THE HARMONY SOCIETY.




THE
HARMONY SOCIETY,
AT
ECGONOMY, P ENICN'-A.
-POUPNDED BY GEORGE RAPP, A. D. 1805.
WITH AN APPENDIX.
BY
AARON WILLIAMS  Bi.BD.
PITTSBURGH:
PRINTED BY W. S. HAVEN, COR. WOOD AND THIRD STS.
186 6.




THE articles of Dr. Williams in the Pittsburgh Commercial, were submitted to our inspection as they successively appeared; and as now published in an enlarged
form in this volume they meet our approbation, as containing a true history of our Society from its foundation to the
present time. His statement of our views on the various
points discussed, although in somewhat different language
from what we are accustomed to employ, may be received
as, in the main, correct.
R. L. BAKER,
JACOB HENRICI, } rustees.
ECONOMY, PA., Sept. 1, 1866.
Entered according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1866,
BY AARON WILLIAMS, D. D.,
in the Clerk's office of the United States Court for the Western
District of Pennsylvania.




PREFATORY NOTE.
THE] following Chapters, except the Introduction, originally appeared as a series of articles in the Pittsburgh
Commercial. The first one was written in reply to a slanderous article in the Atlantic Monthly, entitled " The Harmonists."  The others had no reference to that article, but
were intended as a more full account of some of the topics
cursorily noticed in the first chapter, together with an
outline of the later history of the Society. The articles
attracted much notice as they successively appeared, on
account of the authentic information which they gave on
many points about which the public generally were laboring under misapprehension. They have been enlarged and
corrected, and are published in the present form at the
request of many readers, and with the approbation of the
Society, as will appear from the note which is found on the
preceding page.
The opportunities which the writer has enjoyed for becoming acquainted with the history of the Society, have
been peculiarly favorable. After a fire, by which he was
summarily ejected from the Edgeworth Seminary, in February, 1865, he and his family were hospitably received at
Economy, and have since been permitted to reside there.
To a previous acquaintance of many years' standing, there
has been added the opportunity of personal observation and
of the most frank and full communication with the leaders
and others, on all points pertaining to their history, opinions, &c.
He has had the use, also, of certain fragmentary memoranda prepared by one of the leaders a few years ago, on




vi.              PREFATORY NOTE.
several of the topics treated in these chapters. He has
simply aimed to write as a faithful historian, without indicating his own opinions on the matters discussed.
The writer would acknowledge also his great obligation
to his learned friend, Prof. R. E. Williams, of Pittsburgh,
who, though not a relative, has manifested a fraternal
interest in the progress of this work, and'has afforded most
substantial aid in the way of translations from the German,
some of which will be found in the Appendix. To him
especially is the reader indebted for the extended extracts
from the Hirten-Brief which are given. This work is highly valued by the Harmonists; and it may be interesting to
the reader as a specimen of the mystical speculations of
Jacob Boehm  and his school.  It should be read along
with the introductory remarks of the translator.
EcoNoMY, Pa., Aug. 21, 1866.




CON-YTENTS..
PREFRATORY NOTE,    -   -   -   -    age  3
INTRODUCTIOIN -STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY
-Pietism-Degeneracy-Revival of ProtestantismHerder, Jacobi, Harms and Schleirmacher-Old Wiirtemburg -Enthusiastst- Chiliastic Dreams — Migrations from Germany-Colony. to Russian TartaryThe Zoarites-Anecdoteof Napoleon and Goesele, p.  9
CHAPTER I. REPLY to ATLANTIC MONTHLY, with
general outline of the Society's History-Connection
with the Pietists —Persecutions-Removal to America-Community of Goods-Celibacy- Slander in
regard to Rapp's Son refuted-Death of George Rapp
-Present Organization — Patriotism and Benevolence,    -                               page 24
CHAPTER II. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES of George
Rapp and Frederick Rapp,   -   -   -   page 35
CHAPTER III. THEIR HISTORY AT OLD HARMONY
-Reasons for adopting the Community SystemEarly Trials — Articles of Association- Growing
Prosperity —Condition in 1810-Reasons for Celibacy-Lord Byron's misrepresentation,    -   page 48
GIHAPTER IV. THEIR HISTORY ON THE WABASH,
A;ND FINAL SETTLEMENT AT ECONOMY -Removal to
Posey county, Indiana-Enlarged operations and increase. of numbers.-Sell out, to Robert. Owen-Return
to Pennsylvania —.Town of Economy' built-Use of
steam power-Silk Business -Aesthetic culture —
Duke of Saxe Weimars~ Visit-Arcadian scenes. fade
-Wine making, -                          page 60
CHAPTER V. SECESSION UND ER COUNT LEON-Correspondence opened- Gntgen's letter-Arrival at Economy-Wishes to be at the head of affairs-Draws off
a party-The Society divided-A compromise-New
Society at Phillipsburg —Cash exhausted-The Count
fails to make gold-Mob invades Economy —Drummed out-Bubble bursts-Leon takes French leaveDies on Red River, &c.,  -   -   -   -   page  72
CHAPTER VI. VARIOUS LAW  SUITS-The Miiller
case-The Schriber case-The Nachtrieb and Lemmix cases-Eminent legal talent employed, and im*portant principles decided,  -   -   -   page 82




v111.
CHAPTER VII. LATER HISTORY OF THE SOCIETY.
Change of Articles of Association-No more refunding to withdrawing members-Present state of the
Society-Outside enterprises —They own two Railroads and a Town-Their oil business, &c. - page  90
CHAPTER VIII. RELIGION OF THE HARMONISTS.
Mystico-Pietistic-Not a sect-Religion of communism-Dual nature of Adam-How he fell-Philosophy of celibacy -- Mystical cosmogony -The microcosm and *macrocosm — Final restitution of all
things, -         -page 96
CHAPTER IX. RELIGION OF THE HARMONISTS, continued-Their Millennarian views —Scripture Arguments-Glorious visions of the future-Singular prediction of Nicholas Von der Flue-Allegorical Interpretation- Religious usages-Funerals-Conclusion
-Note containing semi-official statement of religious
views,    -                                page 106
APPENDIX.
A.-Chiliastic Dreams.-Close of 10th century-The
Crusaders-Anabaptists —Millerites-Adventists, page 119
B.-Colony to Russian Tartary-The Zoarites-German settlers in Eastern Pennsylvania, -   -   page 121
C.-Ancient Communists.  Pythagoras-The Essenes, -page 125
D.-Articles of Association,  -             page 129
E.-Gontgen's letter introductory to Leon's visit, page 131
F. - The HIRTE1N-BRIEF,  &c., —Introductory Remarks on Free Masonry and Jacob BShm-System of
theosophic mysticism unfolded, in three parts, page
137 and                                         143
F 2.- Other Kindred Views with those of the Harmonists, viz.: Arnold- Petersen- Bengel —Stilling
-Oetinger —Michael Hahn,   -   -   -   -    178
G.-George Rapp's last hours,    -   -   -   - 182




