.'

* * * * *

'Why bind oneself to a central or any doctrine? How much
nobler stands a man entirely unpledged, unbound! Association
may be the great experiment of the age, still it is only an
experiment. It is not worth while to lay such stress on it;
let us try it, induce others to try it,--that is enough.'

* * * * *

'It is amusing to see how the solitary characters tend
to outwardness,--to association,--while the social and
sympathetic ones emphasize the value of solitude,--of
concentration,--so that we hear from each the word which, from
his structure, we least expect.'

* * * * *

'On Friday I came to Brook Farm. The first day or two here
is desolate. You seem to belong to nobody--to have a right
to speak to nobody; but very soon you learn to take care of
yourself, and then the freedom of the place is delightful.

'It is fine to see how thoroughly Mr. and Mrs. R. act out, in
their own persons, what they intend.

'All Saturday I was off in the woods. In the evening we had
a general conversation, opened by me, upon Education, in its
largest sense, and on what we can do for ourselves and others.
I took my usual ground: The aim is perfection; patience the
road. The present object is to give ourselves and others a
tolerable chance. Let us not be too ambitious in our hopes
as to immediate results. Our lives should be considered as a
tendency, an approximation only. Parents and teachers
expect to do too much. They are not legislators, but only
interpreters to the next generation. Soon, very soon, does the
parent become merely the elder brother of his child;--a little
wiser, it is to be hoped. ---- differed from me as to some
things I said about the gradations of experience,--that "to
be brought prematurely near perfect beings would chill and
discourage." He thought it would cheer and console. He spoke
well,--with a youthful nobleness. ---- said "that the most
perfect person would be the most impersonal"--philosophical
bull that, I trow--"and, consequently, would impede us least
from God." Mr. R. spoke admirably on the nature of loyalty.
The people showed a good deal of the _sans-culotte_ tendency
in their manners,--throwing themselves on the floor, yawning,
and going