z6o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



were extensive, and his valuable scientific apparatus. He induced 

 Gerard Troost, C. A. Lesueur, and Thomas Say, also Joseph Neef , 

 the Pestalozzian, to come into the community with him, to act as in- 

 structors in the institution proposed. When the society was divided 

 into a manufacturing and educational, and an agricultural branch, 

 Maclure became the leading spirit in the educational division. 



Owen visited New Harmony a second time in the winter of 

 1825-'26. His third visit was made in the spring of 1828, and by 

 that time so many troubles had arisen that the community was dis- 

 banded. The failure of the undertaking was due to the one great 

 cause that makes all communistic enterprises impracticable in the 

 present age the imperfections of human nature. In the same 

 year Mr. Owen went to Mexico, on the invitation of the Govern- 

 ment, to put his ideas into practice there, but effected nothing be- 

 cause the Government insisted that the state religion of the pro- 

 posed community should be Roman Catholic. Some experiments 

 were afterward tried by him in Great Britain, and he continued 

 to advocate his views with voice and pen until his death, in 1858. 

 His followers received the name of " Owenites." He published a 

 considerable number of writings, including an autobiography. 



David Dale Owen's early education, which was received from 

 a private tutor, included the English branches, the rudiments of 

 Latin, and a course in architectural drawing. He was also trained 

 in the use of carpenter's tools in the mechanical department con- 

 nected with his father's mills. He was for a time a pupil in the 

 grammar school, or academy, at New Lanark. His father, while 

 traveling on the continent of Europe, had visited the celebrated 

 educational institution of Emanuel von Fellenberg, at Hofwyl, 

 Switzerland, and was so much pleased with the system pursued in 

 it neither moral, physical, nor intellectual development being 

 neglected that he sent there first his two oldest sons Robert 

 Dale and William for a three years' course, and after their return 

 sent David and his younger brother Richard, in 1824, also for 

 three years. The studies of the more advanced classes were partly 

 elective, and David Dale and his brother chose chemistry, draw- 

 ing, and modern languages in addition to the prescribed mathe- 

 matical and literary course. 



David Dale and Richard returned to Scotland in September, 

 1826, the former being then nineteen years old. They entered the 

 classes in physics and chemistry conducted by Dr. Andrew Ure, 

 author of the Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, at 

 Glasgow, where their mother then resided. Their father was 

 absent at New Harmony. For that place the two younger sons 

 set out in November, 1827, going by a ship from Liverpool to New 

 Orleans, thence up the Mississippi by steamer, reaching the settle- 

 ment on the Wabash early in January, 1828. 



