[Subsection]

AT length, at length I have received letters from home, letters from mamma, and from you, my sweet Agatha! I kissed the letter for joy when it was put into my hand. But ah! how it grieved me to hear that you are again ill, and that without either rhyme or reason, so soon after leaving the baths of Marstrand, where I last saw you so well. I can now merely endeavor to console myself with the belief that by this indisposition you will get rid of all further indisposition for the year, and that you, therefore, will be in all the better health for the winter. Will you not? yes, we must next winter remove with you to some   [p. 75]   warmer climate, to your beautiful Italy, to Rome, or to Palermo, and next summer you can make good use of sea-bathing again at Marstrand. And I will be with you, my dear heart, and talk and write beautiful things for you, because I shall be rich in such things, and we will inhale a new and beautiful life together. I have not yet received your letter to London, but I shall have it yet, or else E. L. deserves to--lose his head, if he have not already lost it, for he took it upon himself to receive this letter and send it on to me. But yet once more, thanks for the beautiful letters.

I must now tell you about our expedition to the Phalanstery. It was a charming morning when we set out. The air felt quite young--scarcely five years old. It was not a boy, it was a girl, full of animation, but shy--a veiled beauty. The sun was concealed by light clouds, the winds were still. As Marcus, Rebecca, and I were standing for a short time by the ferry at Brooklyn, waiting for the boat to take us over to New York, a Quakeress was also standing there, with a Roman nose, and a frank but grave countenance. I looked at her, and she looked at me. All at once her countenance brightened as if by a sunbeam. She came up to me, "Thou art Miss Bremer," said she. "Yes," said I, "and thou art ----" She mentioned her name, and we shook hands cordially. The inward light had illumined her in more than one way, and on such a morning I felt myself on the sweetly familiar terms of "thee and thou" with the whole world.

We crossed the river, Marcus, Rebecca, and I. The morning wind awoke, and the clouds began to move; sailing craft and steam-boats passed one another in the bay, and young lads sat in their boats fishing up large casks and planks which the current bore with it out to sea. The shores shone out green and gold. An hour afterward and we were on board the steam-boat which would convey us to New Jersey. Bergfalk had joined us   [p. 76]   full of life and good-humor. Channing had come with his pure glance, clear as the light of a diamond, and with him Mr. H., a lover of flowers and of Channing. We steamed along amid sunshine and conversation on subjects of interest, the dialogue being principally between Channing and myself, the others putting in now and then a word, every one rather opposed to me, and I a little opposed to all, with the exception of Marcus, whose reason accorded with my views. By this time the clouds began to gather over us, and it soon began to rain.

We arrived in New Jersey amid rain, and in rain we reached the little town of Redbank. Here a wagon from the Phalanstery met us, which had been sent for the guests, as well as for potatoes, and in it we stowed ourselves, beneath a tilted cover of yellow oil-cloth, which sheltered us from the rain. A handsome young man, one of the people of the Phalanstery, drove the pair of fat horses which drew us, and after we had plowed the sand for a couple of hours, we arrived at the Phalanstery, a couple of large houses, with several lesser ones standing around them, without any thing remarkable in their style of architecture. The landscape around had a pleasant, park-like appearance; the fields and the trees were yet quite green. New Jersey is celebrated for its mild climate and its fine fruits. We were conducted into a hall and regaled with a dinner which could not have been better if it had been in Arcadia; it would have been impossible to have produced better milk, bread, or cheese. They had also meat here.

