to which I have
applied it.

A young woman was admitted to the family where I was, to be treated for
a nervous complaint so obstinate as to remind one who was not wholly
insane nor strikingly imaginative, of the demoniacal possessions of
eighteen hundred years ago. She would not eat; she would not drink; she
would not or _could_ not sleep. In short, she would not, if she could
help it, do any thing which did not have an immediate bearing on her own
well-being, for the moment. She was, in truth, one of the most selfish
creatures in human shape I ever yet saw. If Dr. Johnson, who is said to
have held that every sick person is a rascal, had seen her, I wonder
what he would have said of the case.

She was one of those young women who have never been governed, and hence
cannot govern themselves. If she took it into her head to do or not to
do a thing, she would be sure to carry her point, if not in one way, at
least in another.

How she came to consent to be placed under my care, I never knew; for
all the neighbors and friends of the poor girl well understood that if
she came there she would have to obey me; and yet that, if she _did_
obey me, it would be the first instance in which she ever yielded to any
mind or will but her own, either earthly or heavenly. Perhaps it was a
last resort--a sort of desperation.

I began my directions, however, as if I expected to be obeyed, and had
no fears of any disinclination on her part. Some things which pleased
her, she consented to attempt; others she would tell me she _could_ not
do. When I was quite confident nothing was wanting but a will, I
sometimes asked for a reason; but it could, in no instance, be obtained.
If I pressed her for an answer, or for a reason, she would either be
silent or groan most dreadfully with pain!

At length I saw that nothing could be obtained in this way, and that she
must either attend to my directions, as far as was really in her power,
or I could have nothing to do with her; and I told her so. She did not
appear to care. Her alienation of feeling was so rapid that in a very
few days she seemed almost to hate the very sight of me. Indeed, I
believe she made statements to this effect to several of her friends.

Her report, so unfavorable and so very strange, soon reached the ears of
several very respectable people, who in wonder and surprise came to me,
to learn what it meant, and among the rest came her minister. They made
diligent though respe