Year: 1875

Language in the Hand.


From the aimIess undirectcd movements
of early infancy, 70 the trembling automi-
tic rcstlcssHess of age, the manner Of move
mcnt in hands has its own language. You
see how those luckless people who are des-
tined never to succeed in life are incapa.
bic of holding anything with firm grip.
They take up things with the tips of their
fingers, and when they lay ihom down
again they let them drop as Of their own
weight, rather than replace them firmly
with conscious inatiention. They hold
nothing grasped in the hollow of the hand,
with the fingers closed tightly round it,
all is simply picked up and held loosely
dangling from the points, as if the fingers
were hooks, aud those not stout ones, and
the palm had no part to play. There are
some Italian pictures Of Christ bearing
the cross, with these feckless hands Of
utter Incapacity of grasp barely touching
heavy weight which would have required
the fullest output of physical yigor to have
carried at ALL These graceful, useless
hands make nice study Of line, but they
show the most unmistakable imbecility Of
character and to those who look for moral
and mental harmony in picture, as well
as for geometrical grace of line, they are
painfully contradictory and confusing
The spread fingers of affected women
curved in and about like those of the
Venus de Medici--or when the little fin
ger only is crooked and divergent--or
when all three fingers hy off from the
finger and thumb with which an object is
held-these also are silly pretences at
grace at the expense of naturalness aud
usefulness, which by constant repetition in
pictures, help to the maintenance OF false
taste. The firm grasp and the quiet line
arc both more beautiful and more useful !;
but these need not degenerate into the rude
grippe which seizes bubble as if it were a
cannon ball, nor the stiff ramrods which
ignore the use of joints and seem as in-
capable of separation as the fingers of the
Egyptian statue.


Belonging to the lessons of movement
are the instructive gestures by which We
express our feelings, our desires, our sor-
rows, Some of these gestures are common
to all men alikc-as tho joined hands Of
rcyerent prayer those uplifted in passion
ate supplication and entreaty; those out
spread in anguish with the arms flung
wildly above the head; the warding hands
Of fear, palm outward, as shields to the
bowed head and averted face; the lowered
arms, with palms also turned outward, and
the thumb separated from the fingers,
meaning depreciation, and generally en-
phasized by the shrugged shoulders and the
head turned on one side; the clasped hands
of admiration raised breast high the out
stretched arms of welcome, with the hands
slightly curved 10 the attitude of accept.
ance and the same action with the hands
held open as il to receive something placed
in them, Of loving longing, of tender prayer
for some gracious favor; the clenched aud
shaken fists of anger; the whitened knuck-
les Of nervous self-restraint, with the nails
digging into the flesh; the wringing hands
Of sorrow, hopeless, despairing; all these
are what We may call words of the udiver-
sal language Of gesture, not differing in
essentials whether found in the north OF
the south, the east or the west. But there
are Others which are more specialized; as,
for instance, the southern action Of shak-
ing the forefnger backward, which has its
own language, and that not quite the same
as ours when VIC snap our fingers in the
air as our measure of regard for despised
persons or discarded things Other peo-
pies translate one of the meanings of this
action by striking the two forcingers
rapidly together with sliding action at
the end, as if shaving; the which gesture,
when employed, is as insulting as that of
"biting the thumb which gave such
grave offence to the Montagus Laying
the fore6nger on the nose to enforce attcn.
tion to statement, or rather to symbolic
its gravity, is doubled by the same gesture
meaning waggory; sometimes it is the halt
ing of deeper reflection, as one would say,
''Let mo see, il | go fifty miles to-day
can | go thirty tomorrow Gathering
up the fingers in bunch together, then
finging them suddenly into the face of an
opponent with the words, II fling my FIVE
fingers in your face, isa gesture of supre-
NEST contempt with some Eastern peoples.
The same action with kiss on the punched
up tips, is taken as a symbol Of incffablc
admiration. For man to SO emphasize
his description Of woman means more
than words can convey. II is the very
AROMA, the bouquet, the essence Of delicate
praisei all the same it is rather silly ac
ton, and savors more of afIectation than of
an admiration so profound as well as 50
subtle that ordinary speech fails to give il
life. BLOWN kiss of praise into space
in this manner is less charming than the
kiss Of love blown from the finger tips 10
the one object That indeed has its own
line Of travel, straight to the heart; and
the "waved adica,n the hand-greetins
made from distance, stands loving souls
instead of a nearer, more concrete caress,
and is indeed caress IN purpose and
influence quite as much as one more
recognized.


The different ways in which pcople sum