THE PSYCHIC HAND

THE PSYCHIC HAND
 
Conical hands look for imagination and art everywhere; Square Hands, for rule and arrangement; Knotted Hands, for human reason. It is Divine reason. Psychic Hands look for everywhere. They pay no attention to form, save in the domain of art, convinced, as they are, that civilization is not the absolute consequence of any particular form of religion; that liberty is not the absolute consequence of a democratic form of government; and that slavery is not the absolute consequence of an autocratic form of rule. In their eyes, religious faith is a fact as real as a rational certitude; so they excuse, even when they do not accept, the peculiarities of all religions.”Psychic Hands are in an immense majority in Southern Asia, whence comes the essentially religious, contemplative, and poetic spirit of the nations which, inhabit it; whence come also their respect for maxims (synthesis), and their disdain for methods (analysis); whence comes the preference they feel for holiness (source of repose) over science (source of activity); whence comes the languishing condition of arts, trades, and agriculture among them, and their theocratic and despotic governments, which are of absolute necessity for nations to whom reason and action are a torment. Thus, among us, are Spatulate and hard Square Hands in majority, whereas in India it is the Pointed and soft hands which numerically are in the ascendant.