The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-08-28
Brook Farm Letters.

ed this year is early Letters of George
William Curtis to John S. Dwight" let
tiers chiefly concerning life at Brook
Farm and Concord. To read them gives
one the sensation Of going back fifty
years into the first half of the century
when Ole Bull and Vieuxtemps were in
their glory and Dickens and Thackeray
were the popular authors of the day.
The book is edited by George Willis
Cooke, and is divided into three parts,
EARLY Life at Brook Farm and Con-
cord" an introduction by the editor.
Early Letters to John S. Dwight" and
Letters of Later Date"
The introduction gives a very brief
sketch of Curtis youth, and then proceeds
10 describe the system at Brook Farm,
where George Curtis and his brother Bur-
rin spent two years Qss24D. They were
al no time members of the association,
and paid for their board and tuition as
if they had been at college. IL may not
be generally known that this curious COM
munity had two sources of income-the
farm, which it carried on according to the
system of plain living and high think
Ing, and school taught by those who
did the high thinking for the establish
ment. As the latter were decidedly more
accustomed to till the fields of the mind
than to raise potatoes and turnips il
naturally followed that the school was
more lucrative than the farm. George
Ripley was the instructor in philosophy
and mathematics, George p. Bradford in
literature, John S. Dwight. in Latin and
music. Charles A. Dana in Greek and
German, and John S. Brown in theo-
retical and practical agriculture Curtis
studied Greek, German, music and agri-
culture. He was never in full sympathy
with the ideas embodied in Brook Farm,
but this did not prevent his enthusiastic
admiration for some of the people who
were concerned in the experiment and his
warm interest In its success.
He seems to have been one of those
VINO, though not members of the associa-
non, were so connected with it as to be
able TO understand it To him the COM
pany was not an assemblage of cranks:
al was an association of men and won-
en- seeking with all their might, though
by more or less mistaken methods TO
make the world better The time he
SAID atterward, in one of his delightful
monologues from the Easy Chair was
ike that OF the Salem witchcraft; all
sorts OF latent oddities in human nature
escaped and clustered round the Brook
farrn enterprise. and people did the most
unheard Of things, simply through the
impulse of reform which was in the air.
Those who saw widely and clearly were
moved by the spirit of progress. and
brought wider thought to the national
HE; those who had not been accustomed
10 think at all felt the same impulse 10
mink, and the results, as Mr. Curtis de-
scribes them with that half satiricai hu-
NOR OF his, were sometimes extremely
queer. Brook Farm was never better de-
scr5bed than in this essay, and the closing
paragraphs are worth reproducing here.
The ludicrous aspects Of the intellectual and
moral fermentation or agitation that was called
tI4llscehoehtallsrn were foolishly accepted
bs many as its chief and only signs. II was
supposed that the folly was complete at Brook
Farm and il was indescribably ludicrous to oh.
serve reverend doctors and other dons coming
out TO gaze upon the extraordinary spectacle
and gong about as dainty ladies hold their skirts
and daintily step from stone TO stone in a
muddy street, lest they be soiled. The dons
seemed TO doubt whether the mere contact had
not smirched them But droll in itself, it was
q thousandfold more droll when Theodore Parker
came through the woods and described it With
his head set low upon his gladiatorial Shout
oeTs, and his nasal voice in subtle and ex-
quisite mimicry reproducing what was truly
~0IrAA11Aer YET Win lllfllte DOnhOInnle and
with genuine superiority to small malice he
was as humorous he was learned and as ex-
cellent mimic as he noble and fervent and
humane preacher. On Sundays a party always
went from the farm to Mr.. Parker's little country
church. He was there exactly what he was after
ward when he preached 10 thousands of eager
people in the Boston Music Hall; the same. plain.
SIMPLE, rustic, racy man. His congreg alton were
his personal friends. They loved him and ad
mired him and were proud Of him; and his ge-
nlaiity and tender sympathy, his ample knowl-
edge of things as well as books, drew toward
him all ages and sexes and conditions
The society at Brook Farm was composed of
every kind Of person There were the ripest
scholars, men and women of the most aesthetic
culture and accomplishments young farmers
searnstresses, mechanics, preachers-the ind,stri-
Gus, the lazy, the conceited, the sentimental But
they were associated in such spirit and under
such conditions that, with some extravaganza
the best of everybody appeared. and there was
kind Of high esprit de corps-at least, in the
earlier or golden age Of the colony. There was
plenty Of steady essential, hard work. for the
founding Of an earthly paradise upon rough
New England farm Is no pastime. But with the
best intention, and much practical knowledge
and industry and devotion. there was in the ma
ture Of the case. inevitable lack of method
and the economical failure was almost a fore
gone conclusion But there were never such
witty potato patches and such sparkling corn.
fields before or since. The weeds were scratched
out of the ground TO the music Of Tennyson or
Browning, and the incoming was an hour as gay
and brilliant as any brilliant midnight at Am
brose's But in the midst OF all was one figure
the practical farmer, an honest neighbor who was
not. drawn 10 the enterprise by any spiritual at
traction. but was hired at good wages TO SUPER
intend the work, and who always seemed To be
regarding the whole affair with the most good
natured wonder as a pTodigious masquerade.
But beneath all the CHANGING colors. the lights
and shadows of its surface, ii was a simple hon
est, practical effort for wiser forms Of life than
those in which We find ourselves The criticism
OF science, the sheer of literature the complaint
al experience is that man is a miseraby half
developed being the proof OF which is the cond-
ton Of human society, in which the few enjoy
and the many toll But the enjoyment CLOVIS and
disappoints, and the very want Of labor posons
the enjoyment Man is made, body and soul The
health Of each requires reasonable exercise. If
every man did his share Of the muscular work of
the world other would be overwhelmed
by II. The man who does not wo k imposes the ne
cessli! Of harder toll upon him who does. There
by the first steals from the last the opportunity
Of mental culture-and at last we reach world
OF paraiahs and patricians, with all the inconcev
able sorrow and suffering that surround us. Bound
fast by the brazen age. We can that the way
back to the age OF gold lies through justice which
viii substitute cooperation for competition
That some such generous and noble thought in
spred this effort at practical Christianity is most
probable. The Brook Farmers did not interpret
the words The poor We have always with ye''
70 mean, eye must always kees some OF YOU
poor" They found the practical Christian in
him who said to his neighbor, Friend, come up
higher" But apart from any precise and defined
intention, ii certainly a very alluring pros
pect-that Of life in pleasant country. taking
exercise in useful TOLL and surrounded with the
most interesting and accomplished people. Com
pared with other efforts upon which time and
money and industry arc lavished measured by
Colorado and Nevada speculations by California
by oil-boring, and by the stock
Brook Farm was certainly a very rea,
sonabe and practical enterprise, worthy OF the
hope and aid of generous men and women The
that were formed there were enduring