The others I simply accepted - calling them traditional readings and ever hoping to see my way toward including them withm the harmony of the whole; but I never did accept them at all, except when almost compelled to do so by the glaring evidence of their accuracy.

*An interesting sketch which I reproduce herein gives a sufficiently "clear idea of the connection existing - by the medium of the nerves - between the fingers and thumb and certain spots in the brain. Now, it has been proved, time and time again, that any undue pressure upon or any unhealthy condition of these particular locations in the brain that correspond more directly with the fingers or thumb immediately determines a paralysis of these numbers, and renders them inapt to accomplish their accustomed duties. This refers. only to the muscles that set fingers and thumb in action; the general influence of the vital fluid penetrating through the fingers and pervading the entire nervous system of man is. not included in this statement, which I may put down here as one universally accepted in the medical world - without taking into consideration the existence or non-existence of a vital fluid. [ST--G.]

So much for traditional Palmistry; as to logical Palmistry, which I have developed by pen and picture in my principal works, its principles can be summarized as follows:

There is an outward source of vital fluid, which I earnestly believe to have been created and to be directed, even now, by a Supreme and Omnipotent Being;

Man's Brain And Its Connections With The Various Parts Of The Body.

This vital fluid penetrates within us through certain organs, the fingers first and foremost, and is stored principally in the cells of the brain;

It is distributed ail over the body by means of the nerves, the division and classification of which would require too much space and time to belong here properly.

These nerves are richly represented in the hands, not only at the Tips, where the sense of touch is at its best, but in those elevations at the base of the fingers called the Mounts, where the Pacinian Corpuscles store it in quantities, and in this Hollow of the Hand - the Palm Proper - so extremely sensitive to the least change in the temperature of the body. We have seen the part played by the finger tips in the transmission of the vital fluid, and how the nervous system explains the supreme influence of the brain - vast reservoir of the said fluid - over the markings of the hand. In other words:

Every impression produced upon the brain by the more or less rapid flow of fluid or by its poverty or superabundance is reflected upon the hand in an almost invariably constant manner, leaving visible markings to be examined, compared, classified, interpreted.

In health matters, not only past troubles are thus revealed and remain in evidence long after their effects have vanished, but future ailments, those par-ticularlv whose incubation, is a matter of months, and even years, appear in the palm as soon as the earliest germ is conceived or deposited within the brain.

As far as the life events are concerned, the same rule obtains. Every action, pleasant or otherwise, affects the brain matter, at least for time; if the nervous system of the subject is particularly sensitive, i. e., if he is more specially under the influence of the vital fluid, that emotion will be repeated in the palm and remain in evidence long after its effects and even its memory have vanished. As to future events, they throw their shadows before and it is comparatively easy for a close student of human nature, versed in the details of Chirognomy and Phrenology, and in the meanings of the Mounts, to judge from the character and disposition of the subject under examination, what sort of a life his is going to be. But Modern Palmistry, based on the intimate connection of Brain and Palm by means of the incessant flow of vital fluid, has a more clinching argument to present as an explanation of the foretelling of events through the hands.

First, let me state that only a very limited number of past or future events can be read in the palms of those whose nervous system is comparatively inactive, and who might be called, in common parlance, cold, indifferent, stolid individuals. In their hands, the lines are so few that they have no tale to tell, and we have to pass them by unread, as if the book of their life were made up of blank pages. But those higher-strung organisms, that vibrate freely under emotions of a varied nature, present in their palms a multitude of lines and signs indicative of the hurried flow of fluid obeying their changeable moods. They deeply feel joy and sorrow, physical pain and material delights; and all this is written down in their palms. The past, I have explained how it is inscribed thereon. The future has also written down its facts and warnings, and this is solely due to the nervous excitability of the subject whose brain has been the battlefield of many a strong presentiment, of many a dream oft repeated, though totally forgotten 00 the morrow.

These peculiar forebodings which come to us without our full consciousness being awakened exert at the time, a sufficiently powerful influence upon the brain to cause it to send it down, as an important message, to its recorder - the hand; and there it is inscribed in letters mysterious, not as the edict of a dark, revengeful fatality, but as precious warnings to be heeded and acted upon by our wisdom and will power. For, and it is with this last affirmation that these pages will close, the Fatum, the Sors, the Ananke of the Ancients is not my God, it is not the arbiter of humanity, it is not its decrees that we read in in the hand. Free will, influenced, it is true, by the flow of vital fluid, by its abundance or poverty, remains the proud belonging of the human race. And the knowledge of Palmistry, far from becoming a source of discouragement to those who find in their palms prognostics of an unfavorable nature, places within their reach the remedy that is known to cure most of the ailments, physical and mental, poor humanity is heir to - and that is the steadfast, reasoned exercise of our will power.

*Here I have taken the liberty to develop the ideas of the master perhaps farther than he ever attempted to do it himself; and. I may lay claim to this theory of future events being imprinted in our brains - and in our palms as the registers of the bram - by presentments or persistent dreams, [St-G,]

From and by Ad. Desbarboli.es.