,,bronson ,,alcott',s ,,fruitlands ,illustration3 ,,the ,,old ,,house ,,at ,,fruitlands1 ,,harvard1 ,,massachusetts ,in front are the mulberry trees planted by the philosophers for the propagation of silkworms4 ,,bronson ,,alcott',s ,,fruitlands ,,compiled ,,by ,,clara ,,endicott ,,sears ,,with ,,transcendental ,,wild ,,oats ,,by ,,louisa ,m4 ,,alcott ,illustration ,,boston ,,and ,,new ,,york ,,houghton ,,mifflin ,,company ,the ,riverside ,press ,cambridge #aiae ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,copyright1 #ahgf1 ,,by ,,louisa ,m4 ,,alcott2 #aijd1 ,,by ,,john ,s4 ,p4 ,,alcott2 #aiae1 ,,by ,,clara ,,endicott ,,sears ,,all ,,rights ,,reserved ,published ,may #aiae ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,note ,i desire to express my thanks to ,mr4 ,john ,s4 ,pratt ,alcott1 of ,brookline2 ,mr4 ,f4 ,b4 ,sanborn1 of ,concord2 ,dr4 ,joseph ,wiswall ,palmer1 of ,fitchburg2 and ,mr4 ,alvin ,holman1 of ,leominster1 for facts and data concerning the ,consociate ,family at ,fruitlands1 and for their assistance in collecting and acquiring the greater part of the original furniture which was there in the days of the ,community4 ,and ,i further thank ,mr4 ,john ,s4 ,pratt ,alcott for the privilege of including ,louisa's and ,anna's ,diaries at ,fruitlands1 and ,mr4 ,alcott and ,messrs4 ,little1 ,brown ,company for the use of ,louisa ,m4 ,alcott's ,transcendental ,wild ,oats4 ,,clara ,,endicott ,,sears4 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,foreword ,for many years articles have appeared from time to time in magazines and books regarding the ,community at ,fruitlands1 but it has remained for ,miss ,sears to gather them together with infinite patience for publication1 and this little book is the result1 the first connected story of the life and beliefs of that little ,community which tried so hard to live according to its ideals in spite of criticism and censure and whose members nearly starved as a result of their devotion4 ,a great deal of credit is due to ,miss ,sears for her success in gathering material to make this story of ,fruitlands so complete1 and ,i take this opportunity1 as the oldest surviving member of the ,alcott family1 of expressing to her our gratitude for the very interesting and complete account of the ,fruitlands experiment4 ,,john ,s4 ,p4 ,,alcott4 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,contents ,,introduction xiii ,i4 ,a ,,new ,,eden #a ,,ii4 ,,the ,,founding ,,of ,,fruitlands #ba ,,ii4 ,,brook ,,farm ,,and ,,fruitlands #ce ,,iv4 ,,the ,,man ,,with ,,the ,,beard #ec ,v4 ,,summer ,,sunshine #fh ,,vi4 ,,father ,,hecker',s ,,description ,,of ,,fruitlands #ge ,,vii4 ,,anna ,,alcott',s ,,diary ,,at ,,fruitlands #hf ,,viii4 ,,louisa ,,may ,,alcott',s ,,diary ,,at ,,fruitlands #ajf ,,ix4 ,,autumn ,,disappointment #aab ,x4 ,,in ,,after ,,years #acj ,,xi4 ,,transcendental ,,wild ,,oats4 ,,by ,,louisa ,,may ,,alcott #ade ,,appendix3 ,,catalogue ,,of ,,the ,,original ,,fruitlands ,,library #age ,,illustrations ,,the ,,old ,,house ,,at ,,fruitlands1 ,,harvard1 ,,massachusetts ,frontispiece ,in front are the mulberry trees planted by the philosophers for the propagation of silkworms4 ,a4 ,,bronson ,,alcott ,,at ,,the ,,age ,,of #ec #d ,from the portrait by ,mrs4 ,hildreth4 ,,abigail ,,may1 ,,mrs4 ,a4 ,,bronson ,,alcott #d ,from a daguerreotype4 ,,the ,,small ,,entry ,,where ,,the ,,valuable ,,books ,,were ,,kept #aj ,,the ,,study #bh ,a bust of ,socrates stands on the fine old ,dutch highboy that ,joseph ,palmer brought from ,no ,town4 ,,charles ,,lane #db ,,the ,,small ,,dining-,,room #dh ,around this table the philosophers discussed their deepest problems4 ,,nancy ,,and ,,joseph ,,palmer #ef ,,the ,,refectory1 ,,also ,,used ,,as ,a ,,kitchen #fh ,,isaac ,t4 ,,hecker #gf ,,louisa1 ,,anna1 ,,and ,,abba ,,may ,,alcott #hh ,,the ,,community ,,settle #ajj ,,where ,,abba ,,may',s ,,stocking ,,was ,,hung ,,the ,,night ,,before ,,her #ajf ,,birthday ,anna's bedroom is on the right1 next to ,mrs4 ,alcott's4 ,the portraits of the 8,little ,women0 hang on the wall4 ,,the ,,outer ,,kitchen #aaf ,,charles ,,lane',s ,,room #abd ,the old cowhide trunk1 in which some of the most valuable of the books were shipped from ,london2 also the old chest in which the linen was kept4 ,the spinning-wheel belonged to a former owner4 ,,the ,,bedroom #abh ,where ,mr4 ,alcott nearly succumbed to his despair at the failure of his 8,new ,eden40 ,,orchard ,,house ,,at ,,concord1 ,,massachusetts #agb ,the ,alcott home of later years4 ,,introduction ,longfellow wrote3-- 8,all houses wherein men have lived and died ,are haunted houses4 ,through the open doors ,the harmless phantoms on their errands glide1 ,with feet that make no sound upon the floors4 8,we meet them at the doorway1 on the stair1 ,along the passages they come and go1 ,impalpable impressions on the air1 ,a sense of something moving to and fro4 99 99 99 99 99 8,we have no title-deeds to house or lands2 ,owners and occupants of earlier dates ,from graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands1 ,and hold in mortmain still their old estates4 8,the spirit world around this world of sense ,floats like an atmosphere1 and everywhere ,wafts through these earthly mists and vapors dense ,a vital breath of more ethereal air40 ,i found myself reciting these lines whenever my eyes rested upon the old house of ,fruitlands4 ,from my terrace on the hill ,i looked down upon it with mixed feelings of pity1 awe1 and affection4 ,it seemed like a ,presence1 a ghost of the ,past1 that compelled the eyes to gaze at it persistently4 ,in the warm joyousness of the spring sunshine1 or when the cold mists of autumn crept across the valley1 it conveyed to me the same sense of desolation1 of mystery1 of disillusionment4 ,its broken windows looked like hollow eyes sunken in an ashen and expressionless face4 ,within its walls life and death had come and gone2--laughter and the sound of weeping had echoed through the quaint1 low-ceilinged rooms4 ,it had been the sheltering home of ,british yeomen4 ,its heavy chestnut beams bore record of the virgin forests of the ,colonies4 ,the thrill of patriotism had vibrated there when the sword of the ,revolution swept the land1 and the sound of drum and fife1 leading the hurrying feet of eager volunteers to ,concord and ,lexington1 must have reached the quiet hillside and stirred the hearts of those listening in the doorway4 ,those were the brave and vital days of its youth4 ,in seed-time and harvest it had smiled upon the valley1 its shingles warm and ruddy with ochre-red4 ,at ,yule-tide the log had been chosen with fitting ceremony and placed within the broad and spacious chimney4 ,the old and the young had feasted and made merry to the sound of the crackling fire-music4 ,who can tell what memories of happiness and romance the old house contains8 99 99 99 99 99 ,then came a period of quiet years1 when the meadows and pastures grew rich and fertile1 the upturned soil yielded abundant harvests1 and the branches of the apple trees hung heavy with fruit4 ,but it was when the old house had begun to settle and look decrepid1 and its floors had become shaky and uneven1 that its door opened wide to its supreme experience4 ,then ,fruitlands was exalted into the ,new ,eden4 ,the two names came to it simultaneously4 ,it was to pulsate with lofty ideals and altruistic aspirations4 ,for one perfect summer and mellow autumn its running brook1 its shady grove1 its fertile meadows and sloping pasture1 its western view1 so beautiful at sundown1 of ,wachusett and ,monadnoc1 and the chain of purple hills1 were to be the inspiration of a group of individuals then known as the transcendental philosophers1 and through them ,fruitlands became famous4 ,within its walls great questions were discussed1 great hopes for the betterment and enlightenment of mankind were generated4 ,alcott1 ,charles ,lane1 ,wright1 ,bower1 ,emerson1 ,hawthorne1 ,channing1 ,thoreau1 and many others went in and out of its doors2 and last1 but not least1 the child1 ,louisa ,may ,alcott1 who later became our well-loved ,new ,england authoress1 and ,joseph ,palmer1 a ,crusader in spirit as well as in actions1 who suffered for his principle of wearing a beard at a time when it was looked upon as a badge of scorn and contempt1 and which won for him the name of 8the ,old ,jew40 ,when the beautiful dream was over2 when the ,new ,eden proved to be only an empty mockery of the vision it had once inspired2 when the great experience had ended in failure1 then the old house sagged pitifully as if its heart had broken3 the winter storms and summer rains of the succeeding years washed all color from its face3 it became gray and haggard4 ,joseph ,palmer and his wife lingered on in old age1 and then passed out into the ,beyond4 ,their children and grandchildren clung to the place for a space of years1 but its history was over4 ,it was left desolate and abandoned4 99 99 99 99 99 ,so as ,i looked down on it from my terrace on the hill1 pitying its infinite loneliness1 the thought came to me that ,i must save it4 ,if for a time it had borne the semblance of a ,new ,eden1 then that time must be honored1 and not forgotten4 ,i longed to see it smiling again upon the valley in its glowing coat of ochre-red4 ,the fine old chimneys must be put back in their places from which they had been ruthlessly torn down to make room for stoves4 ,the hollow eyes must gleam again with window-panes2 the sound of voices must ring once more through the empty rooms4 ,in the future it must be cherished for its quaintly interesting history4 ,if that history was full of pathos1 if the great experiment enacted beneath its roof proved a failure1 the failure was only in the means of expression and not in the ideal which inspired it4 ,humanity must ever reach out towards a ,new ,eden4 ,succeeding generations smile at the crude attempts1 and forthwith make their own blunders1 but each attempt1 however seemingly unsuccessful1 must of necessity contain a germ of spiritual beauty which will bear fruit4 ,let no one cross the threshold of the old house with a mocking heart4 ,looking back from our present coigne of vantage1 we1 too1 cannot but smile at the childlike simplicity and credulity1 and the lack of forethought of those unpractical enthusiasts4 ,but let it be the smile of tenderness and not of derision4 ,in this material age we cannot afford to lose any details of so unique and picturesque a memory as that of ,a4 ,bronson ,alcott and the 8,con-,sociate ,family0 at ,fruitlands4 ,,bronson ,,alcott',s ,,fruitlands ,i ,a ,,new ,,eden ,the following account of the ,fruitlands ,community is largely a compilation of writings regarding it by eye-witnesses and those in close touch with its members4 ,this is the surest way of forming a just estimate of the experiment and the characters involved4 ,mr4 ,frank ,b4 ,sanborn1 in his book entitled 8,bronson ,alcott10 describes in a few short sentences the circumstances which led up to the formation of the ,community1 and this is what he says3-- 8,james ,pierrepont ,greaves was an ,englishman born in #aggg1 who at the age of forty went to reside in ,switzerland with ,pestalozzi1 for four years1 and there adopted1 a few years before young ,alcott did1 the chief ideas of ,pestalozzi1 as to the training of children4 ,returning to ,england in #ahbe1 he gradually formed a circle of mystics and reformers1 in ,london and its vicinity1 who were1 like himself1 interested in the early instruction and training of children4 ,hearing from ,harriet ,martineau1 upon her return from ,america in #ahcg1 of ,mr4 ,alcott's ,temple ,school at ,boston1 and thinking more favorably of it than ,miss ,martineau did1 ,mr4 ,greaves opened a correspondence with the ,american ,pestalozzi1 and received from him some of his books1--,miss ,peabody's #8,records of a ,school1' and ,mr4 ,alcott's #8,conversations on the ,gospels4' ,from these books1 and from his correspondence1 ,mr4 ,greaves and his friends1 ,william ,oldham1 ,mrs4 ,chichester1 ,charles ,lane1 ,heraud1 and others1 formed so high an estimate of ,bronson ,alcott's talents and character1 that they named for him the ,english school they were about establishing near ,london1 and called it #8,alcott ,house4' ,they also urged ,mr4 ,alcott to visit them in ,england and to take part in their schemes and labors4 ,he was well inclined to do this2 and in #ahdb he set sail for ,london1 where1 late in ,may1 he received a hearty welcome from his correspondents and their circle1 with the exception of ,mr4 ,greaves1 who had died earlier in the same year40 ,mr4 ,emerson furnished the money for ,mr4 ,alcott's trip to ,england4 ,the following letter was written by ,bronson ,alcott to his cousin ,dr4 ,william ,alcott3-- 99 99 99 99 99 ,,alcott ,,house1 ,,ham ,,common1 ,,surrey1 ,june #cj1 #ahdb4 444 ,i am now at ,alcott ,house1 which is ten miles from ,london2 where ,i find the principles of human culture1 which have so long interested me1 carried into practical operation by wise and devoted friends of education4 ,the school was opened five years ago and has been thus far quite successful4 ,it consists of thirty or more children1 and some of them not more than three years of age1--all fed and lodged at the ,house4 ,the strictest temperance is observed in diet and regimen4 ,plain bread with vegetables and fruits is their food1 and water their only drink4 ,they bathe always before their morning lesson1 and have exercises in the play-grounds1 which are ample1 besides cultivating the gardens of the institution4 ,they seem very happy and not less in the school-room than elsewhere4 ,mr4 ,wright has more genius for teaching than any person ,i have before seen--his method and temper are admirable1 and all parties1 from assistants1 of which there are several1 to the youngest child delight in his presence and influence4 ,he impersonates and realizes my own idea of an education1 and is the first person whom ,i have met that has entered into this divine art of inspiring the human clay1 and moulding it into the stature and image of divinity4 ,i am already knit to him by more than human ties1 and must take him with me to ,america1 as a coadjutor in our high vocation1 or else remain with him here4 ,but ,i hope to effect the first4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the ,healthian is edited here by ,mr4 ,wright and ,mr4 ,lane1 and they contribute to almost every reform journal in the kingdom4 ,they are not ignorant of our labors in the ,united ,states1 almost every work of any value ,i find in the library at ,alcott ,house1--your own works1 those of ,mr4 ,graham 7a vegetarian71 besides foreign authors not to be found with us4 ,i shall bring with me many books1 both ancient and modern1 on my return to ,america4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it was during his sojourn in ,england in #ahdb that the idea of creating 8a ,new ,eden10 as he loved to call it1 took firm root in ,alcott's mind4 ,a more quaintly unique character than his cannot be found in all the annals of our literary history4 ,his unquenchable aspirations after the ideal life caught the imagination of men and women ready to break away from the narrowing tendency of the ,orthodox faith of the time4 ,he was both loved and derided4 ,a transcendentalist pure and simple2 unpractical2 a dreamer and visionary in every sense of the word2 yet his mind emitted flashes of genius so unerring and decisive as to elicit the spontaneous admiration of ,ralph ,waldo ,emerson and impel him to write in his journal the following tributes3-- ,illustration3 ,a4 ,,bronson ,,alcott ,,at ,,the ,,age ,,of #ec ,from the portrait by ,mrs4 ,hildreth4 ,illustration3 ,,abigail ,,may1 ,,mrs4 ,a4 ,,bronson ,,alcott ,from a daguerreotype4 8,the comfort of ,alcott's mind is1 the connection in which he sees whatever he sees4 ,he is never dazzled by a spot of colour1 or a gleam of light1 to value the thing by itself2 but forever and ever is prepossessed by the individual one behind it and all4 ,i do not know where to find in men or books a mind so valuable to faith in others4 8,for every opinion or sentence of ,alcott a reason may be sought and found1 not in his will or fancy1 but in the necessity of ,nature itself1 which has daguerred that fatal impression on his susceptible soul4 ,he is as good as a lens or a mirror1 a beautiful susceptibility1 every impression on which is not to be reasoned against1 or derided1 but to be accounted for1 and until accounted for1 registered as an indisputable addition to our catalogue of natural facts4 ,there are defects in the lens1 and errors of retraction and position1 etc41 to be allowed for1 and it needs one acquainted with the lens by frequent use1 to make these allowances2 but #8tis the best instrument ,i have met with40#a ,footnote #a3 ,emerson's ,journal1 #ahef4 99 99 99 99 99 8,once more for ,alcott it is to be said that he is sincerely and necessarily engaged to his task and not wilfully or ostentatiously or pecuniarily4 ,mr4 ,johnson at ,manchester said of him1 #8,he is universally competent4 ,whatever question is asked1 he is prepared for4' 8,i shall go far and see many1 before ,i find such an extraordinary insight as ,alcott's4 ,in his fine talk last evening1 he ran up and down the scale of powers with much ease and precision as a squirrel the wires of his cage1 and is never dazzled by his means1 or by any particular1 and a fine heroic action or a poetic passage would make no impression on him1 because he expects heroism and poetry in all4 ,ideal ,purity1 the poet1 the artist1 the man must have4 ,i have never seen any person who so fortifies the believer1 so confutes the skeptic4 ,and the almost uniform rejection of this man by men of parts1 ,carlyle and ,browning inclusive1 and by women of piety1 might make one despair of society4 ,if he came with a cannonade of acclaim from all nations1 as the first wit on the planet1 these masters would sustain the reputation2 or if they could find him in a book a thousand years old1 with a legend of miracles appended1 there would be churches of disciples2 but now they wish to know if his coat is out at the elbows1 or whether somebody did not hear from somebody1 that he has got a new hat etc4 ,he has faults1 no doubt1 but ,i may safely know more about them than he does2 and some that are most severely imputed to him are only the omissions of a preoccupied mind40#b 99 99 99 99 99 8,last night in the conversation ,alcott appeared to great advantage1 and ,i saw again1 as often before1 his singular superiority4 ,as pure intellect ,i have never seen his equal4 ,the people with whom he talks do not ever understand him4 ,they interrupt him with clamorous dissent1 or what they think verbal endorsement of what they fancy he may have been saying1 or with #8,do you know ,mr4 ,alcott ,i think thus and so1'--some whim or sentimentalism1 and do not know that they have interrupted his large and progressive statement2 do not know that all they have in their baby brains is incoherent and spotty2 that all he sees and says is like astronomy1 lying there real and vast1 every part and fact in eternal connection with the whole1 and that they ought to sit in silent gratitude1 eager only to hear more1 to hear the whole1 and not interrupt him with their prattle4 ,it is because his sight is so clear1 commanding the whole ground1 and he perfectly gifted to state adequately what he sees1 that he does not lose his temper when glib interlocutors bore him with their dead texts and phrases4--,power is not pettish1 but want of power is40#b ,footnote #b3 ,emerson's ,journal1 #ahef4 99 99 99 99 99 8,yesterday ,alcott left me after three days spent here4 ,i had laid down a man and had waked up a bruise1 by reason of a bad cold1 and was lumpish1 tardy and cold4 ,yet ,i could see plainly that ,i conversed with the most extraordinary man and the highest genius of the time4 ,he is a man4 ,he is erect2 he sees1 let whoever be overthrown or parasitic or blind4 ,life he would have and enact1 and not nestle into any cast-off shell or form of the old time1 and now proposes to preach to the people1 or to take his staff and walk through the country1 conversing with the school-teachers1 and holding conversations in the villages4 ,and so he ought to go1 publishing through the land his gospel like them of old time40#c ,footnote #c3 ,emerson's ,journal1 #aheg4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it was not unnatural that these gifts1 fully acknowledged by so eminent a man as ,emerson1 should have won to him the respect and devotion of these ,englishmen1 who were living in the same atmosphere of thought in which ,bronson ,alcott lived and moved and had his being4 ,and so after much discussion and many plans1 illumined by great hopes and a deep enthusiasm1 ,charles ,lane and ,mr4 ,alcott collected a valuable library of books mostly on mysticism and all occult subjects for the future ,eden1 and with ,william ,lane1 who was ,charles ,lane's son1 ,wright1 and ,samuel ,bowers1 sailed for ,america1 their immediate destination being the home in ,concord where ,mrs4 ,alcott and her daughters1 then very young1 were waiting to receive them4 ,concord named the strangers 8the ,english ,mystics0 and received them cordially into the inner circle of literary men which formed the group now spoken of as the 8,concord ,philosophers40 ,emerson1 ,thoreau1 ,hawthorne1 ,ellery ,channing1 and others became their friends1 and listened to their plans for forming universal brotherhood4 ,emerson's description of ,charles ,lane was this3-- 99 99 99 99 99 8,a man of fine intellectual nature1 inspired and hallowed by a profound faith4 ,this is no man of letters1 but a man of ideas4 ,deep opens below deep in his thought1 and for the solution of each new problem1 he recurs1 with new success to the highest truth1 to that which is most generous1 most simple1 and most powerful2 to that which cannot be comprehended1 or overseen1 or exhausted4 ,his words come to us like the voices of home out of a far country40 99 99 99 99 99 ,in the mean time the trunks containing the books chosen in ,england with so much care were opened1 and lists were made of their contents4 ,it was either ,emerson or ,thoreau who inserted a notice of them in 8,the ,dial10 the famous periodical to which the literary men and women of this noted circle contributed4 ,it ran thus3 8,mr4 ,alcott and ,mr4 ,lane have recently brought from ,england a small1 but valuable library1 amounting to about #ajjj volumes1 containing undoubtedly a richer collection of mystical writers than any other library in this country4 ,to the select library of the late ,j4 ,p4 ,greaves1 #8held by ,mr4 ,lane in trust for universal ends1' they have added many works of a like character1 by purchase or received as gifts4 ,in their ,catalogue 444 they say1 #8,the titles of these books are now submitted1 in the expectation that this ,library is the commencement of an ,institution for the nurture of men in universal freedom of action1 thought1 and being4 ,we print this list1 not only because our respect is engaged to views so liberal1 but because the arrival of this cabinet of mystic and theosophic lore is a remarkable fact in our literary history4'0 ,mr4 ,sanborn1 referring to this library in his 8,bronson ,alcott10 says3 8,it was this collection which1 in the summer of #ahdc1 occupied a hundred feet of shelving in the old red farmhouse at ,fruitlands40 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,small ,,entry ,,where ,,the ,,valuable ,,books ,,were ,,kept 99 99 99 99 99 ,the problem of where to establish the ,new ,eden became the great and vital question of the moment4 ,many suggestions were offered from many quarters1 but the great impediment to a definite decision was the lack of funds4 ,mr4 ,alcott had no money to spare to put into a farm such as they required1 and the group of friends were interested1 but not wholly convinced of the feasibility of the scheme1 and hung back when it came to a question of investment4 ,this very doubt fanned the flame of desire in ,mr4 ,alcott and ,charles ,lane to prove to the world the value of their cherished dream4 ,so it came about that ,charles ,lane took the burden of paying for a farm on his own shoulders1 and he wrote the following letter to ,mr4 ,alcott's brother1 ,junius ,alcott1 on ,march #g1 #ahdc3-- 8,i hope the little cash ,i have collected from my ,london toils will suffice to redeem a small spot on the planet1 that we may rightly use for the right owner4 ,i would very much prefer a small example of true life to a large society in false and selfish harmony4 ,please put your best worldly thoughts to the subject and favor me with your view as to how and where we could best lay out #ahjj or #bjjj in land1 with orchard1 wood1 and house4 ,some of the land must be now fit for the spade1 as we desire to give all animals their freedom4 ,we feel it desirable to keep within the range of ,mind and ,letters2 or rather to keep refinement within our range1 that we may be the means of improving or reproving it1 without being injured by it40 ,before this ,mr4 ,alcott had written a letter to ,isaac ,t4 ,hecker1 later known as ,father ,hecker1 head of the ,paulist ,brotherhood1 and in it he described the idea they had in mind4 ,at that time ,father ,hecker was at ,brook ,farm1 but was restless and dissatisfied with the life there1 craving a more ascetic existence2 and knowing this1 ,alcott felt confident of his sympathy and stated the salient points of the scheme to him3-- ,our purposes1 as far as we know them at present1 are briefly these3-- 99 99 99 99 99 ,first1 to obtain the free use of a spot of land adequate by our own labor to our support2 including1 of course1 a convenient plain house1 and offices1 wood-lot1 garden1 and orchard4 ,secondly1 to live independently of foreign aids by being sufficiently elevated to procure all articles for subsistence in the productions of the spot1 under a regimen of healthful labor and recreation2 with benignity toward all creatures1 human and inferior2 with beauty and refinement in all economics2 and the purest charity throughout our demeanor4 ,should this kind of life attract parties toward us--individuals of like aims and issues--that state of being itself determines the law of association2 and the particular mode may be spoken of more definitely as individual cases may arise2 but in no case1 could inferior ends compromise the principles laid down4 ,doubtless such a household1 with our library1 our services and manner of life1 may attract young men and women1 possibly also families with children1 desirous of access to the channels and fountains of wisdom and purity2 and we are not without hope that ,providence will use us progressively for beneficial effects in the great work of human regeneration1 and the restoration of the highest life on earth4 ,with the humane wish that yourself and little ones may be led to confide in providential ,love1 ,i am1 dear friend1 ,very truly yours1 ,a4 ,,bronson ,,alcott4 ,february #ae1 #ahdc4 99 99 99 99 99 ,finally a decision was arrived at1 and in a letter to ,mr4 ,oldham1 ,charles ,lane narrates how it came about4 ,it was written from ,concord1 ,may #ca1 #ahdc3-- 99 99 99 99 99 ,,my ,,dear ,,friend3-- 444 ,mr4 ,alcott and ,i walked up the river to a place called the ,cliffs1 where is a young orchard of #af acres and woodland below4 ,he came home with his head full of poetic schemes for a cottage1 etc41 on this spot4 ,i1 however1 came home first and found that a man had been sent by the young man who walked with me to ,southborough1 having a farm to sell at ,harvard1 #ad miles off4 ,he proposed to take me directly to see it1 but ,i was fatigued1 so ,samuel ,larned1 the visitor who came up with ,mr4 ,wright1 went in the waiting vehicle4 ,the next morning being very fine ,mr4 ,alcott and ,i walked there1 not knowing his name1 but we ascertained it to be ,wyman2 we saw his place1 consisting of #ij acres1 #ad of them wood1 a few apple and other fruit trees1 plenty of nuts and berries1 much of the land very good2 the prospect from the highest part very sublime4 ,the house and barn very poor1 but the water excellent and plentiful4 ,the capabilities are manifold1 but the actualities humble4 ,for the whole he asked #bgjj dollars1 which being beyond my means1 we had much talk when he offered to sell the land for #ahjj dollars and to lend us the buildings gratis for a year4 ,i should observe it is extremely retired1 there being no road to it4 ,on these terms we have closed4 ,he gives us the few crops he has just planted and grass to a considerable amount will soon be cut4 ,i have slept a night or two there4 ,william and two friends 7,larned and ,abram ,everett1 called the 8,plain ,man0 in the ,vermont ,telegraph7 and a hired man remain there1 and the family are to start early to-morrow morning1 so now for plenty of work of all sorts4 ,ninety acres2 much of it first rate2 some worth #ajj dollars per acre1 the whole #bj dollars per acre2 would that some of the ,english honest half-starved were on it6 ,this1 ,i think you will admit1 looks like an attempt at something which will entitle transcendentalism to some respect for its practicality4444 ,we have very much to do1 but the occasions are opportune4 ,i think ,mr4 ,emerson is not so well pleased with our departure as he would be with our company1 but as he did nothing to keep us we must go4 ,it appeared to me that for the hopefulness of many1 it was needful we should make a movement of some kind this year1 even though we fail2 and ,providence seems really to have worked for us4444 ,i thank you very much for the #aj2 the note arrived very opportunely to enable ,mr4 ,a4 to quit ,concord1 to do which all his debts must be paid1 and ,i need not tell you on whom that falls4 ,our transactions at present leave me about #ejj dollars in debt1 but every one says we have made a good bargain in the purchase of the land4 ,i seriously hope we are forming the basis for something really progressive1 call