tants in any other way than by her attraction,
which is so minute as to be entirely insensible except in the ways we
have described. A striking illustration of the fallibility of the human
judgment when not disciplined by scientific training is afforded by
the opinions which have at various times obtained currency
respecting a supposed influence of the moon on the weather. Neither
in the reason of the case nor in observations do we find any real
support for such a theory. It must, however, be admitted that
opinions of this character are not confined to the uneducated." [344]
Mr. Edward B. Tylor holds similar language: "The notion that the
weather changes with the moon's quarterings is still held with great
vigour in England. That educated people to whom exact weather
records are accessible should still find satisfaction in the fanciful
lunar rule, is an interesting case of intellectual survival." [345] No
marvel that the "heathen Chinee" considers lunar observations as
forecasting scarcity of provisions he is but of the same blood with
his British brother, who takes his tea and sends him opium. "The
Hakkas (and also many Puntis) believe that if in the night of the
fifteenth day of the eighth month (mid autumn) there are clouds
obscuring the moon before midnight, it is a sign that oil and salt will
become very dear. If, however, there are clouds obscuring the moon
after midnight, the price of rice will, it is supposed, undergo a
similar change." [346]

One of our provincial proverbs is: "So many days old the moon is
on Michaelmas Day, so many floods after." Sometimes a proverb is
a short saying spoken after long experience; at other times it is a
small crystal left after a lengthy evaporation. In certain instances our
rural apothegms are sacred relics of extinct but canonized fictions.
An equally wise prediction is that if Christmas comes during a
waxing moon we shall have a very good year; and the nearer to the
new moon, the better. But if during a waning moon, a hard year; and
the nearer the end of the moon, so much the worse. Another sage
belief is that the condition of the weather is dependent upon the day
of the week upon which the new moon chances to fall. We are told
that "Dr. Forster, of Bruges, well known as a meteorologist, declares
that by the _Journal_ kept by his grandfather, father, and self, ever
since 1767, to the present time, whenever the new moon has fallen
on a _Saturday_, the following _twenty days_