Various

“ Happily, our meteorologists are at length beginning to define with growing clearness and confidence the laws which underlie and regulate the complicated and ever varying phenomena which we call the weather, and many of these laws, like most natural laws, are beautiful in their simplicity. Although ‘weather wisdom’ is as old as history itself, the science of the weather or meteorology is a growth of the last few years. The weather wisdom of our forefathers may in the light of present knowledge be divided into sense and nonsense. ”

“ Derrick gave vent to a sound resembling a grunt, and muttered a few words containing seemingly some disparaging reference to the ‘king over the water.’
‘Hush, you fool!’ exclaimed his master in a low whisper; ‘you should know better than to speak of what does not concern you. Be wise, and hold your tongue.’
‘Your pardon, Sir Carnaby,’ replied Derrick; ‘it shall not be spoken of again.’
‘And mind, Derrick, in case we should be inquired after, let the rustic boors know that I am Mr Morton, a landowner from somewhere or other. You, Derrick, are John Jones; so mind and answer to your name. ”

“ There was then no question of a rich father coming between us—and I vow that neither he nor any one else in the world shall come between us! I love and honour my father as much as any son can do; but this is one of those supreme questions which each man must decide for himself.’
‘I have said my say—the raven has croaked its croak,’ said Madame De Vigne with a little shrug, as she crossed to the other side of the room. ‘You are a wilful, headstrong boy, and I suppose you must be allowed to ruin yourself in your own way.’
‘Ruin, indeed!’ exclaimed Archie as he drew Clarice to him. ”

“ The ire of professional writing-masters was first aroused; the poor had necessarily been debarred from learning to write, because only the well-to-do could afford the stipulated fees, and writing-masters were therefore employed to do all the correspondence of those who could not write. So, when De la Salle undertook to teach every child who came to him what had been in some senses a secret art, their fury vented itself in an opposition so overpowering that they drove the Brothers from their schools in Paris and threw their furniture into the streets. ”

“ The air is the great medium in which all the changes of weather are elaborated. We live at the bottom of a great ocean of air, which extends for many miles upwards, and which is always heaving and changing, like the other ocean which it covers. The winds, which are the ever-changing currents which flow through this invisible sea, are, roughly speaking, the principal factors in the making of the weather. Many of us know very well the general character of the weather which accompanies the wind from the principal points of the compass, that which comes from the moist warm south-west, for instance ”

“ The surrounding air from all quarters has a tendency to flow in, and, as with water, which rushes to the centre of a funnel when it is flowing out at the bottom, a gyratory movement is the result. The wind blows round a centre of depression in this way, always curving inward towards the centre; and in the northern hemisphere, this gyratory movement of the wind is always in a direction against the hands of a watch, while the contrary is the case in the southern hemisphere. These principles of the relation of the winds to atmospheric pressure hold good without exception over all the world. ”

“ The temperature is not yet sufficiently high to bring in the air from off the Atlantic, as happens when the season is further advanced, so that the cold air rushes in from the polar regions in a huge eddy, striking our coasts from the east and north-east, and bringing in its train all the attendant miseries which make our English spring a time to be dreaded by the weak and ailing. ”

“ At length mine host has finished his task, and the most presentable apartment that the house contains is ready for instant occupation if necessary. Honest Hobb Dipping gazes wistfully out of a rickety diamond-paned window, and thinks that his labour must have been in vain. The moon is rising from the shadow of a thick bank of vapour, its dim red outline as yet but faintly seen through the misty cloud. ”

“ It has certainly many advantages over the plan of giving boys so many hundred lines to write, which is a mere task, soon forgotten, and benefiting no one. But as there are only seven schools, and those of very recent foundation, in England, we may perhaps still have to wait before hearing that this discipline is at all general. In the meantime, all interested in the training of the young might derive valuable hints from studying this and other methods initiated by the pioneer of popular education not only in France, but in all Europe. ”

“ It may be argued that, in this country, storms are seldom so sudden or disastrous as to justify us in maintaining at a very much larger outlay an organisation which would enable us to be warned of their approach. It is, however, only necessary to take into account the enormous losses in life and property occasioned every year by the weather in shipwreck alone, in order to appreciate what might be the value to the nation of a properly organised system of weather science, did it only succeed in reducing, even by a small percentage, the annual number of wrecks on our coasts. ”

“ Other lands may have their cold and hot, dry, and rainy periods, that come round in the proper order year after year with unvarying monotony; but with us it may be said of the weather, that we rarely know what a day or an hour may bring forth. Even the seasons seem occasionally to be independent of any necessity of visiting us at the particular time of the year at which we have been taught to expect them. Spring weather in November, or a winter temperature in July, or a November fog in the merry month of May, all seem to be amongst the possibilities of our climate. ”

“ At times, the depth of air above us is comparatively shallow, and the pressure beneath is lessened; the column of mercury is not raised so high, and the barometer is said to fall. At other times, the air is heaped up in particular places; the pressure beneath is increased, and the barometer is said to rise. In stormy weather, the column of water in a water-barometer where the scale is very large may be seen to pulsate with every change of pressure from the air-waves at the surface. ”

