ficult for them to learn or to sustain themselves. I wept the
whole time I was in this place a shower of sweet and bitter tears; of
joy at what had been done, of grief for all that I and others possess
and cannot impart to these little ones. But patience, and the Father
of All will give them all yet. A good angel these of Paris have in
their master. I have seen no man that seemed to me more worthy of
envy, if one could envy happiness so pure and tender. He is a man
of seven or eight and twenty, who formerly came there only to give
lessons in writing, but became so interested in his charge that he
came at last to live among them and to serve them. They sing the hymns
he writes for them, and as I saw his fine countenance looking in
love on those distorted and opaque vases of humanity, where he had
succeeded in waking up a faint flame, I thought his heart could never
fail to be well warmed and buoyant. They sang well, both in parts and
in chorus, went through gymnastic exercises with order and pleasure,
then stood in a circle and kept time, while several danced extremely
well. One little fellow, with whom the difficulty seemed to be that
an excess of nervous sensibility paralyzed instead of exciting the
powers, recited poems with a touching, childish grace and perfect
memory. They write well, draw well, make shoes, and do carpenter's
work. One of the cases most interesting to the metaphysician is that
of a boy, brought there about two years and a half ago, at the age of
thirteen, in a state of brutality, and of ferocious brutality. I read
the physician's report of him at that period. He discovered no ray of
decency or reason; entirely beneath the animals in the exercise of the
senses, he discovered a restless fury beyond that of beasts of prey,
breaking and throwing down whatever came in his way; was a voracious
glutton, and every way grossly sensual. Many trials and vast patience
were necessary before an inlet could be obtained to his mind; then it
was through the means of mathematics. He delights in the figures, can
draw and name them all, detects them by the touch when blindfolded.
Each, mental effort of the kind he still follows up with an imbecile
chuckle, as indeed his face and whole manner are still that of an
idiot; but he has been raised from his sensual state, and can now
discriminate and name colors and perfumes which before were all alike
to him. He is partially redeemed; earlier, no doubt, far more might
have b