Sun-dials 
363 
IN HIS OWN IMAGE THE CREATOR MADE, 
HIS OWN PURE SUNBEAM QUICKENED THEE, O MAN ! 
THOU BREATHING DIAL ! SINCE THE DAY BEGAN 
THE PRESENT HOUR WAS EVER MARKED WITH SHADE. 
The motto, Horas non numero nisi serenas , in vari- 
ous forms and languages, has ever been a favorite. 
From an old album I have received this poem writ- 
ten by Professor S. F. B. Morse ; there is a note 
with it in Professor Morse’s handwriting, saying he 
saw the motto on a sun-dial at Worms : — 
TO A. G. E. 
Horas non numero nisi serenas. 
The sun when it shines in a clear cloudless sky 
Marks the time on my disk in figures of light ; 
If clouds gather o’er me, unheeded they fly, 
I note not the hours except they be bright. 
So when I review all the scenes that have past 
Between me and thee, be they dark, be they light, 
I forget what was dark, the light I hold fast ; 
I note not the hours except they be bright. 
Samuel F. B. Morse, 
Washington, March, 1845. 
The sun-dial seems too classic an object, and too 
serious a teacher, to bear a jesting motto. This 
sober pun was often seen : — 
life’s but a shadowe 
man’s but dust 
THIS DYALL SAYES 
DY ALL WE MUST. 
