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 FRUITLANDS 
 
 
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BRONSON ALCOTT'S 
 FRUITLANDS 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 CLARA ENDICOTT SEARS 
 
 WITH 
 
 TRANSCENDENTAL 
 WILD OATS 
 
 BY 
 LOUISA M. ALCOTT 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 
 (ftfrc Ritoet£fte pxz$$ Cambridge 
 
 1915 
 
$, 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 6f 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1876, BY LOUISA M. ALCOTTJ 1904, BY JOHN S. P. ALCOTTJ 
 I915, BY CLARA ENDICOTT SEARS 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 Published May iqis 
 
 JUN I 1915 
 
 ©OI.A406068 
 
NOTE 
 
 I desire to express my thanks to Mr. John S. 
 Pratt Alcott, of Brookline; Mr. F. B. Sanborn, 
 of Concord; Dr. Joseph Wiswall Palmer, of 
 Fitchburg; and Mr. Alvin Holman, of Leom- 
 inster, for facts and data concerning the Con- 
 sociate Family at Fruitlands, and for their 
 assistance in collecting and acquiring the greater 
 part of the original furniture which was there 
 in the days of the Community. 
 
 And I further thank Mr. John S. Pratt Alcott 
 for the privilege of including Louisa's and Anna's 
 Diaries at Fruitlands, and Mr. Alcott and Messrs. 
 Little, Brown & Company for the use of Louisa 
 M. Alcott's Transcendental Wild Oats. 
 
 Clara Endicott Sears. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 For many years articles have appeared from 
 time to time in magazines and books regarding 
 the Community at Fruitlands, but it has re- 
 mained for Miss Sears to gather them together 
 with infinite patience for publication, and this 
 little book is the result, 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 mem- 
 bers nearly starved as a result of their devotion. 
 A great deal of credit is due to Miss Sears for 
 her success in gathering material to make this 
 story of Fruitlands so complete, and I take this 
 opportunity, as the oldest surviving member of 
 the Alcott family, of expressing to her our grati- 
 tude for the very interesting and complete ac- 
 count of the Fruitlands experiment. 
 
 John S. P. Alcott. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction xiii 
 
 I. A New Eden i 
 
 II. The Founding of Fruitlands . . .21 
 
 III. Brook Farm and Fruitlands . 35 
 
 IV. The Man with the Beard .... 53 
 
 V. Summer Sunshine 68 
 
 VI. Father Hecker's Description of Fruit- 
 lands 75 
 
 VII. Anna Alcott's Diary at Fruitlands . 86 
 
 VIII. Louisa May Alcott's Diary at Fruit- 
 lands 106 
 
 IX. Autumn Disappointment 112 
 
 X. In After Years 130 
 
 XI. Transcendental Wild Oats. By Louisa 
 
 May Alcott 145 
 
 Appendix: Catalogue of the Original Fruit- 
 lands Library 175 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Old House at Fruitlands, Harvard, 
 
 Massachusetts Frontispiece 
 
 In front are the mulberry trees planted by the philos- 
 ophers for the propagation of silkworms. 
 
 A. Bronson Alcott at the Age of 53 4 
 
 From the portrait by Mrs. Hildreth, 
 
 Abigail May, Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott . . 4 
 
 From a daguerreotype. 
 
 The Small Entry where the Valuable Books 
 were kept io 
 
 The Study 28' 
 
 A bust of Socrates stands on the fine old Dutch 
 highboy that Joseph Palmer brought from No Town. 
 
 Charles Lane 42 
 
 The Small Dining-Room 48 
 
 Around this table the philosophers discussed their 
 deepest problems. 
 
 Nancy and Joseph Palmer 56 
 
 The Refectory, also used as a Kitchen . 68 
 
 Isaac T. Hecker 76 
 
 Louisa, Anna, and Abba May Alcott ... 88 
 
xii ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Community Settle ioo 
 
 Where Abba May's Stocking was hung the 
 
 Night before her Birthday 106 
 
 Anna's bedroom is on the right, next to Mrs. Alcott's. 
 The portraits of the " Little Women " hang on the 
 wall. 
 
 The Outer Kitchen 116 
 
 Charles Lane's Room 124 
 
 The old cowhide trunk, in which some of the most 
 valuable of the books were shipped from London ; 
 also the old chest in which the linen was kept. The 
 spinning-wheel belonged to a former owner. 
 
 The Bedroom 128 
 
 Where Mr. Alcott nearly succumbed to his despair 
 at the failure of his " New Eden." 
 
 Orchard House at Concord, Massachusetts 172 
 The Alcott home of later years. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Longfellow wrote: — 
 
 "All houses wherein men have lived and died 
 Are haunted houses. Through the open doors 
 The harmless phantoms on their errands glide, 
 With feet that make no sound upon the floors. 
 
 "We meet them at the doorway, on the stair, 
 Along the passages they come and go, 
 Impalpable impressions on the air, 
 A sense of something moving to and fro. 
 
 "We have no title-deeds to house or lands; 
 Owners and occupants of earlier dates 
 From graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands, 
 And hold in mortmain still their old estates. 
 
 "The spirit world around this world of sense 
 Floats like an atmosphere, and everywhere 
 Wafts through these earthly mists and vapors dense 
 A vital breath of more ethereal air." 
 
 I found myself reciting these lines whenever 
 my eyes rested upon the old house of Fruitlands. 
 From my terrace on the hill I looked down upon 
 it with mixed feelings of pity, awe, and affection. 
 It seemed like a Presence, a ghost of the Past, 
 that compelled the eyes to gaze at it persistently. 
 In the warm joyousness of the spring sunshine, 
 or when the cold mists of autumn crept across 
 the valley, it conveyed to me the same sense of 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 desolation, of mystery, of disillusionment. Its 
 broken windows looked like hollow eyes sunken 
 in an ashen and expressionless face. Within its 
 walls life and death had come and gone ; — laugh- 
 ter and the sound of weeping had echoed through 
 the quaint, low-ceilinged rooms. It had been the 
 sheltering home of British yeomen. Its heavy 
 chestnut beams bore record of the virgin forests 
 of the Colonies. The thrill of patriotism had vi- 
 brated there when the sword of the Revolution 
 swept the land, and the sound of drum and fife, 
 leading the hurrying feet of eager volunteers to 
 Concord and Lexington, must have reached the 
 quiet hillside and stirred the hearts of those listen- 
 ing in the doorway. Those were the brave and 
 vital days of its youth. In seed-time and harvest 
 it had smiled upon the valley, its shingles warm 
 and ruddy with ochre-red. At Yule-tide the log 
 had been chosen with fitting ceremony and 
 placed within the broad and spacious chimney. 
 The old and the young had feasted and made 
 merry to the sound of the crackling fire-music. 
 Who can tell what memories of happiness and 
 romance the old house contains? 
 
 Then came a period of quiet years, when the 
 meadows and pastures grew rich and fertile, the 
 upturned soil yielded abundant harvests, and 
 the branches of the apple trees hung heavy with 
 
INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 fruit. But it was when the old house had begun 
 to settle and look decrepid, and its floors had be- 
 come shaky and uneven, that its door opened 
 wide to its supreme experience. Then Fruitlands 
 was exalted into the New Eden. The two names 
 came to it simultaneously. It was to pulsate 
 with lofty ideals and altruistic aspirations. For 
 one perfect summer and mellow autumn its run- 
 ning brook, its shady grove, its fertile meadows 
 and sloping pasture, its western view, so beauti- 
 ful at sundown, of Wachusett and Monadnoc, 
 and the chain of purple hills, were to be the inspi- 
 ration of a group of individuals then known as the 
 transcendental philosophers, and through them 
 Fruitlands became famous. Within its walls 
 great questions were discussed, great hopes for 
 the betterment and enlightenment of mankind 
 were generated. Alcott, Charles Lane, Wright, 
 Bower, Emerson, Hawthorne, Channing, Tho- 
 reau, and many others went in and out of its 
 doors; and last, but not least, the child, Louisa 
 May Alcott, who later became our well-loved 
 New England authoress, and Joseph Palmer, 
 a Crusader in spirit as well as in actions, who 
 suffered for his principle of wearing a beard at a 
 time when it was looked upon as a badge of scorn 
 and contempt, and which won for him the name 
 of "the Old Jew." When the beautiful dream 
 was over ; when the New Eden proved to be only 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 an empty mockery of the vision it had once in- 
 spired; when the great experience had ended in 
 failure, then the old house sagged pitifully as if 
 its heart had broken : the winter storms and sum- 
 mer rains of the succeeding years washed all 
 color from its face : it became gray and haggard. 
 Joseph Palmer and his wife lingered on in old 
 age, and then passed out into the Beyond. Their 
 children and grandchildren clung to the place for 
 a space of years, but its history was over. It was 
 left desolate and abandoned. 
 
 So as I looked down on it from my terrace on 
 the hill, pitying its infinite loneliness, the thought 
 came to me that I must save it. If for a time it 
 had borne the semblance of a New Eden, then 
 that time must be honored, and not forgotten. 
 I longed to see it smiling again upon the valley 
 in its glowing coat of ochre-red. The fine old 
 chimneys must be put back in their places from 
 which they had been ruthlessly torn down to 
 make room for stoves. The hollow eyes must 
 gleam again with window-panes; the sound of 
 voices must ring once more through the empty 
 rooms. In the future it must be cherished for its 
 quaintly interesting history. If that history was 
 full of pathos, if the great experiment enacted 
 beneath its roof proved a failure, the failure was 
 only in the means of expression and not in the 
 
INTRODUCTION xvii 
 
 ideal which inspired it. Humanity must ever 
 reach out towards a New Eden. Succeeding gen- 
 erations smile at the crude attempts, and forth- 
 with make their own blunders, but each attempt, 
 however seemingly unsuccessful, must of neces- 
 sity contain a germ of spiritual beauty which 
 will bear fruit. Let no one cross the threshold of 
 the old house with a mocking heart. Looking 
 back from our present coigne of vantage, we, too, 
 cannot but smile at the childlike simplicity and 
 credulity, and the lack of forethought of those 
 unpractical enthusiasts. But let it be the smile 
 of tenderness and not of derision. In this mate- 
 rial age we cannot afford to lose any details of 
 so unique and picturesque a memory as that 
 of A. Bronson Alcott and the "Con-Sociate 
 Family" at Fruitlands. 
 
BRONSON ALCOTTS 
 FRUITLANDS 
 
 A NEW EDEN 
 
 The following account of the Fruitlands Com- 
 munity is largely a compilation of writings re- 
 garding it by eye-witnesses and those in close 
 touch with its members. This is the surest way 
 of forming a just estimate of the experiment and 
 the characters involved. 
 
 Mr. Frank B. Sanborn, in his book entitled 
 "Bronson Alcott," describes in a few short sen- 
 tences the circumstances which led up to the for- 
 mation of the Community, and this is what he 
 says : — 
 
 " James Pierrepont Greaves was an English- 
 man born in 1777, who at the age of forty went 
 to reside in Switzerland with Pestalozzi, for four 
 years, and there adopted, a few years before 
 young Alcott did, the chief ideas of Pestalozzi, 
 as to the training of children. Returning to Eng- 
 land in 1825, he gradually formed a circle of mys- 
 tics and reformers, in London and its vicinity, 
 
2 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 who were, like himself, interested in the early 
 instruction and training of children. Hearing 
 from Harriet Martineau, upon her return from 
 America in 1837, of Mr. Alcott's Temple School 
 at Boston, and thinking more favorably of it than 
 Miss Martineau did, Mr. Greaves opened a cor- 
 respondence with the American Pestalozzi, and 
 received from him some of his books, — Miss 
 Peabody's 'Records of a School,' and Mr. Al- 
 cott's 'Conversations on the Gospels.' From 
 these books, and from his correspondence, Mr. 
 Greaves and his friends, William Oldham, Mrs. 
 Chichester, Charles Lane, Heraud, and others, 
 formed so high an estimate of Bronson Alcott's 
 talents and character, that they named for him 
 the English school they were about establishing 
 near London, and called it ' Alcott House.' They 
 also urged Mr. Alcott to visit them in England 
 and to take part in their schemes and labors. He 
 was well inclined to do this; and in 1842 he set 
 sail for London, where, late in May, he received 
 a hearty welcome from his correspondents and 
 their circle, with the exception of Mr. Greaves, 
 who had died earlier in the same year." 
 
 Mr. Emerson furnished the money for Mr. 
 Alcott's trip to England. The following letter 
 was written by Bronson Alcott to his cousin Dr. 
 William Alcott: — 
 
A NEW EDEN 3 
 
 Alcott House, 
 
 Ham Common, Surrey, 
 
 June 30, 1842. 
 
 ... I am now at Alcott House, which is ten 
 miles from London; where I find the principles 
 of human culture, which have so long interested 
 me, carried into practical operation by wise and 
 devoted friends of education. The school was 
 opened five years ago and has been thus far quite 
 successful. It consists of thirty or more children, 
 and some of them not more than three years of 
 age, — all fed and lodged at the House. The 
 strictest temperance is observed in diet and regi- 
 men. Plain bread with vegetables and fruits is 
 their food, and water their only drink. They 
 bathe always before their morning lesson, and 
 have exercises in the play-grounds, which are 
 ample, besides cultivating the gardens of the in- 
 stitution. They seem very happy and not less in 
 the school-room than elsewhere. 
 
 Mr. Wright has more genius for teaching than 
 any person I have before seen — his method and 
 temper are admirable, and all parties, from as- 
 sistants, of which there are several, to the young- 
 est child delight in his presence and influence. 
 He impersonates and realizes my own idea of an 
 education, and is the first person whom I have 
 met that has entered into this divine art of in- 
 spiring the human clay, and moulding it into the 
 
4 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 stature and image of divinity. I am already knit 
 to him by more than human ties, and must take 
 him with me to America, as a coadjutor in our 
 high vocation, or else remain with him here. 
 But I hope to effect the first. 
 
 The Healthian is edited here by Mr. Wright 
 and Mr. Lane, and they contribute to almost 
 every reform journal in the kingdom. They are 
 not ignorant of our labors in the United States, 
 almost every work of any value I find in the li- 
 brary at Alcott House, — your own works, those 
 of Mr. Graham (a vegetarian), besides foreign 
 authors not to be found with us. I shall bring 
 with me many books, both ancient and modern, 
 on my return to America. 
 
 It was during his sojourn in England in 1842 
 that the idea of creating "a New Eden," as he 
 loved to call it, took firm root in Alcott's mind. 
 A more quaintly unique character than his can- 
 not be found in all the annals of our literary 
 history. 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 time. He 
 was both loved and derided. A transcendentalist 
 pure and simple; unpractical; a dreamer and 
 visionary in every sense of the word ; yet his mind 
 

 ',! 
 
 
A NEW EDEN 5 
 
 emitted flashes of genius so unerring and deci- 
 sive as to elicit the spontaneous admiration of 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson and impel him to write in 
 his journal the following tributes : — 
 
 "The comfort of Alcott's mind is, the connec- 
 tion in which he sees whatever he sees. He is 
 never dazzled by a spot of colour, or a gleam of 
 light, to value the thing by itself ; but forever and 
 ever is prepossessed by the individual one behind 
 it and all. I do not know where to find in men 
 or books a mind so valuable to faith in others. 
 
 "For every opinion or sentence of Alcott a 
 reason may be sought and found, not in his will 
 or fancy, but in the necessity of Nature itself, 
 which has daguerred that fatal impression on his 
 susceptible soul. He is as good as a lens or a 
 mirror, a beautiful susceptibility, every impres- 
 sion on which is not to be reasoned against, or 
 derided, but to be accounted for, and until ac- 
 counted for, registered as an indisputable addi- 
 tion to our catalogue of natural facts. There are 
 defects in the lens, and errors of retraction and 
 position, etc., to be allowed for, and it needs one 
 acquainted with the lens by frequent use, to 
 make these allowances; but 't is the best instru- 
 ment I have met with." 1 
 
 "Once more for Alcott it is to be said that he 
 1 Emerson's Journal, 1856. 
 
6 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 is sincerely and necessarily engaged to his task 
 and not wilfully or ostentatiously or pecuniarily. 
 Mr. Johnson at Manchester said of him, ' He is 
 universally competent. Whatever question is 
 asked, he is prepared for.' 
 
 " I shall go far and see many, before I find such 
 an extraordinary insight as Alcott's. In his fine 
 talk last evening, he ran up and down the scale of 
 powers with much ease and precision as a squirrel 
 the wires of his cage, and is never dazzled by his 
 means, or by any particular, and a fine heroic 
 action or a poetic passage would make no impres- 
 sion on him, because he expects heroism and poe- 
 try in all. Ideal Purity, the poet, the artist, the 
 man must have. I have never seen any person 
 who so fortifies the believer, so confutes the skep- 
 tic. And the almost uniform rejection of this man 
 by men of parts, Carlyle and Browning inclusive, 
 and by women of piety, might make one despair of 
 society. If he came with a cannonade of acclaim 
 from all nations, as the first wit on the planet, 
 these masters would sustain the reputation ; or if 
 they could find him in a book a thousand years 
 old, with a legend of miracles appended, there 
 would be churches of disciples ; but now they wish 
 to know if his coat is out at the elbows, or whether 
 somebody did not hear from somebody, that he 
 has got a new hat etc. He has faults, no doubt, 
 but I may safely know more about them than he 
 
A NEW EDEN 7 
 
 does; and some that are most severely imputed 
 to him are only the omissions of a preoccupied 
 mind." 1 
 
 "Last night in the conversation Alcott ap- 
 peared to great advantage, and I saw again, as 
 often before, his singular superiority. As pure in- 
 tellect I have never seen his equal. The people 
 with whom he talks do not ever understand him. 
 They interrupt him with clamorous dissent, or 
 what they think verbal endorsement of what they 
 fancy he may have been saying, or with ' Do you 
 know Mr. Alcott I think thus and so,' — some 
 whim or sentimentalism, and do not know that 
 they have interrupted his large and progressive 
 statement; do not know that all they have in 
 their baby brains is incoherent and spotty; that 
 all he sees and says is like astronomy, lying there 
 real and vast, every part and fact in eternal con- 
 nection with the whole, and that they ought to 
 sit in silent gratitude, eager only to hear more, 
 to hear the whole, and not interrupt him with 
 their prattle. It is because his sight is so clear, 
 commanding the whole ground, and he perfectly 
 gifted to state adequately what he sees, that he 
 does not lose his temper when glib interlocutors 
 bore him with their dead texts and phrases. — 
 Power is not pettish, but want of power is." 1 
 1 Emerson's Journal, 1856. 
 
8 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 "Yesterday Alcott left me after three days 
 spent here. I had laid down a man and had 
 waked up a bruise, by reason of a bad cold, and 
 was lumpish, tardy and cold. Yet I could see 
 plainly that I conversed with the most extraor- 
 dinary man and the highest genius of the time. 
 He is a man. He is erect; he sees, let whoever 
 be overthrown or parasitic or blind. Life he 
 would have and enact, and not nestle into any 
 cast-off shell or form of the old time, and now 
 proposes to preach to the people, or to take his 
 staff and walk through the country, conversing 
 with the school-teachers, and holding conversa- 
 tions in the villages. And so he ought to go, pub- 
 lishing through the land his gospel like them of 
 old time." 1 
 
 It was not unnatural that these gifts, fully 
 acknowledged by so eminent a man as Emerson, 
 should have won to him the respect and devotion 
 of these Englishmen, who were living in the same 
 atmosphere of thought in which Bronson Alcott 
 lived and moved and had his being. And so after 
 much discussion and many plans, illumined by 
 great hopes and a deep enthusiasm, Charles Lane 
 and Mr. Alcott collected a valuable library of 
 books mostly on mysticism and all occult sub- 
 jects for the future Eden, and with William 
 1 Emerson's Journal, 1857. 
 
A NEW EDEN 9 
 
 Lane, who was Charles Lane's son, Wright, and 
 Samuel Bowers, sailed for America, their imme- 
 diate destination being the home in Concord 
 where Mrs. Alcott and her daughters, then very 
 young, were waiting to receive them. 
 
 Concord named the strangers "the English 
 Mystics" and received them cordially into the 
 inner circle of literary men which formed the 
 group now spoken of as the "Concord Philoso- 
 phers." Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Ellery 
 Channing, and others became their friends, and 
 listened to their plans for forming universal 
 brotherhood. Emerson's description of Charles 
 Lane was this : — 
 
 "A man of fine intellectual nature, inspired 
 and hallowed by a profound faith. This is no 
 man of letters, but a man of ideas. Deep opens 
 below deep in his thought, and for the solution of 
 each new problem, he recurs, with new success to 
 the highest truth, to that which is most generous, 
 most simple, and most powerful; to that which 
 cannot be comprehended, or overseen, or ex- 
 hausted. His words come to us like the voices of 
 home out of a far country." 
 
 In the mean time the trunks containing the 
 books chosen in England with so much care were 
 opened, and lists were made of their contents. 
 It was either Emerson or Thoreau who inserted 
 
io BR0NS0N ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 a notice of them in "The Dial," the famous peri- 
 odical to which the literary men and women of 
 this noted circle contributed. It ran thus: "Mr. 
 Alcott and Mr. Lane have recently brought from 
 England a small, but valuable library, amount- 
 ing to about iooo volumes, containing undoubt- 
 edly a richer collection of mystical writers than 
 any other library in this country. To the select 
 library of the late J. P. Greaves, 'held by Mr. 
 Lane in trust for universal ends,' they have 
 added many works of a like character, by pur- 
 chase or received as gifts. In their Catalogue . . . 
 they say, ' The titles of these books are now sub- 
 mitted, in the expectation that this Library is 
 the commencement of an Institution for the nur- 
 ture of men in universal freedom of action, 
 thought, and being. We print this list, not only 
 because our respect is engaged to views so lib- 
 eral, but because the arrival of this cabinet of 
 mystic and theosophic lore is a remarkable fact 
 in our literary history.' " 
 
 Mr. Sanborn, referring to this library in his 
 "Bronson Alcott," says: "It was this collection 
 which, in the summer of 1843, occupied a hun- 
 dred feet of shelving in the old red farmhouse at 
 Fruitlands." 
 
 The problem of where to establish the New 
 Eden became the great and vital question of the 
 
THE SMALL ENTRY WHERE THE VALUABLE 
 BOOKS WERE KEPT 
 
A NEW EDEN n 
 
 moment. Many suggestions were offered from 
 many quarters, but the great impediment to a 
 definite decision was the lack of funds. Mr. Al- 
 cott had no money to spare to put into a farm 
 such as they required, and the group of friends 
 were interested, but not wholly convinced of the 
 feasibility of the scheme, and hung back when it 
 came to a question of investment. This very 
 doubt fanned the flame of desire in Mr. Alcott 
 and Charles Lane to prove to the world the value 
 of their cherished dream. So it came about that 
 Charles Lane took the burden of paying for a 
 farm on his own shoulders, and he wrote the fol- 
 lowing letter to Mr. Alcott's brother, Junius 
 Alcott, on March 7, 1843: — 
 
 "I hope the little cash I have collected from 
 my London toils will suffice to redeem a small 
 spot on the planet, that we may rightly use for 
 the right owner. I would very much prefer a 
 small example of true life to a large society in 
 false and selfish harmony. 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 $1800 or $2000 in land, with orchard, 
 wood, and house. Some of the land must be now 
 fit for the spade, as we desire to give all animals 
 their freedom. We feel it desirable to keep within 
 the range of Mind and Letters; or rather to keep 
 refinement within our range, that we may be the 
 
12 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 means of improving or reproving it, without be- 
 ing injured by it." 
 
 Before this Mr. Alcott had written a letter to 
 Isaac T. Hecker, later known as Father Hecker, 
 head of the Paulist Brotherhood, and in it he 
 described the idea they had in mind. At that 
 time Father Hecker was at Brook Farm, but was 
 restless and dissatisfied with the life there, crav- 
 ing a more ascetic existence; and knowing this, 
 Alcott felt confident of his sympathy and stated 
 the salient points of the scheme to him : — 
 
 Our purposes, as far as we know them at pres- 
 ent, are briefly these : — 
 
 First, to obtain the free use of a spot of land 
 adequate by our own labor to our support ; in- 
 cluding, of course, a convenient plain house, and 
 offices, wood-lot, garden, and orchard. 
 
 Secondly, to live independently of foreign aids 
 by being sufficiently elevated to procure all arti- 
 cles for subsistence in the productions of the spot, 
 under a regimen of healthful labor and recreation ; 
 with benignity toward all creatures, human and 
 inferior; with beauty and refinement in all eco- 
 nomics; and the purest charity throughout our 
 demeanor. 
 
 Should this kind of life attract parties toward 
 us — individuals of like aims and issues — that 
 state of being itself determines the law of asso- 
 
A NEW EDEN 13 
 
 ciation ; and the particular mode may be spoken 
 of more definitely as individual cases may arise ; 
 but in no case, could inferior ends compromise 
 the principles laid down. 
 
 Doubtless such a household, with our library, 
 our services and manner of life, may attract 
 young men and women, possibly also families 
 with children, desirous of access to the channels 
 and fountains of wisdom and purity ; and we are 
 not without hope that Providence will use us pro- 
 gressively for beneficial effects in the great work 
 of human regeneration, and the restoration of 
 the highest life on earth. 
 
 With the humane wish that yourself and little 
 ones may be led to confide in providential Love, 
 I am, dear friend, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 A. Bronson Alcott. 
 
 February 15, 1843. 
 
 Finally a decision was arrived at, and in a let- 
 ter to Mr. Oldham, Charles Lane narrates how 
 it came about. It was written from Concord, 
 May 31, 1843: — 
 
 My dear Friend: — 
 
 ... Mr. Alcott and I walked up the river to a 
 place called the Cliffs, where is a young orchard 
 of 16 acres and woodland below. He came home 
 
i 4 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 with his head full of poetic schemes for a cottage, 
 etc., on this spot. I, however, came home first 
 and found that a man had been sent by the young 
 man who walked with me to Southborough, hav- 
 ing a farm to sell at Harvard, 14 miles off. He 
 proposed to take me directly to see it, but I was 
 fatigued, so Samuel Larned, the visitor who came 
 up with Mr. Wright, went in the waiting vehicle. 
 The next morning being very fine Mr. Alcott and 
 I walked there, not knowing his name, but we 
 ascertained it to be Wyman; we saw his place, 
 consisting of 90 acres, 14 of them wood, a few 
 apple and other fruit trees, plenty of nuts and 
 berries, much of the land very good; the pros- 
 pect from the highest part very sublime. The 
 house and barn very poor, but the water excel- 
 lent and plentiful. The capabilities are manifold, 
 but the actualities humble. For the whole he 
 asked 2700 dollars, which being beyond my 
 means, we had much talk when he offered to sell 
 the land for 1800 dollars and to lend us the build- 
 ings gratis for a year. I should observe it is ex- 
 tremely retired, there being no road to it. On 
 these terms we have closed. He gives us the few 
 crops he has just planted and grass to a consider- 
 able amount will soon be cut. I have slept a night 
 or two there. William and two friends (Lar- 
 ned and Abram Everett, called the " Plain Man" 
 in the Vermont Telegraph) and a hired man re- 
 
A NEW EDEN 15 
 
 main there, and the family are to start early to- 
 morrow morning, so now for plenty of work of all 
 sorts. Ninety acres; much of it first rate; some 
 worth 100 dollars per acre, the whole 20 dollars 
 per acre; would that some of the English honest 
 half-starved were on it! This, I think you will 
 admit, looks like an attempt at something which 
 will entitle transcendentalism to some respect for 
 its practicality. . . . We have very much to do, 
 but the occasions are opportune. I think Mr. 
 Emerson is not so well pleased with our de- 
 parture as he would be with our company, but 
 as he did nothing to keep us we must go. It 
 appeared to me that for the hopefulness of 
 many, it was needful we should make a move- 
 ment of some kind this year, even though we 
 fail ; and Providence seems really to have worked 
 for us. . . . 
 
 I thank you very much for the £10; the note 
 arrived very opportunely to enable Mr. A. to 
 quit Concord, to do which all his debts must be 
 paid, and I need not tell you on whom that falls. 
 Our transactions at present leave me about 500 
 dollars in debt, but every one says we have made 
 a good bargain in the purchase of the land. I seri- 
 ously hope we are forming the basis for something 
 really progressive, call it family or community, 
 or what you will. . . . 
 
 We have now plenty of work to do and how we 
 
16 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 get on I shall faithfully report, though the pen 
 will not do much at present. . . . 
 Believe me, dear friend, 
 
 Yours steadfastly in the spirit, 
 
 Charles Lane. 
 
 Mr. Sanborn, who above all others has an 
 intimate knowledge of what the situation was, 
 having in later years learned much concern- 
 ing it from Emerson and Alcott and others of 
 that time, makes this comment in his "Bronson 
 Alcott": — 
 
 "After looking at several places in Concord 
 and elsewhere, Lane decided to buy the Wyman 
 farm at Harvard, two miles from the village of 
 that name, but less than a mile from Still River, 
 another village in the same township. Alcott 
 would have chosen the Cliffs in Concord, a favor- 
 ite resort of Thoreau and the Emerson family, 
 and Emerson would have preferred to retain his 
 friend in his own town; but Lane had rather 
 avoided Emerson, as not ascetic enough for his 
 abstemious habits, and seems to have been not 
 unwilling to withdraw Alcott from what he re- 
 garded as an unfavorable influence." 
 
