100 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



historian of Long's expedition after the death of Dr. Baldwin, the 

 first appointee. This modesty led to habits of retirement, and 

 withdrew him from society, except that of his private friends, 

 among whom he was idolized. His domestic virtues were beyond 

 eulogy, and his disposition was so truly amiable, his manners so 

 charming, that no one, having once formed his acquaintance, 

 could cease to esteem him. 



These qualities led him to be influenced by those whom he 

 admired, and whg possessed a more pushing and self-assertive 

 disposition. It is probable that the great mistake of his life was 

 due to influence thus exerted by his friend and patron, Wm. 

 Maclure. 



About the year 1824 the recurrence of one of those waves of 

 sentiment, which, like spots on the sun, appear at intervals, with 

 a certain regularity, to obscure the common sense of the most be- 

 nevolent and enlightened of mankind, led to the disinterested, 

 though foolish, investment by Robert Owen of large sums in a 

 socialistic enterprise. At the village of New Harmony, in a 

 malarious situation on the Wabash river of Indiana, the sun of 

 righteousness, letters, and science was to rise and illuminate the 

 benighted Western world. Mr. Maclure became convinced of the 

 truth of the gospel according to Owen, and, in 1825, set out for the 

 New Jerusalem, involving in his train his friend Si'.y and several 

 other natui'alists. With them went several ladies of intelligence 

 and beauty, one of whom, Lucy Sistare, became the devoted wife 

 of Say, and long svu'vived him.* In a little more than a year the 

 community went to pieces, one founder retiring to Eui"ope, and 

 the other to Mexico, disgusted with the intractability of human 

 nature. It is sufficient to quote a criticism by the son, Robei't 

 Dale Owen, himself a member of the community, as given in his 

 autobiography fifty years later :f " I do not believe that any 



*She died in 1SS6, according to Mr. Schwarz. 



t Threading my Way, by Robert Dale Owen. 8vo. New York, Carleton 

 & Co., 1874; p. 290. 



