There was need, certainly, of some central
purpose strong enough for all to unite upon to inspire permanence.
Neither Mr. Ripley nor any of his co-workers had heard of Charles
Fourier--the French exponent of industrial association--or his
doctrines, unless in a most casual way, and certainly they had not
studied them when they started the Community. They were independent
workers in a field of social science; but when they became acquainted
with his ideas, especially his ideas of industry made attractive by
organized labor, and its relation to the higher standard of work and
liberal belief they had adopted and maintained thus far, their
enthusiasm was awakened for them and they resolved to graft some of his
formulas on their institution. The little Community, with its bright,
cheerful school and its happy members, was not paying its way. There
were philosophers enough in it. There were plenty of sweet, charming
characters and amateur workmen in it, but the hard-fisted toilers and
the brave financiers were absent.
Still, it was not entirely absence of financial success that led the
responsible men of the Community to make the change in the organization
that they did, but truly because the grand and reasonable ideas of the
distinguished Frenchman bore such internal evidences of harmony with
human nature and with God's providence and laws that they carried
conviction to the great and sympathetic minds of Brook Farm.
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