INTRODUCT ION.
DECLINE OF PIETISM —REACTION-STATE OF THINGS IN
WURTEMIBERG —FAA TICAL MO YVEMENTS-EMIGRA TION
TO RUSSIAN TARTARY-THE ZOAR COMMUNI TY.
T HE state of religion in Germany at the close of
the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, must
be understood, in order to a full appreciation of the circumstances out of which grew the movement of George
Rapp and his Society of IHarmonists.
The Pietism of the 17th century was a revival of
true religion under the labors of Arndt, Spener, Franke,
Gerhardt, and others, and was similar to the Puritanism
of Englanac during the same period. The downward
tendency, however, of human nature, even at its best
estate, led to a degeneracy in faith and practice among
the Pietists themselves, and to a general prevalence of
irreligion and immorality among the masses.  The
established clergy even were many of them  blind
guides, either being zealous bigots for the orthodoxy
whicl they held in the letter rather than in the true
spirit of a scriptural faith, or verging to the opposite
extreme of skepticism in its various phases of Neology
and Rationalism. The universities became hot-beds of
vice and infidelity. The professors and doctors of
theology taught, their pupils to recognize but little dif2




10               INTROD.UCTION.
ference between the inspiration of Moses, and the prophets and the philosophic or poetic genius of Pythagoras, Plato, or Homer. The historic records of the
Old Testament were but myths, and the miracles of
the New Testament were but exaggerated statements
of natural facts.  The r'eason was regarded as the
ultimate test of truth, and all the supernatural element
in the Scriptures must be so explained away as not to
conflict with it. Experimental piety was but the delusion of a weak mind.  Confirmation, and a participation in the sacraments, was the privilege of all who
were of suitable age, and could repeat the catechism. A Christian profession required no separation
from the world; church discipline was unknown; the
Sabbath, after the hours of church service, was a holiday; balls, and theatres, and gaming, were perfectly
orthodox amusements, and a general looseness of morals
prevailed.
In this degeneracy the clergy were in advance of the
people. Among the latter some sentiments of piety
were still cherished. There were those who still reverenced the Bible as the word of' God, and who longed
for pastors who might feed them with spiritual food
rather than with husks. But such pastors were rarely
to be found. Sermons were, for the most part, mere
moral essays; the sacraments were but lifeless and unmeaning forms, and the few devout worshipers retired
from the house of God hungry and unedified.
One of the things most offensive to the truly pious
was the mutilation of the grand old hymns, in which
the religious poetry of Germany so much abounds.
These hymns were altogether too devotional for the




INTRODUCTION.                 11
cold and philosophic rationalists, and they went to
work to despoil them of everything savoring of those
vital doctrines which they rejected, or that was expressive "of high devotional feeling. New hymn books were
introduced into many of the churches, individual towns
and churches each having their own selections.
The music also accompanying the old hymns shared
the same fate with the hymns themselves.  Secular
and operatic music was introduced into the sanctuary.
"The oratorios and cantata of the theatre and beer
garden," says Hurst, "were the Sabbath accompaniments of the sermons. The masses consequently began
to sing less, and the period of coldest skepticism in
Germany, like similar conditions in other lands, was
the season when the congregations, the common people,
and children, sang least, and most drowsily."
"The church now," continues Hurst, "presented a
most deplorable aspect.  Philosophy had come, with
its high-sounding terminology, and invaded the hallowed precincts of scriptural truth. Literature, with
its captivating notes, had well nigh destroyed what was
left of the old Pietistic fervor. The songs of the church
were no longer images of beauty, but ghastly, repulsive
skeletons.  The professor's chair was but little better
than a heathen tripod. The pulpit became the rostrum
where the shepherdless masses were entertained with
vague essays on such general terms as righteousness,
human dignity, light, progress truth, and right. The
peasantry received frequent and labored instructions on
the raising of cattle, bees, and fruit.'I he poets of the
day were publicly recitel in the temples where the
Reformers had preached.."




12               INTRODUCTION.
Such was the deplorable state of religion in Germany
in the latter part of the 18th century. It was time
that a reaction were taking place. The "enemy had
come in like a flood," and it was to be expected that the
" Spirit of the Lord would lift up a standard against
him." There was yet a " remnant" in Israel, a " seven
thousand, who had not bowed the knee to Baal." The
Mloravians and the Pietistic mystics were among the
conservators of a spiritual Christianity during the century just closed; and the leaven of their influence
was still working. The missionary spirit which distinguished the Moravian brethren kept. alive the activities of religion, while its more contemplative aspects
were exhibited in the lives and teaching of such men
as Stilling and Lavater, who had great faith in the
power of prayer, and, though entertaining many fanciful and mystical notions, united a life of devout communion with God through Jesus Christ with one of
active beneficence toward men.
Among the leaders of religious thought in Germany
there had been also an approximation toward a more
reverential treatment of the Holy Scriptures, and a reconciliation of their profound philosophy with a true
religious faith.  Herder, who was at once poet, philosopher, and theologian, had his early training among
the Pietists, and had imbibed the spirit of True CGhristianity from Arndt's treatise under that title. He was
an enthusiastic admirer of the poetry of the Bible, and
by his work on Hebrew poetry he did much to recommend the Scriptures to men of taste and genius. As
a preacher and theologian, also, though not without
serious defects, he was far in advance of the leading




