|
|
prototype of the marble
vertical dial declining east 16° fixed against
the south end of Mr. Joanes's (Jones's?) workshop, No. 16 Warwick
Street, Worthing, latitude 50° 49 North." The dial has Sic vita
above it. The date probably ranges from 1800 to 1823. |
1177. |
SIC VITA DUM FUGIT
STARE VIDETUR. So life while it flies seems to stand still.
On a house at Bourges (see No. 593).
A somewhat similar motto was formerly on the Rue de la Chaussée des
Minimes, Paris.
|
1178. |
SIC VITA FUGIT.
So life flies.
On an eighteenth-century dial of lead at Guillac (Tarn);
on two of Zarbula's dials in Dauphiné; and at Sestri Levante.
|
1179. |
SIC VITA PER HORAS.
Thus life passes through the hours.
On a French astrolabe dial of the sixteenth century in
Mr. Evans' collection.
|
1180. |
SIC VITA TRANSIT.
So passes life.
On the old house of Compton Wynyates, in Warwickshire,
which belongs to the Marquis of Northampton. It is sometimes called
"Compton in the Hole" from its position, as it stands in a deep hollow
surrounded by hills and woods, and seemingly shut in to perpetual
loneliness. It is a grand old hall, and was built by Sir William
Compton (temp. Henry VIII.), who is said to have brought the curious
chimneys from the castle of Fulbrook, which is demolished. He stood in
the favour of his king, and may be said to have founded the Compton
family as noble. His grandson was created Earl of Northampton by James
I., and was father of "the loyal earl," who followed Charles I., and
grandfather of Compton, Bishop of London, who opposed James II. The old
house suffered much in the Civil Wars, and is now dismantled. It is
built round a court, and surrounded by a moat. The roof and ceilings
are in good repair. It contains a small chapel for secret celebration
of the Mass, with private staircases. The dial is on the south side of
the house, overlooking what was formerly the Pleasaunce. There is a
second dial over the main entrance, declining west, and a third on a
pedestal in the garden. See No. 1172.
|
1181. |
SIC VITA UT UMBRA
RECEDIT. So doth life vanish like the shadow.
At Sierre, on an old château which is now let out in
tenements for the poor.
|
|
|
1182. |
SIC VITAE CERTA RATIO:
TEMPUS FUGIT, MORS VENIT. 1747.
Thus is the sure reckoning of life:
Time flies: death comes.
At Brough, Westmoreland, fixed on a tombstone-shaped stone on the
church wall. |
1183. |
SIC VOLVITUR ORBIS.
Thus the world rolls on.
At the Château de Kernuz (Morbihan). Above the dial is a
coat-of-arms, and below it, "Sit nomen Domini benedictum. Fait par Jac.
Derien 1677."
|
1184. |
SICUT FLOS VITA PERIT.
Life passes away like a flower.
At the Château de la Rivière (Isère).
|
1185. |
SICUT FUMUS.
1731. (Life is) like smoke.
Formerly on a chimney, Rue des Fosses, St. Victor,
Paris.
|
1186. |
SICUT PISCES CAPIANTUR
HORAE. Like fishes let the hours be caught.
On the Hôtel de Ville, Beaufort (Savoy), with No. 1027.
|
1187. |
SICUT TENEBRAE EJUS,
ITA ET LUMEN EJUS. The darkness and light to Thee are both
alike. M. D. F. 1888.
This text, from Psalm cxxxix. II, is on a dial erected
by Albert Fleming, Esq., in his grounds at Neaum Crag, Westmoreland.
The pedestal is of native slate. Mr. Fleming is well known as the
benefactor who has revived the use of the spinning-wheel amongst the
housewives in Langdale. He erected the dial to the memory of his
mother, whose initials and the date of whose death are given after the
text. To her memory, also, the following lines have been engraved on
the base of the pedestal; they were chosen as being specially
appropriate to Mrs. Fleming's vigorous and dauntless character:
"O strong soul, by what shore
Tarriest thou now? For that force,
Surely, has not been left vain!
Somewhere, surely, afar,
In the sounding labour-house vast
Of being, is practised that strength.
Zealous, beneficent, firm!"
"Rugby Chapel." By Matthew
Arnold.
|
1188. |
SICUT UMBRA. As
a shadow.
On the porch of Maker Church, near Devonport.
|
1189. |
SICUT UMBRA CUM
DECLINAT, ABLATUS SUM. I am gone like the shadow when it
declineth (Ps. cix. 23).
Given in "Notizie Gnomoniche."
|
|
|
1190. |
SICUT UMBRA DECLINANT
DIES NOSTRI. F. A. D. MDCCCXXII. Like a shadow our days go
down.
On the Villa Quiete, Varese.
|
1191. |
SICUT UMBRA DIES NOSTRI.
As a shadow (are) our days.
Formerly in the great court of the Sorbonne. Paris, on a
fine vertical dial, with an admirable design of Apollo driving the
chariot of the Sun. The motto was also in the court of the Célestin
Convent, Paris, now destroyed; and has been read at Le Ciotât (Bouches
du Rhône). The three first words were on the Château de Preuilly (Seine
et Marne).
|
1192. |
SICUT UMBRA FUGIT HORA.
As a shadow the hour flies.
At Verdun sur Garonne (Tarn et Garonne).
|
1193. |
SICUT UMBRA TRANSEUNT
DIES. As the shadow pass the days.
On the church porch of St. Levan, Cornwall. The church
is rich in old oak, and also possesses a fragmentary copy of the letter
of thanks written by King Charles I. to his people of Cornwall for
their fidelity, dated from his camp at Sudeley Castle, 1643, and
ordered to be printed, published, and read in every church or chapel in
Cornwall, and to be kept for ever as a record of their king's
gratitude.
|
1194. |
SIDERA MENTE REGIT.
With his mind he ruleth the stars.
