Aristotle's works:: Containing the Master-piece, Directions for Midwives, and Counsel and Advice to Child-bearing Women with Various Useful Remedies
Aristotle · en
Long arms hanging down and touching the knees, though such arms are
rarely seen, denotes a man liberal, but withal vain-glorious, proud, and
inconstant. He whose arms are very short in respect to the stature of
his body, is thereby signified to be a man of high and gallant spirit,
of a graceful temper bold and warlike. He whose arms are full of bones,
sinews and flesh, is a great desirer of novelties and beauties, and one
that is very credulous and apt to believe every thing. He whose arms are
very hairy, whether they be lean or fat, is for the most part a
luxurious person, weak in body and mind, very suspicious, and malicious
withal. He whose arms have no hair on them at all, is of a weak
judgment, very angry, vain, wanton, credulous, easily deceived himself,
yet a great deceiver of others, no fighter, and very apt to betray his
dearest friends.
CHAPTER IV.
_Of Palmistry, showing the various Judgments drawn from the Hand._
Being engaged in this part of the work to show what judgment may be
drawn according to physiognomy, from the several parts of the body, and
coming in order to speak of the hands, it has put me under the necessity
of saying something about palmistry, which is judgment made of the
conditions, inclinations, and fortunes of men and women, from the
various lines and characters nature has imprinted in their hands, which
are almost as various as the hands that have them.
The reader should remember, that one of the lines of the hand, and which
indeed is reckoned the principal, is called the line of life; this line
incloses the thumb, separating it from the hollow of the hand. The next
to it, which is called the natural line, takes its beginning from the
rising of the fore-finger, near the line of life, and reaches to the
table-line, and generally makes a triangle. The table line, commonly
called the line of fortune, begins under the little finger, and ends
under the middle finger. The girdle of Venus, which is another line so
called, begins near the first-joint in the little finger, and ends
between the fore-finger and the middle finger. The line of death is that
which plainly appears in a counter line to that of life, and is called
the sister line, ending usually as the other ends; for when the line of
life is ended, death comes, and it can go no further. There are lines in
the fleshy parts, as in the ball of the thumb, which is called the mount
of Venus; under each of the fingers are also mounts, which are each
governed by several planets; and the hollow of the hand is called the
plain of Mars.