Also called: Benham's four grades · Firmness of the hand

Where on the hand: Tested across the whole palm, and separately on each mount, by pressing gently with the thumb and watching how the flesh responds.

What it looks like: Four grades by how the flesh answers pressure: flabby (dents and stays dented), soft (yields but springs back slowly), elastic (springy, returns at once), hard (resists all pressure).

Consistency measures the quantity and quality of physical energy — how much force a person has, and whether it is intelligently directed. It is the single measurement that decides whether a high mount is an active force or a latent one.

Western reading: Benham's four grades — flabby, soft, elastic, hard — are the standard Western scale, with elastic as the ideal.

Read with care: Benham's verdict that the flabby hand cannot be improved is a deterministic claim of the tradition; note that even he treats the soft hand as fully improvable.

The hand of one who dreams, but does not act.Benham