Hands

“ And I have already written in the book 'Tola'at Yaakov' that there are ten fingers in the hand of a person corresponding to the higher wisdoms, as the hands with their fingers are the instruments of action to serve the soul with them. ”

“ Pretty hands—like sweet tempers and paragons of husbands—are largely a matter of care and cultivation. Much more so, in fact, than most of us are aware. While tapering fingers and perfect palms count for considerable, the general beauty of the hand lies not in its correct outline so much as in the whiteness and velvety softness of the skin and the perfectly trimmed, well-kept nails. ”

“ There are the arms bare from the shoulder, long and round as a woman's should be, and terminating in flexile wrists, and hands so gracefully modelled we shrink from thought of their doing more than making wreaths of flowers and playing with harp strings. ”

“ How that little useless hand would shrink from the touch of the gaunt, horny, clay-coloured, begrimed workman's hand, which hard, unremitting labour has changed into a kind of hoof. Some hands are coy, others paddle you indecently; the grip of some is hypocritical, and not what it pretends to be; there is the velvety, the unctuous, the priestly, the humbug's hand ”

“ Still gripping firmly and pressing your hands a little together you will find it continues to rise, and by bending your hands downwards at the wrists and pressing your elbows to your side you can easily persuade an observer, and perhaps yourself, that you are trying to hold the twig down. ”

“ Then, mechanically, as he always did when studying people's hands, he looked at his own: his father's hands, but still boy's hands, though they were already becoming manlier, short and broad, white and strong, hands that would take a close, steady grip of things. ”

“ The eyes being of small use, he must touch with his hands. Those hands are the most distinctive feature of his person; they are full of expression; tenderly groping hands, that hesitate and fumble in wistful fashion like the feelers of some sensitive creature of night. There is trouble, too, in that obese and sluggish body; trouble to which the unhealthy complexion testifies. ”

“ Any widely manifested difference in the sensitiveness of one of the hands, apart from its habitual use in all ordinary manipulation, and especially among uncultured races, would assuredly seem to indicate some congenital distinction leading to the preferential use of the right hand. ”

“ HANDS, FINGERS AND TOES The size and shape and general configuration of the hands, fingers and toes are details that tell an endocrine tale. Students of hands naturally have grouped them as the long slender and the short, broad, the bony and the well-filled out, the tapering fingers and the stumpy. ”

“ One finds himself frequently touched by hands, or something having the form of hands, during dark seances, or under circumstances which do not permit us to see these forms; but I have seen these hands. ”

“ Or reversing your position, so as to stand in FRONT of the subject, so place your hands that the first fingers of each hand shall be as before, about an inch apart, and the ends of your longest fingers shall just touch the fore part of Hope, and the balls of your second and third fingers will rest on Spirituality. ”

“ Great care should be given to freeing the hands and fingers. Because the hand is in such constant communication with the brain, the tension of the entire body often seems to be reflected there. Sometimes it is even necessary to train the hand to some extent in the earliest lessons. ”

“ The word “hand” means to hold or seize and is to man what the claw is to the bird, fin to fish, and hoof to horse. The hand is marvelously made with 27 bones, 8 of which are in the wrist, 5 form the palms, and 14 the bones or phalanges, or fingers. The hand was made for work, as proved by anatomy and Scripture—“Go to work”; “Work earnestly with both hands”; “Handsome is that handsome does”; and black or white hands are fine which do good work. ”

“ Cross.—Place the hand, pointing upward before the face, palm to it; bend the fingers toward face like the talons of an eagle, repeating motion several times, and add meaning by expression of the face. IV, 57.
Angry.—With the fingers bent, talon-like, throw hand against the waist, partly at one side; give a tearing, upward motion against the body. Sometimes both hands are used. ”

“ The bronzed hands of toil, the opaque hands of idleness, differing even as life and death, the dear, remembered, cordial hands of one's youth,—shall they not have-19- their laureate also in the commentator that is to be, this new philosopher in trifles, this student of the furthest and subtlest bodily activities, and chronicler, as it were, in extremis?
The hand betrays the heart ”

“ It really is a good deal as if we were born like a dog or a horse, with head, body, and legs, but no hands, and had to make our hands for ourselves. How we should work in such a case, building our fingers, shaping our thumbs, and in every way getting the best possible sort of hands to use thereafter. ”

“ The arms and hands are not for strength alone, for these members are much stronger in many a brute; but they also give greater expression and power to the thoughts that come from within. The hands possess such molding of fingers, thumbs, and palms, such delicacy for tactile impressions, and such capacity for nice adjustments, that they are not alone used for feeding the mouth and fighting antagonists ”

“ It is not necessarily the right foot, but it is always the same. The unpremeditated action of hand or foot is uniform, as the reader will find by clasping his hands with the fingers interlaced, or inviting another to do so. ”

“ There were large, horny masculine hands, daintily-formed womanly hands, and active, chubby little hands like those of children. Some of them were perfectly modeled. Others, apparently in the process of formation, looked like floating bits of chiffon, while still others had the appearance of flat, empty gloves. ”

“ When any physician, doctor, or amulet-maker puts his fingers upon the top of the head, upon the occiput, upon the hands, upon the chest, upon the arms, upon the legs, he communicates (?) with the heart, for its vessels extend to every limb, wherefore it is called the starting-point of every limb. ”

“ Yet, there are plenty of true stories of people born without hands, who have contrived by practice to teach their toes not only to supply the place of ordinary fingers, but of very clever fingers, which is quite another matter! I myself once saw a young man in a Belgian gallery busily engaged in copying a picture, and as he had no arms he painted with his toes, seated on a high stool, to place him on the level he wanted. ”

