On the fly-leaf of a Bible may sometimes be seen:—
Could we with ink the ocean fill,

Were every stalk on earth a quill,

And were the skies of parchment made,

And every man a scribe by trade,

To tell the love of God alone

Would drain the ocean dry.

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Though stretched from sky to sky.

The two following are very common in village schools:

This is Giles Wilkinson his book.

God give him grace therein to look;

Nor yet to look, but understand

That learning's better than house and land;

For when both house and land are spent,

Then learning is most excellent.

John Smith is my name,

England is my nation,

is my dwelling-place,

And Christ is my salvation.

And when I'm dead and in the grave,

And all my bones are rotten,

When this you see, remember me,

Though I am long forgotten.

This pretty presentation-verse is sometimes met with :—

Take it, 'tis a gift of love

That seeks thy good alone;
Keep it for the giver's sake,
And read it for thy own.

The early conductors of the press were in the habit of affixing to the end of the volumes they printed some device or couplet concerning the book, with the names of the printer and proof-reader added. The following example is from Andrew Bocard's edition of The Pragmatic Sanction, Paris, 1507

Stet liber, hic donec fluctus formica marinos
Ebibat; et totum testudo perambulet orbem
(May this volume continue in motion,

And its pages each day be unfurled;

Till an ant to the dregs drink the ocean,

Or a tortoise has crawled round the world.)

On the title-page of a book called Gentlemen, Look about You, is the following curious request:—

Read this over if you're wise,

If you're not, then read it twice:

If a fool, and in the gall

Of bitterness, read not at all.

MOTTO ON A CLOCK.

Quæ lenta accedit, quam velox præterit hora!

Ut capias, patiens esto, sed esto vigil!

Slow comes the hour: its passing speed how great:
Waiting to seize it,-vigilantly wait!

WATCH-PAPER INSCRIPTION.

Onward perpetually moving,

These faithful hands are ever proving
How quick the hours fly by ;
This monitory, pulse-like beating
Seems constantly, methinks, repeating,
Swift! swift! the moments fly.
Reader, be ready,-for perhaps before
These hands have made one revolution more,
Life's spring is snapt,-you die!

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.)

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 sentences in distich.

I wish to thee
All joy may be.

In thee my love
All joy I prove.
Beyond this life
Love me, dear wife.
Love and joy
Can never cloy.

The pledge I prove
Of mutual love.

I love the rod

And thee and God.

I love myself in loving thee.

This ring doth bind
Body and mind.

Endless as this

Shall be our bliss.-THOS. BLISS. 1719.

I do rejoice

In thee my choice.

All I refuse,

But thee I choose.

I change the life
Of maid to wife.

Endless my love

For thee shall prove.

LADY KATHERINE GREY'S WEDDING-RING.

The ring received by this excellent woman, who was a sister of Lady Jane Grey, from her husband, the Earl of Hertford, at their marriage, consisted of five golden links, the four inner ones bearing the following lines, of the earl's composition:

As circles five by art compact shewe but one ring in sight,
So trust uniteth faithfull mindes with knott of secret might,
Whose force to breake but greedie Death noc wight possesseth power,
As time and sequels well shall prove. My ringe can say no more.

THE RING FINGER.

Much ingenuity has been expended in the endeavor to discover on which hand and on which finger the wedding-ring was placed. The Jews have a tradition that Mary, when she espoused Joseph, received the ring on her middle finger: hence no Jewish woman wears her bridal ring there, but always on the forefinger. St. Ambrose, in one of his sermons, calls the third finger the finger for the ring. Macrobius gives the nursery-names of the fingers in the times of the Romans; the third finger is called annularis: the low Norman name for the same finger is "John of the Seals." In the ancient ritual of marriage among the English Papists, the ring was placed. on the end of the left thumb, with the words, "In the name of the Father;" then on the forefinger, with the words, "and