nd perhaps sadder men. Lane, at all events, who was a simple
and candid soul for whom Isaac Hecker conceived a long-enduring
friendship, sunk all his private means irrevocably in the futile
attempt to establish Fruitlands on a solid basis. To use his own
words in a letter now at our hand, though referring to another of Mr.
Alcott's schemes, his little fortune was "buried in the same grave of
flowery rhetoric in which so many other notions have been deposited."

Lying before us there is an epistle--Mr. Alcott's most ordinary
written communications with his friends must have demanded that term
in preference to anything less stately--in which he has described his
own ideal of what life at Fruitlands ought to be. No directer way of
conveying to our readers a notion of his peculiar faculty of seeming
to say something of singular importance occurs to us, than that of
giving it entire. Though found among Father Hecker's papers, it was
not addressed to him but to one of his most-valued Brook Farm
associates:

"Concord, Mass., February 15, 1843.--DEAR FRIEND: In reply to your
letter of the 12th, I have to say that as until the snow leaves the
ground clear, the Family cannot so much as look for a locality (which
then may not readily be found), it seems premature to talk of the
conditions on which any association may be formed.

"Nevertheless, as human progress is a universally interesting
subject, I have much pleasure in communicating with you on the
question of the general conditions most conducive to that end.

"I have no belief in associations of human beings for the purpose of
making themselves happy by means of improved outward arrangements
alone, as the fountains of happiness are within, and are opened to us
as we are preharmonized or consociated with the Universal Spirit.
This is the one condition needful for happy association amongst men.
And this condition is attained by the surrender of all individual or
selfish gratification--a complete willingness to be moulded by
Divinity. This, as men now are, of course involves self-renunciation
and retrenchment; and in enumerating the hindrances which debar us
from happiness, we shall be drawn to consider, in the first place,
ourselves; and to entertain practically the question, Are we prepared
for the giving up all, and taking refuge in Love as an unfailing
Providence? A faith and reliance as large as this seems needful to
insure us against disappointment. The entrance to Par