“ Stop or stay there. The arms are held, bent at the elbows, at each side of the body, with the open palms of the hands turned towards the distant man, and vertical circles are described with them in that position. ”

“ We could almost say, forget the hands except to keep them clean, including the nails, cordial and helpful. One hand may rest easily in the other. Study repose of attitude here as well as in the rest of the body. ”

“ Teach.—Raise each of the hands to the corresponding side of the head on a level with the eyes; close ends of fingers against thumb (as in "&") ; push the hands straight out from the head, and open the thumb and fingers, as if you had grasped something from the head and thrown it out toward some one else. VI, 127.
Intend, Mean, Purpose.—Touch forehead with forefinger; then bring hand down and place the ends of the fingers of the "V" hand against palm of extended left; lift "U" hand off and twist it around, bringing the ends back to the palm but with positions reversed ”

“ With the feet as in the above exercise, bring the hands and the arms to a level with the shoulders, palms down, elbows bent, middle fingers of the two hands touching, and the extended thumbs touching the chest. ”

“ Make love to.—Hold the closed hands, the middle joints of the fingers of one against those of the other, thumbs up, in position of "A" except that they are raised above the forefingers and bent from the middle joint ”

“ Older children delight to set themselves such tasks as, for instance, clasping the hands behind the back, so that one 77arm crosses the shoulder, or placing the open hand on a table and raising the ring finger without any of the others, or laying the fingers over one another, etc. ”

“ When the hands are extended, the upper part of the arms (i. e. above the elbow) are held near the body, the palms of the hands are turned towards each other, neither upwards nor downwards nor forwards, the hands are held as high as the shoulders and the fingers point upwards. ”

“ To sit beside a pregnant woman or a patient under medical treatment with clasped hands, says the grave Pliny, is to cast a malignant spell over the person, and it is worse still if you nurse your leg or legs with your clasped hands, or lay one leg over the other. ”

“ Hold both closed hands before the body, palms down, and about eight inches apart; reach forward a short distance, relaxing the fingers as if grasping something with them, and draw them back again as the hands are withdrawn to their former position. Ordinarily but one hand is used, as in Fig. ”

“ From the dawn of the day to the dusk he toiled,
Shaping fanciful playthings, with tireless hands,—
Useless trumpery toys; and, with vaulting heart,
Gave them unto all peoples, who mocked at him,
Trampled on them, and soiled them, and went their way. ”

“ All the women knitted. They knitted worthless things; but, the mechanical work was a mechanical substitute for eating and drinking; the hands moved for the jaws and the digestive apparatus: if the bony fingers had been still, the stomachs would have been more famine-pinched. ”

“ The hands and feet, like the rest of the figure, have general forms only, without particular detail; the fingers and toes are flat, of equal thickness, little separated, and without distinction of the knuckles ”

“ The legs to be close together or one slightly advanced, in a position of rest. The arms can be carried either by locking hands behind the back, or in front, or they can be folded upon the chest; either way can be made to appear graceful. ”

“ The word hand has come to be often used in a symbolic sense in many expressive phrases possessing a social and moral significance: "Take heed that the hand of the Lord does not fall upon you;" "Pilate washed his hands;" "to put oneself into another's hands;" ”

“ Here he shook hands with me: not in the common way, but standing at a good distance from me, and lifting my hand up and down like a pump handle, that he was a little afraid of. ”

“ In matters of less consequence they reckon with their fingers, by bending the little finger of the right hand close to the palm, and the other fingers in succession, proceeding to the left hand, concluding the calculation by clapping both the hands together ”

“ The handshake of some people makes you think of accident and sudden death. Contrast this ill-boding hand with the quick, skilful, quiet hand of a nurse whom I remember with affection because she took the best care of my teacher. ”

“ He sat looking down at his hands—his fine strong unscarred hands. Suddenly, and unreasonably he thought of another pair of hands—his mother’s—with the knuckles enlarged, the skin broken—expressive—her life written on them. Scars. She had them. ”

“ Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread
⁠Our eyes upon one double string.
So to engraft our hands, as yet
⁠Was all the means to make us one;
And pictures in our eyes to get
⁠Was all our propagation. ”

“ let me feel, that, amid the fearful agitations of the world, there are pure hands, with healthful, even pulse, stretched out toward me, if I claim their grasp. ”

“ He could have flung his arms about her hips and held her still, for his arms were trembling with desire to seize her and only the stress of his nails against the palms of his hands held the wild impulse of his body in check. ”

“ A great light, growing larger and larger every moment, began to shine in upon the dark places of the East End. It was as though some great lighthouse of God had been built by living hands, growing rapidly, like some building in a fairy story, and flooding this part of London with radiance. And in the height of the tower, directing the unflagging rays of hope, was Frederick Nicholas Charrington. ”

“ they say fingers were made before forks, and hands before knives. ”

“ Then again, in the human body the central point is naturally the navel. For if a man be placed flat on his back, with his hands and feet extended, and a pair of compasses centred at his navel, the fingers and toes of his two hands and feet will touch the circumference of a circle described therefrom. ”

“ But the washing of hands is a symbol that ye ought to be pure from all sinful and unlawful deeds; for since the hands are a symbol of action, by washing [5] them, it is evident, we represent the purity and blamelessness of our conduct. Didst thou not hear the blessed David opening this very mystery, and saying, I will wash my hands in innocency, and so will compass Thine Altar, O Lord [6] ? The washing therefore of hands is a symbol of immunity [7] from sin.
3. Then the Deacon cries aloud, “Receive ye one another; and let us kiss one another [8] .” ”