The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-13 00:00:00

RAIN.

How many people must there be who, while broiling,
seething, baking, and frying during these latter dog-days,
have recalled the lines of Coleridge in " The Ancient
Mariner :" "The silly buckets on the deck, That had so
long remained, I dreamt that they were filled with dew,
And when I woke it rained. My lips were wet, my
throat was cold, My garments all were dank ; Sure I had
drunken in my dreams, And still my body drank." When
we are called upon to pass, while yet in the flesh, through
such a purgatorial experience as we trust last night's
storm ended, it is a great point to know how to select
seasonable reading. We suspect that whoever was rash
enough to indulge in Dr. Livingstone during the last
month must have been, however he might keep in the
shade, in danger of sunstroke. Even in our Scriptural
selections it has been worth while to pay due regard to
the temperature of the stories. It is inDecember that we
should read of Hagar in the wilderness, and of the fiery
furnace in which the righteous trio walked unsinged. Fora
good refrigerating volume in July we know nothing better
than Dr. Kane's " Arctic Expedition," although the effect is
somewhat diminished by the Doctor's constant allusions to
his red-hot stoves. With the drouth most intolerably
prolonged, we have known individuals to experience all the
effect of a cool fog simply through the perusal of the
Seventh Chapter of Genesis, and especially the 10th and
12th verses : And it came to pass after seven days, that
the waters of the flood were upon the earth. And the
rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights."
Perhaps an equal mitigation might be obtained by singing
aloud the -fine old verse of Dr. Watts : " Seasons and
times, and moons and hours, Heaven and earth, and air
are thine ; When clouds distil in fruitful showers, The
author is divine." But, in hot weather, we can hardly
recommend a resort to vocal melody, for it involves an
increased action of the abdominal and dorsal muscles, and
much unwelcome sudorification may be attendant thereon.
Washington Irving's charming description of a " Rainy Sun-
day in an Inn "—it will be found in `-` Bracebridge Hall "
—we can most confidently vouch for, since we ourselves
brought down our corporeal temperature at least ten
degrees, only last week, by reading in this fine sketch of
"the slovenly, ragged, spongy clouds drifting heavily
along," and of " the dull, continued, monotonous patter,
patter, patter" of the rain. When all these prescriptions
failed, it was still worth while to try that excellent pas-
sage in " The Spring " of Jamie Thomson, in which occur
the beautifully pluvious lines—

, . . . At last,
The clouds consign their treasures to the fields,
And, softly shaking on the dimpled pool
Prelusive drops, let all their moisture flow
In large effusion o'er the freshened world."
But we confess that, in spite of all these elegant expedients,
one continued to grow drier and drier and dustier and
dustier. Many a man in this parched-pea condition has
remembered with, unavailing remorse the blasphemies
which whilom he ejaculated against the north east wind
as the most insufferable of all the breezes in the bag of
Eolus. That this wind is of a perverse and aggravat-
ing character, especially when it has rusted all the
weather-cocks beyond the • possibility of turning, we
readily admit ; but there are times when, reeking under
" a hot and copper sky," we repent us, in dust if not
ashes, of the objurgations uttered by us against the rough
but raining north-east. "The good, honest wind," we say,
"how cool it was. How benevolently it watered the
streets. How comfortably it persuaded us to put on our
overcoats. How delicately mitigated was the sky which
then we railed at as leaden." So we lately said our
" Peccavimus," and grew hotter and hotter as we gasped
it. There was one trouble, however, at which poor
human nature was permitted to growl without reproach.
In ancient times Jove himself was the cloud-compeller,
but since the abdication of that deity it must be conceded
that the clouds (as weather signs) have become extremely
deceptive and untrustworthy, the celebrated mackerel and
herring bone varieties being the falsest of all. How
often have we lately had occasion to exclaim, with
tragic emphasis, " All signs fail in a dry time,"
The setting sun went down in a cloud—the
rising sun went into a cloud—there was a slight overcast,
possibly even a few drops of rain—but Imperial Apollo
flogged his steeds fiercely up the meridian, and scattered
and swept away the ridiculous nebulosities. So Hope
deferred continued to toast the human epidermis, and we,
proud Caucasians, to grow brown. But we are of good
cheer. Our playing Tantalus was only for a season. Dust
is dreadful—dust in the eyes, nostrils, ears, throat, and
upon the carefully planished boots—but it carried a fine
moral, for dust we are and unto dust we shall return.
Nature, now and then, puts by her watering pot, that we
may the better appreciate her beneficent irrigations. It
may be raining deliciously even while the reader is glanc-
ing over these very lines ; it is pouring, to an orchestral
accompaniment, as we trace them ; but if they have in
them any relish, surely the welcome showers will not
diminish it. If good-natured Nature will not continue
to open the windows of heaven, and bestow upon as an
unprecedented drenching, we promise to grumble at the
weather no more for months.—Tribune.

Military stores have arrived in London from
Canada, in consequence of the reductions in the number
of troops. •

THE MONUMENT TO GENERAL STONEWALL JACK-
soN.—Shortly after the death of the great Virginian
General, Stonewall Jackson, the English admirers ofthat
hero formed a committee, of which Mr. Beresford Hope,
M.P., was treasurer, and Mr.' W. H. Gregory, M.P.,
Secretary. There object was to erect a bronze statue of
General 'Jackson in some public place within the State of
Virginia. Siibscriptions flowed in freely, and the work
was entrusted to Mr. Foley R.A. The ill-health of the
artist delayed the completion of the work for some time,
but we are now able to report that the effigy will be
shortly ready for casting, and that it promises to be a
work of art worthy alike of the sculptor and of the sub-
ject. The subscriptions already received will, we believe
be sufficient to cover all expenses.