I here met with the family which had first invited me to the Phalanstery, and found them to be the sister and brother-in-law of Marcus, two earnest, spiritual-minded people, who have a profound faith in and love for the principle of association. He is the president of the institution at this place. Mr. A., who has not alone enthusiasm, but who is evidently a clever and straight-forward man of   [p. 77]   business, gifted with the power of organization, was originally a minister, and devoted himself for a long time most beneficially as a missionary of the poor, "a minister at large," as they are called in this country; after which he lived for ten years as a farmer in one of the Western States, in the valley of the Mississippi, cultivating maize and fruit, and finding himself well off amid the affluent solitudes of nature. As his children, however, grew up, it appeared to him too solitary for them; the house became too small, and, for the sake of their education, and their moral and intellectual development, he removed again, and came nearer to the great world of man. But in so doing he resolved to unite himself with that portion of it which, as it appeared to him, came the nearest to his idea of a Christian community. He, and his wife and children, therefore, joined this association, which was established eight years before by a few married couples, all enthusiasts for this idea, and which now calls itself "the North American Phalanstery." Each member advanced the sum of one thousand dollars; land was purchased, and they began to labor together, according to laws which the society had laid down beforehand. Great difficulties met them in the commencement, in particular from their want of means to build, for the purchase of implements, and so on. It was beautiful and affecting to hear what fatigue and labor the women subjected themselves to--women who had been but little accustomed to any thing of this kind; how steadfastly and with what noble courage they endured it; and how the men, in the spirit of brotherhood, did their part in any kind of work as well as the women, merely looking at the honor and the necessity of the work, and never asking whether it was the fit employment for man or for woman. They had suffered much from calumny, but through it all they had become a stronger and more numerous body.

They had now overcome the worst, and the institution   [p. 78]   was evidently improving. It was in contemplation at this time to build a new house, in particular a large eating-hall and place for social meeting, together with a cooking and wash house, provided with such machinery as should dispense with the most onerous hand-labor. The number of members was at this time somewhat above seventy. The establishment has its own peculiar income from mills and from tillage, as well as from its orchards. They cultivate peaches, melons, and tomatoes. In the mills they prepare hominy (ground maize), which is boiled into a sort of pudding, and eaten universally, especially for breakfast.

One evening a great portion of the members of the Phalanstery assembled in one of the sitting-rooms. Various individuals were introduced to me, and I saw a great number of very handsome young people; in particular, I remarked the niece and nephew of Marcus, Abby and her brother, as being beautiful according to one's ideal standard. Many among the men wore coarse clothes; but all were neat, and had a something of great earnestness and kindness in their whole demeanor.

Needle-work was brought in and laid upon a table. This was the making of small linen bags for containing hominy, and which, when filled and stamped with the name of the Phalanstery, are sent for sale to New York. I sewed one bag; Channing, also, made another, and maintained that he sewed quicker than I did; my opinion, however, is that my sewing was the best. After this I played Swedish dances and ballads for the young people, which excited them in a remarkable manner, especially the Nec's polka. I related also to them the legend of the Neck and the Priest, and the Wand which became verdant, a legend which shows that even the spirits of nature might be saved. This struck them very much, and the tears came into many eyes.

I had a little room to myself for the night, which some of the young girls had vacated for me. It was as small   [p. 79]   as a prison cell; had four bare, white walls, but was neat and clean, and had a large window with a fine and beautiful prospect; and I was exceedingly comfortable in that little chamber, and slept well upon a good sofa-bed to the sound of the plashing rain, and in the mild atmosphere which entered through the half opened window. The bed-making sisters, two handsome, kind young girls, were the last which I saw in my room. I was awoke in the morning by the sound of labor throughout the house; people were going and coming, all full of business; it sounded earnest and industrious. I thought the "Essenes and the Pythagoreans began the day with a song, a consecration of the day's work to the service of the holy powers," and I sighed to think that the associations of the West were so far behind those of the East. I dressed myself and went down.

As there is always an impulse within me to enter body and soul into the life which at that time exists around me, so would I now live here as a true and earnest member of the Phalanstery, and therefore I entered as a worker into one of the bands of workers. I selected that in which cooking was going forward, because I consider that my genius has a bent in that direction. I was soon standing, therefore, by the fire with the excellent Mrs. A., who had the management of this department; and I baked a whole pile of buckwheat cakes, just as we bake cakes in Sweden, but upon a large iron plate, until breakfast, and had then the pleasure of serving Marcus and Channing with some of them quite hot for breakfast. I myself thought that I had been remarkably fortunate with my cakes. In my fervor of association, I labored also with hands and arms up to my very elbows in a great kneading-trough, but had very nearly stuck fast in the dough. It was quite too heavy for me, though I would not confess it; but they were kind enough to release me from the operation in the politest manner, and place it in abler hands.

