Palmistry for All.

by Cheiro.

INTRODUCTION.

It was on July 21, 1894, that I had the honour of meeting Lord Kitchener and getting the autographed impression of his right hand, which I now publish for the first time as frontispiece to this volume. The day I had this interview, Lord Kitchener, or, as he was then, Major-General Kitchener, was at the War Office, and to take this impression had to use the paper on his table, and, strangely enough, the imprint of the War Office may be seen at the top of the second finger--in itself perhaps a premonition that he would one day be the controlling force of that great department.

Lord Kitchener was at that moment Sirdar of the Egyptian Army. He had returned to England to tender his resignation on account of some hostile criticism about "the Abbas affair," and so I took the opportunity of his being in England to ask him to allow me to add his hand to my collection, which even then included some of the most famous men and women of the day.

As Mr. T.P. O'Connor, in writing recently of Lord Kitchener, said: "One of his greatest qualities, at once useful and charming, is his accessibility. Anybody who has anything to say to him can approach him; anybody who has anything to teach him will find a ready and grateful learner."

My experience can indeed bear out the truth of this clear judgment of one of the leading traits in Lord Kitchener's character. That very year, 1894, was a notable one in his life; his strong-willed action over the Abbas affair was completely vindicated; he was made a K.C.M.G., and returned to Egypt with more power than ever.

Once in his presence he put me completely at my ease, and in a few moments he appeared to be deeply interested in observing the difference between the lines in his own clearly-marked palm and those in dozens of other impressions that I put before him.

He was then almost forty-four years of age, and I remember well how I explained the still higher positions and responsibilities that his path of Destiny mapped out before him. The heaviest and greatest of all would, I told him, be undertaken in his sixty-fourth year (1914), but how little either of us thought then that in that year the most terrible war of the century would have broken out.

Believing, as I do, in the Law of Periodicity playing as great a role in the lives of individuals as it does in nations, it is strange to notice that the same radix numbers that governed Lord Kitchener's career when he was planning out the Egyptian campaign, which resulted in his great victories of Atbara and Omdurman in 1896 and 1897, are exactly the same for him in 1914-1915, and 1916 gives again the same radix number that in 1898 saw him receive a vote of thanks from both Houses of Parliament, and a gift of 30,000 from the State.

From the standpoint of those interested in this strange study of hands, the accompanying impression of Lord Kitchener's cannot help but be regarded as of great importance. In it, the rules of Palmistry that I have given in the following pages are borne out in all their details.

Returning to the impression of this remarkable hand; even in shape alone one may read by the rules of this science the following clearly-marked characteristics: Length of fingers--intellectuality (page 134), strong determination and will-power (chapter on the Thumb, page 127), mentality and firm determination of purpose (see Line of Head, page 17).

The remarkable Line of Fate running up the centre of the hand and turning towards the first finger, denotes ambition and domination over others (page 52).

The Line of Success and Fame, starting on the hand from the Line of Life and ascending to the base of the third finger, exactly coincides with the period in Lord Kitchener's career when he began to find recognition and success (page 63).

As in my larger work on this subject I published Gladstone's hand as a remarkable ill.u.s.tration of the truth that may be found in this study, so in this present work with the same confidence I give this ill.u.s.tration of Lord Kitchener's as another proof of character indicated in the shape and lines of the hand, and as it has been said so often that "Character is Destiny," so it is surely not illogical to point out that in following the rules laid down by this study one may obtain a clear idea of the destiny that the Character, Will, and Individuality trace out in advance--tracks, as it were, stretching far out into the distant future for the engine of purpose and achievement to find already laid and ready to be used at the "appointed time."

In conclusion, as I have now completely retired from all professional work, I may be allowed to point out that I am not publishing this book with the idea of seeking clients. I have no desire but to see this strange study taken up as a useful and practical means of obtaining an exact judgment of the character, qualities, and hidden tendencies that might otherwise be ignored.

I think that if all parents knew at least something of Palmistry, the vast majority of children would be more usefully trained and their proper tendencies developed.

It is often too late when a child discovers--and most probably by accident--some tendency or talent that had never been suspected by its parents.

It is no wonder that so few persons find their true vocations in the world, when it is remembered the random, haphazard way in which children are brought up--educated for the most part in some scholastic mill that grinds down all to the same dead level of mediocrity, and then turns them into the Army, the Church, or into trade.

If, on the contrary, all these studies that teach the understanding of character were more encouraged, parents would have less excuse for the supreme ignorance they now show as to the real nature of those children who hold them responsible for their entry into the battlefield of existence.

