Suspect a drizzling Day and southern Rain,
Fatal to Fruits and Flocks, and promis'd Grain.
II.
If cloudy, and it soon decrease. } Certain fair Weather.
I Conceive the Reason of this to be, that the Vapours being then specifically lighter than the Air, are still rising upwards, in which they are assisted by the Heat of the Sun Beams, agreeable to the Notion of Dr. Derham, who observes, that after much cloudy Weather, it is always fair before it rains, because the watery Vapours are not condensed till they reach the cold upper Region, agreeable to the common English saying,
The Evening red, and Morning grey,
Is a Sign of a fair Day.
IT is also an Observation, of Pliny's in his natural History.[b] ]
SI ab ortu solis repellentur Nubes, & ad occasum abibunt, Serenitatem denunciabunt,
That is,