PREFACE. Prius quiun Incipiaj consulto, et ubi oonsulueris mature facto opus eat. Sallust. CHIROMANCY, which includes Chirognomy, concerning which we propose to treat in the following pages, is of very ancient origin. The derivation of the word is from the Greek x*lp (the hand) and /Murewopai (I foretell). In fact, the Science is that which enables us to divine character, past events, and destiny from the shape, the mounds, and the lines of the hands. There is more in this science than may at first sight appear to an observer. We know that certain bumps upon the head indicate certain characteristics of human nature. The colour of the hair and eyes, the form of the mouth, of the chin and nose, the shape of the ears, with other signs and attributes of person, and the general form of the body, nails, and fingers afford certain and infallible indications of temperament as varied as the forms of ear or face. Nothing in nature is more remarkable than the fact that, although every individual amongst the millions of living human beings possesses features, and organs of perception, visibly formed for the same purposes, and used for those purposes, no two persons possess them exactly alike. The variety therefore is infinite. What then, are we to say concerning the hand of

12 Preface man ? Character can be read from the featires and expression of the face, why not from the marks and lines upon the hand? Because, you will say, the " horny-handed son of toil " will show you more and ft greater variety of marks (not lines) than the idle man, or the individual who works with his pen, and not with spade, pickaxe, or hammer. We grant that the effects of manual labour will be different, but they will not produce the same lines. Put any two men at the same work, their hands will not be any more alike after a week's work than they were at the beginning of the week. Neither are the lines in the hand caused by the general folding or construction ; as an old writer puts it JDeus et Natura nihil efficiunt frustra. Certainly nothing has been made in vain, and why, then, should the lines of the human hand not bear some significance ? " Nature," continues one old authority, " has impressed lines in the forehead which is not capable of restriction or plication, therefore this cannot hold, that the construction of the hands should cause the formation or appearance of lines in the hands ; lor etween the joints of the fingers many persons have rnes, and of different forms. Other people have very few mayhap none at all and here there is no flexion." We therefore support the principle that there is a meaning attached to the lines and mounds of the hand, though we will not take upon ourselves to affirm unreservedly that the meanings attached to those lines or mounds are always unalteiably the true ones, as far as the future is concerned. It is against reason and common sense to foretell, beyond power of mutation, events which cannot certainly be known to any