s rather straight or even at the wrist, at the
base of the fingers, and also at the sides. The fingers themselves also
have a "square-cut" appearance. The thumb is, however, nearly always
long, well-shaped, and set high on the palm, and stands well out from the
palm.

The Square Hand is also called the practical or useful hand. People who
possess this type are essentially practical, logical, and rather
materialistic. They belong to the earth and the things of the earth. They
have little imagination or idealism, they are solid, serious workers,
methodical and painstaking in all they do. They believe in things only by
proof and by their reason. They are often religious and even
superstitious, but more from habit than from anything else.

They are determined and obstinate, especially if their thumbs are long
and the first joint stiff.[7]

[7] _See_ Chapter on Thumbs, page 127.

They succeed in all lines of work that do not require imagination or the
creative faculties, and as business men, lawyers, doctors, scientists,
they do extremely well, and are generally to be found in such callings.

THE SPATULATE HAND

The Spatulate or active nervous type (Plate I., Part II.) is usually
crooked or irregular looking, with large tips or pads at the ends of the
fingers, rather like the spatula chemists use and from which peculiarity
this type gets its name. The people who possess this type are in fact
always "pounding" at something. They are full of untiring energy,
enormous workers in everything they take up, and generally remarkable
for their originality.

They are not built on the hard set square lines of the former type. These
persons have enormous imagination, their creative faculties largely
developed. They are inventive, unconventional, emotional, demonstrative,
and in fact the complete opposite in character to the class who possesses
the square type of hand.

The Spatulate type has also the palm irregular in shape. It may be wider
at the base of the fingers than at the wrist, or it may be found _vice
versa_.

In the first case they are then more practical in their work and views
and less impulsive. With the larger development at the wrist, they are
more carried away with their impulses, hasty and impetuous in temper,
speech, and action.

THE PHILOSOPHIC HAND

The Philosophic Hand (Plate I., Part II.) received this name from the
Greek [Greek: philos]--love, and [Greek: sophich]--wisdom. When the
Greeks made a