CORNELL *r UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOudfaT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT I^ND ,GIVBf^. IN 1 891 BY PENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Date Due DATE DUE HX656.B8 897 Brook Farm olin 3 1924 032 598 447 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032598447 BROOK FARM ITS MEMBERS, SCHOLARS, AND VISITORS Nattflital Stubteg in ametftan Urtterg. GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY, Editor. OLD CAMBRIDGE. By Thomas Wentworth Higginsqn. t' BROOK FARM. By Lindsay Swift. m PREPARATION. ..' THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL NOVEL. ' By Paul Leicester Ford. 'J, THE KNICKERBOCKERS. ^ By The Rev. Henry van Dyke, D.D. " SOUTHERN HUMORISTS. By John Kendrick Bangs. THE CLERGY IN AMERICAN LIFE AND LETTERS. By The Rev. Daniel Dulaney Addison. FLOWER OF ESSEX. By The Editor. THE HOOSIER WRITERS. By Meredith Nicholson. Others to he announced. BROOK FARM ITS MEMBERS, SCHOLARS, AND VISITORS BY LINDSAY SWIFT THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 1908 All rights reserved '"'l^^ ■'01 ^. Copyright, igoo, By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped January, igoo. Reprinted May, igoo ; November, ig04 ; February, 1908, J. S, Cuahing & Co. — Bewick & Smith Norwood Mass US.A. PREFACE It has often been said by those best qualified to know, and it may here properly be said again, that the veracious history of Brook Farm will never be written. Some of the most important records of its institutional life are hopelessly lost. Other material is lodged in the keeping of a former member, who has already made copious use of it. There are also before the world various recollections and memories of associates, scholars, and visitors once fully iden- tified with this experiment. This literature of the subject is not inconsiderable, and much of it is entertaining and valuable ; but it is often contradictory, often repetitious, and too often erroneous. No Brook Farmer of the first im- portance has chosen to write with fulness of his experience. The most which remains of the highest authority exists only in an occasional lecture, an agreeable paper of a personal nature, or some remembered conversation. Those to whom Brook Farm meant the most, have been the most silent, and its story was written — for only a few survive — deep in their hearts. This VI PREFACE reticence did not find its reasons in sentiment alone. What is true of a movement like the Antislavery agitation is true also of Brook Farm. Both looked to the realization of a moral ideal, and the subtle spirit which ani- , mated both was perishable and incommunicable. It is more than fifty years since the last dweller in that pleasant domain turned his reluctant steps away from its nobl eJllusions^_and Jtoward the stress of realities j^ but from no one of this gracious company has ever come the admission ' that Brook Farm was a failure. There may yet be a place for a book which shall endeavor, without too much minuteness, to coordinate and present what really is known concerning the most roman tic incidgnt of_New England Transcendentalism. There was a dis- tinct beginning, aTlairly coherent progress, but a vague termination. The enterprise faded, flickered, died down, and expired. Like som e ill-contrived play, the Brook JFar^m ^Phalanx, lin- gered durin g one more actj_after_the essential dramat ic elements were exhausted. It is still possible to give a nearly complete account, and, it is to be trusted, without causing undue dis- turbance to the sensitiveness of the survivors or their friends, who, guarding the privacies and the arcana of what seemed to many^home life, would shield it from intrusion and"vulgar~dis- closure. There has been no wish to make these PREFACE Vii pages a catch-basin for floating gossip or ill- natured anecdotes: these have been suffered to float, unstayed, out to the sea of oblivion. Ma nifest absurdities, the extravag ance of youth, and the passing lights and shadows^ of the daily life may in fairness be considered jLS_ardief Jo the seriousness of the story as a whole. Inspired by a philosophical and speculative"' enthusiasm. Brook Farm began, as an attempt to work modifications in social life. In this direct attempt it certainly ended in disaster. The visible fruits were intellectual, and of the men and women who contributed to the renown of Brook Farm as one of the true seeding- grounds of American letters it is the purpose of this book to speak, not critically or biographi- cally, but rather f^om the personal side, and, in particular, as .each person considered was affected by the associative life at Brook Farm. Some who came to a greater or less distinction were members, some scholars, and some were influential visitors. It only remains to express my gratitude to Miss Mary Harris Rollins, who has rendered me the most loyal, friendly services and advice, and has herself renounced, to aid my own efforts, a long-cherished ambition to devote her ability and energy to a similar project. I am indebted to all who have been ap- proached with doubtless troublesome questions. Vm PREFACE for their unfailing kindness, and in particular to my mother, who permits me to print a hitherto unpublished letter from her former friend, Miss Georgianna Bruce, once a member of the Brook Farm Association. Many valuable data have been supplied by Mrs. Osborne Macdaniel of New York, once a resident of Brook Farm, and still mindful of its charm. L. S. August ii, 1899. CONTENTS CHAPTER I / PAGE The Transcendental Club . . . . i CHAPTER II V' Brook Farm ij The Organization 15 The Buildings and Grounds .... 26 The Industries 40 The Household Work 47 The Amusements and Customs • • • 53 CHAPTER III »y The School and its Scholars .... 69 George William Curtis and James Burrill Curtis 85 Isaac Thomas Hecker 94 CHAPTER IV The Members no ■~ George Ripley and Sophia Willard Ripley . 128 •—Charles Anderson Dana 145 John Sullivan Dwight 152 ix CONTENTS Nathaniel Hawthorne John Orvis and John Allen Minot Pratt George Partridge Bradford arren Burton Charles King Newcomb . CHAPTER V PAGE 164 174 184 187 194 198 The Visitors 203 '^' Margaret Fuller 207 William Henry Channing 217 . ^ ■ Ralph Waldo Emerson 229 u Amos Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane . . 233 Orestes Augustus Brownson .... 241 Theodore Parker and Francis George Shaw . 25 1 Christopher Pearse Cranch .... 257 Elizabeth Palmer Peabody .... 259 CHAPTER VI The Closing Period 263 The Harbinger 263 , -4 Albert Brisbane and Fourierism . . . 270 Bibliography 283 Index 293 BROOK FARM ITS MEMBERS, SCHOLARS, AND VISITORS BROOK FARM CHAPTER I THE TRANSCENDENTAL CLUB The distance seems wide between Immanue l Kant and the small group of social philosophers of the Transcendental Club in and about Bos- ton fifty or more years ago ; yet, but for him, and the schools of Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, and Schleiermacher, which immediately followed or schismatically differed from him, there would have been no Transcendental Club, and very likely no Brook Farm, although Kant might have recognized with difficulty the progeny of his own genius. "German philosophy" had powerfully affected two men in England : Cole - ridge, who especially felt the influence of ScKelling even to the point of plagiarism, and GarLyls, who, best of his generation, interpreted German thought in both philosophy and litera- ture. Coleridge derived his inspiration at first hand, for he lived and studied in Germany. With his extraordinary powers of absorption, he became so full of every sort of learning that 2 BROOK FARM his genius overflowed upon other minds of his generation, but he was not otherwise an origi- nating force in his own country. Carlyle imbibed German philosophy mainly through German literature. Philosopher he never really was, however vigorous a thinker and man of letters. He announced opinions and followed convictions, but induction was often too slow a method. So far as he was inspirational and given to intuitions, he remained a Transcen- dentalist, in practice if not at heart, though the name grew to offend him. Emerson's calmness and fairness made him tolerant of Carlyle's later vicissitudes as the apostle of force and hero-worship, but the real impression of the more rugged genius on the gentler was made while Carlyle was yet interpreting Germany to England and America. When Emerson introduced " Sart or Re sar- tus " to America, a genuine interest in the best oFGerman thought was already fully under way in this country. Few as were the hands into which the torch passed from Germany, through England and to America, it is easy to under- estimate the number. Emerson takes_pains to |f attribute the beginning oftEe'cEange toward I i ndividualism — and this, after all, is the real ' fOTm whichTranscendentalism assumed in this I country — to Edward Everett, and this begin- b!ning he sets at about the year 1820./ Everett THE TRANSCENDENTAL CLUB 3 and George Ticknor both studied in Germany, and both brought home wholesome traditions of learning ; neither of them was, however, outside the limits of a refined and earnest scholarship, fitted by character to promote or to lead a new movement in thought, although in their respec- tive chairs at Harvard College, and through their finished and academic writings, they affected American literature. Emerson also includes Channing as one who brought fresh spiritual forces to combat the grim front of New England theology, adding that, " His cold temperament made him the most unprofitable companion." At the same time also there began to be studied in this country various forms and schools of French philosophy and social reform — late chil- dren of the first Revolution. Saint Simonism, the philosophy of Cousin, Joubert, Constant, Leroux, and presently the huge elaborations of , Fourier, all made their way into temporary ! favor, in part_3S counteractions against the | purer^ Transc endentalism^ ^ ^ut particularly as directing attention to the need of political ] and social regeneration. J The scholars, — for it was ^t first an affairjof. scholars alone, — who were centred Jn_BostQn,_. wereHBusied^witirthis'French philosophy, mainly eclectic, and were also inquiring deeply into German philosophy on their own account, though inspired by Coleridge, Carlyle, and by our own OKUUSS. TAKIVI pioneers to German universities. Particularly were George Ripley, Margaret Fuller, W. H. Channing, Convers Francis, Felton, James Freeman Clarke — nor did these complete the number — then looking into the original sources, and not depending too much on the large claims which Carlyle had begun to make as early -as 1827 for his intellectual attachment to Germany. Mrs. Dall, herself still living and a triumphant apostle of the Newness, assigns to Frederic Henry Hedge the leadership in this strong] movement of New England scholarship. Hedgd had been the private pupil of George Bancroft here and in Germany, and his learning was of the soundest ; he was furthermore able to com- municate his zeal to others. His influence was no less potent, because all his life a certain envi- able obscurity attended him, which enabled him to build achievement, not reputation. It is of no importance, however, who was first or last, great- est or least; the galaxy was small, but it was brilliant, and each star helped to make it so. The l iterary activ ity of the group was most effectivelysiiown in the series — the first of its kind in America and edited by George Ripley — entitled "Specimens of Foreign Standard Literature ," fourteen volumes" in 1117 which^be- gan to appear in 1838. Miss Fuller, Feltoiij^ Dwight, James Freeman Clarke, Samuel Osgood, C. T. Brooks, and W. H. Channing contributed THE TRANSCENDENTAL CLUB 5 to it/ It was and still remains a creditable work, and some years ago it was republished in Edinburgh. There was by this means opened to a wider public a satisfactory ap- proach to some of the names then influencing thought in France and Germany, and an interest was thus aroused here which had no parallel at the time in England. Meanwhile other and native d isturbances were taking place. The passing of a body of thought, in part directly from one country and in part through the medium of two others, might con- siderably sway a few minds, but would hardly affect any large mass of opinion, unless there were some internal dissatisfaction already at work ; and this country, or that part of it then best representing its intelligence, was fully pre- pared for new gospels — a ^lidus^ ready for contagion. Unitarianism, having effectually divided the traditional "church of New Eng- land, had already spread far beyond its early boundaries; and not destined to enjoy long, in its first integrity, the results of its wholesome accomplishments, had itself begun to fall apart. It was in the order of nature that the older Unitarians, who dared so boldly to sever from the parent stock, should themselves lament the departure of their own nurslings. Andrews Norton was not a man to let the Transcenden- talists spread themselves like the green bay tree 6 BROOK FARM without Strong protest. His "Latest Form of Infidelity" was the boldest, most defiant, and most arrogant attack which they were called upon to sustain. Puritanism was, and is to-day, as robust in a Unitarian as in a Trinitarian, pro- vided only that he has the blood of the early saints in his veins S"^nd T ransc endentalism was a reaction against the essential conservatism of both Jhe_USamal and Trinitarian forms of Puritanism, neither of which cherished any belief • in the self-sufficiejicy of the human mind^outside ^ of revelation . The Transcendentalists of Bos- ton were not perhaps so anxious to domiciliate the philosophy of Kant, Cousin, and their con- geners as t o^ssert the supremacy j )f man_him- self and of e a ch and ,£v&ry man as jscelL Under such conditions, native and foreign, the Transcendental Club came into being in no sudden or violent way. In fact its development and realization were so natural that even to-day it is a matter of doubt if there ever really was such a club. The name, if accepted by the members at all, was taken as a necessity, not as a deliberate choice. Since all Boston insisted that certain people who used to meet occasion- ally made a Transcendental Club, there was no escaping the obligation. "I suppose," says Emerson, "all of them were surprised at this rumor of a school or sect, and certainly at the name of Transcendentalism, given nobody knows THE TRANSCENDENTAL CLUB 7 by whom, or when it was first applied." Dr. Hedge, writing forty years later, says that Ripley, Emerson, George Putnam, and himself called "the first meeting of what was named in derision the Transcendental Club," but he insists that this Club consisted only in occasional meetings of like-minded men and women, and that no line was drawn between those who were members and those who were not, except that due notification was always given to certain persons. Those who were to be looked for at such a coterie were Emerson, Alcott, Thoreau, Stetson, the Ripleys and Mrs. Samuel Ripley, D-wight, Miss Fuller and Miss Peabody, Parker, < ^hert"'B ,aid:lett?' Jones Very, Convers Francis, (Weiss), Bartol, and Hedge. Now and again, Bradford, Samuel Osgood, and <^£hraim PeS;;: C^odyVould come. Putnam, who found that the meetings " took a turn unexpected to him," came no more after the first meeting at Emerson' s. " Brownson," continues Hedge, " met with us once or twice, but became unbearable, and was not afterward invited." Of these choice souls. Dr. Cyrus Augustus Bartol is alone living to-day (1899), then one of the minor prophets, but always a thorough Transcendentalist, though after his own fashion, fearless, honest, and not overweighted with discretion. The Club was often called by the members the Symposium, but the real name, if there was 8 BROOK FARM any, was " Hedge's Clu b," inasmuch as a jjour- ney by him from Bang or to Boston insured, a call f or a meeting. The_ larger title, however, was foisted on th ese gatherings a nd was never repelled . Hedge has not been remembered so fully as he should have been in connection with the events of these few years ; for he was an important factor, and was even asked to be an / editor of the Dial, the most immediate result of the Club, when that periodical appeared in 1840. Among others identified with the Club were James Freeman Clarke, Thomas T. Stone, both the Channings, uncle and nephew, Samuel "v./J._May,-TSamuel D, Robbins; C. P. Cranch, (fHawthorne^ George Bancroft, It would be hard to find a closer explanation- of the philosophy than that given by Nathaniel H. Whiting, a mechanic from South Marshfield, who, addressing a " Bible Convention," held in the Masonic Temple, Boston, on March 29, 1842, declared that "truths which pertain to the soul cannot be! p roved by any exter nal testimony, whatsoever." '; It was this sort of indoctrination among the sup- posedly unlettered which such men as Andrews Norton honestly feared, and which induced him_ to reprint in a pamphlet two all-important papers from the Princeton Review, written jointly by Drs. J. W. Alexander and A. B. Dod, both solid pillars of the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Dod took for his part an exposition of Cousin's philosophy, while Dr. Alexander arraigned the whole front of German transcendental philoso- phy. It was a sound and . scholarly perform- 14 BROOK FARM ance, and has furnished no little aid, even to Frothingham, and to those who have since studied this matter. ' The plan of Brook Farm as a sociological experiment will not be dealt with here; nor will its relations with several communities which slightly touched its own life be especially exam- ined. The essential difference between it and such other attempts at social reform as the Hopedale Community, the North American Phalanx at Red Bank, New Jersey, the Wis- consin or Ceresco Phalanx, and the Northamp- ton Association of Education and Industry, was \ indicated by Charles Lane {Dial IV. 354), when he said of the West Roxbury Association : " It is not a community; it is not truly anassocia- tion ; it is merely an_aggregation oj persons, andTaclcslhat oneTiess of spirit which is prob- ably needful to make it of help and lasting value to mankind." The attempt to transform Brook I Farm into a modified Fourierist Phalanx proved vits ruin. CHAPTER II BROOK FARM In the summer of 1840, Mr. and Mrs. Ripley boarded on a milk farm in West ^ ^ '^*'"" Roxbury. It was a pleasant place, varied in contour, with pine woods close at hand, the Charles River within easy distance. A clos e i nspection of the subst r atum of sand and gravel would have confirmed a susingJiaiL in the mind of a practical farm er that, there was a reason why there had been no attempt t o produce anything buT milk on the estate; but the meadows, "which formed aT large part of the farm, were fair to see, and the fertile farms adjoining seemed to indicate a favor- able soil and location. At all events, the Ripleys left it feeling that they had found a spot on which to carry out what had become their dearest wish : "to i nsure a more natural union between int elle ctual and manual^ labor than now exists ; to combin^the^Jhinker and the worker, as far as possible, in the same individual; to guarantee the highest mental freedom, by providing all with labor adapted IS 1 6 BROOK FARM to J^ieir tastes and talents, and securing to them the fruits of th eir fndusEyl to~1d6~ away "with the necessity of menial services by opening the benefits of education and the profits of labor to all ; and thus to prepare aso ciety of li beral, intelligent, and^cultivated jgersons, whose rela- tTonTwith each other would permit a more whole- some and simple life than can be led amidst the pressure of our competitive institutions." "To accomplish these objects," Ripley wrote to Emerson, in a letter of November g, 1840, "we propose to take a small tract of land which, under skilful husbandry, uniting the garden and the farm, will be adequate to the subsistence of the families ; and to connect with this a school or college, in which the most complete instruction shall be given, from the first rudi- ments to the highest culture." When Ripley first talked over the subject of an association with Emerson, he thought that ;S!50,ooo would be necessary for its equipment ; but at the time of writing the above letter he had decided that 1^30,000 would supply the land and buildings for ten families, and allow a suffi- cient margin to cover the first year's expenses. This sum he proposed to raise by forming a joint- stockjMmpany among those who were friendly to his enterprise, each subscriber to be guar- anteed a fixed interest, and the subscriptions to be secured by the real estate. Ten thousand r THE ORGANIZATION 17 dollars of the amount he believed could be raised among those who were ready to lend their per- sonal cooperation to the undertaking; the rest would be furnished by those whose sympathy could take only the form of financial encourage- ment. The shares he would place at ^500 each ; five per cent m terest woulHTe" guaranteed, "and the privilege of withdrawing would be allowed any shareholder who gave Jthree months' no,tice of his intention. This last proviso, however, was modified when the Articles of Association came to be drawn up. In the winter of 1840, Ripley decided to buy Brook Farm, rnaking himself at first responsible K management and success. About the April, 1 84 1, he, with his wife and sister le fifteen others, including Hawthorne, (! 