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all was very beautiful around me. was hurrying on with my brow knit, my head bent forward, my forehead aching with many thoughts and cares, I brushed against a lady almost rudely, and pausing to apologize, I found myself clasped in the gentleman's arms who accompanied her. At first I was at a loss to understand the meaning of it, but a glance at his face showed me the Rev. James Moreton, but so youthful and fresh was his countenance that I could hardly believe the testimony of my sight. There was a beaming, calm and open look in his face, that testified of truth and firmness which constitute true heroism. He needed no certificate of character save that which shone in his fine face.

"Whither so fast, my dear Doctor," said he, "I am going in all haste to your house."

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Spend half an hour in the park," said I," and I will join you."

I walked on, with the images of the two persons I had just met floating before me, and forming one of the pleasantest pictures I had ever seen. The lady was near thirty, with a cold clear Grecian face, dark brown hair and dark hazel eyes. When Mr. Moreton called me by name a light overspread her face like the warm sun shining out as a dark cloud passes. Her smile won me in an instant, and I walked on thinking, what in the world has come to Moreton. He is a new man evidently. Heaven grant that the lady on his arm may be a new wife. I hastened to the bed-side of the sufferer. A warm bath and cold affusion threw off the fit, and I left my patient safe after half an hour of hard and most interesting work. On my return I found Moreton awaiting me, and a thrill of joy passed through my heart when he introduced me to his wife. It was indeed as I had wished. I looked upon the delicate creature before me. I noted her beaming smile and elastic step, and the pure repose of her manner, as we walked on toward my home. A half hour's converse quite confirmed my admiration for Mrs. Moreton. I seldom notice particularly the personal appearance of men or women. I am content with a sort of intuition of them quite womanly in its character. The sphere that surrounds them reveals them to me. But in this instance I was not content without a most searching analysis. The quiet eye that indicated the spirit's rest, the intellectual forehead that would have charmed

a professional phrenologist out of his fee, and which charmed me no less, the lines of the face which told rather of suffering from sympathy than from sin, the dark brown hair that lay in massive braids on a semi-transparent ear, so white and pretty that one might easily fancy that the hair was in love with the ear, and really enjoyed the proximity-all this, and a great deal more, I looked upon with the eye of a philanthropist counting his friend's treasures. Moreton was a rich man-a renovated man. I was exceedingly glad of his redemption. I had looked upon the drunkard as remedilessly lost; indeed, I once seriously thought that the best course to take with drunkards was to shoot them all; I looked upon them as a moral and material pestilence, of which it would be a kindness to rid the earth, for at one time I could say that I had never seen a radical cure. Great was my joy to see and feel with indubitable certainty that Moreton was saved.

"Give me the sequel of your history," said I, as I took his hand at parting. "It is all ready for you," said Moreton, with a quiet smile.

The next morning I received a packet from Moreton, which I examined at my leisure, and from which I have made the following selections:

"MY DEAR FRIEND :-Once more with my feet upon the green earth, with the blue heavens clear above me, my mind turns to you, and I become conscious of the pleasure you will feel to know that a flood of new, pure life, is continually coming into my sonl. My friend, I no longer shut out the influx of heaven. I am redeemed, and the first wish of my heart is to salute those who stood by me, and strove to save me when the fiends held me.

"The incidents of my life for the few years since I first saw you would fill a volume, but I must give you only the briefest outline. You remember that I left your hospitable home when I was last here, to return to my friends. The thought struck me in my desperation, that I might be cured of my terrible habit if I could be shut up in a lunatic hospital. I communicated the thought to Mr. Arnott, my kind friend. He was terribly shocked, and appealed to me most strongly to make another effort to conquer my besetting sin, and offered me the place of librarian at the lyceum. I accepted this

offer, but the idleness and monotony of my life was very soon intolerable. After a time I exhausted even Arnott's faith and hope, and he consented that I should go to the asylum. I went. There are experiences too terrible to speak of, or to dwell upon, even in thought. Could I have died-could I have been annihilated-gladly would I have left the world, gladly would I have resigned my being. remained three months in a condition, which now a world would not tempt me to endure for an hour. I left in utter weakness and despair. Again I returned home, chastened but not helped. The only ray of light that beamed across my darkness, was an occasional letter from Miss Thornton. I poured out my misery to her without mixture or measure. I wrote quires of paper over, every line of which might have been steeped in the tears I shed. My wife had steadily refused to see me from the time I left the lunatic asylum. I knew she had not sufficient character to do this unless influenced by her friends. I did not blame her, though I wished to see her and our children. I knew that I was unworthy of all things, but I felt all the more keenly my destitution. God only knows how I lived through those years. At last my wife died. Though she had long been dead to me, I was shocked inexpressibly when I received the news of her death. Her friends had provided for our children. My drunkenness had paralyzed my power, and I had not had even strength enough to insist on seeing them. There were but three things in the world which I had strength and inclination habitually to do I read, I wrote, I drank. I gave much thought to every new thing that claimed attention; and amongst other things I read a Tract on Water Cure by one of Priestnitz' early patients. I was interested, and the thought crossed my mind that there was really value in water as a remedial agent, but I was not sufficiently awakened to have the thought dwell with me. But Miss Thornton's mind was aroused fortunately by the same tract, and not knowing that I had seen it, she sent it to me, with a letter begging me to try the efficacy of a course of treatment. I answered her by a piteous plaint of my inability to do anything. I had no power to will-I had no means to act. I wrote over four sheets of paper in demonstration of my utter weakness and misery. But she would not be thus answered. She sought a German

