[16]
For if tile moon turns red owing to the wind, her
hue is certainly a sign of wind. And if, as the same
poet infers,1 the condensation and rarification of
the atmosphere causes that “concert of bird-voices”
of which he speaks, we may agree in regarding it as
a sign. We may further note that great things are
sometimes indicated by trivial signs, witness the
Vergilian crow; that trivial events should be
indicated by signs of greater importance is of course
no matter for wonder.
1 Verg. G. i. 422.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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