The rain had ceased, and the sun began to find his way through the clouds. I now, therefore, went out to look about me, accompanied by Mrs. A. and the lady of the president, the latter of whom wore a short dress and pantaloons, which were very becoming to her fine and picturesque figure, and besides which, were well calculated for walking through the wet fields and woods. We first paid a visit to the mills. Two handsome young girls, also in short dresses or blouses, girt with leathern bands, and with jaunty little caps on their heads, which were remarkably becoming, went, or rather danced along the foot-path before us, over hill and dale, as light and merrily as birds. They were going to assist at the hominy mills. I went through the mills, where every thing seemed excellent and well arranged, and where the little millers were already at their work.

Thence we went across the meadows to the potato-fields, where I shook hands with the chief, who, in his shirtsleeves, was digging up potatoes among his senators. Both the chief and the other members looked clever and excellent people; and the potato crop promised this year to be remarkably rich. The land in New Jersey appears to be very good and fruitful. The sun shone pleasantly over the potato-field, the chief, and his laborers, among whom were many men of education and intelligence.

In my conversation with the two sensible women, my conductresses, I learned various particulars regarding the laws and life of the Phalanstery; among others, that they are wise enough not to allow the public to absorb private property. Each individual may invest as much as he likes in the association, and retain as much of his own property as he wishes. For that which he so invests he receives interest. The time required for labor is ten hours a day. All who work over hours are paid for such overwork. The women participate in all rights equally with the men; vote, and share in the administration of   [p. 81]   law and justice. "But," said Mrs. A.,"We have had so much to do with our domestic affairs, that we have hitherto troubled ourselves very little about these things."

Any one who makes known his desire to become a member may be received as such after a probation of one year in the Phalanstery, during which time he must have shown himself to be unwearied in labor, and steadfast in brotherly love and good-will. As regards his religion, rank, or his former mode of life, no questions are asked. The association makes a new experiment in social and economic life; it regards the active principle of love as the ruling power of life, and wishes to place every thing, within the sphere of its influence; it will, so to say, begin life anew, and makes experimental researches into its laws; like those plants called exogens, it grows from the exterior inward, but has, it appears to me, its principle much less determinate than the vegetable.

Being asked in the evening my opinion of this community, I candidly confessed in what it appeared to be deficient; in particular, as regarded a profession of religion and public divine service--its being based merely upon a moral principle, the validity of which might be easily called in question, as they did not recognize a connection with a life existing eternally beyond earth and time with any eternally binding law, nor even with a divine Lawgiver.

"The serpent may one day enter your paradise, and then--how can you expel it?"

I told them also how I had felt that morning; how empty and dead a life of labor seemed to me which was not allied to the service of the Supreme, which did not admit of space for the holy and the beautiful.

An elderly gentleman who sat near me, with a very good and honest countenance, but who had a horrible trick of incessant spitting, was the person who, in particular, replied to my objections. But his reply and that of the others merely served to strengthen my impression of   [p. 82]   the cloudy state in which the intellect here is at present. I therefore remained silent after I had given my opinion. But I and many others hoped that Channing would have spoken. He, however, did not, but sat listening, with his beautiful, speaking head, and his beaming glance turned toward the disputants. After that, Bergfalk and I began to talk with each other in Swedish, in order that they might hear that extraordinary foreign tongue. We placed ourselves opposite each other in the midst of the company, and conversed in Swedish for the edification of our very attentive audience.

I was again requested to play for the young people. The following day at noon we were to leave. In the morning, about half a dozen beautiful young girls seized upon me, and conducted me from one house to another, and I played to all the mothers and grandmothers in the Phalanstery, and upon every piano which was to be found there, six or seven in number; and the young creatures were so charmed and so excited with the marches, and the polkas, and the songs which I played to them, that they both laughed and cried. N.B.--Music as yet in the Phalanstery is merely a babe in swaddling-clothes; they regard at present their work as their play. It is true, nevertheless, that the children there are unusually cheerful; the very little ones were, in particular, most charming. Magnificent lads were the lads of the association, and not in the least bashful before the, stranger. One saw in them the dawning spirit of the co-operatist.

