108 ABOUT THE WEATHER. 



on the adoption of certain forms of apparel; how taste 

 seizes on certain forms which have thus originated, alters 

 them to suit its own purposes, and, in the end, caprice 

 enters the field, and by its whimsical interference, calls 

 forth the motley variety, which always pleases the eye, save- 

 where sated sense and depraved taste have produced 

 manifest ugliness. The same holds good of the weather, 

 and the more that nothing actually so deeply affects our 

 bodily and mental life as this. Who can say his health is 

 absolutely sound, when he thinks of the complicated nature 

 of the vital processes ? Need I point to the influences of 

 the weather on those whose health is imperfect ; how 

 dependent all those affected with chronic diseases are for 

 their comfort on the condition of the weather ? Every one 

 knows the old proverb, " Man is his own calendar ;" the 

 continually annoying sensations in a diseased joint, a wound, 

 or the surface of an amputated limb, even when the indi- 

 vidual is otherwise perfectly healthy, indicating the 

 changes occurring in the weather. The nerves stretching 

 out in all directions through the body, as so many 

 feelers of the mind, often give us more accurate and 

 earlier intelligence of the changes, than the eye which 

 perceives the phenomena only after they have visibly 

 commenced. And, on account of these very nerves, we 

 cannot but believe that even healthy persons are always 

 open to the influence of the weather. It may, indeed, 

 be demanded of every man that he shall oppose these 

 imperceptible operations by his will ; that he shall not 

 allow them any influence over his thoughts and labours ; 

 but whoever disowns this operation of the weather upon 

 him, upon the feeling of pleasure or discomfort, upon 

 health and strength, or dejection and debility, I must 

 either accuse of insincerity or imperfect observation, or 



