NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON & COMPANY,
NOS. 346 & 348 BROADWAY.
1856.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by
T. B. BUTLER,
In the Clerks Office of the District Court of the District of Connecticut.
ELECTROTYPED BY
THOMAS B. SMITH,
82 & 84 Beekman Street.
PRINTED BY
J. F. TROW,
379 Broadway.
The atmospheric conditions and phenomena which constitute “The Weather”are of surpassing interest. Now, we rejoice in the genial air and warmrains of spring, which clothe the earth with verdure; in the alternatingheat and showers of summer, which insure the bountiful harvest; in themilder, ripening sunshine of autumn; or the mantle of snow and theinvigorating air of a moderate winter’s-day. Now, again, we suffer fromdrenching rains and, devastating floods, or excessive and debilitatingheat and parching drought, or sudden and unseasonable frost, or extremecold. And now, death and destruction come upon us or our property, at anyseason, in the gale, the hurricane, or the tornado; or a succession ofsudden or peculiar changes blight our expected crops, and plant in oursystems the seeds of epidemic disease and death. These, and other normalconditions, and varied changes, and violent extremes, potent for good orevil, are continually alternating above and around us. They affect ourhealth and personal comfort, and, through those with whom we areconnected, our social and domestic enjoyments. They influence our businessprosperity directly, or indirectly, through our near or remote dependenceupon others. They limit our pleasures and amusements—they control therealities of to-day, and the anticipations of to-morrow. None canprudently disregard them; few can withhold from them a constant attention.Scientific men, and others, devote to them daily hours of carefulobservation[Pg iv] and registration. Devout Christians regard them as thespecial agencies of an over-ruling Providence. The prudent, fear theirsudden, or silent and mysterious changes; the timid, their awfulmanifestations of power; and they are, to each and all of us, ever presentobjects of unfailing interest.
This interest finds constant expression in our intercourse with eachother. A recent English writer has said: “The germ of meteorology is, asit were, innate in the mind of every Englishman—the weather is his firstthought after every salutation.” In the qualified sense in which this wasprobably intended, it is, doubtless, equally true of us. Indeed, it isoften not only a “first thought” after a salutation, but a part of thesalutation itself—an offspring of the same friendly feeling, or a part ofthe same habit, which dictates the salutation—an expression of sympathyin a subject of common and absorbing interest—a sorrowing or rejoicingwith those who sorrow or rejoice in the frowns and smiles of anever-changing, ever-influential atmosphere.
If consistent with our purpose, it would be exceedingly interesting totrace the varied forms of expression in use among different classes andcallings, and see how indicative they are of character and employment.
The sailor deals mainly with the winds of the hour, and to him all theother phases of the weather are comparatively indifferent. He speaks ofairs, and breezes, and squalls, and gales, and hurricanes; or of suchappearances of the sky as prognosticate them. The citizens, whose livesare a succession