The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-17
DELUsIoN OF PALMJsTRY.
Reason Thrown Away Upon the Fol-
lowers of CIairvOyance.

HeasOn Thrown Away upon the No1-
lowers of CIairvOyance.
From London Truth.
Last week poor egotistical creature,
who had been employed as a barmaid.
drowned herself, chiefly as would seem
from her letters, on account of the SIMS
ter predictions which she read in her palm,
combined with her planets" No doubt
this girl was weak minded, if not actually
insane, but there is a good deal in her
case worth thinking about Some years
ago, when / conducted some researches
into palmistry with the assistance OF a
lady who claimed to be an expert in that
craft l put the question TO her, What If
you see indications in a palm that the
owner of the hand will die or incur some
other awful misfortune at an early date?'
The lady answered that in such case she
always dissembled, and she led me to I'M
derstand hat it was a matter of profess
sional etiquette among really conscien-
tious palmists not 20 make known the
truth when it was of such a nature that
to impart il might be dangerous.
This is all very well, but no one can pre-
vent people who dabbe in palmistry, or
astroogy, or other occult means OF read
ing the future, from discovering their own
fate for themselves. Those who discover
by such means that the outlook for them
Is very black may not all commSt suicide,
like the very unfortunate barmaid, but
such knowledge is bound TO have an in
furious effect on all but persons of the
toughest moral fiber; and persons of the
toughest moral fiber, l may remark, are
not in the habit of dabbling in the occult
sciences. AS a rule, fortune telling an its
various shapes is chiefly denounced as
swindle. and means of obtaining money
under false pretenses, but / question
whether the moral mischief which may re-
suit from efforts to ascertain what the
future has in store for us may not be far
worse than any trihing financial loss.
Nothing is more certain than that it is
10 the advantage of mankind on the whole
not to know the future. In saying this L
do not lose sight of the fact that 1t would
be a profitable thing to many to know,
for instance, who is going 10 win the next
years Derby, or the price at which any
particular stock will stand at the end of
the next account. This knowledge, how
ever. can only be profitable so long as 1t
is in the exclusive possession of one or
two individuals. If ii were made Access
sible to all, the knowledge of the future
would cease to have any more value than
the knowledge of the past. On the other
hand the knowledge of coming misfortune
if Ii is so preordalned tnat IL can pe pre-
dicted-can only have a demoralizing ef-
feet. and on the whole life has generally
as much of the unpleasant as of the pleas
ant in store for the majority of human
kind.
How many youths of 20 are there who,
If they could ascertain everything that is
going TO happen to them during the next
so wears, would think the game worth the
candle? l doubt if there are many On
the other hand living in ignorance of
what is coming, taking the good with the
bad as each day brings it, and necessarily
hoping for better things from the mex
haustible possibilities of the future, we
manage for the most part to combat our
misfortunes as they turn up, and cling
to life as long as it is left in us. The
proverb says that as long as there is life
there is hope, and the converse is equally
true that as long as there is hope there
is life Destroy the one and it is ten to
one that you destroy the other My i'm
preston is that so far as the chances
of individual life go, no one has ever
known the future, or ever can know it.
But whether il be knowledge or not the
person who desires to know il is a fool.