 But when it was all settled, Alcott and his 
 English Mystics entered into their plan with a 
 touching enthusiasm. Before them lay vistas of 
 glowing possibilities. They dreamed dreams and 
 
A NEW EDEN 17 
 
 saw visions of a "Peace on Earth, Good Will 
 towards Men" such as had never before been 
 realized. There was much to be done and they 
 were eager to begin, — the days were none too 
 long in which to collect the necessary things be- 
 fore moving to Harvard. So Charles Lane per- 
 suaded Samuel Bowers to write to Oldham a de- 
 scription of the farm, he himself being too busy 
 to do so. And Bowers writes as follows: — 
 
 " Charles Lane wished me to sketch to you the 
 material picture of Fruitlands and the adjoining 
 scene, but I am unqualified to do justice to the 
 subject. The property is very compact and may 
 be a very beautiful domain. It is part a hill slop- 
 ing down to more valley. Several springs gush 
 out from the side of the hill and the water is very 
 good — better I think than is common in Mas- 
 sachusetts. The soil varies much, but the average 
 quality is, I considerately judge, twice, if not 
 thrice as good as that of Tytherley. 1 There is 
 about 14 acres of woodland all in the vale and 
 adjoining is the Nashua River, on the other side 
 of which, where the receding lands gently rise, 
 stands a Shaker village (Shirley), its extended 
 orchards, corn and grass lands. There is in view 
 a long and high range of hills, one of which, and 
 that the highest, is famous for having been the 
 resort of an Indian sachem. The hill is called 
 
 1 The location of Owen's Harmony Hall in England. 
 
18 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 Wachusett. Altogether the scene reminded me 
 strongly of the Vale of Evesham, in Worcester- 
 shire, where seen when one approaches it from 
 Oxford." 
 
 It is quite evident that Oldham had written a 
 letter to Charles Lane warning him against as- 
 suming too great responsibility in this venture. 
 The question as to whether many enthusiasts 
 would join the Community was a very crucial 
 one, since it was on this expectation that they 
 based their plans of running the farm free of debt. 
 In answering the letter he asks Oldham to for- 
 ward certain money due to him. And in his ex- 
 planation says : — 
 
 "I do not see any one to act the money part 
 but myself." (This refers to the land for the 
 Fruitlands experiment.) "Mr. Alcott cannot 
 part with me. I deem him too sincere and valu- 
 able to quit him, and besides there is nothing in 
 the country so well as we can show if we be faith- 
 ful ; but rents, debts, and mortgage would destroy 
 us. As to the recruits you speak of, are they good 
 for anything? Are they worth the small passage 
 money you name? Truly if they are some of 
 them you have at Alcott House, I think we should 
 not be much aided by their presence. 
 
 "Understand, we are not going to open a hos- 
 pital. We are more Pythagorean than Christs, 
 we wish to begin with the sound rather than to 
 
A NEW EDEN 19 
 
 heal the sick. There is grand work here to be 
 done and I must not trifle with it." 
 
 This matter of getting the right kind of persons 
 to join the Community required a keen insight 
 into human nature, and on this point Mr. Alcott 
 was not very strong. His own sincerity and depth 
 of purpose were so great that he looked for these 
 same attributes in every one who approached 
 him, and often failed to detect the superficial 
 qualities that lurked underneath the surface en- 
 thusiasm of some of his followers. At this time 
 Transcendentalism was rife through the land. 
 Some called it "the Newness." The expression 
 "Apostles of the Newness" was heard on all 
 sides. They could be recognized by their long 
 hair, Byronic collars, flowing ties, and eccentric 
 habits and manners. Nothing seemed too exces- 
 sive to prove their emancipation from the shackles 
 of conventionality. One day three young men of 
 this kind turned up at Mr. Emerson's at Con- 
 cord and entered into an animated conversation 
 with him on his front porch. With them freedom 
 of thought and allegiance to "the Newness" took 
 the strange form of preceding every remark, how- 
 ever trivial, with resounding oaths, which so 
 startled the passers-by, and Mr. Emerson as well, 
 that he hastily invited them to move round to 
 the back of the house where the vibrations of 
 their sulphurous ejaculations might roll harm- 
 
20 BR0NS0N ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 lessly across the meadow instead of exploding 
 in through the windows of the houses near by. 
 
 That Mr. Emerson was deeply interested in 
 the experiment of creating the "New Eden" at 
 Harvard is shown by the fact that a deed of the 
 land was made out in his name as trustee for 
 Charles Lane. He and Thoreau and the rest of 
 the Concord circle viewed the departure with a 
 mixture of interest, curiosity, and anxiety. On 
 June 10, 1843, Emerson wrote to Thoreau: — 
 
 "From Mr. Alcott and Mr. Lane at Harvard, 
 we have yet heard nothing. They went away 
 in good spirits, having sent Wood Abram and 
 Larned and William Lane before them, with horse 
 and plough, a few days in advance, to begin the 
 spring work. Mr. Lane paid me a long visit, in 
 which he was more than I had ever known him 
 gentle and open ; and it was impossible not to 
 sympathize with and honor projects that so 
 often seem without feet or hands." 
 
II 
 
 THE FOUNDING OF FRUITLANDS 
 
 The original members of the Community that 
 started the unique experiment were Mr. Alcott, 
 his wife, and four small daughters, the English- 
 man Charles Lane and his son William, H. C. 
 Wright (for a short time) and Samuel Bower, 
 Isaac T. Hecker, of New York, Christopher 
 Greene and Samuel Larned, of Providence, Abra- 
 ham Everett and Anna Page, Joseph Palmer, of 
 Fitchburg, and Abram Wood. The transcenden- 
 talism of this last individual showed itself chiefly 
 in insisting upon twisting his name hind side be- 
 fore and calling himself "Wood Abram." As this 
 he was always known at Fruitlands. These mem- 
 bers did not all arrive at once, but came within a 
 short time of each other. Wright had shown some 
 dissatisfaction already in the extreme asceticism 
 of the plan of life adopted by Mr. Alcott at Con- 
 cord and he refused to be a regular member of the 
 Fruitlands Community on this account. In writ- 
 ing to Oldham on the subject Charles Lane says: 
 " I can see no other reason but the simplicity and 
 order to which affairs were coming (in the cot- 
 tage) ; no butter nor milk, nor cocoa, nor tea, nor 
 coffee. Nothing but fruit, grain, and water was 
 
22 BRONSON ALCOTTS FRUITLANDS 
 
 hard for the inside ; then regular hours and places, 
 cleaning up scraps, etc., was desperate hard for 
 the outside." 
 
 When finally the move from Concord to Har- 
 vard was made, Mr. Alcott took what furniture he 
 could with him, such as beds, etc., and the rest 
 was supplied by Joseph Palmer, who carted his 
 over from his old Homestead at No Town outside 
 of Fitchburg. 
 
 Shortly after the move, Charles Lane sat down 
 and wrote to Thoreau a description of Fruitlands : 
 
 Fruitlands, June 7, 1843. 
 
 It is very remotely placed, without a road, sur- 
 rounded by a beautiful green landscape of fields 
 and woods, with the distance filled up with some 
 of the loftiest mountains in the State. At present 
 there is much hard manual labor, so much that, 
 as you see, my usual handwriting is very greatly 
 suspended. Our house accommodations are poor 
 and scanty ; but the greatest want is good female 
 society. Far too much labor devolves on Mrs. 
 Alcott. Besides the occupations of each succeed- 
 ing day, we form in this ample theatre of hope, 
 many forthcoming scenes. The nearer little copse 
 is designed as the site of the cottages. Foun- 
 tains can be made to descend from their granite 
 sources on the hill-slope to every apartment if 
 desired. Gardens are to displace the warm grazing 
 
THE FOUNDING OF FRUITLANDS 23 
 
 glades on the South, and numerous human be- 
 ings instead of cattle, shall here enjoy existence. 
 
 On the estate are about 14 acres of wood, — a 
 very sylvan realization, which only wants a 
 Thoreau's mind to elevate it to classic beauty. 
 The farther wood offers to the naturalist and 
 the poet an exhaustless haunt ; and a short clean- 
 ing up of the brook would connect our boat with 
 the Nashua. Such are the designs which Mr. 
 Alcott and I have just sketched, as resting from 
 planting we walked around this reserve. 
 
 Though to me our mode of life is luxurious in 
 the highest degree, yet generally it seems to be 
 thought that the setting aside of all impure diet, 
 dirty habits, idle thoughts, and selfish feelings is 
 a source of self-denial scarcely to be encountered, 
 or even thought of, in such an alluring world as 
 this. 
 
 In the course of the next few weeks Lane wrote 
 with much detail to Oldham : — 
 
 Fruitlands, Harvard, Mass., 
 June 16, 1843. 
 My dear Friend: — 
 
 The morning being rainy I have taken ad- 
 vantage of the suspension of out-door labours to 
 
24 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 sit down and have a little chat with you of and 
 concerning our doings and progress. The day 
 after I wrote you last all the household effects 
 and all the household were mounted on wheels 
 and trundled to this place; the old little cottage 
 being left as clean as a new book by Mrs. Alcott's 
 great energy. The day was sharp and cold for the 
 season, but the weather has since come out fine 
 and warm, some days hot. We have all been 
 busily engaged in manual operations in the field, 
 house, wood yard, etc. Planting, ploughing, sow- 
 ing, cleaning fruit trees, gardening, chopping, 
 sawing, fitting up, etc., etc., have gone at a rapid 
 rate, as the place was in a very slovenly condi- 
 tion. When tired we have taken a look round 
 the estate to see what was growing, learn the 
 shape of it, and its capabilities with more minute- 
 ness. It seems to be agreed on all hands, and we 
 have opinions from many practical men, that we 
 have not made a bad exchange, even in the com- 
 mercial sense, of our cash for land. Only think, 
 brother Oldham, ninety acres, every one of which 
 may, in a short time, and without much outlay, 
 be brought into a state fit for spade culture; and 
 much of it very good land, obtained at the rate of 
 20 dollars or only four pounds per acre freehold. 
 Recollect, too, this includes fuel and some build- 
 ing material, for there are 14 acres of wood, in- 
 cluding many trees of edible nuts, and still only 
 
THE FOUNDING OF FRUITLANDS 25 
 
 30 miles from a metropolitan city of 110,000 in- 
 habitants. 1 The land is most beautifully disposed 
 in hill and valley, and the scenery is of a sublime 
 and elevating character. Water abundant and 
 excellent and the springs being on the hill, it may 
 be conveyed anywhere about the place for irriga- 
 tion, etc. As is common in this district, the prin- 
 cipal part is meadow and pasture; but we shall 
 go on ploughing up as much as possible, sowing 
 crops of clover or buckwheat, and turning them 
 in, so as to redeem the land without animal ma- 
 nures, which in practice I find to be as filthy as 
 in idea. The use of them is disgusting in the 
 extreme. At present, we have about 4 acres in 
 Maize, 1 J^ in Rye, 1 J^ in Oats, 1 in Barley, 2 
 in Potatoes, nearly 1 in Beans, Peas, Melons, 
 Squashes, etc.; there will be some Buckwheat, 
 Turnips, etc., making in all about 1 1 acres arable. 
 We have no Wheat this year. The grass promises 
 well, and we may possibly cut 200 dollars' worth; 
 but by hired teams we are now turning up one 
 piece of 8 or 9, and another of 5 acres, and mean 
 to attack another 4 or 5 for our next year's home- 
 stead or garden, should we obtain the means of 
 building. The hillside of 12 or 14 acres pasture is 
 also to be ploughed, directly, if we can; so that 
 the work of reclamation will go rapidly forward. 
 There is a large piece of peat land, as black as ink, 
 1 Boston. 
 
26 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 which, mixed with sand, makes a most produc- 
 tive soil, valued at 200 to 300 dollars per acre; 
 and there is sand on our lot within 100 yards. 
 We have been much plagued, and a little cheated, 
 with the cattle, but our stock is now reduced to 
 one yoke of oxen. 
 
 Besides Mr. Alcott, his Wife and Children, my- 
 self and William, who is very efficient and active, 
 we have only a Mr. Larned and Abraham [Abram 
 Everett] — who appears in the Vermont Tele- 
 graph, as the "Plain Man." Larned was many 
 months at West Roxbury, is only about 20 years 
 of age, his father was a merchant, and he has been 
 a counting-house man and is what the world calls 
 genteel. Abraham is about 42, a cooper by trade, 
 but an excellent assistant here, very faithful to 
 every work he undertakes, very serious, has had 
 rather deep experience, having been imprisoned 
 in a mad house by his relations because he had a 
 little property, but still he is not a spiritual be- 
 ing, at least not consciously and wishfully so. 
 
 I have exchanged more letters with Samuel 
 Bower and he promises to come here to-morrow. 
 If his real state bears out his writings, I think he 
 may be added to the family, otherwise he thinks 
 of looking at Roxbury for the purpose of finding 
 a home there. . . . 
 
 Mr. Alcott is as persevering in practice as last 
 year we found him to be in idea. To do better 
 
THE FOUNDING OF FRUITLANDS 27 
 
 and better, to be better and better, is the constant 
 theme. His hand is everywhere like his mind. 
 He has held the plough with great efficiency, 
 sometimes for the whole day, and by the straight- 
 ness of his furrow may be said to be giving lessons 
 to the professed ploughmen, who work in a slov- 
 enly manner. We have called in the aid of a car- 
 penter who has made simple shelves for our books, 
 and for the first time our library stands upright 
 as it should do. It occupies about 100 feet of 
 shelves. 
 
 June 28, 1843. 
 
 On the 19th I received your very kind and 
 newsful letter of the first instant enclosed in Mrs. 
 Chichester's. Mr. Bower, having kept his prom- 
 ise, was here, and I read much of it at breakfast, 
 having also another visitor from Brook Farm, Mr. 
 Hecker [Isaac T. Hecker]. All were much in- 
 terested in the facts reported, and Saml. Bower 
 heard your remembrances fresh from your pen. 
 You affect him more than any other person. In 
 your next, you will perhaps devote a slip to him 
 and I will forward it. He, Larned and Hecker 
 visited the Shakers and were much attracted by 
 them. Larned who, on common report, used to 
 oppose them, talks of joining them, so pleasant 
 is their society; at least at first. . . . 
 
 If I were not at this moment surrounded by so 
 much that is beautiful in the present, hopeful in 
 
28 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 the future and ennobling in the act, your affec- 
 tionate invitation to Ham would seriously touch 
 me. But by God's blessing something shall be 
 done here which shall reach you there. If we can 
 aid the people in any way to let self be conquered, we 
 shall do something. Lust abounds and love is de- 
 serted. Lust of money, of food, of sexuality, of 
 books, of music, of art, — while Love demands 
 the powers devoted to these false ends. I thank 
 you for your hint respecting worldliness. I be- 
 lieve I am getting on safe ground if I am not al- 
 ready landed. From, or in England you say, I 
 should expect nothing, and I am now in the same 
 predicament here. Every farthing I had is now 
 either put in or involved in this affair, and more, 
 for I have put my hand to two rather large bills ; 
 silly enough, you will say. In a few weeks I ex- 
 pect to be literally pennyless, and even unable 
 for want of stage hire to travel to Boston if you 
 send me ever so many orders, of which you dis- 
 cover I have been so neglectful. No ; I think I am 
 now out of the money world. Let my privation 
 be ever so great, I will never make any property 
 claim on this effort. It is an offering to the Eter- 
 nal Spirit, and I consider that I have no more right 
 than any other person ; and I have arranged the 
 title deeds, as well as I could, to meet that end. 
 I could only consent to return to England on con- 
 dition of being held free, like a child, from all 
 
THE FOUNDING OF FRUITLANDS 29 
 
 money entanglements. As no person or associa- 
 tion can guarantee this for me, I think it would 
 be better to remain here where the simple wants 
 can be so easily met, and where there is much 
 opportunity for doing good, and more hope as 
 the outward conditions are so beautifully free. 
 Would that you were here for a month ; we have 
 now the most delightful steady weather you can 
 conceive; we are all dressed in our linen tunics, 
 Abraham is ploughing, Larned bringing some 
 turf from the house, Alcott doing a thousand 
 things, Bower and I have well dug a sandy spot 
 for carrots, the children and Lady are busy in 
 their respective ways, and some hirelings are as- 
 sisting. . . . Now that something, though little, 
 is doing, you will find my expressions more peace- 
 ful. Con-fi-dence in Love I hope will ne'er be 
 wanting in your affectionate friend, 
 
 Charles Lane. 
 
 Fruitlands, Harvard, Mass., 
 July 30, 1843. 
 Dear Friend : — 
 
 ... 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 mind. Mr. Hecker, a very 
 spiritual-minded young man, also has been with 
 us. He is partner with his brothers at New York 
 
30 BR0NS0N ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 in a very extensive baking and corn mill business. 
 He has resided several months at W. Roxbury, 
 but is by no means satisfied with their school- 
 boy dilettante spiritualism. He will, I believe, go 
 to New York to clear up if possible with his fam- 
 ily as to the relations on which they are in future 
 to stand to each other. They appear to be so 
 loving and united a family with such strong hu- 
 man attachments that, although he has done 
 much towards breaking away, I fear that in the 
 desire to bring his brothers further into the inner 
 world, he will himself be detained. 
 
 Mr. Alcott and I returned last evening from a 
 short visit to Boston to purchase a few articles, 
 and while there we went out one evening to Rox- 
 bury * where there are 80 or 90 persons playing 
 away their youth and daytime in a miserably 
 joyous, frivolous manner. There are not above 
 four or five who could be selected as really and 
 truly progressing beings. Most of the adults are 
 there to pass "a good time"; the children are 
 taught languages, etc.; the animals (in conse- 
 quence I believe solely of Mr. George Ripley's 
 tendency) occupy a prominent position, there 
 being no less than 16 cows, besides 4 oxen, a herd 
 of swine, a horse or two, etc. The milk is sold in 
 Boston, and they buy butter to the extent of 500 
 dollars a year. We had a pleasant summer even- 
 1 Brook Farm. 
 
THE FOUNDING OF FRUITLANDS 31 
 
 ing conversation with many of them, but it is 
 only in a few individuals that anything deeper 
 than ordinary is to be found. The Northampton 
 Community is one of industry, the one at Hope- 
 dale aims at practical theology, this of Roxbury 
 is one of taste; yet it is the best which exists here, 
 and perhaps we shall have to say it is the best 
 which can exist. At all events we can go no fur- 
 ther than to keep open fields, and as far as we 
 have it open house to all comers. We know very 
 well that if they come not in the right name and 
 nature they will not long remain. Our dietetic 
 system is a test quite sufficient for many. As far 
 as acres of fine land are concerned, you may offer 
 their free use to any free souls who will come here 
 and work them, and any aid we can afford shall 
 be freely given. The aid of sympathetic compan- 
 ionship is not small, and that at least we can 
 render. To bridge the Atlantic is a trifle if the 
 heart is really set on the attainment of better 
 conditions. Here are they freely presented, at a 
 day's walk from the shore, without a long and 
 expensive journey to the West. Please to adver- 
 tise these facts to all youthful men and women; 
 for such are much wanted here. There is now a 
 certain opportunity for planting a love colony, 
 the influence of which may be felt for many gen- 
 erations, and more than felt ; it may be the begin- 
 ning for a state of things which shall far tran- 
 
32 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 scend itself. They to whom our work seems not 
 good enough may come and set out a better. 
 
 I should mention to you that passing his door 
 Mr. Theodore Parker came to the Community in 
 the evening and again in the morning. He is a 
 very popular man at present and has a congrega- 
 tion at Roxbury, but being unwell by ' reason of 
 close study, he will sail to Europe on the 1st 
 September. He will remain in Germany for three 
 or four months, and afterwards as long in Eng- 
 land. No doubt you will see him and render him 
 all the service you can. ... At present we are not 
 sought by many persons, 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 us. We must not forget how great 
 have been the works done by individuals, and in 
 the absence of what are usually called facilities. 
 Our obstacles are, I suppose, chiefly within, and 
 as these are subdued we shall triumph in exter- 
 nalities. I could send you a description of works 
 and crops, our mowing, hoeing, reaping, plough- 
 ing in tall crops of clover and grass for next year's 
 manure, and various other operations, but al- 
 though they have some degree of relation to the 
 grand principle to which they are obedient, they 
 are worth little in the exoteric sense alone. Per- 
 haps the external revelations of success ought 
 
THE FOUNDING OF FRUITLANDS 33 
 
 always to be kept secret, for every improvement 
 discovered is only turned to a money making 
 account and to the further degradation of man, 
 as we see in the march of science to this very 
 moment. If we knew how to double the crops of 
 the earth, it is scarcely to be hoped that any 
 good would come by revealing the mode. On the 
 contrary, the bounties of God are already made 
 the means by which man debases himself more 
 and more. We will therefore say little concerning 
 the sources of external wealth until man is him- 
 self secured to the End which rightly uses these 
 means. . . . 
 
 Mr. Charles Stearns Wheeler, the eminent 
 Greek student, who went from here to Germany 
 last summer, died at Leipsic * in June, age 26. 
 He was one of Mr. Emerson's great hopes. 
 
 Samuel Bower continues with us, but he is not 
 so happy in body or mind as he ought to be: a 
 letter from you in the universal spirit would cheer 
 him up. He confesses to the possession of a little 
 Nomadic blood in his veins. He thinks Mr. Al- 
 cott is arbitrary or despotic, as some others do, 
 but I shall endeavour (and, I think, not in vain) 
 to urge him to the noblest conduct of which our 
 position is capable. He must not complain nor 
 walk off, but cheerfully amend whatever is amiss. 
 I suppose your letter has failed at the post some- 
 1 This should be Rome. 
 
34 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 where, but I have inquired fully on this side. 
 With assurances of continued affection to your- 
 self and all friends on the divine ground, 
 I remain, dear Oldham, 
 Truly yours, 
 
 Charles Lane. 
 
Ill 
 
 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 Fruit- 
 lands that it seems well to insert here a well-au- 
 thenticated account of Brook Farm and also an 
 extract from a letter written by John Sullivan 
 Dwight who was a member. 
 
 Brook Farm was a Community established in 
 West Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1841. "The 
 head of the Community was George Ripley, for- 
 merly a Unitarian clergyman in Boston, who had 
 been in 1836 one of the Founders of the Tran- 
 scendental Club with Emerson, Hedge, Alcott, 
 and others. Associated with Ripley in the Brook 
 Farm enterprise were Nathaniel Hawthorne, 
 Charles A. Dana, John S. Dwight, and other well- 
 known men. They bought a farm comprising 
 some 200 acres. Its object was the establishment 
 of an 'agricultural, literary, and scientific school 
 or college.' 
 
 "Several trades beside agriculture were carried 
 on and a number of children were received as pu- 
 pils, instruction being furnished in ancient and 
 modern languages, history, mathematics, moral 
 
36 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 philosophy, music, drawing, etc. It was designed 
 to substitute cooperative for selfish competition, 
 and to dignify bodily labor by uniting it with the 
 intellectual and spiritual life. The Community 
 was at first organized as a joint-stock company, 
 each subscriber being guaranteed 5 per cent per 
 annum on his shares. In 1847 the experiment, 
 having proved a failure financially, was given up. 
 "Life at Brook Farm, especially during the 
 first years of enthusiasm, had idyllic and roman- 
 tic aspects. In its palmiest state the Commu- 
 nity, including school children and boarders, num- 
 bered about 150 souls. Kitchen and table were 
 in common; very little help was hired, but phi- 
 losophers, clergymen, and poets worked at the 
 humblest tasks, milking cows, pitching manure, 
 cleaning stables, etc., while cultivated women 
 cooked, washed, ironed, and waited on table. All 
 work, manual or intellectual, was credited to 
 members at a uniform rate of ten cents an hour." 
 
 John Sullivan Dwight wrote of Brook Farm : — 
 "I remember the night of my first arrival at 
 Brook Farm. It had been going all summer. I 
 arrived in November. At that time it was a sort 
 of pastoral life, rather romantic, although so 
 much hard labor was involved in it. They were 
 all at tea in the old building, which was called the 
 Hive. In a long room at a long table they were 
 
BROOK FARM AND FRUITLANDS 37 
 
 making tea, and I sat down with them. When 
 tea was over they were all very merry, full of life; 
 and all turned to and washed the dishes, cups 
 and saucers. All joined in, — the Curtis broth- 
 ers, Dana and all. It was very enchanting, quite 
 a lark, as we say. Much of the industry went on 
 in that way, because it combined the freest socia- 
 bility with the useful arts." 
 
 Robert Carter, a co-editor with James Russell 
 Lowell of a magazine called The Pioneer in 1843, 
 wrote an article called "The Newness" in after 
 years, describing Fruitlands and Brook Farm. 
 Of the latter he says : — 
 
 "It was a delightful gathering of men and 
 women of superior cultivation, who led a charm- 
 ing life for a few years, laboring in its fields and 
 philandering in its pleasant woods. It was little 
 too much of a picnic for serious profit, and the 
 young men and maidens were rather unduly ad- 
 dicted to moonlight wanderings in the pine grove, 
 though it is creditable to the sound moral train- 
 ing of New England that little or no harm came 
 of these wanderings — at least, not to the maid- 
 ens. Brook Farm, however, was not the only 
 Community which was founded by the disciples 
 of the 'Newness.' There was one established in 
 1843 on a farm called Fruitlands, in the town of 
 Harvard, about forty miles from Boston. This 
 was of much more ultra and grotesque character 
 
38 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 than Brook Farm. 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 diet. They revived the Pythagorean, the 
 Essenian, and the Monkish notions of Asceticism 
 with some variations and improvements pecu- 
 liarly American. The head of the institution was 
 Bronson Alcott, a very remarkable man, whose 
 singularities of character, conduct, and opinion 
 would alone afford sufficient topics for a long lec- 
 ture. His friend Emerson denned him to be a 
 philosopher devoted to the science of education, 
 and declared that he had singular gifts for awak- 
 ening contemplation and aspiration in simple and 
 in cultivated persons. . . . His writings, though 
 quaint and thoughtful, are clumsy compared 
 with his conversation, which has been pronounced 
 by the best judges to have been unrivalled in 
 grace and clearness. Mr. Alcott was one of the 
 most foremost leaders of the 'Newness.' He 
 swung round the circle of schemes very rapidly, 
 and after going through a great variety of phases 
 he maintained, at the time of the foundation of 
 'Fruitlands,' that the evils of life were not so 
 much social or political as personal, and that a 
 personal reform only could eradicate them; that 
 self-denial was the road to eternal life, and that 
 property was an evil, and animal food of all kinds 
 an abomination. No animal substance, neither 
 
BROOK FARM AND FRUITLANDS 39 
 
 flesh, fish, butter, cheese, eggs, nor milk, was 
 allowed to be used at ' Fruitlands.' They were all 
 denounced as pollution, and as tending to corrupt 
 the body, and through that the soul. Tea and 
 coffee, molasses and rice, were also proscribed, — 
 the last two as foreign luxuries, — and only water 
 was used as a beverage. 
 
 "Mr. Alcott would not allow the land to be 
 manured, which he regarded as a base and cor- 
 rupting and unjust mode of forcing nature. He 
 made also a distinction between vegetables which 
 aspired or grew into the air, as wheat, apples, and 
 other fruits, and the base products which grew 
 downwards into the earth, such as potatoes, 1 beets, 
 radishes, and the like. These latter he would not 
 allow to be used. The bread of the Community 
 he himself made of unbolted flour, and sought to 
 render it palatable by forming the loaves into the 
 shapes of animals and other pleasant images. He 
 was very strict, rather despotic in his rule of the 
 Community, and some of the members have told 
 me they were nearly starved to death there ; nay, 
 absolutely would have perished with hunger if 
 they had not furtively gone among the surround- 
 ing farmers and begged for food. 
 
 "One of the Fruitlanders took it into his head 
 that clothes were an impediment to spiritual 
 
 1 This was a mistake on Mr. Carter's part, as they ate 
 potatoes freely. 
 
4 o BR0NS0N ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 growth, and that the light of day was equally 
 pernicious. He accordingly secluded himself in 
 his room in a state of nature during the day, and 
 only went out at night for exercise, with a single 
 white cotton garment reaching from his neck to 
 his knees. 
 
 "Samuel Larned lived one whole year on 
 crackers, and the next year exclusively on ap- 
 ples. He went to Brook Farm after the collapse 
 of the Fruitlands Community, and when that 
 also failed he went South, married a lady who 
 owned a number of slaves, and settled there as 
 a Unitarian minister.' ' 
 
 In this same article Mr. Carter asserts that 
 Fourierism brought Brook Farm into disrepute 
 at the end, and that a large wooden phalanstery, 
 in which members had invested all their means, 
 took fire and burned to the ground just as it was 
 completed. Upon this catastrophe the associa- 
 tion scattered in 1847. Nathaniel Hawthorne 
 lost all his savings in the enterprise. While he 
 was at Brook Farm he looked after the pig- 
 sties. 
 
 In contrast to this is the full account of the 
 object and aim of Fruitlands. 
 
 The following letter on The Consociate Family 
 Life was written to A. Brooke of Oakland, Ohio, 
 and published in the Herald of Freedom, Septem- 
 ber 8, 1843: — 
 
BROOK FARM AND FRUITLANDS 41 
 
 Dear Sir: Having perused your several let- 
 ters in the Herald of Freedom, and finding, more- 
 over, a general invitation to correspondence from 
 "persons who feel prepared to cooperate in the 
 work of reform upon principles" akin to those 
 you have set forth, I take this public means of 
 communicating with one, who seems to be really 
 desirous of aiding entire human regeneration. 
 
