joim SULLIVAN dwxsht: assosroSMTAL13t AMD LITJ&ARY AZAT'S DR OF MUSIC 3y Walter L. Fertlg Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1952 UMI Number: DP70341 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI DP70341 Published by ProQuest LLC (2015). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 FOREWORD This thesis Is a study of the personality and writings of John Sullivan Dwight, American writer and "literary amateur* of music, who lived in or near Boston all his life, from 1813 to 1893. Dwight’s contribution to American literature is worthy of re-appraisal today largely because he was Identified, for a longer period than any other writer, with the kind of American idealism known a® "transcendentalism*" As it is applied to a movement in American letters, this term defies strict definition. For our purposes it can be described as that state of mind shared by certain idealistic, individualistic, anti-conventional, culturally alive thinkers and writers in Hew England between 1830 and i860. Dwight must be called a "minor" transcendentalist because he Is over-shadoWed today, like so many others, by Emerson and Thoreau; but the current attempt to round out our understanding of this movement must Include studies of such men as Dwight. In a peculiar and limited way he held to the faith long after it ceased to be a concerted force in American life. On the other Hand, he was temperamentally, physically, and perhaps intellectually unsuited to transcendentalism 5*1 any of its relatively pure or positive forms* The following account of Dwight1s life and writings is an attempt to run this parade* down and to increase thereby our understanding of transcendentalism. no attempt has been made to write an exhaustIts and definitive biography, or to supersede entirely the work of George *1111© Cooke, whose book on Dwight* is the only source for much of the biographical material used here. Cooke’s work is quite understandably uncritical and over*sympathetlo, since it was written at the suggestion of Dwight's friends in the first deoade after his death. The occasion called for a memorial, not a or!tioal appraisal; and Cooke fulfilled his purpose without distorting the faets or overplaying the sentiment among the people for whom he wrote, a group of admirers who knew Dwight as a grand old man. Some biographical details which Cooke did not know about, or did not use, have been introduced here primarily because they Illuminate Dwight as a person and as a writer. Many more facts, part1oularly of Dwight's life after 1850, remain to be gathered; but the bibliography of Dwight's writings seems to be practically complete, and the author feels he has enough material to give a fair picture. The author acknowledges mountainous debts to the many librarians who have been so helpful and patient, and especially to Professor Carl Bode, of the University of Maryland, who directed the research, suggested the topic, and criticised the manuscript page by page. Debts not measurable even in anUUaa Jati-ah&t 2£$tak laraas* £4iisc» M acl&lfl of Music. A Biography (Boaton? Small, Maynard, 1898), Hereinafter*"referred to me "Cooke.*' ill terms of mountains are due Aunt Helen, perennially on call for hunting and cheeking, and Catharine, who typed the whole and checked some more* Crawfordaville, Indiana April 30, 1952 iv TABUS OF O O n S V M FART I I THIS LQm AFFIUQITICSSHIF Introduction to Fart O n e ............ 1 Chapter I* Beginnings* 1813-1832 . . . . . . . 3 Chapter II. Early Experiments* 1832-1841 • 14 Chapter III* Brook Farm in the Early Tears* 1841-1845 . 70 Chapter IV. As see1stIon and the Harbinger; 1845-184? • 104 Chapter V. Apprenticeship Completed* 1847-1852. . . 175 FART II* THE ESTABLISHED CAREER Introduction to Fart Two 300 Chapter VI* The Second Forty Tears* 1852-1893 • • * 202 Chapter VII. Contributions to American Literature* 1852-1893 . . . . . . . . . . 245 Chapter VIII. Leitmotifs from the Musi© Criticism* 1852-1893 273 Bibliography • • • • • • • ...................... 319 v PART OHS THE LONG APPRENTICESHIP 1. T • *‘T- f , \ " . ■ ' ■ > \ \ p t r.>^' A vr-^7 .. .4 , i . >i. V/i ), *. J. H ; v .> >v i.’t Xa» Tn the long afternoon and oveidn.|r of els career, John Sullivan Dwight, a childless widower, lived as the autocrat of ! oston music under the benevolent auspl r.es of the Harvard Musical Association* He did a very rosoectable amo;*nt of work, including a great volume of writing, and many other loss conrenial tasks connected with keeping his heloved symphonic music alive In boston. One would think, however, that a man in such a position, would have found time to write his memoirs* Dwight had graduated from Harvard with the illustrious class of 10 3 2, had been a. minister, trangcendcnt&l1st, Brook Farmer, Fourier1st, literary critic, music critic, translator, poet, and historian, tor years he was librarian of the Harvard b ..sical Association, secretary of the class of 1C-32, and an active journalist* If© remained stationary while his musical and philosophical and literary friends traveled over America and the rest of the world . because his address was always reliable and he was nearly always at home, he received hundreds of letters and more hundreds of callers. Vo one was over in a bettor position to write a detailed, first-hand account of 11 long and active life, but Dwight left us no autobiography. .Apparently he wrote far fewer letters than he received.'* *Not nearly all the possible repositories have been explored for this study. The many persons who furnished Cooke with letters a rod rein .1 n I sciences arc listed in his Pre­ face, pp. Ix-x* ot-L + And lie seems to have been the one transcendentalist who did not keep & journal* DwIrht* s silence about his background and early experi­ ences e&niot be explained easily • That ho was lazy and not given to performing protracted labors of any kind is well established* But there were other reasons* Dwight was a sensitive* touchy person. Much of his life has overtones of a deep-seated frustration* Apparently he never felt that Inner security- which would have given him self-confidence enough to write a candid autobiography. In this study, fart One covers the first half of DwightJ s life in as much detail as available sources and the scope of the w rk permit* The self-portrait Dwight never unveiled arpears, piecemeal, when his writing and the established facts of those years are allowed to speak for themselves* Further, Dwightfs long success as a music critic after lC'.£0 emerges as so much & continuation and repetition of the basic thought and expression of his early years as to b© largely predictable, almost anti-climactic* Whatever made Dwight reticent about discussing his early experiences, his long apprenticeship could never b© described as aimless or wasted* It Is the focal point of this booh* CHAPTER I BEOlLMiUtOS s 1B13-1B32 AXI the Hew England Dwights cars trftce their ancestry back to John Dwight, who settled in Dedham, Massachusetts, in I63J4,* For the main body of the family, including nearly all those who have brought special honor to the name, the line of descent from John of Dedham is clear.and straight* But in the eighteenth century a family of Dwighta appeared in Shirley, Massachusetts, and their direct connection with the Dedham branch has not been definitely established. From this Shirley branch of the family, John Sullivan was descended, and he seems to have been by far.its most illus- tr1 oue somber*^ Looking into the immediate ancestry of John Sullivan has its interesting moments, but for the most part the Shirley Dwight® were undistinguished people# Captain John Dwight,- our John*® great-grandfather, was lost in a ship­ wreck in 17Ut« His son John, born about 17^0, became a farmer and stonecutter In Shirley* He and his wife, Susanna (Moore), and their son Francis and hia wife, all died In the fall of 1 8 1 6_from eating poisoned corned beef. 3-S#e s#th Chandler, History of -the. Town of Shirley, Massachusetts (Shirley* ?ublished^y & e author/Ih-Tj T, pp. 'arid Benjamin W# Dwight, The Hist dry of the Descendants of John Dwight, of DedbaiiiT^assT™TSew Yorli j jp'ufllSKSa''fcyTtSTEtE5r7T87ETV "tlf TotfJ=IlJl3. hTheir other children Included John Sullivan*a father John, five daughters, and another son Sullivan* Uncle Sullivan and three of the aunts, together with many of their children who were John Sullivan10 cousins, lived well into the second half of the nineteenth c e n t u r y O u r John never seems to have had any close connections with any of them, nor is there any evidence that h© quarreled with them* Apparently no property worth having was ever in the picture*. The family was not a clan, and John Sullivan never had much occasion to be proud of his relationship with the Shirley Dwights. John Dwight the stonecutter and farmer was known as "an honest, industrious man, and in comfortable circum­ stances* "3 u@ was a strict Calvinist who apparently decided that his oldest son should find a place among the learned clergy* The John Dwight who was to become John Sullivan’s father was accordingly sent to Harvard, where he' graduated in loOO*^- He was in his' middle twenties, five or six years r' older than most of the graduates•^ Before he could finish his studies for the ministry he got interested In medicine, .^Chandler* History of the Town of Shirley, pp. 391-394. 3b. W. Dwight, History of the Descendants of John Dwight. II, 1011. h b l d .. p. 1012. ^Three sources agree that he was born on December 22, but Cooke gives the year as 1776 (p* !■•); Dwight gives 1773 Cop * c11 *, IX, 1012.}; the records of the Harvard faculty give i m . {MS in the Karvard Bniveralty Archives*' studied under Dr. John Jeffries, and set up as a doctor* He made only a fair living.^ Th# material on Dr* John Dwight Is meagre• His record at Harvard was undistinguished, although apparently unblem­ ished. As for ills reputation as a citizen of Boston, certain sources should first speak for themselves* First, the official history of the Dwight family. "He was brought up in the strictest doctrines of Calvinism, against which however his mind reacted afterwards strongly and he became a very decided free thinker. He was exceedingly positive in his' political and religious opInione--which is on® of the unmistakable Dwight traits wherever found.”’ Dr. Dwight was something of a mechanic and inventor. He is credited with a "plana--on a peculiar model, a fire engine and orreries*" Further, T,He was very temperate In his habits, eating but little and very regularly. He was a man of but' mode rate im &ns «11 ^ Speaking at Dr. Dwight*s funeral In 1852, Theodor® Parker was strangely unconvincing. Our Friend is said to' have held opinions which were not popular. I -know not of those opinions; but this I do know,— that, whatever they were, he was true to thgm• And greater praise could b© given to no man. . W. Dwight, History of the Descendants of John Dwight, IX, 1012. ~ : 7hoc. clt. Ho source is given, although .this paragraph appears as TF~is reproduced here, in quotation marks. 0 ‘Xoc» clt. ^o’ooke, p. 2. What John Sullivan Dwight was thinking at his fatherf a funeral we do not know* hut surely In the back of his mind must have been at least one unpleasant memory* The story of the Dwights at Brook Farm lies ahead of us, but It Is Import­ ant here to notice how hr* Dwight fared among the transeen- dentalists • In the summer of Ib^ i}., four Dwights were nominated to become members of the Brook Farm association* They were Dr* and Mrs.* Dwight, and two daughters, Ifary Arm*^ and Frances* Brother John Sullivan had been a member since February, and all the Dwights had been living at Brook -Farm off and on for the past two years* On June 10, Mrs. Dwight and Mary Ann were voted in. -Frances* election was postponed, but confirmed June 16* On August 18, Dr. Dwight'1 a nomination was brought to a vote (perhaps not for the first time), and he was refused admittance* The question was brought up again at the same meeting and deferred. On August 25, the question again “negativated.w Dr• Dwight never signed the roll book as a member of the association, although he lived at the farm from time to time after I6I4.4 • ^ We are permissibly ahead of our story, for after John Sullivan begins to speak largely for himself, his father will be an inarticulate shadow, far in the distance before he is actually in the past. To Theodor© Barker, one of Dwightfs 10Thus the older of Dwight1 a sisters signed her name in the Secretary* s Book at Brook Farm (MS In the Massachusetts Historical Society). Soon afterwards she began to use "Marianne. ^See the minutes of the meetings on the above dates In the Brook Farm Secretary*a Book* ?. oldest and closest friends, Dr. Dwight was unknown. For some reason, he was unacceptable to the Brook Farsi community, where harmless eccentricity coupled with, some knowledge of modicine should.have been a fairly good recommendation In I8J4J4.. There was something seriously wrong with Dr. John Dwight. He failed to establish the Shirley line In Boston society. Ho was .a radical and probably erratic thinker* Guessing, we can say that he was unreliable, impecunious, not "respectable." Is it any wonder that his son cherished his membership In the Saturday Club, and yet felt always a little uncomfortable with "Emerson, Dana, Longfellow, and Agassiz? On May 18, 1812, Dr. .John Dwight married Mary Corey, of West Hoxbury, "Simple, modest, chlld-llk© • . . , fresh in her feeling® and instincts and of a lovely disposition."*^ Some evidence shows that John Sullivan was very much more like his mother than like' his father.’ She was known as a person who appreciated things aesthetic and artistic. John Sullivan was the oldest child of this marriage, born ffay 1 3, 1 8 1 3 .13 The boy received the best education Boston could offer, "infant school", grammar school, and the Boston Latin School. He entered the last In 1823 when the school was at the height of a classical renaissance under Benjamin Gould, . W* Dwight, History of the Descendant® of John Dwight, II, 1012. “^ The other children were Marianne, born April It, 1816; Frances Ellen, born December 13, 1619; and Benjamin Franklin, born September 5, 182!+. (Cooke, p. 2.) headmaster from If.Ik to XB2b. Dwight was known as a quiet, efficient student— a winner of prizes and lover of books. Dwirht1s reminiscences about his early days are few. he seems to have searched his memory for Indications that his was a spirit dedicated to music from childhood, but the evidence is not convincing. ‘Fa never seems to have had any training in music. He remembered an old * cello ^standing T Kl in the corner under the paternal roof,” ^ but ho played no instrument until ho went to Harvard. In 1C91 he recalled a performance of ”I)©r Pro is chut z!1 . . . at the old Federal Street Theatre, when • ... the singing of the Chorus of Bridesmaids and the ringing Huntersf Chorus left an Impress, half pleasure and half p&ln, or restlessness, in the boy brain just awakening to music his recollection of the Pierian Sodality wont back to lb 27, when, as a Latin School student, lie wont out to Harvard on Exhibition Day and was ”captivated and converted to the gospel of the college flute, as the transcendent and most eloquent of instruments•n^7 One mysterious and disturbing circumstance should be mentioned here. When Dwight graduated from. Harvard he appar­ ently wrote his own biographical notice In the Class book, ^rCooke, p. 3 • -^5 "The Pierian Sodality,M in F. 0. V&Xlle and H. A. Cl&r compilers, The Harvard Book (Cambridge« Mas3 •: Welch, wirelow l-c75>, II, 355. *From a concert review in the boston Evening Trai? script February lo, 1891, P* 6. 16.V i' i. ^ lq Pierian Sodality,” p. 3 6 5.1? if 9. just as did everyone else. Most of the biographies are dated In the summer of 1832* Dwight*® entry as It now stands is a laconic record of ©vents, the last of which is his marriage'In 18511 Three pages have been torn out of the Class Book just ahead of this entry. These pages undoubtedly contained an earlier entry which Dwight decided to destroy after h© became secretary of the c l a s s W h y Dwight did this, there is no Indication anywhere. Presumably the entry he destroyed ante-dated the Brook Farm days, but it must have contained something that he did not want the world to know* Dwight was admitted to Harvard on September 11, 1828, In a class which Included Henry W. Bellows, Charles T. Brooks, Samuel Osgood, and Oliver Wendell Holmes' brother John. He was not musician enough to become a member of the Pierian Sodality Immediately, which meant certainly that he could not play a not© on any Instrument. The array of flute players was so Imposing already that Dwight took up the clarinet and became the leader of ,fa little preparatory club— the purgatory which half-fledged musicians of his own ilk had to pass through before they could be candidates for *^®MS in the Harvard University Archives, This Is con­ firmed by a letter pasted near the front of the book, from Henry G. Denny to William W. Wellington, of October 2i^ , 1893, shortly after Dwight's death. Denny has asked Dwight's younger brother Benjamin to look out for the Class Book, Denny continuesi nA slight inspection of it confirms what Mr. Dwight has often told me, that h© did not keep up the record. . . . His own life he cut out, as he has told me, three leaves being gone after his name, while he has rewritten a page only.” 1 0 . the -leriar, paradise”— the Arionic Society*^ Dwight described the Pierian of I63O-I832 as "comparatively rich In Instruments*n with half a dozen flutes* 11 the' clarionet, © .pair of French horns, violoncello, and part of the time a P 0nondescript has© horn.”-' Music had no place in the curri­ culum, and the Pierian was as much a drinking and serenading society as anything else. The musical accomplishments of the organisation were, by modern amateur standards, negligible. The quality of Dwight1© clarinet playing can be surmised from his own admission that his Instrument "for the sake of a. smooth tone, had the reed out thick and cost the blower such a stress of wind as would not have lasted now to writ© about it. The old Puritan prejudice against secular and instrumental music was atill alive among many of the higher powers of the college* The undergraduate who liked music was suspect, and Dwight admitted that membership In the OOPierian "had the fatal charm of a truant occupation. ^"The Pierian. Sodality,H p. 3 6 5• . cit * ^Heyiew of "first Dander® Theater Concert," Boston Evening Trmhsorlpt ^ October IB, 1890, p » 7• 2%jOC. clt. The Records for the Pierian Sodality hetweenrTB22 and I832 are j&Issing from the Harvard Archive®. Dwight was apparently an enthusiastic, but not outstanding member. He never held office in the organization. (The volume labeled "Pierian Sodality* Book.Ho* IV.” In the Harvard Archives lists all the officers of the Sodality during Dwight*a time. Dwight apparently was elected In IB3I, and "honorably dismissed” the next year.) 11. Dwight was elected to the Hasty Pudding Club November 26, 1830, after the month of haggling and blackballing which pre­ ceded the election of nearly ©very member* He was elected vice-president on December 20, and poet ”for the next anni­ versary’1 on July ii, I8 3I. At t-h© meeting of September 8, 1831, Dwight read a ’Dirge*1 upon the death of Andrew Peters, a poem In four stanzas which Is the earliest composition of Dwight*s extant*^3 no ^distinguished, but It Is short and In reasonably good taste for an. 'undergraduate effort on a very uncomfortable occasion. The WIdener Library at Harvard has a folder of eleven themes written by Dwight in his senior year, In addition to some exercises in forensics• Not on® of these papers Is on music in any phase. Either Dwight did not take the #ltruant occupation” very seriously, or the official frown was unbelievably forbidding. On© of the themes does contain an Interesting self-analysis. Dated June 22, 1 8 3 2, It is called "Thoughts upon completing a course of academical exercises•” Dwight admits he has enjoyed academic life and dreads going out Into the world. He has been "accustomed to feel, more than to act.” ’’Calculating ambition” repels him, but he decides that to avoid being lonesome or being accused of misanthropy, he must get Interested in money. Finally he asks, "May I not collect my scattered energies, and turn them to an Eternal Principle?” Dwight was to ask himself this ^Records of the Hasty Pudding Club. MS In the Harvard Unlveraity Archives• 12 question in various forms for years to come* Once Dwight discussed in forensics wWheth@r eminence in literature or politics is more desirable *f! Her© Dwight defends the literary life, and expresses for the first time a life-long dislike for feverish excitement and ballyhoo*^ During his senior year, on November 7, 1031, Dwight was granted leave from Harvard to keep school in Korthborough, Massachusetts, where he gave a lecture on music before the Northborough Lyceum* He is also reported to have introduced music into the school there *^5 Of these earliest attempts to further the cause of music we have no positive records. In the same winter he gave a paper on poetry before the Harvard Union, 0 and was honored with the office of class poet for the Class of 1832* His class poem was read at graduation, July 17, 1 8 3 2. It Is an ambitious effort In thirty Spenserian stanzas, based on the ancient figure of speech about shipping out on the sea of life* ,fWe are bounding on,M Is the themej the flavor of the poem can be had from such lines as Wildly we gaze as with the bounding swell Of the elastic waters on w© hie* • , • Here gathered on the shore w© trembling stand ^Folder of Dwight papers in th© Harvard Archives* ^5qooke, pp. 7*8 * ^Cooke, p. 7 » ^Glass Book of the Glass of 1 8 3 2. (MS not In Dwight!s hand•) At the commenc ement exorcises in August, Dwight took part in a literary discussion on "English Biography and French Feni.olrs.™ He graduated with a high rank in his class, and was recommended by President Quincy as a man of hinexcep* tionabl© character," competent to teach In any school or academy. Professor Felton recommended him as well prepared for the "business of instruction, In which he proposes to engage* * . f" and Charles Pollen vouched for Dwight’s ability to read rtth© standard Gorman works in any department OS*of 11 10rature* " ^ From this account of Dwight’s first nineteen years, on© night guess that he would' very probably become either a teacher or a minister like many of his classmates* We know that he has no family fortune to fall back on, and he seems to have no special talents in politics or literature, although poetry seems to be his favorite study, along with German and a ”truant occupation," music. Trying to find evidence of a basically "musical" temperament is snatching at straws, but the studies of German and poetry and the enthusiastic participation in the Pierian Sodality were the foundations of his career. 2oA.t*s.S. In the Boston Public Library* The letters of Quincy and Felton are dated April 25, 1032*. Pollen’s letter is dated July 17, 1832. CHAPTER II EARLY HXPERIKEHTS t 1832-181*1 1 * When he graduated from Harvard, Dwight had apparently no very definite plana for the future# Obviously his father’s profession was not attractive to him at—all* He loved the atmosphere and the life at Harvard, and decided to postpone facing the world by making an obvious move* He enrolled In the Divinity School in September of I6 3 2, probably because he saw no chance to, make a respectable living any other way* There is no indication that he ever heard a "call*n Kor was there any family tradition or pressure to steer him,.except.perhaps the thwarted paternal ambition of his grandfather* Dwight undoubtedly thought of himself as a prospective teacher more than anything else, and before he started his work In the Divinity School he accepted a position as tutor In the famous household of Harm Jan Huldskoper In Meadeville, Pennsylvania* This prosperous and aristocratic Dutchman had five children whose private education he entrusted to a long series of young men Just out of Harvard College. The school was In the north wing of Pomona Hall, the Huldekoper mansion, described as a gay place in the XCyO’s*^ T^Jina Moore Tiffany and Francis Tiffany, Harm Jan Huldekoper (Cambridge, Mass*: The Riverside Press, X<5S1*}, p. 2l 15* Dwight1 s situation In Meadevlll© was pleasant, but some­ what confining* The Huidekopers did nest take much part In the civic affairs of Meadevlll®, and Dwight’s native Inertia prevented bis making much Impression on this western community. He was hired especially for Frederic. Huidekoper, tut Frederic wcould only look with wonder and some distaste upon, the special talents and idiosyncrasies of Ur* Dwight,” whom he remembered as a person Hof gentle disposition,” without such ”aptitude for teaching,” but with wan admiration for Shakespeare and a strong desire for playing upon the piano. * * Perhaps the piano at Huidekoper's was the first Dwight eyer had at his disposal* Apparently He bad a lot of time to try to teach himself this instrument, and to play the flute In the evenings*3 Along with William Henry Charming, who filled the local pulpit for a few months, Dwight mad© some attempt to contri­ bute to the cultural life of Keadevilla* Early in I63I4. he became an officer In a short-lived Meadevill© Lyceum, which "languished" after his departure in the summer* Before this group he read a lecture on HEducation*” The text 1® not avail­ able ^Tiffany, Harm jran Kuldekoper* n* 257. 3ootavlus B. FrothinKham, Memoir of William Henry Cfcaxmins (Boston? Houghton Elfflin, lo56T7p7™15I* ------- ^Tiffany, og. clt * * p* 256 . See also the notice in the Crawford Messenger Tffeadevlile. Pennsylvania), February 34# 1DJ4-* .p* 3* — — Dwight* is listed as secretary and treasurer of the new organisation• The Huidekopera were unpopular in Maadeville, and .lived usually apart from the society and politics of the cowsunlty* (The author 1® here indebted to a personal conversation with Mr. ,T* H. Bhryock of Meadevill#*) 16. A good guess would bo that Dwight found the leisure in Meadevill© to develop some minimum facility on the flute and the piano, and to establish himself, in his own mine! at least, a® a well-qualified amateur in the "truant occupation.” But he had not found himself. His classmate Samuel Osgood wrote from Cambridge j I suspect, my friend, that both of us were intended for something. . . . It should be a great question with us how we may best bring out our powers. ^ • « We are both of us given to speculation * . . ^ The Dwight letter to which this is a reply could almost bo reconstructed. He was drifting, not acting— 11 feeling* his way, literally and figuratively. Dwight returned to Divinity School in the summer of I83I4 * During the next two year© he formed lasting friendship© with Christopher Pears© Cranch and Theodore. Parker, and became gradually recognised as something of a musician and writer with transcendentallst leanings. At least two stories of friendly clashes between Dwight and the notoriously unmusical Parker are on record. Thomas Wentworth Blgginson remembered Dwight and Cranch playing the flute at the Hlgginson home.? Dwight’s first published literary work was a translation of Schiller’s "Hymn to Joy,1* which appeared in the Hew England ^A.L.S. of February 2ii, I83U, In the Boston Public Library. ^Se© Julia Ward Howe. Reminiscences, 1819-1899 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1899), pp• 16^-16 J ; and Coolce, pp. 8-9* 7Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Cheerful yesterdays (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1896), p. 18. 17. 8Magazine far May, I8 3 5* The manuscript had been sent to Park Benjamin in the winter of 18-34# Benjamin wrote to Dwight complimenting him on the work and urging him to con-* tribute more* It. will give us great pleasure to receive from your pen constant contributions to the magazine both prose and verse— Can you not favor us with some original piece or short prose translation ■from the ' German for our February number?'* Dwight apparently did not follow up this opportunity* .His Interests were still too diverse* Literature, music, and theology were all making calls on his relaxed, dreamy tem­ perament • Sometime In I833! or 1836 he prepared a manuscript 11 On Music, 11 growing out of reflections on two of Lowell Mason*s publications for the old Boston Academy of Music*^® His divinity school dissertation was presented In August of I8 3 6, and Its title, w0n the Proper Character of Poetry and Music for Public Worship,** shows how large was the field of his speculations* Dwight's career in the ministry began before his gradu­ ation, probably on odd Sundays in various pulpits during the spring of 1 8 3 6. Cranch wrote from Richmond, Virginia, on June 151 WI can feel with you as you describe your feeling® In the pulpit* It is a throne, and you can hardly conceive ^ v m , 380-3 8 1* ^A.L.S * of December 23, 1-834, in the Boston Public Library. In the Boston Public Library* 18* 11the uplifting sensations . * * * fl The "uplifting sensations” were certainly accompanied by many painful moments* kn early ms 1837 bo wrote to Theodor© Parker, "I as almost afraid that 12I cannot succeed a® a preacher*” Ha was to try four years longer, but he could never gain the sustained respect of a congregation* True, b© was connected with the Emerson group at Concord in I836 and was generally regarded aa on© of the transcendentallats, but no philosophical considerations turned Dwight’ directly away from th© ministry* With the example of Emerson before him, he still would have been happy with a worldly ”success” in the ministry* He turned to Parker for frank criticism, and got it, in March of I6 3 7* You have a deep love of the beautiful, strong likings and keen dialikings, a quick discernment, a deep love of freedom* I love the spontaneity of reason displayed in your mind and the beautiful active power of your imagination* But 1 must speak of ffaults’ undor each of these heads* You do not always see the beautiful clearly* * * • you love vagueness, mis­ taking th© indefinite for the Infinite, and, like Xxlon of old, embracing .a cloud Instead of a goddess* You surround yourself with the perfumed clouds of music* You mingle the same perfume and melody In your sermons, but you carry all th© vagueness of musical clouds where clearness and precision are virtues* Thus you will be feeble in expression where your feeling Is strong* * • • You are deficient in will* This is th© most important statement I have to make. Parker goes on to say that Dwight1® strong'likes and dislikes cut him off from many people, and his lack of ’’wlll-Controlled 11Leonora Cranch Scott, Th© Life and Let-tors of Christopher Pears© Cranch (Boston? n o u r ^ t S T a f n ^ ------ *--- ^Letter of February, 18)37» quoted without exact date in Cook©, p* 11. 19 thought1* keeps him Iroit: doing anything worthy of himself. He has not "will enough to bo free." "You must yet a place In the real world before you can walk into the ideal like a 4 **lleenrlcsrtan. The frankness and acumen of this letter from Parker is remarkable. We will le reminded of its phrase® throughout the course of this study. Indeed, the advice about yetting "a place in the real world" so that he could "walk into the Ideal like a gentlemen11 became a ruling principle with Dwight, a principle that caused him much pain and frustration. But we must not let Parker1a analysis stand without quoting Dwight1a contemporary reading of his own character, written to Parker a few weeks earlier. In trying to be frank about Parker* s faults, Dwight reveals himself. 1 don’t like to see a man have too much will; it mars the beauty of nature. . . . I Ilk© not impetu­ osity, except that of unconscious impulse * * • I think your love of learning la a passion, that it injures your mind by converting insensibly what Is originally a pure thirst for truth into a pro © ci y , a varlclous, Jealous striving, . * * Dwight admits that he admires Parker * s drive, because he bin­ 'llself is "so p a s s i v e II© must have known that success In any profession, and a "place in the real world" would cone very hard.* During hie divinity school days Dwight mad© one of the first of several unsuccessful attempt® to attract a woman who ^Letter of March lif, 1837, quoted in Cook©, pp. 11-13* lbHLet-ter quoted without date In Cooke, pp. Id-lb • 20 * would hoIp him in th© "real world." Something about Dwight repelled at least three women ho courted before'he finally married In 1351. A letter from Henry Whitney Bellows in the fall of I836 tells its own story. Bellows acknowledges a "pregnant letter** from Dwight, who was vacationing in Keen®, Hew Hampshire, and then goes on to say: You confess what I had long expected, nay even to th© details* Perhaps you have felt in some of our casual Interviews that I was not entirely unobserving of the fire that burned on that altar. . . . Perhaps it will be very poor consolation'for me to tell you that I cannot regret the turn matters have taken. . . . allow me to say that I hardly think you would have'found Mies W [Mary Whitney) the ideal of your soul. Poets love too easily and indiscriminately. .They clothe 'the possessor of a single alluring trait with all others.. . . . I think that you are extremely exposed to this delusion. You could love many that you have' seen, I fancy. Bellows admits that Miss Whitney is acceptable, but she has some "spiritual weaknesses•" He writes quite a long exposition on marriage, ending "fate ha® better things in store for you," and reports Miss Whitney1® marriage to Dwight*s old professor, C * Felton, described as a man of no deep feelings at all.^ Bellows goes on to join what rapidly -became a chorus of Dwight’s friends who thought he needed their advice about how to get along in the world. A good many of your friends who admire your genius, fear, 1 think whether It is destined to have a full manifestation* Their fears and mine are founded upon a certain contempt you have for the detail® of life, for th® common modes of usefulness, for the use of means. They fear for your stability. . . . I ^A.L.S* of October 25, IG36, in the Boston Public Library. have feared that your fortunes might be' those of genius too often without sympathy, too often disastrous In spite of his Idiosyncrasies, Dwight was not obnoxious enough to alienate his strongar~ralnded friends In the tran- scendentallst group# Ripley, Emerson, and Parker always loved him and encouraged him, just as intelligent parents love and encourage eccentric children# Emerson once described Dwight to Margaret Fuller as na valiant good boy#11 ^ In 1 8 3 8, despite a discouraging report from Hedge,^ Emerson asked Dwight to fill his pulpit at East Lexington# This- should have been all the opportunity Dwight needed, for the parish was newly formed and. very sympathetic toward "radical" preaching#^ Tut after about a year, during which Dwight preached- haIf the Sundays, the Invitation to settle was not forthcoming#^® In 1839*. Hedge tried to help by Inviting Dwight to Bangor, Maine* Here Dwight was momentarily very happy because lie was constantly entertained and taken out of pi himself# But he was only visiting.* U\„ ■■tt—;.¥# Ml 'ffWH# MW I MM. IBM# lUtl IHJI H1 W B fWBBT ^Bellows to Dwight, October 25# 1 6 3 6# (Cooke, p* l6 , quotes only the last section of this letter, omitting all the discussion of love and marriage#) ^Letter of January 1? {?