My strongest sympathies are with the cause in which you are laboring, and I am not wholly without hope that I shall yet find something to do in it. I am utterly alone here. I think often of what Carlyle says, "Invisible yet impenetrable walls as of enchantment divided me from all living." Will you do me the kindness, sir, to answer the inquiry I have made of you as soon as convenient? Yours most respectfully, D. B. COLTON. _Letter from a Young Man._ COLCHESTER, CT., Nov. 1, 1843. _Rev. George Ripley,_ SIR: My ideas of the principles of Industrial Association have been obtained by reading the New York _Tribune_. I am convinced that these principles are the elements out of which may be constructed that true social order which shall develop man's physical well-being, and call forth the mental and moral faculties of the soul. My intention is to join some association of the kind now forming or already in operation. Your Community has been spoken of as one of the first and best in the country. My object in writing to you is to ascertain the peculiar nature of this organization and management, the terms of membership--the amount of capital required, or whether one without capital would be received--and whether a young man of the following description would find opportunity to _work_ and receive a _fair_ remuneration for his labor. What I can _do_ you can judge. I am twenty-five years of age, have lived eight years in New York, six years in one of the best wholesale dry goods houses there. Brought up at this place a mechanic and farmer, and am now engaged in wagon making and blacksmithing, for which I don't get a red cent beyond a good living. The capital that I intended to invest in Association gone to Davy Jones' locker in the wreck of the commercial world. An answer to these few inquiries would much oblige Your obedient servant, HORATIO N. OTIS. _Reply to Preceding Letter._ [The preceding letter has the following draft of a reply to it on a letter sheet in the handwriting of Mr. Ripley.] MY DEAR SIR: Yours of the 1st inst. is this day received. I dare say that you have received a correct impression of our establishment from the article in the _Tribune_. We are laboring with cheerfulness and hope, in the midst of great obstacles, for the organization of society and the benefit of man. Whoever wishes to join us must be willing to make great sacrifices; to endure severe toil patiently; to live in comparative poverty; to suffer many deprivations for the sake of realizing justice and charity in the social state. We are at present on a small scale, but we are making arrangements to enlarge our number and our branches of industry. We should like to establish your branch of business, and could do so to advantage with an efficient and skilful workman and a small increase of capital. An answer to the following questions will decide whether we can have any further negotiations with you:----