0xs. Min ot Pratt and children, corporation appears to have put on a fourth- mortgage of ^2500 to Francis G. Shaw, executed j by "~GSofge Ripley, President of said Phalanx," ' and " Charles A. Dana, Chairman of the Council of Finance." The fact was so patent that the community must offer suitable accommodations for the families of desirable men who could aid in developing the^ industrial ^i(Je of the i experiment, that desp.6j;p,M„ measures seemed f necessary to secure__the_completion_^^jthe part SUy "oonsbructed _£h^Jaiister.y. Without doubt the Board of Direction felt that the in- creased productiveness of the farm, the new buildings and other improvements which they had achieved, warranted the placing of this last mortgage ; for although the financiering of the Brook Farmers may not have been adjudged able, it was never thought to be unscrupulous. The difficulties under which the leaders must have labored seem clear enough in the light of the facts disclosed by the Registry of Deeds of Norfolk County. Starting, apparently, with a 24 BROOK FARM capital of ^4500 furnished by the paid-up stock and the balance between the cost of the farm and ihe amount raised by the first mortgage, a plant had to be provided with which to develop a wholly uncultivated soil and to set in motion the wheels of household industry. The insur- ance and interest on stock and mortgages were furthermore ever present problems. The report of the Direction _^__Finance for 1842 and 1843 sh owed a deficit o n November^ i, 1843, oi fi^4M^; the report for 1844, a balance of Tii6o.84T"a n3!lt"seems to have been a matter of debate whether the last named sum should be distributed as dividends or allowed to go toward wiping out the preceding deficit ; but it was finally recognized that the earlier loss might properly be considered as so much cap- ital invested in permanent improvements on the estate, and that " the results of one year's indus- try ought to be divided irrespective of the re- sults of former years, and certificates of stock issued to those persons who are entitled to such dividends." Later reports cannot be consulted, but the fourth mortgage sets aside any doubt re- garding the general state of the treasury. After the burning of the Phalanstery, which occurred March 3, 1846, it became far more dif- ficult to raise capital or to dispose of stock. Since the structure had been built through in- vestments on the loan stock, no insurance had THE ORGANIZATION 25 been placed on the house, and the holders of partnership stock, therefore, and the regular members of the Association, had to bear the loss. About ;?7ooo had already been laid out on the Phalanstery, and about 1^3000, it was estimated, was still needed. A current rep ort, perhaps foun ded on a statement by Dana, t hat the insurance had expired the day before the fire, and that the failure torenew it had been owing to the careKssness ofone of the Directors, does not agree \infEH~IGpIeyT~own statement in the HtirBinger of "MarHTTJ, 1846. V or anotfi^^elFTKe'quiet conflict went for- ward, and on March 4, 1847, ^t a meeting of stockholders and creditors, Mr. Ripley was " au- thorized to let the farm for one year from March i, for ^350; and the Keith lot for ^100 or more, with such conditions and reservations " as he felt to be for the interests of the stock- holders. At a later meeting of the stockholders, August 18, 1847, the President of the Phalanx was authorized " to transfer to a board of three trustees the whole property of the Corporation for the purpose and with power of disposing of it to the best advantage for all concerned." The board of trustees included Theodore Parker, George R. Russell and Samuel P. Teel. On April 13, 1849, the farm was sold at pub- lic auction, and was bought for 1^19,150 by John L. Plummer, chairman of a special joint com- 26 BROOK FARM mittee on the removal of the Roxbury alms- house. On April i6, the Common Council of the City of Roxbury instructed this committee to acquire the estate. Mortgages amounting to 1^14,500, an execution in favor of Anna G. Alvord, amounting to about $1961, and also an accumulated interest amounting to ^984 brought the indebtedness of the Phalanx to ;SS 17,445. T he Phalanx , therefore, received Jj7_04 tP„w.ard the settUneoTinrother claims against it. The City of Roxbury established an almshouse on its purchase. In 1855 Brook Farm became tlie [ property of the Rev. James Freeman Clarke, I wKcTseems to_ have cherished a vague .project I to colonize the place with desirable, companions, I thoug!niI5~difFereiR5e between his scheme and \ an ordinary land speculation is not obvious. In I i_868Jt passed into the hands of Lauranna, C._ Miinxae, who held it, as the wife of James W. Munroe, until 1870. The estate was then bought by G. P. Burkhardt, who, shortly after, deeded it to the " Association of the Evangelical Lutheran Church for Works of Mercy," which to-day pro- vides a shelter there for many homeless chil- dren in what is known as the Martin Luther Orphan Home. ^ A seeker after country quiet and beauty a^a Groundr ""ig^t easily be as much attracted to-day by the undulating acres of Brook Farm as were those who sought it as a refuge fro m so- THE BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 27 cjg^disgQurageindnt nearly sixty years ago. The brook stillTuns'sIenderly through the meadow ; there are still the sunny uplands, the dim groves, and the denser woodlands ; and human life still teems over it all. The farm-ho use which stood not far from the road when th e life of the little community began, and which was naturally "put to immediate use, was speedily christened the Hiv e. It was th e heart of t he co mmunity, though perhaps it w ou ld have be en superse ded had t he Phalanstery reached com- pletion. It was a house with two rooms on each side of a wide hall ; those on one side were occupied by the vivacious Mrs. Barlow and her three sons, who came as boarders, and those on iEEe" other side served as sitting room and dining room, the kitchen being back of the latter. The upper rooms were used as sleeping rooms. With a growing family some reconstruction soon became necessary, and two of the rooms on the first floor were thrown together to make a larger dining room, which should also serve as an assembling place, not only for " Hiveites," but for the other residents ; and both these needs it met so long as the com- munity survived. Its ceiling was low ; at each end of the room were two windows, and in the middle of one end was an old-fashioned fire- place of brick. There were as many as six long pine tables with benches on either side. 28 BROOK FARM painted white ; and the neatness and attractive- ness of the apartment were emphasized by white linen and white table-ware. The rooms on the other side of the hall became parlor and office ; Mr. Ripley's library was arranged along either side of the hall, and from a door at its farther end one could step out into the meadow. To the original building were added t wo wings con - taining rooms for laundry and other purposes, witH~spacesTor~^ed and carriage rooms under- neath. i There was a room, for example, where motHers could leave their children in care of the Nursery Group while they attended to their daily work — a clear forerunner of the present " day nursery." A_large_upper room in one of the wings, occupied b^single men, passed by tE F'name"'^ Attica — a sounder jest than can usually be founHin' the annals of Brook Farm. Here, at one time, slept John Codman, the General (Baldwin), the Parson (Capen), the Admiral (Blake), and others. The house faced toward the east, and was separated from the brook and meadow below by two terraced embankments enlivened by shrubs and flower beds. Mulberry and spruce trees gave character and background to these adornments, and a great elm which stood near the Hive and a sycamore which shaded it added dignity to the ordinary looking dwelling. New comers were wont to find their first wel- THE BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 29 come at the Hive, though one or two speak of arriving wholly unnotice d. There may have been a method in this silent absorption of a new mem ber ; possib l]^ jt was to_ coiwey _t^ lesson at once of the unimportance of qn._e indi- yidual^more or^ less in Jhe community. What- ever the reason, the conduct is noticeable. Mrs. Kirby says that when she arrived she found more than fifty persons assembled in the dining room. Miss Russell also speaks of this Trap- pist mode of reception. A swift impression for good or bad must have been formed on seeing so immediately the collected forces of the Asso- ciation conducting themselves in their most unaffected manner. To the south of the Hive was the barn, which also faced the east. Across the st ree t from the entrance to the farm stood a small h£use^ which the community hired at first for the school, and whicE7 except, perhaps, foF^ne short interval, it retained for that purpose until the school was abandoned. This building, which was called the^st, was in charge of Miss Ripley; here some of the teachers and p upils lodge d. There waTa'^e Gng" tha t the^Te al life of the, comm u- nity was pent up within its own gjoundSj_and TRartffls"sec!i6h ofTEe'famny" without the walls, was to"^"certain degree^ isolated ; and yet the recor3srshow~no lack of particijgation by these individuals in the activities of the Association. 30 BROOK FARM Early in 1842, J*_e_c^onx^Jhavin^ jjut-grewiL its TccoiinTnodatign5j...-a_ Joo-u^ wa,s . . Jkuil.L_Qn_ th£ lii£hSr^oint.,of Jand which the farm con- tained, a pudding-stone ledge forming the cellar and two sides of the foundation wall. This square wooden structure, in which the exterior use of smooth matched boards served to produce a most depressing effect, was so flimsily con- structed that what went on in any one room could be heard in every other room. It was painted, after the imitative fancy of the day, the color of gray sandstone. The only feature which redeemed its severity was a deep, slightly ornamented fiat cornice which ran around the top, although there were low French windows through which one could step out upon the upper of the two terraces. The house was reached by a long flight of steps from the farm road. The view was a delight ; the Hive was distant about three minutes' walk ; there was a grove in the rear, an orchard in front ; and from some of the upper windows might be had charming glimpses of the river. Into this — the Eyrie, Aerie jsr Eyry (as Mr. Ripley spelled it), Mr. and Mrs. liipley moved "ai" soon "^sTF was finished; Mr. Ripleytaking the greater part of his books with him. The room on the right of the hall became the library, but was also used as a recitation room. In the parlor opposite was the piano, by the aid of which John Dwight taught music, and THE BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 31 the family enjoyed many a rare evening. Be- hind these rooms were four small d ormitories given over to pupils. Mr. and Mrs. Ripl ey occupiga.~t1ieToom over the parlor , and l y^ ^s. kirby (tTien°lIji?~5eorgianna Bruce) and Miss Sarah b 'i^arns, were in the room behind them. Charles Newcomb and the Curtis brothers also roomed here, and Miss Dora Wilder was the housekeeper. The Cottage — which alone of all the com- munity bmiaings remains to-day — was the next house erected after the Eyrie. Mrs.__A. _G. Alvord, whose heart was in Brook Farm but whose health was precarious, built the Cottage, reserving a part for herself, but putting most of it at the service of active members. It was in the form of a Maltese cross, with four gables, the central space being taken by the staircase. It contained only about half a dozen roo ms, and probab ly could not have accommodated more than that nun^eF*oF_resHents. Miss Russell says that it was t he prettiest a nd best furnished house on the place ; but an examination of the patheuc simplicity of its construction will con- firm the memory of one of its occupants that contact with nature was admirably close an d unaffected; from the rough dwelling, which resembled an inexpensive beach cottage, to outdoors was hardly a transition, and at all seasons the external and internal temperatures 32 BROOK FARM closely corresponded. The house was well placed on a clearly defined knoll, and the grass stretched directly from it in all directions ex- cept in the rear, where the flower garden had been started. The schoolrooms for the younger children were transferred to this building, and Miss Russell, Dwight, Dana, and Mrs. Alvord roomed here until the new organization was effected, when Miss Russell was moved to the Pilgrim House. The Cottage has always been known as the Margaret i'uller Cottage"^^al- tTioughitjja^ probably JEKe^ onlyliouse on the estate in which Margaret Fuller never stayed Huring her occasional visits. It is one of the cKSnins of a legend that its lack of truth only slightly detracts from the sentimental associa- tions accumulated around it; and this is espe- cially true of the Cottage, which still bears its traditionary honors. During a visitation of smallpox the Cottage was divested of its fur- nishings, and turned into a temporary hospital ; and at another time it barely escaped entire demolition through the carelessness of some workmen who were digging a cellar under it. Until lately the Cottage wore its original dark brown color ; and it is still the best visible rem- nant of the early days and gives a pleasant im- pression of what the daily hf e of the Association must have been. The Pilgrim House was built by Ichabo d Mor- THE BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 33 *^°HiJ2LEiXSi9y-i^ ^^° planned to occupy it with his family, and who possibly hoped to persuade his bxother_Edwin to join him. It was a double house, placed south of the Cottage. There were double parlors, separated by folding doors, run- ning across one end of the house, and two famiUes might occupy these in common; a partition wall, built at right angles to the par- lor, divided the rest of the building into two houses, each having its own entrance. Ex- ternally it looked like twin houses, back to back, and was a " very uncouth building." The barrenness of its appearance was the more marked because there were no trees about it; and standing, as it did, on high ground, it pro- claimed, in its oblong shape and white paint, an austere New England origin. Ichabod Morton, after a brief residence of two weeks, returned to^T^mouthT and the dwelling passed into the hands of the Association. The community took down the walls between the two kitchens, and thus provided a commodious and cheerful place for t he laundry rooms ; t he tailorin g depart ment was estabhshed here, and herejhe Harbinger, the literary pu blication of Broo k FarmThad its •e affonaro HTce! The big ^irior furnisKed a IBarebut convenient place for con- vivialities. Otherwise the dwelling was given over to lodging purposes. In the spring of 1843 the construction of a 34 BROOK FARM jworkshgp was begun, according to Dr. Codman, some three hundred yards northwest of the Hive. It was a two-story building, sixty by forty, with a horse-mill in the cellar at first. This was later replaced by an en^ne which supplied power for the machinery used in the various branches of work. Partitions were put up as it became necessary to provide rooms for the_^ different manufacturing industries which, were, intrc^uced. The printing-ofifice was placed on the second floor of the shop, and cot beds were sometimes set up on this floor for visitors who could not be cared for elsewhere. Peter Kleinst rup. the gardener, probably-arr rived_in_Jhe spring of 1843, and his coming gave a great impetus to the aesthetic considera- tion of the estate. A greenhouse was decided upon, and ornamental plants were cultivated during the outdoor season of that year, with the intention of placing them under cover in the winter. The fall came, but the money lagged, and at last a temporary shelter had to be pro- vided in the sandy bank near the farm road. The project was by no means abandoned, how- ever, and in the following spring fresh efforts were put forth in the direction of horticulture — partly as a business venture, and partly as an additional attraction to hoped-for members whose coming should hasten the days of pros- perity. A garden, covering, perhaps, half an THE BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 35 acre, was laid out behind the Cottage, with a chance ot enlargement, li necessary, by cutting away some of the woods beyond. This land was carefully levelled and laid out with the walks and other precise accessories of a conven- tionally professional flower garden. In the fall of 1844 the gardener's heart was made glad by a building in which his treasures could be safely and conveniently cared for during the winter. The greenhouse was placed behind the Cottage and garden, near the boundary wall of the estate and parallel with it. To make room for the building, it was a painful necessity to plough up a beautiful patch of rhodora. Nothing i n the change to Fourierism showed more coura g.e_lJiarulhe. ■ decision to accept the ex figriment with such in£difica|bns.ftljtl3,aiauiid-- er's scheme as were jnade^necessaxy;^^ by re- stricted fundsj^jd, fewness_of .numbera. There was some pretence of carrying out the theory of groups, and so far as was practical the main outlines were followed, but the great, hgirmonic proportions of- Fourier were, simply -OULii^ the q uestio fl. One feature, however, was clearly indispensable — a central house as laid down by the Master or Teacher, as Brisbane insisted on calling him. Accordingly, in the summe r_of 1844, the unitary building, of Fh al ans t e r y, was begun. ir^wSs~piRce3~lir^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ at lome distance from it, and nearly parallel 36 BROOK FARM with the town road. AU_Jhe_p,uMc__ro(2rns were to be in this building, which was