Although I had staid four months in this so-called Vermont cure-all institution, I still crossed the green mountain toward my longed-for home in low spirits and sadness. Cheerfulness is natural to the strong and healthy, and despondency and gloom are usually the indirect consequences of some physical ailment. I have been troubled very much from my youth with the dyspepsia, nervousness, and bilious and other ailments. Long before I went to Brattleborough I was thought by Dr. Hall to have the consumption, who said my left lung was gone. Doctors mistake, as well as ministers and people, and I am glad a mistake is not a sin, neither is insanity. Mistakes sometimes arise from the want of knowledge or strength, sometimes from want of watchfulness and care. My great spiritual mistake was this (after having tried to serve the Lord from my youth), I verily thought, these many years of sorrow, I should be finally lost. This mistake arose from over-taxing the body, which became weak, drawing the mind down. I believe the mind is the man; so as man thinketh so is he. If he thinks right, he will act right until the mind changes. We are not our own; we are all bought with a price. I can say there is one who sticketh closer than a brother; and, to-day, I can truly say, as did the Psalmist, the _Lord_ is my shepherd; I shall not want; He maketh me to lie down on green pastures; He restoreth my soul. I stated in the outset there were many reasons why I undertake this great work. MY GOD FIRST AND THEN THE PEOPLE. _Reason_ 1. Because I owe a duty to Him who rules and overrules all things. 2. Because I feel it my bounden duty to let the public know that these institutions are robbing some men and women of their liberty, and even of their lives. 3. Because the poor we have always with us, and when we will we may do them good. 4. I hope it may have a tendency to stimulate those who have authority, and the public, to examine these places more critically, that they may ameliorate, if possible, the condition of these unfortunate sufferers, by providing them with attendants or nurses with kind hands and charitable hearts. With a hopeful prayer that this little history may serve the cause of truth, by enlightening the minds of those who are inquiring after truth, it is dedicated to the candid public by the author. MOSES SWAN, Hoosick Falls, N. Y. TEN YEARS AND TEN MONTHS IN LUNATIC ASYLUMS IN DIFFERENT STATES, BY MOSES SWAN, WITH SOME REMARKS UPON HIS LIFE AND PARENTAGE. CHAPTER I.