it family or community1 or what you will4444 ,we have now plenty of work to do and how we get on ,i shall faithfully report1 though the pen will not do much at present4444 ,believe me1 dear friend1 ,yours steadfastly in the spirit1 ,,charles ,,lane4 99 99 99 99 99 ,mr4 ,sanborn1 who above all others has an intimate knowledge of what the situation was1 having in later years learned much concerning it from ,emerson and ,alcott and others of that time1 makes this comment in his 8,bronson ,alcott03-- 8,after looking at several places in ,concord and elsewhere1 ,lane decided to buy the ,wyman farm at ,harvard1 two miles from the village of that name1 but less than a mile from ,still ,river1 another village in the same township4 ,alcott would have chosen the ,cliffs in ,concord1 a favorite resort of ,thoreau and the ,emerson family1 and ,emerson would have preferred to retain his friend in his own town2 but ,lane had rather avoided ,emerson1 as not ascetic enough for his abstemious habits1 and seems to have been not unwilling to withdraw ,alcott from what he regarded as an unfavorable influence40 ,but when it was all settled1 ,alcott and his ,english ,mystics entered into their plan with a touching enthusiasm4 ,before them lay vistas of glowing possibilities4 ,they dreamed dreams and saw visions of a 8,peace on ,earth1 ,good ,will towards ,men0 such as had never before been realized4 ,there was much to be done and they were eager to begin1--the days were none too long in which to collect the necessary things before moving to ,harvard4 ,so ,charles ,lane persuaded ,samuel ,bowers to write to ,oldham a description of the farm1 he himself being too busy to do so4 ,and ,bowers writes as follows3-- 8,charles ,lane wished me to sketch to you the material picture of ,fruitlands and the adjoining scene1 but ,i am unqualified to do justice to the subject4 ,the property is very compact and may be a very beautiful domain4 ,it is part a hill sloping down to more valley4 ,several springs gush out from the side of the hill and the water is very good--better ,i think than is common in ,massachusetts4 ,the soil varies much1 but the average quality is1 ,i considerately judge1 twice1 if not thrice as good as that of ,tytherley4#d ,there is about #ad acres of woodland all in the vale and adjoining is the ,nashua ,river1 on the other side of which1 where the receding lands gently rise1 stands a ,shaker village 7,shirley71 its extended orchards1 corn and grass lands4 ,there is in view a long and high range of hills1 one of which1 and that the highest1 is famous for having been the resort of an ,indian sachem4 ,the hill is called ,wachusett4 ,altogether the scene reminded me strongly of the ,vale of ,evesham1 in ,worcestershire1 where seen when one approaches it from ,oxford40 ,footnote #d3 ,the location of ,owen's ,harmony ,hall in ,england4 ,it is quite evident that ,oldham had written a letter to ,charles ,lane warning him against assuming too great responsibility in this venture4 ,the question as to whether many enthusiasts would join the ,community was a very crucial one1 since it was on this expectation that they based their plans of running the farm free of debt4 ,in answering the letter he asks ,oldham to forward certain money due to him4 ,and in his explanation says3-- 8,i do not see any one to act the money part but myself40 7,this refers to the land for the ,fruitlands experiment47 8,mr4 ,alcott cannot part with me4 ,i deem him too sincere and valuable to quit him1 and besides there is nothing in the country so well as we can show if we be faithful2 but rents1 debts1 and mortgage would destroy us4 ,as to the recruits you speak of1 are they good for anything8 ,are they worth the small passage money you name8 ,truly if they are some of them you have at ,alcott ,house1 ,i think we should not be much aided by their presence4 8,understand1 we are not going to open a hospital4 ,we are more ,pythagorean than ,christs1 we wish to begin with the sound rather than to heal the sick4 ,there is grand work here to be done and ,i must not trifle with it40 ,this matter of getting the right kind of persons to join the ,community required a keen insight into human nature1 and on this point ,mr4 ,alcott was not very strong4 ,his own sincerity and depth of purpose were so great that he looked for these same attributes in every one who approached him1 and often failed to detect the superficial qualities that lurked underneath the surface enthusiasm of some of his followers4 ,at this time ,transcendentalism was rife through the land4 ,some called it 8the ,newness40 ,the expression 8,apostles of the ,newness0 was heard on all sides4 ,they could be recognized by their long hair1 ,byronic collars1 flowing ties1 and eccentric habits and manners4 ,nothing seemed too excessive to prove their emancipation from the shackles of conventionality4 ,one day three young men of this kind turned up at ,mr4 ,emerson's at ,concord and entered into an animated conversation with him on his front porch4 ,with them freedom of thought and allegiance to 8the ,newness0 took the strange form of preceding every remark1 however trivial1 with resounding oaths1 which so startled the passers-by1 and ,mr4 ,emerson as well1 that he hastily invited them to move round to the back of the house where the vibrations of their sulphurous ejaculations might roll harmlessly across the meadow instead of exploding in through the windows of the houses near by4 ,that ,mr4 ,emerson was deeply interested in the experiment of creating the 8,new ,eden0 at ,harvard is shown by the fact that a deed of the land was made out in his name as trustee for ,charles ,lane4 ,he and ,thoreau and the rest of the ,concord circle viewed the departure with a mixture of interest1 curiosity1 and anxiety4 ,on ,june #aj1 #ahdc1 ,emerson wrote to ,thoreau3-- 8,from ,mr4 ,alcott and ,mr4 ,lane at ,harvard1 we have yet heard nothing4 ,they went away in good spirits1 having sent ,wood ,abram and ,larned and ,william ,lane before them1 with horse and plough1 a few days in advance1 to begin the spring work4 ,mr4 ,lane paid me a long visit1 in which he was more than ,i had ever known him gentle and open2 and it was impossible not to sympathize with and honor projects that so often seem without feet or hands40 ,,ii ,,the ,,founding ,,of ,,fruitlands ,the original members of the ,community that started the unique experiment were ,mr4 ,alcott1 his wife1 and four small daughters1 the ,englishman ,charles ,lane and his son ,william1 ,h4 ,c4 ,wright 7for a short time7 and ,samuel ,bower1 ,isaac ,t4 ,hecker1 of ,new ,york1 ,christopher ,greene and ,samuel ,larned1 of ,providence1 ,abraham ,everett and ,anna ,page1 ,joseph ,palmer1 of ,fitchburg1 and ,abram ,wood4 ,the transcendentalism of this last individual showed itself chiefly in insisting upon twisting his name hind side before and calling himself 8,wood ,abram40 ,as this he was always known at ,fruitlands4 ,these members did not all arrive at once1 but came within a short time of each other4 ,wright had shown some dissatisfaction already in the extreme asceticism of the plan of life adopted by ,mr4 ,alcott at ,concord and he refused to be a regular member of the ,fruitlands ,community on this account4 ,in writing to ,oldham on the subject ,charles ,lane says3 8,i can see no other reason but the simplicity and order to which affairs were coming 7in the cottage72 no butter nor milk1 nor cocoa1 nor tea1 nor coffee4 ,nothing but fruit1 grain1 and water was hard for the inside2 then regular hours and places1 cleaning up scraps1 etc41 was desperate hard for the outside40 ,when finally the move from ,concord to ,harvard was made1 ,mr4 ,alcott took what furniture he could with him1 such as beds1 etc41 and the rest was supplied by ,joseph ,palmer1 who carted his over from his old ,homestead at ,no ,town outside of ,fitchburg4 ,shortly after the move1 ,charles ,lane sat down and wrote to ,thoreau a description of ,fruitlands3 99 99 99 99 99 ,,fruitlands1 ,june #g1 #ahdc4 ,it is very remotely placed1 without a road1 surrounded by a beautiful green landscape of fields and woods1 with the distance filled up with some of the loftiest mountains in the ,state4 ,at present there is much hard manual labor1 so much that1 as you see1 my usual handwriting is very greatly suspended4 ,our house accommodations are poor and scanty2 but the greatest want is good female society4 ,far too much labor devolves on ,mrs4 ,alcott4 ,besides the occupations of each succeeding day1 we form in this ample theatre of hope1 many forthcoming scenes4 ,the nearer little copse is designed as the site of the cottages4 ,fountains can be made to descend from their granite sources on the hill-slope to every apartment if desired4 ,gardens are to displace the warm grazing glades on the ,south1 and numerous human beings instead of cattle1 shall here enjoy existence4 99 99 99 99 99 ,on the estate are about #ad acres of wood1--a very sylvan realization1 which only wants a ,thoreau's mind to elevate it to classic beauty4 ,the farther wood offers to the naturalist and the poet an exhaustless haunt2 and a short cleaning up of the brook would connect our boat with the ,nashua4 ,such are the designs which ,mr4 ,alcott and ,i have just sketched1 as resting from planting we walked around this reserve4 99 99 99 99 99 ,though to me our mode of life is luxurious in the highest degree1 yet generally it seems to be thought that the setting aside of all impure diet1 dirty habits1 idle thoughts1 and selfish feelings is a source of self-denial scarcely to be encountered1 or even thought of1 in such an alluring world as this4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in the course of the next few weeks ,lane wrote with much detail to ,oldham3-- 99 99 99 99 99 ,,fruitlands1 ,,harvard1 ,,mass41 ,june #af1 #ahdc4 ,,my ,,dear ,,friend3-- ,the morning being rainy ,i have taken advantage of the suspension of outdoor labours to sit down and have a little chat with you of and concerning our doings and progress4 ,the day after ,i wrote you last all the household effects and all the household were mounted on wheels and trundled to this place2 the old little cottage being left as clean as a new book by ,mrs4 ,alcott's great energy4 ,the day was sharp and cold for the season1 but the weather has since come out fine and warm1 some days hot4 ,we have all been busily engaged in manual operations in the field1 house1 wood yard1 etc4 ,planting1 ploughing1 sowing1 cleaning fruit trees1 gardening1 chopping1 sawing1 fitting up1 etc41 etc41 have gone at a rapid rate1 as the place was in a very slovenly condition4 ,when tired we have taken a look round the estate to see what was growing1 learn the shape of it1 and its capabilities with more minuteness4 ,it seems to be agreed on all hands1 and we have opinions from many practical men1 that we have not made a bad exchange1 even in the commercial sense1 of our cash for land4 ,only think1 brother ,oldham1 ninety acres1 every one of which may1 in a short time1 and without much outlay1 be brought into a state fit for spade culture2 and much of it very good land1 obtained at the rate of #bj dollars or only four pounds per acre freehold4 ,recollect1 too1 this includes fuel and some building material1 for there are #ad acres of wood1 including many trees of edible nuts1 and still only #cj miles from a metropolitan city of #aaj1jjj inhabitants4#e ,the land is most beautifully disposed in hill and valley1 and the scenery is of a sublime and elevating character4 ,water abundant and excellent and the springs being on the hill1 it may be conveyed anywhere about the place for irrigation1 etc4 ,as is common in this district1 the principal part is meadow and pasture2 but we shall go on ploughing up as much as possible1 sowing crops of clover or buckwheat1 and turning them in1 so as to redeem the land without animal manures1 which in practice ,i find to be as filthy as in idea4 ,the use of them is disgusting in the extreme4 ,at present1 we have about #d acres in ,maize1 #a in ,rye1 #a in ,oats1 #a in ,barley1 #b in ,potatoes1 nearly #a in ,beans1 ,peas1 ,melons1 ,squashes1 etc42 there will be some ,buckwheat1 ,turnips1 etc41 making in all about #aa acres arable4 ,we have no ,wheat this year4 ,the grass promises well1 and we may possibly cut #bjj dollars' worth2 but by hired teams we are now turning up one piece of #h or #i1 and another of #e acres1 and mean to attack another #d or #e for our next year's homestead or garden1 should we obtain the means of building4 ,the hillside of #ab or #ad acres pasture is also to be ploughed1 directly1 if we can2 so that the work of reclamation will go rapidly forward4 ,there is a large piece of peat land1 as black as ink1 which1 mixed with sand1 makes a most productive soil1 valued at #bjj to #cjj dollars per acre2 and there is sand on our lot within #ajj yards4 ,we have been much plagued1 and a little cheated1 with the cattle1 but our stock is now reduced to one yoke of oxen4 ,footnote #e3 ,boston4 ,besides ,mr4 ,alcott1 his ,wife and ,children1 myself and ,william1 who is very efficient and active1 we have only a ,mr4 ,larned and ,abraham ,abram ,everett--who appears in the ,vermont ,telegraph as the 8,plain ,man40 ,larned was many months at ,west ,roxbury1 is only about #bj years of age1 his father was a merchant1 and he has been a counting-house man and is what the world calls genteel4 ,abraham is about #db1 a cooper by trade1 but an excellent assistant here1 very faithful to every work he undertakes1 very serious1 has had rather deep experience1 having been imprisoned in a mad house by his relations because he had a little property1 but still he is not a spiritual being1 at least not consciously and wishfully so4 ,i have exchanged more letters with ,samuel ,bower and he promises to come here to-morrow4 ,if his real state bears out his writings1 ,i think he may be added to the family1 otherwise he thinks of looking at ,roxbury for the purpose of finding a home there4444 ,mr4 ,alcott is as persevering in practice as last year we found him to be in idea4 ,to do better and better1 to be better and better1 is the constant theme4 ,his hand is everywhere like his mind4 ,he has held the plough with great efficiency1 sometimes for the whole day1 and by the straightness of his furrow may be said to be giving lessons to the professed ploughmen1 who work in a slovenly manner4 ,we have called in the aid of a carpenter who has made simple shelves for our books1 and for the first time our library stands upright as it should do4 ,it occupies about #ajj feet of shelves4 99 99 99 99 99 ,june #bh1 #ahdc4 ,on the #aith ,i received your very kind and newsful letter of the first instant enclosed in ,mrs4 ,chichester's4 ,mr4 ,bower1 having kept his promise1 was here1 and ,i read much of it at breakfast1 having also another visitor from ,brook ,farm1 ,mr4 ,hecker ,isaac ,t4 ,hecker4 ,all were much interested in the facts reported1 and ,saml4 ,bower heard your remembrances fresh from your pen4 ,you affect him more than any other person4 ,in your next1 you will perhaps devote a slip to him and ,i will forward it4 ,he1 ,larned and ,hecker visited the ,shakers and were much attracted by them4 ,larned who1 on common report1 used to oppose them1 talks of joining them1 so pleasant is their society2 at least at first4444 ,if ,i were not at this moment surrounded by so much that is beautiful in the present1 hopeful in the future and ennobling in the act1 your affectionate invitation to ,ham would seriously touch me4 ,but by ,god's blessing something shall be done here which shall reach you there4 ,if we can aid the people in any way to let self be conquered1 we shall do something4 ,lust abounds and love is deserted4 ,lust of money1 of food1 of sexuality1 of books1 of music1 of art1--while ,love demands the powers devoted to these false ends4 ,i thank you for your hint respecting worldliness4 ,i believe ,i am getting on safe ground if ,i am not already landed4 ,from1 or in ,england you say1 ,i should expect nothing1 and ,i am now in the same predicament here4 ,every farthing ,i had is now either put in or involved in this affair1 and more1 for ,i have put my hand to two rather large bills2 silly enough1 you will say4 ,in a few weeks ,i expect to be literally pennyless1 and even unable for want of stage hire to travel to ,boston if you send me ever so many orders1 of which you discover ,i have been so neglectful4 ,no2 ,i think ,i am now out of the money world4 ,let my privation be ever so great1 ,i will never make any property claim on this effort4 ,it is an offering to the ,eternal ,spirit1 and ,i consider that ,i have no more right than any other person2 and ,i have arranged the title deeds1 as well as ,i could1 to meet that end4 ,i could only consent to return to ,england on condition of being held free1 like a child1 from all money entanglements4 ,as no person or association can guarantee this for me1 ,i think it would be better to remain here where the simple wants can be so easily met1 and where there is much opportunity for doing good1 and more hope as the outward conditions are so beautifully free4 ,would that you were here for a month2 we have now the most delightful steady weather you can conceive2 we are all dressed in our linen tunics1 ,abraham is ploughing1 ,larned bringing some turf from the house1 ,alcott doing a thousand things1 ,bower and ,i have well dug a sandy spot for carrots1 the children and ,lady are busy in their respective ways1 and some hirelings are assisting4444 ,now that something1 though little1 is doing1 you will find my expressions more peaceful4 ,con-fi-dence in ,love ,i hope will ne'er be wanting in your affectionate friend1 ,,charles ,,lane4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,study ,a bust of ,socrates stands on the fine old ,dutch highboy that ,joseph ,palmer brought from ,no ,town4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,fruitlands1 ,,harvard1 ,,mass41 ,july #cj1 #ahdc4 ,,dear ,,friend3-- 444 ,a few days after ,i wrote you ,samuel ,bower joined us and has steadily and zealously entered into all the works and speculations we have in hand and mind4 ,mr4 ,hecker1 a very spiritual-minded young man1 also has been with us4 ,he is partner with his brothers at ,new ,york in a very extensive baking and corn mill business4 ,he has resided several months at ,w4 ,roxbury1 but is by no means satisfied with their schoolboy dilettante spiritualism4 ,he will1 ,i believe1 go to ,new ,york to clear up if possible with his family as to the relations on which they are in future to stand to each other4 ,they appear to be so loving and united a family with such strong human attachments that1 although he has done much towards breaking away1 ,i fear that in the desire to bring his brothers further into the inner world1 he will himself be detained4 ,mr4 ,alcott and ,i returned last evening from a short visit to ,boston to purchase a few articles1 and while there we went out one evening to ,roxbury#f where there are #hj or #ij persons playing away their youth and daytime in a miserably joyous1 frivolous manner4 ,there are not above four or five who could be selected as really and truly progressing beings4 ,most of the adults are there to pass 8a good time02 the children are taught languages1 etc42 the animals 7in consequence ,i believe solely of ,mr4 ,george ,ripley's tendency7 occupy a prominent position1 there being no less than #af cows1 besides #d oxen1 a herd of swine1 a horse or two1 etc4 ,the milk is sold in ,boston1 and they buy butter to the extent of #ejj dollars a year4 ,we had a pleasant summer evening conversation with many of them1 but it is only in a few individuals that anything deeper than ordinary is to be found4 ,the ,northampton ,community is one of industry1 the one at ,hopedale aims at practical theology1 this of ,roxbury is one of taste2 yet it is the best which exists here1 and perhaps we shall have to say it is the best which can exist4 ,at all events we can go no further than to keep open fields1 and as far as we have it open house to all comers4 ,we know very well that if they come not in the right name and nature they will not long remain4 ,our dietetic system is a test quite sufficient for many4 ,as far as acres of fine land are concerned1 you may offer their free use to any free souls who will come here and work them1 and any aid we can afford shall be freely given4 ,the aid of sympathetic companionship is not small1 and that at least we can render4 ,to bridge the ,atlantic is a trifle if the heart is really set on the attainment of better conditions4 ,here are they freely presented1 at a day's walk from the shore1 without a long and expensive journey to the ,west4 ,please to advertise these facts to all youthful men and women2 for such are much wanted here4 ,there is now a certain opportunity for planting a love colony1 the influence of which may be felt for many generations1 and more than felt2 it may be the beginning for a state of things which shall far transcend itself4 ,they to whom our work seems not good enough may come and set out a better4 ,footnote #f3 ,brook ,farm4 ,i should mention to you that passing his door ,mr4 ,theodore ,parker came to the ,community in the evening and again in the morning4 ,he is a very popular man at present and has a congregation at ,roxbury1 but being unwell by reason of close study1 he will sail to ,europe on the #ast ,september4 ,he will remain in ,germany for three or four months1 and afterwards as long in ,england4 ,no doubt you will see him and render him all the service you can4444 ,at present we are not sought by many persons1 but the value in our enterprise depends not upon numbers so much as upon the spirit from which we can live outwardly and in all relations true to the intuitions which are gifted to us4 ,we must not forget how great have been the works done by individuals1 and in the absence of what are usually called facilities4 ,our obstacles are1 ,i suppose1 chiefly within1 and as these are subdued we shall triumph in externalities4 ,i could send you a description of works and crops1 our mowing1 hoeing1 reaping1 ploughing in tall crops of clover and grass for next year's manure1 and various other operations1 but although they have some degree of relation to the grand principle to which they are obedient1 they are worth little in the exoteric sense alone4 ,perhaps the external revelations of success ought always to be kept secret1 for every improvement discovered is only turned to a money making account and to the further degradation of man1 as we see in the march of science to this very moment4 ,if we knew how to double the crops of the earth1 it is scarcely to be hoped that any good would come by revealing the mode4 ,on the contrary1 the bounties of ,god are already made the means by which man debases himself more and more4 ,we will therefore say little concerning the sources of external wealth until man is himself secured to the ,end which rightly uses these means4444 ,mr4 ,charles ,stearns ,wheeler1 the eminent ,greek student1 who went from here to ,germany last summer1 died at ,leipsic#g in ,june1 age #bf4 ,he was one of ,mr4 ,emerson's great hopes4 ,footnote #g3 ,this should be ,rome4 ,samuel ,bower continues with us1 but he is not so happy in body or mind as he ought to be3 a letter from you in the universal spirit would cheer him up4 ,he confesses to the possession of a little ,nomadic blood in his veins4 ,he thinks ,mr4 ,alcott is arbitrary or despotic1 as some others do1 but ,i shall endeavour 7and1 ,i think1 not in vain7 to urge him to the noblest conduct of which our position is capable4 ,he must not complain nor walk off1 but cheerfully amend whatever is amiss4 ,i suppose your letter has failed at the post somewhere1 but ,i have inquired fully on this side4 ,with assurances of continued affection to yourself and all friends on the divine ground1 ,i remain1 dear ,oldham1 ,truly yours1 ,,charles ,,lane4 ,,iii ,,brook ,,farm ,,and ,,fruitlands ,there is so much confusion in the minds of many regarding the difference of aim existing in the ,community at ,brook ,farm and that of ,fruitlands that it seems well to insert here a well-authenticated account of ,brook ,farm and also an extract from a letter written by ,john ,sullivan ,dwight who was a member4 ,brook ,farm was a ,community established in ,west ,roxbury1 ,massachusetts1 in #ahda4 8,the head of the ,community was ,george ,ripley1 formerly a ,unitarian clergyman in ,boston1 who had been in #ahcf one of the ,founders of the ,transcendental ,club with ,emerson1 ,hedge1 ,alcott1 and others4 ,associated with ,ripley in the ,brook ,farm enterprise were ,nathaniel ,hawthorne1 ,charles ,a4 ,dana1 ,john ,s4 ,dwight1 and other well-known men4 ,they bought a farm comprising some #bjj acres4 ,its object was the establishment of an #8agricultural1 literary1 and scientific school or college4' 8,several trades beside agriculture were carried on and a number of children were received as pupils1 instruction being furnished in ancient and modern languages1 history1 mathematics1 moral philosophy1 music1 drawing1 etc4 ,it was designed to substitute coperative for selfish competition1 and to dignify bodily labor by uniting it with the intellectual and spiritual life4 ,the ,community was at first organized as a joint-stock company1 each subscriber being guaranteed #e per cent per annum on his shares4 ,in #ahdg the experiment1 having proved a failure financially1 was given up4 8,life at ,brook ,farm1 especially during the first years of enthusiasm1 had idyllic and romantic aspects4 ,in its palmiest state the ,community1 including school children and boarders1 numbered about #aej souls4 ,kitchen and table were in common2 very little help was hired1 but philosophers1 clergymen1 and poets worked at the humblest tasks1 milking cows1 pitching manure1 cleaning stables1 etc41 while cultivated women cooked1 washed1 ironed1 and waited on table4 ,all work1 manual or intellectual1 was credited to members at a uniform rate of ten cents an hour40 99 99 99 99 99 ,john ,sullivan ,dwight wrote of ,brook ,farm3-- 8,i remember the night of my first arrival at ,brook ,farm4 ,it had been going all summer4 ,i arrived in ,november4 ,at that time it was a sort of pastoral life1 rather romantic1 although so much hard labor was involved in it4 ,they were all at tea in the old building1 which was called the ,hive4 ,in a long room at a long table they were making tea1 and ,i sat down with them4 ,when tea was over they were all very merry1 full of life2 and all turned to and washed the dishes1 cups and saucers4 ,all joined in1--the ,curtis brothers1 ,dana and all4 ,it was very enchanting1 quite a lark1 as we say4 ,much of the industry went on in that way1 because it combined the freest sociability with the useful arts40 ,robert ,carter1 a co-editor with ,james ,russell ,lowell of a magazine called ,the ,pioneer in #ahdc1 wrote an article called 8,the ,newness0 in after years1 describing ,fruitlands and ,brook ,farm4 ,of the latter he says3-- 8,it was a delightful gathering of men and women of superior cultivation1 who led a charming life for a few years1 laboring in its fields and philandering in its pleasant woods4 ,it was little too much of a picnic for serious profit1 and the young men and maidens were rather unduly addicted to moonlight wanderings in the pine grove1 though it is creditable to the sound moral training of ,new ,england that little or no harm came of these wanderings--at least1 not to the maidens4 ,brook ,farm1 however1 was not the only ,community which was founded by the disciples of the #8,newness4' ,there was one established in #ahdc on a farm called ,fruitlands1 in the town of ,harvard1 about forty miles from ,boston4 ,this was of much more ultra and grotesque character than ,brook ,farm4 ,here were gathered the men and women who based their hopes of reforming the world and of making all things new on dress and on diet4 ,they revived the ,pythagorean1 the ,essenian1 and the ,monkish notions of ,asceticism with some variations and improvements peculiarly ,american4 ,the head of the institution was ,bronson ,alcott1 a very remarkable man1 whose singularities of character1 conduct1 and opinion would alone afford sufficient topics for a long lecture4 ,his friend ,emerson defined him to be a philosopher devoted to the science of education1 and declared that he had singular gifts for awakening contemplation and aspiration in simple and in cultivated persons4444 ,his writings1 though quaint and thoughtful1 are clumsy compared with his conversation1 which has been pronounced by the best judges to have been unrivalled in grace and clearness4 ,mr4 ,alcott was one of the most foremost leaders of the #8,newness4' ,he swung round the circle of schemes very rapidly1 and after going through a great variety of phases he maintained1 at the time of the foundation of #8,fruitlands1' that the evils of life were not so much social or political as personal1 and that a personal reform only could eradicate them2 that self-denial was the road to eternal life1 and that property was an evil1 and animal food of all kinds an abomination4 ,no animal substance1 neither flesh1 fish1 butter1 cheese1 eggs1 nor milk1 was allowed to be used at #8,fruitlands4' ,they were all denounced as pollution1 and as tending to corrupt the body1 and through that the soul4 ,tea and coffee1 molasses and rice1 were also proscribed1--the last two as foreign luxuries1--and only water was used as a beverage4 8,mr4 ,alcott would not allow the land to be manured1 which he regarded as a base and corrupting and unjust mode of forcing nature4 ,he made also a distinction between vegetables which aspired or grew into the air1 as wheat1 apples1 and other fruits1 and the base products which grew downwards into the earth1 such as potatoes1#h beets1 radishes1 and the like4 ,these latter he would not allow to be used4 ,the bread of the ,community he himself made of unbolted flour1 and sought to render it