hochstfurtreflichstes Chiromantisch- und-Physiognomisches Klee-Blat, bestehend aus drey hen-lichen Tractaten," etc. (Niirnberg : 1695.) 8vo. 1 1 8. TAJSNIER, Joannes. "Opus Mathematicum Octo Libros complcctens innumeris propemodum figuris idealibus manuum et physiognomies aliisque adoratum quorum sex priores libri absolutissimae Cheiromantiae Theoricam Praxim, Doctrinam, Artem, et experientiam verissimam continent, etc., etc. Authore Joanne Taisnierio Hannonio Mathematico expertissimo." (Colonise Agrippinae : 1562.) Laige 8vo. IIQ. TRICASSO, J. "Tricasso da Cesari, Mant. : Epitoma APPENDIX. 431 chiromantico allo illustre e magnifico Signor Conte Joan Baptista di affaitati Cremonese," etc. (N.D.) 12 mo. 1 20. TRICASSO, J. "Chyromantia de Tricasso da Cesari Mantuano al Magnifico et Veneto Patritio Dominico di Aloisio Georgio novamente revista e con somma diligentia corretta e stampata." (1534.) Sm. 8vo. 121. TRICASSO, J. "Epitoma Chyromantico di Patritio Tricasso da Cerasari Mantovano." (Venice: 1538.) 8vo. 122. TRICASSO, J. "Tricassi Cerasariensis Mantuani enarratio pulchcrrima principiorum Chyromantiae ex qua facillime patere possunt omnes significationes quorumcunq : signc- rum Chyromanticorum. Ejusdem Tricassi Mantuani opus Chyromanticum absolutissimum nunc primutn in lucem editum. Item Chyromantiae incerti authoris Opera Bal- duini Ronflei Gandavensis in lucem edita cum ejusdem in Chyromanticen brevi Isagoge." (Noribergae: 1560) I2mo sm. 410, not paged, pp. 312, sig. M. M. ii. 123. TRICASSO, /. "La Chiromence de Patrice Tricasse des Ceresars Mantouan de la derniere reveue et correction de 1'Autheur et nagueres fidelement traduicte de 1'Italien en langage Francais." (Paris, 1552 and 1561.) I2mo. Vide Nos. 36, 37. VERDELLAY, Je han de [pseudonym of Andreas CORVUS]. 124. WARREN, Claude. "The Life-size Outlines of the Hands of Twenty-two Celebrated Persons." (London : 1882.) Fol. 125. WHARTON, Sir George. "The Works of that most excellent Philosopher . . . including a translation of Rothmann's ' Chiromancy,' " etc. (London: 1683.) 8vo. Vide No. 108. Harenatrc. Pour routrnstf. la main eoupe'e He ILaeenaire I'assasstn, Dans Ires taumrs putssants trrntpre i3o3ait aupiis, stir tin rousstn. et toute jaune, (To mine la main u'uu iPIIr allonge crs Iroigts tir faune CTn'sprs par la tentation, Cons Irs birrs afarr leiirs gn'ffcs Oat, Hans Irs pit's tir rrltr peatt, Cracl i'affreux Jieroglgptes, fins roummmrnt par le tourreau. 5n mhne temps molle et feroce, 5a forme a pour I'oiserbateur Jfe ne sais (juelle graee atroce, Ea grace tru glaltiateur. Criminelle aristocratte ! ^ar la barlope ou le martrati Sa pulpe n'rst pas eniurcie, CTar son until fut tin rottteau ! THOPHILE GAUTIF.R INDEX. THE follo-.ving Index, referring at the same time to the text and to the notes of this volume, has necessarily become complicated in character, and requires a foreword of explanation. All numbers preceded by If refer to the paragraphs numbered in the margins ; all numbers not so preceded refer to pages, and all small numbers refer to notes. Thus : Composition of the Hand, If 60 = that the matter is to be found at paragraph No. 60. Consistency of Hands, 153 = that this subject is treated on page 153. Consumption in the Hand, 49" = that this is discussed in note 53, page 49. Often, however, these references are combined thus : Dress fashion