THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



energy and daring. The period of agitation covered the 

 years between 1840 and 1847. The men of thought soon 

 won the confidence of the men of action, and a large 

 number of associations for the purpose of bringing 

 Fourierism to the practical test were formed in various 

 States. In May, 1843, Mr. Greeley wrote in the Tribune: 

 ' The doctrine of association is spreading throughout 

 the country with a rapidity which we did not anticipate, 

 and of which we had but little hope. We receive papers 

 from nearly all parts of the northern and western States, 

 and some from the South, containing articles upon as- 

 sociation, in which general views and outlines of the 

 system are given. Efforts are making in various parts 

 of this State, in Vermont, in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and 

 Illinois, to establish associations, which will probably be 

 successful in the course of the present year." 



There was not much difficulty in obtaining recruits for 

 these undertakings, and the experiment was entered 

 upon with great enthusiasm. With a single exception, 

 it ended in failure. The most famous of these colonies 

 was Brook Farm, at West Roxbury, nine miles from 

 Boston. Rev. George Ripley was the head of the enter- 

 prise. With him were associated, either as actual col- 

 onists or active sympathizers and supporters, Nathaniel 

 Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry D. Thoreau, 

 James Freeman Clarke, William Ellery Channing, Bron- 

 son Alcott, George Bancroft, Charles A. Dana, Margaret 

 Fuller, and many others whose names rank high in the 

 annals of American literature. Never before, and never 

 afterwards, was such a galaxy of brains assembled in a 

 single colony. Most of them were then in young man- 

 hood, with their fame all before them. But the historian 



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