[1116] There was no information for which Dr. Johnson was less grateful
that than for that which concerned the weather. It was in allusion to
his impatience with those who were reduced to keep conversation alive by
observations on the weather, that he applied the old proverb to himself.
If any one of his intimate acquaintance told him it was hot or cold, wet
or dry, windy or calm, he would stop them, by saying, 'Poh! poh! you are
telling us that of which none but men in a mine or a dungeon can be
ignorant. Let us bear with patience, or enjoy in quiet, elementary
changes, whether for the better or the worse, as they are never
secrets.' BURNEY. In _The Idler_, No. II, Johnson shews that 'an
Englishman's notice of the weather is the natural consequence of
changeable skies and uncertain seasons... In our island every man goes
to sleep unable to guess whether he shall behold in the morning a bright
or cloudy atmosphere, whether his rest shall be lulled by a shower, or
broken by a tempest. We therefore rejoice mutually at good weather, as
at an escape from something that we feared; and mutually complain of
bad, as of the loss of something that we hoped.
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