John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

That is the theory. It is true it was not always fully realized, but we realized a great amount of instruction, a great amount of satisfaction; and when we finally separated after the burning up of our building, in which so much of our hopes had been centred, we went away, each to begin life in the world again. I went to Boston to earn five dollars a week on a morning newspaper. We all began anew very soon except Mr. Ripley. He remained and settled up the affairs. And when the business was closed up and all the accounts settled and paid, as they all were, we owed nobody a dollar. But I am sorry to say that George Ripley no longer possessed the fine library that he had previous to our experiment; it was sold to pay off the creditors. We were all proud of the fact, though he never spoke of it. And in a general way our experience was duplicated by the other associations or phalanxes. Without our special misfortune they all came to a similar end. I don't know of one of them that lasted till 1860.

That is the story of the socialist movement of that day, and it certainly went far beyond the dreams with which Coleridge and Southey and their friends are said to have entertained their youth a hundred years before. We may say that, as a reform of society, the movement accomplished nothing. But what it did accomplish was a great deal of good for those who were concerned in it and no great loss for any of those who furnished money. Still the questions remain: Is the theory sound? Is that sort of social reform practicable? Fourier said it was, and that in the revolutions of time it would be brought about by natural causation, and without any special effort, though it might be hastened. There was nothing in any of these experiments to determine the absolute value of Fourier's system, since none of them started with the required capital, or with a selected membership of sufficient numbers, or a perfect knowledge of Fourier's law of groups and series and passional attraction. But is it a valid philosophy? Is there truth in it? Is it the Destiny of