50 METEOROLOG Y AND ETHICS [july 



utter to the meteorologists the almost proverbial cry of the men of 

 Macedonia — " Come over and help us." It is possible, however, that 

 there may be meteorologists wise enough, ignorant enough, and humble 

 enough to be assured through the medium of Natural Science that 

 their data have a profound bearing on Ethics. 



Our author tells us that " the modern science of Meteorology, 

 emerging from the mist and darkness of ignorant guess and surmise 

 has left its path strewn with many a shattered idol. Jupiter Tonans 

 the Thunderer, Pluvius the Bain-maker, and a hundred other weather- 

 gods were toppled from their lofty pedestals ages ago, while St. Swithin 

 and his two -score of saintly colleagues, whose days dominated the 

 weather for the rest of the year, have been quite as surely if more 

 recently dethroned by the delicate instruments and skilful calculations 

 of the modern weather-man." But the dethroning is evidently to be 

 followed by an enthroning, and le roi qui vive is Weather. Quietly 

 but firmly it dominates us all, — how effectively, it is the business of 

 Mr. Dexter's essay to show. 



It is of course a familiar saying and saving -clause of the physician 

 that this or that is due to the weather, and he has accumulated here 

 and there no small basis for his platitude. But mental states, 

 especially emotional states, are affected, through the medium of the body, 

 by the conditions of the weather, and thus the connection between 

 meteorology and ethics is securely established. Indeed, it is generally 

 recognised, though its inductive elaboration has been hitherto neglected. 

 " There are many persons who are simply victims of the weather." " How 

 inconsiderate .are our friends when the east wind blows and the skies are 

 heavy." " How dangerously doubtful seems to-day the venture which 

 yesterday, in the bright sunlight, seemed certain of success." We have 

 already detected the influence of the weather in the pages of our journal. 



The poet as well as the physician has recognised the dominance of 

 weather- influence ; as hyperaesthete he feels it more keenly than 

 most ; as seer he has, as in so many other instances, the right of 

 priority over science in the discovery which Mr. Dexter expounds. 

 Although many may not accept the utterance as authoritative, it is of 

 interest to note Byron's remark — " I am always more religious on a sun- 

 shiny day." But even more convincing is Southey's complaint, made 

 during one of his visits to England after a long sojourn in Italy — " I 

 miss the sun in heaven, having been upon a short allowance of sun- 

 beams for the last ten days, and if the nervous fluid be the galvanic fluid, 

 and the galvanic fluid the electric fluid, and the electric fluid condensed 

 light, zounds ! what an effect must these vile, dark, rainy clouds have 

 upon a poor nervous fellow like me, whose brain has been in a state of 

 high illumination for the last fifteen months." Professor Dexter also 

 points out how the plot in Eomeo and Juliet hinges upon the weather. 

 What a wealth of meaning there was in Benvolio's apparently simple 

 remark — " The day is hot." 