 After many years passed in admiration of a 
 better order in human society, with a constant 
 expectation that some beginning would shortly 
 be made, and a continued reliance that some 
 party would make it, the idea has gradually 
 gained possession of my mind, that it is not right 
 thus to linger for the leadings of other men, but 
 that each should at once proceed to live out the 
 proposed life to the utmost possible extent. As- 
 sured that the most potent hindrances to good- 
 ness abide in the Soul itself; next in the body; 
 thirdly in the house and family; and in the 
 fourth degree only in our neighbors, or in society 
 at large ; I have daily found less and less reason 
 to complain of public institutions, or of the dila- 
 toriness of reformers of genetic minds. 
 
 Animated by pure reform principles, or rather 
 by pure creative spirit, I have not hesitated to 
 withdraw as far and as fast as hopeful prudence 
 dictated from the practices and principles of the 
 Old World, and acting upon the conviction that 
 
42 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 whatever others might do, or leave undone, how- 
 ever others might fail in the realization of their 
 ideal good, I, at least, should advance, I have 
 accordingly arrived in that region where I 
 perceive you theoretically, and I hope, actually 
 dwell. 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 dash ; but the winds are not always 
 propitious, and steam is only a recent invention. 
 I cannot yet boast of a year's emancipation from 
 old England. One free step leads to another; and 
 the third must necessarily precede the fourth, as 
 the second was before the third. 
 
 A. 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 ances- 
 tors. My love for purity and goodness was suffi- 
 ciently strong it seems to loosen me from a posi- 
 tion as regards pecuniary income, affectionate 
 friends, and mental liberty, which millions there 
 and thousands here might envy. It has hap- 
 pened however that of the many persons with 
 whom Mr. Alcott hoped to act in conjunction 
 and concert, not one is yet fully liberated by 
 Providence to that end. So that instead of form- 
 ing items in a large enterprise, we are left to be 
 the principal actors in promoting an idea less in 
 
CHARLES LANE 
 

BROOK FARM AND FRUITLANDS 43 
 
 extent, but greater in intent, than any yet pre- 
 sented to our observation. 
 
 Our removal to this estate in humble confi- 
 dence has drawn to us several practical coadju- 
 tors, and opened many inquiries by letter for a 
 statement of our principles and modes of life. 
 We cannot perhaps turn our replies to better ac- 
 count, than to transcribe some portions of them 
 for your information, and we trust, for your sin- 
 cere satisfaction. 
 
 You must be aware, however, that written 
 words cannot do much towards the elucidation 
 of principles comprehending all human relation- 
 ships, and claiming an origin profound as man's 
 inmost consciousness of the ever present Living 
 Spirit. A dwelling together, a concert in soul, and 
 a consorting in body, is a position needful to en- 
 tire understanding, which we hope at no distant 
 day to attain with yourself and many other sin- 
 cere friends. We have not yet drawn out any pre- 
 ordained plan of daily operations, as we are im- 
 pressed with the conviction that by a faithful 
 reliance on the Spirit which actuates us, we are 
 sure of attaining to clear revelations of daily prac- 
 tical duties as they are to be daily done by us. 
 When the Spirit of Love and Wisdom abounds, 
 literal forms are needless, irksome or hinderative ; 
 where the Spirit is lacking, no preconceived rules 
 can compensate. 
 
44 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 To us it appears not so much that improved 
 circumstances are to meliorate mankind, as that 
 improved men will originate the superior condi- 
 tion for themselves and others. Upon the Human 
 Will, and not upon circumstances, as some phi- 
 losophers assert, rests the function, power and 
 duty, of generating a better social state. The 
 human beings in whom the Eternal Spirit has 
 ascended from low animal delights or mere hu- 
 man affections, to a state of spiritual chastity 
 and intuition, are in themselves a divine atmos- 
 phere, they are superior circumstances and are 
 constant in endeavoring to create, as well as to 
 modify, all other conditions, so that these also 
 shall more and more conduce to the like con- 
 sciousness in others. 
 
 Hence our perseverance in efforts to attain 
 simplicity in diet, plain garments, pure bathing, 
 unsullied dwellings, open conduct, gentle behav- 
 ior, kindly sympathies, serene minds. These, and 
 several other particulars needful to the true end 
 of man's residence on earth, may be designated 
 the Family Life. Our Happiness, though not the 
 direct object in human energy, may be accepted 
 as the conformation of rectitude, and this is not 
 otherwise attainable than in the Holy Family. 
 The Family in its highest, divinest sense is there- 
 fore our true position, our sacred earthly destiny. 
 It comprehends every divine, every human re- 
 
BROOK FARM AND FRUITLANDS 45 
 
 lation consistent with universal good, and all 
 others it rejects, as it disdains all animal sensual- 
 ities. 
 
 The evils of life are not so much social, or polit- 
 ical, as personal, and a personal reform only can 
 eradicate them. 
 
 Let the Family, furthermore, be viewed as the 
 home of pure social affections, the school of 
 expanding intelligence, the sphere of unbought 
 art, the scene of joyous employment, and we feel 
 in that single sentiment, a fulness of action, of 
 life, of being, which no scientific social contriv- 
 ance can ensure, nor selfish accident supply. 
 
 Family is not dependent upon numbers, nor 
 upon skill, nor riches, but upon union in and 
 with that spirit which alone can bless any enter- 
 prise whatever. 
 
 On this topic of Family association, it will not 
 involve an entire agreement with the Shakers to 
 say they are at least entitled to deeper considera- 
 tion than they yet appear to have secured. There 
 are many important acts in their career worthy 
 of observation. It is perhaps most striking that 
 the only really successful extensive Community 
 of interest, spiritual and secular, in modern times 
 was established by A Woman. Again, we wit- 
 ness in this people the bringing together of the 
 two sexes in a new relation, or rather with a new 
 idea of the old relation. This has led to results 
 
46 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 more harmonic than anyone seriously believes 
 attainable for the human race, either in isola- 
 tion or association, so long as divided, conflict- 
 ing family arrangements are permitted. The 
 great secular success of the Shakers ; their order, 
 cleanliness, intelligence and serenity are so emi- 
 nent, that it is worthy of enquiry how far these 
 are attributal to an adherence to their peculiar 
 doctrine. 
 
 As to Property, we discover not its just dis- 
 posal either in individual or social tenures, but in 
 its entire absorption into the New Spirit, which 
 ever gives and never grasps. 
 
 While we write, negotiations are entertained 
 for our removal to a place of less inconvenience, 
 by friends who have long waited for some proof 
 of a determination to act up to the idea they have 
 cherished. Many, no doubt, are yet unprepared 
 "to give up all and follow him" (the Spirit) who 
 can importantly aid in the New Advent, and 
 conscientiously accomplish the legal processes 
 needful under the present circumstances. We do 
 not recognize the purchase of land; but its re- 
 demption from the debasing state of proprium, 
 or property, to divine uses, we clearly understand 
 when those whom the world esteems as owners 
 are found yielding their individual rights to the 
 Supreme Owner. Looking at the subject prac- 
 tically in relation to a climate in which a costly 
 
BROOK FARM AND FRUITLANDS 47 
 
 shelter is necessary, and where a family with 
 many children has to be provided for, the possi- 
 bility of at once stepping boldly out of the toils 
 into which the errors of our predecessors have 
 cast us, is not so evident as it is desirable. 
 
 Trade we hope entirely to avoid at an early 
 day. As a nursery for many evil propensities it 
 is almost universally felt to be a most undesirable 
 course. Such needful articles as we cannot yet 
 raise by our own hand labor from the soil, thus 
 redeemed from human ownership, we shall en- 
 deavor to obtain by friendly exchanges, and, as 
 nearly as possible, without the intervention of 
 money. 
 
 Of all the traffic in which civilized society is in- 
 volved, that of human labor is perhaps the most 
 detrimental. From the state of serfdom to the 
 receipt of wages may be a step in human prog- 
 ress; but it is certainly full time for taking a new 
 step out of the hiring system. 
 
 Our outward exertions are in the first instance 
 directed to the soil, and as our ultimate aim is to 
 furnish an instance of self-sustaining cultivation 
 without the subjugation of either men or cattle, 
 or the use of foul animal manures, we have at 
 the outset to encounter struggles and oppositions 
 somewhat formidable. Until the land is restored 
 to its pristine fertility by the annual return of 
 its own green crops, as sweet and animating 
 
48 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 manures, the human hand and simple implement 
 cannot wholly supersede the employment of ma- 
 chinery and cattle. So long as cattle are used in 
 agriculture, it is very evident that man will re- 
 main a slave, whether he be proprietor or hire- 
 ling. The driving of cattle beyond their natural 
 and pleasurable exertion ; the waiting upon them 
 as cook and chambermaid three parts of the year ; 
 the excessive labor of mowing, curing, and hous- 
 ing hay, and of collecting other fodder, and the 
 large extra quantity of land needful to keep up 
 this system, form a continuation of unfavorable 
 circumstances which must depress the human 
 affections so long as it continues, and overlay 
 them by the injurious and extravagant develop- 
 ment of the animal and bestial natures in man. 
 It is calculated that if no animal food were con- 
 sumed, one-fourth of the land now used would 
 suffice for human sustenance. And the extensive 
 tracts of country now appropriated to grazing, 
 mowing, and other modes of animal provision, 
 could be cultivated by and for intelligent and 
 affectionate human neighbors. The sty and the 
 stable too often secure more of the farmer's re- 
 gard than he bestows on the garden and the 
 children. No hope is there for humanity while 
 Woman is withdrawn from the tender assiduities 
 which adorn her and her household, to the serv- 
 itudes of the dairy and the flesh pots. If the 
 

BROOK FARM AND FRUITLANDS 49 
 
 beasts were wholly absent from man's neighbor- 
 hood, the human population might be at least 
 four times as dense as it now is without raising 
 the price of land. This would give to the coun- 
 try all the advantages of concentration without 
 the vices which always spring up in the dense 
 city. 
 
 Debauchery of both the earthly soil and the 
 human body is the result of this cattle keeping. 
 The land is scourged for crops to feed the animals, 
 whose ordures are used under the erroneous sup- 
 position of restoring lost fertility; disease is thus 
 infused into the human body; stimulants and 
 medicines are resorted to for relief, which end in 
 a precipitation of the original evil to a more dis- 
 astrous depth. These misfortunes which affect 
 not only the body, but by reaction rise to the 
 sphere of the soul, would be avoided, or at least 
 in part, by the disuse of animal food. Our diet is 
 therefore strictly the pure and bloodless kind. 
 No animal substances, neither flesh, butter, 
 cheese, eggs, nor milk, pollute our table or cor- 
 rupt our bodies, neither tea, coffee, molasses, nor 
 rice, tempts us beyond the bounds of indigenous 
 productions. Our sole beverage is pure fountain 
 water. The native grains, fruits, herbs, and roots, 
 dressed with the utmost cleanliness and regard to 
 their purpose of edifying a healthful body, furnish 
 the pleasantest refections and in the greatest 
 
50 BR0NS0N ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 variety requisite to the supply of the various 
 organs. The field, the orchard, the garden, in 
 their bounteous products of wheat, rye, barley, 
 maize, oats, buckwheat, apples, pears, peaches, 
 plums, cherries, currants, berries, potatoes, peas, 
 beans, beets, carrots, melons, and other vines, 
 yield an ample store for human nutrition, with- 
 out dependence on foreign climes, or the degen- 
 eration of shipping and trade. The almost in- 
 exhaustible variety of the several stages and 
 sorts of vegetable growth, and the several modes 
 of preparation, are a full answer to the question 
 which is often put by those who have never ven- 
 tured into the region of a pure and chaste diet: 
 "If you give up flesh meat, upon what then can 
 you live?" 
 
 Our other domestic habits are in harmony with 
 those of diet. We rise with early dawn, begin the 
 day with cold bathing, succeeded by a music les- 
 son, and then a chaste repast. Each one finds 
 occupation until the meridian meal, when usu- 
 ally some interesting and deep-searching con- 
 versation gives rest to the body and development 
 to the mind. Occupation, according to the sea- 
 son and the weather, engages us out of doors or 
 within, until the evening meal, — when we again 
 assemble in social communion, prolonged gen- 
 erally until sunset, when we resort to sweet re- 
 pose for the next day's activity. 
 
BROOK FARM AND FRUITLANDS 51 
 
 In these steps of reform we do not rely as much 
 on scientific reasoning of physiological skill, as on 
 the Spirit's dictates. The pure soul, by the law 
 of its own nature, adopts a pure diet and cleanly 
 customs ; nor needs detailed instruction for daily 
 conduct. On a revision of our proceedings it 
 would seem, that if we were in the right course 
 in our particular instance, the greater part of 
 man's duty consists in leaving alone much that 
 he is in the habit of doing. It is a fasting from 
 the present activity, rather than an increased 
 indulgence in it, which, with patient watchful- 
 ness tends to newness of life. "Shall I sip tea or 
 coffee?" the inquiry may be. No; abstain from 
 all ardent, as from alcoholic drinks. "Shall I 
 consume pork, beef, or mutton?" Not if you 
 value health or life. "Shall I stimulate with 
 milk?" No. "Shall I warm my bathing water?" 
 Not if cheerfulness is valuable. "Shall I clothe 
 in many garments?" Not if purity is aimed at. 
 "Shall I prolong my dark hours, consuming ani- 
 mal oil and losing bright daylight in the morn- 
 ing?" Not if a clear mind is an object. "Shall I 
 teach my children the dogmas inflicted on my- 
 self, under the pretence that I am transmitting 
 truth?" Nay, if you love them intrude not these 
 between them and the Spirit of all Truth. "Shall 
 I subjugate cattle?" "Shall I trade?" "Shall I 
 claim property in any created thing?" "Shall 
 
52 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 I interest myself in politics?" To how many of 
 these questions could we ask them deeply enough, 
 could they be heard as having relation to our 
 eternal welfare, would the response be ' ' Abstain ' ' ? 
 Be not so active to do, as sincere to be. Being in 
 preference to doing, is the great aim and this comes 
 to us rather by a resigned willingness than a wil- 
 ful activity; — which is indeed a check to all 
 divine growth. Outward abstinence is a sign of 
 inward fulness ; and the only source of true prog- 
 ress is inward. We may occupy ourselves ac- 
 tively in human improvements ; — but these un- 
 less inwardly well-impelled, never attain to, but 
 rather hinder, divine progress in man. During 
 the utterance of this narrative it has undergone 
 a change in its personal expression which might 
 offend the hypercritical ; but we feel assured that 
 you will kindly accept it as unartful offering of 
 both your friends in ceaseless aspiration. 
 
 Charles Lane, 
 A. Bronson Alcott. 
 Harvard, Mass., 
 August, 1843. 
 
IV 
 
 THE MAN WITH THE BEARD 
 
 No satisfactory record of Fruitlands could be 
 written without giving an account of Joseph 
 Palmer, the man with the beard. He filled an 
 important place in the life of the Community, 
 and is one of those picturesque characters which 
 must always stand out vividly in the history of 
 Fruitlands. He came of fine, sturdy English stock 
 which emigrated to this country in 1730. His 
 grandfather taught school in Newton, Massachu- 
 setts, for twenty years. His father fought in the 
 Revolution, and he himself was a soldier in the 
 War of 1 8 12. He was an eccentric character, 
 but steadfast and upright, and immovable when 
 it came to his principles. Wearing a beard be- 
 came a fixed idea with him, 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 respect. He suf- 
 fered ridicule, insolence, and persecution to a 
 degree that was amazing, and which revealed 
 the fact that in spite of a seemingly greater en- 
 lightenment on the part of the public, the same 
 tendency, which drove the people to persecute 
 
54 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 so-called witches, and Shakers, and harmless 
 persons with a little different viewpoint from 
 their own, was still alive, and ready to flame 
 forth as fiercely as ever. 
 
 On one occasion, before the Fruitlands days, 
 he went into a church in Fitchburg where the 
 holy Communion was being celebrated. He knelt 
 with the rest only to be given the shock of humili- 
 ation at being ignored and passed over by the 
 officiating clergyman. Cut to the quick at such 
 injustice, and with the blood surging to his face, 
 he arose and strode up to the Communion table 
 where the Sacraments were, and lifting the cup 
 to his lips drank from it, and turning to the 
 shocked and abashed clergyman and his congre- 
 gation shouted in a loud voice and with flashing 
 eyes: "I love my Jesus as well, and better, than 
 any of you do!" 
 
 A beard at that time was only worn by the Jews, 
 and that was the real reason for this persecution, 
 and it caused him to be called "Old Jew Palmer," 
 though there was not a drop of Jewish blood in 
 his veins. He carried on his farm at No Town 
 very successfully and sold his beef at the Fitch- 
 burg Market. No Town was a "gore" of unre- 
 claimed land outside of Fitchburg and Leomin- 
 ster in old Colonial days, a large tract of which 
 had been granted to Captain Noah Wiswell, his 
 maternal grandfather, by the General Court of 
 
THE MAN WITH THE BEARD 55 
 
 the Province of Massachusetts for bravery in 
 the wars against the Indians. Joseph Palmer in- 
 herited it. It belonged to no township, and there- 
 fore was not taxed. 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 accord- 
 ing to law, there being no meeting-house at No 
 Town. 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 house. 
 
 Joseph Palmer's wife before her first marriage 
 was Nancy Thompson. She was a third cousin 
 to Count Rumford, who was Benjamin Thomp- 
 son, of Woburn, in Colonial days, but who re- 
 turned to England after the evacuation of the 
 British, and on account of services rendered to 
 the Government was knighted by George III, 
 and afterward given the title of Count Rumford 
 by the reigning king of Bavaria, and was well 
 known throughout Europe as a scientist, philo- 
 sopher, and savant. 
 
 A reporter of the Boston Daily Globe in 1884 
 interviewed Joseph Palmer's son, Dr. Palmer, of 
 Fitchburg, and herein are inserted extracts from 
 the interview : — 
 
56 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 "The older inhabitants of Harvard, Sterling, 
 Leominster, Fitchburg, and other neighboring 
 towns can remember 'Old Jew Palmer,' who fifty 
 years ago was persecuted, despised, jeered at, 
 regarded almost as a fiend incarnate; who was 
 known far and wide as a human monster, and with 
 whose name mothers used to frighten their chil- 
 dren when they were unruly. 
 
 "'Old Jew Palmer,' as he was universally 
 called, was the most abused and persecuted man 
 these parts ever knew, and all because he in- 
 sisted upon wearing a beard. But many who in 
 those days looked upon the subject of this sketch 
 as a social outcast have lived to see whiskers 
 common and fashionable. 
 
 " With a view of getting at the facts of the 
 persecution of Mr. Palmer but fifty years ago, 
 his only son, Dr. Thomas Palmer, a well-known 
 dentist of Fitchburg, was interviewed, and the 
 doctor talked earnestly and vigorously about his 
 father's career, for he had seen the time when 
 his schoolmates shunned him and made his boy- 
 hood days miserable, railing at him because his 
 father wore a beard. But now the doctor looks 
 back upon those days proudly, as he realizes 
 that his sire was right and that the world has 
 indorsed the ways and ideas of the old man, 
 instead of the old man bowing to the absurd 
 whim of the world." 
 
THE MAN WITH THE BEARD 57 
 
 Said Dr. Palmer: — 
 
 "Father left No Town early in the thirties and 
 moved to Fitchburg into a house where the City- 
 Hall now stands. He wore at that time a long 
 beard, and he and Silas Lamson, an old scythe- 
 snath maker of Sterling, were the only men 
 known in this section of the country as wearing 
 beards. Everybody shaved clean in those days, 
 and to wear whiskers in any form was worse than 
 a disgrace, it was a sin. Father was hooted at on 
 the street, talked about at the grocery, intimi- 
 dated by his fellow-men and labored with by the 
 clergy to shave, but to no purpose. The stronger 
 the opposition, the firmer his determination. He 
 was accosted once by Rev. George Trask, the anti- 
 tobacconist, who said indignantly : ' Palmer, why 
 don't you shave and not go round looking like 
 the devil?' He replied: 'Mr. Trask, are you not 
 mistaken in your comparison of personages? I 
 have never seen a picture of the ruler of the sul- 
 phurous regions with much of a beard, but if I re- 
 member correctly, Jesus wore a beard not unlike 
 mine.' That squelched Trask and he left. 
 
 "Well, public sentiment against the man and 
 beard grew stronger, and personal violence was 
 threatened. One day, as father was coming out 
 of the old Fitchburg Hotel, where he had been to 
 carry some provision, he then being in the butch- 
 ering business, he was seized by four men, whose 
 
58 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 names I have not in mind now, who were armed 
 with shears, lather, and razor, their intention 
 being to shave him, as the sentiment of the 
 populace was that that beard must come off 
 at the hands of the wearer, possibly at the hands 
 of some one, anyway. Why, there are men living 
 to-day, old associates of his, who still cling to that 
 old idea and will not wear a beard. These four 
 men laid violent hands upon him and threw him 
 heavily on the stone steps, badly hurting his 
 back. The assaulted party was very muscular, 
 and struggled to free himself, but to no purpose, 
 until he drew from his vest pocket an old, loose- 
 jointed jack-knife, with which he struck out left 
 and right and stabbed two of them in the legs, 
 when the assailants precipitately departed with- 
 out cutting a hair. He was afterwards arrested 
 for committing an unprovoked assault, and 
 ordered by Justice Brigham to pay a fine, which 
 he refused to do, as he claimed to be acting for 
 the maintenance of a principle. He was thrown 
 into jail, where he remained over a year. He was 
 lodged with the debtors. One day Jailer Bellows 
 came in with several men to shave him. He 
 threw himself on his back in his bunk, and when 
 they approached, he struck out with his feet, and 
 after he had kicked over a few of them they let 
 him and his beard alone. He wrote letters to the 
 Worcester Spy, complaining of the treatment 
 
THE MAN WITH THE BEARD 59 
 
 the prisoners received, which I used to carry to 
 the office for him, receiving them when I carried 
 him his meals, for we hired a tenement next to the 
 jail. For this the jailer put him in a sort of dun- 
 geon down below, and one day when I went 
 to the jail, he heard my step and called out: 
 'Thomas, tie a stone to a string and swing it by 
 the window so that I can catch it'; which I did, 
 and pulled up a letter for High Sheriff Williams, 
 in which he complained of his treatment. The 
 sheriff ordered him back to his old quarters. 
 Why, old Dr. Williams of Leominster told father 
 once that he ought to be prosecuted and im- 
 prisoned for wearing a beard. In after years, 
 when whiskers became fashionable, father met 
 a minister who had upbraided him years before 
 for wearing them, and as this same minister had 
 rather a luxuriant growth, he went up to the 
 man of God and stroking his whiskers, said to 
 him, 'Knoweth that thy redeemer liveth?' He 
 claimed to be the redeemer of the beard. 
 
 "Father was a reformer; was early in the field 
 as an anti-slavery man and as a total abstinence 
 advocate. He was well acquainted with Phillips, 
 Garrison, and other prominent Abolitionists. I 
 remember going with him once to an anti-slavery 
 convention in Boston. As we walked up Wash- 
 ington Street, the people would stop, then run 
 ahead, wait for us to come up, and finally the 
 
60 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 crowd around us was so great that the police had 
 to come to the rescue. Why was it? Oh, it was 
 the same old beard. It was so unusual to see a 
 man wearing one, and especially such a one as he 
 sported. Why, he was looked upon as a mon- 
 strosity. When asked once why he wore it, he 
 said he would tell if any one could tell him why 
 some men would, from fifty-two to three hun- 
 dred and sixty-five times a year, scrape their face 
 from their nose to their neck. He never would 
 furnish liquor for men in the hay-field, and for 
 this reason had hard work to gather crops; but 
 they would have rotted before he would have 
 backed down and sacrificed his principle. He was 
 the first man in this section to give up that old 
 custom. He was interested in all reformatory 
 ideas, and was associated with A. Bronson Al- 
 cott in forming that Community in Harvard at 
 Fruitlands which had for its object a more quiet 
 and unostentatious way of living than the world 
 offered. He went to Harvard in 1843. The Com- 
 munity did not flourish, and father bought the 
 farm. Ralph Waldo Emerson, as trustee, at that 
 time held the deed of 'Fruitlands.' I remember 
 that when father refused to furnish liquor for 
 the hay-makers he had to hire boys. One mother 
 refused to let her lad work for him, saying that 
 'He was too mean to allow the boys a little 
 liquor' ! 
 
THE MAN WITH THE BEARD 61 
 
 "Such was the interesting account given by 
 the venerable doctor of a condition of affairs ex- 
 isting in this community but a comparatively 
 few years ago; but the average person of to-day 
 would not believe, without a full explanation of 
 the sentiment prevailing at that time, that within 
 so recent a period a man would not only be in- 
 sulted and persecuted, but actually mobbed, as 
 was the victim of this foolish and intolerant com- 
 munity." 
 
 While in prison Palmer kept a diary, in which, 
 under date of July 21, 1830, occurs this account 
 of the sort of persecution he had from the two 
 fellow-prisoners who occupied the same cell 
 with him. One of them asserted that if the other 
 prisoner would attack him and cut his beard 
 off, he would look on all the time and then swear 
 that it had never happened, and that anyway 
 he could get enough money collected anywhere 
 on the street to pay the damages for the act. The 
 jailer coming to the door at this moment over- 
 heard the remark and with a resounding oath 
 agreed with him, and added, " And pretty quick, 
 too!" Then he began to curse and swear at 
 Palmer, and vowed that they would get his beard 
 off soon, and even suggested that the other pris- 
 oners should cut it off of him in his sleep. One 
 of these prisoners was named Dike. The jailer 
 
62 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 continued to pour volley after volley of oaths at 
 the unfortunate man, and finally spat on him re- 
 peatedly. This happened when Palmer's cell 
 was being whitewashed and the three inmates 
 were temporarily removed to another cell. When 
 they were taken back to their customary quar- 
 ters, Dike found that the jailer had taken his 
 razor away, which turned his wrath in a new 
 direction, and Palmer writes that as a result "Be- 
 fore bedtime, he was as good as a man ought to 
 be to another, and talked very freely with me 
 on the Power and Goodness of God and on the 
 Holy Scriptures." 
 
 Here is an entry on Wednesday, September 22, 
 1830: — 
 
 " I called out to some one in the hall. Wildes, 
 the jailer, opened the door in the entry next to 
 my door and said: 'What do you want?' I was 
 just going to ask him for a little water to use un- 
 til I could get some tea from Wilson, and he let 
 a pail full come in at the door, with great force. 
 It did n't wet me much, as I see it was coming, 
 and having seen them throw cider and water in 
 the prisoners' faces before. It caused me to start 
 so quickly that there did but little go into my 
 face, and on my clothes, but it went more than 
 half the length of the room. I split three crackers 
 and put them to soak where there was consider- 
 able water standing on the floor, as I could 
 
THE MAN WITH THE BEARD 63 
 
 see no chance of getting any more soon. 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 tea, and I 
 had tried ever since last Sunday morning to get 
 some and could not. I thought I must suffer 
 very much soon if there was n't some attention, 
 and being satisfied that there were some in 
 Prison who were suffering greatly, I thought it 
 time to give a signal of distress to the Public, 
 which I immediately did by the cry of murder in 
 the Gaol, which I continued at the window that 
 somebody might come up while the door was 
 open that would grant some assistance for the 
 pay. About seven o'clock just as I was going to 
 take my crackers off the floor, Bellows and Wildes 
 came into the room and several others. I stepped 
 to the table and took the lines I had written to 
 send to Mr. Wilson, and asked them if I could 
 get any one of them to go for me if I would pay 
 them for it. Bellows said, 'Yes, I '11 take care of 
 you!' Bellows and Wildes then seized me by the 
 collar, shook and jarred me with great fury 
 through the entries, and dragged me down the 
 stairs. I tried to speak to the people who stood 
 by to take the paper I had in my hand to carry 
 to Mr. Wilson. Bellows then took me by the 
 hair and shook me furiously as I suppose to pre- 
 
64 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 vent my speaking to them. I then cried Murder. 
 He then let me go, and I told them that I wanted 
 to get some person to take the paper I had in 
 my hand and go about ioo rods of an errand, and 
 I would pay them well for it, for I had n't had 
 anything to drink since last week, nor I could n't 
 get any. They put me into the South Middle 
 room below and gave me a pail of water. I told 
 Wildes and C. B. that I wanted they should let 
 me have my things, for I had n't eaten anything 
 since yesterday morning. They took the other 
 three prisoners out of the room and shut the 
 blinds." 
 
 Palmer was kept in solitary confinement from 
 September 22 to December 25. 
 
 December 30, 1830. 
 
 "In the afternoon Calvin Willard, Ashel Bel- 
 lows, Wildes, and Lawyer Goodwin, with four 
 or five other gentlemen, came in. Willard said, 
 'How do you do, Palmer?' I said, pretty toler- 
 able well for me except I have got a bad cold. 
 One of the men, which I took to be Esqre. Weed 
 said to me: 'Why don't you go out? What do 
 you stay here for? Why don't you pay up the 
 demand and go out?' I said I have no way 
 to pay it. Goodwin said: 'A man from Fitchburg 
 told me today that he has from ten to fifteen 
 
THE MAN WITH THE BEARD 65 
 
 hundred dollars property.' Willard said: 'I al- 
 ways took him to be a man of property.' One of 
 the men said : ' I think there ought to be some 
 measures taken to secure the board if he stops 
 here.' I said: I board myself and have hard work 
 to get it in here for the money. One said: 
 1 How much was your fine? ' I said, Ten dollars, 
 I believe it was." 
 