INTRODUCTION.                 13
men of his day. Hle boldly defended the great essential doctrines of Christianity against the prevailing
skepticism; and he also did much, both by precept and
example, to restore the dignity and purity of the pastoral office.
Jacobi also did a good work in the same direction.
He was distinguished both for piety and learning. He
urged the necessity of an inward and living faith, having its seat in the heart rather than in the understanding. He adapted his teachings to the inward spiritual
wants of men, and made light of the pretended wisdom
of the philosophers as being foolishness with God. His
views were somLewhat mystical, but found a ready reception in many a soul that was thirsting for a living
religion.
]Harms and Schleiermacher are also among the names
of the men who gave a new impulse, each in his way,
toward the revival of genuine Protestantism. Harms
imi:ated Luther by publishing ninety-five Y:lhcses, in
which he " proclaimed the necessity of returning to the
old Lutheran faith, and proved that the religion of
[mere] reason was worthless."  He struck a terrible
blow  against lhationalism, and created a profound
sensation. Schleiermacher was educated partly among
the Moravians, and chiefly at HIalle.  The Pietistic
influences to which he was thus subjected in his youth,
never lost their power over him. lie also taught that
religion is not a mere exercise of the reason, but has its
seat in the heart and inner consciousness of man. He
was a professor in the University of Halle, and afterward in Berlin. Through far from being orthodox) he
was no Rationalist. He " based his whole theology on
2*




14                INTRODUCTION.
a feeling of de2lendence on God."  " He regarded Christ
the Redeemer, not as an ideal creation of the mind, but
tlhe real historical Christ as he lived in history and still
lives in the church, as the centre of Christian theology."  Ire gave a new impulse to the religious think.
ing of his time in a direction favorable to a living
Christianity.
The preceding statements have reference to Germany
generally.' But old Wiirtemberg (where Rapp and his
movement originated) deserves special mention, as the
region where more of the savor of true piety had been
retained than elsewhere, and where the stoutest resistance was made to the encroachments of Rationalism
in matters pertaining to faith and worship.  Hagenbach mentions Bengel, Ocetinger. and Crusius, as men
of Wiirtemberg, who, " in opposition to the demonstrative, as well as negative tendency of Rationalism,
gave a new direction to theology by introducing into it
not only a positive, but also pietistico-mystical elements.
Societies for practical no less than scientific purposes
were founded, in order to keep alive positive religion
among the people. Thus, in the minds of many, the
faith of their forefathers was preserved not only as an.empty legacy, but it assumed here and there, in the
fornl of Pietism, depth and independence, in contrast
with the scholastic tendency of the age."  It has
been usually found that in a period of religious deterioration, the clergy and men of the higher classes are
among the first to go astray, while true religion still
lingers in the homes and hearts of the middle and
lower classes of people. It was so in Germany, and
especially in Wiirtemberg.  Tzschirner, in his con



INTRODUCTION.                 15
tinuation of Schrbikh's Church History, after speaking
of the reaction above described, and of a refined
poetico-philosophical mysticism, which had been introduced, and found favor among the educated classes,
and which had led some into the Church of Rome,
through their desire for a cult abounding in ceremonies,
showy, and beautified.by the applications of art, then
alludes to " a coarser mysticism quite independent of
the former, which showed itself among the lower and
uncultivated classes in some portions of the Lutheran
Church."   " Such religious enthusiasm," he adds,
" among the lower classes, is, however, a much less
frequent phenomenon than it was formerly; whether the
reason be that there is less general religious interest
now than in other times, or that there is more knowledge and instruction among the peasantry and mechanics; and only in old Wiirtemberg and in Norway
some fanatics of this sect have recently appeared."
Very much, however, of what this historian (who has
few evangelical sympathies) lightly calls enthusiasm,
was most probably the spirit of true religion as it was
retained among the masses; but which, in the absence
of an enlightened and pious ministry, was left to develop itself in various erratic forms.
The following passage may give us some idea of the
more exceptionable forms in which this spirit manifested
itself, and will show us something of the state of society in
the midst of which George Rapp commenced his humble
labors: " The beginning of Pietism and Separatism in
Wiirtemberg belongs to a much earlier period, and here
we can merely state that during recent years enthusiasts have continued to exist in that region, in whose




16               INTRODUCTION.
headis visions of unrestrained freedom and Chiliastic
dreams were about equally mixed.  Most of them
were mere country people and mechanics, and as both
orally and in writing they reviled the government and
the clergy,they were visited with civil punishments. In
some instances, however, persons of other social ranks
shared in this fanaticism; for example, a clergyman did
so. One Friedrich, incumbent of the parish of Winzenhausen,' near Laufen, wrote a book entitled'_Faithand-hlope Glance of the People of God in Anti-Christian Times, drawn from the Divine Prophecies, by
Irenaeus U-S., in the year of Christ 1800, and dedicated to all those who are waiting for the kingdom
of God,' in which he announced the speedy opening
of the one thousand years' reign, and admonished all
true disciples of Jesus, as soon as the Lord should
open a door into the land of Israel, to get themselves
ready, with wives and children, the old, the blind, the
lame, and the crippled, and to set out for Palestine.
Ile patched his prophecies together from misunderstood
passages of the prophets and the Psalms, promised to the
citizens of the new kingdom the most glorious blessings,
spiritual and physical, and assured them that God himself would bring horses and camels to meet these pilgrims for Palestine, and would conduct them happily
to the promised land."
"A fanatic and deceiver, named M3aria Gottlieb Kummerin, of Kleebronn, in the bailiwick of Brockenheimer
(who had formerly so imposed upon a credulous curate
as under pretense of a divine command to lead him into
a violation of the seventh commandment with herself),
now contrived to use these prophecies in such a way as




INTRODUCTION.                 17
to gather followers about her; and after having paid
the penalty of her roguery in the house of correction,
she concluded to emigrate; and in the year 1801 she
succeeded-mainly by appealing to the prophecies of
Friedrich-in persuading some credulous country people that the persecutions of Anti-christ were shortly to
begin in Wiirtemberg, and that it was advisable therefore to go to the Holy Land.  Accompanied by twenty
to thirty persons from  Meinsheim, Kleebronn, and
places adjacent, she set out on the journey, and wandered as far as Vienna, where the ambassador of Wiirtemberg, to whom she applied for a passport, arrested
her progress, and sent her and her companions home
again."  For more of such " Chiliastic dreams," see
Appendix A.
Such outgrowths of folly and fanaticism  were of
course confined chiefly to the lowest and most ignorant
class of people, and were calculated to bring reproach
upon the more sober millennarian views which generally
prevailed among the Bible-reading and pious people of
that day. Such an interpretation of the Scriptures
was not new, but had been handed down from the
apostolic age, and was still defended by some of the
best men of that period. Bengel and Jung Stilling
were zealous millennarians, and they endeavored to
ascertain the moment when this event would take place.
The former fixed upon the year 1836.
It may not be amiss here to add, that the revival
of this theory, within the last few years, by such men
as'Dr. Cummning, Elliott, and the Bonars, in Great
Britain, and by ALord, Seiss, and many others in this
country, in connection with the general agreement




