Everything tending to make it easier to hold the Current in its proper course, or enabling it to get back to it after a break occurs, lessens the serious results of the broken line, and everything that makes it harder for the Current to continue its course without interruption adds to the complication. Thus broken lines may be repaired when the broken ends overlap each other, or by a small cross-line uniting the ends of the two lines, by sister lines running alongside of the line and break, or by squares (5); all of which means help transmit the Current from the broken end of the line to its regular channel, and while during this break and its repair there is a decided check to the best operation of the line, still it is possible of repair, and not so serious as if unaccompanied by any sign of repair. Always a danger, breaks must be regarded seriously, and from their size, or the repair signs present, you can accurately estimate their outcome.

One of the worst forms to encounter is when the end of the line turns back after a break and starts to run towards its source (6), forming thus a sort of hook. This probably led the old palmists to use this indication found in the Life line as denoting a fatal termination, and you have read perhaps that the "Life line broken and turning toward the thumb means death." In this case the Current turns back upon itself, and finds it harder to continue its course with such a break than in any other formation; it overflows where there is no channel to carry it forward. If there is no means by which this Current can be carried back to its original course, it produces disaster. There are various methods of repair, some by lines joining the turned-back end of the Main line, by sister lines, squares, or various lines which will attract the Current and take it back no. 5

No. 6 to its regular channel. These methods of repair are shown in Fig. 6. Every turned-back line is a most serious check to the subject, either as to life, health, or career; the line on which it is found will tell in which direction this check leads. If unrepaired it is well-nigh fatal, even worse than when the line ends abruptly, for in the latter case the Current may be forced through new paths, and may dig itself a new channel; but when it is deliberately turned back to its source there is little hope that it will ever go on in its original direction. Of all repair signs the best and most certain is the square, shown in Fig. 7 The Square (7) is an individual sign, and has been used by the old palmists as an indication of protection from some impending danger. It is always a good sign, wherever found. No matter what the break in a line, or what its menace to the subject, a square surrounding it will partially repair and mitigate the danger. The square I conceive to be a box which forms itself around the break or danger point, and concentrates and boxes in the Current, making escape impossible, holding the overflow in check, and forcing the Current to find and discharge itself again through the regular channel, no matter how great the turmoil inside of the square may be.

Sometimes a square is found on a Mount, where it does not surround a defect in a line. Such squares will indicate that the defects of the Mount will not predominate with this subject.

My conception is that lines are channels for the transmission of the Electric Current, and that our effort is to find out how well they can and will perform this function. If the Life Current has an unobstructed channel across the hand, the life will be unobstructed. But if the channel shows defects at a certain point we know trouble is going to occur there, and that if the Current is kept in the channel and from breaking its bounds and overflowing, the danger will be overcome. When the defective place is boxed in by the square, we feel that the Current cannot get out of the box, but must find and discharge itself through its regular channel. Thus a square is always a protection from danger, a boxing in of the Current, and a repair agent of certainty and reliability. In thousands of examinations I have never failed to verify this estimate of the square.

No. 7

The Fork and the Tassel (8) are found at the termination of lines, and by applying the general theory to them they are easy to understand. The termination of a line shows the end of the operation of its peculiar qualities, and must be noted to see in what manner the end will be accomplished. Some lines gradually fade away until the line is lost in the capillary lines of the skin; in other cases the line ends abruptly, sometimes with a cross, a star, a dot, or an island, and often it terminates in a fork or tassel. These tassels may be found on the end of a short Life, Head, or Heart line, and, whenever found, indicate the dissipation and diffusion of the strength of the line and the end of its usefulness. The Current, instead of continuing, is scattered and diffused, and spreads itself like a tassel or fan, dissipating its force, and ending the strong operation of the qualities indicated by the line. If a fork composed of two lines occur in the end of a line, it amounts only to a split, and is not so bad as a tassel, for this split may form itself into an island and continue the line; but the tassel, composed of many lines, is the distribution of the Current over so wide a space there is no hope that it will be gathered together again in a single strong line, though, if it occur early in the line and not at its end, you may sometimes find a single thin line continuing after a tassel.

In some cases you find the tassel protected by a square.

No. 8