"Whoever is satisfied with society as it is; whose sense of justice
is not wounded by its common action, institutions, spirit of
commerce, has no business with this community; neither has any one
who is willing to have other men (needing more time for intellectual
cultivation than himself) give their best hours and strength to
bodily labor to secure himself immunity therefrom. . . . Everything
can be said of it, in a degree, which Christ said of His kingdom, and
therefore it is believed that in some measure it does embody His
idea. For its Gate of Entrance is strait and narrow. It is,
literally, a pearl _hidden in a field._ Those only who are willing to
lose their life for its sake shall find it. . . . Those who have not
the faith that the principles of Christ's kingdom are applicable to
this world, will smile at it as a visionary attempt."

Brook Farm has an interest for Catholics because, in the order of
guileless nature, it was the preamble of that common life which Isaac
Hecker afterwards enjoyed in its supernatural realization in the
Church. It was a protest against that selfishness of the individual
which is highly accentuated in a large class of New-Englanders, and
prodigiously developed in the economical conditions of modern
society. Against these Isaac had revolted in New York; at Brook Farm
he hoped to find their remedy. And in fact the gentle reformers, as
we may call these West Roxbury adventurers into the unexplored
regions of the common life, were worthy of their task though not
equal to it. There is no doubt that in small numbers and with a
partial surrender of individual prerogatives, well-meaning men and
women may taste many of the good things and be able to bear some of
the hardships of the common life. But to compass in permanent form
its aspirations in this direction, as in many others, nature is