ained a universal calendar; in the middle was
an astrolabe, and in the superior division were seen the three
wise men and the Virgin Mary carved in wood; the wise men bent
every hour before the Virgin, by means of a peculiar mechanism,
which at the same time put in motion a chime of harmonious sounds
and a cock crowing and flapping his wings.

The exact time at which this clock, which in the fourteenth
century must have been a wonderful piece of workmanship, and was
called the clock of the three sages, ceased going, is not known:
it had been stopped for a long time, when in 1547 the magistrate
of the town decided on having another made and putting it
opposite the old one, in the very place the clock now occupies.
Three distinguished mathematicians furnished the plan and
superintended the execution of it: they were Dr Michel Herr,
Christian Herlin, professor of mathematics at the school of
Strasburg, and Nicholas Prugner, who, after preaching the
reformation at Mulhouse and at Benfeld, occupied himself at
Strasburg with mechanics and astrology. These three learned men
began this work, but did not terminate it; it was resumed in the
year 1570 by a pupil of Herlin, named Conrad Dasypodius of
Strasburg, where he was a professor of mathematics. Dasypodius
drew the design of the clock, but its execution was confided to
two skilful mechanics of Schaffhouse, the brothers Isaac and
Josiah Habrecht; Tobias Stimmer, also of Schaffhouse, had the
charge of the paintings. This master-piece of the mechanical art
of the sixteenth century was completed in 1574; it ceased going
in 1789. As the exterior distribution of the present clock is
nearly the same as that of the old clock, we shall abstain from
describing the latter. In 1836 the corporation of the town of
Strasburg adopted the resolution of causing this curious monument
to be repaired. To Mr. Schwilgue, a distinguished mechanician of
Strasburg, his native place, this remarkable work was entrusted;
he began it the 24th of June 1838 and finished it at the end of
1842.

It is one of the most beautiful pieces of workmanship of our
age; its mechanism is entirely new and in accordance with the
present state of the science of astronomy, which as is well
known, has attained a very high degree of certainty and
exactness. Mr. Schwilgue has not made use of any of the pieces of
the old clock, which are deposited in the chapel of the
_[OE]uvre-Notre-Dame_; by comparing them with the piece