rum in their heads, and music in their legs, they are able, without partners, to keep up the ball, like people of fashion, till the break of day.-From the "African Sketch-Book," by Winwood Reade.

SMOKING IN PERSIA.-The Persian pipe is composed of a brass or silver or even gold enamelled head, which contains the tobacco. This is principally grown at Shiraz, and lacks the pungency of the American or Turkish plant, and it is generally smoked in Persian harems; indeed, we have heard it whispered in scandal-loving circles that it used to be the fashion in India for ladies to smoke the hookah. The tobacco is well wetted, and then the moisture is partially squeezed out of it in a piece of linen. Then about a handful is placed in the bowl of the pipe, and some lumps of live charcoal are placed upon it. The head fits upon a perforated stem of wood, which in its turn fits into a (generally) globular shaped vase of silver or brass, and penetrates into water, with which the globe is three parts filled; on one side of the vase there is another wooden stem ending in a mouthpiece. Then by inhaling the smoke from the head of the pipe through the water into the lungs the operation is perfected. The inhalation keeps the charcoal alive, which burns the tobacco and allows smoke to generate. The smoke is puffed out of the smoker's nostrils, and at first induces a species of gentle intoxication not provided against by the "Permissive Prohibitory Bill" of Mr. Lawson; but after the first few times of smoking this wears off, unless the dose be very long continued.From The Gentleman's Magazine.

EATING BLOOD.—There is no doubt an objection to, perhaps a prejudice against eating blood, based in some degree upon the prohibition to the Jews as contained in the Old Testament: "Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh; for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof; whosoever eateth it shall be cut off."-Lev. xvii., 14; and also on the common belief that the blood may be diseased without offering evidences whereby the disease might be recognized. As to the former, it may be necessary to add, that we eat a portion of blood in flesh, and that even when the animal is killed by cutting its throat after the Jewish fashion, it is not possible to extract all the blood from the body, and that even the Jews must eat some of it. Moreover, blood contains nutritive elements of great value, and is inferior only to the flesh which is made from it.-From "Foods," by Dr. Edward Smith.

amid the deafening crash of its ponderous stamps and hammers, in the midst of this whole terrific commotion, man, a helpless and defenceless creature, finds himself placed, not secure for a moment that on an imprudent motion a wheel may not seize and rend him, or a hammer crush him to powder. This sense of abandonment is at first something awful. But then what avails it to have recourse to an illusion! Our wish is impotent to refashion the world? the understanding clearly shows that it is indeed such a machine. But it is not merely this. We do not only find the revolution of pitiless wheels in our world-machine, but also the shedding of soothing oil. Our God does not, indeed, take us into his arms from the outside, but he unseals the well-springs of consolation within our own bosoms. He shows us that although Chance would be an unreasonable ruler, yet that Necessity, or the enchainment of causes in the world, is reason herself. He teaches us to perceive that to demand an exception in the accomplishment of a single natural law, would be to demand the destruction of the universe. Imperceptibly, at last, by the kindly force of habit, he leads us to adapt ourselves also to a less perfect condition, should we be placed in such, and to perceive at last that the form of our frame of mind only is conditioned by external circumstances, that its substance of happiness or unhappiness, however, is derived from within. Perhaps the longest dissertation will be expected of me concerning the compensation which our conception of the universe may offer, in place of the Christian belief in immortality, but a brief rehimself in this matter is beyond help, is not yet. mark must suffice here. He who can not help ripe for our stand-point. He who, on the one hand, is not satisfied in being able to revive within himself the eternal ideas of the Cosmos, of the progress and the destinies of mankind; who can not within his own heart, render the dead he loved and worshipped immortal in the truest sense; who, amid his exertions on behalf of his family, his labors in his calling, his coöperation with others in promoting the prosperity of his country as well as the general welfare of his fellow-creatures, and lastly, his enjoyment of the beautiful in art and nature-who, amid all this, I say, does not, on the other hand, also become conscious that he himself is only called to participate in it for a span of time, who can not prevail upon himself finally to depart this life in gratitude for all that it was given him for a time to perform, enjoy, and suffer conjointly with others, yet, nevertheless, glad also to be free from the toil of the long day's work, that must at last exhaust,-well, him we must remit to Moses and the prophets, who themselves knew nothing of immortality, and yet Moses and the prophets they were still.-From "The Old Faith and the New."