It is as
false and as ruinous to call any man "master," in secular business, as
it is in theological opinion. Those persons, therefore, who congregate
for the purpose, as it is called, of bettering their outward relations,
on principles so high and universal as we have endeavored to describe,
are not engaged in a petty design, bounded by their own selfish or
temporary improvement. Everyone who is here found giving up the usual
chances of individual aggrandizement, may not be thus influenced; but
whether it be so or not, the outward demonstration will probably be
equally certain.
In education Brook Farm appears to present greater mental freedom than
most other institutions. The tuition being more heart-rendered, is in
its effects more heart-stirring. The younger pupils, as well as the
more advanced students, are held mostly, if not wholly, by the power of
love. In this particular, Brook Farm is a much improved model for the
oft-praised schools of New England. It is time that the imitative and
book-learned systems of the latter should be superseded or liberalized,
by some plan better calculated to excite originality of thought and the
native energies of the mind. The deeper, kindly sympathies of the
heart, too, should not be forgotten; but the germination of these must
be despaired of under a rigid hireling system.
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