Procure some small glass bubbles, having a neck about an inch long, with very slender bores, by means of which a small quantity of water is to be introduced into them, and the orifice afterwards closed up. This stalk being put through the wick of a burning candle, the flame boils the water into a steam, and the glass is broken with a loud explosion. _The Artificial Spider._ Cut a piece of burnt cork, about the size of a pea, into the shape of a spider; make its legs of linen thread, and put a grain or two of lead in it to give it more weight. Suspend it by a fine line of silk between an electrified arch and an excited stick of wax; and it will jump continually from one body to the other, moving its legs at the same time, as if animated, to the great surprise of the unconscious spectator. _The Miraculous Portrait._ Get a large print (suppose of the king) with a frame and glass. Cut the print out at about two inches from the frame all round; then with thin paste fix the border that is left on the inside of the glass, pressing it smooth and close; fill up the vacancy, by covering the glass well with leaf-gold or thin tin-foil, so that it may lie close. Cover likewise the inner edge of the bottom part of the back of the frame with the same tin-foil, and make a communication between that and the tin-foil in the middle of the glass; then put in the board, and that side is finished. Next turn up the glass, and cover the fore-side with tin-foil, exactly over that on the back part; and when it is dry, paste over it the panel of the print that was cut out, observing to bring the corresponding parts of the border and panel together, so that the picture will appear as at first, only part of it behind the glass, and part before. Lastly, hold the print horizontally by the top, and place a little moveable gilt crown on the king's head. Now, if the tin-foil on both sides of the glass be moderately electrified, and another person take hold of the bottom of the frame with one hand, so that his fingers touch the tin-foil, and with the other hand attempt to take off the crown, he will receive a very smart blow, and fail in the attempt. The operator, who holds the frame by the upper end, where there is no tin-foil, feels nothing of the shock, and can touch the face of the king without danger, which he pretends is a test of his loyalty. _The Cup of Tantalus._