New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-07-05
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| ~NP """ ooeH bis experiences nor now strong were
his convictions
D The name of Mr. Ripley Is intimately connected
with the well-kDown Brook Farm Association OF
Education and Agriculture in Yves. Roxbury. Maxs
OF which be was tho president till It's dissolution In
1917 That the experiment was marred BY SONS
mistakes, that it lacked not economical detail but
rather economical sagacity. is sufficiently well
known TO those who have cared to inquire into i.s
history But they will also have learned that Mr.
hipiey brought to this singular and somewhat m.-
ceiiaheous community careful common sense an
active Intelligence and sagacity which merited IL
they did not win better fortune. IL was not
enough to say that the theory was admirable, since
there was so much that was admirable
IN the practice, and since such great success
seemed within reach and might have been attained
IL only the fates bad been little kinder. How
much this " attempt to return to frat principlesD
has interested mankind Is evident from
the fact that Brook Farm, its first success
and its ultimate failure are to this day
written about and discussed. There is no account
which does not represent Mr.. Ripley as the heart,
| soul and dominant leader Of the enterprise Haw-
thorne,' who was for time one of the enlightened
coionists, gives U.S. in his American Note Booksn
many interesting notices of the life which Dr. Rip
ley and bis friends led at the Farm. There is an
amusing confession on the part of Hawthorne that
he did not milk upon a certain evening be-
cause Mr. Ripley was afraid to trust the
cows to his hands, the essayist "to their
horns" When Hawthorne broke the machine for
chOpplng hay. Alr. Ripley, he says attributed the
catastrophe to his righteous vehemencev IL was
Mr. Ripley who put "a fonr-pronged Instrument
into his hands and gave him to understand that IL
was pitchtork with which he was to attack a bean
of manure. These pastoral glImpses are not without
their interesteven the record which tells US that
Mr.. Ripley :" has bought four black pigsp Bnt
Hawthorne all along had bis doubts whether Mr..
Ripley would succeed IN educating his community
The world which may know little else of Brook
Farm, knows that 1t was q failure. "The inten-
tion." says Mr.. Frothin CHAM, was defeated by
circumstances; the hope turned out dreamr 1t
is Of record that. IN 1910. DR.. Chanting the last
man In the world to encourage rash and impossi-
BILE enterprise took counsel with Mr. Ripley Ion
tue point II lt were possible to bring thoughtful,
cultivated people together and make a society
which deserved the name." IL was Mr. Ripley who
endeavored to reduce the theories of SPECTATORS
and deoogists and economists to practice. Several
writers have given accounts of life in West
ROxbury and they all concur in representing him
as the soul of the novel enterprise lie was its
founder, and keenly felt himself responsible for its
success. He shrunk from no labor: he worked upon
the farm; he taught the pupils who brought money
to the establishments and early and late he strug-
ged to put the association, for it was not a COM
munity, upon permanent foundation In all this
he was cheeTed. sustained and assisted by his
wife, of whom all speak with affection
and profound respect. The Constitution of the
Brook Farm Association, which is preserved in
Mr.. Frothingham's Transcendentalism in New
England" sets forth its purpose with sufficient
ucdity. Its intention was "mOre effectually 10
of
establish the external relations Of life on basis
'f wisdom and purity y, me- My " to substituted
ystem Of brotherly cooperation for one of selfish
competition" The association was open to all
ects; and welcomed all kinds and degrees Of in
eleciual culture. 1t traflicked with the outside
world sold its surplus produce sold its cul-
ure to children requiring education. The numbers
veraged about seventy, comprising many women
nd men of the higher Intellectual character Brool,
arm existed some seven years. Then the society
7as broken up; the farm sold !; there was con-
derable pecunary loss. Many of its brightest Or
aments had been occasional residents who found
agreeable only for a limited retirement from the
yOrld. Many names of distinguished persons are
onnected with its history and among them those
Margaret Fuller, of Alcott, of the younger Chan
49, of Dwight of Curtis, and Of Hawthorne Mr.
oyes in his " History of American Socialism" con-
ders the Brook Farm Association to have been the
lief representative and propagative organ of Four
rsm-an opinion which many will be ready 10
spute, Emerson, who was friendly to IL, never
ined 1t. Hawthorne grew weary of IL, and has
ven us some insight of its interior phenomena In
$ Blithedale Romance" Mr.. Ripleys whole
out heart was in the experiment, and when he failed
realize his ideal of rational society, the dis
which he experienced must have been
bitter one Yet he met the catastrophe with in
mitable cheerfulness In October 1S47, he was
the Boston Convention of AssOciationists. "tri-
;phant" says The HarbinGer, amid outward fail.
e.' That year was specially destructive 10 tho
rious communities and phalanxes. The West Rox-
ny leaders drfted back to literature as profess
n-wrote books, edited new spapers aud maya
les and in these new fields many of them won
eat distinction
Jp 10 this time as afterward Mr.. Ripley's con.
buttons to periodical literature had been numer-
) and valuable. In The Christian Erominer will
fonnd articles by him upon Degerando Iierter.
stalozz Sir James Macintosh, and Martineau's
Rationale of Religious Inquiry" He was also
ltrbutOr 10 The Southern Literary MesseRqsr. 70
tndms Magazine and to Harprs Magasiae The
rbiRger magazine started in 1915
Boston. being published by the Brook
rm Phalanx Mr. Ripley being one of its
tors. This was avowedy Fourierite pubi
ion. 1t devoted, TO Mr.. Ripley's own
guage "to the cause of the oppressed the down.
lden the insnlted Masses To this pledge the
er was faithful during the four years of its ex-
nee. It's corps of contributors comprised MANY.
he ablest American writer's 1t was not, how.
r "a pecuniary success and the last number was
lished in February, 1S49.
/ the same year THE TRIDuSE was fortunate IN
ring the literary and critical services of Mr..
ley. The position which he then assumed. he
med for thirty-one years, and his labors in this
cult and important department If journalism
G continued almost TO the day of his death. Tho
cism of The TRIBUNE had been of high order
le hands of Margaret Fuller; il became broader
Q catholic. and we may say mona