THE STORM CENTER AND WEATHER PROPHETS. 753 
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live here without the two in at least fair proportions to retain such a balance of 
heat and cold, dryness and moisture, as is essential to human life. _ So the forces 
of nature, like the artificial forces, developed by civilized man, act and re-act 
upon each other. Let a few persons establish themselves in acertain spot, others 
follow in order to meet the demands of trade, supplies, and even luxuries. Their 
demands as individuals and as a settlement increases as the settlement grows. 
Nature works on a similar plan. Take an arid country—too dry and suddenly 
tempestuous for habitation; civilization advances to it. The railroad passing 
through it develops a capacity to retain heat; some humanitarian, like the man 
who planted the acres of pinesalong the desert wastes of Cape Cod,)in -Massa- 
chusetts,some man with an eye to the future, starts a few trees, and perhaps, at great 
expense, an Artesian well, or conducts water from some distant and more favored 
locality ; it may be for his own selfish gain, yet he cannot enjoy his gain alone; 
indeed his gain becomes greater as others enjoy it with him; he andhis neighbors 
act and re-act upon each other. This little water, this railroad, these few trees, 
are the nucleus. Other similar things follow and act and re-act upon each other, 
and teach the lesson and wisdom of the benefits to man, individually and collec- 
tively, by generosity, combination and the bringing together of natural forces, and 
how one set of natural forces may, to the great advantage of man, be made to 
neutralize another set, and that with advanced civilization come even blessings 
that we little dreamed of, and reveal to us what a generous thing nature is if we 
will only court her in a becoming manner. She is ever more ready to give than 
we to receive, if we will only have the wisdom to deal with her as we should. 
Nothing more than this teaches man, or more strongly reveals to him the impor- 
tance of studying nature, and making himself familiar with the works of nature, 
and acting generously toward his fellow man. For we are so constituted that 
the more we elevate what is about us the more we elevate and benefit ourselves. 
It would seem that mere selfishness would prompt men to such acts, but the 
trouble with mere selfishness is that it is very short sighted, and works for the im- 
mediate present rather than the eternal future. He who acts for the immediate 
present is necessarily interested in ignorance, for his whole trust is in this ele- 
ment whether he be honest or deceptively pretentious. 
A person who pretends or is simple enough to think that he can figure out 
the weather, months in advance, is either ignorant himself of the laws which gov- 
ern the weather, or presumes that his fellows are, and perhaps both, and in either 
-case his dependence is in the ignorance of his fellow men rather than in their en- 
lightenment. . 
After January had passed and we had entered February, Mr. Vennor comes 
out with a card and-admits that the January thaw did not take place. He had 
made some miscalculation or other, and the thaw had been crowded out by the 
extreme cold. (!). 
If Mr. Vennor had known what caused the continued cold weather of De- 
cember and January, would it not seem natural that he should have informed the 