palatable by forming the loaves into the shapes of animals and other pleasant images4 ,he was very strict1 rather despotic in his rule of the ,community1 and some of the members have told me they were nearly starved to death there2 nay1 absolutely would have perished with hunger if they had not furtively gone among the surrounding farmers and begged for food4 ,footnote #h3 ,this was a mistake on ,mr4 ,carter's part1 as they ate potatoes freely4 8,one of the ,fruitlanders took it into his head that clothes were an impediment to spiritual growth1 and that the light of day was equally pernicious4 ,he accordingly secluded himself in his room in a state of nature during the day1 and only went out at night for exercise1 with a single white cotton garment reaching from his neck to his knees4 8,samuel ,larned lived one whole year on crackers1 and the next year exclusively on apples4 ,he went to ,brook ,farm after the collapse of the ,fruitlands ,community1 and when that also failed he went ,south1 married a lady who owned a number of slaves1 and settled there as a ,unitarian minister40 ,in this same article ,mr4 ,carter asserts that ,fourierism brought ,brook ,farm into disrepute at the end1 and that a large wooden phalanstery1 in which members had invested all their means1 took fire and burned to the ground just as it was completed4 ,upon this catastrophe the association scattered in #ahdg4 ,nathaniel ,hawthorne lost all his savings in the enterprise4 ,while he was at ,brook ,farm he looked after the pigsties4 ,in contrast to this is the full account of the object and aim of ,fruitlands4 ,the following letter on ,the ,consociate ,family ,life was written to ,a4 ,brooke of ,oakland1 ,ohio1 and published in the ,herald of ,freedom1 ,september #h1 #ahdc3-- 99 99 99 99 99 ,,dear ,,sir3 ,having perused your several letters in the ,herald of ,freedom1 and finding1 moreover1 a general invitation to correspondence from 8persons who feel prepared to coperate in the work of reform upon principles0 akin to those you have set forth1 ,i take this public means of communicating with one1 who seems to be really desirous of aiding entire human regeneration4 ,after many years passed in admiration of a better order in human society1 with a constant expectation that some beginning would shortly be made1 and a continued reliance that some party would make it1 the idea has gradually gained possession of my mind1 that it is not right thus to linger for the leadings of other men1 but that each should at once proceed to live out the proposed life to the utmost possible extent4 ,assured that the most potent hindrances to goodness abide in the ,soul itself2 next in the body2 thirdly in the house and family2 and in the fourth degree only in our neighbors1 or in society at large2 ,i have daily found less and less reason to complain of public institutions1 or of the dilatoriness of reformers of genetic minds4 ,animated by pure reform principles1 or rather by pure creative spirit1 ,i have not hesitated to withdraw as far and as fast as hopeful prudence dictated from the practices and principles of the ,old ,world1 and acting upon the conviction that whatever others might do1 or leave undone1 however others might fail in the realization of their ideal good1 ,i1 at least1 should advance1 ,i have accordingly arrived in that region where ,i perceive you theoretically1 and ,i hope1 actually dwell4 ,i agree with you that it would be well to cross the ocean of ,life from the narrow island of selfishness to the broad continent of universal ,love at one dash2 but the winds are not always propitious1 and steam is only a recent invention4 ,i cannot yet boast of a year's emancipation from old ,england4 ,one free step leads to another2 and the third must necessarily precede the fourth1 as the second was before the third4 ,a4 ,bronson ,alcott's visit to ,england last year opened to me some of the superior conditions for a pure life which this country offers compared to the land of my nativity and that of your ancestors4 ,my love for purity and goodness was sufficiently strong it seems to loosen me from a position as regards pecuniary income1 affectionate friends1 and mental liberty1 which millions there and thousands here might envy4 ,it has happened however that of the many persons with whom ,mr4 ,alcott hoped to act in conjunction and concert1 not one is yet fully liberated by ,providence to that end4 ,so that instead of forming items in a large enterprise1 we are left to be the principal actors in promoting an idea less in extent1 but greater in intent1 than any yet presented to our observation4 ,illustration3 ,,charles ,,lane ,our removal to this estate in humble confidence has drawn to us several practical coadjutors1 and opened many inquiries by letter for a statement of our principles and modes of life4 ,we cannot perhaps turn our replies to better account1 than to transcribe some portions of them for your information1 and we trust1 for your sincere satisfaction4 ,you must be aware1 however1 that written words cannot do much towards the elucidation of principles comprehending all human relationships1 and claiming an origin profound as man's inmost consciousness of the ever present ,living ,spirit4 ,a dwelling together1 a concert in soul1 and a consorting in body1 is a position needful to entire understanding1 which we hope at no distant day to attain with yourself and many other sincere friends4 ,we have not yet drawn out any preordained plan of daily operations1 as we are impressed with the conviction that by a faithful reliance on the ,spirit which actuates us1 we are sure of attaining to clear revelations of daily practical duties as they are to be daily done by us4 ,when the ,spirit of ,love and ,wisdom abounds1 literal forms are needless1 irksome or hinderative2 where the ,spirit is lacking1 no preconceived rules can compensate4 ,to us it appears not so much that improved circumstances are to meliorate mankind1 as that improved men will originate the superior condition for themselves and others4 ,upon the ,human ,will1 and not upon circumstances1 as some philosophers assert1 rests the function1 power and duty1 of generating a better social state4 ,the human beings in whom the ,eternal ,spirit has ascended from low animal delights or mere human affections1 to a state of spiritual chastity and intuition1 are in themselves a divine atmosphere1 they are superior circumstances and are constant in endeavoring to create1 as well as to modify1 all other conditions1 so that these also shall more and more conduce to the like consciousness in others4 ,hence our perseverance in efforts to attain simplicity in diet1 plain garments1 pure bathing1 unsullied dwellings1 open conduct1 gentle behavior1 kindly sympathies1 serene minds4 ,these1 and several other particulars needful to the true end of man's residence on earth1 may be designated the ,family ,life4 ,our ,happiness1 though not the direct object in human energy1 may be accepted as the conformation of rectitude1 and this is not otherwise attainable than in the ,holy ,family4 ,the ,family in its highest1 divinest sense is therefore our true position1 our sacred earthly destiny4 ,it comprehends every divine1 every human relation consistent with universal good1 and all others it rejects1 as it disdains all animal sensualities4 ,the evils of life are not so much social1 or political1 as personal1 and a personal reform only can eradicate them4 ,let the ,family1 furthermore1 be viewed as the home of pure social affections1 the school of expanding intelligence1 the sphere of unbought art1 the scene of joyous employment1 and we feel in that single sentiment1 a fulness of action1 of life1 of being1 which no scientific social contrivance can ensure1 nor selfish accident supply4 ,family is not dependent upon numbers1 nor upon skill1 nor riches1 but upon union in and with that spirit which alone can bless any enterprise whatever4 ,on this topic of ,family association1 it will not involve an entire agreement with the ,shakers to say they are at least entitled to deeper consideration than they yet appear to have secured4 ,there are many important acts in their career worthy of observation4 ,it is perhaps most striking that the only really successful extensive ,community of interest1 spiritual and secular1 in modern times was established by ,a ,woman4 ,again1 we witness in this people the bringing together of the two sexes in a new relation1 or rather with a new idea of the old relation4 ,this has led to results more harmonic than anyone seriously believes attainable for the human race1 either in isolation or association1 so long as divided1 conflicting family arrangements are permitted4 ,the great secular success of the ,shakers2 their order1 cleanliness1 intelligence and serenity are so eminent1 that it is worthy of enquiry how far these are attributable to an adherence to their peculiar doctrine4 ,as to ,property1 we discover not its just disposal either in individual or social tenures1 but in its entire absorption into the ,new ,spirit1 which ever gives and never grasps4 ,while we write1 negotiations are entertained for our removal to a place of less inconvenience1 by friends who have long waited for some proof of a determination to act up to the idea they have cherished4 ,many1 no doubt1 are yet unprepared 8to give up all and follow him0 7the ,spirit7 who can importantly aid in the ,new ,advent1 and conscientiously accomplish the legal processes needful under the present circumstances4 ,we do not recognize the purchase of land2 but its redemption from the debasing state of proprium1 or property1 to divine uses1 we clearly understand when those whom the world esteems as owners are found yielding their individual rights to the ,supreme ,owner4 ,looking at the subject practically in relation to a climate in which a costly shelter is necessary1 and where a family with many children has to be provided for1 the possibility of at once stepping boldly out of the toils into which the errors of our predecessors have cast us1 is not so evident as it is desirable4 ,trade we hope entirely to avoid at an early day4 ,as a nursery for many evil propensities it is almost universally felt to be a most undesirable course4 ,such needful articles as we cannot yet raise by our own hand labor from the soil1 thus redeemed from human ownership1 we shall endeavor to obtain by friendly exchanges1 and1 as nearly as possible1 without the intervention of money4 ,of all the traffic in which civilized society is involved1 that of human labor is perhaps the most detrimental4 ,from the state of serfdom to the receipt of wages may be a step in human progress2 but it is certainly full time for taking a new step out of the hiring system4 ,our outward exertions are in the first instance directed to the soil1 and as our ultimate aim is to furnish an instance of self-sustaining cultivation without the subjugation of either men or cattle1 or the use of foul animal manures1 we have at the outset to encounter struggles and oppositions somewhat formidable4 ,until the land is restored to its pristine fertility by the annual return of its own green crops1 as sweet and animating manures1 the human hand and simple implement cannot wholly supersede the employment of machinery and cattle4 ,so long as cattle are used in agriculture1 it is very evident that man will remain a slave1 whether he be proprietor or hireling4 ,the driving of cattle beyond their natural and pleasurable exertion2 the waiting upon them as cook and chambermaid three parts of the year2 the excessive labor of mowing1 curing1 and housing hay1 and of collecting other fodder1 and the large extra quantity of land needful to keep up this system1 form a continuation of unfavorable circumstances which must depress the human affections so long as it continues1 and overlay them by the injurious and extravagant development of the animal and bestial natures in man4 ,it is calculated that if no animal food were consumed1 one-fourth of the land now used would suffice for human sustenance4 ,and the extensive tracts of country now appropriated to grazing1 mowing1 and other modes of animal provision1 could be cultivated by and for intelligent and affectionate human neighbors4 ,the sty and the stable too often secure more of the farmer's regard than he bestows on the garden and the children4 ,no hope is there for humanity while ,woman is withdrawn from the tender assiduities which adorn her and her household1 to the servitudes of the dairy and the flesh pots4 ,if the beasts were wholly absent from man's neighborhood1 the human population might be at least four times as dense as it now is without raising the price of land4 ,this would give to the country all the advantages of concentration without the vices which always spring up in the dense city4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,small ,,dining-,,room ,around this table the philosophers discussed their deepest problems4 ,debauchery of both the earthly soil and the human body is the result of this cattle keeping4 ,the land is scourged for crops to feed the animals1 whose ordures are used under the erroneous supposition of restoring lost fertility2 disease is thus infused into the human body2 stimulants and medicines are resorted to for relief1 which end in a precipitation of the original evil to a more disastrous depth4 ,these misfortunes which affect not only the body1 but by reaction rise to the sphere of the soul1 would be avoided1 or at least in part1 by the disuse of animal food4 ,our diet is therefore strictly the pure and bloodless kind4 ,no animal substances1 neither flesh1 butter1 cheese1 eggs1 nor milk1 pollute our table or corrupt our bodies1 neither tea1 coffee1 molasses1 nor rice1 tempts us beyond the bounds of indigenous productions4 ,our sole beverage is pure fountain water4 ,the native grains1 fruits1 herbs1 and roots1 dressed with the utmost cleanliness and regard to their purpose of edifying a healthful body1 furnish the pleasantest refections and in the greatest variety requisite to the supply of the various organs4 ,the field1 the orchard1 the garden1 in their bounteous products of wheat1 rye1 barley1 maize1 oats1 buckwheat1 apples1 pears1 peaches1 plums1 cherries1 currants1 berries1 potatoes1 peas1 beans1 beets1 carrots1 melons1 and other vines1 yield an ample store for human nutrition1 without dependence on foreign climes1 or the degeneration of shipping and trade4 ,the almost inexhaustible variety of the several stages and sorts of vegetable growth1 and the several modes of preparation1 are a full answer to the question which is often put by those who have never ventured into the region of a pure and chaste diet3 8,if you give up flesh meat1 upon what then can you live80 ,our other domestic habits are in harmony with those of diet4 ,we rise with early dawn1 begin the day with cold bathing1 succeeded by a music lesson1 and then a chaste repast4 ,each one finds occupation until the meridian meal1 when usually some interesting and deep-searching conversation gives rest to the body and development to the mind4 ,occupation1 according to the season and the weather1 engages us out of doors or within1 until the evening meal1--when we again assemble in social communion1 prolonged generally until sunset1 when we resort to sweet repose for the next day's activity4 ,in these steps of reform we do not rely as much on scientific reasoning of physiological skill1 as on the ,spirit's dictates4 ,the pure soul1 by the law of its own nature1 adopts a pure diet and cleanly customs2 nor needs detailed instruction for daily conduct4 ,on a revision of our proceedings it would seem1 that if we were in the right course in our particular instance1 the greater part of man's duty consists in leaving alone much that he is in the habit of doing4 ,it is a fasting from the present activity1 rather than an increased indulgence in it1 which1 with patient watchfulness tends to newness of life4 8,shall ,i sip tea or coffee80 the inquiry may be4 ,no2 abstain from all ardent1 as from alcoholic drinks4 8,shall ,i consume pork1 beef1 or mutton80 ,not if you value health or life4 8,shall ,i stimulate with milk80 ,no4 8,shall ,i warm my bathing water80 ,not if cheerfulness is valuable4 8,shall ,i clothe in many garments80 ,not if purity is aimed at4 8,shall ,i prolong my dark hours1 consuming animal oil and losing bright daylight in the morning80 ,not if a clear mind is an object4 8,shall ,i teach my children the dogmas inflicted on myself1 under the pretence that ,i am transmitting truth80 ,nay1 if you love them intrude not these between them and the ,spirit of all ,truth4 8,shall ,i subjugate cattle80 8,shall ,i trade80 8,shall ,i claim property in any created thing80 8,shall ,i interest myself in politics80 ,to how many of these questions could we ask them deeply enough1 could they be heard as having relation to our eternal welfare1 would the response be 8,abstain08 ,be not so active to do1 as sincere to be4 ,being in preference to doing1 is the great aim and this comes to us rather by a resigned willingness than a wilful activity2--which is indeed a check to all divine growth4 ,outward abstinence is a sign of inward fulness2 and the only source of true progress is inward4 ,we may occupy ourselves actively in human improvements2--but these unless inwardly well-impelled1 never attain to1 but rather hinder1 divine progress in man4 ,during the utterance of this narrative it has undergone a change in its personal expression which might offend the hypercritical2 but we feel assured that you will kindly accept it as unartful offering of both your friends in ceaseless aspiration4 ,,charles ,,lane1 ,a4 ,,bronson ,,alcott4 ,,harvard1 ,,mass41 ,august1 #ahdc4 ,,iv ,,the ,,man ,,with ,,the ,,beard ,no satisfactory record of ,fruitlands could be written without giving an account of ,joseph ,palmer1 the man with the beard4 ,he filled an important place in the life of the ,community1 and is one of those picturesque characters which must always stand out vividly in the history of ,fruitlands4 ,he came of fine1 sturdy ,english stock which emigrated to this country in #agcj4 ,his grandfather taught school in ,newton1 ,massachusetts1 for twenty years4 ,his father fought in the ,revolution1 and he himself was a soldier in the ,war of #ahab4 ,he was an eccentric character1 but steadfast and upright1 and immovable when it came to his principles4 ,wearing a beard became a fixed idea with him1 and neither the law of the land nor the admonitions of the church could make him falter in his determination to claim freedom of action in this respect4 ,he suffered ridicule1 insolence1 and persecution to a degree that was amazing1 and which revealed the fact that in spite of a seemingly greater enlightenment on the part of the public1 the same tendency1 which drove the people to persecute so-called witches1 and ,shakers1 and harmless persons with a little different viewpoint from their own1 was still alive1 and ready to flame forth as fiercely as ever4 ,on one occasion1 before the ,fruitlands days1 he went into a church in ,fitchburg where the holy ,communion was being celebrated4 ,he knelt with the rest only to be given the shock of humiliation at being ignored and passed over by the officiating clergyman4 ,cut to the quick at such injustice1 and with the blood surging to his face1 he arose and strode up to the ,communion table where the ,sacraments were1 and lifting the cup to his lips drank from it1 and turning to the shocked and abashed clergyman and his congregation shouted in a loud voice and with flashing eyes3 8,i love my ,jesus as well1 and better1 than any of you do60 ,a beard at that time was only worn by the ,jews1 and that was the real reason for this persecution1 and it caused him to be called 8,old ,jew ,palmer10 though there was not a drop of ,jewish blood in his veins4 ,he carried on his farm at ,no ,town very successfully and sold his beef at the ,fitchburg ,market4 ,no ,town was a 8gore0 of unreclaimed land outside of ,fitchburg and ,leominster in old ,colonial days1 a large tract of which had been granted to ,captain ,noah ,wiswell1 his maternal grandfather1 by the ,general ,court of the ,province of ,massachusetts for bravery in the wars against the ,indians4 ,joseph ,palmer inherited it4 ,it belonged to no township1 and therefore was not taxed4 ,so when he married the widow ,tenney rumors circulated through ,fitchburg that the marriage was not legal because he did not publish the banns at the meeting-house according to law1 there being no meeting-house at ,no ,town4 ,but investigation proved the marriage legal because he had published the banns in his own handwriting on a large piece of paper which he had tacked to the trunk of a fine old pine tree which grew near his house4 ,joseph ,palmer's wife before her first marriage was ,nancy ,thompson4 ,she was a third cousin to ,count ,rumford1 who was ,benjamin ,thompson1 of ,woburn1 in ,colonial days1 but who returned to ,england after the evacuation of the ,british1 and on account of services rendered to the ,government was knighted by ,george ,,iii1 and afterward given the title of ,count ,rumford by the reigning king of ,bavaria1 and was well known throughout ,europe as a scientist1 philosopher1 and savant4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a reporter of the ,boston ,daily ,globe in #ahhd interviewed ,joseph ,palmer's son1 ,dr4 ,palmer1 of ,fitchburg1 and herein are inserted extracts from the interview3-- 8,the older inhabitants of ,harvard1 ,sterling1 ,leominster1 ,fitchburg1 and other neighboring towns can remember #8,old ,jew ,palmer1' who fifty years ago was persecuted1 despised1 jeered at1 regarded almost as a fiend incarnate2 who was known far and wide as a human monster1 and with whose name mothers used to frighten their children when they were unruly4 8#8,old ,jew ,palmer1' as he was universally called1 was the most abused and persecuted man these parts ever knew1 and all because he insisted upon wearing a beard4 ,but many who in those days looked upon the subject of this sketch as a social outcast have lived to see whiskers common and fashionable4 8,with a view of getting at the facts of the persecution of ,mr4 ,palmer but fifty years ago1 his only son1 ,dr4 ,thomas ,palmer1 a well-known dentist of ,fitchburg1 was interviewed1 and the doctor talked earnestly and vigorously about his father's career1 for he had seen the time when his schoolmates shunned him and made his boyhood days miserable1 railing at him because his father wore a beard4 ,but now the doctor looks back upon those days proudly1 as he realizes that his sire was right and that the world has indorsed the ways and ideas of the old man1 instead of the old man bowing to the absurd whim of the world40 ,illustration3 ,,joseph ,,palmer ,illustration3 ,,nancy ,,palmer ,said ,dr4 ,palmer3-- 8,father left ,no ,town early in the thirties and moved to ,fitchburg into a house where the ,city ,hall now stands4 ,he wore at that time a long beard1 and he and ,silas ,lamson1 an old scythe-snath maker of ,sterling1 were the only men known in this section of the country as wearing beards4 ,everybody shaved clean in those days1 and to wear whiskers in any form was worse than a disgrace1 it was a sin4 ,father was hooted at on the street1 talked about at the grocery1 intimidated by his fellow-men and labored with by the clergy to shave1 but to no purpose4 ,the stronger the opposition1 the firmer his determination4 ,he was accosted once by ,rev4 ,george ,trask1 the anti-tobacconist1 who said indignantly3 #8,palmer1 why don't you shave and not go round looking like the devil8' ,he replied3 #8,mr4 ,trask1 are you not mistaken in your comparison of personages8 ,i have never seen a picture of the ruler of the sulphurous regions with much of a beard1 but if ,i remember correctly1 ,jesus wore a beard not unlike mine4' ,that squelched ,trask and he left4 8,well1 public sentiment against the man and beard grew stronger1 and personal violence was threatened4 ,one day1 as father was coming out of the old ,fitchburg ,hotel1 where he had been to carry some provision1 he then being in the butchering business1 he was seized by four men1 whose names ,i have not in mind now1 who were armed with shears1 lather1 and razor1 their intention being to shave him1 as the sentiment of the populace was that that beard must come off at the hands of the wearer1 possibly at the hands of some one1 anyway4 ,why1 there are men living to-day1 old associates of his1 who still cling to that old idea and will not wear a beard4 ,these four men laid violent hands upon him and threw him heavily on the stone steps1 badly hurting his back4 ,the assaulted party was very muscular1 and struggled to free himself1 but to no purpose1 until he drew from his vest pocket an old1 loose-jointed jack-knife1 with which he struck out left and right and stabbed two of them in the legs1 when the assailants precipitately departed without cutting a hair4 ,he was afterwards arrested for committing an unprovoked assault1 and ordered by ,justice ,brigham to pay a fine1 which he refused to do1 as he claimed to be acting for the maintenance of a principle4 ,he was thrown into jail1 where he remained over a year4 ,he was lodged with the debtors4 ,one day ,jailer ,bellows came in with several men to shave him4 ,he threw himself on his back in his bunk1 and when they approached1 he struck out with his feet1 and after he had kicked over a few of them they let him and his beard alone4 ,he wrote letters to the ,worcester ,spy1 complaining of the treatment the prisoners received1 which ,i used to carry to the office for him1 receiving them when ,i carried him his meals1 for we hired a tenement next to the jail4 ,for this the jailer put him in a sort of dungeon down below1 and one day when ,i went to the jail1 he heard my step and called out3 #8,thomas1 tie a stone to a string and swing it by the window so that ,i can catch it'2 which ,i did1 and pulled up a letter for ,high ,sheriff ,williams1 in which he complained of his treatment4 ,the sheriff ordered him back to his old quarters4 ,why1 old ,dr4 ,williams of ,leominster told father once that he ought to be prosecuted and imprisoned for wearing a beard4 ,in after years1 when whiskers became fashionable1 father met a minister who had upbraided him years before for wearing them1 and as this same minister had rather a luxuriant growth1 he went up to the man of ,god and stroking his whiskers1 said to him1 #8,knoweth that thy redeemer liveth8' ,he claimed to be the redeemer of the beard4 8,father was a reformer2 was early in the field as an anti-slavery man and as a total abstinence advocate4 ,he was well acquainted with ,phillips1 ,garrison1 and other prominent ,abolitionists4 ,i remember going with him once to an anti-slavery convention in ,boston4 ,as we walked up ,washington ,street1 the people would stop1 then run ahead1 wait for us to come up1 and finally the crowd around us was so great that the police had to come to the rescue4 ,why was it8 ,oh1 it was the same old beard4 ,it was so unusual to see a man wearing one1 and especially such a one as he sported4 ,why1 he was looked upon as a monstrosity4 ,when asked once why he wore it1 he said he would tell if any one could tell him why some men would1 from fifty-two to three hundred and sixty-five times a year1 scrape their face from their nose to their neck4 ,he never would furnish liquor for men in the hay-field1 and for this reason had hard work to gather crops2 but they would have rotted before he would have backed down and sacrificed his principle4 ,he was the first man in this section to give up that old custom4 ,he was interested in all reformatory ideas1 and was associated with ,a4 ,bronson ,alcott in forming that ,community in ,harvard at ,fruitlands which had for its object a more quiet and unostentatious way of living than the world offered4 ,he went to ,harvard in #ahdc4 ,the ,community did not flourish1 and father bought the farm4 ,ralph ,waldo ,emerson1 as trustee1 at that time held the deed of #8,fruitlands4' ,i remember that when father refused to furnish liquor for the hay-makers he had to hire boys4 ,one mother refused to let her lad work for him1 saying that #8,he was too mean to allow the boys a little liquor'6 8,such was the interesting account given by the venerable doctor of a condition of affairs existing in this community but a comparatively few years ago2 but the average person of to-day would not believe1 without a full explanation of the sentiment prevailing at that time1 that within so recent a period a man would not only be insulted and persecuted1 but actually mobbed1 as was the victim of this foolish and intolerant community40 99 99 99 99 99 ,while in prison ,palmer kept a diary1 in which1 under date of ,july #ba1 #ahcj1 occurs this account of the sort of persecution he had from the two fellow-prisoners who occupied the same cell with him4 ,one of them asserted that if the other prisoner would attack him and cut his beard off1 he would look on all the time and then swear that it had never happened1 and that anyway he could get enough money collected anywhere on the street to pay the damages for the act4 ,the jailer coming to the door at this moment overheard the remark and with a resounding oath agreed with him1 and added1 8,and pretty quick1 too60 ,then he began to curse and swear at ,palmer1 and vowed that they would get his beard off soon1 and even suggested that the other prisoners should cut it off of him in his sleep4 ,one of these prisoners was named ,dike4 ,the jailer continued to pour volley after volley of oaths at the unfortunate man1 and finally spat on him repeatedly4 ,this happened when ,palmer's cell was being whitewashed and the three inmates were temporarily removed to another cell4 ,when they were taken back to their customary quarters1 ,dike found that the jailer had taken his razor away1 which turned his wrath in a new direction1 and ,palmer writes that as a