Meantime there came a shower, which so besprinkled the grass and shrubbery as to make it rather wet for our after-tea ramble. – Nathaniel Hawthorne, journal, 1842 August 15th

It is beautiful when it rains far away in the distance, the bright sun shining on the mound on which you stand, and only a few guerilla drops heralding the approach of the shower towards you. – John Richard Vernon, “The Beauty of Rain,” 1863

Coal lay in ledges under the ground since the Flood, until a laborer with pick and windlass brings it to the surface. We may will call it black diamonds. Every basket is power and civilization. For coal is a portable climate. – Ralph Waldo Emerson