OPINIONS

JULY

After noontide, the clouds, which had traversed the east
Half the day, gathered closer, and rose and increased.
The air changed and chilled. As though out of the ground,
There ran up the trees a confused hissing sound,
And the wind rose.

* * * Ere long,

Thick darkness descended the mountains among;
And a vivid, vindictive, and serpentine flash

Gored the darkness, and shore it across with a gash.
The rain fell in large heavy drops,

And anon

Broke the thunder.

Owen Meredith

(Robert, Lord Lytton).

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky;

So was it when my life began,
So is it now I am a man,
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!

The Child is father to the Man;
And I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

William Wordsworth.

"I remember, I remember

How my childhood fleeted by,—

The mirth of its December
And the warmth of its July."

OPINIONS

JULY

Proverbs for July

The "little busy bee" was never caught in a shower.

"When bees to distance wing their flight,
Days are warm and skies are bright;
But when their flight ends near at home,
Stormy weather is sure to come.

99

When the perfume of flowers is unusually perceptible, rain may be expected. Sunflower raising its head indicates rain.

"Rainbow in morning, shepherds take warning;
Rainbow at night, shepherd's delight."

"A sunshiny shower

Won't last half an hour."

"Rain before seven
Fine by eleven."

St. Swithin's Day, gin ye do rain,
For forty days it will remain;
St. Swithin's Day, and ye be fair,
For forty days 'twill rain nae mair.

Old Rhyme.

FANS

Women are armed with Fans as Men with Swords, and some-
times do more execution with them. *** I need not add that a
Fan is either a Prude or a Coquet according to the Nature of the
Person who bears it.

Joseph Addison.

As hand-implements for cooling the air, fans have long been articles of luxury. Egyptian paintings prove familiarity with their use in a remote period. Cleopatra disdained not to cause herself to be fanned by favorite slaves armed with screens or feathers of the Ibis, impregnated with odours.'

From a passage in the "Orestes" of Euripides it appears that the Grecian fans were introduced from the East, that they were of circular form, and were mounted plumes of feathers. In the Middle Ages, fans were used in the churches to chase away the flies from the holy elements of the Eucharist. Such a fan, known as the flabellum, is still used in the Greek and Armenian churches, and in Rome the Pope is escorted on ceremonial occasions by attendants with flabella formed of peacock feathers.

The folding-fan is said to have been a Japanese invention, the idea being taken from the wing of a bat. The fan was first brought into European notoriety by Catherine de Medici, who introduced the folding-fan into France. Great sums were spent on the ornamentation of the fans first in vogue, and many were painted by Watteau. Walking-fans were formerly in use. They were of large size and were employed to screen the face from the sun, and for this use were popular with men, in the sixteenth and seventeenth

centuries.

"A fan of painted feathers in his hand,

To guard his shaded face from scorching sand.

During the reign of Henry VIII, fans were introduced into England from Italy; and in Elizabethan days they were framed of very costly materials, the body of ostrich feathers, the handle of gold, silver, or ivory of curious workmanship. The Chinese have greatly excelled in the art of making fans, those of the lacquered variety showing especial skill. In Japan, where to this day the fan is an indispensable adjunct of the daily life of all classes, large rich fans are used in ceremonial dances in which they are accessories of peculiar significance.

Another species of large fan known as a punkah is used in India, for cooling the air of rooms and keeping down the temperature. The modern electric revolving-fan is extensively used for cooling the air in private and public buildings. In various nations and at various times the manipulation of the fan has formed almost a separate language, especially for coquets. Addison, in his essay on the fan, in the Spectator, and Disraeli, in "Contarini Fleming," treat of this feminine art.

OPINIONS

AUGUST

Still world and windless sky,

A mist of heat o'er all;
Peace like a lullaby,

And the ripe apples fall.

Katherine Tyman Hinkson.

When August days are hot and dry,
When burning copper is the sky,
I'd rather fish than feast or fly
In airy realms serene and high.

Paul Laurence Dunbar.

The day had been dim, quiet, hazy, with great woolly clouds piled all over the sky, and occasional outbreakings and quiverings of sunshine, like beautiful thoughts in a story, or sweet notes swelling upward through a low song.

Virginia F. Townsend.

The early part of the day had been dark and showery, but in the afternoon it had cleared up; and though sullen clouds still hung overhead, yet there was a broad tract of golden sky in the west, from which the setting sun gleamed through the dripping leaves, and lit up all nature with a melancholy smile. It seemed like the parting hour of a good Christian, smiling on the sins and sorrows of the world, and giving in the serenity of his decline, an assurance that he will rise again in glory. Washington Irving.