PALMISTRY. 97 



grief, profound meditation, occult studies, toil without re- 

 ward. The ring finger is the Sun's: on it we read of 

 high honour, power, and the favour of kings. Venus 

 holds man by the little finger : upon it she writes of 

 wives and sons and other pleasant things that suit her 

 humour. The Moon rules over the hypothenar: upon 

 that she tells of shipwrecks, suffocations, and submersions. 

 In the next place, concerning lines, the line within the 

 hand, bounding the ball of the thumb, is the line of life, 

 of the heart, and of the sun. The line across the middle 

 of the hand is the line of the brain and of the moon. 

 There is a line running sometimes from the carpus to the 

 middle finger, called the sister to the line of life, and they 

 who have it lead lives full of labour and pain. It would 

 be weary work to multiply the details of so dull a science. 

 Very few more words upon it will suffice. 



They who are to die early have the lines upon their 

 hands indistinct and intersected in a great many places. 

 They will be happiest whose lines are deep, and coloured, 

 and straight in their course, or running into such regular 

 forms as stars, crosses, squares, or parallels. New lines 

 found tending to the right mean new successes, those 

 that incline to the left forebode reverses. Fine lines like 

 hairs denote bad luck. This science also takes great 

 notice of the nails, drawing conclusions from the number 



VOL. I. H 



