Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

the community doctrines. Of the unfeeling, inhuman. Moreover, admit agrarians we have in this country very that he who has the greatest need few, if any. The project of introducing has the best right of property in what a better state of society by an equal I possess, who shall be the judge of division of property, finds with us no this greater need? If he, then no seadvocates. Thomas Skidmore, since curity for property; then no industry; deceased, some years ago, in his then no production; and then all must "Rights of Man to Property," a work starve together. If I am the judge, it of very considerable ability, makes amounts to acknowledging in me the something of an approach to it; but right of property. my own scheme, which made so much noise in 1840, and which was called agrarianism, was nothing like it; for it concerned merely the reappropriation to individuals of that which had ceased to be property, through default of ownership, and was merely a project to modify or change our probate laws. The agrarian scheme would accomplish nothing, even were it just; because were property made equal to day, with the existing inequality in men's powers and capacities, it would soon become as unequal again as ever. Moreover the right to property is sacred, and the Legislature has no right to disturb it. The Legislature has discretionary power only over that portion of property which becomes vacant through default of ownership, whether by the death or abandonment of the proprietor. It may say how that shall be reappropriated. But this at any one time is but a very small portion of the whole property of any community.

The no-property doctrine has but few advocates. It is sometimes set forth by philanthropists who are deeply impressed with the doctrine of Christian beneficence. From the fact that my neighbor, who has the ability, is bound in Christian love to administer to my necessities, it has been inferred that therefore I have a right to that portion of his property which I need more than he. Justice, says Godwin, is reciprocal. What it is just for my neighbor to give me, it is unjust for him to withhold; and what it is unjust for him to withhold from me, I have a right to claim as my due. But this would banish from the world all such virtues as generosity, charity, and gratitude. I have the right, if I have the means, to be generous, and I am no doubt guilty if I do not relieve the wants of my brother, as far as I have the ability; but I am not accountable to him. If I do not, I am not to be condemned as unjust; but as ungenerous,

VOL. XI.-NO. LIII.

62

The community doctrine is also subdivided. We have, first, the answer as given by Owen and his followers, secondly, as given by Fourier and his disciples; and thirdly, as given in the experiment at Brook Farm. Owen's system was discordant. In all matters except property, it was a system of pure individualism; in property it was the denial of all individualism. Individualism cannot co-exist with a community of property. Either individualism will triumph and dissolve the community, or the community will triumph and absorb the individual. The first was the actual result of Mr. Owen's experiment at New Harmony; the last would have been the result had he succeeded in fairly introducing his system. Mr. Owen also overlooked the necessity of marriage laws to restrain the passions and preserve the family; and of religion to kindle holy aspirations, to exalt the sentiments, and produce a community of feeling. The ex-" perience of the race may be said to have demonstrated, that no scheme of social organization will succeed which does not recognize as its basis, individual property; civil law, or the State; and religion, or the Church.

Of Fourier I must speak with some diffidence, not having as yet been able to submit to the drudgery of fully mastering his system. He seems, however, to have taken juster views of man and society than Mr. Owen; but his metaphysics, though broad and comprehensive, are often unsound; and his theodicea, or theodicy, is, if we understand it, nothing but material pantheism, a polite name for atheism. He denies, at least according to his able and indefatigable American interpreter, Mr. Brisbane, the progress of humanity, and proceeds on the assumption of that greatest of all absurdities, the perfection of nature. The only progress he admits for man, is simply a progress in his power over external nature. This progress may be completed in

