TO READERS. A VOICE, a heart, a free, unfettered pen, Not wealth, not fame, nor gentlemen to see, That which I must not buy, I do demand, The love that by its life is deeply free, Flattered by those I live with, — O not so, If I have dropped the seed, then may it grow. Yet I would perish rather, and be dead And spring where blooms more excellent delight, Bring to my lays thy heart, if it be thine, There is no bond agreed 'twixt thee and me, That thou shouldest read the meaning clearly writ, Yet thou and I may both be part of it. O Reader, if my heart could say, The torch that lights a thousand suns, If I could say, what landscape says, For pleasant is the softening smile That through the cold, vast void must go, C. THE DEATH OF SHELLEY. FAIR was the morn, a little bark bent And the mariners sang in their merriment, Shelley was bound on his voyage o'er the sea, And a dark cloud flew, and the white waves hurled Then a pyre they kindled by ocean side, C. A SONG OF THE SEA. WHERE the breeze is an emerald green, So the air of the soul hath this firmness of cheer, "T is a breeze from the shore that uplifts But the depths are unmoved, and the drifts Hurry on, madly roam, but the light is unmoved, I would sail on the sea in my boat, I would drift with the rolling tide, Rage on, strongest winds, for the sail And the billows I cheered that I met, Cold, no, good breeze thou art comfort to me, C. TO THE POETS. YE who sing the maiden's kiss, Tell me, are your skies and streams Many rainy days may go, And your verses clearer grow, And your lovely songs more pure, Burning keenly like a star. C. FOUBIERISM. In the last week of December, 1843, and first week of January, 1844, a Convention was held in Boston, which may be considered as the first publication of Fourierism in this region. The works of Fourier do not seem to have reached us, and this want of text has been ill supplied by various conjectures respecting them; some of which are more remarkable for the morbid imagination they display than for their sagacity. For ourselves we confess to some remembrances of vague horror, connected with this name, as if it were some enormous parasitic plant sucking the life principles of society, while it spread apparently an equal shade, inviting man to repose under its beautiful but poisondropping branches. We still have a certain question about Fourierism, considered as a catholicon for evil, but our absurd horrors were dissipated, and a feeling of genuine respect for the friends of the movement ensured, as we heard the exposition of the doctrine of Association, by Mr. Channing, and others. That name already consecrated to humanity, seemed to us to have worthily fallen, with the mantle of the philanthropic spirit, upon this eloquent expounder of socialism; in whose voice and countenance, as well as in his pleadings for humanity, the spirit of his great kinsman still seemed to speak. We cannot sufficiently lament that there was no reporter of the speech in which Mr. Channing set forth the argument derived from the analogy of nature, against the doctrine of community of goods to the exclusion of individual property. It was the general scope of the argument, to show that Life was forever tending to individuality of expression, and could not be refused the material order also, as a field for the scope of this tendency, and that individual property was the expression of this universal law; the lowest expression certainly, but still an expression. It would not be fair to give a garbled report of his masterly and delicate sketch of the ultimate result of denying this principle. He divided the truth on this subject to right and left, with the sword of pure spirit. Let it be sufficient to say, that only the ecstasy of self-love could understand it as casting personal reflections; and that it could not be expected to find an understanding heart with the ecstasy of destructiveness, which has seized many modern reformers. But in the absence of reports of this and other speeches, we will give a sketch of Fourierism, as we gathered it from the debates of the Convention, and conversation with its friends; and then take the liberty of stating some qualifications, and limitations, which seem to have escaped the attention of its enthusiastic disciples. The general view upon which Fourier proceeds is this: that there is in the Divine Mind a certain social order, to which man is destined, and which is discoverable by man, according to his truth in thought to the two poles of Christian perfection, Love of God and Love of Man. He assumes the fact, which will hardly be disputed, that the present social organizations are not this divine order; |