It is through the aid of the wrist that the aspects of the hand, placed upon the cube, receive, as we shall see, their precise signification.
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.