KEFLECTIONS. 317 



who are confined there with a recollection of a life 

 steejied in crime ; abhorred by every one, and hatini^- 

 every one. Behold the greater part, though at the height 

 of their wretchedness, yet endeavouring by all means iu 

 their power to plunge, if it were possible, into a still 

 deeper moral abyss ; and in the dark corners of their 

 dungeons staining themselves with vices at which 

 humanity shudders. For these pitiable objects there has, 

 nevertheless, been a time when evil was not their guiding 

 star; and when they fell, did they at once fall to the 

 depth, of destruction in which they are now involved ? 

 May not bad education, ill-directed pursuits in early life, 

 and the criminal laws which, in reality, counteract the 

 design intended, have been equally the cause of their 

 backslidings as the bias of their own wicked inclinations ? 

 And when once they have entered upon the evil path, 

 what has been done to reform them ? or what is doino' at 

 the present moment to save those whom it is still possible 

 to snatch from destruction ? Tlie reply to these questions 

 cannot, unhappily, be doubtful." 



