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Modern Persecution, or Married Woman's Liabilities

From: Modern Persecution
Creator: Elizabeth P. W. Packard (author)
Date: 1873
Source: Available at selected libraries
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 1  Figure 2  Figure 3  Figure 4  Figure 5  Figure 6  Figure 7  Figure 8  Figure 9  Figure 10  Figure 11  Figure 12  Figure 13  Figure 14  Figure 15  Figure 16

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I am happy to add that Dr. McFarland never attempted to dictate what I should write after this. This was a complete victory over my spiritual foe -- the dictator to my conscience. My rights of conscience have ever since basked in the realm of spiritual freedom. This "Spiritual Conquest" thus obtained confirmed roe in the position I had determined to maintain in reference to my efforts to promote the spiritual welfare of Dr. McFarland, for I thought there was more hope in making my appeals to his honor, as a handle by which to lead him to repentance, than to make him feel that I expected no good of him. In order to lead him by his honor, I must feel a degree of confidence in the efficiency of this principle, or I shall be acting a double part myself. I cannot make him feel that I have hopes of him, while I have none, without being a hypocrite. I feel that the secret of true love lies in winning rather than in driving the soul to Christ. By patient continuance in well doing, I wait for the bright fruition of the sustaining hope that he will yet repent sincerely; that he will turn from this wickedness and live a different life.

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CHAPTER XVI.
A Dream and its Interpretation.

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On the December following my incarceration, I dreamed the following dream, which with its interpretation, may serve a valuable purpose, as an illustration of several important principles.

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Mrs. Hosmer, who helped me to its interpretation, has superintended the sewing room for four years and a half there. She has one of the most striking peculiarities of temperament I ever met with -- in that her eccentric nature combines the extremes of good and evil, in their most glaring features. This trait she exhibited, for about one year and a half, in being my best friend, and also, my worst enemy -- in that she was the medium of some of my choicest social blessings, as well as the source of my keenest sorrows.

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I dreamed that it was put upon me to draw a stage coach across a bridge spanning a broad, deep river, and that in order to get the coach upon the bridge, I was compelled to draw it up five stone steps each about five inches high.

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I looked upon my appointment at first as an impossibility; but recollecting that "I'll try" has done wonders, I determined to see what I could do by trying.

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The stage was prepared for me by substituting a rope, instead of the neap or thills, which encircled my body, so that the greatest pressure came across my breast. Thus prepared I put forth a most herculean effort, when, to my great surprise and joy, the stage came up upon the bridge.

951  

Stimulated by my seemingly miraculous success, I started at full speed across the bridge; and found, to my joy, that by the momentum acquired by the velocity, the effort to draw it along became correspondingly diminished. Thus running at the top of my speed with my head down, I found, to my surprise, that before I was aware of it, I had run off from the bridge on to a piece of slitwork about four inches wide; which was the only medium of communication between the termination of the bridge, and the opposite shore -- the distance being two tiers and a half.

952  

The termination of each tier was marked by a high beam extending from the water, up many feet above the level of the string-piece across the river. The half-tier was nearest the bridge, so that the first support to lean upon was not far distant from my present stand-point.

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I stopped and considered what was to be done.

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I thought that to draw the stage on to this narrow slitwork, and balance it exactly, so as to drag it over in this way, would plainly be an impossibility; and that the capsizing of the stage into the river, would necessarily drag me with it, by the rope around my body. I therefore determined to drop the rope and step out of the traces; and thus disentangled, walk on to the standing support. I did so, and then considered what to do.

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To return seemed impossible: for the stage presented an insuperable barrier to my getting on to the bridge.

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To go forward seemed too hazardous, for the two remaining reaches seemed very long, when looking at the deep river far below me; and the very narrow path I had to walk upon, appeared still more precarious as it neared the opposite shore -- for the extreme end of the last string-piece was so raised on one side of the mortice, as to render the upper surface quite an inclined plane. On this I should not dare to expose myself, for fear I should slip off, and besides, I saw it would be likely to slip down into the mortice by my weight upon it; and the jar would be very likely to cause me to fall off.

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I looked about for help. But no one was within speaking distance.

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On the shore I had left, far down below the bridge, I could see one man standing, solitary and alone, looking with a vacant stare upon the broad, bridgeless, boatless stream before him. I saw distinctly it was my husband, apparently cogitating his own means of crossing the fathomless deep, regardless of my perilous, exposed condition. Cold, selfish indifference marked his appearance. I knew he cared not for me, or my deliverance, or safety.

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