}, I8I4..O, In The Letters of 'Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed• by Ralph L# Husk (Hew York5 Columbia ITnX- Tensity Press, 1939# II# 250# (All subsequent reference© to Emerson*s Letters are to this edition#) X%ee Emerson* 9 letter to Hedge of May 5* 1837# In Letters, 11, 73* ^Cooko, p# 17| and see Emerson*© letter to Lydian, February 19# XSj®# In Letters, XI, 113- 20 . - p Cooke, p* lo* 2 1Ibid#, pp#'19-20; and see Edward Waldo Emerson, The Early Years of - the Saturday Club (Bostonj Houghton MiffTin, ifrof, pV’ffy? ; ---------------- Finally, In X61|a>, Dwight was Invited to accept the pulpit of the little Unitarian church in Northampton, Massachusetts* Ilia regular ministry began in fefcru&ry* The ordination took place May 20* At thm ordination Dwight was sent off In a cloud of transeendentallsi preaching by George Ripley, William Ellery Charming, and Samuel Osgoodj but Flplcy, slneere and enthusiastic as 'he was, could not easily be deluded* Dwight apparently 'urged him to publish the ordl~ 22 nation services, which he did ' only after the misgivings expressed in & letter to Dwight of July 7* As to the Ordination' cervices, la it not almost too lata in the day to-revive them? Your time may be up in Korthamptosi before- they can be. carried through the preset' * * •*. for 1 take It for .granted these days the batter the. man, the shorter hia term of service in one spot. X had com# to the conclusion that the •" sober second thought*1 of your people had decided against endorsing bo much spiritual §an«- Culottlsm, a# you were welcomed with . . * ^3 Dwight had capable advisors and well-wishers a® he took up his new position, but not many of them war# members of his congregation# Ho amount of encouragement and good advice from the Ripleys, Charming, and Elisabeth Peabody could Influence the minds of dubious parlshonero. Perhaps we ©an host begin to estimate Dwight1 s stature as a preacher by ^*Th© Claims of the Age ©n the Work of the Evangelist **/ k/ Sermon/ Preached at the Ordination/ of/ Mr* John Sullivan Dwight,/ as Pastor of the/ Second Congregational Church/ In Northampton,/ May 20, lGiiO/ By George. Ripley./ Bostons/ Weeks, Jordan, and Company/ IfDCCCXL* (The volume contains the ^Charge,*1 by Bev# William Ellery tShannlngj *T?ight Band of Fellowship,* by Bev* Samuel Osgood% and *Address to the People,” by Rev* Edward' B. Hall*) 23a .t .S. in the 'Boston Public library* 23* hearing what one of his few Northampton supporters said, of him* Caroline Briggs was a girl of eighteen In I8I4X)* In her Reminiscence® we find: Following Mr. Stearns came John S. Dwight, and under his preaching I began to feel that I stood nearer to God than I.had ewer dreamed about before * How well I remember the ordination service• . * * Mr* Dwight* s soul reveled in all beauty* The world was paradise to him, into which no serpent entered* He could not appreciate or understand much about those who sat in darkness and deep trouble* That side of life had not been opened to him; * • # It was not himself alone, but the atmosphere In which ho lived, which was like the blossoming of a .great tropical flower on a granite rock in New England soil* . * * Mr. Dwight*s ministry was short. Of course he was misunderstood* The people began to cry for the old props and the old faith,— the uni- Terse seemed crumbling under their feet. • • • Their Saviour was spoken of as a man like themselves, subject to temptation and limitation, and they would have none of that The irrepressible Lydia Maria Child was living in Northampton at the time* She wrote to Ellis Gray Loring; I did not go to Mr* Dwight*a ordination, nor have I yet gone to meeting. He ha® been to see me, however, and though I left my work in the midst, and sat down with a dirty gown and hands somewhat gr framed, we were high up in the blue in fifteen minutes. I pro­ mised to take a flight with him. • • any time when he would com© along with his balloon* ^ Dwight was becoming an object for the busy affections of the strong-minded, enthusiastic women who left such a heavy ^Bemlnlacanses and Letters, ad* by George 3* Merrlam {Bos t onYlfo light on Mi > VP • 150~1£>1* ^Letters of Lydia Marla Child (Boston; Houghton Mifflin, 1 8 8 3), ffiiiieTt'orTi 3ate3 _ n J une 9, which is surely a mistake for June 9 M , 18UO • ”) 2k mark on the Hew England of this time • To them he seemed a delicate, feminine spirit who- needed sympathetic, feminine guidance. Elizabeth Peabody, for example, did not miss the opportunity* She wrote with great frankness to Dwight at this crisis in his career, and certainly with no lack of confidence, in herself or him* A certain want of fluency in prayer has been the real cause of your want.-of outward success more than, any, other thing). «. •» • I suppose the evil-has originated in your idea of being spontaneous. • * • You have heard so much formal praying that you have shrunk from it as the only evil . * • She advises Dwight to write out his prayers, and to stop short of groping for more words* She has noticed a great Improvement In .his sermons, and assumes that the prayers will com© along* The last years of your life, in which you hav© borne an apparent failure with such courage, dignity, and beauty, have done for you, palpably, what- no outward sueessa could have don®. It has turned you visibly from a child Into a man In bearing; and, in hoping for you now a continued prosperity, I can hope for nothing more than that , you should adorn It as you have adorned adversity* ^ "In bearing” perhaps Dwight did become a man between 1636 and 181)0, but manhood In certain other senses was still far distant* Elizabeth Peabody suspected the worst, but she was so attracted to Dwight that she was moved to help inflate his balloon and hop© for the best* She wrote in the fall of 181)0 , saying first that she felt more comfortable writing to the wicked and unhappy» ^Letter of May 20, 181+Q, quoted In Cooke, pp. 35-3?• How then am I to writ© to you?— As well mlrht I address an angel In Paradis©-- , Is the fallinn leaf only another ton© of the music of life— another hue of the beauty you always see?— Does the spirit still put into your mouth what you smat say every Sunday without writing and anguish?— I hope so, even though It may deprive m& of all chance of writing you a lettex*— and may the roses you gather have no thorns— tba sweat no hitter— and your life be an amaranthine flower-- She goes on to speak of the powerful effect of a Parker sermon* If your people yet frivolous— send for him to give you a labor of love--and you too can sprinkle your honeydew over hie people to their edification— * • • And she hopes to hear soon that Dwight is engaged to be married Dwight foil in love with the natural beauty and the atmos­ phere of Northampton, and apparently ho also made some advances toward a young lady* The hints are few, but unmistakable♦ he know only that the affair, occurred, and that nothing came of It* In addition to Miss Peabody* s hopeful suggestion, we have the evidence of ©. note from Crunch, written October 16, ifijl, upon the occasion of Cranch*s engagement to his future bride: "At last — for her person— not so faultlessly beautiful o fX as your young flower of Northampton, . ♦ By the time tills note was written, the affair was probably over, for Dwight had resigned his pulpit and was preparing to leave, In a few limited respects, Northampton had possibilities as a transcen&entalist1s paradise* The kindred spirits among the local Inhabitants were not many, but Dwight1 a own sp? r1ts «L*f: • of September 20, I6I4O, in the Boston Public ,Ibrary * 26. soared' for a time on the strength of visits and letters from bis old friends* Christopher Fears© Cranch was perhaps the most Inspiring of all. Soon after his ordination, Dwight must have written Cranch an enthusiastic invitation to visit him and share his pulpit* Cranch replied from Quincy on June 19, 181+0: "I thank you for your account of your delirhtful environment. You seem, to be in a p a ra d is e Cranch made h i * visit In October, and the reunion was a com­ plete success* Dwight wrote oh October 12, Two whole Sundays from CranchI . • * I have never listened to four sermons all so noble and so inspiring* * . . Nothing has gratified me more since I have been her© than to witness the warm response of our people to his bold and stirring declarations of truth* I feel as if the victory was won In regard to liberty of opinion here, and h© feels that it is the freest and moat genial atmosphere in which he has spoken*-^ Some of this ngenial atmosphere,” perhaps most of it, must have been an emanation from the minds of the two flute-playing tr&nscendentallsts« Cranch was not on© to worry his friend about a wplae© in'the real world.* I'have dreamed, really dreamed in sleep, of Northampton several times since I left. My visit there seems to have enlarged and embellished my possessions and estate In dreamland considerably. It was a good speculation that way,— my going up to see you. . . . I would cultivate the art of dreaming, were I you.J^* This last sentence may be idle chatter, but taken seriously, It may provide a touch to Dwight*a portrait. To ^ Scott, Life and Letters of 0. P. Cranch, p. $6• ^Quoted in Cooke, p. 3?. ^^Scott, Life and Letters of jC. JP* Or an eh* pp. 57-58* Parker, Dwight was not Yank©© enough. To CranoXi he was not enough of a dreamer* Such a comparison certainly tells a lot about Parker and Cranch, but it also re-enforces the idea that Dwight was more moody and unpredictable than any­ thing else* His temperament showed a cycle -made up of dreamy' optimism, depression, skepticism, revival. Only by realising this-can w© account for the following passage in a long, gossipy letter to Dwight from. .Sophia BIpley• She imagines that Dwight would spend a cold day in Northampton stretched on the hearth rug before a great fire— the side not next the fir© freezing— reading; the narra­ tive of some voyage to the North pole— indulging the most selfwilled skepticism— not doubting the existence merely of goodness, happiness, and friend­ ship, but denying that there is anything good In ? goodness--happy in happiness or' friendly in friends*-^ Dwight did what he could to provide his potential para­ dise with poetry and music, as well as straight religion.# FIs old rival in love, C« C• Felton, sent him some- copies of Shakespeare for a regular Monday evening meeting to dis­ cuss the great plays*33 'Tuesday was Ole©.Club; Wednesday, choir; Saturday, the singing school for children* Sometimes he preferred the privacy of books or the Dial to more social pursuits*3U- n0 routine, no matter how pleasant and varied, could hold Dwight long In these days• .L.S. of February 9> I8l»0, in the Poston Public Library* ^Soe a letter from Felton to Dwight of January 1?, 181*1 * A•L•S• In the Poston Public Library* ^'Letter from Dwight rtto.one of his sisters* of January 12, 181*1* Quoted In Cooke, pp. 30-39* 2 6 . George Hip ley*a prediction was a little premature, but accurate. On the anniversary of his ordination Dwight preached some tactless words about the worldliness and narrow­ mindedness of the congregation. Be tried to smooth things over early in .June, but by the end of the month he was t h r o u g h H e wrote on/ June 22, From all that I have discovered of the character of the individuals of whom my society Is composed, I feel more and more convinced that the relation be­ tween us never could have been lasting, • • • The truth Is, the true state of things was from the first concealed from me. The enthusiasm of that ordination time deceived us. . . • Very nearly all the women, -and a majority of the men, I count upon confidently. But the- favor with which I am looked upon by the female portion seems to be one chief offence * . . •-? This.letter may have been addressed-to Elisabeth Peabody. At any rate she made a brave and fluent attempt to provide the silver lining, on June 2lf. . . . 1 know your nature Is divine and a hundred years hence you . will be all tJie 'sweeter angel. . . . The Havens ©hall feel thee* . . . It looks regal to stay on the spot— and minister In a truly tran­ scendental way to a true church of friends. • • • without money and without price. . . . I rejoice to remember your gentle t®mp©r— your freedom from all petulance— . • . If I had command of a Northampton paper 1 would Ilk® .to put in it an artlele-sheaded "1. S. D.— versus— » River People* " . . .3* One surely wonders what consolation Dwight could find .in the brave word® of Elisabeth Peabody, and in the fact that he was’ 3^0ook©, p. t|i|, • -^Quoted In Cooke, pp. hb^ bS* 17A.L.S. In the Boston Public Library. 29* really too charming to the ladies, at least in tlie pulpit and at the Thursday whist club. Dwight* b short c&x'ccr in the ministry coincided exactly with the beginning® of the intellectual stimulus generated by Emerson* & "Mature,” "Divinity School Address," and "The American 'Scholar.” Under this influence, Dwight did not deliberately quit & well-chosen profession, as Emerson and George Kipley did, tout hi® natural shortcomings as a preacher were undoubtedly cultivated and enlarged by his early and Intimate connection with Mew England transcendentalism. He was one of the young men for whom both aleott and Emerson had great hopes and admiration* At the first meeting of the "Symposeum” on September 19* 1336* Dwight was invited to join in the next meeting to be held October 3* Aleott did not remember Dwight at this second meeting,33 but Hedge remembered him at wh&t Cabot calls the "second" meeting, at Emerson1» sometime in October*39 Dwigjht probably attended thee® meeting® as often as he could, for he loved social intercourse of almost all kinds. But he la never mentioned as a contributor to the conversations, van Wyck Brooke pictures him rather ridiculously as a sort of pur® transeen- dental!st essence, a spirit representing the movement in Its unadulterated fora. "John Dwight was the type of them all," ^ The Journals of Prong on Aleott,- cd. by Odell Shepard (EostanV liittI®, Brown, 193&)* p. 79* 39jame|l catoot, A Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Postonj Houghton H1 fflTnTTEB?)~I, 2fe.----- - ------- 30. with 11 too much Mosart In his gos?iios » Certainly we must add that Dwight was young* shy, and not very quick in expressing himself* Just three months out of divinity school, h© was indulging hie taste for "truant occupations" and at the same time looking for■an opening in the world as a scholar or minister* "Emerson did his best for Dwight, although he may have found Dwight a little difficult, perhaps a little boring. in I8 3B he wrote, Dwight earn© . . . & staid longer & w© got as far as speech, this time. • - • between him & me, as chances so often with those we reckon Intelligent, a good understanding was*supposed not certified. But I find him now a very accurate mind active & genial with fine moral qualities though not of great reading or variously cultivated. ‘-What is.a great satisfaction too, he has his own subject, Music•^ In writing to Carlyle a year later, Emerson described Dwight as a "good, susceptible, yearning soul, not so apt to create as to receive with freest allowance. When he was day­ dreaming about the Ideal transcendents?^!st school, Emerson did not think of including Dwight on the faculty which would have had for its leaders Piploy, Hedge, Parker, Aleott, and himself.^3 ^°Life ®f Emerson-. (Hew York 1 E.P. Dutton, 1932), p. 1(>5. tl«j*0 Margaret Puller, May 2i|, I83O, in Letters* II, 13^-135. ^Letter of March 19, 1839, in The C or re a p 6ok, toipTEer^with the other writings mentioned here, will be discussed in a later section. 33* most* fils going to Brook Far® In Hovember has bean regarded as a very natural step, an inevitable and happy development in hi® career* Cooke describe© him at this moment as a born idealist, by temperament an enthusiast, and by conviction a come-outer from the conventionalities of society and religion, * * * who could see the promise of such a movement, and forsake all things cheerfully for its sake #h*9 Such a statement must not stand, unqualified, for in some ways Brook Farm seam© to have been a last resort, a move of desperation or resignation* Joining Ripley at Brook Farm was not finding a place In th# real world, and Dwight knew it. His correspondence in Idifl and I8I4.2 was not full of reforming enthusiasm* He was looking for a job. Henry w* Bellows in Hew York apparently looked like th® classmate in th© best position. Sometime in September Dwight appealed to him for help in securing a position as lecturer or teacher. Bellows replied on October 5, lOlfls I have no sort of official connexion with any of th© Socleties for diffusing knowledge In this city, but if I can us® any personal Influence in'your behalf, I ©hall most cheerfully do it ' • • In this same letter, Bellow© makes an amusing statement which reflect© perfectly what the outside world was thinking about th© transeendentallst movement: nl mm very curious to see a Transeendentallst* We have no such birds this way*"^ This and the following were probably anything but amusing to ^Cooke, p* 1^ 9 * .1*3. in the Boston Public Library* ^Toc* cit * 3l|-* Dwight, however, He must have felt truly like an exotie "bird,” caged and starving in a part of the world where no suitable food was available for him# You are reputed a martyr to that creed. And if the papers on Daily Life in the Dial' are your esoteric confession I heartily wish you had more disciples, and X will be on© of them myself*” Dwight was not out out for martyrdom, and.he did not .seek it* He did not want disciples* He wanted acceptance' by a woman who could, love him and by a society which could respect him. He also wanted to live by th© particular kind of transeendentalist creed h© had fallen into. After we have examined his early writings and th© thinking which mad© up this creed, w© should be able to see exactly what kind of man want to Brook Farm in November of IBlfl. 3. Dwight* «■ serious thinking about music and his concerted attempts to gain proficiency, both as performer and coramen- lator, began in th© divinity school days. About 1835 he was reading Lowell Mason’s "second Annual Report of th© Boston Academy of Music," and th© "Manual of the Boston Academy*” He prepared a review of these publications, entitled simply "On Music," a thirty-three page manuscript apparently never published in its original f o r m . This ^Bellows to Dwight, October 5, IOI4JL* 53ijow in the Boston Public Library* A part was published as "Sacred Music" In the Amerlcan Monthly Magazine» New Series II (November, 1 8 3 6}, 35. document probably ante-dates the divinity school dissertation, and the first half of it contains many of the generalizations about .music which Dwight never ceased to reiterate. Music is the language' of feeling, he says, especially religious feeling or devotion. fiords are the language of thought. The person who cannot feel what music communicates is cut off from the deepest mysteries of life* This was .the axis of Dwight’s belief, and his thinking never revolved around any other axis for very long* Love, striving to amalgamate with all— devotion, reaching forward to eternity— all that mysterious part of our nature, which binds us to one another, to the beauty of th© world, to God and to an hereafter,— require a different language from that common sens® or intellect, which looks coldly upon the outward world, only to dissect it, and which occasions separation®, instead of harmony, in human hearts The **truant occupation’1 of the undergrad1 -* a t e days had provided Dwight with a life-long Ideal* Wo shall find it again and again, in the Harbinger of the Brook Farm days, throughout, the Journal of Music, and finally permeating the the last essay Dwight published, fifty-five years later. Already the social significance of music had suggested itself. Society Is defective, says Dwight, ’’when all men are either politicians or money makers* . . *” Th© fin® arts, and particularly music, as being the least exclusive of them all,, seem intended to supply this defect, by familiarising men with the beautiful and the infinite. These Influences • . . excite common feeling, create common associations, and Nm**»fcalb W V '1— pp. 27-28* °h b l d ., p. 3 0 . 8 6Ibid.. p.. 3 1 . Hfcid., p. 3 2 . tsI (July, lGlf.0), 12U-13U.. ii4* apologising to his . • . neighbors for the heavenly influence which haunts him**1 Hew England Is still chilled by *the cold east wind of utility *n^ w$e want two things* Frequent ■public performances of .the' best music, and a constant audience, , . .».9Q v/hen his' mind turned to music, Dwight must have felt that .he belonged In Boston, -not In Northampton* In this review we find the first of Dwight** ceaseless enco^-usis;on :Handelfs Hessiak,^' 'in thlifona composition Dwight.found realised,all the ideals for.religious music he had expressed In the divinity school dissertation* We feel tempted to call ”The Messiah” the only Dratorlo, and to doubt If there wilX^eWr be another* * * * Handel seems to have monopolised the on® subject for an Oratorio. • Humanity* a anticipation of Its.- Messiah* This prop® rly Is '”W e one""^itS^ oF’"iSi pure m m T 5 T ~ this the mysterious premia® which It whispers| this 1* the hope with which it fills us as its tones seem to fall from the blue sky, or to exhale through the earths pores from Its secret divine fountains* Music is the aspiration, the yearnings of the heart to the Infinite* * * • This longing of the heart, which is a permanent fact of human life, and with which w® all know how to sympathise, has received - its Most ■ perfect historical form in the Jewish expectation of ■a Messiah* . * * 'They- are almost the only words, w© know, which do not limit the free, world~permesting, overshifting, Protean genius of music . « *^2 But Boston is ”a community only beginning to be musical*" ,?A repeated performance of The Hess 1 ah . * * would do more to bring: out the latent-musical taste -of the people, than anything Concerts of the past Winter,” p* 12l|* 9°rbld., p. 133. 91Ibid., pp. 125-129. 92Ibid., PP* 125^136* li£. else . . .”93 These repeated performances became a tradition in Boston from about this time, and whether or not they had the effect Dwight predicted, they continued for years to .Inspire Dwight himself# The virtuoso school of pianists was showing'some of its wares' in Boston at this time* Dwight admits'ho finds the performances rtrich, brilliant, wild, astonishing *1 ^ He can expend a little poetic effort on them* H?hey, arc the heaving of the billowy deep,: now dark./, now < lit by gleams of lightning; they are the sweeping bree.se ,of the forest; they are the" flickering aurora • • * ^ But we should have'been much more pleased to have heard the Sonatas of Beethoven, • « • written, not for-, the sake of displaying the Piano Forte, but for the sake of music**96 u u b Ic for music’s sake* Dwight committed himself to this principle very early* With the growth of musical taste, . . * one acquires a more and more decided preference for Instrumental music * * * | music pure, rather than 'music wedded to another art, • * T " We prefer-a Beethoven’s Symphony to anything, ever sung* with the’ ©ingle exception of Hahdel’s Messiah, 93«k. 109Ibid., p. 269. From the Pierian Sodality to . transcendentalism and Brook Farm w&s-'not&t all a common or natural -progres®ion# Moat of the members of the Association were probably reservedly' tolerant of-Rlplfey* * experiment* • Some m y have been openly disrespect­ ful. Hot one, except for; Dwight, was on his way to, join* In discussing the 'prophetic quality of music-, Dwight was never the slightest specific* If he hoped a better world might emerge'from Brook Farm, be was reticent'.about expressing the hop®. He merely reminded. the members of -their -duty to pro­ pagandise 'Handel; Mosart, and Beethoven, . and to promote the acceptance of nuale into the Harvard curriculum. 110 These were the- specific■ things Dwight' really wanted to do, and it seems- a very • safe guess; that lie -would have Joyfully settled in Boston in I8I4.I if be could have made m living - there. The address before- the Harvard Musical Association assumes a not© of tragedy* 1^. * Dwight* s claim- to the title of "literary amateur**- in the music field was based not only on his writings about music, but on somewhat promising beginnings' be made between 1837 and 18^0 as .a literary-critic. and translator. 'His earliest book' review was written for the. Christian Examiner in 183 7 , on his friend.william Ware*.a hetters of iuclus U* f iso from Palmyra.^ - ^^Address • • • before the Harvard Musical Association,” p. 2 72'.' li:LraiI (September, 1SJ7) , 99-121. It9. Dwight*a enthusiasm over this long-forgotten book is interesting because it shows how Dwight could apply his reeling about art and the artist to literary criticism. He praises - the calm., classic spirit of the work, with "no breaking, through of the self-consciousness of the writer The book exerts the 111greater moral force because no specific moral Is attached. ^ The moral must com® from "the all-pervading moral spirit of its author." The true poet, like the composer of genius, "loves truth, and beauty, and God, and is in a very high sense religious, whether he knows It himself or n o t H e r ® is an early and unmistakable Indication that Dwight thought of himself as a potential poet. The' next review Dwight wrote is a very bright spot in his literary career* Sometime in lb37 he borrowed from Emerson the first two volumes of Tennyson*s poems, and in the January, l$3-u, issue of the Examiner he published the first full and comprehensive review of Tennyson to appear in America. Dwight declares that Tennyson is a true poet, suffering as to be expected from neglect and harsh, unsympathetic c r i t i c i s m . 316 H^Eeview of Letters from Palmyra, p. 99* 113Ibld., p. 100. lltj-Xbld.. p. 101. Upjohn ">1 in Kidson, Tennyson in America (At: er.s, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1953)» pV'F. See’also V;. J. Bolfe, "biographical Sketch," In The Poetic and Dramatic v:orks of Alfred Lord Tennyson (Cambridge' ecST.; Boston: Bough ton X iffl in, TBpFTT P • xv“ BwigUt*s review Is in the Christian Examiner, XXIII (January, 1538) 305-327- ' ^■^Review of Tennyson* s Poems, pp. 305-306. 50. But he has a *?poet’s faculty to answer for.” ‘’Bros the every­ day world of contradictions and deformities, be aspires to a world of beauty and harmony *113*3*7 Indeed, Hhe. seen® often to have descended to the mechanical task of trying to make up something,” but **he cannot writ© unmusically*"^® His diction has a "Wordsworthian truth -and freshness ,«H9 The homeliness and quaintness of poems, like ”Th© Miller’s Daughter** ©specially attracted Dwight, for f?all things In nature are beautiful, when ones beautiful feelings have become associated with them ♦ .. *#120 '(Emerson obviously lent thoughts as well as books.) wfh© Ballad of Ortana” Is Mth© height of the passive heroic**1 From the agony of that; true heart flashes a ray, which cleaves the veil of the eternal world. * • • It shines In upon the deep obscure fountain of ■faith in our soulisj It makes da feel the necessity of immortality* Why cannot /our - poet aIwagjrs" wr 1 to ' thus? . . . v:hat care w© for his pretty fancies, which belong only to-him, the Individual, when h© should be speaking out'©f: iha"3epth of the universal Spirit, and waking'our own'spirits within' Dwight .admits Tennyacsi-'hae the organisation of & poet. But does he have the true poetic spirit? Is he. ”&11 sense, with neither feeling nor' faith? • » . Does he utter what is In all men, or only the mood of one man?11 At present he ^^Bevlew of Tennyson*s Poems, p. 30?. 116ItoId., p. 308. 1 1 9Ibid.. p. 3 0 9. 120Ibid., p. 3 1 1. 1 2 1Thld., pp. 3 1 9-3 2 0 . 122Ibid., p. 321*.. 5i has not lived up to his promise; he avoids 0the sphere of active interests, the momentous struggles of great principles, the tragic situation® of the human heart * * ."1^3 :Obviously then, the true poet will be a musician and a traneeendentallet, whether he uses musical sounds or words• Dwight sounds bold and inspired in this review, as well as judicious and perceptive,. At this moment we can understand why Aloott and Emerson'encouraged him* In 1BJ9 Dwight published' his volume of Goethe and Schiller for Ripley*^ anxbld.. p. 3 6 6. l^toe. cit. 177,Ibid.. p. "175 6 2 . were complimentary• Indeed, not many American reviewers of that day knew what to say of such a book, except those in Dwight*a circle of friend© or acquaintance©* James Freeman Clarke was the first to' respond, in the tares tern Messenger for February, 1839* ^ He found nothing , but excellence, and did little but quote from the poems. 0 * 8 * Hilliard wrote a sanguine, relaxed, and unconvincing notice for the April IfOrth Aster 1 can Be vlew. admitting that he knew, very little of the material', in the original* fht. Boston Quarterly Hey ley quoted and commended Dwight’s theory of translation,*^? and went so far as to say that two or three of the poems were "'Improvements on' the originals "High as Mr # Dwight has placed his ideal," the Quarterly continued, "he ha® uniformly approached nearer to it than he could reasonably expect."*^9 The Hew York Heview liked the Schiller translations by far the better, and used phrase® like "very ©tiff" and "very inaccurate* in describing some of the Goethe lyrics**?® This review has many more- reservation® than the others, but they seem rather arbitrary* By far the longest and most interesting reaction, written by William Ware, appeared In The Christian Examiner for l6^vi, 259-265. l66xtvxii, 505-534. l67il (April, 1839), 187-205. ifeSlbld.. p. 192}.. ^ m a . , p. 195. I 17°IV (April, 1839), 393-lt.OO. 61^ * honor to hr. Dwight,* who shows catholic tastes, and great toleration for untenable philosophy,2-7^ William War©*a rather was Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard* It is not surprising that he should bristle at doctrines reminding him of the "Divinity School Address.* But generally, Dwight1s book was harmless, and It brought much pleasure to its readers* Tears later, Julia Ward Howe ©o\il& describe it as "ever precious *M^ ^ 6 • Georg© Ripley’s series of translation® frcm foreign lit­ eratures is sometimes considered .the finest literary work of th© Brook Farm transeendentallsts, the associationist-minded members of th© Klpley-Kedge s c h o o l O f course, the early volumes antedate th© beginnings of brook Farsi, and it is Important to remember that Dwight very probably was not thinking in assoeiatlonlst terms at all in 1 636-1 8 3 9* What­ ever he wrote to Carlyle early in 1839, Carlyle1s answer does not sound as if Dwight had proposed to reform society by th© Brook Farm method. Because Dwight joined the Brook Farm move­ ment early and stayed until th© bitter end, he has always been associated with the anti-individualist., anti-Emersonian group of transcendentalists. In the early days, however, Dwight did not identify himself positively with any "branch" of tran­ scendental ism. Indeed the centrifugal and -centripetal forces 17B$rarw, review of -Select Minor 'Poems, p. 178 • 1?9£ eminiscences, p. 1I4.7 * 3-^See Cooke, Introduction to the Dial, p * 25* of thin nofenmnt, like hi3 own divided interest in music and literature, seem to have whipped the somewhat passive DwIght back and forth. In 9 peak In'* of trs nsc en&ental1 s t s and transcendentalism, classification and definition are impossible. Dwight and ICmerson agree on. this fundamental difficulty. "Bo person* s statement of any transcendental truth ever entirely satisfies 1P1 another person," wrote Dwight in his discussion of Goethe* There is no such thing as a pure tranaoendentaliat, and no two transeendentallB't* are alike# Th® particular hue of Dwight’s transcendentalism can be seen from the previous discussion of his writing before 18I».2# A synthetic summary world be difficult and wasteful here, but a partial one can be constructed as we Introduce some of the Interesting aspects of Dwight1s early writing which have been neglected up to this point» The German-ErirlIah literary and philosophical Influences on American transcendentalism are very obvious in Dwight’s thought# From Goethe, Schiller, and German Romantics, from Carlyle and Coleridge, and from the great German musicians, Dwight tried to learn a language of "feeling" instead of a language of "thought.* Ho tried to live in the realm of "Imagination," "Reason," and Instinctive truth rather than In elect t. in or Poems, p# I4.O7. 182^w # Emerson, "The Transcendentalist,H in Th© Complete Works of Balph Waldo Emerson (Centenary editions Bostons Houghton FTfTTiH; I^O3«l901|.), I, 3 3 8. (All subsequent references to Emerson1a Works are to this edition.) 66 the realm of "fancy, 11 Mtinderstanding," and rational, empirical conclusions• "Peeling la the substance of life,” he wrote* "Ideas are only the forms• nils ig expanded in & note headed "Goethe* a Aversion to Systems *w Is It not evident, that to think at all, with a view of resting in a -thought, Is to err, since it Is con­ templating the-'Partial, and forgetting th© Whole ? arid that one is nearest absolute Truth, in the .Q» unconscious feeling;, which is & total act of the soul? The- next note takes up,the same theme* To exhaust a thought would.'be, to kill it* And herein the true artist, preserving the life of nature in his work®, distinguishes himself from the. vulgar man of understanding, who thinks that to have explained Is to know a thing, that to have settled a question is to have got forward; and who strives to draw a thread clean out of the wondrous web, as if so he could lay bare the laws of Ilf© to us. Kature turns, upon him, and tells him he ha® not even been living* ? Dwight probably read Aid.® to Reflection In the edition introduced by th© "Preliminary Essay" of James Marsh, ^ 6 who tried to make clear the vital distinction -between Reason and Understanding* We must study ourselves and the words we use, to "discover the principle of unity and consistency, which reason Instinctively seeks after, which shall reduce to a harmonious system, all our %*X©ws of truth and of being . . #**2-c7 iBl-'Review of Poems of W* T* bacon, Boston Quarterly Review, I (January, I8 3 8) 9r"r,ffrm lSh>elect ? lr.or Poema. p. 391;.. l8%bld., p. . . . pip at American . . . Kditlon (Burllnpton, Vorsaont s Chaimcey G-oodricK, 1629) . ' ^k^Ibld*, pp. viii-ix. 67. Philosophy and theology must be combined,- to show that spiritual, mysterious things are rational* The tyranny of cause and effect must be broken by the triumph of Reason and free wlll*1^ In.the combination of philosophy and theology,.Dwight felt nearest the absolute truth when he thought In term® of beauty, beauty in art and beauty In nature* Th© first and third sections of Saerson1* ttKatur©fl seem to have moved him most strongly* One of the sermons Dwight sent to the Dial was called nThe Religion of Beauty.*^®9 The greatest blessing, which could be bestowed on the weary multitude, would he to give them the , .sense of beauty# « * « Religion makes man sensible : to beauty; and beauty in turn disposes to religion. . ■ Beauty Is the revelatloii of the. soul to that senses. * * '0 Beauty is *th© • • • Spirit • • * holding ua u p I t Is "th® moral atmosphere** And In so far as we can create our own atmosphere, Pwtght thought we should learn from nature, and * from the great creators of beauty— ^Shakespeare and Goethe, Beethoven and Mosart and Handel. But as Dwight ascended.’ In his balloon, he was whipped, about by disturbing cross-currents-* The real world was. not ready for a "religion of beauty." Parker warned Dwight not to battle the real world, but to "get a place" in It. At the '^%arsh, "Preliminary Essay," p. ix. lfl9I (July, 18^0), 17-22. 19°Ibid.. p. 1 7 . 1 9lrbia., p. 1 8 . 66* ordination in Northampton, . (Jeorg© Ripley reminded the young ministar of hie- duty to society* f,Th© idea which was realised in the life of lasus, must 'be also realised in the institutions of men, before ' the. kingdom of God can be established on earth •The 'true-work of the. Birange list,* Ripley said, was rtte bring the religion of society into..; accordance with the religion of Chriet**^3 Ripley was calling for disciplined thought and -action* .He was disappointed'with p wight-*© articles in the ' Dial, and said wo in a letter to Dwight of ^uly'■?, 161^ .0• Do/'glve us some- truly artistic products be it ever so small* ■ Your beautiful improvisations are a sin against you** sculp and unless you -repent--wend your 'ways, you Fl|l be damned, when the day of $udgmemt come s. *9% But nimproviaa.t Ion* -was on© word for the- very essence of what h©. had learned from Goethe and Em© re on i Dwight must have felt himself spinning around in X8lj.0-l8l|X* Perhaps, ho thought at .times, it- would be better to .drop, theology, and philosophy altogether, and devote himself to beauty in-a- wordless form— the beauty of great-music* But the practical difficulties were' great. For the realisation of the ideals nearest his heart--th© introduction of musical training into th© schools and the spread of musical culture by efficient professional parf ormance— Dwlght needed the patronage that only a stratified, established society could offer* 19^rtTh© Claims of the Age on the work of the Evangelist,tt p *. I|- ♦ 3-93ibid.. p. ii. 3 9 ^ . t. s. of JTuly 7t lBl|.0, in th© Boston Futile Library# C on trad let .1 r..r \ outse] t\ in the best tn^neeesder.tal 1st tradition, was a luxury hx-hhi eo :1b scarcely afford* be vur.lul nave be a a. bxyuhost as an idealist Ir; a oon~ id©al i, stl c eoelcty--li h.o focioty would , :_ \ a auororted hir.:. * be was noi really at .tone cither as ar bxorsoruian ind5vidua 1 a s1, or as i u.rher o v a iroup sett in?;' out to remake society* For a tr an acendenta 11at rw xse iTtok i ectM was oasIc, brook 1- arm was aXoioai as poor a yl?.ue as Walden Pond* As we shall sec? In h e next chanter, hw I.pht tried convulsively hard to make a r-.hr" bhhiwsy oh :'r ook bam, but hr no what we know oi hin a Irordyy we should be prepared to bird tool, ho woe re a 1 ly on a loro detour* CHAPTER III BROOK FARM IS THE EARLY YEARS s 181*1-181^ 3* ♦ When Georg© Willis Cook© wrote his book on Dwight, the now voluminous literature on Brook Farm was just beginning to appear| and Oooke’s fourth chapter i® on© of the signif­ icant contributions to this literature At the present time, however, there Is no reason for discussing the very interesting history of Brook Farm except In so far as It furnishes sug­ gestions about Dwight himself, as a person and writer* The previous pages will have prepared the reader for a'somewhat deflated portrayal of Dwight as © reformer and man of the wide-open spaces; but, although he was far from an ideal associatlonist, Dwight mad© himself_a very Important member of the group* In retrospect, his activities of the Brook Farm day® seem to have had more lasting Influence than any­ thing else Ripley and his followers did* Lindsay Swift admits that Dwight*a "capital stock was mainly a lofty enthusiasm." But this stock paid delayed dividends. "The other influences of Brook Farm wore indirect; but John Dwight, diffident and eeolusive as he was, Imposed on the Association a cult • . ., the cult of great music. "If© external ^P&ges 1*13-128 * T^Brook Farm, p. 155• 71. influence has been so patent or lasting in Boston as the genuine love for Beethoven, and for the few other names clustering about the greater genius.n3 The skeptical scholar cannot Ignore this side of the picture* Perhaps a balance can be struck between this view and the obvious* darker one. West Koxhury had been the home of Mar7 Corey Dwight , and all the Dwights may have been interested in the Brook Farm movement from the beginning,. But when Ripley bought the farm and began discussing association with Emerson and others In October of I8I4.O, Dwight was still in relatively good favor at Northampton. By the time community life began at the farm, in April, I8I4I, Dwight*s position in Northampton was beginning to get uncomfortable. He wrote to Elizabeth Peabody asking many questions about Ripley*'si experiment, and she answered at length an April 2 6 , emphasising the hard work and planning of the RipleysApparently he did not communicate much with the Ripleys themselves, because Sophia wrote on Hay 6 and filled.'nearly an entire page chiding Dwight- for not writing. She also included a lot of information'about the farm, but did not indicate, that it was solicited.