On one of two dials on the Jesuit College at Tours. For
the second motto see No. 854. The dials
probably date from the seventeenth century.
|
1195. |
SIGNAT ET MONET.
STULTO LONGA, SAPIENTI BREVIS.
It marks and warns, long to the fool; to the wise
man
short.
At the Hôtel Cluny, Paris, or, according to another
account, on a house
near it, and now destroyed. The first line was in 1787 on a house in
the Boulevard du Temple, Paris.
|
1196. |
SII AVARO DEL TEMPO.
Be no spendthrift of thy time.
On a tower which forms part of a large
eighteenth-century building in the market-place, Fano, Italy. Miss
Helen Zimmern, who saw it in 1892, adds "the good advice of the motto
did not seem to be generally obeyed in its vicinity."
|
1197. |
SILENS ET QUIETA CURRIT.
Silently and noiselessly it hurries by.
Once in the garden of the Minimes, Paris.
|
1198. |
SILENS LOQUOR. Though
silent, I speak.
La Charité, Paris.
|
1199. |
SINE LUMINE INANE.
Without light all is useless.
Formerly on a finely-painted dial, south declining west,
which was
|
|
|
|
in a window of the church of
St. Benet Fink, Threadneedle Street, now
destroyed. The foundation of this church was very ancient, but it was
rebuilt by Robert Fink the elder in 1633, and after being burnt down,
was again rebuilt in 1673. The following extract from the "Saint's
Nosegay," by Mr. Samuel Clark, minister of this church from 1642-66,
may serve to illustrate the motto: "If the sunne be wanting it will be
night for all the stars; so if the light of God's countenance be
wanting, a man may sit in the shadow of death for all the glyster of
worldly contentment. As light continues not in the house, but by its
dependance on the sun: shut out that, and all the light and beauty is
presently gone: so we can see nothing but by the constant supply of the
spirit of Christ. Hee that begins must finish every good work in us." |
1200. |
SINE LUMINE NIHIL.
Nought without light.
With No. 232, in the
garden at Fellside, Great Snaresbrook.
|
1201. |
SINE MOTU CURRO.
Without moving, I run.
On a house in the Piazza Nostra Signora di Campagna,
Piacenza.
|
1202. |
SINE NUBE PLACET.
When there is no cloud (the dial) pleases.
At Vallouise (Isère), dated 1869, Z. G. F.
|
1203. |
SINE PEDE CURRO, SINE
LINGUA DICO. PASCALIS, ANNO DOMINI, 1790. Without
feet I run, without a tongue I speak.
At St. Sauveur (Isère), also at Pont en Royans, with
"Pascalis le 8 brumaire l'an 4 de la Republique, 30: Octobre 1795." It
also occurs at other villages in the same neighbourhood.
|
1204. |
SINE SOL NIHIL SUM.
Without the sun I have nothing.
On a church at Ornavasso, Lago Maggiore, and at Vevey.
With the last word omitted, it is at Cordes (Tarn); and in several
other French villages; and was formerly at La Charité, Paris; and at
Puisseaux.
|
1205. |
SINE SOL SILEO.
Without the sun I keep silence.
On the church tower at Hoole, Lancashire, dated 1815; on
a house at Ashwick, near Bath; at Goldney House, Clifton, erected by
Lewis Fry, Esq.; and in Chorley Churchyard, Lancashire. On the tower of
Shillington Church, Bedfordshire, a clock and a sun-dial were formerly
to be seen, the sun-dial having this motto, and the clock, as a
contrast. Sine sole loquor (without the sun I speak). The dial
has now been removed.
The motto is on the chapel of St. Philippe, Nice; in the
Castle of
Monastero, near Bormida; and has been read at Vevey; at Pino. Piedmont;
and at Alghero in Sardinia.
|
|
|
1206. |
SINE SOLE SILEO, SINE
NUBE PLACEO. When there is no sun, I keep silence, when no
clouds, I do my office.
On a dial at Cervières. Above the gnomon a starry globe
is depicted, with the sentence. Benedicite stellae coeli Domie,
(O ye stars of heaven, bless ye the Lord!) Below the numerals is Adonai
memento me. O Jehova adjuva me. (O Lord, be mindful of me: Jehovah,
be thou my help.)
|
1207. |
SINE UMBRA NIHIL.
Without shadow there is nothing.
Formerly on one of the dial faces on the west pier,
Brighton (see No. 391).
|
1208. |
SINGVLIS HORIS
LAVDETVR
IESVS
SALVATOR NOSTER, AB OMNI
CREATVRA.
Every hour, by every creature, let Jesus our
Saviour be
praised.
Above the motto are the initials, F. C. R.
PE..
The chronogram forms the date 1785. The inscription is on a small stone
dial bought by Mr. Evans at Frankfort A. M. in 1893.
|
1209. |
SINT FELICES. May
they be happy.
At St. Rémy (Bouches du Rhône).
|
1210. |
SINT TIBI SERENAE.
May thine hours be bright.
At Bormio.
|
1211. |
SIS MEMOR OCCASUS, SOLE
ORIENTE, TUI. At sunrise be thou mindful of thine own
setting.
At Vannes, dated 1743.
|
1212. |
SISTE VIATOR JAM HORA
EST. Stay traveller, 'tis time.
On an inn at Meyrargues, near Aix (Bouches du Rhône).
|
1213. |
SIT FAUSTA QUAE LATET.
Anno Domini 1823. May the hour thou knowest not be prosperous.
This motto, with five others, is in the Place d'Armes,
Briançon; and below the dial, encircling a shield, are the words: Sit
nomen Dominum benedictum (see No. 8).
|
1214. |
SIT NOMEN DOMINUM JESU BENEDICTUM IN
SECULA.
LAUDABILE NOMEN DOMINUM. 1855.
Blessed is the name of the Lord Jesus for all ages.
Praise the name of the Lord.
