The Language of Hypocrisy.-This is shown by an appearance of deference and humility, by a too conspicuous bending of the neck forward, and the casting down the eyes with a sort of "Uriah Heep" expression in the face.

The Avaricious Neck.-Avarice stretches the long, shriveled neck far forward with all the eagerness of a hound in pursuit of its prey.

The Language of Veneration.-Veneration bends the head downward toward the breast in a devout attitude.

FIG. 327.-THE AVARICIOUS NECK. (JOHN ELWES, M.P., OF ENGLAND.)

This subject was not only a most avaricious character, but was also a great miser. These traits he inherited from both his maternal and paternal ancestry. hence he received a large and most intensified degree of both traits. A comparison of his neck with that of Watt will disclose very diverse characteristics: both reach forward, but it is easy to divine that they reach for very different objects. This gentleman was a great gambler, but so saving was he that after sitting up a whole night to play for thousands of pounds he would walk seventeen miles to one of his estates rather than pay for riding. Mr. Elwes was a wealthy man and had the manners of a gentleman, but lived in filth and penury. His entire living cost but fifty pounds per year. He left to his two natural sons eight hundred thousand pounds sterling. His face wears a very sharp, keen, alert expression, but all his quickness of apprehension was turned to gaining.

The Youthful Neck.-Youth moves the neck with animal-like freedom in order to constantly bring the surroundings into view. The white, smooth, rounded neck of a healthy child or infant is a beautiful object, yet it only expresses youth and has no other meaning.

The Gluttonous Neck.-Two or three deep wrinkles running completely around the neck of an adult bespeak a large degree of the vegetative system and gluttonous tendencies.

The Aged Neck-Old age droops the neck forward until at last the chin rests upon the breast.

THE HAND.

A work on physiognomy would be incomplete without a description of the physiognomical meanings of the several fundamental sorts of hands. The hand has been with truth termed "the second face," for it not only corroborates what the face indicates, but it also reveals some things which the face does not; and whenever I am perplexed or in doubt as to certain indications in the face, a reference to its associated hand clears away the mystery. The hand is the most wonderful member of the human body; the language expressed by its movements, aside from its size, form, color, and texture, is marvelously clear, explicit, and eloquent. Says Montaigne :

With the hand we demand, we promise, we call, dismiss, threaten, entreat, supplicate, deny, refer, interrogate, admire, reckon, confess, repent, express, feel, express shame, express doubt, we instruct, command, write, encourage, swear, testify, accuse, condemn, acquit, insult, despise, defy, disdain, flatter, applaud, bless, adore, ridicule, reconcile, recommend, exalt, recall, gladden, complain, afflict, discomfort, discourage, astonish, exclaim, indicate silence, and what not with a variety and multiplication that keep pace with the tongue.

The human hand is unique; no member of the animal kingdom has a grasper which is at all comparable to the human hand and its opposable thumb; even the members of the ape tribe, which are the nearest to man in structure, have a hand entirely devoid of the subtle powers which characterize the human hand. One might fill a large volume with descriptions of the hand and its characteristics, and then not enumerate the half of its powers.

In form every hand is at once the indicator and epitome of the body and brain to which it belongs. The face and brain of an artist have associated with them an artist's flexible, muscular hand. The natural mechanic has, with his square-boned hand, the bony body, the square forehead, and the rectangular face, which indicate his dominant capacity; for "Nature never made a man with the form of one person and the character of another." The first phalanx, that is, the end joint of the finger, ought, to a good physiognomist, to reveal the shape of the body, the head, the face, and features, as well as the dominant traits of character. If the tip be tapering the muscular system dominates, and the subject is governed by the law of the circle or curve. If the tip be square the mind tends to mechanism or science, and exemplifies the law of the straight line and angle. So exactly do the basic principles of Form apply to the hand, finger, and finger-nail, that any observing

person, after having mastered these principles, ought to be able to describe the main characteristics of any subject under observation, as well as the shape of his face, his bones, his jaws, his chin, and his nose, by inspection of the first phalanx and the nail of a single finger.

A great deal of compilation and translation has been made within the past few years on the subject of "The Science of the Hand,” in which many truths have been elaborated as to the meanings of the forms of the hand and fingers, but without the sound scientific basis afforded by the basic principles of Form and comparative anatomy and comparative physiognomy. My obser vation on this subject will afford the reader the scientific bases which the works of D'Arpentigny and Desbarolless lack, albeit their works contain a fund of excellent information, but present the subject in its infantoid phase as an art and not as a science, and mingled with a vast amount of mediæval superstition.

The spirit of patient research, close comparison, and accurate observation of these two eminent writers on the Hand is most admirable, but, when they assert that certain forms of the hands are the results of the influence of an "occult astral fluid," it reminds one of the many fanciful and exploded theories of the mediæval age. The practical, common-sense age in which we live demands a demonstrable basis upon which to build a science of the hand as well as of the face of man. In this harmonious and orderly system of physiognomy this common base is elaborated, as I believe, in a practical and scientific manner. In my treatment of the physiognomy of the hand I shall use the basic principles of Form for my guide, as developed in Chapter II, Part I, for the explanation of the meanings of the several fundamental types of hand. The basic elements of Form, viz., the line, the angle, the square, and curve, apply to the hands, the fingers, and nails, in the translation of their forms into character, just as they do to the forms of the features and body.

