BRONSON ALCOTT’S
FRUITLANDS
[Illustration:
THE OLD HOUSE AT FRUITLANDS, HARVARD, MASSACHUSETTS
In front are the mulberry trees planted by the philosophers for the
propagation of silkworms.
]
BRONSON ALCOTT’S FRUITLANDS
COMPILED BY
CLARA ENDICOTT SEARS
WITH
_TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS_
BY
LOUISA M. ALCOTT
[Illustration]
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1915
------------------------------------------------------------------------
COPYRIGHT, 1876, BY LOUISA M. ALCOTT; 1904, BY JOHN S. P. ALCOTT; 1915,
BY CLARA ENDICOTT SEARS
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
_Published May 1915_
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE
I desire to express my thanks to Mr. John S. Pratt Alcott, of Brookline;
Mr. F. B. Sanborn, of Concord; Dr. Joseph Wiswall Palmer, of Fitchburg;
and Mr. Alvin Holman, of Leominster, for facts and data concerning the
Consociate Family at Fruitlands, and for their assistance in collecting
and acquiring the greater part of the original furniture which was there
in the days of the Community.
And I further thank Mr. John S. Pratt Alcott for the privilege of
including Louisa’s and Anna’s Diaries at Fruitlands, and Mr. Alcott and
Messrs. Little, Brown & Company for the use of Louisa M. Alcott’s
_Transcendental Wild Oats_.
CLARA ENDICOTT SEARS.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOREWORD
For many years articles have appeared from time to time in magazines and
books regarding the Community at Fruitlands, but it has remained for
Miss Sears to gather them together with infinite patience for
publication, and this little book is the result, the first connected
story of the life and beliefs of that little Community which tried so
hard to live according to its ideals in spite of criticism and censure
and whose members nearly starved as a result of their devotion.
A great deal of credit is due to Miss Sears for her success in gathering
material to make this story of Fruitlands so complete, and I take this
opportunity, as the oldest surviving member of the Alcott family, of
expressing to her our gratitude for the very interesting and complete
account of the Fruitlands experiment.
JOHN S. P. ALCOTT.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION xiii
I. A NEW EDEN 1
II. THE FOUNDING OF FRUITLANDS 21
II. BROOK FARM AND FRUITLANDS 35
IV. THE MAN WITH THE BEARD 53
V. SUMMER SUNSHINE 68
VI. FATHER HECKER’S DESCRIPTION OF FRUITLANDS 75
VII. ANNA ALCOTT’S DIARY AT FRUITLANDS 86
VIII. LOUISA MAY ALCOTT’S DIARY AT FRUITLANDS 106
IX. AUTUMN DISAPPOINTMENT 112
X. IN AFTER YEARS 130
XI. TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS. BY LOUISA MAY ALCOTT 145
APPENDIX: CATALOGUE OF THE ORIGINAL FRUITLANDS LIBRARY 175
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE OLD HOUSE AT FRUITLANDS, HARVARD, MASSACHUSETTS _Frontispiece_
In front are the mulberry trees planted by the
philosophers for the propagation of silkworms.
A. BRONSON ALCOTT AT THE AGE OF 53 4
_From the portrait by Mrs. Hildreth._
ABIGAIL MAY, MRS. A. BRONSON ALCOTT 4
_From a daguerreotype._
THE SMALL ENTRY WHERE THE VALUABLE BOOKS WERE KEPT 10
THE STUDY 28
A bust of Socrates stands on the fine old Dutch
highboy that Joseph Palmer brought from No Town.
CHARLES LANE 42
THE SMALL DINING-ROOM 48
Around this table the philosophers discussed their
deepest problems.
NANCY AND JOSEPH PALMER 56
THE REFECTORY, ALSO USED AS A KITCHEN 68
ISAAC T. HECKER 76
LOUISA, ANNA, AND ABBA MAY ALCOTT 88
THE COMMUNITY SETTLE 100
WHERE ABBA MAY’S STOCKING WAS HUNG THE NIGHT BEFORE HER 106
BIRTHDAY
Anna’s bedroom is on the right, next to Mrs.
Alcott’s. The portraits of the “Little Women” hang
on the wall.
THE OUTER KITCHEN 116
CHARLES LANE’S ROOM 124
The old cowhide trunk, in which some of the most
valuable of the books were shipped from London; also
the old chest in which the linen was kept. The
spinning-wheel belonged to a former owner.
THE BEDROOM 128
Where Mr. Alcott nearly succumbed to his despair at
the failure of his “New Eden.”
ORCHARD HOUSE AT CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS 172
The Alcott home of later years.
INTRODUCTION
Longfellow wrote:—
“All houses wherein men have lived and died
Are haunted houses. Through the open doors
The harmless phantoms on their errands glide,
With feet that make no sound upon the floors.
“We meet them at the doorway, on the stair,
Along the passages they come and go,
Impalpable impressions on the air,
A sense of something moving to and fro.
* * * * *
“We have no title-deeds to house or lands;
Owners and occupants of earlier dates
From graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands,
And hold in mortmain still their old estates.
“The spirit world around this world of sense
Floats like an atmosphere, and everywhere
Wafts through these earthly mists and vapors dense
A vital breath of more ethereal air.”