 Saturday, January 1, 183 1. 
 "Since the first of December I have n't bought 
 me anything from Bellows, and they haven't 
 brought me anything but eight Bushels and one 
 hod of coal, and they used two Bushels of that 
 when they whitewashed the room, except what I 
 took to make one fire. Thomas brought me my 
 water. I was out of my room three and a half 
 days to have it whitewashed, 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 room." 
 
 April 11, 1831. 
 "Food for the day: — 
 
 "Breakfast: 5 ounces of brown bread 
 "Dinner: 5 J ounces of brown bread 
 3J ounces of beef meat 
 2,2 ounces of potato 
 3! ounces of soup." 
 
66 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 "He far out-stayed his sentence because he 
 had to pay for all his food, drink, and coal for 
 heating, and he considered they cheated him, so 
 he refused to go. The sheriff and jailers, tired of 
 having him there, begged him to leave. Even 
 his mother, Margaret Palmer, wrote to him ' Not 
 to be so set.' But nothing could move him. He 
 said they had put him in there, and they would 
 have to take him out, as he would not walk out. 
 They finally carried him out in his chair and 
 placed it on the sidewalk." 
 
 Shortly after leaving the jail at Worcester 
 Palmer heard of the proposed Community of 
 Fruitlands, and being much interested in all re- 
 forms, he offered to run the farm without pay 
 and went there at the very start. He took some 
 fine old furniture with him from No Town to 
 help furnish the house, and whenever anything 
 was needed in the way of farm implements, etc., 
 he would drive over to No Town and bring it 
 back with him. When the Community of Fruit- 
 lands failed, he bought the place and carried on 
 a strange sort of Community of his own for up- 
 wards of twenty years. Emerson visited him 
 afterwards, and a motley collection of reformers, 
 wayfarers, and a host of tramps found a welcome 
 by his fireside. 
 
 Any one driving by the old North Leominster 
 
THE MAN WITH THE BEARD 67 
 
 graveyard will see a stone monument adorned 
 with the head of a man with a flowing beard. On 
 it is written : — 
 
 JOSEPH PALMER 
 
 died 
 
 October 30, 1875 
 
 Aged 84 years, 5 months 
 
 Underneath the carved head is written : — 
 
 Persecuted for 
 
 Wearing the Beard 
 
V 
 
 SUMMER SUNSHINE 
 
 It was now July and all the days were full of 
 healthful occupations — the weather was per- 
 fect. The philosophers had planted three mul- 
 berry trees next the front door, and they had 
 set out apple trees and pear trees below the house 
 on the slope of the hill. They put the mulberry 
 trees so near the house that when they grew, 
 the roots almost unsettled the foundations, and 
 the fruit trees were planted in just the wrong 
 place to permit of luxuriant growth; but they 
 never knew it, and at the time they pictured to 
 themselves the full-grown trees with branches 
 overladen with the luscious ripening fruit. And 
 now they all had gotten their linen suits designed 
 by Mr. Lane : — loose trousers, tunic-ed coats 
 and broad-brimmed linen hats like Southern 
 planters. The Alcott girls, Anna, Beth, Louisa, 
 and three-year-old baby May were in linen 
 bloomers, and so were Mrs. Alcott (protesting !) 
 and poor Miss Page, who was summarily dis- 
 missed from Fruitlands for having eaten fish. 
 
 Many visitors came and went. Parker Pills- 
 bury often came, his mind full of the anti-slav- 
 ery question. The Concord circle of friends 
 
SUMMER SUNSHINE 69 
 
 looked in upon them off and on, and Channing 
 spoke afterwards of conversations held in a small 
 dining-room next to the front door, and, as Mr. 
 Sanborn says in his account of it, "The library 
 of rare books from London stood proudly on its 
 hundred feet of new shelves in the small front 
 entry of the old house, proclaiming the atmos- 
 phere of 'Mind and Letters.'" 
 
 Emerson came and afterwards wrote in his 
 "Journal" on July 8, 1843: — 
 
 "The sun and the evening sky do not look 
 calmer than Alcott and his family at Fruitlands. 
 They seemed to have arrived at the fact — to 
 have got rid of the show, and so to be serene. 
 Their manners and behavior in the house and the 
 field were those of superior men — of men at rest. 
 What had they to conceal? What had they to ex- 
 hibit? And it seemed so high an attainment that 
 I thought — as often before, so now more, be- 
 cause they had a fit home, or the picture was fitly 
 framed — that these men ought to be maintained 
 in their place by the country for its culture. 
 
 "Young men and young maidens, old men and 
 women, should visit them and be inspired. I 
 think there is as much merit in beautiful manners 
 as in hard work. I will not prejudge them suc- 
 cessful. They look well in July; we will see them 
 in December. I know they are better for them- 
 selves than as partners. One can easily see that 
 
70 BR0NS0N ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 they have yet to settle several things. Their 
 saying that things are clear, and they sane, does 
 not make them so. If they will in very deed be 
 lovers, and not selfish ; if they will serve the town 
 of Harvard, and make their neighbors feel them 
 as benefactors wherever they touch them, — 
 they are as safe as the sun." 
 
 Mr. Sanborn, referring to the remark, "We will 
 see them in December," says: "This passage in- 
 dicates that Emerson with his fatal gift of percep- 
 tion had long since seen the incongruity between 
 Alcott and Lane. At this time all was still fair 
 weather at the Fruitlands Eden, although the 
 burden of too much labor, of which Lane had 
 written to Thoreau in June, had been falling more 
 and more heavily on Mrs. Alcott and her daugh- 
 ters, Anna, then twelve, and Louisa, not quite 
 eleven. As they did so much of the domestic 
 drudgery, Mrs. Alcott doubtless thought it no 
 more than right that her English guests, both 
 there and at Concord, during the seven months 
 that Lane and his son were in their household, 
 should pay their share of the family expenses." 
 
 The house at times was very overcrowded and 
 the children had their beds up in the garret. But 
 Anna begged hard for a tiny room adjoining Mrs. 
 Alcott's, and great was the joy she took in it. 
 Of course it all was very primitive. The men 
 
SUMMER SUNSHINE 71 
 
 bathed in the brook in the early morning and the 
 shower-baths that Anna speaks of in her diary 
 were accomplished thus: — rough clothes-horses 
 covered with sheets were put in a circle and the 
 bathers stood hidden within, while Mr. Alcott, 
 mounted on some wooden steps, poured water 
 from a pitcher through a sieve on their head. 
 (This was told the author by an old lady who 
 when very young went to visit the children.) 
 
 Hired laborers and beasts of burden were 
 against the principles of the Community, but in 
 order to make headway against the advancing 
 season they seemed to be a necessity. This con- 
 cession, however, troubled the philosophers, and 
 it was decided to carry out the original plan and 
 rely wholly on the spade instead of the plough, 
 even at a cost of valuable time. The results 
 were rather disastrous : Charles Lane's hands be- 
 came sore and painful, and lame backs seriously 
 interfered with progress. Sobered by this new 
 experience, the philosophers met in conclave, 
 and as a result Joseph Palmer, who always came 
 to the rescue in trying situations, went to No 
 Town and brought back his plough and yoke 
 of oxen, as he called it — it really was an ox and 
 a cow which he had trained to work together. 
 Besides the outdoor work much writing was done 
 indoors. Charles Lane and Bower wrote prolifi- 
 cally to different papers. The Herald of Freedom, 
 
72 ' BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 the Vermont Telegraph and the New York Tribune 
 of that summer are full of their writings. 
 
 Mr. Alcott's Diary furnishes clear evidence 
 of his purposes and hopes : — 
 
 11 1 would abstain from the fruits of oppression 
 and blood, and am seeking means of entire inde- 
 pendence. This, were I not holden by penury un- 
 justly, would be possible. One miracle we have 
 wrought nevertheless, and shall soon work all of 
 them: Our wine is water, flesh, bread — drugs, 
 fruits; and we defy meekly the satyrs all, and 
 ^Esculapians. The Soul's banquet is an art divine. 
 . . . This Beast named Man has yet most costly 
 tastes, and must first be transformed into a very 
 Man, regenerate in appetite and desire, before 
 the earth shall be restored to fruitfulness, and re- 
 deemed from the curse of his cupidity. Then 
 shall the toils of the farm become eloquent and 
 invigorating leisures; Man shall grow his orchards 
 and plant his gardens — an husbandman truly, 
 sowing and reaping in hope, and a partaker in his 
 hope. Labor will be attractive; life will not be 
 worn in anxious and indurating toils ; it will be a 
 scene of mixed leisure, recreation, labor, culture. 
 The soil, grateful then for man's generous usage, 
 debauched no more by foul ordures, nor worn by 
 cupidities, shall recover its primeval virginity, 
 bearing on its bosom the standing bounties which 
 
SUMMER SUNSHINE 73 
 
 a sober and liberal Providence ministers to his 
 heed — sweet and invigorating growths, for the 
 health and comfort of the grower." 
 
 Mr. Sanborn, commenting on this, remarks : — 
 " It was in the spirit of the passages just quoted 
 from Alcott's diary . . . and not from the or- 
 dinary Fourieristic notions about attractions and 
 destinies and cooperative housekeeping that Al- 
 cott undertook his experiment at 'Fruitlands.'" 
 
 Alcott's theory of human life was thus set 
 down in his Diary : — 
 
 11 1 have been (as is ever the habit of my mind) 
 striving to apprehend the real in the seeming, to 
 strip ideas of their adventitious phrases, and 
 behold them in their order and powers. I have 
 sought to penetrate the showy terrestrial to find 
 the heavenly things ; I have tried to translate into 
 ideas the language and images of spirit, and thus 
 to read God in his works. The outward I have 
 seen as the visible type of the inward. Ever 
 doth this same nature double its divine form, 
 and stand forth — now before the inner, now 
 before the outer sense of man — at once sub- 
 stance and form, image and idea, so that God 
 shall never slip wholly from consciousness of 
 the Soul. Faith apprehends his agency, even in 
 the meanest and most seemingly trivial act, 
 whenever organ or matter undergo change of 
 
74 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 function or mode of form, — Spirit being all in all. 
 Amidst all tumults and discomfitures, all errors 
 and evils, Faith discerns the subtle bond that 
 marries opposite natures, clinging to that which 
 holds all in harmonious union. It unites oppo- 
 sites; it demolishes opposing forces. It melts all 
 solid and obstinate matters. It makes fluid the 
 material universe. It hopes even in despair, be- 
 lieves in the midst of doubts, apprehends stabil- 
 ity and order even in confusion and anarchy, 
 and, while all without is perturbed and wasting, 
 it possesses itself in quietude and repose within. 
 It abides in the unswerving, is mighty in the 
 omnipotent, and enduring in the eternal. The 
 soul quickened by its agency, though borne on 
 the waves of the mutable and beset by the 
 winds of error and the storms of evil, shall ride 
 securely under this directing hand to the real and 
 the true. In the midst of change, it shall remain 
 unchanged. For to such a faith is the divine 
 order of God made known. All visible things are 
 but manifestations of this order. Nature, with 
 all its change, is but the activity of this power. 
 It flows around and obeys the invisible self- 
 anchored spirit. Mutability to such a vision, is 
 as the eddy that spirit maketh around its own 
 self -circling agency, revealing alike in the small- 
 est ripple and the mightiest surges the power that 
 stirreth at the centre." 
 
VI 
 
 FATHER HECKER'S DESCRIPTION OF FRUITLANDS 
 
 [Isaac Thomas Hecker was born in New York 
 in 1 819. Two years after his experience at Brook 
 Farm and Fruitlands he entered the Roman 
 Catholic church, and in 1849 he was ordained a 
 priest. Later he founded the Paulist Fathers. He 
 died in 1888. The following extracts are taken 
 from a contemporary record of his impressions 
 while in the socialistic community.] 
 
 "Fruitlands," so called because fruit was to be 
 the principal staple of daily food, and to be culti- 
 vated on the farm, was a spot well chosen; it was 
 retired, breathing quiet and tranquillity. No 
 neighboring dwelling obstructed the view of Na- 
 ture, and it lay some distance even from a by- 
 path road, in a delightful solitude. The house, 
 somewhat dilapidated, was on the slope of a 
 slowly ascending hill; stretched before it was a 
 small valley under cultivation, with fields of corn, 
 potatoes, and meadow. In the distance loomed 
 up on high "Cheshire's haughty hill," Monadnoc. 
 Such was the spot chosen by men inspired to live 
 a holier life, to bring Eden once more upon earth. 
 These men were impressed with the religiousness 
 
76 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 of their enterprise. When the first load of hay 
 was driven into the barn and the first fork was 
 about to be plunged into it, one of the family took 
 off his hat and said, " I take off my hat, not that 
 I reverence the barn more than other places, but 
 because this is the first fruit of our labor." Then 
 a few moments were given to silence, that holy 
 thought might be awakened. 
 
 July 7, 1843. Brook Farm. 
 
 I go to Mr. Alcott's next Tuesday, if nothing 
 happens. I have had three pairs of coarse pants 
 and a coat made for me. It is my intention to 
 commence work as soon as I get there. I will 
 gradually simplify my dress without making any 
 sudden difference, although it would be easier to 
 make a radical and thorough change at once than 
 piece by piece. But this will be a lesson in patient 
 perseverance to me. All our difficulties should be 
 looked at in such a light as to improve and ele- 
 vate our minds. 
 
 I can hardly prevent myself from saying how 
 much I shall miss the company of those I love 
 and associate with here. But I must go. I am 
 called with a stronger voice. This is a different 
 trial from any I have ever had. I have never had 
 that of leaving kindred, but now I have that of 
 leaving those whom I love from affinity. If I 
 wished to live a life the most gratifying to me, 
 
ISAAC T. HECKER 
 
HECKER'S DESCRIPTION OF FRUITLANDS 77 
 
 and in agreeable company, I certainly would re- 
 main here. Here are refining amusements, culti- 
 vated persons — and one whom I have not 
 spoken of, one who is too much to me to speak of, 
 one who would leave all for me. Alas! him I 
 must leave to go. 
 
 " [In this final sentence, as it now stands in the 
 diary and as we have transcribed it, occurs one of 
 those efforts of which we have spoken to obliter- 
 ate the traces of this early attachment. 'Him' 
 was originally written 'her,' but the r has been 
 lengthened to an w, and the e dotted, both with 
 care which overshot their mark, by an almost im- 
 perceptible hair's breadth. If the nature of this 
 attachment were not so evident from other 
 sources, we should have left such passages un- 
 quoted ; fearing lest they might be misunderstood. 
 As it is, 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 tended.] M1 
 
 Fruitlands, July 12. 
 Last evening I arrived here. After tea I went 
 out in the fields and raked hay for an hour in 
 company with the persons here. We returned 
 1 Walter Elliott's Life of Father Hecker. 
 
78 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 and had a conversation on clothing. Some very- 
 fine things were said by Mr. Alcott and Mr. Lane. 
 In most of their thoughts I coincide ; they are the 
 same which of late have much occupied my 
 mind. Alcott said that "to Emerson the world 
 was a lecture room, to Brownson a rostrum." 
 
 This morning after breakfast a conversation 
 was held on Friendship and its laws and condi- 
 tions. Mr. Alcott places Innocence first; Larned, 
 Thoughtf ulness ; I, Seriousness; Lane, Fidelity. 
 
 July i3- 
 This morning after breakfast there was held a 
 conversation on the Highest Aim. Mr. Alcott 
 said it was Integrity; I, Harmonic being; Lane, 
 Progressive being; Larned, Annihilation of self; 
 Bower, Repulsion of the evil in us. Then there 
 was a confession of the obstacles which prevent 
 us from attaining the highest aim. Mine was the 
 doubt whether the light is light ; not want of will 
 to follow, or light to see. 
 
 July 17. 
 
 I cannot understand what it is that leads me, 
 or what I am after. Being is incomprehensible. 
 What shall I be led to? Is there a being whom I 
 may marry and who would be the means of open- 
 ing my eyes? Sometimes I think so, but it ap- 
 pears impossible. Why should others tell me that 
 it is so, and will be so, in an unconscious way, as 
 
HECKER'S DESCRIPTION OF FRUITLANDS 79 
 
 Larned did on Sunday last, and as others have 
 done before him? Will I be led home? It strikes 
 me these people here, Alcott and Lane, will be a 
 great deal to me. I do not know but they may be 
 what I am looking for, or the answer to that in 
 me which is asking. 
 
 Can I say it? I believe it should be said. Here 
 I cannot end. They are too near me ; they do not 
 awaken in me that sense of their high superiority 
 which would keep me here to be bettered, to be 
 elevated. They have much, very much. I de- 
 sire Mr. Alcott's strength of self-denial, and the 
 unselfishness of Mr. Lane in money matters. In 
 both these they are far my superior. I would be 
 meek, humble, and sit at their feet that I might 
 be as they are. They do not understand me, but 
 if I am what my consciousness, my heart, lead 
 me to feel, — if I am not deceived, — why, then 
 I can wait. Yes, patiently wait. Is not this the 
 first time since I have been here that I have re- 
 covered myself? Do I not feel that I have some- 
 thing to receive here, to add to, to increase my 
 highest life, which I have never felt anywhere 
 else? 
 
 Is this sufficient to keep me here? If I can 
 prophesy, I must say no. I feel that it will not 
 fill my capacity. Oh God ! strengthen my resolu- 
 tion. Let me not waver, and continue my life. 
 But I am sinful. Oh forgive my sins ! what shall I 
 
8o BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 do, O Lord! that they may be blotted out? Lord 
 could I only blot them out from my memory, 
 nothing would be too great or too much. 
 
 July 1 8. 
 I have thought of my family this afternoon, 
 and the happiness and love with which I might 
 return to them. To leave them, to give up the 
 idea of living with them again. — Can I enter- 
 tain that idea? Still, I cannot conceive how I can 
 engage in business, share the practices, and in- 
 dulge myself with the food and garmenture of 
 our home and city. To return home, were it pos- 
 sible for me, would most probably not only stop 
 my progress, but put me back. It is useless for 
 me to speculate upon my future. Put dependence 
 on the spirit which leads me, be faithful to it, 
 work and leave results to God. If the question 
 should be asked me, whether I would give up my 
 kindred and business and follow out this spirit 
 life, or return and enjoy them both, I could not 
 hesitate a moment, for they would not compare — 
 there would be no room for choice. What I do I 
 must do, for it is not I that do it ; it is the spirit. 
 What that spirit may be is a question I cannot 
 answer. What it leads me to do will be the only 
 evidence of its character. I feel as impersonal as 
 a stranger to it. I ask who are you? Where are 
 you going to take me? Why me? Why not some 
 
HECKER'S DESCRIPTION OF FRUITLANDS 81 
 
 one else? Alas! I cry, who am I and what does 
 this mean? And I am lost in wonder. 
 
 Saturday, July 21. 
 
 Yesterday, after supper, a conversation took 
 place between Mr. Alcott, Mr. Lane, and my- 
 self; the subject was my position with regard to 
 my family, my duty, and my position here. Mr. 
 Alcott asked for my first impressions as regards 
 the hinderances that I have noted since coming 
 here. I told him candidly they were: 
 
 First, his want of frankness; 2d, his disposition 
 to separateness rather than win co-operation 
 with the aims in his own mind ; 3d, his family who 
 prevent his immediate plans of reformation; 4th, 
 the fact that his place has very little fruit on it, 
 when it was and is their desire that fruit should 
 be the principal part of their diet; 5th, my fear 
 that they have too decided tendency toward lit- 
 erature and writing for the prosperity and success 
 of their enterprise. 
 
 [From this on, the diary is full of questionings 
 and unrest. Should he return to his family and 
 live as an ordinary man, or should he listen to 
 the urge of the spirit within and seek further for 
 the light? These and other questions pursued 
 him night and day. Finally he came to a conclu- 
 sion.] 
 
82 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 July 23. 
 I will go home, be true to the spirit with the 
 help of God, and wait for further light and 
 strength. ... I feel that I cannot live at this 
 place as I would. This is not the place for my 
 soul. . . . My life is not theirs. They have been 
 the means of giving me much light on myself, but 
 I feel I would live and progress more in a different 
 atmosphere. 
 
 [It is interesting to note that after his return 
 home he continued the diet which was used at 
 Fruitlands. The account of his life states: "One 
 of the first noteworthy things revealed by the 
 diary, which from this time on was kept with less 
 regularity than before, — is that Isaac not only 
 maintained his abstemious habits after his return, 
 but increased their vigor."] 
 
 August 30. 
 
 If the past nine months or more are any evi- 
 dence, I find that I can live on very simple diet — 
 grains, fruit, and nuts. I have just commenced to 
 eat the latter ; I drink pure water. So far I have 
 had wheat ground and made into unleavened 
 bread, but as soon as we get in a new lot, I shall 
 try it in the grain. 
 
 Hecker had evidently at this time a practical 
 conviction of the truth of a principle which, in 
 
HECKER'S DESCRIPTION OF FRUITLANDS 83 
 
 after years, he repeated in the form of a maxim 
 of the Transcendentalists : "A gross feeder will 
 never be a central thinker." It is a truth of the 
 spiritual no less than of the intellectual order. A 
 little later we come upon the following profession 
 of a vegetarian faith : — 
 
 "Reasons for not eating animal food. 
 
 "It does not feed the spirit. 
 
 "It stimulates the propensities. 
 
 "It is taking animal life when the other king- 
 doms offer sufficient and better increment. 
 Slaughter strengthens the lower instincts. It is 
 the chief cause of the slavery of the kitchen. 
 
 " It generates in the body the diseases animals 
 are subject to, and encourages in man their 
 bestiality. 
 
 "Its odor is offensive and its appearance un- 
 eesthetic." 
 
 Mr. Alcott's death in 1888 was the occasion of 
 reminiscences from Father Hecker, from which a 
 few extracts are taken : — 
 
 "When did I first know him? Hard to re- 
 member. He was the head of Fruitlands, as 
 Ripley was of Brook Farm. They were entirely 
 different men. Diogenes and his tub would have 
 been Alcott's ideal if he had carried it out. Rip- 
 ley's ideal would have been Epictetus. Ripley 
 would have taken with him the good things of 
 
84 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 this life. Alcott would have rejected them 
 all." 
 
 "How did he receive you at Fruitlands?" 
 
 "Very kindly, but from mixed and selfish 
 motives. I suspect he wanted me because he 
 thought I would bring money to the Community. 
 Lane was entirely unselfish." 
 
 "Alcott was a man of great intellectual gifts or 
 acquirements. His knowledge came chiefly from 
 experience and instinct. He had an insinuating 
 and persuasive way with him." 
 
 "What if he had been a Catholic, and thor- 
 oughly sanctified?" 
 
 "He could have been nothing but a hermit like 
 those of the fourth century — he was naturally 
 and constitutionally so odd. Emerson, Alcott, 
 and Thoreau were three consecrated cranks." 
 
 Here also are two interesting passages from the 
 "Life of Father Hecker," and a few memoranda 
 of private conversations : — 
 
 "Somebody once described 'Fruitlands' as a 
 place where Mr. Alcott looked benign and talked 
 philosophy, while Mrs. Alcott and the children 
 did the work. Still to look benign is a good deal 
 for a man to do persistently in an adverse world, 
 indifferent for the most part to the charms of 
 'divine philosophy,' and Mr. Alcott persevered 
 in that exercise until his latest day." 
 
HECKER'S DESCRIPTION OF FRUITLANDS 85 
 
 "He was unquestionably one of those who like 
 to sit upon a platform," wrote at the time of his 
 death, one who knew Alcott well, "and he may 
 have liked to feel that his venerable aspect had 
 the effect of a benediction." "But with this mild 
 criticism, censure of him is well-nigh exhausted." 
 
 "Fruitlands was very different from Brook 
 Farm — far more ascetic." 
 
 "You did n't like it?" 
 
 "Yes; but they did not begin to satisfy me. I 
 said to them: If you had the Eternal here, all 
 right, I would be with you." 
 
 "Had they no notion of hereafter?" 
 
 "No, nothing definite. Their idea was human 
 perfection. They set out to demonstrate what 
 man can do in the way of the supremacy of the 
 spiritual over the animal; All right, I said, I agree 
 with you fully. I admire your asceticism; it is 
 nothing new to me; I have practiced it a long 
 time myself. If you can get the Everlasting out 
 of my mind, I 'm yours. But I know that I am go- 
 ing to live forever." 
 
 "What did Mr. Alcott say when you left?" 
 
 "He went to Lane and said, 'Well, Hecker has 
 flunked out. He had n't the courage to persevere. 
 He 's a coward.' But Lane said, ' No; you 're mis- 
 taken. Hecker is right. He wanted more than 
 we had to give him.'" 
 
VII 
 
 ANNA ALCOTT'S DIARY AT FRUITLANDS 
 
 1843. 
 
 This morning I rose pretty early. After break- 
 fast I read and wrote stories. In the afternoon I 
 wrote some letters, And the following ode to 
 Louisa : — 
 
 Louisa dear 
 With love sincere 
 Accept this little gift from me. 
 It is with pleasure 
 I send this treasure 
 And with it send much love to thee. 
 
 Sister dear 
 
 Never fear. 
 
 God will help you if you try. 
 
 Do not despair, 
 
 But always care 
 
 To be good and love to try. 
 
 June 6, 1843. 
 Having been busy helping arrange things for 
 moving last Thursday, we left Concordia later 
 for Harvard. I walked part of the way, the dis- 
 tance being 14 miles from Concord to Harvard. 
 I felt sad at the thought of leaving Concord and 
 all my little friends, the birth-place of Abba where 
 I had spent many happy hours; but Father and 
 Mother and my dear sisters were going with me, 
 
ANNA ALCOTT'S DIARY AT FRUITLANDS 87 
 
 and that would make me happy anywhere, I 
 think. We arrived at our new home late in the 
 afternoon. Our first load of furniture had come 
 before us. We found Christy, Wood Abraham, 
 and William all here. Mother was well pleased 
 with the house. There is no beauty in the house 
 itself, but to look out on three sides, you can see 
 mountains, hills, woods, and in some places the 
 Still River may be seen through the trees. At 
 some distance are the Shaker Villages. On the 
 whole, I like the house very well. After eating 
 our supper we fixed our beds and went early to 
 bed. Having no time to put up the bedsteads, 
 we slept on the floor which made my back lame. 
 Friday and Saturday in working and arranging 
 the house in order. To-day in the morning I 
 cleared the table and washed the dishes, being 
 washing day. I washed with Mother and got 
 dinner. In the afternoon I sewed and read. I did 
 not do much this evening, for I went to bed when 
 I had finished the dishes. The men have been 
 planting to-day corn, and cutting wood and fix- 
 ing round about the house out of doors. 
 
 Wednesday, 11. 
 
 I began my school to-day. We commenced by 
 
 singing, "When the day with rosy light." It 
 
 seemed so pleasant to sing with my sisters. After 
 
 singing I wrote my journal and the girls wrote in 
 
88 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 their books. They then studied arithmetic lesson. 
 I then gave them a recess, after which they spelt, 
 read and Louisa recited geography. At eleven the 
 school was dismissed. In the afternoon I sewed 
 for my dolly and took care of Abba, then all went 
 to walk in the woods. It was quiet and beautiful 
 there and I felt a calmness in myself. The sun. 
 was shining and the birds were singing in the 
 branches of the high trees. It was so beautiful 
 it seemed as if God was near me. I made some 
 oak leaf wreaths, one for father and one for 
 mother, and stuck flowers in them. They looked 
 very pretty indeed. Then we returned from our 
 walk and prepared for supper. In the evening I 
 sang with Christy, William, mother, and sisters. 
 
 Thursday, 8. 
 To-day I gave the children lessons this morn- 
 ing. In the afternoon I wrote. Christy is going 
 to teach me arithmetic and composition, and the 
 subject upon which I am to write is our plan of 
 life. The part I wrote on to-day was flesh-eating. 
 I will write it in here. 
 
 COMPOSITION 
 
 Life was given to the animals not to be de- 
 stroyed by men, but to make them happy, and 
 that they might enjoy life. But men are not 
 satisfied with slaying the innocent creatures, but 
 
z£ 
 
 ABBA MAY ALCOTT 
 
 LOUISA MAY ALCOTT 
 
 ANNA BRONSON ALCOTT 
 
ANNA ALCOTT'S DIARY AT FRUITLANDS 89 
 
 they eat them and so make their bodies of flesh 
 meat. how many happy lives have been de- 
 stroyed and how many loving families have been 
 separated to please an unclean appetite of men! 
 Why were the fruits, berries and vegetables given 
 us if it was intended that we should eat flesh? I 
 am sure it was not. We enjoy the beautiful 
 sights and thoughts God has given us in peace. 
 Why not let them do the same? We have souls 
 to feel and think with, and as they have not the 
 same power of thinking, they should be allowed 
 to live in peace and not made to labour so hard 
 and be beaten so much. Then to eat them! eat 
 what has had life and feeling to make the body 
 of the innocent animals! If treated kindly, they 
 would be kind and tame and love men, but as they 
 now are abused and cruelly treated they do not 
 feel the feeling of "love" towards men. Besides 
 flesh is not clean food, and when there is beauti- 
 ful juicy fruits who can be a flesh-eater? 
 
