50° METEOROLOGY AND ETHICS [sULY 
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 Rain-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—*“TI 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—< TI 
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 fiuid, 
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 Romeo and Juliet hinges upon the weather. 
What a wealth of meaning there was in Benvolio’s apparently simple 
remark—* The day is hot.” 
