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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: preacher to Berwick-upon-Tweed; somewhat shaken in health by
all his hardships, full of pains and agues, and tormented by
gravel, that sorrow of great men; altogether, what with his
romantic story, his weak health, and his great faculty of
eloquence, a very natural object for the sympathy of devout
women. At this happy juncture he fell into the company of a
Mrs. Elizabeth Bowes, wife of Richard Bowes, of Aske, in
Yorkshire, to whom she had borne twelve children. She was a
religious hypochondriac, a very weariful woman, full of
doubts and scruples, and giving no rest on earth either to
herself or to those whom she honoured with her confidence.
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