. Sun dials and roses of yesterday; garden delights which are here displayed in every truth and are moreover regarded as emblems . these mystical religions are found nowin our Christian churches. Such are the rose-window,the altar and candles. CHAPTER VIII SYMBOLIC DESIGNS FOR SUN-DIALS How beautiful your presence, how of God, who not a thought will shareWith the vain world ; who outwardly as bareAs winter trees, yield no fallacious sign. — EccleJastical Sketches, XIX, William Wordsworth. HE old Emblem writer, Geof-frey Whitney, noted withseverity, as we have withsympathy, that
. Sun dials and roses of yesterday; garden delights which are here displayed in every truth and are moreover regarded as emblems . these mystical religions are found nowin our Christian churches. Such are the rose-window,the altar and candles. CHAPTER VIII SYMBOLIC DESIGNS FOR SUN-DIALS How beautiful your presence, how of God, who not a thought will shareWith the vain world ; who outwardly as bareAs winter trees, yield no fallacious sign. — EccleJastical Sketches, XIX, William Wordsworth. HE old Emblem writer, Geof-frey Whitney, noted withseverity, as we have withsympathy, that readers andon-lookers weary of monot-ony of device: The natureof Man is alwaies delightedin nouelties & too muchecorrupte with curiousnes andnewfanglenes. Truly wedesire and need curiousnes and newfanglenesin sun-dials as in all things else, and to satisfy thatdesire I shall offer in this chapter some suggestionsfor novelty as well as significance of design in sun-dials. At Ophir Farm, the country seat of Hon. White-law Reid, there stands in an open court, near thehouse, a sun-dial. It is pictured with a corner of 185. 186 Sun-dials and Roses of Yesterday the castle-like house opposite this page. The dial isset upon a circle of brick pavement surrounded bysentinel trees of Japanese Retinosporas. It is notin a garden, but stands rather sombrely alone, withno flowers, no creeping vines, no neighbors but thesolemn trees. It is fitting that it should thus stand,for it is an emblematic dial, and was not meant tobe lightly wreathed and garlanded, nor to have itssignificance hidden. The dial-plate rests upon acarefully wrought bronze tortoise, and that is sup-ported on a symmetrical marble pillar which bear de-signs of the signs of the zodiac in wrought bronze. The design of a tortoise is most appropriate fora sun-dial. The myth of the tortoise is Hindoos believe that a great tortoise lies beneaththe earth on his back. Earlier is the notion that theearth itself is a
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectsundial, bookyear1902