18                INTRODUCTION.
among prophetic commentators as to the fact that the
signs of the last days are upon us, are circumstances
which commend these views to the most respectful;atterntion of all who reverence the word of God.  Admitting that there may be serious objections, both
presumptive and exegetical, against the millennarian
theory of the speedy, personal, and visible advent of
Christ, it cannot be denied that there is mass of Scripture testimony in its favor, if a literal interpretation is
to be allowed. At any rate, Rapp and his followers,
in their zealous adherence to this view, are not to be
confounded with such fanatics as those above described.
For a statement of their views on this subject, see
Chapter VIII.
In a recent missionary journal we find an account of
a certain company of laborers from the BIasle Missionary Society, sent out in 1822 to Russian Tartary, whose
" primary object was to revive religion among the German colonists of those regions, who, in the midst of
Tartar hordes and the superstitions of corrupt churches,
were in danger of losing the distinctness of reformed
Christianity, and of being mingled among the heathen,
and learning their ways." The following brief notice
of these colonists would imply that they m-ust have gone'forth from Wiirtemberg about the same time, and under
the same influences which led to the emigration of
Rapp and his people to America:  "These German
colonists consisted of emigrants from  Wiirtemberg,
who, having separated from the established church of
that country in consequence of some alterations in the
prayers and hymns effected by the neological paruy,
then in the ascendency, and believing that great trou



INTRODU CTION.               19
bles were at hand, resolved to seek an asylum in the
vicinity of the Caspian Sea, and there await the speedy
advent, as they hoped it would be, of the millennial
period.: They were joined by others desirous of change,
but uninfluenced by religious motives, and, these being
in the majority, prepared the way for that religious
declension which the Basle missionaries were intended
to counteract." For a'more full account of this colony,
see Appendix B.
As further indicative of the religious and social tendencies in Wiirtemberg at this period, may be noticed
also the emigration of another colony of Separatists,
which took place in 1817, under the leading of one
Joseph M. Bimeler. They belonged to the same class of
people with the followers of George Rapp, and entertained views very much in common with them on religious subjects. They shared also with them the name
of Separatists; but they differed on the question of
allegiance due to the government. Rapp had always
inculcated the duty of being subject to the "' powers
that be," by paying taxes, -performing military duty,
&c. But Bimeler and his adherents denounced both
state and church as constituting that "great Babylon"
which was to be destroyed; and they not only separated
themselves from the established church, but they abjured allegiance to the civil authorities, refused to pay
taxes, or to render military service, or even to show
ordinary civility to any magistrates, whether higher or
lower. They thus brought upon themselves deserved
civil penalties in the way of fines and imprisonment,
while they shared also in the religious persecutions
which Rapp and other Separatists encountered. Bime



20               INTRODUCTION.
ler himself escaped imprisonment only by removing
from place to place, and by living in the utmost
privacy; while Johannes Goesele, another of their:leaders, was imprisoned for nine years. The following
characteristic anedocte is told of him and the Duke of
Wiirtemberg: —In the stated visits of theduke to the
fort where GoesQle and others were confined, frequent
conversations took place between them, during which
Goesele, in Quaker fashion, refused to take off his
hat to the duke, and always addressed him with the
disrespectful thee and thou of the German, while he
freely dealt out to him the denunciations of his sect
against the government. The bluff but sensible old
duke took all this in good part. But on one occasion,
when Napoleon was making a visit to the duke, he
asked to see Goesele, who had become somewhat
famous.  The emperor, however, received no more
respectful treatment from the doughty prisoner than
the duke had done, but was boldly warned of the dread
account he should have to render in the great day, for
the multitude of souls he was hurrying into eternity
by his bloody wars. Napoleon was provoked, and desired to have the man punished for his insolence; but
as soon as the emperor had gone, the duke summoned
his prisoner before him, and, instead of punishing him,
as he expected, he said, " Goesele, if you had not talked
to the emperor just as you talked to me, I would have
taken off your head, but now, since you treat us both
alike, you may go home." And he was set at liberty.
Although these people gloried in suffering, as they
believed, for righteousness' sake, they at length grew
weary of their trials, and resolved to follow the exam



INTRODUCTION.                 21
ple of Rapp and his party, by emigrating to America.
They came by way of London, and both there and in
Philadelphia, on their arrival in 1817, they received
much sympathy from the Society of Friends, whom in
some respects they resembled. They finally purchased
over five thousand acres of land in Tuscarawas county,
Ohio, the same tract that George Rapp had visited
some thirteen years before, while seeking a location for
his colony.  Here they formed their settlement, on the
same general plan with that of Rapp and the Harmonists. They practiced celibacy from the first, but
it was some two years later before they organized
themselves on the principle of community of goods.
Their town was named Zoar. Their industry, frugality,
good morals, and harmonious co-operation, were similar
to those of Rapp's people, and were crowned with the
same rewards by a rapid increase in wealth and prosperity.
In 1852, their property was estimated to be worth
over a million of dollars. They own over 10,0(00 acres
of land, and are largely engaged in agriculture and
manufactures. About the year 1832, in order to prevent the further diminution of their numbers (which
did not exceed 150), they abandoned celibacy, Bimeler
himself setting the example of taking a wife. The
example was readily followed by all, except a few faithful ones, who were indignant at this departure fromtheir primitive faith and practice. Although the Zoar
Society seems thus to be likely to outlive that of the
Economites, where celibacy is still adhered to, yet it is
doubtful whether the increasing ascendency of the
American born element among them will not in a very
3




22              INTRODUCTION.
few years lead to an abandonment of the community
system and a dissolution of the society. For a further
notice of the Zoar community, see Appendix B.
The reader who may desire to know something of
the style of religious thought which characterized the
mystics and mystico-pietists to whom allusion is often
made in these pa-es, may find it in Appendix F.




