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    he walked into the centre of the halt arid stood immovable amidst a world of silenee ^ ;

    ' 1 am about to fee delivered / said Pivbt , after a pause evincing a firmly-governed emotion , * of a speech an the laws of clockwork ; or , an oratorical monologue on the right method of oilin ** - and working the subtlest machinery /

    A loud spasmodic sneeze from Lord Snakeskin , the prettiier of Puppetdom , and a suppressed groan from his haunchship the Baron Von Punchmypaunch , and the head professor S . Beane , of Snapdragon Glen , as though they had each received a thump in the bread-basket , was all that interrupted a long interval of tremulous silence and anxiety . The serious mechanist thus

    commenced : — c A dial was the ancient indicator and measurer of the course

    of time , here among us things , as the beneficent sun , who patronized the imitation , is the dial of the vast scheme above us . Dialling is the science of marking and counting- hours by the shadow of a stile or gnomon ; and the photo-sciatherica was in common use among the Greeks . A dial is a great elementary simplicity , giving the true solar time ; it never goes wrong like a clock .

    € The Greeks ! the Greeks ! why always quote the Greeks ? They are as the children of yesterday to my mind ; but we must accommodate ourselves a little to custom , when we make a speech in public . In the year of Rome 460 , appeared the first diaf—an affair of last night ; but we must be temperate in our language . Some say dials were invented by Thaies ; Pliny says it was Anaximenes ; others give the merit to the Chaldsean Berosus . They

    know very little about the matter ; I beg pardon for saying so . What though the Hebrew Ahaz , according to the ancient poem , had a hand in a dial some years before Rome was born ; ' tis but as the day before yesterday . Mark me , ladies and gentlemen , I distinctly affirm that / did not invent them . Their antiquity , give me leave to say , is beyond designation to the present assembly . But the first really scientific work on the subject is by Clavius , — understand him who can : Ozanam and Wolfius are

    much easier , as the head professor of Snapdragon Glen very well knows , though at this moment he is dipping his beak into a pewter pot at the further end of the hall . ' Mr . Pivot , articulated the voice of the head professor , from the further end corner of the hall : ' I was not dipping into the subject according to your inference ; but merely to analyze the component parts of that extraordinary malt-hoppo , foamo-fermentaceous panacea of drought , discovered by the Magus Von Meux send Co .

    ' Sir , ' said Pivot courteously , ' enable me at a future time to beg your pardon . We will not discuss the works of Von Meux at present . With permission , J will eotilifrue toy dis&rtirSe . *

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    8 M EtaoidBt * r # Commtnte on the

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1835, page 334, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2645/page/42/