of it,” or, “If I had been allowed to advise you, it never would have been done.”  No, nothing like this ever passed the lips of Mrs. Parker.  But rather words of sympathy and encouragement, and a reference of all to the wise but inscrutable dispensations of Providence.  It might have been better for them if Mrs. Parker had possessed a stronger will and had manifested more decided traits of character; or it might not.  The pro or con of this we will not pretend to decide.  As a general thing it is no doubt true that qualities of mind in married partners have a just relation the one to the other, and act and react in a manner best suited for the correction of the peculiar evils of each and the elevation of both into the highest moral state to which they can be raised.  At first glance this may strike the mind as not true as a general rule.  But a little reflection will cause it to appear more obvious.  If an all-wise Providence governs in the affairs of men, it is but reasonable to suppose that, in the most important act of a man’s life, this Providence will be most conspicuous.  Marriage is this most important act, and without doubt it is so arranged that those are brought together between whom action and reaction of intellectual and moral qualities will be just in the degree best calculated to secure their own and their children’s highest good.

We are not so sure, therefore, that it would have been any better for Mr. and Mrs. Parker had the latter been less passive, and less willing to believe that her husband was fully capable of deciding as to what was best to be done in all things relating to those pursuits in life by which this world’s goods are obtained.  She was passive, and therefore we will believe that it was right for her to be so.

Mrs. Parker, though thus passive in all matters where she felt that her husband was capable of deciding and where he ought to decide, was not without activity and force of character.  But all was directed by a gentle and loving spirit, and in subservience to a profound conviction that every occurrence in life was under the direction or permission of God.  No matter what she was called upon to suffer, either of bodily or mental pain, she never murmured, but lifted her heart upward with pious submission and felt, if she did not speak the sentiment—­“Thy will be done.”

Mrs. Parker was one of three sisters, between whom existed the tenderest affection.  Their mother had died while they were young, and love for each other had been strengthened and purified in mutual love and care for their father.  They had never been separated, from childhood.  The very thought of separation was always attended with pain.  If in the marriage of Rachel with Benjamin Parker any thing crossed the mind of the loving and happy girl to cast over it a shade, it was the thought of being separated from her sisters.  Not a distant separation, for Benjamin was keeping a store in the village, and there was every prospect therefore of their remaining there, permanently, but a removal from the daily presence of and household intercourse with those, to love whom had been a part of her nature.