in so/ 361 , If 474 ; or again : Fatalism, T 6oi a , 206*", which refers to page 206, note 241, and paragraph 60 1*. Francis I., ^[^f 469, 473, 486, refers to those three paragraphs ; but when only one If precedes the figures, any figures after the first refer to pages. Thus : Variation of Hands, 51 86, 93 1 " 3 , refers to paragraph 86 ax\Apage 93, note 103. So also: Sand, Georges, % 283, 158'", ^f 676, refers \aparagraphs 283 and 676 ; and page 158, note 172. Albe, Due d', 1 513. Abd-el-Kader's banner, ^f 265. Abelard, ^ 375, 454. Abernethy, Dr., and phrenology, 89 ". Abyssinian customs, ^f 462. AchmetFevzi, aoS' 45 " 8 . Acquirement of the science, ^f 59. Agriculture, Love of, ^[217. Albertus Magnus on cheiromancy, I70 183 . Alcmene, ^ l &3- Alexander and cheiromancy, 172 l92 . Alexander the Great and Caesar com- pared, ^f 152. All religions are good, ^f 581. America. Immigration, ^f 349. American (North) hands, 262. American savage art, ^[ 439. Amputation of the hand, 139 145 , IF 257- Analysis and synthesis, ^f 572. Anatomy of the hand, ^f 55. Anaxagoras, 94, 139 M3 . Animals, association with, ^f 609. Anne, Queen, ^[15. Anthropomorphism, ^f 582. Antilles, Colonists of the, ^[ 341 Antioch, The dragon of, ^[ 14. Antiochus Tibertus, on cheiromancy, I7o 187 . Anville, ]. B. B. d', If 227. < Apollo as a cowherd, ^f 580. Appollonius of Tyana, ^] 26. Application of cheirognomy, ^f 175. Appreciation of talent in youth, ^f 248. Arab exclusiveness, ^[ 601. Arab horses, 1 59 m . Arab posture of respect, 1 79 M1 . Arago, D., IT 427. Arguments, biassed, ^ 45, 46. Ariosto, 116 '-. Aristotle, ^ i, 21. Aristotle, Anaxagoras, and Galen, 94. Aristotle, his regularity, ^[ 125. Aristotle, on cheiromancy, 169 lsl . Aristotle, on a long hand, 101 107 . Aristotle's treatise on cheiromancy, IT 235- d Arpentigny, Biographical details, 13- 21. d'Arpentigny's hand, 417. d'Arpentigny, his discovery of the science, f f 7, 8, 15. Att in sixteenth century, ^[ 467. Art of square hands, ^[ 512. Artaxerxes Longimanus, ^[ 140. 43^ INDEX. Arteries of the hand, ^[71. Articular bone, ^[ 62. Articulation proportioned to intelli- gence, ^ 99. Artists versus artizans, ^[ 356. Artistic energy, ^f 163. Artistic hands, ^[ 204, 5, 210. Artistic hands, Varieties of, 287 Artistic and material order, ^[ 528. Artistic type, illustration, [ 169 Artistico-elementary hand, 390. Asiatic hands, ^[ 585. Asiatic women, ^[ 660. Atheism, indiscriminate use of the word, 117 m . Athenian laws, ^f 363. Athenian love of oratory, 233 2S1 . Athenian youths, Education of, 188 22 \ Attila, King of the Huns, 122 m . Aure, Vicomte, ^[ 164. Averroes. on cheiromancy, 170 18S . Avicenna, on cheiromancy, 170 18i . Babylon denied by Voltaire, \ 456. Bacon, R., ^"12. Balzac, Honore, 5F1T 271, 281. Barbary, Ignorance in, ^[ 325. Bas-de-Cuir, ^[ 338. Baville, ^[513. Beaumarchais, ^[ 592. Bedouins, The, ^[ 345. Bedouin characteristics, If 600. Belgian character. ^[ 428. Bell, Sir Chas., ^[2. Belot, J., on cheiromancy, 171 19 . Belshazzar, ^f 12. Bible cheirosophy, ^[ 250. Biography is a branch of natural his- tory, f 12. Biting the hand or thumb, ^[ 16. Blessing with the hand, ^[ 13. Blow for blow, ^[ 254. Body formed by the mind, ^[ 50. Boehme, J., |[ 404. Boeotian genii, ^f 429, 278 3W . Bon Gaultier, |[ 17. Bone, Composition of, ^[ 61. Bones of the hand, ^[ 63. Books on the