In this interesting Virginal, which belongs to the Brussels Conservatoire, we have a Ruckers "Vierkante Clavisingel" in the original external decoration just as it left the hands of the younger Hans Ruckers, a master of the Saint Luke's Guild of Antwerp. The decoration is a covering of paper printed from blocks. The stand is also original. An untouched Ruckers virginal or harpsichord like this rarely comes under notice, and, at this moment, I can only recall one in England--a single key-board harpsichord in the possession of Miss Elizabeth Twining, at the Dial House, Twickenham, made by Andries, the brother of the younger Hans and, like him, a son of the elder Hans Ruckers. The combination of white naturals and ebony sharps or flats is the oldest contrast between the lower and upper keys, with the qualification, that the oldest existing natural keys are not of ivory but of boxwood. As was customary in the Low Countries, Latin mottoes, sometimes more than one, were displayed on clavecins or key-board instruments. The one shown here reads OMNIS SPIRITVS LAVDET DOMINVM. These mottoes, so often occurring in Flemish instruments of that period, bear witness to the thoughtfulness and reverence of the men who made and possessed them. Besides the one quoted (Let all that breathe praise the Lord), we find LAVS DEO (Praise be to God), MVSICA DONVM DEI (Music is the gift of God), MVSICA MAGNORVM EST SOLAMEN DVLCE LABORVM (Music is the sweet solace to great labours), CONCORDIA RES PARVÆ CRESCVNT, DISCORDIA MAXIMÆ DILABVNTVR (By Concord small things grow, by Discord great things fall away), SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MVNDI (So passeth away the glory of the world), MVSICA LÆTITIÆ COMES MEDICINA DOLORVM (Music is the companion of joy and medicine of griefs), CONCORDIA MVSIS AMICA (Concord is the Muses' friend), ACTA VIRVM PROBANT (Deeds prove the man), SCIENTIA NON HABET INIMICVM NISI IGNORANTEM (Knowledge has no enemy but the ignorant), MVSICA PELLIT CVRAS (Music dispels cares), and SOLI DEO GLORIA (Glory be to God alone). The Italians preferred longer and more poetic quotations, as the often repeated "Viva fui in sylvis sum dura occisa securi; Dum vixi tacui mortua dulce cano" (I was alive in the woods, I was felled by a cruel axe; while I lived I was silent, now I am dead I sing sweetly); or that on the harpsichord which belonged to Tasso's sister, and is still in the possession of her descendants in the house she lived in at Sorrento: "Tales in altis sentiunt sonos beati spiritus opus" (Such sounds they hear in heaven, the blessed spirits' work).