In The Crucible, in terms of indirect characterization, why is it significant that Hale recognizes Rebecca Nurse by reputation?

In act one of the play, when Rebecca Nurse steps into the
room, Hale indicates that he knows her, not personally, but by reputation.  Rebecca has
a reputation for being very wise, prudent, loving, righteous and upright; when Hale sees
her, he says,

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"It's strange how I knew you, but I suppose you
look as such a good soul should.  We have all heard of your great charities in
Beverly."

This lets us, as
the readers know, that Rebecca Nurse is a good person, so good in fact, that she even
looks good in physical appearance.  Her very physique radiates the goodness that she
carries in her soul.  Also, this helps the reader to know that Rebecca spends a lot of
time in giving charity and service to other people; so much, in fact, that other towns
have even benefitted from it, and heard of her kindness and
generosity.

Miller does a great job of letting us know the
nature of Rebecca Nurse in a very indirect way; the play has limited space, so we don't
have time to follow Rebecca around to directly learn for ourselves that she is a good
person.  So, Miller inserts this little bit of conversation in so that we can gain, in
an indirect way, a feel for Rebecca's character, without using taking too much
time.

I hope that helped; good
luck!