THE iARMONY SOCIETY.
[THE first chapter was introduced to the readers of the
Pittsburgh Commercial by the following editorial remarks,
under date of June 6th, 1866:
" THE HARMONY SOCIETY AT ECONOMY, PA. —We take
pleasure in calling the attention of our readers to the article
in our columns under this caption. The information it contains will be new to many, and must serve to remove misapprehensions which exist in regard to a people so well
known, and yet so little understood. The article in the
Atlantic Monthly, which is referred to by our correspondent,
must appear, in view of these statements, to be a gross
and silly caricature of the true history. of the Society.
"' The first inquiry that will arise in the mind of the reflecting reader, in view of the fact that this wealthy community must in a few years cease to exist under its present
organization, is as to what is to become of their vast wealth.
Their last man will be lord of an immense domain, but cannot live long to enjoy it, as they are now all growing
old together.  We would that another'fresh revival'
might diffuse its hallowed influences over them, so as to
prompt them to a further enlargement of their characteristic
benevolence, by providing in advance for such an investment
of their wealth, after they are done with it, as may make it
most extensively available to the good of mankind. We
would not presume to say in what way this should be done.
That is for themselves to determine. But if we had the ear




24           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
of their leaders we should be glad to suggest to them some
of the many ways in which they might secure an immortaiity of blessedness to their memory, by providing endowments for literary, scientific, and philanthropic institutions,
after the manner of Peabody amd others of glorious name.
And if they should reply, that the world is likely soon to
come to an end, we would humbly suggest that as it has
already lasted considerably longer than they expected, it
may possily endure a few centuries longer still, and at any
rate no harm but much good may be done by giving their
posthumous wealth to some noble charities, so long as the
world shall stand."]
C HAPTER I.
REPLY TO THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.
EARLY IIISTORY OF THE SOCIETY-THEIR CONNVECTION
WITH THE EARLY PIETISTS-PERSECUTIOTNS IN GERMANY-RE-MO VAL TO AMERICA —COMIMUNITY OF GOODSCELIBACY-DEATH OF RAPP, SR. —PRESENT ORGANYIZATION-BENE VOLENCE.
IHE  leading article in the May number of the
Atlantic Monthly, under the caption of " The
Harmonists," although intended, no doubt, as a
harmless piece of romance, does very great injustice to
that worthy Society, in some of its statements.  There
is an air of verisimilitude in the description of the
place and people, which, though grossly inaccurate in
the details, may convey the impression that the author
was correctly informed in regard to the history and
customs of the Society, and that they are verily the
gross, ignorant and contemptible people which he (?)
represents.  This is far from  being true.  And although they can well afford to be misrepresented, and




REPLY TO THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.    25
have never troubled themselves to refute the various
slanders which have been circulated concerning them,
still they cannot be wholly indifferent to the good
opinion of their fellow citizens.
The writer of this has no sort of connection with
the Society, except as a sojourner amofig them,
but has had peculiarly favorable opportunities for
becoming acquainted with their history, opinions,
and customs; and from a regard to the truth of history, rather than from any importance attaching to the
slanderous article in question; he takes this occasion to
execute a purpose for some time cherished of furnishing
to the public a true history of the Society. It may
serve to correct some prevalent misapprehensions, and
may afford interesting information in regard to a singular and most worthy people.
The Harmony Society was founded near the beginning of the present century, by George Rapp and a
colony of emigrants from Wiirtemberg, numbering over
one hundred families. Like the Pilgrim fathers, they
sought this country as an asylum from oppression, and
a place where they might enjoy freedom to worship God
according to their understanding of his Word. They
belonged to that class of devout people in Germany to
whom, in the previous century, had been given in
reproach the name of Pietists. Dissatisfied with the
utter worldliness and entire absence of practical piety
in the established Lutheran CShi'ch, and finding in
none of the regular clergy such spiritual guides as they
cared to follow, they gave themselves the more diligently to the private study of the Scriptures (a practice which they still retain), and to the edification of
3*




2 6          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
each other in social assemblages for conference and
prayer.  With an instinctive sense of their need of
official teachers and guides, it was natural that they
should rally around those among themselves who seemed
most endowed with spiritual gifts.
There were two men who thus soon found themselves in the position of leaders, through the common
consent of their brethren, though without any special
ecclesiastical consecration to their work. These were
Michael Hahn and George Rapp.  They were earnest,
zealous men, who magnified their office by gathering
together on the Sabbath the people who sympathized
with them, and addressing to them words of instruction
and encouragement.
Hahn had commenced the work of preaching at an
earlier period than Rapp. He was a man of more literary culture, and made use of the press also in the
work of reformation, publishing tracts, hymns, &c.
Rapp was an humble farmer and vine planter, with
only such education as the common schools afforded.
But he was a man of vigorous mind, of deep religious
spirit, and great force of character. Feeling himself
constrained to proclaim to others the religious convictions that filled his heart, he soon gathered around him
a number of followers, of kindred views, and the work
gradually extended until several hundreds in the surrounding region looked to him as their leader.
These movements naturally excited the opposition of
their more worldly neighbors, and especially of the
clergy, whose ministrations they neglected. Hahn and
his more immediate adherents, under the name of
Pietists, still retained their connection with the estab



REPLY TO THE ATLANTIC  MONTHLY. -  27
lished churches, giving occasional attendance at least on
the ordinances as there administered. Like the earlier
Pietists in Germany, and the first Methodists in England, they hoped to bring about a reformation within
the church itself. They thus escaped in great measure
the persecution which arose against Rapp and his followers, who refused altogether to attend upon the ministrations of the regular clergy, and did not hesitate to
denounce the prevailing worldliness and irreligion.
They were called Separatists; and although demeaning
themselves as quiet, orderly citizens, and paying all
their dues both to church and state, they became objects of general odium, and were denounced to the civil
authorities by the offended clergy. They were persecuted with fines and imprisonment, and their appeals
for redress were in vain. After long endurance, and
after having made an ineffectual application to their
own government for permission to form a settlement by
themselves, they determined to emigrate.
In the year 1803, George Rapp, with three or four
others, visited this country in search of a location suitable
for a colony. After examining various localities, they
finally purchased a large tract of land near Zelienople,
in Butler county, Pa.  In the autumn of the ensuing
year they were followed by three ship loads of colonists,
most of whom spent the winter in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and elsewhere, while a number of families came
out at once and joined Rapp in the work of building
up a town. These latter passed the winter in the
endurance of great hardships, but by the ensuing
spring had made such progress in their work, that
their waiting brethren could be invited to come and
join them.