time; the race then will be thrown out of work, come to a stand-still, which is only another name for its death. Moreover, his scheme is too mechanical, making of the phalanx not a living organisin, but a huge machine. It is withal too complicated, and too difficult to be introduced, to meet the wants of our people. Its de tails are not always satisfactory. Its operations will fail to diminish inequality in wealth or condition. Too much goes to capital, not enough to labor. How obtain equality or anything approaching it, when capital draws four twelfths, skill three twelfths, and labor only five twelfths? Then again how measure skill? Skill has various degrees. How determine these several degrees? And shall every degree of skill be rewarded alike? If we make skill one of the bases of the distribution of the fruits of industry, what shall prevent the perpetuation of the very evils we are seeking to redress? Skill, which comes under the head of spiritual superiority, belongs to the community. If God has made me with talent and capacity superior to my bro ther, it is not that he would confer on me a personal advantage, and enable me to lay his labor under contribution; but that he would impose upon me the duty of performing more valuable services to the community of which we are both members. Nor am I quite satisfied with the rank assigned to woman in the Phalanx. In every reor ganization of society, which shall be an advance on society as it now is, the equality of the sexes must be recognized, and male and female labor receive the same compensation. I say equality of the sexes, without intending to deny that the talents of the sexes as well as their appropriate spheres in life are different. Equality does not exclude diversity. Woman should not handle the spade and mattock, nor man the distaff; nor would there be wisdom in shutting up man in the nursery and sending woman to the legislature. Each sex has its peculiar talents and virtues, and its appropriate sphere of duty; but yet there is no reason why one should be placed above or below the other, or receive a higher or a lower rate of compensation for its labors.

For my part, I am disposed to regard with altogether more favor the estab

lishment at Brook Farm, which seems to me to escape all the objections we have raised against Owen and Fourier. It is simple, unpretending, and presents itself by no means as a grand scheme of world reform, or of social organization. Its founder,-and I speak from personal knowledge, for it has been my happiness to enjoy for years his friendship and instruction,-is a man of rare attainments, one of our best scholars, and as a metaphysician second to no one in the country. No man amongst us is better acquainted with the various plans of world-reform which have been projected, from Plato's Republic to Fourier's Phalanx; but this establishment seems to be the result, not of his theorizing, but of the simple wants of his soul as a man and a Christian. He felt himself unable, in the existing social organization, to practise always according to his conceptions of Christianity. He could not maintain with his brethren those relations of love and equality which he felt were also needful to him for his own intellectual and moral growth and well-being. Moved by this feeling, he sought to create around him the circumstances which would respond to it, enable him to worship God and love his brother, and to live with his brother in a truly Christian manner. A few men and women, of like views and feelings, grouped themselves around him, not as their master, but as their friend and brother, and the community at Brook Farm was instituted.

The views, feelings, and wants of these men and women are those of the great mass of all Christian communities; and the manner in which this establishment at Brook Farm responds to them, suggests and points out the method in which they may be responded to everywhere. The mode of introducing such an establishment is exceedingly natural and simple. The theory to be comprehended is the Gos pel LAW OF LOVE, and the rule to be observed is HONOR ALL MEN, and treat each man as a brother, whatever his occupation. In other words, the community is an attempt to realize the Christian Ideal, and to do this by establishing truly Christian relations between the members and the community and between member and member.

To make this experiment requires no rupture with society as it is; imposes no necessity of protesting against any existing organism. Men and wo men may engage in it without foregoing any of the relations they already hold with society. This is a great recommendation. Owen and Fourier are too radical. They propose, with "malice aforethought," the reorganization of society. This community propose no such thing. They do not break the law of continuity. The transition from what is to what they are attempting is easy and natural.

A community on the plan of Fourier or of Owen aims to be a little world in itself, and to be a complete substitute for the larger associations of the State and the Church. Communities like this at West Roxbury leave the State and Church standing in all their necessity and force. They are mere aggregations of families, as a family is an aggregation of individuals; as the family is more than an aggregation, as it is in some degree an organism, having its own life ad unity, so, also, is the community more than an aggregation of families, it is a one body, has life and unity of its own; but is, after all, like the family, a member of a larger whole. It enlarges the sphere of the family, or rather seeks not to supersede the ties of blood, but to extend the family feeling and relations, if I may so speak, beyond these ties. It essentially breaks the family caste, while it preserves the family inviolate. This is a consummation much to be wished. The family is and should be sacred: but the family caste, to borrow the expression of M. Leroux, is one of the scourges of humanity.

The community feeling is introduced, but without destroying the individual. Individual property is recognized and secured. But by making time, not skill nor intensity, the basis according to which the compensation of labor is determined, and by eating at a common table, and laboring in common and sharing in common the advantages of the individual excellence there may be in the community, the individual feeling is subdued, and while suffered to remain as a spring to industry, it is shorn of its power to encroach on the social body. So far as I can judge there will be in this establishment rarely any clashing be

tween individuals and the community.