^ Dwight was holding back, partly from Inertia perhaps, but oertly because he knew Brook Farm would not b© an ideal place for him. He tried to' patch- up bis differences with the Northampton congregation, ^Swlft, Brook £ara, p. l£6 * ^A»L»S» in the Boston Public Library. -*A*L*S * In the Boston. Public Library. 7 2 and he stayed on there for four or five months after his resignation* He finally wont to Brook Farm in November, lOifl, as a teacher of music and i#atln, having hesitantly renoxmced the ministry, and having failed to find a lectureship or teaching position elsewhere* The first-hand-accounts of Brook Farm are hard to evaluate• Many of them are long-dormant memories, written down in the 1890 * s by persons who had been students there In the early days* Everyone remembered Dwight, but everyone also, know the grand old man of Boston musical circles who died in 1893* Such factor®, throw a slight shadow over te s t im o n y l i k e t h i s j Touched with the divine desire to .do good to all, he £Dwight} entered into the work with his whole earnest souli Modest to a fault, but singularly persistent •in what he. felt to he his duty, he never flinched or failed to act when occasion required It* His tastes were of the most refined order* He shrank from coarse contact with an unusual degree of sensi­ tiveness, but his great heart embraced all mankind in b r © the r h oo d • ^ Arthur Sumner, who had been a boarder~student of about sixteen in lok2, wrote more than fifty years later: Dwight used to com# In from his toil in the hot sun at noon, to give me a lesson on the piano; and after faithfully doing that job, he would lie down on the lounge and go to sleep, while I played to him* What a piece of nonsense it was, to have a man like that hoeing corn and stiffening his eloquent fingers*7 Miss Amelia Bussell was actually fifteen years older than AuJo.hn Thomas codman, Brook Farm, Historic and Personal ?^omoirs (Boston* Arena Publishing- Co *, lB94)", pT~T6# 7"A Boy1s HeoolloctIons of Brook Farm,11 hew England Magaalne, XVI (May, 1694), 311* 73 Dwight, but as a teacher of dancing and. "Metres a of the Bevels* she became very much attached to him. At the age of about eighty she described his delicately sensitive organization, . . . to which discords, of every kind were as antagonistic . . . as were false chords in music# Bis whole life scorned ones dream of music, and 1 do not think he was ever fully awake to all the harsh gratings of this outer world* 'We were Indebted to him for much of the pleasure of our evening social life* He was too really musical to endure the weariness of teaching beginners the first rudiments of his own art, although for some time he was our only teacher. I must say he was wonderfully patient, considering his temperament, in the task he had assumed, for his nerves must have been most fear­ fully taxed In some of his labors; but his outward demeanor did not bear testimony to what must often have been hlSpOsmest desire to tear his hair out by the roots* M s s Bussell also, recalled how she, Ripley, and Dwight were inspired one morning to weed the onion patch before breakfast• We enjoyed It so much the first •morning that we met again and again -until the work was fully accom­ plished. . • * Mr* 0. for once forgot his musical c harmonies in the click of the hoe against the atones.y Such material is certainly not worthless, but its limit­ ations are obvious. Even Miss Russell hints that Dwight lived most of the time In a dream world of hia own. The frequency of his tolling before breakfast and in the hot morning sun is open to some question, and the suggestions that he was something of a virtuoso on the piano are pure fancy. r \ f-‘Kome Life of the Brook Farm Association (Boston: Little, Brown,^T^07T™i>n. 61m-o67 f'fhis volume Is a posthumous reprint, with considerable additions, of two articles published anony­ mously by Mis® Russell under the same title in The Atlantic, Monthly* XL 11 {October, 18-78] , I.* $?, -{4.66 ? and f November, 18701 , 556-563.) 9Ibid., pp. 1 0 5-1 0 6 . When the Eyris' was completed in the summer of X8!.|.2, Dwight set up headquarters there with tho newly acquired Piano*- Georgianna Bruce wrote to a friend of her "Inexpress­ ible Joy” at this event, and went on to give & very inter- eating and intimate .glimps# of the new music teacher, who had not yet found his. hearings* Poor Mr, D* said tonight, when we were washing up the tea things with two or three of the '• gentlemen wiping, * " * *■ *How. fast you live, hers j I Ilk# it, but ;rsally'my head,- my head suffers,” . .“T ^ Lindsay Swift confirms a natural deduction that Dwight was the person Ripley and Parker were watching-when Ripley remarked, according -to-.Emerson, "•■There Is your accomplished friend he would.hoe', corn all Sunday If I would lot him, but all Massachusetts could not make him do it on M o n d a y * S w i f t adds the rumor that Parker replied, ”It is good to know that be .wants to ho© corn any day in the weak # ,f ^ Be can well believe that any man with his' feet- on the ground would occasionally get very impatient with John S* Dwight* Parker was skeptical about the Brook. Farm experiment from the beginning, .probably because Dwight seemed more ^Quoted in Swift, Brook Farm * pp* ?8~79, without exact date * ^"Historic Notes of life and letters in Hew England,” Works, X, 3 6 6♦ ^Qp* cit *, pp* 158-159* See John Weiss,- Life and Correspondence of Theodor© P a rk e r (hew. Y o rk ? D# A p o le iso n , J ' ~ X , " 1U?-ToTTT 75. typical of the personnel than Biploy# Old Harm Jan Buidekoper called Brook Farm a "hospital of invalids" in a latter to his daughter of August 10, iBlfl* At least this early* the word was about' that Dwight was thinking- of Joining* X pity my friend Dwight from the bottom of my heart* What will he do at the Cotaunity? He has no physical Strength to live by bodily labors and besides h© will find little pf poetry in practical agricultural-■ operations*^ Those fragmentary accounts and .opinions are -not, of course, basically conflicting, but they scarcely make up a vivid and consistent-picture* For this w© should be prepared. Dwight at Brook Fart was like "Dwight at Northampton# On ©om© days, to some people, he. was the most esteemed person on the place. On certain days, easily forgotten by his admirers, he was a misfit, even a drag on the experiment# He was not giving all his -energies to association# Be still felt .that- ha needed to make money# He still needed the love of a woman. He was publishing nothing, but in the soring, -of. lSl}-2 : he -prepared ahdb'delivered in Boston a series of lectures on music# Cranch heard some .of them and reported to a Miss Julia Myers on April 11 j My fpi&nd Dwight has- been delivering a great course of lectures on the musical composers-, but to very small audience®. The people,are hardly prepared-'to enter Into those moods from which' Ills' lofty strains flow# *5 The Reverend James Flint of Salem' Invited him to fill his ^Quoted in Tiffany, Harm Jan Bul&ekopsr. p. 288. rg - ^ Quoted in Scott, Life and Letters of C. £* 'Craneh, p. -7 9 * 76. pulpit-, for a. few Sundays, but Dwight could not accept* In declining, he' wrote on Jun© iBj Already I had resolved never again to.be settied (even If i could be* which is doubtful)% * . * I have doubts, about the Church* * * * I have less sympathy than I had with the prevailing spirit of the "churches, and less hope of ever-being able t© mould the Church and the"-professlost- to my idea, . * . What pangs this costs me* what breaking of old-hopes fondly ehs-rished, and what plunging upon a new sea of unc e rt a1n11rs, I have not time or spirit to ' detail to you*1*3 What wholeheartedly enthusiastic Brook Farmer could have described himself .In' the busy and beautiful month of 'June as lacking nspirit” and "plunging upon a new sea of uncer­ tainties11! In Woyember of l$i*.2 Dwight wrote again to Henry W* Sallows,. -reminding him. of his letter of a year before, pleading an acute need of money, and proposing that he give his course of musical lectures in Hew York*^ Bellows1 replies of November 2$ and December 18 were not the slightest one enraging * For the brighter side of the picture, w@ have Cooke’s statement that Dwight at this time "gave himself up with enthusiasm to the new life around him,11 supported by quoting a not©.Dwight wrote to James Hus We11 Lowell In the summer of I8ii2* > , Q u o t e d in Co®ke# p* ^7* ^A.L.S* of Hovember 17, 181*2, in the Massachusetts Historical Society* - iH'A*hs*S, in the Boston Public Library* 77 1 should delight to have you long enough to conduct you about our wood and river walks, or to take you out in our boat, when we might discuss matters human and divine, or, better yet, deliver ourselves tip to the water-sprltes and to our own wayward fancies, whether of noisy talk or silent reverie, like hat tire»a harpy children# I have forgotten how to write or think or picture out a scene or thou flit In words# 1 only feel *3-9 Dwight’s varying moods during the first two years of his stay at brook Farm may b© partly explained by the fact that he, in a sense, was neither fish nor fowl. He was a few years older than the congenial group of young people Including hi® sisters, and not quite old enough nor wise enough to be on® of the administrative' leaders along with Ripley, Charles Dana, and Minot Pratt. His exact status remains uncertain. Cook# says simply that he "became.a member” in November, lBlgl # ^ But according to the "Secretary* s Book" of the association, Dwight was elected a member on February 1, lOUg.^ He was slow getting into the spirit of the place, and he was to undergo the painful experience of becoming one of the real loaders at Brook Farm only after the community had begun to disintegrate» The moodiness can perhaps be traced to another source, a very familiar one?'. Almira Barlow was living at Brook Farm ^Cooke, p. 6 9 •' 20P#ge 5 2 • 21MS in the Massachusetts Historical Society. This fact Is confirmed in a letter to Dwight from Georg© W. Curtis of February 2$, lBi^ i. Bee Early Letters of George William Curtis to John S. Dwight, ed• by d©orge‘"wTX'X 1 m Cooke {Hew York; Harper Brothers, T 69B), p. ISO. In I81f2~l0!f3. Six years older than Dwight, she was a great beauty wJ.th wisps of gossip about her* She was fond of xaen, and seems to have played the -role of a lofty-minded damsel in distress* Her husband, David Hatch Barlow, graduate of Harvard Divinity School in 1629, had left her in 1630* He was known to be a scoundrel*^ Dwight*s attentions to Mrs. Harlow must have become very serious near the end of lBi^ .2, for the following letter obviously has a long history behind It* Thank you Mr* Dwight for the opportunity to writ© to you what it ha® given me so much pain to express by act. She regrets having refused to see Dwight when he called because she had other guests. Then comes serious business* Do you remember a conversation we had some two or three weeks since, when we must have understood each other and had better have spoken out like true man and woman as we are. X had felt for some time, that whether consciously or not you were getting too much attached to me* You seemed to wish to absorb me quite; demanded much of my time, my sympathy, my tender expression* Oh the mysterious working of human emotionl I could give all these most when, you least demanded .them* Any claim upon mo, which • I could not fully and truly meet, produced such a reaction upon my feelings as to lead me from you, as far as 1 had been drawn. I did and do now value you as a friend* How to keep- the friend and reject the lover was my query* I thought this conversation would do It, place us again upon true relations by your renouncing what I co Id not give, and accepting, if you wished, what I could. Have I been deceived in the factsf If not, have I don© wrong In giving tnysolf up freely arid naturally as I did to making your acquaintance? It has brought us both sweet moments, shall either regret It, even If It must change from its first *^5e© Early Letters of Curtis to Dwight, p • 7h* 79* blush and freshness? There is much In our congeniality ■of tastes and similarity of opinions -to bring" us--- together in various pleasant interchange and I" sea not why, because we cannot have "Intimate communion*, we should give up what we may have of: genial trustful friendship. Such intercourse; to be agreeable .on both sides should he placed upbn- a perfectly simple and frank basis* If I wish, an evening to myself,'or with other friend® 1 ought to have the privilege of way in g .so, and ■ that .without any .hiridrance . I am subject to various moods of mind In some .of which the presence of any one Is a grand Impertinence. Any relation of friendship which hampers me, makes ' me impatient*— hence the brusquerl© I have .somet.imc® manifested to yourself,' Will you forgive this and any other p&ln I may have caused youf~ft 1® certainly an unkind return for the constant - kindness X have received' from you*. ' When shall we be.- so; transparent and loving that * * * thought,. feeling and expression may be one I Then shall we indeed be angels wren we wound not, and are yet sincereI Truly your friend* A. C. B.rlow2^ Certain laconic entries in- the secretary* $ book indicate that Mrs.. Barlow left Brook Farm, perhaps by indirect request, about June 1, . 18^3.^" But Dwight did not forget quickly* 'The- following, note was written in November of the same year* ■14y -dear Friend, I have not -sent for you, be cause I have been so in the depth® of darkness, as to be wholly unable to give any one pleasure* I hope you have been more *^A,L«iS* of January 6 , fWlijl, in the Boston Public hibrary,-. ^ 2l^ s.o tbe minute® of the directors* meetings for April 29 (HVota& to convert the parlor occupied by Mrs*. Barlow to pub­ lic use**}, and May 27 -{^ Hr®* Barlow is requested to vacate her rooms by 1st of June•rl), In the Brook Farm Secretary9® Book* favor* o& in your states, and have tasted the fruits of the spirit,— love joy and peace* Unaphered as I am, I tear I shall not be able to give you, (soaker of harmonies as you are) any adequate return for the cost of a walk* But if you have courage to run. the risk, come any afternoon this week, except Tuesday or .Friday, when 1 read Italian with hias Bearle * * . . Love to all cherished friends at dear Brook Farm* Affec 1 1onat ©ly, A In-ilra^ A fascinating correspondence, which tells, we trust, all of the story that needs knowing, In spite of Pw;ght*s complete silence* Again Dwight tried, apparently both impetuously and. patiently, and again1 he failed* But did he jump at the new hop© offered by the pathetic and pleading November note, or did ho retreat in terror? Perhaps the question is an irrel­ evant impertinence * At any rate, Almira Barlow was not the only on© who felt nunspher©d" in the latter half of 1S1|.3• Dwight became dis­ couraged and restless after her departure. He seem© to have poured out his trouble© to his favorite correspondents— Cranch, George W* Curtis, and Lydia Maria Child* Cranch tried to bolster him up. late in the summer by writing as a fellow exile• * • m 2s the world all occupied, that you and I cannot find a single corner' to stand in and eat our bread and cheese? • • • But your lot is a harder one than mine, for you have less In common with tho ways and tastes of the many than I. You ^ A *L.S •, undated, in the Boston Public Library* ffHov • I8k3f1 I® In Dwight*© hand* ex. stand upon a loft * or aumnit, and food on purer noct&r, and more divine ambrosia, and the world acknowledges none such as useful* • • • Yet, my friend, I am in the hope you will one day be not without your reward, even in hard specie. Only produce, produce, hide not your light under a bushel, but let it blase forth, wherever there is an eye to appreciate it, for it is a rare genius you are endowed with, and you should not hide It like the Boslcruelane, nor dream it away in the fields, but bear it .like a torch into the very thickest of the,multitude, and make them acknowledge and honor you. ^ He th.OLUTit of going to Europe, and asked .adv5.ee of Curtis. The letter’s reply was not much help, but for us it adds something to the atmosphere of the situation. My impulse Is to say a t once, go. The worst and all you can dread is the foul breath t h a t will befog your f a i r name, . . . because you were a .minister and are a Trans cend orit& l 1st and a secoder from the hoiy”o7rio«, and a dweller at that place, unknown to perfum ed respectability and condemned of pre­ judice and error. . . . If your mind 1© determining ■itself towards no pursuit, and you anticipate th e same general em ploym ent that has filled the last year or two, I should say g o . If God doesn’t call here, he stay in ■ F u r ope . . . « Perhaps Dwight took the walk -with Mrs• Barlow and was momentarily revived* At least he decided against leaving Brook Farm and America sometime In November, to the relief of Cr&neh and C u r t l a On Christmas day h© was inspired to begin a long letter to Lydia Maria Child, who had spoken ^Tetter of A ugust 13, 18!|3, quoted in fcott, I.lfe and Letters o f £ • P_* Craneh, p. 82, 27X,ett er of November 11. I8t|3, In Early Letters from Curtis to Dwight, pp# 115-116, *^8 0® letter from Craneh oft December 6 , IOI4.3 (Scott, Life and Letters .of C * J?. Granch, p.* 86>5 and from Curtis of Movember 2D, 1 I81g3~Tsarly Loiters from Curtis to Bwlrht, pp. 119-12t<) . ~ ' 82 to him " I r r e s i s t i b l y In that splendid letter to the Courier about * 01© Bulbul1*”^9 This last, I believe, 1 m ust th a n k for e f f e c t u a l l y b r e a k In f the spell of my strange, unpardonable,— to myself e v a n , in e x p l ic a b le silence* . * • Have I not f o r two whole years been receiving the kindest and sweetest recognitions from you, and, l i k e a selfish dog, h o ard ed them up In alienee, answering n o t a word? * ♦ * message after message of kindest sympathy and remembrance, which have been to me among my g r e a t encouragements in a life of perplexity and lo n e l in e s s ; • • • • • # Alaa t I hop© my friends know expression with me la no measure of regard. . . . I hereby rebuke, renounce, and cast out from m y s e lf the dumb spirit* I f he has occupied so lo n g as to have somewhat weakened my original faculty of speech * * * ( f o r my dumbness has. been to all my .friends, not to you alone), this, too, you will pardon, and accept a first lame effort ericour&g- ' ingly, Here follows a long'and excited paragraph on a concert by th e violinist V'leux tem p s, a stimulant that may have h e lp e d Dwight pull himself together* The l e t t e r i s c o n tin u e d two days l a tor in the m id s t of another event that gave him a new ap a r k --the " F o u r ie r convention" i n Boston.3^ R e o rg a n is a t io n was in the air a t Brook F arm , and Dwight was taken in t o the inner circle just four -days before the "Institute of A g r i ­ c u l t u r e and E d u e a tlo n H • became, on February 11, l6lj.li, "The brook Farm Association for Industry and E d u c a t io n ." **9*Hobl® families some times double their names, to dis­ tinguish themselves from collateral branches of Inferior rank. I have doubled h i s , and i n memory of the Persian n ig h t in g a le have named him O le B u lb u l•" Lydia M a rla Child, Letters From Now York, Second Series (3d a d # ; New Yorks 0* s • FraxioTs, T W 5T T P + ”2 2 7 *------------ ^Quoted in Cooke, pp. 75-80* For tia© moment, Dwight’s "perplexities" seem to have been resolve d, and the ”loneliness" aomewi.at .mitigated* He began to be a spokesman, a propagandist for ^association,* finding hi® vocabulary - gradually in the beautiful and ever-- expanding' complexities of Fourierism. Duly three weeks after he was offIsially accepted at Brook P&rm, h© read.a lecture on association and education before the Hew England Fowler Society in Boston. He described the educational.theory of Brook Farm in Fourier 1st terms t *1*0 develop what Is in the child, by placing him In harmonious relations with all about him: .. • *"31 More interesting is his demand for the "presence of one artist# or even of - one person artistically and •.earnestly devoted to- an art* . . • <►” "Music should be valued in an Assoc let ion, 11 he 'continued, "if not as a study, yet as a pervading presence. . .. There should be music floating about In the air • * *" 3 2 Dwight had finally begun to feel that a person of his particular talents was indispensable to social reformation. His friend Curtis was respectful, dubious, and very accurate In his analysis and predictions* I do not think (and what a heresyI) that your life ha© found more than an object, not yet a centre. . . . Is it not the deeper Insight you constantly gain Into music which'' explains the'social economy you adopt,-and not the Lecture on Association. In its Connection with Ttdue a t i orf.^DeYfve re d ~ I * February J?9»" (Ho a ton: Benjamin WTTSrSSn; i H P H ' T T r ' l l ^ ' 32Ibid., p. 16. Gif.* economy the music? * * * Association will only interpret music so far as it is a pur© art. . . The new Brook Farm Is not individualistic enough for Curtis* ”» . • I feel that our evils are entirely individual, not social. What is society but the shadow of the single men behind it."33 Dwight1s cycle of moods sterns to have fallen into phase with the season® of the year* After serving as a delegate to an Association meeting at Northampton in July, he became despondent .again in the autumn* Marianne Dwight reported to their younger brother that John opened an October meeting of the Association 11 with some dismal and discouraging remarks about the state of feeling here. I don’t know what has got into him, but he was very unlike himself*"^ Cook© quotes a fragment of a letter partly destroyed by Mrs. Child, written about this times "The truth is, my friend, I am opnressod with sadness. I have had heavy sorrow® to bear in those later times which have quite checked the elasticity that seeks expression."^ Mrs* Child had been urging Dwight to writ© on Ole Hull for the Democratic Heview. He says he has hoard null twice, but doubts his ability to carry out the task. ”i havo, to be sure, very, very little time, my nusic&l and literary life being almost Indefinitely postponed.” because ■■^Letter of March 3, IGI4J4., in Early Letters of Curtis to Dwight, pp. 1p3~15U* ^Letters from Brook Farm, lfl|ij--l6ij.?, ed. by Amy L. Heed (PoughkoepVr©", lew'’ YoSk 7'" Vassar Coll©go, 19 3 G) , p. hil. ■^Page 8 0 . he Is "so lost to Intellectual society In Boston, so iden­ tified with a despised sect," h© cannot contrive to meet Bull socially*36 What all the "heavy sorrows” were, we do not know# Dwight had taken on many m m responsibilities and had cut himself off from things he loved best# And his father had been refused membership in the Association after repeated ballot Inga#37 With-" the Christmas season, Dwightra spirit® began to rise again# On December 21, the great apostle of Fourierism, Albert Brisbane, arrived for a long and Inspiring visit to Brook Farm# On December 29 a committee was appointed to revise the constitution'along Fourier1st lines# Dwight was not a member of the committee, but he had. a lot to say before 3 n Marianne describes a memorable coffee party held on the evening of January 26, I8J4.5 , at which na holy Inspiration from high heaven was stealing quietly and unseen over the souls of all present**39 John made "beautiful allusions* « • 3^c©oke, p* 0 2 # '3730@ above, p* 6* The spirit, if not the person, of Almira Barlow may still have been present* Her son Edward was admitted to the school as a pupil in September, I3lg3* Among the "assets” listed in the Brook Farm Journal for Hovembor 1, 18I|4, was "stock" held by her worth tJli^ l.lS. Dwight1® stock was listed at #19#36* (MS- in the Massachusetts Historical Society#} 3®Ripieyf Pratt, and Dana had been committed to "ultimate expansion into a perfect Phalanx” since the begin- ning of the year# (Swift, Brook Farm, pp. 279-280*) The building of the Phalanstery was begun in the summer# 39jJetters from Brook Farm., p* 73 • 86. to our circle, and to circles within circles,” and fell into a paroxysm of punning, one of Brook Parmrs favorite amuse­ ments# Brisbane called Dwight "the fringe In the great associative movement, not a common fake, civilised fringe, but one that was centred deep in inward principles John Codman remembered one of the last parties for Brisbane, In April, 1845# at which, after an eloquent and "warm gush of rapture” by the honored guest, Dwight gave "one of those sweet, calm, choice, dignified, exact speeches for which he was noted■ • * *w^ At the farewell party on April 9, Dwight set the tone by saying that they all "felt by'what an ocean of Joy and beauty they were surrounded,” and should be "able to bear the deep tragedy that mumt be going on in the soul, when one is living for a great Ideat*"^ His official position at the beginning of 1845 was still not very high. He was serving under chairman Charles A » Dana on the committee for "Direction of Education*" But Fourier had mad© him enthusiastic and optimistic about Brook Farm again* 2 * After Dwight left his pulpit at Northampton, on© of his friends after another urged him to take up his pmn and write# Henry Tuokerman, James Russell Dowell, Mrs# Child, Craneh, ^ Letters from Brook Farm, pp* 74-75* ^Broek Farm, Historic and Personal Memoirs, p. 154* ^Marianne Dwight, Letters"from Brook Farm, p# 91* Curtisf HIplay, and others prodded him continually to get his name before the reading public by publishing the musical lectures, collecting the Dial essays in & book, making trans­ lations, or writing musical articles for periodicals# But .their efforts were-more than'half wasted* Kven under the most propitious aondStfone, 'Dwight oould seldom m&ktr? himself prepare copy for the press, or meet publisher*' deadlines and space "requirements* In the -uncertain years between his resignation at Northampton and. the beginning of The ffarbinger In June, 18^5* his bibliography is pitifully meagre In spite of many opportunities• In music criticism he did nothing between July of l8)g0 ("concerta of the Fast Winter* for the Dial) and a review In two installments for Lowell's short­ lived Pioneer at the beginning of 18)4.3 ,^ -3 Then followed three articles in ten months for the Democratio Beview, undoubtedly texts of the 1 Bh^ Z lectures,^ and that was all before the first issue of .the Harbinger* These articles are partly pure hack work, including long quotations fro m Gorman sources| but the portions original with Dwight show very clearly the development of his uusic&l thought between the address before the Harvard Musical Association I n • l8Ul and the Fourier Society lecture of l8i|4* The * fringe* began to push it* roots into the *in w a rd p r i n c i p le s ” of ^"Academy of ^u*ie-~Beethoveu'e Symphonies,” I (January, lCti3 ), 26-28* and (February, 5 6-0Q. Handel and his 'Messiah',* The U, 3 * Ma&a&lne and Democratic Review, XII (March, I0I4.3 )",'r^ Sl;^ 'S79-nfn Mozart^"'XIII (SovemBer, TBZ53T7 U65-4731 "Haydn,* XIV (January, iSlulf), 17-25'* 88#: association as, early as 182*2 * Dwight explored the historical and social aspects of music, and began to think of it as a dynamic force in the really progressive, aspects of nineteenth* century life# He writess • • • when we consider that music is the peculiar art of this last century, that more of the highest kind of genius has been employed of late in music than in any art or literature, . • » the fact becomes one of great significance for the future development of humanity#^ The music critic, he says, must first of a l l be consclous of the limitations in his. a r t M u s i c is-beyond' words and thought* Indeed, it frees-one from the re s p o n s3b i l l t? of being ah individual, thinking entity. "One imagines this, another that j and each is right if he does not Impose his Interpretation upon the rest.** The b e s t , criticism w i l l - b e not strictly Interpretation,, but 11 a l l e g o r i c a l I l l u s t r a t i o n . The critic must be a creator, a poet, capable of embodying vague * • . in a fora appreciable to thought and sense. «k? The role of the literary amateur of music in the associatlonist.'moment was to b© a very exacting on©. But an Intelligent reading of Dwight*s admirable critical prin­ ciples cannot be made today without'recognising the startling amateurishness of his musical abilities. .The comparison between Dwight and such critics as 'Robert Schumann or Olin Downes Is almost' negligible* In 10^2 b© had heard a few . ^Pioneer. 1 {January.,' 18^3), 26. ^.Pioneer. I (February, I8I4.3 ), 56# I b i d . , p . 5 7 . 69* concerts at the old Academy of .Music, perhaps a few profes­ sional soloists, and many amateur vocal performances* He studied piano scores of symphonies and operas and wrote about the compositions without ever having heard them.per-*. formed* His confidence In his mind1® orchestra was amazing* "X have divined.,** ho wrote to Mrs* Child, recognized (through a glass darkly), genius in the works of great composers- through the imperfect medium of uninspired performers, or through mj own poor efforts to study myself into their meaning by slow and painful transfer of the printed notes to the keys of my piano***” Be could even find special virtue in a faltering performance* The very difficulty of executing a piece of such breadth and energy and rapidity ^Beethoven*s Symphony Ho* 2] helps out its true expression* Ifusi tas your wrists :and fingers, If you try-_ to play it on the plane, begin to give out, the music itself falters and pants exhausted . . If Dwight had had fingers as "eloquent** a© hi© pupils at Brook Farsi thought they were, his whole career would have *> been different* But a skill'like technical mastery over a musical instrument• was not characteristic of Mew England'. Transcendental ism * /* The article on Handel for the Democratic Review was one of Dwight’s most ambitious efforts up to this tine. He tried to paint in the ’background of musical history and Handel* s life, quoting frequently and at length from bis. reading In Friedrich Rochllts-^ and Dr* Charles Burney* His old er of December 25, I6I4.3 , quoted in Cooke, p. 77* ^Pioneer, I (January, 18)4.3 }, 26. Handel a Messiah." pur Freunde der Tonkunst., (Leipzig: Carl Cnobloch, 162^-1832}, I, £36^280 *. enthusiasm for the t’oas U h Is expressed In a new riotaphoi*, sp&rxllrx and succulent • The oratorio cooMnes all the essential juices of t/.xc Coe do Is, old and new, into one bright cordial, w ■ I eh goes stra igkt and warm to the heart, quickening it Into forget­ fulness of dry dogmatic® and the stunbllnr~bloaks of tradition • * *->•*• The aria " 1 know that my redeemer llveth" reminds him of cairn, crystal I M t from the red west at sunset , ~«* the pure cresce. t of a new moon above, and the friendly stars still trightenlng, whispering faith, £vQ and waking a love which cannot think of death . « The break from the ministry rave Dwight some pleasant moments to offset the many uneoufortabla onus# when h© first wrote about Mozart, Dwight had never heard any of tun symphonies or operas performed; but in the rouantic life of g e composer and In the character!satIon of Don Juan he fx-vmd affinities with h h own experience tb/ai .make hi© critique surprisingly valuable I or the student of Dwight1s l:t fe and thought # After four columns of blo.f--rarb.lcal material on Mozart which aoimd vury much like a translation, Twl ;-bt sceas to abandon his secondary sources ami write from his own feelings. Deal greatness and the talent of succeedInr are separable things * • . * In truth, he had not the inherent faculty of Influence; be was not one of those Mowers whom all heads and 1 lands Involuntarily serve* A p&lo, diminutive young man, « • « sensitive, nervous, and awkward, seeking sympathy, burl with nothing Imposing about him* * * * Perhaps a man in whom sensibility Is the main quality, should not have • • • power♦ Perhaps It Is a wise fatality/ Handel and his 1 Messiah * ,,f p. 268* O - I M u . , p . 2 7 0 . which excludes him from all the vulrar politics of life, and postpones his influonce, that it may not strike, tut pervade end last forever* The world, fcv its very neglect, nays such characters the highest c v~.r>liracntf by seordng to take for merited that f;;oy are the peculiar care of heaven. And so they are. It is mysterious how they live without "yetting along," how they glide through circum­ stances as calmly as too moon through clouds, making the clouds look beautiful .-?•*» (The substitution of Dwight for Assart in such passages is unmistakable•) All things in this world were nothing to him, save as the heart has property in them. His life was one intense longing to he loved* his unisic the expression of It, and in great degree the satis­ faction of it--Heaven* s answer to his prayer. Such fond sensibility always stands on the very brink of the infinite, jthrilled with strange raptures or strange fears• -**’ lie finds a f,vein of sadness” throughout v.osart * $ music, e v m in the comic operas, where the only comedy "consists In the contract of a pathetic melody with a ludicrous thove.n 'DwI rht Is thinking of uoi. Juan now, his favorite opera by far from long before he over heard it to the end of life* tut why does sadness wait so peculiarly on il m e who have the keenest sense of enjoyment, those who have the fairest dreams, the most refined excitements? • • • It is to show that Aspiration lies nearer to the principle of life than Cest&ey itselfj . . . that behind the Finite Is the Infinite* and just when we are bsopiest, we pause on the brink of it. Fozartf s life &r,d music are full of this presentiment • If we enter into the true spirit of Don Juan, we will realize that the hero Is not a vulgar senanalist\ hut noble in mind and person, 53r*;iozart," p• Ui-Ibld., p. bjO. endowed with the finest rifts end the loftiest aspirations, ©a, to el race all, filled with an Intonho Ionfin >r &; n^thy which amounts to top* ment, blindly sc ok I nr r © lief In the excitmnu; t of the passion, still rustless red disappo luted. till love turns to hate, ar.d aspiration to d©f 1* co, and he drinks the cup of pleasure to the d: ,, not from sensuality» ‘ ut from proud denial 01 the law, and, like a. serpent chardr.g a bird, seduces innocent woman to her ruin, in assertion of the devilish sons$ of power# no man ever came quite to thia— but many have come to dread It* B© in.es, as we are, Inclined to excess, wq dread the luss of it. Thirsting for love, we instinctivel; s »p&et a lurking wickedness In the desire to >a loved for our own .sakes, which i f carried out m&y 1 -c* us far frum~tEc virtues which wa should seek to ' e loved in us*^5 For those who have *©oxne to dread* the dappers of such strong emotional states, the opera itself has a cathartic effect, bringing about “a reconciliation between the higher and the lower tendencies In man, between the spirit and the flesh, hotwean the sacrod and the secular.*^ In these years when his life was so unsettled, his moods so variable, and his musical experience so limited, Dwight had no “favorite* composer. His announced preference for "pure,” instrumental music, which should have turned him to bootboven, was as put largely theoretical# he was still drawn instinctively to music with a text, & *literary accora* paiilmont,w as he might have put It. In noting the interesting: -^"Mossart, * pp. !|.?2-k73 • The influence of German Romantic criticism Is strong here. Compare especially the passage in It. • T • A. hof fmands “Don Juan* beginning, HKur der Dichter versfceht den Dichter; 0 vterke, ed• by Georg Rlllnror (Deriin: Toutechos Verlapshaus f-.ong, "n.d .