Fireside Scraps.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 286, 1 August 1888, Page 3

Fireside Scraps.

The Mokpiiia Demon. — A contributor to an English Society paper writes :— I p soiry'tb hear that the practice of injecting morphia beneath tho skin is on the increase amongst women in society. Thoso who know the wretched results of morphia mania cannot protest too strongly against so perilous a habit. Like most bad habits, the longer it is indulged in tho more terrible is its mastery over its victims, and like opium-smoking:, its earliest effects have a fascination all their own. One victim whom I knew told me once that she felt as if she were possessed by a devil, and yet could not break off the vice, Tb may not be of much use to warn possible victims on the ground of injury to health of mind and body, bub perhaps if it is generally known that it ends in a wretched pallor and a sure destruction "f Rood looks, the morphiamania may be checked. The Catacombs tn Italy. — Tlk gin of the catacombs is shrouded in a parti -il mystery. History does not tell us when or where the first one was built, but begins its nauvitive by felling us, that the original term catacomb had no connection with subterranean cemeteries, but was applied to a particular . locality in the neighbourhood of Rome. There are strong reasons to believe that their history goes back long before the Christian era. Proof, almost beyond a doubt, shows that they were used ever since the introduction of lime mortar which came into use centuries before this era Let their history go as far back as it may, the 7,000,000 of human bodies that they contain, testify to their great age as they have not been used for over fourteen hundred years. Browning says : "Where Christ biings his cross he brings his pp-tence : and where he is, none aro desolate and there is no room fo\ despair. As he knows his own, so ho l«no>*!» how to comfort them, using sometime^ the very giief irself, and straininrr it to a f-we^tness of peace unattainable by those ignorant of soirow," " Hb who places his mind and heart supremely on any earthly good dooms himself to a supicme disappointment. That good, even if he gains it, will leaie him or he will lea\e it. It, is at Che bbete c t but transient, and .vill soon be of no value to him. On the other hand, ho who is ' rich toward God' das a treasure that 'never faileth.' He, and lie only, is the truly v>i.-.e man." De Quincuy's Pjlace i.v Ljim:\tckk. — An En^l s-h wiiter remarksth.it DeQuinccy was profouiulls influenced by the school oi which Coleudgo was a leadet ; he sharsd many of their piejudicee or piinoiples, and especially their revolt against the philosophical and literary p.ircipal dominant in the eighteenth century. While Coleridge and YVordswoith •timed at a poetical reformation, Do Quincey tritd to icstore the traditions of the great prose- wiiturs of the seventeenth century, Jeremy Taylor, Sn Thorn-is Browne, and their contempor ries. His tine musical ear and rich imagination enabled him to succeed so far as to become one of the great masters ot English in what he calls (preface to collected m oiks) '"the department of impassioned prose." In the visionary dreamland which is his peculiai domain he is unri\ ailed; ano hi* stately rhetoric is also the titling embodiment of a. tender and delicate sentiment, often blended with real pathos, and, at time*, lighted up by genuine humour. The " Confessions, ' the " Su^piria," and ess-ay tin the ?ame line elsewhere are the work by which he will be permanently known. He clearly possessed also an intellect of singular subtlety. He never rivalled Coleiidge by stimulating philosophical inquiry, and the degree ».f his metaphysical powers mu*>t be matter of conjecture ; bub he showed great power in the economical investigation which Coleridge despised Tobacco and Physical Deterioration. — No doubt anti-tobacconist-, like a 1 enthusiasts, attribute more evil to the w-e of the fragiant weed than the fact- actually wan ant. At the same time, although a emokist ourselves, we cc tainly think that much physical harm is clone by the excesd* c use of tob.i co, and piotcts ag iin.st this e\il should en ouragctl. A well-known wiiter in Aiuei icm. Mr.\fa\ Vught Sowill, says :—": — " If one is seeking te ( ante- of the numerical decrea-e and tlie physical cc geneiation ot American families, let him no look to fractional one per cent, of the collesre bied women but to the 88 poi cent. of tobacco-chewing, cig uette smoking men The wadrfing, devitalizing effects of tobaco being removed, it will be time enough to consfder to what degree the higher education is reducing the numbeie and entee tiling the capacity of the Anglo-iSa.\cn stock."