NEWS OF THE COMPETITIONS

The Editor offers two prizes of £10 each, the first for an inscription for a sundial, in prose or verse, the second for an epigram on woman, in four lines of verse.

WE did not expressly state that entries should be original. In the " sundial " competition we are willing to accept quota- tions and old inscriptions, but we shall give preference to those we have not previously seen. The number of entries already bids fair to break our record. To stimulate our readers we give a selection from those we have received.

INSCRIPTIONS FOR A SUNDIAL.

Freedman of Time, my service o'er, I count the hours for men no more, But now to spring and wheel resign The honoured task that erst was mine.

Silent I stand : no noisy chime Doth here proclaim the flight of Time, Only at whiles some curious eye Marks the slow shadow creeping by, Whose progress if thou wisely heed, A wholesome lesson may'st thou read :- Calm be thy life, its purpose clear, 'Useful thy service year by year, Single thy aim, thy total course Suggesting still a Heavenly source. Yet deem not in the shadow's round Life's full ensample may be found Nor be content, when falls the dark,

To vanish hence and leave no mark.

G. H. Coss.

Sun, light my face, for I must needs Warn all the world how fast time speeds.

J. DZ COZTLOGON.

Light come, light go, Is all I know. W. R. BATTY.

Mark how, in all the March of Things, 'Tis only Man Marks Time. ALIQWD AMARL

Time moves, but in a circle That ends where it began.

KATHARINE M. Wu.sov.

I mark what no man may measure. Lon.

In the epigram competition we shall be more severe, and consider only original work. We are grateful, however, to Mr. Sam Henry for sending us the following verses from a commonplace book of 1729 :— Woman was taken out of man, His helper for to be :

She was made of a crooked rib,

And a crooked help made she. Sam Ifssima 4 was good, too, to be reminded of the Indian. Christian's. expository rhyme :- Then a deep sleep fell on Adam, And a tiny rib was took,

Which was fashioned into Madam, Given to man to be his cook.

df the entries which we quote are in the main discourteous or }satirical, we may plead that it is woman herself (as our competitors prove) who speaks most cruelly of woman.

EPIGRAMS ON WOMAN.

Margaret, if love excel, love has a duty.

Mine was to yield and suffer--ah, in vain. If God forgives you for your beauty I shall forgive you for my pain. ARTHUR Davin WILLIAMS.

Woman, since the world began, Has been the better half of man : Now arrives the sorry sequel, Woman wants to be man's equal.

WINIFRED Coonara.

She is the sea, the mother whence we come, With a great deep beneath the froth and foam ; She moves in grief who gives the sweet of joy, Sea-like, and dark with power to destroy.

HENRY THORLEY.

Genius, Rebel, Saint and Thrall, She has borne and suckled all : Nor the proudest dare aver He has not been spanked by her. AGNES FRY.

Though Man by Woman set but little store, Two make his life, Mother and Wife : The she who bores him and the she who bore. Uxon.

The Cause of Death : the Source of Life. The Milk of Man : the Cup of Strife. Helen left Troy a blackened sod : Mary the Maid begat her God. Conan:.