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 _Circular_ a year or two ago, under the title of _Swedenborgiana_, 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 literature and politics. Ripley,
Dana, Channing, Dwight and Hawthorne, are specimens of the list.
Most of them were from the Unitarian school, whose head-quarters
are at Boston and Cambridge. 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 _Harbinger_, was ably
conducted, and very charming to all enthusiasts of progress. Our
Putney school, which had not then reached Communism, was among
the admirers of this periodical, and undoubtedly took an impulse
from its teachings. The Brook Farm Association, as the leader
and speaker of the hundred others that rose with it, certainly
contributed 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 any one who has access to the
files of the _Harbinger_. 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
Swedenborgianism. The Associations that arose with them and
under their influence, passed away within a few years, without
exception; but the surge of Swedenborgianism 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 for something more
than social reconstruction. 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
an illusive representation of the Father. Even the infidels
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. Swedenborgianism was a godsend to the enthusiasts
of Brook Farm; and they made it the complement of Fourierism.

"Swedenborg's writings had long been circulating feebly in this
country, and he had sporadic 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 1847 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 'illustrious Swede,' while the
_Harbinger_ rejoiced over them both.

"Here I might show by chapter and verse from Davis's and Bush's
writings, exactly how the conjunction between them took place;
how Davis met Swedenborg's ghost in a graveyard near
Poughkeepsie in 1844, and from him received a commission to help
the 'inefficient' 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 conclusion 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 relations to each
other, proves them to be identical in essence. Spiritualism is
Swedenborgianism Americanized. Andrew Jackson Davis began as a
medium of Swedenborg, receiving from him his commission and
inspiration, and became an independent seer and revelator, 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, classification 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 customers."

We understand that some of the Brook Farmers think 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 1844, 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 Universal Analogy;
but it is important to observe that he was not the first man of
modern times who communicated 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 coincidence, 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 instruments 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, we 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 blessedness.

"But in the discovery and statement of the doctrine of Analogy,
these authorities have not proceeded according to precisely the
same methods. Fourier has arrived at it by strictly scientific
synthesis, and Swedenborg 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 Swedenborgianism, 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 interpretation, I should probably have
doubted the truth of Swedenborg's illumination, from want of a
ground to understand the nature of spiritual sight in
contradistinction from natural sight; or if I had been able to
conceive the opening of the spiritual sight, and credit
Swedenborg's doctrines and affirmations, I should probably have
understood them only in the same degree as most of the members
of the New Church whom I have met in England, and that would
seem to me, in my present state, a partial calamity of cecity. I
say this in all humility and sincerity of conscience, with a
view to future reference to Swedenborg himself in the spiritual
world, and as a means of inducing the members of the New Church
generally not to be content with a superficial or limited
knowledge of their own doctrines."

In another passage Mr. Doherty claims to have been "a student of Fourier fourteen years, and of Swedenborg 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 republishing the scientific works of "the illustrious Swede." An Association for that purpose was formed, and several of Swedenborg's bulkiest works were printed under the auspices of Wilkinson, Clissold and others. This Wilkinson was also a considerable contributor to the _Phalanx_ and _Harbinger_, as the reader will see by recurring to a list in our chapter on the Personnel of Fourierism.

Following this movement, came the famous lecture of Ralph Waldo Emerson on "_Swedenborg, the Mystic_," claiming for him a lofty position as a scientific discoverer. That lecture was first published in this country in a volume entitled, "_Representative Men_," in 1849; but according to Mr. White (the biographer of Swedenborg), 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 Swedenborg] 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 complete, 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. The admirable preliminary discourses
with which Mr. Wilkinson has enriched these volumes, throw all
the cotemporary philosophy of England 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 Swedenborg; but this was his vocation: to judge and disparage all religious teachers, especially seers and thaumaturgists. On the whole he gave Swedenborg 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 theological 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 conversions to Fourierism and Swedenborgianism seem to have proceeded together. The last three numbers of the _Present_ are loaded with articles extolling Swedenborg, and the editor only complains of them that they "by no means do justice to the great Swedish philosopher and seer." The very last article in the volume is an item headed, "Fourier and Swedenborg," in which Mr. Charming says:

"I have great pleasure in announcing another work upon Fourier
and his system, from the pen of C.J. 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 Swedenborg. 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 Swedenborg, 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.'"

In a glancing run through the five semi-annual volumes 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 Wilkinson, Doherty and other Swedenborgian Fourierists in England. The burden of all these articles is the same, viz., the unity of Swedenborgianism 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 discovered the divine arrangement of society that Swedenborg foreshadowed. The reviews referred to were written chiefly by John S. Dwight and Charles A. Dana.[B] We will give a few specimens of their utterances:

[From Editorials by John S. Dwight.]

*** "In religion we have Swedenborg; in social economy Fourier;
in music Beethoven.

*** "Swedenborg we reverence for the greatness and profundity of
his thought. We study him continually for the light he sheds on
so many problems of human destiny, and more especially for the
remarkable correspondence, as of inner with outer, which his
revelations 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 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
more 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 universal unity."

[From Editorials by Charles A. Dana.]

*** "We recommend the writings of Swedenborg to our readers of
all denominations, as we should recommend 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.

*** "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.

*** "We do not hesitate to say that the publication 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 fundamentally 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 Influx; of Correspondence and Representation; and of
Modification. This logic appears to have existed complete 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 expressed are Swedenborg,
Fourier and Goethe. In these three eminent persons is summed up
the great movement 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 considerations
are his northern origin, his peculiar education, 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 Swedenborg] 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-integration 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 cold 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."

The 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 himself wielded a vigorous cudgel on behalf of Swedenborg against certain orthodox critics, and held the usual language of his socialistic brethren about the "sublime visions of the illustrious Swedish seer," his "bold poetic revelations," his "profound, living, electric principles," the "piercing truth of his productions," etc. Vide _Harbinger_, Vol. 3, p. 317.

On these and such evidences we came to the conclusion 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 established by the facts now before us, may be stated thus: Unitarianism produced Transcendentalism; Transcendentalism produced Brook Farm; Brook Farm married and propagated Fourierism; Fourierism had Swedenborgianism for its religion; and Swedenborgianism led the way to Modern Spiritualism.

FOOTNOTES:

[B] Henry James also wrote many articles for the _Harbinger_ in the interest of Swedenborg. His subsequent career as a promulgator of the Swedenborgian philosophy, in which he has even scaled the heights of the _North American Review_, is well known; but perhaps it is not so well known that he commenced that career in the _Harbinger_. He has continued faithful to both Swedenborg and Fourier, to the present time.