I became, however, horribly weary of my part as associate sister, and was glad to sit down and play for the Phalanstery, and to kiss all the young girls (and glorious, warm-hearted girls they are), and shake hands with the associate brothers and sisters, and, leaving the Phalanstery with my friends, seat myself again quietly in the steamboat on my way back to New York.

Much delighted were they,
But preferred the old way.

  [p. 83]  

I was like the fishes in St. Anthony's sermon, not a morsel more converted than they were. Because, although I should lose all regard for myself if I did not believe that I was inwardly associated with the interests of humanity in every various sentiment of my being, in my prayers as well as in my work--did not feel myself to be a worker in the great Phalanstery of the human race--yet is my nature altogether opposed to association when brought into too near a proximity, or in outward life. And I would rather live in a cottage on the bleakest. granite mountain of Sweden, alone by myself, and live on bread, and water, and potatoes (which I would boil for myself), than in a Phalanstery on the most fertile soil, in the midst of associated brethren and sisters, even if they were as agreeable as they are at this place. But that belongs to my individual character; I can not live perfectly excepting in solitude. For the greater number of people, however, even the outward life of association is the happiest and the best. Association, in that form which it assumes, for example, in this Phalanstery, is evidently doing a justice to many individuals which would never be done to them in the great social system as it is usually constructed. Thus, for example, there was here a man who was possessed of considerable knowledge and a cultivated mind, but, in consequence of the weakness of his eyes, was incapacitated for maintaining himself by any means which required much eyesight. This man was poor, and without near connections. In the ordinary state of society he must either have taken refuge in some asylum for indigence, where his life, physical and spiritual, would have been scantily supplied, or he must have sunk into the coarse working class, who merely labor for the life of the body. As a member of the Phalanstery, this man gave his bodily labor ten hours in the day, and on the other hand was entitled to all the nobler enjoyments of cultivated life, intercourse with superior and educated people, good meals   [p. 84]   partaken in cheerful company, always a kind welcome, and every evening, when the work of the day was over, if he were so inclined, rest and refreshment in society, in a large, light room, with agreeable women, handsome children, music, books, opportunities for conversation on the highest interests of life in connection with the interests of the association. After all, I believe that I begin to love this association while I write about it, and while I think upon the noble justice which it does to this individual, and to many others like him. Is there not something great and beautiful when a community thus receives into its bosom even the meanest human being, who will not be useless, and which allows him to become participant of its enlightened life, so long as he takes part in its life of labor? And that it is which Christian Socialism aims at. And well may it, in the consciousness thereof, courageously bear the derision and contempt which the world at large casts upon it, and with its countenance turned toward the eternal light say consolingly, as Mr. A. (the preacher and the farmer) said to me at our departure, "We know that we have not trodden any man under foot."

But my doubt as to the want of solid construction in this particular case returned nevertheless; and on the steam-boat, in quiet conversation with my friends, we examined the question still further. I repeated my objections against this building without foundation. Channing was certain about it, in the belief that the more profound laws of reason and of life necessarily become developed from human nature when it is left to test and to experimentize itself. "That which I require in the Phalanstery," said Channing, "will yet come, and come in a new way, and with deeper conviction." I believe, as Channing does, that it must come, because human nature possesses these seeds of eternal ideas within its own breast, and has developed them in all ages. All historical religions and modes of philosophy, religious associations, and so on, bear witness to this   [p. 85]   truth. But I continue to demand from the Socialists, why not take up that work which is already begun and continue it? Why not accept the consciousness which the human race universally possesses of itself, its life, and its aims? Why attempt to undertake a work which has already been given up? That is to waste time and strength which might be turned to better account. But perhaps there may be something new here which I have not clearly seen--the principle of a new beginning. It is evident to me, however, in the mean time, that neither do the others see it very clearly. They go tātonnement; but they are perhaps guided by an instinct which is clairvoyant.

