454 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



A Mind Dethroned. —A young lady who had re- 

 ceived every advantage which could be given her by 

 indulgent parents, and who naturally possessed most 

 excellent talents, being a fine musician, and naturally so 

 bright and witty as to be the life of every company 

 .n which she moved, suddenly began to show strange 

 symptoms of mental unsoundness. She would some- 

 times be seized with fits of violence, during which it 

 was with great difficulty that she could be controlled. 

 Several times she threatened the lives of her nurses, 

 and even on one occasion attempted to execute her 

 threat, the person's life being saved by mere accident. 

 Everything was done for her that could be done, but 

 the mania increased to such a degree of violence that 

 she was sent to an asylum for the insane. Here she 

 remained for months before she became suJBficiently 

 tractable to be taken to her home and cared for by 

 friends. Too close application to study was the cause 

 at first assigned for her mental disorder ; but a careful 

 investigation of the case revealed the fact that the ter- 

 rible sin which has ruined the minds of so many prom- 

 ising young men and brilliant young women, was the 

 cause that led to the sad result in this case also. The 

 punishment of sin, especially of sexual sin, is indeed 

 terrible; but the sin is a fearful one, and the penalty 

 must be equal to the enormity of the crime. Not all 

 young women who indulge thus will become insane, but 

 any one who transgresses in this way may be thus pun- 

 ished. There is no safety but in absolute purity. 



A Penitent Victim. —A young woman who had 

 been ill for years, and whose physicians had sought in 

 vain to cure her various ailments, until her parents 

 almost despaired of her ever being anything but a help- 

 less invalid, came to us fcr treatment, resolved upon 



