The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1920-11-17

OF persons you can nno In
a great city like this who will tell
you all about your abilities and
possibilities and the number Of DIFF
ferent methods by which they viii
do 1t, is bewildering. n
The shape of your head. the
bumps upon your skull. the form
Of your features, the color Of your
hair and eyes. the lines in the
palm OF your hand, your handwrit-
ing, are all made the bases Of sys-
TENS for the reading Of your char
aster. Likewise, you can be put
through scientific tests and exam
nations which will reveal the ex-
&C. grade Of your intelligence, your
powers Of memory, concentration.
perception, invention, and many
other things. Many Of these sys-
TENS of diagnosing the human per-
sonality are practiced BY quacks
and charlatans. mingled with all
sorts of superstition, but they are
also cultivated by persons OF real
Intelligence and scientific attain
ment. They played . large part IN
choosing men for the army. The
United States navy employed .
handwriting expert rs we'll a. psy-
biologists. And many industrial
plants now use some system Of
testing the intelligence and study
ing the characters Of prospective
employees.
= Theoretically, then, there is no
reason why you should be in any
ignorance OF your own potentiali-
ties-why you should 60 about
wondering what you are good for.
or cherishing any illusions about
what you can do. With all Of these
methods available, it should be as
easy to have your abilities analyz-
ed as it is to have a case Of meas
les diagnosed. And. likewise, there
is apparently no reason why you
should not be able to choose your
friends and employees with scien-
.tif1c precision, instead Of blunder-
ing about 1t the way you do: for
all Of these methods are taught by
correspondence. and books have
been written about all Of them.
We Blunder Still.
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
reading fan, who has plodded along
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 person
ality in any one of them, or in all
Of them put together. There is
nothing more terrible than to be-
come victim Of some one Of these
systems and try to apply it literal
ly on all occasions. Take the mat
tel, of head-form, for instance. You
learn that a man with a fine square
brow has dominating intelligence.
II he also has well-placed eyes, a
good chin and high nose, he is the
ideal type. the master OF civiliza-
ton. Then you meet him on the
street. He is q traffic cop. And
the same day you meet a man who
has written a remarkable book, and
you find that he has q low, retreat
ing forehead. a pug nose and sew
eral Of the stigmata of degeneracy,
and that he ought to be a porch
climber or a pickpocket.
Does this prove that the system
is no good? Not exactly. The
shape of a mans head and features
does reveal a good deal about the
nature of his abilities, but it does
not reveal much about his caliber.
The traffic cop may indeed be a
man Of well-balanced intelligence
and good Characterize kind that
will handle a bad traffic jam with
fine sense OF justice and without
becoming confused or angry. And
the writer with the bullet head may
indeed be an cratic. But his brain
cells are three or four times as
strong and active as those of the
traffic cop. He is not such a we'll
balanced machine, but he is one of