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Inquiring my way to another almshouse which I had heard was greatly neglected, I was shown the road, and told that there were plenty of insane and idiot people there." "Well taken care of ?" I asked. "Well enough for such sort of creatures." "Any violently insane ?" "Yes; my sister's son is there -- a real tiger: I kept him awhile, but it was too much trouble; so I carried him there." "Is he comfortably provided for?" "Well enough." "Has he decent clothes?" "Good enough." "And food ?" "Good enough -- good enough." "One word more: has he the comfort of a fire?" "Fire, indeed, fire! What does a crazy man want of fire? he's hot enough -- hot enough without fire!"

At another poorhouse I found three confined in stalls, in an out-building. The vicissitudes which had marked the life of one of these desolate beings were singular, and may bring instruction to those whose reason now "is the strength of their life," but who are not exempt from this great calamnity.

H- belonged to a respectable family, possessed good abilities, and was well educated. He removed from I-, in Massachusetts, to Albany, N. Y., where for a considerable period he conducted with ability a popular newspaper. In time, he was elected senator in the State legislature, and was a judge in the court of errors. As a public man he was upright and respected. Insanity was developed while be filled public stations; he was conveyed to the hospital at Worcester; his property was consumed; and he was finally discharged as altogether incurable; and being very violent most of the time, he was placed, "for safety," first in the jail at S--, finally removed to that in I--, and thence transferred to the almhouse where I found him. He had even then periods of partial restoration to reason, so as to comprehend where he was, and how cared for: inhabiting an unfurnished, dreary, narrow stall, in a dreary building of an almshouse!

In a prison which I visited often was an idiot youth. He would follow me from cell to cell with eager curiosity, and for a long time manifested no appearance of thought. Cheerful expressions, a smile, frequent small gifts, and encouragement to acquire some improved personal habits, at length seemed to light up his mind to a limited power of perception. He would claim his share in the distribution of books, though he could not read, examine them with delight, and preserve them with singular care. If I read from the Scriptures, he was reverently attentive; if I conversed, he listened earnestly, with half conscious aspect. One morning I passed more hurriedly than usual, and did not speak to him. "Me book! me book!" he exclaimed, eagerly thrusting his hand through the iron bars of the closed door of his cell. "Take this, and he careful," I said. Suddenly stooping, he seized the bread which had been brought for his breakfast, and pushing it eagerly through the bars, he exclaimed, in more connected speech than was known before, "Here's bread, ain't you hungry?" How much might be done to develop even the minds of idiots, if we but knew how to touch the instrument with a skilful hand!

Attempts to cultivate the higher faculties of these creatures, seemingly the merest animals, have been successfully adopted to a moderate extent in France, Germany and Switzerland, and in the United States the subject has been discussed. Dr. Ray, of the Rhode Island hospital, not long since visited a school for idiots which has been established at the Bicetre, near Paris. He writes, that "as early as the year 1828, Femes* made the first attempt in France to develop the powers of idiots, which attempt has resulted in the present school of Voisin, and which exhibits to the astonished spectator a triumph of perseverance and skill in the cause of humanity, that does infinite credit to the heart and understanding of that gentleman. This testimony is supported by Dr. Conolly, who, visiting the hospitals near Paris, said, "I was conducted to a school exclusively established for the improvement of these cases, and of the epileptic, and nothing more extraordinary can well be imagined." Dr. Hayward, of Boston, who visited, last year, the schools for idiots above referred to, expresses the opinion that the great benefits to the unfortunate classes whose good they are designed to promote, can hardly be appreciated, and that no pains should be spared to establish similar institutions in the United States.

*A small volume entitled "Essays upon Several Projects, by Daniel De Foe," London, 1702, contains this remarkable passage: "The wisdom of Providence has not left without examples of some of the most stupid natural idiots in the world who have been restored to their reason, infused after a life of idiotism; perhaps, among other wise ends, to confute that sordid supposition that idiots have no souls."

I visited the poor-house in W-- . In a cage built under a woodshed, fully exposed to all passers upon the public road, was a miserable insane man, partially enveloped in a torn coverlet. "My husband," remarked the mistress of the house, "clears out the cage and puts in fresh straw once a week; but sometimes it's hard work to master him. You see him now in his best estate!"