result 8,before bedtime1 he was as good as a man ought to be to another1 and talked very freely with me on the ,power and ,goodness of ,god and on the ,holy ,scriptures40 ,here is an entry on ,wednesday1 ,september #bb1 #ahcj3-- 8,i called out to some one in the hall4 ,wildes1 the jailer1 opened the door in the entry next to my door and said3 #8,what do you want8' ,i was just going to ask him for a little water to use until ,i could get some tea from ,wilson1 and he let a pail full come in at the door1 with great force4 ,it didn't wet me much1 as ,i see it was coming1 and having seen them throw cider and water in the prisoners' faces before4 ,it caused me to start so quickly that there did but little go into my face1 and on my clothes1 but it went more than half the length of the room4 ,i split three crackers and put them to soak where there was considerable water standing on the floor1 as ,i could see no chance of getting any more soon4 ,i got a quart jug filled with water out of the other room to wet some bread which was all the water or drink of any kind that ,i had since last ,thursday morning when ,i used the last of my tea1 and ,i had tried ever since last ,sunday morning to get some and could not4 ,i thought ,i must suffer very much soon if there wasn't some attention1 and being satisfied that there were some in ,prison who were suffering greatly1 ,i thought it time to give a signal of distress to the ,public1 which ,i immediately did by the cry of murder in the ,gaol1 which ,i continued at the window that somebody might come up while the door was open that would grant some assistance for the pay4 ,about seven o'clock just as ,i was going to take my crackers off the floor1 ,bellows and ,wildes came into the room and several others4 ,i stepped to the table and took the lines ,i had written to send to ,mr4 ,wilson1 and asked them if ,i could get any one of them to go for me if ,i would pay them for it4 ,bellows said1 #8,yes1 ,i'll take care of you6' ,bellows and ,wildes then seized me by the collar1 shook and jarred me with great fury through the entries1 and dragged me down the stairs4 ,i tried to speak to the people who stood by to take the paper ,i had in my hand to carry to ,mr4 ,wilson4 ,bellows then took me by the hair and shook me furiously as ,i suppose to prevent my speaking to them4 ,i then cried ,murder4 ,he then let me go1 and ,i told them that ,i wanted to get some person to take the paper ,i had in my hand and go about #ajj rods of an errand1 and ,i would pay them well for it1 for ,i hadn't had anything to drink since last week1 nor ,i couldn't get any4 ,they put me into the ,south ,middle room below and gave me a pail of water4 ,i told ,wildes and ,c4 ,b4 that ,i wanted they should let me have my things1 for ,i hadn't eaten anything since yesterday morning4 ,they took the other three prisoners out of the room and shut the blinds40 99 99 99 99 99 ,palmer was kept in solitary confinement from ,september #bb to ,december #be4 99 99 99 99 99 ,december #cj1 #ahcj4 8,in the afternoon ,calvin ,willard1 ,ashel ,bellows1 ,wildes1 and ,lawyer ,goodwin1 with four or five other gentlemen1 came in4 ,willard said1 #8,how do you do1 ,palmer8' ,i said1 pretty tolerable well for me except ,i have got a bad cold4 ,one of the men1 which ,i took to be ,esqre4 ,weed said to me3 #8,why don't you go out8 ,what do you stay here for8 ,why don't you pay up the demand and go out8' ,i said ,i have no way to pay it4 ,goodwin said3 #8,a man from ,fitchburg told me to-day that he has from ten to fifteen hundred dollars property4' ,willard said3 #8,i always took him to be a man of property4' ,one of the men said3 #8,i think there ought to be some measures taken to secure the board if he stops here4' ,i said3 ,i board myself and have hard work to get it in here for the money4 ,one said3 #8,how much was your fine8' ,i said1 ,ten dollars1 ,i believe it was40 99 99 99 99 99 ,saturday1 ,january #a1 #ahca4 8,since the first of ,december ,i haven't bought me anything from ,bellows1 and they haven't brought me anything but eight ,bushels and one hod of coal1 and they used two ,bushels of that when they whitewashed the room1 except what ,i took to make one fire4 ,thomas brought me my water4 ,i was out of my room three and a half days to have it whitewashed1 and ,i have now a half ,bushel of coal which brings it to seven and a half ,bushels ,i have burnt the past month while ,i was in the room40 99 99 99 99 99 ,april #aa1 #ahca4 8,food for the day3-- 8,breakfast3 #e ounces of brown bread 8,dinner3 #e ounces of brown bread #c ounces of beef meat #c ounces of potato #c ounces of soup40 8,he far out-stayed his sentence because he had to pay for all his food1 drink1 and coal for heating1 and he considered they cheated him1 so he refused to go4 ,the sheriff and jailers1 tired of having him there1 begged him to leave4 ,even his mother1 ,margaret ,palmer1 wrote to him #8,not to be so set4' ,but nothing could move him4 ,he said they had put him in there1 and they would have to take him out1 as he would not walk out4 ,they finally carried him out in his chair and placed it on the sidewalk40 99 99 99 99 99 ,shortly after leaving the jail at ,worcester ,palmer heard of the proposed ,community of ,fruitlands1 and being much interested in all reforms1 he offered to run the farm without pay and went there at the very start4 ,he took some fine old furniture with him from ,no ,town to help furnish the house1 and whenever anything was needed in the way of farm implements1 etc41 he would drive over to ,no ,town and bring it back with him4 ,when the ,community of ,fruitlands failed1 he bought the place and carried on a strange sort of ,community of his own for upwards of twenty years4 ,emerson visited him afterwards1 and a motley collection of reformers1 wayfarers1 and a host of tramps found a welcome by his fireside4 ,any one driving by the old ,north ,leominster graveyard will see a stone monument adorned with the head of a man with a flowing beard4 ,on it is written3-- ,,joseph ,,palmer died ,october #cj1 #ahge ,aged #hd years1 #e months ,underneath the carved head is written3-- ,persecuted for ,wearing the ,beard ,v ,,summer ,,sunshine ,it was now ,july and all the days were full of healthful occupations--the weather was perfect4 ,the philosophers had planted three mulberry trees next the front door1 and they had set out apple trees and pear trees below the house on the slope of the hill4 ,they put the mulberry trees so near the house that when they grew1 the roots almost unsettled the foundations1 and the fruit trees were planted in just the wrong place to permit of luxuriant growth2 but they never knew it1 and at the time they pictured to themselves the full-grown trees with branches overladen with the luscious ripening fruit4 ,and now they all had gotten their linen suits designed by ,mr4 ,lane3--loose trousers1 tunic-ed coats and broad-brimmed linen hats like ,southern planters4 ,the ,alcott girls1 ,anna1 ,beth1 ,louisa1 and three-year-old baby ,may were in linen bloomers1 and so were ,mrs4 ,alcott 7protesting67 and poor ,miss ,page1 who was summarily dismissed from ,fruitlands for having eaten fish4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,refectory1 ,,also ,,used ,,as ,a ,,kitchen ,many visitors came and went4 ,parker ,pillsbury often came1 his mind full of the anti-slavery question4 ,the ,concord circle of friends looked in upon them off and on1 and ,channing spoke afterwards of conversations held in a small dining-room next to the front door1 and1 as ,mr4 ,sanborn says in his account of it1 8,the library of rare books from ,london stood proudly on its hundred feet of new shelves in the small front entry of the old house1 proclaiming the atmosphere of #8,mind and ,letters4'0 ,emerson came and afterwards wrote in his 8,journal0 on ,july #h1 #ahdc3-- 8,the sun and the evening sky do not look calmer than ,alcott and his family at ,fruitlands4 ,they seemed to have arrived at the fact--to have got rid of the show1 and so to be serene4 ,their manners and behavior in the house and the field were those of superior men--of men at rest4 ,what had they to conceal8 ,what had they to exhibit8 ,and it seemed so high an attainment that ,i thought--as often before1 so now more1 because they had a fit home1 or the picture was fitly framed--that these men ought to be maintained in their place by the country for its culture4 8,young men and young maidens1 old men and women1 should visit them and be inspired4 ,i think there is as much merit in beautiful manners as in hard work4 ,i will not prejudge them successful4 ,they look well in ,july2 we will see them in ,december4 ,i know they are better for themselves than as partners4 ,one can easily see that they have yet to settle several things4 ,their saying that things are clear1 and they sane1 does not make them so4 ,if they will in very deed be lovers1 and not selfish2 if they will serve the town of ,harvard1 and make their neighbors feel them as benefactors wherever they touch them1--they are as safe as the sun40 ,mr4 ,sanborn1 referring to the remark1 8,we will see them in ,december10 says3 8,this passage indicates that ,emerson with his fatal gift of perception had long since seen the incongruity between ,alcott and ,lane4 ,at this time all was still fair weather at the ,fruitlands ,eden1 although the burden of too much labor1 of which ,lane had written to ,thoreau in ,june1 had been falling more and more heavily on ,mrs4 ,alcott and her daughters1 ,anna1 then twelve1 and ,louisa1 not quite eleven4 ,as they did so much of the domestic drudgery1 ,mrs4 ,alcott doubtless thought it no more than right that her ,english guests1 both there and at ,concord1 during the seven months that ,lane and his son were in their household1 should pay their share of the family expenses40 99 99 99 99 99 ,the house at times was very overcrowded and the children had their beds up in the garret4 ,but ,anna begged hard for a tiny room adjoining ,mrs4 ,alcott's1 and great was the joy she took in it4 ,of course it all was very primitive4 ,the men bathed in the brook in the early morning and the shower-baths that ,anna speaks of in her diary were accomplished thus3--rough clothes-horses covered with sheets were put in a circle and the bathers stood hidden within1 while ,mr4 ,alcott1 mounted on some wooden steps1 poured water from a pitcher through a sieve on their head4 7,this was told the author by an old lady who when very young went to visit the children47 ,hired laborers and beasts of burden were against the principles of the ,community1 but in order to make headway against the advancing season they seemed to be a necessity4 ,this concession1 however1 troubled the philosophers1 and it was decided to carry out the original plan and rely wholly on the spade instead of the plough1 even at a cost of valuable time4 ,the results were rather disastrous3 ,charles ,lane's hands became sore and painful1 and lame backs seriously interfered with progress4 ,sobered by this new experience1 the philosophers met in conclave1 and as a result ,joseph ,palmer1 who always came to the rescue in trying situations1 went to ,no ,town and brought back his plough and yoke of oxen1 as he called it--it really was an ox and a cow which he had trained to work together4 ,besides the outdoor work much writing was done indoors4 ,charles ,lane and ,bower wrote prolifically to different papers4 ,the ,herald of ,freedom1 the ,vermont ,telegraph and the ,new ,york ,tribune of that summer are full of their writings4 99 99 99 99 99 ,mr4 ,alcott's ,diary furnishes clear evidence of his purposes and hopes3-- 8,i would abstain from the fruits of oppression and blood1 and am seeking means of entire independence4 ,this1 were ,i not holden by penury unjustly1 would be possible4 ,one miracle we have wrought nevertheless1 and shall soon work all of them3 ,our wine is water1 flesh1 bread--drugs1 fruits2 and we defy meekly the satyrs all1 and sculapians4 ,the ,soul's banquet is an art divine4444 ,this ,beast named ,man has yet most costly tastes1 and must first be transformed into a very ,man1 regenerate in appetite and desire1 before the earth shall be restored to fruitfulness1 and redeemed from the curse of his cupidity4 ,then shall the toils of the farm become eloquent and invigorating leisures2 ,man shall grow his orchards and plant his gardens--an husbandman truly1 sowing and reaping in hope1 and a partaker in his hope4 ,labor will be attractive2 life will not be worn in anxious and indurating toils2 it will be a scene of mixed leisure1 recreation1 labor1 culture4 ,the soil1 grateful then for man's generous usage1 debauched no more by foul ordures1 nor worn by cupidities1 shall recover its primeval virginity1 bearing on its bosom the standing bounties which a sober and liberal ,providence ministers to his heed--sweet and invigorating growths1 for the health and comfort of the grower40 99 99 99 99 99 ,mr4 ,sanborn1 commenting on this1 remarks3-- 8,it was in the spirit of the passages just quoted from ,alcott's diary 444 and not from the ordinary ,fourieristic notions about attractions and destinies and coperative housekeeping that ,alcott undertook his experiment at #8,fruitlands4'0 99 99 99 99 99 ,alcott's theory of human life was thus set down in his ,diary3-- 8,i have been 7as is ever the habit of my mind7 striving to apprehend the real in the seeming1 to strip ideas of their adventitious phrases1 and behold them in their order and powers4 ,i have sought to penetrate the showy terrestrial to find the heavenly things2 ,i have tried to translate into ideas the language and images of spirit1 and thus to read ,god in his works4 ,the outward ,i have seen as the visible type of the inward4 ,ever doth this same nature double its divine form1 and stand forth--now before the inner1 now before the outer sense of man--at once substance and form1 image and idea1 so that ,god shall never slip wholly from consciousness of the ,soul4 ,faith apprehends his agency1 even in the meanest and most seemingly trivial act1 whenever organ or matter undergo change of function or mode of form1--,spirit being all in all4 ,amidst all tumults and discomfitures1 all errors and evils1 ,faith discerns the subtle bond that marries opposite natures1 clinging to that which holds all in harmonious union4 ,it unites opposites2 it demolishes opposing forces4 ,it melts all solid and obstinate matters4 ,it makes fluid the material universe4 ,it hopes even in despair1 believes in the midst of doubts1 apprehends stability and order even in confusion and anarchy1 and1 while all without is perturbed and wasting1 it possesses itself in quietude and repose within4 ,it abides in the unswerving1 is mighty in the omnipotent1 and enduring in the eternal4 ,the soul quickened by its agency1 though borne on the waves of the mutable and beset by the winds of error and the storms of evil1 shall ride securely under this directing hand to the real and the true4 ,in the midst of change1 it shall remain unchanged4 ,for to such a faith is the divine order of ,god made known4 ,all visible things are but manifestations of this order4 ,nature1 with all its change1 is but the activity of this power4 ,it flows around and obeys the invisible self-anchored spirit4 ,mutability to such a vision1 is as the eddy that spirit maketh around its own self-circling agency1 revealing alike in the smallest ripple and the mightiest surges the power that stirreth at the centre40 ,,vi ,,father ,,hecker',s ,,description ,,of ,,fruitlands ,isaac ,thomas ,hecker was born in ,new ,york in #ahai4 ,two years after his experience at ,brook ,farm and ,fruitlands he entered the ,roman ,catholic church1 and in #ahdi he was ordained a priest4 ,later he founded the ,paulist ,fathers4 ,he died in #ahhh4 ,the following extracts are taken from a contemporary record of his impressions while in the socialistic community4 8,fruitlands10 so called because fruit was to be the principal staple of daily food1 and to be cultivated on the farm1 was a spot well chosen2 it was retired1 breathing quiet and tranquillity4 ,no neighboring dwelling obstructed the view of ,nature1 and it lay some distance even from a bypath road1 in a delightful solitude4 ,the house1 somewhat dilapidated1 was on the slope of a slowly ascending hill2 stretched before it was a small valley under cultivation1 with fields of corn1 potatoes1 and meadow4 ,in the distance loomed up on high 8,cheshire's haughty hill10 ,monadnoc4 ,such was the spot chosen by men inspired to live a holier life1 to bring ,eden once more upon earth4 ,these men were impressed with the religiousness of their enterprise4 ,when the first load of hay was driven into the barn and the first fork was about to be plunged into it1 one of the family took off his hat and said1 8,i take off my hat1 not that ,i reverence the barn more than other places1 but because this is the first fruit of our labor40 ,then a few moments were given to silence1 that holy thought might be awakened4 99 99 99 99 99 ,july #g1 #ahdc4 ,brook ,farm4 ,i go to ,mr4 ,alcott's next ,tuesday1 if nothing happens4 ,i have had three pairs of coarse pants and a coat made for me4 ,it is my intention to commence work as soon as ,i get there4 ,i will gradually simplify my dress without making any sudden difference1 although it would be easier to make a radical and thorough change at once than piece by piece4 ,but this will be a lesson in patient perseverance to me4 ,all our difficulties should be looked at in such a light as to improve and elevate our minds4 ,i can hardly prevent myself from saying how much ,i shall miss the company of those ,i love and associate with here4 ,but ,i must go4 ,i am called with a stronger voice4 ,this is a different trial from any ,i have ever had4 ,i have never had that of leaving kindred1 but now ,i have that of leaving those whom ,i love from affinity4 ,if ,i wished to live a life the most gratifying to me1 and in agreeable company1 ,i certainly would remain here4 ,here are refining amusements1 cultivated persons--and one whom ,i have not spoken of1 one who is too much to me to speak of1 one who would leave all for me4 ,alas6 him ,i must leave to go4 ,illustration3 ,,isaac ,t4 ,,hecker 99 99 99 99 99 8,in this final sentence1 as it now stands in the diary and as we have transcribed it1 occurs one of those efforts of which we have spoken to obliterate the traces of this early attachment4 #8,him' was originally written #8her1' but the r has been lengthened to an m1 and the e dotted1 both with care which overshot their mark1 by an almost imperceptible hair's breadth4 ,if the nature of this attachment were not so evident from other sources1 we should have left such passages unquoted2 fearing lest they might be misunderstood4 ,as it is1 the light they cast seems to us to throw up into fuller proportions the kind and extent of the renunciations to which ,isaac ,hecker was called before he had arrived at any clear view of the end to which they tended40#i ,footnote #i3 ,walter ,elliott's ,life of ,father ,hecker4 99 99 99 99 99 ,fruitlands1 ,july #ab4 ,last evening ,i arrived here4 ,after tea ,i went out in the fields and raked hay for an hour in company with the persons here4 ,we returned and had a conversation on clothing4 ,some very fine things were said by ,mr4 ,alcott and ,mr4 ,lane4 ,in most of their thoughts ,i coincide2 they are the same which of late have much occupied my mind4 ,alcott said that 8to ,emerson the world was a lecture room1 to ,brownson a rostrum40 ,this morning after breakfast a conversation was held on ,friendship and its laws and conditions4 ,mr4 ,alcott places ,innocence first2 ,larned1 ,thoughtfulness2 ,i1 ,seriousness2 ,lane1 ,fidelity4 99 99 99 99 99 ,july #ac4 ,this morning after breakfast there was held a conversation on the ,highest ,aim4 ,mr4 ,alcott said it was ,integrity2 ,i1 ,harmonic being2 ,lane1 ,progressive being2 ,larned1 ,annihilation of self2 ,bower1 ,repulsion of the evil in us4 ,then there was a confession of the obstacles which prevent us from attaining the highest aim4 ,mine was the doubt whether the light is light2 not want of will to follow1 or light to see4 99 99 99 99 99 ,july #ag4 ,i cannot understand what it is that leads me1 or what ,i am after4 ,being is incomprehensible4 ,what shall ,i be led to8 ,is there a being whom ,i may marry and who would be the means of opening my eyes8 ,sometimes ,i think so1 but it appears impossible4 ,why should others tell me that it is so1 and will be so1 in an unconscious way1 as ,larned did on ,sunday last1 and as others have done before him8 ,will ,i be led home8 ,it strikes me these people here1 ,alcott and ,lane1 will be a great deal to me4 ,i do not know but they may be what ,i am looking for1 or the answer to that in me which is asking4 ,can ,i say it8 ,i believe it should be said4 ,here ,i cannot end4 ,they are too near me2 they do not awaken in me that sense of their high superiority which would keep me here to be bettered1 to be elevated4 ,they have much1 very much4 ,i desire ,mr4 ,alcott's strength of self-denial1 and the unselfishness of ,mr4 ,lane in money matters4 ,in both these they are far my superior4 ,i would be meek1 humble1 and sit at their feet that ,i might be as they are4 ,they do not understand me1 but if ,i am what my consciousness1 my heart1 lead me to feel1--if ,i am not deceived1--why1 then ,i can wait4 ,yes1 patiently wait4 ,is not this the first time since ,i have been here that ,i have recovered myself8 ,do ,i not feel that ,i have something to receive here1 to add to1 to increase my highest life1 which ,i have never felt anywhere else8 ,is this sufficient to keep me here8 ,if ,i can prophesy1 ,i must say no4 ,i feel that it will not fill my capacity4 ,oh ,god6 strengthen my resolution4 ,let me not waver1 and continue my life4 ,but ,i am sinful4 ,oh forgive my sins6 what shall ,i do1 ,o ,lord6 that they may be blotted out8 ,lord could ,i only blot them out from my memory1 nothing would be too great or too much4 99 99 99 99 99 ,july #ah4 ,i have thought of my family this afternoon1 and the happiness and love with which ,i might return to them4 ,to leave them1 to give up the idea of living with them again4--,can ,i entertain that idea8 ,still1 ,i cannot conceive how ,i can engage in business1 share the practices1 and indulge myself with the food and garmenture of our home and city4 ,to return home1 were it possible for me1 would most probably not only stop my progress1 but put me back4 ,it is useless for me to speculate upon my future4 ,put dependence on the spirit which leads me1 be faithful to it1 work and leave results to ,god4 ,if the question should be asked me1 whether ,i would give up my kindred and business and follow out this spirit life1 or return and enjoy them both1 ,i could not hesitate a moment1 for they would not compare--there would be no room for choice4 ,what ,i do ,i must do1 for it is not ,i that do it2 it is the spirit4 ,what that spirit may be is a question ,i cannot answer4 ,what it leads me to do will be the only evidence of its character4 ,i feel as impersonal as a stranger to it4 ,i ask who are you8 ,where are you going to take me8 ,why me8 ,why not some one else8 ,alas6 ,i cry1 who am ,i and what does this mean8 ,and ,i am lost in wonder4 99 99 99 99 99 ,saturday1 ,july #ba4 ,yesterday1 after supper1 a conversation took place between ,mr4 ,alcott1 ,mr4 ,lane1 and myself2 the subject was my position with regard to my family1 my duty1 and my position here4 ,mr4 ,alcott asked for my first impressions as regards the hinderances that ,i have noted since coming here4 ,i told him candidly they were3 ,first1 his want of frankness2 #b;d1 his disposition to separateness rather than win co-operation with the aims in his own mind2 #c;d1 his family who prevent his immediate plans of reformation2 #dth1 the fact that his place has very little fruit on it1 when it was and is their desire that fruit should be the principal part of their diet2 #eth1 my fear that they have too decided tendency toward literature and writing for the prosperity and success of their enterprise4 99 99 99 99 99 ,from this on1 the diary is full of questionings and unrest4 ,should he return to his family and live as an ordinary man1 or should he listen to the urge of the spirit within and seek further for the light8 ,these and other questions pursued him night and day4 ,finally he came to a conclusion4 99 99 99 99 99 ,july #bc4 ,i will go home1 be true to the spirit with the help of ,god1 and wait for further light and strength4444 ,i feel that ,i cannot live at this place as ,i would4 ,this is not the place for my soul4444 ,my life is not theirs4 ,they have been the means of giving me much light on myself1 but ,i feel ,i would live and progress more in a different atmosphere4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is interesting to note that after his return home he continued the diet which was used at ,fruitlands4 ,the account of his life states3 8,one of the first noteworthy things revealed by the diary1 which from this time on was kept with less regularity than before1--is that ,isaac not only maintained his abstemious habits after his return1 but increased their vigor40 99 99 99 99 99 ,august #cj4 ,if the past nine months or more are any evidence1 ,i find that ,i can live on very simple diet--grains1 fruit1 and nuts4 ,i have just commenced to eat the latter2 ,i drink pure water4 ,so far ,i have had wheat ground and made into unleavened bread1 but as soon as we get in a new lot1 ,i shall try it in the grain4 99 99 99 99 99 ,hecker had evidently at this time a practical conviction of the truth of a principle which1 in after years1 he repeated in the form of a maxim of the ,transcendentalists3 8,a gross feeder will never be a central thinker40 ,it is a truth of the spiritual no less than of the intellectual order4 ,a little later we come upon the following profession of a vegetarian faith3-- 8,reasons for not eating animal food4 8,it does not feed the spirit4 8,it stimulates the propensities4 8,it is taking animal life when the other kingdoms offer sufficient and better increment4 ,slaughter strengthens the lower instincts4 ,it is the chief cause of the slavery of the kitchen4 8,it generates in the body the diseases animals are subject to1 and encourages in man their bestiality4 8,its odor is offensive and its appearance unsthetic40 99 99 99 99 99 ,mr4 ,alcott's death in #ahhh was the occasion of reminiscences from ,father ,hecker1 from which a few extracts are taken3-- 8,when did ,i first know him8 ,hard to remember4 ,he was the head of ,fruitlands1 as ,ripley was of ,brook ,farm4 ,they were entirely different men4 ,diogenes and his tub would have been ,alcott's ideal if he had carried it out4 ,ripley's ideal would have been ,epictetus4 ,ripley would have taken with him the good things of this life4 ,alcott would have rejected them all40 8,how did he receive you at ,fruitlands80 8,very kindly1 but from mixed and selfish motives4 ,i suspect he wanted me because he thought ,i would bring money to the ,community4 ,lane was entirely unselfish40 8,alcott was a man of great intellectual gifts or acquirements4 ,his knowledge came chiefly from experience and instinct4 ,he had an insinuating and persuasive way with him40 8,what if he had been a ,catholic1 and thoroughly sanctified80 8,he could have been nothing but a hermit like those of the fourth century--he was naturally and constitutionally so odd4 ,emerson1 ,alcott1 and ,thoreau were three consecrated cranks40 99 99 99 99 99 ,here also are two interesting passages from the 8,life of ,father ,hecker10 and a few memoranda of private conversations3-- 8,somebody once described #8,fruitlands' as a place where ,mr4 ,alcott looked benign and talked philosophy1 while ,mrs4 ,alcott and the children did the work4 ,still to look benign is a good deal for a man to do persistently in an adverse world1 indifferent for the most part to the charms of #8divine philosophy1' and ,mr4 ,alcott persevered in that exercise until his latest day40 8,he was unquestionably one of those who like to sit upon a platform10 wrote at the time of his death1 one who knew ,alcott well1 8and he may have liked to feel that his venerable aspect had the effect of a benediction40 8,but with this mild criticism1 censure of him is well-nigh exhausted40 8,fruitlands was very different from ,brook ,farm--far more ascetic40 8,you didn't like it80 8,yes2 but they did not begin to satisfy me4 ,i said to them3 ,if you had the ,eternal here1 all right1 ,i would be with you40 8,had they no notion of hereafter80 8,no1 nothing definite4 ,their idea was human perfection4 ,they set out to demonstrate what man can do in the way of the supremacy of the spiritual over the animal2 ,all right1 ,i said1 ,i agree with you fully4 ,i admire your asceticism2 it is nothing new to me2 ,i have practiced it a long time myself4 ,if you can get the ,everlasting out of my mind1 ,i'm yours4 ,but ,i know that ,i am going to live forever40 8,what did ,mr4 ,alcott say when you left80 8,he went to ,lane and said1 #8,well1 ,hecker has flunked out4 ,he hadn't the courage to persevere4 ,he's a coward4' ,but ,lane said1 #8,no2 you're mistaken4 ,hecker is right4 ,he wanted more than we had to give him4'0 ,,vii ,,anna ,,alcott',s ,,diary ,,at ,,fruitlands #ahdc4 ,this morning ,i rose pretty early4 ,after breakfast ,i read and wrote stories4 ,in the afternoon ,i wrote some letters1 ,and the following ode to ,louisa3-- ,louisa dear ,with love sincere ,accept this little gift from me4 ,it is with pleasure ,i send this treasure ,and with it send much love to thee4 ,sister dear ,never fear4 ,god will help you if you try4 ,do not despair1 ,but always care ,to be good and love to try4 99 99 99 99 99 ,june #f1 #ahdc4 ,having been busy helping arrange things for moving last ,thursday1 we left ,concordia later for ,harvard4 ,i walked part of the way1 the distance being #ad miles from ,concord to ,harvard4 ,i felt sad at the thought of leaving ,concord and all my