science, a part of public history.

The pressure of life was off at Brook Farm, for the nonce. What anyone
did that was out of the common, might cause smiles and laughter but no
frowns or scoldings. Each felt and believed in the demonstration of his
or her own individuality, and, as a first consequence, there was
something that was often mistaken, by strangers, for rudeness and want
of order. Some forgot that it was especially work they came for, and
were anxious to have their theories discussed. Independence in dress
was universal. The Mrs. Grandys were all away, and if the young ladies
thought it was prettier to exhibit the grace of flowing tresses than to
bind them up in "pugs" behind their heads, who should, who could,
object?

Prim Margaret Fuller, who was a visitor--and never a member of the
community as has often been stated--professed herself disturbed, at
first, by the easy and perhaps indifferent manner in which they
listened to her long conversations, as they sat on the floor or on
crickets; but on a later visit, she expressed herself as better
pleased. Doubtless some of the individual angularities had been rubbed
off, by this time, by the pleasant but close contact of the Community
life--and some of hers as well.




CHAPTER II.


THE SECOND DEVELOPMENT.