276 Journal. [Part III. 



which they have been able to move here and select one 

 of the choicest spots in the country. 



518. But in noting down the' state of this Society, 

 as it now is, its origin should not be forgotten ; the cu- 

 rious history of it serves as an explanation to the jumble 

 of sense and absurdity in the association. I will there- 

 fore trace the Harmonist Society from its outset in 

 Germany to this place. 



519. The Sect had its origin at Wurtemberg in Ger- 

 many, about 40 years ago, in the person of its present 

 Pastor and Master, George Rapp, who, by his own ac- 

 count, "having long seen and felt the decline of the 

 " Church, found himself impelled to bear testim.ony to 

 " the fundamental principles of the Christian Reli- 

 " gion ; and, finding no toleration i'or his inspired doc- 

 " trines, or for those who adopted them, he determined 

 " with his followers to go to that part of the earth, M'here 

 " they were free to Avorship God according to the dic- 

 " tates of their conscience." In other words (I suppose), 

 he had long beheld and experienced the slavery and 

 miser}' of his country, and, feeling in his conscience 

 that he was born more for a ruler than for a slave, found 

 himself imperiously called upon to collect together a 

 bod}' of his poor countrymen and to lead them into a 

 land of liberty and abundance. HoAvever, allowing 

 him to have had no other than his proiessed views, he, 

 after he had got a considerable number of proselytes, 

 amounting to seven or eight hundred persons, among 

 whom were a sufficienc} of good lalwurers and artizans 

 in all the essential branches of workmanship and trade, 

 besides farmers, lie embodied them into a Society, and 

 then came himself to America (not trusting to Provi- 

 dence to lead the way) to seek out the land destined 

 ibr these chosen children. Having done so, and laid 

 the plan for his route to the land ol peace and Christian 

 love, with a foresight which shows him to have been by 

 no means unmindful to the temporal prosperity of the 

 Society, he then landed his followers in separate bo- 

 dies, and prudently led them in that order to a resting 

 place within Pennsylvania, choosing rather to retard 

 their progress through the wilderness than to hazard 

 the discontent that might arise from want and fatigue 



