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.)
Of about seventy persons now assembled there, about thirty are
children, sent thither for education; some adult persons also place
themselves there chiefly for mental assistance; and in the society
there are only four married couples. With such materials it is almost
certain that the sensitive and vital points of communication cannot
well be tested. A joint-stock company, working with some of its own
members and with others as agents, cannot bring to issue the great
question whether the existence of the individual family is compatible
with the universal family, which the term "Community" signifies. This
is now the grand problem. By mothers it has ever been felt to be so.
The maternal instinct, as hitherto educated, has declared itself so
strongly in favor of the separate fireside, that the association, which
appears so beautiful to the young and unattached soul, has yet
accomplished little progress in the affections of that important
section of the human race--the mothers. With fathers, the feeling in
favor of the separate family is certainly less strong; but there is an
undefinable tie, a sort of magnetic _rapport_, an invisible,
inseverable umbilical cord between the mother and child, which in most
cases circumscribes her desires and ambition to her own immediate
family.
All the accepted adages and wise saws of society, all the precepts of
morality, all the sanctions of theology, have for ages been employed to
confirm this feeling. This is the chief corner stone of present
society; and to this maternal instinct have, till very lately, our most
heartfelt appeals been made for the progress of the human race, by
means of a deeper and more vital education. Pestalozzi and his most
enlightened disciples are distinguished by this sentiment. And are we
all at once to abandon, to deny, to destroy this supposed stronghold of
virtue? Is it questioned whether the family arrangement of mankind is
to be preserved? Is it discovered that the sanctuary, till now deemed
the holiest on earth, is to be invaded by intermeddling scepticism, and
its altars sacrilegiously destroyed by the rude hands of innovating
progress?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account