almost in the middle of the estate. The parlors, reading room, reception rooms, general assembly hall, dining room, capable of seating over three hun- dred people, kitchen and bakery, were c arefully planned for a common^use- By the staircase leading fromTEemain hall — which was at the left of the centre of the building — there was access to a corridor-like piazza which extended along the entire front of the house. From this piazza opened seven doors leading to as many suites, each containing a parlor and three bed- rooms. The third floor was arranged in the same way, and the attic was divided into single rooms. The building was of wood and 1 75 feet long. T hus the larger families, whose members "had been scattered by reason of the crowded condition of the other houses, could be insured / a secluded family l ife, and such rooms in the older buildings as were in use for other than, living purposes might be available for this legit- imate need. The work went on very slowly, however, and by the time that it was necessary to stop work for the season, only the foundation walls had been laid and the first floor boarded. Some progress was made during the spring and sum- mer of 184s, but the hope of occupying the hous6 in the fall of that year had to be reluctantly aban- THE BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 37 doned. By the dawn of another spring, however, \ enough money had come in to stay the falling \ courage of the Directors. On Saturday, Febru- ary 28, i846,J;he carpenters put up a stove in the basement of the building, in order to dry it sufficiently to make work safe, and a fire was kindled there on Tuesday, March 3, in ignorance | of a faultily constructed chimney. That night / a dance was given at the Hive to celebrate what | looked like the approaching fruition of hope } | but the gayety was hardly well begun when the 1 cry came that the Phalanstery was on fire. L Treated at first as a joke, the gravity of the i announcement speedily became evident, and the j Associates rushed out to watch t heir own eclipg g — compl ete and fina l. j The Phala nstery was not modelled closely after the unitary edifice of a I ^hala nxTand like other features of the change, was only a compromise with Fourier's original theories. TFaccorded, however, with the general plans of the Associa* tion, and great hopes were entertained of it, Except for the severe financial blow. Brook Farm had suffered no loss by reason of sent i- mental associations with the building, and the status was exacEl}ras before. NonebF the usual ftlti cHons were suspende d, and every attempt was made to ignore, if possible, the seriousness | of the situation. Minor dissensions were lulled; by the common misfortune, and if bravery and| 38 BROOK FARM a common spirit of resolve could have raised success from disaster, the fire might have proved a blessing. When the excitement had_passed, however, there'was a frank recognitio n of t he meaMlHg of^tTie calamity^ "Letters of sympathy and some substantial assistance came, but there was no evading the problems before the Associ- ' ation. For_ong(Eu.at least,, ia-its_brieL career, Jiook Farm was^ obliged to recdw and acknowledge gratefully the crude agency of a civilization wHcH" it' affected, playfully,'30 doubt, toISl- spise! The "snow-covered ground threw back the reflection of the blaze, and the glow was visi- ble for miles. Aid came from all sides, and " civilis6es " worked to extinguish the flames, as if the cause were sacred to themselves. The de- struction, however, was soon complete, and there was nothing left to do but to invite those who had fought the fire to share the morning's break- fast, just ready from the baker's oven. While these courtesies were going forward, George Ripley thanked those who had helped him and his associates. With that courage peculiarly his own, — never so buoyant as during the hard- est stress, — he assured the firemen that their ' visit was so unexpected that he could only regret i that Brook Farm was not better prepared to 1 give them a " worthier if not a warmer recep- ^tion." It is recorded that no one seems to have THE BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 39 labored more energetically to quell the flames than neighbor Orange, who, though ironically silent at festivities in the grove, gave his honest strength in the hour of misfortune. He would have little understood the submissiveness of Dwight's sister, who wrote of the event : " I was calm — felt that it was the work of Heaven and was good." The sentimental character of some of the members was brought out by the burning of the Phalanstery, as it so often was by lesser provocations, and an aesthetic appreciation of thespene was not allowed to languish, rxbfe- Association had been in existence for just five years. In that time it had built or bought three houses , besides making substanti al additions to the original hou se ; it had con- structed a workshop and a g reenhous e : it had beautified and cultivated a la rggj, tract .of ..land ; and it had nearly finished a huge Phalanstery, , sevenf^ve |>er^ l-£:r\tjyi__the cost pf _-«shi ch j had been paid. In view of the small capital witn wmcn Bhe project started, this does not seem a particularly meagre record of achieve- ment/J -Tli e Ci ty of Roxbury had used the Hive for an almshouse only about a year w hen it burned down, the barn sharing its fate. The present Lutheran°Home was"lraiseTom part of the old foundations of the Hive, and its printirig-ofifice stands near by. The Eyrie and the Pilgrim 40 BROOK FARM House have since fallen victims either to flames or to weather ; but the workshop is said to form a part of the ann ex to the present Asyl um. From f S^^TiTto July 8, 1 86 1, the Second Massachu- setts Infantry, under Colonel (afterward Gen- eral) George H. Gordon, was quartered in what was known as Camp Andrew, ike camp occu- pying the slope now given over to the graveyard ; the regiment found on the estate a parade ground large enough for the evolutions of a thousand men — Brook Farm's best crop, according to the mot of Dr. James Freeman Clarke, who was at that time its owner, y Criie industries relied upon to furnish The Industries .X^ . .TT" ?! n ^i a ■ 4.- , the visible profits of the Association were many. It was expected that returns from these sources would materially supplement the receipts from new members who should come with prop- erty, from outsiders who should take up the stock of the Association as an investment, and from pupils and_ other boarders — the founders hav- ing placed their chief dependence on these three means of revenue during the period of development. How wide their expectations shot of the mark, except in the case of the school, has been brought out; and it remains to show the strenuous attempts to make good an ^Eonie~ih other directionsN During the first two year-settle was vunder- taliin beyond increasing the tillage of the farm THE INDUSTRIES 41 — 2a._jyffii;ult_ and --G2stlx__£roces§. Although there was a large output of hay, it was not of a prime quality, and did not, therefore, bring high prices. Vegetables, fruit, and milk were marketable products, but much of the time the need of the Association itself for these articles was in excess of the supply. Dr. Codman is i nclined to think that the time-limit of „w,ork Jn s ummer to ten, hours, was unwise — that dur- ing the haying and harvesting season there were many days when it would have been an economy to disregard such a regulation ; but this was one of the few cases in which^ Ripley sacrificed the f uture to the present. In order to lay down new land, it was necessary either to plough up some of the grass land or to clear waste land of underbrush and bushes, and then to enrich it ^11 to the point of productive- ness. There were always two barriers which checked development along this line — want of men and waMof jimnure. The farm could not supply the latter in sufficient quantities, and to buy liberally would have been beyond its purse. In dull seasons, it was considered prudent to dig muck, which, though serviceable, was not wholly satisfactory. When t he nursery was decided upon, the community laid a heavy bur- den on itself, for, besides the cost of buying a multitude of young trees and seedlings, the necessary transplanting, budding, and grafting 42 BROOK FARM had to be done by a man trained to the work. For evident reasons, too, it was thought well to keep the grounds in good order ; and doubtless this was indirectly a sound policy, although circumstances conspired to make it ineffective. The flower garde n was perhaps the most dis- heartening failure, for after a very careful prep- aration, it was found that the natural soiLwas quite unsuite d.£Q.^LhLe purpose, and that p roper fertilization was outof_the^question. The green- h^se, too, had not begun to pay its waywheh"" the Association dissolved. It had required the attention of two men, whose services might other- wise have been utilized in more profitable chan- nels, and the fuel for winter added a large item to the expense account. There is^Httle doubt that these .things. would,_have paid in the cojjrse of time and^ thaLlha embarxassment whighjhe^ Boaj3 of Direction suffered was attributable to lack of capital rather .t|i.an.-to-4ack of. skill,La£^ though, in default of funds, more^skilT'would have enlivened the prospect. As it^asTthe added fertility of the farm benefited only those into whose possession it came later. Few agricultural implements suitable for use on such uneven ground were then obtainable, and Dr. Codman asserts that not until the third or fourth year was it thought prudent to buy a horse-rake ; this and a seed-drill, taken on trial, were the only modern implements used. A THE INDUSTRIES 43 peat meadow, lying near the river, was one of the pleasantest spots in which to work, and several of the Associates were glad to turn in this direction when they could be spared from mope pressing duties. ^As the Community drew to itself a greater and gre3lerTraTrety"trrlndividudsrfhe trades at whictothey had" preyiously-worked were gradually introduced, until carpenters, printers, and shoe-| makers were at work, and the manufacture of] Britannia ware^d of doors, sasTiesTahd bliiTdsf was established The Shoe-making Group was of" g(Jod"-siZ*er consisting, probably, ofeight or ternneir"m" the latter days; but they were seldom overworked, although such sales as they made were fairly profitable. Britannia- ware lamps and coffee-pots did not find a ready market. T lie pr inters expenjed their time, for th e most p^ . oa~We' Harbinger, and the car- penters found ample employment on the estate. The s ash and blihdrlSus mgss"ought to have been remu nerative, Tor it jg as in the hand s of George Hatehji an excee^ nglxjgapablejmaju. iuit- lack of cap ital was particularly disastrou^Jtojthj^in- dus.tcy. Lumber could not be bought in large quantities ; furthermore, it could not be kept on hand long enough to become properly dried, and the vexation of customers whose doors shrank was great and justifiable. AJonnjdable^ obstacj g to prosperi ty was the distajice oj ;the- 44 BROOK FARM farm from itsjnarket. It was nine miles from Boston and four from the nearest railro ad station^^ now Forest Hills, and all the stock for manu- facturing purposes, as well as family stores, coal, and manure, had to be transported by teams, while the manufactured goods and farm produce must go back over the same ground to be sold. This usually kept two wagons and two men on the road all the ti me, and dimi nished by j ust_so m uch tIi e"productive strength of the Community. The later organization of these"!4n3u^ies under the Phalanx is outlined in the second constitution : " The department of Industry shrall be managed in groups and series as far ^s is practicable, and shall consist of three pri- ,mary series, to wit : Agricultural, Mechanical, and Domestic Industry. The chief of each group to be elected weekly, and the chief of each series once in two months by the members thereof, subject to the approval of the General Direction." " New groups and series may be formed from time to time for the prosecution of different and new branches of industry." A group consisted of three or more persons doing the same kind of work, although it seems not to have been permissible to use any but " har- monic numbers" in making up a group. Three, five, seven^ or twelve peo ple might combing to form a. group, but not f our, siXj_or eight. _ This was, of course, stark lunacy. In a, Farming THE INDUSTRIES 45 Series of goodly proportions there would be a Planting Group, a Ploughing Group, a Hoeing Group, a Weeding Group, in the fields ; a Cattle Group and a Milking Group, in the barn; a Nursery Group and a Greenhouse Group, in their usual places. The Mechanical Series in- cluded the manufacturing industries already named, and the Domestic Series was subdivided into Dormitory, Consistory, Kitchen, Washing, Ironing and Mending Groups. The Teaching Group was associated with no series ; the com- mercial agents of the Association were detached personages, and so wei;e the members of the "Sacred Legion," who volunteered to perform any peculiarly odious tasks. There was also a convenient Miscellaneous Group, the name of which indicated its duties. Great stress was laid on the interchangeab le- ness of thfj'. pft ^Q cnipatinnsrVTf a^carpenter's work was'slack, or he was temporarily weary of carpentering, he could exchange his plane for a scythe, or a hoe, or a milk-pail at any tinig:^^ This presuppose d an unwonted versatili ty, miich was more hkely to show itself within the groups of the Domestic Series than elsewhere. The "chief" of each group kept a carefully tabu- lated account of the work done by each member of his group, regular or "visiting," and at the end of the season it was possible to make accu- rate returns of the number of hours applied to 46 BROOK FARM the prosecution of each industry. Mr. Ripley was of the opinion that this arrangement se- cured " more personal freedom and a wider sphere for its exercise ; " and that there was " a more constant demand for the exercise of all the faculties." It is possible that the waste of time which was incurred.by this system w as off setjjy t he waste of nervou s energy which is undoubt- edly occasioned by the fricti on of competitive life. George Bradford has said that many hours were lost through lack of any definite school programme; for it frequently happened th at a teacher wh o was digging on the farm would lea ve his wo rk to meet an engagement with a pupil ; but the pupil, being absorbed in the pursuit of woodchucks, would either forget his appointment altogether, or put in an appear- ance an hour late. It is also plain that undue time and prominence was given to the matter of elections. Each group was to elect a " chief " every week, and once in two months all the " chiefs " of the same series were to meet and choose a "chief" for that series. This was only one of the badges of mental vulgarity which Fourierism wore. It left out of the account all questions of fitness for leadership, and dwelt on the baser desire for notoriety or conspicuousness as opposed to merit. It may have been a preventive of jealousy, although that is doubtful. Indeed, since Fourierism THE HOUSEHOLD WORK 47 made a ritual of organization, only limited, minds could accept it for any length of time. The Transcendental Brethren of the Common Life had it well in mind not j^^j^ .y^"^^' only to think together, though not certainly alike, to drudge with a holy and equal zeal, no matter how humble or how high the diverse tasks, but to give the theory of Association the sharp test of a communal table and to elevate domestic service to noble conditions. If, during the years of trial, there were grumblings over necessary economies of fare, there was hardly '■■'•'■■■" a note of shirking or dissatisfaction among those who humbly yet proudly served. " Na- thaniel Hawthorne, Ploughman," in his first enthusiasm wrote to his sister : " The whole j fraternity eat together, and such a delectable way of life has never been seen on earth since I the days of the early Christians. We get up at \ half-past six, dine at half-past twelve, and go to i bed at nine." This seraphic content died soon ; in the heart of the romantic ploughman, but the \ health and joy born of simple food and unpre- ; tending equality satisfied the Brook Farmers so 1 well that they varied little the household plan \ with which they began. "Our food was very 1 plain, but good," says Miss Russell; but she adds that fresh meat was not always to be had. On Sundays, beans and pork were furnished, not only in accordance with local tradition, but also 48 BKUUK liAKM. as a luxury befitting the day and in recogni- tion of that occasional orgy which a latter day English Socialist holds to be a necessity of hu- man life. Pandowdy is mentioned by one writer as a delicacy, while Miss Russell speaks with feeling of brewis — a dish now passing into undeserved neglect, but once in New England of great repute. ^Te mperance in fo od was the rule ; in regard to drink, it was a matter of principle^ The close union of the school and the Association would have invited hostility toward even the most restricted use of wine, beer, or spirits. When the evil days began, there was retrenchment in the cost of living as in other ways. The use of coffee was modi- fied, and the quality of butter noticeably fell. Such details speedily aroused the attention of outsiders, but there is evidence that the Brook Farmers took their hardships in the same buoyant spirit in which they entered the ex- periment as a wholej]!> Radical in many ways these reformers cer- tainly were ; they often contravened social habits, and roused unfeigned astonishment and amusement in persons of discretion and solid worth. But they were not Bohemians, and had few of the proclivities of that agreeable and undeterminable fellowship. Even tobacco, that constant solacement to those at odds with re-- spectability, was in little vogue. One woman THE HOUSEHOLD WORK 49 says that this indulgence was held in such con- tempt by the socially dominant sex that no man essayed the practice of it; but there were at least three smokers — Baldwin, Pallisse, the engineer, and Kleinstrup, the gardener, whose vain efforts to abjure his shame have been sympathetically pictured by a fellow worker. Simple as the dietary was, there were in this hive of oddities some who went even yet further from the world's ways of eating. There was a Graham table, at which sat vegetarians, who- were for eating no flesh while the world stood, and who even denied themselves tea and coffee. It was an era of cold water and unbolted flour. It was not so much a question what to eat as what not to eat. Einerson, it is remem- bered , decided.jifltjto inyit e Ch arles Lane to" sit at his Thanksgiving board lest that over-princi- pled copartner of Alc ot t should make an , occa- sion f or^ethical improvement over the turkey. The vegetarians had a fair chance at Brook Farm to test the comparative value of their faith; and it is known that they stood well with their associates for endurance, persistence, and general good health. This relatively equal footing may, however, have been due to the in- voluntary continence of those who chose a wider but at best a very unpretentious menu. It has been said that it was the custom to put a cent down by one's plate for each cup of tea ordered ; 50 BROOK FARM but whether the rule held for all, or only for visitors, it is not possible to say. The usual duties were mainly d ischarged^ by t he young women, n o atternptbeing mad e to fo ist 0J^i,hS^mm.Ja&ksJbm2£iJ^L- exp^i'i?