l 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
superstitious 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 superstition 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 illustrations, 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 compass, 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
poin