 In the evening I sang again as I did last night. 
 
 Friday, 9. 
 After breakfast, it being my day for dishes, I 
 cleared up the table. At eleven I had my compo- 
 sition lesson. In the afternoon I sewed, read and 
 played. I sewed in the evening and went to bed 
 early. 
 
go BR0NS0N ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 Saturday, 10. 
 This morning father and Mr. Lane went to 
 visit the Shakers in Harvard town. I did the 
 chamber work and then worked and made some 
 bread for dinner, and prepared things ready for 
 it. In the afternoon I laid down, it being very- 
 warm out, and read in " Devereux " which pleased 
 me very well. It rained hard and steadily for some 
 time. Father and Mr. Lane returned late in the 
 afternoon. They brought home sweet things they 
 had purchased of the Shakers. We played out on 
 the grounds a little while and then I read and 
 went to bed early. 
 
 Sunday, n. 
 
 I read until 10 o'clock when we had reading. 
 In the afternoon I read, wrote and had my lessons 
 with Christy. In the evening I received a note 
 from mother accompanied by a roll containing 
 some wafers and some note paper. It was as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 Dear Anna: 
 
 I send you a little note paper and a few wafers. 
 You have so much to do lately that I cannot ex- 
 pect you to write often to me, but you must not 
 forget that this is a little duty of yours that gives 
 me a great deal of happiness. This last word re- 
 minds me of one of father's beautiful selections 
 to-day. 
 
ANNA ALCOTT'S DIARY AT FRUITLANDS 91 
 
 " Happiness is like the bird 
 That broods above its nest 
 And feels beneath its folded wings 
 Life's dearest and its best." 
 
 I am sure I feel as if I could fold my arms 
 around you all, and say from my heart, "Here is 
 my world within my embrace." Let us try, dear 
 Anna, to make it a good and beautiful world, — 
 that when we are called to leave it we may be fit 
 to join the good and beautiful of another sphere. 
 
 All things proclaim 
 In the valley and plain 
 That God is near. 
 Hills, vales and brooks, 
 Sweet words and looks, 
 Cast out all fear. 
 
 Be the dove of our ark, 
 Dear Anna remark 
 You 're my eldest and best, 
 Now you know all the rest, 
 
 So farewell dear, 
 God is near, 
 No evil fear, 
 Be happy here. 
 
 Mother. 
 
 I love to receive letters from mother. She al- 
 ways writes me such dear kind notes. 
 
 Monday, 12. 
 This morning mother baked. I read. Mrs. 
 Lovejoy and Mrs. Willard came here to see 
 mother. In the afternoon I read and wrote, and 
 
92 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 took a walk with the girls into the woods. In the 
 evening I played and had a shower bath, and 
 then went to bed. 
 
 Tuesday, 13. 
 
 Mrs. Willard came here and helped mother 
 wash to-day. I helped her some. In the morning 
 I took care of Abba and wrote some. In the after- 
 noon I played, studied, and worked. When Mrs. 
 Willard went home Louisa and I walked with her 
 to learn the way to the house where she lives, for 
 as she took some sewm-gTrxTdo for mother, we 
 wanted to know the way there. We saw some 
 young women braiding straw hats. One of them 
 did it very fast indeed. I think I should like... to 
 know how to make hats. Their mother aske<lijs 
 to come and see them (her name is Willard) and 
 mother said we might go. We rode home with 
 Mr. Wyman. When we got here we found two 
 young ladies and a girl who came to see us. 
 They soon went home. I ate my supper and soon 
 after it went to my bed. 
 
 Wednesday, 14. 
 
 I ironed to-day with mother, and read some. 
 I have not very much to say and so I will write a 
 French fable. [Here a fable is written out in very 
 good French.] 
 
 Thursday, 15. 
 
 This morning I felt quite unwell, so I laid 
 down and saw Louisa keep school for Lizzie and 
 
ANNA ALCOTT'S DIARY AT FRUITLANDS 93 
 
 Abba. I read in "Tales of a Traveller" most all 
 the morning. In the afternoon I had a composi- 
 tion lesson, and then saw father and Abraham 
 winnow some corn and some barley. I then rode 
 to the mill with him and took Abba with us. I 
 never saw a mill working before that I recollect. 
 I sewed when I came home and in the evening 
 talked. 
 
 Friday, 1 6. 
 
 Uncle Christy went to Boston this morning. As 
 I was running to bid him good-bye my foot 
 slipped and I fell down on my back. It hurt me a 
 good deal and I had a pain in my side. In the 
 afternoon I went to bed and read. When I got 
 up I fainted. I went to my bed early. 
 
 Saturday, 24. 
 This was Lizzie's birthday. I arose before five 
 o'clock and went with mother, William, and 
 Louisa to the woods where we fixed a little pine 
 tree in the ground and hung up all the presents 
 on it. I then made a wreath for all of us of oak 
 leaves. After breakfast we all, except Abraham, 
 marched to the wood. Mr. Lane took his fiddle 
 with him and we sang first. Then father read a 
 parable, and then this ode which he wrote him- 
 self. I will write it on the next page. Father then 
 asked me what flower I should give Lizzie on her 
 birthday. I said a rose, the emblem of Love and 
 
94 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 Purity. Father also chose a rose. Louisa said a 
 Lily-of-the- Valley, or innocence, — Mother said 
 she should give her a Forget-me-not, or remem- 
 brance. Christy said the trailing Arbutus, the 
 emblem of perseverance. Mr. Lane gave her a 
 piece of moss, or humility. Abba gave her a Wake- 
 robin. I do not know what that means. We then 
 sang. Lizzie looked at her presents and seemed 
 much pleased. Mother gave her a silk thread 
 balloon, I a fan, Louisa a pin-cushion, William a 
 book, Abba a little pitcher. Mr. Lane wrote some 
 lines of poetry which I will write in here : — 
 
 TO ELIZABETH 
 
 Of all the year the sunniest day 
 Appointed for thy birth 
 Is emblem of the longest stay 
 With us upon the earth. 
 
 Now dressed in flowers 
 
 The merry hours 
 
 Fill up the day and night. 
 
 May your whole life 
 
 Exempt from strife 
 
 Shine forth as calm and bright. 
 
 Fruitlands. 
 
 Here is father's : — 
 
 BIRTHDAY ODE 
 
 I 
 
 Here in the grove 
 With those we love, 
 In the cool shade 
 Near mede and glade 
 
ANNA ALCOTT'S DIARY AT FRJJITLANDS 95 
 
 With clover tints ore' laid — 
 
 A haunt which God ourselves have made — 
 
 The trees among 
 
 With leaves are hung. 
 
 On sylvan plat, 
 
 On forest mat, 
 
 Near meadow sweet 
 
 We take our seat, 
 
 While all around 
 
 Swells forth the sound 
 
 Our happy hearts repeat. 
 
 The wood and dell 
 
 Our joy to tell 
 
 The morning, and 
 
 Our peace to share, 
 
 Flows by his cool 
 
 A balmy school, 
 
 The Sun his fires 
 
 His kindled iris 
 
 Not yet inspires 
 
 In midnoon blaze 
 
 His scorching rays, 
 
 But all is calm and fresh and clear 
 
 And all breathes peace around us here. 
 
 II 
 
 Wake, wake harmonious swell 
 Along this deep sequestered dell, 
 Along the grass and brake, 
 And where the cattle slake 
 Their thirst, when glides 
 Adown the sloping sides 
 In ceaseless frit 
 The wizard rivulet, 
 And let the spring maze 
 Join with violin note 
 In hymning forth our praise 
 From forth melodious throat 
 Our holy joy to tell. 
 
96 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 III 
 
 Father 's here 
 
 And Mother dear 
 
 And sisters all, 
 
 The short and tall, 
 
 And Father's friends 
 
 Whom Briton lends 
 
 To noblest human ends, 
 
 With younger arm 
 
 From Brooklet farm, 
 
 But absent now 
 
 At yonder plough 
 
 With shining, cleaving share 
 
 Upturning to the upper air 
 
 The obstinate soil, 
 
 The sober son of hardy toil. 
 
 IV 
 
 Here, here we all repair 
 
 Our hope and love to share, 
 
 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 zeal, 
 
 In her most holy weal 
 
 Before us stands arrayed 
 
 In garments of a maid. 
 
 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 
 
ANNA ALCOTT'S DIARY AT FRUITLANDS 97 
 
 That on this solid sphere 
 For mortal's ear. 
 
 V 
 
 Then take our tokens all 
 
 From great and small 
 
 And close that noblest treasure beat 
 
 That in your heart doth sleep. 
 
 Mind what the spirit saith 
 
 And plight therein thy faith, 
 
 My very dear Elizabeth, 
 
 Nor let the enemy wrest 
 
 The heavenly harvest from that field, 
 
 Nor tares permit to sow, 
 
 Nor hate, nor woe 
 
 In the pure soil God's grace itself would sow; — 
 
 But bloom and open all the day 
 
 And be a flower that none shall pluck away, 
 
 A rose of Fruitland's quiet dell, 
 
 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 Paradise. 
 
 Monday, 17 July, 1843. 
 This morning, not feeling well, I did not join 
 the singing class, but kept my bed till after break- 
 fast. We had no lessons to-day and I sewed. I 
 believe I will write a story called The May 
 Morning. 
 
 A FABLE 
 
 The May Morning 
 Early one morning in May a father conducted 
 his son Theodore into the garden of a rich man 
 
98 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 which the boy had never yet seen. The garden 
 was situated at a distance from the city, and it 
 was adorned with all sorts of shrubs and plants, 
 beds of flowers and fruit trees, shady alleys and 
 pleasant groves. Through the middle of the 
 garden wandered a pellucid stream which fell 
 from a rock and formed a large pool at its foot. 
 In the cool dell the water turned a mill. In the 
 most beautiful spot in the garden were seats en- 
 twined with roses and verdant bowers. 
 
 Theodore could not satiate his eyes with the 
 charms of the place. He walked beside his father 
 mostly in silent amaze, but sometimes he would 
 exclaim: "O Father, how lovely and beautiful is 
 this garden!" 
 
 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 hill. 
 Here they listened to the roaring of the water 
 which tumbled foaming from the ledge of the 
 rocks, and in the surrounding thickets were 
 perched nightingales which mingled their strains 
 with the hoarse murmur of the fall. And The- 
 odore thought he never yet had heard nightingales 
 sing so delightfully. While they thus sat and 
 listened they heard the voice of a man and the 
 voices of children. They were the children of the 
 miller, a boy and a girl, and they were leading 
 
ANNA ALCOTT'S DIARY AT FRUITLANDS 99 
 
 their old blind grandfather between them, and 
 telling him about the beautiful shrubs and 
 flowers by the wayside, and amusing the old man 
 by their lively and simple prattle. 
 
 They conducted him to a seat in an arbor and 
 kissed him, and ran about the garden to gather 
 flowers and fruit for him. But the old man smiled , 
 and when he was alone he uncovered his head 
 and prayed with a cheerful countenance. Then 
 the hearts of Theodore and his father overflowed, 
 and they offered up prayer and praise with the 
 old man, and Theodore was overcome by his feel- 
 ings so that he could not repress his tears. 
 
 The children soon afterwards appeared, and 
 they shouted from afar, and they brought sweet- 
 smelling flowers and ripe fruit to their blind 
 grandfather. But Theodore said to his father as 
 they were returning home, "O what a delightful, 
 what a happy morning!" 
 
 THE FOUNTAIN 
 
 "The little fountain flows 
 So noiseless through the wood 
 The wanderer tastes repose 
 And from its silent flood 
 Learns meekly to do good." 
 
 It 's short, but I thought it was very pretty. 
 
 Tuesday, 18. 
 This morning after doing my work I had les- 
 sons. I wrote some in my journal and did some 
 
ioo BR0NS0N ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 sums. In the afternoon I went blue-berrying 
 with Lizzie and picked nearly, if not quite, a 
 quart. I read in the evening. 
 
 Wednesday, 19. 
 We had a descriptive lesson this morning and 
 each of us wrote a description of Fruitlands. 
 I wrote the following one : — 
 
 " FRUITLANDS " 
 
 It is a beautiful place surrounded by hills, 
 green fields and woods, and Still River is at some 
 distance flowing quietly along. Wachusett and 
 Monadoc Mountains are in sight, and also some 
 houses and fields of grain. The house itself is 
 now very pleasantly situated. It has a vegetable 
 garden behind it and some fruit trees. On the 
 left a hill on the top of which are pastures and a 
 road. In front is a small garden, and fields and a 
 house at some distance. On the right is a large 
 barn, grain and potato field, woods and moun- 
 tains. There are many pleasant walks about 
 Fruitlands, and berry fields, though the berries 
 are not yet quite ripe. 
 
 It is a pleasant place to live in, I think. 
 
 Thursday, 20. 
 
 I had my lesson this morning with Mr. Lane 
 and I did some sums with fractions. I never did 
 
ANNA ALCOTT'S DIARY AT FRUITLANDS 101 
 
 any till Mr. Lane began to teach me, and I think 
 I have learned more lately than I ever did before. 
 I think I understand what I learn too. In the 
 afternoon I had my shower bath and sewed. Mrs. 
 Lovejoy came here to see Mother and brought 
 her little baby with her. I took care of it a good 
 deal. Charlotte and Ellen Dudley came to see 
 me and went to Mrs. Barnard's of an errand with 
 me. I there became acquainted with Adelaide 
 Barnard. We all went into the schoolhouse and 
 played together. In the evening I sewed a little 
 bit and then went to bed. 
 
 Sunday, 23. 
 
 I did not feel well this morning, so I did not 
 attend the readings, but read in Miss Edge- 
 worth's "Belinda." In the afternoon I sewed 
 some and mother finished "Sowing and Reaping " 
 aloud. I then went to look for blueberries, but 
 did not find but a very few. When I returned I 
 had supper and after that I read. 
 
 Monday, 24. 
 
 I had no lessons to-day, Mr. Lane being unwell 
 and father busy. Mother washed and Louisa and 
 I helped her. I then shelled some peas for dinner. 
 Yesterday Christy went away. He will return 
 sometime I guess. In the afternoon I read part of 
 "Mademoiselle Panache." I then wrote my 
 journal and took care of Abba. William and I 
 
102 BR0NS0N ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 then ironed till we went to supper. In the evening 
 I looked for berries and went pretty early to bed. 
 
 Tuesday, 25. 
 This morning I had lessons by myself. I did a 
 French lesson and wrote in my journal. I then 
 sewed some. In the afternoon I made some little 
 presents to give Abba as to-morrow is her birth- 
 day. I then raked hay. In the evening I read in 
 "Motherless Ellen." 
 
 Wednesday, 26. 
 Abba's birthday. We did not do anything to 
 celebrate except that I put some presents into 
 her stocking last night and she found them there 
 this morning. After breakfast father and Mr. 
 Lane started for Boston with Mr. Hecker. We 
 had no lessons. I washed, and the three other 
 children went to a mill for a walk. I arranged a 
 room for myself. It is to be my room and I to 
 stay by myself in it. I then set the dinner table. 
 The children did not return till after dinner. I 
 had a bath and then arranged some pictures for 
 my scrap-book. As Mother was going into the 
 fields to help with the hay, I joined her, and after 
 working there some time went with Louisa to 
 look for berries. We found about a pint. In the 
 evening I read in "Motherless Ellen" some 
 more. 
 
ANNA ALCOTT'S DIARY AT FRUITLANDS 103 
 
 I rose pretty early this morning and having 
 bathed and dressed sat down to write my journal. 
 Having done so I went downstairs and eat break- 
 fast. After I had done I went with Louisa and 
 William to pick blackberries. We got about two 
 quarts. When we returned I read and then 
 worked with William. In the afternoon I wrote 
 and went to Mrs. Lovejoy's. I then had a bath 
 and wrote, after which I read in the newspapers. 
 In the evening I played. 
 
 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 reluctantly. 
 
 I never looked a last adieu 
 To things familiar but my heart 
 Shrank with a feeling almost pain 
 Even from their lifelessness. 
 
 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 spoken. 
 
 September, 6. 
 
 I think the world would be a very dismal world 
 without books. I could not live without them. I 
 take so much pleasure in reading beautiful stories 
 and poetry. I like to hear beautiful words and 
 thoughts. Beautiful is my favorite word. If I 
 
104 BR0NS0N ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 like anything I always say it is beautiful. It is a 
 beautiful word. I can't tell the color of it. Louisa 
 and I took a walk. It was pleasant if it had only 
 been a little warmer. When we returned we sat 
 in our chamber. I wrote down all the beautiful 
 names we could think of, and in the evening 
 wrote the colors of them. 
 
 [Here Anna's journal written at Fruitlands 
 comes to a sudden ending. Numberless pages 
 have been torn out carefully, and Mr. Alcott's 
 handwriting appears in footnotes here and there, 
 showing that it was he who destroyed the story 
 of the later days of Fruitlands written from his 
 youthful daughter's pen. It is one more proof of 
 the intensity of his feelings regarding Fruitlands, 
 and the bitter disappointment that Time never 
 softened. His own journal written there has also 
 been destroyed. It seems as if that experience of 
 failure was too heartrending to him to allow the 
 world to share it. 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 wanting. We have 
 the account of the start, so full of enthusiasm and 
 ecstatic hopefulness. The curtain has been drawn 
 over the rest as carefully as was possible. Her 
 journal starts again in 1846, but it does not state 
 the month. In it she mentions a point which 
 
ANNA ALCOTT'S DIARY AT FRUITLANDS 105 
 
 reveals something of Mr. Alcott's philosophy. 
 She says : ' ' Father said that if a person wanted a 
 thing very much and thought of it a great deal, 
 that they would probably have it."] 
 
VIII 
 
 LOUISA MAY ALCOTT's DIARY AT FRUITLANDS * 
 
 September ist. — I rose at five and had my 
 bath. I love cold water! Then we had our sing- 
 ing-lesson with Mr. Lane. After breakfast I 
 washed dishes, and ran on the hill till nine and 
 had some thoughts, — it was so beautiful up 
 there. Did my lessons, — wrote and spelt and 
 did sums; and Mr. Lane read a story, "The Ju- 
 dicious Father." How a rich girl told a poor girl 
 not to look over the fence at the flowers, and was 
 cross to her because she was unhappy. The 
 Father heard her do it, and made the girls change 
 clothes. The poor one was glad to do it, and he 
 told her to keep them. But the rich one was very 
 sad ; for she had to wear the old ones a week, and 
 after that she was good to shabby girls. I liked it 
 very much, and I shall be kind to poor people. 
 
 Father asked us what was God's noblest work. 
 Anna said men, but I said babies. Men are often 
 bad; babies never are. We had a long talk, and I 
 felt better after it, and cleared up. 
 
 We had bread and fruit for dinner. I read and 
 walked and played till supper- time. We sung in 
 the evening. As I went to bed the moon came up 
 1 When she was ten years old. 
 
LOUISA ALCOTT'S DIARY AT FRUITLANDS 107 
 
 very brightly and looked at me. I felt sad be- 
 cause I have been cross to-day, and did not mind 
 Mother. I cried, and then I felt better, and said 
 that piece from Mrs. Sigourney, "I must not 
 tease my mother." I get to sleep saying poetry, — 
 I know a great deal. 
 
 Thursday, 14th. — Mr. Parker Pillsbury came, 
 and we talked about the poor slaves. I had a 
 music lesson with Miss P. I hate her, she is so 
 fussy. I ran in the wind and played be a horse, 
 and had a lovely time in the woods with Anna 
 and Lizzie. We were fairies, and made gowns and 
 paper wings. I "flied" the highest of all. In the 
 evening they talked about travelling. I thought 
 about Father going to England, and said this 
 piece of poetry I found in Byron's poems: — 
 
 "When I left thy shores, O Naxos, 
 Not a tear in sorrow fell; 
 Not a sigh or faltered accent 
 
 Told my bosom's struggling swell." 
 
 It rained when I went to bed and made a 
 pretty noise on the roof. 
 
 Sunday, 24th. — Father and Mr. Lane have 
 gone to N. H. to preach. It was very lovely. . . . 
 Anna and I got supper. In the eve I read "Vicar 
 of Wakefield." I was cross to-day, and I cried 
 when I went to bed. I made good resolutions, and 
 
108 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 felt better in my heart. If I only kept all I make, 
 I should be the best girl in the world. But I don't, 
 and so am very bad. 
 
 (Poor little sinner! She says the same at fifty. 
 — L. M. A.) 
 
 October 8th. — When I woke up, the first 
 thought I got was, "It's Mother's birthday: I 
 must be very good." I ran and wished her a 
 happy birthday, and gave her my kiss. After 
 breakfast we gave her our presents. I had a moss 
 cross and a piece of poetry for her. 
 
 We did not have any school, and played in the 
 woods and got red leaves. In the evening we 
 danced and sung, and I read a story about "Con- 
 tentment." I wish I was rich, I was good, and we 
 were all a happy family this day. 
 
 We sang the following song: 
 
 SONG OF MAY 
 
 Hail, all hail, thou merry month of May, 
 We will hasten to the woods away 
 Among the flowers so sweet and gay, 
 Then away to hail the merry merry May — 
 
 The merry merry May — 
 Then away to hail the merry merry month of May. 
 
 Hark, hark, hark, to hail the month of May, 
 
 How the songsters warble on the spray, 
 
 And we will be as blith as they, 
 
 Then away to hail the merry merry May — 
 
 Then away to hail the merry merry month of May. 
 
LOUISA ALCOTT'S DIARY AT FRUITLANDS 109 
 
 I think this is a very pretty song and we sing 
 it a good deal. 
 
 Thursday, 12th. — After lessons I ironed. We 
 all went to the barn and husked corn. It was 
 good fun. We worked till eight o'clock and had 
 lamps. Mr. Russell came. Mother and Lizzie are 
 going to Boston. I shall be very lonely without 
 dear little Betty, and no one will be as good to me 
 as Mother. I read in Plutarch. I made a verse 
 about sunset: — 
 
 "Softly doth the sun descend 
 To his couch behind the hill, 
 Then, oh, then, I love to sit 
 
 On mossy banks beside the rill." 
 
 Anna thought it was very fine; but I did n't 
 like it very well. 
 
 Friday, Nov. 2nd. — Anna and I did the work. 
 In the evening Mr. Lane asked us, "What is 
 man? " These were our answers : A human being ; 
 an animal with a mind; a creature; a body; a soul 
 and a mind. After a long talk we went to bed 
 very tired. 
 
 (No wonder, after doing the work and worrying 
 their little wits with such lessons. — L. M. A.) 
 
 A sample of the vegetarian wafers used at 
 Fruitlands : — 
 
no BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 Vegetable diet Pluck your body Without flesh diet 
 
 and sweet repose. from the orchard; there could be no 
 
 Animal food and do not snatch it blood-shedding war. 
 
 nightmare. from the shamble. 
 
 Apollo eats no Snuff is no less snuff 
 
 flesh and has no though accepted from 
 
 beard; his voice is a gold box. 
 melody itself. 
 
 Tuesday, 20th. — I rose at five, and after 
 breakfast washed the dishes, and then helped 
 mother work. Miss P. is gone, and Anna in Bos- 
 ton with Cousin Louisa. I took care of Abba 
 (May) in the afternoon. In the evening I made 
 some pretty things for my dolly. Father and Mr. 
 L. had a talk, and father asked us if we saw any 
 reason for us to separate. Mother wanted to, she 
 is so tired. I like it, but not the school part or 
 Mr.L. 
 
 Eleven years old. Thursday, 29th. — It was 
 Father's and my birthday. We had some nice 
 presents. We played in the snow before school. 
 Mother read "Rosamond" when we sewed. 
 Father asked us in the eve what fault troubled us 
 most. I said my bad temper. 
 
 I told mother I liked to have her write in my 
 book. She said she would put in more, and she 
 wrote this to help me : — 
 
 "Dear Louey, — Your handwriting improves 
 very fast. Take pains and do not be in a hurry. 
 I like to have you make observations about our 
 
LOUISA ALCOTT'S DIARY AT FRUITLANDS in 
 
 conversations and your own thoughts. It helps 
 you to express them and to understand your little 
 self. Remember, dear girl, that a diary should be 
 an epitome of your life. May it be a record of 
 pure thought and good actions, then you will 
 indeed be the precious child of your loving 
 mother." 
 
 December ioth. — I did my lessons, and walked 
 in the afternoon. Father read to us in dear "Pil- 
 grim's Progress." Mr. L. was in Boston and we 
 were glad. In the eve father and mother and 
 Anna and I had a long talk. I was very unhappy, 
 and we all cried. Anna and I cried in bed, and I 
 prayed God to keep us all together. 
 
IX 
 
 AUTUMN DISAPPOINTMENT 
 
 As any one knows who has any experience in farm- 
 ing, 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 harvest, and 
 working diligently, gets what he can from it. 
 
 The crops at Fruitlands underwent many vicis- 
 situdes. No sooner did a crop show some sort of 
 promise than they turned it back into the earth 
 again, in order to enrich the soil, they said. This 
 method did not tend to fill the winter storehouse 
 with the needed vegetables, and a faint sug- 
 gestion of disillusionment began to creep into 
 the perfect harmony of the consociate family as 
 autumn approached. Early in September Mr. 
 Alcott and Charles Lane went on a trip in search 
 of recruits. They went to Providence and had an 
 evening's conversation with Mrs. Newcomb and 
 some of her friends, during which Mr. Alcott said 
 that, as competition had made facilities so great, 
 they might take that opportunity to go on to 
 New York. Charles Lane then spoke up and said 
 there was no other objection than lack of means, 
 whereupon the company contributed the neces- 
 sary amount. In writing to Oldham about it, 
 
AUTUMN DISAPPOINTMENT 113 
 
 Charles Lane passes comment on what he saw: 
 "We went to the Graham House to breakfast 
 where we found some people half if not quite 
 alive" and again: "The number of living persons 
 in the 300,000 inhabitants of New York is very 
 small." During this visit they went to see Mrs. 
 L. M. Child, who gave the following account of it: 
 "A day or two after [Theodore] Parker left, 
 Alcott and Lane called to see me. I asked, ' What 
 brings you to New York?' 'I don't know,' said 
 Mr. Alcott; 'it seems a miracle that we are here.' 
 Mr. Child and John Hopper went to hear a dis- 
 cussion between them and W. H. Channing. I 
 asked Mr. Child what they talked about. 'Lane 
 divided man into three states, — the discon- 
 scious, the conscious, and the unconscious. The 
 disconscious is the state of the pig ; the conscious 
 is the baptism by water; and the unconscious is 
 the baptism by fire.' I laughed, and said, 'Well, 
 how did the whole discussion affect your mind?' 
 1 Why, after I heard them talk a few minutes, I '11 
 be cursed if I knew whether I had any mind at 
 all.' J. H. stayed rather longer, though he left in 
 the midst. He said they talked about mind and 
 body. 'What did they say?' 'Why, Channing 
 seemed to think there was some connection 
 between mind and body; but those Boston folks, 
 so far as I could understand 'em, seemed to think 
 the body was all sham!' " 
 
H4 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 There is a story that on their return from New- 
 York they went by steamer to New Haven. All 
 the money that had been contributed by Mrs. 
 Newcomb and her friends had gone, but that did 
 not trouble the philosophers. They boarded the 
 boat quite serenely and when it started sat on 
 deck enjoying the breeze. The ticket-man came 
 to each passenger for his ticket, and w T hen he 
 came to Mr. Alcott and Mr. Lane, sitting there 
 in their linen suits, he asked them for theirs. 
 Quite undisturbed Mr. Alcott replied that they 
 had no money or scrip, but they would quite 
 willingly pay their way by addressing the pas- 
 sengers and crew with a little conversation in the 
 saloon. It is said that in reply the language of the 
 ticket-man was not as civil as it should have been. 
 
 It was all very pleasant, this wandering off and 
 showing their linen tunics to the world and hold- 
 ing conversations to enlighten people in regard to 
 the future wonders of the New Eden, but the day 
 they left Fruitlands Joseph Palmer was off at- 
 tending to his cattle at No Town, and the crop 
 of barley had been cut and was waiting to be 
 harvested. Poor Mrs. Alcott looked at it with 
 anxious eyes. The granary was almost empty 
 and this barley meant food. She could forget 
 herself, but she could not ignore the needs of her 
 children. Christopher Greene and Larned and 
 Bower were also away. The barley lay there with 
 
AUTUMN DISAPPOINTMENT 115 
 
 no one to bring it in to a safe shelter. The next 
 day she looked at it again with a sinking heart. 
 As the afternoon waned, black clouds covered the 
 sky and flashes of lightning rent seams through 
 them with terrifying rapidity. Then Mrs. Alcott 
 made a quick decision. Gathering all the baskets 
 she could find, she carried them to the barley- 
 field with the help of the children, and in hot 
 haste they gathered the barley into the baskets 
 and dragged them to the granary, and then ran 
 back as fast as they could for more. Thus they 
 worked with all their strength, and when the 
 storm broke, they had saved enough to last them 
 for at least a few weeks. 
 
 So if Mrs. Alcott lacked, as Lane said, spiritual 
 insight, she fortunately for them had practical 
 foresight, from which they all reaped a benefit. 
 
 The following letter to Mr. Oldham is sugges- 
 tive of the trend of affairs in the community : — 
 
 Fruitlands, Harvard, Mass., 
 September 29, 1843. 
 
