Memoir of William Maclure. 397 



astonishingly extended surface of uncultivated and inhos- 

 pitable wilds in this naturally delightful country. Not that 

 I require any money worth the robbing to supply me with 

 all that I need — for the regimen which I adopt for the pro- 

 motion of my health, demands nothing but water and a very 

 small quantity of the most common food — but these bar- 

 barians have adopted the Algerine system of taking you as 

 a slave, to the mountains, where they exact a ransom of as 

 many thousand dollars as they conceive the property you 

 possess will enable you to pay."* 



On returning to the United States in 1824, Mr. Maclure 

 was still intent on establishing an Agricultural School, a plan 

 similar to that he had attempted in Spain. At this juncture 

 the settlement at New Harmony, in Indiana, had been pur- 

 chased by the eccentric author of the Social System ; and 

 many intelligent persons, deceived by a plausible theory, went 

 forth to join the Utopian colony ; and Mr. Maclure himself, 

 willing to test the validity of a system which seemed to pro- 

 mise something for human advantage, resolved to establish, 

 in the same locality, his proposed Agricultural School. He 

 did not, at the same time, adopt all the peculiar views of 

 this fugitive community, to many of which, in fact, he was 

 decidedly opposed ; but he consented to compromise a part 

 of his own opinions in order to accomplish, in his own phrase, 

 " the greatest good for the greatest number." For this pur- 

 pose he forwarded to New Harmony his private library, 

 philosophical instruments and collections in Natural History, 

 designing, by these and other means, to make that locality 

 the centre of education in the West. That the Social 

 scheme was speedily and entirely abortive, is a fact familiar 

 to every one ; but Mr. Maclure having purchased extensive 

 tracts of land in the town and vicinity of New Harmony, 

 continued to reside there for several years, in the hope of 

 bringing his school into practical operation. 



* American Journal of Sciences, vol. viii, p. 187. 



