THE 



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Editorial 



OUR PRESENT NEED FOR SUN-DIALS 



"What a dead thing is a clock, with its ponderous embowehnents 

 of lead and brass, its pert or solemn dullness of communication, 

 compared with the simple altar-like structure and silent heart- 

 language of the old dial. 



It stood as the garden god of Christian gardens. Why is it 

 almost everywhere vanished ? If its business use be suspended by 

 more elaborate inventions, its moral uses, its beauty, might have 

 pleaded for its continuance. It spoke of moderate labours, of 

 pleasures not protracted after sunset, of temperance and good 

 hours. It was the primitive clock, the horologe of the first world. 

 Adam could scarce have missed it in Paradise. It was the measure 

 appropriate for sweet plants and flowers to spring by, for the birds 

 to apportion their silver warblings by, for flocks to pasture and 

 be led to fold by. The shepherd, carved it out quaintly in the sun, 

 and turning philosopher by the very occupation, provided it with 

 mottoes more touching than tombstones," 



No one has ever expressed the deeper sentiment for the sun-dial 

 so completely and so satisfactorily as did Charles Lamb in the above 

 tribute. Probably there has never been a time in the history of 

 the world when the peaceful, leisurely influence of a sun-dial in a 

 quiet corner of a garden was so much needed as it is today. The 

 chief characteristic of the days of this generation is that they, as 

 Thoreau said, are "minced into hours and fretted by the ticking of 

 a clock." Every moment of our waking time is apportioned to 

 some action of business, duty, or pleasure, and each moment, 

 like a naughty little boy marching into school, kicks or pinches 

 the one in front. In our opinion, we had much better abate our 

 ardor for "efficiency" and display more interest in "sufficiency" of 

 true living. We are being propelled through the years allotted to 



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