In order to simplify the explanation of the action of hard water, attention has been confined to that possessing lime. But hard waters frequently contain magnesia, and in that case a very remarkable phenomenon attends their use. At a certain strength the magnesian salt does not decompose the soap, or retard the formation of a lather, but the addition of soft water developes this latent hardness. With such waters, the extraordinary anomaly appears, that the more soft water is added to them, up to a certain point, the harder do they become. Some of the wells at Doncaster are very remarkable in this respect, for when their hard water is diluted with eight times the quantity of pure soft distilled water, the resulting mixture is as hard--that is, it decomposes as much soap--as the undiluted water. Thus the dilution of such water with four or five times its bulk of soft rain water actually makes it harder. The cause of this anomaly has not yet been satisfactorily made out, but it only occurs in waters abounding in magnesia. Having now explained the inconveniences of the hardening ingredients of water, we propose to show in the next article the action of other deteriorating constituents; and after having done so, it will become our duty to point out the various modes by which the evils thus exposed may best be counteracted or remedied. L.P. EARLY RISING. Did you but know, when bathed in dew, How sweet the little violet grew, Amidst the thorny brake; How fragrant blew the ambient air, O'er beds of primroses so fair, Your pillow you'd forsake. Paler than the autumnal leaf, Or the wan hue of pining grief, The cheek of sloth shall grow; Nor can cosmetic, wash, or ball, Nature's own favorite tints recall, If once you let them go. HERRICK. [From Household Words.] A TALE OF THE GOOD OLD TIMES.