Are there not many brethren and sisters among us who have lived long together in wedlock , yet , adopting our faith , find their hearts purified from all but spiritual affection ? '' Whether or no the early loves of Adam and Martha had rendered it inexpedient that they should now preside together over a Shaker village , it was certainly most singular that such should be the final result of many warm and tender hopes . Children of neighboring families , their affection was older even than their school-days ; it seemed an innate principle interfused among all their sentiments and feelings , and not so much a distinct remembrance as connected with their whole volume of remembrances . But just as they reached a proper age for their union misfortunes had fallen heavily on both and made it necessary that they should resort to personal labor for a bare subsistence . Even under these circumstances Martha Pierson would probably have consented to unite her fate with Adam Colburn 's , and , secure of the bliss of mutual love , would patiently have awaited the less important gifts of Fortune . But Adam , being of a calm and cautious character , was loth to relinquish the advantages which a single man possesses for raising himself in the world . Year after year , therefore , their marriage had been deferred . Adam Colburn had followed many vocations , had travelled far and seen much of the world and of life . Martha had earned her bread sometimes as a sempstress , sometimes as help to a farmer 's wife , sometimes as schoolmistress of the village children , sometimes as a nurse or watcher of the sick , thus acquiring a varied experience the ultimate use of which she little anticipated . But nothing had gone prosperously with either of the lovers ; at no subsequent moment would matrimony have been so prudent a measure as when they had first parted , in the opening bloom of life , to seek a better fortune . Still , they had held fast their mutual faith . Martha might have been the wife of a man who sat among the senators of his native State , and Adam could have won the hand , as he had unintentionally won the heart , of a rich and comely widow . But neither of them desired good-fortune save to share it with the other . At length that calm despair which occurs only in a strong and somewhat stubborn character and yields to no second spring of hope settled down on the spirit of Adam Colburn . He sought an interview with Martha and proposed that they should join the Society of Shakers . The converts of this sect are oftener driven within its hospitable gates by worldly misfortune than drawn thither by fanaticism , and are received without inquisition as to their motives . Martha , faithful still , had placed her hand in that of her lover and accompanied him to the Shaker village . Here the natural capacity of each , cultivated and strengthened by the difficulties of their previous lives , had soon gained them an important rank in the society , whose members are generally below the ordinary standard of intelligence . Their faith and feelings had in some degree become assimilated to those of their fellow-worshippers . Adam Colburn gradually acquired reputation not only in the management of the temporal affairs of the society , but as a clear and efficient preacher of their doctrines .
XXXXX was not less distinguished in the duties proper to her sex .
Adam Colburn Martha Pierson fellow-worshippers first labor schoolmistress vocations watcher