of the finest scholars and most agreeable writers of that time,
afterwards found his right place as literary editor of the New York
Tribune, where for twenty-five years he disseminated the knowledge of
the best thought and literature broadcast over the land. When we
consider the immense circulation of that periodical and the quality of
its readers, we can hardly overestimate the value of his work. Many have
become famous for less.

There were poets, painters, musicians in the community; especially John
S. Dwight, who as the life-long editor of the "Journal of Music," also
deserves a place on the roll of our public educators. George William
Curtis was one of the youngest members of the community, but always one
of the most brilliant. Sometimes of a rainy day there was very good
cheer and entertainment in the "Hive" as they called their most
commodious building, but generally the men were too drowsy and fatigued
after their work was done for much intellectual activity.

It is necessary, however, to distinguish between the New England
transcendentalists and the German school of philosophy, from which they
are supposed to have derived their inspiration. A German critic has said
of them that they were not so much philosophers as poetical rhapsodists,
and this is about the truth of it. Their business was not so much
thinking, as to celebrate thinking. There was also in the composition of
their creed a strong element of French naturalism, which is not easily
reconciled with the teachings of the German transcendentalists. Kant,
Fichte, and Schelling were true metaphysicians, and would never have
encouraged their pupils to establish a socialistic community in the
suburbs of Leipsic, nor would they have approved of Emerson's lines:

"Who liveth with the stalwart pine