little friends1 the birth-place of ,abba where ,i had spent many happy hours2 but ,father and ,mother and my dear sisters were going with me1 and that would make me happy anywhere1 ,i think4 ,we arrived at our new home late in the afternoon4 ,our first load of furniture had come before us4 ,we found ,christy1 ,wood ,abraham1 and ,william all here4 ,mother was well pleased with the house4 ,there is no beauty in the house itself1 but to look out on three sides1 you can see mountains1 hills1 woods1 and in some places the ,still ,river may be seen through the trees4 ,at some distance are the ,shaker ,villages4 ,on the whole1 ,i like the house very well4 ,after eating our supper we fixed our beds and went early to bed4 ,having no time to put up the bedsteads1 we slept on the floor which made my back lame4 ,friday and ,saturday in working and arranging the house in order4 ,to-day in the morning ,i cleared the table and washed the dishes1 being washing day4 ,i washed with ,mother and got dinner4 ,in the afternoon ,i sewed and read4 ,i did not do much this evening1 for ,i went to bed when ,i had finished the dishes4 ,the men have been planting to-day corn1 and cutting wood and fixing round about the house out of doors4 99 99 99 99 99 ,wednesday1 #aa4 ,i began my school to-day4 ,we commenced by singing1 8,when the day with rosy light40 ,it seemed so pleasant to sing with my sisters4 ,after singing ,i wrote my journal and the girls wrote in their books4 ,they then studied arithmetic lesson4 ,i then gave them a recess1 after which they spelt1 read and ,louisa recited geography4 ,at eleven the school was dismissed4 ,in the afternoon ,i sewed for my dolly and took care of ,abba1 then all went to walk in the woods4 ,it was quiet and beautiful there and ,i felt a calmness in myself4 ,the sun was shining and the birds were singing in the branches of the high trees4 ,it was so beautiful it seemed as if ,god was near me4 ,i made some oak leaf wreaths1 one for father and one for mother1 and stuck flowers in them4 ,they looked very pretty indeed4 ,then we returned from our walk and prepared for supper4 ,in the evening ,i sang with ,christy1 ,william1 mother1 and sisters4 99 99 99 99 99 ,thursday1 #h4 ,to-day ,i gave the children lessons this morning4 ,in the afternoon ,i wrote4 ,christy is going to teach me arithmetic and composition1 and the subject upon which ,i am to write is our plan of life4 ,the part ,i wrote on to-day was flesh-eating4 ,i will write it in here4 ,illustration3 ,,abba ,,may ,,alcott ,illustration3 ,,louisa ,,may ,,alcott ,illustration3 ,,anna ,,bronson ,,alcott ,,composition ,life was given to the animals not to be destroyed by men1 but to make them happy1 and that they might enjoy life4 ,but men are not satisfied with slaying the innocent creatures1 but they eat them and so make their bodies of flesh meat4 ,o how many happy lives have been destroyed and how many loving families have been separated to please an unclean appetite of men6 ,why were the fruits1 berries and vegetables given us if it was intended that we should eat flesh8 ,i am sure it was not4 ,we enjoy the beautiful sights and thoughts ,god has given us in peace4 ,why not let them do the same8 ,we have souls to feel and think with1 and as they have not the same power of thinking1 they should be allowed to live in peace and not made to labour so hard and be beaten so much4 ,then to eat them6 eat what has had life and feeling to make the body of the innocent animals6 ,if treated kindly1 they would be kind and tame and love men1 but as they now are abused and cruelly treated they do not feel the feeling of 8love0 towards men4 ,besides flesh is not clean food1 and when there is beautiful juicy fruits who can be a flesh-eater8 99 99 99 99 99 ,in the evening ,i sang again as ,i did last night4 99 99 99 99 99 ,friday1 #i4 ,after breakfast1 it being my day for dishes1 ,i cleared up the table4 ,at eleven ,i had my composition lesson4 ,in the afternoon ,i sewed1 read and played4 ,i sewed in the evening and went to bed early4 99 99 99 99 99 ,saturday1 #aj4 ,this morning father and ,mr4 ,lane went to visit the ,shakers in ,harvard town4 ,i did the chamber work and then worked and made some bread for dinner1 and prepared things ready for it4 ,in the afternoon ,i laid down1 it being very warm out1 and read in 8,devereux0 which pleased me very well4 ,it rained hard and steadily for some time4 ,father and ,mr4 ,lane returned late in the afternoon4 ,they brought home sweet things they had purchased of the ,shakers4 ,we played out on the grounds a little while and then ,i read and went to bed early4 99 99 99 99 99 ,sunday1 #aa4 ,i read until #aj o'clock when we had reading4 ,in the afternoon ,i read1 wrote and had my lessons with ,christy4 ,in the evening ,i received a note from mother accompanied by a roll containing some wafers and some note paper4 ,it was as follows3-- 99 99 99 99 99 ,,dear ,,anna3 ,i send you a little note paper and a few wafers4 ,you have so much to do lately that ,i cannot expect you to write often to me1 but you must not forget that this is a little duty of yours that gives me a great deal of happiness4 ,this last word reminds me of one of father's beautiful selections to-day4 8,happiness is like the bird ,that broods above its nest ,and feels beneath its folded wings ,life's dearest and its best40 ,i am sure ,i feel as if ,i could fold my arms around you all1 and say from my heart1 8,here is my world within my embrace40 ,let us try1 dear ,anna1 to make it a good and beautiful world1--that when we are called to leave it we may be fit to join the good and beautiful of another sphere4 ,all things proclaim ,in the valley and plain ,that ,god is near4 ,hills1 vales and brooks1 ,sweet words and looks1 ,cast out all fear4 ,be the dove of our ark1 ,dear ,anna remark ,you're my eldest and best1 ,now you know all the rest1 ,so farewell dear1 ,god is near1 ,no evil fear1 ,be happy here4 ,,mother4 ,i love to receive letters from mother4 ,she always writes me such dear kind notes4 99 99 99 99 99 ,monday1 #ab4 ,this morning mother baked4 ,i read4 ,mrs4 ,lovejoy and ,mrs4 ,willard came here to see mother4 ,in the afternoon ,i read and wrote1 and took a walk with the girls into the woods4 ,in the evening ,i played and had a shower bath1 and then went to bed4 99 99 99 99 99 ,tuesday1 #ac4 ,mrs4 ,willard came here and helped mother wash to-day4 ,i helped her some4 ,in the morning ,i took care of ,abba and wrote some4 ,in the afternoon ,i played1 studied1 and worked4 ,when ,mrs4 ,willard went home ,louisa and ,i walked with her to learn the way to the house where she lives1 for as she took some sewing to do for mother1 we wanted to know the way there4 ,we saw some young women braiding straw hats4 ,one of them did it very fast indeed4 ,i think ,i should like to know how to make hats4 ,their mother asked us to come and see them 7her name is ,willard7 and mother said we might go4 ,we rode home with ,mr4 ,wyman4 ,when we got here we found two young ladies and a girl who came to see us4 ,they soon went home4 ,i ate my supper and soon after it went to my bed4 99 99 99 99 99 ,wednesday1 #ad4 ,i ironed to-day with mother1 and read some4 ,i have not very much to say and so ,i will write a ,french fable4 ,here a fable is written out in very good ,french4 99 99 99 99 99 ,thursday1 #ae4 ,this morning ,i felt quite unwell1 so ,i laid down and saw ,louisa keep school for ,lizzie and ,abba4 ,i read in 8,tales of a ,traveller0 most all the morning4 ,in the afternoon ,i had a composition lesson1 and then saw father and ,abraham winnow some corn and some barley4 ,i then rode to the mill with him and took ,abba with us4 ,i never saw a mill working before that ,i recollect4 ,i sewed when ,i came home and in the evening talked4 99 99 99 99 99 ,friday1 #af4 ,uncle ,christy went to ,boston this morning4 ,as ,i was running to bid him good-bye my foot slipped and ,i fell down on my back4 ,it hurt me a good deal and ,i had a pain in my side4 ,in the afternoon ,i went to bed and read4 ,when ,i got up ,i fainted4 ,i went to my bed early4 99 99 99 99 99 ,saturday1 #bd4 ,this was ,lizzie's birthday4 ,i arose before five o'clock and went with mother1 ,william1 and ,louisa to the woods where we fixed a little pine tree in the ground and hung up all the presents on it4 ,i then made a wreath for all of us of oak leaves4 ,after breakfast we all1 except ,abraham1 marched to the wood4 ,mr4 ,lane took his fiddle with him and we sang first4 ,then father read a parable1 and then this ode which he wrote himself4 ,i will write it on the next page4 ,father then asked me what flower ,i should give ,lizzie on her birthday4 ,i said a rose1 the emblem of ,love and ,purity4 ,father also chose a rose4 ,louisa said a ,lily-of-the-,valley1 or innocence1--,mother said she should give her a ,forget-me-not1 or remembrance4 ,christy said the trailing ,arbutus1 the emblem of perseverance4 ,mr4 ,lane gave her a piece of moss1 or humility4 ,abba gave her a ,wakerobin4 ,i do not know what that means4 ,we then sang4 ,lizzie looked at her presents and seemed much pleased4 ,mother gave her a silk thread balloon1 ,i a fan1 ,louisa a pin-cushion1 ,william a book1 ,abba a little pitcher4 ,mr4 ,lane wrote some lines of poetry which ,i will write in here3-- ,,to ,,elizabeth ,of all the year the sunniest day ,appointed for thy birth ,is emblem of the longest stay ,with us upon the earth4 ,now dressed in flowers ,the merry hours ,fill up the day and night4 ,may your whole life ,exempt from strife ,shine forth as calm and bright4 ,,fruitlands4 ,here is father's3-- ,,birthday ,,ode ,i ,here in the grove ,with those we love1 ,in the cool shade ,near mede and glade ,with clover tints ore'laid-- ,a haunt which ,god ourselves have made-- ,the trees among ,with leaves are hung4 ,on sylvan plat1 ,on forest mat1 ,near meadow sweet ,we take our seat1 ,while all around ,swells forth the sound ,our happy hearts repeat4 ,the wood and dell ,our joy to tell ,the morning1 and ,our peace to share1 ,flows by his cool ,a balmy school1 ,the ,sun his fires ,his kindled iris ,not yet inspires ,in mid-noon blaze ,his scorching rays1 ,but all is calm and fresh and clear ,and all breathes peace around us here4 ,,ii ,wake1 wake harmonious swell ,along this deep sequestered dell1 ,along the grass and brake1 ,and where the cattle slake ,their thirst1 when glides ,adown the sloping sides ,in ceaseless frit ,the wizard rivulet1 ,and let the spring maze ,join with violin note ,in hymning forth our praise ,from forth melodious throat ,our holy joy to tell4 ,,iii ,father's here ,and ,mother dear ,and sisters all1 ,the short and tall1 ,and ,father's friends ,whom ,briton lends ,to noblest human ends1 ,with younger arm ,from ,brooklet farm1 ,but absent now ,at yonder plough ,with shining1 cleaving share ,upturning to the upper air ,the obstinate soil1 ,the sober son of hardy toil4 ,,iv ,here1 here we all repair ,our hope and love to share1 ,to celebrate ,in rustic state ,midst this refulgent whole ,the joyful advent of an angel soul ,that twice four years ago ,our mundane world to know ,descended from the upper skies ,a presence to our veriest eyes ,and now before us stands ,and asketh at our bounteous hands ,some token of our zeal1 ,in her most holy weal ,before us stands arrayed ,in garments of a maid4 ,untainted and pure her soul ,as when she left the whole ,that doeth this marvelling scene ,and day by day doth preach ,the gospel meant for each ,that on this solid sphere ,for mortal's ear4 ,v ,then take our tokens all ,from great and small ,and close that noblest treasure beat ,that in your heart doth sleep4 ,mind what the spirit saith ,and plight therein thy faith1 ,my very dear ,elizabeth1 ,nor let the enemy wrest ,the heavenly harvest from that field1 ,nor tares permit to sow1 ,nor hate1 nor woe ,in the pure soil ,god's grace itself would sow2-- ,but bloom and open all the day ,and be a flower that none shall pluck away1 ,a rose of ,fruitland's quiet dell1 ,a child intent on doing well ,devout secluded from all sin ,fragrance without and fair within ,a plant matured in ,god's device ,an ,amaranth in ,paradise4 99 99 99 99 99 ,monday1 #ag ,july1 #ahdc4 ,this morning1 not feeling well1 ,i did not join the singing class1 but kept my bed till after breakfast4 ,we had no lessons to-day and ,i sewed4 ,i believe ,i will write a story called ,the ,may ,morning4 ,a ,,fable ,the ,may ,morning ,early one morning in ,may a father conducted his son ,theodore into the garden of a rich man which the boy had never yet seen4 ,the garden was situated at a distance from the city1 and it was adorned with all sorts of shrubs and plants1 beds of flowers and fruit trees1 shady alleys and pleasant groves4 ,through the middle of the garden wandered a pellucid stream which fell from a rock and formed a large pool at its foot4 ,in the cool dell the water turned a mill4 ,in the most beautiful spot in the garden were seats entwined with roses and verdant bowers4 ,theodore could not satiate his eyes with the charms of the place4 ,he walked beside his father mostly in silent amaze1 but sometimes he would exclaim3 8,o ,father1 how lovely and beautiful is this garden60 ,when they had seen many things and were weary with their walk the father conducted the boy through the plantations to the fall of a stream and they sat down on the brow of a hill4 ,here they listened to the roaring of the water which tumbled foaming from the ledge of the rocks1 and in the surrounding thickets were perched nightingales which mingled their strains with the hoarse murmur of the fall4 ,and ,theodore thought he never yet had heard nightingales sing so delightfully4 ,while they thus sat and listened they heard the voice of a man and the voices of children4 ,they were the children of the miller1 a boy and a girl1 and they were leading their old blind grandfather between them1 and telling him about the beautiful shrubs and flowers by the wayside1 and amusing the old man by their lively and simple prattle4 ,they conducted him to a seat in an arbor and kissed him1 and ran about the garden to gather flowers and fruit for him4 ,but the old man smiled1 and when he was alone he uncovered his head and prayed with a cheerful countenance4 ,then the hearts of ,theodore and his father overflowed1 and they offered up prayer and praise with the old man1 and ,theodore was overcome by his feelings so that he could not repress his tears4 ,the children soon afterwards appeared1 and they shouted from afar1 and they brought sweet-smelling flowers and ripe fruit to their blind grandfather4 ,but ,theodore said to his father as they were returning home1 8,o what a delightful1 what a happy morning60 ,,the ,,fountain 8,the little fountain flows ,so noiseless through the wood ,the wanderer tastes repose ,and from its silent flood ,learns meekly to do good40 ,it's short1 but ,i thought it was very pretty4 99 99 99 99 99 ,tuesday1 #ah4 ,this morning after doing my work ,i had lessons4 ,i wrote some in my journal and did some sums4 ,in the afternoon ,i went blue-berrying with ,lizzie and picked nearly1 if not quite1 a quart4 ,i read in the evening4 99 99 99 99 99 ,wednesday1 #ai4 ,we had a descriptive lesson this morning and each of us wrote a description of ,fruitlands4 ,i wrote the following one3-- 8,,fruitlands0 ,it is a beautiful place surrounded by hills1 green fields and woods1 and ,still ,river is at some distance flowing quietly along4 ,wachusett and ,monadoc ,mountains are in sight1 and also some houses and fields of grain4 ,the house itself is now very pleasantly situated4 ,it has a vegetable garden behind it and some fruit trees4 ,on the left a hill on the top of which are pastures and a road4 ,in front is a small garden1 and fields and a house at some distance4 ,on the right is a large barn1 grain and potato field1 woods and mountains4 ,there are many pleasant walks about ,fruitlands1 and berry fields1 though the berries are not yet quite ripe4 ,it is a pleasant place to live in1 ,i think4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,community ,,settle 99 99 99 99 99 ,thursday1 #bj4 ,i had my lesson this morning with ,mr4 ,lane and ,i did some sums with fractions4 ,i never did any till ,mr4 ,lane began to teach me1 and ,i think ,i have learned more lately than ,i ever did before4 ,i think ,i understand what ,i learn too4 ,in the afternoon ,i had my shower bath and sewed4 ,mrs4 ,lovejoy came here to see ,mother and brought her little baby with her4 ,i took care of it a good deal4 ,charlotte and ,ellen ,dudley came to see me and went to ,mrs4 ,barnard's of an errand with me4 ,i there became acquainted with ,adelaide ,barnard4 ,we all went into the schoolhouse and played together4 ,in the evening ,i sewed a little bit and then went to bed4 99 99 99 99 99 ,sunday1 #bc4 ,i did not feel well this morning1 so ,i did not attend the readings1 but read in ,miss ,edgeworth's 8,belinda40 ,in the afternoon ,i sewed some and mother finished 8,sowing and ,reaping0 aloud4 ,i then went to look for blueberries1 but did not find but a very few4 ,when ,i returned ,i had supper and after that ,i read4 99 99 99 99 99 ,monday1 #bd4 ,i had no lessons to-day1 ,mr4 ,lane being unwell and father busy4 ,mother washed and ,louisa and ,i helped her4 ,i then shelled some peas for dinner4 ,yesterday ,christy went away4 ,he will return sometime ,i guess4 ,in the afternoon ,i read part of 8,mademoiselle ,panache40 ,i then wrote my journal and took care of ,abba4 ,william and ,i then ironed till we went to supper4 ,in the evening ,i looked for berries and went pretty early to bed4 99 99 99 99 99 ,tuesday1 #be4 ,this morning ,i had lessons by myself4 ,i did a ,french lesson and wrote in my journal4 ,i then sewed some4 ,in the afternoon ,i made some little presents to give ,abba as to-morrow is her birthday4 ,i then raked hay4 ,in the evening ,i read in 8,motherless ,ellen40 99 99 99 99 99 ,wednesday1 #bf4 ,abba's birthday4 ,we did not do anything to celebrate except that ,i put some presents into her stocking last night and she found them there this morning4 ,after breakfast father and ,mr4 ,lane started for ,boston with ,mr4 ,hecker4 ,we had no lessons4 ,i washed1 and the three other children went to a mill for a walk4 ,i arranged a room for myself4 ,it is to be my room and ,i to stay by myself in it4 ,i then set the dinner table4 ,the children did not return till after dinner4 ,i had a bath and then arranged some pictures for my scrap-book4 ,as ,mother was going into the fields to help with the hay1 ,i joined her1 and after working there some time went with ,louisa to look for berries4 ,we found about a pint4 ,in the evening ,i read in 8,motherless ,ellen0 some more4 ,i rose pretty early this morning and having bathed and dressed sat down to write my journal4 ,having done so ,i went downstairs and eat breakfast4 ,after ,i had done ,i went with ,louisa and ,william to pick blackberries4 ,we got about two quarts4 ,when we returned ,i read and then worked with ,william4 ,in the afternoon ,i wrote and went to ,mrs4 ,lovejoy's4 ,i then had a bath and wrote1 after which ,i read in the newspapers4 ,in the evening ,i played4 ,,poetry ,i never cast a flower away ,the gift of one who cared for me ,a little flower--a faded flower ,but it was done reluctantly4 ,i never looked a last adieu ,to things familiar but my heart ,shrank with a feeling almost pain ,even from their lifelessness4 ,i never spoke the word farewell ,but with an utterance faint and broken ,a heart with yearning for the time ,when it should never more be spoken4 99 99 99 99 99 ,september1 #f4 ,i think the world would be a very dismal world without books4 ,i could not live without them4 ,i take so much pleasure in reading beautiful stories and poetry4 ,i like to hear beautiful words and thoughts4 ,beautiful is my favorite word4 ,if ,i like anything ,i always say it is beautiful4 ,it is a beautiful word4 ,i can't tell the color of it4 ,louisa and ,i took a walk4 ,it was pleasant if it had only been a little warmer4 ,when we returned we sat in our chamber4 ,i wrote down all the beautiful names we could think of1 and in the evening wrote the colors of them4 99 99 99 99 99 ,here ,anna's journal written at ,fruitlands comes to a sudden ending4 ,numberless pages have been torn out carefully1 and ,mr4 ,alcott's handwriting appears in footnotes here and there1 showing that it was he who destroyed the story of the later days of ,fruitlands written from his youthful daughter's pen4 ,it is one more proof of the intensity of his feelings regarding ,fruitlands1 and the bitter disappointment that ,time never softened4 ,his own journal written there has also been destroyed4 ,it seems as if that experience of failure was too heartrending to him to allow the world to share it4 ,we only get glimpses here and there with which to construct a picture of the ,new ,eden where these ,transcendentalists worked out a beloved theory and found it wanting4 ,we have the account of the start1 so full of enthusiasm and ecstatic hopefulness4 ,the curtain has been drawn over the rest as carefully as was possible4 ,her journal starts again in #ahdf1 but it does not state the month4 ,in it she mentions a point which reveals something of ,mr4 ,alcott's philosophy4 ,she says3 8,father said that if a person wanted a thing very much and thought of it a great deal1 that they would probably have it40 ,,viii ,,louisa ,,may ,,alcott',s ,,diary ,,at ,,fruitlands#aj ,september #ast4--,i rose at five and had my bath4 ,i love cold water6 ,then we had our singing-lesson with ,mr4 ,lane4 ,after breakfast ,i washed dishes1 and ran on the hill till nine and had some thoughts1--it was so beautiful up there4 ,did my lessons1--wrote and spelt and did sums2 and ,mr4 ,lane read a story1 8,the ,judicious ,father40 ,how a rich girl told a poor girl not to look over the fence at the flowers1 and was cross to her because she was unhappy4 ,the ,father heard her do it1 and made the girls change clothes4 ,the poor one was glad to do it1 and he told her to keep them4 ,but the rich one was very sad2 for she had to wear the old ones a week1 and after that she was good to shabby girls4 ,i liked it very much1 and ,i shall be kind to poor people4 ,footnote #aj3 ,when she was ten years old4 ,father asked us what was ,god's noblest work4 ,anna said men1 but ,i said babies4 ,men are often bad2 babies never are4 ,we had a long talk1 and ,i felt better after it1 and cleared up4 ,illustration3 ,,where ,,abba ,,may',s ,,stocking ,,was ,,hung ,,the ,,night ,,before ,,her ,,birthday ,anna's bedroom is on the right1 next to ,mrs4 ,alcott's4 ,the portraits of the 8,little ,women0 hang on the wall ,we had bread and fruit for dinner4 ,i read and walked and played till supper-time4 ,we sung in the evening4 ,as ,i went to bed the moon came up very brightly and looked at me4 ,i felt sad because ,i have been cross to-day1 and did not mind ,mother4 ,i cried1 and then ,i felt better1 and said that piece from ,mrs4 ,sigourney1 8,i must not tease my mother40 ,i get to sleep saying poetry1--,i know a great deal4 99 99 99 99 99 ,thursday1 #adth4--,mr4 ,parker ,pillsbury came1 and we talked about the poor slaves4 ,i had a music lesson with ,miss ,p4 ,i hate her1 she is so fussy4 ,i ran in the wind and played be a horse1 and had a lovely time in the woods with ,anna and ,lizzie4 ,we were fairies1 and made gowns and paper wings4 ,i 8flied0 the highest of all4 ,in the evening they talked about travelling4 ,i thought about ,father going to ,england1 and said this piece of poetry ,i found in ,byron's poems3-- 8,when ,i left thy shores1 ,o ,naxos1 ,not a tear in sorrow fell2 ,not a sigh or faltered accent ,told my bosom's struggling swell40 ,it rained when ,i went to bed and made a pretty noise on the roof4 99 99 99 99 99 ,sunday1 #bdth4--,father and ,mr4 ,lane have gone to ,n4 ,h4 to preach4 ,it was very lovely4444 ,anna and ,i got supper4 ,in the eve ,i read 8,vicar of ,wakefield40 ,i was cross to-day1 and ,i cried when ,i went to bed4 ,i made good resolutions1 and felt better in my heart4 ,if ,i only kept all ,i make1 ,i should be the best girl in the world4 ,but ,i don't1 and so am very bad4 7,poor little sinner6 ,she says the same at fifty4--,l4 ,m4 ,a47 99 99 99 99 99 ,october #hth4--,when ,i woke up1 the first thought ,i got was1 8,it's ,mother's birthday3 ,i must be very good40 ,i ran and wished her a happy birthday1 and gave her my kiss4 ,after breakfast we gave her our presents4 ,i had a moss cross and a piece of poetry for her4 ,we did not have any school1 and played in the woods and got red leaves4 ,in the evening we danced and sung1 and ,i read a story about 8,contentment40 ,i wish ,i was rich1 ,i was good1 and we were all a happy family this day4 ,we sang the following song3 ,,song ,,of ,,may ,hail1 all hail1 thou merry month of ,may1 ,we will hasten to the woods away ,among the flowers so sweet and gay1 ,then away to hail the merry merry ,may-- ,the merry merry ,may-- ,then away to hail the merry merry month of ,may4 ,hark1 hark1 hark1 to hail the month of ,may1 ,how the songsters warble on the spray1 ,and we will be as blith as they1 ,then away to hail the merry merry ,may-- ,then away to hail the merry merry month of ,may4 ,i think this is a very pretty song and we sing it a good deal4 99 99 99 99 99 ,thursday1 #abth4--,after lessons ,i ironed4 ,we all went to the barn and husked corn4 ,it was good fun4 ,we worked till eight o'clock and had lamps4 ,mr4 ,russell came4 ,mother and ,lizzie are going to ,boston4 ,i shall be very lonely without dear little ,betty1 and no one will be as good to me as ,mother4 ,i read in ,plutarch4 ,i made a verse about sunset3-- 8,softly doth the sun descend ,to his couch behind the hill1 ,then1 oh1 then1 ,i love to sit ,on mossy banks beside the rill40 ,anna thought it was very fine2 but ,i didn't like it very well4 99 99 99 99 99 ,friday1 ,nov4 #bnd4--,anna and ,i did the work4 ,in the evening ,mr4 ,lane asked us1 8,what is man80 ,these were our answers3 ,a human being2 an animal with a mind2 a creature2 a body2 a soul and a mind4 ,after a long talk we went to bed very tired4 99 99 99 99 99 7,no wonder1 after doing the work and worrying their little wits with such lessons4--,l4 ,m4 ,a47 99 99 99 99 99 ,a sample of the vegetarian wafers used at ,fruitlands3-- ,vegetable diet and sweet repose4 ,animal food and nightmare4 ,pluck your body from the orchard2 do not snatch it from the shamble4 ,without flesh diet there could be no blood-shedding war4 ,apollo eats no flesh and has no beard2 his voice is melody itself4 ,snuff is no less snuff though accepted from a gold box4 99 99 99 99 99 ,tuesday1 #bjth4--,i rose at five1 and after breakfast washed the dishes1 and then helped mother work4 ,miss ,p4 is gone1 and ,anna in ,boston with ,cousin ,louisa4 ,i took care of ,abba 7,may7 in the afternoon4 ,in the evening ,i made some pretty things for my dolly4 ,father and ,mr4 ,l4 had a talk1 and father asked us if we saw any reason for us to separate4 ,mother wanted to1 she is so tired4 ,i like it1 but not the school part or ,mr4 ,l4 99 99 99 99 99 ,eleven years old4 ,thursday1 #bith4--,it was ,father's and my birthday4 ,we had some nice presents4 ,we played in the snow before school4 ,mother read 8,rosamond0 when we sewed4 ,father asked us in the eve what fault troubled us most4 ,i said my bad temper4 ,i told mother ,i liked to have her write in my book4 ,she said she would put in more1 and she wrote this to help me3-- 8,,dear ,,louey1--,your handwriting improves very fast4 ,take pains and do not be in a hurry4 ,i like to have you make observations about our conversations and your own thoughts4 ,it helps you to express them and to understand your little self4 ,remember1 dear girl1 that a diary should be an epitome of your life4 ,may it be a record of pure thought and good actions1 then you will indeed be the precious child of your loving mother40 99 99 99 99 99 ,december #ajth4--,i did my lessons1 and walked in the afternoon4 ,father read to us in dear 8,pilgrim's ,progress40 ,mr4 ,l4 was in ,boston and we were glad4 ,in the eve father and mother and ,anna and ,i had a long talk4 ,i was very unhappy1 and we all cried4 ,anna and ,i cried in bed1 and ,i prayed ,god to keep us all together4 ,,ix ,,autumn ,,disappointment ,as any one knows who has any experience in farming1 the true farmer spirit shows itself in the man who accepts the disappointment of a meagre crop in spite of his dreams of a plentiful harvest1 and working diligently1 gets what he can from it4 ,the crops at ,fruitlands underwent many vicissitudes4 ,no sooner did a crop show some sort of promise than they turned it back into the earth again1 in order to enrich the soil1 they said4 ,this method did not tend to fill the winter storehouse with the needed vegetables1 and a faint suggestion of disillusionment began to creep into the perfect harmony of the consociate family as autumn approached4 ,early in ,september ,mr4 ,alcott and ,charles ,lane went on a trip in search of recruits4 ,they went to ,providence and had an evening's conversation with ,mrs4 ,newcomb and some of her friends1 during which ,mr4 ,alcott said that1 as competition had made facilities so great1 they might take that opportunity to go on to ,new ,york4 ,charles ,lane then spoke up and said there was no other objection than lack of means1 whereupon the company contributed the necessary amount4 ,in writing to ,oldham about it1 ,charles ,lane passes comment on what he saw3 8,we went to the ,graham ,house to breakfast where we found some people half if not quite alive0 and again3 8,the number of living persons in the #cjj1jjj inhabitants of ,new ,york is very small40 ,during this visit they went to see ,mrs4 ,l4 ,m4 ,child1 who gave the following account of it3 8,a day or two after ,theodore ,parker left1 ,alcott and ,lane called to see me4 ,i asked1 #8,what brings you to ,new ,york8' #8,i don't know1' said ,mr4 ,alcott2 #8it seems a miracle that we are here4' ,mr4 ,child and ,john ,hopper went to hear a discussion between