building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

pecuniary means, this enterprise must be rooted in a reliance on the
succors of an ever‐bounteous Providence, whose vital affinities being
secured by this union with uncorrupted field and Unworldly persons, the
cares and injuries of a life of gain are avoided. The inner nature of each
member of the Family is at no time neglected. Our plan contemplates all
such disciplines, cultures, and habits as evidently conduce to the
purifying of the inmates. Pledged to the spirit alone, the founders
anticipate no hasty or numerous addition to their numbers. The
kingdom of peace is entered only through the gates of self‐denial; and
felicity is the test and the reward of loyalty to the unswerving law of
Love”. This prospective Eden at present consisted of an old red farmhouse,
a dilapidated barn, many acres of meadow‐land, and a grove. Ten
ancient apple‐trees were all the "chaste supply" which the place offered
as yet; but, in the firm belief that plenteous orchards were soon to be
evoked from their inner consciousness, these sanguine founders had
christened their domain Fruitlands 123 .
After approximately seven months, Fruitlands was abandoned, but it was to
represent a crucial meeting point between converging ideologies. Ralph Waldo
Emerson, the main theorist of transcendentalism, not only knew perfectly the
experiment at Fruitlands, but following its failure helped Alcott in settling again in
Concord. Emerson was also aware of the decision of Charles Lane to join the
Shakers, who had several communities around Concord. 124 . The various
communities described previously reconnected directly or indirectly with the
analogous theories of the utopian socialists, and recalled the rules of daily life
already practiced by the Shakers.
An essay by Priscilla Brewer speaks of this very interweaving of theories and how
they influenced Emerson's ideas: “Searching for ways to change the system,
Emerson encountered the socialist schemes of Robert Owen and Charles Fourier,
and in trying to locate successful examples of socialism in America, he remembered
123 ALCOTT, Louisa May, “Trascendental Wild Oats” published in Silver Pitchers: and Independence, A
Centennial Love Story, Boston, Roberts Brothers, 1876, pp. 80‐81
124 Near Concord, the city where Emerson lived, there were various Shaker towns. One of these is the
community of Canterbury, 12 miles north‐east of Elms. Charles Edson Robinson writes about it:
“From this point on, for ten miles to the Shaker village, we pass up a gradual rise of land until we
reach the Shaker settlement. On the way, we pass some of the best farms in the Granite State. The
Shaker village itself has a wonderfully clean and neat appearance. The houses, church, school
building, workshops, barns, stables and sheds are kept in the best of repair, showing unmistakable
evidence in every department that the followers of Ann Lee are grounded in the faith that
"cleanliness is next to godliness". ROBINSON, Charles Edson, A Concise History of The United Society
of Believers, called Shakers, East Canterbury, 1893, p. 110
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