before me, I will talk to the birds as they fly about. I will talk."-On another occasion, after having been visited by some one who took a more than usual interest in his situation, he exclaims, "How strange, how irresistible is the desire of the solitary prisoner to behold some one of his own species! It amounts to almost a sort of instinct, as if to prevent insanity, and its usual consequence, the tendency to self-destruction. The Christian religion, so abounding in views of humanity, forgets not to enumerate among its works of mercy the visiting of the prisoner. The mere aspect of man, his look of commiseration, his willingness, as it were, to share with you, and bear a part of your heavy burden, even when you know he cannot relieve you, has something that sweetens your bitter cup."

We hold it to be quite certain, that such considerations and facts as have been brought forward cannot be satisfactorily explained except on the ground that the love of society is originally implanted in the human mind. We might, therefore, be safe in leaving the subject here; but there are some other facts, similar to those which have been mentioned, that seem to possess no small degree of interest. We refer not so much to the case of distinguished individuals who have been subjected to long and severe imprisonment, as to some of the more general results that may be gathered from the history of prison discipline.

§ 147. The subject illustrated from experiments in prison discipline. In the year 1821, the Legislature of New-York directed the Superintendent of the Auburn State Prison to select a number of the most hardened criminals, and to lock them up in solitary cells, to be kept there day and night, without any interruption of their solitude, and without labour. This order, which was regarded, and was designed to be regarded, in the light of an experiment, was carried into effect in September of that year, by confining eighty criminals in the manner prescribed. On this experiment Messrs. Beaumont and Tocqueville, who some years since were

commissioned by the French government to examine and to report on the American system of Prison Discipline, make the following remarks: "This trial, from which so happy a result had been anticipated, was fatal to the greater part of the convicts; in order to reform them, they had been subjected to complete isolation; but this absolute solitude, if nothing interrupt it, is beyond the strength of man; it destroys the criminal without intermission and without pity; it does not reform, it kills.-The unfortunates on whom this experiment was made fell into a state of depression so manifest that their keepers were struck with it; their lives seemed in danger if they remained longer in this situation; five of them had already succumbed during a single year; their moral state was no less alarming; one of them had become insane; another, in a fit of despair, had embraced the opportunity, when the keeper brought him something, to precipitate himself from his cell, running the almost certain chance of a mortal fall.--Upon these and similar effects the system was finally judged. The governor of the State of New-York pardoned twenty-six of those in solitary confinement. The others, to whom this favour was not extended, were allowed to leave the cells during the day, and to work in the common workshops of the prison.

The Philadelphia Penitentiary appears to be constituted on what may be considered a mixed principle of punishment, viz., solitary confinement combined with labour, and alleviated by opportunities of reading, and by frequent visits from official persons, such as the inspectors, wardens, and chaplain. When Messrs. Beaumont and Tocqueville visited this Penitentiary, one of the prisoners said to them, in language which feelingly intimates how repugnant entire solitude is to the natural sentiments of the human heart, "It is with joy that I perceive the figure of the keepers who visit my cell. This summer a cricket came into my yard; it looked like a companion. When a butterfly or any other animal happens to enter my cell, I never do it any harm."

It may be added here, on the authority of the Translator of the Work from which the foregoing extracts have been made, that "the fatal effects of solitary confinement without labour, both to the body and the mind of the prisoners, has not been limited to the Auburn Prison. The Penitentiaries of Maryland, Maine, Virginia, and New-Jersey, in their experiments of this kind, have not exhibited happier results. In the latter prison, ten persons are mentioned as having been killed by solitary confinement."*

§ 148. Relation of the social principle to civil society.

It is on such considerations that we maintain the principle which has now been the subject of examination, to be connatural to the human mind. If men are frequently found in a state of contention, jealous. of each other's advancement, and seeking each other's injury, we are not to regard this as their natural position, but rather as the result, in many cases at least, of misapprehension. If they understood, in every case, the relative position of those with whom they contend, and especially if they were free from all unfavourable influences from those who happen to be placed in positions of authority, the great mass of mankind would find the principle of sociality successfully asserting its claims against those causes of repulsion and strife which, for various reasons, too often exist.

