This
raised doubts, of course, as to how he was to fit himself into the frame
of things; and while he mused upon some more generous arrangement of
society, and its conflicting interests, a scheme was started which
plainly proposed to settle the problem. Fourier had only just passed
away; the spread of his ideas was in its highest momentum. On the other
hand, the study of German philosophy, and the new dissent of Emerson,
had carried men's thoughts to the very central springs of intellectual
law, while in Boston the writing and preaching of Channing roused a
practical radicalism, and called for a better application of
Christianity to affairs. The era of the Transcendentalists had come. The
Chardon Street meetings--assemblages of ardent theorists and
"come-outers" of every type, who, while their sessions lasted, held
society in their hands and moulded it like clay--were a rude
manifestation of the same deep current. In the midst of these
influences, Mr. Ripley, an enthusiastic student of philosophy, received
an inspiration to establish a modified socialistic community on our own
soil. The Industrial Association which he proposed at West Roxbury was
wisely planned with direct reference to the emergencies of American
life; it had no affinity with the erratic views of Enfantin and the
Saint Simonists, nor did it in the least tend toward the mistakes of
Robert Owen regarding the relation of the sexes; though it agreed with
Fourier and Owen both, as I understand, in respect of labor.
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