THE CLIMATE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 261 



world s history it is climate. It includes, says Hum- 

 boldt, all those modifications of the atmosphere by 

 which our organs are affected such as temperature, 

 humidity, variations of barometric pressure, its tran 

 quillity or subjection to foreign winds, its purity or 

 admixture with gaseous exhalations, and its ordinary 

 transparency that clearness of sky so important through 

 its influence, not only on the radiation of heat from the 

 soil, the development of organic tissue and the ripening 

 of fruits, but also on the outflow of moral sentiments in 

 the different races I do not propose, however, to deal 

 with the constitution of the climate of Great Britain 

 under this general view. To do so, indeed, would require 

 somewhat more space than can in this volume be con 

 veniently allotted to a single subject. I wish chiefly 

 to consider the subject of temperature (mean annual 

 and extreme winter or summer temperature) ; though 

 I shall have a few words to say respecting that feature 

 of our climate which most foreigners consider to be its 

 chief defect the want of transparency or clearness in 

 our skies as compared with those of some other European 

 countries. 



The mean annual temperature of a country is less 

 important to the welfare of the inhabitants than the 

 extreme range of temperature exhibited in the course 

 of the year. Of two countries which have the same 

 mean annual temperature, one may have a climate 

 most admirably adapted to the welfare of its inhabit 

 ants, while the other may have a climate offering such 

 fierce and violent extremes of heat and cold that its 



