The Science of the Hand; Or, the Art of Recognising the Tendencies of the Human Mind by the Observation of the Formations of the Hands (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1886 edition. Excerpt: ...cap. ii. (3) describes the rite of the Cimbrians sacrificing their prisoners, and catching their blood to draw auguries from, but does not mention the brazen bull. The best quasi-classic account which we have of the Cimbri and Teutons is Christophorus Cellarius' "Dissertatio Historica de Cimbris et Teutonis" (Magdeburg: 1701). They used to sprinkle with human blood the altar of a brazen bull, their principal idol, but barring this they were just, content, brave, and devoted to their leaders and to their friends.--author's Note. Personifications of national characteristics. Elementary types. if330. Illustration. Conico elementary. General Rapp. of its nature, modifies and transforms itself according to the times and places in which it lives. Greece, still in a condition of barbarism and governed by instinct as is natural to every society which exists in a state of syncretism, saw the embodiment of its idiosyncrasies in the formidable features of Polyphemus; later on she saw it adorned with the natural grace and repose of rustic moralities. Caliban in rough and foggy England, Maelibaea beneath the scented pines of the Sabine hills, Sancho amid the joyous turmoil of the Castilian hostelries, are after all merely different re-incarnations of this same idea. The General Rapp seems to me to have been the best expression of the conico-elementary type, as it has manifested itself among the upper classes of our society under the Empire. He was a man in appearance round, broad, highly-coloured, and of striking individuality, with manners at the same time sumptuous and rustic, theatrical and soldierly, who required either a luxurious bed and a delicate arrangement of furniture, or a truss of hay and a wooden spoon. In Dantzig, in iSia,262...