The Mind of the Buyer

THE I NF LU E N CE O F R E P E T I T I O N 51
young woman ever been a simple, harmless creature ; but she
was evidently laboring under a nervous fever. In the town,
in which she had been resident fo r many yea rs as a servant
in different families, no solution p resented itsel f. The young
physician, however, determined to retrace her p ast li fe step
by step ; fo r the p atient hersel f was incap able o f returning
a rational answer. H e at length succeeded in discovering
the place where her p arents had lived ; travelled thithe r,
found them dead, but an uncle surviving ; and from him
learne d, that the patient had been charitably taken by an
old P ro testant p astor at nine years old, and had remained
with him some years, even till the o ld man’s death. O f this
pasto r the uncle knew nothing, but tha t he was a very good
man. With great difficulty, and a fter much search, our
young medical philosopher discovered a niece o f the pastor’s,
who had lived with him as his housekeeper, and had ih
herited his effects. S he remembered the girl ; related, tha t
her venerable uncle had been too indulgent, and could no t
bear to have the girl scolded ; that she was willing to have
kept her, but that, a fter her p atron’s death the girl he rself
re fused to stay. A nxious inquiries were then, of course,
made concerning the pastor’s habits ; and the solution o f the
phenomenon was soon obtained. For it appeared, that it had
been the old man’s custom, for years, to walk up and down
a passage o f his house into which the kitchen doo r opened,
and to read to himsel f with a l oud voice, o ut o f his favori te
boo ks. A considerable number o f these were still in the
niece’s p ossession. She added, that he was a very learned
man and a great Hebraist. A mong the books were found
a collection o f R abbinical writings, together with several o f
the Greekand Latin Father s ; an d the physician succeeded
in identifying so many passages with those taken down at
the young woman’s bedside, that no doubt co uld remain in
any rational mind concerning the true origin o f the im
pressions made on her nervous system.”