science, [ 41. Bossuet, If 511. Bradamante, ^f 605. Breton characteristics, ^[^[ 364, 638. Breton hands, ^[ 204. Breton hand owners, ^[ 371. Breton obstinacy, ^[ 202. Buddhism, 149 m , 213 , 231 2 ". Bulwer Lytton, ^[ 397. Burton, R. F., on genii, 370 *". Byron, Lord, ^[ 398. Byron, Lord, small hands, ^[ 10. Caen, University of, ^f 287. Caesar's love of mechanics, ^[ 427. Caesarism, ^[ 445. Callosity in hands, ^[ 220. Calumniators of great men, ^[ 271. Calumnies of conquerors, ^[ 327. " Candide" [Voltaire], ^ 38, 39. Cardinal sins, their indications, 9. Caroline Islands [women], ^f 657. Carpus, The, [ 69. Carpocras [of Alexandria], ^[ 461. Catherine de Medicis, ^[ 674. Catholicism, 245. Certainty of the science, ^[ 159. Cervantes' injured hand, *[[ 6. Chaos of knowledge, ^[ 36. Characteristic hands, ^[ 270. Characteristics of mixed hands, *][ 612. Characteristics of philosophic type, f55& Characteristics of pointed type, IT 581. Characteristics of square hands, \ 497. Charlemagne's doctrine, ^[ 427. Charles V. of Germany and I. of Spain 226 n2 . Charles X., Guards of, ^[ 522. Cheiromancy, ^[ 24, 70 91 , 169. Cheirosophy and Physiognomy com- pared, ^[ 269. Cheirostemon, The, ^[ 25. Chevalier on America, ^[ 409. Chimneys, Invention of, ^[ 430. China, Classes in, ^[ 418. Chinese hands, ^[ 214, 341. Chinese honours, ^[ 518. Chinese laws, Antiquity of, ^[ 362. Chinese philosophy, ^[ 229-33. Chinese women, *J[ 664. Chirologia, ^[ 9. Chopin, ^[[431. Christianity, Effects on Rome, ^[ 422. Christianity and Islam, ^[ 323. Cicero, Murder of, ^[ 9. Cimbrians, The, ^j" 327. Civil servants, ^"516. INDEX. 437 Classification of hands, ^f 88. Clergymen, f 573. Clermont-Tonnerre, Cardinal, ^f 573. Clock-making invented, ^f 374. Clorinde, ^f 665. Close-fitting fingers, ^f 239. Cobenzl family, The, 280 '. Cocker, According to, ^f 23. Colbert, Administration of, *[ 377. Colonists, ^f 410. Colonists of the spatulate type, ^[ 348. Colossal monuments of small hands, 1f279. Comedists, ^f 407. Comedy, German and French, *[[ 406. Commines, P. de, ^f 509. Communism, Ideal, *f[ 365. Composition of the hand, ^f 60. Confucius, ^[ 32, 162 l79 , 320 s 69 . Confucius, his manners, ^f 534, etc. Confucius, Maxims of, i[ 544, etc. Conic fingers, ^f 131. Conic-handed women, ^f 673. Conic military hands, ^[ 447. Conic and pointed hands, ^[ 154. Connection of mind and body, VS 1 - Conscription, Unnaturalness of, ^[ 289. Conservatism in the country, ^f 509. Consistency of hands, 1 53. Constantinople, 207 2 ". Consumption in the hand, 49 M . Contradictions in the science, ^[^[ 43, 433- Corneille, ^f 429. Corsican obstinacy, ^ 202. Cossack hands, ^[ 347. Costumes in sixteenth century, ^f 472. Country life, Love of, ^[ 394. Coysevox the sculptor, ^[512. Criticism, ^f 145. Croesus, 87 ". Cross, Sign of the, ([ 13. Customs and superstitions, ^T I. Cutis vera, ^[ 76, 77. Cutting off the hand, f 257. Cutting the nails, ^f 20. Daedalus, f 427. Damascus, Siege of, ^f 583. Dante Alighieri, 296 ssl . Danton the magnanimous, ^f 198. Dargaud, J. M., 19 ". Dark-skinned races, 83 9S . Death-rate in France, 372 w . Defects of artistic type, ^f 440 Defects of square type, ^f 507. De Flotte, 371 ^ Delphi, Temple at, 87 97 . Democritus, love of knowledge, [ 27. Desbarolles, on d'Arpentigny, 385 , 417. Descartes, Rene, ^f 401. Details of domestic life, ^f 459. ! Development