For, although we are proverbial for our thriftiness, especially the people of the Middle and Eastern States, yet we find few, if any, among our own population, who seek money for the purpose of hoarding it; it is sought, almost always, as a means to something better and more noble.

There are few among us who have not felt, at times, that life should be an uninterrupted act of piety; that our deeds, to be true, should be acts of worship; that what is not directed to God, is lost, profane, if not sinful. We know it, and speak not at random, when we say, that a large class of our people are earnest, serious-minded, and dissatisfied at heart with the life around them, and are unwilling "to decline on a range of lower feelings." They are eager, anxious, restless to be freed, and to live a better and more spiritual life, and hence they grasp and catch at any enterprise, scheme, theory, or doctrine, however absurd, so long as it promises to discover to them the secrets of spiritual life, or to afford them the means to live it.

But some of the reasons why this class of

souls is more numerous in this country than among any other Protestant people, may be distinctly stated.

Our first reason may be called a political and economical one. To be freed from the cares and toils of the common duties of life is necessary to the development of the nobler powers of the soul. Here in the United States, competence is more easily acquired than in any other land, thanks to our political institutions and the advantages of our country; hence, those who feel strongly called to live a higher life have the leisure so necessary to their growth and development.

Many, in whom under less favorable circumstances, all instinct of a diviner life would be stifled and trodden out, here come to a full consciousness of their nobler powers and true destiny.

Another reason, and one which may be called geographical, is, the nature and state of our country. It is not enough to be freed from care and toil for the development of our secret powers and aspirations after a purer and holier life -more is needed-silence, solitude is needed.

Our country presents these to us with a lavish hand, and on the grandest scale, in her deep forests, her vast prairies, in her unexplored regions and uncultivated lands; these, with our sparse population, force a great part of our people to silence and into solitude. And these conditions give quiet and tranquillity to the mind, qualities which conduce, and so to speak, provoke man to the meditation and contemplation of his own nature, his destiny, and of God. For solitude gives birth to our nobler impulses, and nature rightly viewed leads upwards step by step, as it were, to our common Author, in whom all secrets are opened to our view.

Such, and many such souls there are, who, "bold with divine affections" and "filled with mighty hopes," have endeavored to realize a better, purer and holier life, in our days and in our land. Among many such noble attempts, we shall give an account of two or three, as types and representatives of the tendencies of that class of men who would live and consecrate their lives to divine purposes.

VII.

Brook Farm.

"To make some nook of God's creation a little fruitfuller, better, more worthy of God; to make some human hearts a little wiser, manfuller, happier;-more blessed, less accursed! This is work for a God."

CARLYLE.

THIS thought has occupied the souls of many,

and several generous and heroic efforts have been made to realize and accomplish such a work. We have thought it best and more interesting to the reader, to let those who were engaged in these movements speak for themselves. Let us first give an idea of the location of Brook Farm, that what follows may be better understood.

Brook Farm was situated at West Roxbury,

about eight miles from the city of Boston. The place is one of great natural beauty, and the whole landscape is so rich and varied as to attract the notice even of casual visitors. The farm consisted of about two hundred acres of land, of as good quality as any in the neighborhood of Boston. Such was, in a few words, the locality of Brook Farm.

"No man amongst us," says a writer, in speaking of the founder of Brook Farm, "is better acquainted with the various plans of world-reform which have been projected, from Plato's Republic to Fourier's Phalanx ; but this establishment seems to be the result, not of his theorizing, but of a simple want of his, as a man and a Christian. He felt himself unable, in the existing social organization, to practise always according to his conceptions of Christianity. He could not maintain with his brethren those relations of love and equality which he felt were also needful to him for his own intellectual and moral growth and wellbeing. Moved by this feeling, he sought to create around him the circumstances which would respond to it, enable him to worship