626 I'HILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO i775. 



a sort of morning* come on with the rising or setting of any particular star. 

 And it will be of the highest importance to attend particularly to the 1 quater- 

 nions of the expiring and the incipient month-|- [that is to the last 4 days of the 

 month going out, and the first 4 of that which is setting in] , for they comprize 

 the extremities of the 1 months, where they meet : and the weather [or the 

 state of the air] is then particularly uncertain [difficult to guess at] for 8 nights, 

 for want of the silver-coloured moon. If you attend to all these put together, 

 all through the year, you will never form a random guess about the weather." 

 The uncertainty of the weather for these 8 nights cannot be an uncertainty of 

 the effect depending on the moon's aspect ; but it is an uncertainty of fore- 

 knowledge, the poet speaks of, for want of the moon as an index. For though 

 the word a-^aXEfwTarof by itself would be ambiguous, as it might be taken either 

 in the sense of J'urop^arof or £u,a£TaSx>iTof, the words ;^iit£i j^a^oTroro a-ix-^i-^; are 

 decisive for the first interpretation. The moon exists during these 8 months as 

 at other times. There is no want of her therefore as a physical agent : the only 

 want there can be, is the want of her appearance. It would be unpardonable 

 not to mention, that so great an authority as that of Theophrastus is against 

 the side of the question to which I incline. The doctrine of the influence of 

 lunar aspect is expressly asserted in his Treatise on the Signs of Rain and Wind. 

 He says, that the new moon is generally a time of bad weather, because the 

 light of the moon is wanting ,^ and that the changes of the weather generally 



* Such a sort of morning. — That is, a morning marked with such or such appearances. So I 

 understand t«» «»«. The spirit of the precept seems to be, tliat the heliacal risings of the stars are 

 to be attended to, in conjunction with the particular appearances attending the dawn or sun-rise. 

 The heliacal risings show the season, or general constitution of the time of tlie year ; the particular 

 appearances of the morning indicate the minute circumstances of the weather for 2 or 3 days to come. 

 Thus the heliacal rising of Arcturus was a sign, in all the ancient parapegms, tliat the stormy season 

 was at hand, and bad weather of various sorts, rain, thunder, high wind, was to be expected ; but 

 what the particular weather would be for a day or two to come, whether it would be only windy, or 

 wet, with thunder or without, from what quarter the bad weather would come, all this would be 

 pre-signified by the particular appearances of the morning. Perhaps the same appearance may be 

 subject to some variety of interpretation at different seasons of the year, and in different places. In 

 this, experience and observation will be the only sure guides. And for this reason Aratus advises his 

 scholar, not only to attend to the general rules laid down for him, but to keep a journal for himself, 

 and make his own conclusions. — Orig. 



+ And it will be of the highest importance to attend to, &c. /miAk ^' ufxiey un <Pfu^iu-6»t. I have 

 sometimes thought these words might be rendered thus : " This will be of great importance [that 

 is, this joint observation of the general indications of season and of particular prognostics will be of 

 great importance] in order to form a conjecture about the two quaternions, &c." This interpretation 

 would make the most connected meaning for the whole passage ; but I do not recollect, nor can I 

 find on the strictest search, any instance, wherein the verb (pfxt^trSxi is used in the sense of con- 

 jecturing, or forming a judgment or opinion about. — Orig. 



J Aio xai a! vwo^u ran fjuiffit ;(;"/*'?'»' •lO'ic. iVi iTtMitrfi xo ^Sf t« s-iA^riK, &C. Tbeophrast. 



de signis Pluv. p. 417. Edit. Heins.— Orig. 