}, I, 79~G0. tj" ‘"vos&rt, ** p. k?l* 9 3. comparison which follows, we must remember that "Handel” raeans fh# iieaglah, and "Yoz&rt” means Bon Juan produced by Dwight.1 a imaginary company and directed by 1Z• Y. A* Hoffman and others• Handel is naturally strong; calmly, always so* Moxart is sometimes strong; but then it is with violence, with convulsion, more like striving after strength* Handel invigorates us to that pitch, that the great, broad, monotonous ocean, the monotonous day-light, the wide unvaried plain, the mere masses and spaces of life, and the great wide waste of monotonous reality which lies around us In our dull moods, become convertible and full of novelty to us* But in the spirit' of Mojs&rt we should feel sea-sick on the ocean; we should feel strange all through the garish day, and 'long for moonlight bowers and the magic coloring of sentiment and fancy **>7 The most exalting musical ©vent of this period was Ole Hull * a first tour of America* His first concert in flew York, on November 25, lBlt3, sent Georg© William Curtis off Into raptures• Curtis .wrote to Dwight that the fore© of Bull’s genius had finally made him see the unity of the arts* ■-.It seemed a bitter thing to me, formerly, that,, painters must only paint and sculptors carve; but I see now the wisdom* In one thing well don© lies the secret of - doing a.li*5» This letter and some of Mrs* Child’s published effusions^ road© Dwight’s anticipation very eager* He could not find the 57 wMo»art,n p* if70• ^^Barly Letters of Curtis to Dwight» p* 128* ^Scc the letter in Cooke, pp. 75-80, referred to above, p* 82* Typical of Mrs. Child’s reactions are statements like these: ”. . • music came from his soul into mine, and carried It upward to worship with the angels.” "Yankee Doodle In a state of clairvoyance•” "The next day I felt like a person who had been. In a trance, seen heaven opened, and then returned to earth again.” (Letters from Yew York, Second Series, pp. 22-23* 94. confidence to publish anything of his own about Bull until some eighteen months later, but he heard him twice in the winter of iBl^-lBi^ and wrote his reactions to Mrs* Child, Excepting only a symphony of Beethoven or a mass of Mozart, nothing ever.filled me with such deep, solemn joy* * , • The. most glorious sensation 1 ever had was to sit in on© of his audiences, and to feel that all were elevated to the same pitch with myself, that the spirit in ©very breast had, risen to the same level. My impulse was to apeak to any on© and to ©very one a® to an intimate friend. The most indifferent per­ son was a- man— a living soul— to si®. The most remote and proud I did not fear nor despise. In that moment they were accessible,— nay, more, worth reaching. This certainly was the highest testimony to bis great art, to'his great soul*®0 By not rushing into print with these sentiments, Dwight saved himself some back-pedaling later on. Indeed, It was probably better for bis ultimate reputation that he did not write very much in periods of depression and uncertainty. The winter of 10lj.l~l81|.2 was a difficult period of orientation and readjustment* Hot over night does one begin to make an essential contribution to Association by creating ^allegorical Illustrations* of music which embody nthe vague” in forma 11 appreciable to thought and sense•” The lone item in Dwight*a bibliography for lSlj.2 shows the trend of his thinking on. the problems of the- poet, hence tlx© problems of the {t literary amateur11 too, In American society. In this isolated, article, & review of Griswold*® Feats and Poetry of America,V4, Dwight says we have had American poetry, but no. °®&ett©r of October,, 18li4, quoted In Cook©, pp. oO-Bl, without exact date, ^ Christian T.-jwrnlner. XXXIII (Septewfc.r, 181*2), 25-33. 95. Ap American poet as yet. Potential poets have been turned to other things In their mature years by Hthe utilitarian, A . mmey-g© 111ng spirit of the ago* '“'•I • • * the poet, If he would pass for anything, must snatch for his portion, and first get to be fashion­ able* Ho one, but the artist himself, can conceive of the Immense moral courage which It costs to bp an artist, a true one, In such a state of society*^- Dwight tries eloquently to convince himself and us that Ripley is right* . . . the truest poetry for us at present is, to carry out in practice the Ideal principles of human brotherhood and Justice, which we have hung out as our national banner* * * • the most Ideal and poetic Impulse of our reople Is engaged In the movements of reform; * * * when our social life comes near to the beauty of our national principles, then.there will be poetry gushing forth from a full heart, that trusts Its own words*^5 3* Significantly enough, Dwight*s Brook Farm nickname did not connect him directly with music. He was known as wthe poet * * One would surely expect to .find that a person bearing such a sobriquet had produced at least a resreetable volume of verse, including one or two anthology pieces* .Knowing Dwight as w# do, however, wo shall be disappointed but not surprised to find that his original poetry is not worth collecting, and that none of It is worth commentary or ^Review of Poets and Poetry in America, p. $0. 63Ibid., p. 3 2 . ^ L o e . elt. ■ • b b ld . . p . 3 3 - reprint ‘nr except for very socialized rur roses • Such & 'purpose prises herof and the ehrono 1 op 1 ca 1 order of this study wI31 he broken at tris point to investigate what versos he did produce* The break is justified because w© have just noted one of his most significant state, units about poetry, and because we are in the midst of the period from which his most interesting poetry cornea* Pw:ght had soma refutation as a potential poet from the days of tire Hasty Pudding Glut and the comaenoermnt of the Class of lr32. The earliest original ooem he published b Aappeared in 1^37* Entitled "Morning Hyran,#,°'* it is a simple religious song in four ballad stanzas* Tithin the next ten years, ?>wight wrote the three poems by which he is represented in Cooke* s anthology, The Poets of A *7 A. P OTranscendental!am 1 --"bestfl w from the D i a l and "fork, While It Is Day"70 and rt?"uslcn ^ from the H&rhlnror.72 cook© also reprinted "Best” in his life of Dwight, describing it as "popular” and as having Msecured the honor of familiar quota- "73 part a of the poem sound very much like a translation t. /, u^The hostern Messenger, IV (September, If3 7 }, 1 7 * ^7 (Boston: Rough ton Mifflin, 1903 •} ^aIMd*, up. 1 17-llc • ^ I (July, I8I4.O), 22. 7uPoets of Transcend©: .tali&n» nr* • llP-119 • 71Ibld*, r. 1 1 9 . 7^1 (June 2r;f lOiiS), Mil V (October 3 0 , loU?}, 3 2 6. 73pages k2-!>3* 97* from the German, and it was so regarded by many people The theme is a transcendental paradox. Best is not-rest• The fourth of seven stanzas reads? Best is not quitting The busy-career: Rest is the fitting Of self to its sphere* And finally: fTis loving and serving The Highest and Best I 1T1 a onward si " unawerv i n g. And that IS 'true rc*t#'-5 “Wora, While It Is Day*1 expounds the same theme In a more straightforward manner* Fly the time he wrote this poem, Dwight had put five harrowing years between him and Goethe* All things work and move; Work, or lose the power to will, hose the power to love* * • • thy law obey, And thy calling fill* ^Cooke, p* I4.2 • In speaking of how the minor transcenden­ talisms often had their work attributed to major figures, Thomas Wentworth Higginson wrote? '"The late John 5* Dwight was perhaps, more boldly robbed and 0complimented than any other of his circle;- since his poem called "Rest” * . * still appears periodically as an occasional resurrection In th© newspapers, but always as a translation from some supposed poem of Goethe.” Cold Cambridge Qjew fork t Macmillan, I899) , P* 03*} *^ -%h© rhythm of many • of Goethef s songs is echoed here* For example, "Grensen der 'Mensehhelt*” Was unterBcheidet Gutter von Menschen? ■Dass viele relien Yor j©n©n wand©In, (Werka, ed* by Karl Heinemann Phelpsig: Blbliographisches Inatltut, rud*3» I* 307*) 98 Load the day with deeds of thought, While it waits .for thee; Then dispatch it, richly fraught, To Eternity* Dwight came to preach the lessora of Bioley and Parker, whether he ever practiced ..them consistently or not* "Music** deserves quotation in full because it in short, and because it is Dwight*s poetical tribute to his favorite . topic. Candor does not permit smcb excitement over the poem, which is rather heavy with overtones of Fourier and Swedenborg. Music's the measure of the planets1 motion, Heart-beat and rhythm of the glorious whole; Fugue-like the streams roll, and the choral ocean Heaves in obedience to Its high control* Thrills through all hearts the uniform vibration, Starting from Cod, and felt from sun to sun; God gives the key-note, hove to all creationt loin, 0 my soul, and let all souls be oneL Since no original composition Is without some slight interest to the biographer, five other poems Dwight wrote for the Harbinger will receive brief attention her®. The stanzas called "Day and Night*1 contain a striking arid unexpected. parallel to Dwight1® comparison of Handel with Mozart* They also confirm the suspicion that Dwight preferred the moon- light of Mozart to the challenging daylight of Handel, and the evening relaxation at Brook Farm to the manual labor In the onion patch. The Sun, which lights our task, shuts out The worlds that compass us about; All day the spirits'* sails are furled, Moored in Its little work-day world; This work-day world Is then the All, For duty knows nor great nor small* But labor done, then cosneth light, Unveils the sky; and in full sight Stars numberless salut© our star, And.1 shoals of world® hompt thought afar* 'Than' trim th© smile, 0 soul--and try The ocean depths of Unity.™ to. tli© stmtaor of '181*5 *. Dwight apparently began an .ambitious philosophical, poem to be called "The Four -Streams from the Fountain#M Only the first ^stream*1 was versified, for".public' cation at least, but its twenty-one explosive, heavily Itall- elsed; stansas contain'. much 'more" than abstract philosophy In verse* The title Is ”Love,w and the theme could not be more obvious #-' ■' (Stanza three) * • * though this flam© must burn till it consumeth ify aortal -part#. -All thoughta shall feed It, for 1tis this Xilumeth With Cod my heart# : (Stanza six) ,■ To love the whole was aye a cold abstraction, '■ *TT ■’SIJS5 above?— . . One hour of thee, of life one real fraction, And all Is love * (mansa eight)' World' wide and warm I Of .vaster worlds 'let Science . Spread out her'map?. Hot there I lay my-head-with blest reliance, , • But on; thy lap ? (Stansa twelve) Come, let us join handst let ©ur two flames In one j&re pure, truth In not love love * a cure Since there is hin^that Is singles y (October 11, ^H&rbln^er, I (September 20, 181*5), 2 3 6# ” ±7 4 4 5 2 6 ICO The reminiscence of John Donne end Andrew Marvel leaves Dwight in an unfortunate position artistically, but no coy mistress ever evoked a more sincere and less stoical expres­ sion from m philosopher* The. late date of publication does not preclude the possibility that Almira. Barlow was' the addressee.7® A companion piece to BLoveT’ is ^Emblem,** In six ballad stanzas, published .four months later. It is calmer and more conventional, written perhaps to accompany an actual floral gift • hoi I bring thee here two roses; White as sinless souls above Is the one, the other blushing To the very core with love. After ©peaking of "a morning spent divinely,1 the poet continues; 01 the thoughts, the dreams, the feelings Of those hours, it were a vain Hop© .to bring away, and tell theei But consult these roses twain.*9 Th© other two poems are strictly "reform verse,1* and suffer the congenital ills of such composition. "The Street Organ" beginsi Through the city, Hear the ditty Of the organ-grinder got Has the tune been played about Till ftis thread-bare and worn out? Say not sol More's th© pity? John Cadman says the Brook Farmers suspected that this poem had a "double meaning.” (Brook Farm, p-*. 136.) ^Harbinger, II (January 33*# lvlf6 ), 1214.-125* 101. In this ditty You a touching wiblea see: Such; the music or.this slow^sj.ck Worn Humanity.0^ "Song of Life" im an exasmle of this pangs at Its worst* it ends thuss The above>oe®s# totaling some Z$0 lines, seem to bo th# sum.of the original vers© published hy Dwight before 18£0• Afterwards only two occasion# Inspired Dwight to write poetry. .0n« was the commemoration service for the Harvard men hilled In the Civil War, July 21, 1865• Dwight contributed, a "Iferatien. 0d©*^ which does not compare i n . any way with Lowellvs famous ode read on the same day. But Dwightfs five simple stanzas were designed to be sung to the tune of "Integer Vitae,* and fulfilled their purpose. Eighteen years, later, on October '21*., 1 8 8 3, the indomitable "Class -of t32,# hold its annual dinner at Young* a hotel in Boston, Charles T* Brooks, who.years before had taken over th© office of Class Foot from Dwight, had died on June lif. To honor his old friend, Dwight- produced fifteen delightfully sentimental - stanzas which 'may be, on the whole, the . best ^Harbinger, VI (November 6, 181^ 7), 3* ^Harbinger, V ( October 3®* 181*?}, 328, Jtwiayn If thou serve the general plan, Harmony, Harmony n% Thy whole life shall be, x If thou love thy fellow man 82First p rInted in Dwight.1 s J®' (August 5 # 1865)'# 78* Heprlnlod m i .Dwight a ournal of Music, XXV ) , BeprStfeZ TS tfSoSe,. p T T W * 1 0 2 . vers© he ever wrote. The stansa third from. last Is typical. Our Spring1a a dream; cut there1 a an Indian summer, Of well-kept fa r th the mellow aftermath,— thereof life1s raw Recruit and gay new-comer ho 1nkling hath•°3 After- all, nicknames are. not scientific- labels#. Oftener they are whimsical accidents, or expressive of an air or atmosphere about a person, a real but intangible, sometimes incongruous quality that flashes forth momentarily and then ’is seen again and again, perhaps because of the suggestion supplied by the nickname itself. The people at Brook Farm, and not a few other people besides, saw in Dwight the essen­ tial characteristics of a poet. He met many of the require­ ments of such authorities as Wordsworth and Shelley. Lack of creative ability cannot be postulated of one who does not create for public consumption. We do not know how many poems died in Dwight’s brain, or on manuscripts lost or destroyed* What Dwight lacked more than anything else was confidence in himself— confidence which night have generated the energy and th© patience and the individual initiative essential to w^Boston Evening Transcript, October JO, IfBj, p. 6 # This poem e lic T T S T a *s p o n E a n e o u s re s p o n s e from E* W. Whipple. ”1 can hardly e x p re s s to you how much I was delighted by your poem on Brooks. . . . But my dear Dwight, why d o n ’ t you writ© more poems? It seems to me that any journal in the country would gladly accept such a-poem as this of y o u r s * ” — From a letter of October JO, IdQj, quoted in Cooke, p* 260. Appleton1s Cyclopedia of American Biography {H@w Yorks D. Apple’1 on, 1B92T'^rec©rtfs THaTwTwTr$rE 1 mSrrrbesitMnovm original poem is ’God Save the State1.” (XI, 279*) This statement, written before Dwight’s death, la retained in the edition of 1698, the year i n which Cooke p u b l is h e d his book on Dwight. Cooke does not mention such a -poem, nor has any other mention of i t appeared i n any of the sources available for this study. 103. creative effort* The factors contributing to this lack of confidence have been the leit-motivs of the preceding* pages— the lack of diet in rui sh ed family background, the mundane failures in love and in the ministry, the cross-currents 'and . contradictions of transcendentalism* These considerations help explain Dwight1® very consider­ able success in the limited field of translation. Select Minor Poems cam© to be something of a classic* In th# years before th© founding of th© Journal of Music, Dwight experi­ mented continually with the verses of many German writers, a}. as the early pages- of the Harbinger ahow*w<+ He also made translations for some ©i the songs published in 1851 in the beautiful Serfin1e Magazine* ^ Successful translations of lyric poetry arc not often made by literal-minded linguists. Dwight the poet was at hoim here* He thrived on the collab­ oration, the companionship, and the reassurance provided by another writer who would take th© first step*®^ Sh (July 12. lG!v5), 7^} I (Soptonbar 6 . IZk’Z), 20ki I (Decexaber 6 , iSh&l, 413? II (Mftroh li?, 10 l?6 ), 2 2 0. Ph/x xi (June, lr5'l), if.0B-ij.09j IX (July, 1851), 72-73? IX (October, 1851), 313-3 1 4 . ff / Dwight translated . quite a volume of Hen-an and French prose, although without such, relish* II© could have had two or throe more volumes in Bipl@yfs Specimens if he had carried out a commission to translate' 'Doetlie and Herder in iSI^ O-lBi^ l. {See th# letters ■ quoted by -dooke, 'pp. 1|3-Ml*) did complete © translation of Books Sixteen-through Twenty of Goethe*s Dichtung urtd. Wahrhelt for Park© Godwin1a edit.ion, Truth and ftoetry'T^^yo^TWriiiy and Putnam, iBl^S-iBk?). CHATTER IV ASSOCIATION AWD THE SABBXffSEK f Ifl^-lSl*? 1 . during th© preliminary' discussions of the new constitu­ tion for Brook Farm, Marianne Dwight wrote to Frank that their older brother had recently spent & sleepless night# Mrs. Blpley was Marianne*® authority for saying that John had been looking more deeply into Fourier than anyone else at the Farm# Th#'- Insomnia was caused by nothing less than-a deduction from Fourier, which Dwight promptly presented to the committee as a simple .and all-embracing plan of government Bo copy of Dwight*s constitution is available, but its tone and outlines can be reconstructed# Th© basic idea was that the officers of the government should not be arbitrarily elected, but should grow Into their positions by an organic process of natural selection#^ How Dwight deduced this fro® Fourier will be seen in a later section.3 Her© it Is impor­ tant simply to not© th© fact that the "poet** thought of himself as a lawgiver, as an inspired leader in a society reformed* ^■Letter of February 15* lGl^ S# Letters from Brook Farm* PP* 70-79# - “ — ----------------- ^ 2Ibid.^ p, 79. ^See below, pp. 123-128, 105. His speech before the committee was so effective that his idea was immediately pronounced "perfect”— and Impracti­ cable • Wt * 'Ryckm&n requested that the plan he written dawn, so that he could mm® how much he was affected by it® real merits, and how much by the force of Dwight1* eloquence. Charles Dana, whose attitude Marianne resented, objected that th© plan was not "scientific,” although Dwight thought it was nothing if not -" s c i e n t i f i c He sent copies to absentee friends of Brook Farm, and their reactions were much th© same.as the committee*©• James Kay wrote from Philadelphia, saying he thought Dwight*s plan, with its "beautiful structure," would have a better chance of success after five years of slow and careful development under the ooxnmltta©*-® more practical cod®. He granted, however, that' if Dwight*® version "were a simple literary exercise, with no practical object, it would win universal applause for its author*"-* Christopher List, an ©x-Brook Parser, expressed much the same opinion. II© thought Dwight1® composition th© most enjoyable thing he had ever read on the subject of.government Inspired by th© impact of Fourier and Brisbane, Dwight apparently Jumped several Intermediate steps necessary for converting Brook Farm. Into a "scientific” phalanx. The opmn Marianne to Frank, February'15, 1845, Letters from Brook Farm, p. 79. ^Letter of March 314., 1845, quoted by Clarence Gohdes, "Three Letters by Jamas Kay Dealing with Brook Farm,” Philo­ logical Quarterly, XVII (October, 193-), 379-360. ~~ ~ ^A.1,.3* of Her eh l!*., I§ii5, in th© Boston Public Library. 106 debate on the constitution actually adopted began on -March 2, and th© sections ware voted on one by one until March 20. Perhaps Dwight carried some of his points in this debate# His beautiful essay on the ideal government nay have served _ as a useful antidote to recommendations of the worldly-wise 1 ike Charles Dana* The temporary failure of his legislative efforts did not depress th® mercurial Dwight, because in dune of iBJb-S another .large-and much sore . congenial responsibility fell to him*: He became one of the chief contributors to Th© Harbinger# the publication of which was by far th© most important activ­ ity- of Brook Farm in its last two-years* The paper was estab­ lished as the successor to Brisbane*m Phalanx? and for four years was' the chief organ of Fourier1st propaganda in the' United States* Dwight contributed not only a large share of the Fourier1st literature*, but also nearly all of th© music criticism which appeared in each issue,-many book reviews, and th© poetry mentioned above. In an early number he pro­ claimed Joyfully th©' end of his banishment from th© things he loved, "books, and art, and the eonvaraat ion of poetic friends*”^ At-last, he had an outlet for whatever he wanted to express. The paper depended upon him as much as upon anyone else for copy, as well as editorial and administrative leadership* Dwight became a key figure at Brook Farm only ^October 5, ' to May 28, l8i$5* ^^ooks from our Friends," Harbinger» I (June 28, l8lj-5), ^1* 107. after, farming arid Industry and community life had almost ended In th# division of the.members of Brook Farm Into th© "groups* and "series" of the Fourier!stlo phalanx* - no appoint­ ment could have been more natural than Dwight1 s* He became Chief of the Festal Series* Throughout the primary' sources on life at Brook Farm are brief suggestions that Dwight reveled in the amenities of everyday*non*intellectual social intercourse* He liked to play cards in the evening**® We ^The extent of Dwight1a contributions to the Barblnger is hard-to . express precisely * ■ By count i nr the a utKors1 SnTt la Is In the indexes* John Humphrey Noyes made Dwight the chief contributor with 32h "articles*" Ripley had 315, Dana 2^ .0* and all other©;many fewer* (History of American Socialisms {jphiladelpblat J • B* Lippincott* T8/0J * pT^SISTT " " W s ’ o’aleu- latlon, however,, makes no distinction between such different items as short poems and .single -Installments of books trans­ lated from the French' appearing in more than twenty consecutive numbers* Nevertheless, Dwight* s relative importance to the periodical seems to be accurately expressed by Soy©®1 figures*'' On .some occasions, Dwight carried almost .the entire burden himself*; For emmple,"in th® number for October 17, ,l£%6 (III, 29O-30if.), Dwight'filled seven of fourteen pages, writing everything but a .long translation a George. Sand novel, some' letter© to the editor, and the back-page■advertisements * Incidentally, Bfoye® suggests "a transcendental - reason for th© failure of Brook Farm," sywbollsed by the yery.effective­ ness of the Harbinger * "The transcendental afflatus, like that' of Fontecoet,bad in it two element®, vis*. Communism* and 1 the gift of tongue®!1 or In other words, th© tendency to religious and social unity, represented by ohsnning and Ripleyf • and the tendency to literature, represented by Emerson and Margaret Fuller* But the proportion of the®®' element® was different from that of Peateeo&t* The tendency to utterance was th# strongest-** Th® Brook FarmTKaSers "wwent 'over from ‘prac'ETeaT ‘C6mmurilsm to literary utterance when they assumed the propagandise! of Fourierism! and utterance ha® bean their vocation ever slnee#" (History of Amor1can'Social!sms * pp* $&1~$6 2 )* 103ce m letter from Marianne to Anna Parsons of January 6," 18!.|5# in Eat ter s. from' Brook Farm, pp* $9 and 6l* 105 « hear of p i c n i c s of walks in the woods, "always beside some fair maiden, in cheerful conversation" of Dwight at a fancy party dressed in ”a sky-blue silk frock coat" fro® the wardrobe of a former minister to Kuss Is 3 in the effulgent spring of 18^5, Dwight gave a. small party to celebrate his own birthday on May 13* it However reluctant h© may have been to hoe eorn whan it needed it, his name became almost synonymous with the joy and enthusiasm of the evening's relaxation, of festive occasions, and of th© Association meetings, particularly after the official formation of the phalanx.^ ^Ses. a letter from Curtis to Dwight, dated September 1, IOI1.3, in Early Letters from Curtis to Dwight» p* 111* ^Codman, brook Farm, p. 95* Dee also p* 159* w • • . the man of music anX "song could not despise the poetry of motion, neither could his social soul neglect th© opportunity of seeing so much enjoyment, and feasting h is ©yes on those developing buds of womanhood, those fair-haired, clear-eyed, Joyous young girls who wore p r e s e n t•" (hoc. c l t #) ^Ora Gannett Sedgwick, f,A Girl of sixteen at 1 rook Far®," Th© Atlantic Monthly, fcxxxv (March, 1900), ljf>3# ^Marianne to Anna Parsons, May li|, lOIff?, in Letters from frook Farm, p* 96 # 3*5jifter on© meeting, Marianne wrote to her brother Frank that "C h a rm in g and John were beautiful and like angels." ( L e t t a r s from B rook Farm., p. IO3 .) Dwight almost failed the company, b u t not quite, at the m a rr ia g e of M a ria n n e to John Qrvis, December 2 k , l8t|o, one of the last happy days at Brook Farm. Codman tells the story# " I t was a homelike affair, and after the cerem ony * the P o e t1 . . . was invited to speak to us; but n o , ho was n o t in th e mood# lie was u rg e d — f o r a l l liked to hear h is kindly v o ic e , and we thought this a particularly pleasant subj e c t — so at last he rose from, his seat and commenced w i th these words: hi like this .making one#* It seemed to touch various c h o rd s In th© minds of th© hearers, for the annl«use and la u g h te r that followed s ile n c e d , th© rest o f th e speech and It was never finished.M (Brook Farm, p* 135*) 109* Such a temperament was cartainly as important in a Chief of th© Feata’l Series as any technical or artistic training. The Festal Series was unquestionably efficient. Indeed, it probably occupied far • too many man-hours for the good health of the phalanx. In the Jargon of Fourierism, -the Festal Series "had attractions proportioned to the destinies of every member of every group in th# Industrial organisation* and a deal of car® and attention were given to Its function* Hat.ur*lly# music made- up moat of the entertainment * and the standards of selection, If not of performance* were high. Dwight’s choral groups, aided by "a dozen or more players of the violin and piano,*^7 made the place "melodious from morning until n i g h t They attacked the masses of Haydn and Mozart*^9 and even Mendelssohn4s St. Paul, to m y nothing of "selections from the operas then known . . . with all th# characters and c h o r u s e s Furthermore* the music lovers often walked into Boston.to hear concerts, and occa­ sionally Dwight could get expert musicIans to visit the farm.22 ^Jothn Van Ber Zee Sears, My Prl. end a at Brook Farm (Hew York; Desmond Fitzgerald, 19X2), 17Ibid.. p. 93. 18Ibid.. p. 81. Brook Fans. p. 73* S e * also Georgian* Bruce Kirby, Years of KxperTenee ‘(Wew York; 0* P. Putnam’s Sons, If8 7 ), p. 103* ^Sears, o£* cjt», p. 82* 21Ibld.. p. 81. 22Swlft, op. c l t . . pp. 62-63* 110 He himself, as chief music critic for the Harbinger, attended nearly every musical program Boston offered* The advent of Fourierism was the beginning of the end for B ro o k Farm, but it brought Dwight th© most prolonged period of optimism and high spirits he had enjoyed for several years* There were dark moments near the end of the year, but things kept, happening to brighten them* The eloquent and unworldly William Henry Chai nlng joined th© Association In September* Dwight was exultant* * Charm i n g is o ura ,f* he sal d, in a voice Marianne thought quite remarkable**^ Whan reckoning time approached with th© end of the year, it was obvious that th© phalanx would show serious financial weakness* To Brisbane, Dwight wrote something about "patient perseverance,"*^* and in Association meeting he refuted bravely th© argument© of those doubting spirits who were saying in. private conversation that Brook Farm could not go on. He Insisted that the move­ ment should not be judged by Its financial statement, but should be sustained by faith until th© finances could be brought into lln©*^ Brisbane was Impatient with faith and perseverance, &n& he tried to stir Dwight to action. * * * your spirit and feeling era right, but you ought to have something better than you have got* 23s©e- a letter to Amu* Parsons, of 'September 2d, 1 Z\\S, in Letters from Brook Farm, p. Ilf* B r is b a n e *s answ er o f December 2, lSl>5* A * L . H• i n the Boston Public L ib r a r y • ^ L e t t e r of M a ria n n e Dwight to Anna Parsons, of December 12, 161*5, in Letters fro m Brook Farm, p* li|,l* Ill There Is no justice in such people as you have among you being placed In the positions they are.2 6 He paid Dwi$bt a high compliment by asking him to come to Tew York to give expert testimony on the associative value of music# X want three or four lectures from you on the genius and science of music, which will give a deeper insight Into the subject than Is now possessed. I should want one lecture on the philosophy of th© gamut arid the character of the ? fundamental notes composing it. « • « My Idea is that you could give th© people a deeper theoretical view of the art and philosophy of Yu&ic than any man In the world . • oPDwight sent a prompt acceptance to this flattering Invitation,*^ In spit© of trials and disappointments that broke th© health and spirit of Channinr, who wrote from rettlaboro on January IT , I8I4.6 : You speak the truth, when'you say, "this disappoint- .fient Is mine as.much as yours. 11 Indeed th© anxieties 4nd mental suffering which I 'underwent with and for you was the cause perhaps, as much as all else, of my breaking down.. I confess the prospect looked all but hopeless to me; and■the shock was too strong • « - Charming could only admire the "true heroic devotedness” and the "human greatness" with which the members bore’up under stress#^ Something was giving Dwight a strength he had never shown before, and it was something more powerful than an invitation from Prlabane. In the most successful pageant .L• S * of December 2 , XBifS, in th© Boston Public Library • ^ L o c . clt. pf ^'Som Brisbane*s acknowledgment In a letter of December 30, loi’i?. A*I,.S. in the Boston Public Library. ^A#L,3. in the Boston Public Librarv* 112 ever staged by the Festal Ser,le«-- an Eli sab 0 than extra vagahsa with Ripley himself as -3hakeap«iee~-th# role of Mary, Queen of Scot#,.' was played - by *the most .beautiful1* young woman then at Brook Fsrm-*-Mary Bullard.30 She was not a regular .member of - the; phalanx, but she made' frequent visits there over 'the protests of' friends and relatives at home*33- , She seems to have been at the Fa m almost continuously from January 1 -to Marsh 1 "of lB4 6 , -perhaps- originally' invited by hwight as & guest singer*, *bhe, offset of her presence; on Pwlyht we shall have to construct for ourselves from what we know of his'-propensities and from '.future events* , In the; memory, of John Codisis^ #- she- was. the mo.it attractive person fwh©'ever appeared at Brook Farm# He recalled her every feature— the blonde • hair I the “mild tranquil countenance*1 with, its “delicately small11 blub eyes,, a .Grecian nos®, and ::a long upper lip shewing 11 strength of character111 the short, “fairly full figure, and not above the average gracem*3% When she sang, she awakened -Co'dman to- “new- ideas of duty and destiny.* She was the first, from, whom he “learned that music was net a put-on art, an accomplista&ent, but the outpouring of soul •'*'3? 3%®ars, Friends at Brook Fara, p* 101* ^Xcodman, Brook Farm, p# l6S-* 3^Ibld* » pp*- 1 6 3-I6I4.* 33ibld*, p. 168* 113. During this time Dwight wrot© a letter to James Kay that almost knocked the Philadelphia business man off his feet* Kay replied with several pages of good sound managerial advice for Brook Far-'", inspired by a new faith in 11 th© poet♦” Th© most- striking feature of your letter, is th© force with which it is written* I was breathless as I read it* I® this not a singular quality to be predominant In your production? I hop© that it remains with you* It is the element of character which I most earnestly wished to see developed In you* and is the guarantee- of illimitable, incom­ putable good for yourself and Association if It be kept active* Kay says he cannot accept an Invitation to visit Brook Farm, for the simple reason that he would lose #1000 a month if he did. He closes by repeating wwords which thus far have been wasted* Oct married * * * as many • • * as are ready. Mar­ riage and parentage are to be the hydraulic cement of Association. «3k Dwight might have carried out many of Kay’s suggestions very soon If more pressing matters had not been at hand# On the evening of March 3, ISI4.6, th© half -finished Phalanstery burned to the ground, ©onsvaaing t7®Q0 of the community* s vary scarce capital. Th® blow did not hurt at first. It was parried bravely as an.acid test of Brook Farm * a s t r e n g t h . *^5 Dwight was scheduled to begin his lectures In Mew York on Aa.L • S. of March 2, I8I4.6 , in the J.’osston Public Library. 35?Marianne wrote a detailed, description of this fire to Anna Parsons on March I8lj.6 , describing Its glorious beauty, and rationalising It into a blessing In disguise* (betters from Brook Farm, pp* ll.;5>-lU9 •) 111}.. the eleventh,3® and he loft Brook Far» a few days after the fir© in good spiritse Th© two or th r e e weeks D w ight spent in Mew York were the happiest, fullest, proudest period in hi© life up t o that t im e , in the face of the ironic fact that th e movement he was representing -so well to the world at large' was just entering its last c o n v u ls io n s * He talked a s s o c ia t io n every­ where, and he. was cordially received by many people* He even "e x te m p o ris e d a s s o c ia t io n " at th© end of hi© f i r s t lecture*37 On© after another, th e Wew York stockholders in th® Brook Farm Phalanx surrendered t h e i r claims under the fore© of Dwight*© persuasion, and s u c h 'a concrete, u n p o e t io a l accom­ p lis h m e n t made h im very proud* "You may consider th© whole of th© stock held In Ifew York a® cancelled,H3® h© wrote to B Ip le y * W ith h ie host and hostess, B ev* Henry w* F e llo w s and his wife, he talked "hours and hours" until even they were partly convinced*39 Th® change from th® s im p le life of Brook Farm was wonderful* .Of gastrosophic a d v e n tu re s I have too much to tell? that s h a l l be for Brook Farm evening chats* Parties, ■music, d in in g s -o u t a n d ' In , and hosts of visitors, p©e the announcement in th© Mew Y o rk Daily T r ib u n e , March • 10, -' 1&46-,•p • [2j* 3?s©® a long letter to Oeorge Ripley of Parch [?], 1846. A*L*S# in the Boston Public Library* R e p r in te d • in Cook©,. PP. HI-114* 3 ^Lo c. ©it♦ (C o o ke , p. 113*5 39bo©* clt• (Cooke, pp* 113**ll4#) 115 besides the tremendously long walks, and hitherto u n fo r tu n a te a tte m p ts to write, on mj last lectures, crowd my days to the fullest.4$ To have scorned the luxuries offered - him by the Hew York friends of Association' w o u ld ; In d e e d have been tactless, but Dwight’s expression of the great pleasure ho found In them might have been even more tactless in a letter to Brook Farm, if ha had not been vary sure of his high position there. He was now- one of the Farm1s most effective propagandists, and at the same time he was sorely missed at home. Sophia Ripley wrote of trying to get used to the thought of a slightly prolonged absence on your part. 1 wish you could have seen the group in th© reading-room last evening after supper, the tall ones stooping over and the short one© standing on tiptoe to read the notice of you in the Tribune Georg© Ripley' wrote on March 19, urging Dwight to return as soon a® he could without sacrificing important business.^ The lectures th©m s ©Ives, Dwight wrote, in on© sense were.very successful; that la, they produced a deep impreael.cn, and were even received with enthusiasm. But, pecuniarily, the result will not h© what I expected. 1' shall hardly realize'' over one hundred dollars instead of two. This is owing to the great ex p e n s e of hall and advertising. Th© audience doubled on the. second night, and shrank a l i t t l e - after that.W * „ • it will be a ^Dwight to Kipley, March [?], I8£t6 . (Cooke, p . llif.) k^'A.l.S. of March Ik > l$l*.6 , in th© Boston Public Library. .L •3 • in t he Boston Fub11c IIbrary. k3 "At the first lecture there were about- one hundred and twenty persons present, some of th© subscribers failing on account of short notice and other accidental reasons ."— Letter to Ripley, March * 1^U6# (Cooke, p. 111.) 1 1 6 . fine opening, I think, for another time. Horae© Greeley*a Daily Tribune, editorially committed to the doctrines of Association, reviewed th© lectures enthusias­ tically* The notice of the first lecture, read so eagerly in the reading room at Brook Farm, said in part? It Is impossible fop us to give anything like a report of the Lecturej and to express simply in general terms the admiration it excited in us would expose us to the charge of affected exaggeration* * * • •The beautiful thoughts with whleh It peopled our braIn--the fervid enthusiasm it awakened in our heart— the sublime prospects of immortal truth it opened to the mental viaIon--are among the things never to h© for go t ten. h-5 Th© second lecture, on March l6 , made a great Impression *’in spit© of” th® subject before "many of the most distinguished ladlea and gentlemen of our intellectual c i r c l e s A f t e r the last lecture & ten-inch article proclaimed the series Man era In th© musical history of Hew York,” in which "the perfect skeleton of Theory was vested with the fairest flesh of eloquence *”^7 The general plan of the lectures was this: 1* The general character of music, ©specially -as an expression of the religious sentiment* 2* The Scientific Era, with Bach as an example* 3• Th© Expressive Era,--Beethoven and Mozart* ^S.uoted In Cook©, p* llii, "to one of his sisters," without date* ^March 12, l8l|6f p. [s']* ^Kareh 1 7, 131*6, p. [2]- k'fyarch 25, 161*6, p. L f] • This article, signed "C," may have been by George Till lam Curtis* 117 ]|.# The Age of. ifff0ct,— Faganni and th© Modern Plano Composers .