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No condition of those afflicted with this malady need be despaired of in experienced and judicious hands. It is not long since Dr. Down, the physician at Earlswood, was requested to see a boy living in London with his mother and sisters, and who was becoming altogether unmanageable. He was filthy, obstinate, and dangerous to a degree that caused him to be dreaded. Dr. Down recommended his being sent to Earlswood, -- advice very reluctantly taken. He came in a horrid condition, and was to all appearance hopelessly vicious, at first refusing every kindness and even food, threatening any person who came near him, thinking to terrify his attendants as he had done his relatives. Dr. Down met his menaces kindly, by perseverance won him, and in a month changed him into a tractable being. When this was reported to his mother, she became uneasy, fearing that violent measures had been taken, and hastened to the asylum. Placed in one of the rooms, she saw her son cross the garden, and heard Dr. Down ask him to gather him a rose, which he brought, to her astonishment, to the doctor in a pleasant manner. It was still thought advisable that he should, during this visit of his mother, not know that she was present. In two months from this time they were allowed to meet, and she talked with joy to her altered son. She declared that all was to her a mystery, for nothing but brute force could do anything with him before; and here was the great mistake. This unpromising youth joined the party in the carpenter's shop, working diligently and cheerfully at this trade of his own selection. The proper method was here pursued by the judicious and experienced physician, and the issue was a great success. Itard failed with the wild boy of Arveyron who roamed in the woods and was caught rolling in the snow, because he treated him not as an idiot but as a savage.

The writings from which most of these cases are selected are all replete with instances of success. It must he most gratifying in an asylum to see the reclaimed patients doing the work of the establishment, and rendering fewer servants necessary in almost every department. Some are even sent to purchase articles at shops, and on various errands of confidence. It scarcely ever happens that they fail in their particular message, but what they may have to say on returning from a neighbouring town is impossible to predict. For instance, a boy came home from a place where an election was going on and said the successful candidate had won the pig. Every one was puzzled till it was made out that he was at the head of the poll, which the poor imbecile thought meant the pole, and supposed that he had, been, climbing a greasy pole, as they do in rustic games, for the prize of a fat pig! The carrier at Earlswood has passed through many grades of occupation, having been a tailor, cook, gardener, mason, and farmer. He now goes to Redhill two or three times a day, and is entirely to be trusted. He was originally a pitiable Specimen, skulking about in his native place with pockets full of torn leaves of books and filthy bits of newspaper, all the rude boys around following and teasing him. He has now been taught all the employments named, and exhibits a feeling of religion and a sense of duty of the most exemplary kind, being truthful, extremely well-behaved, well-versed in the Scriptures, and rebuking every kind of deception or impropriety, while he himself is an admirable example.

Enough has now been stated to convince all inquirers that the pains taken with idiots have not been unrequited. Mr. Sidney assures us that he has known parents to come and inquire for their child, and were unable to recognize him in a group when requested to do so; and he says he has seen a mother standing on the steps before the door of the asylum and turning her son round and round with amazement, till the tears of joy flowed down her cheeks. We cannot therefore do otherwise than recognize with satisfaction the efforts now making in this nation to reclaim and educate idiots, and indeed in all parts of the world. It has been a happy and successful experiment, but there is much still to learn, and the progress of the work needs great vigilance and care, so that we may hope that if the British Isles do actually contain 50,000 idiots or imbeciles, as has been asserted, they may all more or less find at least some effectual palliation of their wretched condition.

'The patient and well-directed efforts made in asylums already existing' (says Dr. Conolly) 'for the imbecile and idiotic children, have proved that the senses may be educated, the muscular movements and powers improved, and the mental faculties in every case more or less cultivated. The faculty of speech may be, we may almost say, bestowed on many who appear at first to be unable to employ articulate language: all their habits may be amended; industrial power may be imparted to them; all their moral feelings awakened, and even devotional aspirations given to those in whom the attributes of soul were so obscured as to seem to be wanting.'