The British Naturalist, 61 



ones would show that they see not far into futurity, for they generally 

 come forth only to be destroyed. They come in consequence of the good 

 weather which precedes their appearance, and they know no more of the 

 future than a stone does. Man knows of to-morrow only as a rational 

 being ; and were it not that he reasons from experience and analogy, he 

 would have no ground for saying that the sun of to-day is to set. The 

 early leaf and the early blossom of this spring may be a consequence of the 

 fine weather of last autumn, which ripened the wood or forwarded the 

 bud ; and the early insect may be evidence that the winter has been mild : 

 but not one of these, or any thing connected with plants or animals, taken 

 in itself, throws light upon one moment of the future ; and for once to 

 suppose that it does, is to reverse the order of cause and effect, and put 

 an end to all philosophy — to all common sense. 



" And are we to draw no conclusions from the phenomena of plants and 

 animals, which have been popular prognostics of the weather from time 

 immemorial ; not from the face-washing of the cat, or the late roosting of 

 the rook, which have been signs infallible time out of mind ? No, not a 

 jot from the conduct of the animals themselves; unless we admit that 

 cats and crows have got the keeping and command of the weather. These 

 actions of theirs, and very many (perhaps all) phenomena of plants and 

 animals are produced by certain existing states of the weather; and it is 

 for man to apply his observation, and find out by what other states these 

 are followed. The cat does not wash her face because it is to rain to- 

 morrow ; that, in the first place, would be " throwing philosophy to the 

 cats ; '* and, in the next place, it would be doing so to marvellously little 

 purpose, inasmuch as, if puss were thus informed of the future, she would 

 only have to wait a day in order to get a complete washing without any 

 labour or trouble. When the cat performs the operation alluded to, it is 

 a proof that the present state of the atmosphere affects her skin in a way 

 that is disagreeable, and the washing is her mode of relief; and, in as far 

 as the cat is concerned, that is an end to the matter. Man, however, may 

 take it up, and if he finds that in all cases, or in the great majority of 

 cases, this happens only before rain, he is warranted in concluding that the 

 state of the atmosphere which impresses this action upon the cat is also 

 the state which precedes rain ; and that in the cases where the rain does 

 not follow, there has been a subsequent atmospheric change, which is also 

 worthy of his study. 



" What it is in this case, and whether connected with the little action 

 in the fur of the animal by which electricity can be excited, we shall not 

 enquire; but in the late roosting of the crows [rooks?] the cause is ap- 

 parent : they feed upon larvae and earth-worms ; these, especially the latter, 

 come most abroad in the evenings before rain ; and, as most animals 

 gorge themselves where food is easily found, there is no reason why rooks 

 should not follow the general law. 



" These familiar instances have been noticed in order to point out how 

 apt we are to miss the lesson that nature would give, and break down the 

 fabric of philosophy, by giving a purpose and a prescience of the future to 

 that which cannot reason." (p. 86 — 89.) 



Allusion is made again to the same subject at p. 240. : — 



" The appearance and first song of birds are, like all other seasonal, 

 phenomena, part of the history of the year, and of value retrospectively 

 in telling what has been, though not of the smallest use in telling what is 

 to be." 



There are few greater impediments to the progress of 

 knowledge and the discovery of truth, than an implicit re- 



