Bishop Gillespie On "idiots."

At the late meeting of the Superintendenta f the Poor, at Coldwater, our lato townsman lishop (iillospie, was present, as he ia sure to e wherever the ueeds of the poor and aftliutd are uuder conaidoration, and his addreas pon the proTision for and care of idiots waa eported by the Coldwater Republican a lolows: "The President then iutroduced Bishop Gillespie, who spoke subatantmily as follows : Bishop GrilUspie begau hia addruaa by apeaking of idiocy itself in contrast with insauity and other forma of intelectual and phyeical insanity. He deünes the idiot in t.his wiae : " As hú vary name implies, he is isolateil, and has ever been so ; he is disinherited f rom his birth- even before it. He is being disaociated froni all arouad him, without ties, without aims, without reasons; his lifu's h story is indeed a blank, summed up and circled in nonentity. He is one who, m the language of Seguin, ' can do nothing, can think of nothïng, can care for nothing.' Can it be tluit such exiat in every generation that we may know how fearfully and wouderfully we are made in our completenesa - that we may alwuys have before ua the witness of the value of the ' living soul ? ' Is the idiot the lesson of our reaponsibility ? But the great difficulty must be left to the great day, in the keeping of faith. And in that Kingdom whero all dweil in the light, their hps, opened by the Lord, may teil us why all their tune on earth ' the light wea dark in their tabernacle.' In Great Britain the statistios compute 60,000 idiots in her population. The census of the United States shows that Uiers are 24,527 idiots within our States and Territorios. Withm our State there are 648 idiots. The history of systeraatic effort in the improvement of tbis unfortunate daas dates back forty years. Prior to this time some experimenta were made upon isoiated cases of itiiocy. But dating these experimenta about the beginning of the ceutury, for about 30 years the poor idiot lay under the ban in his very beaatlineas cryiug to humanity - how long ?' Ia 1838 Dr. Edward Seguin, of Paris, organized a school for the management and tiaining of idiots. In 1842 Guggenbuehl opened a school on the Abeudberg ; Saegert begun one at Berlin, and in 1866 Korn established one in Leipzic. There are eight establisbments in Englaud, public and private, contaiuing more than a thousaud imbéciles. In our own country the first efforts were made abut 24 years ago by Dr. H. B. Wilbur. There are uow in this country two private schools in Mansachusetts, a city institution in New York, and State Schools in Massachusetts, 120 pupila ; New York, 798 ; Pennsylrania, 223; Connecticut, 57; Ohio, 367; Kentucky, 99 ; Illinois, 100. In the last mentioned state the last legislature appropriated $185,000 for the erection of a building for 275 osciles, and iowa and Wisconsm are nearly ready to follow. There are throe classes of idiots. lst. Such as are capabie of 301110 mental culture. Those devoid oí intellect but possessiug perfect physical organization susceptible of training by mere forcé of habit to manual labor and cleanIine38 of person. 3d. Those utterly destitute of muid and so malformed in body that they are utterly belpless, and demaud that they should by every precept of humanity, receive the utmost consideration and constant care. The Bishop Uien proceeded to show what course was pursued in order to awaken within these mysterious bemge the ambitioii to icquiro soma knowledge 01 habits of order aud cleanliaess. Early in the morning, at the N. Y. State Institution at Syracuse, as soon as dressed and fed the children begin to do gomething. From half hour to half hour, they pass from ainging or learniug iausic to exercises of locomotion, standing, training of the hand to prehensión, ïuntatiun, feeling ; then the errors ot the senses are correuted, their modes of perception improved in quickuss and accuracy, and raised progressively to phenomena more and more mtellectual. This work roquires oxceeding great patience. But as Suguin says : All of these poor children may be taught to love by being loved ; and to make the idiot feel that he is Joved, and to make him eager to lore in hls turn, is the end of our teaching, ïs it has been its begiuning.' The Bishop then proceeded to show that in many instauces this labor of lor had been eminently successful. The result of the experience had by teachers with these idiots shows that where the entrance to the human mimi is locked the door to the heart ñrst opens it gently and consUntly kuocked at. With idiots the heart often develops faster the more the intellect drags behind. In the New York institution tome of the children have acquired considerable knowledge of reading, writing, arithmetic, geosraphy, etc, but the majority profít more by the physiological thau by the mutual training. Out of 80 who could not drets themselves, 41 are now able to do that work eutirely, while more can partially do so. Ot' 62 udcleanly in their habits, 45 are much improved, and roost of these are entirely cleanly. Of 50 girls, 32 are in the dalty sewing classes, and gome ot them are quite skillful with the needie. From the English report it is found there are only 6 per cent of the whole family of idiots incapable of improvoment ; one half of the remuinder can be so far beuefited as to attend to their wants with some degree of propriety ; of the whole at least lü per cent. can be restoreit to society as at Uast useful members of it. Many who wero positive burdens to their respective families are now able to maintam theniselves more or less by their own labor." The object of the facti presented by the Bishop was to impresa the hearer with the importauce of establishing a State school for idiote in Michigan. The address was well calculated to leave a favorable impression and will no doubt cali public attoution to a subject worthy of the most considérate attentiou.