^ce_or knowledge. As volunteers and gallant aids to tTieTousehold brigade the men were, however, welcome, and made themselves useful and possi- bly attractive. They were of special service in the laundry, where the pounding, wringing, and hanging out of clothes was a severe test of mus- cular strength, since there were_^no mechanical adjuncts to this department. Appliances to re- duce the irksomeness of the trivial round were few ; a pump was the main dependence for water, and duly appointed carriers visited daily each house and supplied the empty pitchers, sometimes attended, in stormy weather, by a youth who carried an umbrella. Curtis occa- sionally trimmed lamps, and Dana organized a band of griddle-cake servitors composed of " four of the most elegant youths of the Community." One legend, which has the air of probability, deposes that a^ st udent_ conf essed_ his^ passion while helping his sweetheart at the jmk. On washing-day evenings offers of help in folding the clothes were never rejected, and the work went fast and gayly. Similar gatherings pre- pared vegetables for the market in the barn on summer evenings; and while chivalry and the THE HOUSEHOLD WORK 5 1 ardor of youth went far toward lightening these household tasks, the young men had to exerl themselves to hold an even pace with the sex permanently skilled in deftness. The excess of young men in point of numbers over the young women is partly responsible for their large share in these domestic labors, and a desire to free the young women for participation in some further scheme of entertainment was not seldom a mo- tive power. It would be too much to expect that this ecstatic fervor should be constantly maintained, but during the earlier years the men certainly discharged well and with commend- able patience their moiety. Visitors were amused at the "fanaticism ex- hibited by well-bred women scrubbing floors and scraping plates, and of scholars and gentle- men hoeing potatoes and cleaning out stables, ^ and particularly at the general air of cheerful engrossment apparent throughout." Monotony t here must have bp^n, and often, hut it j,s the testimorr^_ofj,U w^ql have..^^^^^ that the , real marvel was that so muQh variety and^good^pirits were introduced. Little sympathy was needed for'the well-bred women and the scholars, be- cause as soon as was practicable, special ca- pacity was developed and youthful training for particular service was made available. Miss Russell says, "I was early taught to clear starch," and "offered to make up the muslins 52 BROOK FARM of all on the place who wore them," / Muslins were certainly a luxury from a comm mrat^oint of view, and perhaps, like other futilities and un- necessary details, were not encouraged. There were no curtains, and no carpets except on one or two of the " best roomiTH In the beginning thereTiaa been a hired cook, but when economy became imperative, one of the women associates offered to undertake this trying duty, and in spite of unsmothered growl- ing over her efforts at retrenchment, she ad- hered to her chosen post and to her policy usque ad finem. Peter Baldwin — the "General"- — filled the important r61e of baker, thus reducing to a minimum the demands upon the cook. Emerson, who never refers t o Brook Jarm without conveying to the finest sense the assur- ance t hat some"~one" is laughing behind the shru bbery , notes the disintegrating tendency of these harmonious souls, when he says : " The country members naturally were surprised to observe that one nmn ploughe^^airday, and pn& looked out of the window all day — and per- haps drew his picture, and both received^ at night the same wages." At its fullest, life there had few complexities^ but it strove to spread beyond the bounds of the few acres of the farm. Some of the women saw possibilities of introducing leaven into the eventless farm life of the near neighborhood, THE AMUSEMENTS AND CUSTOMS 53 and of showing the good wives about them that the commonplaces of milking, churning, and the preparation of coarse fare could become glorious by the gospel of Brook Farm. Alarmed already at neighbor Orange's innate fondness for butch- ering, and wishing to spread softening influ- ences, two Sisters of the Transcendental chari ty calle d on the tamily of a farmer hard by "-vyhQse spirit level was soft-soapTraginats, tallow-di ps, ana patc h- work quilts. Defeat was swi ft and i nevitable, and a decision was born of the futile experiment that women's time is largely wasted in unprofitable " social life." The amelioration of the human lot was not the only quest ; if it was not possible to indoc- trinate farmers' wives, there were still left the dumb beasts, conservative to be sure, but docile and perhaps open to conviction. /Domestic hy- giene met with a sharp rebuff when a plan to raise calves on hay-tea was set in operation. This attempt to dispense with the maternal o ffice of tiie cow proved fatal to the particular calf selected for the experiment . ] Ripley is said to have >yorn an air of ill-conceaded guilt during the decline and f alFof this well-intentioned theory. \ EhjoymenF was afmost from the first The Amuse- a ggrious pursuit ^ the" c ommunity. ~Tt custoiM formed a part of the/SSo-iculum and was a daily habit of lifeT)5Jne few disaffected in- dividuals who held aloof threw no continuing 54 BROOK FARM chill on the main body of youth and good spirits, though one may suppose that Charles Newcomb, who played successfully at aesthetic Catholicism, was something of a blight at times, and that the occasional appearance of the contentious Brownson was no signal for mirth. Emerson has given the lasting impres sion that Broo k Farm was a continuous fite champitre ; he has even stated^eciffcallyntfiat aFlKelmien danced in the evening, clothespins dropped from their pockets. Legendary as this no doubt is, it ex- presses well the outsider's conviction that merri- ment reigned at Brook Farm. The wholesomeness of the life has never been seriously called in question, and nothing bears weightier testimony to its sanity than the simple and spontaneous character of the sports which found acceptance. Out-of-door life was a pas- sion which, like all noble passions, absorbed into itself many less worthy emotions, and lifted very ordinary amusements out of the sphere of the commonplace. Even the uncommendable habit of pu nning, by which the eAtire community, led by the arch-punster Ripley, was at times in- fected, may perHaps be^xplained as one of the forms of effervescence induced by superabun- dant oxygen . — ™— ~™™ , After meals, in the evening, and when it was possible to be in the open air, the Associates made happiness a duty, and their high courage THE AMUSEMENTS AND CUSTOMS 55 held them to harmless fun when fainter souls would have drooped at the whisperings of evil days ahea^ Ejcpept in the dead of winter, the va- ried acres oithe domain itself, as well as the surrounding country, served as a setting for the animation which the finished labors of the day had set free, and the younger members of the family, especially, walked and picnicked through the outlying regions ; the great boulders form- ing " Eliot's pulpit " invited strolling feet ; there were junketings at Cow Island, boating parties on the Charles River, the beauties of which at and near this part of its course have never had their deserts ; and expeditions were made even to the distant woods surrounding Muddy (now Turtle) Pond, which at that time were felt to be full of mysterious dangers, but which now offer an uninteresting security through the efforts of a paternal state commissio^ <^3^3.ys were naturaHy most favorable for the quieter of these amiable strayings, but church- going was not neglected. Some of the members would go to West Roxbury to hear Parker, while others of more persistent faith and sturdier legs would push on to Boston, where lay a larger field of choice for their unprejudiced t^tesT) Haw- thorne has given the most charming descriptions of the places to be reached by* walking, but in- asmuch as his expeditions were taken on his own account, they lack the humanizing significance 56 BROOK FARM which those of the wandering groups of less seclusive members seemed to have. Although there would be, now and then, dur- ing the winter, a " fancy party," the true revels of this sort were reserved for warm weather, and were held in the still beautiful grove. Dancing was much in vogue, and was enjoyed by all who knew the art. Dr. Codman tells with conscious pride that he has seen five men who had been trained for the ministry engaged in this courtly pastime at one time. The fashion was to dis- pose of the supper dishes with astonishing rap- idity, and then to clear the dining^hall for the evening's pleasure. Youth was at the prow, as usual, but the elders were not discountenanced. Towering above the rest was the figure of " the General " (Baldwin) displaying more vigor than grace, but not less welcome because the room seemed smaller by his presence. Often the dance was less formal even than this, and con- sisted of half a dozen of the younger people who strolled into the Cottage after supper and took turns as players and dancers for an hour or so, dispersing, at the end of that time, to the real call of the evening. If dancing was the froth of their life, conver- "sation was the substance. Dr. Codman says Brook Farm was "rich in cheerful buzz." The talk ran from the heavy polemics, fortunately oc- casional, of Brownson, and the cheerful impetu- THE AMUSEMENTS AND CUSTOMS 57 osity of the high-souled Channing, down to the thinnest sort of punning. To revile this man- ner of jesting is almost as commonplace as to indulge the practice itself ; but if we may trust to friendly memories, the habit was really a fea- ture of the intellectual life. The certainty that the custom was rife would help to estabUsh an impression that some high intelligences are de- void of nice perceptions of wit, as it is evident that they often lack the faintest relish for music or art. To have been present at one of these joyous gatherings, and to have heard the gay sallies, would have softened the hardest objector ; but little thanks are due the painful diarists who have embalmed the persiflage in such a way as to remind one of that sorry humor at the pension in Balzac's " P^e Goriot." Another frank touch of mediocrity was the constant iter- ation of phrases. For a long timeTalter one of Mr. AIcoTFs visits, a pie wa s always cut "fr om the centire~to th e_peri^heix.'l;_j;nd Mrs, jjasye avers that a customary form ula at table was: " Is the butter within the sphere of your influ; . ehce I""' MxiZSislgy declared herself at one Hine"wearjrof " the extravagant moods of the young girls," and "sick of the v ery w ord 'af- finity.' " " jyfnrhrrl .lamiUam " was a frequen t reproach brought against exoteri c civilizat ion. But extravligance was a mood of the era and not of the place. A striking instance of this 58 BROOK FARM excess occurs in an article on Woman, signed "V." and printed in the Present: "Throw your libraries into the streets and sewers on the instant that you find, as you will, all knowledge within yourselves." In stormy weather a favorite diversion was "an impromptu discussion in the Hive parlor. Several subjects were proposed, a vote was taken, and the cfeoice of the majority decided the question to be debated. There is an ac- count by Mrs. Kirby of a well-sustained argu- ment on thS* query : " Is labor in itself i deal, or, being unattractive in character, do we, injeffect, ctoth'eltwith thelpiriFwe' bring To It .''^' ""TTiewiMeFimijiemeSr were varied. Skating took the place of boating, and proved especially alluring to those of Southern birth. Sometimes a party, including the children and elders as well as the young men and women, would visit the river with sleds and skates, and maturity and youth would run a very even race for the prize of pleasure. Coasting was not neglected, although the opportunities for its indulgence were meagre. One of the few accidents which have been thought serious enough to be remem- beied resulted from one of these revels. I There was naturally much in-door recreation durmg the winter. Literary societies and read- ing clubs flourished ; Shakespeare received due attention, and the readings in connection with THE AMUSEMENTS AND CUSTOMS 59 the study accorded him were enlivened by occa- sional happenings not recorded in the text, as in the case of a failure of one of the best readers to give a satisfactory rendering of Romeo for the inartistic reason that the Juliet did not suit his taste. /^ Cornelia Ha ll, who boarded for periodgM varyin g length at the ..Farnu, used t o give rem arkable dramatis„j:£adiDgSr- which attracted attenti£in_ji^oin„ the_.. (M;iJ§Mfi..».«Qrld. Father Taylor esteemed it a high privilegg^to g o"ou't' 'fe'TiTar ne Fr^dJ;he 'l^.Rcient, Mariner," On Sunday afternoons, during the earlier years, Ripley elucidated Kant and Spinoza to those J. J _ , , iii-.iiHi 1 ■■■■mill WIMM I ■iiimfa-irlTI II ■ II — , r ^TTivr; -r-.! .-~ who cared to listen, and there were often lee- — ^' ■■— I— ■■■■I ■! !■■ I 1 IT*"™' ' tures by such gifted friends of the community as Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Alcott, Brisbane, and Channing. George Bradford and Mrs. Rip- ley were members of a class which read, with- out an instructor, the greater part of Dante's " Divina Commedia " in the original, the stu- dents reading aloud in turn. In summer this coterie held its meetings out of doors. No seri- ' ous intellectual work engaged the community as such, even in its first freshness ; most of the people were too young, life was too radiant, and the daily routine was sufficiently exhausting to make the hours of recreation welcome. A con- sociation of mental effort could hardly expect to accomplish the highest results — these are for the lonely and strenuous individual. (50 BROOK FARM Linpromgtu tableaux, dialogues, and charades were in good repute, but the best talent of the Association found expression in an occasional play, sometimes of the most ambitious character. Good material for acting e xisted, althou'gh nq one in later life seems to have develo ped hi s or her capacities in the direction of the stage. Whenever an elaborate dramatic entertainment was taken in hand by the Amusement Group, the lower floor of the workshop was called into service in place of- the Hive dining room. In the shop, Chiswell, one of the carpenters, had built a portable stage which could be set up for rehearsals and removed afterward with very little trouble. Dr. Codman gives an account of the attempt instigated by John Glover Drew, an ardent admirer of Byron, to produce scenes from the " Corsair " — an effort which the com- munity and the visitors from the neighboring vil- lage frankly set down as a melancholy failure. Sheridan's " Pizarro," too, was undertaken, and much merriment was caused by Rolla's fall under a shot which was fired several minutes after he had been disabled by it. The visitors, including Parker, on this occasion, gently with- drew long before the play was over, and the Associates had the good sense to accept this courteous hint that they were not at their best in this field of histrionics. Card-playing never "seems to have kindled a THE AMUSEMENTS AND CUSTOMS 6 1 wide interest, though Codman speaks of " con- chas and euchre," for which Baldwin had a pas- sion. A story is extant of a "Hive" youth who was discovered by Dana, a firm disciplinarian, playing whist at the Cottage after ten o'clock (the hour at which the pupils were expected to be in their own rooms). " And how do you expect, sir, to enter the house, when you know the doors are locked at ten.?" "Oh, I always get in at the pantry window ! " This " early closing" regulation was apparently hard and fast ; but on two occasions it was broken, — at one fancy ball, and at one of Brisbane's lectures. VJ ^sic there was at all timeg > Some of the' Associates had good voices, and musical visitors were common. To have heard those splendid youths, George and Burrill Curtis, sing the " Erl- King " was something to recall with tenderness. The younger brother had a way of amputating the weak or silly words from some old tune, to which he would then add good modern poetry with delightful effect. Two charming women, Mary BuUard and Frances Ostinelli, came to be well known at the Farm, and their graceful compliance with requests for their songs has been gratefully remembered. Fipa^ pces Ostine lli. better kn own as Sig n ora Biscaccian ti. appeared during the first summer after the change. She was then seventeen years old, and possessed a voice of unusual sweetness and strength. It is g2 xJXv\_/\,^^^ X' rxxvivi. said that people living on Spring Street in West Roxbury, three-quarters of a mile away, could hear her singing in the open air. When Christopher Cranch came, the young people were full of glee, for they knew that he could provide many varieties of entertainment, musi- cal and literary. Miss Graupner's piano-playing, too, was heartily sanctioned, and the occasional quartettes which Mr. Dwight imported from Boston gave deep satisfaction. The Hutchinson family, consecrated to the cause of antislavery and temperance, but naturally interested in other phases of social reform, drifted in time to Brook Farm, where everybody was mprcdJDy their per- fect singing of indifferent musng^imich probably seemed less than mediocre to ears and tastes which had been trained by John Dwight. Abby j Hutchinson^ whose na me is a synonym to_mpst of us fo r a scarlet velvet bodice, was only thirteen at this time, and here as ever3rwhere was the centre of much sympathetic interest. This famous group of radicals went forth from their visit much refreshed by what they found, and even sought to turn their own home at Milford, New Hampshire, into a miniature Brook Farm. Partly from necessity, partly from choice, it was customary for the young people to sit on the floor or on the stairs during evening enter- tainments at the Eyrie, and the habit produced THE AMUSEMENTS AND CUSTOMS 63 a variety of comments : George Bradford thought it very pretty; Margaret Fuller found it very annoying. When the washing and wiping of dishes was going on, often the group employed would ease the task by singing "O Canaan, bright Canaan," or " If you get there before I do," or some other secularly religious song, dear to the " Elder Knapp " period. Atten dance at c oncerts and lectures awa y^romJhgJFarm^ was c omparatively of inf requent joccurrence ; there w as so muc h th at was inter;esting, absorbing, a nd high in quality at home, thatjhere was no particular inducement to seek diversion abroad, j Whenever such excursions were taken, the mo- tive was usually something more serious than a search for pleasure. Nothing better evinces the fine zeal of these Brook Farmers — some of them simple folk enough — than their journey- ing to Boston to hear good music, and then walking back a good nine miles under the stars and in the middle of the night, with an early morning's work before them. This same warm interest attached to the Associationist meetings in Boston in which Mr. Ripley usually took a leading part. Antislavery gatherings in Boston and Dedham were attended by large numbers who went in farm wagons. Only one or two of the Association were zealously committed to this cause, but it would have been impossible for so humane a company to remain untouched by the 64 BROOK FARM call for sympathy which was sent up all about them. One woman (Mrs. Leach .