On the church at Abriès (Hautes Alpes), with Nos. 478 and 1591).
|
1215. |
SIT PATRIAE AUREA QUAVIS.
May there be for our country in some wise a golden
(hour).
There was, until the last restoration of the building, a
dial carved
|
|
|
|
in stone and bearing this
motto, on the façade of the Maison du Roi, or
Broodhuys, at Brussels. This fine old building is opposite the Hôtel de
Ville, in the square where the executions of Counts Egmont and Horn
took place. The Broodhuys has undergone many alterations. It was built
about 1525. and in it the two noblemen passed the night before their
execution, but it seems to have been rebuilt in 1668, by order of the
Archdukes Albert and Isabella, and again altered in 1757. Until a
recent restoration it bore on its façade the following inscription,
which contains a chronogram of the date 1624:
A PESTE, FAME, ET BELLO, LIBERA NOS MARIA PACIS.
HOC VOTVM PACIS PVBLICAE
ELISABETH CONSECRAVIT.
From plague, famine, and war, deliver us, Mary of
peace.
This offering for the national peace Elizabeth dedicated.
A statue of the Archduchess was placed above. The dial
probably dates
from the rebuilding in 1757.
|
1216. |
SIT SINE LITE DIES.
Let the day be without strife.
On Darlington church. The dial is placed high on the
south wall; the face is black, the lines and lettering gold.
|
1217. |
SIT ULTIMA FELIX.
1792. May thy last hour be happy.
At Najac (Aveyron).
|
1218. |
ΣKIAΣ ΔIKHN ΠANTA.
All passeth like a shadow.
Hotel de Mars, Rue du Tournon, Paris.
|
1219. |
ΣKIAΣ 'ONAP 'ANΘPΩΠOI.
Mankind is as the dream of a shadow.
From Pindar, P. 8, 136, cf. Soph. Aj. 125:
ὁρῶ
γὰρ
ᾑμᾶς
οὐδὲν
ὄντας
ἄλλο
πλὴν
ἔιδωλ
ὅσοιπερ
ζῶμεν,
ᾒ xούφην
σxιάν.
Formerly on the convent of the Minimes, in the Place
Royal, Paris.
|
1220. |
SO FLIES LIFE.
On an old house at Southall, Middlesex.
|
1221. |
SO FLIES LIFE AWAY.
1738.
On the church tower at South Stoneham. Hampshire, "Jo.
Sharpe, Ro: Houghton, Churchwardens;" also on "The Old Windmill" tavern
at Turnham Green, Middlesex, with date, 1717.
|
1222. |
SO MARCHES THE GOD OF
DAY.
At Hartington Church, Derbyshire. The inscription is
probably taken from Leadbetter's absurd translations of Latin dial
mottoes.
|
|
|
1223. |
SO PASSETH AWAY THE
GLORY OF THE WORLD.
On the church at Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire.
|
1224. |
SO ROLLS THE SUN, SO WEARS THE DAY,
AND MEASURES OUT LIFE'S PAINFUL WAY:
THROUGH SHIFTING SCENES OF SHADE AND LIGHT,
TO ENDLESS DAY OR ENDLESS NIGHT.
FOR THE LADY
ABNEY AT NEWINGTON, 1735.
These lines were written by Dr. Watts as the motto on a
pillar-dial which formerly stood in the garden of Lady Abney at Stoke
Newington. Dr. Watts being resident there as tutor in the family of Sir
J. Hartopp. Sir Thomas Abney was Lord Mayor of London in 1700, and died
in 1722. The dial has been removed to Edmond Castle, near Carlisle, the
residence of T. H, Graham, Esq. Mr. H. Hopley has noted a different
version of the lines, without recording any locality:
"So glide the hours, so wears the day,
These moments measure life away,
With all its trains of Hope and Fear;
Till shifting scenes of Shade and Light
Rise to Eternal Day, or sink in endless Night."
Dr. Watts' lines are also on a dial placed, in 1880, on
the village
school, Carthorpe, Yorkshire.
|
1225. |
SO SOON PASSETH IT AWAY
(Ps. xc. 10). 1782.
On the church of St. Martin by Looe, Cornwall; and on
St. Matthias'. Liskeard, with the names of Wm. Henry Hony, LL.D.,
vicar, Neh. Williams, and Frans. Croker, churchwardens, and date, 1779.
|
1226. |
SO TEACH US TO NUMBER OUR DAYS,
THAT WE MAY APPLY OUR HEARTS UNTO WISDOM (Ps. xc. 12).
On the porch of St. John's Church, Leeds. The dial was
put up after the
restoration of the church, about A.D. 1868, in place of
one removed forty years previously. Also in Trefnant churchyard (see
No. 1295); and on the porch of Mancetter
Church, Warwickshire. There is no date, but a dial is shown in an
engraving of 1763.
|
1227. |
SOL CERTAS AURA FAUSTAS.
The sun makes the hours sure, the breeze prosperous.
At Lausac (Bouches du Rhône).
|
1228. |
SOL DEUS VISIBILIS:
DEUS SOL INVISIBILIS.
The sun is thy visible God; God is the invisible
sun.
At Stonehouse Court, Gloucestershire.
|
1229. |
SOL DIEI DUX EST.
1890. The sun is the guide of day.
On a bureau de tabac, St. Véran (Hautes Alpes).
|
|
|
1230. |
SOL EST LUX ET GLORIA
MUNDI. The sun is the light and glory of the world.
One of the mottoes at Moccas Court (see No. 1469); also on a horizontal dial made by
Newton, of Cambourne, and exhibited at Falmouth in 1898:
"Lo ministro maggior della natura
Che del valve del cielo il mondo imprenta
E col suo lume il tempo ne misura."
DANTE,
Paradiso x. 28.
|
1231. |
SOL EST REGULA.
The sun is the rule.
