40 THE WORLD. 



refrain from quoting a beautiful little poem, from " Hone's Every 

 Day Book," entitled 



INSCRIPTION, 



FOR MY DAUGHTERS' HOUR-GLASS. 



Mark the golden grains that pass, 

 Brightly thro' this channell'd gkss, 

 Measuring by their ceaseless fall, 

 Heaven's most precious gift to all ! 

 Busy, till its sands be done, 

 See the shining current run ; 

 But, th' allotted numbers shed, 

 Another hour of life hath fled ! 

 Its task perform'd, its travail past, 

 Like mortal man, it rests at last ! 

 Yet let some hand invert its frame, 

 And all its powers return the same, 

 Whilst any golden grains remain, 

 'Twill work its little hour again, 

 But who shall turn the glass for man, 

 When all his golden grains have ran ? 

 Who shall collect his scattered sand, 

 Dispersed by Time's unsparing hand ? 

 Never can one grain be found, 

 Howe'er we anxious search around! 



Then, daughters since this truth is plain, 

 That Time once gone, ne'er comes again, 

 Improv'd bid every moment pass 

 See how the sand rolls down your glass !" 



The forelock was also emblematical, indicating that if we 

 would improve the time, we must take it by the forelock, and that 

 time once passed left no hold by which it could be reclaimed. 

 Such was the beautiful emblem of time devised by the ancients, 

 and which we still retain. 



The diurnal revolution of the earth, or rather, as it was once 

 believed, the revolution of the heavens around the earth, was 

 observed at a very early day to be performed with the utmost 

 regularity. The return of night, and approach of day, the 

 duration of the night and day, are the first great natural pheno- 

 mena which engage attention, and we may suppose, therefore, 

 that the apparent revolution of the stars around the earth was at 

 a very early period, employed to determine equal intervals of 

 time. Sun-dials were undoubtedly the earliest means employed 



