XLI. Brook Farm Propoagating Swedenborgism

537 CHAPTER XLI. BROOK FARM PROPAGATING SWEDENBORGIANISM. OUR history of the career of Brook Farm in its final function of public teacher and propagandist, would not be complete without some account of its agency in the great Swedenborgian revival, of modern times. In a series of articles published in the Oneida Cir cular a year or .two ago, under the title of Sweden borg£ana, the author of this history said: "The foremost and brightest of the Associations that rose in the Fourier excitement, was that at Brook Farm. The leaders were men whose names are now high in lit erature and politics. Ripley, Dana, Channing, Dwight and Hawthorne" are specimens of the list. Most of them were from the Unitarian school, whose head-quar ters are at Boston and Cam bridge. The movement really issued as much from transcendental Unitarianism as from Fourierism. It was religious, literary and artistic, as well as social. It had a press, and at one time undertook propagandism by missionaries and lectures. Its periodical, the Harb£1zger, was ably con ducted, and very charming to all enthusiasts of progress.

Our Putney school, which had not then reached Com munism, was among the admirers of this periodical, and undoubtedly took an impulse from its teachings. The AMERICAN SOCIALISMS. Brook Farm Association, as the leader and speaker of the hundred others that rose with it, certainly contribu ted most largely to the effect of the general movement begun by Brisbane and Greeley. But the remarkable fact, for the sake of which I am calling special attention to it, is, that in· its didactic function, it brought upon the public mind, not only a new socialism but a new religion, and that religion was Swedenborgianism. "The proof of this can be found by anyone who has access to the files of the Harbi1tger. I could give many pages of extracts in point. The simple truth is that Brook Farm and the Harbinger meant to propagate Fourierism, but succeeded only in propagating Sweden borgianism. The Associations that arose with them and under their influence, passed away within a few years, without exception; but the surge of Swedenbor gianism which they started, swept on among their constituents, and, under the form of Spiritualism, is sweeping on to this day.

"Swedenborgianism went deeper into the hearts of the people than the Socialism that introduced it, because it was a religion. The Bible and revivals had made men hungry fo.r something more than social recop-struction. Swedenborg's offer of a new heaven as well as a new earth, met the demand magnificently. He suited all 'sorts. The scientific were charmed, because he was primarily a son of science, and seemed to reduce the universe to scientific order. The mystics were charmed, because he led them boldly into all the mysteries of intuition and invisible worlds. The Unitarians liked him, .because, while he declared Christ to be Jehovah himself, he displaced the orthodox ideas of Sonship and tri-personality, and evidently meant only that Christ was BROOK FARM AND SWEDENBORGIANISM. 539 an illusive representation of the Father. Even the infi dels liked him, because he discarded about half the Bible, including all Paul's writings, as 'not belonging to the-Word,' and made the rest a mere 'nose of wax' by means of his doctrine of the 'internal sense.' His vast imaginations and magnificent promises chimed in exactly with the spirit of the accompanying Socialisms.

Fourierism was too bald a materialism to suit the higher classes of its disciples, without a religion corresponding. J Swedenborgianism was a godsend to the enthusiasts of Brook Farm; and they made it the complement of F ourierism. "Sweden borg's writings had long been circulating feebly in this country, and he had ~poradic disciples and even churches in our cities, before the new era of Socialism. But any thing like a general interest in his writings had never been known, till about the period when Brook Farm and the Harbinger were in· the ascendant. Here began a movement of the public mind toward Swedenborg, as palpable and portentous as that of Millerism or the old revivals. " But· Young America could not receive an old and foreign philosophy .like Swedenborg's, without reacting upon it and adapting it to its new surroundings. The old afflatus must have a new medium. In 1845 the movement which commenced at Brook Farm was in full tide. In 1.847 the great American Swedenborg, Andrew Jackson Davis, appeared, and Professor Bush gave him the right hand of fellowship, and introduced him into office as the medium and representative of the 'illus trious Swede,' while the Harbinger rejoiced over them both.

