8 
doing ; it is the practical useful, hand. The soft hand is the hand 
of the poet, the musician, the artist, the dreamer; who may attain 
to excellence and fame, but by intuition rather than by energetic 
labour. 
We come now to the more debateable and less scientific part of 
my subject. There can, I think, be no question as to the general 
conformation, or even, probably, the more characteristic of the 
lines of the hand, corresponding, broadly, to the habits, race, and 
temperament of the individual, or that these characteristics may be 
transmitted to descendants. No one, for example, would fail to 
perceive the difference between the hand of the day labourer, whose 
ancestors had delved the soil for generations, and that of the 
hereditary peer, whose delicate hand had never touched a spade, 
But when we come to the mystic operations of chiromancy we are 
on far less certain grounds, and if I venture into the realms of 
superstition (for it is nothing less) you must not imagine I believe, 
or wish you to believe, the mysterious teachings of chiromancy. I 
enumerate some of them to-night for your amusement, and with 
the same feeling of interest with which I might follow the re- 
searches of the ancient alchemist in his vain search for the 
philosopher’s stone. I say vain search, but it was really far from 
that, as the numberless experiments of the alchemist led to some 
of the most useful and important discoveries in chemistry ; and as 
the wild dreams and observations of the astrologer were the 
foundation of the very practical science of astronomy. I shall 
quote more largely from D’Arpentigny and Desbarrolles, the great 
French masters of chiromancy, and from Mr. Beamish, their 
learned English expositor. On most palms may be found, more 
or less distinctly marked three principal lines; the first arises 
near the junction of the first and second finger, and passes in a 
curved line with the concavity upwards, to the outer edge of the 
palm about one inch below the root of the little finger. This is 
called in the language of chiromancy, ‘the line of the heart.” 
The second line runs diagonally across the palm from midway 
between the base of the thumb and first finger and terminates 
in the fleshy part of the external palm (the mound of Mars). 
This is ‘‘ the line of the head.” The third lines runs around the 
fleshy prominence of the root of the thumb (the mound of Venus). 
It arises from the same place as the line of the head, and is lost 
near the wrist. It is the line of life; great stress is laid on the 
colour, continuity, and appearance of these lines, and especially if 
they be crossed by others. When the line of the heart has a 
uniform and health appearance and colour, it indicates ‘an 
affectionate and happy nature,” the force or feebleness of attach- 
ment being in direct proportion to the length of the line ; should it 