On a house at Briançon. See No. 1103.
|
1232. |
SOL ET LUNA FACIUNT
QUAE PRECEPTA SUNT EIS: NOS AUTEM PEREGRINAMUR A DOMINO.
The sun and moon do what hath been bidden them, but we wander away from
the Lord.
Near a great sun-dial on the parish church of St.
Affrique (Aveyron). and described by Mr. Barker in his "Wanderings by
Southern Waters." "The extraordinary astronomical dials," he writes,
"cover most of the surface of the outer walls. They are exceedingly
curious, and some of the calculations really astonishing, as e.g.,
a table showing the number of souls that have appeared before the
tribunal of God." Baron de Rivière gives both this and another motto in
French; possibly both versions may be on the dials (see No. 212).
|
1233. |
SOL GLORIA MUNDI.
The sun is the glory of the world.
On a house in Whitehorse Yard, Wellingborough.
|
1234. |
SOL LUCET OMNIBUS.
The sun shineth for all men.
On a house at Sècles (Carrèze); and at Pont de
Beauvoisin (Isère).
|
1235. |
SOL ME VOS UMBRA REGIT.
The sun guides me, the shadow you.
On the church of St, Stephen by Saltash, which is the
original parish church of Saltash, the names of Joseph Avery and Savell
Doidge, 1783, are also engraved on the dial. The motto is on three of
Zarbula's dials in the Hautes Alpes. Also on a farmhouse at Coldthorpe,
Gloucestershire, the last word being omitted.
|
1236. |
SOL MINISTRAT UMBRAM.
The sun provides the shadow.
John Calcott fecit, 1824, George Ore, Samuel Worthen,
Churchwardens.
On the dial in the churchyard of Prees, Salop.
|
1237. |
SOL MOMENTA NICOLAUS
MORES. 1666. The Sun makes the moments, Nicolas the manners.
On the wall of the former presbytère of the church of
St. Nicolas des Champs, Paris.
|
|
|
1238. |
SOL NON OCCIDAT SUPER
IRACUNDIAM VESTRAM. – Ephes. iv. 26.
Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
Richard Melvin, fecit, from London.
This motto, with No. 443,
is on a
handsome pillar bearing a horizontal dial of slate at Ember Court,
Surrey. The inscriptions are somewhat defaced. Besides the central dial
there are four small ones at the four corners, showing the time of day
at other places on the earth's surface. The same text is on dials at
Areley Kings, Cheshire; (No. 74) at
Ninane, Belgium; La Fiera di Primiero, Tyrol (No. 426); and at Bozel, Savoy.
Several dials made by Richard Melvin of London, and
apparently also of
Dublin, are noticed in this work. They are usually of slate,
horizontal, and engraved with great care, sometimes showing the time at
places abroad, and accompanied by smaller dials at the sides, in the
corners, which are for the same purpose. Three of Melvin's dials are in
Warwickshire, another at Ruthin Castle, one at Dover, and one at
Killiney, dated 1864. Some have mottoes, and some not.
|
1239. |
SOL ORITUR CADIT ET LUSTRALIS EVOLAT HORA
AT NOBIS IMMOTO SISTITUR ORBE DIES.
The sun ariseth, it setteth, and the hour of
worship arrives,
But our day standeth fast in its immoved circle.
On the church of St. Francis Xavier, Besançon. The lines
were composed
by the Abbé Pioche, Professor at the College of the Pères Eudistes. See
No. 1251.
|
1240. |
SOL PRO OMNIBUS LUCET.
The sun shines for all men.
On the belfry of the church at Orly (Seine).
|
1241. |
SOL REDIT VITA TRANSIT.
The sun returneth, life passeth.
Locality unknown.
|
1242. |
SOL REGIT OMNIA.
The sun rules all.
At Manc (Basses Alpes).
|
1243. |
SOL REX REGULA.
The sun is King and guide.
At Alleins (Bouches du Rhône).
|
1244. |
SOL SOLUS SOLVIT.
The sun is the only solver.
Composed by William Fane, Esci., for a dial in his
garden at Fulbeck Hall, Lincolnshire.
|
1245. |
SOL TEM[P]O DI SATURNO IL DENTE EDACE
E DEL PALLONE IL GIOCATOR FALLACE. 1826.
Nothing save Time's destructive tooth I dread,
And the ball by unskilful player sped.
At Chieri, in Piedmont. Two or three Italian scholars
have tried
|
|
|
|
to make sense of this obscure
motto, and have failed. The first
allusion to the mythological legend of Saturn devouring his children
will be recognized; and the accompanying simile can only be explained
by a reference to the favourite Italian game of pallone. This
game somewhat resembles tennis, and still remains a living
representative of the old Roman game of pila. The manner of
playing it has been thus described by Mr. Story ("Roba di Roma," vol.
i.): "It is played between two sides, each numbering from five to eight
persons. Each of the players is armed with a bracciale, or
gauntlet of wood, covering the hand and extending nearly up to the
elbow, with which a heavy ball is beaten backwards and forwards, high
into the air, from one side to another. The object of the game is to
keep the ball in constant flight, and whoever suffers it to fall dead
within the bounds loses. The game is played on an oblong figure, marked
out on the ground, or designated by the wall around the sunken platform
on which it is played, and across the centre is a transverse line
dividing the two sides; and as the ball falls here and there, now
flying high in the air, and caught at once by the bracciale
before touching the ground, now glancing back from the wall which
generally forms one side of the lists, the players rush eagerly to hit
it, calling loudly to each other, and often displaying great agility,
skill, and strength." Allusions to the game of pallone may be
found in the works of the modern Italian poets. Leopardi and Aleardi
have both made use of it as a subject of their verse. The above motto
was ultimately shown to Antonio Maschio, a gondolier in the service of
the National Bank at Venice, well-known for his interpretation of
Dante's "Divina Commedia." He said at once that the word tempo should
be temo, and then the meaning would be, "I fear only the
devouring tooth of Saturn and the inexpert player with the ball" – that
is, the gnomon fears alike Saturn's wet weather which corrodes iron,
and the bad pallone player who may throw his ball against and
break it. |
1246. |
SOL TEMPORA DIVIDIT ÆVI.