I found myself reciting these lines whenever my eyes rested upon the old
house of Fruitlands. From my terrace on the hill I looked down upon it
with mixed feelings of pity, awe, and affection. It seemed like a
Presence, a ghost of the Past, that compelled the eyes to gaze at it
persistently. In the warm joyousness of the spring sunshine, or when the
cold mists of autumn crept across the valley, it conveyed to me the same
sense of desolation, of mystery, of disillusionment. Its broken windows
looked like hollow eyes sunken in an ashen and expressionless face.
Within its walls life and death had come and gone;—laughter and the
sound of weeping had echoed through the quaint, low-ceilinged rooms. It
had been the sheltering home of British yeomen. Its heavy chestnut beams
bore record of the virgin forests of the Colonies. The thrill of
patriotism had vibrated there when the sword of the Revolution swept the
land, and the sound of drum and fife, leading the hurrying feet of eager
volunteers to Concord and Lexington, must have reached the quiet
hillside and stirred the hearts of those listening in the doorway. Those
were the brave and vital days of its youth. In seed-time and harvest it
had smiled upon the valley, its shingles warm and ruddy with ochre-red.
At Yule-tide the log had been chosen with fitting ceremony and placed
within the broad and spacious chimney. The old and the young had feasted
and made merry to the sound of the crackling fire-music. Who can tell
what memories of happiness and romance the old house contains?
* * * * *
Then came a period of quiet years, when the meadows and pastures grew
rich and fertile, the upturned soil yielded abundant harvests, and the
branches of the apple trees hung heavy with fruit. But it was when the
old house had begun to settle and look decrepid, and its floors had
become shaky and uneven, that its door opened wide to its supreme
experience. Then Fruitlands was exalted into the New Eden. The two names
came to it simultaneously. It was to pulsate with lofty ideals and
altruistic aspirations. For one perfect summer and mellow autumn its
running brook, its shady grove, its fertile meadows and sloping pasture,
its western view, so beautiful at sundown, of Wachusett and Monadnoc,
and the chain of purple hills, were to be the inspiration of a group of
individuals then known as the transcendental philosophers, and through
them Fruitlands became famous. Within its walls great questions were
discussed, great hopes for the betterment and enlightenment of mankind
were generated. Alcott, Charles Lane, Wright, Bower, Emerson, Hawthorne,
Channing, Thoreau, and many others went in and out of its doors; and
last, but not least, the child, Louisa May Alcott, who later became our
well-loved New England authoress, and Joseph Palmer, a Crusader in
spirit as well as in actions, who suffered for his principle of wearing
a beard at a time when it was looked upon as a badge of scorn and
contempt, and which won for him the name of “the Old Jew.” When the
beautiful dream was over; when the New Eden proved to be only an empty
mockery of the vision it had once inspired; when the great experience
had ended in failure, then the old house sagged pitifully as if its
heart had broken: the winter storms and summer rains of the succeeding
years washed all color from its face: it became gray and haggard. Joseph
Palmer and his wife lingered on in old age, and then passed out into the
Beyond. Their children and grandchildren clung to the place for a space
of years, but its history was over. It was left desolate and abandoned.
* * * * *
So as I looked down on it from my terrace on the hill, pitying its
infinite loneliness, the thought came to me that I must save it. If for
a time it had borne the semblance of a New Eden, then that time must be
honored, and not forgotten. I longed to see it smiling again upon the
valley in its glowing coat of ochre-red. The fine old chimneys must be
put back in their places from which they had been ruthlessly torn down
to make room for stoves. The hollow eyes must gleam again with
window-panes; the sound of voices must ring once more through the empty
rooms. In the future it must be cherished for its quaintly interesting
history. If that history was full of pathos, if the great experiment
enacted beneath its roof proved a failure, the failure was only in the
means of expression and not in the ideal which inspired it. Humanity
must ever reach out towards a New Eden. Succeeding generations smile at
the crude attempts, and forthwith make their own blunders, but each
attempt, however seemingly unsuccessful, must of necessity contain a
germ of spiritual beauty which will bear fruit. Let no one cross the
threshold of the old house with a mocking heart. Looking back from our
present coigne of vantage, we, too, cannot but smile at the childlike
simplicity and credulity, and the lack of forethought of those
unpractical enthusiasts. But let it be the smile of tenderness and not
of derision. In this material age we cannot afford to lose any details
of so unique and picturesque a memory as that of A. Bronson Alcott and
the “Con-Sociate Family” at Fruitlands.
BRONSON ALCOTT’S
FRUITLANDS
I
A NEW EDEN
The following account of the Fruitlands Community is largely a
compilation of writings regarding it by eye-witnesses and those in close
touch with its members. This is the surest way of forming a just
estimate of the experiment and the characters involved.
Mr. Frank B. Sanborn, in his book entitled “Bronson Alcott,” describes
in a few short sentences the circumstances which led up to the formation
of the Community, and this is what he says:—
“James Pierrepont Greaves was an Englishman born in 1777, who at the age
of forty went to reside in Switzerland with Pestalozzi, for four years,
and there adopted, a few years before young Alcott did, the chief ideas
of Pestalozzi, as to the training of children. Returning to England in
1825, he gradually formed a circle of mystics and reformers, in London
and its vicinity, who were, like himself, interested in the early
instruction and training of children. Hearing from Harriet Martineau,
upon her return from America in 1837, of Mr. Alcott’s Temple School at
Boston, and thinking more favorably of it than Miss Martineau did, Mr.