Establishments like this are easily introduced. Owen and Fourier require immense outlays for the commencement of their schemes. A Phalanx cannot well go into operation without a capital of half a million. A simple establishment like the one at Brook Farm has gone into operation with less than five thousand dollars, and would be able to do well with ten or twenty thousand. This is a very great consideration. Fourierism is obliged to enlist in its scheme heavy capitalists, and in order to enlist them, is obliged to make the investment of capital in the Phalanx desirable as a business operation; which can be done only at the expense of labor. But the most desirable thing is not to find out a profitable investment for capital, but a ready means by which they who have no capital can place themselves in such relations that by their mutual labor and support, they can secure all the real conveniences and advantages of the highest civilisation. This may be done on the plan of Brook Farm. An outlay of fifteen or twenty thousand dollars will enable some twenty or thirty families to associate, and by their industry to sustain themselves in competence and independence, 'and to secure to their children the advantages of the choicest education, and themselves all the pleasures and enjoyments of the most refined society.

It is proper, however, to remark, that Brook Farm is not an establishmeat for the indolent, nor for those who are in need of charity. It is an INDUSTRIAL ESTABLISHMENT. Industry is its basis and its object. It is established on the principle that man must obtain his bread by the sweat of his face. This must be borne in mind in attempting like establishments. The founder of this establishment very justly remarks: "Every community should have its leading purpose, some one main object to which it directs its energies. We are a company of teachers. The branch of industry which we pursue as our primary object, and chief means of support, is teaching. Others may be companies of manufacturers or of agriculturists; or may engage in some particular branch of manufacture or of agriculture. Whatever the branch of industry agreed upon, it will be neces

!

sary to make that the principal object of pursuit, as the only way in which unity and efficiency can be secured to the labors of the community."

Of the advantages of associated and attractive industry there is no occasion to speak. They are well known, and have been ably presented by Mr. Brisbane, in the pages of this Journal and elsewhere. The common merit, and the chief merit of the schemes of Owen and Fourier, is in their proposing associated and attractive industry. These Mr. Ripley secures at Brook Farm, without their complicated machinery, and multiplicity of details,-of details often frivolous; at any rate foreign to the habits, tastes, and convictions of the American people. Families of moderate means associating in this way, by their union and coöperation may obtain an industrial and pecuniary independence to which they cannot aspire under existing social relations. What we most want, is such an arrangement as shall secure to every man a competence as the reward of his industry, and which shall render industry in any or all of its branches compatible with the highest moral and intellectual culture, and the greatest delicacy and refinement of manners. This we cannot have as things are; but this by means of association on the principles of the Brook Farm establishment we may have. And when once this is obtained, when I am once sure that by the labor of my hands I can earn an honest and an honorable livelihood, and without being obliged to forego any of the real advantages, pleasures, and refinements of society and social intercourse, I shall no longer feel that I was cursed by my Maker, when he commanded me to "eat my bread in the sweat of my face."

There is another point of view in which I should like to consider communities of this kind, had I the time and the room at my command. I mean in their relation not only to industry, and to domestic and social economies, but to the CHURCH. The day is coming when we shall learn that we worship God only by serving man, and that the Church, instead of being a company of teachers and exhorters, organized merely to teach men their duty and to exhort them to do it, will be a company of men and women associating

for the express purpose of doing their duty; of worshipping God not in types and shadows, through symbols, but in spirit and in truth, by organizing all the relations of life in harmony with his will. These communities are models of what must hereafter be the social elements of the Christian Church. It is only by adopting, as was in some degree attempted originally by the monastic orders, the democracy of the Church, industry as a branch, if I may so speak, of the temple service, and thus writing “holiness to Lord" on all things, as the prophet says, even on "the bells of the horses," that a truly Christian state of society will be realized. In this way we may have a true Catholic Church; a really republican state; a wise political economy; an intelligent, virtuous, refined, and happy people.

"August, 1842.