of the hand, ^ 58, 63-67. ! Diana, goddess of chastity, ^f 339. ' Diderot, D., ^[427. Differences from a common base, [ 209. Differentiation of hands, ^[ 59- Diogenes and Christ contrasted, [ 254. Dioscuri, Group of, ^[ 487. Discovery of true nature, ^f 53. Disease in the hand, 49 M , ^[ 24. Divination, Universal love of, 1[ 27. Divine veracity of nature, ^f 40. Division of fingers, ^f 103. Dnieper, Villagers of the, ^f 212. Dogs in Constantinople, 207 * 44 . Dominant classes, Principles of, If 374. Dominic, St., ^f 513. Don Quijote, ^ftf 5, 10, 14. Dore, Gustave, his enthusiasm, roS '". ' Dragonnades," 247 298 . Drama of philosophers, 1f 566. Dress, Fashion in, 307 "', ^f 47-}. Druidical philosophy, ^f 584. Duelling, Regulations of, ^f 8. Dumas, A., * 451. Dupin Aine, f 354. Dlirer, A., f 195. Dutch hands, *|f 351. Early recognition of genius, ^f 249. East and West contrasted, ^jf 587. Ecclesiastical hands, ^215. Eddas, f 389. Education of Greek youths, ^f 273. Education of women, ^f 677. Effeminate soldiers, ^521. Egoism of mixed hands, ^f 632. Egotism of types, f 373. Egyptian colossi, ^ 279. Eighteenth century, ^f 504. Elementary hands, 199. Elementary hand scarce among women. f 654. Elementary type. Illustration, ^ 172. 438 INDEX. Elementary type, Incarnations of, IT 329. Elizabeth, Queen, ^[ 10. " Elvire" Lamartine's, its origin, 18 4 . Embryonic hand, ^f 58. Emigration from France, ^ 349. Emigration from Spain, ^f 349. Emmseus and Ulysses, ^f 295. Energetic type. Illustration, ^f 170. Engineers, ^ 161. English army, IT 443. English hands, 252, ^f 342. English women, ^ 659. Entertainers' hands, 252. Enthusiasm of smooth fingers, ^[ 1 14. Environment, Effect of, ^f 570. Environment, Formation by, 1f^[49j 57- Environment, Necessity of proper, 1417- Epidermis, ^f 76. Epilepsy and the thumb, ^f 185. Epiphysis, ^f^f 65, 66. Erasmus on monks, ^215. Esoteric Buddhism, 301 36 . Etruscans and their slaves. ^[ 450. European wars. ^[ 615. Excess of formations, 1 10 1M . Excessive palm, ^f 98. Exclusiveness of race, ^[ 359. Experiment, Necessity of personal, If 42. Explanation, Absence of, ^f 34. Exposure of Greek infants, 188 **. Expressions concerning the hand, ^[12. Expressions concerning the thumb, 143 15S . Extremities, Nature indicated by, If 49. Eyes of the hand, The tips, ^1 155. Fabre de Olivet on woman, *jf 648. Facts, Statements of, Jf 47. Facts, Tabulation of, ^ 36. Failures of the science, *f 43. False arguments from correct basis, 1. 2 36. Farina, J. M., ^ 225. Fasle Bey, f 322. Fatalism of Mohammedans, 206 W1 , f 601". Female hands, 401. Fichte, ^ 552. Field of the Cloth of Gold, f 486. Filial affection in China, ^[ 531. Fine hands and noble birth, f 370. Fingal, f 4. Fingers, The, 104. Fingers, The bones of, ^f 66. Finger-nail superstitions, ^f 19. Fingers turning back, ^[ 237. Fingertips, ^ 106, 115. Finger tips, Touch in, ^f 210. First impressions, ^f 54. Flat fingers, ^f 242. Flt?te player, Automaton. 