‘♦•k When he returned to r rook Farm near the ond of th© month, Dwight found doubt, distrust, disintegration.^ Elo­ quently he pleaded with the members, reminding them of th© high objectives of Association, and of the enthusiasm and harmony ©van after th© great fir©. He spoke ox" How York as a noisy, dirty, discordant place from which he longed to ©scape to the beautiful Ilf© at the f a r m * 5 0 jn order to help fill th© empty treasury, he offered to go away, anywhere, wherever he could earn the most money as a lecturer.51 gut It was too late. Ripley and Dana had lost faith In associative Industry except as a far-distant Ideal. Soon they had Dwight along with them, except that he hated to think of leaving Brook Farm. Only a group of the younger members wanted to continue tinder th© constitution of March, 1845*^ Dwight pro­ posed & compromise Involving separation of th© school and the Harbinger from th© farm management, and elimination of the industrial plans.53 Somehow the experiment struggled on for another year, with numbers and activities much reduced# ^ %© w York .Daily Tribune, March 25, l8i|6 , p. [ll. ^Oodmar, Brook Farm, p. 22li. ^Loc. clt. ‘^ Ibid., p. 2 2 5 # " Sc© an undated latter from Marianne Dwight to Frank, [July, IDI46J , in hatters from Brook Farm, p. 1?1. 53s ee a letter from James Kay to Marianne, September 2?, I8I46, in Rohdes, MThroe hatters,” pp. 3 86-3 8 8. 11 o* bwl pht wrote to J'frs * Child in r’e^te^ber; I-rook F a n must either stop or charge its form and operations most entirely* And I am Ir the midst of t.r J.s ,--everythlug to settle, nothing A * is not altogether loose and unsettled, and me&nw *le the Harbinger to edit, and ever so much of other work to which I had pledged myself# » ♦ • I think we si.all go on, but on a mich reduced scale, and everyone who stays responsible for supporting. ids awn bus Iness and his own material person.^ As brook P a m lapsed intis a group of individuals each resporis.11.ile for making his own way In the world, the associ­ ative Ideal entered what may bo called the "uni on* stage* When oractleal experiment failed, tie enthusiasts turned to c lub - fa x*r;L I n g, and s way of life shrank to a once-a-veek ritual* DwIght was very active in thin pathetic and short­ lived movement# He was one of the original directors of The American Union of AssoelatioriLsts, formed In uew York on hay 2 7 , lb!j.6, with Horace. Greeley as p r e s i d e n t At a Kew York meeting on June IB, he spoke as an authority on Fourier*56 In boston, the leader was P'ilXIan henry Cbanning, for whom brook Farm had never been quite spiritual enourl, anyway*6 ? He wrote to T>wight in Kovomber, speaking In 'humble, religious t erms : * * . we none of us have a theology, a science of the divine, that deserves the name* Vo are watchers 5>l-k buotod in 0 poke, p# 120, wlthout exact date# the first of v.a.ny back-page notices In the HarFimer, 111 (June 13, lol.fi>}, 1L. " ' ~~ il£jai2S2£» 111 U u n e 2J, l?h.6). I?. -^Octavius Crooks Froth Ingha::,, Xeziolr of V? 11 liar, Henry ChannIng (boston* Houghton, Y1 f f lin/~Xu BFJ", p,'w7TSl 119 In the dawn, and tl.ourli the gleams „,#r© In higher clouds, we do not yet see the In the same month., Dwight was still hopeful enough to call nofor the preservation of brook Farm in the Harbinger,-**7 but by Christmas he admitted its failure while maintaining that the unions.showed the increasing strength of Association*^ .Ohanrlrig1 s Beligious .felon of Association!sts Cvaguely' distinct from the "Boston” Union and the "Women*s" felon) was founded on Bunday, January 3# l&tf-?• Dwight played the opening music on the piano, helped sing the "Sanctus" from hosartfs Twelfth Mass with Mary Bullard and others, and .mad© the speech, nomi­ ne ting Channlug for minister*^ About the same time he gave the seventh lecture In a. series sponsored by Association at the Masonic Temple r-j virtue of his membership on the -^Letter of November 0, lOlj.6 , quoted in Froth Ingham, Memoir of. Charming, p. 21J* & * n a m Stands th« Ca«a#?n III (Kovewber ?, 1SL.6), 3UH-350. ^"Convention of Ass-xslatiosalstB in Christmas Beek," H a r b i n g e r » XV (December 26, I-,.., if6), 4 3-Mi * John Allen and John Drvis made a frantic and Herculean effort to s&v© Association by lecturing end soiling subscriptions to the Harbinger* Between them they gave forty lectures in Ver­ mont alone fn fiie last five weeks of I8.I4.6 * (Dwight, "The 'Con­ vention in Boston," Harbinger, IV [January 9* 16473, 78,) On December 9, Orvl»; wrof¥":to I)wIght from UIddlebury, Vermont* The youthful impatience and disgust expressed In the lotter are refreshingly human* "Thera is■nothing so detestable as the two- penny piety and six-penny aristocracy of an InsSgnIfleant country village— ©specially if. It has made a successful failure to sus­ tain a college— "' (A.L.S* in th© Boston Public Library*) 6 lrrotbIngham. op* clt•» pp. 2 2 0-2 2 1* ^Announcement In the MarMn^er, IV {January 9» l-Hky), 79* Dwight * s subject was " I ntecriT’1' due at i on » m re or in ted in Harbinger. V (July I?, IPk?), 89-92, ?July 24, IOU7 }.. 108-110, (August 7, 161x7); lk0-ll|k* 120 Kxecutiv© Committee of th e A m e rica n U n io n , he was successful in his efforts to keep Brook Farni on th e .masthead of th e H a rb in g e r until June, when its p u b l ic a t io n was transferred to the Union itself. The editorial offices ware moved to flew York about Ito ve a b e r 1, and Dwight bo came a Boston editor* 63 In one of the last issues for which he was largely responsible, Dwight re p o r te d a public meeting o f th e friends of a s s o c ia t io n and said a brave farewell to the man who® he had followed faithfully for six long years* Hi© breaking up of the l i f e at Brook Farm was f r e ­ quently a l lu d e d to, ©specially by H r . Bipley, who,, on the ©v® o f entering & new sphere of labor for th e same great c a u s e , appeared in all his indomitable strength and cheerfulness, triumphant amid outward failure* The owls and bats and other bird.® of 111 omen, * * . which are busily croaking and screeching of the downfall of Association, had th e y been present a t t h i s masting, could their weak ©yes have born© so much l i g h t , would never again have coupled failure w i th the thought of such men, nor enter­ tained a feeling other than of envy of e x p e r ie n c e like their a* *>4 Hon© of the leaders of Prook Farm ever felt like writing . a detailed account of his experiences there, in spite of many' requests*^5 Hard struggles with the ftr©al world” occupied 63se© Harbinger. IV < ray 29, iSk?), 391. in Boston," Harbinger, V {October 2 3, I8I4.7 ), 317* Ripley* s bio graph© r r eYurnsT "tk e compliment thus j ”One of the last to go, on© of the saddest of heart, on© of the most self-©aorIficing through it'all, was John S* 'Dwight* It may be truly said that Brook Farm died in music.” (0# B. FrothIngham, Georg© Hioley, American Men of Letters {Boston* H o u s to n , p . 192. ) '’See for example a letter to Dwight from ’SillIans Dean Howells, dated November 19* 1873* wBy the way, would you feel like writing out your reminiscences of Brook Farm for the Atlantic?* (a*L*3* In the Boston Public Library.) 121* completely the energies of Ripley, Barm, and Dwight In the productive years left* when the history of transcendentalism, began to be studied in the * eighties, the writing was done by a younger generation. On© of the best of this group was Octavius B* FrothIngram, who was the principal speaker at m social .meeting held in Boston during the first week of March, 1882, for the purpose, of discussing "Brook Farm: What It was and, what it. aimed to be*"^ After some coaxing, the aixty-nin©- year-old Dwight was prevailed upon to supplement Frothingham1s remarka* He spoke at some•length once he got started, and the audience laughed when ho pictured Charles Dana and Ocorge Curtis washing dishes after tea .on the evening of his arrival. "It was very enchanting; quite a lark as we say. «6? Besides remind so lug, Dwri^it • tried to correct some common r»isconceptIonm about Brook, _Farm• Oo^rnmi&ra It was not, because property was resrectcd. * .* . Only justice was . sou^t for In the- matter of labor and in the ■ distribution of ■ any surplus, -if these*©-were any, which seldom occurred. . . • The-great point aimed at was to realise prac­ tical ©quality and'mutual culture, and a common*- .sense education for the children in a larger sens© 'than prevails in ordinary society* # . . X do not think Brook Farm was wholly a dream* This aspect has been too strongly represented* X think it wmm very■practical, for we had very prac­ tical and common-sense men and women among us. It was a great good to me. Every on© who was there will say it was to him, though It is extremely hard to tell of It. . . . I felt and still think that it .D^Jieported by Bello C. Barrow© for The Christian IXI {mi*eh 9 , 1082}, £1*1 . ^’hioma.rkB of John S. Dwight," hoe* pit * 122* was a wholesome life, that It was a good practical education* I h a w no doubt 1 should not have been living at this day If it had not been'for the life there, for what I did on the farm and among the tree®, In handling the hay and even in swinging the scythe. Those who have survived, and been active in their experiences, have certainly shown themselves persons of power and faculty, with as much common sense, on the average, as ordinary men* Many troubles, mostly financial, led Ripley and Dana to an adoption of very rudimentary Fourierism* This, Dwight admitted, was "mere pretense,” an "idle dream,*" The Idea of most of us was that, beginning with what we felt to b© a true system, with true relations to one another, it would probably grow into something larger, and that by bringing in others we should finally succeed in reforming and elevating society and put it' on a basis of universal co-operation. This belated and extemporaneous account of the Brook Farm days is interesting not only for what it says directly, but because it shows how Dwight1s memory could shift the emphasis of his Lehrjahre from the Fourlerist days, when he was most active and important but which most Brook Farmers tried to forget, to the idyllic earlier days of the farm, when he was lonely, discouraged, and almost ready to run away* From a distance, Fourierism looked extremely ridiculous to .Dwight, and he apparently forgot that he had ©pent two or throe years as one of its chief propagandists• Since this part of the Brook Farm story is usually passed over hastily, it Is appro­ priate to open the discussion of Dwight* a voluminous bibliography in this period by examining hi© Fourlerist writing in some detail* The Christian Register. LXI (Kerch 9, 1C82), [lj. In Cooke1 s %uotiiiYon' 'of these remark© (pp. 56-—ol) , the paragraphs are re—arranged and all reference to "dream," "pretense," and Fourier are omitted. 123 2. Heviewing Dwight * s strictly Fourier1st articles Is more confusing than exciting* First of all, it is hard to separate his slender margin of original thought from the large body of ideas he derived from Fourier and his principal follower®, especially Victor Gonsldcrant and Albert Brisbane* Further, Dwight?s work In this line would be at most points indistln- qulshable from the work of his collaborators — H irley, Dana, Brisbane, and Charming--If it were not for the Invaluable indexes to the Harbinger*&9 The fact Is that Dwight and the other Brook Farmers were, caught up in something very like a fad, a game, a "pretense * * It Involved learning a special language and relating all of one’s thoughts and activities to a sort of mystic, cosmic formula— "Attraction® proportional to destinies*" Indeed, Ripley and Dana were not playing a game* They wore expounding a way of life, and trying to get Brook Farm on It® feet financially* Dwight could drop the pretense too in hi® aesthetic Judgments of books and music* But the verbiage and mental gymnastics so often found In Fourier1st writing make annoying reading for the unbeliever. A Q 'Lindsay Owlft ventures this distinction; "The heaviest articles, cam© from Ripley, Dana, -and. Brisbane'} and now and then Pwlght would write something on Association or an allied topic, which seemed little more 'luminous than the downright­ ness of Ripley, or the fierce, polemic tone of Dana, * * (Brook Farm, p* 266*) A defensible Impressionist analysis, perKaps,mnr¥ut it suggests a degree of irresponsibility with which Dwight cannot be charged* 12k. Dwight1s most interesting and important contribution® to the Harbinger» the musical and literary reviews, will be discussed later* Hot more than thirty of bis original articles, numbering over two hundred, can be classed as primarily Fourier1st propaganda* The burden of exposition and, applies* tion was assumed by Ripley and Dana* Dwight introduced the writings of Fourier and ConsId®rant, and translated them in considerable bulk* Hi® original work consisted largely of answering current objection® to Fourierism, explaining some points left doubtful by Fourier, and reporting meeting® and ■other current events connected with the cause* In preparing the readers of the Harbinger for hi® trans­ lation®, Dwight declared that Fourier was to be classed with philosophers like Plato and Swedenborg, not with a scientist like K'owton, nor with a poet like Shakespeare*70 Fourier’s ,’aciencef* Is Implied, Inspirational, .rather than demonstrative* • • • there Is something In the grandeur and catho­ licity of his statement®, which reveals so complete, harmonious, and all-encompassing a view, that demon­ stration must be there in one sense, latently, had we only the clearness, patience and severity of mind to trace the thread of inference®*** Dwight seems to be trying, out of sheer necessity, to develop some "patience and severity of mind” as he writes those articles* The organising genius of Fourier is' needed to keep the wealth of great poetry "from being thrown away," ^"Fourier’s Writing®,n Harbinger. I (November 1* 18U5)* 333-335 * 71Ibid.. p. 3 3 3 . 12$* for, rich as the poet finds our life, we are growing more and more weary of It, and feel that its very wealth will sink us, unless the divine order shall descend upon the earth, and no longer suffer all these worlds of consciousness to go unsphered* The easy shift from **the poet1n to wwett shows how hard it was for “the poet*1 to keep himself out of the picture* Never­ theless, Dwight’s translation of Fourier’s Cosmogony began to appear aerially in the first number of the second volume of the Harbinger*73 When this was completed, 7k the ttpoetw submerged himself again in a complete translation of The Hew Industrial World * which ran for almost a year*?5 hater he translated Victor Conslderant* a Harmony,?^ * and many selections from Democratie Faoifique and 'La Phalange* Dwight*a own oomentaries on Fourierism are repetitious and fragmentary♦ It 1® Impossible to show any logical or chronological “development” of his views* The following summary is built around quotations which, regardless of their chronology, represent fairly his approach to the sub­ ject* If the result is a lopsided and sketchy exposition ^ “Fourier’s Writings,” p* 335'* ?3i)0eemb@r 1 3, l$lf£, pp# 7^X1 ( January 3, lf!,6), pp. $2-5$. 7$II (January 31, 181*6), 113-116, to III (.\'ov«sber 25, iea.6 ), 390-3 9 2. 76.-inper, III (November 21, l£%6 ), 3C0* I27n&rbinger» 1 (November 2 2 , 181*5), 377. whole, and Is much more Idealistic than some reformers think. On the first p&g© of the first number of the BarbInger began the opening Installment of Georg© Sand1s £onsuelo# in a translation by Francis Shaw* In the same number Dwight reviewed this book at some length* declaring that the Ilf© of an author should not. prejudice us- against a work of genius. The book shows a 11 rare union of Wisdom and Love,fl he says* and the heroine is "a female incarnation of the Godlike.”1^^ The real mission of the author is to proclaim th© divinity of music, "the art of this age."*^^ Flghteen month® later Dwight defended Sand again in a review of Jaques# by showing that the book exposes social Injustices and proves that the author Is not immoral, In • spite of:what other .critics may say*3-30 •Kugone Sue'• Impressed Dwight even more. Although it Is over-plotted and weak In characterisation* The Wandering Jew is the most remarkable novel of the day , *^ 31 *& noble expo­ sition . . . of the destructive tendencies of Civilised Competition*" It helps to prove "that all the materials of romance and poetry are obsolete* except those furnished by the great Hope of the Age*"^^ Harbinger# I (June 14* 1845), 11. 1 2 9Ibid.* p. 1 2* ^ ^Barbtoger* IV (January 30* 184?)* 121-122. ^ ^Harbinger* I (November 15* 1845) > 364*366. ^ %arblnger, I (November 22, 1-845) * 383* In return for many encouraging words, Dwight complimented Lydia Maria Child by describing her as a "sportive prophetess, truly full of the bright future,M and by devoting two long col isms to her feelings for the analogies and ©orre s © onden c e s of Fourier arid S w e d e n b o r g * ^ 33 The child lost in the woods saluted his playmate with the gentlest of reservations about ©ver-enthualMia, a fanaticism later outlived, and a lack. of any constructive social theory*^5 By investigating "Hew Symptoms in-.Fashionable Literature', Dwight -found that even supposedly conservative writers could be swept up by reform* Simple charity and human kindness, as they appear In such works as 1>* Israeli * a Sybil? or, Th© Two Hatlon®* could lead young Rngllsh aristocrats to see the "social l i e , " 136 Dwight recognised Carlyle1s detestation of sham as one of the great philosophleal for©#® of the day, b u t disliked "Might makes B ig h t ," and the way Carlyl© mad© *one or two virtues stand for all*"^? Kv#n Dickens* Pictures from Italy presented Dwight with -many facts to speculate on, 13 3|’|0Vt#w of Letters from lew York* Second Seri©®'* Harbinger* I { --- ------------ 13^ i b i a .. p. i*2. U>Revlew of Fact and Fiction, Harbinrer, JV (January 2, 1-2*7), 57. ^^^Harbingcr, I (August 2, lGlj.5), 126-128. U7j|evjew of Oliver Cromwell * a Letters and Speeches . . . iiart inner. II (Januaryl,"TSnETgJE-W----------- ------- for ha vs we not the beautiful solution of them in the faith which points us to the Harmonic consum­ mation into which all these things are steadily tending to resolve themselves, whether by mould­ ering decay or by ascending growth?*3h Of any book which he, found, good reading, Dwight1s criti­ cism was charitable and undogmatic* He could not help liking William Beckford, for example, *although his book and life were apparently without moral .aim•***•39 pii© respectful review of Margaret Puller*a Papers on literature and Art covered seven oolumns,^® although Dwight was not over-Impressed with the book and objected to the lack of rhythm in the proa© and the "preponderance of intellect over feeling*"*^ The literature of feeling,regardless of it® form, was poetry for Dwight, and he thought that if society’s mould were right, all life and Its literature would be poetry# For him, even such a work as Carlyle’s French Revolution "success­ fully established the fact, that it takes- a poat either to record, things or to see things truly • « *f,l4^ in 18)4.2 , Dwight had spoken of poetic inspiration in terms of American- "nat5 anal principles#" When he reviewed the poems of Emerson, Ellery Charming, and w# W. Story at the beginning of 1847, he spoke of poetry as "the aspiration of the soul, as of any ^Harbinger, III (June 20, 181^ .6), 28, U W o v l e w of Italy, Spain, and Portugal . . . . Harbinger, III (September 12,"TBlgf~2f?T--------- ----------------- •^Harbinger, III (September 26, 1C!|6), 21*9-252. ^ I b i d ,, p. 2^0. ^Harbinger. IV (December 12, 161*6), 11. of Its pure' passions, for Its true harmonic Ilf©•" True poetry should com© out all redolent of passion and deep earnestness, and thus rhythmical and fluid, for feeling sings and never proses| It should attest an ordering wisdom in the adaptation of its parts, and the symmetry and unity of the wholej and it should wear that shining, hard enamel, from which the very tooth of Time must slip**^3 Such criteria had already led to' a very sympathetic discussion of Robert Burns, who dared to sing the passions against conventionality and social injustice but the same criteria also produced six columns of rather ridiculous- sounding encomium on Philip James Bailey*s Fostua, which Dwight ranked with, the works of Swedenborg, Fourier, end Beethoven as on© of the great prophesies of the age* How the usually perceptive Dwight could have described this ephemeral work as "Interesting and • * • refreshing as foethe*a best daguerreotypes of outward I® on© of the ritual­ istic secrets of high-level As soclat ionisia• Much easier to explain, and somewhat easier to defend, is his favorable notice of the Poems of Christopher Pears© Craneb.*^^ Craneh, T I, ehe says, has a deep feeling for the "Unity of Mature, and rnmmmmwMm Kvwmmmmmtov. inmrnmnvim w .m m i m -m ***— i mptw w Harbinger, IV (January 16, I8I4.?), 92* ^^Review of The G-eniue and Character of Burn a» by Wilson ("Christopher Kort&^T Harbinger, 'TSepTember"r'2l)',” 16l|5), 235* inger, II (December 20, I6lg5), 2.9-27, ^Ibid., p* 2 6 , 3-^Harbinger, I (July 19, l8lt5), 105-10?* ^®Ibid.# p. 1 0 5 . 1U6. has come up with "some of the moat perfect little gmns of poetry which have yet been .mined in America A modern literary historian has singled out D w ig h t ’ s review of Poets The Haven and other foeias^ as nfairly representative" of the literary c r i t i c i s m in the Harbinger* V Q Actually, the review seems to have derived a rather special benefit from mixed feelings on D w ig h t ’ s p a r t . lie 13ked to praise what the conventional world condemned, and ha recognized Poe’s technical proficiency* But ha found t h a t Poe did .not "write for Kurn&nity*" fie was repelled by Poe’s lack of h u m i l i t y and M s "m o rb id e g o t is m * " For hi.# aesthetic judgment of the poems, D w ig h t used a distinction found often in his music criticism* Poe’s poetry is more "effect" than "oxpree- sion.w^ Poo himself recognised the validity of t h i s criti­ cism, and reprinted it In The Broadway Journal along with his sever© reservations**£3 He called the Harbinger "the most ^Harbinger, I (July 19, IBI4.5 ), 10?. ^ ^ Hwrfainger* X {December 6, 1 % 5 ) * ■^Frank Luther Mott, A History of American" Magazines (Cambridge* Harvard University ’> w t , ^ 9 3 V ) , "f'IfiT*- ^^Harblnger, 1 {December 6, 10I45) * Sill. Complete Works of Edgar' Allan foe, ©d* by J * A* Ilar r isonnrf©¥ToWTtTTT*Crow¥Tl7^lW?r7 Till, 2?~32. Albert ►‘r ia b a n e * a r e a c t io n to this review shows in what narrow channels his mind worked. He wrote to Dwight on December 15# lSU5» "Y ou were wrong'for c r i t i c i s i n g Poe: never criticise i n d i v id u a l s : Xt is fully as re s p e c ta b le to get d ru n k as it is to cheat our fellow men, and the highest in our land are doing nothing e ls e * " (A »X*»$* in the B o s to n P u b lic Library.) On© wonders if B ris b a n e had actually read either Poe*® poems or Dw1rht1s review. refutable organ of the Crazyites,"^^ but after many wise- creeks expressed the modest hop® that ”Th« Snook Farm Pha­ lanx” would cease forming any opinion of him at a l l **55 Dwight paid Longfellow the compliment of rowlowing Evangeline in strictly n«m-& a a oe iat i 7 In his longest literary review, Dwight discussed Individ­ ual volumes of Poems b y Fmerson, "Ellery Charming, and. w* W. Story#^^ From this, his positive, exacting poetic principles and- the statements about the heresy of individual salvation In.Emerson have already been quoted# In the poems themselves' Dwight found much that he liked# Emerson is ”a consummate artist in expression,” and his verse i s ‘characterised by an "almost unnatural absence of all common-place#”^ ^ But'his beauty is a ”cold beauty,” and his poems "counsel loneliness,**l6o Cbanning shows a "true poet's fire,” a "spiritual manliness,” 1^ V o 6 . W o r k s . till, 2 7 . l g h b l d . , p. 3 2 . ^^Harblnger. VI (November 13, 1&1+7), I.1. • / . ^ t o o . cit. „r, ^ ,l5®H££i4SESE* IV (January 16, lClj.7), 91-9lw and (January 23, 10/4.7) lob-r x^9ib.id.. p. 93. 160* ,.boo • cit« In spite of difficulties wlt,h rhythm- and "distribution of w o r d s Story reminded Dwight of Schiller, with his human* ity and a s p i r a t i o n * ^ ® These critics ism® of American poetry are good enough to make us. regret that. Dwight could not find a position as com* fort&ble as Longfellow*», at least for long enough to set dawn a more complete oeramentery' o n . American w r i t i n g , . unhampered by weekly deadlines and co-edItorship* He developed a good ear and a wide range' of sympathies. If hi® aesthetic estimates -of his' tr ansoenden t a X 1 * t ■ friends . were a little - too charitable,' ■ha did not call .Poe either a genius or a "jingle man*” He did not often' censor . an author for falling to’ -achieve what, the author had■not tried to.do, sad ho was percepti v© enough to make' us curious ah oat .his/ opinions ":of works lie did not discuss#* la .addition to. the panegyric - on. B&l ley's Peatua, Dwight wrote scattered reviews of other Ftigllsh authors* He enjoyed Thomas Hood1® ' Poems -iagwsgisely, comparing the -serious verses with the best, of Tennyson and Keats *^3 In discussing Hood1® "mlmetr-lfying* wit, Dwight let fall a delightful bit of Irreverence, toward a proud Institution*' . . . his jokes are not ground out by the painful necessities ;of an occasion, .like 'the stale supplies l6lHarblnfter. IV (January 23, 161*.?), 106. l62l o c . cit. U*9. of annual mirth expected at our Phi Beta Kappa festivals • • .1^4 Bndymlon, A Talo of Greece, by Henry B. Hirst, gave Dwight a chance to write mostly about Keats* poem in very appreciative terms« He compared the two thus; "Hirst shows Endymlon dreaming, and Keats dreams his dream* "*^5 When Tennyson's Princes® cam® up for hi® approval, Dwight had a chance to gloat a little . ^ 6 ge chided those who had accused him of "literary bere^* and "transcendental enthu­ siasm* ten years before* With his re~affIrmatIon of faith In Tennyson's genius, and the Association1st rider attached, this section may appropriately end* • • * Tennyson's geniusthough peculiarly liable to * * * the danger of one-sided idealism, and of dreamy self-indulgence,-has proved itself a vigor­ ous plant, winning more and more' of manly pith and m©riouene®®,luT But Tennyson would be even better if he could see the "Laws of social Sclencei^^B s* According to'the Fourier1st .doctrine, man has already discovered one universal harmony, the harmony of celestial ^ ^Harb inger« II {May l6 , I8I4.6 ), 3 6 0* This statement taste® a ‘1’ITtYesour when we learn that Dwight was elected to Phi Beta Kappa a® an alumni member In 1862,* thirty years after hi® graduation* (Catalogue of the Harvard Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa ^Cambridge * TuFtfsfecI Wy TH® SocIety/ P* 2^7) ^Harbinger, VII (Juno 1?, IOJ4.O, 55. l66narb In per. VI (March. 16, 181:8), 158-159• l6?Ibld., p. 150. l6CIbld., p. 159 150* motIons; and he has, in himself, developed completely one of the twelve passions, the sense of hearing**^ • * « the ear does not lead to discords and combina­ tions, which violate its laws; this sensitive passion therefor# Jj® ja true guide in it© sphere»— It leads to the finest"*aH8nFicHesF of rau s 1 c&TTTarsion 1 e s. 1»u Therefor# the function of the music critic in Fourier1st Association went far beyond "embodying, the vague" in an "allegorical illustration « » * appreciable to thought and sens®*” In the. first number of the Harbinger, Dwight expanded the suggestions mad# in the Pioneer to their Associ­ ate, onist conclusions, proclaiming in effect that-the "fringe”, was not ./only an extension of , the basic threads in- the 'Aas'pei*- ationiat .fabric, but also the position from which the Laws of Social, Selene# could best be explained* Kueic was now not only a Faith which Initiates us "into the great hopes of the Future," but a Science to which Dwight dedicated all "his powers and opportunities as music reviewer for the Harbinger*^^ He proposed to develop three approaches to musics (1 ) "criticism of music as. an art; 11 {2} Interpretation of music as an expression of the Zeitgeists and (3 ) "develop­ ment of its correspondence as a Science with .other sciences, and especially with the Telenee of the coming Dedal Order, and the transition through which we are passing towards I t *"^72 'Social Destiny of Man, pp. 208-209* 170Ibid** p * 209* ^7^Harbinger, I (June Il+, 18L.5), 13* ^7%.,oe • cit* 151. In this Introductory .essay* Dwight announces the begin­ ning or a Musical Movement In America, corresponding with the movement of society toward social justice* Psalm tunes, drums and -fir©#, and simple dance music are.being supplanted by Posart and heethovan, heralds of the age when all will beoome one - ^ 3 ?*henever the life-of a people is deep ; whenever broad and universal sentiments absorb and harmonise the petty egotisms and discords of men5 whenever Humanity is * at all Inspired with a consciousness of Its-great Destiny, whenever hove gives the tone ' to the feelings, the thoughts, and- the activity of an age; whenever a hundred Reforms, all springing from so deep a source, all tend, In the very antagonism of their one-sldwdness, In the very bigotry of their earnestness, to one grand' thought and aim, the Unity of the race; In short,.whenever there Is a Movement, then, too, as by a law of Correspondence, there should be a new development of the, passion and the art of music*ifu The canonization of Beethoven and Mozart must be under­ lined very carefully* The music of the Dusleal Movement was not to be composed by enlightened Assoelatlonlsta• The Movement was to consist simply of recognizing the 11 So lent If lc* perfection -of the great German composers* Leaser mu©la, new or old, was automatically judged by this standard* The greatest of all, the zenith, above which it was impossible to rise, was Beethoven* DwIghtf» long series of commentaries on him will be discussed together In a separate sect Lon* What he wrote In the Harbinger about some of the other German masters .falls Into place her©* ^■3jfarbIngor* I (June H4., 161^ 5), 12* ^ I^.,oc • cit* If Beethoven was the greatest, *lo»art was Dwight’s private favorite. Beethoven was somewhat difficult to approach# for one thing, his preeminent works required a large and pro­ ficient orchestra* But the Brook Farm, singers could approxi­ mate the easier sections of the B’og&rt masses and operas; and in piano score, Bon Juan was much more satisfying than the Fifth Symphony* Moreover, Mosart's life was better known than Beethoven's, and his romantic career and personality more attractive* We have seen how Dwight linked his own spirit with those of Don Juan and his musical creator* As he heard more of Mosart'a music, he detected much more than the 11 vein of sadness”' and the Introspection he found In Don Juan* * * * while his personality is so very distinct, while there is so much confession of the private heart in all his melodies, they at the same time transport you Into an element of which no soul knoweth the riches and the depths. To know what Music is, distinguished from other spheres, • * • a little communion with Mosart will help you more than the profgundest distinctions of Aesthetic philosophy** »-* In contrast with the sensuous composer of Don Juan, Fosart now seemed to have "only sound for a body. 11 In the quarto ties Dwight found the "quintessence of music," "music in Its naked beauty ."^6 The overture to The M&fzlc Flute surprised him s 17*7 with its "summer warmth and fairy lightness. Mo&art had ^^Harbinger« I (August 2, l8i$.5), 12l|* p * 123* 177HarMnrer. m (Juno 13, 1 8 I4.6 ), 10. 15>3* now brought Dwight both sadness and joy, both Introspect Ion and pure musical pleasure* A Tew years later Dwight effected a reconciliation between these reactions, thus; • • • you feel that your faculties and your ©motions, and all your anpetito for every sort of harmonies, have all got out for once in this cold, cramping, barren world, and swim in a willing and congenial element, where all you touch is vital and responsive• Dense and soul have met and mingled* Spirit and matter have forgot their quarrel* In the music of Mozart on© experiences a tremulous recognition of- the near presence of the spiritual world to this our every-day life; • • • as if the breath of one, whose lev© was your com* munion with the soul of all things, fell noon your cheek* 1 ?6 Dwight thought the mystic and prophetic qualities of G e m m a music wore often so eubtl© that the composers themselves, tie d in political strait jackets, did not realise what they had produced, "murmuring and whispering such music**1?? In such a transition period as this, amid the symptoms of such a mighty revolution; when every day is a surprise and a miracle even to the unimag­ inative . * * are not this music and this marvelous vein fast yielding us an explanation?,, Do we not so© how prophetic is all true raus ictl’-'O The German mind, deep, strong, and free, combining sentiment with patient, thorough intellect, reveals a man who is aliv© in the inmost center of him, where he was first lit from God, and * « • the warmth and the 1?^wTh© Sentiment of Various Musical Composers,” fartain* s Va£asine, VIII (February, iSJl), 1 3 2. 1??Harb Ingor, I (June 21, iCLfT), 26-27* lg°Ibld., p. 2 7 . 151* light proceeding thence, flow out forcibly through ell his faculties, refining his senses, modulating his vole© to all grand or gentle utterance, and imparting what seems supernatural swiftness to the motions of his understanding.10* In comparison with the "worn and languidw genius of Italy, German music reflects a "science which . * * feeling has- warmed into life to do its bidding. Love would not have created Wisdom, if hove could live alone .w1^ After allowing more than two years for the acceptance of these pronouncements, Dwight grew Impatient* "The time has passed,11 he. wrote at the end of lOi*.?, when Carman music can be called strange; human nature has only to be quickened anT’liet free from, ■benumbing bonds of false conventionalism to feel most at home in this strangeness and this mysticism, fvery man is mystical at heart. In the field of German song, .Owlglht** favorite was Schubert, whom he early admitted into the highest sphere. "Of the songs of Schubert we .cannot possess too many, and yet one of them 1. more than we can exhaust in a l i f . - t l m . A f f r Assoc 1- ation lapsed into an "Idle■ dream," Dwight preferred German aorig to Italian as such as ever. Most of the songs now-a-days are manufacturedj In Germany, songs grow* Italian Opera airs are full of melody-and swsPEneas, but one is too much like another! it is an endless re*$alvanl£ihg into life of a vein of sentiment and melody long since exhausted. But every German composer of any note ^ harbinger, I (June 21, 18!$S>), 26. hoc. cit. lS3?TarMngar. VI {December 11, l£%?), hJ. 1?'^ ?Rrblr.ger. I (Juno 21, l8l}5), 27. produce® songs which could hair© been produced by no other* Each has its distinct style and moaning* and seems like a fresh inspiration* a® if nature gave' it a form to preserve* as she has given to each plant and crystal Such profound Oermahophilia was hound to make Dwight look ridiculous occasionally* ms when he described the wait®©® of Straus® and banner as. breathing "th® very soul of th© dsnc®, * . . -one of the finest expression®' in Art of volup­ tuous senauousne ss * finding Its truest freedom in the ©hast# embrace of O r d e r B u t he established his cult anyway* for th© most part on fir® artistic grounds* and without really trying very hard to convert it® devotees to fourierism* For Dwight, th© clearest manifestation of th© transi­ tional stage through which society was passing in the middle * forties was the "intense- individualism" represented in phi­ losophy by Emerson and in music by the virtuoso school of violinist® and pianists*^®'? When Ole Bull mad© his second appearance in Boston* on June .21* l81t*>» Dwight had just pub­ lished his first' two musical articles In the Harbinger* including th© introductory remark® and mom® of 'the high words about German imasic quoted above* II# was ready to 'Classify Bull1a music rather accurately* Admitting th© genius, fir©* and '.force of his playing, Dwight found a- serious "want of unity" in the "wild* abrupt, aimless start®* and flight® and ^ 5 «3 chubert#e Songs," Sartein* ® Magazine, VIII (March, 105U * 211,. i----- ■^ T^-Tarb inger, VI (January 1, l0i|,6 ) * ?0, ?Karb 1 riper* I' (June 28* I8I4.S) * * cadences*” Such, music may be necessary In an age of transl* tion, cut It is hard on th© artist, who soon finds that he cannot play with anyone else# ”l£hen Unity shall be the law of all society, -there will b© orchestras of genius,” not merely virtuoso soloists Even in later, saner years Dwight would not a dial t that Bull was a humbug* He came to describe Bull1© music as cheap and melodramatic, 9 but at the tine of Dull*© death in 1080 h© praised th© magnetic personality and magnanimity of th© man while blaming his trashy music on ignorant listeners who refused to move beyond a painful stag© of 111ran© 11 1 on * ” ^ 0 'After Dwightf s death in 1893, Mrs* Ole Bull recalled "many pleasant meetings” between her husband and Dwight* ”01© Bull one© remarked to me,” she wrote to Marianne,” that Mr* Dwight, and himself had lr,<"EHarh 1 nper, I (June 28, 181*5), k$* l0» Dwight wrote at length on •t,|3Ffca Virtuoso Age in Lusic,"*^ pointing out that such exhibitions of skill 'had occasionally produced good ssusic and had Improved instrumental mechanic*,*93 but that they constituted a serious threat to high musical s t a n d a r d s . *9t Variations, Ilk© those of Thslborg on the "Prayer" from hoses in Egypt* tempted th© powers of the "literary amateur" with their "fluid aurora- borealis streams of light, investing with its flickering ••gauss© of fire the. stable,- majestic columns of th© central, melody."