 On our arrival at home we learnt that in our 
 absence several friends and strangers had called, 
 amongst them S. Bower, Parker Pillsbury, and 
 an acquaintance, Mr. Hamond of New Ipswich 
 in New Hampshire State. Thinking the latter 
 worth seeing we went to visit him, a distance of 
 about twenty-five miles. He is married to an 
 
n6 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 exoteric wife of some good household qualities; 
 he has built with his own hands a smart cottage, 
 being an expert workman, and has moreover a 
 respectable talent for portrait painting which he 
 estimates humbly without a consciousness of 
 humility. Next to Edward Palmer, he is a person 
 who, I should think, would make one with us. 
 He introduced us at two houses to four females 
 who vitally considered constitute with himself 
 the whole of the town. Our visit there will do 
 some good, for though they have read my letters 
 printed last winter in the newspapers, yet the 
 presence of a living person is much more real a 
 thing. I saw their good intentions were greatly 
 encouraged. I could not dissuade the oldest from 
 promising never to taste flesh again, which I was 
 rather inclined to on account of her years. . . . 
 
 On Saturday last Anna Alcott most magnani- 
 mously walked her little legs fourteen miles in 
 about five hours down to old Concord, where our 
 friends appear to have been pretty somnolent 
 since our departure. On Tuesday we returned 
 on foot, and accomplished somewhat towards the 
 liberation of the animals by a heroine of thirteen. 
 Mr. Emerson is, I think, quite stationary: he is 
 off the Railroad of Progress, and merely an ele- 
 gant, kindly observer of all who pass onwards, 
 and notes down their aspect while they remain 
 in sight; of course, when they arrive at a new 
 
AUTUMN DISAPPOINTMENT 117 
 
 station they are gone from and for him. I see 
 Mr. John Sterling dedicates his new tragedy of 
 "Strafford" to him: no very alarming honor! I 
 suppose that Thomas Carlyle, with all his famous 
 talking, does not yet actually lead the people out 
 of their troubles. These worthy and enlightened 
 scribblers will do little to save the nation. Some 
 there are I hope of more real solid metal. . . . 
 
 Samuel Bower has not yet had your note, as I 
 am not sure where he is. He could not, it seems, 
 long endure Joseph Palmer's offer of land, etc., it 
 was so solitary. He called here when we were on 
 our long journey on his way to Lowell, the Man- 
 chester of New England. If his aims are high and 
 his head clear, or his hands effective, he will not 
 be able to wander far from us ; but a wanderer it 
 is certain he must be allowed to be. Abraham 
 [Abram Everett] comes and goes with some re- 
 gard to the law within him ; he is now busy with 
 our latter hay, the maize, buckwheat, etc. 
 
 What is to be our destiny I can in no wise 
 guess. Mr. Alcott makes such high requirements 
 of all persons that few are likely to stay, even of 
 his own family, unless he can become more toler- 
 ant of defect. He is an artist in human character 
 requiring every painter to be a Michael Angelo. 
 He also does not wish to keep a hospital, nor even 
 a school, but to be surrounded by Masters — 
 Masters of Art, of the one grand Art of human 
 
n8 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 life. I suppose such a standard would soon empty 
 your Concordium as well as every other house, 
 which I suppose you call by insinuation "Dis- 
 cordiums," or, more elegantly, "Discordia." I 
 propose to pass at least another winter in New 
 England to know more averagingly what they are, 
 as the last was particularly severe. 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 can. We have had a fine summer 
 of three months, and a fine autumn seems on 
 hand. Sharp frost this morning, yet we took our 
 bath as usual out-of-doors in the gray of the morn 
 at one-half past five. Health, the grand external 
 condition, still attends me, every stranger rating 
 me ten or twelve years younger than I am; so 
 that if such are the effects of climate I may indeed 
 be happy, for my youthfulness is not all appear- 
 ance — I feel as buoyant and as boyish as I look, 
 which I find a capital endorsement to my asser- 
 tions about diet, etc. It staggers the sceptical 
 and sets their selfish thoughts to work. . . . 
 
 Hoping that all minds are thus laboring, let us, 
 my dear friend, act as if all good progress de- 
 pended upon us and unfailingly present a clean 
 breast to Eternal Love, shedding forth our full 
 measure in the clearest Light; in which I am 
 Thine truly, 
 
 Chas. Lane. 
 
AUTUMN DISAPPOINTMENT 119 
 
 Abraham just notifies me there is work in the 
 field, so I must go. 
 
 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 ener- 
 vating burden of clothing. Bower's experiences in 
 this line at Fruitlands had not been satisfactory 
 or convincing, as it was only at night that he 
 could make the experiment, and then they in- 
 sisted on his donning a white garment for his 
 peregrinations in the open. Even this caused 
 agitation in the neighborhood, and tales of a 
 white ghost wandering over the hillside caused 
 much alarm, and several times a posse went out 
 from the village to look into the matter. At No 
 Town he could be in solitude. While there he 
 wrote a number of articles for the Liberator, in 
 one of which he predicted the full regeneration of 
 man, " if we can rid the kitchen of its horrors and 
 keep our tables free from the mangled corse." 
 
 In another letter Lane writes to Oldham : — 
 
 ... At present I am situated thus. All the 
 persons who have joined us during the summer 
 have from some cause or other quitted, they say 
 in consequence of Mr. Alcott's despotic manner, 
 which he interprets as their not being equal to the 
 
120 BR0NS0N ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 Spirit's demands. Joseph Palmer, who has done, 
 and is doing our farmwork for love, still remains 
 in the same relation as he ever did. 
 
 Palmer says that having once declared this 
 land free we should never go back, at least until 
 the work has been fairly tested. Under all this it 
 should be stated that Mrs. Alcott has no spon- 
 taneous inclination towards a larger family than 
 her own natural one, of spiritual ties she knows 
 nothing, though to keep all together she does and 
 would go through a good deal of exterior and 
 interior toil. I hoped I had done with pecuniary 
 affairs, but it seems I am not to be let off. The 
 crops, I believe, will not discharge all the obliga- 
 tions they were expected to liquidate, and against 
 going further into debt I am most determinately 
 settled. . . . You will perceive that I have, like 
 yourself, a small peck of troubles; not quite 
 heavy enough to drive me to a juncture with our 
 friends, the Shakers, but sufficiently so to put the 
 thought into one's head, as you perceive. In the 
 midst of all these events and of William's illness, 
 who is in bed eight or ten days with a sort of bil- 
 ious fever, I am not without the consolatory hope 
 that some measure of Spirit utilitary is bound up 
 with our obscure doings. 
 
 Yours most affectionately, 
 Charles Lane. 
 
 At a late visit on foot to Roxbury, I found the 
 
AUTUMN DISAPPOINTMENT 121 
 
 numbers at Brook Farm considerably diminished. 
 I don't know what they will say to my letter if 
 they see it in The New Age, but never mind. 
 
 From now on clashing of wills disturbed the 
 serenity of Fruitlands. Charles Lane, despondent 
 over the course of events and the sense of failure, 
 and seeing further financial complications in 
 store for him, began seriously to consider the plan 
 of life adopted by the Shakers whose well-filled 
 corn-bins and full-rigged haylofts bespoke a sys- 
 tem which provided plenty for man and beast, 
 and gave time for alternate work and meditation. 
 He began to talk of this to Mr. Alcott and urged 
 him toward a more monastic life, and then sug- 
 gested that they should join them. That he had 
 great influence with Mr. Alcott is evident, and 
 Mrs. Alcott, who fully realized this, grew restless 
 and then alarmed. 
 
 In writing to Oldham, Lane kept dwelling upon 
 Mrs. Alcott. Once he wrote: "Mrs. Alcott has 
 passed from the ladylike to the industrious order, 
 but she has much inward experience to realize. 
 Her pride is not yet eradicated and her peculiar 
 maternal love blinds her to all else — whom does 
 it not so blind for a season?" l 
 
 And he ascribes the failure of other persons to 
 join the experiment largely to Mrs. Alcott, "who 
 1 Sanborn's Bronson Alcott. 
 
122 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 vows that her own family are all that she lives 
 for." No such narrow purpose, Lane adds, has 
 inspired him; and he blames Mr. Alcott for lis- 
 tening too much to his family affections, and 
 regarding too much what that guardian angel of 
 middle-class England, Mrs. Grundy, will say. 
 
 In speaking of Mr. Alcott, he complains that 
 "constancy to his wife and inconstancy to the 
 Spirit have blurred over his life forever." 
 
 Poor Mrs. Alcott, poor "Marmee," as her 
 daughters called her ! — in her loyalty she had 
 almost worked her fingers to the bone with no 
 thanks for it. Her days had passed without any 
 help to lighten the manual labor. At first they 
 said that not a lamp could lighten Fruitlands 
 because the oil contained animal fat, and only- 
 bay berry candles could be used, and only a few of 
 them. But Mrs. Alcott then rebelled. How could 
 she sew and mend the clothes with such poor 
 light? There seemed some sense in this, so one 
 small lamp was brought to Fruitlands just for 
 her. The philosophers tried sitting in the dark, 
 but one by one would try to find some pretext to 
 join her at the sewing-table, and Mrs. Alcott's 
 lamp burned bright and steady, an emblem of her 
 own true and faithful heart. 
 
 Ellery Channing said : " Mrs. Alcott was one of 
 the most refined persons of my acquaintance. 
 She told me years afterwards that in 1843-44 sne 
 
AUTUMN DISAPPOINTMENT 123 
 
 feared for her husband's sanity; he did such 
 strange things without seeming to know how odd 
 they were ; wearing only linen clothes and canvas 
 shoes, and eating only vegetables." 
 
 November 26, 1843, Lane wrote to Oldham 
 from Fruitlands : — 
 
 " What with agitations of mind and ills of body, 
 I have passed a less happy time than usual. Wil- 
 liam was ill a whole month with a low fever so 
 that he could not even sit up in bed for one 
 minute. I had to nurse him while plagued with 
 hands so chapped and sore that I was little more 
 capable than the patient. Then came Mr. 
 [Samuel J.] May's announcement that he should 
 not pay the note to which he had put his hand ; so 
 that money affairs and individual property come 
 back again upon me for a season. Thereupon 
 ensued endless discussions, doubts, and anticipa- 
 tions concerning our destiny. These still hang 
 over us. But in the midst of them Mrs. 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 children. 
 As she will take all the furniture with her, this 
 proceeding necessarily leaves me alone and naked 
 in a new world. Of course Mr. A. and I could not 
 remain together without her. To be 'that devil 
 come from Old England to separate husband and 
 
i2 4 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 wife/ I will not be, though it might gratify New 
 England to be able to say it. So that you will 
 perceive a separation is possible. Indeed, I be- 
 lieve that under the circumstances it is now 
 inevitable." 
 
 Mr. Sanborn says in his "Memoirs of Bronson 
 Alcott": — 
 
 " Those who read Louisa's 'Transcendental 
 Wild Oats ' will see by her names ' Timon Lion ' for 
 Lane, and 'Abel Lamb' for Alcott, that she 
 looked on her father as rather the victim of Lane 
 in the 'Fruitlands' failure. Without conceding 
 this, the impartial observer will say that Lane 
 had the stronger will, and the far more prosaic 
 nature ; that he decided most of the questions for 
 his associates in both countries, and that he was 
 rather a hard person to get on with. Neither his 
 first wife, nor Wright, nor Mrs. Alcott, nor Alcott 
 himself, nor the Harvard Shakers, nor finally 
 Oldham, could quite suit him. He over-per- 
 suaded Alcott, who was a good farmer and me- 
 chanic, to adopt impossible modes of working the 
 1 Fruitlands' farm, and much of their whimsies in 
 dress and food seem to have come from Lane and 
 his English friends. Mrs. Alcott, when reestab- 
 lished in a home of her own at Concord, early in 
 1845, offered Lane a home there, and he tried it 
 for a time in the next summer, but still com- 
 
AUTUMN DISAPPOINTMENT 125 
 
 plained, as he had at 'Fruitlands,' that she 
 wished to keep her family small, and made it 
 uncomfortable for guests. Knowing Mrs. Alcott's 
 character well, in the last twenty years of her life, 
 I cannot believe that this was ever true of her. 
 She was hospitality itself, whether poor or rich; 
 and it must have been Lane's own individualism 
 that made him dissatisfied. 
 
 "The rigors of a New England winter pro- 
 moted the dissolution of the ' Fruitlands ' Com- 
 munity, but did not alone break it up. A lack of 
 organizing power to control the steady current 
 of selfishness, as well as the unselfish vagaries of 
 his followers, was the real cause. Nothing in fact 
 could be more miserable than the failure of this 
 hopeful experiment." 
 
 Mr. Alcott had written in his diary of Emer- 
 son: — " It is much to have the vision of the see- 
 ing eye. Did most men possess this, the useful 
 hand would be empowered with new dexterity 
 also. Emerson sees me, knows me, and more than 
 all others helps me, — not by noisy praise, not by 
 low appeals to interest and passion, but by turn- 
 ing the eye of others to my stand in reason and 
 the nature of things. Only men of like vision can 
 apprehend and counsel each other. A man whose 
 purpose and act demand but a day or an hour for 
 their completion can do little by way of advising 
 
126 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 him whose purposes require years for their ful- 
 filment. Only Emerson, of this age, knows me, of 
 all that I have found. Well, every one does not 
 find one man, one very man through and through. 
 Many are they who live and die alone, known 
 only to their survivors of an after-century." 
 
 How he recalled that now! He was tossed in 
 mind and troubled beyond measure. All his 
 beautiful dreams were melting away one by one. 
 Everything seemed to be falling from his grasp. 
 Most of the crops had failed; — the enthusiastic 
 lovers of "The Newness" had proved themselves 
 false and had slipped away as the cold weather 
 approached. All his wonderful plans had come to 
 naught. He had promised to the world the vision 
 of a new Eden : he had believed it could exist : he 
 had worked for it with his whole soul: he had 
 nothing to show for it but failure. Would his 
 friend Emerson stay by him in his anguish? He 
 believed he would, and yet how meet his friend? 
 How face the world? 
 
 The cold penetrated the old house. William 
 Lane lay ill in his room and his father watched 
 over him. All were heavy-hearted. It was as late 
 as January that Charles Lane and his son moved 
 to the Shakers. After that Mr. Alcott retired to 
 his room, as he thought, to face the end. Mr. 
 Sanborn tells us: "The final expulsion from this 
 
AUTUMN DISAPPOINTMENT 127 
 
 Paradise nearly cost Mr. Alcott his life. He re- 
 tired to his chamber, refused food, and was on 
 the point of dying from grief and abstinence, 
 when his wife prevailed on him to continue longer 
 in this ungrateful world." 
 
 This prayer was written in his diary after leav- 
 ing Fruitlands: "Light, O source of light! give 
 Thou unto thy servant, sitting in the perplexities 
 of this surrounding darkness. Hold Thou him 
 steady to Thee, to truth, and to himself; and in 
 Thine own due time give him clearly to the work 
 for which Thou art thus slowly preparing him, 
 proving his faith meanwhile in Thyself and in his 
 kind." 
 
 "Shall I say with Pestalozzi that I was not 
 made by this world, nor for it, — wherefore am I 
 placed in it if I was found unfit? And the world 
 that found him thus asked not whether it was his 
 fault or that of another ; but it bruised him with 
 an iron hammer, as the bricklayer breaks an old 
 brick to fill up a crevice." 
 
 "That is failure when a man's idea ruins him, 
 when he is dwarfed and killed by it; but when 
 he is ever growing by it, ever true to it, and 
 does not lose it by any partial or immediate fail- 
 ures, — that is success, whatever it seems to the 
 world." 
 
128 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 In speaking of the Fruitlands experiment Mr. 
 Sanborn says : — 
 
 "It brought its own compensations, and left 
 the whole Alcott family richer and not poorer 
 for this romantic experience with its sad termina- 
 tion. It prepared Alcott to face more patiently 
 the storms of later life, and to train his daughter, 
 who was his best single gift to the world, better 
 for her conspicuous service. And 'Fruitlands* 
 will be remembered, perhaps longer than most of 
 the adventures that awaited this romantic house- 
 hold in its voyage of life. . . . 
 
 "There was some foundation for Alcott' s de- 
 spair at ' Fruitlands,' and with the ill success that 
 followed him after the flourishing Temple School 
 in Boston. Emerson, the gentlest and least exact- 
 ing of men, looking at his friend's situation a few 
 years after the 'Fruitlands' experiment, wrote 
 in his private journal — ■ 
 
 " ' The plight of Mr. Alcott ! The most refined 
 and the most advanced soul we have had in New 
 England; who makes all other souls appear slow 
 and cheap and mechanical; a man of such cour- 
 tesy and greatness that in conversation all others, 
 even the intellectual, seem sharp, and fighting for 
 victory and angry, — while he has the unalter- 
 able sweetness of a muse ! Yet because he cannot 
 earn money by his talk or his pen, or by school- 
 keeping, or bookkeeping, or editing, or any kind 
 
AUTUMN DISAPPOINTMENT 129 
 
 of meanness, — nay, for this very cause that he is 
 ahead of his contemporaries, is higher than they, 
 and keeps himself out of the shop condescensions 
 and arts which they stoop to, — or, unhappily, 
 need not stoop to, but find themselves, as it were, 
 born to; therefore it is the unanimous opinion of 
 New England judges that this man must die ! We 
 do not adjudge him to hemlock or garroting, — 
 we are much too hypocritical and cowardly for 
 that. But we not less surely doom him by refus- 
 ing to protest against this doom, or combine to 
 save him, and to set him in employments fit for 
 him and salutary for the State."' 
 
 The poem written by Mr. Alcott, with the 
 title "The Return," may fittingly close this 
 chapter : — 
 
 "As from himself he fled 
 Outcast, insane, 
 Tormenting demons drove him from the gate: 
 Away he sped, 
 Casting his joys behind, 
 His better mind: 
 
 Recovered, 
 Himself again, 
 Over his threshold led, 
 Peace fills his breast, 
 He finds rest, 
 Expecting angels his arrival wait." 
 
X 
 
 IN AFTER YEARS 
 
 M ore than thirty years after the Fruitlands fail- 
 ure, Mrs. Caroline Sherman, of Chicago, heard 
 from Mr. Alcott its story as he came to view it in 
 later years. She says : — 
 
 "One day at Concord Mr. Alcott consented to 
 give his experience at Fruitlands, and for two 
 hours he entertained the little company with the 
 happiest of humor, as he told the story of his 
 effort to realize an ideal community. Together 
 with Charles Lane, he purchased a location on 
 the north side of a sandy hill in Harvard, and 
 started out with the idea of welcoming hospi- 
 tably to their community any human being who 
 sought admission. Mr. Alcott described the vari- 
 ous sorts of quaint characters who came to live 
 with them, lured by the charms of Utopia and Ar- 
 cadia combined. Only a vegetable diet was al- 
 lowed; for the rights of animals to life, liberty, 
 and the pursuit of happiness formed a funda- 
 mental principle in their constitution. This not 
 only cut them off from beef, but from milk and 
 eggs. The milk belonged to the calf, and the 
 chicken had a right to its existence as well as the 
 
IN AFTER YEARS 131 
 
 infant. Even the canker-worms that infested the 
 apple trees were not to be molested. They had as 
 much right to the apples as man had. Unfortu- 
 nately farm operations were not started until well 
 into June, and the only crop raised that was of 
 value as dependence was barley; but the philoso- 
 phers did not flinch at the thought of an exclu- 
 sively barley diet. Now and then they gave a 
 thought as to what they should do for shoes when 
 those they now had were gone ; for depriving the 
 cow of her skin was a crime not to be tolerated. 
 The barley crop was injured in harvesting, and 
 before long actual want was staring them in the 
 face. This burden fell heaviest upon Mrs. Alcott, 
 for, as housewife, it was her duty to prepare three 
 meals a day. They remained at Fruitlands till 
 mid-winter in dire poverty, all the guests having 
 taken their departure as provisions vanished. 
 Friends came to the rescue, and, concluded Mr. 
 Alcott, with a tone of pathos in his voice: 'We 
 put our four little women on an ox-sled, 1 and 
 made our way to Concord. So faded one of the 
 dreams of my youth. I have given you the facts 
 as they were ; Louisa has given the comic side in 
 
 1 As a matter of fact they did not go to Concord on 
 the ox-sled, but to Still River, where they lived for a 
 year in the house called the " Brick Ends," belonging to 
 the Love joy family. They then moved to Concord where 
 Orchard House now stands as a memorial to the later 
 years. 
 
132 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 "Transcendental Wild Oats"; but Mrs. Alcott 
 could give you the tragic side.' " 
 
 The odes addressed to Alcott by Thoreau and 
 Lowell should be recalled in connection with 
 these reminiscences of his later years: — 
 
 THE HILLSIDE HOUSE 
 
 BY HENRY DAVID THOREAU 
 
 Here Alcott thought, — respect a wise man's door! 
 
 No kinder heart a mortal form e'er held; 
 Its easy hinges ope forevermore 
 
 At touch of all, — or fervid Youth or Eld. 
 
 A mounting sage was he, and could essay 
 
 Bold flights of hope, that softly fed his tongue 
 
 With honey; then flew swift that happy day, 
 As tranced in joy on his pure themes we hung. 
 
 He knew the Scholar's art; with insight spent 
 
 On Plato's sentence, that best poesy, 
 And calm philosophy, his soul intent 
 
 Cleared the grey film of Earth and Air and Sea. 
 
 He might have lapsed, — but Heaven him held along, — 
 Or splendrous faded like some sunset dream; 
 
 But long shall live! though this bare, humble song 
 Gains not his dignity, — nor rounds its theme. 
 
 He'll dwell (doubt not) in that fond, wished-for Land, 
 Where the broad Concave's stars unquailing bloom; 
 
 The guest of angels, that consolers stand, — 
 Sweetly forgot in light Earth's lowly tomb. 
 
 Then may I wait, dear Alcott, of thy court, 
 
 Or bear a mace in thy Platonic reign ! 
 Though sweet Philosophy be not my forte, 
 
 Nor Mincio's reed, nor Learning's weary gain. 
 
IN AFTER YEARS 133 
 
 ODE TO ALCOTT 1 
 
 BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL 
 
 Hear him but speak, and you will feel 
 
 The shadows of the Portico 
 Over your tranquil spirit steal, 
 
 To modulate all joy and woe 
 
 To one subdued, subduing glow; 
 Above our squabbling business hours, 
 Like Phidian Jove's, his beauty lowers, 
 His nature satirizes ours; 
 
 A form and front of Attic grace, 
 
 He shames the higgling market-place, 
 And dwarfs our more mechanic powers. 
 
 What throbbing verse can fitly render 
 That face so pure, so trembling-tender? 
 
 Sensation glimmers through its rest, 
 It speaks unmanacled by words, 
 
 As full of motion as a nest 
 That palpitates with unfledged birds; 
 
 'Tis likest to Bethesda's stream, 
 Forewarned through all its thrilling springs, 
 
 White with the angel's coming gleam, 
 And rippled with his fanning wings. 
 
 Himself unshaken as the sky, 
 
 His words, like whirlwinds, spin on high 
 
 Systems and creeds pellmell together; 
 'Tis strange as to a deaf man's eye, 
 While trees uprooted splinter by, 
 
 The dumb turmoil of stormy weather; 
 
 Less of iconoclast than shaper, 
 His spirit, safe behind the reach 
 Of the tornado of his speech, 
 
 Burns calmly as a glowworm's taper. 
 
 1 From " Studies for Two Heads." 
 
134 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 As Mr. Alcott suffered acutely from the disas- 
 trous ending of the Fruitlands Community, so 
 also did Charles Lane. The cherished ideal of 
 the regeneration of the world by a vivid example 
 was shattered beyond repair. Saddened and dis- 
 illusioned he returned to Alcott House in England. 
 
 In writing to Thoreau from London, in 1848, 
 Emerson gives a description of him. He says: 
 ' ' I went last Sunday for the first time to see Lane 
 at Ham, and dined with him. He was full of 
 friendliness and hospitality; has a school of six- 
 teen children, one lady as matron, then Oldham. 
 This is all the household. They looked just com- 
 fortable." The matron here spoken of was un- 
 doubtedly a Miss Hannah Bond, who had lived 
 at Owen's Community at Harmony Hall, and in 
 due time Lane cast aside his antagonism to fam- 
 ily ties and married her. But from his letters to 
 Joseph Palmer, it is evident that his experience 
 in life never allowed him freedom from questions 
 of money and property. He had sunk his all in 
 the experiment at Fruitlands, as "an offering to 
 the Eternal Spirit." One feels a note of bitterness 
 in him from a letter written by Wright to Old- 
 ham in which he says : " I have been told that Mr. 
 Lane says Alcott is an unpractical dreamer, or 
 something tantamount thereto. Alas! how far 
 shall we have to go to find those who will deliver 
 the same opinion of C. L. [Charles Lane] and 
 
IN AFTER YEARS 135 
 
 W. O. [William Oldham] and others whom I 
 could mention! Sometimes I almost suspect 
 that of myself. The world has decided pretty 
 truly. I begin to respect its decision and to sus- 
 pect my own." 
 
 And from the following paragraph the pain and 
 disheartenment of a disappointed life shows itself 
 with infinite pathos, as Wright says: "Somehow 
 or other I seem to have made up my mind that 
 it is for me to die, to which I look forward with 
 hope rather than terror." "What have I ever 
 done? " he asks, and responds bitterly, "Nothing, 
 absolutely nothing ! I have dreamed only of great 
 deeds. Let me never attempt again what is be- 
 yond my being's power." 
 
 Fruitlands was left in the hands of Joseph 
 Palmer, who bought it of Charles Lane. The 
 latter, fully aware of the shrewd common sense 
 that lurked beneath an eccentric exterior, urged 
 Joseph Palmer to join him in founding a larger 
 Community, 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 success. They drew up the follow- 
 ing paper and it was duly signed and sealed : — 
 
 Whereas it is desireable to form Associations 
 of well disposed persons for the supply of their 
 physical and mental requirements, for the sup- 
 
136 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 port of a free school for youth, and a home for the 
 aged, destitute and indigent, and Whereas a cap- 
 ital of one hundred dollars for each associate is 
 deemed sufficient for beginning such an Associa- 
 tion, We, the undersigned do agree to the pur- 
 chase of estates in Leominster and Harvard, 
 Massachusetts, for the purpose of forming such an 
 Association which we propose to commence on 
 the first of January next, to the amount of five 
 thousand dollars capital, afterwards to be ex- 
 tended by the addition of new shares for the pur- 
 chase of more real estate at the discretion of the 
 shareholders assembled on the first Monday in 
 January in each year, so that all persons inter- 
 ested shall hold equal rights by possessing one 
 share only. The property now in hand for this 
 purpose consists of Land and Buildings in Leom- 
 inster and Harvard, together about 190 acres 
 with Stock, Tools, Provisions, etc., needful for 
 carrying out the said design held in the name of 
 Joseph Palmer. 
 
 Joseph Palmer. 
 
 Charles Lane. 
 August 18, 1846. 
 
 But this same shrewd common sense evidently 
 stood in the way of bringing this plan into actual 
 existence, for Charles Lane writes a letter com- 
 plaining that so much time has been wasted in 
 considering it that he can no longer remain in 
 
IN AFTER YEARS 137 
 
 America, and he sails for England leaving his son 
 William with the Shakers. It is a noticeable 
 proof of the confidence the members of the Com- 
 munity placed in Joseph Palmer that not only 
 Charles Lane wanted him as an associate, but 
 also Samuel Bower, 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 clothing. 
 But Palmer had seen enough of the Transcen- 
 dentalists to make him realize the advantages of 
 running his own Community, which he did for 
 upwards of twenty years in a strange, haphazard 
 sort of fashion. He had no name for it, and he 
 never sought recruits, but he never closed his 
 door to the wayfarer, and two large iron pots, one 
 full of baked beans, and the other full of pota- 
 toes, stood always ready for the poor and hungry. 
 And so in a humble way, Joseph and Nancy 
 Palmer carried out some of the ideals started at 
 Fruitlands by the Transcendentalists. Calvin 
 Warner lived there off and on for many years, 
 and old Widow Webber sought refuge there, 
 and many came and went. The Harvard people 
 called it a home for tramps and called him " Old 
 Jew Palmer " ; but any one who takes the trouble 
 to look closely into his life finds in him a stal- 
 wart character full of fibre and unswerving cour- 
 age, with a very real and abiding religious faith. 
 
138 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 He was a fighter for his rights, to the end. The 
 right of way belonging to Fruitlands crossed old 
 Silas Dudley's land to the highway. A continu- 
 ous battle raged concerning that right of way, 
 and so fierce did it become that when after a 
 heavy snowstorm Joseph Palmer started to 
 shovel the snow off of it, old Silas Dudley shov- 
 elled it back again. They kept at it there all day, 
 both irate old men holding out with a grim 
 determination to win. As neither succeeded in 
 gaining advantage, they sent for Mr. Emerson 
 to come and settle the question, which he did. 
 
 Quaint old times, quaint old people, — we are 
 grateful for just such pictures of the past! 
 
 The following letters were found by a grand- 
 son of Joseph Palmer among some old papers at 
 Fruitlands. 
 
