lief, I will give you a prescription,
which, though the simplest thing in the world, will, I am certain, go a
great way toward curing you. As you are barely six-and-twenty, your
disease, I trust, is not inveterate. If you will be an obedient patient,
I will answer for your recovery.'

"'I assured her of my willing adoption of any remedy she might
prescribe, as I was certain she would consider my weakness, and adapt
her treatment, not so much to what my case absolutely required as to
what my strength was able to bear.

"'Well, then,' said she--'but pray observe I am no quack. I do not
undertake to restore you instantaneously. Though my medicine will work
surely, it will work slowly. You know,' added she, smiling, 'the success
of all alteratives depends on the punctuality with which they are taken,
and the constancy with which they are followed up. Mine must be taken
two or three times a day, in small quantities at first, the dose to be
enlarged as you are able to bear it. I can safely assert, with the
advertising doctors, that it may be used full or fasting, in all
weathers, and all seasons; but I can not add with them that _it requires
no confinement_.'

"'I grew impatient, and begged she would come to the point.

"'Softly, Matilda,' said she, 'softly. I must first look into my
receipt-book, for fear I should mistake any of my ingredients. This
book,' said she, opening it, 'though written by no charlatan, contains a
cure for all diseases. It exhibits not only general directions, but
specified cases.' Turning over the leaves as she was speaking, she at
length stopped, saying, 'here is your case, my dear, or rather your
remedy.' She then read very deliberately: 'COMMUNE WITH YOUR OWN
HEART--AND IN YOUR CHAMBER--AND BE STILL.'

"'I now found her grand receipt-book was the Bible. I rose and embraced
her. 'My dear aunt,' said I, 'do with me whatever you please. I will be
all obedience. I pledge myself to take your alterative regularly,
constantly. Do not spare me. Speak your whole mind.'

"'My dear Matilda,' said she, 'ever since your marriage, your life has
been one continued opposition to your feelings. You have lived as much
below your understanding as your principles. Your conduct has been a
system of contradictions. You have believed in Christianity, and acted
in direct violation of its precepts. You knew that there was a day of
future reckoning, and yet neglected to prepare for it. With a heart full
of tendernes