*95 Art might gain In-the long run from such gym­ nastic*,*^ but' they reminded Dwight mostly of 8childish attempts to alter the expression.of a marble bust by decking it.with filagree and ribbons•**97 Nevertheless, the showy■md-genial Austrian pianist, Leopold 4© Meyer, charmed Dwight at a small pre-c.onccrt party In Boston,. Dwight was wary-of ■ classifying him* "whatever hi.® ■sphere may be, he exert® the power of - genius• in that ioi A *£*•£., undated, in the Boston Public Library. *^ *llarbinger* I (November 15, l£!i*S), 3 6 2-36L, and (Novem­ ber 22, iii^; 376-351. 193 I M d .. pp. 378-379. 1 9 -Ibid., p. 3 6 4. 1 9 5Ibld., p. 379. 19 I'.: Id.. p. 3U0. •*• /9narbIn^er.- Ill (Aupuat C, 18L.6), lltl. 158 sphere, and therefore jauat be in harmony with true genius in ful for the prodigy," but remained "faithful yet to . • * later, d® Meyer reminded him. of the "Little Khan," captain of Fourier1 © "Little Hordes," or* groups of children* and With such criticism, Dwight ruffled one old friend, but pleased another still older* Christopher Fears© Cr&nch wrote from. Hew York on November 30, lBl*5*' * * * I was glad to see your criticism on the virtuoso school, and your last word about Leopold de Meyer♦ Such views are much needed among us, when there Is so little soundness of faith* What you say of 01® Bull I think is perfectly just, neither too little nor too much* Mrs* Child, how­ ever, is angry with you because you do not make him the god he is to her. but assign him his proper niche and pedeatal*“ * If Dwight’s .music criticism appears naive by modern stand­ ards, it was apparently more .sever® and exacting than oven some of his sympathetic readers expected* But more interesting for us Is the early appearance here of a human factor In Dwight’s aesthetic code* If lie liked an artist personally, he could always find some way to like his music, at least tentatively* Thus .in a leading Association!©! we find the all spheres*H^96 /.ftor hearing him play, Dwight felt "thank­ ee th oven, and content with the f ixed stars * A year d© Meyer’s music was still all "Sohwung* " 200 ^ ^Harbinger* I (November 29, l8i|5)» 397* 20 1q pp• 69-90 ^ L o o . cit. 200HarbInner. Ill (October 2k, iSUf?), 317. 2®Huoted In Scott, Life and Letters of C_, P. Cranch. * 159. 202Life which Fmeraon could not find in Fourier* Of th© composers with whom Dwight became acquainted for the first time in th*© e&rlj day® of the harbingera ban&elasohn made by far the strongest impression on him* The "sweetest thing* of hi® life in the summer of I6I4.6 was "working over" some of the Songs, without Words at the p i a n o . I n t ”ruili attempt*1 to describe these compos it ions for th© Harbinger, ho produced several co1u?ae® of extremely tenuous verbiage of which the leas said the batter. 'For examplet What is the meaning Of Venice In history, is a question which might perhaps be answered, if we could only tell what influence this music ministers to the mind.20^ The sentiment is so pure, that one might dream hi m3 self in heaven j only th© sadness makes it human. A year later he was still trying. Mendelssohn's music Is to'the every day life of the mind, what plunging Into th© watery clement is to the bodyj the same shudder and the ■ same firm, delight and sens© of whole­ some., purifytog change In the Q«>idtoor .FIano Concerto ho heard an "unbroken flow of life, wherein thought and sentiment and sens© arc-one,” and, something-really ©hare© terlstie of "b-endelssoim, a "reverent . „ „ Il— . » . I.I.. .III. I. ■■ . . . . — . ■ ■ m i— . BUI I I I . M I . M . U l i n m w . - . . \ ^ % « s ‘"Historic hot©®," -Complete Work®, .X, 35>2* a letter to Mrs* Child of September, 181*6, quoted in Cooke, pp* 119-121, without exact date. 206 j arblnger, III (S.ptwab.r 19, IPJ46), 2 3 1 . 2°5lbld., p* 2 3 2* Mrs* Child may have been responsible for some of 'the" worst of this. See the letter quoted in Cooke, p. 120. ^®^HarbInner» V (August 26, 16 4?), lOlf. l60* childlike wonder of a frm&h soul listening to sacwd and w r w l o u t traditions*”^®? . '*?hls sudden enthusiasm even led Dwight 'to- proclaim Mendelssohn ” preeminently the Master now*”3$$ As an antidote to Beethoven, the joyful and trans- parent melodiMi of Mendelssohn- were so strong as almost to turn ■. Dwight1 s head * As on# would readily expect by now, Dwight; was somewhat condescending in his notices of the Italian opera' companies Which had begun to visit Boston* But with their flashy repertoire of Bellini, Bossini, Donizetti, and the early Verdi, they attracted so much applause that Dwight could not discount their influence for good, which h© explained this way? Nothing acts so suddenly upon the latent musical sense and feeling of th© general mind as a success­ ful performance of a good opera* fhe unity of the story, the eons tent., interpretation;, of the music ',throu#i words, action, and scenery, and the appeal • to easy sysspathi®s. which demand no -.great culture, powers of thought, or depth of character, make : whole ■multitudes musical who were not before He agreed that a little. Bellini was good for anyone .sometimes, although he-soon tired of-the public? s favorite, Karma., with its ”very monotonous and over-elaborate -prolongation of a sweet but sickly sort of m e l o d y . S u c h music was much too ■ 2® ?llarblngcr, III .(June 13,'-.l846), 10, Before the Intrusion of Mrs. child. 2Q®Karblng©r, III (July 11, 181^ 6), 77* 2®^HarbInger, I (August '23, 1&h$)* 173* 210^oc# cit. ^Hrlarb1nger, VI (November 27, IB!*?}, 30* i6l. far separated from, the strength of Beethoven and Handel* An opera of Cellini * * * bathes you in a delicious flood of tenderness. . . . You are sad, and full of passive* sympathetic aensibllityj softened, melted, but not roused, not strengthened» A surfeit comes, and you are glad., to have a good cold north wind sweep away the mild, vague hasinesa that hangs about your senses, and breathe a bracing atmosphere, feel your spirit and your nerves Invig­ orated, and see things by the clear, literal light of day, until the time for twilight reverie shall ooao again.^l-^ Unfortunately, Bon Juan was never performed by these early companies, but in Rossini* s Bmilrmmis and Barber of Seville, Dwight found almost acceptable substitutes. Ho described the former-as "a masterpiece of opara," composed, of course, after Bossini*& "genius had become impregnated somewhat with the atmosphere of G e r m a n y ."*^3 The Barber he later decided was probably the best after Mozart *2lU in the Wew York lectures and later In Bartain* s Magazines Dwight pointed to BossIni as a man of real genius who had founded a "false and dangerous1* school, the school of melodramatic, "effect11 m u s l e * ^ This however was the beginning of the "transition," according to Dwight1® chronology, and. as such could be made to serve a rood purpose* He has done more, perhaps, than any composer who ever lived, to popularize music, to educate the'car sentiment of Various Musical Composer®, * fart a in1 s Magazine. VIII (February, 1 8 5 D , 132. ^r-iarMnp-or. Ill (July 11, I8I46) , 77. ^^Journal of Music. VI (January 27, 1655)» 133* 21^*Roaainl," Sartalni a Magazine, VIII (April, If'SU, 232-283* An art I c l^vex^l^ TSa'a e d on the Mow York lecture* 1 6 2 . of all mankind; * • ♦ he Is but opening the tran­ sition from: the limited to the more universal schools of art which shall come after . . #216 Donizetti* s musical Ideas seemed, on the whole, ”sugary and feeble* to Dwight,21 ^although he liked the forceful dramatic effects of Lucia21® and Lucre*la Borgia.^^9 After hie first taste of Verdi*a music, Dwight said only, "nous verrons/^O but soon he was warning his disciples about being "blinded by a good prejudice £the preference for great German mua Ic] when they condemn "the Verdi trash*1 as a weak dilution of Donizetti. Whatever may be his faults, whatever he may l.ackf he certainly has nothing In eoimaon with Donizetti, . . . or Bellini* 221 In j[ Lombardi. Dwight heard Verdi trying to.deepen Italian opera with German ideas, but only succeeding in cluttering it up * 222 W r m m i . however, worn Dwight’s respect, In spite of Its absurd plot-, with its rich accompaniments and effective ensem­ bles *223 The resolution of these tentative opinions, along with Dwight*s reactions to the later Verdi, will appear in a la ter chap ter* ^1^"Rossini,n p* 2 6 3. 217H.rblr>K«r. Ill (Hovembor 21, 18)4 6), 3OI. 21H "Harbinger. VI (February 5, I8I4O), 110. 2^Hart» Inger» VII (Jtme 10, 161+8), ii7. ^ ^Harb ingar. IV (January 3°* I0l;7} , 12);. 2 2 1ilarblnger. IV (June $, I8l;7), U09* 222HarMnger, IV (April 17, I8lt7), 29U. 223i£urMnger, IV (Pay 1, lSV?), 331-332. 163* Dwight instinctively distrusted "fashionable" music; and after .experiencing, an intense do light in the oh sours gftfgo of Pacini, ho began, to believe that .much good, music was buried by- the popular demand for old■f a v o r i t e s n e v e r t h e ­ less, -he admitted that - Bostonians had learned n& new delimit,” which, with all its pimitation and affected, ignorant excite- turnt," ' could serve■4» "«n essential stepping stone in' the. Rueleal. Movement The foregoing examples show that most of the mild excite­ ment provided by reading the music .column- in the Harbinger arises from: sensing -Dwight*® weekly struggle with masses of music he has. just heard for the first time* Only occasion­ ally could he relax with an old favorite of his own* For & satisfying performance of Don Juan he was to wait many years, but a much more jarring disappointment was the shoddy and -.unrehearsed Messiah presented at the .end-.of 1 S1|5 ,' snowed under by the gaudy Italian opera ,226 Dwight admonished Boston not- to let such a sacrilege happen again,^ 7 and got more excited over a new edition of the. oratorio than over any number'of ■ symphonies or operas* He declared;'that everyone should own a copy, and cried-out especially to his progressive friends*. Associatlonistsl Pioneers of the first -humble - ' Phalanxes! ye that can sing, learn Handel* a Hallelujah ^Harbinger. IV (May 15, 131*7), 3 6 1-3 6 2. 22%£TblnE2£, V (Juno 12, l&k7), 27. 22^Hart>lng»r. II (January 10, 181*6), 76. 227Ibid.. p. 77. 161*.* chorusj It will be a .grand unitary act of wor­ ship * . *22t' Handel is still omnipotent* "H© commands his publics, like an emperor; whoso is not loyal to him, virtually banishes himself from the realm of music . » *n22<^ nevertheless, the Handel and Haydn Society let the Messiah drop altogether in the Christinas season of and Dwight hailed the revival in I8I4.8 with a shout of joy,233. For years after he became an established music critic he was thrilled at th© annual performance of this work,^3^-and not until 1865 did he admit that be could no longer listen to it with, quite th© old enlhualaam*^33 Association and Fourierism suggested to Dwight a revival and expansion of many principles- hm had expressed at the beginning of his career* The passages quoted many pages back from the manuscript "On Music" would, have fitted well into- the Harbinger; and Dwight again contrasted, as h© had In the divinity school dissertation, the true religious qualities of great music with the unmusical, hence unreligious qualities of most conventional church music* Th© "celestial 2 2^Harbinger» II (January 2ii, l8i»6 ), 109* 22^Karbinger. II (January .10, 181*6), 76. 23°Harbinr©r, IT (March 2?, I61i7), 252. 21:1 ^ Harbinger, V11X,. (February 3., 181*9 )y 109* . 232s@0 for example Journal of Music, Till (December 29, 1 8 5 5), 1 0 1* "We did. not^VarV' ’toTTisten very critically, for why should we lose the real,Christmas enjoyment and edification of that sublime and soul*satisfying music-, •* • *" ^^3journal of ^usic, XXIV (January 7, 1865) . 3?li *\ 165* cfcoir* from 1 Lombardi seamed to him particularly nncelostlal, and he promptly described It as "t&m© and heavy, as any con- grerational Hew England Psalm*11 He still had some faith In Lowell Mason1® "Teachersf Conventions," because they mirtht help Americans to realise their musical destiny by "gradually rising to meet the influence which flows down from the true holy land of Art • • m*23$ gut he still could not understand why our Protestantism should exclude the real vital piety of the Catholic .worship, the natural religion of the heart which never clothes itself in such immortal warmth and beauty as in the music of th© Mass,^36 The Religious Union of Asaoelationists departed deliberately from the "poor Protestant practice of singing innumerable stanzas of didactic and prosaic hymns to th© same brief and hum-drum melody*,#^ 3T This practice fostered one of the "Objections to Association" which Dwight answered,230 Citing Fourier1s solution to liturgical problems in the formula "Unity In Worship, Variety in Doctrine," Dwight described "worship" as "an act of feeling, from the heart*" Further­ more, "the whole tendency of Feeling Is to unity; hence music is its best expression, which is a unitary language understood 23hiarblr.rer. IV (April 17, 101*7), 291). 235;aarhtnf-er, V (September L , 1 q?)» 203. ■^^ Harblnger. xil (August 15,l8U£>), 153* 23?Harblnger. VI (December !*» 101*7), 36. 23“s«« for example Hudson's remarks In the American Review. V (May, 181*7), 1*92-1*93. 1 6 6 . by all . . .!l239 The Religious Union announced that it would use whatever music had "intrinsic meaning and beauty," whether it bo Catholic Mass or Con-gregat > on&l hyran.^O Fortunately for everyone ever concerned with the music criticism In the Harbinger, except perhaps the ardent Fouri­ er.! sts, Dwight never carried very far his proposed "develop­ ment" of music’s "correspondence as a science with the other sciences." Inmost of'the reviews, Fourierlstle "science" is superimposed lightly if at all upon purely aesthetic, poetic, impressionistic commentary. Sometimes it seems for­ cibly dragged In- at the end of an article, as If Dwight from a sense of duty had tacked on something he had almost for- gotten.^-l In his opening article h© stated th© basic assumptions "the scale of musical tones is only the seal® of the human Passions . . . as that scale Is repeated In the sphere of sound* w *^ *2 -This law he illustrated briefly In discussing "Fourier’s Writings** five month® later.,^ 3 but such "illustration in- th© musical .articles is very rare. It was a difficult, cumbersome, and Inartistic operation to per- form, as the following quotation from on© of Dwight’s few 239H»rbinR.r. Ill (October 1?, IBU), 303. 2if0Karblnger, V (June 12, 18^7), 30. “ ^S.. For oxeatple "?.;uslo In Boston during the La.t Winter,” Harbinger. I (August 2, 1B!.|5), 123-12q; and, even more ® triking, the" remarks on the Andante from a Mozart quartette. Harbinger, IV (April 17, 161x7), 295* *^ *d!arbinger, I (June li«, 18)4.5 ) , 13• ^•^Harbinger, I (November 1, 181x5), 333*335* 167 attempt® will show* Th© innocent victim is Beethoven's song, "The Quail," written In the key of F, "the key-note of th© general hum of thing® around us* ♦ * . In the natural scale of tones and colors, a© .shown by Fourier#' the-great analogist, side by side with th© scale of the Passions, the fourth or F, corre­ sponds to green, th© color of variety, of the "Alternsting Passion,which preserve® the general balance, by effecting wholesome changes and saving from onesided excess* Let Genius and Science never quarrel As a sample of this muiabo-Jumbo in reverse, the description of e-xtramus leal phenomena in musical term® , we have the following passage in Dwight's letter to Mrs. Child of Sept©mb©r, l6lp6 . You date, I see, from the resolution of th© flat Seventh Into th# Sixth, or composite# That is a very lovely region* Mendelssohn is there, it is true| and 1 sometimes effect a transition into it* But you may judge from, what I have said above that I hall from the sphere of all distraction and dis­ cordance,^? perhaps I might say from the chord of the Diminished Seventh, the typ© of universal tran­ sition, wild, impatient, tortured with uncertainty and suspense* As I can hardly expect to reach, th© octave, th# sublime height of universal unity, 1 . , humbly hope 1 also may resolve into th© lovely A . Luckily, th® Harbinger was not written for many readers like Mrs. Child, and a safe guess would be that even Dwight was glad of it* Indeed, near th© end of his work on the Harbinger» Dwight was ready to forget this whole business* In the number for 2W h larblnger* I (June 21, 181*5), 27* *^%e© the preceding paragraph of the letter, dealing with the difficulties at Brook Farm., quoted above, p. 118. {Cook©, p* 1 2 0.) Quoted In Cook©, pp* 120-121. X68 . October 28, 188-8, he had ventured an objection to an editor1 a transposition of a n e w ly published song from C-major to t>~maj.or*^7 On November 18, "M u s ic a l Queries” printed a letter from ”1)* W. B«,f asking what occult difference such a trans­ position makes, since mil pitch i s relative anyway and the tone ,fc” Is not & fixed point in nature#2ip3 Dwight’s answer was a music lover1s d e n ia l of th© Master A s s o e i& t lo n ls t * , * . the contrasted coloring, effect, expression of the different-ITeya-tin] music, is an experience, to which all persons blessed with'musical perception always have borne.witness, whether the theory thereof has been assigned or not. • • * •'*' • This ig mn aesthetic, not a scientific experience ■When Dwight began to writ® for the- Harbinger* he seriously believed that he would..Make a significant contribution to the Laws of Social Science in the music reviews. What he actually did was take advantage of the opportunity, to hear in three or four years more concert performances than he had heard in 'all his life' before,* fourierism was simply the indirect means of making Dwight an articulate ”literary amateur” of music, and when the "idle dream” passed, he was deprived of nothing but an artificial:vocabulary. The development we find in hi® music criticism is far from the development of "scientific analogies” or social consciousness. It la the gradual building of & vocabulary for describing accurately what Dwight heard ^ ^ B a r b i n g c r , VII, 208. ^ H a r b i n g e r , VIII, 22-23* 9il®EMB£®£* ‘H I (December 30, lRljf ), 70. 169« and felt at a concert or an opera* The earlier criticism* have a derivative* theoretical atmosphere which gives way in the Harbinger to a fresh, spontaneous Impresaion, sometimes extremely 'amateurish and fragmentary, ■ ut nearly always gen­ uine and original, when Dwight deplored the "tearing quality" of the trombonist1s ton®, he was not contributing to'Fourlerlst "analogies," but he created a wonderfully vivid commentary on the familiar sound produced by a military bandsman drafted temporarily for- a "higb-brow" job. All his life Dwight was patient to a fault with inaccurate execution if he had a. soft spot for the composer or the per- former, or even if the occasion was gay and the company con­ genial. But this does not mean at all that h® could not distinguish between good performance and bad* He was readily disturbed by & violinist playing "obstinately flat." One© an otherwise "good" performance was spoiled for him by "that unmitigated drum. W© cannot imagine why It should make itself so prominent, miles® it has grown insolent with the revival of the war-splrit in our Christian country'*2-® He began to describe effects that he had actually heard, not "divined." In the first section of the overture, to Per Frelschutz he found that the character of every Instrument Is brought out with masterly discrimination. The. low, earthy,' smothered sounds of violon cellos and bassoons and the clarinet’s low octave . . . the golden flood of distant light pourod in by the four French, horns; 2S°Harblnger, IV {February 27, Ip?), 18? 170. the exquisite solo of the clarinet • ••*"' He could now speak with assurance of such things as "intona­ tion, 11 "a want of flexibility and smoothness" In the "descending scales" of a slnger*^^ The newly found "force" which so astounded James Kay in the spring of 104,6 ^ 3 carried over’ into the Harbinger* The fluency and accuracy of Dwight’s expression was partly the result of a new confidence in his own reactions and opinions* This confidence came too late for the ministry ahcl for original* creative writing, but It c&rre in time to fit him for a long and useful* If modest career as a music critic* When he was irked, whether by war-mongering or obnoxious drum­ ming, his unlimited spaee in the Harbinger gave him a ehanco to say so, at any length and in any terms he chose * At one time, after several gentle criticisms, he finally became so disgust ad with both the person and the playing of s violinist that no fewer than half a dozen adjective® would suffice— "screeching,-, obtrusive, egotistical, morbid, feverish, and Tarantula-1 ike *"*^ He came to despise nothing so much as cheap sentiment in music, and was nauseated at a "Teachers’ Convention" by e country soloist singing with an agony of expression m song about "his Mother, •God bless herI" and how he used to "sit upon her ^ H a r b i n g e r . IV (February 27, 1?!*?}, 167. ^ ^liarblnpter. V (October 30, I8i|7), 328. ^23Seo above, p. 1 1 3 . ^Harbinger. IV (April 17, ltli7), 295. 171 Jmee;H neglecting all the while to Infora us whether that respectable lady Mknows that he is out*n^ ? Apparently this belatedly acquired force and self-confidence c m m in a large doe©, for Dwight was. known to some people In his later years as * peppery” and sots# times very opinionated* At any rat©, the musical columns of the Harbinger ar© not monotonous reading, and they could not h a w been written by a child with an apron full of flowers. We are justified in describing Dwight1a criticism a® "amateurish* only if we remind ourselves again that under the' circumstance* it could not possibly have been otherwise by modern standards* Hot only was his musical training limited, but the performances he'heard in Boston, particularly of orchestral music, must- have shuttled between the passable and th© terrible. Oratorio was In the hand® of the Hand©1 and Haydn Society, which had quit© a largo repertoire and thirty years of expe­ rience by l8i|5» Their singing, and that of the Italian opera principals, was Probably often passable and sometimes good, even*by modern standards* But Doston’a instrumental music was in it* earliest infancy-in 101*5 • Beethoven* a symphonies' war© first played by the orchestra organised In I8I4I by the Boston Academy of M u s i c , T h i s orchestra and its successor ^55Herbingar» V (September I4., 181*7)# sk list of the- compos it .1011* performed during this historic first season see Hach* © Musical Mamzine, III "(May 8* 18I|X), 135* The "heavy* ntSBera lncTu^d*,rT h © T !Trst and fifth symphonies of Beethoven and the overtures to The Magic Flute and Fidello. Dwight was in Northampton and dTSTnot lie a r many of tKSasTprograms, if any* 172 In IBJ4.7 sponsored by the Musical Fund Society (probably with the same personnel) were the only sources oF Dwight* s syro- phonic education in the days of the Harbinger, except for one or two concerts he heard In Kew York* Dwight admitted that the performances were very Imperfect, but said that such playing of Feethovan was better than none, and that the per formers and the audience were grow in# up together #^7 The John S# Dwight who was to become ^Autocrat of Music" was prowing up at the same time• At first ho did not object specifically to performances of heethoveri with ten strings and a full wt.nd section, but the preponderance of military brass got on hi© nerves long before anything was don© about it Farly in X3l|_3 h© had called for a performance of Mendelssohn*a Overture to A Midsummer Might* s Dreaa, ^ but when the Acad­ emy orchestra attempted to rehearse it three or four years later under George Webb, who had no score, they could not get through It at all. After playing the opening string passage at "accomodation train” tempo, the orchestra broke Into laughter at the dissonant chord in the woodwinds (measure 3 9) and discarded the number as trash.^6® ^Harbinger, I (August 16, l(*kS), I5lu Dwight described one pe 11-meil' performance of the Egmont Overture an a ,?nl rht- mare* (Harbinger, I [[August 2, T^ITFJT SfC#) ^ ‘■'See Harbinger, IV (January 9, If:!*?), 7 6 ; and VII (October 2S#-TS5$TT5Ol*.. ^^fionaer. I {January, I0L3 3, 27# pf-oThomas Ryan, K e o o11o e 11ona of an Old Dual clan (Dew York; K* ?• Dutton, 1099) 9 nr .n %h~l±?Vr" fiy&n played clarinet in the orchestra, which wasabout half professional and half amateur. As on© of the professionals he cried when Mendelssohn was laughed at (op. cit,, p* k?), but he could not carry his point, He was later vloTXst with the famous Mendelssohn quintette Club. 173. The maturing critic was not only far ahead of the per- fnraing musicians* tut also too much Interested in music for music*« sake to tolerate the Dos ton audiences* By lSlf7 he wa# complaining frequently about neool© leaving after the "popular” music was over and during the symphony. Ho deplored the ru&e* unmusical behavior of our audiences* who yawn and talk during the beat passage©* and spoil every delicate effect by the Interruption of their gross -and u n tim e ly ap p lau se# A year later he. still complained that there was no settled t&st©,* that the fad was the thing-—a pretty voice* a handsome appearance* a flashy set of piano variations* anything to keep people amsed*^^ In this unfavorable-atmosphere .Dwight-produced what one scholar has called "the first noteworthy criticism of the ethereal art in the history of American J o u r n a l i s m * i t was a pioneering Job which no trained musician would have accepted arid, which not many 11 .terary men could Have carried out. It was a labor of faith and love which Dwight probably .thought m s leading M m nowhere' when Brook Farm disbanded* Mo comfortable living was - to be made in Boston by a'music critic In 1 8 5 0| but the "truant occupation" had won a complete victory over the ministry* the-.teaching profession, and Fourierism* To say that the victory came largely by default ^ ^Harbinger. IV (February 6 f Ibi*?), I3 8. ffarbIn,~er. VI (January 15, 101+8), 86. 263 . . . llaror.ee L. y. ‘.'ohdes, The Periodicals or Ar-erican Jrar.aeendontallss (D’arhajji, North’ Carolina{ Dufce"Vfei varsity Prose, 1V31), 1 1 3. may be a statement, of fact, but a sympathetic study of Pwi^ht destroys many of Its implication®• Brook Farm was only the longest section of a rough detour which still had some dis­ tance to run* CHAPTER V A f PB Iff TICES HIP COMPLETED s I62t?~l8£2 I* In the winter of 16^7-162^8 Dwight was again bask in Boston, and again looking for a Job* Ton strenuous and largely disappointing years had passed since he had made hi® first start In this sane community as a graduate of the Divinity School at Harvard* In iBif? the prospects were no better than they had been in 1 8 3 7, but what Dwight had to offer now was entirely different from what he had offered earlier* He had tried and abandoned preaching, teaching, and scholarly writing* He was now an experienced journalist who could writ© fluently and convincingly about books and music, and who had espoused an esoteric social theory so long and enthusiastically that he could not let It go* There were not many opening. He was not entirely on his own. The Harbinger still had more than a year to live, and the Boston, Hellgiou®, and Women1s Unions of Asaoclatlonlate were still active* Several months before he left Brook Farm himself he began to make "Suggestions to Affiliated Societies," recommending co-operative buying, insurance, library facilities, and so forth. He imag­ ined that the urban Unions, by assimilating gradually the "principle of Association,* could eventually turn club rooms Into club houses, and club houses into co-operative hotels*** *HarbIngar. IV (Maroh 27, 181*?), 25U-255. 176. Thus a Phalanx might on© day b© achieved In the midst of that "civilisation11 tbs Brook Farmers bad despised and turned away from* The *Idle dream" was to© pleasant to be quickly shaken off* Hear the and of 181*5, Dwight and four other ex~»embers of tha Brook Farm Phalanx formed the nucleus of a ©©-operative house In High street. Here all the Unions held their meetings, and the particularly efficient. Women1s Onion fed its own sex on |1.50 a week, the men on #1.?5*^ After a year, the experi­ ment was moved to the Pinckney Street house of Anna T* Parsons, a leader in the Women*» tfi&lon and a close friend and correspondent of Marianne D w i g h t *3 in these co-operative houses and club rooms Association died so slowly, and Its body was so shrunken near the end, that no exact date can be assigned to- Its passing* It was another difficult period for Dwight, longer and leaner than the first two years at Brook Farm. But he was older and more confident now. He had learned a trade. And Mary Bullard was one of the faithful few who moved into Anna Parson*© house, with him. The enthusiasm and gusto of the Harbinger in the early days was gone* Before the Religious Union was a year old, pwlght was reduced to pleading directly for' meager funds to keep William Henry Ghanaing on the Job. He thought of the Religious Union as the spiritual center of Association, and ^Cooke, pp. 1S9-1J0* 3s ee the "Mote on Anna Q,. T* Parsons,,f in Letters From Brook Farm, vp* xlv-xv. 177. of Chmimlng &® the fountain of till* s p i r i t T h e Boston Union, affiliated with the American Uhlan and probably including the Women1 a Union and the Religious Union , had a club room at Mo# 30 Broomfield Street, where about fifty people, "more or lea®,** attending the meetings. Here, in December of lSl|7, Dwight found Friendship, refinement, intelligence, and cheerful­ ness, and at the bottom of the whole a deep religion, which makes no pretense, and knows neither cant nor fear, * * * doing their best to embalm that little hmble room with very rich aromas.5 (Surely the poet was careless in using the ambiguous "embalm#*) The "pretense11 was still kept up, on a pitifully minia­ ture scale. The Boston Union had an annual budget of on® thousand dollars# There were three Groups 1 Indoctrination, headed by Dwightj Social Affairs, headed by Mary Bullardj and Practical Affaire, headed by J. T. Fisher*^ channlag was President, and Anna Parson® was Secretary#7 Women made particularly good Aseoelationlsts at this stage, thought Dwight *® Their baaaar was open from eleven until two each day at the Bromfield Street club room, where they took order® for fancy work and were prepared to give ^Harbinger. VI (November 27, I8lf7), 28. ^Harbinger. VI (December 25, 181*7), 60* %oc». elt. VII { ^Harbinger. VI (December 25, l8i*7), 60* ?S®« the back-nar© notices be winning in the Harbinger 178. lessons in music, drawing, painting, writing, and French *9 Perhaps they fait like a Group of Heater Prynnea, proudly bearing tb® scarlet "A* of Association on their breasts while they ministered to the frivolous tastes of a society which shunned them* But unfortunately their best custom* was their own Disuseadale, whose few pennies would surely have gone to Association anyway* Hawthorne himself might have hesitated to pronounce this metaphor ridiculous if he could have read Dwight1s own expression of his feelings at this time. Thus the poor bachelor, who makes his bride of per­ fect constancy Association, instead of adding so much daily to the profits of the civilised restau­ rant for hi® cake and coffee, is enabled in this way to make a little daily contribution out of his poverty to the cause which he most loves, and at the same time tastes the true sweets of society to cheer him on through hi® dull civilised banishment, and make him feel that this his heavenly bride is not a mere abstraction, but has warn, willing favors and glad words for him**® nothing so whining, embarrassing, and personal as this "Letter from Boston to Hew York*1 had ever appeared in the Harbinger before* Enlightening a® it is for the student of Dwight, it must have worried the lew York editors, BipXey and Park Godwin* Dwlgfot apparently sent the letter down in answer to a note from Godwin, dated December 10, 181}?, which had asked for something quite different* He had urged Dwigjht to com© to Hew York for © meeting of the American Union* He Q »S©@ the advertisement in the Harbinger* VI {February 26, 1848), 135. ^Harbinger, YI (December 25, 1847), 6l* 179* wanted t® discus® the w wo® fully neglected” artistic depart­ ment, and even suggested that Dwight settle in Mew York*^3- ”Music in Boston” duly appeared In the first two numbers of l 8l4. f i ,^ hut soon afterward the reports became sporadic again* The Harbinger was dying, and Dwight was unable-, to help much* He could never keep going very long under another* s editor­ ship* By the end of the year Godwin was completely out of patience* Be wrote to Dwight oh December 8 $ fiwr# seems to be a -great waste of tins® and labour, on the part of the Editors of the Harbinger, from the want of an understanding as to their respective functions* * * • This morning again we receive'from you a batch of news, most of which was ready for th© paper two days ago* * * * it was supposed that you would devote yourself mainly to the artistic and literary departments of th© paper . . • it seems to me that you are th® fittest person for that task, for the reason that you are most capable, have most leisure, and people expect it from you • • *13 The kind of leisure Dwight had in IOI4.8 was not conducive to artistic criticism* Th© Boston editorship of the Harbinger was not a comfortable place in the real world, and when the paper ceased publication in February, !8if9, Dwight was a month behind a gain *^4 Mo matter haw low his fortunes were, Dwight loved Boston so much that he was determined to wg©t his place” there, 3-3,A*t*S* in th# Boston Public library* ^Harbinger* VI (January 1, I8J48), 70-71, and (January 15# I 8lf8 ) 5 5 7 . ^A.L.S* in th# Boston Public Library* ^Volume VIII of the Harbinger < November 1*,, iSijJ, to February 10, 184,9 ) has no 'index• ’drily about four articles,, one each month, arc certainly by Dwight* 180. however humble the place might be. His connections with the non~Assocletlonlst world were not very good. The elder Richard Henry Dana described him' to Julia Ward Howe as 11 a man of moderate calibre, who had * set up for an infidel,* and who had dared' to speak of the Apostle to the dentlies am Paul, without the prefix of hi© asintahtp*^ Boston had bred much infidelity, transcendentalism, and social radicalism; but all three, unrelieved by a nga®&n family background, mad© an offensive combination. Dwight’s connections with Harvard were apparently cordial, but unproductive. He attended the summer reunions of his class In 1846 and 1849*^ Longfellow wrote & polite note of thanks for the favorable notice of Evangeline.^7 But Cambridge had nothing to offer, and sometimes Dwight doubted the value of what he'had already gained there. Sentimentally, he warn always a loyal and loving alumnus* But early in XB!|6 he wrote of how education stakes one uncomfortable, especially ■when he has to "look about for j* place for himself In the world The Italics were 0wi^htfs way of saying that Harvard was fine for those whose places war© ready for them, but a fool’s paradise for a descendant of th# Shirley Dwights* ul la ward How®, Reminiscences. pp. 434*4-35* ^See the Glass Book of the- Glass of 18J2. There were apparently no reunion® in the intervening year®. ^quoted In Samuel Longfellow, Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (3rd. ad.; Boston: Ticknor &nd~7fompany,*TFI!FT7— IT, iSl * 1R Harbinger. II (January 3, 1846), 62* 181 A little later he said the disinterestedness learned in college was paid tot in pain when the graduate found himself ”& scrambling competitor for enough ♦ • . loaves and fishes to enable him to keep soul and body together, to love, and have a hoste and family around By th# summer of 184? he was calling his education a "curse,” and saying that the beat educated must conform "unless they prefer unpopularity, ^ and poverty, and neglect, with Truth alone for a companion*1* ^ This ascetic alternative Dwight never could accept very grace­ fully* Significantly enough he found hie place in Boston, in 1853, under the auspices of the- Harvard Musical Associa­ tion, having never been a real non-conformist at heart, except on fair days when he was ballooning, or on dark days, when the cold logic of Association and the black phase of his moods coincided* There were probably many of these dark days, however, in.the five years before the ex-Pieriana replaced' the logic with th© old faith. Less than a week after the appearance of the last Har­ binger. on February 10, 1849, X>wi#it began be, contribute short notices to the most inartistic sheet imaginable, the Boston Bally Advertiser. Steve r did his writing look more threadbare or out of place. True to its name, the paper was three-fourths advertisements, and carried no regular feature articles at all* Dwight merely reported briefly and irregu­ larly on the opera or on th® concerts of the Musical Fund 19BaPbing»r. 12 (S«y 9, 18l*&), A?. 20Barblng»r. V (July 1?, iSVT), 91. 