On Chiromancy

When the vital power is weak, it produces a line that is likewise thin, weak, and sometimes broken. But when the power itself is both strong and of a good complexion, it produces the said line long, broad, and disposed with a good color. When the line of the heart is long and broad, it denotes a vital power of immense vigor; the opposite when it is minute and short. It is also necessary that this line be continuous and not discontinuous. For its very disjunction proceeds from the blood, which is the proper cause that vivifies the heart and the other members. Therefore, they signify proportion and temperament in the humors; and although the line of the heart might be huge, thick, and discontinuous, it signifies that the vital power had been strong in the beginning, yet that in the process of time it had failed due to an intemperance of the blood and humors. It is necessary, therefore, that it have a due proportion in distance and proximity to the line of the liver, or [line] of prosperity—that is, it must neither be too close nor too remote. For if it were excessively remote, it signifies that the liver is removed from the heart in its nature, nor does it have the due agreement with it, and the blood which is generated by the liver does not at all meet in its proportion for the nourishment of the heart itself. But if it were too close, it designates a great multitude of blood that will easily suffocate the heart's heat. Therefore, those two lines ought to be moderately distant. Nor should it be ignored that if it were short, slender, and pale, it indicates a weakness of the stomach and liver, and a defect of natural heat in the liver. Wherefore, the blood generated by it will not be of sufficient nourishment for the whole body. We must conclude, therefore, that in a man who is to have a long life...