28          TITE HARMONY SOCIETY.
Before they left Germany they had embraced some
peculiar views of religion and of social economy, to
which they were led, as they supposed, by their careful
study of the New Testament.  They had generally
adopted the millennarian theory of the personal and
pre-millennial advent of Christ, which they regarded
as near at hand.  They were also disposed to follow the
example of the primitive Christians in having all things
common, and some of them at least came to this country
with the expectation of forming a community on this
principle. Thus far, however, each family retained
possession of its own property, and had borne for itself
the expenses attendant upon emigration.
On the 15th of February, 1805, Rapp and his associates, who had spent the winter in the work of preparation, together with as many of their scattered
brethren as could be at that time assembled, proceeded
deliberately and solemnly to organize themselves into
an association on the principle of community of goods.
They threw all their possessions into a common stock;
those who had wealth agreeing as cheerfully as those who
had nothing, to share henceforth all things in common.
They adopted a simple and uniform style of dress, and
proceeded to build their family residences as much alike
as possible.  They assumed the name of the "LIarmony Society," and called their town Harmony. They
were joined in the spring by about fifty additional
families of their brethren, who had tarried in the East
and elsewhere, and who were willing to adopt the community principle. Several of those who came over with
them chose not to join the association, but became
merged in the great American community. The whole




REPLY TO THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.    29
number of families ultimately composing the Society
was about one hundred and twenty-five.
The writer of the article referred to has but romanced
in representing that the Harmonists, in adopting their
peculiar system, were but dupes in the hands of Rapp,
and that he had large property, library, and gallery of
paintings, which he surrendered to the Society. Nothing of this is true. On the contrary, some of his followers were more wealthy, and of higher social standing
than he, and in point of intelligence and education he
was but little superior to many of the respectable tradesmen, mechanics, and agriculturists, who chose him as
their leader. Ile continued to be their acknowledged
head, both in religious and secular matters. Indeed,
no distinction was made between the civil and religious
organization; they all formed one church and one civil
community.
There was a foreman in each department of business,
who was responsible for its proper management, and
for the impartial distribution of whatever was necessary for the wants of the individual members. Frederick Rapp, the adopted son of George Rapp, and a
young man of fine executive abilities, was appointed
the general business agent of the Society for outside
matters.  These foremen, together with young Rapp,
constituted a council or board of assistants to Mr. Rapp,
in the management of all their temporal affairs, and in
the settlement of any disputes which might arise.
They proceeded as speedily as possible to the clearing off of their lands, and the erection of their church,
school house, hotel, mills, barns, manufactories, &c.
This was their time of trial. Strangers in a strange




30           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
land, ignorant of the language, laws, manners and customs of the country, with scanty resources, and without
friends or established credit, subject to many surmises
and slanderous accusations, besides the internal friction
which naturally attended the first working of their new
system  of community life-altogether their faith and
patience were'subjected to a severe test, But they
trusted in God, and went forward with patient endurance and true German persistence, until in a few years
all difficulties were surmounted, and prosperity crowned
their toils.
Some two years subsequent to their organization,
under the influence of what they denominate a " fresh
religious revival," they made a further advance toward
what they believed to be a more pure and holy life, by
abjuring matrimony and further conjugal intercourse.
Families  continued to dwell together as before, but
henceforth, by mutual agreement, "'they that had
wives were as though they had none."   Whatever
may be thought of the propriety or impropriety of this
arrangement, it was undoubtedly a purely voluntary
sacrifice, which they were led to make, not from any
pressure of authority on the part of Rdpp (as has teen
alleged), nor from a desire the more speedily to enrich
themselves by checking the further increase of population, but from strong religious conviction. They believed that such a manner of life was more holy, and
would the better prepare them for the speedy coming
of the Lord. In defense of this view, they plausibly
refer to such passages of Scripture as Matthew 19: 10,
12; 22: 30; Revelation 14: 4, &c. The practice of
celibacy was also only a more full and consistent car



REPLY TO THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.    31
rying out of their fundamental principle of entire equality in all things, which implied an abstinence on the
part of individuals from every indulgence in which all
alike might not participate.
The same principle was applied to the use of tobacco
The question having arisen as to what gratification
should be allowed to the non-users of the weed, as an
equivalent to that luxury, it was unanimously agreed
that all alike should entirely abstain; and many a beloved meerschaum was forthwith committed to the
flames.
In all this rigidness of self-denial for conscience sake
and for good fellowship, these people have (as they
supposed) but practiced the duty of cutting off the right
hand and plucking out the right eye, according to our
Saviour's precept; and certainly their motives cannot
but be admired even by those who do not approve their
practice, or feel called upon to adopt it. It is not to be
supposed, indeed, that this rigid asceticism could be
persistently carried out without occasional lapses.
There were not unfrequent instances of backsliding,
or of withdrawal from the Society on account of these
peculiarities; but, upon the whole, the great majority
have faithfully and consistently maintained their principles.
The horrid story which the writer of the article in
the Atlantic has introduced in regard to the " killing" of
Rapp's son for refusing to be separated from his wife,
is wholly false. It is an old slander which has long
been in circulation, and was published some years ago,
in a grosser form, by some scribbling correspondent of
the Philadelphia North American.  It was promptly




32           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
refuted through the Pittsburgh Evening Chlronicle. It
may be well to reproduce this denial. The editor writes:
"As to his son, Rapp never needed to exercise any.severity over him. He was a worthy, industrious and exemplary young man, who died in the year 1812, seven
years after the establishment of the Society in this
country."  [And I may add, five years after the adoption of celibacy by the community.]  "Mr. Baker, the
present head of the Society, says that he was at work
with him in 1810, elevating grain in the Society's
store, when he (young Rapp) strained himself, and
injured his breast, which injury finally ended in incurable consumption; that after his death he was dissected, and a large portion of water was found in his
chest, and one lobe of his lungs destroyed." I may add,
that I have personally received full corroboration of the
above statement from persons who then belonged to the
Society, but who withdrew from it, and could have no
motive for disguising the facts.
The twaddle of the writer about the silly weakness
of the' Harmonite women at the sight of a child, is also
a gross caricature. All true women (the strong minded
perhaps excepted) love children.  And so do these.
But children are every day to be seen among them,
being apprenticed orphans, or the children of recent
members, or of their hired people, or of lodgers and
visitors at their hotel.
I shall only further state, that on the death of George
Rapp, in 1847, the Society selected seven elders for the
management of. their social concerns, and two trustees
to conduct their foreign business. These trustees are
Messrs. R. L. Baker and Jacob Henricl, the former




