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and nauseous taste. Its odour is peculiar and characteristic. It contains acidulous meconate of morphia, extractive matter, mucilage, fecula, resin, fixed oil, caoutchouc, a vegeto-animal substance, debris of vegetable fibres, and the white crystalline salt of opium, now known under the name of narcotine.

The following is the usual mode adopted in the preparation of opium in India. A little before the flower of the poppy is formed, a longitudinal incision is made in the stalk, close under the bulbous capsule which contains the rudiments of the flower. From this incision the opium

exudes in the form of a gum, and is gathered by the women and children.

1. From what plant is opium extracted?

2. What are its properties?

3. What says Dr. Madden respecting the opium-eaters whom he saw in Constantinople?

LESSON CCCXVI.-NOVEMBER THE TWELFTH.

Edict against Duelling.

WHEN the great Gustavus Adolphus set out on the war which he afterwards conducted so gloriously, he enacted a severe edict against duelling, which was a too frequent practice in the Swedish army at that time. This mo

narch was sensible that, by conniving at the practice, it might be the means of depriving him of many valuable officers, whose services he could ill spare at a distance from his country, and surrounded, as he was, by powerful and numerous enemies. He accordingly made it death either to give or accept a challenge to fight a duel.

Soon after this edict was passed, two of his general officers who had quarrelled, solicited His Majesty's permission to decide the affair by the sword. The king feigned a calm compliance with this request, and told them he would appoint a day when they should fight in the sight of the whole army.

The day arrived, the army was formed into a hollow square, and the two combatants advanced into the centre, ready to engage on a signal being given. The king, however, in the meantime came up, and addressed them to this effect:· 66 :- Gentlemen, you cannot be ignorant of the severe prohibition I published against duelling in my army, and the penalty attached to a disobedience of this

COUNSELLOR CURRAN.

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my command: how then dare you ask me to dispense with any of my own laws? but I will not in the present instance be worse than my word; you have my leave to fight, but, remember, the combat continues until one or the other falls, and the survivor immediately suffers by the hands of the executioner."

The king then called the executioner, and was preparing to give the signal, when the two officers fell on their knees before him and implored his mercy. The king affected for some time to be implacable, but at length told them that he would forgive them on this condition only, that they would embrace, and promise upon their honour ever to be friends, and never after either to give or receive a challenge. This was complied with, and the two generals, from mortal enemies, became sworn friends, and lived to perform many brilliant services for their sovereign and country.

1. Of what country was Gustavus Adolphus the king?

2. On what condition did the king give the officers leave to fight a duel?

3. What was the result?

LESSON CCCXVII.-NOVEMBER THE THIRTEENTH.

Counsellor Curran.

On this day, in 1817, died the Right Honourable John Philpot Curran. When Curran was called to the bar, he was without friends, without connections, without fortune, conscious of talents far above the mob by which he was elbowed, and suffering under a sensibility which rendered him painfully alive to the mortifications he was fated to experience.

After toiling for a very inadequate recompense at the sessions of Cork, and wearing, as he said himself, his teeth almost to their stumps, he proceeded to the Irish metropolis, taking for his wife and young children a miserable lodging upon Hog-hill. Term after term, without either profit or professional reputation, he paced the hall of the four Courts. The first fee of any consequence that he received was through the recommendation of Mr. Arthur Wolfe, afterwards the unfortunate but respected Lord Kilwarden.

Curran's recital of this incident cannot be without its interest to the young professional aspirant, whom a tem

porary neglect may have sunk into dejection. "I then lived," said he, “ upon Hog-hill; my wife and children were the chief furniture of my apartments; as to my rent, it stood pretty much the same chance of its liquidation with the national debt. Mrs. Curran, however, was a barrister's lady, and what was wanted in wealth she was well determined should he supplied by dignity. The landlady, on the other hand, had no idea of gradation, except that of pounds, shillings, and pence. I walked out one morning to avoid the perpetual altercations on the subject, with my mind, you may imagine, in no very enviable temperament. I fell into the gloom to which from my infancy I had been occasionally subject. I had a family for whom I had no dinner, and a landlady for whom I had no rent. I had gone abroad in despondence - I returned home almost in desperation. When I opened the door of my study, where Lavater alone could have found a library, the first object which presented itself was an immense folio of a brief, twenty golden guineas wrapped up beside it, and the name of Old Bob Lyons marked upon the back of it. I paid my landlady, bought a good dinner, gave Bob Lyons a share of it; and that dinner was the date of my prosperity!"

1. Whose death is recorded as having happened on this day, in 1817? 2. Through whose recommendation was it that Curran received the first fee of any consequence?

