122 
separation* for they belong to the community from their second 
year* and are all brought up together. 
Mr. McClure has shown himself a great adherent of the Pes- 
talozzian system of education. He had cultivated Pestalozzi’s 
acquaintance while upon his travels* and upon this recommenda¬ 
tion brought Mr. Neef with him to Philadelphia* to carry this 
system into operation. At first it appeared to succeed perfectly* 
soon however* Mr. Neef found so many opposers* apparently on 
account of his anti-religious principles* that he gave up the busi¬ 
ness* and settled himself on a farm in the woods of Kentucky. 
He had just abandoned the farm to take the head of a boarding- 
school* which Mr. McClure intended to establish in New Har¬ 
mony. Mr, Jennings* formerly mentioned* was likewise to 
co-operate in this school; his reserved and haughty character 
was ill suited for such a situation* and Messrs. Owen and McClure 
willingly consented to his withdrawing* as he would have done 
the boarding-school more injury* from the bad reputation in 
which he stood* than he could have assisted it by his acquire¬ 
ments. An Englishman by birth* he was brought up for a 
military life; this he had forsaken to devote himself to clerical 
pursuits* had arrived in the United States as a Universalist 
preacher* and had been received with much attention in that 
capacity in Cincinnati* till he abandoned himself with enthusiasm 
to the new social system * and made himself openly and publicly 
known as an Atheist.* 
I passed the evening with the amiable Mr. McClure, and Ma¬ 
dam Fretageot* and became acquainted through them* with a 
French artist* Mons. Lesueur* calling himself uncle of Miss 
Virginia* as also a Dutch physician from Herzogenbusch* Dr. 
Troost* an eminent naturalist. Both are members of the com¬ 
munity, and have just arrived from a scientific pedestrian tour to 
Illinois and the southern part of Missouri* where they have ex¬ 
amined the iron, and particularly the lead-mine works* as well as 
the peculiarities of the different mountains. Mr. Lesueur has 
besides discovered several species of fish* as yet undescribed. He 
was there too early in the season to catch many snakes. Both 
gentlemen had together collected thirteen chests of natural curi¬ 
osities* which are expected here immediately. Mr. Lesueur ac¬ 
companied the naturalist Perron* as draftsman in his tour to New 
South Wales* under Captain Baudin* and possessed all the illumi¬ 
nated designs of the animals which were discovered for the first 
time on this voyage* upon vellum. This collection is unique of 
its kind, either as regards the interest of the objects represented* 
* [He is at this time advertising a boarding-school in the Western country, on 
his own account, which is to be under his immediate superintendence!]— Trans. 
