e ferocious
applauses which encourage him to theft and murder. Scarcely imprisoned,
he plans fresh crimes. What can be more logical? If discovered, and at
once apprehended, he will find the repose, the bodily supplies of a
prison, and his joyous and daring associates of crime and debauchery. If
his experience in crimes be less than that of others, does he for that
evince the less remorse? It follows that he is exposed to brutal
scoffing, infernal taunts, and horrible threats. And--a thing so rare
that it has become the exception to the rule--if the prisoner leaves
this fearful pandemonium with the firm resolution to return to the paths
of honesty by excessive labour, courage, patience, and honesty, and has
been able to conceal the infamy of his past career, the meeting with one
of his old comrades in gaol is sufficient to overturn this good
intention for the restoration of his character, so painfully struggled
for.

[1] High wages, if we reflect that, with all expenses paid, a
prisoner may gain from five to ten sous a day. How many workmen
are there who can save such a sum?

And in this way: A hardened, discharged convict proposes a job to a
repentant comrade; the latter, in spite of bitter menaces, refuses this
criminal association; forthwith an anonymous information reveals the
life of the unfortunate fellow who was desirous, at every sacrifice, of
concealing and expiating a first fault by honourable behaviour. Then,
exposed to the contempt, or, at least, the distrust, of those whose
good-will he had acquired by dint of industry and probity, this man,
reduced to distress, and urged by want, yielding at length to incessant
temptations, although nearly restored to society, will again fall, and
for ever, into the depths of that abyss whence he had escaped with such
difficulty.

In the following scenes we shall endeavour to demonstrate the monstrous
and inevitable consequences of confinement in masses. After ages of
barbarous experiments and pernicious hesitations, it seemed suddenly
understood how irrational it is to plunge into an atmosphere of deepest
vice persons whom a pure and salubrious air could alone save. How many
centuries to discover that, in placing in dense contact diseased beings,
we redouble the intensity of their malignity, which is thus rendered
incurable! How many centuries to discover that there is, in a word, but
one remedy for this overwhelming leprosy which threatens
society,--isolation!