Apropos of tributary verses on this subject, I am tempted to conclude my unmercifully long epistle by giving you some lines which have as yet, I believe, been scarcely seen by any one but the person to whom they are addressed. They are from the pen of the H. G. who so beautifully translated the twelve first cantos of the "Frithiof Saga," which was so favourably received in England last spring. H. G. is an Englishwoman, but from the age of two to seventeen she resided in the United States of America. Did I not tell you this, you would be at a loss to understand her allusion to the distant dwelling of her youth. This address, as you will perceive, is not as an acknowledgment for having been admitted to the Abbaye, but an earnest prayer that she may be so; and I heartily hope it will prove successful. TO M. LE VICOMTE DE CHATEAUBRIAND. In that distant region, the land of the West, Where my childhood and youth glided rapidly by, Ah! why was my bosom with sorrow oppress'd? Why trembled the tear-drop so oft in mine eye? No! 'twas not that pleasures they told me alone Were found in the courts where proud monarchs reside; My knee could not bend at the foot of a throne, My heart could not hallow an emperor's pride. But, oh! 'twas the thought that bright genius there dwelt, And breathed on a few holy spirits its flame, That awaken'd the grief which in childhood I felt, When, Europe! I mutter'd thy magical name. And now that as pilgrim I visit thy shore, I ask not where kings hold their pompous array; But I fain would behold, and all humbly adore, The wreath which thy brows, Châteaubriand! display. My voice may well falter--unknown is my name, But say, must my accents prove therefore in vain? Beyond the Atlantic we boast of thy fame, And repeat that thy footstep has traversed our plain. Great bard!--then reject not the prayer that I speak With trembling emotion, and offer thee now; In thy eloquent page, oh! permit me to seek The joys and the sorrows that genius may know. H. G. LETTER LXI. Jardin des Plantes.--Not equal in beauty to our Zoological Gardens.--La Salpêtrière.--Anecdote.--Les Invalides.--Difficulty of finding English Colours there.--The Dome. Another long morning on the other side of the water has given us abundant amusement, and sent us home in a very good humour with the expedition, because, after very mature and equitable consideration, we were enabled honestly to decide that our Zoological Gardens are in few points inferior, in many equal, and in some greatly superior, to the long and deservedly celebrated Jardin des Plantes.