These same parents would lift up their voices in righteous indignation if soldiers were sent into battle untrained, without their proper equipment, and yet these same parents have never, in the whole course of their lives, made the simplest study of any one of those many subjects by which they could in knowing the nature of their child, have strengthened weak points in the fortress of character, or by developing some talent or gift, doubly armed him for his entry into the battle of life.

It is from this standpoint that I earnestly hope this study of hands may some day be taken up. It was from this standpoint that I interested such men as Gladstone, Professor Max Muller, of Oxford, Lord Russell, when he was Lord Chief Justice, King Edward VII., and many others too numerous to mention; and lastly, it is from the same standpoint that I have now written this book, which under the t.i.tle of Palmistry for All, will, I hope, appeal to all cla.s.ses, and cause such an interest in the Study of Character that, instead of such an art being left in the hands of a few, it will, on the contrary, become universally used for the benefit of all.

CHEIRO.

PART I.

PALMISTRY OR CHEIROMANCY.

CHAPTER I.

A BRIEF ReSUMe OF THE HISTORY OF THE STUDY OF HANDS THROUGH THE CENTURIES TO THE PRESENT DAY.

The success I had during the twenty-five years in which I was connected with this study was, I believe, chiefly owing to the fact that although my princ.i.p.al study was the lines and formation of hands, yet I did not confine myself alone to that particular page in the book of Nature. I endeavoured to study every phase of thought that can throw light on human life; consequently the very ridges of the skin, the hair found on the hands, all were used as a detective would use a clue to acc.u.mulate evidence. I found people were sceptical of such a study only because they had not the subject presented to them in a logical manner.

There are hundreds of facts connected with the hand that people have rarely, if ever, heard of, and I think it will not be out of place if I touch on them here. For instance, in regard to what are known as the corpuscles, Meissner, in 1853, proved that these little molecular substances were distributed in a peculiar manner in the hand itself. He found that in the tips of the fingers they were 108 to the square line, with 400 papillae; that they gave forth certain distinct crepitations, or vibrations, and that in the red lines of the hand they were most numerous and, strange to say, were found in straight individual rows in the lines of the palm. Experiments were made as to these vibrations, and it was proved that, after a little study, one could distinctly detect and recognise the crepitations in relation to each individual. They increased or decreased in every phase of health, thought, or excitement, and were extinct the moment death had mastered its victim. About twenty years later, experiments were made with a man in Paris, who had an abnormally acute sense of sound (Nature's compensation for want of sight, as he had been born blind). In a very short time this man could detect the slightest change or irregularity in these crepitations, and through the changes was able to tell with wonderful accuracy about how old a person was, and how near they were to illness, and even death.

The study of these corpuscles was also taken up by Sir Charles Bell, who, in 1874, demonstrated that each corpuscle contained the end of a nerve fibre, and was in immediate connection with the brain. This great specialist also demonstrated that every portion of the brain was in touch with the nerves of the hand and more particularly with the corpuscles found in the tips of the fingers and the lines of the hand.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LORD KITCHENER'S HAND.]

The detection of criminals by taking impressions of the tips of the fingers and by thumb marks is now used by the police of almost every country, and thousands of criminals have been tracked down and identified by this means.

To-day, at Scotland Yard, is to be seen almost an entire library now devoted to books on this side of the subject and to the collections that the police have made, and yet, in my short time, I remember how the idea was scoffed at when Monsieur Bertillon and the French police first commenced the detection of criminals by this method. If the ignorant prejudice against a complete study of the hand were overcome, the police would be greatly a.s.sisted by studying the lines of the palm, and acquiring a knowledge of what these lines mean, especially as regards mentality and the inclination of the brain in one direction or another.

It is a well-known fact that, even if the skin be burned off the hands or removed by an acid, in a short time the lines will reappear exactly as they were before, and the same happens to the ridges or "spirals" in the skin of the inside tips of the fingers and thumb.

The scientific use of such a study could also be made invaluable in foreseeing tendencies towards insanity, etc.

Sir Thomas Browne, in his Religio Medici, after referring to Physiognomy, says: "Now there are besides these characters in our faces certain mystical figures in our hands, which I dare not call mere dashes, strokes a la volee or at random, because delineated by a pencil that never works in vain, and hereof I take more particular notice because I carry that in mine own hand which I could never read nor discover in another."

