TL:DR – The origins of the aphorism about solitary swallows and the summer.
In his writings on ethics, Aristotle had it that:
One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.
Usually, we abbreviate it to just the first part of the quotation, suggesting that seeing an early swallow in the spring may well not mean that the good weather of summer is about to arrive.
Indeed, in Aesop’s fable, The Young Man and the Swallow, we learn of a fellow who spends most of his money on gambling and good living, when he arrives peniless and sees an early swallow in the spring he sells the coat from his back to feed his habits and when the weather turns for the worse, tragically dies of the cold.
It is most likely that Aesop was inspired by the proverb written in Aristotle’s work, Nicomachean Ethics, rather than Aristotle providing us with an executive summary of the fable.
Either way, the Swallows have been in these here parts for at least a couple of weeks now and as you’d expect, it’s a bit chilly at the moment and pouring with rain. We always knew they weren’t great weather forecasters, I suppose.
Footnote
Caught one in low flight over a lawn at NT Plas Newydd in May. Denoised with DxO and motion blur sharpening with Topaz Sharpen.