– Lucan, Pharsalia, 10.
The sun divides the seasons of time.
Given in "Notizie Gnomoniche."
|
1247. |
SOL TIBI SIGNA DABIT:
SOLEM QUIS DICERE FALSUM AUDEAT? The sun will give thee the
signs: who will dare to say the sun is false? (From Virgil's First
Georgic, line 463.)
This is the motto of a sun-dial on one of the terraces
at Bramshill Park, Hants. At the same place there are three other
dials, which bear the arms of the Cope family with dates and initials,
but they have no mottoes.
This was the motto of the old "Sun" newspaper. Dryden's
translation of
the line runs:
"The sun reveals the secret of the day.
And who dares give the source of light the lie?"
|
|
|
|
The first part of the motto, SOL
TIBI SIGNA DABIT, was,
until 1852, on the Bridge Trust Building, Bideford, erected in 1755. It
is still on the wall of the cloister of St. Stefano, Belluno, now used
as a public building. See No. 1434.
The latter half of the line is on a dial at Newbiggin,
near Carlisle, dated 1722 and inscribed "Carolus Aedes delineavit,
Johannes Gosling sculpt."; also on St. Mary's Church, Penzance, with
No. 1334; this dial was removed from the
old church to the present modern building. See also No. 1053.
|
1248. |
SOLARUM SIGNAT LINEA
PICTA VIAM. The painted line marks the
sun's path.
Given in "Notizie Gnomoniche."
|
1249. |
SOLARIUS NOBIS
COMMINUIT ARTICULATIM DIEM (Plaut. Fragm.), The diallist
splits up the day for us into small parts.
Given in "Notizie Gnomoniche."
|
1250. |
SOLE HORAM DO IN DEO
SPEM VIDES. Z. G. F. 1841. By the sun I give (the time); in
God thou seest thy hope.
At Abriès. The dial, like many of those made by Zarbula,
is ornamented with pictures of birds; here there is a toucan and a
parakeet, with their names attached. The motto, imperfectly rendered,
is also at Le Pinet (Hautes Alpes).
|
1251. |
SOLE NITENTE LOQUOR
TACEO SINE SOLIBUS HORAS
TU NISI FORTE POTES DISCERE VERA TACE.
When the sun shines I speak, in the sunless hours I keep
silence: do thou, unless perchance thou canst learn the truth, hold thy
peace.
On the chapel of the College of the Pères Eudistes, and
written by the Abbé Pioche, Professor of Rhetoric. See No. 1239.
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1252. |
SOLE ORIENTE, FUGIUNT
TENEBRAE. With the rising sun the darkness flies.
On a dial in a garden in the diocese of Connor.
Bishop Mant, in his Latin and English poem, "The
Sun-dial of Armoy,"
writes thus:
"Night flies before the orient morning,
So speak the Dial's accents clear;
So better speaks the Prophet's warning
To ears that hear.
"Night flies before the Sun ascending;
The sun goes down, the shadow spreads –
O, come the day which, never ending,
No night succeeds.
"And see a purer day-spring beaming,
Unwonted light, nor moon nor sun;
But Light itself, with glory streaming,
God on His throne!"
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1253. |
SOLE ORIENTE ORIOR,
SOLE PONENTE CUBO.
With the rising sun I wake,
With the setting sun I sleep.
Believed to be in Malta.
|
1254. |
SOLEM CERTISSIMA SIGNA
SEQUUNTUR (Virgil, Geor. I. 439).
Most sure are the signs which follow the sun.
Given in "Notizie Gnomoniche."
|
1255. |
SOLEM SUUM ORIRI FACIT
SUPER BONOS ET MALOS, ET PLUIT SUPER JUSTOS ET INJUSTOS. He
maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on
the just and on the unjust (St. Matt. v. 45).
On a horizontal dial, dated MDCCCLXXXVI,
made by C. W. Dixey and Sons, New Bond Street.
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1256. |
SOLES PEREUNT ET
IMPUTANTUR. Days (literally, suns) depart and are reckoned.
Outside the Dean's kitchen at Durham is a dial which bears this
inscription. In 1888 it was much decayed. The motto comes from
Martial's "Epigrams," v. 20, 23. It is also over the south porch of
Woodhorn Church, Northumberland, with letters T. R. S. and 1840.
|
1257. |
SOLI DEO GLORIA.
To God alone be glory.
This inscription is cut on several stones in Nuremberg,
and may have belonged to dials which have been removed. It is also on a
portable ivory compass dial in the Nuremberg Museum, made by Paulus
Reinman, 1602; on another in the British Museum, "Paulus Reinmann zu
Normberg, faciebat 1578"; on two marked "Nicolavs Miller, 1645," and on
many similar dials in other collections. See No. 1320.
|
1258. |
SOLI DEO HONOR ET GLORIA.
To God alone be honour and glory.
On an old dial at Queyrières, and at other villages in
the Hautes Alpes. The words used to be often found inscribed over old
house doorways in Edinburgh; amongst others over the notorious Major
Weir's house, dated 1604. Mr. Robert Chambers tells us that in the
reign of Queen Mary the above was the "fashionable grace before meat"
of the Scottish nobility.
|
1259. |
SOLI DEO OMNIS GLORIA.
J. Smith 1838. delin. Bielby. To God alone be all glory.
With No. 97, on the
Wesleyan Chapel at Bielby, near Pocklington. See No. 1406.
|
1260. |
SOLI, SOLI, SOLI.
1756.