them and ,w4 ,h4 ,channing4 ,i asked ,mr4 ,child what they talked about4 #8,lane divided man into three states1--the disconscious1 the conscious1 and the unconscious4 ,the disconscious is the state of the pig2 the conscious is the baptism by water2 and the unconscious is the baptism by fire4' ,i laughed1 and said1 #8,well1 how did the whole discussion affect your mind8' #8,why1 after ,i heard them talk a few minutes1 ,i #8ll be cursed if ,i knew whether ,i had any mind at all4' ,j4 ,h4 stayed rather longer1 though he left in the midst4 ,he said they talked about mind and body4 #8,what did they say8' #8,why1 ,channing seemed to think there was some connection between mind and body2 but those ,boston folks1 so far as ,i could understand #8em1 seemed to think the body was all sham6'0 ,there is a story that on their return from ,new ,york they went by steamer to ,new ,haven4 ,all the money that had been contributed by ,mrs4 ,newcomb and her friends had gone1 but that did not trouble the philosophers4 ,they boarded the boat quite serenely and when it started sat on deck enjoying the breeze4 ,the ticket-man came to each passenger for his ticket1 and when he came to ,mr4 ,alcott and ,mr4 ,lane1 sitting there in their linen suits1 he asked them for theirs4 ,quite undisturbed ,mr4 ,alcott replied that they had no money or scrip1 but they would quite willingly pay their way by addressing the passengers and crew with a little conversation in the saloon4 ,it is said that in reply the language of the ticket-man was not as civil as it should have been4 ,it was all very pleasant1 this wandering off and showing their linen tunics to the world and holding conversations to enlighten people in regard to the future wonders of the ,new ,eden1 but the day they left ,fruitlands ,joseph ,palmer was off attending to his cattle at ,no ,town1 and the crop of barley had been cut and was waiting to be harvested4 ,poor ,mrs4 ,alcott looked at it with anxious eyes4 ,the granary was almost empty and this barley meant food4 ,she could forget herself1 but she could not ignore the needs of her children4 ,christopher ,greene and ,larned and ,bower were also away4 ,the barley lay there with no one to bring it in to a safe shelter4 ,the next day she looked at it again with a sinking heart4 ,as the afternoon waned1 black clouds covered the sky and flashes of lightning rent seams through them with terrifying rapidity4 ,then ,mrs4 ,alcott made a quick decision4 ,gathering all the baskets she could find1 she carried them to the barley-field with the help of the children1 and in hot haste they gathered the barley into the baskets and dragged them to the granary1 and then ran back as fast as they could for more4 ,thus they worked with all their strength1 and when the storm broke1 they had saved enough to last them for at least a few weeks4 ,so if ,mrs4 ,alcott lacked1 as ,lane said1 spiritual insight1 she fortunately for them had practical foresight1 from which they all reaped a benefit4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the following letter to ,mr4 ,oldham is suggestive of the trend of affairs in the community3-- 99 99 99 99 99 ,,fruitlands1 ,,harvard1 ,,mass41 ,september #bi1 #ahdc4 ,on our arrival at home we learnt that in our absence several friends and strangers had called1 amongst them ,s4 ,bower1 ,parker ,pillsbury1 and an acquaintance1 ,mr4 ,hamond of ,new ,ipswich in ,new ,hampshire ,state4 ,thinking the latter worth seeing we went to visit him1 a distance of about twenty-five miles4 ,he is married to an exoteric wife of some good household qualities2 he has built with his own hands a smart cottage1 being an expert workman1 and has moreover a respectable talent for portrait painting which he estimates humbly without a consciousness of humility4 ,next to ,edward ,palmer1 he is a person who1 ,i should think1 would make one with us4 ,he introduced us at two houses to four females who vitally considered constitute with himself the whole of the town4 ,our visit there will do some good1 for though they have read my letters printed last winter in the newspapers1 yet the presence of a living person is much more real a thing4 ,i saw their good intentions were greatly encouraged4 ,i could not dissuade the oldest from promising never to taste flesh again1 which ,i was rather inclined to on account of her years4444 ,on ,saturday last ,anna ,alcott most magnanimously walked her little legs fourteen miles in about five hours down to old ,concord1 where our friends appear to have been pretty somnolent since our departure4 ,on ,tuesday we returned on foot1 and accomplished somewhat towards the liberation of the animals by a heroine of thirteen4 ,mr4 ,emerson is1 ,i think1 quite stationary3 he is off the ,railroad of ,progress1 and merely an elegant1 kindly observer of all who pass onwards1 and notes down their aspect while they remain in sight2 of course1 when they arrive at a new station they are gone from and for him4 ,i see ,mr4 ,john ,sterling dedicates his new tragedy of 8,strafford0 to him3 no very alarming honor6 ,i suppose that ,thomas ,carlyle1 with all his famous talking1 does not yet actually lead the people out of their troubles4 ,these worthy and enlightened scribblers will do little to save the nation4 ,some there are ,i hope of more real solid metal4444 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,outer ,,kitchen ,samuel ,bower has not yet had your note1 as ,i am not sure where he is4 ,he could not1 it seems1 long endure ,joseph ,palmer's offer of land1 etc41 it was so solitary4 ,he called here when we were on our long journey on his way to ,lowell1 the ,manchester of ,new ,england4 ,if his aims are high and his head clear1 or his hands effective1 he will not be able to wander far from us2 but a wanderer it is certain he must be allowed to be4 ,abraham ,abram ,everett comes and goes with some regard to the law within him2 he is now busy with our latter hay1 the maize1 buckwheat1 etc4 ,what is to be our destiny ,i can in no wise guess4 ,mr4 ,alcott makes such high requirements of all persons that few are likely to stay1 even of his own family1 unless he can become more tolerant of defect4 ,he is an artist in human character requiring every painter to be a ,michael ,angelo4 ,he also does not wish to keep a hospital1 nor even a school1 but to be surrounded by ,masters--,masters of ,art1 of the one grand ,art of human life4 ,i suppose such a standard would soon empty your ,concordium as well as every other house1 which ,i suppose you call by insinuation 8,discordiums10 or1 more elegantly1 8,discordia40 ,i propose to pass at least another winter in ,new ,england to know more averagingly what they are1 as the last was particularly severe4 ,i have gone about on these several journeys in the simple tunic and linen garments and mean to keep them on as long as ,i can4 ,we have had a fine summer of three months1 and a fine autumn seems on hand4 ,sharp frost this morning1 yet we took our bath as usual out-of-doors in the gray of the morn at one-half past five4 ,health1 the grand external condition1 still attends me1 every stranger rating me ten or twelve years younger than ,i am2 so that if such are the effects of climate ,i may indeed be happy1 for my youthfulness is not all appearance--,i feel as buoyant and as boyish as ,i look1 which ,i find a capital endorsement to my assertions about diet1 etc4 ,it staggers the sceptical and sets their selfish thoughts to work4444 ,hoping that all minds are thus laboring1 let us1 my dear friend1 act as if all good progress depended upon us and unfailingly present a clean breast to ,eternal ,love1 shedding forth our full measure in the clearest ,light2 in which ,i am ,thine truly1 ,,chas4 ,,lane4 ,abraham just notifies me there is work in the field1 so ,i must go4 99 99 99 99 99 ,joseph ,palmer had offered his old house at ,no ,town to ,samuel ,bower as a refuge in which to test his theory of the benefits to be derived from accustoming the body to live without the enervating burden of clothing4 ,bower's experiences in this line at ,fruitlands had not been satisfactory or convincing1 as it was only at night that he could make the experiment1 and then they insisted on his donning a white garment for his peregrinations in the open4 ,even this caused agitation in the neighborhood1 and tales of a white ghost wandering over the hillside caused much alarm1 and several times a posse went out from the village to look into the matter4 ,at ,no ,town he could be in solitude4 ,while there he wrote a number of articles for the ,liberator1 in one of which he predicted the full regeneration of man1 8if we can rid the kitchen of its horrors and keep our tables free from the mangled corse40 99 99 99 99 99 ,in another letter ,lane writes to ,oldham3-- 99 99 99 99 99 444 ,at present ,i am situated thus4 ,all the persons who have joined us during the summer have from some cause or other quitted1 they say in consequence of ,mr4 ,alcott's despotic manner1 which he interprets as their not being equal to the ,spirit's demands4 ,joseph ,palmer1 who has done1 and is doing our farmwork for love1 still remains in the same relation as he ever did4 ,palmer says that having once declared this land free we should never go back1 at least until the work has been fairly tested4 ,under all this it should be stated that ,mrs4 ,alcott has no spontaneous inclination towards a larger family than her own natural one1 of spiritual ties she knows nothing1 though to keep all together she does and would go through a good deal of exterior and interior toil4 ,i hoped ,i had done with pecuniary affairs1 but it seems ,i am not to be let off4 ,the crops1 ,i believe1 will not discharge all the obligations they were expected to liquidate1 and against going further into debt ,i am most determinately settled4444 ,you will perceive that ,i have1 like yourself1 a small peck of troubles2 not quite heavy enough to drive me to a juncture with our friends1 the ,shakers1 but sufficiently so to put the thought into one's head1 as you perceive4 ,in the midst of all these events and of ,william's illness1 who is in bed eight or ten days with a sort of bilious fever1 ,i am not without the consolatory hope that some measure of ,spirit utilitary is bound up with our obscure doings4 ,yours most affectionately1 ,,charles ,,lane4 ,at a late visit on foot to ,roxbury1 ,i found the numbers at ,brook ,farm considerably diminished4 ,i don't know what they will say to my letter if they see it in ,the ,new ,age1 but never mind4 99 99 99 99 99 ,from now on clashing of wills disturbed the serenity of ,fruitlands4 ,charles ,lane1 despondent over the course of events and the sense of failure1 and seeing further financial complications in store for him1 began seriously to consider the plan of life adopted by the ,shakers whose well-filled corn-bins and full-rigged haylofts bespoke a system which provided plenty for man and beast1 and gave time for alternate work and meditation4 ,he began to talk of this to ,mr4 ,alcott and urged him toward a more monastic life1 and then suggested that they should join them4 ,that he had great influence with ,mr4 ,alcott is evident1 and ,mrs4 ,alcott1 who fully realized this1 grew restless and then alarmed4 ,in writing to ,oldham1 ,lane kept dwelling upon ,mrs4 ,alcott4 ,once he wrote3 8,mrs4 ,alcott has passed from the ladylike to the industrious order1 but she has much inward experience to realize4 ,her pride is not yet eradicated and her peculiar maternal love blinds her to all else--whom does it not so blind for a season80#aa ,footnote #aa3 ,sanborn's ,bronson ,alcott4 ,and he ascribes the failure of other persons to join the experiment largely to ,mrs4 ,alcott1 8who vows that her own family are all that she lives for40 ,no such narrow purpose1 ,lane adds1 has inspired him2 and he blames ,mr4 ,alcott for listening too much to his family affections1 and regarding too much what that guardian angel of middle-class ,england1 ,mrs4 ,grundy1 will say4 ,in speaking of ,mr4 ,alcott1 he complains that 8constancy to his wife and inconstancy to the ,spirit have blurred over his life forever40 ,poor ,mrs4 ,alcott1 poor 8,marmee10 as her daughters called her6--in her loyalty she had almost worked her fingers to the bone with no thanks for it4 ,her days had passed without any help to lighten the manual labor4 ,at first they said that not a lamp could lighten ,fruitlands because the oil contained animal fat1 and only bayberry candles could be used1 and only a few of them4 ,but ,mrs4 ,alcott then rebelled4 ,how could she sew and mend the clothes with such poor light8 ,there seemed some sense in this1 so one small lamp was brought to ,fruitlands just for her4 ,the philosophers tried sitting in the dark1 but one by one would try to find some pretext to join her at the sewing-table1 and ,mrs4 ,alcott's lamp burned bright and steady1 an emblem of her own true and faithful heart4 ,ellery ,channing said3 8,mrs4 ,alcott was one of the most refined persons of my acquaintance4 ,she told me years afterwards that in #ahdc-dd she feared for her husband's sanity2 he did such strange things without seeming to know how odd they were2 wearing only linen clothes and canvas shoes1 and eating only vegetables40 99 99 99 99 99 ,november #bf1 #ahdc1 ,lane wrote to ,oldham from ,fruitlands3-- 8,what with agitations of mind and ills of body1 ,i have passed a less happy time than usual4 ,william was ill a whole month with a low fever so that he could not even sit up in bed for one minute4 ,i had to nurse him while plagued with hands so chapped and sore that ,i was little more capable than the patient4 ,then came ,mr4 ,samuel ,j4 ,may's announcement that he should not pay the note to which he had put his hand2 so that money affairs and individual property come back again upon me for a season4 ,thereupon ensued endless discussions1 doubts1 and anticipations concerning our destiny4 ,these still hang over us4 ,but in the midst of them ,mrs4 ,alcott gives notice that she concedes to the wishes of her friends and shall withdraw to a house which they will provide for herself and her four children4 ,as she will take all the furniture with her1 this proceeding necessarily leaves me alone and naked in a new world4 ,of course ,mr4 ,a4 and ,i could not remain together without her4 ,to be #8that devil come from ,old ,england to separate husband and wife1' ,i will not be1 though it might gratify ,new ,england to be able to say it4 ,so that you will perceive a separation is possible4 ,indeed1 ,i believe that under the circumstances it is now inevitable40 99 99 99 99 99 ,mr4 ,sanborn says in his 8,memoirs of ,bronson ,alcott03-- 8,those who read ,louisa's #8,transcendental ,wild ,oats' will see by her names #8,timon ,lion' for ,lane1 and #8,abel ,lamb' for ,alcott1 that she looked on her father as rather the victim of ,lane in the #8,fruitlands' failure4 ,without conceding this1 the impartial observer will say that ,lane had the stronger will1 and the far more prosaic nature2 that he decided most of the questions for his associates in both countries1 and that he was rather a hard person to get on with4 ,neither his first wife1 nor ,wright1 nor ,mrs4 ,alcott1 nor ,alcott himself1 nor the ,harvard ,shakers1 nor finally ,oldham1 could quite suit him4 ,he over-persuaded ,alcott1 who was a good farmer and mechanic1 to adopt impossible modes of working the #8,fruitlands' farm1 and much of their whimsies in dress and food seem to have come from ,lane and his ,english friends4 ,mrs4 ,alcott1 when restablished in a home of her own at ,concord1 early in #ahde1 offered ,lane a home there1 and he tried it for a time in the next summer1 but still complained1 as he had at #8,fruitlands1' that she wished to keep her family small1 and made it uncomfortable for guests4 ,knowing ,mrs4 ,alcott's character well1 in the last twenty years of her life1 ,i cannot believe that this was ever true of her4 ,she was hospitality itself1 whether poor or rich2 and it must have been ,lane's own individualism that made him dissatisfied4 ,illustration3 ,,charles ,,lane',s ,,room ,the old cowhide trunk1 in which some of the most valuable of the books were shipped from ,london2 also the old chest in which the linen was kept4 ,the spinning-wheel belonged to a former owner4 8,the rigors of a ,new ,england winter promoted the dissolution of the #8,fruitlands' ,community1 but did not alone break it up4 ,a lack of organizing power to control the steady current of selfishness1 as well as the unselfish vagaries of his followers1 was the real cause4 ,nothing in fact could be more miserable than the failure of this hopeful experiment40 99 99 99 99 99 ,mr4 ,alcott had written in his diary of ,emerson3--8,it is much to have the vision of the seeing eye4 ,did most men possess this1 the useful hand would be empowered with new dexterity also4 ,emerson sees me1 knows me1 and more than all others helps me1--not by noisy praise1 not by low appeals to interest and passion1 but by turning the eye of others to my stand in reason and the nature of things4 ,only men of like vision can apprehend and counsel each other4 ,a man whose purpose and act demand but a day or an hour for their completion can do little by way of advising him whose purposes require years for their fulfilment4 ,only ,emerson1 of this age1 knows me1 of all that ,i have found4 ,well1 every one does not find one man1 one very man through and through4 ,many are they who live and die alone1 known only to their survivors of an after-century40 99 99 99 99 99 ,how he recalled that now6 ,he was tossed in mind and troubled beyond measure4 ,all his beautiful dreams were melting away one by one4 ,everything seemed to be falling from his grasp4 ,most of the crops had failed2--the enthusiastic lovers of 8,the ,newness0 had proved themselves false and had slipped away as the cold weather approached4 ,all his wonderful plans had come to naught4 ,he had promised to the world the vision of a new ,eden3 he had believed it could exist3 he had worked for it with his whole soul3 he had nothing to show for it but failure4 ,would his friend ,emerson stay by him in his anguish8 ,he believed he would1 and yet how meet his friend8 ,how face the world8 ,the cold penetrated the old house4 ,william ,lane lay ill in his room and his father watched over him4 ,all were heavy-hearted4 ,it was as late as ,january that ,charles ,lane and his son moved to the ,shakers4 ,after that ,mr4 ,alcott retired to his room1 as he thought1 to face the end4 ,mr4 ,sanborn tells us3 8,the final expulsion from this ,paradise nearly cost ,mr4 ,alcott his life4 ,he retired to his chamber1 refused food1 and was on the point of dying from grief and abstinence1 when his wife prevailed on him to continue longer in this ungrateful world40 ,this prayer was written in his diary after leaving ,fruitlands3 8,light1 ,o source of light6 give ,thou unto thy servant1 sitting in the perplexities of this surrounding darkness4 ,hold ,thou him steady to ,thee1 to truth1 and to himself2 and in ,thine own due time give him clearly to the work for which ,thou art thus slowly preparing him1 proving his faith meanwhile in ,thyself and in his kind40 99 99 99 99 99 8,shall ,i say with ,pestalozzi that ,i was not made by this world1 nor for it1--wherefore am ,i placed in it if ,i was found unfit8 ,and the world that found him thus asked not whether it was his fault or that of another2 but it bruised him with an iron hammer1 as the bricklayer breaks an old brick to fill up a crevice40 99 99 99 99 99 8,that is failure when a man's idea ruins him1 when he is dwarfed and killed by it2 but when he is ever growing by it1 ever true to it1 and does not lose it by any partial or immediate failures1--that is success1 whatever it seems to the world40 ,in speaking of the ,fruitlands experiment ,mr4 ,sanborn says3-- 8,it brought its own compensations1 and left the whole ,alcott family richer and not poorer for this romantic experience with its sad termination4 ,it prepared ,alcott to face more patiently the storms of later life1 and to train his daughter1 who was his best single gift to the world1 better for her conspicuous service4 ,and #8,fruitlands' will be remembered1 perhaps longer than most of the adventures that awaited this romantic household in its voyage of life4444 8,there was some foundation for ,alcott's despair at #8,fruitlands1' and with the ill success that followed him after the flourishing ,temple ,school in ,boston4 ,emerson1 the gentlest and least exacting of men1 looking at his friend's situation a few years after the #8,fruitlands' experiment1 wrote in his private journal-- ,illustration3 ,,the ,,bedroom ,where ,mr4 ,alcott nearly succumbed to his despair at the failure of his 8,new ,eden0 8#8,the plight of ,mr4 ,alcott6 ,the most refined and the most advanced soul we have had in ,new ,england2 who makes all other souls appear slow and cheap and mechanical2 a man of such courtesy and greatness that in conversation all others1 even the intellectual1 seem sharp1 and fighting for victory and angry1--while he has the unalterable sweetness of a muse6 ,yet because he cannot earn money by his talk or his pen1 or by school-keeping1 or bookkeeping1 or editing1 or any kind of meanness1--nay1 for this very cause that he is ahead of his contemporaries1 is higher than they1 and keeps himself out of the shop condescensions and arts which they stoop to1--or1 unhappily1 need not stoop to1 but find themselves1 as it were1 born to2 therefore it is the unanimous opinion of ,new ,england judges that this man must die6 ,we do not adjudge him to hemlock or garroting1--we are much too hypocritical and cowardly for that4 ,but we not less surely doom him by refusing to protest against this doom1 or combine to save him1 and to set him in employments fit for him and salutary for the ,state4'0 99 99 99 99 99 ,the poem written by ,mr4 ,alcott1 with the title 8,the ,return10 may fittingly close this chapter3-- 8,as from himself he fled ,outcast1 insane1 ,tormenting demons drove him from the gate3 ,away he sped1 ,casting his joys behind1 ,his better mind3 ,recovered1 ,himself again1 ,over his threshold led1 ,peace fills his breast1 ,he finds rest1 ,expecting angels his arrival wait40 ,x ,,in ,,after ,,years ,more than thirty years after the ,fruitlands failure1 ,mrs4 ,caroline ,sherman1 of ,chicago1 heard from ,mr4 ,alcott its story as he came to view it in later years4 ,she says3-- 8,one day at ,concord ,mr4 ,alcott consented to give his experience at ,fruitlands1 and for two hours he entertained the little company with the happiest of humor1 as he told the story of his effort to realize an ideal community4 ,together with ,charles ,lane1 he purchased a location on the north side of a sandy hill in ,harvard1 and started out with the idea of welcoming hospitably to their community any human being who sought admission4 ,mr4 ,alcott described the various sorts of quaint characters who came to live with them1 lured by the charms of ,utopia and ,arcadia combined4 ,only a vegetable diet was allowed2 for the rights of animals to life1 liberty1 and the pursuit of happiness formed a fundamental principle in their constitution4 ,this not only cut them off from beef1 but from milk and eggs4 ,the milk belonged to the calf1 and the chicken had a right to its existence as well as the infant4 ,even the canker-worms that infested the apple trees were not to be molested4 ,they had as much right to the apples as man had4 ,unfortunately farm operations were not started until well into ,june1 and the only crop raised that was of value as dependence was barley2 but the philosophers did not flinch at the thought of an exclusively barley diet4 ,now and then they gave a thought as to what they should do for shoes when those they now had were gone2 for depriving the cow of her skin was a crime not to be tolerated4 ,the barley crop was injured in harvesting1 and before long actual want was staring them in the face4 ,this burden fell heaviest upon ,mrs4 ,alcott1 for1 as housewife1 it was her duty to prepare three meals a day4 ,they remained at ,fruitlands till mid-winter in dire poverty1 all the guests having taken their departure as provisions vanished4 ,friends came to the rescue1 and1 concluded ,mr4 ,alcott1 with a tone of pathos in his voice3 #8,we put our four little women on an ox-sled1#ab and made our way to ,concord4 ,so faded one of the dreams of my youth4 ,i have given you the facts as they were2 ,louisa has given the comic side in 8,transcendental ,wild ,oats02 but ,mrs4 ,alcott could give you the tragic side4'0 ,footnote #ab3 ,as a matter of fact they did not go to ,concord on the ox-sled1 but to ,still ,river1 where they lived for a year in the house called the 8,brick ,ends10 belonging to the ,lovejoy family4 ,they then moved to ,concord where ,orchard ,house now stands as a memorial to the later years4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the odes addressed to ,alcott by ,thoreau and ,lowell should be recalled in connection with these reminiscences of his later years3-- ,,the ,,hillside ,,house ,,by ,,henry ,,david ,,thoreau ,here ,alcott thought1--respect a wise man's door6 ,no kinder heart a mortal form e'er held2 ,its easy hinges ope forevermore ,at touch of all1--or fervid ,youth or ,eld4 ,a mounting sage was he1 and could essay ,bold flights of hope1 that softly fed his tongue ,with honey2 then flew swift that happy day1 ,as tranced in joy on his pure themes we hung4 ,he knew the ,scholar's art2 with insight spent ,on ,plato's sentence1 that best poesy1 ,and calm philosophy1 his soul intent ,cleared the grey film of ,earth and ,air and ,sea4 ,he might have lapsed1--but ,heaven him held along1-- ,or splendrous faded like some sunset dream2 ,but long shall live6 though this bare1 humble song ,gains not his dignity1--nor rounds its theme4 ,he'll dwell 7doubt not7 in that fond1 wished-for ,land1 ,where the broad ,concave's stars unquailing bloom2 ,the guest of angels1 that consolers stand1-- ,sweetly forgot in light ,earth's lowly tomb4 ,then may ,i wait1 dear ,alcott1 of thy court1 ,or bear a mace in thy ,platonic reign6 ,though sweet ,philosophy be not my forte1 ,nor ,mincio's reed1 nor ,learning's weary gain4 ,,ode ,,to ,,alcott#ac ,,by ,,james ,,russell ,,lowell ,hear him but speak1 and you will feel ,the shadows of the ,portico ,over your tranquil spirit steal1 ,to modulate all joy and woe ,to one subdued1 subduing glow2 ,above our squabbling business hours1 ,like ,phidian ,jove's1 his beauty lowers1 ,his nature satirizes ours2 ,a form and front of ,attic grace1 ,he shames the higgling market-place1 ,and dwarfs our more mechanic powers4 ,what throbbing verse can fitly render ,that face so pure1 so trembling-tender8 ,sensation glimmers through its rest1 ,it speaks unmanacled by words1 ,as full of motion as a nest ,that palpitates with unfledged birds2 #8,tis likest to ,bethesda's stream1 ,forewarned through all its thrilling springs1 ,white with the angel's coming gleam1 ,and rippled with his fanning wings4 99 99 99 99 99 ,himself unshaken as the sky1 ,his words1 like whirlwinds1 spin on high ,systems and creeds pellmell together2 #8,tis strange as to a deaf man's eye1 ,while trees uprooted splinter by1 ,the dumb turmoil of stormy weather2 ,less of iconoclast than shaper1 ,his spirit1 safe behind the reach ,of the tornado of his speech1 ,burns calmly as a glowworm's taper4 ,footnote #ac3 ,from 8,studies for ,two ,heads40 ,as ,mr4 ,alcott suffered acutely from the disastrous ending of the ,fruitlands ,community1 so also did ,charles ,lane4 ,the cherished ideal of the regeneration of the world by a vivid example was shattered beyond repair4 ,saddened and disillusioned he returned to ,alcott ,house in ,england4 ,in writing to ,thoreau from ,london1 in #ahdh1 ,emerson gives a description of him4 ,he says3 8,i went last ,sunday for the first time to see ,lane at ,ham1 and dined with him4 ,he was full of friendliness and hospitality2 has a school of sixteen children1 one lady as matron1 then ,oldham4 ,this is all the household4 ,they looked just comfortable40 ,the matron here spoken of was undoubtedly a ,miss ,hannah ,bond1 who had lived at ,owen's ,community at ,harmony ,hall1 and in due time ,lane cast aside his antagonism to family ties and married her4 ,but from his letters to ,joseph ,palmer1 it is evident that his experience in life never allowed him freedom from questions of money and property4 ,he had sunk his all in the experiment at ,fruitlands1 as 8an offering to the ,eternal ,spirit40 ,one feels a note of bitterness in him from a letter written by ,wright to ,oldham in which he says3 8,i have been told that ,mr4 ,lane says ,alcott is an unpractical dreamer1 or something tantamount thereto4 ,alas6 how far shall we have to go to find those who will deliver the same opinion of ,c4 ,l4 ,charles ,lane and ,w4 ,o4 ,william ,oldham and others whom ,i could mention6 ,sometimes ,i almost suspect that of myself4 ,the world has decided pretty truly4 ,i begin to respect its decision and to suspect my own40 ,and from the following paragraph the pain and disheartenment of a disappointed life shows itself with infinite pathos1 as ,wright says3 8,somehow or other ,i seem to have made up my mind that it is for me to die1 to which ,i look forward with hope rather than terror40 8,what have ,i ever done80 he asks1 and responds bitterly1 8,nothing1 absolutely nothing6 ,i have dreamed only of great deeds4 ,let me never attempt again what is beyond my being's power40 99 99 99 99 99 ,fruitlands was left in the hands of ,joseph ,palmer1 who bought it of ,charles ,lane4 ,the latter1 fully aware of the shrewd common sense that lurked beneath an eccentric exterior1 urged ,joseph ,palmer to join him in founding a larger ,community1 connecting a farm in ,leominster with that of ,fruitlands as a plant on which to work out a scheme that would promise some measure of success4 ,they drew up the following paper and it was duly signed and sealed3-- 99 99 99 99 99 ,whereas it is desireable