Attempts to Foretell the Weather. 107 



was the cause of the striking of city clocks, and he supported 

 his assertion by stating that it never rained in London for 

 sixty-five successive minutes without several clocks recording 

 the hour, we should admit his facts, but reject his hypothesis. 

 In like manner, the Lunarians and the Astro-meteorologists 

 may be often right in their assertion that certain events follow 

 each other; but, like the coincidence seeker just mentioned, 

 they may not take adequate account of the number of times in 

 which one of their alleged connected events occurs without the 

 appearance of the other. 



We know nothing of physical causes except by noticing 

 cases of what appear to be invariable and necessary sequence. 

 After a certain amount of experience we assume the invariability 

 and the necessity ; and we do so most readily when one set of 

 experiences is backed up and supported by other sets of expe- 

 riences. Thus watching for coincidences and sequences is a 

 necessary process of scientific discovery. If the Astro-meteoro- 

 logists did not make too much pretension, and evince too much 

 haste in propounding theories, their labours would be held in 

 much higher respect by scientific men. Inside their own circle 

 the faith may be absolute, but the outer world is apt to distrust 

 the investigation of men who start with the assumption that 

 they know all about the thing to be ascertained and proved. It 

 is also unfortunate that they talk about electrical actions when 

 they cannot refer to an ascertained electrical fact that supports 

 their hypothesis. In the earlier days of electrical science, every 

 unknown agency that did anything wonderful was supposed to 

 be electric. When spirit-rappers affirm that mahogany side- 

 boards walk across the room, certain of their believers suppose 

 electricity has endowed the furniture with locomotive powers ; 

 and a few years ago, when repeated fires broke out in a certain 

 house without apparent cause, electricity got the credit of the 

 incendiary deeds. In such ascriptions of all sorts of incidents 

 to the power of electricity there is nothing logical or scientific ; 

 and when any one, ignorant of the real physical cause of an 

 event, and not having traced any of the specific characters of 

 electrical action to be connected with it, still asserts that it is, or 

 may be electrical, we can only take such an expression as an 

 indication of running mentally wild. 



Captain Saxby is far more prudent than the Astro-meteoro- 

 logists, because he indulges in less unproved speculation and 

 baseless assertion. That the moon does affect our weather very 

 powerfully has been believed in all times, and the supposition is 

 highly probable. It must, however, be admitted that many 

 theories of lunar action have not been borne out by experience, 

 and doubts must be entertained whether any particular hypo- 

 thesis be true. The subject is well worth investigation by the 



