about two o'clock
He told me he knew all I had stated ; that his name was James H -- ; that he was a cousin of the young woman 's , George B -- having been married on his mother 's sister ; that he had resided in the house , and had discovered the tendency of his uncle 's mind ; and that , on one occasion , he had snatched out of his hands a razor with which he intended to destroy himself -- an act for which he was expelled the house , though he was the acknowledged suitor of the young woman , whom he intended to wed. . I told him he should marry her , protect her , and save the father ; but he replied that the old man would neither allow him to live in the house , nor take his daughter from him ; so that she was compelled to remain in the dreadful condition in which I had found her . I told him to call upon me next day , and proceeded homewards . Before James H -- called , which he did about two o'clock , I revolved in my mind what should be done for the unfortunate man . I recollected that , in a conversation I had with Dr D -- of Edinburgh , he told me of a case of melancholy , and accompanying determination to commit self-murder , which he had successfully treated by presenting to the mind of the patient such horrific stories and narratives of men who had taken their own lives , and suffered in their death inexpressible agonies , and such shocking pictures of murders where the wretched victims were brought back , by the hand of their offended Maker , from the gates of death , with their consciences seared by the burning iron of his vengeance , that the man got alarmed , was cured of his thirst for his own blood , and never again spoke of self-destruction . I resolved upon trying this expedient , and could not think of a better book for my purpose than that extraordinary record of human vice and suffering , the `` Newgate Calendar . '' I fortunately possessed a copy , with those fearfully graphic pictures , that suit so well , in their coarse , half-caricatured , grotesque delineations , with the dreadful narratives they are intended to illustrate .