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The Horologium

Liturgy of the Guild of Clockmakers

It is now the hour of oil — --:-- by the tower.

Vow the First

Of the Wheel

I shall cut no tooth in anger, for a wheel remembers the hand that made it and turns accordingly.

Vow the Second

Of the Weight

I shall let fall what must fall, and wind again at dawn without complaint, as the stone does.

Vow the Third

Of the Silence

I shall keep the hour between the ticks, which belongs to no master and is entered in no ledger.

The Office of WindingSaid at the foot of the great movement, before the first bell, by those whose hands are clean of filings.

Warden.Before the wheel there was the waiting, and the waiting had no measure, and no one was late.

All.Blessed be the escapement, that lets the hour go a little at a time.

Warden.Then the First Maker hung a weight in the dark and said: fall, but slowly; and it fell slowly, and that was the first day.

All.We fall slowly. We are wound again.

✠ ✠ ✠

Warden.Who keeps the hour when the keeper sleeps?

All.The pendulum keeps it, which asks nothing and goes nowhere, and is never lost.

Warden.Forgive us the minutes we have filed too thin, the springs we have overwound, the bells we have struck before their time.

All.As we forgive the clocks that have run slow against us.

Warden.Go now to your benches. Oil what is dry. Let nothing in your keeping stop.

All.Until the last tooth meets the last tooth. So it turns.

Twelve Lights for Twelve Hours

Touch a candle to light it for an hour you wish to keep; touch again to let it go.