LETTER XXIII.

_PRISONS._

Poena autem vehemens ac multò sævior illis, Quas et Cæditius gravis invenit aut Rhadamanthus, Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem.

_Juvenal._ Sat. 13. ll. 197-9.

Think [our] former state a happy dream, From which awaked, the truth of what we are Shows us but this,--I am sworn brother now To grim Necessity, and he and I Will keep a league till death.

_Richard II._ [Act V. Sc. 1, ll. 18-22].

The Mind of Man accommodates itself to all Situations; Prisons otherwise would be intolerable--Debtors; their different Kinds: three particularly described; others more briefly--An arrested Prisoner: his Account of his Feelings and his Situation--The Alleviations of a Prison--Prisoners for Crimes--Two condemned: a vindictive Female: a Highwayman--The Interval between Condemnation and Execution--His Feelings as the Time approaches--His Dream.