time, it is profitable to infinite things. For rain maketh the land to
bear fruit, and joineth it together, if there be many chines therein,
and assuageth and tempereth strength of heat, and cleareth the air,
and ceaseth and stinteth winds, and fatteth fish, and helpeth and
comforteth dry complexion. And if rain be evil and distemperate in its
qualities, and discording to place and time, it is grievous and noyful
to many things. For it maketh deepness and uncleanness and
slipperiness in ways and in paths, and bringeth forth much
unprofitable herbs and grass, and corrupteth and destroyeth fruit and
seeds, and quencheth in seeds the natural heat, and maketh darkness
and thickness in the air, and taketh from us the sun beams, and
gathereth mist and clouds, and letteth the work of labouring men, and
tarrieth and letteth ripening of corn and of fruits, and exciteth
rheum and running flux, and increaseth and strengtheneth all moist
ills, and is cause of hunger and of famine, and of corruption and
murrain of beasts and sheep; for corrupt showers do corrupt the grass
and herbs of pasture, whereof cometh needful corruption of beasts.

Of impressions that are gendered in the air of double vapour, the
first is thunder, the which impression is gendered in watery substance
of a cloud. For moving and shaking hither and thither of hot vapour
and dry, that fleeth its contrary, is beset and constrained in every
side, and smit into itself, and is thereby set on fire and on flame,
and quencheth itself at last in the cloud, as Aristotle saith. When a
storm of full strong winds cometh in to the clouds, and the whirling
wind and the storm increaseth, and seeketh out passage: it cleaveth
and breaketh the cloud, and falleth out with a great rese and strong,
and all to breaketh the parts of the cloud, and so it cometh to the
ears of men and of beasts with horrible and dreadful breaking and
noise. And that is no wonder: for though a bladder be light, yet it