We should esteem ourselves happy if our feeble voice could be, if not
relied upon, at least spread amongst all those which, more imposing,
more eloquent than our own, demand with such just and impatient urgency
the entire and unqualified application of the cell system.

One day, perchance, society will know that wickedness is an accidental,
not an organic malady; that crimes are almost always the results of
perverted instincts, impulses, still good in their essence, but
falsified, rendered evil, by ignorance, egotism, or the carelessness of
governments; and that the health of the soul, like that of the body, is
unquestionably kept subordinate to the laws of a healthy and preserving
system of control.

God bestows on all passions that strive for predominance, strong
appetites, the desire to be at ease, and it is for society to balance
and satisfy these wants. The man who only participates in strength,
good-will, and health has a right--a sovereign right--to have his labour
justly remunerated, in a way that shall assure to him not the
superfluities, but the necessaries of life,--the means of continuing
healthy and strong, active and industrious, and, consequently, honest
and good, because his condition is rendered happy. The gloomy regions of
misery and ignorance are peopled with morbid beings with withered
hearts. Purify these moral sewers, spread instruction, the inducement to
labour, fair wages, just rewards, and then these unhealthy faces, these
perishing frames, will be restored to virtue, which is the health, the
life of the soul.

* * * * *

Let us now introduce the reader into the room in the prison of La Force
in which the prisoners are allowed to see persons who visit them. It is
a dark place, partitioned in its length into two equal parts, by a
narrow grated division. One of these divisions communicates with the
interior of the prison, and is the place for the prisoners. The other
communicates with the turnkey's lobby, and is devoted to the persons
admitted to visit the prisoners. These interviews and conversations take
place through the double iron grating of the reception room, in presence
of the turnkey, who remains in the interior, at the extremity of the
passage.

The appearance of the prisoners, who were in this room on the day in
question, offered great contrasts. Some were clad in wretched attire,
others seemed to belong to the working class, and some to the wealthy