to form ,associations of well disposed persons for the supply of their physical and mental requirements1 for the support of a free school for youth1 and a home for the aged1 destitute and indigent1 and ,whereas a capital of one hundred dollars for each associate is deemed sufficient for beginning such an ,association1 ,we1 the undersigned do agree to the purchase of estates in ,leominster and ,harvard1 ,massachusetts1 for the purpose of forming such an ,association which we propose to commence on the first of ,january next1 to the amount of five thousand dollars capital1 afterwards to be extended by the addition of new shares for the purchase of more real estate at the discretion of the shareholders assembled on the first ,monday in ,january in each year1 so that all persons interested shall hold equal rights by possessing one share only4 ,the property now in hand for this purpose consists of ,land and ,buildings in ,leominster and ,harvard1 together about #aij acres with ,stock1 ,tools1 ,provisions1 etc41 needful for carrying out the said design held in the name of ,joseph ,palmer4 ,,joseph ,,palmer4 ,,charles ,,lane4 ,august #ah1 #ahdf4 ,but this same shrewd common sense evidently stood in the way of bringing this plan into actual existence1 for ,charles ,lane writes a letter complaining that so much time has been wasted in considering it that he can no longer remain in ,america1 and he sails for ,england leaving his son ,william with the ,shakers4 ,it is a noticeable proof of the confidence the members of the ,community placed in ,joseph ,palmer that not only ,charles ,lane wanted him as an associate1 but also ,samuel ,bower1 who urged him to join him in founding a ,community in a more temperate climate where he could carry out his convictions regarding the casting aside of all outer clothing4 ,but ,palmer had seen enough of the ,transcendentalists to make him realize the advantages of running his own ,community1 which he did for upwards of twenty years in a strange1 haphazard sort of fashion4 ,he had no name for it1 and he never sought recruits1 but he never closed his door to the wayfarer1 and two large iron pots1 one full of baked beans1 and the other full of potatoes1 stood always ready for the poor and hungry4 ,and so in a humble way1 ,joseph and ,nancy ,palmer carried out some of the ideals started at ,fruitlands by the ,transcendentalists4 ,calvin ,warner lived there off and on for many years1 and old ,widow ,webber sought refuge there1 and many came and went4 ,the ,harvard people called it a home for tramps and called him 8,old ,jew ,palmer02 but any one who takes the trouble to look closely into his life finds in him a stalwart character full of fibre and unswerving courage1 with a very real and abiding religious faith4 ,he was a fighter for his rights1 to the end4 ,the right of way belonging to ,fruitlands crossed old ,silas ,dudley's land to the highway4 ,a continuous battle raged concerning that right of way1 and so fierce did it become that when after a heavy snowstorm ,joseph ,palmer started to shovel the snow off of it1 old ,silas ,dudley shovelled it back again4 ,they kept at it there all day1 both irate old men holding out with a grim determination to win4 ,as neither succeeded in gaining advantage1 they sent for ,mr4 ,emerson to come and settle the question1 which he did4 ,quaint old times1 quaint old people1--we are grateful for just such pictures of the past6 99 99 99 99 99 ,the following letters were found by a grandson of ,joseph ,palmer among some old papers at ,fruitlands4 ,,new ,,york1 ,sept4 #aj1 #ahdf4 ,to ,joseph ,palmer1 ,still ,river1 ,harvard1 ,mass4 ,,dear ,,friend3-- ,i owe you a severe scolding1 and as ,i always endeavor to pay my debts1 here goes4 ,you detained me so long that my school is broken up1 the weeds are shoulder high at the door1 and my utility in this direction is at an end4 ,hereafter do not be so dilatory4 ,the good you desire to do will forever escape undone if you are so very1 very1 very cautious4 ,yet ,i am not for haste or for a magnificent work4 ,but having really made your decision and concluded your plan1 carry it out faithfully and confidingly on such a scale as you know you can stand by4 ,i read the ,prospectus to several1 and none objected4 ,if your ,leominster friends have any truth in them1 now it will be known4 ,i have written to ,d4 ,mack1 and have tried to interest some others1 and ,i really think if you could keep me in ,new ,england the next winter1 the foundation of a rational1 soulful1 simple ,association might be laid4 ,if you had not kept me so long1 this might have been possible1 but now it seems to be my destiny to obey the manifold and unceasing calls of the ,spirit through ,william ,oldham1 and return to ,alcott ,house1 where your letters will find me1 and ,i hope you will take time to write me all interesting particulars4 ,perhaps ,i may work better on that side4 ,at all events1 ,i can assure you ,i shall continue to take as deep1 as active1 and as direct an interest in the ,leominster and ,harvard ,association as if ,i were present4 ,now that matters are arranged a little more suitably to my nature1 ,i shall work for it with greater freedom and potency4 ,we should help all men out of their false positions1 whatever they are1 as fast as we can4 ,please do not fail to see ,edmund ,hosmer1 and commune freely with friend ,emerson4 ,give my kind remembrances to your wife and daughter1 to ,mr4 ,holman1 to ,thomas and his wife1 to ,calvin1 and all the faithful hearts in your circle4 ,i shall endeavor to write a little history of ,fruitlands1 past and future1 so pray supply me with all the facts as they arise4 ,i hope there will be plenty of good names to put in my book4 ,i have faith that ,i shall see you again1 but when ,i cannot guess4 ,before that time ,i trust a faithful band will be congregated4 ,i do not care how few1 if they be but good and true4 ,have your son and daughter signed the ,prospectus8 ,mack may come next to make the casting vote1 or some other one on whom you could rely4 ,i know that you and ,i1 ,s4 ,ford1 and your daughter could carry the design through1 if we should have the happiness to be thrown together4 ,god knows and disposes1 and blesses all the earnest1 in which company may you ever be found with ,your resigned brother1 ,,charles ,,lane4 ,you have given ,william his letter1 ,i suppose4 ,see him as often and cheer him as much as you can4 ,plenty of people from ,brook ,farm in consequence of the changes there would be glad to come4 ,the industrials are all obliged to leave4 ,they apply to the ,n4 ,a4 ,phalanx1 but there is no room for them4 ,let your plan be known and the house may be filled4 ,i believe ,i shall sail in the ,diadem for ,liverpool in a day or two4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,at ,,mr4 ,,moore',s1 ,,knowles ,,place1 ,,davidson ,,street1 ,,east ,,merrimack ,,street1 ,,lowell1 ,,nov4 #f1 #ahdi4 ,,friend ,,palmer1-- ,having removed to reside in ,lowell it may be well to inform you of the change4 ,perhaps you sometimes come so far in this direction--if so it would be cause of regret to me not to see you4 ,now1 of course1 ,i shall see you if you visit ,l4 whilst ,i locate in it4 ,since conversing with you ,i have meditated much on the great step in progress which ,i am incessantly reminded it is my interest and duty to make4 ,but how make it8 ,when8 ,where8 and with whom8 or1 whether alone8 ,on this subject so important to me1 to you and to society1 ,i have many new facts and estimates of facts all tending to induce1 ,i trust1 early and beneficial action4 ,how far you might be disposed to coincide with me ,i know not1 nor how far your long experience might modify my intentions if communicated4 ,i should certainly like to confer with you at length and without reservation4 ,for such a purpose writing is quite inadequate1 so ,i shall not attempt any statement of my views1 etc41 herein4 ,one thing1 however1 ,i may say1 which is that ,i am fully and ,i believe finally fixed in the conviction that no ,association of persons can be brought to inhabit ,fruitlands or your place at ,leominster founding itself on those bases and conditions which six years ago were so frequently discussed by us4 ,be sure ,c4 ,lane can send you nobody from ,england1 and ,i am unaware that there is in this country any one ,realist enough to proceed with the natural economies far enough to satisfy your just expectations4 ,i shall most assuredly1 if the ,infinite ,spirit wills1 make my home in the open heavens and resume the right so long in abeyance of being naturally and therefore well and sufficiently clothed4 ,the true question is a proper ,individualism and nothing that is good and desirable in ,socialism can come but after this4 ,this is universally and ethically incontrovertible and physically the solution waits our action4 ,you have long stood on the threshold and best know whether you are prepared now to pass over it and give up your localized and civilized life4 ,i think ,i am quite clear that it will be necessary to stand within circumstances having less pressure4 ,suitable natural conditions are indispensable and are to be provided at whatever cost of relinquishment of current enjoyments4 ,yours faithfully1 ,,saml4 ,,bower4 99 99 99 99 99 ,london1 ,sept4 #bi1 #ahdi4 ,to ,joseph ,palmer1 ,still ,river1 ,harvard1 ,mass4 ,,dear ,,friend ,,palmer3-- ,if there was a possibility of sending me here only six or seven acres of our old ,fruitlands1 you should hear no more of me as a claimant4 ,as this cannot be1 and ,i am once more adrift in consequence of the lease of our house and grounds having been sold1 ,i hope you will have prosperity enough in the culture to release yourself gradually from my encumbrance whereby ,i may be enabled just to pay the rent on an acre or two to cultivate with my own hands4 ,do not let me ask in vain for a good long letter narrating all your local news since ,i left your hill regions4 ,mr4 ,emerson will inform you of ,william's movements and convey any letters or messages to me4 ,i suppose ,dr4 ,thomas has made a pretty handsome fortune by this time in setting people's mouths in tune and that he will retire to ,fruitlands to make sure of it4 ,yours faithfully1 ,,charles ,,lane4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,london1 ,sept4 #af1 #ahea4 ,to ,dr4 ,thomas ,palmer1 ,fitchburg1 ,mass4 ,,dear ,,friend3-- ,as ,i am not so certain of reaching your father through the post-office as you1 ,i enclose this note to say that ,i should feel obliged if you would have the goodness to discharge my claim4 ,some two or three years have passed since ,i thought ,i should no more trouble ,mr4 ,emerson on the subject1 which is one among the reasons for urging a settlement4 ,your business ,i am sure has been too successful to make it needful to go out of the family for the cash1 or at all events for much of it4 ,the farm has been prosperous1 and though your father does not aim at commercial profits1 yet his industry and integrity bring them to him4 ,i feel it is but as yesterday ,i and your father went from ,harvard to ,fitchburg with the cattle4 ,oh1 how hot6 ,i am differently employed now1 but ,i still desire the field and the garden4 ,if ,i had such a spot here as ,fruitlands ,i should not quit it1 but enjoy a life fruitful in all good4 ,pray1 in this matter of the mortgage attend to the request and give my best regards to your father1 from whom ,i should much like to have a letter4 ,yours truly1 ,,charles ,,lane4 ,,xi ,,transcendental ,,wild ,,oats ,,by ,,louisa ,,may ,,alcott ,,original ,,characters ,,of ,,transcendental ,,wild ,,oats ,,timon ,,lion ,charles ,lane4 ,,his ,,son ,william ,lane4 ,,abel ,,lamb ,a4 ,bronson ,alcott4 ,,sister ,,hope ,mrs4 ,alcott4 ,,her ,,daughters ,the ,alcott girls4 ,,john ,,pease ,samuel ,bower4 ,,forest ,,absalom ,abram ,everett4 ,,moses ,,white ,joseph ,palmer4 ,,jane ,,gage ,anna ,page4 ,a ,,chapter ,,from ,,an ,,unwritten ,,romance ,on the first day of ,june1 #ahd-1 a large wagon1 drawn by a small horse and containing a motley load1 went lumbering over certain ,new ,england hills1 with the pleasing accompaniments of wind1 rain1 and hail4 ,a serene man with a serene child upon his knee was driving1 or rather being driven1 for the small horse had it all his own way4 ,a brown boy with a ,william ,penn style of countenance sat beside him1 firmly embracing a bust of ,socrates4 ,behind them was an energetic-looking woman1 with a benevolent brow1 satirical mouth1 and eyes brimful of hope and courage4 ,a baby reposed upon her lap1 a mirror leaned against her knee1 and a basket of provisions danced about at her feet1 as she struggled with a large1 unruly umbrella4 ,two blue-eyed little girls1 with hands full of childish treasures1 sat under one old shawl1 chatting happily together4 ,in front of this lively party stalked a tall1 sharp-featured man1 in a long blue cloak2 and a fourth small girl trudged along beside him through the mud as if she rather enjoyed it4 ,the wind whistled over the bleak hills2 the rain fell in a despondent drizzle1 and twilight began to fall4 ,but the calm man gazed as tranquilly into the fog as if he beheld a radiant bow of promise spanning the gray sky4 ,the cheery woman tried to cover every one but herself with the big umbrella4 ,the brown boy pillowed his head on the bald pate of ,socrates and slumbered peacefully4 ,the little girls sang lullabies to their dolls in soft1 maternal murmurs4 ,the sharp-nosed pedestrian marched steadily on1 with the blue cloak streaming out behind him like a banner2 and the lively infant splashed through the puddles with a ducklike satisfaction pleasant to behold4 ,thus these modern pilgrims journeyed hopefully out of the old world1 to found a new one in the wilderness4 ,the editors of ,the ,transcendental ,tripod had received from ,messrs4 ,lion ,lamb 7two of the aforesaid pilgrims7 a communication from which the following statement is an extract3-- 8,we have made arrangements with the proprietor of an estate of about a hundred acres which liberates this tract from human ownership4 ,here we shall prosecute our effort to initiate a ,family in harmony with the primitive instincts of man4 8,ordinary secular farming is not our object4 ,fruit1 grain1 pulse1 herbs1 flax1 and other vegetable products1 receiving assiduous attention1 will afford ample manual occupation1 and chaste supplies for the bodily needs4 ,it is intended to adorn the pastures with orchards1 and to supersede the labor of cattle by the spade and the pruning-knife4 8,consecrated to human freedom1 the land awaits the sober culture of devoted men4 ,beginning with small pecuniary means1 this enterprise must be rooted in a reliance on the succors of an ever-bounteous ,providence1 whose vital affinities being secured by this union with uncorrupted field and unworldly persons1 the cares and injuries of a life of gain are avoided4 8,the inner nature of each member of the ,family is at no time neglected4 ,our plan contemplates all such disciplines1 cultures1 and habits as evidently conduce to the purifying of the inmates4 8,pledged to the spirit alone1 the founders anticipate no hasty or numerous addition to their numbers4 ,the kingdom of peace is entered only through the gates of self-denial2 and felicity is the test and the reward of loyalty to the unswerving law of ,love40 ,this prospective ,eden at present consisted of an old red farmhouse1 a dilapidated barn1 many acres of meadow-land1 and a grove4 ,ten ancient apple-trees were all the 8chaste supply0 which the place offered as yet2 but1 in the firm belief that plenteous orchards were soon to be evoked from their inner consciousness1 these sanguine founders had christened their domain ,fruitlands4 ,here ,timon ,lion intended to found a colony of ,latter ,day ,saints1 who1 under his patriarchal sway1 should regenerate the world and glorify his name for ever4 ,here ,abel ,lamb1 with the devoutest faith in the high ideal which was to him a living truth1 desired to plant a ,paradise1 where ,beauty1 ,virtue1 ,justice1 and ,love might live happily together1 without the possibility of a serpent entering in4 ,and here his wife1 unconverted but faithful to the end1 hoped1 after many wanderings over the face of the earth1 to find rest for herself and a home for her children4 8,there is our new abode10 announced the enthusiast1 smiling with a satisfaction quite undamped by the drops dripping from his hat-brim1 as they turned at length into a cart-path that wound along a steep hillside into a barren-looking valley4 8,a little difficult of access10 observed his practical wife1 as she endeavored to keep her various household gods from going overboard with every lurch of the laden ark4 8,like all good things4 ,but those who earnestly desire and patiently seek will soon find us10 placidly responded the philosopher from the mud1 through which he was now endeavoring to pilot the much-enduring horse4 8,truth lies at the bottom of a well1 ,sister ,hope10 said ,brother ,timon1 pausing to detach his small comrade from a gate1 whereon she was perched for a clearer gaze into futurity4 8,that's the reason we so seldom get at it1 ,i suppose10 replied ,mrs4 ,hope1 making a vain clutch at the mirror1 which a sudden jolt sent flying out of her hands4 8,we want no false reflections here10 said ,timon1 with a grim smile1 as he crunched the fragments under foot in his onward march4 ,sister ,hope held her peace1 and looked wistfully through the mist at her promised home4 ,the old red house with a hospitable glimmer at its windows cheered her eyes2 and1 considering the weather1 was a fitter refuge than the sylvan bowers some of the more ardent souls might have preferred4 ,the new-comers were welcomed by one of the elect precious1--a regenerate farmer1 whose idea of reform consisted chiefly in wearing white cotton raiment and shoes of untanned leather4 ,this costume1 with a snowy beard1 gave him a venerable1 and at the same time a somewhat bridal appearance4 ,the goods and chattels of the ,society not having arrived1 the weary family reposed before the fire on blocks of wood1 while ,brother ,moses ,white regaled them with roasted potatoes1 brown bread and water1 in two plates1 a tin pan1 and one mug2 his table service being limited4 ,but1 having cast the forms and vanities of a depraved world behind them1 the elders welcomed hardship with the enthusiasm of new pioneers1 and the children heartily enjoyed this foretaste of what they believed was to be a sort of perpetual picnic4 ,during the progress of this frugal meal1 two more brothers appeared4 ,one a dark1 melancholy man1 clad in homespun1 whose peculiar mission was to turn his name hind part before and use as few words as possible4 ,the other was a bland1 bearded ,englishman1 who expected to be saved by eating uncooked food and going without clothes4 ,he had not yet adopted the primitive costume1 however2 but contented himself with meditatively chewing dry beans out of a basket4 8,every meal should be a sacrament1 and the vessels used should be beautiful and symbolical10 observed ,brother ,lamb1 mildly1 righting the tin pan slipping about on his knees4 8,i priced a silver service when in town1 but it was too costly2 so ,i got some graceful cups and vases of ,britannia ware40 8,hardest things in the world to keep bright4 ,will whiting be allowed in the community80 inquired ,sister ,hope1 with a housewife's interest in labor-saving institutions4 8,such trivial questions will be discussed at a more fitting time10 answered ,brother ,timon1 sharply1 as he burnt his fingers with a very hot potato4 8,neither sugar1 molasses1 milk1 butter1 cheese1 nor flesh are to be used among us1 for nothing is to be admitted which has caused wrong or death to man or beast40 8,our garments are to be linen till we learn to raise our own cotton or some substitute for woollen fabrics10 added ,brother ,abel1 blissfully basking in an imaginary future as warm and brilliant as the generous fire before him4 8,haou abaout shoes80 asked ,brother ,moses1 surveying his own with interest4 8,we must yield that point till we can manufacture an innocent substitute for leather4 ,bark1 wood1 or some durable fabric will be invented in time4 ,meanwhile1 those who desire to carry out our idea to the fullest extent can go barefooted10 said ,lion1 who liked extreme measures4 8,i never will1 nor let my girls10 murmured rebellious ,sister ,hope1 under her breath4 8,haou do you cattle'ate to treat the ten-acre lot8 ,ef things ain't #8tended to right smart1 we shan't hev no crops10 observed the practical patriarch in cotton4 8,we shall spade it10 replied ,abel1 in such perfect good faith that ,moses said no more1 though he indulged in a shake of the head as he glanced at hands that had held nothing heavier than a pen for years4 ,he was a paternal old soul and regarded the younger men as promising boys on a new sort of lark4 8,what shall we do for lamps1 if we cannot use any animal substance8 ,i do hope light of some sort is to be thrown upon the enterprise10 said ,mrs4 ,lamb1 with anxiety1 for in those days kerosene and camphene were not1 and gas unknown in the wilderness4 8,we shall go without till we have discovered some vegetable oil or wax to serve us10 replied ,brother ,timon1 in a decided tone1 which caused ,sister ,hope to resolve that her private lamp should be always trimmed1 if not burning4 8,each member is to perform the work for which experience1 strength1 and taste best fit him10 continued ,dictator ,lion4 8,thus drudgery and disorder will be avoided and harmony prevail4 ,we shall rise at dawn1 begin the day by bathing1 followed by music1 and then a chaste repast of fruit and bread4 ,each one finds congenial occupation till the meridian meal2 when some deep-searching conversation gives rest to the body and development to the mind4 ,healthful labor again engages us till the last meal1 when we assemble in social communion1 prolonged till sunset1 when we retire to sweet repose1 ready for the next day's activity40 8,what part of the work do you incline to yourself80 asked ,sister ,hope1 with a humorous glimmer in her keen eyes4 8,i shall wait till it is made clear to me4 ,being in preference to doing is the great aim1 and this comes to us rather by a resigned willingness than a wilful activity1 which is a check to all divine growth10 responded ,brother ,timon4 8,i thought so40 ,and ,mrs4 ,lamb sighed audibly1 for during the year he had spent in her family ,brother ,timon had so faithfully carried out his idea of 8being1 not doing10 that she had found his 8divine growth0 both an expensive and unsatisfactory process4 ,here her husband struck into the conversation1 his face shining with the light and joy of the splendid dreams and high ideals hovering before him4 8,in these steps of reform1 we do not rely so much on scientific reasoning or physiological skill as on the spirit's dictates4 ,the greater part of man's duty consists in leaving alone much that he now does4 ,shall ,i stimulate with tea1 coffee1 or wine8 ,no4 ,shall ,i consume flesh8 ,not if ,i value health4 ,shall ,i subjugate cattle8 ,shall ,i claim property in any created thing8 ,shall ,i trade8 ,shall ,i adopt a form of religion8 ,shall ,i interest myself in politics8 ,to how many of these questions--could we ask them deeply enough and could they be heard as having relation to our eternal welfare--would the response be #8,abstain'80 ,a mild snore seemed to echo the last word of ,abel's rhapsody1 for ,brother ,moses had succumbed to mundane slumber and sat nodding like a massive ghost4 ,forest ,absalom1 the silent man1 and ,john ,pease1 the ,english member1 now departed to the barn2 and ,mrs4 ,lamb led her flock to a temporary fold1 leaving the founders of the 8,consociate ,family0 to build castles in the air till the fire went out and the symposium ended in smoke4 ,the furniture arrived next day1 and was soon bestowed2 for the principal property of the community consisted in books4 ,to this rare library was devoted the best room in the house1 and the few busts and pictures that still survived many flittings were added to beautify the sanctuary1 for here the family was to meet for amusement1 instruction1 and worship4 ,any housewife can imagine the emotions of ,sister ,hope1 when she took possession of a large1 dilapidated kitchen1 containing an old stove and the peculiar stores out of which food was to be evolved for her little family of eleven4 ,cakes of maple sugar1 dried peas and beans1 barley and hominy1 meal of all sorts1 potatoes1 and dried fruit4 ,no milk1 butter1 cheese1 tea1 or meat appeared4 ,even salt was considered a useless luxury and spice entirely forbidden by these lovers of ,spartan simplicity4 ,a ten years' experience of vegetarian vagaries had been good training for this new freak1 and her sense of the ludicrous supported her through many trying scenes4 ,unleavened bread1 porridge1 and water for breakfast2 bread1 vegetables1 and water for dinner2 bread1 fruit1 and water for supper was the bill of fare ordained by the elders4 ,no teapot profaned that sacred stove1 no gory steak cried aloud for vengeance from her chaste gridiron2 and only a brave woman's taste1 time1 and temper were sacrificed on that domestic altar4 ,the vexed question of light was settled by buying a quantity of bayberry wax for candles2 and1 on discovering that no one knew how to make them1 pine knots were introduced1 to be used when absolutely necessary4 ,being summer1 the evenings were not long1 and the weary fraternity found it no great hardship to retire with the birds4 ,the inner light was sufficient for most of them4 ,but ,mrs4 ,lamb rebelled4 ,evening was the only time she had to herself1 and while the tired feet rested the skilful hands mended torn frocks and little stockings1 or anxious heart forgot its burden in a book4 ,so 8mother's lamp0 burned steadily1 while the philosophers built a new heaven and earth by moonlight2 and through all the metaphysical mists and philanthropic pyrotechnics of that period ,sister ,hope played her own little game of 8throwing light10 and none but the moths were the worse for it4 ,such farming probably was never seen before since ,adam delved4 ,the band of brothers began by spading garden and field2 but a few days of it lessened their ardor amazingly4 ,blistered hands and aching backs suggested the expediency of permitting the use of cattle till the workers were better fitted for noble toil by a summer of the new life4 ,brother ,moses brought a yoke of oxen from his farm1--at least1 the philosophers thought so till it was discovered that one of the animals was a cow2 and ,moses confessed that he 8must be let down easy1 for he couldn't live on garden sarse entirely40 ,great was ,dictator ,lion's indignation at this lapse from virtue4 ,but time pressed1 the work must be done2 so the meek cow was permitted to wear the yoke and the recreant brother continued to enjoy forbidden draughts in the barn1 which dark proceeding caused the children to regard him as one set apart for destruction4 ,the sowing was equally peculiar1 for1 owing to some mistake1 the three brethren1 who devoted themselves to this graceful task1 found when about half through the job that each had been sowing a different sort of grain in the same field2 a mistake which caused much perplexity1 as it could not be remedied2 but1 after a long consultation and a good deal of laughter1 it was decided to say nothing and see what would come of it4 ,the garden was planted with a generous supply of useful roots and herbs2 but1 as manure was not allowed to profane the virgin soil1 few of these vegetable treasures ever came up4 ,purslane reigned supreme1 and the disappointed planters ate it philosophically1 deciding that ,nature knew what was best for them1 and would generously supply their needs1 if they could only learn to digest her 8sallets0 and wild roots4 ,the orchard was laid out1 a little grafting done1 new trees and vines set1 regardless of the unfit season and entire ignorance of the husbandmen1 who honestly believed that in the autumn they would reap a bounteous harvest4 ,slowly things got into order1 and rapidly rumors of the new experiment went abroad1 causing many strange spirits to flock thither1 for in those days communities were the fashion and transcendentalism raged wildly4 ,some came to look on and laugh1 some to be supported in poetic idleness1 a few to believe sincerely and work heartily4 ,each member was allowed to mount his favorite hobby and ride it to his heart's content4 ,very queer were some of the riders1 and very rampant some of the hobbies4 ,one youth1 believing that language was of little consequence if the spirit was only right1 startled new-comers by blandly greeting them with 8,good-morning1 damn you10 and other remarks of an equally mixed order4 ,a second irrepressible being held that all the emotions of the soul should be freely expressed1 and illustrated his theory by antics that would have sent him to a lunatic asylum1 if1 as an unregenerate wag said1 he had not already been in one4 ,when his spirit soared1 he climbed trees and shouted2 when doubt assailed him1 he lay upon the floor and groaned lamentably4 ,at joyful periods1 he raced1 leaped1 and sang2 when sad1 he wept aloud2 and when a great thought burst upon him in the watches of the night1 he crowed like a jocund cockerel1 to the great delight of the children and the great annoyance of the elders4 ,one musical brother fiddled whenever so moved1 sang sentimentally to the four little girls1 and put a music-box on the wall when he hoed corn4 ,brother ,pease ground away at his uncooked food1 or browsed over the farm on sorrel1 mint1 green fruit1 and new vegetables4 ,occasionally he took his walks abroad1 airily attired in an unbleached cotton poncho1 which was the nearest approach to the primeval costume he was allowed to indulge in4 ,at midsummer he retired to the wilderness1 to try his plan where the woodchucks were without prejudices and huckleberry-bushes were