Early Afflictions

"Misery stole me at my birth
And cast me helpless on the wild."

The words of this hymn express my condition from my first advent into the
world. My mother had overworked before I was born; and, as a result, I
suffered bodily affliction from infancy. I was scarely two years old when I
began having spasms. My eyes would roll back in my head, I would froth at
the mouth, the tendons of my jaws would draw, causing me to bite my cheeks
until the blood ran from my mouth, and I would become unconscious. Although
I would remain unconscious for only a short time, yet while I lay in that
condition I seemed as one dead. Upon regaining consciousness, I seemed
dazed all the rest of that day; and not until I had had a night's sleep,
did I have a clear perception of what was going on around me. Sometimes two
or three days would pass before I was fully restored.

I hada number of these spansm when I was too young to know anything about
them. The first one of which I remember, I begain to turn blind and did not
know what was the matter; but I soon learned the nature of my affliction. I
had to be very careful what I did. If I exposed myself to the direct rays
of the sun or even looked straight at the sun, I was likely to have a
spasm; if I drank sweet milk it was likely to have the same result.

When I quit school at the age of ten years and had nothing to occupy my
mind, my thoughts centered on my suffering and the frequency of my spasms
seemed to increase. After having a spasm my mind was greatly afflicted with
melancholy and depression. I dreaded the recurrence of the fits, and looked
forward to their coming with such abhorrence that often the fear of having