"Here I might show by chapter and verse from 540 AMERICAN SOCIALISMS. Davis's and Bush's writings, exactly how the conjunc tion between them took place; how Davis met Sweden borg's ghost in a graveyard near Poughkeepsie in 1844, and from him received a commission to help the 'ineffi cient' efforts of Christ to regulate mankind; how he had another interview with the same ghost in 1846, and was directed by him to open correspondence with Bush; how Bush took him under his patronage, watched and studied him for months, and finally published his conclu sion that Davis was a true medium of Swedenborg, providentially raised up to confirm his divine mission and teachings; and finally, how Bush and Davis quarreled within a year, and mutually repudiated each other's doctrines; but I must leave details and hurry on to the end. "After 1847 Swedenborgianism proper subsided, and , Modern Spiritualism' took its place. But the character of the two systems, as well as the history of their rela tions to each other, proves them to be identical in essence. Spiritualism is Swedenborgianism American ized. Andrew Jackson Davis began as a medium of Swedenborg, receiving from him his commission and inspiration, and became an independent seer and revela tor, only because, as a son, he outgrew his father. The omniscient philosophies which the two have issued are identical in their main ideas about intuition, love and wisdom, familiarity of the living with the dead, classifi cation of ghostly spheres, astronomical theology, etc.

Andrew Jackson Davis is more flippant and superficial than Swedenborg, and less respectful toward the Bible and the past, and in these respects he suits his cus tomers." We understand that SOlne of the Brook Farmers think BROOK FARM AND SWEDENBORGIANISM. 541 this view of the Swedenborgian influence of Brook Farm and the Harbinger is exaggerated. It will be appropriate therefore now to set forth some of the facts and teachings which led to this view. The first notable statement of the essential dualism between Swedenborg and Fourier that we find in the writings of the Socialists, is in the last chapter of Parke Godwin's "Popular View," published in the beginning of I 844, a standard work on Fourierism, second in time and importance only to Brisbane's "Concise Exposition." Godwin says: "Thus far we have given Fourier's doctrine of Uni versal Analogy; but it is important to observe that he was not the first man of modern times who communi cated this view. Emanuel Swedenborg, between whose revelations in the sphere of spiritual knowledge, and Fourier's discoveries in the sphere of science, there has been remarked the most exact and wonderful cornci dence, preceded him in the annunciation of the doctrine in many of its aspects, in what is termed the doctrine of correspondence. These two great minds, the greatest beyond all comparison in our later days, were the instru ments of Providence in bringing to light the mysteries of His Word and Works, as they are comprehended and followed in the higher states of existence. It is no exaggeration, vve think, to say, that they are the two commissioned by the Great 'Leader of the Christian Israel, to spy out the promised land of peace and bless edness.

"But in the discovery and statement of the doctrine of Analogy, these authorities have not proceded accord ing to precisely the same methods. Fourier has arrived 542 AMERICAN SOCIALISMS. at it by strictly scientific synthesis, and Sweden borg by the study of the Scriptures aided by Divine illumination. What is the aspect in which Fourier views it 'we have shown; we shall next attempt to elucidate the peculiar development of Swedenborg." From this Mr. Godwin goes on to show at length the parallelism between the teachings of these" incomparable masters." It will be seen that he intimates that thinkers and writers before him had taken the same view. One of these, doubtless, was Hugh Doherty, an English Fourierist, whose writings frequently occur in the Phalanx and Harbinger. A very long article from him, maintaining the identity of Fourierism and Sweden borgianism, appeared in the Phalanx of September 7, 1844. The article itself is dated London, January 30, 1844. Among other things Mr. Doherty says: " I am a believer in the truths of the New Church, and have read nearly all the writings of Swedenborg, and I have no hesitation in saying that without Fourier's explanation of the laws of order in Scriptural interpre tation, I should probably have doubted the truth of Swedenborg's illumination, from want of a ground to understand the nature of spiritual sight in contradis tinction from natural sight; or if I had 1)een able to conceive the opening of the spiritual sight, and credit Swedenborg's doctrines and affirmations, I should prob ably have understood them only in the same degree as most of the members of the New Church whom I have Inet in England, and that would seem to me, in my present state, a partial calalnity of cecity. I say this in all humility and sincerity of conscience, with a view to future reference to Sweden borg himself in the spiritual BROOK FARM AND SWEDENBORGIANISM. 543 world, and as a means of inducing the members of the New Church generally not to be content with a super ficial or limited knowledge of their own doctrines."

