Hence Brook Farm, with
its spontaneous teachers, presents the unusual and cheering condition
of a really "free school."
By watchful and diligent economy, there can be no doubt that a
community would attain greater pecuniary success than is within the
hope of honest individuals working separately. But Brook Farm is not a
community, and in the variety of motives with which persons associate
there, a double diligence and a watchfulness perhaps, too costly will
be needful to preserve financial prosperity. While, however, this
security is an essential element in success, riches would, on the other
hand, be as fatal as poverty, to the true progress of such an
institution. Even in the case of those foundations which have assumed a
religious character, all history proves the fatality of wealth. The
just and happy mean between riches and poverty is, indeed, more likely
to be attained when, as in this instance, all thought of acquiring
great wealth in a brief time is necessarily abandoned, as a condition
of membership. On the other hand, the presence of many persons, who
congregate merely for the attainment of some individual end, must weigh
heavily and unfairly upon those whose hearts are really expanded to
universal results.
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