The San Francisco call., 1904-02-28

civilization, nor success in CONNER
cial enterprise as one OF the principal
factors in the same. For the beauu-
full slim hand, shapely and supple, we
must go TO the least fiOurishing of the
Latin nations-the Spaniards notably
or to the Slavs, the Gypsies even,
and the handsOmest OF sO-called saw
age tribes. or better still, we must
go back to ages that cherished and re-
spected the nobility of the hand. lt
has been said that the armOr worn by
our ancestors in the middle ages at
fords conclusive proof of the smallness
of the hand which welded their heavy
battleaxes and huge twO-handled
swords, and that scarcely in any in
stance would the iron gauntlet worn
by the Crusader allow entrance TO his
descendants broader and Clumsier
hand. I think that nowadays we pay
far too little attention 10 the hand, In
its way quite as interesting and as well
worthy of study as the face, indeed
often affording far surer indication OF
our thoughts. To a certain extent we
can control our faces. but how much
less our hands, whose involuntary pail
pitations and pulsatiOns not only be
tray-as thought readers" are we'll
aware-the sensations OF the moment,
but also give evidence of our habitual
OCCUPATIONS All hands have their
own beauty and meaning, if rightly
considered. The hand hardened by
honest labor is as admirable in its way
as that which guides the pen or pencil.
producing works destined TO immOr-
tality. Sometimes though, innate Vul-
garity, successfully hidden under eX-
terror polish in the rest of the person,
is apparent in the hand alOne-sOme-
times even the tendency to crime To
is as if to hands like these evil clunS
like the smell of the blood that
haunts the sleep of the guilty partner
of Macbeth's usurped throne.
AllusiOns to the supreme significance
Of the hand are frequent with the pp-
cts Readers Of Mrs Browning Son
nets cannot fail to recall that first KISS
imprinted by the lips of the pOet-loVer
Camoens on the fingers Of this hand
vherewith 1 write" and the lOveliness
of Guinevere "as she swayed the rein
with dainty fnger-tips" is also re-
membrance familiar to ali. "A hand
like a white-wOOd blossom" sings an
other English poet in exquisite verse,
while the whole dramatic action cf
perhaps the best known play OF the
great contemporary poet of Italy cen-
ters in the lovely hands OF its heroine
the sculptOr's wife.
"Ohl for the touch of a vanished
handi" we all have surely sighed at
some moment of our lives. And who
can think of hands and their beauty
and their charm without calling 10
mind those that the genius OF Nandyck
has fixed in imperishable lOveilnesS
upon his canvas, each one OF them so
perfect. it would seem as if Art and
Nature could go no further, the one in
furnishing the model. the other in its
portrayal Hands such as these fitly
set off in the lace ruffies of those more
refined and happier days, could belong
TO none but high and noble natures; the
Il ,f he IN q n
lier seems to speak in them That was
the age of beautiful hands in Europe.
and who can tell I ask once more, how
much we may have lost by the neglect
that has succeeded the care and atten-
ton then bestowed on them? And do
we value enough, or turn to sufficient
account. the strange power of attrac-
ton, the magnetic force known to en-
anate from certain hands, whose mi
raculous results have been attested at
all periods and in all parts of the world
the laying on of hands, so practiced
in Apostolic ages. and for many centu-
ries later and now fallen into diSuSe2
But the theme is so rich in its sus-
gestions, these would lead us too far.
1t was while sitting at my typewriter
that the perfection Of the hand as a
piece of mechanism came upon me with
redoubled fOrce-as I realized all the
ingenuity and pains which man had
expended in making an instrument
after all so infinitely inferior to the
corresponding instrument in the human
frame And realized, too. for the first
time, the incalculable speed of thought.
in the appreciable fraction of time that
fntervenes in the transmission Of that
thought to the fingers from the BRAIN
But the resalt of all my musings was
only as ever TO I'LL me with more and
more wOnderment at the divine mys-
tery of all creation, and more and more
thankfulness for the blessings that in
that marvellous scheme have been so
fully and freely bestowed upon man.