The importance of the principle of separation was first recognized at Rome, as long ago as 1703, by Clement XI., in the foundation of the Hospital of St. Michael, or the House of Refuge, where a separate dormitory was provided for each prisoner. Over the portal of this asylum, in letters of gold, were inscribed the words of wisdom which Howard adopted as the motto of his labors, and which indicate the spirit that should preside over the administration of all prisons: _Parum est improbos coercere poena, nisi probos efficias disciplina_,--It is of small consequence to coerce the wicked by punishment, unless you make them good by discipline. The first and most important step in this discipline is to remove prisoners from all evil influence,--which can be done only by separation from each other, and by filling their time with labor. In furtherance of this principle, and that he might reduce it to practice, Howard, in conjunction with Sir William Blackstone, as early as 1779, drew an Act of Parliament, the preamble to the fifth section of which is an enunciation of the cardinal truth at the foundation of all effective prison discipline. "Whereas," says the Act, "if many offenders, convicted of crimes for which transportation hath been usually inflicted, _were ordered to solitary imprisonment, accompanied by well-regulated labor and religious instruction_, it might be the means, under Providence, not only of deterring others from the commission of the like crimes, _but also of reforming the individuals_," etc. Noble words! Here, for the first time in English legislation, the reformation of the prisoner is proposed as a distinct object. This Act, though passed, was unfortunately never carried into execution, through the perverseness, it is said, of one of the persons associated with Howard as commissioner for erecting a suitable prison.