In another passage Mr. Doherty claims to have been "a student of Fourier fourteen years, and of Sweden borg two years." In consequence partly of the new appreciation of Swedenborg that was rising among the Fourierists, a movement commenced in England in 1845 for repub lishing the scientific works of "the illustrious Swede." An Association for that purpose was formed, and several of Sweden borg's bulkiest works were printed under the auspices of Wilkinson, Clissold and others. This Wil kinson was also a considerable contributor to the Pha lanx and Harbinger, as the reader will see by recurring to a list in our chapter on the Personnel of F ourierism. Following this movement, came the famous lecture of Ralph Waldo Emerson on "Swedenborg, the Mystic," claiming for him a lofty position as a scientific dis coverer. That lecture was first published -in this country in a volume entitled, "Representative Men," in 1849; but according to Mr. White (the biographer of Sweden borg), it was delivered in England several times in 1847; and we judge from an expression which we italicize in the following extract from it, that it was written and perhaps delivered in this country in 1845 or 1846, i. e.

very soon after the republication movement in England: "'The scientific works [of Sweden borg] have just now been translated into English, in an excellent edition. Swedenborg printed these scientific books in the ten years from 1734 to 1744, and they remained from that time neglected; and now, after their century is com544 AMERICAN SOCIALISMS. plete, he has at last found a pupil in Mr. Wilkinson, in London, a philosophic critic, with a coequal vigor of understanding and imagination comparable only to Lord Bacon's, who has produced his master's buried books to the day, and transferred them, with every advantage, from their forgotten Latin into English, to go round the world in our commercial and conquering tongue. This startling reappearance of Swedenborg, after a hundred years, in his pupil, is not the least remarkable fact in his history. Aided, it is said, by the munificence of Mr. Clissold, and also by his literary skill, this piece of poetic justice is done. 1~he admirable preliminary dis courses with which Mr. Wilkinson has enriched these volumes, throw all the cotemporary philosophy of Eng land into shade."

Emerson, it is true, was not a Brook Farmer ;·but he was the spiritual fertilizer of all the Transcendentalists, including the Brook Farmers. It is true also that in his lecture he severely criticised Sweden borg ; but this was his vocation: to judge and disparage all religious teachers, especially seers and thaumaturgists. On the whole he gave S\vedenborg a lift, just as he helped the reputation of all "ethnic Scriptures." His criticism of Swedenborg amounts to about this: "He was a very great thinker and discoverer; but his visions and theo logical teachings are humbugs; still they are as good as any other, and rather better." William H. Channing, another fertilizer of Brook Farm, was busy at the same time with Emerson, in the work of calling attention to Swedenborg. His con versions to Fourierism and Swedenborgianism seem to have proceeded together. The last three numbers of the Present are loaded with articles extolling SwedenBROOK FARM AND SWEDENBORGIANISM. 545 borg, and the editor only complains of them that they "by no means do justice to the great Swedish philoso pher and seer." The very last article in the volume is an item headed, "Fourier and Swedenborg," in which Mr. Channing says: "I have great pleasure in announcing another work upon Fourier and his system, from the pen of C. ].

