On the Town-house Wittenberg:

Ist's Gottes Werk, so wird's bestehen;
Ist's Menschens, so wird's untergehen.

(If God's work, it will aye endure;

If man's, 'tis not a moment sure.)

Over the gate of a Casino, near Maddaloni:

AMICIS

Et ne paucis pateat,

Etiam fictis.

(My gate stands open for my friends;
But lest of these too few appear,
Let him who to the name pretends
Approach and find a welcome here.)

On a west-of-England mansion:

Welcome to all through this wide-opening gate;
None come too early, none depart too late.

Fuller (Holy and Profane State) and Walton (Life of George Herbert) notice a verse engraved upon a mantel-piece in the Parsonage House built by George Herbert at his own expense. The faithful minister thus counsels his successor :—

If thou dost find

A house built to thy mind,
Without thy cost,

Serve thou the more

GOD and the poor:

My labor is not lost.

The following is emblazoned around the banqueting hall of Bulwer's ancestral home, Knebworth:

Read the Rede of the Old Roof Tree.
Here be trust fast. Opinion free.

Knightly Right Hand. Christian knee.

Worth in all. Wit in some.

Laughter open. Slander dumb.

Hearth where rooted Friendships grow,

Safe as Altar even to Foe.

And the sparks that upwards go
When the hearth flame dies below,
If thy sap in them may be,
Fear no winter, Old Roof Tree.

On a pane of glass in an old window in the coffee-room of the White Lion, Chester, England:

Right fit a place is window glass
To write the name of bonny lass;
And if the reason you should speir,
Why both alike are brittle geir,
A wee thing dings a lozen lame-

A wee thing spoils a maiden's fame.

Tourist's wit on a window pane at Lodore:

When I see a man's name

Scratched upon the glass,

I know he owns a diamond,

And his father owns an ass.

On a pane of the Hotel des Pays-Bas, Spa, Belgium:

1793.

I love but one, and only one;,

Oh, Damon, thou art he.

Love thou but one and only one,

And let that one be me.

MEMORIALS.

An English gentleman, who, in 1715, spent some time in prison, left the following memorial on the windows of his cell. On one pane of glass he wrote:

That which the world miscalls a jail,

A private closet is to me;

Whilst a good conscience is my bail,

And innocence my liberty.

On another square he wrote, Mutare vel timere

on a third pane, sed victa Catoni.*

sperno, and

A Mr. Barton, on retiring with a fortune made in the wooltrade, built a fair stone house at Holme, in Nottinghamshire, in the window of which was the following couplet,—an humble acknowledgment of the means whereby he had acquired his

estate:

I thank God, and ever shall;
It is the sheep hath paid for all.

*Lucan's Pharsalia. (Lib. 1.)

FRANCKE'S ENCOURAGING DISCOVERY.

It is said that when Francke was engaged in the great work of erecting his world-known Orphan-House at Halle, for the means of which he looked to the Lord in importunate prayer from day to day, an apparently accidental circumstance made an abiding impression on him and those about him. A workman, in digging a part of the foundation, found a small silver coin, with the following inscription :

"Jehova, Conditor, Condita Coronide Coronet."
(May Jehovah, the builder, finish the building.)

GOLDEN MOTTOES.

A vain man's motto,

A generous man's motto,-Win gold and share it.

A miser's motto,

A profligate's motto,-
A broker's motto,-
A fool's motto,-
A gambler's motto,-
A sailor's motto,-
A wise man's motto,-

Win gold and wear it.

Win gold and spare it.

Win gold and spend it.

Win gold and lend it.
Win gold and end it.
Win gold and lose it.
Win gold and cruise it.
Win gold and use it.

POSIES FROM WEDDING-RINGS.

Portia. A quarrel, ho, already! What's the matter?
Gratiano. About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring

That she did give me: whose posy was

For all the world like cutler's poetry

Upon a knife: Love me, and leave me not.—

Merchant of Venice, Act V.

Hamlet. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?—

Hamlet, Act III. sc. 2.

Jacques. You are full of pretty answers: have you not been acquainted with goldsmiths' wives, and conned them out of rings?-. As You Like It, Act III. sc. 2.

The following posies were transcribed by an indefatigable collector, from old wedding-rings, chiefly of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The orthography is, in most cases, altered :

Knives were formerly inscribed, by means of aqua-fortis, with short sen. tences in distich.