Greaves opened a correspondence with the American Pestalozzi, and
received from him some of his books,—Miss Peabody’s ‘Records of a
School,’ and Mr. Alcott’s ‘Conversations on the Gospels.’ From these
books, and from his correspondence, Mr. Greaves and his friends, William
Oldham, Mrs. Chichester, Charles Lane, Heraud, and others, formed so
high an estimate of Bronson Alcott’s talents and character, that they
named for him the English school they were about establishing near
London, and called it ‘Alcott House.’ They also urged Mr. Alcott to
visit them in England and to take part in their schemes and labors. He
was well inclined to do this; and in 1842 he set sail for London, where,
late in May, he received a hearty welcome from his correspondents and
their circle, with the exception of Mr. Greaves, who had died earlier in
the same year.”
Mr. Emerson furnished the money for Mr. Alcott’s trip to England. The
following letter was written by Bronson Alcott to his cousin Dr. William
Alcott:—
* * * * *
ALCOTT HOUSE,
HAM COMMON, SURREY,
June 30, 1842.
... I am now at Alcott House, which is ten miles from London; where I
find the principles of human culture, which have so long interested me,
carried into practical operation by wise and devoted friends of
education. The school was opened five years ago and has been thus far
quite successful. It consists of thirty or more children, and some of
them not more than three years of age,—all fed and lodged at the House.
The strictest temperance is observed in diet and regimen. Plain bread
with vegetables and fruits is their food, and water their only drink.
They bathe always before their morning lesson, and have exercises in the
play-grounds, which are ample, besides cultivating the gardens of the
institution. They seem very happy and not less in the school-room than
elsewhere.
Mr. Wright has more genius for teaching than any person I have before
seen—his method and temper are admirable, and all parties, from
assistants, of which there are several, to the youngest child delight in
his presence and influence. He impersonates and realizes my own idea of
an education, and is the first person whom I have met that has entered
into this divine art of inspiring the human clay, and moulding it into
the stature and image of divinity. I am already knit to him by more than
human ties, and must take him with me to America, as a coadjutor in our
high vocation, or else remain with him here. But I hope to effect the
first.
* * * * *
_The Healthian_ is edited here by Mr. Wright and Mr. Lane, and they
contribute to almost every reform journal in the kingdom. They are not
ignorant of our labors in the United States, almost every work of any
value I find in the library at Alcott House,—your own works, those of
Mr. Graham (a vegetarian), besides foreign authors not to be found with
us. I shall bring with me many books, both ancient and modern, on my
return to America.
* * * * *
It was during his sojourn in England in 1842 that the idea of creating
“a New Eden,” as he loved to call it, took firm root in Alcott’s mind. A
more quaintly unique character than his cannot be found in all the
annals of our literary history. His unquenchable aspirations after the
ideal life caught the imagination of men and women ready to break away
from the narrowing tendency of the Orthodox faith of the time. He was
both loved and derided. A transcendentalist pure and simple;
unpractical; a dreamer and visionary in every sense of the word; yet his
mind emitted flashes of genius so unerring and decisive as to elicit the
spontaneous admiration of Ralph Waldo Emerson and impel him to write in
his journal the following tributes:—
[Illustration:
A. BRONSON ALCOTT AT THE AGE OF 53
From the portrait by Mrs. Hildreth.
]
[Illustration:
ABIGAIL MAY, MRS. A. BRONSON ALCOTT
From a daguerreotype.
]
“The comfort of Alcott’s mind is, the connection in which he sees
whatever he sees. He is never dazzled by a spot of colour, or a gleam of
light, to value the thing by itself; but forever and ever is
prepossessed by the individual one behind it and all. I do not know
where to find in men or books a mind so valuable to faith in others.
“For every opinion or sentence of Alcott a reason may be sought and
found, not in his will or fancy, but in the necessity of Nature itself,
which has daguerred that fatal impression on his susceptible soul. He is
as good as a lens or a mirror, a beautiful susceptibility, every
impression on which is not to be reasoned against, or derided, but to be
accounted for, and until accounted for, registered as an indisputable
addition to our catalogue of natural facts. There are defects in the
lens, and errors of retraction and position, etc., to be allowed for,
and it needs one acquainted with the lens by frequent use, to make these
allowances; but ‘tis the best instrument I have met with.”[1]
Footnote 1:
Emerson’s _Journal_, 1856.
* * * * *
“Once more for Alcott it is to be said that he is sincerely and
necessarily engaged to his task and not wilfully or ostentatiously or
pecuniarily. Mr. Johnson at Manchester said of him, ‘He is universally
competent. Whatever question is asked, he is prepared for.’
