The orator needs great suppleness in wrist movements to give grace to
the phases of the hand.
_Of the Hand._
Man is perforce painter, poet, inspired dreamer or mystic, and
scientist.
He is a painter, to reveal the phenomena of the sensitive life; a poet,
to admire the mysteries of grace; a scientist, to make known the
conceptions of the mind. Thus the hand has three presentations, neither
more nor less, to render that which passes in man in the sensitive,
moral or intellectual state.
Let us now examine the three presentations of an open hand: its palmar,
dorsal and digital aspect.
The same thing may be expressed by these three presentations, but with
shades of difference in the meaning.
If we say that a thing is admirable, with the palms upward, it is to
describe it perfectly. This is the demonstrative aspect.
If we say the same thing, displaying the back of the hand, it is with
the sentiment of impotence. We have an idea of the thing, but it is so
beautiful we cannot express it. This is the mystic aspect.
If we present the digital extremity, it is as if we said: "I have seen,
I have weighed, I have numbered the thing, I understand it from certain
knowledge; it is admirable, and I declare it so." These are the three
aspects: the palmar, dorsal and digital.
Each of these attitudes of the hand may be presented under three forms:
the eccentric, normal and concentric.
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