In concluding this subject, we may properly revert a moment to the strange notion of Hobbes, and those who think with him, that man is kept in society only by the fear of what he significantly calls the Leviathan; that is to say, of Civil Society in the exercise of force. These writers give us to understand that it is the chain, the sword, and the fagot which sustain the uniformity of the social position. We have no doubt that civil Government, in its proper administration, has a favourable effect, even in the exercise of

* Lieber's Translation of Beaumont and Tocqueville's Penitentiary System of the United States, p. 5, 51, 151, 188.

force. But, at the same time, it is a great and important fact, that Civil Society has a different, and, in all respects, a better foundation than this. It is based on the constitution of the mind itself, on the unfailing operations of the social principle. It is true that the tendencies of this principle are sometimes temporarily annulled by counteracting and adverse influences; but the principle itself is never, in a sound mind, perfectly extinguished. There is a philosophical truth, as well as poetical beauty, in the well-known expressions of Cowper:

"Man in society is like a flower

Blown in his native bed; 'tis there alone
His faculties, expanded in full bloom,

Shine out; there only reach their proper use.

§ 149. Of the form of desire denominated hope.

Before leaving the Propensities, and ascending, in the gradation of the Desiring or Desirive Sensibilities, to the still higher class of the Affections, we may delay a moment upon a state of mind which, although we may not have authority to give it a distinct place, has a name in every language, and perhaps we may add with strict truth, a residence in every breast. We refer to the state of mind denominated Hope, which does not appear to be a distinct form of desire, separate from every other, but rather a modification of all its forms. When the desire, whether it appear in the form of a propensity, or an affection, or in any other possible shape, is attended with a belief of the attainment of the object towards which it is directed, it is generally accompanied, in consequence of this belief, with a pleasant emotion. The effect of this collateral or accessory emotion is to stimulate the action of the desire, whose success it anticipates, and to diffuse over it a portion of its own glow of happiness. Of course, this pleasurable emotion will be greater or less, according as there is a greater or less probability of the object being attained. When the probability is small, the emotion of pleasure is weak; when it is great, the pleasure becomes strong. It is in the latter case that

we often speak of "gay" hope, of "cheering" or "bright" hope, and regard it as spreading a sort of rapturous light over the distant objects which it contemplates.

'With thee, sweet Hope! resides the heavenly light,
That pours remotest rapture on the sight.

The influence of that peculiar modification of pleased and vivid desire which, in order to distinguish it from other forms of desire, we denominate Hope, is undoubtedly very great; and, in most cases, it is to be presumed that its tendency is beneficial. Scarcely a duty or a situation of life can be named in which its influence is not felt more or less. The schoolboy is encouraged in his task by some hope of reward; and, when grown up to manhood, he cheers himself, after a thousand disappointments, with some good in prospect. The poor peasant, who laboriously cultivates his few steril acres, sees them, in his anticipation, rich, and blooming, and prodigal of wealth. It proffers its aid in the chambers of the sick and suffering; and the victim of oppressive tyranny, the captive in the dungeon, is encouraged to summon up the fortitude necessary to prolong his existence, by the hope, however poorly founded, of future deliverance.

CHAPTER VI.

THE MALEVOLENT AFFECTIONS.

§ 150. Of the comparative rank of the affections. It will be recollected, after some general remarks on the Nature of desire, we proposed to prosecute the examination of what may be called, in distinction from the emotive, the desiring portion of the Pathematic sensibilities, under the subordinate heads of the Instincts, the Appetites, the Propensities, and the Affections. Having examined, so far as seemed to be necessary for our purpose, the first three divisions, we are now prepared to proceed to the last.

The Affections are distinguished from the other