How to Analyze People on Sight. Elsie Lincoln Benedict
_way_ he
prefers to do it _most_ of the time. If you doubt it try this test:
bring to mind any intimate friends, or even that husband or wife, and
note how few changes they have made in their way of doing things in
twenty years!
Preferences Inborn
Every human being is born with preferences and predilections which
manifest themselves from earliest childhood to death. These inborn
tendencies are never obliterated and seldom controlled to any great
extent, and then only by individuals who have learned the power of the
mind over the body. Inasmuch as this knowledge is possessed by only a
few, most of the people of the earth are blindly following the dictates
of their inborn leanings.
Follow Our Bents
In other words, more than ninety-nine per cent of all the people you
know are following their natural bents in reacting to all their
experiences--from the most trivial incidents to the most far-reaching
emergencies.
"Took It" From Grandmother
The individual is seldom conscious of these habitual acts of his, much
less of where he got them. The nearest he comes is to say he "got it
from his father" or "she takes it from grandmother." But where did
grandmother get it?
Man No Mystery
Science has taken the trouble to investigate and today we know not only
where grandmother got it but what she did with it. She got it along with
her size, shape and structure--in other words, from her type--and she did
just what you and everybody else does with his type-characteristics. She
acted in accordance with her type just as a canary sings like a canary
instead of talking like a parrot, and just as a rose gives off rose
perfume instead of violet.
This law holds throughout every species and explains man--who likes to
think himself a deep mystery--as it explains every other creature.
The Hold of Habit
Look around you in shop, office, field or home and you will find that
the quick, alert, impulsive man is acting quickly, alertly and
impulsively most of the time. Nothing less than a calamity slows him
down and then only temporarily; while the slow, patient, mild and
passive individual is acting slowly, patiently, mildly and passively in
spite of all goads. Some overwhelming passion or crisis may speed him up
momentarily but as soon as it fades he reverts to his old slow habits.
Significance of Fat, Bone and Muscle
Human Analysis is the new science which shows you how to recognize the
slow man, the quick man, the stubborn man, the yielding man, the leader,
the learner, and all other basic kinds of men on sight from the shape,
size and structure of their bodies.
Certain bodily shapes indicate predispositions to fatness, leanness,
boniness, muscularity and nervousness, and this predisposition is so
much a part of the warp and woof of the individual that he can not
disguise it. The urge given him by this inborn mechanism is so strong as
to be practically irresistible. Every experience of his life calls
forth some kind of reaction and invariably the reaction will be
similar, in every vital respect, to the reactions of other people who
have bodies of the same general size, shape and structure as his own.
Succeed at What We Like
No person achieves success or happiness when compelled to do what he
naturally dislikes to do. Since these likes and dislikes stay with him
to the grave, one of the biggest modern problems is that of helping men
and women to discover and to capitalize their inborn traits.
Enthusiasm and Self-Expression
Every individual does best those things which permit him to act in
accordance with his natural bents. This explains why we like best those
things we do best. It takes real enthusiasm to make a success of any
undertaking for nothing less than enthusiasm can turn on a full current.
We struggle from the cradle to the grave for self-expression and
everything that pushes us in a direction opposed to our natural
tendencies is done half-heartedly, inefficiently and disgruntledly.
These are the steps that lead straight to failure. Yet failure can be
avoided and success approximated by every normal person if he will take
the same precaution with his own machinery that he takes with his
automobile.
Learn to Drive Your Car
If you were presented with a car by your ancestors--which is
precisely what happened to you at birth--you would not let an hour go by
without finding out what make or type of car it was. Before a week
elapsed you would have taken the time, labor and interest to learn how
to run it,--not merely any old way, but the _best_ way for that
particular make of car.
Five Makes of Human Cars
There are five makes or types of human cars, differing as definitely
in size, shape and structure as Fords differ from Pierce-Arrows. Each
human type differs as widely in its capacities, possibilities and
aptitudes as a Ford differs from a Pierce-Arrow. Like the Ford or Pierce
the externals indicate these functional differences with unfailing
accuracy. Furthermore just as a Ford never changes into a Pierce nor a
Pierce into a Ford, a human being never changes his type. He may modify
it, train it, polish it or control it somewhat, but he will never change
it.
Can Not be Deceived
The student of Human Analysis cannot be deceived as to the type of any
individual any more than you can be deceived about the make of a car.
One may "doll up" a Ford to his heart's content--remove the hood and top
and put on custom-made substitutes--it is still a Ford, always will be a
Ford and you can always detect that it is a Ford. It will do valuable,
necessary things but only those things it was designed to do and in its
own particular manner; nor could a Pierce act like a Ford.
Are You a Ford or a Pierce?
So it is with human cars. Maybe you have been awed by the jewels and
clothes