Erring Ones.
What power, next the holy word which God to man has given,
Can guide the wayward heart from sin and lead the path to heaven,
Or when the soul is deeply plunged in Error’s scathing flood,
What holy feeling still remains to lure it back to good?
What is it?—even crime and shame can drive it not away?
’Tis the memory and the love of her who taught us how to pray.
Oh! ’tis powerful and holy—he who feels it is not lost,
Tho’ dark may be the sea on which his wandering soul is tossed.
He who still looks back to childhood—still her loving face recalls—
On whose ear again in memory her gentle warning falls,
Whose heart those tender thoughts enshrine—tho’ of all else bereft,
And harsh to outward eye—has something good and noble left.
Where’er his mother’s spirit is, a suppliant voice is there,
And God will hear before aught else a mother’s earnest prayer.
But some of these are—Alas! not few—the erring path have trod,
For whom no mother’s voice is raised to plead their cause with God;
No gentle warning voice to them, nor tender thoughts can come;
They have no fond remembrances of childhood or of home.
In want and vice—uncared for—thro’ life they wander on;
God help them! they have nothing when, thy holy grace is gone.
Oh, judge them not too harshly, ye who dwell in happier spheres:
Were your spirits, think you, spotless, had your lot been like theirs?
Help them, cheer them, and with gentle words supply a mother’s place;
’Tis the truest act of Christian love to win them back to grace.
Think of Him who came on earth to call the sinners from their way;
Help the erring ones—His children—and thou shalt not pass away:
He who e’en a "cup of water" to His little ones has given
Shall be paid by endless treasure and eternal rest in Heaven.
Biology.
Doubtless most, or all, of my readers have at some period of their lives witnessed the very amusing experiments in biology with which it is the custom of its professors to entertain their audiences, and, after having enjoyed a hearty laugh, have asked themselves if the professor were not a charlatan and his science a hoax. It is on the latter point I wish to "offer a few remarks." Biology, then, is not a cheat, but is as real as any of the other respectable "Ologies." It is one of the phases of Animal Magnetism, acting by impression, as Mesmerism does by Sympathy. Its different professors propound different theories as to its laws; but none of them pretend to infallibility. All that is certainly known is, that by certain processes, certain results are obtained. Once initiated, any person can practise it successfully, and with perfect safety; In (illegible text) sitting of (illegible text) five to ten minutes, on an average one out of every four or five persons will be found to be impressible—some much more so than others; but all are found to be impressibly, but require additional time and trouble before they can be acted upon,—some just being found susceptible until after a second or third sitting. Unlike, in mesmerism, the operator cannot have the faintest knowledge beforehand, who are of are not impressible; but, as a rule, workers in metal—particularly iron,—soldiers and others accustomed to discipline give a higher average of impressible subjects than any other class. Neither strength of will nor of constitution have aught to do with enabling a man to resist the biologist—persons possessed of both being found the best subjects. Of the many experiments performed, that of depriving the eyes, when open, of all power of seeing, is perhaps the most wonderful; and medical men have convinced themselves of the reality of this fact by examining the eyes of subjects thus performed upon, and have found them top present the usual appearances of blindness. It is not to be supposed that the amusing of experiments of the public performances are the only effects produced by Biology. It is found to be still more useful than amusing in very many instances, coming to the aid of the medical practitioner where medicine has totally failed, effecting seemingly miraculous cures. It is quite commonly employed to give immediate relief to persons suffering from toothache and even to enable them to have teeth extracted without the slightest pain, and also to cause warts and other unsightly disfigurements to disappear. In connexion with this branch of the science of magnetism, there is a theory which goes far to explain the magic of the water finder’s divining rod, and to account to for the appearance of ghosts in the vicinity of Churchyards, &c., but the infancy of the science itself will not allow us, with any certainty, to receive deductions that the advance of knowledge may prove illusory and false.
Log for Week.
| Decr. 9 | S. 40°16’ E 2.10 | Decr. 13th | S. 44°.51' E 20°.04’ |
| " 10 | S. 41.06 E 5.57 | " 14 | S. 46.15. E 23.20 |
| " 11 | S. 42.21 E 10.19 | Cape of Good Hope | |
| " 12 | S. 43.36 E 15.17 | Lat S. 34°.28’ E 18°.25 | |