But prejudice is a hard thing to combat, and, in consequence, a study which could render untold aid to humanity has been neglected in modern times. Yet it cannot be denied that this strange study was practised and followed by some of the greatest teachers and students of other civilisations.

Whether or no these ancient philosophers were more enlightened than we are has long been a question of dispute, but the one point and the most important one which has been admitted is, that in those days the greatest study of mankind was man. It is, therefore, reasonable to suppose that their conclusions are more likely to be correct than those of an age like our own--famous chiefly for its implements of destruction, its warships, its dynamite, and its cannon.

This study of hands can be traced back to the very earliest, most enlightened forms of civilisation. It has been practised by the greatest minds in all those civilisations, minds that have left their mental philosophies and their monuments for us to marvel at. India, China, Persia, Egypt, Rome--all in their study of mankind have placed the greatest store in their study of the hand.

During my stay in India, I was permitted by some Brahmans (descendants of the Joshi Caste, famous from time immemorial for their knowledge in occult subjects) with whom it was my good fortune to become intimately acquainted, to examine and make extracts from an extraordinary book on this subject which they regarded as almost sacred, and which belonged to the great past of the now despised Hindustan.

As the wisdom of the Hindus spread far and wide across the earth, so the theories and ideas about this study spread and were practised in other countries. Similar to the way in which religion suits itself to the conditions of the country in which it is propagated, so has it divided itself into various systems. It is, however, to the days of the Greek civilisation that we owe the present clear and lucid form of the study. The Greek civilisation has, in many ways, been considered the highest and most intellectual in the world, and here it is that Palmistry or Cheiromancy (from the Greek [Greek: cheir], the hand) grew and found favour in the eyes of those who have given us laws and philosophies that we employ to-day and whose works are taught in all our leading colleges and schools.

It is a well-known and undisputed fact that the philosopher Anaxagoras not only taught but practised this study. We also find that Hispa.n.u.s discovered on an altar dedicated to Hermes a book on Cheiromancy, written in gold letters, which he sent as a present to Alexander the Great, as "a study worthy of the attention of an elevated and enquiring mind." Instead of it being followed by the "weak-minded," we find, on the contrary, that it numbered amongst its disciples such men of learning as Aristotle, Pliny, Paracelsus, Cardamis, Albertus Magnus, the Emperor Augustus, and many others of note.

This brings us down to the period when the power of the Church was beginning to be felt outside the domain and jurisdiction of religion. It is said that the early Fathers were jealous of the influence of this old-world science. Whether this be true or not, we find that it was bitterly denounced and persecuted by the early Church. It has always been, that the history of any dominant creed or sect is the history of opposition to knowledge, unless that knowledge come through it. This study, therefore, the offspring of "pagans and heathens," was not even given a trial. It was denounced as sorcery and witchcraft; the devil was conjured up as the father of all such students, and the result was that through this bitter persecution, the study was outlawed, and fell into the hands of vagrants, tramps, and gipsies. In spite of this persecution it is interesting and significant to notice that almost the first book ever printed was a work on Palmistry, Die Kunst Ciromantia, printed in Augsburg, in the year 1475.

In examining this subject it will be found that in the study of mankind it came to be recognised that, as there was a natural position on the face for the nose, eyes, lips, etc., so also on the hand was there a natural position for what is known as the Line of Head, Line of Life, and so on. If these were found in some unnatural position they would equally be the indications of unnatural tendencies. It doubtless took years of study to name these lines and marks, but it must be remembered that this curious study is more ancient than any other in the world.

In the original Hebrew of the Book of Job (chap. x.x.xvii., ver. 7), we find these significant words: "G.o.d caused signs or seals on the hands of all the sons of men, that the sons of men might know their works."

As the student of anatomy can build up the entire system from the examination of a single bone, so may a person by a careful study of an important member of the body such as the hand, apart from anything superst.i.tious or even mystical, build up the entire action of the system and trace every effect back to its cause.

To-day the science of the present is coming to the rescue of the so-called superst.i.tion of the past. All over the world scientists are little by little sweeping aside prejudice and beginning to study occult questions. Perhaps the "whys and wherefores" of such things may one of these days be as easily explained as are those wireless waves of electricity that carry messages from land to land.

CHAPTER II.

THE LINE OF HEAD OR THE INDICATIONS OF THE MENTALITY.

The object of the following chapters is to give clear and unmistakable instruction on the lines and markings of the hands, both from the student's standpoint and from that of the general reader. This is not usually the course adopted in books printed on this subject which have to appeal to a general public.

