Brook Farm: Historic and Personal MemoirsCodman, John Thomas
History
Brook Farm: Historic and Personal Memoirs
Codman, John Thomas
Brook Farm Phalanx (West Roxbury, Boston, Mass.)
But it was not alone in puns and conundrums that the social life of
Brook Farm was rich. It was rich in cheerful buzz. The bumble-bees had
no more melodious hum than the Brook Farmers. They had thrown aside the
forms that bind outside humanity. They were sailing on a voyage of
discovery, seeking a modern El Dorado, but they did not carry with them
the lust for gold. They were seeking something which, had they found
the realization of, would have carried peace to troubled hearts,
contentment and joy to all conditions and classes. They were builders,
not destroyers. They proposed to begin again the social structure with
new foundations. They were at war with none personally; as high-toned,
large-souled men and women they were ready with their expressions of
hatred and contempt for the unchristian social life of our generation,
but they were never ranters.
In general little was said on the farm of these matters, except in
private discussions; all were too busy with the active work. We felt
that we had put our ears down to the earth and heard nature's
whisperings of harmony; that we had gone back from the uncertain and
flimsy foundations of present society, and placed our corner stone on
the eternal rock of science and justice; that the social laws God
ordained from the beginning had been discovered; there could be no
possibility of a mistake, and therefore, we felt that our feet were on
eternal foundations, and our souls growing more and more in harmony
with man and God.
Imagine, indifferent reader of my story, the state of mind you would be
in if you could feel that you were placed in a position of positive
harmony with all your race; that you carried with you a balm that could
heal every earthly wound; an earthly gospel, even as the church thinks
it has a heavenly gospel--a remedy for poverty, crime, outrage and
over-taxed hand, heart and brain. And every night as you laid your head
on your pillow, you could say: "I have this day wronged no man. I have
this day worked for my race, I have let all my little plans go and have
worked on the grand plan that the Eternal Father has intended shall
sometime be completed. I feel that I am in harmony with Him. Now I know
He _is_ truly our Father. With an unending list of crimes and social
wrongs staring me in the face I doubted, and my heart was cast down.
Now the light is given me by which I see the way through the labyrinth!
It is our Father's beautiful garden in which we are. I have learned
that all is intended for order and beauty, but as children we cannot
yet walk so as not to stumble. Natural science has explained a thousand
mysteries. Social science--understand the word; not schemes, plans or
guessing, but genuine science, as far from guess or scheme as astronomy
or chemistry is--will reveal to us as many truths and beauties as ever
any other science has done. I now see clearly! Blessed be God for the
light!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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