“I shall go far and see many, before I find such an extraordinary
insight as Alcott’s. In his fine talk last evening, he ran up and down
the scale of powers with much ease and precision as a squirrel the wires
of his cage, and is never dazzled by his means, or by any particular,
and a fine heroic action or a poetic passage would make no impression on
him, because he expects heroism and poetry in all. Ideal Purity, the
poet, the artist, the man must have. I have never seen any person who so
fortifies the believer, so confutes the skeptic. And the almost uniform
rejection of this man by men of parts, Carlyle and Browning inclusive,
and by women of piety, might make one despair of society. If he came
with a cannonade of acclaim from all nations, as the first wit on the
planet, these masters would sustain the reputation; or if they could
find him in a book a thousand years old, with a legend of miracles
appended, there would be churches of disciples; but now they wish to
know if his coat is out at the elbows, or whether somebody did not hear
from somebody, that he has got a new hat etc. He has faults, no doubt,
but I may safely know more about them than he does; and some that are
most severely imputed to him are only the omissions of a preoccupied
mind.”[2]
* * * * *
“Last night in the conversation Alcott appeared to great advantage, and
I saw again, as often before, his singular superiority. As pure
intellect I have never seen his equal. The people with whom he talks do
not ever understand him. They interrupt him with clamorous dissent, or
what they think verbal endorsement of what they fancy he may have been
saying, or with ‘Do you know Mr. Alcott I think thus and so,’—some whim
or sentimentalism, and do not know that they have interrupted his large
and progressive statement; do not know that all they have in their baby
brains is incoherent and spotty; that all he sees and says is like
astronomy, lying there real and vast, every part and fact in eternal
connection with the whole, and that they ought to sit in silent
gratitude, eager only to hear more, to hear the whole, and not interrupt
him with their prattle. It is because his sight is so clear, commanding
the whole ground, and he perfectly gifted to state adequately what he
sees, that he does not lose his temper when glib interlocutors bore him
with their dead texts and phrases.—Power is not pettish, but want of
power is.”[2]
Footnote 2:
Emerson’s _Journal_, 1856.
* * * * *
“Yesterday Alcott left me after three days spent here. I had laid down a
man and had waked up a bruise, by reason of a bad cold, and was lumpish,
tardy and cold. Yet I could see plainly that I conversed with the most
extraordinary man and the highest genius of the time. He is a man. He is
erect; he sees, let whoever be overthrown or parasitic or blind. Life he
would have and enact, and not nestle into any cast-off shell or form of
the old time, and now proposes to preach to the people, or to take his
staff and walk through the country, conversing with the school-teachers,
and holding conversations in the villages. And so he ought to go,
publishing through the land his gospel like them of old time.”[3]
Footnote 3:
Emerson’s _Journal_, 1857.
* * * * *
It was not unnatural that these gifts, fully acknowledged by so eminent
a man as Emerson, should have won to him the respect and devotion of
these Englishmen, who were living in the same atmosphere of thought in
which Bronson Alcott lived and moved and had his being. And so after
much discussion and many plans, illumined by great hopes and a deep
enthusiasm, Charles Lane and Mr. Alcott collected a valuable library of
books mostly on mysticism and all occult subjects for the future Eden,
and with William Lane, who was Charles Lane’s son, Wright, and Samuel
Bowers, sailed for America, their immediate destination being the home
in Concord where Mrs. Alcott and her daughters, then very young, were
waiting to receive them.
Concord named the strangers “the English Mystics” and received them
cordially into the inner circle of literary men which formed the group
now spoken of as the “Concord Philosophers.” Emerson, Thoreau,
Hawthorne, Ellery Channing, and others became their friends, and
listened to their plans for forming universal brotherhood. Emerson’s
description of Charles Lane was this:—
* * * * *
“A man of fine intellectual nature, inspired and hallowed by a profound
faith. This is no man of letters, but a man of ideas. Deep opens below
deep in his thought, and for the solution of each new problem, he
recurs, with new success to the highest truth, to that which is most
generous, most simple, and most powerful; to that which cannot be
comprehended, or overseen, or exhausted. His words come to us like the
voices of home out of a far country.”
* * * * *
In the mean time the trunks containing the books chosen in England with
so much care were opened, and lists were made of their contents. It was
either Emerson or Thoreau who inserted a notice of them in “The Dial,”
the famous periodical to which the literary men and women of this noted
circle contributed. It ran thus: “Mr. Alcott and Mr. Lane have recently
brought from England a small, but valuable library, amounting to about
1000 volumes, containing undoubtedly a richer collection of mystical
writers than any other library in this country. To the select library of
the late J. P. Greaves, ‘held by Mr. Lane in trust for universal ends,’
they have added many works of a like character, by purchase or received
as gifts. In their Catalogue ... they say, ‘The titles of these books
are now submitted, in the expectation that this Library is the
commencement of an Institution for the nurture of men in universal
freedom of action, thought, and being. We print this list, not only
because our respect is engaged to views so liberal, but because the
arrival of this cabinet of mystic and theosophic lore is a remarkable
fact in our literary history.’”
Mr. Sanborn, referring to this library in his “Bronson Alcott,” says:
“It was this collection which, in the summer of 1843, occupied a hundred
feet of shelving in the old red farmhouse at Fruitlands.”
