cing the family relation, as
circumstances may permit. Hence, the members of this institution are to
be divided into families; and over each a matron will preside, who is to
be a kind, affectionate, discreet mother to the children.

And here, for once, in Massachusetts, a public institution has escaped
the tyranny of bricks and mortar; and we are permitted to indulge the
hope, that any future additions will tend to make this spot a
neighborhood of unostentatious cottages, quiet rural homes, rather than
the seat of a vast edifice, which may provoke the wonder of the
sight-seer, inflame local or state pride, but can never be an effectual,
economical agency in the work of reformation. Every public institution
has some great object. Architecture should bend itself to that object,
and become its servant; and it must ever be deemed a mistake, when
utility is sacrificed that art or fancy may have its way.

Reformation, if wrought by external influences, is the result of
personal kindness. Personal kindness can exist only where there is
intimate personal acquaintance; this acquaintance is impossible in an
institution of two, three, or five hundred inmates. But, in a family of
ten, twenty, or thirty, this knowledge will exist, and this kindness
abound. Warm personal attachments will grow up in the family, and these
attachments are likely to become safeguards of virtue.

Nor let the objection prevail that the expense is to be increased. It is
not the purpose to set up an establishment and maintain it for a
specific sum of money, but to provide thorough mental and moral training
for the inmates. Make the work efficient, though it be limited to a
small number, rather than inaugurate a magnificent failure.

The state has wisely provided that the "trustees shall cause the girls
under their charge to be instructed in piety and morality, and in such
branches of useful knowledge as shall be adapted to their age and
capacity; they shall also be instructed in some regular course of labor,
either mechanical, manufacturing, or horticultural, or a combination of
these, and especially in such domestic and household labor and duties as
shall be best suited to their age and strength, disposition and
capacity; also in such other arts, trades, and employments, as may seem
to the trustees best adapted to secure their reformation, amendment, and
future benefit."

It is sometimes the bane of the poor that they do not work, and it is
often equal