membered the random, haphazard way in which children
are brought up--educated for the most part in some scholastic mill that
grinds down all to the same dead level of mediocrity, and then turns them
into the Army, the Church, or into trade.

If, on the contrary, all these studies that teach the understanding of
character were more encouraged, parents would have less excuse for the
supreme ignorance they now show as to the real nature of those children
who hold them responsible for their entry into the battlefield of
existence.

These same parents would lift up their voices in righteous indignation if
soldiers were sent into battle untrained, without their proper equipment,
and yet these same parents have never, in the whole course of their
lives, made the simplest study of any one of those many subjects by which
they could in knowing the nature of their child, have strengthened weak
points in the fortress of character, or by developing some talent or
gift, doubly armed him for his entry into the battle of life.

It is from this standpoint that I earnestly hope this study of hands may
some day be taken up. It was from this standpoint that I interested such
men as Gladstone, Professor Max Muller, of Oxford, Lord Russell, when he
was Lord Chief Justice, King Edward VII., and many others too numerous to
mention; and lastly, it is from the same standpoint that I have now
written this book, which under the title of _Palmistry for All_, will, I
hope, appeal to all classes, and cause such an interest in the Study of
Character that, instead of such an art being left in the hands of a few,
it will, on the contrary, become universally used for the benefit of all.

CHEIRO

NOTE.--Cheiro retired from all professional work some time ago, and the
public is therefore warned against persons pretending that they are the
real "Cheiro," and endeavouring to pass themselves off as the author of
his well-known works.

CONTENTS

PAGE
PREFACE iii
INTRODUCTION xv

PART I
PALMISTRY OR CHEIROMANCY

CHAPTER

I. A BRIEF RESUME OF THE HISTORY OF THE STUDY
OF HANDS THROUGH THE CENTURIES TO THE
PRESENT DAY 1

II. THE LINE OF HEAD OR THE INDICATIONS OF MENTALITY