109 " 3 . Flemish hands, ^f 277. " Fleuve de Tendre" ^[512. Fontanier, on the East, *[f 319. Force, Thumb emblem of. ^f 178. France under the Empire, 11 379. Franchise, Electoral, ^ 286, 289. Francis I., patron of art, ^f 376. Francis I., *|}^f 469, 473, 486. Francis II., of Austria, ^[ 140. Frederick I., of Prussia, ^f 140. Free thought. ^[ 69. French army, ^[ 441. French and English characters, ^f 492. French and English providence, ^[415. French hands, ^f 127. French literature, Modern, ^f 148. French perfection, ^f 493. French royal arms, *f 260. French society, ninth to twelfth cen- turies, 1f 366. French and Spanish civilisation. ^[ 595. French women's hands, If 645. Frere Jean, ^f 348. Fronde, Guerre de la, 327 - sa . Full development of the hand, If 58. Fulton, ^f 427. Fusion of types, ^f 151. Gaddesden, John of, 49 *'. Galen on cheiromancy, l69' K , ^f^f 2, 5. Galinni, Abbe, If 271. Gall, F.J., 88 98 . Gardens of elementary type, ^f 315. Gaul, Elementary hands in, ^f 311. Genesis, Book of, |O2 ts2 . Genii, f 588. Gerbert, 3 . Marchandon the murderer, 173 m . Marchangay, ^f 619. Mariana Islands [women], ^f 657. Massinger, ^[ II. Materialism of to-day, ^f 378. Mechanics among Arabs, ^f 603. Medium consistency in hands, Mf 221. Medium-sized hands, ^[ 141. Medium-sized palm, ^[ 96. Memnon, ^f 93, 96 l06 . Memphis and Thebes, ^f 455. Men licant friars, 297 353 . iviercenary soldiers, ^[ 445. Metacarpus, The, ^[ 65. Methodical art, ^ 205. Methodical hands, ^f 167. Metoposcopy, ^f 24. Middle class hands in France, ^f 227. Military scribes, ^f 517. "Military" and "warlike" nations, If 444- Mind formed by the body, ^ 50. Mirabeau on Polignac, II5 121 . Mistakes in early education, ^f 247. Mixed hands, 385, (ffl 238, 490. Mixed and single types compared, 621, 622. Mobility of the hand, 174 198 . INDEX. 441 Modifications of signs by thepalm, ^[102. Modified hands, f 157. Monge, G., f 427. Monkey and mimic hands, f 251. Monkey's thumb, f 182. "Montagnards," Les, 310 36i . Montaigne, on heads, ^f 128. Montaigne, H g, 196. Montesquieu, *|f 363. Montpellier, Massacres at, f 513. Monuments, Builders of, <[ 455. " More haste worse speed," ^| 1 14. Moreau, H., his hands, f 154. Mori bunds and the thumb, *f 186. Muhammad, *f 602. Muhammad, Conquest of Greece, f 146. Murat, J., i 448. Muscle, Composition of, f 69. Muscles of the hand, f 70. Muscular system, f 68. Music and mythology, f 331. Music, Scientific, f 143. Musicians' hands, *f 142. Mystery in science, f ^ 34. 35 91 10 - Nails, The, f 79. Nantes, Edict of, f 354. Napoleon, " He'ros de Brumaire" 217 M3 . Napoleon's hands, f 433. Narrow-minded ignorance, f 28. Narrow palm, f 95. National aptitudes, f 426. Nationalism, f 509. Nationalism of Jews, f 636. Nature, Fixed laws of, f 40. Nature of man is often hidden, f 53. Neapolitan hand charms, 183 ' M . Negroes, Nakedness of, f 476. Negroes, Insensibility of, 308 s83 . Nelson, f 6. Nerve communications, f 73. Nerve terminations, f 74, Nervous system of the hands, ff 72, 75. Newton on the thumb, f 177. Niebelungenlied, f 389. Niggers, Sensibility of, 83 96 . Nil admirari criticism, f 38. Nimrod, f 338. Nineteenth century, ^f 504*. Niobe, Sons of, at Florence, ^f 272. Norman hands, ^f^f 435, 624-627, etc. Normans and Bretons contrasted, If 635. North American hands, ^f 350. Notes, Necessity of, 10. Nunneries, Hands in, ^f 671. Qidipus Tyrannus, ^f 628. Old ideas in new guise, 8. Omar-i-Khayyam, ^ n, 28, 56. Oratory, Hands in, ^f 9. Ordeal, Trial by, 204 '"". Orderliness, Excessive, ^[112. Organisations conformable to instincts 186. Oriental origin of the science, ^ 26. Origin of civilisations, ^ 90. Oswald, Hand of King, 47 ". Otahitian women, 1 658. Othello, 410 <67 . Pacinian corpuscles, ^ 77. Palm of the hand, 