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And thus you may discourse on any subject whatsoever; if you practice it often, you will soon learn to do it very quick, even faster than you can write.
How to know what o'Clock it is by the Hands and Fingers.
Take a small stick the length of the second finger: then hold this said stick very tight between the thumb and the right fore-finger; then stretch forth the hand, turn your back and the palm of your hand towards the sun, so that the shadow of the muscle, which is under the thumb, touch the line of life, which is the middle of the other two great lines which are seen in the palm of the hand; this done, the end of the shadow will show you what o’clock it is; for at the end of the middle finger it is seven in the morning, or five in the evening; at the end of the ring-finger it is eight in the morning, or four in the afternoon: the end of the little finger or first joint, it is nine in the morning, or three in the afternoon; ten and two at the second joint: eleven and one at the joint; and midday in