Hempel. This book is a very curious and interesting one, from the attempt of the author to show the identity or at least the extraordinary resemblance between the views of Fourier and Sweden borg. How far Mr. Hempel has been successful I cannot pretend to judge. But this may be safely said, no one can examine with any care the writings of these two wonderful students of Providence, man and the universe, without having most sublime visions of divine order opened upon him. Their doctrine of Correspondence and Universal Unity accords with all the profoundest thought of the age." Such were the influences under which Brook Farm assumed its final task of propagandism. Let us now see how far the coupling of Fourier and Swedenborg was kept up in the Harbinger. The motto of the paper, displayed under its title from first to last, was selected from the writings of the Swedish seer. In the editors' inaugural address they say: "In the words of the illustrious Sweden borg, which we have selected for the motto of the Harbinger, "All things, at the present day, stand provided and prepared, and await the light. The ship is in the harbor; the sails are swelling; the east wind blows; let us weigh anchor, and put forth to sea."

AMERICAN SOCIALISMS. In a glancing run through the five semi-annual vol umes of the Harbinger we find between thirty and forty articles on Swedenborg and Swedenborgian subjects, chiefly editorial reviews of books, pamphlets, etc., with a considerable amount of correspondence from Wilkin son, Doherty and other Swedenborgian Fourierists in England. The burden of all these articles is the same, viz., the unity of Swedenborgiani~m and Fourierism. On the one hand the Fourierists insist that Swedenborg revealed the religion that Fourier anticipated; and on the other the Swedenborgians insist that Fourier dis covered the divine arrangemeI\t of society that Sweden borg foreshadowed. The reviews referred to were writ ten chiefly by John S. Dwight and Charles A. Dana. * We will give a few spcci~ens of their utterances: [From Editorials by John S. Dwight.] * * * "In religion we have Sweden borg; in social economy Fourier; in music Beethoven.

* * * "Sweden borg we reverence for the greatness and profundity of his thought. We study him continu ally for the light he sheds on so many problems of human destiny, and more especially for the r~markable correspondence, as of inner with outer, which his revela tions present with the discoveries of Fourier concerning social organization, or the outward forms of life. The one is the great poet and high-priest, the other the great * Henry James also wrote many articles for the Harbinger in the in terest of Swedenborg. His subsequent career as a promulgator of the Swedenborgian philosophy, in which he has even scaled the heights of the North American Re1/ie'W, is well known; but perhaps it is not so well known that he commenced that career in the Harbi1~[[er. He has con tinued faithful to both Swedenborg and Fourier, to the present time.

BROOK FARM AND SWEDENBORGIANISM. 547 economist, as it were, of the harmonic order, which all things are preparing. * * * "Call not our praises of Swedenborg 'hollow;' if he offered us ten times as much which we could not assent to, it would not detract in the least from our reverence for the man, or our great indebtedness to his profoundly spiritual insight. * * * "Deeper foundations for science have not been touched by any sounding-line as yet, than these same philosophical principles of Swedenborg. Fourier has not gone deeper; but he has shed more light on these deep foundations, taken their measurement with a n10re bold precision, and reared a no insignificant portion of the everlasting superstructure. But in their ground they are both one. Taken together they are the highest expression of the tendency of human thought to univer sal unity. [From Editorials by Charles A. Dana.] * * * "We recommend the writings of Swedenborg to our readers of all denominations, as we should recom mend those of any other providential teacher. We believe that his mission is of the highest importance to the human family, and shall take every fit occasion to call the attention of the public to it.

* * * (C No man of unsophisticated mind can read Swedenborg without feeling his life elevated into a higher plane, and his intellect excited into new and more reverent action on some .of the sublimest questions which the human mind can approach. Whatever may be thought of the doctrines of Swedenborg or of his visions, the spirit which breathes from his works is pure and heavenly.

