A very interesting statement of one of our contemporaries is that any person, to one degree or another, is both a psychologist and a philosopher - they say, life forces him to. On the one hand, the main driving force of every person is the craving for knowledge, the desire to reach certain social heights, the desire to be wise in any everyday situations - and this is the philosophy of life. How to Analyze People on Sight by Elsie Lincoln Benedict (best contemporary novels txt) 📖
- Author: Elsie Lincoln Benedict
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The Straight-Laced
¶ None of these things "just happened." They are the result of the law of cause and effect. The connection between external and internal traits is becoming clearer every day and reveals some very unexpected things.
One that has been discovered very recently is that the straight-faced are the straight-laced. Notice for yourself and you will find that every person who is really "straight-laced" is a person with a straight face—that is, a face with straighter up-and-down lines than the average.
Think back over those you have known who come under this heading and you will find no actually round-faced people amongst them.
No matter how sanctimonious, religious or correct a person may act when his position or the occasion demands it, if he has a round, "moon" face he is not really straight-laced at heart. Any one who knows him well enough to know his real nature will tell you so.
¶ The "born Puritan," the ascetic, and the naturally conventional person is, on the other hand, invariably an individual of more severe facial outlines.
This person may be in an unconventional position; your straight-faced, severe-lined person may be a gambler, a boot-legger, or follow any other line defying the conventions; but he is at heart a conservative after all. For instance, you will always find, when you know him, that he does things in a way that is very conventional to him. That is, he has decided standards, rules, habits and requirements, and he clings rigidly to them in the transaction of his business, regardless of how lax the business itself may be.
"A certain way of doing things" means as much to him, at heart, as it means little to the circular-faced people.
¶ "A place for everything and everything in its place" is a rule preached and practised by people of this type.
The Osseous person does not mislay his things. He knows so well where they are that he can "go straight to them in the dark." Such a man is careful of his tools and keeps his work-bench or desk "shipshape." A woman of this type is an excellent housekeeper. Her sewing basket, dresser drawers and pantry shelves are all systematically arranged in apple-pie order.
The typical New England housewife, who washes on Mondays, irons on Tuesdays and bakes on Saturdays for forty years, is a direct descendant of the Puritans, most of whom belong to this bony, pioneering type.
¶ Extremely Osseous people are inclined to be somewhat formal in their movements. They make fewer motions than any other type. They do not wave their hands or arms about when talking and are almost devoid of gesticulation of any kind. They sit upright instead of slumping down in their chairs, except when tall and lanky, and usually prefer "straight-backs" to rockers.
¶ The extremely raw-boned person has also a formal gait. His walk, like all his other movements, is inclined to be deliberate and somewhat mechanical.
¶ Nothing about the five types is more interesting than the walk which distinguishes each. The Alimentive undulates or rolls along; the Thoracic is an impulsive walker, and the Muscular is forceful in his walk. But the Osseous walks mechanically, deliberately, and refuses to hurry or speed up.
¶ The Osseous has more natural poise than any other type.
He is not impressionable, excitable or arousable. Things do not "stir him up" as they do other people. He is more self-contained, self-controlled and self-sufficient than any other. He is not easily carried off his feet and seldom yields to impulse. It is difficult to get him to do anything on the spur of the moment. He usually has his evenings, Sundays and vacations all planned in advance and won't change his schedule.
¶ Literally as well as figuratively the Osseous is not a man of "nerves." Every fiber of his being is less susceptible to outside stimuli than that of other types. In this he is the exact opposite of the Thoracic whose nerves, as we have pointed out, are so finely organized that he is hypersensitive.
¶ Osseous people do not change anything, from their hair dress to their minds, any oftener than necessary. When they do, it is for what they consider overpoweringly good reasons.
These people are not flighty. They have their work, their time and their lives laid out systematically and do not allow trivialities to upset them. They take a longer time to deliberate on a proposed line of action, but once they have made a decision, adhere to it with much greater tenacity than any other type.
¶ People of this type are not fickle nor flirtatious. They love few; but once having become enamored are not easily turned aside. It is this type that remains true to one love through many years, sometimes for life.
¶ The Osseous are not prone to sudden outbursts of temper. But they have the unbending kind when it is aroused.
Never forgiving and never forgetting is a trait of these people as contrasted with the Thoracic.
The Alimentive avoids those he does not like and forgets them because it is too much bother to hate; the Thoracic flames up one moment and forgives the next; the Muscular takes it out in a fight then and there, or argues with you about it.