182 Society* Th© columns ©re unsigned and hard to identify, but th© faint aound of Dwight dies out in mid~su*smer, after about a doxen appearances beginning' with. the issue of February l6 # By th© end of August he had made another arrangement, much more promising* Two years earlier he had sent bomb of the Harbinger c© pj to Eli but Wrlgftt'a Daily Chronotyne?^and later had defended firi#it,s sincerity and general outlook, if not his tactics, against the editor of the Transcript»22 In the congenial atmosphere of the Free Soil daily, Dwight .. mad© on# last attempt to arouse interest in Association# Beginning August 23, he had at his disposal three prominent columns on' th® front page* file explained & few days later that this, plus Channlng*s Spirit of the A£e, was the living continuation of the old B arbInner * 23 The first few column® of this new venture are refreshing reading* Dwight discusses current struggles of little men against social injustice*— the strike of the Boston tailorsj2^ th® revolt of th© Hungarians, who, he says, are well qualified to lead a crusade because they are not so corrupted by Commerce as other occidental peoples *25 One© In a while he show® his ^X$#e for example "Her a and S-ivorl,*’ Daily qhronotyp®, October 20, l8i|.7l and Harbinger* ¥ (0©tobeiTjji?, I857T, 327-326* 22 mThe Magnanimity and Honesty of the Boston Transcript," Harbinger* VII {June 17, l8l|S}, $2* ^ W l l y Chromotype# August 28,, 181*9, p* 1* The- Spirit of the Agfewals published weekly in lew York from m to ApriX^Tg 1 8 5 0 * ^ Dally ghronotype* August 2l}., I8lf9, p. 1*, et passim* 2£|)aily Cbronotypa* August 25, 1849, P* 1«, et passim* 183 teeth* In a hot answer to an article in th© Christian Examiner he describes author Andrews Horton aa that "orthodox Unitarian, Christian t?ir excellence*"^* In replying to an article in th® Lowell Courier, which, called on© of his pieces "an outburst of transcendentalism," he makes another of his acid comments on national politics: ‘By ■the way, what Is our socialistic ntranscendenta1lam” compared to the moral transcendentalism so common among editors ancf praet1cal eoramon^sense folks today and hereabouts, which makes black whit®, and night daylight, and which repudiating war and slavery with holy horror, can so transcend all mImp1# Ioglo* as to elect into the Presidential chair ana glorify with all th® enthusiastic sighs our language has, tii® roughest' fighter in a war for slavery?^7 But w© know from the beginning that Dwight was out of his depth* He was not nearly quick enough with ©ye or pea to writ© a forceful, timely column every day* He went pretty .•strong for about six weeks; but as early as. September 1*§ on th© very day ho was angry enough to slap at Andrews Horton, he filled two of hi a three? columns with gleanings from foreign newspapers. In addition to his limitation© as a journalist, Dwight faced another difficulty on this assignment* Re could not reconcile peaceful, all-embracing transcendentalism with violent political action* On the.receipt of bad new® from Hungary h© cried, "Alast For Hungary* A las I For HumanityI* But he added hastily that the goal would b® reached, "Hot by ^Pally chromotype« September 1*, 181*9, p* 1* ^Dally Chromotype * September 2l*f 161*9# P* 1* 1 84 war, not by political revolution, not by bloody battle between the future and the past; but by peaceable measures of coopera­ tion**’^ ® After two weeks of defending the tailors, he warned them against being vindictive* "You have a destiny to realisej it should not leave you time to sot up idle court-martials against your enemies * • On September 25, the initials WJ * S* D*1* appeared for the last time* Presumably Dwight continued to supply the unsigned columns, although they began to contain much second­ hand material, Including reprints from th© Harbinger*3® Col­ laborators often helped out, especially wW* F* C*" (W* F. Ch&nning), ”w . H* M*tt (William B* Muller, of Zellenople, Pennsylvania), and "G*" (Albert Brisbane)* The Chronotype suspended operations on January 12, 1850, and Dwight*s column did not re-appm&r when publication was resumed on September 30 of the same year* The "principle of Association” could be enthroned neither by th© sword nor by daily arguments from so unreliable m pmn as Dwight* s *33- His ne&y**aharter membership in the Transcendental 1st Club did Dwight little more good in th# winter of 1847-1848 ^%&lly Ohronotypc, September ?, 1849, P* 1* '^ 9pally Chrpnotype, September 11, 1849, P* 1, 3Qpor example, "Social Science,w pally Chronotype» October 2, 1849, P* 1; and Harbinger* fit (March 2f, '1'84?), 252-254- 3^cooke, without citation, says, "The publishers of the Chronetype were not able or willing to carry out their part of i!\e'"agrSeSent*tt (p* 139*) Even if this ambiguous statement ha# some basis la hidden fact, it is misleading* 185 than hi© Harvard diploma, and his speeiallaed Journalistic abilities * He had attended a we#ting called by Aleott in April to discus© a journal to succeed the Dial, but nothing cam® of it#3^ Most of the tranaeendentallsta who had helped him to literary distinction between 1037 and 18I$.0 were either settled in a profession, like Hedge and Bartel, or doing their thinking and writing far from Boston* Margaret Fuller was in Europe* Emerson sailed in October of iBkj and did not return until July of the nest year* Ripley was in Hew York to stay* In 181*9, two invitations showed Dwight he was not forgotten* Along with more than seventy other .persons in Boston literary circles , he was asked to join Alcott*s short-lived Town and Country Clubj33 and Elisabeth Peabody Included his essay the most significant piece of writing he did in these years# in the first and only volume of Aesthetic Papers*34 But the ^heresy” of Individual salva­ tion seemed to have triumphed* and there was no turning back to Concord* In l0t^ 8 Association began a brief flurry in Philadelphia* apparently under the influence of James Kay, John Sartain, and William Henry Furness* Dwight spoke at the dedication of the Philadelphia Union In M a y ,35 and this contact was fruitful 3^See the quotation, from Alcott1© MS diary ia Letters of Ralph ff&ldo Emerson. Ill, 392, n. 82. Up. b. Sanborn, Recollections of Seventy Years (Boston: Richard 0. Badger, 190?J',' II,' S'. &(>-.------- ------- -App. 2 5-3 6 . .Sec below, pp. 192-194* 35see Dwight* s report, "Dedicatory Festival of th© Phila­ delphia Union of AaaoclatloniAtA*" Harbinger* VII (Eay 27. 181*8 ), 2 8 . — *-“* Iter & timp# Jkm . #*rly fw him %© teemo* a rm^sila& ® m&*. trib«%«p to §*s**M fi* fiyaaiM ^ 1 ^ ou^a b*o*u** a ; Kr.Sloanakardld net think h* would b* a profitable addition to ti|«. atuff. John Sartain urgodhln to aend eopy anyhow* preferably aonathlng "ll^bt and aprightly.*36 safer* 1851 Dwight had two lneignifleant pl*«*a of back work aaeaptad,^? and probably did not submit anything sera* Xn tha spring of 1850, howavar, ha dallvarad a eoura* of his mu*leal l**tur*a in Philadelphia, neatly fres oldar sanuaeripba.3® Ih* publieity . ^”S m a lattar fros sartaln to Dwi^bt of April 6, 1849* i«L>s» in’lb* Boatun Pabliuytihrary* -. Dwight *««*b to hate b**n often awkward and unluafcy In his poraonal aontaota with paopl* ha wanted bo inpraaa. (fa* ; for «xa»pl* th® opening paragraph of th* long lattar fras Alsira Barlow of January 6. 181$3, ftuotad abowo, p. 78*} Far- bapa th* aoeldant referred to by Sartain in th* following passage hindered Dwight's progress considerably. "lotiara fcha*> ara saaat to no personally, please to dlr**t to 28 Saaaoai threat, otherwise they ara apt to oat info th* lattar box of John Sartain a Oo. and ara liable to ba spaaed ln~th# hurry ,' efbttsineas tad ye». will readily pereelT* . v th*. a<^waySndap of sar partner raaiins aa ha did in your*, an Allusion to-ay hawing written to you of 'thafa' being no- *«*- geniality of feeling between his and ■*«? (lee. ait.) '^ . -.^T '" • **•***■■» ■ •; pmpmpm,- - < r-.-. -. . : r M»v|iita»;. Hugo, Praal Jam* pf Wa*’ Up m # te«siigr#*tet# Sartain* ft**• . . . '**. ^ dHfcl jam. t ... —^ i*di ^ abort taxt to aaaaapahy aaa'Of Sartain*a beautiful engravings). ^®8*e a lattar fTos williioa Hanry Puma** to bwigbt of I. February 12, 18$0.A.K£Lin th* Boaton Fublia library. Sonatina batwaas tha fhllasalidiia lattnraa and tba pamta- nant. appointaant -with Sartalala* mrlfbt nay* a* Oooka auggasta (p. l4li* haw* triad 0 S m 3 H j m in Saw Torh. So poaitlw* awi- Oanea *xlstato prow* tbia. Cook* rafara to two urgent l«tt«r* fran Riplay (p, i%2}. A oireunatanaa adding aose w*l«bt ia th* faet ^atPwifht'a bibliography ialS^O aftar th* mad of tha QhronotTP* aalunn (January 12) ia alnoat aoaqplotaly blank. But th* aaaond lattar from Siplay waa written in s*ptaad»*r# and Dwight waa oartalnly "of Beaton* before th* and of th* year* -; (So*, boloar* :p«: 187-^ ) 1 8 ? derived from these lectures was enough to make Sartaln1 s congratulate itself, at the beginning of lS5 l# on the ** engage­ ment of JOHM S. DVVI0KT, Esq*, of Boston, as Musical Editor.” 39 Dwight fulfilled this agreeable assignment, ski eh included the selection end arrangement of piano and vocal music to be published in Sartaln1s elaborate'format, for thirteen consec­ utive month®, until just before he started his own Journal of Music,, Sartaln1® was not at all 'AssOclationiat, but it was the handsomest and most-prosperous looking, aagaslne Dwight ever was connected with* At the time he began to write for Sartaln'1 a, Dwight also assumed the musical editorship of the new Free Soil paper in Boston, The Commonwealth * Here, he was in the stimulating com­ pany of Samuel 0rIdley Howe and Bli*«r Wright* In the second issue, he had an imposing column on the front page in which he criticised, severely and confidently for him, an amateur performance of the tlesslah*^ *® But even when he did not have to produce something every day, he could not keep up with the pace of a dally paper* He quickly lapsed into using filler material like correspondence and translations, and soon any­ thing he wrote became filler, often crowded out for days by news and an Increasing volume of advertising* The paper itself was suffering from dissension in high places* when Klisur Wright became editor on March 25, How® and tha other trustees ^ w0ur Music Department,” S&rtain's &*K**lne« VIII (January, 1651)f ?0* ----------- ----- January 2 , 1851, p. 1 . 188. sold out to th© publisher. Dwight hung on ewer more precar­ iously until about the time Wright was removed, on June 16* Most of f b work for the Qmrnmmtealth reads like the more routine and undistinguished musical notices in the Harbinger. The most inter® sting item is the only non-musical article h© wrote, a full-column review of Mile Notes of a HomedJl. by George william Curtl*#^ He rediscovered a kindred spirit, w& poet,** in the effusive and whimsical writing of his old friend, and was inspired to find some momentary satisfaction in his own unsettled life. *2tepend on it, 0 utilitarian reader, soma who float about the world without an object or profession, are not without an object in God’s plan # *■ ..*&* Dwight was never in better spirits than when he wrote this review# *Grod’a plan1* for him was beginning to unfold# He waa not to Afloat about** much longer# The combined income from,. Sart&ln’a and the Commonwealth may .have been nearer a living wage than any amount, Dwight had earned since he left Northampton# At any rat# he felt that he had place enough in the world to take a step long delayed# On February 12, 1851, he and Mary lullard were married in a ceremony conducted' by William Henry Charming at th® house of Ann* Parsons #%3 As bachelor and maid, the couple had lived at this last out-post of Association for more than a year, omraonwealth, March 25, 1851, p.* 1* ^too. cit. bJcooiee, p# Xli-3* 189 and her© they remained as man and wife for some time* After­ wards , they lived for several years in a house on Charles Street near Cambridge Street*^4 Hone of the unavoidable gaps In this essay is so regret** table as that caused by the extremely scarce material on Mary Bullard Dwight* At this point one wishes that her husband were as important a literary figure as Shakespeare or Goethe, to whose biography years of patient research by many hands could reasonably be devoted* But beyond the vivid memories of John Codsutn and th® facts of her marriage and untimely death it is impossible to go very far with the m ana available to this study. Cook® quotes nA Brook Parmer* as saying that nshe was vivacious, quick, .and sprightly % was fond of conversation, but, no*;matter how trivial the subject of discourse, it ''grew Into earnestness in her mind, unless she m s wholly playful *,ih5 The rest of Cooke*a paragraph on her is this t At the farm she was known as "the Klghtlngale,” because, of her gift® as a singer* By this name Ripley mentions her in his letters to Dwlgfct, and by that of M i © lleblichste*” One of her Intimate friends has written of her? “Mary was a lovely person for a housemate* She was frank, outspoken, but always just and harmonious. ” William 11* Charming said that, without being morbid, she was th© most thoroughly conscientious person h© ever knew*4& Dwight himself may have tried to destroy all mundane, tangible reminders of Mary* Mot a word written by her is to be found in th© group of paper® which Includes, for instance, V*cooke, PP* 143-HA- * k’Spage 11}!+. ^ L o o . olt. 190. the letter® from Almira Barlow* He was almost thirty when he was married. Less than ten years later he was a widower, and he remained on® Tor over thirty years, until he died. How little he actually enjoyed being without a family of his own is certainly well established, but he may have preferred to keep the dream of marriage which finally, ©am© true in the same state a a those dreams which never material* l$ed* This , of course, is only one of several conjectures that could b© made on no firmer basis than lack of evidence to the contrary* We have no reason for believing that John and Mary Dwight were not at least reasonably happy* For John, marriage did not in the long run do much to alter his modes of thinking and living* It had its frustrating aspects. It came a little late In life, after a courtship prolonged at least threeV? and possibly five years by social and financial insecurity* It was cut off after nine years by Mary’s death in lSfeoA8 And, perhaps most important, there were no children* Frustration, however, was nothing new In Dwight’s experience* Whether his marriage contributed very strongly to his reticence and inertia, we do not know* Surely It Is not pure coincidence that after his marriage, Dwight moved swiftly toward the end of the long detour. 'The positions with Sartain* g and the Commonwealth» like so many ^ I n a letter from Cincinnati, dated April 27, 181$, John Allen linked Mary*® name automatically with Dwight9 a in suggesting that they might find happiness together in th® Middle West* (A*L*S* In tha Boston Public Library*) ^8S*e balow, pp. 2 1 3-2 1 5 . 191. "arrangement*” before them, were only temporary; but In the spring of 1&$2$ he began a project, Dwight»8 Journal of Music, that was to last for almost thirty years* 2 . Marriage was not th# only steadying and directing Influ­ ence on Dwight *s Ilf# in the interim between Brook Pans and the Journal of Music* When he was preparing his essay for Elisabeth Feshody, he may well have picked up **Qn Music,1* his oldest manuscript inspired by the * truant occupation. ** There he may haw# read with some surprise a beautiful statement of the ^principle of Association.n love, striving to amalgamate with all— devotion, reaching forward to eternity— all that mysterious part of our nature, which binds us to one another, to the beauty of the world, to God and to an here­ after , — require a different language from that e«waoR sense or intellect, which looks coldly upon the outward world; only to dissect It, and which occasions separations, instead of harmony, In human hearts M H# may have wondered why h© had taken the rough road through th© ministry and through Association to discover a principle which had been so clear to him even before h© graduated from divinity school* Ther# had been many good reasons, of course* For good literary amateurism, "Oh Music14 had too much that was borrowed and too much that was wdlvlmod.** Xn 181*1, Dwight had reluc­ tantly embraced Association because the practical means for developing a widespread musical culture, and thus making a ^9s©© above, pp. 3^-3 6 . 192* permanent place for th# literary amateur in society, were still not available. But th# principle of Association had been th# basis of his thinking long before Hlpley mowed out to Brook Farmu It was something about which th© success or failure of Brook Farm and co-aperatlw# houses proved nothing* It was on# form of the transcendentallst Ideal, and Dwight always felt that at least on© transcendental1st should fill his book with Illustrations of this ideal In terms of music. In 181*9, the means were not yet actually in hand, but the preliminary steps had been slowly taken. While letting Association die from neglect and derision, Boston had supported since 181*1 eight consecutive seasons of symphonic and operatic music. A humble place for the literary amateur was In th# making. "^.uaio" for Aesthetic Papers is really a restatement of the old faith. In spit# of persistent Fourieriet echoes, Dwight expands his statement, made near th# end of th# Har­ binger, that feeling for musical tonality is an "aesthetic, not a scientific e x p e r i e n c e . W h a t remains of Fourier is th# poetry, not the formula or th# experiment* In th© following key passage, Dwight shows that his faith still rests in a "Bellgion of Beauty." Music is both body and soul, like th® man who delights in it. Its body Is beauty In the sphere of aound. audibIe beauty. But In this very word beauty ia implied a~"rsout, a moral ®nd, a meaning of some sort, a something which makes it of Interest to the Inner life of man, which relates it to our 5°H.rMng»r. VIII (Deeamte.r JO, 18^6), ?0 193* Invisible and real self* This beauty, like all other, results from the marriage of a spiritual fact with a material form, from the rendering external, and an object of sense, what lives In ess©nee only in the soul* Here the material part, which Is measured sound, is th® embodiment and sensible representative, as well as the redacting cause, of that which we call impulse, sentiment, . feeling, the soring of all our action and expression*^ 1 This is generalisation, abstraction, but it is not impro­ visation, not the indefinite mistaken for the infinite* When he was in divinity school and Northampton, Dwight had music in hi® imagination* when he wrote for Aesthetic Papers» he had music in his ears# "The whole soul of a Beethoven," he says, "thrill® through your soul, when you have actually heard one or hi* great symphonies."^ Ten years before, Dwight could not speak as on© who had "actually heard*" Mow he not only insist® on th© generalisation that "music is th® language of the heart,"53 but also points out, in concrete terms, the characteristics distinguishing music from the other arts* Sound is generated by motion; rhythm is measured motion; and'this is what distinguishes music from every other art of expression* Fainting, sculpture, architecture, are all %ulescentt they address us in still contemplation# But music is all motion, and it is nothing else* And so in its effects* It does not rest, that we may contemplate it; but It hurries u® away with It* Our very first intimation of its presence is, that- we are- moved by it* Its thrilling finger presses down some secret spring within us, and Instantly the Slxjaiaic," p. 2? S2lbid., p. 29. ^3Ibld.. p. 2 7. 191+.# soul is oa It® feet with an emotion* Fainting and sculpture rather give the Idea of an emotion, than directly mow® us; and, If speech can raise or quell a passion, it is because there Is kneaded into all speech a certain leaven of the divine fire called music* The same words and sentences convey new impressions with every honest change of ton® and modulation in the speaker’s voice; and, when he rises to any thing like eloquence, there is a cer­ tain bouyant rhythmical substratum of pure tone on which hie words ride, as the ship rides on the ocean, borrowing it© chief eloquence from that* Take out the consonant* which break up hi® speech, and the vowels flow on musically* How often will the murmur of a devout prayer overcome a remote hearer with more of a religious feeling, than any apprehension of the distinct words could, If he stood nearer!5ft- The balloon was as high as ever in 1814.9* hut the ground cable© were much larger and stronger, and communication was much Improved* Appearing In the same year, the column in the Chronotypc was to be th© last considerable volume of non-musical writing Dwight did* The Immediate reason© for its Ineffectiveness we have seen above* It added nothing to Dwight’s stature as a writer, not only because he found himself In a philosophical dilemma, but also because he simply could not keep his mind focused on social reform for very long. Here we find the innately sociable and conservative Dwight just as we found him in the Fowler 1st days, trying with his left hand to make transcendentalism Into progressive socialism, while tacitly admitting that society, as It Is, 1® too enjoyable to disrupt* The real continuation of Dwight’s best work for the ILapbInger was not in the Chronofcype« but In Aesthetic Papers 5k"Ku*le,K p. 26 195 and Say tain1 s Ifagaslne* At several points where they provide dlreot continuation and resolution of idea® developing in the Harbinger, the Bartain1a articles have been quoted In the previous chapter# In general they ©how some of the charac­ teristic# of "Musi©"--a residue of the Fourlerlstlc "scientific*1 Jargon (notably in "The Musical T r i n i t y 1* ) ,55 and a restate­ ment of the essentially moral and religious character of m u s i c *56 Nothing so mature as the above quotations from "Music” appears* Aesthetic Papers was an attempt to revive the spirit of the Dial; Sartain*© went to readers who liked things "light and sprightly*” Dwight did not make many concessions directly, but he gracefully Introduced one attractive line of thought that would have been out of place In the Harbinger or Aesthetic Papers, a genuine pride in America* He despised Yankee Doodle patriotism* Direct emotional appeals to American nationalistic sentiments are very rare in his writing* We have seen one mild example in his review of Griswold* © poetry anthology,?? but the Barb dinger was too- self-consciously Assoeiationist to tolerate such a device* In the relaxed atmosphere of Sartain*s Dwight again used this propaganda technique In a very inoffensive form* It Is not nearly so ridiculous as the Associatlonlst mania for despising everything &VIII (M ay, 1 8 5 D , 3k3-3ltk- ?^"Saor«d Music,” IX (September, 1851), 235-236* Com- par® "Music," pp* 30-31• ^See above, pp* 9k-95* 196. "civilised,” a part of the ritual that Dwight could never completely swallow anyway. In the Introductory essay, he confessed to feeling a grandeur in the very consciousness of membership In such a large and various commonwealth of charac­ ter; there is an exaltation in the American feeling thus viewed, which borders on the unitary sentiment, and seeks a rhythmical expression*^® Ha admits that Americans are still too much occupied with politics and "enterprise,** but There is a wide new world before us, and a glorious ideal floats above us in the motto and the Consti­ tution of our Union; schools, and churches, and material enterprise do much; but we inherit from the past some old wrongs which are now a bona of discord; these are sustained with a convulsive grasp by Interest; while on the other hand reform Is loud, and atarn, and harsh, and anarchy is ever threatening*™ This was not sop for tbe Sartaln* s subscribers• It la directly in line with Dwight1a basic moral and social thinking. America docs not need aggressive social reform, he thought: • . • we need the tone and sentiment of unity, a© that character shall keep us cordially united, where Interests, and politics, and even creeds divide. . . . The spirit of art pervading a com­ munity insures at once a loyal and a generous dispo­ sition. It is as conservative as It is large, free, and progressive. It tempers these raw energies of ours to gentler methods of approaching, ©rids, with a fond patience for each slow step of a natural transition. It imbues us with a moral principle - ■ ich operates by habit, beautifully and surely, i... ke the resolution of discords in kuelc.^® In the six months before he founded the Journal of Music, w n a w w ii 2 Dwight was still Inspired by the transcendental moral strength of the Juan, and the Kossjrt and the J • S. Dwight, who © a m alive In the piano score and In the writings of 'H* T* A. Hof ffeian• Hero, on the one side, is this bold, generous passion-* life, with its Innategospel of joy, and transport, and glorious liberty; how well could Mozart under­ stand it, and how eloquently preach It In that safe, universal dialect of MUSIC, which utters only the heart-truth, and not the vulgar perversion of any sentimentI Here, on the other hand, is the stern Morality of being, frowning in conflict with the blind indulgence of the first. The first Is false by its excess, by losing Order out of sight; while Order, sacred principle, In Its common administration between men, in Ita turn is false, through its blind method of suppression and restraint, blaspheming and ignoring the divine springs of passion, which It should accept and regulate. The music is the heavenly and prophetic mediator that resolves the strife* Do we defy the moral of the matter, when w© feel a certain thrill of admiration a© .Don Juan boldly take© the statue** hand, ©till strong in his life ©reed, however he nay have inlssed the heavenly method in its carrying out, and somehow inspired with the conviction that this Judicial consummation Is not, after all, the end of Itj but that the soul*® capacity for joy and harmony Is of that god-like and asbestos quality that no hells can consume It?® 7 Journal of Music. VI (February 3, 1855), Xl;2-ili3. ^ J o u r n a l of Music. XIX (September lU, l C 6 l ), 166-190. ^^G r a h a m1s Magazine» XL (February, 1852), 159* We h&v© now followe& Dwight through ino&t of the r,hellsw 1m w&s to encounter* ho have found that his asbestos was Inriai^uahle and very thin in spots, which is the same as saying that he was not god-like, or grandly heroic, or childishly tnvulnerable* Transcendentalism swung him around in circles on high, end earthly, human desires 'Dulled hi® down again* ihls promising creative impulse was turned to the modest pursuits of criticism end interpretation* We have heard him boast, effervesce, sing, whir;©, beg, curs©, reason coolly, and ramble. home of his apace ho filled with almost great creative writing, and seme with, routine translation or undi­ gested. borrowings* Ho matter what happened, however, no mat ter how narrow his strip of earth, became, he never went very long without exploring that apace above tils head* Up there he could always find something that made hie earthly labor essentially Christian, morally inspiring, ideally Indestructible * As he entered his fortieth year, he reached the end of the long detour* Regardless of how many better routes to the same point we may find, we must admit that Dwight, with all his peculiarities and limitations, mad© the journey like a disciple -of whom the Hsujor*1 transcendental 1st© could be proud* Beside the Walden and Representative Men of p, q . y&tthieasen*a "American Renaissance,n uwloht * g Journal of Music does not look Ins .a ;'.’Xilj., In the Yale Uni varsity Library* 209. A jest, Is our immediate reaction# Some of th® phrases are particularly suspicious* But we e&mot be sure* If it was a jest, it was a tasteless one* Whether Lowell’s Intentions were serious or flippant, he sorely misjudged Dwight, who pussled over how to reply for two or three days* He finally decided the suggestion was serious, and in answering Lowell pointed out his surprise both that such a service was not already available, and that anyone should think h© was fitted for it* I em altogether too easily bored {sensitive, selfish, touch-me-not that 1 am), to wish to be any sore of an intelligence office than I already involuntarily am, as part of the penalty of editing a musical paper. I hate so much of the personal go-between- lam even of the musical world, and would like (if possible) to deal with th# world nor® at arm*a length, Instead of having to personally meet so many of th© music teachers and the applicants for such* If it came to governesses, what should I &o?^7 The atmosphere of this little incident Is fascinating, but how enlightening, we should hesitate to say* Dwight’s sensitivenes® and naivete had long been highly magnified by his friends* He himself seems to have felt sometimes that he was less well adapted to the real world than he actually was* The self-portrait In th© above letter may represent a defens® mechanIsm, thrown up In one of the dark moods to correspond with what Dwight knew Lowell thought in the first place* Business transactions may have *bored" him in the early days of th# Journal* but w# must not forget the Dwight who sold Association In Hew York in I8I4.6 , and who later ^T&*h*S* of June 2J4, 185^, in the Tale University Library* 210 managed nearly all the various functions of .th* Harvard Musi­ cal Association* Established wits can be very cruel at times, and while th© Journal of Music was still struggling, th# smiling, non-Brahraln Dwight must have often felt uncomfortable at th# Saturday Club* 3* In musical circles, Dwight was in more sympathetic, If less sparkling company* In April of 1856, he had the Harvard Musical Association and the Mendelssohn Quintette Club to thank for another Journal of Music benefit c o n c e r t T h e season of 1 8 $$~1 8 $ 6 had been a happy and Inspiring one, although Carl Eerrahn had played his severely classical pro­ grams to half empty houses In the new Music Hall, which Dwight and the Journal had helped to build* On March 1, Thomas Crawford1® statu# of Beethoven had been unveiled there, and the day was a high peak In Dwightfs career*s^ At the beginning of th© next season Boston had no orchestra, and Dwight*s spirits fell* Craneh wrote from Paris to try to cheer him up again, saying there should b© a luxurious university chair for Dwight somewhere, and suggest­ ing what Dwight would never be able to carry out--#, removal from Boston to greener pastures*30 The concerts began again after th* first of th# year, and Dwight described th# great 2SJournal of Music. IX (April 5, 1856), $. 29so® Journal of Mualo. VIII (March 6, 1056), 181-183. A.I..S. of December 30* 1856, In the Yale University Library. 211. muni© festival In May as the "grandest* the mast important and, most genuine ausieal or art!®tie occasion that- has yet occurred on this continent *n 3 3- in spite of .it® financial failure* Pwight thought the festival had saved music In Boston, hence the Journal too* from extinction.32 In. July, th# great Glee® of 1832 celebrated its twenty- fifth anniversary* and Dwight experienced the comfortable feeling of having finally don# something to help th# class live up to Its promise* In the Journal of Music he wrote proudly* The class of ’32 has furnished its fair share of shining lights in church and state, In literature and science; and these have not shut out from their sympathies and recognition one* who* turning aside from all these paths* has © m m unconsciously and. irresistibly to be preoccupied with so secular a life-task as that ©f striving to make Music recog­ nised a® one of the essential "humanities" and ‘"claealea” of true education* as an Important element in social life (especially in fra# republics,} and In the culture of the true Christian gentlemen. 33 By- the next year* 1858* Dwight had brought his' resilient little periodical to m point where its artistic and commercial stability was finally recognised* Beginning with volume thirteen, Oliver Ditson and Company took over the publishing ■and financing of the Journal* and settled upon Dwight the salary of #1200 a year am editor. This arrangement endured 33-journal of Music* XX (Hay 3 0* 185?) * 65* 32 Ibld,. p. 7 0 . Pxi, (July 18, 1857), 126. 3h’8oo Dwight's «Rnoune«a.nt la Journal of Kusic, XII (Maroh 13, 1 8 5 6}, 3 9 7, ---------------- 212* for twenty years. Financially and professionally, Dwight newer rose any higher* He founded no permanent business and acquired no property* In this period his musical activities bore their greatest fruit, and continued until they were out* dated and superseded* The literary amateur created this one place for himself in the world, and lived to resign it only- after it had ©eased to exist* it* The arrangement with Oliver Ditson did not materially affect the Journal itself, but two years after th© pressure of weekly financing and publishing was released, Dwight had the-means and the energy to finally leave Boston for a belated "grand tour*" In May, i860, he was in Hew York "on business not entirely musical," visiting the Ripleys and other old friends, and listening nostalgically to the Ninth Symphony, which had first thrilled him there fifteen years before*35 On July 7, he sailed for Europe. The "Editorial Correspondence" in the Journal of Music, where letters from Dwight began appearing /.'late in August, records In detail'th# early stages of th# trip, beginning with a philosophic acceptance of sea-sickness and Dwightian poetry about th# "good hours" when, as on© watches the motion and th# color of the waves in all their glory, and their moody changes, how the music that he loves, with .shifting dreams of other music like it, mingle® with their motion* how memories of home and friends, of all-the tender, deep, or ^Journal of Music. XVII (May S, i860), 5* 213* e&pnest passage® of life* how on#*a life-pl&ns and aspirations sing themselves, in strains remembered or imagined, to-that els© voiceless rhythm of wild waresI Five days after bis arrival in Southampton* Dwight wrote his first letter from Paris, where he stayed about a month beginning July 22 or 2 3 *3 7 *phe third letter* a rather dull ■discussion of the Conservatoire and the French Church* appeared in the Journal for September 15*^® Just below a short account of the funeral of Mary Bullard Dwight, who had died on September 6 of typhoid fever*39 For a month, a grim tragic irony produced by the slow transatlantic ecornualcation of the day hovers over "Editorial Correspondence *" We read of Dwight * s surprise at the thriving condition of th© opera and other artistic endeavors under despotic government*^ and later of his trip through Switzerland on his way to Germany*^ Hot until October did the publishable correspondence break off. Th® news reached Dwight at Frankfort on October 7, in a packet of seven delayed letters, all confined to the same 3^Journal of Music* XVII {August 25* 1660), 173* 37^h@ letter la dated July 23, i860, reprinted in Journal of Kuale, XVII (August 25, i860), 172-17^. ! 3'8XVii, 198-199. *^XVTI, 198. See also Chandler, History of the Town of Shirley* Massachusetts, p. 392, ^Journal of Music. XVII (September 8. i8 6 0). 188-190. and * 1?4~1?B. 4 3 ^ tter of October 11, i860. Cooke, p* I?4* ^ibia.. cook®, p. 176. Tabl'd., Cooke, pp. 176-177. 215. again* Hare ha r®e#J.ve& a beautiful, data;Had account of rotary1 s last days from Oliver Wendell Holanes,^ and wot# to Cranch on th® twenty-second that the exaltation of the brilliant winter musical season had braced him temporarily*^-? He still could not work, and this he had. to do soon. It was his "only solid hope of cheerfulnessj In living earnestly for high ends to which I know her spirit calls mo, singing to m& • still * In remarking that Thayer should write his hook on Beethoven Immediately without waiting to learn everything, Dwight expressed feelings that may have governed his own future attitude on biography, especially autobiography* "It was never Intended in God1n plan that any man should be too closely known* I doubt not God-himself uses the divine faculty of not seeing, and of forgetting, • • ."49 A "Hew Series" of "Editorial Correspond#*!##1* began In December, inspired by the spirit of Mary and th® music she loved* "God*s sun still shines," wrote Dwight in his first letter, life atill goes on. Hatur* is beautiful and still speaks to the soul, and so do Art and husic, still divine and true to our deepest needs, even when sorrow shakes the whole bright and wondrous fabric of this life, till iif@ and time appear unreal*5^ ^Letter of November 11, 186-0* Quoted in Cooke, p p « 1 & 9 — 1 7 h * ^Quoted In Dcott, Life and Letters of C. jP. Cranch* p. 2i|.6. ’>6Loo. elt. ^nu., p. ago. Jottrnal of MubIc. XVIII (December 29, i860), 3 1 6 . 2 1 6 . Although Berlin was Dwight*s headquarters for about four months in th# winter of 16&Q-1 8 6 1, the highlight of th® season for him was a week*a visit to Dresden, th® description of which filled his column In the Journal for & m o n t h , ^1 He had Intimate contacts with Olara Schumann, her father Friedrich Wleek, and the violinist Joseph Joachim, The con­ certs of Clara Schumann and Joachim he found intensely moving, and with the latter he discussed not only Each and Beethoven, but also Emmrmon and th® destiny of America*5^ Of the winter season in Berlin, Dwight thought th® Christmas celebration especially colorful,53 the Prussian cigar smoke a column1 s-worth abominable,A- and th® orchestra so efficient that he realised he had ” taken the will for the deed at home, and not a very united will at that*”55 He found th# leading musicians a little hard to approach,56 although he was once in th® company of 1.1 sat and the von Billows, talking Intimately of art and artists #5? jn Berlin, as in Paris, he was struck by the great musical opportunities provided both artists and the public by a. desootle government• ^Beginning XVIIX (February 2, l86l), 357-356. clt« 53jaurimx of Music, XVIII (January 26, 1861), 3^9-350. ^Journal of Music, XVIII (March 23» l8 6l), 1*12. 