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the business. The ground was thus furnished for very much of the horrible diablerie connected with the whole history of the manufacture.     A belief was long prevalent that glass drinking vessels, made under certain astronomical influences, would certainly fly to pieces if any poisonous liquid was placed in them; and sales of vessels of this kind were made at enormous prices. Another idea pervaded the community, that vessels of a certain form, made in a peculiar state of the atmosphere, and after midnight, would allow a pure diamond to pass directly through the bottom of the vessel. Various articles, such as colored goblets, were thought to add to the flavor of wine, and to detract materially from its intoxicating quality.     All these, and many other popular notions, added greatly to the mystery and renown of glass manufacturers. We close this number with an extract from "Howell's Familiar Letters." "Murano," says he, "a little island about one mile from Venice, is the place where crystal glass is made, and it is a rare right to see whole streets where on one side there are twenty furnaces at work. They say here, that although one should transfer a furnace from