-') was so deeply imbued with antisl^very feeling that she dis^ carded the'use»of-tb6 %ien collar until the slave should be paid for his work. It is not quite certain wh&l|her she confounded cotton with flax ; but her reasoning was less direct than that of Charles Lane, who decided that linen was the only fabric which a moral man could conscientiously wear. The use of cotton, he held, must certainly be discouraged because it gave excuse for the employment of slave labor ; and he further argued that in our choice of wool for clothing we rob the sheep of his natu- ral defences. Another Brook Farmer, a woman, scoffed at amenities of "clbtHng by quoting : — "And the garment in which she shines Was woven of many sins ; " but as regards dress the majority of the family, while they sought first comfort and suitability, had a normal regard for the beautiful and artis- tic. When about their work the women wore a short skirt with knickerbockers of the same ma- terial; but when the daily tasks were ended, they attired themselves after the simpler of pre- vailing fashions. There was a fancy for flowing hair and Jbroad Jiats ; and at the "Hive dances ^^re^ might be seen wreatlis woven ffoni some THE AMUSEMENTS AND CUSTOMS 6$ of the delicate wild vines and b erries found in the woods, twined in waving locks. It is said that the motive'"oFecbnomy was re- sponsible for the adoption, by the men, of the tunic in place of the " old-world coat." This favorite garment was sometimes of brown hol- land, but often blue, and was held in place by a black belt; and for great festivals some of the more fortunate youths possessed black vel- vet tunics. Such an unusual article of raiment excited as much dismay in the outer world as the idiosyncrasies of other reformers, and has been described as a compromise between the blouse of a Paris workman and the peignoir of a possible sister. Colonel Higginson speaks of the " picturesque little vizorless caps " worn by the young men as being " exquisitely unfitted for horny-handed tillers of the soil." Econom y >; of labor may have been accountable for the un- s horn fac e, but the beard~was certamly in high favor at Brook Farm, and a predilection_ for long hair"was also_ curren t. One of the resi- dents, probably Burrill Curtis, who had been a model for a portrait of Christ, is described by Mrs. Kirby as a "charming feature in the land- scape," while the quality of his temper was attested by the serenity which he showed when stoned by some boys on a pier for daring to leave his hair undipped in the presence of wharf rats and other good tories. 66 BROOK FARM Miss Russell was at first conscious of a sense of "tKe^Tu^crousness of the place, but found that this "soon wore away ; on the whole, ex- cepting' always the jejune eftect of over-enth u- siasm, there was singularly little display of bad oinha'ccurate' taste7~ There may have been ex- aggerations, but there was no loudness. The radicalism of the Farm was as little offensive as that of Edmund Quincy and Samuel Sewall in their sympathy with the antislavery movement. It tended toward beauty in appearance, action, and thought. The pose of arrogance toward "civilis^es" betrayed a slight lack of humor — a common deficiency in reformers — and a little dulness of perception ; but the balance of good manners was restored by a more considerate tone toward the socially less favored. A theo- retical equality never seems to have entered anybody's head. " T he syirib ol of . universal unity" was made on a numBeirof solemn occasions, — as at John Orvis's marriage to Marianne Dwight, and at the close of one of Channing's sermons in the grove. The entire company would_ rise, jfl^n hands, thus forming a circle, and vow truth to the cause of God ancf, humanity." One such ou^ouring of emotional sincerity, which oc- curred after four years of community life, attests the solid basis of an expression of feeling which earlier might have seemed hysterical. THE AMUSEMENTS AND CUSTOMS 67 It_is always to the credit of a reformer that he is willing to look into schemes proposed by other reformers, and Brook Farm was liberality itself toward new ideas outside its own field. The water-cure and the starving-cure both received due attention at the hands of some of the members of the household?) Mrs. Kirby's account of the treatment at a cold-water cure a few miles from Brook Farm is vivid, but not alluring. Thirteen barrels of ice-cold water were yielded up daily by a natural spring, and this supply was dammed until a patient was ready for it. Then the sluices were opened and the water allowed to pour down an inclined plane and fall a distance of twenty-five feet upon the back of the shuddering victim. The sensation is said to have been that of pounding by glass balls. "Umschlag," or wet bandaging, was a treatment reserved for the following day. Strict prohibition was put on visits to the Farm in the intervals between douches, for the' reason that all excitement must be avoided, ,in order that the cure might be efficient. The starving-cure had an ardent follower in a young Hungarian, Count G (possibly Gurowski though not probably), who, for a time, shared the fortunes of the Farm ; but the simple menu of the community removed any pressing need for the general application of this treatment. Of sport, in the restricted and technical sense,) 68 BROOK FARM there is no record. People who felt doubts of the moral character of their butcher, simply be- cause he was a butcher, could not take kindly to hunting, and probably not even to fishing. Dr. Codman says : " I do not remember ever seeing a gun on the place ; " and the chances are that the woods about the Farm and the quiet waters of the Charles held undisturbed the life within them. CHAPTER III THE SCHOOL AND ITS SCHOLARS ,TgE most immediate and at times the only source of income was tfie scfi6ol7 the estabHsh- ment and maintenance of which always held a conspicuous place in this schemeO^he tran- scendental philosophy could not well avoid laying particular stress on intellectual develop- rnentan3~culture, iLnHTKe'student life of the farm was animated by a pervasive enthusiasm and held to an unvarying standard. In certain particulars the educational policy was ideally good, proceeding as it did on the theory that perfect freedom of intercourse between students and a teaching body of men and women whose moral attainments were not distanced by their mental accomplishments, could not fail to justify itself. During the first two years « the chief disciplinary measures consisted in the attempti- to arouse a sense of personal responsibility, and to communicate a passion for intellectual work. There were no study-hours. Each pupil studied when and where he would, and recitations for the older students were distributed through the latter part of the dayT-^/TE) 70 UKUUJS. TARiVl The farm was always short of "hands," but there was never any lack of heads in the De- partment of Instruction — an incidental testi- mony to the superiority of the Association's brainpower as compared with its muscular abil- ity. (There was an infant school for children undergix"; a primary school for those under ten ; and children whose purpose it was to take the regular course of study laid down by the institu- tion were placed in the preparatory sgJiQol, which fitted youths for college in six year^!5f5rOtherwise the studies were elective. There was also a course in theoretical and practical agriculture, which covered three years, and which was in charge of John S. Brown. It was understood that each pupil should give an hour or two each day to some form of manual labor — a require- ment that met with disfavor from some, at first ; but resentment quickly gave place to interest, if not to devotion, and an outsider usually found it impossible to distinguish between the mem- bers and the pupils of the Association in the matter of attachment to the causeA One of the commonest avocations for the Hoyr^was hoeing, and the girls helped at dish-washing and other of the lighter household tasks. Much stress is laid on the quality of the class-room work in consequence of the wholesome physical condi- tion produced by this unique environment. On the other hand, it is not to be denied that some THE SCHOOL AND ITS SCHOLARS 7 1 of the pupils who worked eight or ten hours a day, as an equivalent for board and instruction, and studied hard besides, met with the usual fate of those who ignore physiological laws. Much of the boisterousness of youth was lack- ing ; partly because many of the usual artificial conditions against which boisterousness is a nat- ural protest were absent, and partly because all but the youngest realized something of the seri- ousness of the purpose which underlay the undertaking. Laughter and merriment there were, in large measure, but few outbursts of wild hilarity or uncontrolled animal spirits. Mrs. Kirby says that the Farmjwa^^a_"^grand place^or children. "_ They were qujsk ..to, feel t TiF~s ympathetic ^toest__ in_ Jheii-, pleasure aijid work , and they too were affected by the general sense of freedom. One of the teachers in the infant school declined at first to accept this duty, on the ground that it was unwise to subject a young child to restraints for which he felt an instinctive and healthy dislike, such as sitting still and learning the primer. Mrs. Kirby and Miss Abby Morton both gave efficient service in this section of the school, which was reor- ganized under a stricter discipline when the Fourier movement took possession of the place. Miss Marianne Ripley presided over the primary department, and had with her in the 72 BROOK FARM Nest the two sons of George Bancroft, George and John; the two Spanish boys from Manila, Lucas and Jos6 Corrales; and James_Lloyd Fuller, the youngest brother^ of Margaret Fuller. _^he latter had no intention of re- maining a neglected genius, and it is recorded of him that he kept a diary ^which^it would be absurd to^call private^ since it was his habit to tear out pages and leave them about so that the objects of his displeasure could not well^^ avoid finding them. _ The curriculum of the preparatory school had always included such branches as Latin, Italian, German, moral philosophy, and the English classics ; but the advent of many young men for the special purpose of study made it necessary to introduce Greek, mathematics, and other advanced courses. There were students from Manila, Havana, Florida, and Cambridge — for Harvard College indicated Brook Farm as a fitting resort for young men whose conse- cration to extra-collegiate interests rendered them°°'subiects for temporary seclusion, and preferably a country life. Reasonably enough, perhaps, botany was exceedingly popular with those who were feeling their first real contact with natural beauty ; and since the neighbor- hood provided liberally in the way of specimens, there was every excuse for rambles to wood and river. /Mr. Ripley taught mathematics and THE SCHOOL AND ITS SCHOLARS 73 philosophy, using Cousin as a text-book in his philosophy classes. MirsT Ripley was respon- sible foFimbuing many minds with a taste for history and modern languagesp She had the power to transmit her own intoisity of interest to most of those whom she instructed, and she inspired in them a genuine fervor for culture. / iDana's classes were in Greek and Germa^ the. latter being full of pupils who yearned not only to discover the beauties of German literature, but who admired the rather severe methods which the scholarly young tutor introduced. The shame of the youth who entered Dana's class- room with an unlearned lesson differed in qual- ity from that which he felt in other class-rooms under the same circumstances. (The teaching of music a^\ Latin fell to the lot of John S>^,^ Dwight ;'^ji_3"e former he was assisted by his sister Frances, and in the latter by his sister Marianne. So penetrating an influence was his musical instruction that there has been no oc- casion to consider his merit as a Latin teacher, although it seems just to believe that if he had done anything extraordinarily good or bad in this department, somebody would have noted it. A class in singing was started ; the masses of Haydn and Mozart were gradually taken up ; and in instrumental music the standard from the beginning was high. Music was not the only art which was encouraged. Miss Hannah 74 BROOK FARM B. Ripley, a niece of George Ripley, taught drawing, and Miss Amelia Russell, who com- municated life to the Association in many ways, gave lessons in dancing, which one suspects to have been much in demand\ The department of belles-lettres was coiifiHed to George P. Bradford, a graduate of Harvard and a man of much cultivation and charmT^His endeavors in behalf of unprofitable knowledge could not have been arduous among these " unworldlings." At the end of the second year there were in the school thirty boys and girls, whose fathers and mothers believed with Mr. Fuller that it was a good thing to send children where they " would learn for the first time, perhaps, that all these matters of creed and morals are not quite so well settled as to make thinking nowadays a. piece of supererogation, and would learn to dis- tinguish between truth and the ' sense sublime,' and the dead dogma of the past." This was a rare demand on a secondary school, and rarer still was the disposition to meet it; but for this very reason the school could never have been popular. The wonder is not that this part of the institution declined under the later attacks- of the press against Fourierism, but that it so long held its prestige. While it is manifestly impossible to gage the intellectual impetus referable to the Brook Farm school, it is equally impossible to ignore it in the face of much direct testimony THE SCHOOL AND ITS SCHOLARS 75 and in view of the honorable career and high character of many of its students. A son of Orestes A. Brownson was there; Miss Deborah Gannett, a niece of Ezra S. Gannett, familiarly known as Ora, who was notable for having dared to tease Hawthorne, and who afterward became the wife of Charles B. Sedgwick of Syracuse; Miss Caroline A. Kittredge, afterward married to James Theo- dore Allen of West Newton; Miss Sarah F. Stearns, a niece of Mrs. Ripley, who was also a member of the Association, and who became a Roman Catholic and entered a con- vent; Miss Annie M. Salisbury, who has pub- lished a little pamphlet on Brook Farm ; Horace Sumner, a younger brother of Charles Sumner^ ^^ a^deScateryotrthprf^SftntelTectual f o'rHt^^ hiFBrotESslind^sisters, -^ whose admirationlfor lilafgaret Fuller led him to join her later in Eiirope, whither he had goiie in quest of health, and who, returning with the Ossolis on the doomed Elizabeth, met his death with them, — these were all there at one time or another. One young woman who was a pupil-teacher, and who should be especially considered, was Georgianna Bruce, afterward Mrs. Kirby, and quoted throughout this book under that name. She was about twenty-two years old when she went to Brook Farm on the agreement that she was to work eight hours a day for board and 76 BROOK FARM instruction. She had with her there a brother, fourteen years of age, who was also received as a pupil-worker. Her first duties were ironing on certain days, preparing vegetables for dinner every day, and helping to " wash up " after supper. At the end of a year she was admitted as a bona fide member of the Association, when it included only a dozen people. She was an English girl of reputable but somewhat humble birth. She early found that she had her own living to earn, and this she contrived to do in many and eventful ways. She had great vi- vacity, some sentimentality, and a disposition which might have been peppery had she not possessed sufficient discretion to control herself. After an experience in England and America, well calculated to develop her natural strength of character, she found herself in the family of Dr. Ezra Stiles Gannett, the Unitarian clergy- man of Boston, as a sort of nursery governess. Imperfectly educated, she did not lack ambition, and was constantly seeking to improve herself. Her "Years of Experience" contain some lively chapters on Brook Farm, for she observed shrewdly, although she was not unappreciative, and she often does justice to her surroundings. In 1871 and 1872 she contributed several un- signed papers entitled " Reminiscences of Brook Farm" to Old and New. The narrative must not be taken too seriously, although it and her THE SCHOOL AND ITS SCHOLARS TJ book have furnished a good share of the ma- terial usually drawn upon. She felt compelled to disguise real personages, and "in one or two instances to combine one character with another." This license and some palpable errors into which her imperfect recollection of things long past betrayed her, give almost the effect of a fictitious narrative. In view of the genuine kindness shown her and her somewhat trouble- some brother, it has been intimated that her recollections betray signs of unfairness and an acid temper. The Associates used to write many letters, not only to outsiders, but to each other, and at any time of day or night. The letter which follows was written certainly not before the summer of 1842, by Georgianna Bruce to a girl friend in Boston. It gives such a clear picture of the actual movement of the life at Brook Farm, and is so full of good spirits, that it is given entire. It is an admirable epitome of the earlier days. EVRiE, Brook Farm, Saturday Night. I received yours, dearest, this afternoon by Dr. Dana, who, with I don't know how many others, was out here. We met Barbara Channing and others on the doorstep on our return from a boat ride. Three or four of the boys have clubbed together and bought a boat, painted it, fitted it up with sails, compass, etc., and especially a carpet (Paris they say) for the ladies' feet, in arranging which 78 BROOK FARM they have taken, as you may suppose, clear comfort, as well as kept clear of mischief of some sort, I dare say. And this afternoon was the first time that it was honored with our presence. Four of us girls, — Mary G.