The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-09-08
AMOS BRONSON ALCoTT.

The Concord School of Philosophy
devoted its one-day session of this year
to the memory of its founder, Amos
Bronson Alcott. A biographical ad-
dress was given by Alcott's intimate
friend, Mr.. Frank B. Sanborn; and an
account Of his philosophical system was
read by Prof. w. T. Harris. Brief adj
dresses we're made by DIR. Bartol, Mrs.
E. d. Cheney, Rev. Grindall Reynolds,
W. L. Garrison, John Albee, and
others. The Hillside Chapel was filled,
and the gathering was in every way
worthy tribute to a unique character.
1t did something, perhaps much, to-
ward giving the public right under
standing of this remarkable man and
the work he accomplished.
In letter read from DR.. Hedge,
Alcott was called our best representa-
tive of the spiritual hero. Emerson,
with twinkle in his eye, once said of
Alcott, that he sat the Darwinian
theory on it's head. These remarks of
his friends indicated how thoroughly
Alcott was an idealist, for he was born
with remarkable insight into spirit
ual facts. He hal no eye for the
material world; it was the ideal uni
verse alone in which he lived.
Alcott occupies remarkable place
in the history of philosophy, not be-
cause of the originality or the great
ness of his thought; but because he re-
vived manner of thinking wholly alien
to our practical ideas and methods. In
fragmentary way he developed his
theory of the universe in the little
book called "Table Talk" The basis
of his thought is to be found in Plotin-
us, Jamblicus, and the Platonists.
Some phases of it he caught from
Boehme, who was called by him the
greatest writer on genesis since Moses.
He was also indebted to the English
poets and essayists of the seventeenth
SOAouAy1 WhOSuieAfotCu UuO hCO-A lnboA-
ic form ,of idealism. This method of
thinking came to him with a perfect
adaptability to the qualities and ten
denotes Of his own mind. He found it
out in fragmentary way, in transla-
tions and in old English books; but he
welcomed it as if it had ever been his
own. Alcott was a gnostic, an ideal
list, transcendentalist. 1t was not in
the least difficult for him to believe
that mind is all; it would have been
impossible for him to have thought
otherwise.
Alcott deserves to be remembered
because he was So truly the knight-er-
rant of all the reforms of his day. He
was one of the listeners to Garris ms
first anti-slavery lecture in Boston,
and member OF the first anti-sl avery
society. He early espoussd the cause
of woman; he was communist in the
days of Brook Farm; and he was veg
etarian, a WateI-drinker, a non-tax
payer, and many other things, in those
days when men looked for new
heavens and new earth. In his later
years he looked back upon those days,
not with regret, but as upon time of
apprenticeship and development, half
alphabetically and half-humorously.
His work as an educator deserves to
be mentioned, not because of its direct
results, but as part of the effort of
the time to gain more natural and
individual method of instructing the
young. In Miss Elizabeth Peaboiy's
Record of Mr.. Alcott's SCHOOL, is to
be found an account of one of the most
remarkable of educational experiments.
The experiment he made deserves to
be ranked with those of Free bel and
Pestalozzi, though it was not in any
such degree successful. Its aim was
in much the same direction, and its
methods were not unlike; but AleOtt
had not the practical talent necessary
to establish his school on a working
basis.
When Alcott set about the task, on
the failure of his school, Of teaching
adults by the means of conversation,
he met with much greater success. He
was in this way great talker, and an
inspiring leader of conversations. He
was not an orator, but a talker, though
his talk was nearly always in the form
Of monologue. He needed the sym
pathy of other minds, and the stimulus
of questions and sharp retorts, to draw
out his powers and to awaken his gifts
for improvisation. He had grace,
beauty, power, inspiration and elo-
quence when he was once aroused and
his mind was in full activity. Emerson
on more than one occasion bore testi-
mony TO Alcott's conversational gifts,
and to the penetration and depth of his
thought when he was in the full move
ment of his inspired utterance. His
thought then flowed on with a readi-