Chapter I: Front Matter

EXPLANATION OF FRONTISPIECE.

The frontispiece which accompanies this treatise, represents a poor mother abandoning her infant, at the gate of the Hôtel des Enfans trouvés, (Foundling Hospital) at Paris. The original painting, from which this is a faithful copy, is by Vigneron, a French artist of celebrity; it was purchased at the price of one thousand dollars for the Galerie Royale, and is now in the possession of the French king.

The Hôtel des Enfans trouvés, than which a more humane institution was never founded, exhibits, in its every arrangement, order, economy, and, above all, a beautiful tenderness of the feelings of those poor creatures who are thus compelled to avail themselves, for their offspring, of the asylum it affords. No obtrusive observation is made, no unfeeling question asked: the infant charge is received in silence, and either trained and supported until maturity, or, if circumstances, at any subsequent period, enable the parents to claim their offspring, it is restored to their care.

There is surely no sect or creed so frozen, or ritual so rigid, that it can systematize away the common feelings of humanity, or dry up, in the breasts of some gentler spirits, the milk of human kindness. The benevolent founder and indefatigable supporter of this noble institution, was a Jesuit! Be the good deeds of St. Vincent de Paul remembered, long after the intrigues and cruelties of his fellow sectaries are forgotten!

The case selected is one of mild, of modified,—I had almost said, of _favoured_ misfortune: an extreme case were too revolting for representation. But even under these comparatively happy circumstances, when benevolence extends her Samaritan care to the destitute and the forsaken, who that regards for a moment the abandoned helplessness of the deserted child, and the mute distress of the departing mother, but will join in the exclamation, “Alas! that it should ever have been born!”

EDITOR’S PREFACE.

Ten years have already elapsed since the publication of the last edition of Mr. Owen’s book, and it is believed that such change of public sentiment has taken place, as will render a republication of the work, with such additions and alterations as the discoveries and improvements in this department of physiology have brought to light, acceptable to the author, his friends, and the public. Several years spent in a course of experimental investigation, have brought to the Editor’s knowledge some practical facts, which, taken in connexion with the author’s candid investigation of the subject, would be sufficient apology (were any necessary) for the publication of this little treatise, at the present time. Moreover, a train of circumstances have developed themselves during the last few years, which have done much to remove a bias from the public mind, unfavourable to the subject matter herein discussed. These circumstances will insure for it a more favourable reception at this time. It is a self-evident fact, that every discovery in science which serves to make mankind happier and better beings, and at the same time evidently tends to the prevention of crime and to the removal of moral evil, deserves to be extensively made known.