[Illustration:
THE SMALL ENTRY WHERE THE VALUABLE BOOKS WERE KEPT
]
* * * * *
The problem of where to establish the New Eden became the great and
vital question of the moment. Many suggestions were offered from many
quarters, but the great impediment to a definite decision was the lack
of funds. Mr. Alcott had no money to spare to put into a farm such as
they required, and the group of friends were interested, but not wholly
convinced of the feasibility of the scheme, and hung back when it came
to a question of investment. This very doubt fanned the flame of desire
in Mr. Alcott and Charles Lane to prove to the world the value of their
cherished dream. So it came about that Charles Lane took the burden of
paying for a farm on his own shoulders, and he wrote the following
letter to Mr. Alcott’s brother, Junius Alcott, on March 7, 1843:—
“I hope the little cash I have collected from my London toils will
suffice to redeem a small spot on the planet, that we may rightly use
for the right owner. I would very much prefer a small example of true
life to a large society in false and selfish harmony. Please put your
best worldly thoughts to the subject and favor me with your view as to
how and where we could best lay out $1800 or $2000 in land, with
orchard, wood, and house. Some of the land must be now fit for the
spade, as we desire to give all animals their freedom. We feel it
desirable to keep within the range of Mind and Letters; or rather to
keep refinement within our range, that we may be the means of improving
or reproving it, without being injured by it.”
Before this Mr. Alcott had written a letter to Isaac T. Hecker, later
known as Father Hecker, head of the Paulist Brotherhood, and in it he
described the idea they had in mind. At that time Father Hecker was at
Brook Farm, but was restless and dissatisfied with the life there,
craving a more ascetic existence; and knowing this, Alcott felt
confident of his sympathy and stated the salient points of the scheme to
him:—
Our purposes, as far as we know them at present, are briefly these:—
* * * * *
First, to obtain the free use of a spot of land adequate by our own
labor to our support; including, of course, a convenient plain house,
and offices, wood-lot, garden, and orchard.
Secondly, to live independently of foreign aids by being sufficiently
elevated to procure all articles for subsistence in the productions of
the spot, under a regimen of healthful labor and recreation; with
benignity toward all creatures, human and inferior; with beauty and
refinement in all economics; and the purest charity throughout our
demeanor.
Should this kind of life attract parties toward us—individuals of like
aims and issues—that state of being itself determines the law of
association; and the particular mode may be spoken of more definitely as
individual cases may arise; but in no case, could inferior ends
compromise the principles laid down.
Doubtless such a household, with our library, our services and manner of
life, may attract young men and women, possibly also families with
children, desirous of access to the channels and fountains of wisdom and
purity; and we are not without hope that Providence will use us
progressively for beneficial effects in the great work of human
regeneration, and the restoration of the highest life on earth.
With the humane wish that yourself and little ones may be led to confide
in providential Love,
I am, dear friend,
Very truly yours,
A. BRONSON ALCOTT.
February 15, 1843.
* * * * *
Finally a decision was arrived at, and in a letter to Mr. Oldham,
Charles Lane narrates how it came about. It was written from Concord,
May 31, 1843:—
* * * * *
MY DEAR FRIEND:—
... Mr. Alcott and I walked up the river to a place called the Cliffs,
where is a young orchard of 16 acres and woodland below. He came home
with his head full of poetic schemes for a cottage, etc., on this spot.
I, however, came home first and found that a man had been sent by the
young man who walked with me to Southborough, having a farm to sell at
Harvard, 14 miles off. He proposed to take me directly to see it, but I
was fatigued, so Samuel Larned, the visitor who came up with Mr. Wright,
went in the waiting vehicle. The next morning being very fine Mr. Alcott
and I walked there, not knowing his name, but we ascertained it to be
Wyman; we saw his place, consisting of 90 acres, 14 of them wood, a few
apple and other fruit trees, plenty of nuts and berries, much of the
land very good; the prospect from the highest part very sublime. The
house and barn very poor, but the water excellent and plentiful. The
capabilities are manifold, but the actualities humble. For the whole he
asked 2700 dollars, which being beyond my means, we had much talk when
he offered to sell the land for 1800 dollars and to lend us the
buildings gratis for a year. I should observe it is extremely retired,
there being no road to it. On these terms we have closed. He gives us
the few crops he has just planted and grass to a considerable amount
will soon be cut. I have slept a night or two there. William and two
friends (Larned and Abram Everett, called the “Plain Man” in the
_Vermont Telegraph_) and a hired man remain there, and the family are to
start early to-morrow morning, so now for plenty of work of all sorts.
Ninety acres; much of it first rate; some worth 100 dollars per acre,
the whole 20 dollars per acre; would that some of the English honest
half-starved were on it! This, I think you will admit, looks like an
attempt at something which will entitle transcendentalism to some
respect for its practicality.... We have very much to do, but the
occasions are opportune. I think Mr. Emerson is not so well pleased with
our departure as he would be with our company, but as he did nothing to
keep us we must go. It appeared to me that for the hopefulness of many,
it was needful we should make a movement of some kind this year, even
though we fail; and Providence seems really to have worked for us....
I thank you very much for the £10; the note arrived very opportunely to
enable Mr. A. to quit Concord, to do which all his debts must be paid,
and I need not tell you on whom that falls. Our transactions at present
leave me about 500 dollars in debt, but every one says we have made a
good bargain in the purchase of the land. I seriously hope we are
forming the basis for something really progressive, call it family or
community, or what you will....
We have now plenty of work to do and how we get on I shall faithfully
report, though the pen will not do much at present....
Believe me, dear friend,
Yours steadfastly in the spirit,
CHARLES LANE.
