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590 that they have been made the matters of profound thought by able publicists and large-minded statesmen. At first thought it seems that the condition of a small body of men who have offended local laws should be left to the thoughtful control of local authorities, but it is soon found that the considerations involved are as broad as the spread of the human race. For these reasons leading men of different nations were drawn together at the late International Convention at London, and for these reasons this Association was formed. Crime knows no geographical limits, no boundaries of states. It is its nature to war with the welfare of the human family. It must be opposed by the united wisdom and virtue of all nationalities and of all forms of civilization. While local laws must frame penal codes, and local societies do the work of lifting up fallen men, still much is gained by a wide-spread sympathy and coöperation. There are many things which are beyond the reach of state action, in a moral point of view—things which do not come under the cognizance of laws, but which deeply affect the welfare of the whole country. At the first view our efforts seem to be limited to the justice which punishes crime, and to the charity which tries to reform the criminal, but we are soon led into a wider field of duty. We are apt to look upon the inmates of prisons as exceptional men, unlike the mass of our people. We feel that they are thorns in the side of the body politic which should be drawn out and put where they will do no more harm. We regard them as men who run counter to the currents of society, thus making disorder and mischief. These are errors. In truth they are men who run with the currents of society and who outrun them. They are men who in a great degree are moved and directed by the impulses around them. Their characters are formed by the civilization in which they move. They are in many respects the representative men of a country. It is a hard thing to draw an indictment against a criminal which is not in some respects an indictment of the community in which he has lived. An intelligent stranger who should visit the prisons of foreign countries, who should hear the histories of their inmates, would get a better idea of the inner workings of their civilization than could be gained by intercourse with a like number of their citizens moving in more conventional circles of society. As a rule, wrong-doing is the growth of influences pervading the social system, as pestilences are bred by malaria. Our study into this subject soon teaches us that prisons are moral hospitals where moral diseases are not only cared for, but science learns the moral laws of life—where it learns what endangers the general welfare of the community, what insidious, pestilential vapors permeate society, carrying moral disease and death into its homes. Prisoners are men like ourselves, and if we would learn the dangers which lurk in our pathways we must learn how they stumbled and fell. I do not doubt that some men are more prone to vice than others, but, after listening to thousands of prayers for pardon, I can