t is entitled,
"What form of Law is best suited to the individual and social nature of
man?"

[3] Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson.

[4] The article appeared in the New York Review for July, 1839.

[5] Some passages from the little diaries referred to, together with
further extracts from her literary journal, will be found in appendix D,
p. 541.

[6] The Proclamation of Emancipation.

[7] By Anna Warner.

[8] By her friend, Mrs. Frederick G. Burnham.

[9] "The Little Corporal."

[10] At Fredericksburg.

[11] Referring to the sudden death of a young niece of Mrs. S.

[12] This was written before the assassination of President Garfield.

[13] The "Rhapsody," referred to by Mr. Butler was preserved by a young
lady of the party, and will be found in appendix E, p. 555.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE PASTOR'S WIFE AND DAUGHTER OF CONSOLATION.

1866-1868.

I.

Happiness as a Pastor's Wife. Visits to Newport and Williamstown
Letters. The great Portland Fire. First Summer at Dorset. The new
Parsonage occupied. Second Summer at Dorset. _Little Lou's Sayings and
Doings_. Project of a Cottage. Letters. _The Little Preacher_. Illness
and Death of Mrs. Edward Payson and of Little Francis.

We now enter upon the most interesting and happiest period of Mrs.
Prentiss's experience as a pastor's wife. The congregation of the Church
of the Covenant had been slowly forming in "troublous times"; it was
composed of congenial elements, being of one heart and one mind; some of
the most cultivated families and family-circles in New York belonged to
it; and Mrs. Prentiss was much beloved in them all. What a help-meet
she was to her husband and with what zeal and delight she fulfilled her
office, especially that of a daughter of consolation, among his people,
will soon appear.

How ignorant we often are, at the time, of the turning-points in our
life! We inquire for a summer boarding-place and decide upon it without
any thought beyond the few weeks for which it was engaged; and yet,
perhaps, our whole earthly future or that of those most dear to us,
is to be vitally affected by this seemingly trifling decision. So it
happened to Mrs. Prentiss in 1866. Early in May her husband and his
brother-in-law, Dr. Stearns, went, at a venture, to Dorset, Vt., and
there secured rooms for their families during the summer. But little did
either she, or they, dream that Dorset was to be henceforth her summer
home and her resting-place in death! [1]