But the matter seethed in her mind; as she mused upon it, the fire
burned, and the spirit which had to burst its conventional trammels and
"take up the cross" in regard to dress and speech, looked out for other
crosses to carry. Doing good became a passion; want, misery, sin and
sorrow furnished claims upon her which she would neither ignore nor
deny.

John Howard had grappled with the hydra before her, and finally
succumbed to his exertions. As the period of his labors lay principally
between the years 1774 and 1790, when the evils against which Mrs. Fry
had to contend were intensified and a hundred times blacker, it cannot
do harm to recall the condition of prisons in England during the last
quarter of the eighteenth century; that is, during the girlhood of
Elizabeth Fry. Possibly some echoes of the marvellous exertions of
Howard in prison reform had reached her Earlham home, and produced,
though unconsciously, an interest in the subject which was destined to
bear fruit at a later period. At any rate, the fact cannot be gainsaid
that she followed in his steps, visiting the Continent in the
prosecution of her self-imposed task, and examining into the most
loathsome recesses of prisons, lunatic asylums, and hospitals.

The penal systems of England had been on their trial; had broken down,
and been found utterly wanting. Modern legislation and philanthropy have
laid it down that _reform_ is the proper end of all punishment; hence
the "silent system," the "separate system," and various employments have
been adopted. Hence, too, arose the framing of a system of education and
instruction under the jail roof, so that on the discharge of prisoners
they might be fitted to earn their own maintenance in that world which
formerly they had cursed with their evil deeds. But it was not so in the
era of John Howard, nor of Elizabeth Fry. Then, justice made short work