“ Traps are of little use in capturing these creatures; and if one is captured, that trap is for ever useless as regards ordinary rats and mice, which won’t approach it after being contaminated. ‘Muskies’ are omnivorous and very voracious. During the rains, the insect world is on the wing. If at this season you place a night-light on the ground near the beat of a musk-rat, you will be amused at watching its antics in trying to catch some of the buzzers round the light, or those crawling up the wall, and will be surprised at its agility. ”

“ A simple definition of the wind which we ordinarily experience is that it is air obeying the force of gravity, in seeking to return to an equilibrium which has been disturbed. By the aid of the barometer we are able to form some idea of what is constantly taking place in the great ocean above us. ”

“ The Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, though nominally Roman Catholic, is truly catholic in its widest sense, for, besides admitting children of every religious denomination, secular learning is admirably provided for. Their greatest successes have perhaps been achieved in the art of writing and drawing, as applied to all technical industries and art products. One illustration of the results of their method of teaching writing in a remote region where the pupils are not the easiest to train, may be cited as an example. ”

“ Where the air becomes heated, an area of low pressure is produced, the warm air becoming rarefied and ascending, and the heavier cold air rushing in from the sides to supply its place. In winter, the weather over these islands is controlled to a great extent by the winds which sweep round a large area of depression which exists over the Atlantic, the mean centre of which is about midway between the continents of Europe and America, in the latitude of the Orkney Islands. ”

“ War is at once proclaimed, and immediately the two are fighting for their lives, squeaking, snapping, biting, rolling over and over, and all the time letting off their awful scent-bottles. You, in the comparative distance, just escape the disgusting odour ”

“ At intervals, we receive warning across the Atlantic, from the New York Herald weather bureau, respecting storms which are crossing the Atlantic towards our coasts, and which are often described as ‘likely to develop dangerous energy’ on their way. Although many of those warnings are subsequently justified, or partially justified, it must not be supposed that these are storms which have left the American continent on their way to us, and that it has been possible to calculate their course across the Atlantic and predict the time of arrival upon our coasts. ”

“ The prevalence of the belief that the weather was regulated by such influences, can only be accounted for by the well-known love of the human mind for the wonderful and inexplicable. Much of the old weather lore, however, had a large element of truth in it, and was the result of the collective experience of many generations, which had found that certain phenomena were generally followed by certain conditions of weather. ”

“ The look of death on the Saviour’s face, and the heart-broken expression of the Madonna as she bends over to kiss his blood-stained brow, are almost painfully real. The power of the representation is the more remarkable from its small size, the whole group being only about eight inches square. ”

“ At St Yon, where the first agricultural school was started, a large garden was devoted to the culture of specimens of fodder-plants, injurious plants, grain, plants peculiar to certain soils, fruits and flowers. The students of to-day study all this, and in addition to working on model farms, visit all the best farms around, are sent with special professors to attend certain markets and sales of live-stock, and have special field-days for practically studying botany, geology, and entomology. The innovations introduced by De la Salle extended to other matters than practical education. ”

“ Most of the disturbing influences reach us from the west; and as the west coast of Ireland is the extreme limit to which our stations reach in that direction, we can receive only very short notice of their approach. This is one of the principal reasons why, with the means at present at our disposal, we cannot expect to make our weather science as perfect as in a country such as America, where the central office receives warnings from stations dispersed over the face of a vast continent. ”

“ Some minutes later, Clarice Loraine, on going into the sitting-room, found her sister on the floor in a dead faint.
AN EDUCATIONAL PIONEER.
It would be difficult to find a more unique or more interesting educational body than the so-called Brothers of the Christian Schools. Founded some two hundred years ago by the venerable John Baptist de la Salle, on lines which the best schools of to-day have not hesitated to adopt, the influence of this Institute has spread over all the civilised, and even to some regions of the uncivilised world. ”

“ This in itself is an enormous proportion; but it is even greater than it appears, when we consider that seculars had more schools, fewer pupils per teacher, and thus a better chance to advance the individual scholar, and as a rule, a richer class of scholars to select from. These scholarship examinations have recently been discontinued, though not until after the Brothers’ pupils were excluded from competition in consequence of the so-called ‘laicisation’ of schools in 1880, after which the Brothers of Paris gave up their government schools and opened voluntary ones. ”

“ Finding Mr Hadleigh in the gardener’s cottage, where there was want of space and convenience, the farmer with impetuous hospitality invited the whole family to Willowmere. The invalid could not be removed until the doctor gave permission; but Caroline and Bertha were at once escorted to the farm. Miss Hadleigh remained at the cottage to assist the housekeeper in nursing her father: she was moved to do so by a sense of duty as well as by the knowledge that Alfred Crowell would come out as soon as he heard of the disaster, and he would expect to find her there. ”

“ In spring, the prevailing winds from the east and north-east, so much dreaded by many, are the result of a large cyclonic system formed by the sudden increase of temperature over middle and southern Europe, as the sun’s rays gain strength and the days lengthen. ”

“ I’m agoing to stop and see who yon horsemen may be. News are scarce in these parts. If you’re off now, why, good-night to ye.’
Swenson nods, bids the man good-night, and then strides off in the direction of the old gray tower. The major part of the loiterers go with him; but three or four still linger, looking along the misty road, and waiting as if in expectation of something.
A light up in one of the windows of the inn tells that Hobb Dipping is preparing his best room for the reception of the approaching travellers, in case it should be needed ”