clepsydrae

The clepsydrae that measure the centuries as they drop from the dizzy cliffs -- the glaciers, by the descent of which "time is marked out, as by a shadow on a dial," and which thunder out the high noon of each revolving year with their frozen tongues, as they crack beneath the summer's sun -- have registered a new centennial circle, and at the very hour of its completion, Switzerland vindicates her ancient renown in these fair pages, at once pledge and performance, of another of her honored children.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 03, January, 1858 Various