casion to grieve that we have seen a sort of envy and jealousy among you, and an angry look when another child has got before you. Now you must take great care to guard against this; for if you encourage bud feelings and ill temper, this is undoing all the good that your learning could give you. It is very useful to be able to read and to write, and to cypher; but a right disposition is above all. You learn to read that you may read good books, and thus know what is right; but this will be of very little use, unless you take pains to cultivate a right spirit of mind. Be very watchful then on this point, and remember that a Christian education is to teach a Christian disposition. ! From Rivingtons' National School Magazine. V. To the Editor of the Cottager's Monthly Visitor. SIR As I see you admit Poetry into your little Publication, I have sent you an extract from the Poem of "De Rancé," which I think may please some of your readers. De Rancé was Abbot of the famous Monastery of La Trappe, in France, and, in the early part of his life, he was a very dissipated and worthless character. But, struck with several remarkable instances of Providence in the preservation of his life, he retired from the world at the age of 37; and from that time 'till his death, devoted himself wholly to the duties of religion in his Abbaye of La Trappe. In the extract I have sent you, he is supposed to be lying on a sick bed in a peasant's cottage, whither he had been carried after a severe fall. The lines begin where the Cottager is preparing for his evening duties of Prayer, reading the Holy Scriptures, and instructing his Children. Extract from the Poem of De Rancé. -Oh how his pulse beat quick and high, Came trooping round the plain good man, The greeting o'er, the happy sire. Which from the tossing couch of pain With highest Heaven's magnificence,- With sun-burnt hand, that sacred book, Bade" little children come " and rest Their heads upon His hallow'd breast.— 321 At once, arose that childish band, To count the precious tears that start He wept to see the breathing page Thus gently touch their tender age; Transform them as with Prophet's rod, And make his child the child of God. I have omitted many beautiful lines, but I was fearful of making my extract too copious for the limits of your little volume. May 16th, 1825. K. B. A HYMN. LORD of mercy and of might! Great Creator, Saviour mild ! Thron'd above celestial things, Destin'd to return again, Giving Decoction of Poppies to Children. 323 ON GIVING DECOCTION OF POPPIES TO To the Editor of the Cottager's Monthly Visitor. You have often shown us that dangers arise from ignorance, as well as from intention; and, if you will have the goodness to insert the following few lines, you may perhaps be the means of preventing mischief. I had one day, lately, occasion to send for a nurse out of our village to attend my sick child. This nurse had an infant of her own which she brought with her; and we all of us expressed our surprise that her child slept so well, for she laid it upon a bed, and it actually seemed to be asleep during the whole of the day, which we remarked was convenient enough, though rather surprising." 0, Madam," said the woman, "I gave it a good dose of poppies before I came out. I gave it a matter of half a tea-cup full, and it has answered nicely."-I expressed my great astonishment at this, and told the woman that it appeared to me to be highly dangerous. "O dear, Ma'am," said she, "I often do it, I could not get on at all without it, when I want to be going about my work."-Before I heard this, Sir, I was not at all aware that such a practice prevailed, but I learned, from this woman, that many of the neighbours were in the habit of boiling down poppy heads, and using a strong decoction of them for the purpose which I have mentioned. Pray, Sir, give a hint of this to your readers, as a warning against so dangerous a practice. We all know that laudanum and opium are procured from poppies, and that medical men sometimes give these, as well as syrup of poppies, to their patients, for the sake of lulling very severe pain, and for other purposes where they consider it to be needful; but this is always done with great caution; and ought by no means to be attempted by an unskilful person in any case. To give poppies to an infant-especially when nothing is the matter with it, and in such large quantities too-must be full of danger, and the way to sow the seeds of disease which perhaps may never be got rid of. I am, Sir, your constant Reader, MATER PSALM LXXX PARAPHRASED. JEHOVAH! heaven's Almighty Lord, To hurl destruction on our foe: Then let thy beams of grace and mercy shine, How long wilt thou deny relief, Nor heed thy suppliant people's prayer? We drink the bitter floods of grief, The friends who sooth'd our former woe, Marks our distress with ruthless scorn; But let thy beams of grace and mercy shine, Turn thou our hearts, O God! and make us wholly thine. Was it for this from Egypt's land Thou brought'st of old thy favor'd vine? And o'er the Arabian billows play'd. We saw thy beams of grace and mercy shine, Our hearts were turn'd, O God! and we were wholly thine. |