hospitably full4 ,a sunstroke unfortunately spoilt his plan1 and he returned to semi-civilization a sadder and wiser man4 ,forest ,absalom preserved his ,pythagorean silence1 cultivated his fine dark locks1 and worked like a beaver1 setting an excellent example of brotherly love1 justice1 and fidelity by his upright life4 ,he it was who helped overworked ,sister ,hope with her heavy washes1 kneaded the endless succession of batches of bread1 watched over the children1 and did the many tasks left undone by the brethren1 who were so busy discussing and defining great duties that they forgot to perform the small ones4 ,moses ,white placidly plodded about1 8chorin' raound10 as he called it1 looking like an old-time patriarch1 with his silver hair and flowing beard1 and saving the community from many a mishap by his thrift and ,yankee shrewdness4 ,brother ,lion domineered over the whole concern2 for1 having put the most money into the speculation1 he was resolved to make it pay1--as if anything founded on an ideal basis could be expected to do so by any but enthusiasts4 ,abel ,lamb simply revelled in the ,newness1 firmly believing that his dream was to be beautifully realized and in time not only little ,fruitlands1 but the whole earth1 be turned into a ,happy ,valley4 ,he worked with every muscle of his body1 for he was in deadly earnest4 ,he taught with his whole head and heart2 planned and sacrificed1 preached and prophesied1 with a soul full of the purest aspirations1 most unselfish purposes1 and desires for a life devoted to ,god and man1 too high and tender to bear the rough usage of this world4 ,it was a little remarkable that only one woman ever joined this community4 ,mrs4 ,lamb merely followed wheresoever her husband led1--8as ballast for his balloon10 as she said1 in her bright way4 ,miss ,jane ,gage was a stout lady of mature years1 sentimental1 amiable1 and lazy4 ,she wrote verses copiously1 and had vague yearnings and graspings after the unknown1 which led her to believe herself fitted for a higher sphere than any she had yet adorned4 ,having been a teacher1 she was set to instructing the children in the common branches4 ,each adult member took a turn at the infants2 and1 as each taught in his own way1 the result was a chronic state of chaos in the minds of these much-afflicted innocents4 ,sleep1 food1 and poetic musings were the desires of dear ,jane's life1 and she shirked all duties as clogs upon her spirit's wings4 ,any thought of lending a hand with the domestic drudgery never occurred to her2 and when to the question1 8,are there any beasts of burden on the place80 ,mrs4 ,lamb answered1 with a face that told its own tale1 8,only one woman60 the buxom ,jane took no shame to herself1 but laughed at the joke1 and let the stout-hearted sister tug on alone4 ,unfortunately1 the poor lady hankered after the flesh-pots1 and endeavored to stay herself with private sips of milk1 crackers1 and cheese1 and on one dire occasion she partook of fish at a neighbor's table4 ,one of the children reported this sad lapse from virtue1 and poor ,jane was publicly reprimanded by ,timon4 8,i only took a little bit of the tail10 sobbed the penitent poetess4 8,yes1 but the whole fish had to be tortured and slain that you might tempt your carnal appetite with that one taste of the tail4 ,know ye not1 consumers of flesh meat1 that ye are nourishing the wolf and tiger in your bosoms80 ,at this awful question and the peal of laughter which arose from some of the younger brethren1 tickled by the ludicrous contrast between the stout sinner1 the stern judge1 and the naughty satisfaction of the young detective1 poor ,jane fled from the room to pack her trunk and return to a world where fishes' tails were not forbidden fruit4 ,transcendental wild oats were sown broadcast that year1 and the fame thereof has not yet ceased in the land2 for1 futile as this crop seemed to outsiders1 it bore an invisible harvest1 worth much to those who planted in earnest4 ,as none of the members of this particular community have ever recounted their experiences before1 a few of them may not be amiss1 since the interest in these attempts has never died out and ,fruitlands was the most ideal of all these castles in ,spain4 ,a new dress was invented1 since cotton1 silk1 and wool were forbidden as the product of slave-labor1 worm-slaughter1 and sheep-robbery4 ,tunics and trowsers of brown linen were the only wear4 ,the women's skirts were longer1 and their straw hat-brims wider than the men's1 and this was the only difference4 ,some persecution lent a charm to the costume1 and the long-haired1 linen-clad reformers quite enjoyed the mild martyrdom they endured when they left home4 ,money was abjured1 as the root of all evil4 ,the produce of the land was to supply most of their wants1 or be exchanged for the few things they could not grow4 ,this idea had its inconveniences2 but self-denial was the fashion1 and it was surprising how many things one can do without4 ,when they desired to travel1 they walked1 if possible1 begged the loan of a vehicle1 or boldly entered car or coach1 and1 stating their principles to the officials1 took the consequences4 ,usually their dress1 their earnest frankness1 and gentle resolution won them a passage2 but now and then they met with hard usage1 and had the satisfaction of suffering for their principles4 ,on one of these penniless pilgrimages they took passage on a boat1 and1 when fare was demanded1 artlessly offered to talk1 instead of pay4 ,as the boat was well under way and they actually had not a cent1 there was no help for it4 ,so ,brothers ,lion and ,lamb held forth to the assembled passengers in their most eloquent style4 ,there must have been something effective in this conversation1 for the listeners were moved to take up a contribution for these inspired lunatics1 who preached peace on earth and good-will to man so earnestly1 with empty pockets4 ,a goodly sum was collected2 but when the captain presented it the reformers proved that they were consistent even in their madness1 for not a penny would they accept1 saying1 with a look at the group about them1 whose indifference or contempt had changed to interest and respect1 8,you see how well we get on without money02 and so went serenely on their way1 with their linen blouses flapping airily in the cold ,october wind4 ,they preached vegetarianism everywhere and resisted all temptations of the flesh1 contentedly eating apples and bread at well-spread tables1 and much afflicting hospitable hostesses by denouncing their food and taking away their appetites1 discussing the 8horrors of shambles10 the 8incorporation of the brute in man10 and 8on elegant abstinence the sign of a pure soul40 ,but1 when the perplexed or offended ladies asked what they should eat1 they got in reply a bill of fare consisting of 8bowls of sunrise for breakfast10 8solar seeds of the sphere10 8dishes from ,plutarch's chaste table10 and other viands equally hard to find in any modern market4 ,reform conventions of all sorts were haunted by these brethren1 who said many wise things and did many foolish ones4 ,unfortunately1 these wanderings interfered with their harvest at home2 but the rule was to do what the spirit moved1 so they left their crops to ,providence and went a-reaping in wider and1 let us hope1 more fruitful fields than their own4 ,luckily1 the earthly providence who watched over ,abel ,lamb was at hand to glean the scanty crop yielded by the 8uncorrupted land10 which1 8consecrated to human freedom10 had received 8the sober culture of devout men40 ,about the time the grain was ready to house1 some call of the ,oversoul wafted all the men away4 ,an easterly storm was coming up and the yellow stacks were sure to be ruined4 ,then ,sister ,hope gathered her forces4 ,three little girls1 one boy 7,timon's son71 and herself1 harnessed to clothes-baskets and ,russia-linen sheets1 were the only teams she could command2 but with these poor appliances the indomitable woman got in the grain and saved food for her young1 with the instinct and energy of a mother-bird with a brood of hungry nestlings to feed4 ,this attempt at regeneration had its tragic as well as comic side1 though the world only saw the former4 ,with the first frosts1 the butterflies1 who had sunned themselves in the new light through the summer1 took flight1 leaving the few bees to see what honey they had stored for winter use4 ,precious little appeared beyond the satisfaction of a few months of holy living4 ,at first it seemed as if a chance to try holy dying also was to be offered them4 ,timon1 much disgusted with the failure of the scheme1 decided to retire to the ,shakers1 who seemed to be the only successful community going4 8,what is to become of us80 asked ,mrs4 ,hope1 for ,abel was heart-broken at the bursting of his lovely bubble4 8,you can stay here1 if you like1 till a tenant is found4 ,no more wood must be cut1 however1 and no more corn ground4 ,all ,i have must be sold to pay the debts of the concern1 as the responsibility rests with me10 was the cheering reply4 8,who is to pay us for what we have lost8 ,i gave all ,i had1--furniture1 time1 strength1 six months of my children's lives1--and all are wasted4 ,abel gave himself body and soul1 and is almost wrecked by hard work and disappointment4 ,are we to have no return for this1 but leave to starve and freeze in an old house1 with winter at hand1 no money1 and hardly a friend left2 for this wild scheme has alienated nearly all we had4 ,you talk much about justice4 ,let us have a little1 since there is nothing else left40 ,but the woman's appeal met with no reply but the old one3 8,it was an experiment4 ,we all risked something1 and must bear our losses as we can40 ,with this cold comfort1 ,timon departed with his son1 and was absorbed into the ,shaker brotherhood1 where he soon found that the order of things was reversed1 and it was all work and no play4 ,then the tragedy began for the forsaken little family4 ,desolation and despair fell upon ,abel4 ,as his wife said1 his new beliefs had alienated many friends4 ,some thought him mad1 some unprincipled4 ,even the most kindly thought him a visionary1 whom it was useless to help till he took more practical views of life4 ,all stood aloof1 saying3 8,let him work out his own ideas1 and see what they are worth40 ,he had tried1 but it was a failure4 ,the world was not ready for ,utopia yet1 and those who attempted to found it only got laughed at for their pains4 ,in other days1 men could sell all and give to the poor1 lead lives devoted to holiness and high thought1 and1 after the persecution was over1 find themselves honored as saints or martyrs4 ,but in modern times these things are out of fashion4 ,to live for one's principles1 at all costs1 is a dangerous speculation2 and the failure of an ideal1 no matter how humane and noble1 is harder for the world to forgive and forget than bank robbery or the grand swindles of corrupt politicians4 ,deep waters now for ,abel1 and for a time there seemed no passage through4 ,strength and spirits were exhausted by hard work and too much thought4 ,courage failed when1 looking about for help1 he saw no sympathizing face1 no hand outstretched to help him1 no voice to say cheerily1 8,we all make mistakes1 and it takes many experiences to shape a life4 ,try again1 and let us help you40 ,every door was closed1 every eye averted1 every heart cold1 and no way open whereby he might earn bread for his children4 ,his principles would not permit him to do many things that others did2 and in the few fields where conscience would allow him to work1 who would employ a man who had flown in the face of society1 as he had done8 ,then this dreamer1 whose dream was the life of his life1 resolved to carry out his idea to the bitter end4 ,there seemed no place for him here1--no work1 no friend4 ,to go begging conditions was as ignoble as to go begging money4 ,better perish of want than sell one's soul for the sustenance of his body4 ,silently he lay down upon his bed1 turned his face to the wall1 and waited with pathetic patience for death to cut the knot which he could not untie4 ,days and nights went by1 and neither food nor water passed his lips4 ,soul and body were dumbly struggling together1 and no word of complaint betrayed what either suffered4 ,his wife1 when tears and prayers were unavailing1 sat down to wait the end with a mysterious awe and submission2 for in this entire resignation of all things there was an eloquent significance to her who knew him as no other human being did4 8,leave all to ,god10 was his belief2 and in this crisis the loving soul clung to this faith1 sure that the ,allwise ,father would not desert this child who tried to live so near to ,him4 ,gathering her children about her1 she waited the issue of the tragedy that was being enacted in that solitary room1 while the first snow fell outside1 untrodden by the footprints of a single friend4 ,but the strong angels who sustain and teach perplexed and troubled souls came and went1 leaving no trace without1 but working miracles within4 ,for1 when all other sentiments had faded into dimness1 all other hopes died utterly2 when the bitterness of death was nearly over1 when body was past any pang of hunger or thirst1 and soul stood ready to depart1 the love that outlives all else refused to die4 ,head had bowed to defeat1 hand had grown weary with too heavy tasks1 but heart could not grow cold to those who lived in its tender depths1 even when death touched it4 8,my faithful wife1 my little girls1--they have not forsaken me1 they are mine by ties that none can break4 ,what right have ,i to leave them alone8 ,what right to escape from the burden and the sorrow ,i have helped to bring8 ,this duty remains to me1 and ,i must do it manfully4 ,for their sakes1 the world will forgive me in time2 for their sakes1 ,god will sustain me now40 ,too feeble to rise1 ,abel groped for the food that always lay within his reach1 and in the darkness and solitude of that memorable night ate and drank what was to him the bread and wine of a new communion1 a new dedication of heart and life to the duties that were left him when the dreams fled4 ,in the early dawn1 when that sad wife crept fearfully to see what change had come to the patient face on the pillow1 she found it smiling at her1 saw a wasted hand outstretched to her1 and heard a feeble voice cry bravely1 8,hope60 ,what passed in that little room is not to be recorded except in the hearts of those who suffered and endured much for love's sake4 ,enough for us to know that soon the wan shadow of a man came forth1 leaning on the arm that never failed him1 to be welcomed and cherished by the children1 who never forgot the experiences of that time4 8,hope0 was the watchword now2 and1 while the last logs blazed on the hearth1 the last bread and apples covered the table1 the new commander1 with recovered courage1 said to her husband1-- 8,leave all to ,god--and me4 ,he has done his part1 now ,i will do mine40 8,but we have no money1 dear40 8,yes1 we have4 ,i sold all we could spare1 and have enough to take us away from this snowbank40 8,where can we go80 8,i have engaged four rooms at our good neighbor1 ,lovejoy's4 ,there we can live cheaply till spring4 ,then for new plans and a home of our own1 please ,god40 ,illustration3 ,,orchard ,,house ,,at ,,concord1 ,,massachusetts ,the ,alcott home of later years 8,but1 ,hope1 your little store won't last long1 and we have no friends40 8,i can sew and you can chop wood4 ,lovejoy offers you the same pay as he gives his other men2 my old friend1 ,mrs4 ,truman1 will send me all the work ,i want2 and my blessed brother stands by us to the end4 ,cheer up1 dear heart1 for while there is work and love in the world we shall not suffer40 8,and while ,i have my good angel ,hope1 ,i shall not despair1 even if ,i wait another thirty years before ,i step beyond the circle of the sacred little world in which ,i still have a place to fill40 ,so one bleak ,december day1 with their few possessions piled on an ox-sled1 the rosy children perched atop1 and the parents trudging arm in arm behind1 the exiles left their ,eden and faced the world again4 8,ah1 me6 my happy dream4 ,how much ,i leave behind that never can be mine again10 said ,abel1 looking back at the lost ,paradise1 lying white and chill in its shroud of snow4 8,yes1 dear2 but how much we bring away10 answered brave-hearted ,hope1 glancing from husband to children4 8,poor ,fruitlands6 ,the name was as great a failure as the rest60 continued ,abel1 with a sigh1 as a frostbitten apple fell from a leafless bough at his feet4 ,but the sigh changed to a smile as his wife added1 in a half-tender1 half-satirical tone1-- 8,don't you think ,apple ,slump would be a better name for it1 dear80 99 99 99 99 99 ,after so many years ,louisa ,alcott very naturally forgot a few unimportant details when she wrote 8,transcendental ,wild ,oats10 yet they are important enough to set straight4 ,papers lately found show the exit from ,fruitlands to have taken place in ,january4 ,she also speaks of stoves in the old house4 ,this is a mistake4 ,the old chimney was taken down by ,joseph ,palmer's grandson1 ,mr4 ,alvin ,holman1 many years after the ,fruitlands ,community was broken up4 ,,the ,,end ,,appendix ,,catalogue ,,of ,,the ,,original ,,fruitlands ,,library ,hexapla2 the ,greek text of the ,new ,testament with six ,english ,versions in parallel columns4 #dto4 ,london4 #ahdj4 ,confucii ,sinarum ,philosophus4 ,folio4 #aghg4 ,the ,laws of ,menu4 ,translated by ,sir ,william ,jones4 ,the ,desatir2 ,sacred ,writings of the ,ancient ,persian ,prophets4 ,persian and ,english4 ,bombay4 #ahah4 ,the ,divine ,pymander of ,hermes ,trismegistus4 ,london4 #afej4 ,juliana's ,revelation of ,divine ,love4 #afgj4 ,st4 ,bridget's ,revelations4 ,nuremberg4 #aejj4 ,behmen's ,works4 ,theosophia ,revelata1 das ist alle ,gottliche ,schriften des ,jacob ,behmens4 ,with ,life1 etc41 edited by ,j4 ,g4 ,gechtels4 #a vol41 folio4 #d1ejj pages4 #agae4 ---- ,the ,rev4 ,william ,law's edition1 containing the ,aurora or ,morning ,red2 the ,three ,principles2 ,man's ,threefold ,life2 ,answer to the ,forty ,questions concerning the ,soul2 ,signatura ,rerum2 ,the ,four ,complexions2 ,the ,mysterium ,magnum1 etc4 #d vols4 #dto4 ,london4 #agfd4 ---- ,signatura ,rerum2 ,supersensual ,life1 etc4 #dto4 ,london4 #agha4 ---- ,way to ,christ4 ,london4 #agge4 ---- ,teutonic ,philosophy4 ,london4 #aggj4 ---- ,life1 by ,francis ,okely4 ,northampton4 #aghj4 ---- ,theosophick ,philosophy ,unfolded1 by ,edward ,taylor4 ,london4 #afia4 ,behmen's ,works4 ,epistles and ,apologies1 by ,john ,sparrow4 ,london4 #affb4 ,graber and ,gichtel4 ,kurze ,eroffnnug und ,unweisung der dreyen ,pincipien und ,welten in ,menschen4 ,berlin4 #aggi4 ,h4 ,jansen4 ,a ,spiritual ,journey4 #dto4 ,london4 #afei4 ,lamy4 ,la ,vie de ,st4 ,bernard4 #dto4 ,paris4 #afdh4 ,henrico ,khurrath4 ,amphitheatrum ,sapienti tern4 ,folio4 ,magdeburg4 #afjb4 ,molinos' ,spiritual ,guide4 ,dublin4 #agih4 ,s4 ,pordage4 ,mundorum ,explicatio4 ,london4 #affc4 ,j4 ,pordage4 ,theologia ,mystica4 ,london4 #afhc4 ,de,sales' ,introduction to a ,devout ,life4 ,london4 #afhf4 ,matthew ,weyer's ,narrow ,path of ,divine ,truth4 ,london4 #afhc4 ,important ,truths relating to ,spiritual and ,practical ,christianity4 ,london4 #agfi4 ,unpremeditated ,thoughts of ,god4 ,h4 ,hugonis ,pia ,desideria4 ,london4 #afgg4 ,theologi ,pacific itemque ,mystic4 ,amstelodami4 #afbb4 ,immanuel4 ,by ,s4 ,s4 ,london4 #affi4 ,a4 ,bourignon4 ,light in ,darkness4 ,london4 #agjc4 ---- ,solid ,virtue4 ,london4 #afii4 ---- ,life and ,sentiments4 ,london4 #afii4 ---- ,light of the ,world4 ,london4 #afif4 ,madame ,guyon4 ,posies et ,cantiques ,spirituels4 ,cologne4 #agbb4 ,madame ,guyon4 ,life by ,brooke4 ,bristol4 #ahjf4 ---- ,lettres ,chrtiennes1 etc4 #e vols4 ,london4 #agfg4 ---- ,les ,opuscules ,spirituels4 #b vols4 ,paris4 #agij4 ---- ,life4 #c vols4 ,paris4 #agia4 ---- ,polemics4 ,london4 #ahda4 ---- ,selections in ,german4 ,manheim4 #aghg4 ,fnelon's ,dissertation on ,pure ,love4 ,london4 #agej4 ---- ,account of ,madame ,guyon4 ,london4 #agei4 ---- ,justifications de ,madame ,guyon4 ,paris4 #agij4 ---- ,maxims of the ,saints4 ,london4 #afih4 ---- ,dialogues of the ,dead4 #b vols4 ,berwick4 #aggj4 ---- ,lives and ,maxims of ,ancient ,philosophers4 ,london4 #agbf4 ,thomas ,kempis4 ,imitation of ,christ4 ,by ,dr4 ,stanhope4 ,london4 #agei4 ,william ,law4 ,way to ,divine ,knowledge ---- ,spirit of ,prayer4 ---- ,spirit of ,love4 ---- ,christian ,perfection4 ---- ,serious ,call4 ---- ,letters4 ---- ,appeal4 ---- ,answer to ,dr4 ,trapp4 ---- ,case of ,reason4 ---- ,remarks on the ,fable of the ,bees4 #a vol4 ---- ,tracts4 ---- ,christian's ,manual 7extracts74 ---- ,reply to the ,bishop of ,bangor on the ,sacrament4 #agai4 ---- ,spiritual ,fragments 7extracts74 ---- ,jordani ,brunonis ,opera4 ,paris4 #afed4 ,swedenborg4 ,arcana ,clestia4 ---- ,heavenly ,doctrine4 ,cambridge4 #ahbj4 ---- ,heaven and ,hell4 ,london4 #ahbc4 ,coleridge4 ,biographia ,literaria4 #b vols4 ,n4 ,york4 #ahag4 ---- ,aids to ,reflection4 ,burlington4 #ahbi4 ---- ,friend4 ,burlington4 #ahca4 ,graeve's ,manuscripts4 #ab vols4 #dto4 #ahbh to #ahdb4 ---- ,maxims4 ,london4 #ahbf4 ,novalis ,schriften4 ,berlin4 #ahcf4 ,lane's ,third ,dispensation4 ,london4 #ahda4 ,alcott's ,conversations with ,children on the ,gospels4 #b vols4 ,boston4 #ahcf4 ---- ,record of a ,school4 ,boston4 #ahce4 ,krummacher's ,parabeln4 #b vols4 ,essen4 #ahdj4 ,spinoza's ,works and ,epistles4 #dto4 #aggg4 ,malebranche's ,search after ,truth4 #b vols4 ,london4 #afie4 ---- ,christian ,conferences4 ,london4 #afie4 ,wilmott's ,lives of the ,sacred ,poets4 ,london4 #ahcd4 ,g4 ,herbert's ,poems4 ,london4 #ahce4 ,r4 ,crashaw's ,steps to the ,temple4 ,london4 #afgj4 ,thomas ,fletcher's ,purple ,island4 ,london4 #aghc4 ,giles ,fletcher's ,christ's ,victory4 ,london4 #aghc4 ,quarles's ,emblems and ,hieroglyphics4 ,london4 #afhj4 ---- ,divine ,fancies4 ,london4 #afhj4 ,huarte's ,wits ,commonwealth1 or ,politeuphuia4 ,london4 #aeih4 ,southcott's ,tracts4 ,dr4 ,a4 ,bury's ,naked ,gospel4 #dto4 ,london4 #afia4 ,bromley's ,sabbath of ,rest1 etc4 ,london4 #agfa4 ,robert ,barclay's ,apology4 ,london4 #agfe4 ,n4 ,robinson's ,christian ,philosopher4 ,london4 #ageh4 ,poiret4 ,on the ,restoration of ,man4 ,london4 #agac4 ---- ,divine ,economy4 ,london4 #agac4 ,virgin in ,eden4 ,london4 #agda4 ,rev4 ,r4 ,clarke4 ,gospel of the ,daily ,service4 ,london4 #agfg4 ---- ,jesus the ,nazarene4 ,london4 #aggj4 ---- ,spiritual ,voice4 ,london4 #agjj4 ,tracts4 ,by ,jane ,lead4 ,boehms' ,history of ,pietism4 ,london4 #agjg4 ,franck4 ,pietas ,hallensis4 ,london4 #agje4 ,pascal's ,thoughts on ,religion4 ,london4 #ahjf4 ,p4 ,buchius on the ,divine ,being4 ,london4 #afic4 ,bellarmine's ,soul's ,ascension to ,god4 ,london4 #agjc4 ,r4 ,wilkinson's ,saint's ,travel to ,canaan4 ,london4 #afej4 ,man before ,adam4 ,london4 #afef4 ,t4 ,hartley's ,paradise ,restored4 ,london4 #agfd4 ,j4 ,serjeant's ,transnatural ,philosophy4 ,london4 #agjj4 ,henry ,more4 ,platonic4 ,cambridge4 #afdb4 ---- ,works4 ,folio4 ,london4 #afdb4 ,universal ,restitution4 ,london4 #agfa4 ,peter ,sterry on the ,freedome of the ,will4 ,folio4 ,london4 #afge4 ,pathomachia1 or the ,battell of ,affections shadowed by a faigned siedge of the ,citie ,pathopolis4 #dto4 ,london4 #afca4 ,l4 ,howell's ,desiderius1 or the ,original ,pilgrim4 ,london4 #agaf4 ,bernard's ,isle of ,man4 ,london4 #ahjc4 ,olbia1 or the ,new ,island4 #dto4 ,london4 #afjj4 ,ramsey's ,philosophical ,principles of ,natural and ,revealed ,religion4 ,glasgow4 #b vols4 #dto4 #agdh4 ,justus ,lipsius4 ,on ,constancy4 ,london4 #afed4 ,general ,delusion of ,christians4 ,london4 #agad4 ,norris4 ,on ,love4 ,london4 #agbc4 ---- ,amoris ,effigies1 of ,waring4 ,london4 #agdd4 ---- ,on ,matrimony4 #b vols4 ,london4 #agci4 ---- ,ideal ,world4 #b vols4 ,london4 #agja4 ,wither's ,britain's ,remembrancer4 ,london4 #afbh4 ,dr4 ,bryom's ,miscellaneous ,poems4 #b vols4 ,manchester4 #aggc4 ,du ,bartas' ,divine ,weekes and ,workes4 ,by ,josiah ,sylvester4 #fgj pages4 ,folio4 ,london4 #afda4 ,verstegan's ,restitution of ,decayed ,intelligence4 #dto4 ,london4 ,rei ,rustic ,auctores ,latini ,veteres4 ,m4 ,cato1 ,l4 ,columella1 ,m4 ,varo4 ,palladius4 #aeie4 ,tusser's ,husbandry4 ,london4 #agdd4 ,evelyn4 ,kalendarium ,hortense4 ,london4 #afii4 ,porphyry on ,abstinence from ,animal ,food4 ,by ,t4 ,taylor4 ,london4 #ahbc4 ,tyron4 ,averroeana1 or ,letters from ,averroes4 ,london4 #afhg4 ,tyron4 ,way to ,health4 ,london4 #afig4 ---- ,knowledge of ,man's ,self4 ,london4 #agjc4 ---- ,letters1 ,philosophical1 ,theological1 and ,moral4 ,london4 #agjj4 ---- ,self-,knowledge4 ,london4 #agjc4 ---- ,on ,dreams4 ,london4 #afia4 ,newton's ,return to ,nature4 ,london4 #ahaa4 ,sir ,j4 ,floyer's 4 ,london4 #agcb4 ,r4 ,t4 ,claridge's ,hydropathy4 ,london4 #ahdb4 ,j4 ,h4 ,cohausen4 ,hermippus ,redivivus4 ,london4 #agga4 ,thomas ,stanley's ,history of ,philosophy4 #gej pages4 ,folio4 ,london4 #agjj4 ,jamblichus on the ,mysteries4 ,translated by ,t4 ,taylor4 ---- ,life of ,pythagoras4 ,by ,t4 ,taylor4 ,dacier's ,lives of ,pythagoras and ,hierocles4 ,london4 #agjg4 ,plato's ,works1 containing with the fifty-five ,dialogues and twelve ,epistles the substance of nearly all the existing ,greek ,,mss4 ,commentaries and scholia on ,plato4 ,by ,thomas ,taylor4 #e vols4 #dto4 ,london4 #ahjd4 ,plotinus4 ,select ,works4 ,by ,t4 ,taylor4 ,london4 #ahag4 ---- ,on ,suicide4 ,by ,t4 ,taylor4 ,london4 #ahcd4 ,proclus4 ,commentaries on ,euclid1 by ,t4 ,taylor4 #b vols4 #dto4 ,london4 #aghh4 ---- ,six ,books on ,plato's ,theology4 ,by ,t4 ,taylor4 #b vols4 #dto4 ,london4 #ahaf4 ---- ,commentaries on the ,timus of ,plato4 ,by ,t4 ,taylor4 #b vols4 #dto4 ,london4 #ahbj4 ---- ,fragments4 ,by ,t4 ,taylor4 ,london4 #ahbe4 ---- ,ten ,doubts1 etc4 ,london4 #ahcc4 ,stanhope's ,epictetus4 ,london4 #agba4 ,xenophon's ,banquet4 ,by ,dr4 ,welwood4 ,london4 #agaj4 ,dr4 ,j4 ,welwood's ,essay on ,socrates4 ,london4 #agaj4 ,xenophon's ,memoirs of ,socrates4 ,by ,sarah ,fielding4 ,london4 #aghh4 ,plutarch's ,morals4 #e vols4 ,london4 #afid4 ---- ,lives4 ,by ,langhorn4 #h vols4 ,london4 #ahba4 ,seneca's ,morals4 ,london4 #afhh4 ,marcus ,antonius4 ,london4 #aecd4 ,julii ,pacii a ,berega in ,porphyii ,isagogen et ,aristotelis ,organum4 #dto4 ,geneva4 #afje4 ,aristotle's ,metaphysics4 ,by ,t4 ,taylor4 #dto4 ,london4 #ahja4 ---- #dto4 ,greek and ,latin4 7,jul4 ,pacius47 ,geneva4 #afje4 ---- ,greek and ,latin 7,jul4 ,pacius47 ,thomas ,taylor4 ,dissertation on the ,philosophy of ,aristotle4 #dto4 ,london4 #ahab4 ---- ,theoretic ,arithmetic4 #ahaf4 ---- ,select ,works of ,porphyry4 ,london4 #ahbc4 ---- ,orcellus ,lucanus1 etc4 ,london4 #ahca4 ---- ,see ,proclus1 ,plato1 etc4 ,william ,bridgman4 ,on the ,nicomachean ,ethics of ,aristotle2 with ,greaves's ,,ms4 ,notes4 #dto4 ,london4 #ahjg4 ---- ,translations of ,greek ,moralists4 #ahjd4 ,burton's ,anatomy of ,melancholy4 #hvo4 #gdc pp4 ,london4 #ahch4 ,bacon4 ,novum ,organum4 ,amstelodami4 #affj4 ---- ,wisdom of the ,ancients4 ,london4 #ahcf4 ,sir ,t4 ,browne4 ,religio ,medici1 and ,urn ,burial4 ,london4 ,j4 ,moerman4 ,apologia ,creaturum and other ,emblems4 #dto4 #aehd4 ,redelium4 ,apophthegmata ,symbolica4 ---- ,annus ,symbolicus4 #dto4 ,menestrerii ,philosophia ,imaginum4 ,amstelodami4 #afie4 ,alciati ,emblemata1 cum ,claudii ,minois ,commentariis ,raphelengii4 #afjh4 ,muncherus1 ,mythographi ,latini4 ,amstelodami4 #afha4 ,astrey's ,emblems4 #b vols4 ,london4 #agjj4 ,choice ,emblems1 ,divine and ,moral4 ,london4 #agcb4 ,dr4 ,f4 ,lee's 1 or ,theological1 ,mathematical1 and ,physical ,dissertations4 #b vols4 ,london4 #ageb4 ,dr4 ,godwin4 ,synopsis ,antiquitatum ,hebraicarum4 #dto4 ,london4 #afij4 ,walter ,whiter4 ,etymologicum ,magnum4 #dto4 ,cambridge4 #ahjj4 ,b4 ,holloway's ,physical and ,theological ,originals4 ,oxford4 #agea4 ,jablonskii4 ,pantheon gyptiorum4 #b vols4 ,francofurti4 #agej4 ,homberg4 ,mythologie der ,griechen und ,romer4 ,leipzig4 #ahci4 ,pinnock's ,iconology4 sop's ,fables and other eminent ,mythologists1 by ,l',estrange4 #dhj pp41 folio4 ,london4 #afib4 ---- ,greek and ,latin4 ,trajecti ad ,rhenam4 #afhi4 ,hesiod's ,works4 ,by ,t4 ,cooke4 ,london4 #agdj4 ,pindari4 ,alci1 ,sapphus1 ,stesichori1 ,anacreontis1 ,simonidis1 ,alemonis1 etc4 ,grce et ,latine4 ,heidelberge4 #aeig4 ,wintertoni4 ,poet ,minores ,grci4 ,grce et ,latine4 ,cantabrigi4 #afgg4 ,hippocrates4 ,by ,sprengell4 ,london4 #agjh4 ,van ,helmont4 ,oriatrike1 or ,physic ,refined4 #abjj pp4 ,folio4 ,london4 #affb4 ---- ,treatise on ,natural ,philosophy4 ,london4 #afhg4 ---- ,paradoxical ,discourses4 ,london4 #afhe4 ,paracelsus4 ,archidoxis4 ,london4 #affc4 ,roger ,bacon4 ,opus ,magnus4 ---- ,mirror of ,alchymy4 #aeig4 ---- ,admirable ,force of ,nature and ,art4 ,pyrotechny ,asserted and ,illustrated4 ,london4 #afeh4 ,reginald ,scot's ,discovery of ,witchcraft4 ,folio4 ,london4 #affe4 ,e4 ,sibley's ,key to ,physic and ,occult ,sciences4 #dto4 ,london4 ,magi ,adami1 or the ,antiquitie of ,magic4 ,london4 #afej4 ,centrum ,natur ,concentratum1 or the ,salt of ,nature ,regenerated4 ,london4 #afif4 ,stilling's ,theory of ,pneumatology4 ,london4 #ahcd4 ,j4 ,c4 ,colquhoun4 ,isis ,revelata4 #b vols4 ,edinburgh4 #ahcf4 ,k4 ,digbey4 ,on the ,nature of ,bodies2 and ,man's ,soule4 #dto4 ,london4 #afde4 ,the ,vital ,principle1 or ,physiology of ,man4 ,london4 #ahch4 ,green's ,vital ,dynamics4 ,london4 #ahch4 ,william ,cooper's ,jehior1 or ,day of ,dawning1 ,golden ,ass1 and ,catalogue of ,mystic ,books4 ,london4 #afgc4 ,h4 ,c4 ,agrippa4 ,occult ,philosophy4 #dto4 ,london4 #afee4 ---- ,vanity of the ,arts and ,sciences4 ,the ,riverside ,press ,,cambridge 4 ,,massachusetts ,u 4 ,s 4 ,a ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,transcriber',s ,,notes #a4 ,silently corrected typographical errors4 #b4 ,retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed4 #c4 ,enclosed italics font in underscores4