The particular quality of the weather, thus produced, will be more fully established on certain days; especially when the brighter and more efficacious fixed stars maybe near the Sun, either matutine or vespertine; as, when so posited, they most frequently convert the constitution of the atmosphere to an agreement with their own natures: and, when the Luminaries may transit any one of the angles, a similar effect is also produced. At all such positions the particular constitutions of the atmosphere are subject to variation, and thus become alternately more intense or more relaxed in their respective qualities. In this manner, by certain positions of the Moon, the flux and reflux of the sea are caused: and, when the Luminaries may be in angles, a change of the wind is produced, according to the direction of the Moon’s ecliptical latitude. Finally, in all these considerations, it must be remembered that the more general and first constituted cause takes precedence, and that the particular cause comes subsequently and secondarily: and, that the operation is in the highest degree confirmed and strengthened, when the stars, which regulate the general effects, may be also configurated towards the production of the particular effects. CHAPTER XIV THE SIGNIFICATION OF METEORS In order to facilitate prognostication in minor and more limited instances, it is important to make further observation of all remarkable appearances occasionally visible around or near the Sun, Moon, and stars. And, for the diurnal state of the atmosphere, the Sun’s rising should be remarked; for the nocturnal state, his setting; but the probable duration of any such state must be considered by reference to the Sun’s configuration with the Moon; for, in most cases, each aspect, made between them, indicates the continuance of a certain state until another aspect shall take place. Hence, the Sun, when rising or setting, if he shine clear and open, free from mists, gloom, and clouds, promises serene weather. But, if he have a wavering or fiery orb, or seem to emit or attract red rays, or if he be accompanied in any one part by the clouds called parhelia, or by other reddish clouds of extended figure, in the form of long rays, he then portends violent winds, chiefly liable to arise from those parts in which the said phenomena may have shown themselves. If he should be pale or lurid, and rise or set encumbered with clouds, or surrounded by halos, he indicates storms and winds coming from the quarter of his apparent situation: and, if he be also accompanied by parhelia, or by lurid or dark rays, similar effects are also threatened from the parts where those appearances may be situated.[105] [105] Similar precepts may be found finely illustrated in Virgil’s 1st Georgic, _vide_ I, 433 _et infra_: “Sol quoque et exoriens et cum se condit in undas Signa dabit:”——