IF the hands of a thousand people are examined, in each one will be found a different combination of lines. If the number of examinations is carried into tens of thousands, you will still find the lines in every hand different from every other one. No matter how many hands are seen, you will find new lines in all of them. An offer of $1000 was once made for any two hands found marked exactly alike. There was no risk incurred in this offer, for no two hands will ever be found which do not differ in some respects. This universal difference cannot be attributed wholly to accident, for if that were the cause we should sometimes have the "accident" occur of finding two hands exactly alike. As such a thing never happens, we must look elsewhere for an explanation. This explanation is afforded by the knowledge that no two people are exactly alike in character, temperament, or in any other way, and thousands of experiments have proven that in whatever way these persons differ, a corresponding change is found in the hand. This is no theory; it is well proven, actual experience, and until we find two persons exactly alike in every way, without even a shade of variation in any direction, we shall never find two hands lined exactly alike.

It is, however, a well established fact that the nearer people are like each other, the nearer alike are the lines in their hands. Thus we often find in the hands of children strange cases of similarity to those of the parents, but there is always a difference in some particular. With such a wide variation existing in the lines of the hand, manifestly no one could ever tabulate all of the possible differences. It became apparent to me many years ago that unless a working hypothesis could be established, and a set of general principles laid down, which could be applied to any line and which would never vary, reading from the lines in the hand would always be uncertain. That there was a reliable working hypothesis I felt sure, if only it could be discovered. This I have found to be true, for bit by bit the one herein laid down has been gathered together, until to-day it is possible of application to every hand, and will never fail if properly applied. Even though you do not at first accept this hypothesis as being true, nevertheless give it a trial, and apply it faithfully and carefully to your line reading.

If this is done you will find that, whether you believe it true or not, you are able, through its application, to correctly read the lines in the hand, and after you have acquired the ability to do this, it matters little to you whether the theory be false or true.

Of all the fingers of the hand, that of Jupiter is the only one which can stand erect by itself. The other three are so bound together that they cannot be straightened out independently of each other. Thus the finger of Jupiter is the magnet which attracts the life Current that passes through it into the body. There is no doubt in the mind of any thinker, but that we are surrounded on all sides by an atmosphere, and that this atmosphere is charged with some imponderable force, which, if not actually electricity, is still very like it in action and results. This force is widely diffused, intangible, and possesses great power. It is by the concentration of this force that the life Current is formed, which is a connecting link between the human being and the Unknown. This force we can neither see nor feel, and can only judge of its presence by its results. That at the moment of birth it enters our body through the finger of Jupiter, forms a magnetic Current which ceaselessly travels through us during life, is continually passing out of us again, and that it stops at death, I have no doubt.

And this is the same life Current spoken of in Chapter II (A Working Hypothesis - Main, Minor, And Chance Lines - Proportion - The Two Hands)., Part I. I have no desire now, nor is it necessary, to enter into any lengthy discussion to prove the existence of this life Current, but as it forms a good working hypothesis, I desire that you use it, at least theoretically, as I have found that through its application to the lines in the hand, it becomes a key with which we can easily unlock their meaning. The finger of Jupiter we will then conceive to be the attractor, which, standing erect, draws together the diffused force surrounding us and concentrates it into a steadily flowing Current. The more we study this body of ours, the more we find it to be like an electric dynamo, and this life Current which we have conceived is a good deal like the Electric Current which keeps the dynamo moving. As everyone is more or less familiar with the operation of an Electric Current, I have found in teaching Palmistry that this simile is the best I have ever used, and that it conveys a mental picture which is easily applied to the lines.

So I shall call this Current hereafter the Electric Current, and we will conceive it to be flowing steadily into us through the finger of Jupiter, reaching first the Heart, line and setting in motion the circulation, passing next to the Head line and awakening the mind; and when circulation! and mind start to operate, life begins, so this Current passes on to the Life line and courses through it. In the study of the lines we consider the whole sphere of their operation to be in the hand itself, so when the Current has passed through the Life line, we think of it as passing out again, travelling over the lines of Saturn, Apollo, and Mercury, and finding its egress through these fingers.

You will thus see that the beginning of the line of Heart is under the finger of Jupiter, and it is read from this beginning across the hand to the percussion. The line of the Head is read in the same direction, and the line of Life is read from its start, under the finger of Jupiter, downward. The beginning of these three lines covers the earlier years of life, and the ends of the lines cover the latter years, while the central portion records the middle part of life. It is not until the Current reaches a line that it begins to operate, so since the line of Saturn receives the Current from the end of the Life line, we begin to read it from the bottom upward; the lower part of the line of Saturn covering the first years of life, the topmost portion the latter days, and the central portion the middle part of life. The lines of Apollo and Mercury both are read in the same direction. The Main lines in the hand are six in number, and are called the Heart line, the Head line, the Life line, the Saturn line, the Apollo line, and the Mercury line, each one of which indicates different qualities. The Mercury line has also been designated Hepatica, Liver line, and line of Health, but it is in reality the line of Mercury, and I shall call it so.