pondency, as described by himself after his recovery. It will not be out of place here to put upon record Mr. Walford's account of his gradual restoration to mental health. He says:

"The blissful recovery which I experienced was not to be ascribed to any medical process whatever. I had, indeed, much against my own inclination, been so importuned by my friends as to consent, three or four years before my recovery took place, to consult one or two medical advisers; but the effect proved, as I fully expected, that nothing was to be hoped for from this expedient, and I positively refused to see any other medical persons. About the same time, I was overpersuaded, on account of my general inability to sleep, to keep laudanum by my bedside, and to have recourse to it when sleep was found to be impracticable. I tried this measure two or three times, without any sensible effect, and firmly resolved to take no more. I adhered to my purpose, and no other experiments of the kind were ever adopted. A few months before any symptoms of improvement appeared, I now and then prevailed on myself to walk up and down a few hundred yards in the road adjacent to my house, when I was concealed by the darkness of the night from the notice of any who might pass me. Soon after, I went several evenings, when the light of day had departed, into my garden, and paced up and down for some time. On these occasions, I sometimes felt an impulse, during my walks, to pray with deep fervency, that some measure of relief might be afforded to me. These prayers were short and broken, yet I trust they found acceptance in heaven.

"Some weeks or months after these occurrences, an old friend from Suffolk, a most worthy minister, came to see me, and stayed a day or two. I had formerly smoked many a pipe of tobacco in company with my

poisoned her mind. The commencement of this contest occurred contemporaneously with a return of the uterine functions, which had been suspended for a considerable period. This improvement in her general health appeared to shake her belief in the existing delusion. At that period, she said, "I, for the first time during my long illness, asked myself seriously the question, 'Am I under a delusion ?'" For some days the morbid impressions caused her less mental distress, but having, owing to an attack of stomach disorder, passed two or three sleepless nights, the delusion returned in full force to her mind. After the lapse of a week, she again began quietly to reason with herself as to her insane religious notions. She then went regularly to church, without feeling, as she did previously, that "she was only mocking God by so doing." "I felt," she said, "a comfort, in the prayers, and could listen with repose and satisfaction to the sermon." But even at this time, her mind was occasionally much distressed by some, but less acutely manifested, morbid and gloomy apprehensions as to the salvation of her soul. She continued, however, gradually to recover a sane state of thought. She no longer persisted in refusing to adopt the remedial measures suggested for her cure, and pari passú, with an improvement in the physical, did I witness the return of a healthy state of the intellectual functions. She informed me after her recovery, that she was impelled by an internal voice to refuse compliance with everything that was proposed by myself in the way of treatment. She fancied that she was doing God service by resisting all the attempts that were made to improve her bodily and mental health.

I have, in a previous page, referred in detail to the deeply interesting history which has been published of the Rev. Mr. Walford's state of morbid religious des

friend, though for the preceding five years I could not bear the sight of a pipe. My wife, aware of his habits, had the materials for smoking set before him, which he employed, and earnestly pressed me to accompany him, which I passionately refused to do. On the evening of his departure, when, as usual, I was the only person sitting up, it occurred to me to try if I could smoke, which, for four or five years, I had discontinued, on account of the manifest bad effects it produced on my pulse. I instantly procured for myself the smoking apparatus, and found I could perform the operation without the injurious results which had induced me to relinquish the practice. Soon after this experiment, I resolved to try if I could read, though I was under a great difficulty to select a book that did not seem likely to awaken painful associations, and I especially shunned all such as treated of religious subjects. Accident determined my choice. I had not relinquished a book society of which I was a member, though the books that came to my house were carefully concealed from my notice. At the time of which I am now writing, I found that a History of the Cotton Manufacture,' by Mr. Baines, was brought to my house, and as it seemed not very likely that anything in it would excite my feelings, I resolved, though with extreme apprehension, to try this book. In a day or two, I found nothing in it that much distressed me, and I perused it to its close. It amused me, and after reading it again, I wrote out a pretty extensive abridgment of it. I then attempted a work by Mr. Babbage, the title of which is, I think, 'The Economy of Manufactures.'

"After reading and epitomising these works, I was so much quieted as to regret I had no others of similar character and I then engaged in writing a translation of the history of Herodotus. Before I had completed

my translation of the first book of that history, the spring brought the month of May. My son entreated his mother to take a ride in a carriage with him, and I joined in the entreaty, as I greatly wished she should enjoy some refreshment of this kind. The carriage was brought to the door, when my faithful wife positively refused to go, unless I would accompany them. This, I both thought and said, was impossible. She, however, persisted in her refusal; and for some time I warmly remonstrated with her, and urged her going. While I was thus engaged, a sudden inquiry offered itself to me: Why I could not go? I could discover no reason; and calling for my hat, I jumped into the carriage, when I directed the driver to take us to Epping Forest, through Wanstead and Woodford, a ride which, in former years, I had often taken with great pleasure. The verdure of the grass, trees, and country in general, with the fineness of the weather, so affected me, that all my fears, disquietudes, and sorrows vanished as if by a miracle, and I was well, entirely relieved, and filled with a transport of delight, such as I had never before experienced. My hope and confidence in God were restored, and all my dreary expectations of destroying myself or others were entirely forgotten. On my return home from this reviving excursion, every desire to shut myself up and exclude my friends was departed, and I could with difficulty restrain myself from being always abroad.

"This extraordinary change of feeling took place, as I have said, in May; and on the first day of the following August, I set out in company with my son and an active friend, who had before travelled on the continent, for France, Switzerland, and Germany. The delights of that journey were so enhanced by contrast with the events of the five preceding years, that I was in a species of rapture throughout the whole. I felt no