New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-02-28

We 6ave been pleasantly disappointed IN Mr.
D;xon,s new book. European critics had prepared
,sto dislike it, The title is suggestige Of disagree
BIO tories. Tie tong Of some portions of the "N6"S
America Jed 70 the expectation of indeeacy IN sub
~ and Treatment. careful reading has not only
Interested us in the chapters themselves, but mace
IA think moro highly of Mr.. Dixon than we were olS
posed 10 think The volume shows literary sKui VI "
high order. The arrangement of materials is na,u
end the style vivid fresh, rapid, abrupt Almost Ous
entirely free from coarSeness OF anus1oh HnS u
phrase They who open the book, as many WILL N0p
ing 70 find qualification for an nnelean OF norplo
hney. viii not find what they look for Even 'he
ehapters which tell the exceedingly uneanny expert
Ances of MIR. and Mrs. Cragin with the Rev. Aoram
q Smith while conveying all the meaning OF a most
Deyeng tale are yet free from OaenslYe expressions
and NAV be read without bringing a blush to the
aheek Mr. Dixon certainly does not write III the
interest of luboity. He writes for effect; he writes
with point with brilliancy, with exaggeration; be
xEStes for the eyes but he does not write fer the
senses
The book consists OF sixty-seven short chapters
Fwenty-one tell at unnecessary even tiresome length,
Ebe story of the Pauper Paraclete' and the Female
Church at Konigsberg in Prussia. Twelve give an
acsOunt Of the Agapemone, the Abode of Love, in
kbe County OF Somerset, England. Twenty-one re-
ethe social effects which followed the great Revival
az 1882 in America. The remaining chapters arc
devoted to different aspects of the general subject;
Natural and Celestial Affnities Free Love. Spirit
-palism. There is a word about Brook Farm. and
New Harmony, SwedenbOrg, Robert Dale Owen,
Penrier, A. ]. Davis and lesser notabiGties. lib
syal supply Of what Mr.. Dixon would probably call
vaesophy Is sprinkled the pages IN the form OF
reflections and comments sometimes sagaciOus,
sometimes wise, but sometimes very fanciful and
very superficial. lie prides himself his general
izatons, and his congratulations are wild enough TO
convict him of occasional fOOshnesS. lie associates
stitutiOns together that were radically different ID
Ser purpose and scope He utters in the same breath
ase names of Robert Dale Owen and Charles Fourier
non who were 80 far apart in thought and purpose
tiIat they would not have known each other IN the
region of ideas He finds affiliations between Spirit
u1Ism and SwedenborgianisIn. and charges Mr..
Davis with plagiarizing from the Swedish Seer. lie
has notion that the instincts which lead to the doe
aEae and practice of spiritual marriage" are native
b the Gothic races and that the general movement
n the direction of this liberty is due TO their
supremacy in civilization. We encounter these oddi-
ties frequently, but they are rather amusing than
annoying More Objectionable than they are the
baundering statements into which Mr.. Dixon is be-
srayed by his rapid and reckless style; statements
Shat are peculiarly unfortunate because they imph-
cate persons many of whom are living now to read
Sfr Dixons wonderful accounts of their lives and
VpInions. Mr. Robert Dale Owen will hardly bless
hiEn for the report hero given of his doctrines and
asrts at reforming society by the abolition of mar
rAage nor will Mr.. A. j. Davis owe him thanks Tor
bbe passages he clips from his life story. Were Mrs
FarDham living she would probably send keen
errow after the man who msrepresents the tendency
Of Der teaching and some disciple ofPrOfessOr George
Bash may feel inclined TO do the same thing in de-
Sense of that earnest mans beliefs. 1t will be news
= some that book of DIR. Bushs was the source OF
N the spirtualist circles in America and more start
nag news to others that the founder Of Brook Farm,
with his " little band of poets and scholars intro
dueed Swedenborg to the intellectual world of New
England.' The "idealists of Brook Farm may have
fancied they saw in a combination of Fourier and
BwedenboTg the germs Of a new order OF things
fruitful of good alike to the body and the sou' but
ve doubt If they suspected any such thing zenobia
md Priscilla might have sent Brook Farm the way
Il Red Bank If Brook Farm had not been the first
to die natural death, or, If they bad been there,
except in HawthOrne's romantic pages; but as they
were not, 1.-The picnic Of poets and lovely women
had not the opportunity of being broken up by any
Suraphic angles Mr.. Dixons attempt to drag every
fAng and everybody into his spiritual wife theory
h about as successful as it ought to be.
The attempt, beside being rash. is unnecessary
Te authors general theory quite broad enough to
cover all his essential facts and it has the merit Of
being demonstrate. That theory. stated with the
almost fulness and abundantly illustrated is this
Mat the doctrine and practice of Spiritual Marriage
Is exhibited in communities both abroad and at
home results from an overstrained religious excite
xant. II is set up not by ayowed sinners, but by
protested saints; by those who believe themselves
exalted above the Aesh-nOt by those who know
themselves subjected to it, II has its interest rather
- psychological phenomenon than as condition of
social ethics OF phase Of private morals The story
II IL - n ~ ond aff
Heaven, and trying to divest themselves Of bodies
We shall find its origin in prayers raptures ecstasies
mystic dreams and visions Of the perfect state, not
IA the unruly affections Of the animal man. 1t comes
from the oOnventcle not from the house of disrepute
h every instance the rough people have risen
An wrath against it. In Germany. Sch0nherT. Ebel
che Countess Ida and the rest were spiritual nlum
natl who imagined themselves elevated to sphere
that transcribed the earth and It's laws Ia England
Prince with the other inmates Of the Abode of Love
dreamed of a dispensatiOn Of the Holy Ghost, Of
which they the heTalds, and of earth Of
which they were already inhabitants In America
Brimfeld Oneida, and all the other communities
sprang Immediately out Of the Great Revival Of 1892
and were founded by men and women who had either
led the Revival, or had experienced the new life in
It. Similar causes gave birth 10 the pOlygamy of
Mormonism. The Free Love Of the SpIitualSts
claims the same celestial decent and appeals to the
same heavenly sources.
The rationale Of the matter is expressed in letter
90 the author from John H. Moves RevvaIs arc
theOcratic in their very natures they introduce God
into human affairs. In the conservative theory Of
ReYivals this power is restricted TO the conversion Of
souls but in actual experience it goes tends to go
into all the affairs of life. The theOcrstc tendency
II it goes beyond religion. naturally first into
some form of socialism Religions love is very near
ttaxr al