Harper's New Monthly Magazine,  7 (1883–84), 722–31.

Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton

C Kegan Paul

Genre:

Essay, Biography

Subjects:

Astrology, Astronomy, Evolution, Heredity, Prognostication, Supernaturalism


    Reveals that the 'belief in chiromancy and astrology' was an 'interest which colored so much of Bulwer's later life', and suggests that on 'these two studies, which have always had and still have earnest followers, it would seem that modern science ought to have very different effects. The stars in space must surely be less and less held to have direct influence on man, a mere atom in the vast, a speck on a world which is as a grain of dust among the worlds. But as the kindred doctrines of evolution and heredity become more and more accepted, it will surely be more evident that every shade of character is stamped on the physical form, and this, rightly examined and deciphered, will give the key to character'. Insists that this 'again affects in some degree the actions of man, and as truest prophecy is the right interpretation of the past, so will the future of any man be foretold in some degree by the correct understanding of ancestral characters impressed on bodily form, and most easily seen [...] in the lines of the hand'. Also notes that 'Readers of the novels will call to mind the many allusions to occult sciences'. (728).



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