J. Burrill Curtis.

_Feb'y 27._


X

NEW YORK, _March 3, 1844._

Your letter was very grateful to me. I had supposed the silence would be
broken by some music burst of devotion, and that all friends would be
dearer to you the more imperative the call upon your strength to battle
for the Ideal. It half reproved me for the meagre sheet the same day
brought to your hand. And yet could we see how all the forces of heaven
and earth unite to shape the particle that floats idly by us, we should
never see meagreness more.

I do not think (and what a heresy!) that your life has found more than an
object, not yet a centre. The new order will systematize your course; but
I do not see that it aids your journey. Is it not the deeper insight you
constantly gain into music which explains the social economy you adopt,
and not the economy the music? One fine symphony or song leads all reforms
captive, as the grand old paintings in St. Peter's completely ignore all
sects. Association will only interpret music so far as it is a pure art,
as poetry and sculpture and painting explain each other. But necessarily
Brook Farm, association and all, do not regard it artistically, but
charitably. It regenerates the world with them because it does tangible
good, not because it refines. We must view all pursuits as arts before we
can accomplish.