REPLY TO THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.,   33
of whom also officiates as the spiritual leader and instructor of the community, with occasional assistance
from the latter, who is the chief business manager.
The Society has now existed sixty-one years.  It
originally consisted of from 600 to 700 souls. In 1832
a great secession took place under a certain self-styled
Count Leon, who drew'off one-third of the members
with him. Their number has been further reduced by
withdrawals and deaths, until only about two hundred
and fifty remain.  A considerable number also, who
are not members, are employed as apprentices and
hired laborers. The present members are all growing
old. They cheerfully and hopefully await the Lord's
coming, either to call them  hence to the upper mansions, or to reveal himself in his glory. The organization, in its present form, cannot long be maintained.
What changes may take place in the future, or what
disposition may ultimately be made of the wealth they
have acquired, are matters which they keep within
their own counsels, or perhaps leave to the disposal of
Divine Providence.
It is but a due tribute to this community to add, that
if their industry and economy have been crowned with
the acquisition of wealth, they have not enjoyed it
selfishly.  While still retaining their primitive simplicity in dress and style of living, they have always
been accustomed to devise liberal things in the way of
relieving the wants of the poor, and contributing freely
toward all philanthropic enterprises which met their
approbation. They are also intensely patriotic. Though
taking no part in political contests, they bore their full
share in sustaining the Government in its recent terrible
4




34           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
struggle with rebellion.  Far more loyal than thousands
of native American citizens, and most of them  being
too old to enter the army in person, they have contributed lavishly for the equipment of volunteers, for
special bounties, for the support of the families of
absent soldiers, for the Christian, Sanitary, and Subsistence Commissions, for the fortification of Pittsburgh,
for the relief of the freedmen, for the support of soldiers' widows, and the education of their orphan children. Their contributions for these and kindred objects would amount to many thousands of dollars. Such
a people ought not to be slandered.




GEORGE AND FREDERICK RAPP.           35
CHATPTER II.
BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES OF GEORGE RAPP
AND FREDERICK  RAPP.
T.    HE " Economites," as they are popularly called,
do not seek publicity, but the public is anxious
to know more about them. That an association
founded upon principles so diverse from those of our
great American community should have been sustained
and successfully conducted among us for more than sixty
years, is itself a phenomenon which awakens curiosity,
and presents a study in the science of social economy.
From the many questions which have been asked of the
writer, he finds that much misapprehension exists as to
the principles and practices of the Society. In furnishing such facts as have come into his possession, he
wishes but to gratify a desire which generally prevails
for authentic information in regard to this people. He
appears, however, not as their advocate, but only as
their historian.
The sketch of the early history of the Society, given
in the first chapter, may properly be followed by a more
detailed account of the personal history of the founder,
George Rapp. He was the son of Adam Rapp, a
farmer and vine planter of moderate circumstances,




36           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
residing in the town of Iptingen, Oberamt Maulbronn,
kingdom of Wiirtemberg.  George Rapp was born in.said town on the 28th of October, 1757.  He was
brought up as usual among his class of people, enjoying the benefits of a common school education, where
seldom more than reading, writing, arithmetic and
geography weretaught.
After his school years, he assisted his father on the
farm in summer, and worked a hand-loom in winter. In the year 1783 he married a farmer's daughter,
Christina Benzinger, who bore him a son, John, the
father of Gertrude (who is still a member of the Harmony Society), and a daughter, Rosina.  The circumstances of John's death (about which the Society has
been so foully slandered) were given in our former
chapter. He died of consumption in 1812. Rosina
died of old age in 1849. George Rapp had also one
brother and two sisters, who died many years ago.
Frederick Rapp, whose name is more generally known,
was only an adopted son, and not a kinsman.  He was
George Rapp's most efficient helper in founding and
subsequently managing the affairs of the Society. A
further notice of him/ will be given below.
George Rapp was fond of reading and conversation,
and having an active and inquiring mind, he soon
added largely, by his own study of books and men, to
his stores of knowledge acquired at school. Being
naturally of a religious turn, he studied the Bible
closely, especially the New Testament, and became
convinced that the so-called Christians generally, so
far as he could learn, "did not at all live up to the
duties and practices required by the doctrine of Christ




GEORGE AND FREDERICK RAPP.             37
and his apostles."  At about thirty years of age, not
finding the necessary spiritual nourishment in the
established church to which he belonged, he began to
speak in his own house, to a small number of friends,
his sentiments on religion, once or twice every Sunday.
The number of his hearers increased, and gradually
people from other towns, ten or twelve miles distant,
came to his meetings, so that by the time when an
emigration to America was spoken of, his adherents
numbered some three hundred families.
The clergy set themselves in opposition to Rapp's
religious labors. They instigated the civil authorities
against him and his followers, and tried their best to
prevent their meetings. This was hard to do, because
Mr. Rapp advised his people to be obedient to the laws,
and to the punctual payment of all taxes to church and
state, so that the sole ground of accusation against him
and his party was their separation from the church,
and their holding of private religious meetings. Police
officers were sent to examine, and to' enroll all persons
present at these assemblages, not only in the town
where Rapp resided and preached, but also in other
towns where his adherents also held similar meetings.
On Mondays they would be summoned to appear before
the magistrates, and were fined for attendance upon these
conventicles.  Those who were too poor to pay were
imprisoned. These persecutions were carried so far at
last, that a petition was addressed to the king, asking
for a decree of banishment against Rapp and his followers. The king inquired, "' Who are these people?
Are they good citizens?  Do they pay their taxes?"
&c. And being informed that they were always among
4*




38          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
the first to pay all their dues both to the church and
state, and that they were good and orderly citizens, he
tore the petition to pieces and said, " Then let thewm
believe as the] please."
Notwithstanding the refusal of the king to molest
Rapp or his followers, the clergy still continued their
opposition, by stirring up the mayors and burgesses of
the towns against them, so that the fines and imprisonments and other annoyances were kept up for several
years, until at length they felt themselves called of the
Lord to leave their native land. They were a devout
people, and sought only to know and to do the will of
God. Michael Hahn and his followers, who entertained
similar views, in other respects, chose not to separate
themselves entirely from fellowship with the established Lutheran Church, but preferred to yield somewhat
to the demands of the state, and to prosecute the work
of reformation, as best they might, by remaining at
home. Rapp and his party were made of sterner stuff,
and were stigmatized as separatists.  They became
more open and violent in their denunciation of the prevailing vices and religious corruptions.  The alienation
between them and their neighbors thus naturally increased, and their position became more unpleasant.
Nor would it be strange in the circumstances, that
something of a spirit of religious fanaticism should be
developed, and that Rapp should be impressed with a
belief that he had a special divine mission to the work
to which he was thus providentially called.
At length, in 1803, at the request of his brethren, he
set forth, accompanied by his son John and two or
three friends, to visit America. Leaving his family