Seen in 1863 on a house at Monthey, Canton Valais. The
motto and date (1756) were on a scroll above the dial, and the sun's
face
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made a central point where the
gnomon was fixed. The same words have
also been read at Bonneville; at Château Queyras (see No. 48); and in other villages in Dauphiné, in
one case with the date 1700. They are also at Mouriez (Bouches du
Rhône), on the house where Nostradamus
once lived, and is said to have been placed there by the prophet
himself. He died July 2nd, 1566.
The word SOLI alone has been seen on a
dial in the hamlet of Ozier (Isère); and SOLI, SOLI
on others in the hamlets of La Valadière, and of Légerie (Isère). The
representation of the sun as a human face with rays all round it, which
is often seen on dials, is of very ancient origin. It has been found
carved in relief at Babain in Upper Egypt, with figures of priests
below offering sacrifice. In this manner the Persians also represented
the Sun God, as well as in the form of a young man, Mithras. It is
possible that the words, Soli, soli, soli, and Deo soli
gloria (which may bear a double meaning), were originally Mithraic
inscriptions. Under the Roman Empire there were altars set up to
Mithras with the inscription, Deo invicto Mithrae. Several have
been found in England inscribed Deo soli, To God the sun; Deo
soli invicto, To God the sun unconquerable. That traces of this
ancient worship should still be found on sun-dials need surprise no
one. [If Soli, soli, soli, be indeed a Mithraic inscription, it
probably should be translated, "To the peerless sun, we only," i.e.,
the secret society of Mithraists. – R. F. L.]
|
1261. |
SOLI POSUIT A. FERGUSON.
1803. To the sun. A. Ferguson set up [this dial).
At Hallyards, Peeblesshire, on a dial put up in his
garden by Professor Adam Ferguson.
|
1262. |
SOLI PRO FIDE. To
the sun for the faith.
At the hamlet of Les Murets, St. Égrève.
|
1263. |
SOLIS ADIT LUX,
HIC DOCET UMBRAE CRUX,
DATUR HORA.
UMBRAM ADDIT NOX,
HINC ABIT UMBRAE VOX,
ABIT HORA ABSIT MORA.
The sun's light shineth here.
The shade's cross teacheth clear,
Told is the hour of day.
Night makes the shade more dense.
The shade's voice goeth hence.
The hour goes, let there be no delay.
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These lines are engraved on
the eight sides of a shaft in the vicarage
garden, Shenstone, near Lichfield, upon the top of which is a cross
dial (see Nos. 474 and 1384), erected and inscribed by the Rev. R.
W. Essington. On a slate step at the shaft's base there are two more
mottoes, one in Greek and the other in Hebrew: (1) ὡραν
διδωσι
+
ὀντος
ἡλιου
(the word σταῦρος, a cross, being supplied by +). The cross
gives the hour in sunshine.
And, (2) י
ח י
א ו ֹ
ד . Let there be light.
Two other translations have been made of the Latin
lines, but the one given above seems to follow the original more
closely than the rest.
(1) Sunlight falls, and lo! the Cross's shadow fain
would teach
To us the present hour by heaven is lent!
Night darkens, and then no longer can the
shadow preach,
Avoid delay, your time is almost spent.
(2) Light falls from heaven!
Then doth the Cross's shade
This lesson sweetly teach:
Thy time – Heaven's grace!
Night's deeper shades
Close round! the voice is hushed
So soon that grace is spent,
It flies apace,
Hold on thy race.
|
1264. |
SOLIS ARDOR EXTRA
CARITAS INTRA.
The sun's heat without, charity within.
On the Hospital, La Rochefoucauld, France.
|
1265. |
SOLIS ET ARTIS OPUS.
The work of the Sun and of Art.
A MAI CESSAR D' OPRAR SEMPRE C' INVITA. To
ceaseless round of toil the hour ever calls us.
il
Giorno 23 Maggio 1867.
Seen near Varese; also at Milan; and on a house between
Palermo and Monreale, dated 1882. In 1860 it was on a house at Grasse.
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1266. |
SOLUS NON ERRAT. RECEDO
NON DECEDO. OBLIQUE ET UBIQUE.
He alone makes no mistake. I go back again. I do not
go away. Aslant and everywhere.
Given in "Notizie Gnomoniche."
|
1267. |
SON FIGLIA DEL SOLE
EPUR SON OMBRA.
I am child of the sun, and yet am shade.
Seen by the Countess Martinengo Cesaresco on the Col di
Tenda in 1870. Dean Alford mentioned the same motto in his letters from
the Riviera, and he paraphrased it thus:
I the sun my father call,
Yet am shadow after all.
|
1268. |
SON POCHE LE ORE MIE,
LE TUE SON MOLTE. Few are my hours, how many thine!
At San Remo; and also at Ventimiglia.
|
1269. |
SON SENZA SUON E SENZA VOCE, ANCORA
OPUR SE LUCE IL SOL, TI DICO L'ORA.
I have no sound, nor voice, yet by the light
Of sunbeams touched, I tell the hours aright.
At Vegliasco, near Alassio.
|
1270. |
SONGEZ À DIEU ET AU
PROCHAIN. 1860. Think upon God, and of thy neighbour.
At Abriès (Hautes Alpes).
|
1271. |
SONGEZ À LA DERNIÈRE.
1733. Think upon the last (hour).
On the church at Mens (Isère).
|
1272. |
SONO BARRA OSCURA E FISSA.
EPPURE SONO SERVA DEL SOLE
E SCHIAVA DEL MOTO.
I am an iron bar, black and firm fixed,
Yet am I handmaid of the sun
And a slave to the laws of motion.
On the tower of the Grand Hotel, Pegli; placed there in
1874. and the
motto added by the Marquis de Nicolay.
|
1273. |
SONO PRONTO A FAR
OFFIZIO MIO; SE MANCHA IL SOLE M'ANCHO ANCH'IO. IN VANO CERCA LORA
MENTRE NON È SOLE. [SONO PRONTO A FAR UFFIZIO MIO, SE
MANCA IL SOLE MANCO ANCH'IO; IN VANO CERCAR L'ORA MENTRE NON È SOLE.]