 New York, Sept. 10, 1846. 
 To Joseph Palmer, 
 Still River, 
 
 Harvard, Mass. 
 Dear Friend : — 
 
 I owe you a severe scolding, and as I always 
 endeavor to pay my debts, here goes. You de- 
 tained me so long that my school is broken up, 
 the weeds are shoulder high at the door, and my 
 utility in this direction is at an end. Hereafter do 
 not be so dilatory. The good you desire to do will 
 
IN AFTER YEARS 139 
 
 forever escape undone if you are so very, very, 
 very cautious. Yet I am not for haste or for a 
 magnificent work. But having really made your 
 decision and concluded your plan, carry it out 
 faithfully and confidingly on such a scale as you 
 know you can stand by. 
 
 I read the Prospectus to several, and none ob- 
 jected. If your Leominster friends have any 
 truth in them, now it will be known. I have 
 written to D. Mack, and have tried to interest 
 some others, and I really think if you could keep 
 me in New England the next winter, the founda- 
 tion of a rational, soulful, simple Association 
 might be laid. If you had not kept me so long, 
 this might have been possible, but now it seems 
 to be my destiny to obey the manifold and un- 
 ceasing calls of the Spirit through William Old- 
 ham, and return to Alcott House, where your 
 letters will find me, and I hope you will take time 
 to write me all interesting particulars. Perhaps I 
 may work better on that side. At all events, I can 
 assure you I shall continue to take as deep, as 
 active, and as direct an interest in the Leominster 
 and Harvard Association as if I were present. 
 Now that matters are arranged a little more suit- 
 ably to my nature, I shall work for it with greater 
 freedom and potency. We should help all men 
 out of their false positions, whatever they are, as 
 fast as we can. 
 
140 BR0NS0N ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 Please do not fail to see Edmund Hosmer, and 
 commune freely with friend Emerson. Give my 
 kind remembrances to your wife and daughter, 
 to Mr. Hoi man, to Thomas and his wife, to Cal- 
 vin, and all the faithful hearts in your circle. I 
 shall endeavor to write a little history of Fruit- 
 lands, past and future, so pray supply me with 
 all the facts as they arise. I hope there will be 
 plenty of good names to put in my book. 
 
 I have faith that I shall see you again, but 
 when I cannot guess. Before that time I trust a 
 faithful band will be congregated. I do not care 
 how few, if they be but good and true. Have your 
 son and daughter signed the Prospectus? Mack 
 may come next to make the casting vote, or some 
 other one on whom you could rely. 
 
 I know that you and I, S. Ford, and your 
 daughter could carry the design through, if we 
 should have the happiness to be thrown together. 
 God knows and disposes, and blesses all the 
 earnest, in which company may you ever be 
 found with 
 
 Your resigned brother, 
 
 Charles Lane. 
 
 You have given William his letter, I suppose. 
 See him as often and cheer him as much as you 
 can. 
 
 Plenty of people from Brook Farm in conse- 
 
IN AFTER YEARS 141 
 
 quence of the changes there would be glad to 
 come. The industrials are all obliged to leave. 
 They apply to the N. A. Phalanx, but there is no 
 room for them. Let your plan be known and the 
 house may be filled. 
 
 I believe I shall sail in the Diadem for Liver- 
 pool in a day or two. 
 
 At Mr. Moore's, Knowles Place, Davidson Street, 
 East Merrimack Street, Lowell, Nov. 6, 1849. 
 
 Friend Palmer, — 
 
 Having removed to reside in Lowell it may be 
 well to inform you of the change. Perhaps you 
 sometimes come so far in this direction — if so it 
 would be cause of regret to me not to see you. 
 Now, of course, I shall see you if you visit L. 
 whilst I locate in it. 
 
 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 make. But how make it? When? Where? and 
 with whom? or, whether alone? On this subject 
 so important to me, to you and to society, I have 
 many new facts and estimates of facts all tending 
 to induce, I trust, early and beneficial action. 
 How far you might be disposed to coincide with 
 me I know not, nor how far your long experience 
 might modify my intentions if communicated. I 
 should certainly like to confer with you at length 
 
142 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 and without reservation. For such a purpose 
 writing is quite inadequate, so I shall not attempt 
 any statement of my views, etc., herein. One 
 thing, however, I may say, 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 us. Be sure C. Lane can send you nobody 
 from England, 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 expectations. 
 
 I shall most assuredly, if the Infinite Spirit 
 wills, make my home in the open heavens and 
 resume the right so long in abeyance of being 
 naturally and therefore well and sufficiently 
 clothed. The true question is a proper Individu- 
 alism and nothing that is good and desirable in 
 Socialism can come but after this. This is uni- 
 versally and ethically incontrovertible and physi- 
 cally the solution waits our action. 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 life. I think 
 I am quite clear that it will be necessary to stand 
 within circumstances having less pressure. Suit- 
 able natural conditions are indispensable and are 
 
IN AFTER YEARS 143 
 
 to be provided at whatever cost of relinquish- 
 ment of current enjoyments. 
 
 Yours faithfully, S aml. Bower. 
 
 London, Sept. 29, 1849. 
 To Joseph Palmer ', 
 Still River, 
 
 Harvard, Mass. 
 Dear Friend Palmer: — 
 
 If there was a possibility of sending me here 
 only six or seven acres of our old Fruitlands, you 
 should hear no more of me as a claimant. 
 
 As this cannot be, and I am once more adrift in 
 consequence of the lease of our house and grounds 
 having been sold, I hope you will have prosperity 
 enough in the culture to release yourself gradu- 
 ally from my encumbrance whereby I may be 
 enabled just to pay the rent on an acre or two to 
 cultivate with my own hands. 
 
 Do not let me ask in vain for a good long letter 
 
 narrating all your local news since I left your 
 
 hill regions. Mr. Emerson will inform you of 
 
 William's movements and convey any letters or 
 
 messages to me. I suppose Dr. 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 it. 
 
 Yours faithfully, ~ T 
 
 " Charles Lane. 
 
144 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 London, Sept. 16. 1851. 
 To Dr. Thomas Palmer, 
 
 Fitchburg y Mass. 
 Dear Friend : — 
 
 As I am not so certain of reaching your father 
 through the post-office as you, I enclose this note 
 to say that I should feel obliged if you would have 
 the goodness to discharge my claim. Some two or 
 three years have passed since I thought I should 
 no more trouble Mr. Emerson on the subject, 
 which is one among the reasons for urging a set- 
 tlement. Your business I am sure has been too 
 successful to make it needful to go out of the 
 family for the cash, or at all events for much of 
 it. The farm has been prosperous, and though 
 your father does not aim at commercial profits, 
 yet his industry and integrity bring them to him. 
 I feel it is but as yesterday I and your father went 
 from Harvard to Fitchburg with the cattle. Oh, 
 how hot! I am differently employed now, but I 
 still desire the field and the garden. If I had such 
 a spot here as Fruitlands I should not quit it, 
 but enjoy a life fruitful in all good. Pray, in this 
 matter of the mortgage attend to the request and 
 give my best regards to your father, from whom I 
 should much like to have a letter. 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Charles Lane. 
 
XI 
 TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS 
 
 BY 
 
 Louisa May Alcott 
 
ORIGINAL CHARACTERS OF 
 TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS 
 
 Tim on Lion Charles Lane. 
 
 His Son William Lane. 
 
 Abel Lamb A. Bronson Alcott. 
 
 Sister Hope Mrs. Alcott. 
 
 Her Daughters . . . The Alcott girls. 
 
 John Pease Samuel Bower. 
 
 Forest Absalom . . . Abram Everett. 
 
 Moses White .... Joseph Palmer. 
 
 Jane Gage Anna Page. 
 
TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS 
 
 A CHAPTER FROM AN UNWRITTEN ROMANCE 
 
 On the first day of June, 184-, a large wagon, 
 drawn by a small horse and containing a motley 
 load, went lumbering over certain New England 
 hills, with the pleasing accompaniments of wind, 
 rain, and hail. A serene man with a serene child 
 upon his knee was driving, or rather being driven, 
 for the small horse had it all his own way. A 
 brown boy with a William Penn style of coun- 
 tenance sat beside him, firmly embracing a bust 
 of Socrates. Behind them was an energetic-look- 
 ing woman, with a benevolent brow, satirical 
 mouth, and eyes brimful of hope and courage. 
 A baby reposed upon her lap, a mirror leaned 
 against her knee, and a basket of provisions 
 danced about at her feet, as she struggled with a 
 large, unruly umbrella. Two blue-eyed little girls, 
 with hands full of childish treasures, sat under 
 one old shawl, chatting happily together. 
 
 In front of this lively party stalked a tall, 
 sharp-featured man, in a long blue cloak; and a 
 fourth small girl trudged along beside him through 
 the mud as if she rather enjoyed it. 
 
 The wind whistled over the bleak hills ; the rain 
 fell in a despondent drizzle, and twilight began 
 
148 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 to fall. But the calm man gazed as tranquilly into 
 the fog as if he beheld a radiant bow of promise 
 spanning the gray sky. The cheery woman tried 
 to cover every one but herself with the big um- 
 brella. The brown boy pillowed his head on the 
 bald pate of Socrates and slumbered peacefully. 
 The little girls sang lullabies to their dolls in soft, 
 maternal murmurs. The sharp-nosed pedestrian 
 marched steadily on, with the blue cloak stream- 
 ing out behind him like a banner; and the lively 
 infant splashed through the puddles with a duck- 
 like satisfaction pleasant to behold. 
 
 Thus these modern pilgrims journeyed hope- 
 fully out of the old world, to found a new one in 
 the wilderness. 
 
 The editors of The Transcendental Tripod had 
 received from Messrs. Lion & Lamb (two of the 
 aforesaid pilgrims) a communication from which 
 the following statement is an extract : — 
 
 "We have made arrangements with the pro- 
 prietor of an estate of about a hundred acres 
 which liberates this tract from human ownership. 
 Here we shall prosecute our effort to initiate a 
 Family in harmony with the primitive instincts 
 of man. 
 
 " Ordinary secular farming is not our object. 
 Fruit, grain, pulse, herbs, flax, and other vege- 
 table products, receiving assiduous attention, 
 will afford ample manual occupation, and chaste 
 
TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS 149 
 
 supplies for the bodily needs. It is intended to 
 adorn the pastures with orchards, and to super- 
 sede the labor of cattle by the spade and the 
 pruning-knife. 
 
 "Consecrated to human freedom, the land 
 awaits the sober culture of devoted men. Be- 
 ginning with small pecuniary means, this enter- 
 prise must be rooted in a reliance on the succors 
 of an ever-bounteous Providence, whose vital 
 affinities being secured by this union with uncor- 
 rupted field and unworldly persons, the cares and 
 injuries of a life of gain are avoided. 
 
 "The inner nature of each member of the 
 Family is at no time neglected. Our plan con- 
 templates all such disciplines, cultures, and habits 
 as evidently conduce to the purifying of the in- 
 mates. 
 
 "Pledged to the spirit alone, the founders an- 
 ticipate no hasty or numerous addition to their 
 numbers. The kingdom of peace is entered only 
 through the gates of self-denial ; and felicity is the 
 test and the reward of loyalty to the unswerving 
 law of Love." 
 
 This prospective Eden at present consisted of 
 an old red farm-house, a dilapidated barn, many 
 acres of meadow-land, and a grove. Ten ancient 
 apple-trees were all the "chaste supply" which 
 the place offered as yet; but, in the firm belief 
 that plenteous orchards were soon to be evoked 
 
150 BR0NS0N ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 from their inner consciousness, these sanguine 
 founders had christened their domain Fruitlands. 
 
 Here Timon Lion intended to found a colony of 
 Latter Day Saints, who, under his patriarchal 
 sway, should regenerate the world and glorify his 
 name for ever. Here Abel Lamb, with the de- 
 voutest faith in the high ideal which was to him a 
 living truth, desired to plant a Paradise, where 
 Beauty, Virtue, Justice, and Love might live 
 happily together, without the possibility of a ser- 
 pent entering in. And here his wife, unconverted 
 but faithful to the end, hoped, after many wan- 
 derings over the face of the earth, to find rest for 
 herself and a home for her children. 
 
 "There is our new abode," announced the 
 enthusiast, smiling with a satisfaction quite 
 undamped by the drops dripping from his hat- 
 brim, as they turned at length into a cart-path 
 that wound along a steep hillside into a barren- 
 looking valley. 
 
 11 A little difficult of access," observed his 
 practical wife, as she endeavored to keep her vari- 
 ous household gods from going overboard with 
 every lurch of the laden ark. 
 
 "Like all good things. But those who ear- 
 nestly desire and patiently seek will soon find 
 us," placidly responded the philosopher from the 
 mud, through which he was now endeavoring to 
 pilot the much-enduring horse. 
 
TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS 151 
 
 "Truth lies at the bottom of a well, Sister 
 Hope," said Brother Timon, pausing to detach 
 his small comrade from a gate, whereon she was 
 perched for a clearer gaze into futurity. 
 
 "That's the reason we so seldom get at it, I 
 suppose," replied Mrs. Hope, making a vain 
 clutch at the mirror, which a sudden jolt sent fly- 
 ing out of her hands. 
 
 "We want no false reflections here," said Ti- 
 mon, with a grim smile, as he crunched the 
 fragments under foot in his onward march. 
 
 Sister Hope held her peace, and looked wist- 
 fully through the mist at her promised home. 
 The old red house with a hospitable glimmer at 
 its windows cheered her eyes; and, considering 
 the weather, was a fitter refuge than the sylvan 
 bowers some of the more ardent souls might have 
 preferred. 
 
 The new-comers were welcomed by one of the 
 elect precious, — a regenerate farmer, whose idea 
 of reform consisted chiefly in wearing white cot- 
 ton raiment and shoes of untanned leather. This 
 costume, with a snowy beard, gave him a vener- 
 able, and at the same time a somewhat bridal 
 appearance. 
 
 The goods and chattels of the Society not hav- 
 ing arrived, the weary family reposed before the 
 fire on blocks of wood, while Brother Moses White 
 regaled them with roasted potatoes, brown bread 
 
152 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 and water, in two plates, a tin pan, and one mug; 
 his table service being limited. But, having cast 
 the forms and vanities of a depraved world be- 
 hind them, the elders welcomed hardship with the 
 enthusiasm of new pioneers, and the children 
 heartily enjoyed this foretaste of what they be- 
 lieved was to be a sort of perpetual picnic. 
 
 During the progress of this frugal meal, two 
 more brothers appeared. One a dark, melancholy 
 man, clad in homespun, whose peculiar mission 
 was to turn his name hind part before and use as 
 few words as possible. The other was a bland, 
 bearded Englishman, who expected to be saved 
 by eating uncooked food and going without 
 clothes. He had not yet adopted the primitive 
 costume, however; but contented himself with 
 meditatively chewing dry beans out of a basket. 
 
 " Every meal should be a sacrament, and the 
 vessels used should be beautiful and symbolical, " 
 observed Brother Lamb, mildly, righting the tin 
 pan slipping about on his knees. "I priced a sil- 
 ver service when in town, but it was too costly; so 
 I got some graceful cups and vases of Britannia 
 ware." 
 
 "Hardest things in the world to keep bright. 
 Will whiting be allowed in the community?" in- 
 quired Sister Hope, with a housewife's interest 
 in labor-saving institutions. 
 
 "Such trivial questions will be discussed at a 
 
TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS 153 
 
 more fitting time," answered Brother Timon, 
 sharply, as he burnt his fingers with a very hot 
 potato. "Neither sugar, molasses, milk, butter, 
 cheese, nor flesh are to be used among us, for 
 nothing is to be admitted which has caused wrong 
 or death to man or beast." 
 
 "Our garments are to be linen till we learn to 
 raise our own cotton or some substitute for wool- 
 len fabrics," added Brother Abel, blissfully bask- 
 ing in an imaginary future as warm and brilliant 
 as the generous fire before him. 
 
 "Haou abaout shoes?" asked Brother Moses, 
 surveying his own with interest. 
 
 "We must yield that point till we can manu- 
 facture an innocent substitute for leather. 
 Bark, wood, or some durable fabric will be in- 
 vented in time. Meanwhile, those who desire to 
 carry out our idea to the fullest extent can go 
 barefooted," said Lion, who liked extreme meas- 
 ures. 
 
 "I never will, nor let my girls," murmured re- 
 bellious Sister Hope, under her breath. 
 
 "Haou do you cattle'ate to treat the ten-acre 
 lot? Ef things ain't 'tended to right smart, we 
 shan't hev no crops," observed the practical 
 patriarch in cotton. 
 
 "We shall spade it," replied Abel, in such per- 
 fect good faith that Moses said no more, though 
 he indulged in a shake of the head as he glanced 
 
154 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 at hands that had held nothing heavier than a 
 pen for years. He was a paternal old soul and re- 
 garded the younger men as promising boys on a 
 new sort of lark. 
 
 "What shall we do for lamps, if we cannot use 
 any animal substance? I do hope light of some 
 sort is to be thrown upon the enterprise," said 
 Mrs. Lamb, with anxiety, for in those days kero- 
 sene and camphene were not, and gas unknown in 
 the wilderness. 
 
 "We shall go without till we have discovered 
 some vegetable oil or wax to serve us," replied 
 Brother Timon, in a decided tone, which caused 
 Sister Hope to resolve that her private lamp 
 should be always trimmed, if not burning. 
 
 "Each member is to perform the work for 
 which experience, strength, and taste best fit 
 him," continued Dictator Lion. "Thus drudgery 
 and disorder will be avoided and harmony pre- 
 vail. We shall rise at dawn, begin the day by 
 bathing, followed by music, and then a chaste 
 repast of fruit and bread. Each one finds con- 
 genial occupation till the meridian meal; when 
 some deep-searching conversation gives rest to 
 the body and development to the mind. Health- 
 ful labor again engages us till the last meal, when 
 we assemble in social communion, prolonged till 
 sunset, when we retire to sweet repose, ready for 
 the next day's activity." 
 
TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS 155 
 
 "What part of the work do you incline to your- 
 self?" asked Sister Hope, with a humorous glim- 
 mer in her keen eyes. 
 
 " I shall wait till it is made clear to me. Being 
 in preference to doing is the great aim, and this 
 comes to us rather by a resigned willingness than 
 a wilful activity, which is a check to all divine 
 growth," responded Brother Timon. 
 
 "I thought so." And Mrs. Lamb sighed au- 
 dibly, for during the year he had spent in her 
 family Brother Timon had so faithfully carried 
 out his idea of "being, not doing," that she had 
 found his "divine growth" both an expensive 
 and unsatisfactory process. 
 
 Here her husband struck into the conversa- 
 tion, his face shining with the light and joy of 
 the splendid dreams and high ideals hovering 
 before him. 
 
 "In these steps of reform, we do not rely so 
 much on scientific reasoning or physiological skill 
 as on the spirit's dictates. The greater part of 
 man's duty consists in leaving alone much that he 
 now does. Shall I stimulate with tea, coffee, or 
 wine? No. Shall I consume flesh? Not if I value 
 health. Shall I subjugate cattle? Shall I claim 
 property in any created thing? Shall I trade? 
 Shall I adopt a form of religion? Shall I interest 
 myself in politics? To how many of these ques- 
 tions — could we ask them deeply enough and 
 
156 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 could they be heard as having relation to our 
 eternal welfare — would the response be ' Ab- 
 stain' ?" 
 
 A mild snore seemed to echo the last word of 
 Abel's rhapsody, for Brother Moses had suc- 
 cumbed to mundane slumber and sat nodding 
 like a massive ghost. Forest Absalom, the silent 
 man, and John Pease, the English member, now 
 departed to the barn; and Mrs. Lamb led her 
 flock to a temporary fold, leaving the founders of 
 the "Consociate Family'* to build castles in the 
 air till the fire went out and the symposium 
 ended in smoke. 
 
 The furniture arrived next day, and was soon 
 bestowed ; for the principal property of the com- 
 munity consisted in books. To this rare library 
 was devoted the best room in the house, and the 
 few busts and pictures that still survived many 
 Sittings were added to beautify the sanctuary, 
 for here the family was to meet for amusement, 
 instruction, and worship. 
 
 Any housewife can imagine the emotions of 
 Sister Hope, when she took possession of a large, 
 dilapidated kitchen, containing an old stove and 
 the peculiar stores out of which food was to be 
 evolved for her little family of eleven. Cakes of 
 maple sugar, dried peas and beans, barley and 
 hominy, meal of all sorts, potatoes, and dried 
 fruit. No milk, butter, cheese, tea, or meat ap- 
 
 i 
 
TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS 157 
 
 peared. Even salt was considered a useless lux- 
 ury and spice entirely forbidden by these lovers 
 of Spartan simplicity. A ten years' experience 
 of vegetarian vagaries had been good training for 
 this new freak, and her sense of the ludicrous 
 supported her through many trying scenes. 
 
 Unleavened bread, porridge, and water for 
 breakfast; bread, vegetables, and water for din- 
 ner; bread, fruit, and water for supper was the 
 bill of fare ordained by the elders. No teapot pro- 
 faned that sacred stove, no gory steak cried aloud 
 for vengeance from her chaste gridiron ; and only 
 a brave woman's taste, time, and temper were 
 sacrificed on that domestic altar. 
 
 The vexed question of light was settled by 
 buying a quantity of bayberry wax for candles; 
 and, on discovering that no one knew how to 
 make them, pine knots were introduced, to be 
 used when absolutely necessary. Being summer, 
 the evenings were not long, and the weary frater- 
 nity found it no great hardship to retire with the 
 birds. The inner light was sufficient for most of 
 them. But Mrs. Lamb rebelled. Evening was 
 the only time she had to herself, and while the 
 tired feet rested the skilful hands mended torn 
 frocks and little stockings, or anxious heart for- 
 got its burden in a book. 
 
 So "mother's lamp " burned steadily, while the 
 philosophers built a new heaven and earth by 
 
158 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 moonlight; and through all the metaphysical 
 mists and philanthropic pyrotechnics of that 
 period Sister Hope played her own little game of 
 "throwing light," and none but the moths were 
 the worse for it. 
 
 Such farming probably was never seen before 
 since Adam delved. The band of brothers began 
 by spading garden and field ; but a few days of it 
 lessened their ardor amazingly. 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 
 life. 
 
 Brother Moses brought a yoke of oxen from his 
 farm, — at least, the philosophers thought so till 
 it was discovered that one of the animals was a 
 cow; and Moses confessed that he "must be let 
 down easy, for he could n't live on garden sarse 
 entirely." 
 
 Great was Dictator Lion's indignation at this 
 lapse from virtue. But time pressed, the work 
 must be done ; so the meek cow was permitted to 
 wear the yoke and the recreant brother continued 
 to enjoy forbidden draughts in the barn, which 
 dark proceeding caused the children to regard 
 him as one set apart for destruction. 
 
 The sowing was equally peculiar, for, owing to 
 some mistake, the three brethren, who devoted 
 themselves to this graceful task, found when 
 
TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS 159 
 
 about half through the job that each had been 
 sowing a different sort of grain in the same field ; 
 a mistake which caused much perplexity, as it 
 could not be remedied ; but, after a long consulta- 
 tion and a good deal of laughter, it was decided 
 to say nothing and see what would come of it. 
 
 The garden was planted with a generous supply 
 of useful roots and herbs ; but, as manure was not 
 allowed to profane the virgin soil, few of these 
 vegetable treasures ever came up. Purslane 
 reigned supreme, and the disappointed planters 
 ate it philosophically, deciding that Nature knew 
 what was best for them, and would generously 
 supply their needs, if they could only learn to 
 digest her "sallets" and wild roots. 
 
 The orchard was laid out, a little grafting done, 
 new trees and vines set, regardless of the unfit 
 season and entire ignorance of the husbandmen, 
 who honestly believed that in the autumn they 
 would reap a bounteous harvest. 
 
 Slowly things got into order, and rapidly ru- 
 mors of the new experiment went abroad, causing 
 many strange spirits to flock thither, for in those 
 days communities were the fashion and tran- 
 scendentalism raged wildly. Some came to look 
 on and laugh, some to be supported in poetic idle- 
 ness, a few to believe sincerely and work heartily. 
 Each member was allowed to mount his favorite 
 hobby and ride it to his heart's content. Very 
 
160 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 queer were some of the riders, and very ramp- 
 ant some of the hobbies. 
 
 One youth, believing that language was of lit- 
 tle consequence if the spirit was only right, star- 
 tled new-comers by blandly greeting them with 
 "Good-morning, damn you," and other remarks 
 of an equally mixed order. A second irrepressible 
 being held that all the emotions of the soul should 
 be freely expressed, and illustrated his theory by 
 antics that would have sent him to a lunatic 
 asylum, if, as an unregenerate wag said, he had 
 not already been in one. When his spirit soared, 
 he climbed trees and shouted; when doubt as- 
 sailed him, he lay upon the floor and groaned 
 lamentably. At joyful periods, he raced, leaped, 
 and sang; when sad, he wept aloud; and when 
 a great thought burst upon him in the watches 
 of the night, he crowed like a jocund cockerel, to 
 the great delight of the children and the great 
 annoyance of the elders. One musical brother 
 fiddled whenever so moved, sang sentimentally 
 to the four little girls, and put a music-box on 
 the wall when he hoed corn. 
 
 Brother Pease ground away at his uncooked 
 food, or browsed over the farm on sorrel, mint, 
 green fruit, and new vegetables. Occasionally he 
 took his walks abroad, airily attired in an un- 
 bleached cotton poncho, which was the nearest 
 approach to the primeval costume he was al- 
 
TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS 161 
 
 lowed to indulge in. At midsummer he retired 
 to the wilderness, to try his plan where the wood- 
 chucks were without prejudices and huckleberry- 
 bushes were hospitably full. A sunstroke un- 
 fortunately spoilt his plan, and he returned to 
 semi-civilization a sadder and wiser man. 
 
 Forest Absalom preserved his Pythagorean 
 silence, cultivated his fine dark locks, and worked 
 like a beaver, setting an excellent example of 
 brotherly love, justice, and fidelity by his up- 
 right life. He it was who helped overworked 
 Sister Hope with her heavy washes, kneaded the 
 endless succession of batches of bread, watched 
 over the children, and did the many tasks left 
 undone by the brethren, who were so busy dis- 
 cussing and defining great duties that they forgot 
 to perform the small ones. 
 
 Moses White placidly plodded about, "chorhV 
 raound," as he called it, looking like an old-time 
 patriarch, with his silver hair and flowing beard, 
 and saving the community from many a mishap 
 by his thrift and Yankee shrewdness. 
 
 Brother Lion domineered over the whole con- 
 cern; for, having put the most money into the 
 speculation, he was resolved to make it pay, — 
 as if anything founded on an ideal basis could be 
 expected to do so by any but enthusiasts. 
 
 Abel Lamb simply revelled in the Newness, 
 firmly believing that his dream was to be beauti- 
 
162 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 fully realized and in time not only little Fruit- 
 lands, but the whole earth, be turned into a 
 Happy Valley. He worked with every muscle of 
 his body, for he was in deadly earnest. He taught 
 with his whole head and heart; planned and 
 sacrificed, preached and prophesied, with a soul 
 full of the purest aspirations, most unselfish pur- 
 poses, and desires for a life devoted to God and 
 man, too high and tender to bear the rough usage 
 of this world. 
 
 It was a little remarkable that only one woman 
 ever joined this community. Mrs. Lamb merely 
 followed wheresoever her husband led, — "as 
 ballast for his balloon," as she said, in her bright 
 way. 
 
 Miss Jane Gage was a stout lady of mature 
 years, sentimental, amiable, and lazy. She wrote 
 verses copiously, and had vague yearnings and 
 graspings after the unknown, which led her to 
 believe herself fitted for a higher sphere than 
 any she had yet adorned. 
 
 Having been a teacher, she was set to instruct- 
 ing the children in the common branches. Each 
 adult member took a turn at the infants; and, as 
 each taught in his own way, the result was a 
 chronic state of chaos in the minds of these much- 
 arHicted innocents. 
 
 Sleep, food, and poetic musings were the de- 
 sires of dear Jane's life, and she shirked all duties 
 
TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS 163 
 
 as clogs upon her spirit's wings. Any thought of 
 lending a hand with the domestic drudgery never 
 occurred to her; and when to the question, "Are 
 there any beasts of burden on the place?" Mrs. 
 Lamb answered, with a face that told its own tale, 
 ''Only one woman!" the buxom Jane took no 
 shame to herself, but laughed at the joke, and let 
 the stout-hearted sister tug on alone. 
 
 Unfortunately, the poor lady hankered after 
 the flesh-pots, and endeavored to stay herself 
 with private sips of milk, crackers, and cheese, 
 and on one dire occasion she partook of fish at a 
 neighbor's table. 
 
 One of the children reported this sad lapse from 
 virtue, and poor Jane was publicly reprimanded 
 by Timon. 
 
 " I only took a little bit of the tail," sobbed the 
 penitent poetess. 
 
 "Yes, but the whole fish had to be tortured and 
 slain that you might tempt your carnal appetite 
 with that one taste of the tail. Know ye not, 
 consumers of flesh meat, that ye are nourishing 
 the wolf and tiger in your bosoms?" 
 
 At this awful question and the peal of laughter 
 which arose from some of the younger brethren, 
 tickled by the ludicrous contrast between the 
 stout sinner, the stern judge, and the naughty 
 satisfaction of the young detective, poor Jane 
 fled from the room to pack her trunk and return 
 
164 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 to a world where fishes' tails were not forbidden 
 fruit. 
 
 Transcendental wild oats were sown broadcast 
 that year, and the fame thereof has not yet 
 ceased in the land ; for, futile as this crop seemed 
 to outsiders, it bore an invisible harvest, worth 
 much to those who planted in earnest. As none 
 of the members of this particular community 
 have ever recounted their experiences before, a 
 few of them may not be amiss, since the interest 
 in these attempts has never died out and Fruit- 
 lands was the most ideal of all these castles in 
 Spain. 
 
