George Ripley also, presided at the time over some religious body.
Mr. Ballou, who was a Universalist minister of much local renown,
was, perhaps, the only exception to the prevailing Unitarian
complexion of the assembly.

The object of their discussions seems to have been, in a general way,
the necessity for some social reform which should go to the root of
the commercial spirit and the contempt for certain kinds of labor so
widely prevalent; and, in a special way, the feasibility of
establishing at once, on however small a scale, a co-operative
experiment in family life, having for its ulterior aim the
reorganization of society on a less selfish basis. They probably
considered that, a beginning once made by people of their stamp, the
influence of their example would work as a quickening leaven. They
hoped to be the mustard-seed which, planted in a congenial soil,
would grow into a tree in whose branches all the birds of the air
might dwell. It was the initial misfortune of the Brook-Farmers to
establish themselves on a picturesque but gravelly and uncongenial
soil, whose poverty went very far toward compassing the collapse of
their undertaking.

Not all of the ministers whose names have just been mentioned were of
one mind, either as to the special evils to be counteracted or the
remedies which might be tentatively applied. Three different
associations took their rise from among this handful of earnest
seekers after better social methods. Mr. Ballou, who headed one of
these, believed that unity and cohesion could be most surely obtained
by a frank avowal of beliefs, aims, and practices, to which all
present and future associates would be expected to conform. Mrs.
Kirby, whose interesting volume* we have already quoted, says that