AS we very justly esteem it a fit Tribute of Admiration to adorn
natural Curiosities, by setting them as richly and as advantageously as
art can direct, so the following Observations of the Shepherd of
_Banbury_ have appeared to me worthy of being presented to the Eye of
the Public, with all the Lustre that it was in my Power to give them.
It is one thing to observe, and another to reason upon Observations,
and it very rarely happens that both can be taken into the Compass of
one Man's Life. We ought therefore to consider it as a very lucky
Incident, when the Observations of another Man, upon whom we can
depend, fall into our Hands, and enable us to add natural Experience to
the Notions derived to us from Books of Philosophy.
THERE is a Degree of Pedantry in Desarts as well as Colleges. Men who
derive their Knowledge entirely from Experience are apt to despise what
they call Book Learning, and Men of great Reading are as apt to fall
into a less excusable mistake, that of taking the Knowledge of Words
for the Knowledge of Things; whereas there are not any two points more
opposite in Nature, since we very rarely see, that either true Scholars
are talkative, or that talkative Men are true Scholars.
THE Shepherd, whose sole Business it is to observe what has a Reference
to the Flock under his Care, who spends all his Days and many of his
Nights in the open Air, and under the wide spread Canopy of Heaven, is
in a Manner obliged to take particular Notice of the Alterations of the
Weather, and when once he comes to take a Pleasure in making such
Observations, it is amazing how great a Progress he makes in them, and
to how great a Certainty at last he arrives by mere dint of comparing
Signs and Events, and correcting one Remark by another. Every thing in
Time becomes to him a Sort of Weather-Gage. The Sun, the Moon, the
Stars, the Clouds, the Winds, the Mists, the Trees, the Flowers, the
Herbs, and almost every Animal with which he is acquainted. All these I
say become to such a person Instruments of real Knowledge.
THERE are a Sort of half wise People, who from the Consideration of the
Distances of Things, are apt to treat such Prognostications, as they
phrase them, with much Contempt. They can see no Connexion between a
Cat's washing her Face, and the Sky's being overspread with Clouds, and
therefore they boldly pronounce that the one has no Relation to the
other. Yet the same People will readily own that the fluttering of the
Flame of a Candle is a certain token of Wind, which however is not
discernible by their Feeling; because it lies within the Compass of
their Understanding to discern that this Fluctuation of the Flame is
caused by the Wind acting upon it, and therefore they are inclined to
believe this, though it does not fall actually under the Cognizance of
their Senses. But a Man of a larger Compass of Knowledge, who is
acquainted with the Nature and Qualities of the Air, and knows what an
Effect any Alterations in the Weight, the Dryness, or the Humidity of
it has upon all animal Bodies, easily perceives the Reason why other
Animals are much sooner sensible of any Alterations that happen in that
Element than Men, and therefore to him the cawing of Ravens, the
chattering of Swallows, and a Cat's washing her Face are not
superstitious Signs, but natural tokens (like that of the Candle's
fluttering) of a Change of Weather, and as such they have been thought
worthy of Notice by _Aristotle_, _Virgil_, _Pliny_, and all the wisest
and gravest Writers of Antiquity.
BUT still a few slight and trivial Observations of this Kind, and such
as are in the Power of every Man to make, go but a very little Way in
furnishing us with a useful Knowledge of the Indications of the
Weather. To supply these, and to have constantly at Hand the Means of
judging of these Alterations, Men of great Genius have invented, and
wonderful Inventions they are! Instruments for measuring the Heat, the
Cold, the Weight, the Dryness, and the Humidity of the Air, with great
Exactness, and upon these they reason as to the changes of Weather with
great Accuracy and Certainty. It would undoubtedly be a great Folly to
pretend to question either the Truth of their Observations, or the
Usefulness of them: but then we may have leave to consider how far, and
to how great a Degree they are useful. The Thermometer measures exactly
the Degrees of Heat, but the Air must be hot to such or such a Degree
before it is discerned by this Instrument. The barometer indicates the
Weight of the Air, and the rising and falling of the Quicksilver
expresses the Alterations in its Weight with wonderful Nicety, but then
those Alterations are the Cause of this. In like manner the Hygrometer,
or Hygroscope, measures the Dryness or the Humidity of the Air very
plainly and very exactly, but the Weather must alter, must become dryer
or moister than it was, before these Alterations are visible; and
therefore, however ingenious, however curious, however useful these
Instruments may be in other Respects, they undoubtedly contribute very
little to the prognosticating a Change of Weather at a Distance; and it
is from the Experience of this, that they are so little esteemed, so
lightly regarded by the common People.
