A PROFESSOR OF PALMISTRY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 2831, 19 October 1883, Page 3

A PROFESSOR OF PALMISTRY.

! f (Pall Mall Gazette.) There lives m Paris and active yet, 0 though his age numbers almost the years B of the century, an old professor, himself l * an interesting study, who has devoted the middle and end of his life to =a. study more interesting still. It is m the students' quarter, not far from the Odrfon, that he has fixed his residence, » and there, m the upper story of an 'f ambitious house, he practises his art and receives his clientile. To call him a 18 fortune-teller would be unfair to the man n and perhaps to the century. And yet he 5 tells fortunes, has much to say about c mystic influences, about phrenology and c handwriting, and, lastly, about the hand " itself, its shape, its suppleness, the length d of the fingers and the lie of them, with n the crosses and creases and the marks and y the lines that are to be found more or less n developed m the palm of every hand. :t From these he has constructed a science 18 by which he professes to tell the cha--0 racters of the persons who apply to him, c and he has written a book (now m its c fifteenth edition) m which he has com!B municated his knowledge to his disl - ciples. d In one respect the professor differs from n other tellers of fortune and character, y The rules he lays down, the tests he *~ adopts, are clear and unambiguous. Most '" vatioinators, from the Delphic oracle down to Zadkiel's Almanac, are wont to ** deliver a kind of swivel prophecy to J: which any subsequent event may be ™ easily attached m the form of ful--6 filment. Our French professor does, m•- -" deed, say that one part of the hand * may contradict or vary another — such comn plications are inevitable - but m the main r he lays down his propositions with laudT able clearness, and decision, and anyone '■ with a fair memory and good powers of Q observation may judge for himself. It ™ is proposed m this article to state three '■ or four of the leading principles m the c science, so that the reader may come to ™ his own conclusions as to its trustworthiness. There may be general propositions 6 which are true, even though the too '" curious consideration of minute details > leads to error. People who reject as > fanciful the distinctions of Spurzheim and Lavater, still believe that a man with " a big brow is likely to be clever, and a 8 man with a strong chin to be determined. P Ordinary people do not get the same 0 suggestions from the hand ; and yet it " may be capable of affording them. The > French Professor says it is. We shall see * what are the rules he lays down. 1 To begin with the fingers. The variations of these are not numerous, and any * hand may be referred to one of some three or four types. There are the ' pointed fingers, where the finger tips are ' small and conical and the fingers them- " selves sleek and soft. They are no un--9 common possession, and admit of no 1 doubt when they are found. It is said » that they indicate a dreamy disposition, a > tendency to poetize and to speculate. 1 Men with such hands are enthusiasts and 5 orators, have the gift of imagination very 1 prodigally bestowed upon them, but at * the expense of common sense and know- > ledge of the world. Such hands are 3 claimed for Shakespeare, Schiller and ' Qoethe, and certainly possessed by Victor r Hugo and George Sand. With the * soft fingers and the conical tips there is 3 no necessary alliance. The fingers may 3 be sleek and the tips may be square. } And this combination gives us another r class of character. Here we have r the tendeuoy to Art and Poetry, ' but better under control. They are 3 instructive rather than imaginative. The 1 fine frenzy gives place to an eye for » symmetry and an ear for rhythm, and 9 the types are to bo found m Molie're, - Poussin, Vauban, and Turenne. It is a ' pity that we have no living examples. r Portrait painters a century ago had a ? fashion of taking the face from the sitter 1 and the hands from a favourite model. 8 Vandyck's warriors, diplomatists, and 1 courtiers had all precisely the same kind r of fingers. The fingers may be even more s than square. They may be spatulous, 8 widened and rounded at the end i like a chemist's blender or an artist's 8 palette knife. This is a very practical r hand indeed, widely removed from the dreamer and visionary, the hand of a r man fond of movement and of action, t the hand of a man fond of horses and - dogs, and hunting and warfare, or— if he ™ is more peaceable — of commerce and c mechanism, a man of order and contrii vance, a merchant, a financier, or, it may ; * be, only a churchwardon. The spatulous 8 hand is generally found supplied with i large finger knots ; but where the fingers c have no predominant joints the artistic j* character prevails. Men act from ira- * pulse rather than from knowledge or reason. It is not laid down, however, 9 that the tendency of rheumatism is to >f convert poets into politicians, though a it painfully developes the knots of the c fingers. Lastly, there is a general rule '• that large hands deal best with detail and *> short ones with general effect. It would : > be interesting to test this by examining c the hands of the Royal Academicians. c But the art descends into minuter c detail. Eaoh of the lingers has its special characteristic, and a system of 18 mythological nomenclature has been it adopted based on the attributed distincst tions. The fingers known to us as first, ** second, third and little are called respec*B tively, Jupiter, Saturn, Apollo and Mer- '" cury, and if it is thought that we are now >f getting into the region of the fantastic, it *" is only fair to the professor that his state- . ment be heard and tested. There is 18 ranged across the palm' of" the hand a f' series of little cushions or hills, one at the of base of each finger, but a little way from 18 the thumb. Character lies m these, and c*e * the character may be told by their ra examination. That first finger indicates c " ambition. If the mound is large, its 10 owner will have a love of power coupled 116 with a desire to shine, great gaiety, some '*■ pride, a tendency to superstition, and a 3 " fondness for nature. If the mound be, B 8 wanting, the life is one without dignity, S n the tastes are common, and the man is to narrow, selfish, and interested. The ed second finger is said to control his life, as *7 it shows the extent of bis prudence and ne the probability of his success. But if ' cc the mound be preternatural, we are to on ) oo i£ f or silence and solitariness — a ne Hamlet kind of disposition, verging re- on asceticism. The third finger, howitu ever, . supplies us with more cheerful 68 reflections. It is the finger of the arts.

) It shows the presence of genius and the ; probability of fame. The man with a i largo mound near his third finger will be i amiable and hopeful — a delightful comi panion and an excellent friend. But if ■ the mound be excessive, the results are > disastrous. A love of notoriety converts the life into a vainglorious existence, 1 with a tendency to avarice and a certain > direction towards envy. Lastly, we come ; to the little finger. It is the finger of invention, pf industry, of qniokness, of ingenuity — the finger, probably, that makes us a nation of shopkeepers. It is the finance finger, and an excessive mound might even be found among the less attractive types of the British bankrupt, as it indicates sharp practice, disastrous aoutenesß, dishonorable trickery, and a love of evasion. Here this short sketch of the art must end, though its professor pushes it into much further detail, and though our resume can scarcely be called a fair one. But assuming the detail to be fringe and surplusage, is there any fact or foundation at the root of what is laid down ? Let the reader judge for himself. At least the language of the prophet is not ambiguous. He states fairly and clearly the decisions at which he has arrived. He has devoted almost a life to their collection and revision, and he puts them forth to be tested, not veiled m the cloudy language of an empiric, but boldly asserted and logically reasoned out.