Would that on our own side of the Atlantic a Wichern might arise, whose abilities should be sufficient to unite in one common purpose our reformatory enterprises, and rescue from infamy and sin the tens of thousands of children who now, apt scholars in crime, throng the purlieus of vice in our large cities, and are already committing deeds whose desperate wickedness might well cause hardened criminals to shudder.  The existence of a popular government depends, we are often told, upon the intelligence and virtue of the people.  What hope, then, can we have of the perpetuity of our institutions, when those who are to control them have become monsters of iniquity ere they have reached the age of manhood?

The forces of Good and Evil are ever striving for the mastery in human society.  Happy is that philanthropist, and honored should he be with a nation’s gratitude, who can rescue these juvenile offenders from the power of evil, and from the fearful suggestings of temptation and want, and enlist them on the side of virtue and right!  We rear monuments of marble and bronze to those heroes who on the battle-field and in the fierce assault have kept our nation’s fame untarnished, and added new laurels to the renown of our country’s prowess; but more enduring than marble, more lasting than brass, should be the monument reared to him who, in the fierce contest with the powers of evil, shall rescue the soul of the child from the grasp of the tempter, and change the brutalized and degraded offspring of crime and lust into a youth of generous, active, and noble impulses.  But though earthly fame may be denied to such a benefactor of his race, his record shall be on high; and at that grand assize where all human actions shall be weighed, His voice, whose philanthropy exceeded, infinitely, the noblest deeds of benevolence of the sons of earth, shall be heard, saying to these humble laborers in the vineyard of our God, “Friends, come up higher!”

Those who are interested in knowing what has been accomplished by the reformatory institutions of Europe will find a full and entertaining account of most of them in a volume recently published, entitled “Papers on Preventive, Correctional, and Reformatory Institutions and Agencies in Different Countries,” by Henry Barnard, LL.D.  Hartford:  F.C.  Brownell, 1857.  Dr. Barnard has done a good work in collecting these valuable documents.

BEAUTY.

  Fond lover of the Ideal Fair,
  My soul, eluded everywhere,
  Is lapsed into a sweet despair. 
  Perpetual pilgrim, seeking ever,
  Baffled, enamored, finding never;
  Each morn the cheerful chase renewing,
  Misled, bewildered, still pursuing;
  Not all my lavished years have bought
  One steadfast smile from her I sought,
  But sidelong glances, glimpsing light,
  A something far too fine for sight,
  Veiled voices, far off thridding strains,
  And precious agonies and pains: 
  Not love, but only love’s dear wound
  And exquisite unrest I found.