conditions far transcended those of
European life in their freedom and in the objects recognized as common
to all.

Those of us who have numbered threescore years can remember the
perpetual lamentation of the cultivated American of forty years ago. His
whole talk was a cataloguing of negatives: "We have not this, we have
not that." To all of which the true answer would have been: "You have a
wonderful country, an exceptional race, an unparalleled opportunity. You
have not yet made your five talents ten. That is what you should set
about immediately."

The Brook Farm experiment probably appeared to Margaret in the light of
an Utopia. Her regard for the founders of the enterprise induced her,
nevertheless, to visit the place frequently. Of the first of these
visits her journal has preserved a full account.

The aspect of the new settlement at first appeared to her somewhat
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."

The society of Mr. and Mrs. Ripley was most congenial to her, and the
nearness of the woods afforded an opportunity for the rambles in which
she delighted. But her time was not all dedicated to these calm
pleasures. Soon she had won the confidence of several of the inmates of
the place, who imparted to her their heart histories, seeking that aid
and counsel which she was so well able to give. She mentions the holding
of two conversations during this visit, in both of which she was the
leader. The first was on Education, a subject concerning which her ideas
differed from those adopted by the Community. The manners of some of
those present were too free and easy to be agreeable to Margaret, who
was accustomed to deference.

At the second conversation, some days later, the circle was smaller, and
no one showed any sign of weariness or indifference. The subject was
Impulse, chosen by Margaret because she observed among her new friends
"a great tendency to advocate spontaneousness at the expense of
reflection." Of her own part in this exercise she says:--

"I defended nature, as I always do,--the spirit ascending through, not
superseding nature. But in the scale of sense, intellect, spirit, I
advocated to-night the claims of intellect, because those present were
rather disposed to postpone them."

After the lapse of a year she found the tone of the society much
improved. Th