s
composing the new clock, one may judge of the progress of science
and of the talents of the modern artist. M. Schwilgue preserved
of the former clock only its fine case, the paintings and
ornaments of which were carefully repaired. In this he had many
difficulties to overcome, as well for the proper arrangement of
this mechanism and lodging it in a space that was often very
limited, as for making the old signs or indications accord with
the movements of the clockwork. Of these many were marked only in
painting, and must have been renewed after a certain time, as for
instance those for the eclipses, which now by a most ingenious
mechanical combination will henceforth last for ever. The little
statues which hitherto had no articulation, are now moveable; the
twelve Apostles have been added to the former number of them. The
figure of Death, formerly on the same level with that of
Jesus-Christ, is now placed in the centre of figures representing
the four ages of life and striking the quarters of hours; the
idea of assigning this place to the image of death is assuredly a
more rational and finer one than that which prevailed in the old
distribution of the figures. Childhood strikes the first quarter;
Youth the second; Manhood the third, and Old Age the last; the
first stroke of each quarter is struck by one of the two genii
seated above the perpetual calendar; the four ages strike the
second. Whilst death strikes the hours, the second of these genii
turns over the hourglass that he holds in his hand. The image of
the Saviour stands now on a higher ground; at the hour of noon
the twelve Apostles pass bowing before him; he lifts up his hand
to bless them, and during that time, a cock, whose motions and
voice imitate nature, flaps his wings and crows three times.

Mr. Schwilgue has altered the old calendar into a perpetual one
with the addition of the feasts that vary, according to their
connexion with Easter or Advent Sundays. The dial, nine metres in
circumference, is subject to a revolution of 365 or 366 days,
according as the case may be. Mr. Schwilgue has even indicated
the suppression of the secular bissextile days. He has moreover
enriched his work by adding to it an ecclesiastic compute with
all its indications; an orrery after the Copernican system,
representing the mean tropical revolutions of each of the planets
visible to the naked eye, the phases of the moon, the eclipses of
the sun and moon, calculated for ev