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Web Exclusives:
Under the Ivy February 9, 2005: Written
in stone One of the small pleasures of walking around Princeton’s campus is spotting the unexpected details on campus buildings. There’s the bulldog gargoyle on the chapel, of course; the stars for the fallen war heroes on the dormitory window sills, and the mathematical equations etched into the glass of the windows in old Fine Hall (now Jones), among many examples. A related pursuit attracted the attention of Shirley H. Weber, a Princeton classics professor during the 1930s, who in the Jan. 14, 1938, issue of PAW wrote an article on classical inscriptions on campus. “An Exercise in Princeton Epigraphy” described the many Latin and Greek phrases inscribed on Princeton buildings – some quite serious, others clever. The “new” chapel – completed in 1928 – is, unsurprisingly, adorned with numerous Biblical references, Weber noted, while many other buildings memorialize war dead or Princeton luminaries. Nassau Hall, for example, has a Latin inscription written by Dean Andrew Fleming West (a classicist and the original dean of the Graduate School) that reads, “Alma Mater holds in everlasting remembrance her sons who lay down their lives for their country,” while on Pyne Library was a tablet inscribed, “The earth lightened, and very early they came and summoned me.” According to Weber, this is a passage from an Egyptian papyrus, an “extract from a story of a refugee from Egypt,” written in memory of Professor David Paton 1874, who had translated the ancient document. Topics get a bit lighter on Prospect Street. Campus Club, Weber wrote, proclaims in Latin over a fireplace, “Does all seem dull in comparison with the Campus?” a line borrowed from Horace and replacing the “ancient Campus Martius” with the name of the eating club. Cottage Club focuses on friendship, with the Latin lines, “They take the sun out of the world, who take friendship out of life,” and “Where there are friends, there is life,” inscribed over its fireplaces. Some academic buildings boast appropriate classical sayings. “Happy is the man who has been able to learn the causes of things,” reads the Latin on the Frick chemistry building, while Eno Hall, home to the psychology department, instructs in Greek, “Know thyself.” Weber wrote that President Francis Patton chose the Latin words for the McCosh Infirmary: “Not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” Over one fireplace in Procter Hall, the Graduate College’s formal dining hall, Weber found an inscription borrowed from a fifth-century Roman Christian house in North Africa: “Enter good, go out better.” Weber also noted a past inscription “now missing for some years” that used to “stand on the famous doormat long in position at the entrance of the Classical Seminary in [Pyne] Library: “Wipe your feet, and go in unharmed.” That may be a message from the original Alma Mater. Finally, sundials have always been a rich source of pithy sayings, and Princeton’s are no exception, according to Weber. On Pyne Hall tower, the sundial inscription reads “Pereunt et Imputantur,” or “The hours pass away and are placed to our account,” a thought selected, Weber noted, by donor Moses Taylor Pyne 1877. But the message alumni might like most to ponder – or avoid
pondering – as they stroll campus on Alumni Day, ascertaining
the continued existence of the inscriptions described by Weber,
is the one found on another sundial on what Weber described as Upper
Pyne. The face of that sundial warns: “Vulnerat Omnes Ultima
Necat,” or, referring to the hours the sundial marks, “They
all wound, the last one kills.” Jane Martin ’89 is PAW's former editor-in-chief. You can reach her at paw@princeton.edu
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