Meantime Nauvoo was growing. At this period--the winter of 1843--her inhabitants are variously computed from twelve to sixteen thousand. Her public buildings, chiefly the Temple and the Nauvoo House, were progressing rapidly. More pretentious buildings were being erected, and new additions to the original town plat were made, and the city, early in December, 1842, had been divided, ecclesiastically, into ten wards, and Bishops were appointed by the High Council to preside over each. The city council was active in passing ordinances to meet the growing necessities of a rapidly increasing population, looking especially to the cleanliness, health and morality of the city. In February, 1843, Joseph was elected a second time to be mayor, and all things considered, Nauvoo was rapidly approaching the high water mark of her prosperity. CHAPTER XXVI. DOCTRINAL DEVELOPMENT AT NAUVOO--INTERPRETATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. AFTER the effort of the Prophet's enemies to drag him into Missouri on the charge of being an accessory before the fact in an attempt upon the life of ex-Governor Boggs, Nauvoo was granted a blessed season of peace, lasting from January, 1843, to the month of June following. It is well to note the circumstance, for Nauvoo had few such periods. Peace is essential to the growth of cities. Commerce flees from strife; and trade sinks into decay where conflicts distract the people. Nauvoo was favorably located and no city in the inland-West gave better promise of becoming an important center of domestic commerce, manufactures, and inland and river trade. With peace it could easily have become the rival of St. Louis or Chicago; and Kansas City and Omaha as outfitting points for the great West might scarcely have been known. In addition to being a center of trade, manufactures and domestic commerce, the presence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would have made it a shrine, a gathering place for the faithful from all parts of the world, and an educational center also; for already the charters were secured and the faculty chosen for a great university; and the keen interest which the Prophet and his followers had ever manifested in education gave every promise that Nauvoo in time would be one of the prominent centers of higher education in the United States.