OUR Shepherd's Observations are of quite another Nature, most of them
give us a Day's Notice, many a Week's, and some extend to several
Months' Prognostication of the Changes of the Weather, and of how great
Use these may be to all Ranks and Degrees of People, to the sedentary
Valetudinarian, as well as the active Traveller, to the Sportsman who
pursues his Game, as well as to the industrious Husbandman who
constantly follows his Labour; in short, to every Man in every
Situation in some Degree or other, is so very clear and intelligible,
that it would, be a mere waste of Words, and a very idle display of
Rhetoric, to attempt the making it clearer. Every Man living would be
glad to foresee the Alterations of Weather if he could, and
consequently to most People, if not to all, these Observations,
grounded on no less than forty Years' Experience, cannot but be
acceptable.
TO make the best use of one's Talent, and to employ the Lights derived
from the Station in which Providence has placed one for the Benefit of
Mankind, is undoubtedly discharging one's Duty, answering the End of
our Creation, and corresponding with the OEconomy of Nature, which
does nothing in vain. This Proposition is equally true, let a Man's
Station be what it will. It is the Manner in which we perform, and not
the Character, that makes the Player, and in this Sense what Man is not
a Player? Here then is an Instance of one who has for many Years
studied his Part, and now communicates his Discoveries freely. In a
Physician, in a Philosopher, in a Mathematician, this would be highly
commendable, and why not in a Shepherd? We do not cast our own Parts in
the Drama of Life; no, this is performed by the great Author of Nature.
He who adjusted every Thing on Earth with such Beauty and Harmony, he
who taught the Heavenly Bodies to move; the same distributed their
several Offices to Men. May we not therefore suppose that every Man's
Part is well cast, and that our Abilities are exactly proportioned to
our Stations? If so, he who does all he can, does all that ought to be
expected from him, and merits from impartial Judges the most general
and just Applause. To be convinced of this, we need not only reflect on
the narrow and selfish Conduct of some, who either by Study or by
Chance, have acquired certain valuable Secrets, which with the utmost
Industry they conceal in order to be the more admired, or that they may
render them beneficial to themselves. How contrary the Conduct of our
Shepherd! His Pains were all his own, but the Fruit of them he thus
generously offers to the Public. Good Sense and the dictates of Nature
taught him this Maxim, _That what might benefit_ many, _should not be
concealed by_ one _from Views of_ Profit _or of_ Pride.
IN my Remarks upon the Shepherd's Rules, I have sometimes endeavoured
to support them by Authorities, which I must confess would have been of
little Use if the Author had been a Person of Learning; but when it is
considered that these Observations were purely the Effect of his own
Attention and Experience, it certainly strengthens them, and adds
greatly to their Credit that they have been esteemed evident Signs of
the same Effects, by the greatest Masters in this Kind of Science. The
Art of prognosticating the Weather may be considered as a Kind of
decyphering, and in that Art it is always allowed a point of great
Consequence, when several Masters therein agree as to the meaning of a
Character, and it is from thence very justly presumed that this
Character is rightly decyphered.
I have also endeavoured to explain most of his Observations, according
to the Rules of the new Philosophy, which, as it is grounded upon.
Experiments, so it generally speaking enables us to give a fair and
rational Account of almost all the Phænomena taken notice of by the
Shepherd of _Banbury_.
I likewise have added some other Rules in Relation to the Weather,
taken from the common sayings of our Country People, and from old
_English_ Books of Husbandry, but I have distinguished all these from
the Observations themselves, so that the Reader will have no Trouble to
discern the Text from the Commentary, or to know what belongs to the
Shepherd of _Banbury_, and what to the Editor of his Observations. This
I think may serve by the Way of Introduction, let us now proceed to the
Rules themselves.