[annett], Abby Morton, Caddy Stodder, and myself, with five boys, -^our Spanish Manuel being Captain _/v7r the day, — set sail in Charles River after having walked a mile through the fields and woods, not to mention swamps. We sailed a good way up, passed under the Dedham bridge, then down, singing away, Abby and I. Oh! the woods round Cow Island are so rich, the young pale green birch, down by the bank, contrasted with the dark tall pines, the sky with just enough of life in the clouds to satisfy me, and the deep water with just a ripple on the surface, and so warm that you could hold your hand in, formed a picture that seemed perfect. But then came in man to mar and disfigure. Two men with hatchets cutting down those same beautiful trees and another with a line hooking the fish (for mere amusement, most likely). I really sympa- thize with Mr. Bradford who writes me that " in cutting down the green young branches for pea-sticks he is really afraid of the vengeance of the wood demon and looks around to see if any Brownies are near." Well, we got home perfectly safe as I informed you, and after tea a large party of all sorts came up here to hear some music, so here I must stop to tell you that to my inexpressible joy the piano and Mr. Dwight have at length come. The piano is a handsome one of a sweet tone, and Mr. D. has some of the best of music which I use, principally Ger- man. You will know that every spare moment is devoted to music now. We are going to get up a glee club forth- with. George and Burrill Curtis (of whom I will speak or perhaps have spoken before) take the bass and tenor, I and Abby the soprano and second. Then a large num- ber who know very little about music are going to commence with the rudiments. Poor Mr. D. said to-night, when we THE SCHOOL AND ITS SCHOLARS 79 were washing up the tea things with two or three of the gentlemen wiping, and groups here and there discussing, " How fast you live here ; I like it, but really my head, my head suffers,'' and then we had a talk about it, and Burrill said that he had noticed how we seemed to drive with everything, but that we were in debt and must not therefore be at leisure, and that we must be willing to bear the consequences of the errors and sins of past time for a season, and after all he could not think of living in the old way again ; it seemed like stagnation, vegetation. Burrill is not of age, and his brother only eighteen. They both have large fortunes, I believe, and have come out of the most fashionable society of New York, their father entirely absorbed in banks and dollars. Burrill is a per- fect beauty, entirely unconscious, and then (as Sarah [Stearns] says) so human. If you speak to him, he listens as if he thought there was at least a chance that you were worth listening to. He stands alone and acts for himself. His brother looks to him and is unconsciously influenced by him. George has a rich voice and they sing duets together — the Irish melodies which I love so much, etc. George plays beautifully and entirely by ear. Is it not grand to see them come out so independently and work away at the peas!!! We have had the Mortons from Plymouth to make a visit, leave two of their boys and Abby, and choose a building spot. You would hke Mr. M. Helooks^justas you ran fancyjhejniost loving^^f_ thePuritans looked, and really /j one, divested of all their superstition and bigotry. He read a' lefCeFlo us "Before heTeftJ^'tliat'KeTiiH'^itten to a nephew now in Germany, explaining the community principles, etc. I wish you could have heard it. It is so strange, as well as pleasant, to hear the ideas which different persons entertain of the same subject, expressed in their own peculiar way ; and really if I should judge by the most beautifiil letters I have read, written by one and another among us, I should 8o BROOK FARM think that our grandchildren would not waste time were they to collect some of them if they wanted to trace the history of ^t first community. We number over sixty and several more are coming. We have "now aTTong' table in the entry. Mrs. Barlow is going to New York for a week, and I have offered to take the joys and cares of a mother to her two boys during her absence, concerning which duties and pleasures we have had no little merriment. " Orah dear " [Ga,nnett] has not returned, but her sister Mary has come — a smart, pleasant, trusting child. Of course I do not love her as well as Orah yet, but I have a sort of a motherly feeling to her, and she turns to me as one does to a sister. To- morrow I must write her. Only think of my writing all this after twelve o'clock with Sarah snoring away, and Sophia [Ripley] would not hear of my practising. And now I have not told you of the beautiful wild flowers I found in the woods and gave them to Mr. Dwight because he loves them, nor of how I took my scholars to walk this morning and we sang in the woods. But I must say good night, dearest, or shall lose my breakfast to-morrow. Now you will kiss dear little Kit for me, won't you? and give my love to all. I had an invitation to ride in and out last Sunday, but having sprained my ankle and not feeling very well, I did not think that even to see you I ought to risk making myself more sick. I got the medicine, etc. Be sure and come out if you can ; I have much to tell you which I cannot write. I took a walk in the woods to-night. If I am ever so tired or excited, this always has a calming, quieting influence. Your loving sister, Georgy. Postscript. What a horrid matter of fact concern this is ; but you must take what there is, not what you wish THE SCHOOL AND ITS SCHOLARS 8 1 for, and the spirit moved in the direction of facts. Do come and spend the day if you can with Mary Anne. I have just thought of the interesting fact that if I Jiad related the story of the boat in Boston to any one not f eeling as mych intere sted as" yourselT, wa^outspecifying the ages of the boys, 15-19, etc., it would have been re- ported "rounST that at^Broo£ Farm^ffij Jittle pgys., 5yere allowedTto go on the river at all times and seasons without any reslramt^and that 2. few had already been drgjgried ! ■^TTKe terms for board and tuitio n, including all branches, is five dollars for a girl and four for a boy per week. This includes music, drawing, etc., there beu^fld"'S2rra charges except washing. Mrs. Kirby's fellow-teacher in the infant school, Abby Morton, has, as Mrs. Diaz, become known in American literature for the excellent quality of her humor. The author of the "William Henry " books is even more thoroughly imbued to-day with the spirit of Brook Farm than she was during her slight affiliation with the com- munity. Dr. John Thomas Codman, whose book, " Brook Farm : Historic and Personal Me- moirs," is the most comprehensive account as yet published, is still living, and practising the profession of dentistry in Boston. Dr. Cod- man has told his own story so generously that little remains to say, beyond the important fact that, although he did not arrive as a pupil with his parents and brother and sister until March, 1843, when some of the choicest spirits were 82 BROOK FARM already gone, and although he stayed on well into the bitter end, he champions the cause of his youth with undimmed ardor. He saw the worst, and is the most copious witness of the latter days and still he is a Brook Farmer. His brother Charles H. Codman was also there, and lived to carry his early imbibed principles into the conduct of his picture shop. This brother died by a painful accident on September 1 8, 1883. The sister Rebecca married Butter- field, one of the printers of the Harbinger, and is still living. Two of the students afterward achieved repu- tation as able soldiers in the Civil War. One — General Francis Channing Barlow — was born on October 19, 1834, in Brooklyn, New York, and was graduated at Harvard College in the class of 1855. Though a lawyer by profession, at the opening of the Civil War he was doing editorial work on the Tribune. Entering the volunteer service as a private, he was soon com- missioned as Lieutenant Colonel of the Sixty- first Regiment, New York Volunteers, and was made Brigadier General in September, 1862, for distinguished services at Fair Oaks. He was twice severely wounded, was with Grant in the late campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, and was mustered out with the rank of Major General. From the State of New York he held the office of Secretary of State, from 1865 to THE SCHOOL AND ITS SCHOLARS 83 1868, and of Attorney General, from 1871 to 1873, when he was instrumental in the prose- cution of the Tweed Ring. During the last twenty years of his life he was a brilliant mem- ber of the New York bar, and died on January II, 1896. Another soldier, Colonel George Duncan Wells, was a youth of about fifteen, whose connection with the Farm has seldom been mentioned, although he prepared for college there under Dana's particular attention. He was a Greenfield boy and was a fine, manly fel- low, with long blond curls; erect and hand - some, he was equally attractiyg to the young and old ^f both_sexeSjj_^nd_Jhe_jroun£^ojrs es- pecially conceived a high admira±ign_f or. Jiis superior skill in all youthful sports. Arthur Sumner, a pupil who has published some in- teresting pages of recollections, refers with enthusiasm to his appearance as an Indian brave in the famous "gypsy picnic." He entered the Sophomore class at Williams in 1843, showing evidences of unusual training for his age. The activity and grasp of his mind, his superior literary taste, especially in poetry, and his wide reading occasioned gen- eral comment. After studying law in Green- field and at Harvard, he practised it for several years in Greenfield ; he served two terms in the Massachusetts Legislature, attracting more than 84 BKUUK. tfAHM. ordinary notice both as a lawyer and as a legis- lator, on account of his brilliant forensic ability ; in 1859 he became a justice of the Police Court in Boston. When the war broke out, Wells, though far from sympathizing with the abolition sentiment, threw himself into the movement for the preser- vation of the Union. Like General Butler, he would have been glad if this consummation had been possible without the necessity of freeing a single slave, and he frankly stated his position in his recruiting speeches. He was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the First Massachusetts Infantry on May 22, 1861, and became Colonel of the Thirty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry on July II, 1862. His efficiency as an officer may be justly inferred from the requests entered at different times, at the War Department, by Hooker and Doubleday, to have the Thirty- fourth Massachusetts sent to them as a special favor. Such commendation indirectly confirms the testimony of his official associates that he was brave and cool, strict in discipline, and yet never unmindful of the comfort of his men ; jealous of the reputation of his regiment, but anxious to recognize good service on the part of any of his soldiers. One reminiscence which calls up the traditions of Brook Farm states that "the Colonel and Chaplain have thus far been masters of the butter which is, neverthe- THE CURTIS BROTHERS 85 less, decidedly strong ; but the rest confess them- selves beaten." Wells was mortally wounded on October 13, 1864, in a skirmish which preceded the battle of Cedar Creek, and the diary of his successor contains these words : " God only knows how tenderly and sincerely we all loved him. The 34th has lost its idol." Among the young men at Brook Farm there was a high level of good looks, but iam Curtis no others excited so much attention as the *°* James two Curtis brothers. Ambo Arcades they certainly were, tall and strong of limb, graceful, and endowed besides with attractive social quali- ties. Burrill, as he was called, was two years older than his brother, who was born on Febru- ary 24, 1824. Until the latter was twenty-five years of age the brothers were closely united, sharing all duties and pleasures. They were at school together at Jamaica Plain, at Providence, after their father's second marriage, at Brook Farm, and at Concord. Independence of opinion and freedom of con- duct do not always coexist, but an entire self- assertiveness showed early in George Curtis. The experience at Brook Farm, with the constant though good-natured clash of theories, could not prove other than valuable to his unformed character, for he is properly to be considered as a scholar, not as a full associate. Able as the 86 BROOK FARM brothers were through fortunate circumstances to do what seemed desirable to them, they were by no means free from the impressionability of youth, and fell under the double spell of Emer- son's genius and the vague but alluring influence of Transcendentalism. It was natural, there- fore, that they should, in 1842, go to Brook Farm, where they became boarders for two years, George being twenty years of age when the stay ended. They were industrious in their studies of German and of agricultural chemistry, but in particular of music under Dwight. It is probable that they took a hand in more exact- ing pursuits, even when their spirit of gallantry made no suggestions, for when Arthur Sumner first saw George he was " chopping fagots with a bill-hook behind the Eyrie all alone ; " but for picnics these "young Greek gods," as Miss Russell calls them, had a genuine predilection. It has often been told how the younger of the two, dressed in a short green skirt, danced as Fanny Elssler — a celebrity much in vogue in those days. The same kindly memory recalls a picture of George Curtis and George Bradford, on cold, stormy washing days, " hanging out the clothes for the women — a chivalry equal to that of Walter Raleigh throwing down his cloak before the Queen Elizabeth." They were true amateurs throughout their brief stay, and there is nothing to show that THE CURTIS BROTHERS 87 they held more than a well-bred complaisance toward the various phases of cultivated radical- ism. George, in writing to his father, to whom he seems never to have yielded a single point of opinion, said, having the Farm in view : " No wise man is long a reformer, for wisdom sees plainly that growth is steady, sure, and neither condemns nor rejects what is or has been. Reform i s organized distrust. "? In after life all that he said of these two years was softened by the gracious autumnal mist of memory; if there was any sourness in his recollections, he concealed it. It is possible to exaggerate, also possible to underrate, the effect upon him of the Brook Farm experience. A practical soul who disliked Curtis's views on the rights of women, once flung out his conviction that "there must be a screw loose somewhere in a man who graduated from that lunatic school at Brook Farm." There was, however, a thread of revolt in the pattern of his character, else Cur- tis would not have sought as he did almost at once, in the company of his brother, the in- fluence of Concord. Here, as at Brook Farm, was the mixture of farm work and of association , with cultivated minds. The brothers simply passed from one grade to another of the same curriculum. Undue parental restriction would have worked no wise result in the upbringing of a young man who could ask his father: 88 BROOK FARM "What does it matter to me or God whether Lowell or Manchester be ruined ? " A beUever in a high tariff might well have despaired, as David for Absalom, over a son who left a Rhode Island merchant as an interested third party out of such a calculation. When the Curtises left Brook Farm, they must for a time have created a void. A love for all that is beautiful had its place among the resi- dents there, and when George Ripley spoke of the " two wonderfully charming young men," it was with that same fondness with which Miss Russell mentions Burrill as having a typ- ical Greek face and long hair falling to his shoulders in irregular curls. Of George she notices that, though only eighteen years old, he " seemed much older, like a man of twenty-five possibly, with a peculiar elegance, if I may ex- press it — a certain remoteness of manner, however, that I think prevented persons from becoming acquainted with him as easily as with Burrill." In recording his contribution to the music at Brook Farm, Mrs. Kirby tells with gratitude that Curtis was never " guilty of sing- ing a comic song." In spite of the potent influence of Emerson, and later of the direct companionship at Concord, during intervals of farm work, of Emerson him- self, and of Hawthorne, Thoreau, Alcott, and the poet Channing, "the extremely practical. THE CURTIS BROTHERS 89 unspeculative quality of his mind was making itself felt." Determined on a career of litera- ture, he first put forth in 1845 a few letters from New York to the Harbinger. The brothers did not leave Concord, however, until they had fully tried the merits of a combination of physical labor and intellectual life. They delved, while they thought, in their three separate resi- dences, first with Captain Nathan Barrett, who speedily set them to getting out manure to " test their metal," next with Edmund Hosmer, and last with Minot Pratt, — all of them capable of appreciating the young men beyond their mere capacity as amateur "hands" for farm work. After the interesting and profitable sojourn at Concord, both Burrill and George returned to New York, and then travelled much in Europe, where they went in 1846, and where Burrill re- mained for four years. "Our cousin the Curate ' ' in " Prue and I" gives, it is said, a sketch of Burrill, softened and modified from the actual person- ality. Burrill went finally to England, where he was a curate in Cambridge ; he received the degree of Master of Arts from Cambridge Uni- versity. He died about two years ago. Colonel Higginson says that Burrill was the more inter- esting and perhaps the handsomer. He was at one time during his stay at Brook Farm passing through a trying experience, and may on that account have excited a more than usual degree go BROOK FARM of interest and sympathy ; but in leaving this country, he faded gradually from public memory. After George Curtjs's return from Europe he entered definitely into literature ; his first impor- tant venture being the " Nile Notes of a Howadji" (1851). The book was"cleTCr_and successful, But it caffed down on its author some censure, as diH'alsTtK'e "Howadji in Syria," published a year later: '"After half a century the effect of these b'ooks is still fresh and strong. They are glow- ing with an Occidental's feelings toward the East, and have caught the true spirit of im- pressions de voyage, early instances in American irtefature offfiis delicate mode of expression in which the French have been so long masters. IF is clear that George William Curtis came out of the East a pretty well sophisticated young man, and not unduly coy or incommunicative. The two books show a man naturally sensitive and delicate, but impressionable to a vague and sensuous atmosphere. Mr. Chadwick says that the "Howadji" marked an "exquisite satirical recoil from the pretence of holiness in things and places which could claim no genuine associations with the Christian origins." It is, however, true that Curtis, even as early as the Brook Farm days, allowed himself certain expressions which show that in his early manhood there was an alloy. In his next book, " Potiphar Papers," Curtis undertook to scourge the evils of a society THE CURTIS BROTHERS 91 of which he was an ingratiating and willing member, and the sceva indignatio of the true satirist is therefore wanting. He who said that he could see no satire in "Vanity Fair" never went farther himself than to assail palpable vulgarity and the superficial aspects of fashion- able life. In Jhe " Potiphar^ Papers^ " he was clearly following Thackeray, but he missed the ethical soundness which lay beneath Thack- eray's literary effects. Yet this book has its severities and its sincerities, and contains some excellent and memorable passages. It was Mrs. Potiphar who said : " In a country where there's no^ristbcracy one can't be too exclusive." If tTef e was a touch of cynicism it came from a youth. As Curtis grew older, his thrusts were more graceful — not less vigorous. His " Belinda and the Vulgar," in the Easy Chair, proclaims his social creed, wherein appears a geniality which was earlier wanting in the cosmopolitan Kurz Pacha of the " Potiphar Papers, " — a very terrible and cutting fellow until he is discovered to be only Curtis disguised in a costumer's garb as a far-travelled Oriental. " Prue and I," which followed, was of so dif- ferent a quality from the " Potiphar Papers " that it may have taken off the edge of relish for the not especially dangerous cynicism of the latter. Its idealism was unresti-ained, placing as it did the solution of human happiness frankly 92 BROOK FARM in the hands of the poor man, and almost deny- ing to the rich his allotted cup of cold water. It won a place in the hearts of men rather than in their heads, for such a view of life is comforting. The steady-headed Prue is Curtis's concession to established facts, and in her character he anticipates a later theory that men are the born idealists, and women the practical element of life, thpugh at no period was he a partisan of the merits of either sex. At this time, and on occasions during the rest of his life, Curtis gave lectures of the older type as best represented by Emerson and Phillips. He had a good share in maintaining the repute of that civilizing institution, the lyceum, a valued adjunct to American educative methods. In 1856 he made himself responsible for