256 NATURAL HISTORY 



as shunning the sea air : but that conies not through any 

 averseness to them ; but sea winds, by reason of their hu 

 midity and thickness, are as it were more heavy and pon 

 derous. 



The Qualities and Powers of Winds. 



To the seventh, twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, thirtieth, and thirty-first articles. 



Connexion. 



Concerning the qualities and powers of winds men have 

 made careless and various observations : we will cull out 

 the most certain, and the rest, as too light, we will leave 

 to the winds themselves. 



1. With us the south wind is rainy, and the northern 

 wind clear and fair, the one gathers together and nourishes 

 the clouds ; the other scatters and casts them off. Where 

 fore the poets, when they speak of the deluge, feign the 

 northern wind at that time to be shut up in prison, and 

 the south wind to be sent out with very large commission. 



2. The west wind hath with us been held to be the wind 

 which blew in the golden age, the companion of a per 

 petual spring, and a cherisher of flowers. 



3. Paracelsus his scholars, when they sought for a place 

 for their three principles in Juno s temple also, which is 

 the air, placed three, but found no place for the east wind. 



They Mercury ascribe to the south winds, 

 To the rich western blasts the sulphur mines, 

 And rugged Boreas blasts the sad salt finds. 



4. But with us in England the east wind is thought to 

 be mischievous, so that it goes for a proverb, &quot; that when 

 the wind is in the east, it is neither good for man nor 

 beast.&quot; 



5. The south wind blows from the presence of the sun, 

 the north from the absence in our hemisphere. The east 

 wind in order to the motion of the air, the west wind from 

 the sea, the east wind from the continent, most commonly 

 in Europe and the western parts of Asia. These are the 

 most radical and essential differences of winds ; from which 

 truly and really depend most of the qualities and powers of 

 the winds. 



6. The south wind is not so anniversary or yearly, nor 

 so stayed as the northern wind is, but more wandering and 

 free ; and when it is stayed, it is so soft and mild that it 

 can scarcely be perceived. 



7. The south wind is lower, and more lateral, and blow- 



