HOW TO
ANALYZE PEOPLE
ON SIGHT

WE THANK YOU

To the following men and women we wish to express our appreciation for their share in the production of this book:

To Duren J. H. Ward, Ph. D.,
formerly of the Anthropology Department of Harvard University, who,
as the discoverer of the fourth human type, has added immeasurably
to the world's knowledge of human science.

To Raymond H. Lufkin,
of Boston, who made the illustrations for this volume
scientifically accurate.

To The Roycrofters,
of East Aurora, whose artistic workmanship made it into a thing of
beauty.

And last but not least,

To Sarah H. Young,
of San Francisco, our Business Manager, whose efficiency correlated
all these and placed the finished product in the hands of our
students.

THE AUTHORS

New York City,
June, 1921

DEDICATED
TO
OUR STUDENTS

What Leading Newspapers Say About Elsie Lincoln Benedict and Her Work

"Over fifty thousand people heard Elsie Lincoln Benedict at the City Auditorium during her six weeks lecture engagement in Milwaukee."—Milwaukee Leader, April 2, 1921.

"Elsie Lincoln Benedict has a brilliant record. She is like a fresh breath of Colorado ozone. Her ideas are as stimulating as the health-giving breezes of the Rockies."—New York Evening Mail, April 16, 1914.

"Several hundred people were turned away from the Masonic Temple last night where Elsie Lincoln Benedict, famous human analyst, spoke on 'How to Analyze People on Sight.' Asked how she could draw and hold a crowd of 3,000 for a lecture, she said: 'Because I talk on the one subject on earth in which every individual is most interested—himself.'"—Seattle Times, June 2, 1920.

"Elsie Lincoln Benedict is a woman who has studied deeply under genuine scientists and is demonstrating to thousands at the Auditorium each evening that she knows the connection between an individual's external characteristics and his inner traits."—Minneapolis News, November 7, 1920.

"Elsie Lincoln Benedict is known nationally, having conducted lecture courses in many of the large Eastern cities. Her work is based upon the practical methods of modern science as worked out in the world's leading laboratories where exhaustive tests are applied to determine individual types, talents, vocational bents and possibilities."—San Francisco Bulletin, January 25, 1919.

It's not
how much you
know but what
you can
DO
that counts

Human Analysis—The X-Ray

Modern science has proved that the fundamental traits of every individual are indelibly stamped in the shape of his body, head, face and hands—an X-ray by which you can read the characteristics of any person on sight.

he most essential thing in the world to any individual is to understand himself. The next is to understand the other fellow. For life is largely a problem of running your own car as it was built to be run, plus getting along with the other drivers on the highway.

From this book you are going to learn which type of car you are and the main reasons why you have not been getting the maximum of service out of yourself.

Also you are going to learn the makes of other human cars, and how to get the maximum of co-operation out of them. This co-operation is vital to happiness and success. We come in contact with our fellowman in all the activities of our lives and what we get out of life depends, to an astounding degree, on our relations with him.

Reaction to Environment

The greatest problem facing any organism is successful reaction to its environment. Environment, speaking scientifically, is the sum total of your experiences. In plain United States, this means fitting vocationally, socially and maritally into the place where you are.[Pg 12]

If you don't fit you must move or change your environment to fit you. If you can't change the environment and you won't move you will become a failure, just as tropical plants fail when transplanted to the Nevada desert.

Learn From the Sagebrush

But there is something that grows and keeps on growing in the Nevada desert—the sagebrush. It couldn't move away and it couldn't change its waterless environment, so it did what you and I must do if we expect to succeed. It adapted itself to its environment, and there it stands, each little stalwart shrub a reminder of what even a plant can do when it tries!

Moving Won't Help Much

Human life faces the same alternatives that confront all other forms of life—of adapting itself to the conditions under which it must live or becoming extinct. You have an advantage over the sagebrush in that you can move from your city or state or country to another, but after all that is not much of an advantage. For though you may improve your situation slightly you will still find that in any civilized country the main elements of your problem are the same.

Understand Yourself and Others

So long as you live in a civilized or thickly populated community you will still need to understand your own nature and the natures of other people. No matter what you desire of life, other people's aims, ambitions and activities[Pg 13] constitute vital obstructions along your pathway. You will never get far without the co-operation, confidence and comradeship of other men and women.

Primitive Problems

It was not always so. And its recentness in human history may account for some of our blindness to this great fact.