 A new dress was invented, since cotton, silk, 
 and wool were forbidden as the product of slave- 
 labor, worm-slaughter, and sheep-robbery. Tu- 
 nics and trowsers of brown linen were the only 
 wear. The women's skirts were longer, and their 
 straw hat-brims wider than the men's, and this 
 was the only difference. Some persecution lent 
 a charm to the costume, and the long-haired, 
 linen-clad reformers quite enjoyed the mild mar- 
 tyrdom they endured when they left home. 
 
 Money was abjured, as the root of all evil. The 
 produce of the land was to supply most of their 
 wants, or be exchanged for the few things they 
 could not grow. This idea had its inconven- 
 iences; but self-denial was the fashion, and it was 
 surprising how many things one can do without. 
 
TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS 165 
 
 When they desired to travel, they walked, if 
 possible, begged the loan of a vehicle, or boldly 
 entered car or coach, and, stating their principles 
 to the officials, took the consequences. Usually 
 their dress, their earnest frankness, and gentle 
 resolution won them a passage ; but now and then 
 they met with hard usage, and had the satisfac- 
 tion of suffering for their principles. 
 
 On one of these penniless pilgrimages they took 
 passage on a boat, and, when fare was demanded, 
 artlessly offered to talk, instead of pay. As the 
 boat was well under way and they actually had 
 not a cent, there was no help for it. So Brothers 
 Lion and Lamb held forth to the assembled pas- 
 sengers in their most eloquent style. There 
 must have been something effective in this con- 
 versation, for the listeners were moved to take 
 up a contribution for these inspired lunatics, who 
 preached peace on earth and good-will to man so 
 earnestly, with empty pockets. A goodly sum 
 was collected ; but when the captain presented it 
 the reformers proved that they were consistent 
 even in their madness, for not a penny would they 
 accept, saying, with a look at the group about 
 them, whose indifference or contempt had 
 changed to interest and respect, "You see how 
 well we get on without money"; and so went 
 serenely on their way, with their linen blouses 
 flapping airily in the cold October wind. 
 
166 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 They preached vegetarianism everywhere and 
 resisted all temptations of the flesh, contentedly 
 eating apples and bread at well-spread tables, 
 and much afflicting hospitable hostesses by de- 
 nouncing their food and taking away their ap- 
 petites, discussing the "horrors of shambles," the 
 "incorporation of the brute in man," and "on 
 elegant abstinence the sign of a pure soul." But, 
 when the perplexed or offended ladies asked 
 what they should eat, they got in reply a bill of 
 fare consisting of "bowls of sunrise for break- 
 fast," "solar seeds of the sphere," "dishes from 
 Plutarch's chaste table," and other viands equally 
 hard to find in any modern market. 
 
 Reform conventions of all sorts were haunted 
 by these brethren, who said many wise things and 
 did many foolish ones. Unfortunately, these 
 wanderings interfered with their harvest at home ; 
 but the rule was to do what the spirit moved, so 
 they left their crops to Providence and went 
 a-reaping in wider and, let us hope, more fruitful 
 fields than their own. 
 
 Luckily, the earthly providence who watched 
 over Abel Lamb was at hand to glean the scanty 
 crop yielded by the "uncorrupted land," which, 
 "consecrated to human freedom," had received 
 "the sober culture of devout men." 
 
 About the time the grain was ready to house, 
 some call of the Oversoul wafted all the men 
 
TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS 167 
 
 away. An easterly storm was coming up and the 
 yellow stacks were sure to be ruined. Then Sister 
 Hope gathered her forces. Three little girls, one 
 boy (Timon's son), and herself, harnessed to 
 clothes-baskets and Russia-linen sheets, were the 
 only teams she could command; but with these 
 poor appliances the indomitable woman got in 
 the grain and saved food for her young, with the 
 instinct and energy of a mother-bird with a 
 brood of hungry nestlings to feed. 
 
 This attempt at regeneration had its tragic as 
 well as comic side, though the world only saw the 
 former. 
 
 With the first frosts, the butterflies, who had 
 sunned themselves in the new light through the 
 summer, took flight, leaving the few bees to see 
 what honey they had stored for winter use. 
 Precious little appeared beyond the satisfaction 
 of a few months of holy living. 
 
 At first it seemed as if a chance to try holy 
 dying also was to be offered them. Timon, much 
 disgusted with the failure of the scheme, decided 
 to retire to the Shakers, who seemed to be the 
 only successful community going. 
 
 "What is to become of us?" asked Mrs. Hope, 
 for Abel was heart-broken at the bursting of his 
 lovely bubble. 
 
 "You can stay here, if you like, till a tenant is 
 found. No more wood must be cut, however, and 
 
168 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 no more corn ground. All I have must be sold to 
 pay the debts of the concern, as the responsi- 
 bility rests with me," was the cheering reply. 
 
 "Who is to pay us for what we have lost? I 
 gave all I had, — furniture, time, strength, six 
 months of my children's lives, — and all are 
 wasted. Abel gave himself body and soul, and is 
 almost wrecked by hard work and disappoint- 
 ment. Are we to have no return for this, but 
 leave to starve and freeze in an old house, with 
 winter at hand, no money, and hardly a friend 
 left ; for this wild scheme has alienated nearly all 
 we had. You talk much about justice. Let us 
 have a little, since there is nothing else left." 
 
 But the woman's appeal met with no reply 
 but the old one: "It was an experiment. We all 
 risked something, and must bear our losses as 
 we can." 
 
 With this cold comfort, Timon departed with 
 his son, and was absorbed into the Shaker 
 brotherhood, where he soon found that the order 
 of things was reversed, and it was all work and no 
 play. 
 
 Then the tragedy began for the forsaken little 
 family. Desolation and despair fell upon Abel. 
 As his wife said, his new beliefs had alienated 
 many friends. Some thought him mad, some 
 unprincipled. Even the most kindly thought him 
 a visionary, whom it was useless to help till he 
 
TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS 169 
 
 took more practical views of life. All stood aloof, 
 saying: " Let him work out his own ideas, and see 
 what they are worth.' ' 
 
 He had tried, but it was a failure. The world 
 was not ready for Utopia yet, and those who at- 
 tempted to found it only got laughed at for their 
 pains. In other days, men could sell all and give 
 to the poor, lead lives devoted to holiness and 
 high thought, and, after the persecution was over, 
 find themselves honored as saints or martyrs. 
 But in modern times these things are out of fash- 
 ion. To live for one's principles, at all costs, is 
 a dangerous speculation; and the failure of an 
 ideal, no matter how humane and noble, is harder 
 for the world to forgive and forget than bank 
 robbery or the grand swindles of corrupt politi- 
 cians. 
 
 Deep waters now for Abel, and for a time there 
 seemed no passage through. Strength and spirits 
 were exhausted by hard work and too much 
 thought. Courage failed when, looking about for 
 help, he saw no sympathizing face, no hand out- 
 stretched to help him, no voice to say cheerily, 
 
 "We all make mistakes, and it takes many 
 experiences to shape a life. Try again, and let us 
 help you." 
 
 Every door was closed, every eye averted, 
 every heart cold, and no way open whereby he 
 might earn bread for his children. His principles 
 
170 BR0NS0N ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 would not permit him to do many things that 
 others did ; and in the few fields where conscience 
 would allow him to work, who would employ a 
 man who had flown in the face of society, as he 
 had done? 
 
 Then this dreamer, whose dream was the life of 
 his life, resolved to carry out his idea to the bitter 
 end. There seemed no place for him here, — no 
 work, no friend. To go begging conditions was as 
 ignoble as to go begging money. Better perish of 
 want than sell one's soul for the sustenance of his 
 body. Silently he lay down upon his bed, turned 
 his face to the wall, and waited with pathetic 
 patience for death to cut the knot which he could 
 not untie. Days and nights went by, and neither 
 food nor water passed his lips. Soul and body 
 were dumbly struggling together, and no word of 
 complaint betrayed what either suffered. 
 
 His wife, when tears and prayers were unavail- 
 ing, sat down to wait the end with a mysterious 
 awe and submission ; for in this entire resignation 
 of all things there was an eloquent significance 
 to her who knew him as no other human being 
 did. 
 
 "Leave all to God," was his belief; and in this 
 crisis the loving soul clung to this faith, sure that 
 the Allwise Father would not desert this child 
 who tried to live so near to Him. Gathering her 
 children about her, she waited the issue of the 
 
TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS 171 
 
 tragedy that was being enacted in that solitary 
 room, while the first snow fell outside, untrodden 
 by the footprints of a single friend. 
 
 But the strong angels who sustain and teach 
 perplexed and troubled souls came and went, 
 leaving no trace without, but working miracles 
 within. For, when all other sentiments had 
 faded into dimness, all other hopes died utterly; 
 when the bitterness of death was nearly over, 
 when body was past any pang of hunger or thirst, 
 and soul stood ready to depart, the love that out- 
 lives all else refused to die. Head had bowed to 
 defeat, hand had grown weary with too heavy 
 tasks, but heart could not grow cold to those who 
 lived in its tender depths, even when death 
 touched it. 
 
 "My faithful wife, my little girls, — they have 
 not forsaken me, they are mine by ties that none 
 can break. What right have I to leave them 
 alone? What right to escape from the burden and 
 the sorrow I have helped to bring? This duty 
 remains to me, and I must do it manfully. For 
 their sakes, the world will forgive me in time ; for 
 their sakes, God will sustain me now." 
 
 Too feeble to rise, Abel groped for the food 
 that always lay within his reach, and in the dark- 
 ness and solitude of that memorable night ate 
 and drank what was to him the bread and wine of 
 a new communion, a new dedication of heart and 
 
172 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 life to the duties that were left him when the 
 dreams fled. 
 
 In the early dawn, when that sad wife crept 
 fearfully to see what change had come to the 
 patient face on the pillow, she found it smiling at 
 her, saw a wasted hand outstretched to her, and 
 heard a feeble voice cry bravely, "Hope!" 
 
 What passed in that little room is not to be 
 recorded except in the hearts of those who suf- 
 fered and endured much for love's sake. Enough 
 for us to know that soon the wan shadow of a 
 man came forth, leaning on the arm that never 
 failed him, to be welcomed and cherished by the 
 children, who never forgot the experiences of that 
 time. 
 
 "Hope" was the watchword now; and, while 
 the last logs blazed on the hearth, the last bread 
 and apples covered the table, the new com- 
 mander, with recovered courage, said to her 
 husband, — 
 
 " Leave all to God — and me. He has done his 
 part, now I will do mine." 
 
 "But we have no money, dear." 
 
 "Yes, we have. I sold all we could spare, and 
 have enough to take us away from this snow- 
 bank." 
 
 "Where can we go?" 
 
 " I have engaged four rooms at our good neigh- 
 bor, Lovejoy's. There we can live cheaply till 
 
TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS 173 
 
 spring. Then for new plans and a home of our 
 own, please God." 
 
 "But, Hope, your little store won't last long, 
 and we have no friends." 
 
 "I can sew and you can chop wood. Lovejoy 
 offers you the same pay as he gives his other men ; 
 my old friend, Mrs. Truman, will send me all 
 the work I want ; and my blessed brother stands 
 by us to the end. Cheer up, dear heart, for while 
 there is work and love in the world we shall not 
 suffer." 
 
 "And while I have my good angel Hope, I shall 
 not despair, 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 fill." 
 
 So one bleak December day, with their few pos- 
 sessions piled on an ox-sled, the rosy children 
 perched atop, and the parents trudging arm in 
 arm behind, the exiles left their Eden and faced 
 the world again. 
 
 "Ah, me ! my happy dream. How much I leave 
 behind that never can be mine again," said Abel, 
 looking back at the lost Paradise, lying white and 
 chill in its shroud of snow. 
 
 "Yes, dear; but how much we bring away," 
 answered brave-hearted Hope, glancing from 
 husband to children. 
 
 "Poor Fruitlands! The name was as great a 
 failure as the rest!" continued Abel, with a sigh, 
 
174 BRONSON ALCOTT'S FRUITLANDS 
 
 as a frostbitten apple fell from a leafless bough at 
 his feet. 
 
 But the sigh changed to a smile as his wife 
 added, in a half-tender, half-satirical tone, — 
 
 "Don't you think Apple Slump would be a 
 better name for it, dear?" 
 
 [After so many years Louisa Alcott very natu- 
 rally forgot a few unimportant details when she 
 wrote "Transcendental Wild Oats," yet they are 
 important enough to set straight. Papers lately 
 found show the exit from Fruitlands to have 
 taken place in January. She also speaks of 
 stoves in the old house. This is a mistake. The 
 old chimney was taken down by Joseph Palmer's 
 grandson, Mr. Alvin Holman, many years after 
 the Fruitlands Community was broken up.] 
 
 THE END 
 
APPENDIX 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 CATALOGUE OF THE ORIGINAL 
 FRUITLANDS LIBRARY 
 
 Hexapla; the Greek text of the New Testament with six 
 English Versions in parallel columns. 4to. London. 
 1840. 
 
 Confucii Sinarum Philosophus. Folio. 1787. 
 
 The Laws of Menu. Translated by Sir William Jones. 
 
 The Desatir; Sacred Writings of the Ancient Persian 
 Prophets. Persian and English. Bombay. 181 8. 
 
 The Divine Pymander of Hermes Trismegistus. Lon- 
 don. 1650. 
 
 Juliana's Revelation of Divine Love. 1670. 
 
 St. Bridget's Revelations. Nuremberg. 1500. 
 
 Behmen's Works. Theosophia Revelata, das ist alle 
 Gottliche Schriften des Jacob Behmens. With Life, 
 etc., edited by J. G. Gechtels. 1 vol., folio. 4,500 
 pages. 17 1 5. 
 
 The Rev. William Law's edition, containing the 
 
 Aurora or Morning Red; the Three Principles; Man's 
 Threefold Life; Answer to the Forty Questions con- 
 cerning the Soul ; Signatura Rerum ; The Four Com- 
 plexions; The Mysterium Magnum, etc. 4 vols. 4to. 
 London. 1764. 
 
 Signatura Rerum; Supersensual Life, etc. 4to. 
 
 London. 1781. 
 
 Way to Christ. London. 1775. 
 
 Teutonic Philosophy. London. 1770. 
 
 Life, by Francis Okely. Northampton. 1780. 
 
 Theosophick Philosophy Unfolded, by Edward 
 
 Taylor. London. 1691. 
 
178 APPENDIX 
 
 Behmen's Works. Epistles and Apologies, by John Spar- 
 row. London. 1662. 
 
 Graber and Gichtel. Kurze Eroffnnug und Unweisung 
 der dreyen Pincipien und Welten in Menschen. Ber- 
 lin. 1779. 
 
 H. Jansen. A Spiritual Journey. 4to. London. 1659. 
 
 Lamy. La Vie de St. Bernard. 4*0. Paris. 1648. 
 
 Henrico Khurrath. Amphitheatrum Sapientise JEtemas. 
 Folio. Magdeburg. 1602. 
 
 Molinos' Spiritual Guide. Dublin. 1798. 
 
 S. Pordage. Mundorum Explicatio. London. 1663. 
 
 J. Pordage. Theologia Mystica. London. 1683. 
 
 De Sales' Introduction to a Devout Life. London. 1686. 
 
 Matthew Weyer's Narrow Path of Divine Truth. Lon- 
 don. 1683. 
 
 Important Truths relating to Spiritual and Practical 
 Christianity. London. 1769. 
 
 Unpremeditated Thoughts of God. 
 
 H. Hugonis Pia Desideria. London. 1677. 
 
 Theologise Pacificae itemque Mysticae. Amstelodami. 
 1622. 
 
 Immanuel. By S. S. London. 1669. 
 
 A. Bourignon. Light in Darkness. London. 1703. 
 
 Solid Virtue. London. 1699. 
 
 Life and Sentiments. London. 1699. 
 
 Light of the World. London. 1696. 
 
 Madame Guyon. Poesies et Cantiques Spirituels. 
 Cologne. 1722. 
 
 Madame Guyon. Life by Brooke. Bristol. 1806. 
 
 Lettres Chretiennes, etc. 5 vols. London. 1767. 
 
 — Les Opuscules Spirituels. 2 vols. Paris. 1790. 
 
 Life. 3 vols. Paris. 1791. 
 
 Polemics. London. 1841. 
 
 Selections in German. Manheim. 1787. 
 
 Fenelon's Dissertation on Pure Love. London. 1750. 
 
 Account of Madame Guyon. London. 1759. 
 
APPENDIX 179 
 
 Fenelon's Justifications de Madame Guyon. Paris. 1790. 
 
 Maxims of the Saints. London. 1698. 
 
 Dialogues of the Dead. 2 vols. Berwick. 1770. 
 
 Lives and Maxims of Ancient Philosophers. 
 
 London. 1726. 
 
 Thomas a Kempis. Imitation of Christ. By Dr. Stan- 
 hope. London. 1759. 
 
 William Law. Way to Divine Knowledge 
 
 Spirit of Prayer. 
 
 Spirit of Love. 
 
 Christian Perfection. 
 
 Serious Call. 
 
 Letters. 
 
 Appeal. 
 
 Answer to Dr. Trapp. 
 
 Case of Reason. 
 
 Remarks on the Fable of the Bees. 1 vol. 
 
 Tracts. 
 
 Christian's Manual (extracts). 
 
 Reply to the Bishop of Bangor on the Sacra- 
 ment. 1719. 
 
 — Spiritual Fragments (extracts). 
 
 Jordani Brunonis Opera. Paris. 1654. 
 
 Swedenborg. Arcana Ccelestia. 
 
 Heavenly Doctrine. Cambridge. 1820. 
 
 Heaven and Hell. London. 1823. 
 
 Coleridge. Biographia Literaria. 2 vols. N. York. 1817. 
 
 Aids to Reflection. Burlington. 1829. 
 
 Friend. Burlington. 1831. 
 
 Graeve's Manuscripts. 12 vols. 4to. 1828 to 1842. 
 
 Maxims. London. 1826. 
 
 Novalis Schriften. Berlin. 1836. 
 
 Lane's Third Dispensation. London. 1841. 
 
 Alcott's Conversations with Children on the Gospels. 
 
 2 vols. Boston. 1836. 
 Record of a School. Boston. 1835. 
 
180 APPENDIX 
 
 Krummacher's Parabeln. 2 vols. Essen. 1840. 
 
 Spinoza's Works and Epistles. 4to. 1777. 
 
 Malebranche's Search after Truth. 2 vols. London. 
 1695. 
 
 Christian Conferences. London. 1695. 
 
 Wilmott's Lives of the Sacred Poets. London. 1834. 
 
 G. Herbert's Poems. London. 1835. 
 
 R. Crashaw's Steps to the Temple. London. 1670. 
 
 Thomas Fletcher's Purple Island. London. 1783. 
 
 Giles Fletcher's Christ's Victory. London. 1783. 
 
 Quarles's Emblems and Hieroglyphics. London. 1680. 
 
 Divine Fancies. London. 1680. 
 
 Huarte's Wits Commonwealth, or Politeuphuia. Lon- 
 don. 1598. 
 
 Southcott's Tracts. 
 
 Dr. A. Bury's Naked Gospel. 4to. London. 1691. 
 
 Bromley's Sabbath of Rest, etc. London. 1761. 
 
 Robert Barclay's Apology. London. 1765. 
 
 N. Robinson's Christian Philosopher. London. 1758. 
 
 Poiret. On the Restoration of Man. London. 1713. 
 
 Divine Economy. London. 17 13. 
 
 Virgin in Eden. London. 1741. 
 
 Rev. R. Clarke. Gospel of the Daily Service. London. 
 1767. 
 
 Jesus the Nazarene. London. 1770. 
 
 Spiritual Voice. London. 1700. 
 
 Tracts. By Jane Lead. 
 
 Boehms' History of Pietism. London. 1707. 
 
 Franck. Pietas Hallensis. London. 1705. 
 
 Pascal's Thoughts on Religion. London. 1806. 
 
 P. Buchius on the Divine Being. London. 1693. 
 
 Bellarmine's Soul's Ascension to God. London. 1703. 
 
 R. Wilkinson's Saint's Travel to Canaan. London. 
 1650. 
 
 Man before Adam. London. 1656. 
 
 T. Hartley's Paradise Restored. London. 1764. 
 
APPENDIX 181 
 
 J. Serjeant's Transnatural Philosophy. London. 1700. 
 
 Henry More. Platonic. Cambridge. 1642. 
 
 Works. Folio. London. 1642. 
 
 Universal Restitution. London. 1761- 
 
 Peter Sterry on the Freedome of the Will. Folio. Lon- 
 don. 1675. 
 
 Pathomachia, or the Battell of Affections shadowed by a 
 faigned siedge of the Citie Pathopolis. 4to. London. 
 1631. 
 
 L. Howell's Desiderius, or the Original Pilgrim. Lon- 
 don. 1 716. 
 
 Bernard's Isle of Man. London. 1803. 
 
 Olbia, or the New Island. 4to. London. 1600. 
 
 Ramsey's Philosophical Principles of Natural and Re- 
 vealed Religion. Glasgow. 2 vols. 4to. 1748. 
 
 Justus Lipsius. On Constancy. London. 1654. 
 
 General Delusion of Christians. London. 1 7 14. 
 
 Norris. On Love. London. 1723. 
 
 Amoris Effigies, of Waring. London. 1744. 
 
 On Matrimony. 2 vols. London. 1739. 
 
 Ideal World. 2 vols. London. 1701. 
 
 Wither's Britain's Remembrancer. London. 1628. 
 
 Dr. Bryom's Miscellaneous Poems. 2 vols. Manchester. 
 
 1773. 
 Du Bartas' Divine Weekes and Workes. By Josiah 
 
 Sylvester. 670 pages. Folio. London. 1641. 
 Verstegan's Restitution of Decayed Intelligence. 4to. 
 
 London. 
 Rei Rusticae Auctores Latini Veteres. M. Cato, L. 
 
 Columella, M. Varo. Palladius. 1595. 
 Tusser's Husbandry. London. 1744. 
 Evelyn. Kalendarium Hortense. London. 1699. 
 Porphyry on Abstinence from Animal Food. By T. 
 
 Taylor. London. 1823. 
 Tyron. Averroeana, or Letters from Averroes. London. 
 
 1687. 
 
i82 APPENDIX 
 
 Tyron. Way to Health. London. 1697. 
 
 Knowledge of Man's Self. London. 1703. 
 
 Letters, Philosophical, Theological, and Moral. 
 
 London. 1700. 
 
 Self-Knowledge. London. 1703. 
 
 On Dreams. London. 1691. 
 
 Newton's Return to Nature. London. 181 1. 
 
 Sir J. Floyer's ^vxpoXova-Ca. London. 1732. 
 
 R. T. Claridge's Hydropathy. London. 1842. 
 
 J. H. Cohausen. Hermippus Redivivus. London. 1771. 
 
 Thomas Stanley's History of Philosophy. 750 pages. 
 Folio. London. 1700. 
 
 Jamblichus on the Mysteries. Translated by T. Tay- 
 lor. 
 
 Life of Pythagoras. By T. Taylor. 
 
 Dacier's Lives of Pythagoras and Hierocles. London. 
 1707. 
 
 Plato's Works, containing with the fifty-five Dialogues 
 and twelve Epistles the substance of nearly all the 
 existing Greek MSS. Commentaries and scholia on 
 Plato. By Thomas Taylor. 5 vols. 4to. London. 
 1804. 
 
 Plotinus. Select Works. By T. Taylor. London. 18 17. 
 
 On Suicide. By T. Taylor. London. 1834. 
 
 Proclus. Commentaries on Euclid, by T. Taylor. 2 vols. 
 4to. London. 1788. 
 
 ■ Six Books on Plato's Theology. By T. Taylor. 
 
 2 vols. 4to. London. 18 16. 
 
 Commentaries on the Timaeus of Plato. By 
 
 T. Taylor. 2 vols. 4to. London. 1820. 
 
 Fragments. By T. Taylor. London. 1825. 
 
 Ten Doubts, etc. London. 1833. 
 
 Stanhope's Epictetus. London. 172 1. 
 
 Xenophon's Banquet. By Dr. Welwood. London. 
 
 1710. 
 Dr. J. Welwood's Essay on Socrates. London. 1710. 
 
APPENDIX 183 
 
 Xenophon's Memoirs of Socrates. By Sarah Fielding. 
 
 London. 1788. 
 Plutarch's Morals. 5 vols. London. 1694. 
 
 Lives. By Langhorn. 8 vols. London. 1821. 
 
 Seneca's Morals. London. 1688. 
 
 Marcus Antonius. London. 1534. 
 
 Julii Pacii a Berega in Porphyii Isagogen et Aristotelis 
 
 Organum. 4to. Geneva. 1605. 
 Aristotle's Metaphysics. By T. Taylor. 4to. London. 
 
 1801. 
 4to. Greek and Latin. (Jul. Pacius.) Geneva. 
 
 1605. 
 
 Greek and Latin (Jul. Pacius.) 
 
 Thomas Taylor. Dissertation on the Philosophy of 
 Aristotle. 4to. London. 1812. 
 
 Theoretic Arithmetic. 1816. 
 
 Select Works of Porphyry. London. 1823. 
 
 Ocellus Lucanus, etc. London. 1831. 
 
 See Proclus, Plato, etc. 
 
 William Bridgman. On the Nicomachean Ethics of 
 Aristotle; with Greaves's MS. Notes. 4to. London. 
 1807. 
 
 Translations of Greek Moralists. 1804. 
 
 Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. 8vo. 743 pp. Lon- 
 don. 1838. 
 
 Bacon. Novum Organum. Amstelodami. 1660. 
 
 Wisdom of the Ancients. London. 1836. 
 
 Sir T. Browne. Religio Medici, and Urn Burial. Lon- 
 don. 
 
 J. Moerman. Apologia Creaturum and other Emblems. 
 4to. 1584. 
 
 Redelium. Apophthegmata Symbolica. 
 
 Annus Symbolicus. 4to. 
 
 Menestrerii Philosophia Imaginum. Amstelodami. 1695. 
 
 Alciati Emblemata, cum Claudii Minois Commentariis 
 Raphelengii. 1608. 
 
1 84 APPENDIX 
 
 Muncherus, Mythographi Latini. Amstelodami. 1681. 
 
 Astrey's Emblems. 2 vols. London. 1700. 
 
 Choice Emblems, Divine and Moral. London. 1732. 
 
 Dr. F. Lee's 'ATroXenro/xeva, or Theological, Mathemat- 
 ical, and Physical Dissertations. 2 vols. London. 
 1752. 
 
 Dr. Godwin. Synopsis Antiquitatum Hebraicarum. 
 4to. London. 1690. 
 
 Walter Whiter. Etymologicum Magnum. 4to. Cam- 
 bridge. 1800. 
 
 B. Hollo way's Physical and Theological Originals. Ox- 
 ford. 1 75 1. 
 
 Jablonskii. Pantheon ^Sgyptiorum. 2 vols. Franco- 
 furti. 1750. 
 
 Homberg. Mythologie der Griechen und Romer. 
 Leipzig. 1839. 
 
 Pinnock's Iconology. 
 
 ^Esop's Fables and other eminent Mythologists, by 
 L'Estrange. 480 pp., folio. London. 1692. 
 
 Greek and Latin. Trajecti ad Rhenam. 1689. 
 
 Hesiod's Works. By T. Cooke. London. 1740. 
 
 Pindari. Alccei, Sapphus, Stesichori, Anacreontis, 
 Simonidis, Alcmonis, etc. Graece et Latine, Heidel- 
 berge. 1597. 
 
 Wintertoni. Poetae Minores Graeci. Graece et Latine. 
 Cantabrigiae. 1677. 
 
 Hippocrates. By Sprengell. London. 1708. 
 
 Van Helmont. Oriatrike, or Physic Refined. 1200 pp. 
 Folio. London. 1662. 
 
 Treatise on Natural Philosophy. London. 1687. 
 
 Paradoxical Discourses. London. 1685. 
 
 Paracelsus. Archidoxis. London. 1663. 
 
 Roger Bacon. Opus Magnus. 
 
 Mirror of Alchymy. 1597. 
 
 Admirable Force of Nature and Art. 
 
 Pyrotechny Asserted and Illustrated. London. 1658. 
 
APPENDIX 185 
 
 Reginald Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft. Folio. Lon- 
 don. 1665. 
 E. Sibley's Key to Physic and Occult Sciences. 4*0. 
 
 London. 
 Magiae Adamise, or the Antiquitie of Magic. London. 
 
 1650. 
 Centrum Naturae Concentratum, or the Salt of Nature 
 
 Regenerated. London. 1696. 
 Stilling's Theory of Pneumatology. London. 1834. 
 J. C. Colquhoun. Isis Revelata. 2 vols. Edinburgh. 
 
 1836. 
 K. Digbey. On the Nature of Bodies; and Man's Soule. 
 
 4to. London. 1645. 
 The Vital Principle, or Physiology of Man. London. 
 
 1838. 
 Green's Vital Dynamics. London. 1838. 
 William Cooper's Jehior, or Day of Dawning, Golden 
 
 Ass, and Catalogue of Mystic Books. London. 1673. 
 H. C. Agrippa. Occult Philosophy. 4to. London. 1655. 
 Vanity of the Arts and Sciences. 
 
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