Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

The Argosy - Vol. 51, No. 6, June, 1891 by Various
page 50 of 148 (33%)
none." Fuller tells us of a gentleman travelling on a misty morning who
asked a shepherd--such men being generally skilled in the physiognomy of
the heavens--what weather it would be. "It will be," said the shepherd,
"what weather shall please me." Being asked to explain his meaning, he
said, "Sir, it shall be what weather pleaseth God; and what weather
pleaseth God, pleaseth me."

The people who are most satisfied with their climate are the Australians
and New Zealanders. I never met one of them who did not, in five
minutes, begin to abuse the English climate and glorify his own. They
will not admit that it has a single fault, though we have all heard of
the hot winds that make the Australian summer terribly oppressive. The
fact is that every country has a bad wind, or some other kind of
supposed drawback, which is very trying to strangers, but which, whether
they know it or not, suits the inhabitants. God knows better than we do
the sort of weather that each country should have.

What are we to say about the winter we have lately been enduring? Well,
it was very "trying" for us all, and an even stronger word might be used
by the poor, the aged, and the delicate. Still, let us remember that
without omniscience it is impossible to say whether any given season is
good or bad. So infinitely complex are the relations of things that we
are very bad judges as to what is best for us. How do we know that our
past winter of discontent may not be followed by a glorious summer, and
that the two may not be merely antecedent and consequent, but in some
degree cause and effect?

On no other subject are people so prone to become panegyrists of the
past as in this matter of the weather. "Ah," they say, "we never now
have the lovely summers we used to have." Reading the other day
DigitalOcean Referral Badge