The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-03-05
TIE WIND.


,aAsronomerS have o'ten pon'ed out how
Cinefent physlcally life must be- IL there be liie
at an' on ~orlds ike our ~ on Shlch do nOt
sSsse SSs SonPy a9y ssmssroeie. It Is tot only that
sLe sLele wooid te DO llnos aud no breath, and
therefore, totally diiI-rent arranoements Ior
n0urishtg the boy, but VI is difficult TO con-
ceIVe even diffise1 fuiIs in "A world where
sno, sneie no atmospheric pressure to prevent
s.s uuueeu nulds from pJssng immediately
,nto Vapor. Put ves el OF water under the
leveNer OF an airpamp, and IA the air is
eAnHus'rn tbe water Iises az once IN q cloud of
Napor. There could certaiuly be no clouds IN "A
world without an atmos n!,ere. mo retracted and
ieW renected lights; no flying shadows, few
hatoral fleets such as our earthly poets most
ossr,, vsr, no g'or es OF sunset and of dawn;
assnIeeIy no Ciaudes, If there were artists OF any
1sr DO rivers, no oct an, no wind, no vegetable
I'VE OF the kind that needs air and moisture,
SS,earif no 'leafy sprngs." Again, there could
oe 10 LANGUAGE like ours and still less music
We 60 not mean merely wind Instrumentation
al articuiate speech depends upon the air, both
as as a partial cause, and as the conducting
meuluu, OF sound; and all hearing depends
upon the vibrations of the waves of sound
winch the air transmits on the membrane OF
tne car. IL would be possible, indeed, to con
celVe OF party in such world communicative
WIN each other by lying on the ground with
tne ear 10 c'cse ccntigu,y to the earth, and
comnluhics ing by vibrations struck on, and
transmit ed through, the solid substance of the
eatt1 ltett; but that is process which bears
eA'remclF lit'le analogy 10 that of human Ian
euavt OF music. In q word, conceive any
worIo OF re without an atmosphere, and You
conceive one whose whole literature would be
scarcely intellgible to us, a literature
INTO which halt the conceptions of
our poeIs would be untranslatabe,
winch would know nothing of wings
and llg3t, nothing OF birds, or trees or flowers,
no'bing OF winds or waves-except, perhaps,
tne solid waves of quake-nothlug of
ships, nothing of flute, or harp, or song, or
miDstrelsy- nothing of clouds, and rain. and
finally, nothing Of aspiration" or "lnspiia a
hon. or the Holy "spirito-at least the same
realities, II they were apprehended. would
necessarily find some other metaphorical origin.
IL Is curious enough to think that the invisible
envelope of our plauet should enter so deeply
INTO the very essence OF our intellectual, moral
and spiritual life that it is very much easier for
us to conceive of future intercourse with the
creatures OF the most distant world containing
an atmosphere than with the creatures OF the
nearest by far In the whole universe because it
has none.
The WIND, naturally enough, as the most
active ana marked of atmospheric agencies,
and the most obvious to the old, unscientidc
world, which knew nothing of the constitution
OF the atmosphere, or OF its weight, or of its
limitations to a given height above the surface
OF the earth, has impressed itself more deeply
upon the imagination than any other po Rer
due to the atmosphere As au unseen aud yet
most appalling power, it has obtained itself
directly religious significance. The American
Indian mythOlogies all attribute to the winds
the ultimate creative force; even our Lord
takes the wind which "bloweth where 1t listetb,
and thou nearest the sound thereof, but canst
not tell whence it cometh or whittier 1t goeth,"
as the natural symbol OF the power Of "the
spirit and the descent g. th Spirit on the
have been accompanied by "a sound from
= heaven as OF a rushing and mighty wind"
4 whence, naturally enough, the whole range of
on the whole, the wind cannot be said to have had
solely spiritualiZing effect on either the itera
lures or national characters OF the people most
exposed 10 1t. The Hebrews were no sailors,
and had an evident horror Of great winds. 1t
was God who made the "storm calm," and
brought the affrighted Hebrew passengers on
1 would be-" and though the stormy windn fui-
tlled Gods word as messenger, 1t was never
N hought of as being His word. Elijah. was
| taught that 'God was not in the tempest" and
R1gas in the '.still small voice." Isaiah spoke of
his promised deliverer as a "hiding- place from
: the wind" Christs greatest sign of power over
! nature is, that ''even the winds aud the seas
obey Him." There has always been disposi-
ton to attribute caprice and fckleness to the
wind from our complete ignorance of its laws,
but which do not SO much reveal Him as add
to the terIors which require revelation of
Him. The great seaborne nations have usually
REGARDED the wind in a very mixed light, as an
asa as m1eh SSa'usfin IN the 4 Light s of D.'s
I struggle with the winds as in that of a grateful
use OF them. Neither has the character OF the
Eorthmen and their descendants been SO much
moulded by the mystery and lnvisibility Of the
wind, as IL has by the resistance, and courage,
and enterprise it has provoked. Something OF
deference for its invisible mystic spirit-lke
power, no doubt, there is in all the great sailor
nations; but there is more OF hardness and
readiness for risk and pain and danger. 1t has
done more to train the spirit which boldly
= encounters it as practical adversary, than the
spirit which bends awestruck before its shape
less and in visible might. We suspect that the
mystic influence of the wind has been exerted
far more through the sounds II causes thar
the forces 1t exerts; in other words. much more
through the intellectual impressions 1t produces
In those who have leisure to attend to 1t, thar
through those who are engaged ip using OF
nghting 1t, or both using and fighting II at once
Wordsworth has well described the effect o
constant encounters with the wind in "Pete
Bell:n-
"There was q hardness in his cheek,
There was q hardness In his eye,
AS though the man had hxed his face
In many a solitary place,
Against the wind and open sky"
"Hardness' is, in general, the effect whicl
clustering winds produce on those who habitu
ally encounter them, but it is not hardness
which represents the influence Of the wind o.
the imaginative literature OF nations. l.
some sense, it may be truly said that tn
wind has a greater imaginative influence O
those who dwell on land and in towns than
those who are practically concerned with
e3ery moment of their lives. The voice {
+ the wind, like the voice OF the sea, is hear
I .abuch more impressively by those who live
nd than by sailors. II 10 those who live
melancholy ocean," as Mr.. Dlsraeli say
nat those who live on it, who enter most Int
frle sad music which IL makes. 1t is
.sThe towering headlands Gro wned with mis-
Their feet among the billows,"
~ -h,oh lrcou GVhe ocean for n mighty harm(