On his return he was accompanied by two Englishmen who seemed to be like-minded with himself, a Mr. H. G. Wright and Mr. Charles Lane, both of whom returned within a year or two to their own country, wiser and perhaps sadder men.  Lane, at all events, who was a simple and candid soul for whom Isaac Hecker conceived a long-enduring friendship, sunk all his private means irrevocably in the futile attempt to establish Fruitlands on a solid basis.  To use his own words in a letter now at our hand, though referring to another of Mr. Alcott’s schemes, his little fortune was “buried in the same grave of flowery rhetoric in which so many other notions have been deposited.”

Lying before us there is an epistle—­Mr. Alcott’s most ordinary written communications with his friends must have demanded that term in preference to anything less stately—­in which he has described his own ideal of what life at Fruitlands ought to be.  No directer way of conveying to our readers a notion of his peculiar faculty of seeming to say something of singular importance occurs to us, than that of giving it entire.  Though found among Father Hecker’s papers, it was not addressed to him but to one of his most-valued Brook Farm associates: 

“Concord, Mass., February 15, 1843.—­DEAR FRIEND:  In reply to your letter of the 12th, I have to say that as until the snow leaves the ground clear, the Family cannot so much as look for a locality (which then may not readily be found), it seems premature to talk of the conditions on which any association may be formed.

“Nevertheless, as human progress is a universally interesting subject, I have much pleasure in communicating with you on the question of the general conditions most conducive to that end.

“I have no belief in associations of human beings for the purpose of making themselves happy by means of improved outward arrangements alone, as the fountains of happiness are within, and are opened to us as we are preharmonized or consociated with the Universal Spirit.  This is the one condition needful for happy association amongst men.  And this condition is attained by the surrender of all individual or selfish gratification—­a complete willingness to be moulded by Divinity.  This, as men now are, of course involves self-renunciation and retrenchment; and in enumerating the hindrances which debar us from happiness, we shall be drawn to consider, in the first place, ourselves; and to entertain practically the question, Are we prepared for the giving up all, and taking refuge in Love as an unfailing Providence?  A faith and reliance as large as this seems needful to insure us against disappointment.  The entrance to Paradise is still through the strait gate and narrow way of self-denial.  Eden’s avenue is yet guarded by the fiery-sworded cherubim, and humility and charity are the credentials for admission.  Unless well armed with valor and patience, we must continue in the old and much-trodden broad way, and take share of the penalties paid by all who walk thereon.