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Visit to the prison.-Neatness and order.-An inquiry.-Library.

has the sincere desire to prepare himself to do it aright; to him, in short, who has the true spirit of the teacher, I may say, there is nothing to fear. An honest mind, with the requisite industry, is sufficient for these things.

SECTION III.-THE AUBURN STATE PRISON.

DURING my visit at Auburn in the autumn of 1845, I was invited by a friend to visit the prison, in which at that time were confined between six and seven hundred convicts. I was first taken through the various workshops, where the utmost neatness and order prevailed. As I passed along, my eye rested upon one after another of the convicts, I confess, with a feeling of surprise. There were many good-looking men. If, instead of their parti-colored dress, they could have been clothed in the citizen's garb, I should have thought them as good in appearance as laboring men in general. And when, to their good appearance, was added their attention to their work, their ingenuity, and the neatness of their work-rooms, my own mind began to press the inquiry, Why are these men here? It was the afternoon of Saturday. Many of them had completed their allotted work for the week, and with happy faces were performing the customary ablutions ⚫preparatory to the sabbath. Passing on, we came to the library, a collection of suitable books for the convicts, which are given out as a reward for diligence to those who have seasonably and faithfully performed

Wyatt the murderer.-Sabbath morn.-General view.

their labor. Here were many who had come to take their books. Their faces beamed with delight as they each bore away the desired volume, just as I had seen the faces of the happy and the free do before. Why are these men here? was again pressed upon me;why are these men here?

At this time the famous WYATT, since executed. upon the gallows for his crime, was in solitary confinement, awaiting his trial for the murder of Gordon, a fellow-prisoner. I was permitted to enter his room. Chained to the floor, he was reclining upon his mattress in the middle of his apartment. As I approached him, his large black eye met mine. He was a handsome man. His head was well developed, his long black hair hung upon his neck, and his eye was one of the most intelligent I ever beheld. Had I seen him in the senate among great men,-had I seen him in a school of philosophers, or a brotherhood of poets, I should probably have selected him as the most remarkable man among them all, without suspecting his distinction to be a distinction of villany. Why is that man here? thought I, as I turned away to leave him to his dreadful solitude.

The morrow was the Sabbath. I could not repress my desire to see the convicts brought together for worship. At the hour of nine I entered their chapel, and found them all seated in silence. I was able to. see most of the faces of this interesting congregation. It was by no means the worst looking congregation I had ever seen. There were evidently bad men there;

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The question again.-Speculation. Their teachers.

while the chaplain proceeded to his sermon, in the midst of the silence that pervaded the room, my mind ran back to their educators. Once these men were children like others. They had feelings like other children, affection, reverence, teachableness, conscience,why are they here? Some, very likely, on account of their extraordinary perversity; but most because they had a wrong education. More than half, undoubtedly, have violated the laws of their country not from extraordinary viciousness, but from the weakness of their moral principle. Tempted just like other and better men, they fell, because in early childhood no one had cultivated and strengthened the conscience God had given them. I am not disposed to excuse the vices of men, nor to screen them from merited punishment; neither do I worship a "painted morality," based solely upon education, thus leaving nothing for the religion of the Bible to accomplish by purifying the heart, that fountain of wickedness: yet how many of these men might have been saved to society; how many of them have powers which under different training might have adorned and blessed their race; how many of them may date their fall to the evil influence and poisonous example of some guide of their childhood, some recreant teacher of their early days,-God only knows! But what a responsibility still rests upon the head of any such teacher, if he did not know, or did not try to know, the avenue to their hearts; if he did not feel or try to feel the worth of moral principle to these very fallen ones! And what would be his feelings if he could look back

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