LESSON CCCXVIII.

NOVEMBER THE FOURTEENTH.

A Picture of the present Month.

THE landscape sleeps in mist from morn till noon;
And if the sun looks through, 'tis with a face
Beamless and pale and round, as if the moon,
When done the journey of her nightly race,
Had found him sleeping, and supplied his place.
For days the shepherds in the fields may be,
Nor mark a patch of sky-blindfold they trace
The plains, that seem without a bush or tree,
Whistling aloud, by guess, to flocks they cannot see.
The timid hare seems half its fears to lose,
Crouching and sleeping 'neath its grassy lair,
And scarcely startles, though the shepherd goes
Close by its home, and dogs are barking there;

A PICTURE OF THE PRESENT MONTH.

The wild colt only turns around to stare
At passer by, then knaps his hide again;
And moody crows beside the road forbear
To fly, though pelted by the passing swain;

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Thus day seems turn'd to night, and tries to wake in vain.
The owlet leaves her hiding-place at noon,
And flaps her grey wings in the doubling light;
The hoarse jay screams to see her out so soon,
And small birds chirp and startle with affright;
Much doth it scare the superstitious wight,
Who dreams of sorry luck and sore dismay;
While cow-boys think the day a dream of night,
And oft grow fearful on their lonely way,

Fancying that ghosts may wake, and leave their graves by day.

Yet but awhile the slumbering weather flings

Its murky prison round-then winds wake loud;
With sudden stir the startled forest sings
Winter's returning song-cloud races cloud,
And the horizon throws away its shroud,
Sweeping a stretching circle from the eye;
Storms upon storms in quick succession crowd,
And o'er the sameness of the purple sky

Heaven paints, with hurried hand, wild hues of every dye.

At length it comes among the forest oaks,
With sobbing ebbs, and uproar gathering high;
The scared hoarse raven on its cradle croaks,
And stockdove flocks in hurried terrors fly,
While the blue hawk hangs o'er them in the sky;
The hedger hastens from the storm begun,
To seek a shelter that may keep him dry;
And foresters, low bent, the wind to shun,

Scarce hear amid the strife the poacher's muttering gun.
Thus wears the month along, in checker'd moods,
Sunshine and shadows, tempests loud, and calms;
One hour dies silent o'er the sleepy woods.
The next wakes loud with unexpected storms;

A dreary nakedness the field deforms

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Yet many a rural sound, and rural sight,

Lives in the village still about the farms,

Where toil's rude uproar hums from morn till night, Noises, in which the ears of Industry delight.

LESSON CCCXIX. -NOVEMBER THE FIFTEENTH.

Sir William Herschel.

On this day, in 1738, was born at Hanover, in the north of Germany, Sir William Herschel, the celebrated astronomer. He applied himself to the science of astronomy with all the ardour of genius; but unable, fortunately for himself and the world, to purchase a telescope capable of satisfying him, he determined upon constructing one with his own hands; and in 1774 first saw Saturn, in a five feet reflecting telescope of his own making. Stimulated by this success, he continued to form larger reflectors, until he produced one of twenty feet. In 1779 he began to examine the heavens, star by star, and his zeal and labour were amply rewarded on the 13th of March, 1781, by the discovery of a new primary planet, to which he gave the name of Georgium Sidus, although it is now more generally denominated Uranus, and sometimes Herschel, in honour of the discoverer.

"Last of the splendid planetary throng,

See Georgium Sidus gently glides along;
For ages from the world conceal'd he stray'd
Till noted Herschel the discovery made.
His worth should be for ever known to fame,
So let the new found planet bear his name."

This great discovery fixed his reputation as one of the most eminent astronomers of the age, and secured for him that royal patronage which enabled him to apply himself entirely to his new pursuit. He now removed to Slough, where he constructed that stupendous telescope which was a noble monument of his genius, science, and perseverance. His numerous subsequent discoveries are recorded in the "Transactions of the Royal Society." In his observations and calculations he was assisted throughout by his sister, Miss Caroline Herschel. Sir William Herschel died August 25. 1822.

66

Night opes the noblest scenes, and sheds an awe,
Which gives those venerable scenes full weight,
And deep reception in the entender'd heart.

Who turns his eye on nature's midnight face
But must inquire- What hand behind the scene,
What arm Almighty, put these wheeling globes
In motion, and wound up the vast machine?
Who rounded in his palm these spacious orbs?
Who bowl'd them flaming thro' the dark profound,
And set the bosom of old night on fire?'

Nature's controuler, author, guide, and end !"— YOUNG.

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