Since three wise men went to sea in a bowl, or the army of German
children set out for the Holy Land in the twelfth century, there was
never a more hare-brained or chimerical undertaking. I once knew of a
boy who after much reading of Robinson Crusoe, started for the woods at
five o'clock of a summer afternoon, with the full intention of spending
the night there alone. He took with him a light fowling-piece, and some
crackers in his jacket pocket. He gathered some berries and shot some
small birds, and cooked them after the Indian fashion. When it grew
dark, however, he became frightened and climbed into a tree; but he
could not sleep there, and finally returned home about one o'clock in
the morning to find his family in great agitation.

This was not very unlike the Brook Farm enterprise, which was inspired
by the writings of Fourier, a seductive French socialist and one of the
most unreasonable of men. He considered, like Diogenes, that since all
men could not be rich and comfortable, it was better that they should
all be needy and miserable. It was one of the sentimental out-growths of
the French Revolution, for which Napoleonism is always the proper
remedy. One of his peculiar notions was that every man should black his
own boots.

George Ripley and his friends do not seem to have made any definite
calculation of what might be the result of their experiment. They
expected, by working six hours a day and limiting themselves to the
simplest and most frugal living, to have six left for literary pursuits
and the enjoyment of profound conversation. Any practical farmer would
have told them that this could not be done and make both ends meet at
the close of the year. Any political economist would have told them that
a community which disregards the advantage of division of labor, could
not compete with one which recognizes that advantage. The principles of