the payr ment of a large sum through the failure of Put- nam's Monthly, and it was nearly twenty years before this debt was discharged. Such a simple act of duty strengthened the tissues of character and transformed the glowing youth which con- ceived the Howadji books into a robust manhood which never failed him. Life moved hence- forth for Curtis with the swiftness of the events in which he was to take an active part until his death. He was already editor of Harfiet's Weekly, then more powerful than any similar publication can hope to be again. Imper- sonal and moderate in his editorial work, he THE CURTIS BROTHERS 93 was nevertheless a favorable, not extravagant, instance of the " one-man power " in journalism, now so much and so regrettably lessened. Not until the last third of his career did he evince his admirable powers of oratory, for which he had a special qualification — a voice so musical and gracious that the compass was not at first perceptible. Curtis's voice was memorable in the old Brook Farm days. Not of the most commanding order, which sways vast bodies of men and for the while convinces them, his elo- quence may be compared not unfavorably with that of the late Robert C. Winthrop. Though lacking somewhat the ripest cultivation, it did not fall short of what constitutes a high degree of forceful and scholarly utterance. The latter part of Curtis's life was best spent in promulgating the duty of parting company with whatsoever political party shall fail to satisfy the conscience of the voter, regardless of close affiliations. He also gave severe labor to the work of reforming the national civil ser- vice, and for this unselfish toil there is already assured to his name the gratitude of honest men. In both these efforts he was as successful as one may fairly be in a political system still flowing abundantly with milk, honey, and com- promise. As he lacked the robustness needful for partisanship, so proportionally he lacked greatness, according to the measure of American 94 BROOK FARM political life, and therefore what he really did accomplish was the more remarkable. To the Easy Chair of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, he contributed about fifteen hundred essays, the charm of which is likely to be a treasured memory in our letters. They served many good causes, and among them the spread of a true cosmopolitanism. Did any good man or woman of more than local value die, he embalmed the fragrance of such a life in one of these delight- ful essays. If it be true that he who is not with a move- ment is against it, then surely Curtis is not en- titled to be thought a true product of Brook Farm. He had not the essential qualities of a reformer ; there is no evidence that he was ever V, ,, so wedded to a cause that he was ready to suffer for it. His blow was steady, his purpose hon- est, but there was lacking the terrible, implaca- ble strength, which persists past any hazard, until the gates of sin are forced. He wanted the world to be better; but he would accom- plish the result in a gracious — shall we say in a comfortable .? — manner. Before Father Hecker died, he had Hecker ™^^ travelled widely in spirit and in practice from Brook Farm. He never, however, showed ingratitude toward his immediate asso- - ciates for whom he had baked, and with whom • he had broken^ bread. His progress of life, FATHER HECKER 95 from the early wrestlings against the dangers of commerciality, throughout his brief sojou rn- ing in Brook Farm, Fruitlands, and_ Concord, and-dttttHg' his steady advance toward the Cath- olic Church, was contin_uous and consistent. He waFBorn on December 18, 18 19, of German immi- grant parentage ; from the mother, who had an equable temperament and much good sense, he probably received the better part of his intel- lectual inheritance. His two older brothers and Jaime elf learned the baker's trade, and eventually built up a prosperous business. He is remembered to have said, in speaking of his earlier years : " I have had the blood spurt out of my arm carrying bread when I was a baker," and this untempered zeal for the task at hand followed him into the priesthood. Although he studied hard and constantly, Hecker could not fairly be called an educated man or a thor- oughly trained priest. One must have no little sympathy with such a life as Hecker's to judge it with fairness or toleration. Wholesome and open-hearted from his youthful days, when he felt a strong aversion to being touched by any one, he had an element of unusualness, which soon developed mystical tendencies, and finally a complete reliance on the workings of supernatural forces within him. Long before his twentieth year Hecker had plunged violently into active political life under 96 BROOK FARM the influence of Brownson, who, in the early thirties, was devoting his tremendous energies to bringing the Workingmen's Party to recog- nition in New York. When Hecker was less than fifteen years of age he carried through some important resolutions at the ward meet- ings of his party. He and his brothers once invited the menace of law by printing across the back of bills received from customers a quota- tion, attributed to Daniel Webster, proclaiming the virtues of a paper currency. This political fervor came to nothing definite beyond teaching tfie'Tad self-reliance and knowledge of men, but it""was the means of confirming a friendship with Brownson, "the strongest, most purely ■"Kuman influence, if we except his mother's, which Isaac Hecker ever knew," to use the words of his competent biographer. Father Elliott. The critical period of youth he passed Twith singular purity and simplicity of conduct, j and a display of stoical tendencies which devel- oped into asceticism. His falling in with Brown- son marked also the beginning of a distinctly religious phase, and henceforth each of these two men, in his own way, travelled the same road toward the same goal, Hecker arriving there a little before his older friend. Eight years after meeting so fateful an ac- quaintance he found himself at Brook Farm, but the intervening years brought him many FATHER HECKER 97 peculiar spiritual experiences, or "visitations," as it seems proper to call them. He kept in- wardly debating the necessity of parting with his brothers so far as regarded his business career, but at no time does he appear to have refused their generous aid. His own solitary path was certainly made easier by their willingness to maintain him in it. Brownson, sympathiz- ing with his spiritual distresT, advised "a" resi- dence af Brook Farm, and wrote to Ripley with this'plan in view. Hecker went there in Janu- a^ f843^ and on March 6 wrote to his brother George: "What was the reason of my going, or what made me go ? The reason I am not able to tell. But what I felt was a dark, irresistible influence upon me that led me away from home. . . . What keeps me here I cannot tell." A little later he urged his brother not to " get too engrossed with outward business." What would have been the solution of Isaac Hecker's diffi- culties had -his brothers forsaken an honorable calling at the bidding of an inward voice > He entered Brook Farm as a " partial " boarder at four dollars a week, and gave his service s as a baker in exchange for instruction, at first in German philosophy, French, and music. Curtis, whose kindly but reserved memories of him are almost the only recollections of this period, speaks of him as not "especially studious"; but he found him a young man of "gentle and 98 BROOK FARM affectionate manner," with " an air of singular refinement and self-reliance, combined with a half-eager inquisitiveness " ; and it was Curtis who disclosed to Hecker that the latter was"un- doubtedly the original of Ernest the Seeker in W. H. Channing's story of that name which ap- peared Tn the Dial. Hecker did not long con- tinue to bake for the common good, for while the honest bread rose, his spiritual thermometer was falling. He soon became a " full " boarder, pay- ing for the greater freedom five dollars and a half a week, furnished, we may suppose, by his hard- working brothers. Details of Hecker's life at the Farm are wanting, but that he was looked upon as eccentric and shy is evident from the rather faint impression left. The start was in- auspicious, according to Mrs. Kirby, who says : "I learned the next day that the new comer, who was a baker bj profession and a mystic by inclination, had been nearly crazed by the 'direcT fays of the moon, which made the circuit of the three exposed windows of his room." Father Elliott sees in the associative experi- ment a working* toward a high ideal, realizable only in the supernatural order of ,his church. So far as assoc iation was a revolt, in the natural . or unconverted life, agaihsf selfishness and un- restrained individualism, it was commendable. " these West Roxbury adventurers were worthy of their task, though not equal to it." He does FATHER HECKER 99 not find among them " the slightest evidence of seiTsualitytlhe least tracT of ^ffig^sg.lfijhiies^_ of the worIH7or even any sign of^the extravagances of spiritual pride," but contrasts Fr6d6ric Oza- nain's success"with the failures of George Rip- ley and of Saint Simon, whom he pronounced to be a " far less worthy man." Both Hecker ' and Brownson found the generally tolerant spirit of the place refreshing. Their association with men and women of noble aspirations was help- ful, and neither of them failed in a reasonable gratitude toward this early experience. Both of them, in later years, bore frank testimony to the more trying features of the Church which they followed ; and the entire want of vulgarity and low ambitions at Brook Farm may often have been silently, perhaps regretfully, remem- bered. Strongly under_tihe spell of Brownson's forcible manner, Hecker did not wholly confine Himsetrto discipleship, but weiit over to West Rroxbui-y to hear Tar ker," to Concord to see "Emefson, and no doubt to Boston, where every- Qiirig^ strange and improbable was then herd,ed together as in an ark. ' Outwardly he appears to have made a favor- able impression by reason of his candor and amiability; but there is evidence that inwardly all was not well with him. His journals show that he alternately drew toward the Church, and then in cold doubt fell shrinkingly back. It lOO BK.UUJS. TAKM. was strange as it was tragic that toward the close of his life, after long years in the priest- hood, he again fell into dark moods. Up to the time of his leaving Brook Farm he had settled the one point that he would never "join a Protestant church." Supernatural experiences were not the only ones which troubled Hecker's serenity at-1Brook Farm. There is reason to think that he felt the influence of what, in the commonplaces of re- ligibnris^ called an " earthly love," and that he might even have wooeH^and" maffied like other men ; but in season to prevent this conclusion,! there came strongly upon him the vision of a mystical espousal and union which rendered "him ""no longer free to iriyite any woman to marriage." Notwithstanding his convictions in this matter, Hecker was advised frankly not to trust to supernaturalism in the matter of the affections. On July 5, 1843, he writes: "To leave this place is to me a great sacrifice. I have been much refined by being here." On the eleventh of the same month he went to_.Fxuitiands in search of " a deeper life " ; and if getting one's eyes opened to harsh realities in less than two weeks is deepness of any kind, he certainly found what he sought. On July 12 he raked hay, and joined in a conversation on " Clothing" ; the next day a conversation was held on " The FATHER HECKER lOI Highest Aim." But on July 21 Mr. Alcott asked him for his " first impressions as regards the hindrances . . . noted since coming here." Hecker thereupon gave him his objections in five heads, the chief of which were Alcott' s want of frankness, and the fact that the place had very little fruit on it. A deficit of frankness and of fruit was not in the alluring programme offered to Hecker by Alcott earlier in the year ; but to attempt to square Mr. Alcott' s programmes with his achievements is like wrestling with a ghost. On July 25 Hecker left Fruitlands for Brook Farm on his way to New York. Hecker's biographer not unjustly says that " FruitlaiiHswas the caricature of ^roo^TMrnTTBe^erJums^elf more mildly asserts' that " Ff uTtlands was very dtffereiit from Brook Far rii.'^'Tar more ascetic," — as places are apt to be in which there is naught to digest but platitudinous conversa- tions. He was not, however, so sparing ' of Alcott, who, he said, " was his own God." Alcott on his part went to Charles Lane and said: "Well, Hecker has flunked out. He hadn't the courage to persevere. He's a cow- ard." Mr. Alcott was not always Orphic in his --^,, -• - — . -rr^ ■'■ - ■'■ - - -~w„ V , For a while Hecker tested according to his ability various forms of philosophy and of re- ligious beliefs, becoming once much interested, though hardly more than that, in Anglicanism. 102 BROOK FARM On the very moment of crossing the threshold of Catholicism he found himself at Concord , in April, 1844, where he lo dged at _ the house^ of Henry Thoreau's mother. He had already re- fused to consider the offer of a room, furnished, and with " good people," for seventy-five dollars a year ; and he now arranged with this excellent lady for a room, "a good straw bed, a large table, a carpet, washstand, bookcase,^ stove, chairs, looking-glass," and lights for seventy- five cents a week. Never, surely, was the in- ward light maintained at less cost to the lodger and at less profit to the landlady. In June, 1844, he went to Boston to confer with Bishops Fenwick and Fitzpatrick ; the lat- ter questioned him regarding Brook Farm and Fruitlands, seeming desirous to learn more of his supposed socialist theories, and finally gave him a letter to Bishop McCloskey, who on August I, 1844, gave him baptism ; on the next day Hecker made confession. Before Hecker went to Belgiunwn i845,Jie proposed to Thpreau that they should go to Rome together, but the latter stated that he had now. " re- tired from all external activity in disgust, and his life was more Brahminical, Artesian-well, Inner- Temple like" ; this was Thoreau's way of escap- ing the fervor of a young convert. In September of the same year, Hecker began his life in the Redemptorist Novitiate of St. Trond in Belgium. FATHER HECKER I 03 He found the discipline severe under the novice master, Father Othrhann, but he added self-in- flicted severities of his own. Acting under " im- pulses of grace," he tried to conquer the tendency to sleep. In October, 1846, he took the vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity. He then went at once to Wittem, where, for two years, he was to study philosophy and Latin. At the end of this time Brother Walworth, his compan- ion, was ordained priest, but Isaac Hecker, hav- ing failed to satisfy his superior, remained simply a brother. The causes of this failure to advance are so evident, and the results from this time to the end of life were so disastrous, that it is highly important to speak without reserve. After he had left Brook Farm and had returned to New York, there is an entry in his diary for August 30, 1843, as follows : " If the past nine months or more are any evidence, I find that I can live on very simple diet, — grains, fruit, and nuts. I have just commenced to eat the latter ; I drink pure water. So far I have had wheat ground and made into unleavened bread, but as soon as we get in a new lot, I shall try it in the grain." Two years before his death Hecker, who was not without an excellent sense of humor, speaking of these experiments, said : "Thank God! He led me into the Catholic Church. If it hadn't been for that I should have been one of the worst cranks in the world." There are several other I04 BROOK FARM entries as to his dietetic abuses. In November, 1844, he despairingly cries, " I wish I could dis- pense with the whole digestive apparatus ! " At Concord he makes mention of ein herrliches Es- sen of "bread, maple sugar, and apples." He proposed for the Lenten season of 1845 to con- fine himself to one meal a day. It is not sur- prising then, after this outrageous treatment of his physical nature, and after the moral and mental severities of his novitiate, that he should have been unequal to meet the requirements at Wittem. He became so stultified that he could not fix attention on "Eis books, and lapsed into a condition of animal stupidity. Father Othmann advised him at St. Trondto^- come " un saint fou^ Unable to study, he did humble services — carried fuel and baked bread — as at Brook Farm. There being no ma nner of doubt as to his holin ess, whatever theopinion a s to his ^^^ ^'^^'^^r^i2l^^^^^SI'^^'^jor^i\}!