101. Palmyra, 1 604. Painters of spatulate type, ^ 343. Pan, t 91. Panurge, f 348. Papin, Denis, If 386, 427. Pariah, The, f |f 30x3, yS. Paris, 1 483. Parthian horsemanship, f 327. Pascal, f 511. Paul I., of Russia, f 140. Pelham, f 397. Peculiar minds, f 271. Pedants, f 165. Penelope, f 663. Peninsular war, f 452. Perfection of the hand, f 2. Perfection of man, f 56. Persian customs, 1 78 -. Persian horsemanship, f 327. Personal experience necessary, f 160. Perspiration pores, f 78. Peruchio, on cheiromancy, 171 IW . Peter the Great's brutality, f 427. Phalanges of the thumb, f 189. Philippe II., f 501. Philosophers, f 549, etc. Philosophic fingers, ff 133, 555, and P- 349- Philosophic temperament, ff 134, 135. Philosophy in old age, f 2 1 8. Phrenology and Physiognomy, f 84. Physiognomy inferior to cheirosophy, f 269. Picardy, Men of, f 211. Picrochole and Grandouzier, 169 1M . 442 INDEX. Platonism, ^ 463, 422. Plautus, ^ 3. Poets, f 1 66. Pointed fingers, Love of, 267. Pointed-handed women, ^f 675. Pointed hands, ^[*[ 136, 579, and p. 362. Polar hands, ^ 309. Polignac, Prince Jules de, ^f 121. Polish Jews, ^f 637. Pollice truncatus, ^ 181. Politeness and simplicity, ^f 130. " Poltroon, "Iff 6, 181. Pompeii, f 458. Poor, among, Spatulate hands, f 411. Poverty, Feelings about, f 403. Practical hand, ff 119, 161. Practice of cheirognomy, Desbarrolles', Practice is necessary, f 42. Prayer, Clasping the hands, f 256. Prayer wheels and posts, f 326. Preault the sculptor, f 280. Pricking thumb, f 4. Progressive and unprogressive nations, f 30- Prometheus, f 427. Propagation of a type, f 358. Property franchise, f 286. Proportion of palm to fingers, f 139. Protestantism, 245. Psychic hands, f f 136. 363. Ptolemies, The, and cheiromancy, I7O 184 . Pythagorean philosophy, f 584. " Que sais-je?" f 196. Quintilian, f 9. Qur'an, The, III " 7 , 206 2W . Rabelais, ff 1 7> n 3- Rabelais, on monks, f 215. Rapp, General, f 330. Reason versus instinct, f 1 79. Recognition of types, f 93. Red hand in the East, 183 212 . Red handed, f II. Rcdoute, the flower painter, f 278. Religion of philosophers, ff 562, 568. Religion of types, 245. Religious ceremonies, f 13. Renaissance, The, f 645. Repulsive hands, f 270. Revolution, The French, f f 379, 484. Ribera, Murillo, and Zurbaran, f 343. Ricardus, Scriptor Anglicus, f 23. Richelieu, ^f 513*. Ridicule of cheiromancy, 49 49 , ^f 38 Robert of Normandy, ^| 627. Robespierre, M., ^f 513. Rochester. Castle, 278 S31 . Roland, Mine., f 666. Roman hands, 269. Romance writers, ^f 166. Rosary, The, 296 3j -. Ros)--fingered mom, ^f II. Rurik, Invasion of, ^f 411. Russia, Seignorial rights in, ^f 369. Russian character, ^f 428. Russian customs, f 13. Russian hands, ^ 212, 347. Sagas, f 389. St. Bernard, f f 375, 454. St. John of Malta, Relic of, ^f 14. St. Martin, on women, f 647. St. Simon on Louis XIV., ^f 502. Sand, Georges, f 283, 158 '", ^ 676. Sanskrit, ^f 590. Scasvola, C. M., ^ 6. Scandinavian colonies, *$ 391. Scepticism of youth, *jf 39. Scholarly hands, ^f 165. Science in China, ^f 530. Scolding wife, 144 15 '. Scotch hands, ^f 342. Self-deception, ^f 32. Sensory apparatus of the skin, ^ 77. Sensualist artists, ^f 438. Sentiments of women, ^ 677. Serfdom in Russia, ^ 360, 581. Sesamoid bones, ^f 67. Seventeenth century, fj 500, 508. " Sganarelle," ^f 225. Shakespeare, ^f 3. Shakespeare's thumbs, ^f 196. " Shoo-King," The, ^f 664. Short, thick ringers, ^f 240. "Sigisbe,"^3 4 8. ' Sire de Brantome, ^512. piva worship, ^f 605. sixteenth century, 303. Skeleton of the hand, ^f 63. Skin, The, ^f 76. Slavery, ^f 581. Small hand, ^f 10, 147, 275. mall- handed women, ^f 672. Small thumbs, ^f^f 193-4. mall-thumbed women, ^ 652, 653. INDEX. 