AMERICAN SOCIALISMS. * * * "We do not hesitate to say that the publica tion and study of Swedenborg's scientific writings must produce a new era in human knowledge, and thus in society. * * * "Though Swedenborg and Fourier differ in the character of their minds, and the immediate end of their studies, the method they adopted was fundamen tally the same; their success is thus due, not to the vastness of their genius alone, but in a measure also to the instruments they employed. The logic of Fourier is imperfectly stated in his doctrine of the Series, of Universal Analogy, and of Attractions proportional to Destinies; that of Swedenborg in the incomplete and often very obscure and difficult expositions which appear here and there in his works, of the doctrine of Forms; of Order and Degrees; of Series and Society; of In flux; of Correspondence and Representation; and of Modification. This logic appears to have existed com plete in the minds of neither of these great men; but even so much of it as they have communicated, puts into the hands of the student the most invaluable assistance, and attracts him to a path of thought in which the successful explorers will receive immortal honors from a grateful race.

* * * "The chief characteristic of this epoch is, its tendency, everywhere apparent, to unity in universality; and the men in whom this tendency is most fully ex pressed are Swedenborg, Fourier and Goethe. In these three eminent persons is summed up the great move ment toward unity in universality, in religion, science and art, which comprise the whole domain of human activity. In speaking of Swedenborg as the teacher of this century in religion, some of the most obvious conBROOK FARM AND SWEDENBORGIANISM. 549 siderations are his northern origin, his peculiar educa tion, etc. * * * "We say without hesitation, that, excepting the writings of Fourier, no scientific publications of the last fifty years are to be compared with [the Wilkinson edition of Sweden borg] in importance. To the student of philosophy, to the savan, and to the votary of social science, they are alike invaluable, almost indispensable.

Whether we are inquiring for truth in the abstract, or looking beyond the aimlessness and contradictions of modern experimentalism in search of the guiding light of universal principles, or giving our constant thought to the laws of Divine Social Order, and the re-integra tion of the Collective Man, we can not spare the aid of this loving and beloved sage. His was a grand genius, nobly disciplined. In him, a devotion to truth almost awful, was tempered by an equal love of humanity and a supreme reverence for God. To his mind, the order of the universe and the play of its powers were never the objects of idle curiosity or of c6ld speculation. He entered into the retreats of nature and the occult abode of the soul, as the minister of humanity, and not as a curious explorer eager to add to his own store of wonders or to exercise his faculties in those difficult regions. No man had ever such. sincerity, such absolute freedom from intellectual selfishness as he."

'[he reader, we trust, will take our word for it, that there is a very large amount of this sort of teaching in the volumes of the Harbinger. Even Mr. Ripley him self wielded a vigorous cudgel on behalf of Swedenborg against certain orthodox critics, and held the usual language of his socialistic brethren about the "sublime 55° AMERICAN SOCIALISMS. visions of the illustrious Swedish seer," his « bold poetic revelations," his "profound, living, electric principles," the "piercing truth of his productions," etc. Vide Har binger, Vol. 3, p. 3I 7· On these and such evidences we came to the conclu sion that the Brook Farmers, while they disclaimed for Fourierism all sectarian connections, did actually couple it with Swedenborgianism in their propagative labors; and as Fourierism soon failed and passed away, it turned out that their lasting work was the promulgation of Swedenborgianism; which certainly has had a great run in this country ever since. It would not perhaps be fair to call Fourierism, as taught by the Harbinger writers, the stalking-horse of Swedenborgianism; but it is not too much to say that their Fourierism, if it had lived, would have had Swedenborgianism for its state-religion.

This view agrees with the fact that the only sectarian Association, avowed and tolerated in the Fourier epoch, was the Swedenborgian Phalanx at Leraysville. The entire historical sequence which seems to be es tablished by the facts now before us, may be stated thus: Unitarianism produced Transcendentalism; Tran scendentalism produced Brook Farm; Brook Farm married and propagated Fourierism; Fourierism had Swedenborgianism for its religion; and Swedenborgian ism led the way to Modern Spiritualism.