And thus, while crime hath spread with stride portentous, Pray is it strange that evil o'er us lingers? That 'lots' of retribution have been sent us; And blessing (in disguise!) slip through our fingers; While ever and anon bursts some new bubble, To throw us neck and heels again in trouble? My country! thou art sick, and very bilious, From feeding high, and working very little, Whereby thou hast become quite supercilious, And, through the passing richness of thy victual, 'Wax'd fat, like Jeshurun,' that noted kicker, In token of his wholesome meat and liquor. The sickness hath no bounds; alack! there bobs not A head, the holder of a limb unruly, Betwixt Ponchartrain and the fair Penobscot, That hath not told the tale of terror duly To scores of friends, in sympathizing masses; Like him of Uz who own'd the sheep and asses. And I, like 'Eliphaz the Temanite,' Would merely say, that on this mundane globe, 'As sparks tend ever upward in their flight,' (A fact familiar both to him and Job,) 'So man is born to misery' of some sort, And this was all the hapless patriarch's comfort. But as the hand of Time healed all his woes, And raised another batch of pigs and asses, So will its kindly influence interpose, With crops of rice, tobacco, and molasses, To dry thy tears, to bid thy murmurs cease, And bring again the days of palmy peace! _Wilmington, (Del.,) September, 1837._ RANDOM PASSAGES FROM ROUGH NOTES OF A VISIT TO ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, FRANCE, SWITZERLAND, AND GERMANY. NUMBER FIVE. PARIS, (CONCLUDED)--SWITZERLAND. I HAVE marvelled at nothing more, in Paris, than the rarity of female beauty. I have been in the Boulevards, and other fashionable resorts, at fashionable hours, many a time and oft; but I do not recollect having seen a single French woman decidedly pretty. In some of the galleries, I observed occasionally a lady who might be called so, but they always proved to be English. It seemed more singular, as the prevalent notions of Paris with us led me to expect a brilliant display 'in this line.' But if the French damsels are deficient in personal attractions, they certainly are not in graceful and fascinating manners; and this remark will apply almost equally to the peasant girl and the queen. The style of dress of the Parisian ladies seemed to me very neat, simple, and tasteful, and certainly much less _showy_ than that of the belles of Gotham, who, it must be owned, are apt to be somewhat _ultra_ in the _extremes_ of foreign fashions. There is sound policy, no doubt, in the practice of employing young women as clerks in the shops; they certainly have an irresistible way of recommending their wares, charming you by their ineffable sweetness and apparent naïveté, while they draw as liberally as possible on your purse.