separate prisons for females, on inspection and classification, on
instruction and employment, on medical attendance, diet, and clothing,
and on benevolent efforts for prisoners who have served their sentences.
It is easy to recognize in these pages the Quakeress, the woman, and the
Christian. She recommends to the attention of ladies, as departments for
doing good, not only prisons, but lunatic asylums, hospitals and
workhouses. At the same time she strongly recommends that only _orderly_
and _experienced_ visitors should endeavor to penetrate into the abodes
of vice and wickedness, which the prisons of England at that day mostly
were. Among other judicious counsels for the conduct of these visitors
occur the following, which read as coming from her own experience. That
this was the case we may feel assured; Mrs. Fry was too wise and too
womanly not to warn others from the pit-falls over which she had
stumbled, or to permit anyone to fall into her early mistakes:--

"Much depends on the spirit in which the worker enters upon her
work. It must be the spirit not of judgment but of mercy. She must
not say in her heart, 'I am holier than thou'; but must rather keep
in perpetual remembrance that '_all_ have sinned,' and that,
therefore, great pity is due from us even to the greatest
transgressors among our fellow-creatures, and that in meekness and
love we ought to labor for their restoration. The good principle in
the hearts of many abandoned persons may be compared to the few
remaining sparks of a nearly extinguished fire. By means of the
utmost care and attention, united with the most gentle treatment,
these may yet be fanned into a flame; but under the operation of a
rough and violent hand they will presently disappear and be lost
forever. In our conduct with these unfortunate females, kindness,
gentleness, and true humility ought ever to be united with serenity
and firmness. Nor will it be safe ever to descend, in our
intercourse with them, to _familiarity_, for there is a dignity in
the Christian character which demands, and will obtain, respect;
and which is powerful in its influence even over dissolute
minds.... Neither is it by any means wise to converse with them on
the subject of the crimes of which they are accused or convicted,
for such conversation is injurious both to the criminals themselves
and to