of wiser heads than yours.’

‘Ah, but, Mary, a-cushla, it was following an old saying that I was; sure you have often heard say, “there’s luck in leisure.”’ ‘Poh,’ said she, ‘that’s only a foolish saying, take my word for it.’

Next year the sky-farmer came again. He had lost nothing, for no one would deal with him, on his terms, the year before; and to hear how heartlessly he’d jeer and jibe them that had the sore hearts in their bosoms, and calculate up for them how much they had lost, and then he’d say, he supposed they would’nt refuse a good offer another time. Well, I asked him was he going to make me a good offer, and he said he would’nt care if he did, and he offered as much as would hardly pay the rent, letting alone seed and labour. ‘Why,’ said I, ‘you’ll give as much as you offered last year.’ ‘Not I indeed,’ said he; ‘I bought experience instead of corn last year, and you paid for it;’ and he laughed, and shook himself with glee, and chuckled, and jingled the guineas in his pockets, until I was hardly able to keep from knocking him down.

Well, I higgled and bargained, and tried to raise him, but not another penny would he give; and at last he said that he was going away in the morning, and so I might take it or leave it, as I liked—he would’nt force his money on any man, not he. ‘Delays are dangerous,’ thought I; and, though it was a certain loss, I agreed.

A finer season than that, never came from the heavens. The factor came to see the crops, and such crops as they were! Several others had done like me; and if he laughed at us the year before, he laughed ten times more now. The year before he had lost nothing: this year he had made a fortune. He had laughed at our losses before, but he now laughed over his own gains. ‘They may laugh who win.’

If he had taken it quieter, he might have done the same thing again; but by acting as he did, he set every one against him, and he never after could buy up growing crops here.

‘Mary, my darling,’ said I, ‘we’re almost ruined, in the second year, by following old sayings. I’ll never believe in them again.’ ‘Jemmy, dear,’ said she, ‘I have been thinking the matter over, and I believe it’s not the sayings that are wrong, but the wrong use that’s made of them; for if we had said them the other way, we’d have made money instead of losing it; and for the future we’ll try to use the sense that God has given us, and the acquirements such as they are that He has enabled us to obtain, in directing us to the proper use and timely application of those proverbs that are really wise and useful when properly applied.’

As it was the will of the Almighty, boys, that your dear mother should not have had her senses about her when departing, and it’s likely that these are the last of her sensible words that I’ll ever be able to tell you, I’d have you take them, and think upon them as if they were her last addressed to you, and let neither proverbs, however apparently wise in themselves, nor superstitious remarks, ever guide your actions or sway your conduct until you have applied to them the touchstone of your own common sense.

May God bless and guide you, my darling boys; and now I have done with the world and its affairs.”

That day fortnight the funeral of James Scanlan was attended by

Naisi.

Irish Bulls.

—On the first appearance of Miss Edgeworth’s admirable “Essay on Irish Bulls,” the secretary of a celebrated agricultural society in Ireland received orders from its committee to procure several copies of the book, for the use of the members in their labours for improving the breed of cattle!

An ambitious Horse and accommodating Rider.

—An Irishman was riding through a bog, when his horse sank deeply into the mud, and in his efforts to extricate himself, Pat got his foot into the stirrup. “Arrah, musha!” exclaimed the rider, “if you are going to get up, it is time for me to get down!” and he forthwith proceeded to dismount with all reasonable speed.

NOVEL AND SINGULAR MODE OF RELIEVING NERVOUS COMPLAINTS.

In a London medical work entitled The Doctor, are given the particulars of an interesting case of neuralgia, or tic douleureux, which, it appears, after having been treated with the usual medicines for more than two years, with little or no remission of the painful symptoms attending it, yielded at length to a new and extraordinary remedy, in the shape of a metal magnet. The experiments tried upon the occasion promise results of such considerable interest and practical importance to the health perhaps of thousands, that we shall offer no apology to our readers for copying the history of the cure and the accompanying details into our columns, premising only, that while we individually place every reliance on the good faith of the witnesses who attest the facts recorded, we do not consider ourselves bound to vouch for their statement authoritatively to others, or draw any inference of a positive kind with respect to a remedy, of the nature and effects of which, after all, it is properly the province of the faculty alone to form a judgment.

“Our readers (observes the writer) will remember the interesting case of neuralgia of the finger, at St Thomas’s Hospital, upon which Dr Elliotson stated, in a clinical lecture, that he had exhausted his store of remedial agents, without developing a shade of improvement. [The remedies resorted to primarily were, carbonate of iron, cyanuret of potass, strychnine, croton oil, hydrocyanic acid, and extract of belladonna.] A more severe case, probably, was never subjected to treatment. The man left the hospital for a time, totally unrelieved, but soon afterwards returned, when, in accordance with a suggestion, as Dr Elliotson has since observed, of a correspondent of our own, the colchicum autumnale was tried in the case, without, however, the slightest benefit being derived therefrom. The sedative powers of the lobelia inflata then suggested to Dr Elliotson the propriety of giving the patient the chance of that medicine. The grounds on which it was employed proved to be in some measure correctly founded. The man took the lobelia, in increasing doses, every hour, beginning with seven drops of the tincture, and adding a drop to each progressive dose, until as large a quantity had been reached as could be taken without deranging the functions of the stomach. Some amelioration of the affection followed this treatment. The patient, who was before unable even to cross the ward, or bear without excruciating agony the slightest contact with his finger-nails, and had become emaciated to the extremest degree, from pain and sleeplessness, was now enabled to walk a little way and enjoy intervals of rest, partly recovered his good looks, and became comparatively cheerful.

The relief, however, was very far from being either perfect or permanent. In fact, the continued exhibition of the medicine was demanded to secure any portion of rest.

A short time since, however, a new remedial agent presented itself, in the form of the magnet. The hospital was visited, first by Dr Kyle, and subsequently by Dr Blundell, who followed up the application begun by Dr Kyle. The lobelia inflata was allowed by Dr Elliotson to be suspended, and the effect of the magnet tried. That effect was, to the surprise of all who witnessed it, a most decided one; the pain was, on every application of the instrument, removed, and continued absent for several hours.

On Tuesday last [in June 1833], Dr Blundell attended the hospital at the hour of Dr Elliotson’s