Peter's Departure--Mr. Dwight at the Association Meeting--Practical Christians--The Solidarity of the Race--Mr. Ripley's _Harbinger_ Article. CHAPTER XIV. THE DEPARTURES AND AFTER LIVES OF THE MEMBERS Breaking up--Ripley's Poverty, after Life and Death--Mr. Pratt; Mr. Dana; Mr. Dwight, and various Persons--William H. Charming--A. Brisbane--C. Fourier--Letters of Approval. APPENDIX. PART I. STUDENTS' AND INQUIRERS' LETTERS Student Life--Explanations and Answers to Objections--Letter on Social Equality--Religious Views. INTRODUCTION. There were two distinct phases in the Associated life at Brook Farm. The first was inaugurated by the pioneers, who introduced a school, and combined it with farm and household labors. The second phase began with an attempt to introduce methods of social science and to add mechanical and other industries to those already commenced. These different phases have been called the Transcendental and the Industrial periods. Each individual had his special experiences of the life. The writer chronicles it from his standpoint. None, perhaps, was more interested in it than he, young as he was, but many were more able to elaborate it and write it in details, and did he not feel that it was an important duty neglected by all, these memoirs would have remained unwritten. The record books of the institution are missing, and are doubtless long ago destroyed. These chapters have been compiled and written from few memoranda, at various times, very often after the arduous duties of days of professional life, and with a desire only to present the subject truthfully, faithfully and simply; and also, not wholly to gratify curiosity, or to record the doings of the noble men and women who were wise before their time, but to whisper courage to those who, like their predecessors, are seeking some solution of the social problems that involves neither the too sudden surrender of acquired rights, the reckless abandon of old ideas to untried and crude radicalism, or the more to-be-dreaded feuds between classes, that mean desperation on one side and war on the other; but to aid, if possible, in inspiring a belief that a peaceful adjustment of our surroundings will, in time, bring order out of chaos and harmony out of discord. The reader will have observed long before he lays down this book, that the Brook Farm life and ideals were purely coöperative and philosophical, that all the elements of true society were recognized, and that the attempt was for the better adjustment of them to the changing and changed relations of their fellow-men, brought about by the pervading moral, scientific and social growth of the past and present centuries.