fallen sinners, to whom you are liberal in nothing but the
preachment of perdition!

As I rose to quit the room, a pretty little child of one of the
attendants came running in to greet its father. For the moment, a
child with eyes, among the sightless crowd, impressed me almost as
painfully as the blind boy in the porch had done, two hours ago.
Ah! how much brighter and more deeply blue, glowing and rich though
it had been before, was the scene without, contrasting with the
darkness of so many youthful lives within!

* * * * * *

At SOUTH BOSTON, as it is called, in a situation excellently
adapted for the purpose, several charitable institutions are
clustered together. One of these, is the State Hospital for the
insane; admirably conducted on those enlightened principles of
conciliation and kindness, which twenty years ago would have been
worse than heretical, and which have been acted upon with so much
success in our own pauper Asylum at Hanwell. 'Evince a desire to
show some confidence, and repose some trust, even in mad people,'
said the resident physician, as we walked along the galleries, his
patients flocking round us unrestrained. Of those who deny or
doubt the wisdom of this maxim after witnessing its effects, if
there be such people still alive, I can only say that I hope I may
never be summoned as a Juryman on a Commission of Lunacy whereof
they are the subjects; for I should certainly find them out of
their senses, on such evidence alone.

Each ward in this institution is shaped like a long gallery or