5->lbid * * p* 1^.1 3 * rfS ^Letter quoted in Cook®, pp* 17 9-1 8 0, without addressee or date* 57joUrnal of Music* XXXV (August 7, 1875), 70* 217* In praising Berlin * b “Syssphoniea tor th© People," he made patriotic reservations which represent his resolution of this perplexing observation• Truly in this respect the Berliners are a favored people, although they lack some great advantages of our free land too precious to be exchanged even . for Art and Mu® Ic,~ad vantages, however, of which wo ourselves shall never know the real value, and never be quite secured in their continuance, until they shall go hand in hand with these*5“ After all, Dwight was essentially a Mow England Yankee on a sight-seeing and music-hearing tour* If he was not a Yankee of the shrewd, dollar-wise variety, ha certainly was not a citizen of the world* Kothlng shows his provincialism so clearly, and indeed delightfully, as a letter he addressed to Senator Charles Sumner on Mow Year’s hay, l86l, urging the appointment of Thayer to the post of Secretary to th© Legation at Berlin* He say® Ambassador bright is acceptable, although "Illiterate and a Democrat, mid withal a Kethodlat e x h o r t or* In discussing the trouble brewing between Month and South, Dwight recommenda the firmest measures* "If any states go out, let only what is left bm sound, even if it - be - reduced down to little poor Mew England, and I believe th© glorious destiny of America is saved,*60 In th© spring he - went down through Vienna to Italy, and “Editorial Correspondence* faltered again*• Henry ware, the 5^’Journal of bnsio, aIX {Apr 11 I3 # 186l) , 1X1. * 59a *L*S. in th© Harvard College Library* ^®Loc• cit* 218* Journal editor pro iam* suspected that Dwight had ** eaten of the Lotus and relapsed into silence in the ©harmed From private letters, Ware pieced together an account of a somewhat lonely and uneor*f ortabl# cjcperienc© in northern Italy, harassed by threats of war and orowdad with Austrian soldiers, who depressed Dwight* From Vanlea through Padua, Milan, Turin, and Genoa, his movement was fast* Bo w&® delighted with the Italian people, and thrilled by a glimpse of Devour in Turin* Be visited Parker1a tomb in Florence, but had too little time for all the city offered before going on to Home, where, in the studio of ?f* w* Story, he could relax and feel at home again*^ In Home he enjoyed a flattering intimacy with the Brownings, heard Hans Christian Andersen read his stories, arm hunted out the sights with Samuel Longfellow*^3 Dwight spent about ten weeks of the summer in London, whence he wrote regularly without reporting anything espe­ cially exalting*^ The greatest adventure was yet to come* He sailed for home on the new Great .Eastern on September 10* with a green crew aboard, the ship hit a atom, lout her rudder head, and finally limped Into -Queenstown three days l a t e r*^5 ^Journal of flusi©* XXX (June 8 , 1S61), 79* 62Joum*l of Muale. XIX (July 6, lB6l), 110-111. Matter of .Tune 2, 1861, quoted lr» Cooke, on. 181-182, without' address©#* w^See the letters from London beginning in 11 Editorial Cor** respandenee,” Journal of Mu»le* XIX (July 13, l8 6l), 117-118* ^Journal of Music,* XX (October 12, l86l), 222# 219. Ho felt "strangely confused* about going homo anyway .Only something like an ultimatum from 01 Ivor D-ltson had forced him to change M a mind about staying on la Europe •&? His- reactions during the atom, recorded brilliantly for the doujteal as "fhe Book of L e v i a t h a n , w a r # so mixed-and calm that ho felt almost like a disinterested spectator* With his feet braced and .Ms head bolstered on the corner of a sofa, ho tried-to read, of all things, the oandId, worldly diary of Samuel Pepys 1^9 He studied the people about him, imagining how "many. a mind was ©eouplad with swift last thoughts, .of-homo, of friends, of all- that makes life dear, ii if suddenly miasaaonod to the final leave-taklng - -and per- haps, 0 Joy I to the rejoining of dear ones 'who await us. In the world of spirits lie wrote a little like a preacher in speaking of rta heavenly inspiration of hope, of trust, of c a l m n e s s , b u t much of toner ho sounds like the middle-aged Dwight idxcsa m m m people knew as a "quiddle,*?^ and whom we know as a vary human, very normally uncomfortable, moody, ^Letter of October 3 0 , 1061, quoted in, Cook®, py LSI*., without addressed* ^7&etter to Cronoh, of Soveder 1 , 1 8 6 1, quoted in Cooke, pp* 1 B1|-18S* ®^3CX (October 26, 1861), 236-2JS, - and (November 2, l@6l) aliS^ 2&?* 6 9Ibld.. pp. 2 3? and 2l*6 . 7°zbid.. p. 2 3 8. 71X,oq. olt. 72Swift, flrpok Farm, p. 159. 220. fidgety parson mad© from the same mould as th© rest of us* The defensive self-portrait w© found in th© answer to Lowell appears hare in his description of ”the habitually timid, . . . sensitive . . . nervous natures, . . . who worry them­ selves with fears of possible dangers, who cannot get th# better of a thousand petty everyday annoyances, yet find themselves calm, exalted even, when great trials comei”73 Dwight prided himself on hi© grasp of th© realities of the situation. The sea was Indeed a heaving, boiling, tumultous £slc] surf ace| but nonsense all that about waves running "mountains hlghn~'»that 1 b mere common-plac© of poets and novel writers who have never been to sea . 7*1- The thoroughly baptised traveler finally arrived home aboard th© Niagara on November 21, l8 6l, He found it hard to realise that his country was at war, 11 fighting the fight, perhaps th© final on#, of Civilisation against a treacherous and arrogant pro-Slavery rebellion, with all its backward and Barbarian proclivities * . .*75 In him first editorial he - devoted a full column to apologising for enjoying so much the Mendelssohn Quintette Club and th© reunion with old friends. But why not? Our fight is for Civilisationj and we do well there­ fore to keep tip' all th© civilising elements and influences, and let all the sweet flowers blow, and , wholesome fruits ripen, that w© can, amid the storm.7& "The Book of Leviathan,1* p. 2j8. ^ I b i d , , p. 2ifj6. ^Journal of Music, XX (November 301 1861}, .278* ^ Loo• ©it* 221. quoted out•Id* the context of Dwight1® -personal Toolings at this time, th© above statement would sound insipid. Actually it covers rather awkwardly what must have been a deep foaling of loneliness and aimlessness* relieved only by the author’s established place in the musical life of Boston. In ism* dlate retrospect the trip to Europe probably seemed to Dwight & muddled combination of fair dream and nightmare* Inspiring and enjoyable as it had been* all the inspiration and* ©spe­ cially* th© enjoyment had been partially irreverent* distracted* ill-timed* perhaps unpatriotic# the bad timing was not all du© to the tragic events of 1860-1861 • The Journey earn® at an awkward stage in Dwight’s life. He was too old* too far away from his proficient college German *77 to make his * grand tour11 an - Integral part of his education. He wa® too far along In his career to go as a seeker of men and Ideas* as Emerson had in 1833* At the age when he should have been raising his children and buttressing his place in society* k© found himself traveling* often nervously and too fast* trying to make -up too much too lat®. Again one of his happy hours assumes th® note of tragedy. 5* In th© ’sixties and ’seventies Dwight displayed a healthy tendency to live in the present. The tenuous, some times pain­ ful associations with the past he handled reverently but 77s«@ the opening passage, of - the letter from Berlin quoted by Oooke* p* 1 7 9* 222* realistically* Ha lived for several years in the Studio Building at ?6 Tranent street, close to his work* Later he shared temporary homes with his mother, his sister Frances, and his brother, until the Harvard Musical Association established permanent quarters at 12 Pemberton Square, where t^wight found hi® logical, if undomestic residonee in 18 73, three years before his mother died*?® Soon after his return from Europe he received a touching letter from George Ripley, Imploring him to visit Brooklyn* Sophia Ripley had died exactly five month® after Mary Dwight, and Klpley wrote 11 without reserve.,* like a broken man*?9 we do not know whether Dwight answered 'this call. Be had little mean® or taste for such expeditions. When Ripley died in July of i860, Dwight wrote that he had lost the best friend he ever had* But they had not seen each other for 11 somm years, 11 and Dwight could not accept th© invitation ta be a pall~bearer* HeuLetter to (the second) Mrs* Ripley, quoted In Cook#, pp. 2 8 2-2 8 4, without date* ^A*L*3* of March l!|, 1848, in the Boston Public Library. 223* must have mat in Enrobe. At this tiaa Cranch was so short of funds that ha had to ask the traditionally impecunious Dwight to pay postage on a vary interesting latter from Paris to Berlin, which should have been well worth the charges Dwight•a description of the shipwreck prompted another note on July if, 1862*^3 so it went until their personal friend­ ship was renewed when Crunch returned to Cambridge in 1 8 7 3. Many of th® old personal contacts in Boston and Cambridge became perfunctory* In th® * seventies and * el forties the Saturday Club grew large and, unwieldy*^ Tim corporate spirit of the Class of I832 seems to have lapsed after the twenty- fifth reunion* Dwight stirred It up again luring an informal discussion at th® Harvard alumni dinner in 1 8 6 6, and the class dinners were resumed on October 31 of that year at the Parker House.^ About this time Dwight became secretary of the class, but he recorded almost nothing In the Class Book. In tearing out the three pages of his autobiography, he removed more than he ever put in. lie apparently could be counted on, however, to arrange a good dinner each year. With latter-day outcroppings of transcendental ism, Dwight seems to have had little to do. He is not mentioned in direct ®^A*L*S. of January 1, l6 6l, in the Boston Public Library. 8% 0Ott, Life and Letters of £• jP. Cranch, pp. 251-252* ■^%ee the list of more than seventy member® in George P. Seventy Years (Hew York? Charles ,~77” IpSJ-lfSS •'" 85 , Class Book of th© Class of 18J2, in th® Harvard Archives, Hoar# Autob1ogyaphy of £1 oribner* a l3ons, lv0*57 zzk* eonneetlon with the Free Eellglou® Aseo@la.tIen or Its sue- cesser* the Radical Club, although he lectured under the auspices of the former in 107®*’^ It seems unlikely that he would, have been left out of a group.Including Holmes* Clarke* ff. H * Charming* Ool* Biggin son* Cyrus Bar to!* Steer a on* Aleott* and Julia Ward Bows Perhaps he was * smilingly, * silently present* He Is also omitted from Frank Sanborn* s detailed account of the Concord School of'Philosophy (187&-1888)*®® and a note in one of his letters shows definitely that he was content to remain outside this experiment *^9 Although he did not desert idealism* Dwight became more and more a specialist as h# found himself directing the fortunes of Boston music* Bis friendship for the Bowes remained Intimate after Mary*a death largely because Julia Ward shared his musical taste® exactly, and because he delighted in being a sort of musical uncle to th® How# children**?® He danced so gaily at Florence Howe’s wedding that he sprawled on the floor* creating a story that went all the way to otto Dreeel In Lelpsig.*?! The Howes had their seats with him for the concerts W* Cooke* f,Th® Free Bellgious Association*” Hew England Magasin#» XXVIII (n*s., June, 1903), 1*93. a7g«e laura E. Richards and Maude How* Elliott, Julia Ward Bow® {Boston j Houghton, Mifflin* 1915)* I* 2-06* ^%eeoI.lect 1 ons of Seventy Years * II* IfSS ff • Mlth Andrew* August 26* 188?* A*I,*B. In the Boston Public library* 9 0J. W. Howe, Hemlnlecenoes. p. 1*37, 9Be e a letter from Dreeel to Owigfat of March 1, 1872. A*L*B* in th# Harvard Musical Association*" 22$ . in the Music Hall*92 jt® an<| Julia Ward could talk endlessly about the kind of music they both loved $ but Julia, being free from professional obligations, avoided performances where new, controversial numbers were played*93 with the many activities of 'Dr* Samuel Grtdley Howe, Dwight was sympa­ thetic enough to become a trustee of the Perkin© Institute in 1075.9k He is not mentioned, however, in Dr. Howe*a pub­ lished Letters and J o u r n a l s , 95 or very often, for that matter, in Mrs * ■ ilowe# s Hemi.nlsconces * Dwight never enjoyed for very long th® feeling of being indispensable to the intimate, private life of anyone* His last chance for domestic happiness having disappeared, he more or less drifted Into th® public domain, renouncing private sovereignty to cultivate for the sake of music In Boston the acquaintance of whoever might help and whoever needed help* Among Boston musicians, he idolised th© crusty and conservative Otto Dr©sal, whose prolonged influence on D w ig h t ’ s musical thinking went back to the first year of the Journal* Dwight compared Dreael*© first concert in Boston, on December 22, 1852, to "the communing of th© early Christians ^Mauct Howe Elliott, "The Old Rosewood Desk,** in Days and Ways In Old Boston» ed* by William S* Rossiter (Boston* E* HTsTTearna, l9l5) ,~Tp* 75* Ujuchards and •lliott, Julia Ward How*. II, 156-157. 9krh«s certificate of Dwight*s trusteeship is in the Massachusetts Historical Society. 95r'dited by Laura E* Richards (Boston: Dana hates, 1906}* 226. * In an upper chamber* *n^ The many letters from Ore eel to Bwight in the Boston Public Library and the Harvard Musical Association contain interesting details about Drese-1 and Boston music, ut little about the addressee. Dresel knew ■Dwight well ©rough to tease him and criticise him severely, but the acquaintance was still an essentially proves»ianal one. In the same way, most of the many other letters written to Dwight in these years are disappointing. Very few reveal a personal relationship between the correspondents close enough to make us feci a contact with Dwight as a person as distinct from Dwight as a sort of Secretary for Boston Music. His was a -name to bo addressed by musicians happy and musicians angry, by anxious mothers (KX appeal to you as the truest friend of ?Music* . . . to defend my daughter in her perform­ ance last evening . . ."$7 by people wanting choice tickets to concerts. The list of persons he helped, and of those who honormd him with their admiration and attention, would be long and impressive, but without much significance hare.9® Although Dwight, undoubtedly wrote acre letter® in this period than have come to light, their contents probably would not enlarge this study very much. Among many friends, admirers, and not a few disciple®, he lived, in a sense, alone and silent. ^Boston Evening Transcript. October t, 1890, p. 7 . 9?Fram Mr®. J* Ramettl. Undated A.L.S. 'in the Boston Public Library. ^Se® Cooke, pp. 223-225* 22?. 6* 'Ph© ten or twelve years following the Civil war were the period of greatest triumph for the Mtruant occupation** a triumph mad* possible by alumni of th© Pierian Sodality* th© organisation which had mad© Dwight th© truant of them all* The Harvard Musical Association supported the Journal of Ifualc from th© beginning* and sponsored th© series of concerts which mad© Dwight the leading musical Impresario and critic of Boston between 1S6*> and i860* After 1873* it even provided Dwight with a home# From the time of Its formation through and beyond the period of its greatest public service* th© Harvard Musical Association had no more loyal and active member than John S. Dwight* At the meeting of th© **Honorary and Immediate Members of the Pierian Sodality*1 on August 3®* 1837* Dwight read th© committee report formally stating th© purpose of th® new organisation*99 At that time* the association dedicated itself to collecting a musical library and to promoting music at Harvard even to th© point of recommending that music b© mad© a part of th© ©urr1©ulisa*^0® Dwight served on the com­ mittee to draft a constitution and by-laws* and waa elected the first vice-president in I8 3 8. He held this office for 99fleport Made at 11 Meeting; of th® Honorary and Immediate Members o T T E K e T le r T S j S,e3eY£Ey * • * 0 a m K r!5 i5 • Au^ u s t ’IB f fT wltir jHffeewarcT e ~ f e t ln r . (C a S O T ^ arid Thurston*”"19577• ’ T? ©printed "in th© Boston Musical Dasette• X (June 27* I6 3 8)* 33-3^, and (July ll*TnS35T. "TJ?* —^ ' 100F.oston S m I m I Gazelta. I Bulletin Bo* $' {December, 1936), p. fj?]. l0Zm.k library. Bulletin Ho. 10 (F.brmry, 191*1), P» [153 * 103sittlng In the pre.ent library of th® Harvard Kusto.l AeetoiaMom on July Iq.., 1950, the author, a rank intruder, found the spirit o f Dwight so s t m | a» to set film staring into the- past*. rttfctibt-* a portrait, almost life-slmed, "looks cheerfully dewp from a central place of toner* tony of the boohs and scores to added to 'the library, still sit am tto. shelves* tat# in tto afternoon, while the author was reeding in B w l ^ M a e w n hand ■ tto report of the fourth season-1 of .orchestra concerts span- sored b y the association C iS #® ~ l869> , a current member b#gei% ■*» an upstair® room, a somewhat halting but related reading of th# familiar Trio from the third movement of th# ■ donate» op * 31 *. ■ ifo» 3, b y Beethoven... A j£fc-i IP H s» \ r --' Ai'■/t-b U, < \ — *■ / ---—* — j- -- ------------------- — "Tf py k k; O --Z|' *T - ■ ✓ W — ✓ r r / / O . if * ✓ ^ /• b .« * / ✓ - /- b u -*— ^ -I--— —> - ■ E-- +— — ■ * /— ------——— .— __p T* To h im who had s p e n t many m onths t r y i n g to~ im a g in e how D w igh t* a own r e n d i t io n s o f B e e th o ve n sou nd ed , th e e x p e r ie n c e was a lm o s t e e r i e • 229 The moat Influential position Dwight ever held m s the perennial chairmanship of the concert committee for th© Harvard. Hus leal Association orchestra, concerts under Carl Zerrahn, which occupied seventeen seasons with their rise, success, and fall between 1865 and 1882#^®^ He dictated most of the programs, negotiated with orchestra members and soloists, and ©vsn did some of th® ticket-selling and accounting**^ As the most powerful person In Boston musical circles, he showed diplomatic and administrative, as well as critical and artistic abilities*. Surrounded and supported by a court of old Pierian*, he became the benevolent despot who took the control of Boston music away from th# wcapricious mood of the public,1* placed It "in the right hands,H and offered “pur© programmes“ to the “right kind of audience*"**^ Twenty-five years after he had called for such action in the Dial and in th© address before this same organisation, Dwight finally found himself in full possession of the means to act* His administration was com­ pletely autocratic* When he was In th© chair, no motion of which he disapproved ever came to a vote.*0? At the end of th© first season of six concerts, Dwight reported & clear and unequivocal success* $3 0 0 * 0 0 worth of 10^KMA L i b rary, Bulletin Ho. $ (April, 1936), pp. [2-lifi . 10 ;^-3o* the various MSS in the Harvard Musical Association, Including Dwightfs report* for each season, letters to him* etc* ‘^ Dwight** report of th© first season (1665-1866). MS In th© Harvard Musical Association* 107 From a reminiscence of William Aptrorp, quoted by Cooke, p* 277* 230. m u s ic was added t o th e l i b r a r y , and a s u rp lu s of 11385*00 m b was i n th # c o n c e r t fu n d # The c o n c e r ts gave a " g re a t d e a l o f r e f in e d pleasure, i n s t r u c t i o n , and good t o a l l con­ cerned, * and p ro v e d t h a t no s to o p in g t o "popular* t a s te was n e c e s s a ry i f 11 th e t r u e a u d ie n c e ” w ere p r o p e r ly "organised#" The a s s o c ia t io n to o k on a, new life# As 11 an o r g a n is a t io n o f men o f c u l t u r e , * i t was now in the a c t o f l i f t i n g m u s ic up and p la c in g nI t a t r u e p r o fe s s o rs , or r a t h e r m in is t e r s , on an e q u a l f o o t in g w i th men engaged in o th e r l i b e r a l and h o n o re d ■ p r o fe s s io n s .10® I n o th e r w o rd s , th e o ld P ie r ia n S o d a l i t y made a re s p e c ta b le p la c e I n th e w o r ld f o r one member who n e v e r c o u ld shake the s p e l l# T h ro u g h e ig h t seasons th© c o n c e r ts showed a c o n s is te n t s u r p lu s and w ere th© s ta p le fa r® o f B o s to n m u s ic#109 por n in e seasons m ore th e y c o n t in u e d , w i t h a d e f i c i t e v e ry y e a r p a id o u t of p r o f i t s o f the good d a y s , until a f t e r 'th* B o s to n Symphony was fo rm e d i n 1861• ' C o m p e t it io n I n v a r io u s fo rm s a p p e a re d e a r l y , how ever# I n 1869, D w ig h t ta n g le d f o r th© f i r s t t im e w i t h P a t r ic k O ilm o r® , s t r o n g b e l ie v e r i n m a ss ive s p e c ta c le s and I n c a te r in g t o th® Mp o p u la r t a s t e * w h ic h D w ig h t th o u g h t needed r e s t r a i n t and .re fo rm # As a c o m p a ris o n o f t h e J o u rn a l o f M us ic w i t h G ilm o re *s ja u n ty H is t o r y of th e National Peace J u b i le e * 10 w i l l show, IOBAVQB e p o rt o f tna f i r s t season# 109 HMA Library. Bulletin So. 5 (April, 1 9 3 6}, p. [12]. ■^°0OBtonj published by the author, ’If71. 231* Dwight was more than a match for the Irish, trumpeter* Just before th® first "F©aee Jubilee*1 he printed a list of the music played by th© Harvard orchestra in th© last two, very successful seasons, and pointed out that Gilmore had wisely chosen a city whore the public taste had already been health­ fully nurtured**1^ Gilmore mad# comic opera of an. interview he had with Dwlgjht,*^ but if ho hoped Dwight would male# himself ridiculous In blind, raging opposition, he was disap­ pointed* In th© Journal» Gilmore was credited with sanity, modesty, and great success,^ 3 although Dwight regarded the result as better than the original plan and the success as partly a c c i d e n t a l He thought Gilmore simply allowed quality to speak for itself In the classical program and In the children1e festival, along with his flamboyant quantity {an orchestra of 1000 and a- chorus of 1 0 ,0 0 0), "and his own peculiar element of * Anvil Choruses* . . »**115 Dwight was absent on only on© of the five strenuous days in 1 0 6 9, tut he did not pay much attention to the doubly monstrous repetition {orchestra of 2000, chorus of 2G,0OG) in 18?2* In preaching "The Lesson of the Former Jubilee," he took a deftoalble poke at Gilmore*a "maudlin, rancid, sentimental rhetoric, * . 111Joumal of Musle. XXIX (June S, 1869), lj6-l*7 . -^History of the National Paaoe Jubilee, pp. 53"58» 13-3xxix (July 3, 1869), 60. llJ*XXlX (July 17, 1869), 71. **5Journal of Muale. X X I X (July 3, 1869), 60. 11°Journal of Muale. XXXII (June 29, 1872), 262. 232* and displayed not only Impatience but a touch of snobbishness In describing the second jubilee as "a piece of modern Irish- American clap trap,*11? springing not "from the historical, refined, quiet Boston," but from "the bursting young business Boston# At the end of 1S69 arrived a competitor much more formi­ dable than Gilmore. Dwight recognised Immediately that Theodore Thomas and his traveling orchestra offered a standard of performance far above anything Boston had heard before* At first, he rejoiced in Thomas* coming, confident that programs of "new" music, especially Wagner., were simply a harmless antidote to the Harvard orchestra*s stringently classical repsrtoirs#^9 He even detected an immediate Improvement in' the local group, produced by "careful drill and a renewed ambition » • Otto Dresel, in Hurope at the time and in constant communication with Dwight, knew, bettor. On the matter of -program making he usually sided with Dwight against the younger and less conservative members of the commit tee, but even before Thomas appeared he found on® of Dwight's programs "a little heavy generally#*1^ Writing Xi7jrOUrnal of Muale. XXXII (June 29, 18?2), 2 5 9. 118Journal of Muaio. XXXII (July 1 3, 1672), 270. ^^Journal of Muslo, XXIX (November 6 , 1669), 13^-1 3 5. ^Journal of Kaela. XXIX (December I), 1869), ISO. 121■ x8ee the interesting remarks of Arthur Foote, one of the younger members, in HMA Library, Bulletin Ho. 4 {December* 1935), p p . [3-5j. 122a.I.S . of Savesabor 15, 1669, In the Harvard Musical Association. 233 in the summer of X87O and asking Dwight not to broadcast his "various saucy remarks,’1 he said quite frankly that the Harvard orchestra under wth© big z " made most of its progress in the columns of Dwight’s paper, and warned that as long as &©rrahn had Boston bewitched,. Boston music would stand still* ^ 3 This heresy, which struck directly at Dwight as well a® Serrate, was an early and accurate prediction that a slow descent had already 'begun* As Dwight’s social and musical, influence expanded to it® greatest breadth, hi® hands became gradually tied and the space above his head was almost shut off* The Harvard orchestra was a vested interest to which he had pledged all his abilities* The Journal of Music became the orchestra’s house organ* Dwight was far from becoming mercenary or unusually short-sighted in this situ­ ation* He simply was not "free* in th© transcendental sense, not the "living* mem Alcott had singled out many years before* As we have seen many times already, such freedom was not entirely congenial to Dwight* During th© long apprenticeship, we found him striving to maintain it with on© tend, and grubbing for a place to bury It with the other* But In th© long year® before he got his place in th© world, when freedom was period­ ically forced upon him, he always found an ideal to carry him along— in the poetry of Goethe, in Association, in the music of Beethoven and &osart* On® could worship Beethoven and condemn Vagner In idealist term®, on something like transcendental *^%*I,*S. of August 10-12, 1 8 7 0, in the Harvard Musical Association* 23b • ground© . But the irans c c n dent ali 81 Is far aft®Id In the position of defending Carl Zerrmhn as a perform*r against Thaodor© Thomas as a performer, particularly If the trims con- dentaliat concerned is dictating what Zerrahn shall perform* How Dwight handled himself in this equivocal position will be seen when we discuss the music criticism of these years In a later section* Tragedy and frustration are here felt only faintly, If at all* Dwight rode off In many direc­ tions during his career, but on on® Journey where he cut the path for himself he reached his destination, defended- his newly won position manfully, and retired with th© respect and gratitude of all. To lament th# loss of a ^living man11 and philosopher at this point would be quixotic indeed. 7. Although, the Journal of Music was gradually reduced from guiding and representing a broad musical “movement* to pleading specially for a single organisation, it probably could never have lived such a long, healthy, useful life otherwise. In 1863 it was changed from a weekly to a semi-monthly publi­ cation* During th® first eight or ten years of th® Harvard concerts it enjoyed relatively smooth sailing, reaching a circulation of 2 5 0 0 and probably 1 0 ,0 0 0 readers* In the late 9 seventies It declined with its clique* At the end of IE7S Oliver Ditson stopped publishing it because Dwight would not agree to certain proposed renovations* Longfellow and 3^-iefct, History- of American Magazines.. Ill, 1 9 6. 235. and others stiec©ad@d In securing a guarantee fund and a .new publisher* Houghton, Osgood and Company*1-^ The ^Prospectus for 1879” promised a better Journal than ever* with impartial, Independent criticismsj new, musically educated contributors like. William Apthorpj and a more general coverage of art and literature But this was merely the opening cadence of the coda* :;uch a paper could no longer be supported* trained music critics began taking over the assignments formerly given to any reporter not otherwise occupied In the Journal*s palmy days.*2? Two months before the harvard orchestra began its fifteenth season In December of 1879# an upstart nBoaton Philharmonic Orchestra” gave Its first concert under the able Bernard ■ List@ista*^ A year later another and final benefit for the old Journal, was in order* It was to be called a ;"Testimonial' Concert” this time, and the fifty’influential lovers of music who signed the proposal addressed to Dwight must -have known that they wore organising last rites. Dwight ^Cook*, p. 200* Oddly enough, Dwight has boon quoted as saying that Longfellow* • influence on muale was "pernicious" because *h© was always ready to head an invitation addressed to any new performer, however mediocre, who was asked to favor the public with a. concert*” (Thomas Wentworth Higgins on, Old Cambridge [Mow York? Macmillan, 1899^# P* 137*) ^ J o u r n a l of Knalc. XXXVIII (October 26, 1873), 326. ^■^Louia C. Bison, The HI story of American Music {Hevised e d *; low Yorks M&cmi 1 lan, TC925), p * TSZm ^ Joaratl of Music. XXXIX (Hoveaber 6, 1679), 161-182. ^Reprinted in Journal of Kusio, XL (December 1+, i860). 192* .. "**“ l'"irr‘ 236 accepted th® testimonial as a reviver of tthop« and motive, 11 encouraging *yet further and— let us hop®— better work*®3^ ® But he knew that very little more work was. to bm left to him* K® wrote 5 tfhat you would honor in. me is simply the high pur­ pose, 'the honesty and th® consistent perseverance of my course; to this, and to nothing more* can X lay claim-* When my work began, music was esteemed at its true worth by very few among us* I simply preached the faith that was In me* How we are almost a musical people; those who cose forward now learn music as It should be learned, learn to speak of it with k n owledge.(the knowledge that comes of practice), and will readily outstrip me* What more could X desire?^31 Musically and socially, no event ever gave Dwight more pleasure-.* It was accompanied by many expressions of admira­ tion and willingness to cooperate with him in anything he might undertake* Be was realist enough to suspect, however, that he was being gently dusted off only to be set back farther on the shelf* *Everybody seemed full of the bright idem that had struck somebody ’just In the nick of time’ , 11 ho wrote* ,TWe never knew we had so many friends; « ♦ #«132 Frivately, Dwight confessed that th# concert produced only about half what he expected* Of the net proceeds, soa® -$lj6 0 , he settled #5 ®® on relative© partly dependent on him and deposited $800 with his publisher (now Houghton, Mifflin and Company) as a new guarantee* In addition, a separate U °journal of Muale, XL (December k, 1880), 192. U 3 -loo . c l t . Journal of Muale. XL (December 18, i860), 206. 237* fund was sat up far him which would pay $1000 a year for five or six years**33 What he wanted more than anything— a greatly enlarged subscription list to the Journal—-was not forth­ coming. For a tSM0 he chose to-gamble that his editor*a. salary would yield enough more than the forfeiture out of the fSO0 to allow him to hang on. At the beginning of 1861 he bravely announced "A Sow Lease of Life*"*^ Life, however, -had gone out" of the Jeurnal1 a excuse for - existence* Th© music of Boston was proceeding without Dwight, Zerrahn, and the 'Harvard orchestra* On the formation of the Boston Philharmonic s' 3oo- i»ty with John Knowles Paine as president, Dwight was not consulted* In reporting ita first concert In March-, with Xistemaxm. conducting, Dwight described the society as a Mshrewd business scheme « . • born apparently out of a curious, fermentation and pet "•boiling of the petty local-politic© and Jealousies of music • . .**35 Two weeks later, when he reported H* L* Higginson* s endowment of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he seemed a little stunned* He wished :th® new orchestra, success, but thought it ought to have -an organization behind it. *3 6 Again he was not consulted, although ho was *33.See Dwight' 8 letter to C. H. Britton of Jane 2, 1Q81, printed in Britton*# “John S. Dwifht as 1 Knew Hi®.” Itueie. X (July, 1896), 230-231. — -- ^Journal of Music. XXI (January 29, 1 8 6 1), 20. U gjoumal of Music. XLX (March 26, 1881}, 51-52, U & journal of Music. XXI (April 9, 1881), 58-59. 2J8* th© only person 'mentioned by nasi© In Higglnson*e announcement as a leader In forming musical taste* He was not forgotten, but was definitely retired* fix© last regular issue of the Journal* number 10$0 , appeared on July 16, 1861* On September 3, Dwight Issued a farewell number* His rtValedictory” was manly, straight to the point, a little weary perhaps, but more a re-affInaction of faith, an almost Joyous trip in his long neglected balloon* We have long, realised that we were not made for the competitive, sharp enterprise of modern journalism* That turn of mind which looks at the ideal rather than the practicable, and the native Indolence of temperament which sometimes goes with It, have made our Movements slow* Hurry who will, w© rather wait and take our chance* The work which could not be don© at leisure, and In disregard of all immediate effect, we have been too apt to feel was hardly worth the doing* To be the first In th© field with an announceaent, or a criticism, or an Idea, was no part of our .ambition* Eow can one recognise com­ petitors, or enter Into competition, and at th© same time keep his ©y® upon truth? If one have anything worth savin gr, will It not be as good tomorrow as today?*3r Typically tremsaendentaliet as this passage Is, the reader of this study should Immediately reeognie® it as another example of the apparently candid half-truth upon which far too much of th© existing commentary on Dwight is based. The person portrayed here might have written Walden* but he never could have been responsible for forty-one volumes of th© Journal of Music and seventeen season© of symphony concerts, keeping on© eye on truth perhaps, but th©. other on the balance in th© concert fund and the likes of Patrick Gilmore, ^3Tjoixrnal of Music, XLI (September 3, 1801), 12J* Six months after h© closed th© Journal forever, Bwight wrote to his old friend George William Curtis that laslness was agreeing with him #,too well*" He was enjoying retirement# *And if I were not so very, very old, * he continued, if it were not my fate to have been sent into the world so long before my time, I verily believe I should confess myself over head and ears in love# At any rate, I love life# Yet nearly all my old friends seem to be dea3T~or dying, * • « When I write' you again, 1 hope to fee able to say that X am well at work again; but. howf on stoat? Thank God, X am not a ^critic® iW® Speculation on eertain ©nigmitt© statements in this letter will make themes for later sections* Here we are interested primarily in the relaxed but far from moribund atmosphere of Dwight1© last years* Of his many friends, the oldest were some of the best# In Cambridge he liked to visit John Holmes, a classmate of *32, and ©specially Christopher Fears© Craneh, who for over fifty years had periodically revived Dwight*© spirit® with eloquent words from a fe11©w-idealist, often in narrow straights* Dwight must have reveled in such memories as Branch set down in a letter of May 1 3, 1 8 8 3# Can you believe it— w© have known each other fifty yearsI Th# whirligig of time with its ceaseless revolution and changes, absences fro® each other, differences of occupation, and so on— ha® not, X think, worn.away in the least our old friendship* We were drawn together from th© first by intellectual sympathies, by our studies in.th© Divinity School) by our tendencies toward freer, fresher, more ideal views of literature and llfcf in aspirations of th© *3$QU©t©& in Cooke, p. 213, without exact date 214.0 . tru©, the good and th® beautifulj and not least, by our ©osason love of music* w# were youths then— ar® w® older now? Wiser, let us hope— but both young at th# ©ore of our heart®.139 The annual dinner of th® Harvard Musical Association in January, 188%, was a proud moment Involving both Cranch and hi® sister Oarollii©. The latter had just finished her large painting.of Dwight, which was unveiled on this occasion. Christopher Pears© mad® a short speech and read two sonnet® on ’•ffusi©1* and ^Poetry. -l^O Six years later, Cr&neh gave an exclusive party for himself on his birthday, when he opened a bottle of rare old win® for Dwight, John Holmes, and Francis Boott, the oempocer and critic* After'dinner th© mf0ur old fellow® * * * finished off the evening with punch, cigars, and quips and cranks,'and wreathed smiles*”3^A Dwight made an ideal ngrand old man.fl Always short and slender, he probably presented a neutral and unprepossessing appearance until ©Id age added a distinguished whit© to his beard and receded hair, setting off genial, regular features* m thoroughly enjoyed the twelve years left to him after the long struggle with th© Journal of Mualq and the Harvard orchestra was over* He regularly attended the concerts of the new Boston Symphony* Orchestra admirable, programme® might be better, * he wrote in 1&92.*^ He arranged dinners 3-39sc©tt, Life and Letters of C. £* Oran eh, p. 3l4.i1 * ^ 0ibi