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learning, that her husband had imported from foreign lands. Yet, with all this devoted love, with all this<br />
intense reverence for his talents and virtues, she remained his true friend, and never shrunk from fully<br />
expressing her own opinion upon every matter of duty; and if, perchance, she differed from him, she<br />
maintained her side of the question with the zeal of a true saint. It has been often said, that, had Mr.<br />
Bowditch been united with a woman of a different temperament, he would have been an entirely different<br />
person. [Interesting!] He loved study, it was true; but none enjoyed more than he the delights of a family<br />
circle. None needed more than he did the kindness of a wife and children. She lived with him thirty-four<br />
years, and on the seventeenth day of April, 1834, she sunk under the disease, consumption, with which<br />
she had been suffering for a long time.<br />
This passage reveals that she had no need for "display" and was not terribly concerned with wealth<br />
or beautiful things. A liking for display (or at least, "prestige") is most closely correlated with the<br />
ES preference and most particularly with type ESTJ. 162 The type least interested in "prestige or<br />
status" is the INFJ. However, INFJs are least argumentative type, 163 and Mary "maintained her side<br />
of the question with the zeal of a true saint." Another intriguing detail is the fact that Mary<br />
Bowditch was noted as being "in some respects, as remarkable as her husband." I am tempted to<br />
use this as evidence that she was an intuitive of some sort, since they are typically viewed as being<br />
"different," for better or worse. The couple's shared frugality is interesting because INTJs and<br />
INFJs tie for being the least interested in the value of "financial security." 164 But this is all very<br />
skimpy evidence, and I would not be even remotely confident about anything save for the N<br />
preference.<br />
Another description of Mary reveals a little more:<br />
"This marriage, which lasted more than thirty-three years, may be regarded as the most happy<br />
circumstance of Dr. Bowditch's life. With personal attractions of no common order, domestic in her<br />
habits, of the most lively and cheerful disposition, with affections which age never chilled, governed over<br />
by the strictest religious principle, he wife and mother was devotedly attached to her husband and<br />
children, sympathizing in the pursuits of the former, and guiding and directing those of the latter, making<br />
home the scene of the purest and most delightful influences and recollections, and associating with her<br />
presence in life and her memory in death, the idea of a being whose every act and thought were<br />
blameless. The stranger was attracted by her winning smile and affable manners. She made her house<br />
the agreeable resort of family and visitors. Many sons and daughters of sorrow acknowledged in her that<br />
active benevolence and liberal aid which discovered and supplied their wants, or that kindly sympathy<br />
which soothed where it could not relieve. But there was one who was her heart's idol, whom she<br />
reverenced almost as a being of a higher order than herself, regarding as worthless every thing else, in<br />
comparison with his approving smile. He, indeed, had reason always to rejoice, that a benignant<br />
Providence had made her sharer and the guardian of his home and happiness."<br />
Assuming that it is not a eulogistic exaggeration, and Bowditch truly was Mary's "heart's idol," then<br />
this passage may suggest that Mary was an NF. Keirsey has noted that one of the distinguishing<br />
features of the Idealists is that they have a tendency to put their beloved up on a pedestal by<br />
idealizing their traits and behaviors. 165 There is a bit of evidence to support a tendency towards<br />
introversion here: she was "domestic in her habits." Though of course, the "lively and cheerful<br />
disposition" fits an extravert better than an introvert. Indeed, Mary's habit of giving to charity and<br />
helping those in trouble is most characteristic of ENFJs, then ESFJs. 166<br />
So what we have here is a wad of conflicting evidence. About all that we can be sure of is that she<br />
and Bowditch loved each other and had a happy marriage.<br />
162 Myers, McCaulley, Quenk & Hammer, 1998<br />
163 Loffredo & Opt, 2006<br />
164 Myers, McCaulley, Quenk & Hammer, 1998<br />
165 Keirsey, 1998<br />
166 Gerdes, 2010
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