* * * * *
Mr. Sanborn, who above all others has an intimate knowledge of what the
situation was, having in later years learned much concerning it from
Emerson and Alcott and others of that time, makes this comment in his
“Bronson Alcott”:—
“After looking at several places in Concord and elsewhere, Lane decided
to buy the Wyman farm at Harvard, two miles from the village of that
name, but less than a mile from Still River, another village in the same
township. Alcott would have chosen the Cliffs in Concord, a favorite
resort of Thoreau and the Emerson family, and Emerson would have
preferred to retain his friend in his own town; but Lane had rather
avoided Emerson, as not ascetic enough for his abstemious habits, and
seems to have been not unwilling to withdraw Alcott from what he
regarded as an unfavorable influence.”
But when it was all settled, Alcott and his English Mystics entered into
their plan with a touching enthusiasm. Before them lay vistas of glowing
possibilities. They dreamed dreams and saw visions of a “Peace on Earth,
Good Will towards Men” such as had never before been realized. There was
much to be done and they were eager to begin,—the days were none too
long in which to collect the necessary things before moving to Harvard.
So Charles Lane persuaded Samuel Bowers to write to Oldham a description
of the farm, he himself being too busy to do so. And Bowers writes as
follows:—
“Charles Lane wished me to sketch to you the material picture of
Fruitlands and the adjoining scene, but I am unqualified to do justice
to the subject. The property is very compact and may be a very beautiful
domain. It is part a hill sloping down to more valley. Several springs
gush out from the side of the hill and the water is very good—better I
think than is common in Massachusetts. The soil varies much, but the
average quality is, I considerately judge, twice, if not thrice as good
as that of Tytherley.[4] There is about 14 acres of woodland all in the
vale and adjoining is the Nashua River, on the other side of which,
where the receding lands gently rise, stands a Shaker village (Shirley),
its extended orchards, corn and grass lands. There is in view a long and
high range of hills, one of which, and that the highest, is famous for
having been the resort of an Indian sachem. The hill is called
Wachusett. Altogether the scene reminded me strongly of the Vale of
Evesham, in Worcestershire, where seen when one approaches it from
Oxford.”
Footnote 4:
The location of Owen’s Harmony Hall in England.
It is quite evident that Oldham had written a letter to Charles Lane
warning him against assuming too great responsibility in this venture.
The question as to whether many enthusiasts would join the Community was
a very crucial one, since it was on this expectation that they based
their plans of running the farm free of debt. In answering the letter he
asks Oldham to forward certain money due to him. And in his explanation
says:—
“I do not see any one to act the money part but myself.” (This refers to
the land for the Fruitlands experiment.) “Mr. Alcott cannot part with
me. I deem him too sincere and valuable to quit him, and besides there
is nothing in the country so well as we can show if we be faithful; but
rents, debts, and mortgage would destroy us. As to the recruits you
speak of, are they good for anything? Are they worth the small passage
money you name? Truly if they are some of them you have at Alcott House,
I think we should not be much aided by their presence.
“Understand, we are not going to open a hospital. We are more
Pythagorean than Christs, we wish to begin with the sound rather than to
heal the sick. There is grand work here to be done and I must not trifle
with it.”
This matter of getting the right kind of persons to join the Community
required a keen insight into human nature, and on this point Mr. Alcott
was not very strong. His own sincerity and depth of purpose were so
great that he looked for these same attributes in every one who
approached him, and often failed to detect the superficial qualities
that lurked underneath the surface enthusiasm of some of his followers.
At this time Transcendentalism was rife through the land. Some called it
“the Newness.” The expression “Apostles of the Newness” was heard on all
sides. They could be recognized by their long hair, Byronic collars,
flowing ties, and eccentric habits and manners. Nothing seemed too
excessive to prove their emancipation from the shackles of
conventionality. One day three young men of this kind turned up at Mr.
Emerson’s at Concord and entered into an animated conversation with him
on his front porch. With them freedom of thought and allegiance to “the
Newness” took the strange form of preceding every remark, however
trivial, with resounding oaths, which so startled the passers-by, and
Mr. Emerson as well, that he hastily invited them to move round to the
back of the house where the vibrations of their sulphurous ejaculations
might roll harmlessly across the meadow instead of exploding in through
the windows of the houses near by.
That Mr. Emerson was deeply interested in the experiment of creating the
“New Eden” at Harvard is shown by the fact that a deed of the land was
made out in his name as trustee for Charles Lane. He and Thoreau and the
rest of the Concord circle viewed the departure with a mixture of
interest, curiosity, and anxiety. On June 10, 1843, Emerson wrote to
Thoreau:—
“From Mr. Alcott and Mr. Lane at Harvard, we have yet heard nothing.
They went away in good spirits, having sent Wood Abram and Larned and
William Lane before them, with horse and plough, a few days in advance,
to begin the spring work. Mr. Lane paid me a long visit, in which he was
more than I had ever known him gentle and open; and it was impossible
not to sympathize with and honor projects that so often seem without
feet or hands.”
