was too rare and costly to be used by the great bulk of the population, the practice of reading the tea-leaves doubtless descends from the somewhat similar form of divination known to the Greeks as “_{~Greek small letter Kappa~}{~Greek small letter omicron~}{~Greek small letter Tau~}{~Greek small letter Alpha~}{~Greek small letter Beta~}{~Greek small letter omicron~}{~Greek small letter final Sigma~}_” by which fortune in love was discovered by the particular splash made by wine thrown out of a cup into a metal basin.  A few spae-wives still practise this method by throwing out the tea-leaves into the saucer, but the reading of the symbols as they are originally formed in the cup is undoubtedly the better method.

Any person after a study of this book and by carefully following the principles here laid down may with practice quickly learn to read the horary fortunes that the tea-leaves foretell.  It should be distinctly understood, however, that tea-cup fortunes are only horary, or dealing with the events of the hour or the succeeding twenty-four hours at furthest.  The immediately forthcoming events are those which cast their shadows, so to speak, within the circle of the cup.  In this way the tea-leaves may be consulted once a day, and many of the minor happenings of life foreseen with considerable accuracy, according to the skill in discerning the symbols and the intuition required to interpret them which may be possessed by the seer.  Adepts like the Highland peasant-women can and do foretell events that subsequently occur, and that with remarkable accuracy.  Practice and the acquirement of a knowledge of the signification of the various symbols is all that is necessary in order to become proficient and to tell one’s fortune and that of one’s friends with skill and judgment.

There is, of course, a scientific reason for all forms of divination practised without hope or promise of reward.  Each person carries in himself his own Destiny.  Events do not happen to people by chance, but are invariably the result of some past cause.  For instance, in the last years a man becomes a soldier who had never intended to pursue a military career.  This does not happen to him by chance, but because of the prior occurrence of la European war in which his country was engaged.  The outbreak of war is similarly the result of other causes, none of which happened by chance, but were founded by still remoter occurrences.  It is the same with the Future.  That which a person does today as a result of something that happened in the past, will in its turn prove the cause of something that will happen at some future date.  The mere act of doing something today sets in motion forces that in process of time will inevitably bring about some entirely unforeseen event.