But the Osseous despises, hates and loathes—and keeps on for years after every one else has forgotten all about it. The "rock-bound Puritan" type, as stony as the New England land from which it gets its living, is always bony. The implacable father who turns his child away from home, with orders "never to darken his door again," always has a lot of bone in his structure. Those who refuse to be softened into forgiveness by the years are always of this type.
¶ It is difficult for the Osseous to "fit in." He is not adaptable and in this is once again the opposite of the Thoracic. It is impossible for him to adjust himself quickly to people or places.
Because he is unyielding, unbending and unadjustable he is called "sot in his ways."
He should not be misjudged for this inadaptability, however, for it is as natural to him as smoothness is to the Alimentive and impulsiveness to the Thoracic. He is made that way and is no more to blame for it than you are for having brown eyes instead of blue.
¶ "Single-track minds" are characteristic of this type. They get an idea or an attitude and it is there to stay. They think the same things for many years and follow a few definite lines of action most of their lives.
But it is to be remembered in this connection that this type often accomplishes more through his intensive concentration than more versatile types. While they follow many by-paths in search of their goal the Osseous sticks to the main track.
¶ "This one thing I do," is a motto of the Osseous. They are the least versatile of any type and do not like to jump from one kind of work to another.
They prefer to do one thing at a time, do it well and finish it before starting anything else. Because of this the Osseous stars in specialities.
¶ The man who likes many irons in the fire is never an Osseous. To have more than one problem before him at one time makes him irritable, upset and exasperated.
¶ The unchangingness which handicaps the Osseous in so many ways is responsible for one very admirable trait. That trait is dependability.
The Osseous is reliable. He can be taken at his word more often than any other type, for he lives up to it with greater care.
¶ When an Osseous person says, "I will meet you at four o'clock at the corner of Main and Market," he will arrive at Main and Market at four o'clock. He will not come straggling along, nor plead interruptions, nor give excuses. He will be on the exact spot at the exact hour.
In this he is again a contrast to the first two types. An Alimentive man will roll into the offing at a quarter, or more likely, a half hour past the time, smilingly apologize and be so naive you forgive and let it go at that.
The Thoracic will arrive anywhere from five after four to six o'clock, drown you in a thrilling narrative of just how it all happened, and never give you a chance to voice your anger till he has smoothed it all out of you.
¶ But the Osseous is disdainful of such tactics and you had better beware of using them on him. He is dependable himself and demands it of others—a little trait all of us have regarding our own particular virtues.
¶ Responsibility, if it does not entail too many different kinds of thought and work, is enjoyed by the Osseous.
He can be given a task, a job, a position and he will attend to it. Entrust him with a commission of any kind, from getting you a certain kind of thread to discovering the North Pole, and he will come pretty near carrying it out, if he undertakes it.
If an Osseous decides to do a piece of work for you you can go ahead and forget all about it. No need to advise, urge, watch, inspire, coax and cajole him to keep him at it. He prefers to keep at a thing if he starts it himself. You may have to hurry him but you will not have to watch him in order to know he is sticking to his task. This type starts few things but he brings those few to a pretty successful conclusion.
¶ "Died for a cause" has been said of many people, but those people have in every known instance been possessed of a larger-than-average bony structure.
¶ The pure Alimentive seldom troubles his head about causes. The Thoracic is the type that lives chiefly for the pleasure of the moment and the adventures of life. The Muscular fights hard and works hard for various movements.
But it is the Osseous who dies for his beliefs.
It is the Osseous or one who is largely of this type who languishes in prison through long years, refusing to retract.
He is enabled to do this because the ostracism, jibes and criticism with which other types are finally cowed, have little effect upon him. On the contrary, opposition of any kind whets his determination and makes him keep on harder than ever.
¶ "If you want him to do a thing, tell him to do the opposite," is a well-known rule supposed to work with certain kinds of people.
You have wondered why it sometimes worked and sometimes didn't, but it is no mystery to the student of Human Analysis.
When it worked, the person you tried it on was an Osseous or one largely osseous in type; and when it didn't he was of some other type.
"Contrary?" complained a man of a bony neighbor recently, "Contrary is his middle name."
"I am open to conviction but I would like to see the man who could convince me!" is always said by a man whose type you will be sure to recognize.
¶ "I don't know what it is but I'm against it,"
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