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have I ever shewn an unkind countenance or spoken a bitter word? I considered that it would be unreasonable of me to feel irritated against her for your crime. How could I hate her innocence, since I felt no aversion to you who offended me? See how far the indulgenc of my love leads me; I seek in her beauty excuses for your fault. Be restored then to your reason, dear Fulgent, and you will return to me readily. There are secret and invisible links by which our souls are still united, but you do not perceive them, because you are not yet yourself. If once you could regain your judgment, I would not relinquish the hope of regaining your affection; and then this beautiful spring would soon enable me to forget the rude winter I have experienced, and the excess of my joy would far surpass the wildest dream of my hopes. On God, restore me my Fulgent! or rather, in restoring me hit, restore me to myself!"

Rarely had the seventeenth century, even after its language had become educated, when public taste had become more pure, lent to the affections a language more tender, more simple, firmer or more true. The disunion which was observable at the commencement of the century between purity of sentiment and grossness of expression had been by degrees obliterated, sentiment and expression became harmonised in Racine and Madame de la Fayette; but there remained, even then, atone of ideal spiritualism which verged almost to ethereal immateriality, and an excess of delicacy bordering on insipidity. Camus, in some pages has found the true tone, and that before the great writers of the age. This does not surprise us. Zealous confessor, learned director, he heard so frequently the true language of the heart, that it inspired him with eloquence to assist in his works of the imagination. Bossuet, Fenelon and Bourdalone were grand moralists, great painters of the human heart; they listened to the true tones of the heart under circumstances where they would not inveigh against it, and they gave as morals, publicly to men, the very knowledge they had acquired in their discharge of a duty, sacred as its founder.

We can now fully understand the cause of M. de Belley's success; a complication of events as interesting in romance as in the theatre, allegorical episodes, where might be traced histories of persons well known, exalted portraits of platonic love, romantic adventures, a combination of devotion and gal lantry, sensualism and spirituality, this it was that pleased in

that age of contradictions. Finally, in style, they preferred that odd mixture of prose and verse, that profusion of unconnected images, which, according to Perrault, appeared instructive, and that overflowing of erudition which Huet regarded as a happy union of the useful and the agreeable. In a word, Camus reconciled, at least, as many by his faults as by his qualities.

A few words in conclusion regarding the morality of the Christian romances of Camus. We have seen already, that they were sometimes imperfect. There were to be found even in the seventeenth century enlightened minds, truly pious, who reproached him for his indulgence. The Abbess of Port-Royal, Mother Angelica, complained of his effeminacy, and Sister Claire-Eugénie, before whom the Bishop of Belley read his romances at Port-Royal, wrote: "If God had not held me in His hands, I would, through their means, have entered into the spirit of the world." We are not surprised at this; we do not desire to exaggerate the efficacy of the moral contained in the Christian romances. Rule the passions by the aid of the passions; this recalls the famous adage of making order out of disorder. As M. Saint Marc Girardin has wittily remarked, "the city of God cannot be built with the capital sins." The lovers have attained a happy end either by martyrdom or the cloister, but they took some time to arrive at that, and loitered long on the road. The passion with which the Christian romances were most occupied in the seventeenth century, and by which instruction was endeavoured to be imparted, was precisely that least calculated to do so; we candidly admit that there were but few symptoms of platonic love in the lives, as good taste in the literature of the age. Have ajust and delicate mind, you will feel that which is beautiful; have an honest, and chaste soul, you will love that which is pure. All this is true, but first, this objection, so very just against doctrinal romances in matters of love, does not impeach that of Palombe, consecrated altogether to conjugal love. What is more, there is in the works of Camus a purity so visible in its meaning, such fervour of Christian zeal, and such a tone of virtue, that the character of the man gives a lively charm to the precepts of the director, and compensates for his errors in guidance. And • See Hommes Illustres: Camus. † See Lettre à Mlle de Scudéry. See Sainte-Beuve, Port Royal. t. 1, p. 235.

then, this sweetness of morality, this effeminacy with which the austerity of Port-Royal has accused him, does not seem to be a very grave fault in our days, where, in like matters, persuasion gains more than domination.

