WAYS AND MEANS 



is only room here to express a doubt that the 

 result would accord very well with certain 

 classic lists. 



A pocket aneroid, and a smattering of 

 meteorology, give to life a new interest 

 that blossoms into a cherished hobby. 

 Every hour something falls to be observed 

 that will start a deductive or inductive 

 train. The field of atmospheric reaction 

 upon men, animals, birds, fishes, insects, 

 lies broad before one. Numberless saws 

 and sayings may be assigned their place in 

 ordered scheme, or traced into the twilight 

 of sacred myth or secular fable. Weather 

 signs, both local and universal, ask to be 

 fitted in with laws, or with those habits of 

 the air to which our ignorance is unable to 

 award the dignity of law. The whole 

 meteoric array takes on new meanings, — 

 suggests problems the more intriguing be- 

 cause the answers affect our movements 

 and concern our welfare. Glancing at 

 this pursuit, — all that is permitted to one 

 who is upon an enquiry as to what a man 

 shall eat and wherewithal he shall be 

 clothed — I leave it with a query rather 

 than an affirmation: are not the critical 

 hours of the twenty-four in summer-time — 

 when change or intensification of weather 

 239 



