It should not be imagined that we are about to edit his work. A large part of his collections we shall omit, as irrelevant to our purpose. That part which we use will often be reconstructed and generally condensed. Much of our material will be obtained from other sources. The plan and theory of this history are our own, and widely different from any that Macdonald would have been willing to indorse. With these qualifications, we still acknowledge a large debt of gratitude to him and to the Providence that gave us his collections. CHAPTER II. BIRDS-EYE VIEW OF THE EXPERIMENTS. A general survey of the Socialistic field will be useful, before entering on the memoirs of particular Associations; and for this purpose we will now spread before us the entire Index of Macdonald's collections, adding to it a schedule of the number of pages which he gave to the several Associations, and the dates of their beginning and ending, so far as we have been able to find them. Many of the transitory Associations, it will be seen, "made no sign" when they died. The continuous Communities, such as the Shakers, of course have no terminal date. INDEX OF MACDONALD'S COLLECTION. Associations, &c. No. of Pages. Dates. Alphadelphia Phalanx 7 1843-6. Auxiliary Branch of the Association of All Classes of All Nations 3 1836. Blue Spring Community 1 1826-7. Brazilian Experiment 1 1841. Brook Farm 20 1842-7. Brooke's Experiment 5 1844. Brotherhood of the Union 1 1850-1. Bureau Co. Phalanx 1 1843. Cincinnati Brotherhood 5 1845-8. Clarkson Industrial Association 11 1844. Clermont Phalanx 13 1844-7. Colony of Bethel 11 1852. Columbian Phalanx 1 1845. Commonwealth Society 1 1819. Communia Working Men's League 1 1850. Convention at Boston of the Friends of Association 2 1843. Convention in New York for organizing an Industrial Congress 1 1845. Co-operating Society of Alleghany Co. 1 1825. Coxsackie Community 2 1826-7. Davis' Harmonial Brotherhood 2 1851. Dunkers 4 1724. Ebenezer Community 5 1843. Emigration Society, 2d Section 4 1843.