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times exhibited in London, and accomplished his first attempt at this achievement merely by seeing a drawing of one on a figured handkerchief. He was told that the instant it was launched it would fall on its side for want of ballast and due calculation, but would not believe it till he witnessed the disaster, to his own dismay. Another effort was made, and the finish, proportions, and general plan are now perfect. He was furnished with metal guns by the generosity of a member of the board, and to hear him explain his ingenious methods of proceeding, as he stands before his model, is perfectly unlike anything else ever seen or heard; while his meaning must be more than half guessed, from his want of words and expression. He is now making a model of the Great Eastern' iron ship, thirteen feet long. He has made all the working drawings, and will accomplish the feat admirably. From morning to night he is constantly employed, and when his regular work in the carpenter's shop ceases for the use of the house, he spends his time in these sort of fancy works, including a gigantic flying kite, and in copying fine engravings. These drawings, in dark and coloured chalk, are most meritorious, and many of them, framed and glazed by himself, adorn the corridor and other parts of the asylum. One was graciously approved and accepted by the Queen, who was kindly pleased to send the artist a present; and Mr. Sidney had the honour of showing some of them to the Prince Consort, no common judge of art, who expressed the greatest surprise that one so gifted was still to be kept in the category of idiots, or ever had been one. His Royal Highness was particularly astonished, not merely by his copies of firstrate engravings, but by an imaginary drawing made by him of the siege of Sebastopol, partly from the Illustrated London 'News' and partly from his own ideas. He dislikes writing and holds it very cheap, and, like the ancient inhabitants of certain portions of the American continent, would make his communications pictorial. If offended and intending to complain, he draws the incident, and makes his views of things about the house and his requests known in the same way. made a drawing of the future launch of his great ship, himself the principal figure and all the inmates of the house cheering him and waving their caps. In short, he has seemingly just missed, by defect in some faculties and the want of equilibrium in those he possesses, being a distinguished genius. He is passionate in temper, but relents and punishes himself; he set a trap for Dr. Down, when he offended him, but was very sorry for it; he kicked a panel out of a door in a rage, and afterwards refused to go to Brighton on an excursion of pleasure because

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he did not deserve it for this misconduct. He is conscientious, gentle, and generally well behaved, and is now considered on the staff, dines with the attendants, and, some say, he fancies the establishment could scarcely go on without him. He has a brother afflicted with the same malady as himself in the asylum, to whom his attentions are constant and affectionate. To explain the physical and psychological mysteries of such a human being is beyond the present powers of any known science, and must puzzle the most ingenious speculators on the frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital divisions of the human skull, as indicating idiotcy or normal powers. There is no knowing what an idiot can do till tried, and such as can be taught nothing in one way may learn much in another. For instance, a girl clever at arithmetic, persisted in calling the first three rules contrition, consumption, and distraction, instead of their proper names. The youth just described, with all his cleverness could never be made to understand that an annual sum paid quarterly would equal in amount the same paid weekly; yet another, stupid at all other things, will make arithmetical calculations, mentally, of great extent, with perfect accuracy and marvellous readiness.

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 be 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 teazing 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 wellbehaved, 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 recognise 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 recognise 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.'

All cannot be equally improved, but it is rare to discover a single instance in which some benefit is not imparted, while many may be raised to a position of social comfort, and to gain a good livelihood by the exercise of their respective handicrafts under vigilant employers to whom they act as journeymen. Thus the solitary and useless are made social and industrious, while, relieved from the blight of their deplorable condition, they become conscious of their humanity, as well as, in a measure, independent, happy, and confident, instead of helpless, sad, and distrustful.

Nothing more surprises a visitor to a well-managed asylum for imbeciles, than the entire absence of that gloom which most persons naturally expect to find hanging over it like a dark cloud. Mr. Sidney assures us that a summer fête at Earlswood was a truly joyous scene, and all the preparations for it in the shape of tents, flags, and preparations for games, gave the grounds before the building the aspect of great gaiety. These of course would be readily provided by generous promoters of the charity anxious to give the inmates the pleasure of a gala; but the real matter of astonishment was in the fact that nearly every one of these useful and ornamental appendages of the holiday were made in the institution, and had been erected, coloured, painted, and otherwise decorated by the inmates. The same operatives constructed a balloon, painted and repaired Punch and Judy, and set out the croquet and wickets for cricket. Some formed a Nigger Troupe, and with blackened faces and grotesque dresses joined the attendants in a performance of great humour. Many of the pupils were to be

seen leading their infirm fellows, and carefully tending them during the routine of the day. Nothing could be more decorous or more joyous, the discipline being perfectly maintained with the utmost liberty for the most unrestrained pleasure; and not a spectator left that home of those who but for the exertions made in their behalf would have been outcasts, without expressions of gratification and the conviction that the 'work was eminently compensating.

The consequences of judicious care bestowed by friends of the feeble-minded on the unfortunates to whom they are directed, we have described and illustrated by examples of individual benefit; we must now take a larger view as regards their extended influence on this mournfully numerous and helpless portion of the human family. To give freedom and happiness to thousands of imprisoned minds and miserable beings, is worthy of the anxious consideration of philanthropists in all nations. Wherever the great double experiment has been made-for it is double, medicinal and instructive, the skilled physician and patient teacher going hand in handall patients have been improved in personal appearance, health, habits, and comfort; most in vigour, decency, self-control, perception, speech, and knowledge of objects; many in powers all kinds, observation, manners, thought, habits, pursuits, industry, and religion; while some are actually fitted to mingle with the world, and even educated persons, with due care. This age, in which men have penetrated into the hidden forces of matter, has also made great discoveries as regards the connexion between organism and mind. Hence it has been enabled to replace both senses in the cases of the blind and deaf mutes, and to raise defective powers in an idiot, kindness being the key-note of all progress.

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In addition to the benefits conferred on the individuals who are raised by these institutions to the level of humanity, science has everything to gain from a more extended and systematic observation of the phenomena of idiotcy. Inquiry may be made into all that has any bearing on cases of congenital idiots, and we may at last arrive at some more definite view of the causes of this malady than the present guess-work, on which, because it is so, we forbear to speculate. Most men who have thought much on the subject have had their notions and theories; but we are far from knowing certainly how it has happened that human beings have been born, in whom the harmony of nature has been so disturbed by the excesses or defects of physical constitution. American writers have been very forward in propounding their views, and we think they