Water Cure Physician, and stated my case as fully as possible to him. He told her that I could be cured, and that the desire for stimulants could be annihilated. Like an angel of mercy she went on with the most untiring earnestness in persuading me to put myself under the care of the Hydropathist-offering to pay all my expenses. The fact that the Doctor resided in the same city with Miss T. decided me to go. It seemed to me that I could do, or leave undone, almost anything to be blest once more with the sight of my guardian angel. I went to Philadelphia and put myself under the care of the good German. I shall never forget my first interview with the Doctor. He was a very tall man, with a prodigious forehead, a deep, piercing eye, and I could not decide whether the expression of benevolence or firmness predominated in his countenance. I arrived early in the morning, and he came to meet me in the parlor, with the queerest sort of gray frock coat wrapped about him, all dashed with water. He said, in very imperfect English, that I must excuse his dress, very kindly fixed an hour to examine my case, and abruptly left me to attend to some poor fellow, who was probably suffering the douche, or plunge, for the first time.

I soon

"At the hour appointed I called on the Doctor, having been refreshed, inspirited and encouraged, in the mean time, by a short visit to Miss Thornton. I hardly knew the Doctor. He was in a smart suit of black, and really looked noble. He met me now more like an old friend than a new acquaintance. I stated my case frankly. I kept nothing back. I see,' said he, you are a born drunkard; and he scowled and looked very horribly at me. I have not pity for drunkards,' said he; I give them the full force of the treatment.' learned that the Doctor intended to say, that he had no pity for the disease called drunkenness, and that it was against the disease that he would direct the force of the treatment. He talked long and kindly to me, but excused himself for not showing me his house. I have only my own house,' said he. 'I have no water-cure house like we have in Germany. I have one only patient, a poor stiffened creature, who saws wood. I took him from the street for one example to this great city. There are not believ ers, only the good Miss Thornton. She is one angel, what loves and believes.'

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flesh like something sharp. The Doc-
tor put me through the kneading pro-
cess once more, and I determined that I
would never find myself in his hands
again. I took a brisk walk after the
douche, and then came my dinner, which
I ate with increased appetite. Some
more supportable baths came in the after-
noon, less walking and drinking, though
I walked a good deal during the last
part of the day. I retired to rest more
thoroughly fatigued than I had ever been
in my life, quite determined to forgive
the Doctor, and continue under his care.
"The next morning I was more manage-
able at the bath, and during the forenoon
I called on Miss Thornton. A note was
put in my hand from her, in which she
expressed her regret that the illness of her
mother called her some fifty miles from
the city. She entreated me to be coura-
geous, and promised to write me often.
My heart almost failed me, but I remem-
bered that I had several miles to walk,
and several glasses of water to drink be-
fore the douche, or my dinner.
My din-
ner had become already an event to be
anticipated. For two months I went the
round which the Doctor prescribed, and
daily found my health grow better, my
heart lighter, and my friendship for the
Doctor more cordial. At the end of two
months Miss Thornton returned; I met
her a new being, with the light of youth
in my eye, its glow upon my cheek, and
its elasticity in my step. Oh! it was beau-
tiful, heavenly, to stand up in her pre-
sence a man. Her emotion was deep and
heartfelt.

