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Within three quarters of a century past, Humanity has achieved three very great triumphs over physical and mental misfortune. The teaching of the deaf and dumb to read and write, in 1773, at Edinburg, made Dr. Johnson conclude that such a conquest, over an infirmity seemingly irremediable, left nothing hopeless to human resolution. "After having seen the deaf taught arithmetic." says he, "who would be afraid to cultivate the Hebrides?" -- Yet in our own time, the lengths that had been gone in his day, are far transcended: so that to be deaf and dumb now forms, comparatively, a trivial obstacle to social enjoyments, and social usefulness. More recently, by the help of raised letters, the blind have had the inestimable pleasures of reading opened to them: and, by feeling along the page, are enabled to gather its meaning almost as rapidly as he who reads by sight. Thirdly comes the improved method of treating lunatics, invented by Pinel, and practised now in most or all of our American Lunatic Asylums; which substitutes kindness, fresh air, proper exercise, healthful diet, and a patient culture of the reason and of the moral feelings, for the chain, the dungeon, the ducking-stool, and the lash. An improvement by which the number of cures is quadrupled, and the sufferings of the incurable are unspeakably alleviated.

We have now to herald a yet greater wonder, to the Virginia public: a more striking, if not a more beneficent achievement of enlightened Humanity. It is the education of IDIOTS. The animation of clay seems hardly more incredible, than the extent to which MIND has been infused into such masses of stolidity. So hopeless has been the cure of idiots, so hopeless even any appreciable improvement of their condition by any process used in our Insane-Hospitals, that the Legislature of Virginia, eight years ago, (1) forbade any idiot to be received into either hospital. And such, we believe, has been the course in other States and countries.

But by the efforts of gifted men in France, new lights have lately been thrown upon the capabilities of those unfortunates. There is a school and hospital for them in Paris, where transformations are wrought, that appear almost miraculous. The expressionless face, the open mouth, the lolling and speechless tongue, all so eloquent of the vacant mind, the uncleanly habits, the tottering and powerless limbs and frame, -- have been changed into looks of comparative intelligence, neatness of person and dress, a perfect command of the limbs, a capacity to talk, to read and write, to do works of usefulness, and even to earn a livelihood by labor!

No mysteries attend this great work. There are no nostrums of secret composition -- no undivulged sleights of hand, -- nor any of the other artifices, by which humbug and quackery commonly operate. The whole magic of those marvellous cures consists in patient care, with judicious, long and oft repeated efforts, in training the hands, the feet, the eyes, the ears, the touch, and the mind of the idiot subject. Ever since 1830, these efforts have been going on; indeed the system of observation which led to them began in 1828, or earlier. Messieurs VOISIN, LEURET, and SEGUIN, French physicians, appear to be the men to whose benevolence, ingenuity, and patience, mankind are mainly indebted for this inestimable alleviation of one among human nature's greatest calamities. Doctor John Conolly, of London, seems to have been foremost in making the improvement known in England: and Mr. George Sumner, of Boston, is the first American, so far as we know, who has brought it to the notice of his countrymen. The Westminster Review, for April, 1848, from which we derive all our knowledge of the subject, has an article on "The Bicetre Asylum," made up chiefly of extracts from a book of Dr. Conolly, and a letter of Mr. S. to a friend in Boston. The letter is filled with particulars of the deepest interest. It was elicited by inquiries from Dr. Howe, of Boston -- member of a commission appointed in 1846, to inquire into the condition of idiots in Massachusetts, "to ascertain their number, and whether any thing could be done for their relief."

The Bicetre is the seat of the school for idiots, near Paris; and contains also a lunatic asylum. Dr. Conolly says,

"In the first part of the Bicetre to which I was conducted was a school exclusively established for the improvement of the idiotic and of the epileptic, and nothing more extraordinary can well be imagined. No fewer than forty of these patients were assembled in a moderate-sized school-room, receiving various lessons and performing various evolutions under the direction of a very able schoolmaster, M. Seguin, himself a pupil of the celebrated Itard, and endowed with that enthusiasm respecting his occupation before which difficulties vanish. His pupils had been all taught to sing to music, and the little band of violins and other instruments by which they were accompanied, was formed of the old almsmen the hospital. But all the idiotic part of this remarkable class also sang without any musical accompaniment, and kept excellent time and tune. Both the epileptic and idiotic were taught to write, and their copy-books would have done credit to any writing school for young persons. Numerous exercises were gone through, of a kind of military character, with perfect correctness and precision. The youngest of the class was a little idiot boy of five years old, and it was interesting to see him following the rest, and imitating their actions holding out his right arm, left arm, both arms, marching to the right and left at the word of command, and to the sound of a drum beaten with all the lively skill of a French drummer by another idiot, who was gratified by wearing a demi-military uniform. All these exercises were gone through by a collection of beings offering the smallest degree of intellectual promise, and usually left, in all asylums, in total indolence and apathy."