They have not seen enough of dishonesty and de ceit to recognize the inevitable earmarks of those qual ities; and I doubt if they would be any wiser, or any safer on their first trip to a large city, if they had made a, profound study of the teachings of phrenology and physiognomy.
The best that we can say about phrenology and physiognomy is that there is doubtless truth in the main contentions of these so-called sciences, namely, that the face and the shape of the head do somehow correspond to the inner man, but the exact nature of that correspondence science has not yet discovered.
Palmistry would seem to have less claims for re spectful attention than either physiognomy or phre nology. It is difficult to understand why the lines of the hand should have any connection with a, man's health or character, or why large middle joints of the fingers should indicate reasoning power, or why fullness at the base of the index finger should mean that the owner of the hand is proud and ambitious. Since the thumb cooperates with each of the four fingers, there is some basis for the claim that a large, prominent thumb indicates strength of character. Since our ancestors, until within a few hundred years, had to do many things with fingers which are now done with tools, the palmist is not altogether un reasonable when he claims that the splay or square finger tip indicates energy and love of work, while the tapering or cone-shaped finger means love of ease and luxury.
The business man caimot concern himself with such details. It is enough for him to know that the hand is really an expressive part of a man. If the grip is soft, clammy and weak, we are instinctively repelled; we cannot help suspecting that the nian is selfish, cruel and indolent. Or if the strange hand grips us so vig orously that it makes us wince, we get away from it as quickly as possible; we feel that the man is too eager to impress us. The right kind of hand to clasp is undoubtedly an asset worth possessing. If the flesh is firm and the skin fine of texture, we get an impression of cleanliness, health and good breed ing; and if the nails are well kept but not excessively manicured, we feel, other things being all right, that we are in the presence of a gentleman or, at least, of a man who respects himself.
4. Ez;olution of physical have made some effort to explain tbe physical differ ences of different races. Some of their general con clusions possess practical value. The dark-skinned races had their origin in or near the tropics, nature having brought pigment to the surface to give protec tion against the intense or actinic rays of the sun. The thick lips of the native of the tropics are the product of many thousands of years of life amid an abundance of food which could be had practically without effort. In the tropics the lungs need no pro tection against cold air ; hence the short nose and splay nostrils which make breathing easy.
In the rigorous climate of the temperate zones win ter is the enemy against vvhich man must protect himself, and the summer is his friend. The heat of the summer is moderate and brief in duration; so pigment in the skin was unnecessary, and the white man emerged. He had to do much thinking and planning in order to have food and proper shelter in the long winters; hence tbe greater development of the brain, the larger cerebrum of the white than of the black races.
Only the strongest were able to live and perpetuate their kind. Those who loved ease and pleasure, those who did not plan wisely and work hard, those who shrank from exposure to the elements, who lacked endurance and could not bear hardships—all these perished in the course of the ages, leaving relatively. fewer descendants. The men who survived and dom inated in the North were those who gritted their teeth in the presence of obstacles, who kept their mouths firmly shut and breathed thru their noses, who had developed the largest and most active brains.
Thus after thousands of generations in the north ern climates the majority of the people possessed thinner lips than those living in the tropics; abstemi ousness, resolution, decision, pluck and firmness were virtues that had been forced upon their ancestors. Families, tribes or races that lacked these virtues died off. The individual who lacks them now is doomed. He may marry and beget children, but if his mate is like himself, his descendants, if they escape death in childhood from insufficient food, will be in hospitals and almshouses.