.NTI.MTI1MA

to be selfish, + I wish I knew what is best to do. I wish I knew what would be most for the happiness of my children, in this case. How blind we poor mortals are to future events! + to consequences which a Divine Providence educes from our acts. We may study + elaborate our plans, - we may calculate very correctly, perhaps, what will be some of the immediate [underlined] effects of those plans put in operation - but the more remote + ultimate results no human sagacity can reach, no power can foretel but the "Divinity that shapes our ends Rough hew them as we will." I have given more room than I intended upon this subject. A Temperance Mass meeting came off yesterday at South Paris. The Turner Band passed through our village on their way there, in a long coarse carriage fitted up hastily, I should think, drawn by 6 old team horses with a miniature Temperance flag stuck upon each of their heads between their ears. The members of the Band were dressed in a very showy uniform, with high, stiff, white plumes in their caps. They stopped, + exhibited their skill in grateful strains to our listening + admiring ears, + played as they passed slowly by our house, + they played well. I thought of you [underlined], + how well you would have enjoyed the sight + sound, + how many questions you would have put to me as to the merits of the music, + of individual performers. And then I