During my twenty-five years' professional experience in England, America, and other countries, I have carefully noted down the questions that are not answered in books published on this subject. I have also recorded what are the difficulties that arise in the minds of those students who meet this, that, or the other mark or line and search in vain for some explanation as to its meanings. I may add that there is not a single point on which I give information that has not been proved by me from probably thousands of cases that have come before me during my own professional experience.

As regards ill.u.s.trations, I have endeavoured to make these of the simplest and clearest kind possible. I have every confidence that if they are carefully studied, no student can fail to grasp this subject in a masterful manner, and that whoever acts upon the advice I give in these pages, cannot fail to become successful as an interpreter of this study.

In all my work I regard the Line of Head (page 11) or the Line of Mentality as the most important sign that can be found in the hand.

A Line of Head is like the needle in the compa.s.s, without a true knowledge of which it is impossible to grasp the "direction of the subject." I have seen more mistakes caused by a lack of grasp of this point than by anything else.

I have seen, for example, many students make the mistake of paying great attention to what looked like a good Line of Sun or Success, and, at the same time, not noticing a weak, badly formed Line of Head, which contradicted the promise of success given by the various lines. If, on the other hand, the student had first noticed the Line of Head, he would have been able to tell the subject that the promise of success was not backed up by the intelligence or the mentality.

As regards the future being foreshadowed, it has been demonstrated that the brain is always growing, changing, increasing, or diminishing. These changes commence years before the effect is shown by the thoughts or actions of the individual. A boy ten years old may at that point commence a development which will not be felt until he is thirty, and then it may change his whole life and career. As this development commences at ten, even at that age it has affected certain nerves, and they in their turn have already affected the Line of Head--a full twenty years before the point of change or action has been reached. It therefore follows that the future may be seen and told by a careful examination of the hand which, as Aristotle has said, is the "organ of all organs, the active agent of the pa.s.sive powers of the entire system."

THE LINE OF HEAD AND ITS VARIATIONS.

The Line of Head (page 11), or indication of the Mentality of the subject, must in all cases be considered as the most important line on the hand. The greatest attention should be paid to it, so as to obtain a clear grasp of the Mentality under consideration.

The two hands must be carefully compared--the left showing the inherited tendencies, the right the developed or cultivated qualities. The slightest change or deviation in the markings from the left to the right should be carefully noted down or remembered.

The direction or the termination or end of the line should, above all, be distinctly noted, for the all-important reason that this shows the direction that the Mentality is inclined to develop towards. For example, if found with the end of the line sloping downwards in the left hand, and having become straight or lying across the palm in the right--the student is safe in concluding that the subject has not been able to follow his natural bent, but by the force of circ.u.mstances has been obliged to make himself more practical, to study business methods, and to have undertaken a training towards practicality and level-headedness in order to rise equal to the circ.u.mstances that he found himself forced to meet.

In this way the student obtains an insight into the earlier conditions of the life under examination that is invaluable, especially when there is, as will be found in many cases, no Line of Destiny visible in the early years.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE I.

THE THREE PRINc.i.p.aL POSITIONS FOR THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE LINE OF HEAD.]

If, on the contrary, the Line of Head is found exactly in the same position on the right hand as on the left, or even very nearly so, the student can be sure that there was little or no strain in the early years, but that the subject had easy conditions which were favourable, and which allowed him to develop his natural bent of Mentality.

If, however, it is found that the left hand shows a forked ending to the Line of Head, namely, one end sloping downwards and the other end straight, or nearly so, and that the right hand shows only the straight line, then the student may decide that the subject inherited from the parents two natures, the imaginative and the practical, and that he chose to develop the latter, either in the direction of business or science.

In such a case, the student may state with confidence that the parents of the subject were decidedly opposite in their characteristics. If the line has become straight in the right hand the subject takes more after the side that was practical.

In the case of boys or men it must be remembered that they will take more after their mother's mental peculiarities, and in the case of girls or women that they more generally take after the mental qualities of the father.

On a man's left hand that has the forked ending with the upper end straight, or nearly so, the student can state that the mother was the more practical of the parents. If on the right hand the same mark has become clearest the man developed, followed, or cultivated the mental qualities of the mother more than those of the father. When reading a woman's hand the reverse will apply.

If, on the contrary, the lower line was the more developed on the right hand, then the subject, if a man, had developed the imaginative or artistic qualities of the mother, and vice versa if the subject be a girl or a woman.

When the Line of Head looks light or faint on the left, and strong and clear on the right, the student can safely state that the subject did not inherit any strong mental bent from either parent, but has cultivated and developed his own mentality.

