The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-02-22

The EFFECT OF WEATHER ON THE MIND.
We do not believe London is bit the bet
ter for the weather Of the past fortnight,
hard, gray weather of the worst kind,
snow, and rain, and wind, and all the eli
matte unpleasantness having been ceaseless
in their action. On the contrary, we be-
lieve it is a good deal worse. There are
men, of course, generally with coat
of fat, swift circulation, and belief
in alcohol, who are the better for the Their
mometer at twenty degrees. They enjoy
it, to begin with, and genuine enjoyment
wonderfully quickens all the powers. No
wonder angels are tall, and swift, and
energetic - eide pictures paSSim when
they always live in Heaven. Such men
have, too, a sense of superiority to weaker
beings, a pleasure as of great-coated
caste, and it is the permanent sense of
superiority which constitutes whatever
there is OF truth in the aristocratic theory.
Above all, they get a good fight with
limited liability to injury, and good fight
in which one has hard tussle, and yet
cannot feel despair, always brings out the
manliness of the strong. But to the great
majority bad weather like that OF the past
fortnight is, we suspect, mere evil, mere
exhaustion, a mere consumer OF energy,
without any compromising benefit at all.
They either feel bored or depressed, or, to
use beautiful Suffolk word, which is, we
suspect, Saxon, and if it is not, ought to
be, "fra'an." Do you know what it is to
{" fra'an," reader? 1t is to feel that your
blood will freeze if you do not exert your
self, and to be incapable of doing it; to be
hungry with cold, thirsty with misery, rea-
dy to stamp, if only the wind had left you
energy enough. 1t is not good-tempered
condition ora healthy one, and if hot cof
fee is procurable, drink it. A bit of energy
goes in keeping up the circulation, and
bit more in avoiding depression, and bit
more in striving vainly to maintain an
equable frame of mind. OF course
these efforts manifest themselves very
differently in different temperaments.
One man is provoked by bad wea-
Their into chronic ill-temper, accompanied
by a vague disposition to laziness, and
distinct tendency TO snub his wife, as re-
sponsible, if not for the weather, at least
for that sense of damp elastics which the
weather has produced. Another is af-
ficted with chronic "lowness," modified
by disposition to lugubrious humor, as if
rain should patter on fagstones to family
comic tune. A third, Of whom the writer
knows more perhaps than Of any other hui
man being, avenges himself on the wea-
Their by lazy day dreaming, and wakes con-
scious that the world generally is going
wrong with him, but very much puzzled to
discover why. A fourth, and this is the
commonest of all impressions, simply goes
about his work little duller and stupider
than he is by nature, remarking, if at all
scientific, that he is "a peg too low-want
of ozone in the atmosphere" None Of
these people benefit by snow, and cold, and
rain, and damp, and slush, and burst pipes,
and the necessity for driving in cabs with
wet seats or dripping glasses. Does any,
body? OF course, If the victim is COM
PEELED by the weather to encounter diff
cuities, TO walk to the newspaper office,
say from Paddington, through nee-deep
Slush, and does conquer them, he is
a stronger man enceforth-provided
he does not get catarrh-or at
least English superstition compels us to
admit that he is stronger, but the majority
of men do not conquer weather difficult
ties. They succumb to them, and keep in
uooTs, VI put up uulDIcIids, vi lake cdUs,
or make other folks do their work, in de-
cidedly pusillanimous manner, or get cross
and unjust, or swear audibly, or other
wise lose all the benefit which, according,
alike, to religion and philosophy, they
ought TO Obtain from trial. Evangelical
women always say they like trials, but Just
ASK an evangelical woman, when her nose
~ req, and her lips blue, and her hands
swollen, and her temper up with q Jour
ney through sleet, how she ENJOYS that.
ana her answer will SAVIOR much more oil
Deborah than of Dorcas. Those Who
suffer from bad weather are not stronger.
Tor they have usually been defeated. and
repetition OF defeats Is weakening: nor
are their rivals, for they have simply
wasted energy in sighting rain and wind
which had better have been expended nnon |
more worthy objects. Londoners voulS |
haYA mora In than hx . ..aaA 49,