Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-11-18
HUMAN RIDDLE
SAME DESPITE
ARMY OF SEERS
Nature Seems to Have Defied
Rules Science Has
Dug Up.
THE MYSTERY OF POWER
By FREDERIC j. HAsKIN.

! this, who Will tell you all about your
abilities and possibilities. and the num-
Der of different methods by which they
will do it, Is bewildering.
The shape of your head, the bumps on
| your skull. the form of your features tie
color of your hair and eyes, the lines In
! the palms Of your hands, your handwrit-
ing are all made the bases of systems for
! the reading Of your character. Likewise,
you can be put through scientific tests
and examinations which will reveal The
exact grade of your intelligence, your
| powers Of memory, concentration, per-
ception, invention and many other things.
T Many of these systems of diagnosing the
human personality are practiced by
| quacks and charlatans, mingled with all
sorts Of superstition, but they are also
cultivated by persons Of real intelligence
and scientific attainment.
They played a large part In choosing
men for the army. The United States
Navy employed a handwriting expert as
well as psychologists. And many INDUS.
/ trial plants now use some system OF
| testing the intelligence and studying the
| characters Of prospective employees.
Theoretically, then, there is no rea-
son why you should be in any ignor-
| ance Of your own potentialittes-wh ny
/ you should go about wondering what
you are good for, or cherishlng any illu-
/ sions about what you can do. Win
/ all Of these methods available, 1t should
be as easy to have your abilities an
alyzed as 1t Is to have a case or measles
diagnosed. And likewise, there is ap-
parently no reason why you should not
be able to choose your friends and en-
| ployes with scientific precision, instead
Of laundering about it the way you DO !;
for all Of these methods are taught, and
many OF them are taught by correspond
ence and books have been written about
all Of them.
And yet, somehow, we seem to go on
| laundering about ourselves and Others
as OF yore. And even those OF US who
have studied these systems are not so
much better of than those who have
not. Can It be that there is nothing
in them after all
In the Judgment OF one character-read-
ing fan, who has plodded through the
literature Of many Of these methods and
tried nightly to apply their teachings,
there is something in each OF them, but
no key to the riddle Of human personal
ity In any one OF them, or in all OF them
Put together There is nothing more ter
rible than TO become a victim OF some
one OF these systems and to try to apply
1t literally on all occasions.
Take the matter Of headform, for In
stance. You learn that man with q
fine. square brow has q dominating In
telligence. IL also he has well placed
eyes q good chin and high nose. ne
q the ideal type, the master Of civiliZa-
ton. Then you meet him on the street
lie is a traffic cop. And the same day
you meet a man who has written a re-
rlarkable book. and you ind that he has
low retreating forehead, pug nose
and several Of the stigmata Of degeDs-
racy. and that he ought TO be porch
| climber or a pickpocket.
Does this prove that the system is no
rood7 Not exactly. The shape OF n
mans head and features does reveal a
good deal about the nature of his abili-
ties. but Il does not reveal much about
his caliber. The traffic cop may Indeed
be a man OF balanced intelligence
and good character-the kind who viii
handle a bad traffic jam with a fine
sense Of justice and without becoming
confused or angry And the writer with
the bullet head may indeed be an erratic.
I But his brain cells are three or four times
as strong and active as those Of the traf-
fc COP. He is not such a we'll balanced
machine. but be Is one Of much higher
horsepower and finer quality.
THE MYSTERY
OF POWER.
The proper method, perhaps. is 70 ap-
ply all Of the systems for what they are
worth. and never to let any OF them in
I terfere with the general impression. 1t is
the degree Of power which resides in a
man that determines more than anything
else his effectiveness for human purposes,
/ and there is no system for accurately
estimating that degree OF power. You
can Judge Il only by intuition and ex-
perience. It is as invisible and vital as
the amount OF electricity which courses
/ through 4 wire.
And It Is just as difficult for a man to
estimate his own powers, except by per
! Torrance. as 1t is for him TO estimate
those of another. The feeling of power
seems to be no guide at all. The world
is full Of egotistlcal fools. who seem to
feel genuinely sure they were born to
high destiny. while many great men can
scarcely believe in their own powers,
even after they have discovered them.
1t seems well, then, to take account of
all these systems for judging men with
out ever letting any of them get in the
light of Il general impression. If you
are going to hire n man. study the shape
of his head, to be sure II he has a good
brow, 1t Is in his favor A man with a
! high brow is apt to have memory and
/ taste for detail, and one with 4 low,
square brow ia more apt to make good
salesman. A well formed, sensitive mouth
/ is a good thing to bank on and a deep
/ cleft between tho eyes shows unmis-
/ takably that its owner has done some
| thinking. And do not overlook the man s
handwriting. either. if 1t is only a sig
nature to n typewriter letter.
There seems to be no doubt that an
ascending signature shows courage and
| hope--a personality which is growing
and winning In the struggle of hfe-and
descending signature shows man dis
couraged or frightened or in poor health
/ Simple graceful capitals show good taste.
and ornate capitals show vulgarity, while
unduly large ones are a pretty good in
dication of egotism. These things are
significant and worth taking into ac
count, but they do not prove much.
! In fact, everything about man is
/ significant There is no effect without a
cause. Every move that man makes,
| every line in his face, every infection Of
his voice, the way he combs his hair and
/ the way he dresses. the way he sits in a
chair, and the way he walks are all tell
! tale, If only we could understand them.
And these systems for reading charac
ter which are springing up in such num-
/ Der are all based on this fact. They are
steps toward the founding Of a science
of human personality. and If 1t ever be-
comes a true and unified science, it viii