The necessity of silence was, in fact, one of the principal tenets of the Kabbala and is represented, in the figure of Adda-Nari,[16] by the position of the fingers of the hand holding the flowering branch of Abundance; the thumb and the first two fingers, which in Chiromancy represent _will_, _power_ and _fatality_, are held open; whilst the third and fourth fingers, representing light and science, are closed. This was meant to indicate to the good--the initiated--that they would have, when united, strength and will to direct Fate; but that they must keep hidden from the wicked and ignorant both light and science. It must, however, in justice to the ancient Kabbalists, be suggested that their inculcation of silence probably arose, not so much from a desire of domination, but rather from the fact that, feeling themselves superior in knowledge, they thought they were obeying a divine law in refusing to the wicked those lights which, when possessed by them, led, as perhaps they had sometimes found, to error. We, seeing things in a wider light, give, or try to give, equal knowledge to all, without submitting the ignorant to the ordeal of initiation to prove their worthiness as recipients; but, after all, it amounts to much the same thing--give to all men truth and light in abundance, but all will not profit by it. We see this every day in our college system; the lesson is the same for all, but it is only the few who profit by it; and although we appear to be obeying a divine law in opening the way of light and life--the life of knowledge--to all, as God makes His sun to shine on good and bad equally, still we can, in some sort, understand the feeling of the ancient Magi, whose motto was: "Know, Dare, Will, but _keep Silence_." [16] Adda-Nari, Nature--that is, the deity known under the name of Isis by the Egyptians. [Illustration: _To face Chapter XVI._] CHAPTER XVI. THE PRINCIPAL LINES IN THE HAND AND THE MOUNTS In the plate belonging to this chapter we give a hand on which are marked the principal lines seen on the palm; three of which, viz., the Line of Life, the Line of Head and the Line of Heart, are found in a clearer or fainter degree on all hands, but which vary, as regards their relative position, in every hand. The first and largest, that which encircles the thumb, is called the Line of Life; by the length, colour and evenness, or the reverse, of this line the length of life is indicated, and also the illnesses and accidents by which the life is menaced in running its course. The line immediately above it, crossing the palm of the hand, is the Line of Head; by it we are to judge of the intellectual powers. Above it is the Line of Heart, from which we form an opinion of the strength of affection, or the want of it, in the native.