Two years of the experimental and "idyllic" life, ran rapidly away, and
the Community had gained something of position and name in the outward
world. Personal contact had modified the extreme views of many of the
founders. Changes had taken place in the Individuals composing it; some
had departed. Six of the original stockholders remained. The number had
increased to about seventy, including some thirty who were pupils. The
financial success had not been all that was desired. Everything else
was getting more settled. The social life was charming. Improvements in
material matters, in comforts, in discipline and in grace of manners
were visible. But what was to be developed next among all the things
desirable? Was it to push the school still further in progress, to
attach mechanical industries to the organization, to work up the farm
life into more prominence, or what?

It could not be expected that this large number of persons, whose early
surroundings and ideas had been so varied, could at once agree as to
what next steps were necessary to take, or to what definite end the
Community should be shaped. There was need, certainly, of some central
purpose strong enough for all to unite upon to inspire permanence.

Neither Mr. Ripley nor any of his co-workers had heard of Charles
Fourier--the French exponent of industrial association--or his
doctrines, unless in a most casual way, and certainly they had not
studied them when they started the Community. They were independent
workers in a field of social science; but when they became acquainted
with his ideas, especially his ideas of industry made attractive by
organized labor, and its relation to the higher standard of work and
liberal belief they had adopted and maintained thus far, their