A Dance to the Music of Time, by Nicolas Poussin, c. 1635. Wallace Collection, London.
VIEW:
Miscellany
Along with an elephant whose name in Arabic meant “the father of intelligence,” Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid presented Holy Roman emperor Charlemagne with a mechanical clock powered by water in 807. At noon a weight dropped, bells sounded, and twelve brass horsemen emerged from twelve windows.
Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.
—Jean de La Bruyère, 1688





