e
last-named drug prescribed by the parson would amount to 10 or 12 grains
every half-hour; and of course destroy the patient. This clergyman, no
doubt, is a well-meaning person, but he should confine himself to
pointing the way to Heaven, recollecting that the opposite place is
paved with good intentions. Possibly he overstated the quantity of
opium, by what may be called a clerical error; a proper dose of it is
well known to be beneficial in the complaint in question: brandy is also
found useful: and to these two ingredients of the mixture we should be
disposed to ascribe any favourable result of its administration. The
third is probably inert; otherwise it would be a convenient medicine, as
anybody, in case of need, might munch cinders.

Clergymen, in their anxiety to do good, are too often accustomed to add
the treatment of bodies to the cure of souls. In order to minister to
patients as well as penitents, they ought to possess the gift of
healing, and that having ceased to be supernaturally imparted, they had
better acquire it in the ordinary manner, by attending the hospitals.
Some add homoeopathy to what the rubric prescribes in the Visitation
of the Sick, and by so doing do the least harm that it is possible to do
by empiricism; as the swallowers of their globules at least die of their
diseases: but we would advise even the homoeopathic divines to stick
to theological mysticism, and not deal in "riddles" which will generally
be "affairs of death."

* * * * *

POETRY FOR THE PEACE CONFERENCE.

To preach a bully peace
Would I don a suit of drab,
With a white cravat and a broad-brimmed hat,
And rely on simple gab?
Oh no! my friends, not I;
I'd buckle sword on thigh;
And also a pair of pistols wear,
And keep my powder dry.

Of small avail are words
Alone, with headstrong foes;
But they go for much when they are such
As can be maintained by blows.
So, if policeman meet
With brawlers in the street,
At the word to be gone they won't move on,
Till he his truncheon shows.

With despots if we plead
By diplomatic notes,
Best speeds our pen when we show most men
In blue and scarlet coats.
Most regiments of the brave,
Most fleets upon the wave;
Let the style be bland, but strong the hand
That begs them to behave.

To charm