Evolution has no moral direction. An evolutionary understanding of human nature can explain the differing intuitions we have when we are faced with an individual rather than with a mass of people, or with people close to us rather than with those far away, but it does not justify those feelings.

Meaning: Unpleasant early weather is linked with a pleasing later display of flowers. The sequence can express hope that present conditions help prepare a later benefit.

Meaning: The saying treats April and May as decisive months for what the rest of the year will yield. Keys picture their conditions as opening or closing later possibilities.

Meaning: April’s wind is pictured as a horn announcing favourable conditions for hay and corn. The saying links an early-season sign with a hoped-for later yield.

Meaning: A few unpleasant April days are imagined as borrowed from March. The months are personified to describe weather that seems out of place in the new season.