In 1838 the Workingmen’s Institute and Library was organized at Maclure’s suggestion and with money that he contributed. Later, Dr. Edward Murphy generously gave to this association a handsome building, which contains the library, an art gallery,--largely Dr. Murphy’s gift,--a hall, and museum. The building stands in a pretty park and is ideally adapted to its purposes. The library contains 12,000 volumes, well selected and particularly rich in scientific works. It includes every available book relating to American socialism, and many of the original New Harmony records are preserved there. Dr. Murphy has provided an endowment for it and for an annual course of lectures. The lecture course is greatly prized by the citizens, who have heard under its auspices many of the learned men of the day. There was no church in the village for many years; indeed, with the passing of Rapp little attention was paid to religious matters at New Harmony until late in the century, and though there are Episcopal and Methodist organizations in the village now, the life of the people does not centre about the churches as in most communities of the same size. An old citizen describes the attitude of the inhabitants toward religion as one of tolerance merely. Several branches of the Owen family are Episcopalians. Dancing as a feature of social life has survived from community times, and a first-of-May ball, followed by a dance for children, has long been fixed in the local calendar. Thus Robert Owen’s brief experiment, failing of his purpose, led to the founding of an American family whose members have shown unusual talents, creditable alike to their distinguished progenitor and to the State which became, by chance, their home. He failed to establish an asylum for the oppressed, as he had intended, but he was responsible for the impulse that made of his village a centre of scientific inquiry and the home of men of renown. It is impossible to separate the New Harmony of to-day from the village of the past. At every turn, the buildings of the Rappites and the traces of Owen’s disciples suggest the old times; and descendants of the Owens, Fretageots, Beales, Fauntleroys, Dransfields, Wheatcrofts, and many others dating back to community times, still live there. New Harmony is a pleasant place in May and June, when the great lines of maples in the broad streets are at their best, and all the quiet valley is fresh and green. It invites by its air of antiquity and peace; the sheltered life is still possible there. In the present, it is the ideal Western village; in its memories it marks the first high tide of cultivation at the West. CHAPTER V THE HOOSIER INTERPRETED