I shall return to this institution and to these subjects. This Phalanstery is for the present the only one on this plan existing in the United States. Many others have been founded, but all have failed and gone to pieces from the difficulty of winning the interest of the members and their steadfast co-operation for the principle of the institution and for the common weal. The enthusiasts have done the work, the sluggish-spirited have lived upon them; the former have done every thing, the latter nothing. Fourier's theory about the attraction of labor has been effectually refuted by many sluggish natures. The advocates of the theory maintain, indeed, that it has never yet been fully proved, because mankind has not been educated to consider labor attractive. But we shall see.

At home at Rose Cottage, in the quiet, affectionate family circle there, how pleasant was rest after the Phalanstery expedition! There, also, my most beautiful hours are passed in the society of the husband and wife, in conversation with them, and in reading together the poets of America. Here, also, is Lowell a favorite, and it is a pleasure to hear Rebecca read him and other poets, because she reads remarkably well. Marcus leaves the house generally immediately after breakfast, but during that meal he often finds time to read us something important   [p. 86]   either in the newspaper or from books for the most part having reference to social questions and improvement. He is now busied with a scheme for the erection of baths and wash-houses on a large scale, for the benefit of the poor of New York, and with collecting subscriptions for that purpose.

I must now tell you something about W. H. Channing, because he is one of the most intimate friends of the family, and is connected with them and with the spiritual life of the country in a remarkable manner. He was some years ago the minister of a Unitarian congregation in Cincinnati, but the room, that is to say, Unitarianism, became too small for him; he could not breathe freely forth heart and soul in it, and "he therefore resigned an office which he could no longer hold with an easy conscience," although his congregation, which was very much attached to him, did all they could to induce him to remain, and although he knew not how henceforth he was to maintain himself, his wife, and his two children. But he thought like the old patriarch, strong in faith, when he obeyed the summons of the Supreme, "the Lord indeed regards sacrifice!" And the Lord did so. Some of his friends took the subject under consideration, and wrote a letter to Channing, the contents of which were, "Come to us; become our friend and spiritual shepherd; but in perfect freedom ; follow your own inspiration: preach, talk to us how and when it appears best to you. We undertake to provide for your pecuniary wants. Live free from anxiety, and happy how and where you will; teach us how we should live and work; our homes and our hearts are open to you."

Channing's answer to this letter proved the nobility and the earnestness of his heart. He came. And since that time he has lived conformably with the invitation which enabled him to visit prisons, to become one in religious and social festivals and societies, or to lecture on social   [p. 87]   questions in New York, Boston, and other towns; following the dictates of his inspiration, and by his genial and beautifully-gifted character awakening the soul and warming the heart; producing "revivals" of a higher life, scattering the seed of eternal life, and fanning up the feeble flames of the true life wherever he came.

He visits his friends whenever he likes, often unexpectedly, but he is always wished for and warmly welcomed; always finds in every house a room prepared for W. H. Channing. The good Marcus has such respect for intellectual and spiritual gifts, and in particular such devotion to Channing, that he has a peculiar pleasure in serving him. He and Rebecca, and some other friends, entertain the thought of building him a house near the Phalanstery. The thought of this and of Channing's satisfaction, made Rebecca quite happy. Ah, Agatha! to live among such people! It is worth the fatigue of crossing the world's sea merely to become acquainted with them.

Next Sunday Channing will deliver a lecture in New York, and I, as well as my friends, shall go to hear him. I am well off here in Brooklyn, in this home, with this married pair and their beautiful children. Here, too, it is quiet and beautiful. I can wander about alone and in silence, take long walks by myself in the neighborhood. I observe among the trees here splendid weeping-willows, actually colossal trees. They are still quite green. The grapes ripen in the open air. Marcus has only to put his hand outside the garden porch, around which the vine-branches form a leafy bower, to gather whole handfuls of beautiful bunches, with which he comes in and regales us. And I often walk in a long, pleached alley covered with vines, where I gather and eat. The grapes are of a pale lilac color, small, very sweet and agreeable, but have always a little lump inside which is rather sour and unripe. This may be peculiar to grapes in this country. The veranda which ornaments the front of the house is   [p. 88]   now splendid with the most beautiful chrysanthemums. In summer, they tell me, numbers of humming-birds hover around the roses.