In this chamber (which was spacious, containing a large number of beds) there was a clear fire burning on the hearth, as in all the other occupied rooms; and directly in front of the blaze sat a woman holding a baby, which, beyond all reach of comparison, was the most horrible object that ever afflicted my sight.  Days afterwards—­nay, even now, when I bring it up vividly before my mind’s eye—­it seemed to lie upon the floor of my heart, polluting my moral being with the sense of something grievously amiss in the entire conditions of humanity.  The holiest man could not be otherwise than full of wickedness, the chastest virgin seemed impure, in a world where such a babe was possible.  The governor whispered me, apart, that, like nearly all the rest of them, it was the child of unhealthy parents.  Ah, yes!  There was the mischief.  This spectral infant, a hideous mockery of the visible link which Love creates between man and woman, was born of disease and sin.  Diseased Sin was its father, and Sinful Disease its mother, and their offspring lay in the woman’s arms like a nursing Pestilence, which, could it live to grow up, would make the world a more accursed abode than ever heretofore.  Thank Heaven, it could not live!  This baby, if we must give it that sweet name, seemed to be three or four months old, but, being such an unthrifty changeling, might have been considerably older.  It was all covered with blotches, and preternaturally dark and discolored; it was withered away, quite shrunken and fleshless; it breathed only amid pantings and gaspings, and moaned painfully at every gasp.  The only comfort in reference to it was the evident impossibility of its surviving to draw many more of those miserable, moaning breaths; and it would have been infinitely less heart-depressing to see it die, right before my eyes, than to depart and carry it alive in my remembrance, still suffering the incalculable torture of its little life.  I can by no means express how horrible this infant was, neither ought I to attempt it.  And yet I must add one final touch.  Young as the poor little creature was, its pain and misery had endowed it with a premature intelligence, insomuch that its eyes seemed to stare at the by-standers out of their sunken sockets knowingly and appealingly, as if summoning us one and all to witness the deadly wrong of its existence.  At least, I so interpreted its look, when it positively met and responded to my own awe-stricken gaze, and therefore I lay the case, as far as I am able, before mankind, on whom God has imposed the necessity to suffer in soul and body till this dark and dreadful wrong be righted.