What kind of sky this would be I really cannot say, but it would have been very interesting to have seen a photograph of the cloud-forms. Most probably the sky was a shifting form of flat heavy striated sky, while the recent Jubilee and prevailing excitement about the Irish question suggested the similes to the observer's mind.
Here is a curious photograph of a cloud-form taken by myself near Teneriffe, and reproduced most accurately by Mr. J. D. Cooper in Fig. 7. When taking it I cannot say I was looking much at the
Fig. 7.—Clouds in the form of a one-eyed flying figure. From Teneriffe.
shape, but was waiting with my hand on the shutter-trigger to give an instantaneous exposure to the plate when the sun was sufficiently behind the cloud; but everybody who has seen the picture says at once,—What a singular appearance of a flying figure! The ball of the sun, just showing through the cloud, is the eye of the face which is seen in profile; while some of the cloud to the right may be taken either for wings or hair, according to fancy. Has not some similar imagery suggested the idea of a one-eyed Thor, and of many other one-eyed mythological characters?
But now let us turn to the disastrous influence, which the attitude of mind that personifies everything, has on human conduct and human development.
