How to Analyze People on Sight. Elsie Lincoln Benedict

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      Learning to Read

       If this sounds impossible, if the seeming incongruity, multiplicity

      and heterogeneity of human qualities have baffled you, remember that

      this is exactly how the print in all books and newspapers baffled you

      before you learned to read.

      Not long ago I was reading stories aloud to a three-year old. She wanted

      to "see the pictures," and when told there were none had to be shown the

      book.

      "What funny little marks!" she cried, pointing to the print. "How do you

      get stories out of them?"

      Printing looked to all of us at first just masses of meaningless little

      marks.

      But after a few days at school how things did begin to clear up! It

      wasn't a jumble after all. There was something to it. It straightened

      itself out until the funny little marks became significant. Each of them

      had a meaning and the same meaning under all conditions. Through them

      your whole outlook on life became deepened and broadened--all because

      you learned the meaning of twenty-six little letters and their

      combinations!

      Reading People

       Learning to read men and women is a more delightful process than

      learning to read books, for every person you see is a true story, more

      romantic and absorbing than any ever bound in covers.

      Learning to read people is also a simpler process than learning to read

      books because there are fewer letters in the human alphabet. Though man

      seems to the untrained eye a mystifying mass of "funny little marks," he

      is not now difficult to analyze.

      Only a Few Feelings

       This is because there are after all but a few kinds of human feelings.

      Some form of hunger, love, hate, fear, hope or ambition gives rise to

      every human emotion and every human thought.

      Thoughts Bring Actions

       Now our actions follow our thoughts. Every thought, however

      transitory, causes muscular action, which leaves its trace in that part

      of the physical organism which is most closely allied to it.

      Physiology and Psychology Interwoven

       Look into the mirror the next time you are angry, happy, surprised,

      tired or sorrowful and note the changes wrought by your emotions in your

      facial muscles.

      Constant repetition of the same kinds of thoughts or emotions finally

      makes permanent changes in that part of the body which is

      physiologically related to these mental processes.

      The Evolution of the Jaw

       The jaw is a good illustration of this alliance between the mind and

      the body. Its muscles and bones are so closely allied to the pugnacity

      instinct center in the brain that the slightest thought of combat causes

      the jaw muscles to stiffen. Let the thought of any actual physical

      encounter go through your mind and your jaw bone will automatically move

      upward and outward.

      After a lifetime of combat, whether by fists or words, the jaw sets

      permanently a little more upward and outward--a little more like that of

      the bulldog. It keeps to this combative mold, "because," says Mother

      Nature, the great efficiency expert, "if you are going to call on me

      constantly to stiffen that jaw I'll fix it so it will stay that way and

      save myself the trouble."

      Inheritance of Acquired Traits

       Thus the more combative jaw, having become permanent in the man's

      organism, can be passed on to his children.

       Right here comes a most interesting law and one that has made possible

      the science of Human Analysis:

      Law of Size

       _The larger any part or organ the better its equipment for carrying

      out the work of that organ and the more does it tend to express itself._

      Nature IS an efficiency expert and doesn't give you an oversupply of

      anything without demanding that you use it.

      Jaws Becoming Smaller

       Our ancestors developed massive jaws as a result of constant combat.

      As fast as civilization decreased the necessity for combat Nature

      decreased the size of the average human jaw.

      Meaning of the Big Jaw

       But wherever you see a large protruding jaw you see an individual

      "armed and engined," as Kipling says, for some kind of fighting. The

      large jaw always goes with a combative nature, whether it is found on a

      man or a woman, a child, a pugilist or a minister.

      Exhibit A--The Irishman

       The large jaw, therefore, is seen to be both a result and a cause of

      certain things. As the inheritance of a fighting ancestor it is the

      result of millions of years of fighting in prehistoric times, and, like

      any other over-developed part or organ, it has an intense urge to

      express itself. This inherent urge is what makes the owner of that jaw

      "fight СКАЧАТЬ