In such a case the subject has been a hard mental student, and has become mentally superior to his or her parents. This is often found in the case of "self-made" men or women, who have had little or no education in their early life or in their home, but who from an innate love of education developed themselves mentally. Such a sign would speak volumes for the will power and ambition of the subject under examination.

If the Line of Head is lighter and poorer on the right hand than on the left, the student can state that the subject has not made the most of his opportunities mentally, and that he has not, and never will, equal the brain power and education of his or her parents.

In such a case one may also be sure that the subject has not a very strong will power--at least mentally--although he might be very obstinate by nature, which will be seen from the quality exhibited by the nail phalange of the thumb (page 129).

A poor or non-developed Line of Head in the right hand of any man or woman is also the indication of a lack of purpose or ambition--there being no ambition where a want of mental desire and development is so distinctly shown.

A clean cut deep Line of Head is a more powerful sign of mentality than when the line is very broad, or lying, as it were, merely on the surface of the palm.

A wide broad line shows less concentration and a more vacillating changeable nature. This rule applies with equal truth to all the lines on the palm.

Broad, coa.r.s.e-looking lines are more a const.i.tutional sign than a mental indication. They are often found in cases where the subject leads a robust outdoor life, and those who have developed the physical side of their nature more than the mental.

Great brain workers usually have thin, fine, clean-looking lines, and especially that of the Line of Head.

It will thus be seen that by observation the student will be enabled to cla.s.s the sort of life led by the person under examination. No matter how intellectual a man or woman may look, the lines on the hand will indicate whether or not they have developed their intellectuality. In this way it will be seen that a study of the hand becomes a far more accurate guide than the study of the face. Many men and women may have handsome, intellectual faces and yet prefer sport or outdoor life to any mental pursuit or exercise.

Turning from an examination of the direction of ending of the Line of Head, the student must next examine the indications of the beginnings of this important Line. For example, the Line of Head may commence in three distinct different ways.

(1) From inside the Line of Life (1-1, Plate I.). (2) Joined to the Line of Life (2-2, Plate I.). (3) And outside the Line of Life (3-3, Plate I.).

The first is the most uncertain of all. It denotes an over-sensitive, over-cautious, timid person. It also indicates a highly nervous, easily excited individual, one who has little control over himself or his temper, who is easily put out over trifles, and liable to do the most erratic things, or fly off at a tangent when irritated. Such people are always in trouble, generally fighting or quarrelling with those about them and over things that are of no consequence. They are likewise so easily wounded in their feelings, that even a look or an imagined slight will put them out of humour or upset them for days.

If this Line of Head farther out in the palm become straight, it denotes that the subject will, later, by the development of his intelligence largely overcome this failing of over-sensitiveness. If the line slope much or bend down towards the wrist or on to the Mount of Luna (the Mount of Imagination), then the subject will become still worse with his advancing years. If the Line of Head is also poorly marked, or with "hairlines" from it, it is often the indication of some form of insanity which is likely to cause the subject to be placed under restraint in later life.

If, with this latter indication, the student also finds all the upward main lines, such as the Line of Destiny, etc., fading out past the middle of the palm, the indication of insanity and restraint becomes all the more certain.

This cla.s.s of Head Line is largely found in cases where the subject is naturally inclined towards drink and intemperance of every description.

Even in cases where there are good lines running up the palm, it will usually be found that the subject gives way to occasional fits of intemperance or the desire for drugs. The qualities of the fiery Mount of Mars, from which such a Line of Head starts inside the Life Line, is largely the cause of the peculiarities above indicated. The opposite Mount of Mars (page 141) on the side of the hand, on the contrary, gives mental control, so that even when the Line of Head runs out straight on the palm it partakes of this "Mental Mars" quality, and so denotes that later on in years the subject with such a Line of Head will be able to develop mental control. The sloping Line of Head, however, would denote that the subject allows himself to turn, as it were, away from mental control, and so lets the earlier tendencies become his master.

This point alone is worthy of the consideration of all parents, and if observed by them would do much to help such children to develop mental control over themselves. The accompanying plates show this formation of the Line of Head in all its variations.

THE LINE OF HEAD JOINED TO THE LINE OF LIFE.

The position of this line indicates in all cases a highly sensitive disposition, which inclines towards the side of caution and also lacks self-confidence (2-2, Plate I.). Even the cleverest people with this sign seem to rein themselves in too tightly, and are always inclined to undervalue their capabilities and talents.