Who would not pardon Camus even now for placing himself willingly by the side of the honest affections when oppressed, and of attacking the parents who, through cupidity or distrust hinder marriages, and "separate hearts?" He wished that they should combat the desires they inspired and the temptations they experienced; but he reproached, Parthenice for desiring to disfigure herself, and sharply reprimanded Origen. He lauded the convent, but he also praised marriage, and he spoke with delight of happy unions. His heroines finished by the cloister; with this he was evidently satisfied: if he could marry them, he blessed them with all his heart. In a word, there are in his books much moderation, much charity, and much sweetness. He has not despised life, he has not calumniated the world, he believed in honor and virtue, his code of morality was to render religion amiable, which, after all, is the surest means of making it loved.

REFORMATORY INSTITUTIONS.

1. Thirty-first Annual Report of the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents. New York: Wynkoop,

1856.

2. Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Annual Reports of the House of Refuge. Philadelphia. Ashmead, 1855 & 1856. 3. Charter and Bye Laws of the Baltimore Manual Labor School for Indigent Boys. 1841.

4. First and Second Reports of the Baltimore Manual Labor School for Indigent Boys. 1843 & 1847. Baltimore: Sands.

5. Charter, Rules and Regulations, and Bye Laws of the House of Refuge. Cincinnatti. 1850.

6. Report of the House of Refuge, New Orleans. Bills, 1850.

7. Act of Incorporation, Bye Laws, and Regulations of the New York Juvenile Asylum. New York: Harrison, 1851.

8. Fourth Annual Report of the New York Juvenile Asylum. New York: Trow, 1856.

9. Laying of the Corner Stone of the Baltimore House of Refuge, and the Address upon the occasion, by the Hon. Charles F. Mayer.

10. First Annual Report of the Baltimore House of Refuge. Baltimore Lucas, 1852.

11. Annual Report of the Boston Asylum and Farm School. Boston: Wilson and Son, 1852.

12. Rules and Regulations of the State Farm School at Monson. Springfield: Bowles & Co., 1855.

13. Documents relating to the State Reform School at Westborough. 1849.

14. Eighth and Ninth Annual Reports of the State Reform School at Westborough. Boston: White, 1855 & 1856. 15. Ordinances, Bye Laws, &c., of the Western House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents in the State of New York. Rochester: Strong and Co., 1856.

16. Seventh Annual Report of the Western House of Refuge. Albany Benthuysen, 1856.

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17. Second Annual Report of the Five Points House of Industry. New York, 1856.

18. Third Annual Report of the Children's Aid Society, New York. Wynkoop. 1856.

19. Report on Reformatory Schools in the United States, presented to the Legislature of Massachusetts, by the Hon. George S. Boutwell, from the Commissioners appointed to consider the subject of Reform Schools for Girls. 1851. 20. Proceedings at the Inauguration of the State Industrial School for Girls at Lancaster, August 27th 1856. Bos

ton: Wilson and Son, 1856.

21. Bye Laws of the State Industrial School for Girls. Boston: White, 1856.

22. First Annual Report of the State Industrial School for Girls. Boston White, 1857..

23. Second Annual Report of the House of Industry, and Home of the Friendless. Baltimore: Lucas, 1857.

The "QUARTERLY RECORD" in our number for December, 1856, contains notices extracted from American journals of two important institutions, the Industrial School for Girls at Lancaster, and the Reform School for Boys at Westborough, both in the State of Massachusetts. We have since received some of the Annual Reports of these as of several other schools established in the United States for the treatment of destitute and criminal children, and convinced, as we have on a former occasion declared ourselves to be, of the importance of the practical information such documents afford, we make no apology to our readers for laying before them at such length as our space will permit, a statement of what is being done west of the Atlantic towards extirpating juvenile delinquency.

True, the old world anticipated the new, in establishing Reformatory Schools, and may therefore be regarded rather as the teacher than the pupil in this branch of social science. In preventive institutions, however, our transatlantic brethren claim superiority over us, and at present it may be with justice, for though the Philanthropic Society commenced its labors in London in the last century, long before any such enterprise had been attempted in America, it has not been followed by the establishment in this country of analogous institutions (except perhaps the Glasgow House of Refuge) comparable we believe in number or size with those which have during the last thirty years sprung up in the United States. When the Industrial Schools' Act for England, passed during the last session, has had time fairly to come into operation, the sister country we trust will no longer compare disadvantageously in this respect with America or any other land. Most earnestly

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