443 Smooth fingers, f f 1 10, 243. Social qualities under Louis XIV., f. 333- Socialism (Xenophon), f 423. Socialism in North America, f 631. Socialism of Philosophers, f 84.. Socrates and Christ, f 422. Socrates at Delphi, 87 97 . Soft or hard hands, 153. Soldierly attributes of to-day, f 274. Soldiers of different types, f 519, etc. Soudra, The, f f 300-3. Southern and northern characters, f 597- South Sea Islands, Savage art, f 439. Souvaroff, his strong will, f 198. Spanish army, f 452. Spanish character, f f 595, 596. Spanish hands, f 351. Spanish labourers, f 344. Spanish tortures, f 6. Spartan exclusiveness, f 365. Spartan laws, f 363. Spatulate hands, 221. Spatulate and jointed hands, f 122. Spatulate-handed women, f 665. Spatulate and useful hands, f 527. Spatulate tips, ff 117, 119. Speech, the hand of the spirit, f 85. Special training necessary, f 31. Spots on the nails, f 19. Spurzheim, J. C., 89 *>. Square hands, f f 123-6, and p. 319. Square-handed women, f f 667. 669. Square military hands, f 44.6. Square spatulate hands, f 162. Stael, Mme. de, f f 528, 565. Stael, Mme., on the Pariah, 203 236 . Strength, Egyptian symbol of, o. Teutons, The, f 327. Thebes, Statue of Memnon at, 9> I0i . Thessalian horsemanship, f 327. Thibetan customs, f 200. Third finger, f 7. Thumb, The, 138. Thumb, Amputation of, f 8. Thumb, the emblem of man, f f 183, 187. Thumb in gladiatorial shows, f 190. Thumbs, Mutilation of, f 6. Toleration, Necessity of, f 290. Touch corpuscles, f 77. Touch, Sense of, in the fingertips, f 153. Tourgueneff, Ivan. 49 M . Traveller's tales, 149 l82 . Tricasso, P., en cheiromancy, 171 11>s . Tripoli, The hand charms of, f 266. Truth unnatural to man, f 54. Tuileries Gardens, f 487. Turkish character, ^317. etc. Turkish hand symbolisms, f 267. Turkish salutation, 209 2IS . Uncertainty of exact science, 91 lo . United States, f 289. United States, Laws of the, <[ 362. Universal importance of the hand, *[ I. Useful type. Illustration, f 173. Uses of the hand, f 5, 319. Value of the science, f f 30, 32, 54. Variation of hands, f 86, 93 m . Variations of types, *jf 157, 95 103 . Vaucanson, J. de, 109 " 3 . Vendean characteristics, f f 640-2. Venous system of the hand, f 71. Versailles, f 515. 444 INDEX. Versatile talents, ^[ 226. Vespasian, Emperor, ^15. Villages of elementary hands, ^f 316. Villiers of Buckingham, ^[ 10. Vincent de Paul, St., ^ 271. Virgin worship established , 296 s ". Voltaire, Costume of, ^[ 473. Voltaire, his scepticism, ^ 456. Voltaire s large thumb?, ^f 199. War between different races, ^f 613. Wazir, ^[ 121. Weak thumbs, ^f 191. White hands in Persia, ^f II. Wickedness of the science, *j[ 39. Will stated in the thumb, f [ 188, 207. Wizard's hands, ^ 268. W r omen in Europe and Asia, ^[ 650. Writers on the hand, 16. Xenophon on socialism, ^f 423. c. j ^ &J ^yJL .' ..*wi : t3_j >_ *.^C University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. MAY1619* R JLoDrarj BF 908 A77s UCLA-ED/PSYCH Library BF 908 A77s L 005 577 587 8