for the aqueous part to drain off, when the oil is left for some time to thicken.  It is then put into large earthen jars, placed in rude carts drawn by oxen, and carried to the banks of the river, from whence it is sent by water-carriage to every part of the empire.  By the number and burden of the boats employed in this trade, and the number of voyages they are supposed to make in the course of a year, the exportation from the wells is estimated to amount to 17,568,000 vis, of twenty-six pounds and a half each.  Thirty vis a-year is reckoned to be the average consumption of a family of five persons and a half; and about two-thirds of the oil are supposed to be employed for burning.—­Crawfurd’s Embassy to Ava.

* * * * *

SIGNS OF THE TIMES.

Think how the dog, fond and faithful creature as he is, from being the most docile and obedient of all animals, is made the most dangerous, if he become mad; so men acquire a frightful and not less monstrous power when they are in a state of moral insanity, and break loose from their social and religious obligations.  Remember too how rapidly the plague of diseased opinions is communicated, and that if it once gain head, it is as difficult to be stopt as a conflagration or a flood.—­Southey.

* * * * *

SOFT MUSIC.

The effect of soft music is to produce pleasure or pain, according to the state of the hearer.  Thus, while a musician has been known to be cured by a concert in his chamber, the celebrated sentimental air of the “Ranz des Vaches” has also been known to have the opposite effect of killing a Swiss.  Indeed, the extraordinary effect produced by it upon Swiss troops has caused it to be forbidden, under pain of death, to be played to them.

* * * * *

THE GATHERER.

A snapper up of unconsidered trifles. 
SHAKSPEARE.

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BEETLES

Are unsightly insects—­yet how many of them have been spared by the recollection of Shakspeare’s beautiful lines—­

  —­The poor beetle, that we tread upon. 
  In corporal suffering finds a pang as great
  As when a giant dies.

* * * * *

SNAILS.

Snails, though in England they cannot be mentioned as an article of food without exciting disgust, are esteemed in many places abroad a delicacy even for the tables of the great.  In Paris they are sold in the market; they are much esteemed in Italy, and are of so much consequence in Venice that they are attended and fattened with as much care as poultry are in England.