I am irresistibly,– unaccountably impelled to write to you– a perfect stranger– I have no doubt you will consider me unwarrantably presumptuous, but I feel that I need your help– your advice- For a long time I have been a prey to nervou[*]Gap: letters.Reason: page rip. – & need I add that I have accordingly suffered almost beyond words to express- My chief anxiety is that I am dull and uninteresting to my friends– I have nothing to say– Even with my mother & sister with whom I am living, and have always lived, I am often usually silent– I have given up writing letters– why the thought alone makes me "weary & faint in mind"Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb 12:3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. – this note to you is an epistolary labor that occupies almost as much time as the writing of a sermon lecture– Reading is no longer a great pleasure, because I cannot remember what I read– my mind seems to reject any sort of nutriment– Now can anything be done for such mental weakness- If I could only [*]Gap: letter.Reason: page rip.ome to you, I feel there might be some hope- I forgot to tell you my age– I am thirty– & (unmarried–) and my circumstances– I am wholly dependent upon my mother whose income is limited to a degree that would make it impossible to place myself under your treatment– Then why do have I writeten, you ask-?- Because, I thought perhaps if you were willing to let me come to you, I might be of service to you, even if tho' it involved manual labor, for my gratitude would make light any [*]Gap: letter.Reason: page rip.ork you could impose upon me– It is unnecessary to write more- I trust you will answer– I sha[*]Gap: letters.Reason: page rip. withhold my real name, but please address-

Olivia Acton–

Reading-

PennaExpanded:Pennsylvania