I am ready to do my duty; if the sun fails, I fail also. It is in vain
to seek the hour when there is no sun.
On No. 85, Via Vittorio
Emanuele, Chiomonte (Prov. of Turin).
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1274. |
SOUVENEZ VOUS DE VOS
FINS DERNIÈRES. 1846. Think upon your latter end.
On the church of the St. Crucifix, Cordes (Tarn).
|
1275. |
SOUVIENS TOI, O HOMME, QUE TU EST
POUSSIÈRE
ET QUE TU RETOURNERAS EN POUSSIÈRE. 1841.
Remember, O man, that dust thou art, and unto dust shalt
thou return.
On the belfry tower, La Salle (Hautes Alpes).
|
1276. |
SOYEZ MOI FIDÈLE.
Be thou faithful unto me.
At Sylve Bénite (Isère).
|
1277. |
SPE ILLECTAT INANI. MDCV.
With vain hope he attracts.
Rue de la Préfecture, Nice.
|
1278. |
SPECTATOR FASTIDIOSUS
SIBI MOLESTUS. He that looks too proudly is a trouble to
himself.
At Bywell Abbey, near Newcastle-on-Tyne. It is difficult
to understand what this motto means; we have translated it literally.
It may either point to a spectator bending over the dial so as to
intercept the sunshine; or as a passer-by who is too proud to use this
humble means of learning the time.
|
1279. |
SPECULUM VITÆ. The
mirror of life.
At Voreppe (Isère).
|
1280.
Saint-Antoine Pelvoux (05)
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SPERO LUCEM. I
hope for the light.
On the church in the village of St. Antoine, Pelvoux
(Hautes Alpes).
|
1281. |
SPLENDOR ET ORDO.
Light and order due.
On the palace of the Tuileries in 1787. From a MS. list
of dial mottoes of that period, published by the Comte du Marsy in
1881.
|
1282. |
STA PROMISSIS. Stand
to your promises.
On the stone pedestal of a dial at Niddrie Marischal,
near Edinburgh, the seat of the Don Wauchopes. The arms of the family
are engraved on the bronze dial face, and also on the pedestal, but the
motto is not their heraldic one. The words, Wachop of Niddrie,
are inscribed beside the shield on the face; and also Jacobus
Clarke, Dundee, fecit. There is no date.
|
1283. |
DIALL. (loq.)
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STAIE, PASSINGER |
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TELL ME MY NAME |
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THY
NATVRE. |
PASS. (resp.)
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THY NAME IS DIE |
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ALL. I AM A MORTALL
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CREATVRE.
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DIALL. (loq.)
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SINCE MY NAME |
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AND THY NATVRE |
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SOE AGREE,
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THINK ON THY SELFE |
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WHEN THOV LOOKST |
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VPON ME. |
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There is an ancient dial,
having four sides, at Millrigg, in the parish
of Culgaith, near Penrith. The opening dialogue betwixt Dial and
Passenger is inscribed on one side of the square, and on the other side
is Dial's moral deduction from it. The two remaining sides of the
square are occupied by the armorial bearings of the families of Dalston
and Fallowfield, together with the initials "I. D." and "H. F." John
Dalston resided and died at Millrigg in 1692. He was the son of Sir
Christopher Dalston, of Acorn Bank, who was knighted by James I. in
1615. This latter place was the chief residence of the family. The
manor of Temple Sowerby, immediately adjoining, was granted by Henry
VIII. to Thomas Dalston, Esq., on the distribution of religious houses.
It belonged originally to the Knights Templars, and afterwards to the
Hospitallers. Millrigg is now occupied as a farm-house. |
1284. |
STAT SUA CUIQUE DIES,
ATQUE IRREMEABILIS HORA. For each one his day is appointed,
and the hour from which there is no return.
Given in "Notizie Gnomoniche."
|
1285. |
STATE, VENIT HORA.
Stay, the hour is at hand.
At Aiguières (Var).
|
1286. |
STEH' BEY UNS IN ALLER NOTH,
HIER IN LEBEN UND IN TOD.
Stand by us in all need, here in life and in death.
At Salzburg. There is a fresco of the Virgin and Child
with the dial.
|
1287. |
SVB HAC VMBRA
DATVR SECVRA QVIES.
EX HOC OMNIS
DECOR EXVRGET.
Under this shade is given rest without care. Hence
will
all grace arise.
Each line gives the date 1726. They are on a brass
folding dial,
ornamented with a bishop's mitre and crozier, in Mr. Evans' collection.
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1288. |
SUB UMBRA QUIESCUNT. 1770.
SUB LUCE GAUDENT. 1785.
Under the shade they rest.
Under the light they rejoice.
On the Hôtel des Invalides at Paris.
|
1289. |
SUCH IS LIFE.
1800.
On the church at Buckminster, Leicestershire.
|
1290. |
SUFFICIT UNA, ULTIMAM
TIME. One sufficeth, fear the last.
In the principal square at Annecy a meridian dial was
placed by Frère Arsène, a Capuchin, the maker of several dials set up
at different places in Savoy. This one is described in a brochure, "Le
Montre Solaire d'Annecy." There were, as is often the case, dials of
different kinds on the same stone. On the south side were two
equinoctial dials, with the mottoes given above, and the additional
lines:
"Tel, qu'un Lion de sang avide
Se precipitant sur tes pas.
La mort suite un course rapide
Avec l'arrêt de ton trépas."
As a lion thirsting for blood pursues thy steps, so
Azrael rapidly follows bearing thy death warrant.
There are also the arms of the town of Annecy, and the
initials L. D.
M., L. J. F., which stand for "Laus Deo Mariæ, Laus Joseph Franciscus."
