_The Motive Hand_ (see Plate III.)—Above the mean size, fingers with prominent joints, of an average length, and strong, thick, and bony, with a square tip; palm of a mean size, hollow, and tolerably firm; thumb large, with the muscular root strongly developed. This form of hand cannot exist without a strong, massive developement of the bony and muscular system. It is essentially the hand of man, as the sensitive is that of woman. Hence, in the female sex, it indicates a masculine energy of character: witness the hardy peasants of Switzerland and the Tyrol. In both sexes it denotes a preponderance of the masculine or reasoning mind over the imaginative faculties. Hence it loves form and arrangement, possesses a strong instinctive feeling for right and authority, and a profound respect for established forms; prefers an aristocracy to a democracy, and the known to the unknown; takes a delight in organising, in classifying, in systematising, in subjecting thought to opinion, and man to his fellow-man. Devoid of originality, and with but little imagination, it moves only in the old beaten path, and its belief is limited to that which it is capable of comprehending. Partaking of the character of the motive and psychical type, we have a mixed intermediate form, termed by D’Arpentigny “the philosophical hand.” (_a._) _The Philosophical Hand_ is somewhat smaller than the motive; the fingers have large joints, and are somewhat tapering at their tip; the palm is large and elastic, the thumb also large, with its two phalanges nearly equal in length. Such was the hand of Locke, of Condillac, of Descartes, Malebranche, and Leibnitz. It denotes a love of absolute truth for its own sake, and of speculations respecting the nature of life and the origin of things. It adopts opinions only upon a careful investigation, and reason is its only recognised guide. [Illustration: Plate 4. The Psychical Hand.] _The Psychical Hand_ (see Plate IV.) is at once the most beautiful and the most rare. Compared with the stature it is small and delicate; the fingers are thin, without articular prominences, and long and tapering; the palm is of average dimensions, the thumb well formed and but of moderate size. Persons with such a hand are led by ideality; soul is for them every thing; great interests alone move them; in religion and politics they are tolerant. In literature, Milton, Klopstock, and Göthe, are their representatives. Loving the ideal and the sublime, they oppose to the school of Voltaire and Hume that of Lamartine and Chateaubriand. Among the Greeks, Plato is their type.