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God grant that I may never be left to violate any of my ob-ligations to any human being, so as to give my testimony in favor of relations thus deserting their own kindred in the time of their greatest need.

So far as my influence and example go, they shall find this testimony in favor of kindness, the most unremitted, to my afflicted kindred. I will do all that is possible to secure the same to afflicted humanity wherever found. Should even my husband become a raving maniac, I would not consent to his being put into a hospital so long as any kindred of his own could take care of him. A mother's authority, if necessary, should secure for him the personal attentions of his children in his behalf, so far as was necessary to aid my own personal efforts for his comfort and happiness.

I would think of the reward which Mr. and Mrs. John Hardy, of Shelburne, Mass., have received for themselves, in taking care of their insane son, eighteen long years, so kindly, invariably, and unremittingly; although they may, on entering upon their reward, exclaim:

"We have only done our plain duty to our child."

God, their Judge may reply:

"I acknowledge it to be true, and on this ground you have proved your loyalty to my government, by obeying the parental laws of the nature I have given you, and not, like my disloyal subjects, rejected its teachings, and left the unfortunate one to stranger hands."

I should feel although weariness and painfulness might attend the act, yet no selfish considerations should induce me to swerve from, or remit our attentions to his comfort and his wants. This sacred promise I now make, and record, that I and my children, will be true to this pledge -- So help us God!

CHAPTER XLI.
Mrs. Emeline Bridgman -- or Nature's Laws Broken.

This Mrs. Bridgman has been an inmate of this Asylum for the last ten years; has been one of the most unfortunate victims to the deteriorating, debasing influences of such institutions, upon the true aspiring nature which God has given us.

Her nature is a specimen of a superior order of female organization, very tender, sensitive feelings, exquisitely susceptible to emotions of a spiritual nature, feeling an insult to her self-respect and native dignity to the most highly sensitive degree, exhibited by a feeling of shame, mortification and self-distrust, which seemed so deeply stamped upon her soul as to render it impossible for her to rise above it.

So long has she suffered the shame of being regarded insane, that she has become morbidly sensitive, and it seems now to have become morally impossible to overcome it. She has a superior intellect, conservative in its character, yet fully capable of clearly apprehending new ideas -- new views of truth -- although instinctively averse to progress or change in her opinions.

The Orthodox system of theology, as the conservative divines of the last century taught, is her standard of truth, and all deviations from this standard she is almost tempted to regard as a sacrilegious act.

Her will is very persistent, almost inflexible; her temper forgiving, her spirit trustful; still, fearful and doubtful as to the future. All her hopes lie buried deep in the past.

No ray of hope illumes her future in this life, and her hopes for the future rest upon a belief that she was made a subject of regeneration twenty or thirty years since. On her evidences then, that she had experienced a change of heart, she now rests her hope of final safety, believing that when this instantaneous change of heart has been once experienced, there is no possibility of a failure in receiving a heavenly inheritance.

Her nervous system became deranged from some physical cause at the age of eighteen. She was then sent to the Worcester Hospital, Massachusetts, where she remained a short time under the treatment of Dr. Woodward, the Superintend-ent. She soon recovered, and entered upon the practical duties of life with interest and satisfaction.

She was happily married, and lived eight years with her husband, when she became a childless widow.

Her life has since been like "the troubled sea which cannot rest." Her nerves have become so chronically diseased, that they constantly disturb her mental repose.

Her friends, at her own request, let her enter this Asylum, hoping the result might be as favorable as it formerly had been. But they were disappointed.

Instead of receiving the kind, humane, Christian treatment here as she did at Worcester, she was treated most abusively and brutally. Her sensitive feelings thus received such a shock, followed by such a feeling of degradation and shame, that it has become impossible for her to rally and recover her lost self-respect.

As one specimen of the manner of treatment to which she was subjected, she told me that in taking her baths, they forced her to disregard, and tried to crush out every refined, virtuous, and elevated feeling of her nature, telling her, in most unmistakable language, that they considered this eradication of modesty as the object and intent of their discipline and treatment.