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All Is as a Shadow: A Collection of Sayings on Sundials

In the acclaimed podcast S-town, journalist Brian Reed notes that sundials often bear haunting inscriptions about the brevity of life and the passage of time. Some 1,682 of them are collected in The Book of Sun-Dials, originally published in 1872 by children’s book writer Margaret Scott Gatty and expanded in a later edition by Horatia K.F. (Gatty) Eden and Eleanor Lloyd. Among those included in this handsome volume are the Latin inscription Fugit hora, ora, which translates as “The hour flies, pray,” and Omnia velut umbra, “All is as a shadow.” This is part of a complete episode.

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