The earth, soaked with oceans of rain, is steaming like a wet blanket.

Vegetation is rotting all round us.

Insects and undertakers are the only living creatures which seem to enjoy the climate.

But, though our atmosphere is hot, our factions are lukewarm.

A bad epigram in a newspaper, or a public meeting attended by a tailor, a pastry-cook, a reporter, two or three barristers, and eight or ten attorneys, are our most formidable annoyances.