e
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 tho