I should weary the reader if I were to attempt to record at all fully a fair variety of the mottoes that exist. Indeed, to do justice to such a subject, it would be necessary to give a very full list collected from the different lands that have in various ways influenced our own in matters of learning. This not being possible, I will but quote a few of those mottoes and verses that have appealed to me as the best of their class, and, with some short comment, pass on to other items of interest. What more appropriate or suitable motto could be chosen, than the three words, “Lead kindly light,” taken from Cardinal Newman’s beautiful hymn. They are full of power and trustfulness, and, if placed on a dial in the view of many, would be answerable for innumerable good deeds and noble resolutions. Again, note the motto—_Cosi la vita_, “Such is Life,” on a dial at Albizzola. This is of far greater force than “Prepare to die.” We do not intend to die if we can help it, we intend to live! and so we put the motto “Prepare to die” from our mind as crude and unfeeling. But not so the former; it appeals to us, and the imperceptible moving shadow on the dial’s face that soon will be gone gives with the motto a gentle lesson that is considered by all. There are longer mottoes of this class that give useful lessons, and are of a kind well calculated to do good, such as _Sic transit gloria mundi_, “Thus passeth the glory of the world;” and _Hora est Orandi_, “It is the hour for prayer;” and that fine selection from Scripture for a dial, “I also am under authority.” Such verses are good at all times and in all places, and are very far removed from those that seem to contain only the darkest of outlooks and naught of the sunny prospects of life. There is another style or class of motto or verse that has a witty vein, and which is by no means uncommon. The following are amusing:— “What is the time? come, why do you ask? Is it to start, or to end your task?” * * * * * “Wait a moment never say When hours you mean, or chance the day.” * * * * * “I live in the present, a past I recall, But my future depends on the strength of this wall.” * * * * * “Since I never lose A fresh excuse go choose.” * * * * * “Time was made for slaves, men say; Yet free-men ask the time of day.” A verse, written by Andrew Marvell in the reign of Charles II., called forth by a drunken nobleman of the Court defacing the beautiful sundial erected by Stone in the Privy Garden at Whitehall, in 1662, is of interest:-