AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 443 



boy, who had been early familiar with punishments and prisons, 

 and now for some time a resident at Mettray, was asked why 

 he did not run away from Mettray. His memorable answer 

 was, &quot; Because there are no bolts nor bars to prevent me.&quot; 



When one looks at the innumerable herds of children, turned, 

 as it were, adrift in a great city, not merely tempted, but actually 

 instructed, stimulated, and encouraged, in crime, and observes 

 them gradually gathering in and borne onwards on the swift 

 current with increasing rapidity to the precipice of destruction, 

 until escape becomes almost impossible, how can we enough 

 admire the combined courage, generosity, and disinterestedness, 

 which plunges in that it may rescue some of these wretched 

 victims from that frightful fate which seems all but inevitable ? 

 I do not know a more beautiful, and scarcely a more touching, 

 passage in the Holy Scriptures than that which represents the 

 angels in heaven as rejoicing over a repenting and rescued sinner. 

 It is, indeed, a ministry worthy of the highest and holiest spirits, 

 to which the Supreme Source of all goodness and benevolence 

 has imparted any portion of his divine nature. 



If we look at this institution even in a more humble and prac 

 tical view, as affording a good education in the mechanical and 

 agricultural arts, its great utility cannot be doubted ; and much 

 good seed will be sown here, which, under the blessing of God, 

 is sure to return excellent and enduring fruits. 



I should have said before, that there is connected with the 

 Institution a hospital, which was a model of cleanliness, good 

 ventilation, and careful attendance ; all the services of which 

 were rendered by those indefatigable doers of good, the Sisters 

 T jf Charity. 



4. COLONY AT PETIT BOURG. Another institution of a similar 

 kind to that at Mettray, is about twenty miles from Paris, at a 

 place called Petit Bourg. It was once a palace, built by a profli 

 gate king for a profligate woman, but now is converted into a 

 school of charity, certainly a better use. It is not designed 

 for criminals or the condemned, but for vagabond children, fa 

 therless, motherless, and friendless and is to be regarded as a 

 place for the prevention rather than the cure of crime. The 

 farm contains about seventy acres ; and though an expensive 

 purchase, and a house much too magnificent for a pauper estab- 