"MY DEAR SIR: I have made my visit to the Community, as it is called, at West Roxbury, and find that it more than answers the expectation held out in that account of it, which appeared in the Dial last January. I mean that the degree of success already attained, is greater than it was there intimated it could be, for many years to come. In a pecuniary point of view it is not failing, and that is success, considering the great embarrassments under which they began. There are seventeen associates. Had each of these been able to contribute one thousand dollars a-piece, they would be at this moment under no embarrassment at all, but instead of that, not one third of the sum was contributed. For the cost of their farm, as I understood it, they are paying interest; but by means of the farm and the school, they are able to pay this interest and to feed themselves; although there are seventy people already there, and the number will be one hundred in the course of the winter. The joining of a few associates or even one with some money, would render them quite independent. But they feel they have gained so much morally and intellectually, by having been so poor, as to have had none join but those to whom the accomplishment of the Idea appears worth working and suffering for, that it is no

longer to be feared, that they will be tempted to receive among them any, of whom money is the chief recommendation. They prefer to sacrifice many conveniences, to endangering the social and ideal character of their company. Several mechanics who have been hired to do jobs upon the place, I mean carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers, tailors, have at first expressed themselves amazed, that people should go together, of such apparent inequality, and make a common cause, and share the fruits of their labors equally among themselves; but after seeing the operation for weeks, they have desired to join, and to forego some of the income they were already receiving from their trades, in order to have the enjoyment, the moral advantage, and the intellectual improvement, of a social life on principles so consistently democratic and Christian; and more especially, in order to have all their children have every advantage of education to which their abilities can do justice. I speak of facts. The association has actually under consideration such propositions. Also, one of the farmers, the most thriving one, whose farm joins theirs, has for the sake of his children made them the offer, if they can meet him half way, of throwing in his farm and becoming one. He would be richer in dollars and cents to remain as he is, but this additional money could not buy for him that education of all his children, which he must receive in this community, if he is one of them; to say nothing of his own enjoyment and improvement. To me, it is an inspiring thought, that they have already showed to the agricultural population around them, that with the cultivation of the earth may be combined an intellectual and tasteful life, and that the true democratic equality may be obtained by levelling up, instead of levelling down.

But let me speak of the education in detail, and show that the children of the actual associates have even greater advantages than those sent there, though for the latter, it is, I think, the best school I ever saw. I will begin with the a-b-c-d-arians. There is one lady among the associates, who loves to keep a regular school on the oldfashioned plan, with a kind but efficient discipline of rules and lessons. She has as many of the younger

But

scholars as the parents wish.
some parents prefer a different system,
in which their children are only con-
fined a very short time, while they can
be individually attended to by the
teacher. And there are among the
young women, several who take two or
three at once-making one little class,
and enlist their undivided, unwavering
attention for an hour, or an hour and a
half, and then let them play all the
rest of the day. These children, in
this way, get more instruction and do
more intellectual work, than in ordi-
nary schools, and yet have none of the
weariness and bad physical and moral
effect of confinement. They are never
obliged to sit still and do nothing; nor
do they in this plan become trouble-
some to others. There is so much
room, they can spread round, and find
infinite amusement on the place. I
never saw children at once so happy
and so little in the way of other peo-
ple. There seemed to be great love
for the little things, in all the men and
boys, as well as the women; and I ob-
served that when the young men went
to walk in the woods, or about any
out-of-door occupation, they would let
two or three children go too, and keep
their eye upon them, and so relieve the
mothers and make the children happy,
and this without troubling themselves
either. Children from the ages of nine
or ten up to thirteen and fourteen, go
to the school of a gentleman who has
been a very successful teacher for
many years, and understands the drill-
ing processes. But of this class also,
if there are any, whose parents, on ac-
count of their health, or peculiar genius,
or sex, wish to receive separate atten-
tion, there are found those who will
attend to them in the desirable way.
Then there is a very fine teacher of
Greek, and another of Latin, and an-
other of Mathematics, among the gen-
tlemen associates. Several teach Ger-
man, French, Italian and Spanish, and
I do not know how many other things.
One lady has classes in History, Moral
Philosophy, various branches of ele-
gant literature, and with all her cares,
(one of which is the care of a house
of fourteen rooms), she told me she had
not for more than a year set aside two
recitations! This will show what
real method lies under the graceful ex-
terior, where not mathematical lines,
but only the curves of beauty appear.

« AnteriorContinuar »