II
THE FOUNDING OF FRUITLANDS
The original members of the Community that started the unique experiment
were Mr. Alcott, his wife, and four small daughters, the Englishman
Charles Lane and his son William, H. C. Wright (for a short time) and
Samuel Bower, Isaac T. Hecker, of New York, Christopher Greene and
Samuel Larned, of Providence, Abraham Everett and Anna Page, Joseph
Palmer, of Fitchburg, and Abram Wood. The transcendentalism of this last
individual showed itself chiefly in insisting upon twisting his name
hind side before and calling himself “Wood Abram.” As this he was always
known at Fruitlands. These members did not all arrive at once, but came
within a short time of each other. Wright had shown some dissatisfaction
already in the extreme asceticism of the plan of life adopted by Mr.
Alcott at Concord and he refused to be a regular member of the
Fruitlands Community on this account. In writing to Oldham on the
subject Charles Lane says: “I can see no other reason but the simplicity
and order to which affairs were coming (in the cottage); no butter nor
milk, nor cocoa, nor tea, nor coffee. Nothing but fruit, grain, and
water was hard for the inside; then regular hours and places, cleaning
up scraps, etc., was desperate hard for the outside.”
When finally the move from Concord to Harvard was made, Mr. Alcott took
what furniture he could with him, such as beds, etc., and the rest was
supplied by Joseph Palmer, who carted his over from his old Homestead at
No Town outside of Fitchburg.
Shortly after the move, Charles Lane sat down and wrote to Thoreau a
description of Fruitlands:
* * * * *
FRUITLANDS, June 7, 1843.
It is very remotely placed, without a road, surrounded by a beautiful
green landscape of fields and woods, with the distance filled up with
some of the loftiest mountains in the State. At present there is much
hard manual labor, so much that, as you see, my usual handwriting is
very greatly suspended. Our house accommodations are poor and scanty;
but the greatest want is good female society. Far too much labor
devolves on Mrs. Alcott. Besides the occupations of each succeeding day,
we form in this ample theatre of hope, many forthcoming scenes. The
nearer little copse is designed as the site of the cottages. Fountains
can be made to descend from their granite sources on the hill-slope to
every apartment if desired. Gardens are to displace the warm grazing
glades on the South, and numerous human beings instead of cattle, shall
here enjoy existence.
* * * * *
On the estate are about 14 acres of wood,—a very sylvan realization,
which only wants a Thoreau’s mind to elevate it to classic beauty. The
farther wood offers to the naturalist and the poet an exhaustless haunt;
and a short cleaning up of the brook would connect our boat with the
Nashua. Such are the designs which Mr. Alcott and I have just sketched,
as resting from planting we walked around this reserve.
* * * * *
Though to me our mode of life is luxurious in the highest degree, yet
generally it seems to be thought that the setting aside of all impure
diet, dirty habits, idle thoughts, and selfish feelings is a source of
self-denial scarcely to be encountered, or even thought of, in such an
alluring world as this.
* * * * *
In the course of the next few weeks Lane wrote with much detail to
Oldham:—
* * * * *
FRUITLANDS, HARVARD, MASS.,
June 16, 1843.
MY DEAR FRIEND:—
The morning being rainy I have taken advantage of the suspension of
outdoor labours to sit down and have a little chat with you of and
concerning our doings and progress. The day after I wrote you last all
the household effects and all the household were mounted on wheels and
trundled to this place; the old little cottage being left as clean as a
new book by Mrs. Alcott’s great energy. The day was sharp and cold for
the season, but the weather has since come out fine and warm, some days
hot. We have all been busily engaged in manual operations in the field,
house, wood yard, etc. Planting, ploughing, sowing, cleaning fruit
trees, gardening, chopping, sawing, fitting up, etc., etc., have gone at
a rapid rate, as the place was in a very slovenly condition. When tired
we have taken a look round the estate to see what was growing, learn the
shape of it, and its capabilities with more minuteness. It seems to be
agreed on all hands, and we have opinions from many practical men, that
we have not made a bad exchange, even in the commercial sense, of our
cash for land. Only think, brother Oldham, ninety acres, every one of
which may, in a short time, and without much outlay, be brought into a
state fit for spade culture; and much of it very good land, obtained at
the rate of 20 dollars or only _four pounds per acre freehold_.
Recollect, too, this includes fuel and some building material, for there
are 14 acres of wood, including many trees of edible nuts, and still
only 30 miles from a metropolitan city of 110,000 inhabitants.[5] The
land is most beautifully disposed in hill and valley, and the scenery is
of a sublime and elevating character. Water abundant and excellent and
the springs being on the hill, it may be conveyed anywhere about the
place for irrigation, etc. As is common in this district, the principal
part is meadow and pasture; but we shall go on ploughing up as much as
possible, sowing crops of clover or buckwheat, and turning them in, so
as to redeem the land without animal manures, which in practice I find
to be as filthy as in idea. The use of them is disgusting in the
extreme. At present, we have about 4 acres in Maize, 1½ in Rye, 1½ in
Oats, 1 in Barley, 2 in Potatoes, nearly 1 in Beans, Peas, Melons,
Squashes, etc.; there will be some Buckwheat, Turnips, etc., making in
all about 11 acres arable. We have no Wheat this year. The grass
promises well, and we may possibly cut 200 dollars’ worth; but by hired
teams we are now turning up one piece of 8 or 9, and another of 5 acres,
and mean to attack another 4 or 5 for our next year’s homestead or
garden, should we obtain the means of building. The hillside of 12 or 14
acres pasture is also to be ploughed, directly, if we can; so that the
work of reclamation will go rapidly forward. There is a large piece of
peat land, as black as ink, which, mixed with sand, makes a most
productive soil, valued at 200 to 300 dollars per acre; and there is
sand on our lot within 100 yards. We have been much plagued, and a
little cheated, with the cattle, but our stock is now reduced to one
yoke of oxen.