At an early hour I retired to rest. At about four o'clock in the morning I was awakened by the Doctor. I rose, and he enveloped me in a wet sheet, and a great many blankets, packing me like a mummy, till it seemed to me that I would give the Universe to burst my bonds; but I was very soon quiet, and slept. In about two hours I awoke, bathed in perspiration. Rivers seemed to be running from every pore. At this moment the Doctor appeared-with great celerity my cumbrous bonds were removed, and wrapped in an immense blanket, I followed the Doctor to the cellar, where was a plunge bath full of water. You must wet your head in the water, and then go quickly in,' said the Doctor. I will never do that,' said I, for I was frightened to the most desperate resistance. Reeking with perspiration, to plunge in that dark hole filled with water, was too terrible. The Doctor said quickly, but firmly, Go in this moment.' I answered as firmly, I will not; and in an instant the Doctor had lifited me like a babe, and laid me at my length in the water. Strange as it may seem, the only sensation was that of intense delight-a feeling of relief such as I had never in my life experienced. I quite wished to stay in the water, and the Doctor had to hurry my movements. But the severest discipline was to come. As soon as I rose from the plunge the Doctor commenced the most active friction over the whole surface of my body. I thought that he would break all my bones, and burst all my blood-vessels. I resolved that if I escaped alive, no German should "I gazed upon her till she seemed transever again lay violent hands on me. figured before me, so great was my love But groans and prayers were alike una- and gratitude toward her. Whenever I vailing. The Doctor only said, You came into her presence, the sphere of her will be still some time, like I wish you angelic spirit enveloped me, and I was to be.' I assured him he would never 'overcome as by a summer cloud.' Day outrage me again in this manner. But and night, whether I saw her or not, she when I had walked two miles, and drank made my heaven. She was always a six tumblers of water, I was glad to see living presence to me. With the buoybreakfast and the Doctor. I had quite ancy of youth I began to look again upon forgotten my rage, and I ate bread and the world. I no longer bore about the milk with real pleasure, and listened to heart of a crushed and darkened wretch, the Doctor's accounts of wonderful cures who dares not look up at the bright eye with the deepest interest. During the of his fellow; I felt strong to be and to forenoon I walked and drank water. At do. Everything was changed. All things twelve o'clock the Doctor asked me to glowed with a genial light. The green earth seemed living, and full of peace, to me. I could almost talk with the flowers; I loved to roam in the woods and be alone with God. I did not fear him now. Often I wandered many miles, thinking of my love, my gratitude, and striving to

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go into a little board-room in the yard. Here was another trial. A douche, or stream of water fifteen or twenty feet in height, and an inch or two in diameter, rushed down upon me for several minutes. The water seemed to cut into my

devise a way to express all I felt for her to whom I owed all things. But my gratitude shamed me from the expression of my love.

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and the apple blossoms were in the fullness of their beauty and fragrance. The air was rife with the perfume. I had already many choice flowers blooming in my yard, and it was ecstacy to me to see her eye rest on them, and drink in their beauty. I led Miss T. and the Doctor over my cottage and the grounds adjoining, with a more intense pleasure, I think, than I ever before experienced. My boys were in love with the pretty, sweet lady directly. The oldest came boldly forward and took her hand, but little Charley looked up to her as to a star, and presently we missed him. I had prepared the boys to love her by telling them of her beauty and goodness, and her kindness to me. After a time Charley came to us with a great many flowers; he had roses, and pinks, and lilies of the valley, and mignonette and all the beautiful flowers he could find. The bright-haired boy came forward joyously, with his golden curls blown back by the soft breeze, and his ruddy face vying with the glow of the sun, and his flowers in his hand, and Miss Thornton gave him a glance that made my heart beat tumultuously.

My health was now so firmly established, that I began to think of some active employment. A garden and nursery a few miles from the city was very attractive to me. I soon found that I could obtain pleasant and moderately profitable work there. With a full recognition of the true dignity of labor, I commenced work. I was with nature. The breath of morning and of evening was laden with sweetness and health. I had plenty of pure water, pure food, and a lovely in dustry. When I was settled at my work I wrote to my friends, and told them of the great change which a few months had wrought. A brother, who had been in very successful business as a merchant for several years, came to see me. He was somewhat shocked, not at my appearance, for my neat working-dress was far from having an unpleasant effect; but he was shocked that I, who had been a popular clergyman, should now be hired by the month, to draw flowers and fruits from the bosom of our mother earth. HeHe is a beautiful boy,' said she, just as even wished me to leave my green and fragrant home, for the close, crowded and dusty streets of New-York, where I could engage for the long day in the manly employment of selling tape and lace. I looked at him in pity, and asked him if he would condemn me to such a life, when I had just escaped from a living death? He was moved by my words, but more by my manner, and a few days after he left, he sent me money to make myself a share-holder in my delightful home. This was a most welcome gift. I now rented a beautiful cottage in the neighborhood and took my boys to my home. A kind German woman, recommended to me by my doctor, was my housekeeper.

"I had been a week settled in what really seemed to me an earthly paradise, when one afternoon, after I had finished the labor of the day, I was surprised by the appearance of Dr. and Miss Thornton. It was a glowing evening,

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the little fellow pulled my sleeve, and made a motion for me to bend down my ear. Please, papa, give the lady my pretty flowers,' said he; and a kiss,' said the Doctor mischievously, having overheard Charley's whisper. A deep blush mantled the fair cheek of my friend as I gave her the flowers. The Doctor led away the boys upon some pretext, and I picked a great many choice roses to pieces in saying some words to Miss Thornton; and my words must have interested her, for she did not notice the beautiful destruction I am sure. I believe I will not tell even you, my dear Doctor, what I said-but when the Doctor and the boys returned I was calm enough to gather flowers, instead of picking them to pieces, and happy enough to do without them. Happiness was born a twin.' Miss Thornton is now my wife, and my boys are blest with a mother's love, a father's care, and plenty of healthful activity.

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