New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-08-28
GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS.
LETTEi.S TO A LONGTIME FRIEND.
EARLY LETTERS OF GEORGE WILLIAM
CURTIS TO JOHN s DWIGHT Brook Farm
and Concord Edited by George Willis Cooke.
Post $40. PIP 2eI Harper Brothers

teen and thirty; the few notes at the end which
belong TO the close OF Curts's career. are I'M
, important and do not count. number Of the
! early epistles deal with the life at Brook Farm
which is, moreover treated carefully and with
many quotations in preliminary chapter by
Mr. c. ". Cooke George Curtis was eighteen
when, with his brother Burrill. two years his
elder. ne gained his fathers permission to at
tend the school connected with the Brook Farm
Association. The two youths from New-York
were never members Of the association but
were drawn to the place as students by their
/ liking for the ideas OF the Transcendentalists
first revealed to them 10y Emerson Burrill
| Curtiss sympathy with these ideas had gone
to the extent Of refusing TO eat meat and ceas-
ing to use money and both boys wore highly
unconventional clothes II is recorded that at
/ Brook Farm they were brilliant in lowered
Chintz bouscs. with little round-iassellcd caps.
1t was the intellectual atmosphere 0: the Farm
that specially attracted George. and ne was
fond Of the men and women Of uncommon
brains who had joined in the associationist cy-
pertinent, but though he Eel; an aNectionate
admiration for the generous and humane con-
victiOns upon which II built. he never felt
much belief in It's wisdom. His native humor
and common sense came into play here His
two years a; the Farm were rich for him r
mental development. and all that was fantastic
and Irrational made no permanent mark upon
him.
The brothers were among the most be
loved Of the young people They were hand
some fellows looking. has been said. like
young Greek gods" and with many gifts OF
intellect. had unusually courteous. gallant and
kindly manners. George had beautiful voice.
and was an enthusiast on the subject Of music.
and il her, that ho formed his lifelong
friendship with J. 8 Dwight who then
teacher Of music and Latin in the Brook Farm
school, and anerward Editor Il THE journal or
Music" The majority Of Curtiss letters to
him concerned with music many Of them
are bursts 81 poetic delight aroused 10y cx-
Quisite sound He had little skill in the tech
nique Of music. hut great deal Of emotional
sensibilty. These letters therefore while they
offer pleasing testimony TO the spiritual feeling
and exceedingly fine taste Of the young writer. /
can have no permanent standing as dsquisitions .
on the art they celebrate. or NOR" interest 20
, most readers viii be the occasiona. bit 81 liter
AIRY criticism or personal characterization We
could hardly have expected in the days when
Elizabeth Barrctt's poems wer, 50 loudly b
lauded. 10 find boy Of twenty-onc saying OF
their author: she is woman Of vigorous /
thought. but not very poetical thought. and ,
throwing herself into verse involuntarily be !
comes honied and ornate that her verse !
clogs" This is a commonplace now but il was
not so then. There is a gentle grace in a record .
Of "a beautiful day passed with Mr.. iiaw
thorne at Concord. His life" says the youth.
''is harmonious with the antique rcposc OF
his house. and 50 redeemed into the present by
his infant, that II Is much better to SIT an hour
with him than hear the Rev Barzillal Frost,
His baby is the most screnely happy ever
saw 1t is very beautiful. and lies amid such
placid influences that it, too, may have milk
white lamb as emblem; and Mrs. HaW thorne is
so tendcrly respectful toward her husband that
all the romance picture in a cottage Of lovers
dwells subdued and dignifed with them. | see
them very seldom The peor~ here who are
worth knowing | find. live very quietly and re-
tired"
In respect to "association a means Of
REFORM" Curtis at twenty expressed prac-
teal good sense worth remembering. Dwight
Was still at Brook Farm when his young friend
wrote TO him: Though like the monastic, a
life Of DEVOTION TO severe criticism II offers
selfish and an unhcroic aspect. These
crooked features Of society cannot rend and
twist into a Roman outline and grace; but they
NAV be animated with soul that will utterly
shame our carved and painted faces. noble
man purges these present relations and does
not ask beautiful houses and landscapes and
appljances to make life beautiful
stern divine Justice Ordans that each man
stand where nc stands and do his utmost.
The effect OF a residence at the Farm, imagine,
was not greater willingness to serve in the