^ Father Walworth to the Redemptorists at Clapham, England, and at last was ordained by Bishop Wiseman, in October, 1849. Shortly after, Hecker, with other priests, began their Redemp- torist mission in America, having for their chief object the conversion of non-Catholics, — the one great purpose of Father Hecker till his death. Notwithstanding his temporary obiuscation of mind, in a few years Hecker was able to put forth his ablest and probably best-known book, " Ques- FATHER HECKER 105 tions of the Soul," and this was soon followed by , "Aspirations of Nature," which, as his biog-y rapher says, was "not so hot and eager in spirit." His only remaining work of importance was that which appeared as occasional contribu- tions to the Catholic World, some years later ; these were in part gathered in book form, as " The Church and the Age." In 1857 a misunderstanding arose between the American Redemptorists and their Head ; , and on August 29 of that year Hecker was expelled, on the ground that his going to Rome in the cause of the American fathers was in violation of his vows. After a long and painful experience in Rome, where he strove coura- geously for his convictions, Hecker, who had won the mind and also the heart of his Holiness, Pius IX., gained a signal triumph, not personal, but in the interests of American Catholicism. On March 6, 1858, by a decree of the Con- gregation of Bishops and Regulars, and by the sanction of the Pope, all the American fathers were dispensed from their vows. The result was the speedy formation of" the Paulist / Community, or, more correctly, the Missionary J Priests of St. Paul, the Apostle. Under Hecker's leadership the Paulists flour- ished, and, aside from their zeal in bringing con- version to non-Catholics, soon made themselves a menace to various forms of public evil, par- iq6 BROOK FARM ticularly to intemperance. Cleanliness and good order, as well as godliness, Jiad a part in Hecker's methods ; and he showed a willingness, not only for supervision, but also, for personal coopera- tion in the needful drudgery of the mission. The inertness, not to say the indolence, of his younger days gave place to a practical manhood. His lectures were popular in the widest sense, and he was a peer of the great lecturers of the "day. ItTs'3ue~to"say that he"toucKe3TKeTiearts of Americans as a whole more closely than he did those of his own faith. The narrowness shown toward Catholics at that time was met with an equal narrowness, and it is no wonder that Hecker's largeness of manner was not always understood or appreciated. Hecker's prevision and insight brought the powerful aid of ephemeral and periodical litera- ture to the support of his Church. His Catholi- cism refused no agencies by which success was to be won. He started the Catholic World m 1865, and in 1870 the Young Catholic, — both to- day of a reputable order of religious magazines. His Apostolate of the Press was largely pro- moted by means of the Catholic Publication Society. In the midst of this busy life Father Hecker was called on to pay the penalty of his early experiments in that dangerous laboratory, his physical nature. In 1871 his health began to FATHER HECKER 1 07 fail definitely ; he kept for some time longer his mental strength, but his digestion and nerves were seriously impaired. He went abroad for health, but did not find it. Strange to say, he had a dread of death which followed him many years, but he made a peaceful end, which came on December 22, 1888. Three years before this he underwent straixge-depression^s during which he neglected the offices of his faith. This period seems to have been a revival of the unhappy ex- periences at St. Trond and Wittem. It has been said, even sneeringly, that Father Hecker was a member of the " Yankee Catholicl Church." If this allegation could fairly be brought against the son of German immigrants living in cosmopolitan New York, it would ad- mirably summarize his best reputation. His love of freedom of the soul, and a large-mindedness \ which he had found and appreciated in others/ at Brook Farm, never deserted him. He was, in his day, the best interpreter of his church 1 to the cool-minded, practical, American charac- ;\ ten If those who heard him, and who read hisj • books and sermons, did not fully understand or accept his religion, they did at least compre- hend and accept him, and he was thus a useful intermediary between his unchanging faith and our swift, restless civilization. Though Hecker's writings lack the extreme arrogance shown by Brownson, they have the I08 BROOK FARM advantage of continuity. Hecker did not bear mental fruitage until his great, and, as it proved, final choice; from that time his spoken and written thoughts expressed the results of ex- perience and the accretions of belief, while Brownson's spiritual vicissitudes make him one of the least convincing of theological investiga- tors. Years back the older man had accused the younger of a~'"Ten3Siicy"to~TnysHcSm]~To seritiinenteT luxury^ whicTi is''feaTIy~eirfeebIing y puFso ui?''" This condition, 3 iiiBtIii£xealijyas happilv overcome, but the residuum of Hecker's intellectua^jgossessions was not large. His faith absorbed so much of himself that there was too little potency left, especially in view of the fact that he addressed himself to non-Catholics. His last book, "The Church and the Age," does not lift the proclamation of dogma an inch above the level maintained by most controversialists, and in no way does it redeem the promise of " Questions of the Soul." Indeed, he failed, on the whole, to compass in literature results vouch- safed to him in his immediate field. Remem- bering that Hecker was never a scholar, and that he failed even as a student, it would be fairer to his reputation, both as a zealous and faithful priest, and as a man who exerted some influence on American thought and conduct, to pass by his somewhat thin and uninspiring pages and fall back on the tribute paid him by the FATHER HECKER 109 Abbd Xavier Dufresne of Geneva, who said : " In my opinion Father Hecker was, after P6re La- cordaire, the most remarkable sacred orator of the century." Father Hecker's efforts to bring his church into a closer understanding of the American spirit has of late given rise to a controversy which threatens to be bitter. To those who are outside the pale of ecclesiastical matters, these feuds have no real value or interest, but the at- tacks on " Amdricanisme " betray an anxiety too real to be concealed. Conservative opposi- tion to the policy dear to the ablest and most influential prelates of the Catholic Church in America has become acrimonious. Even the memory of Hecker himself is not spared in Maignen's "Was Father Hecker a Saint.!"' The good Paulist has been quiet in his grave for more than ten years, but though dead he is yet speaking for a cause which must inevitably go forward. The distance from West Roxbury to Rome is not so long as it was when the young mystic walked the groves and meadows of Brook Farm. c:^ CHAPTER IV THE MEMBERS Ven Emerson admitted that Brook Farm was a pleasant place, \yhere lasting Jriendships were_Jormed^ |ndL_,^he " art of ]£tte£jvriting_^' was stimulated^ But he held, moreoverj_that impulse without centripetal balance was the rule among^the members, who suffer ed,.„fis.ro.„JJ|;^ want_of a head, and experienced an " intellectual sj,nsc\ilo.ttism.'' The members could not well quarrel with these pleasantries, nor with his call- ing their cherished dream "an Age of Reason in a patty-pan." Such strictures are phrases after all, even in an Emerson. But he went further when he made the charge that those whose resolves were high, did not work the hardest, and that the stress fell on the few. This, however, is but one of the "necessary ways" of life which Emerson himself upheld. C harles Lan e, in an article contributed to the Z?/«7"(voOv.) and valuable as a contemporary opinion, was more searching. He found at Brook v arm an entire absence oi assumption an3""prefence, but . th^ that taste, .rather THE MEMBERS III than piety, was the aspect presented to the eye. " If the majority in nunibers," he continues, " were considered, it is possible that a vote in favor of self-sacrifice for the common good would not be very strongly carried." There bei ng no profession of hand-to-hand altruism, — the word was not theiTin "ifie~vernacuIar,^^no charge of hypocrisy can be lodged. Lane also thought that riches would have been as fatal as poverty to the true progress of the Association, and herein he confirmed what had already been pro- claimed. Endowments were early recognized as possible agents for weakening the purposes and activities of the experiment. If, as Mrs. Kirby says. Brook Farm was a protest against the sauve qui peut principle, then the stringen- cies and little economies were no bad discipline, and the display of a full purse would have been an offence against the ethics of the place. There was no mean poverty as there was no parade of individual wealth. It would be an injustice to the good sense which underlay the external artificiality of this life, to say that the people who assured to the Association a lasting memory cherished any special faith in the immediate success of the undertaking. Twenty-five years had been set as a reasonable limit for the accomplishment of the high purposes announced. It is probable that Ripley and Dwight were the really sanguine 112 BROOK FARM ones; for the influential members, as a body, must be fairly credited with a modicum of that ordinary human judgment which recognizes the adventitious quality of any new enterprise. These hoped for good fortune; but they were prepared for partial failure at least. When the community dissolved, the majority of its mem- bers met the crisis with a good-natured stoicism common to Americans. The hopes of the over- buoyant could not fall far, for the issues of suc- cess or failure had not rested on their shoulders ; and those who had grumbled could easily find another opportunity. Brook Farm, like college life, was a slow-working inspiration to those of ordinary endowment who, in after years, pros- pered moderately through their contact with free and wholesome influences in the Association. One member of the later group, William H. Teel, writing twenty-flve years after, made the acknowledgment that what little he possessed of " education, refinement, or culture and taste for matters above things material," he owed to this alma mater " by adoption." He probably voiced a gratitude felt by other inconspicuous members in their maturer years. Had everybody who wished to join the Asso- ciation been allowed to do so, the result had been strange indeed. Political exiles, trades- men in a small way who had failed elsewhere, ministers without parishes but generally with THE MEMBERS 113 good-sized families, and needy widows, were among the applicants. Sometimes a whole fam- ily would present itself unannounced, and be sent away for want of room, if for no other reason. Inconsequent people, once admitted, were natu- rally the first to grumble at the Board of Direc- tion over necessary retrenchments, though ready to sound the praises of the associative principle when affairs went to their liking. One great step in genuine reform was taken noiselessly, and therefore with greater certi- tude, by both the antislavery and the transcen- dental movements. Men and women stood oq^ a basis, not of asserted equality, but of actual achievement and assumed responsibility! Sue h publications"as the Liberty BelTSaK^^ Dial, to name no others, show what a parity of sentiment and intellectual force there really was. This desirable condition had certainly never before shown itself publicly in American life. In the Brook Farm community, as in other phases of the radical tendencies of those days, there was a considerable number of women really capable of fellowshipping with men in a serious endgavor lying well outside of domestic relations. V^^en as late as 1844 there were but few married coiJElga.^n_tlie JFarm^ The maternal instinct, which is necessarily conservative, seemed to re- volt against the project, while to masculine feel- \ ings it contained nothing inherently offensive. 114 BROOK FARM Yet to blend domestic and associative senti- ments was a part of the original plan. " Is it not quite certain," dubiously asks Lane in the Dialiox January, 1844, "that the human heart cannot be set in two places, that man cannot wor- ship at two altars ? " Emerson was more rudi- mentary when he argued on behalf of mothers that "the hen on her own account much preferred the old way. A hen without her chickens was but half a hen." The Brook Farm experiment was mainly tested only by women of exceptional courage — perhaps as the "happy-helpless an- archists," which Emerson declared the Farmers as a whole to have been ; and this will explain what Mrs. Kirby meant when she wrote that there was no large mother nature at Brook Farm; that, after the first period, the women who came were inferior to the men ; and that the motive which influenced these new-comers was livelihood rather than social melioration. The earlier women threw away prerogative, and gained the then doubtful privilege of equality. The wonder is that_ those w ho first went to Brook Farm did not invite a larger share~orTeFfuTe'Trxinr~their own^ buFlhe phenoinenal innocence of the life there and the absence of scandal, or of the least cause for it, lia3~mucH to do with a tolerance which lasted until 'Base!es'r"attacks from a part of the New YorK" press "caused a temporary odium. This THE MEMBERS II5 shadow did not fall, however, on Brook Farm until its golden age was already gone and the iron age of Fourierism fully begun. There was religion at Brook Farm, but it was by no means areltgious cdmmuHify: Spiritu al cu lture7^sxcep t_^_^t^^case_ar£articular indi- yidjiS^iJSgiS ..pursued, more as a diversion _or_ a respite from more engrossing interests. Unita- rianism might safely have included the majority of the earlier members — it certainly was tradi- tional with most of them. W. H. Channing's visits never passed without services of deep in- terest and importance to a representative number of the Associates. What there was of religious life felt his stimulus. Although there was no dogmatism, and "controversial discussion was unknown," there is no recorded evidence of any open, bold oppositioft"TBnffie'accepted--tOTm^of faith; there was, assuredly, no crudeness or blaEahcy in this matter. It has been said that toward the close some definite interest was taken in Swedenborg 's writ- ings, but how much does not appear. A few — a very few — passed from one or another form of Protestantism to the Roman Catholic Church. There is no pretence that this transition ever threatened to assume the importance of a stam- pede Romeward ; nor would it be safe to assert that discouragement at the failure of Brook Farm affected those who sought this sheltering Il6 BROOK tARM. fastness. The external charms of the historic faith have their fascinations even for those who never embrace it — and it is probable that some effect was produced by the strong arguments of Brownson. Hecker, formerly of their own flock, had gone with Brownson, and Charles Newcoinb mysteriously flirted with the romanticism of the Church. This sort of fervor was in the air, and a few naturally followed their desires and tastes. It would be unnecessary even to mention this change of religious base in Mrs. Ripley and her niece, Miss Steams, and in one or two more, were it not that too much stress has been given to the simple fact. There may possibly have been a touch of mysticism in the Brook Farm life ; but Mrs. Kirby, for one, has_exagg^ated the actual condition when shesa^^JhaLi^XSliS^ wooHJeir crosses and pictures of the Madonna began to appear, and l^us£ected__rosaries_rat- tling under the aprons." She is entirely in erfor^when she 'says that Horace Sumner and Miss Dana became Catholics ; the Miss Dana to whom she referred was not even in the Associa- tion. As for the Swedenborgian tendency Jhere is this to say : Just as Catholicism represented Sie^^dulum swung~to its furthest point Trom rationalism, so did Swedenborgianism offer "the exteeme reaction from idealisrn, for in itself it is materialism ^^ a holding out "oFlhereTyci-eature comfoffsl ..------ -- THE MEMBERS 1 17 Dea th touched Brook Farm lightly, — a note- worthy fact, since there was a narrow escape from a fatal epidemic of smallpox, and no end of tampering with irregular theories of thera- peutics. But the gravelly soil and the isolation from any centre of disease kept nearly every one in remarkably good health, and laid strong foundations for later years, when life becanie something more than a delightful experiment/) The community did, however, suffer one loss in its six years of existence, in the death of Mary Ann Williams, who was buried with affec- tionate care in a portion of the Farm set apart for the Association's dead. One member of the later period, the Rev. John Allen, brought the body of his wife reverently to Brook Farm, where she was buried. These two graves were the only ones required during tEe"wTioIe"period. It deati rgeairge ntlyl^tEr'Brooiry^t^^ made more havocTthough it"is astonishing how little mismating thef e'wai.""°"inteilectuar equal- i!y'^[3'unusun'"oppc^ for discovering real character would go far to explain the gratifying result. Fourteen^3 ^mTages.^h^:sa,.,rh£en--tracjed to friendships begun at Brook Farm, and the recOTdof~uM^PVunion s is sm all. There was one weddin g at the Farm, that of John Orvis to J olmDwight's sister, Marianne. At this simple ceremony W. H. Channing was the minister, and John Dwight made a speech of Il8 BROOK FARM exactly five words. It is to be hoped that the earnest Channing pronounced them man and wife, and not "couply consociated" — a phrase which he suffered to be used in the Present ! ;~ Start ing with about fifteen persons, the nu m- M . bers never increased to a bove one hundred a nd twenty. By the time that the change to the Phalanx had been ejected, nearly all the first comers were gone. C A safe estimat e would be that about two hundred individuals were cpja^ nected with Brook Farm from first to last. Such names as were of especial lustre stand apart, as they would have stood in any condi- tion, from their associates. Others, of a second rank, but of considerable importance, rise in memory whenever the name of Brook Farm is mentioned. By reason of individual vivacity, eccentricity, or earnestness of character, each helped to make this spot rich in associations. Nor have these personalities been wholly for- gotten in the issue of their later years. But for their lives and their endeavors. Brook Farm would be less memorable, and it is therefore proper not to omit them from this record, in- tended primarily for the more notable among the members and visitors. If it were possible, it would be interesting to trace the subsequent career of certain relatively unimportant members. One would like to know more for instance of Grandpa Treadwell, who THE MEMBERS II9 was a merry soul, though a quiet one ; or of Charles Hosmer, who had " the cranial develop- ment of a Webster." Christopher List, called "Chrysalis," who vied with Lizzie Curson in caring for visitors ; Eaton, known as " Old Solidarity"; Colson, the shoemaker, with his wife; John and Mary Sawyer; Charles and Stella Salisbury, are some of the names which come and go without special relation to their consociates. The Misses Foord, of contrasting types of beauty, Dolly Hosmer, Mary Donnelly, pretty as her name half implies, — these and others of the women and girls, it is also difficult to trace beyond the fact that they once lived at the Farm. The undisc overed n icknames^ are ' tantalizing, for they are sometimes so fioll of imHnmled^^omise. Who was Torquemada or Savonarola ? Possibly Hecker and Parker. Who were Camilla and Sybilla, if not Cornelia Hall and Carouro Sturgis ; and who, more than all, was Hawthorne's Dismal View, who soon abandoned^ the cheerful life asjin§yjLtg4^^ his gloOTt^tastes ? "(Tiseyeral members, some of them humble in reputation and condition, but faithfully repre- sentative of the variegated membership, some brief notice deserves to be given. Lewis K. Ryckman, a cordwainer, belonged to the " Shoemaking series " under the new order. His wife, short, sprightly, and nervous, I20 BROOK FARM played the part of hostess and attended to the women visitors. Ryckman was a thorough be- liever in the associate life, with its boundless promise to reduce the waste and purposeless friction of individual households, but he was no advocate of the sequestration of property, — "dried labor," as he called it; to him the im- pulse and ability to acquire was wholesome and proper, and he sought economy of social ar- rangement, not restriction of the individual. Ryckman went under the name of the Om- niarch. Ichabod Morton was a trustee from Decem- ber, 1842, untn April, 1843; his place on the Board was then taken by Minot Pratt. He was from Plymouth, and was the father of Mrs. Abby Morton Diaz. Emerson says of him that he was " a plain man and formerly engaged in the fisheries with success." Because he felt that sentiment rather than good business judg- ment governed the practical affairs of the Farm, he abandoned his purpose of joining the Asso- ciation. One of Hecker's successors at the honest task of baking was Peter M. Baldwi n, known to all as the_^en£raJU:,;;:;::;^^ sort of ^an,^ built on the large Weste rn pla n, and thought to resemble Andrew Jackson. In spite of what has been written about an absence of tobacco smoke, it is certain that Baldwin THE MEMBERS 121 loved this solacement as well as he did an argu- ment. This saint in a green baize jacket and slippers^_awE^^cr^T^^OTn3^3ol5^Z^^r^ idealist suchas even Brook Farm marvelled at. He did not write it out like Hawthorne, or dream it as at Patmos, like Channmg, but he b3HS3lH^ffiEi|iaiaSly. and with a patience , of the Abraham Lincoln type. Suddenly he departed out again into a world not so regardful as Brook Farm of unsuccessful fidelity. He was the first to leave after the fire, and really started the exodus which soon began in earnest. His adventurousness did not die with his de- parture. A little later he went to find gold in California, and died on the Pacific coast. Another sturdy character, Thomas Blak e, was given the title of " AdmjralJ' in honor of his name, and because , of „ .a ^figure, j;ait, and make-up, which included a nautical hat and foUing^cotlar. He was fond of life, and never sIurEeSriiis share of work. Eph ra.im jCa£ gn was the " Parson,,'' f^ndpf^X6§dmgLiftJte4.