. The New England magazine. t things, but did tenthousand generous ones. Mr. Alcott was farmer boy,peddler and teacher by turn. In1832 he was living and teachingin Germantown, Pennsylvania,where on his thirty-third birthdaywas born his daughter Louisa,whose feet were to mount the lad-der of fame higher than his Germantown to Bostonand the famous Temple School;and here Mr. Alcott was gradu-ally formulating the plan whichled to the settlement of Fruit-lands, and also strenuously carry-ing out his conviction that thesimplest food was alone conduciveto high and lofty thinking and
. The New England magazine. t things, but did tenthousand generous ones. Mr. Alcott was farmer boy,peddler and teacher by turn. In1832 he was living and teachingin Germantown, Pennsylvania,where on his thirty-third birthdaywas born his daughter Louisa,whose feet were to mount the lad-der of fame higher than his Germantown to Bostonand the famous Temple School;and here Mr. Alcott was gradu-ally formulating the plan whichled to the settlement of Fruit-lands, and also strenuously carry-ing out his conviction that thesimplest food was alone conduciveto high and lofty thinking and are told that the children grewvery tired of rice without sugar, andGraham meal without either butter ormolasses. He was, this high priest of highideas, very critical in religious mat-ters, writing thus: I am dissatisfiedwith the general preaching of everysect and with the individuals of anysect. Some one has said that heseemed to have adopted what Sir Wil-liam Davenant called an ingenuousQuakerism. Soon the title of phi-. ORCIIARD AT FRUITLANDS. THE ALCOTTS IN HARVARD. 175 losopher was added to that of peddlerand teacher; and he became known asa bright and shining light among thevisionary but earnest company ofTranscendentalists. Going to England, he found therecongenial spirits; and in October,1842, he came home, accompanied bythree of these new friends, CharlesLane and his son, William, andHenry C. Wright. Miss Alcott, in a story entitledTranscendental Wild Oats,which she further calls a chap- ^%,ter from an unwritten ro- C**mance, writes as follows: Onthe first day of June, 1843, alarge wagon, drawn by a smallhorse and containing a motleyload, went lumbering over cer-tain New England hills, withthe pleasing accompanimentsof wind, rain and hail. A se-rene man with a serene childupon his knee was driving, orrather being driven, for thesmall horse had it all his ownway. Behind a small boy, em-bracing a bust of Socrates, wasan energetic looking woman,with a benevolent brow, s
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