On the east side is: "Une de plus, une de moins" – One
more, one
less; and on the west: "L'éternité dépend d'une heure" – Eternity
hangs upon an hour.
|
1291. |
SUM GENITOR VERI, DOMITOR LEVORIS, APERTI
INDEX, ASTRORUM FILIUS ATQUE COMES
ME SEQUOR ET FUGIO MEA PER VESTIGIA: NUMQUAM
CUM SINE QUOTIDIE NASCOR ET INTEREO. 1688.
I am the father of truth, the conqueror of malice,
the
pointer of the open sky, the son and comrade of the stars. I follow
myself and flee along my own tracks, daily am I born, daily I die.
At the Hameau de Platre-Rousel, near Monbonnet (Isère).
|
1292. |
SUM MUTUM AT MUTI TAMEN EXPLICO LUMINA
PHŒBI
UMBRA MIHI LINGUA EST NEC TAMEN VMBRA SONAT
AVRIBUS HINC NVLLIS OPVS EST ME INTERPRETE TEMPVS
OMNE SCIES OCVLOS SI SVBIT VMBRA TUOS. V.
F. 1706.
Voiceless am I, yet do I interpret the light of
voiceless Phœbus. The
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shadow is my tongue, yet
the shadow gives no sound:
hence when I inform thee thou needest no ears, thou shalt know the time
when thou wilt, if the shadow comes beneath thine eyes.
On a German honestone dial sold in London.
|
1293. |
SUM SI SOL SIT.
If the sun is, I am.
At Viriville (Isère).
|
1294. |
SUMUS UMBRA
1691. A shadow are we.
Seen on an old house in Lower Tottenham. "Notes and
Queries," Fourth Series, iv. 188.
|
1295. |
SUNS RISE AND
SET,
TILL MEN FORGET
THE DAY IS AT THE DOOR
WHEN THEY SHALL RISE NO MORE.
O EVERLASTING SUN,
WHOSE RACE IS NEVER RUN,
BE THOU MY ENDLESS LIGHT,
THEN SHALL I FEAR NO NIGHT.
In Memoriam T. E. W. D., 1880.
These lines, with Prov. x. 7, and Ps. xc. 12, are on two
sides of a
column bearing a dial, in the churchyard of Trefnant, co. Denbigh. It
was erected by Mrs. Whitehall Dod, of Llanerch. There are also devices,
such as the cross within a triangle, a sickle, and an hour-glass
inclosed in a serpent ring. See No. 1226.
|
1296. |
SUPRA SOLEM VERITAS, SUB SOLE
VANITAS.
Pascalis, Anno Domini 1790.
Above the sun is truth, beneath it vanity.
At Beauvoir (Isère).
|
1297. |
SUPREMA HÆC MULTIS
FORSAN TIBI. For many men their last hour, perhaps for thee.
At Rians (Var); and formerly at St. Géneviève, Paris. A
similar motto has been read on the Riviera; and in the garden of the
Hospital of St. Jacques, Besançon. See No. 75.
|
1298. |
SUR CE CADRAN JE VAIS ET REVIENS CHAQUE
JOUR,
MAIS L'HOMME DISPARAIT, HELAS! ET SANS RETOUR.
On this dial I go and come again each day,
But man, alas! vanishes, and returns no more.
On the church at Bellentre, Savoy.
|
1299. |
SURGE QUI DORMIS.
Awake thou that sleepest (Eph. v. 14).
On an engraving of a dial in J. Voellius's "De
horologiis Sciothericis." 1608.
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1300. |
SWIFT RUNS YE TIME,
THIS DIAL FACE DOTH SHOWE,
YE HOURES ARE FEWE
THAT YE SHALL PASS BELOWE.
Mr. Harry Hems wrote in "The Building News," 1888: "It
is twenty-four
years ago or more that, at that time an apprentice lad in Yorkshire, I
recut an inscription upon an old sun-dial as above."
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1301. |
TA NY LAGHYN AIN MYR
SCAA. Our days are like a shadow.
With No. 1337 on a dial at
Kirk Braddan, Isle of Man, dated 1860. Over the dial face are the arms
of the island, three legs conjoined on the fess point, and beneath it
are the mottoes.
|
1302. |
TA NYN LAGHYN ER Y
THALLOO MYR SCADOO. 1835. Our days on the earth are as a
shadow (I Chron. xxix. 15).
On Malew Church in the Isle of Man. The dial face is of
white marble.
|
1303. |
TA VIE PASSE COMME CET OMBRAGE
PRENDS Y GARDE ET TU SERAS SAGE.
Life passes as this shadow,
If thou art wise thou wilt take care.
At Renage (Isère).
|
1304. |
TACITIS SENESCIMUS HORIS.
We grow old in the silent hours.
At Bozel (Savoy).
|
1305. |
TACITO PEDE LABORO.
I toil with silent foot.
On the wall of the old palace of the Princes of
Masserano (La Marmora) at Masserano, in the province of Novara, Italy.
Lamartine expresses a similar idea:
"L'ombre seule marque en silence
Sur le cadran rempli, les pas muets du temps."
|
1306. |
TAK TENT O' TIME, ERE
TIME BE TINT.
One of eight mottoes that were inscribed on an octagonal
pillar bearing a dial on each side, which stood in front of the
Exhibition Buildings at Edinburgh in 1886. There was also an
inscription stating that the Exhibition was opened by Prince Albert
Victor of Wales, and the dial was called after him. The other seven
mottoes are given under their several headings (see Nos. 61, 656, 706, 1404, 1405, 1412, 1649). The dial was removed when the
Exhibition was taken down, and it is not known what became of it. The
same motto is at Whitchester, Duns, Berwick, on a dial erected for
Andrew Smith, Esq., by Mr. Bryson. It has also been inscribed on the
new base of an ancient dial with twelve faces, a "dodecahedron," which
was brought by Sir William Wedderburn, Bart., from Inveresk Lodge,
Midlothian, and erected at Meredith Court, Gloucestershire. This dial
is dated 1691.
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