Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1888-03-10

and died aged SS. The younger genera.
tion Of readers is better acquainted with
the family namc through the writings OF
his talented daughter, Miss Louisa nj.
Alcott; but to the active thinkers of
$4,000 the announcement of the old phil
osopher's death will bring recollections
and signs, not unmixcd with smiles. The
smiles will be In tender memory Of tho
days OF "Drook Farm" and other semi
socialistic experiments, when Bronson
Alcott was noted and very radical re-
former in almoA sve2y line Of living, and
equally Of the n, ,thods Of teaching
Very few 4mcu have been the subject Of
- much good humcr~i laughter and
gcpde criticism; every one liked him,
many devotedly loved him, very few
believed In him, and the mass of man
kind called him "crank." And no
wonder, for he founded his system Of
teaching on two axioms-that the soul
came into the world from q realm of pure
spirit, and that the body was degraded by
'strong meats;n hence, he maintained,
children In whom the pure spirits had but
lntely been incarnatcd were to be dealt
with as naturally pure, and corruption Of
infantile purity was to bo avoided by
proper diet, which should consist almost
entirely of milk, fruit and unstimulating
vegetables. 1t Is scarcely necessary to
say that tho average American parent,
knowing the real nature Of children by
painful experience, laughed tho philoso-
phcr to scorn. Nevertheless no taught
school I'm Boston for six years on his
theory, and afterward established this
'tnfantile quest" at Concord, where somo
traces Of that school system stfll remain.
He governed his school on tho very un-
orthodox theory that man Is by nature
prone do right, and that the opinions Of
children, before their perversion, are valu-
able; 80 he kept record of the childish
replies to his most puzzling questions,
and very extraordinary record IL was.
His own education was an extraordinary
patchwork. Born at Wolcott, Conn,
Nov. 20, 1900, he commenced protesting
against the existing condition of things as
soon as he was able to write, and kept It
up for siH1G.fve years, till paralytic
stroke In 2 deprived him Of power to
agitate fo1Dher. At an early age he made
long tour OF the south as pcddler, read
ing every book he could get hold OF and
debating all disputed themes with his
customers and entertainers. After his
experience as n teacher in Boston, he set
tied In Concord in 1896, and labored six
years to found u school of vcgetarians.
In 1S42 he went to England, and return
ing thence with two friends established a
place near Harvard called "Fruit lands"
which was to be a sort Of Eden of fruit
diet and primeval simplicity. or course
the 'old serpent" got In and eden" was
abandoned. He next worked in con-
nectton with Emerson as transcendental-
ist, and published the t'Orphic Sayings
In 1868 he published "Tablets;" in 1879,
Concord Days." and in 1872, ''Table
Talk"-all full of tho same mystical
notions about pure souls and possible per-
fection. In 1880 he married Miss May, OF
Boston, by whom he had one daughter,
the famous author of "I.ittle Women" and
other stories for children. 1t is one OF tho
pleasing contrasts we find in domestic life
that the wife was plain, common sense
Yankee girl and the daughters writings
are intensely practical while the old
gentleman remained an intuitionalist or
transcendentalist dreamer to the last.