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We perused with interest a communication in the February No. of the Southern Literary Messenger with regard to the "Education of Idiots," containing interesting extracts from letters of Dr. Conolly and Mr. Sumner concerning the condition of this unfortunate class of beings in the institutions established in Europe for their relief, and it was not without some feeling of pride in the reputation acquired by our ancestral State that we read the following sentence of the conclusion of the article to which we refer -- "we do not know, but we will lay any wager, even 'our dukedom to a beggarly denier' that Massachusetts has done something decided, something generous upon this subject before now!"

Through some delay in the reception of our Nos. of the Messenger, the communication of which we speak has but recently met our eye, or we should sooner have replied to it, for it has been both our duty and our pleasure to procure such information as we might with regard to the degree of attention which this subject has received from the Legislature of Massachusetts, happy, if through our humble efforts, a wider sympathy may be created in behalf of these sorely-stricken ones, and if the example of our own State may impel sister-states to exertion in their cause.

Through the kindness of Dr. S. G. Howe, Principal of the Perkins Institute for the Blind, at South Boston, a gentleman whose philanthropic exertions are too well known to need comment here, we have been furnished with works (1) from which is derived the information which we present to the correspondents and readers of the Messenger.

"Strange," says Dr. H. in an article on this subject in the Massachusetts Quarterly, "strange how men reading the lessons of the past can be heedless of the cries and demands of humanity in the present! but so it ever is. Nobility in his saddle, Aristocracy in his coach, Respectability in his gig, Property in his counting-room, Propriety in his pew, ever have, and still do cry 'Peace be still!' when the poor and lowly strive to struggle up a step higher upon the platform of humanity. The foremost countries of the world (and Massachusetts is one of them) are, however, beginning to heed the warning of the past and the threatening of the future. Some of the claims of the poorer classes are beginning to be understood, and granted, though still too much as boons, rather than rights. The time was when colleges were considered all that was necessary for national education; the time has come when the common school is considered still more necessary; and the time is at hand when universities for the rich alone shall dwindle into insignificance compared with the vast machinery which shall be put in operation for the education of the children of the poorest citizens. The pay of the dismissed soldier, and the honor now paid to his tawdry tinsel shall go to encourage and elevate the teacher, and the hulks of navies shall be left to rot, that the schoolhouse may be built up and adorned. In the way, too, of what is called charity, but which should be called religion and duty, we are advancing. The time was when deformed children were exposed and left to perish; a Saygetus and Eurotas were everywhere at hand for those who could not be reared to beauty and strength, but now the more deformed they are the more solicitude is manifested in their behalf. The sick are gathered into hospitals, the dumb are taught to speak, the blind to read, the insane to reason, and at last the poor idiot is welcomed into the human family."

"The frightful number of these unfortunates," remarks in another place the same writer, "will dwindle away as the light of knowledge makes clear the laws which govern our existence. But in the meantime," he urges, "let none of them be lost, let none of them be uncared for, -- but whenever the signal is given of a man in distress -- no matter how deformed, how vicious, how loathsome even, he may be, -- let it be regarded as a call to help a brother."

Under an act of the Massachusetts Legislature, April 11th, 1846, Dr. Howe was appointed chairman of a Committee "to inquire into the condition of the Idiots of the Commonwealth, to ascertain their number and whether anything can be done in their behalf." A report was returned in March, 1847; in the meantime the commissioners had been actively employed, both in personal visits and inspection, and also in extensive correspondence, not only in their own State and country, but in Europe. The result of a second year's labor in this cause was reported to the Legislature in February 1848. The first part of the report contains remarks upon the various definitions of the terms Idiots -- Idiocy -- upon their numbers, condition and capacities in Massachusetts, followed by many valuable suggestions as to treatment (gentle or harsh) physical care, &c., from which we would gladly quote did the limits of this article permit. Kind and gentle management has been uniformly found in their case as in that of the insane, most beneficial; and illustrative of this we would cite here an affecting instance mentioned in the Supplement to the Report, of an idiot youth of violent and irritable disposition whose parents had endeavored to overcome this temper by corporal punishment but without success. We will give the account in the narrator's own words.