The color and texture of the skin of the hands and of the nails are subject to the same general interpretation as are the same qualities found on other parts of the organism.

In reading character by the hand, it will be found to be in harmony with the face, and they will mutually interpret and corroborate each other; where the bone is the dominant tissue in the hand, and it be a square bone, the observer may be sure that the law of the straight line, the square, and angle governs the shape of the face, and this informs him that the ruling powers of the mind will be turned in the direction of science or mechanism, and that the strongest traits will be a love of order, thoroughness, and

observation, and that morality and conscientiousness will be the most conspicuous principles in the character.

Should muscle be the superior tissue in the hand, and the muscles be of the round class, a taste for music, sport, and domestic life will be present, as well as commercial and artistic powers. The same laws which reveal character in the face also rule in the delineation of character by the hand. Every minute appearance in the hand is as significant as when observed in the face, and close observation is essential to obtain the full import of these variations. Desbarolles says:

Hands may resemble one another, but Nature never repeats herself, and in objects apparently the most similar she places, sometimes by an imperceptible touch, a complete diversity of instincts.*

Every combination which can be made by the mingling of round muscle with square bones, or by the blending of round muscle with round bones, or by the joining of square bones with flat muscles, reveals a different character, and their anatomical diversities are just as potent in disclosing character by the hand as by the face or body. The form, size, color, and quality are not the only factors to be taken into account in reading the hand. We must observe the habitual movement, gesture, repose, proportions, hardness, softness, elasticity, extension, tension, curvation, and squareness of the several points and phalanges, and of the hand as a whole. Hard labor and certain kinds of labor often change very materially the hand and shape of the fingers, but it cannot change all of the natural characteristics so as to completely transform the appearance and produce the form of another distinct type; hard labor may thicken and widen the palm, it may enlarge the joints, but it cannot flatten the nail, nor make an oval nail square, nor make spatulate the square tip, nor make a round. muscle flat, nor a square bone round. It cannot destroy the proportion of the phalanges; in short, it cannot so far modify the type-characteristics as to prevent the physiognomist from comprehending the accompanying character.

THE CONSTRUCTION AND DIVISIONS OF THE HAND.

The hand is divided primarily into three parts, viz., the carpus, metacarpus, and fingers. The fingers are divided into fourteen phalanges or joints, the thumb having but two phalanges. The joint which joins the hand is termed the first phalanx, the succeeding one the second phalanx, and the end joint the tip. The palm has two surfaces,-the back, or outside, and the inside, commonly

*The Mysteries of the Hand, A. Desbarolles, p. 176.

termed the "palm." The finger-tips are provided with abundance of fine and sensitive papillæ, or organs of touch, which give such exquisite tactile sense to the tips of the fingers; this sensitiveness has led to the expression that the tips are the "eyes of the hand." The latter will be fine and sensitive, or coarse and insensitive, according as the skin is fine and thin, or coarse and thick; the texture of the hand coincides with that of the rest of the body, and in this manner the physiognomist decides upon the mental grade of the subject.

The hand may be soft and muscular, or soft and fat; the former indicates strength and artistic sense, the latter a dull, nega. tive, vegetative nature. Warm hands denote good circulation, hence active mental powers, lively emotions, and sympathy; cool hands belong to those whose circulation is not rapid, hence they are not so quick mentally nor so strongly sympathetic as the former. Moist hands, except in warm weather, announce pathog nomonic disturbances, and indicate an abnormal condition. I have felt in one day the hands of a number of insane persons, and without exception I have found them cold and clammy, with a disagreeable moisture on them, thus showing disordered physical conditions.

The form of the hand always agrees with the form of the body or brain; that is to say, a long, thin hand will accompany a tall, thin body, and a short, thick hand belongs to a short and thick person; a short, fat, "dumpy" hand " hand goes with the vegetative body.

There is no such thing as an "aristocratic" hand. Aristocracy is a human institution, while the shape of hands are a mark of Nature. Beautiful hands are not confined to any particular rank of life. True, the idle aristocrat can spend his time with the manicure, polishing his nails, and thus improve their looks; while the poor plebeian, born, perhaps, with the mind of an artist, or a metaphysician, may not devote as much time as the former to the cultivation of his finger-nails, yet exhibit a more beautiful hand. Hands which betray only superstition and imagination are often designated "aristocratic" by the ignorant, simply because they are white and soft, of small size, and of pleasing form; in this small, characterless hand the "aristocracy" is shown by less mentality or morality than is disclosed by more highly developed hands. I cannot imagine a more characterless hand than that of a Chinese woman, yet her hands are of the useless type termed "aristocratic" by those who know nothing of the inherent meanings of the forms of Nature.

The palm of the hand and the lowest phalanx of the thumb resemble the form of the trunk, or body, while the tips of the