The Palm rather large and well developed, but bony; both Knots well marked in the Fingers; the nailed Phalanx half Square, half Conical, a combination producing with the upper Knot a kind of egg-shaped spatula; the Thumb large and indicating the presence of as much logic as will-power, i. e., composed of two phalanges of equal or practically equal lengths - this constitutes, for d'Arpentigny, the Philosophical (or Knotted) Hand. We have seen that the Spatulate Finger-tips are drawn irresistibly toward that which is materially useful; that the tendency of the Conical Fingers is toward beauty of form, i. e., art; and that the inclination of the Square Finger-tips tends toward social utility, average and practical ideas, and realizable combinations.

"By their Knots," writes d'Arpentigny, "Philosophical Hands are gifted with calculation, with a more or less rigorous power of deduction and with method in thought and action; by their quasi-Conical Tips they have the intuition of a relative form of poetry; and by the whole combinations of formations, including, of course, the Thumb, they have the instinct of metaphysics. They plunge into the outer as well as into the inner world, but they seek less after the form than after the essence of things, less after beauty than truth.

"More than any of the other types, they show themselves athirst for the Severe enthusiasm which is diffused by the inexhanstible reservoir of higher moral, experimental, philosophical an æthetic sciences."

Contrary to the Useful Hands, which appeal to subordination, to authority, to usage, to custom, to convention a lit)', to faith and to predestination, the Philosophical Hands appeal to reason, to examination, to proof, to liberty and to free thought.

Atone, the Philosophical type, doubtless because, to a certain point, both worlds are known to it, can understand and appreciate the other types.

As is the case With nations, individuals da not attain, excepting in ages of greater or less advancement, the perfect intelligence of their philosophical faculties, which, to come into being and develop themselves properly, require at least the light of experience. Philosophical hands, like those belonging to the other types, exist in all classes of society; only the genius which they represent becomes abortive, or manifests itself but very imperfectly among persons who are chained by their ill-fortune to gross labors.

The philosophers with Necessary or Useful hands study the problems of facts, of practical ideas, of realities, of politics, and so on.

The philosophers with Conical or Pointed Hands tend toward strange beliefs, speculative ideas and obtruse researches, and so on.

Hands of the quasi Square and quasi-Conical formation generally reveal eclecticism, and it is for this reason that d'Ar-pcnltgny has given them, above all others, the name of Philosophical Hands.

The Elementary.

When they are large, they incline to analysis; when they are small, they incline to synthesis; with a small Thumb they are guided by their heart, with a big Thumb they are led by their head.