Stars, crosses, and dots (139) on a thin line will show dangers to the mental life that must not go unheeded. They show that explosions or checks will occur unless care be used, as well as the time, by the age at which they are seen. Cuts of the line show danger points. If small and frequent (140) they indicate headaches; if deep, and the Head line thin (141), they show brain fever, nervous prostration, or paralysis. In all examinations look at both hands. If the Head line be deep in the left hand and thin in the right the natural brain power is strong, but has been weakened and it is dangerous to make great mental exertion. These subjects seldom heed warnings, for the natural brain strength, coming from the deep line in the left hand, cannot easily accommodate itself to the diminished quantity that is shown in the right hand. If the thin line be seen in the left hand and a deep line in the right, the brain vigor has increased and the subject can stand additional mental effort. I believe that weak mentality can be made strong without peril by gradual cultivation : the danger point always comes from spasmodic and violent efforts. All of the changes from good to bad, strong to weak, or vice versa, can be read with accuracy by using the two hands.

No. 139.

No. 140.

The broad and shallow Head line (142) is not an indication of vigorous mentality. The Current has too broad and shallow a channel and flows in a weak and shallow stream. It is not a vigorous brain but a weakened one, liable to aches and deterioration. The subject with this Head line is not firm, resolute, and courageous, but is undetermined, vacillating, uncertain, and lacks self-reliance and boldness. He may be bright, if the line is long, but he is weak in mental aggression. The broad and shallow line shows a lack of force or intensity in the mental attitude, the subject is not self-assertive; or, if possessed of a large thumb, he may be this, and yet lack real self-assertion; what he does show being merely a veneer. He has poor control of himself, small power to influence others, little concentration of mind, and poor memory. This subject is easily influenced and yields to temptations. He was not intended for mental occupations and does not often seek them. He is mentally lazy and does but little thinking, is satisfied to have others think for him, so does not create much stir in the world. If broad and shallow lines be seen in both hands your subject will continue in his weak way until the end of life.

If the line improves and gets clear in the right hand you are safe in saying that the natural mental inertia will be replaced by as much more strength as the line in the right hand shows itself deeper and clearer cut than the one in the left. If a broad and shallow line be seen in the left hand and splits up and breaks to pieces in the right, the subject is utterly vacillating and hopelessly weak. With any subject a fine Head line may pull him out of the worst places, and subjects whose hands are seen to be wofully lacking in many desirable qualities may overcome their weakness if a strong mental structure is back of them. A broad and shallow line will weaken any hand no matter how strong in other respects, and make the results of what might be an otherwise successful life negative. It reduces the strength of strong Mounts. The Jupiterian ambition is diminished, the Martian vigor is greatly weakened, and every Mount feels the blight of mental laziness. In many hands the line runs broad and shallow during the earlier years of life and then becomes deep and clear (143). The age at which this change occurs will show the time at which the subject energetically took up life's battle, and really began to think for himself.

This marking is often seen in the hands of women who have been "spoiled" and who have never had to do anything until suddenly thrown upon their own resources, when they have had to take up life's struggle in earnest, and the Head line changes and grows deeper, clearer and straighter as they rise to the occasion and develop strength. The chained Head line (144) is a bad indication. The channel is not only broad and shallow, but is continually obstructed. The mentality is weak and labored, utterly lacking in power of concentration, vacillating, timid, sensitive, and changeable. You can place no reliance on the promises of these subjects; they do not mean to break faith but they do so. They have poor memories, poor judgment, are continually subject to headaches and various mental disorders. They cannot apply themselves continuously to any kind of work, either mental or manual. If the Heart line be strong they will be ruled by sentiment and utterly unpractical. If the thumb be weak they will be unable to think out a plan or to execute it. To such subjects any mental shock is exceedingly dangerous and likely to throw them off their balance. This done they have not the power to recover it.

They are prone to delusions and hallucinations, chimerical and impractical in their ideas, and such a Head line drooping to the Moon produces phantasms, over-imagination, or insanity, and the person having such a line cannot be trusted to deal safely with speculative matters. A subject with a chained Head line should not attempt mental vocations, should not choose literature, scientific studies, or any brain-exerting occupations, but should take out-of-door positions where labor with the hands or legs is required. He should have a firm master under whom to work, for he will not be able to direct his own efforts, but will rely on being directed. If the chain appears in only a portion of the Head line, its weakening effect will apply only to the portion of the line it covers. If it be replaced by a deep, well cut line (145) the subject will develop mental weakness into mental vigor. It is not frequent that the chained condition is at once replaced by a deep line, for the change from such opposite mental conditions comes slowly, and in most cases the chained line is followed by a thin line which gradually grows stronger (146), showing the gradual progress from mental weakness to strength. Look to both hands for the outcome when a chained Head line is seen.

No. 141.

No. 142.

No. 143.

No. 144.

No. 145.

No. 146.