Footnote 5:
Boston.
Besides Mr. Alcott, his Wife and Children, myself and William, who is
very efficient and active, we have only a Mr. Larned and Abraham [Abram
Everett]—who appears in the _Vermont Telegraph_ as the “Plain Man.”
Larned was many months at West Roxbury, is only about 20 years of age,
his father was a merchant, and he has been a counting-house man and is
what the world calls genteel. Abraham is about 42, a cooper by trade,
but an excellent assistant here, very faithful to every work he
undertakes, very serious, has had rather deep experience, having been
imprisoned in a mad house by his relations because he had a little
property, but still he is not a spiritual being, at least not
consciously and wishfully so.
I have exchanged more letters with Samuel Bower and he promises to come
here to-morrow. If his real state bears out his writings, I think he may
be added to the family, otherwise he thinks of looking at Roxbury for
the purpose of finding a home there....
Mr. Alcott is as persevering in practice as last year we found him to be
in idea. To do better and better, to _be_ better and better, is the
constant theme. His hand is everywhere like his mind. He has held the
plough with great efficiency, sometimes for the whole day, and by the
straightness of his furrow may be said to be giving lessons to the
professed ploughmen, who work in a slovenly manner. We have called in
the aid of a carpenter who has made simple shelves for our books, and
for the first time our library stands upright as it should do. It
occupies about 100 feet of shelves.
* * * * *
June 28, 1843.
On the 19th I received your very kind and newsful letter of the first
instant enclosed in Mrs. Chichester’s. Mr. Bower, having kept his
promise, was here, and I read much of it at breakfast, having also
another visitor from Brook Farm, Mr. Hecker [Isaac T. Hecker]. All were
much interested in the facts reported, and Saml. Bower heard your
remembrances fresh from your pen. You affect him more than any other
person. In your next, you will perhaps devote a slip to him and I will
forward it. He, Larned and Hecker visited the Shakers and were much
attracted by them. Larned who, on common report, used to oppose them,
talks of joining them, so pleasant is their society; at least at
first....
If I were not at this moment surrounded by so much that is beautiful in
the present, hopeful in the future and ennobling in the act, your
affectionate invitation to Ham would seriously touch me. But by God’s
blessing something shall be done _here_ which shall reach you _there_.
_If we can aid the people in any way to let self be conquered, we shall
do something._ Lust abounds and love is deserted. Lust of money, of
food, of sexuality, of books, of music, of art,—while Love demands the
powers devoted to these false ends. I thank you for your hint respecting
worldliness. I believe I am getting on safe ground if I am not already
landed. From, or in England you say, I should expect nothing, and I am
now in the same predicament here. Every farthing I had is now either put
in or involved in this affair, and more, for I have put my hand to two
rather large bills; silly enough, you will say. In a few weeks I expect
to be literally pennyless, and even unable for want of stage hire to
travel to Boston if you send me ever so many orders, of which you
discover I have been so neglectful. No; I think I am now out of the
money world. Let my privation be ever so great, I will never make any
property claim on this effort. It is an offering to the Eternal Spirit,
and I consider that I have no more right than any other person; and I
have arranged the title deeds, as well as I could, to meet that end. I
could only consent to return to England on condition of being held free,
like a child, from all money entanglements. As no person or association
can guarantee this for me, I think it would be better to remain here
where the simple wants can be so easily met, and where there is much
opportunity for doing good, and more hope as the outward conditions are
so beautifully free. Would that you were here for a month; we have now
the most delightful steady weather you can conceive; we are all dressed
in our linen tunics, Abraham is ploughing, Larned bringing some turf
from the house, Alcott doing a thousand things, Bower and I have well
dug a sandy spot for carrots, the children and Lady are busy in their
respective ways, and some hirelings are assisting.... Now that
something, though little, is doing, you will find my expressions more
peaceful. Con-fi-dence in Love I hope will ne’er be wanting in your
affectionate friend,
CHARLES LANE.
[Illustration:
THE STUDY
A bust of Socrates stands on the fine old Dutch highboy that Joseph
Palmer brought from No Town.
]
* * * * *
FRUITLANDS, HARVARD, MASS.,
July 30, 1843.
DEAR FRIEND:—
... A few days after I wrote you Samuel Bower joined us and has steadily
and zealously entered into all the works and speculations we have in
hand and mind. Mr. Hecker, a very spiritual-minded young man, also has
been with us. He is partner with his brothers at New York in a very
extensive baking and corn mill business. He has resided several months
at W. Roxbury, but is by no means satisfied with their schoolboy
dilettante spiritualism. He will, I believe, go to New York to clear up
if possible with his family as to the relations on which they are in
future to stand to each other. They appear to be so loving and united a
family with such strong human attachments that, although he has done
much towards breaking away, I fear that in the desire to bring his
brothers further into the inner world, he will himself be detained.