for at its outset as in its progress. For her first
derelictions, at least, I know of no cause. But she had, at length,
become reconciled to the use of tea, and as her spirits began to flag,
she added to it strong coffee. From these she proceeded to the pipe.

The more she increased her extra stimulants, the more she added to her
troubles, and the greater was her necessity for additional stimulus.
Laudanum was very soon on her list; at first, it is true, in very small
quantities. Yet, as she grew older, she found a necessity, as she verily
believed, for increasing the size of her dose from year to year, till,
at the age of seventy, I found her in the full and free use of tea,
coffee, tobacco, and laudanum,--the latter to the enormous extent of
half an ounce a day,--and yet her complaints were more numerous than
ever.

She was a reasonable woman, and therefore I attempted to set forth, in
their true colors, the realities of her condition. However, as I was not
acting as her physician, but only as a friend, I had little hope of
making any very permanent impressions. She knew the whole story as well
as I or any one else could know it. The great difficulty under which she
labored was a want of resolution to change her habits. Her irresolution
was sustained by the belief--a very general one--that old people cannot
make sudden changes in their physical habits with safety.[G] But she was
unhappy in the condition she then was. She had no peace with conscience,
nor, as I might almost venture to say,--for she was a religious woman by
profession,--with God.

I assured her that the real danger of sudden changes, at her age, had
been greatly overrated; though danger there certainly was, in greater or
less degree. But I pointed out to her the means of obviating what danger
there was, and urged her, as a Christian, to make up her mind to meet
it. Of course, I did not presume to urge her to cast every thing aside,
and return to Nature's path at once; but to drop first one thing and
then another. I counselled her to be thorough and determined, as far as
she went; and when she abandoned a thing to make no reserve, but to be
sure of not going too fast and too far at once.

When I left her one day, after a somewhat protracted conversation, it
was with many feelings of discouragement. I doubted very seriously
whether, on the whole, she would move at all. The power of half an ounce
of laudanum and a paper of tobacco daily, in paralyzing t