GEORGE AND FREDERICK RAPP.            39
and the interests of his as yet unorganized society of
followers, under the supervision of his adopted son
Frederick, RPapp and his companions embarked at Amsterdam, and after a safe voyage arrived at Baltimore,
where they found friends who received them with much
kindness, as they did Rapp's people afterward.
They spent some time in exploring parts of AMaryland and Pennsylvania, and as far west in Ohio as the
valley of the Tuscarawas river. Believing it too great
a risk to take one hundred or more families so far into
the backwoods, as that part of Ohio then was, they
preferred to settle in a more inhabited region, and
finally selected a desirable location about twenty five
miles north of Pittsburgh, in Butler county, Pennsylvania. They purchased about five thousand acres of
unimproved land from Dr. Detmar Basso, a wealthy
German, who had settled there some years before.
These lands are located in the beautiful valley of the
Connoquenessing, near to where Zelienople now stands.
As soon as Rapp's people in Germany could be
notified of the purchase, they were ready to follow, all
the necessary arrangements for the voyage having been
previously made through the efficient agency of Frederick Rapp. Early in the spring of 1804, the ship Aurora
sailed from Amsterdam with three hundred souls, and
landed in Baltimore, July 4th, of the same year. The
ship Atlantic landed a similar number at Philadelphia,
about six weeks later. The ship llMargaretta brought
the remainder of the people, but most of those who
came in this vessel were led, from various causes, to
make a settlement in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania,
under the direction of a Mr. Haller, who had been one




40           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
of Mr. Rapp's companions in the mission of exploration:
Rapp met his friends who came over in the first
ship, on their arrival in Baltimore, and saw that they
were distributed in small parties in different parts of
the country, where they might sojourn until habitations could be prepared for them at Harmony, by himself and the party of workmen detailed for that purpose. Having passed a winter of great hardship in the
work of building and preparing, he was ready by the
ensuing February (1805) to receive as many of his
waiting people as could then be assembled from their
various places of sojourn. At this time the first formal organization of the Society on the principle of
community of goods took place, as narrated in our former chapter.
To give IRapp's subsequent personal history would
be to give the history of the Society in detail for more
than forty years. He was its civil and religious head,
its prophet, priest, and king. He dictated all its rules
and regulations, and was the supreme arbiter in all
questions that arose. His word was law. It was
enough to know  that "Father Rapp says it," to
satisfy all the community on any subject whatever. All
this power, however, was administered, not selfishly or
tyrannically, but in a truly patriarchal spirit, and with
a single eye to the temporal and spiritual welfare of
his people, who loved and reverenced him as a father,
and never thought of questioning his right to all the
authority which he claimed. It is not to be wondered
at that he became impatient of contradiction or opposition, and had a reputation for harshness and severity




GEORGE AND FREDERICK RAPP.            41
among outsiders and excommunicated members. ~ He
did not hesitate to fulminate spiritual thunders against
bold transgressors, whom he regarded as offending not
only against the accepted rules of the Society, but also
against the authority of God, which was claimed as
sanctioning the principles on which the Society was
founded. But he was aq fatherly in his kindness as he
was in his severity toward his people, whom he regarded as his children.  He sympathized with them
in their trials, consoled them  in their perplexities,
patiently instructed them in the truths of religion, and
sought in every way to make them all happy. While
all were expected to be busy, none were allowed to be
burdened with work. Ample time was afforded for
rest and recreation.  Being fond of music, as all Germans are, he' encouraged the cultivation of both vocal
and instrumental music among all the members, and
especially the young people. Their evening leisure
was enlivened with the strains which a well trained
band discoursed, and their religious services were
always accompanied with the finest singing by the
whole congregation, led by instruments and a skillful
choir. He divided the whole community into Classes —
the old men and the old women, the young men and
the young women, and the more youthful of both sexes,
each separately forming a class, which met once or
twice a week for social intercourse and mutual improvement. The members of these'classes were taught to
regard each other as brothers and sisters, and to watch
fraternally over each other's conduct and deportment,
and were accustomed, as far as possible, to settle among
themselves all little difficulties that might arise. Mr.




42           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
Rapp met with these several classes himself as often as
possible, for religious conference or more free social
conversation.
Thus he dwelt, year after year, among his own peo
ple, more and more beloved and reverenced by them as
they grew old together. He and his immediate family
fared no better than the rest of the community in the
matter of dress or style of living, except that for the
honor of the Society he was expected to live in a larger
and better house, where friends and guests might receive hospitality, and on special occasions to appear in
a state dress made of their own finest silk fabrics. But
he never accumulated any private property for himself
or his family. Everything belonged to the Society.
Thus, through all the vicissitudes of the Society's
history (which I reserve for future notice), George
Rapp continued his wise and benign administration,
down to his ninetieth year, still retaining his faculties,
voice, energy, and physical powers in such vigor, that
he was able, until within a few days before his death,
to preach two sermons every Sabbath) and one on Wednesday evening, and to be present at five class meetings
during the week.
He had lived so long among them, and with
so little apparent waning of his powers, that some
of his people were weak enough to believe that
"' Father Rapp would never die," or at least that he
would abide until the Lord's coming. There were but
three Sabbaths that he failed to appear as usual in the
pulpit, and even on the last of these he preached to his
people with his wonted energy and power of voice,
from the window of the room where he was confined




GEORGE AND FREDERICK RAPP.           43
by physical weakness. His limbs only refused to perform their office. But the machinery of life was worn
out, and before another Sabbath, after bidding farewell
in person to all his sorrowing people, as they came one
by one to his bedside, he peaceably expired, in full confidence of meeting the Lord in the better world. He
died on the 7th of August, 1847, lacking a few weeks
of being ninety years of age.
He was a remarkable man, and had performed a
remarkable work. Had he been a propagandist, and
lived in a different age and country, he might have
been known as the founder of a new sect or nation.
But he had no other thought than the welfare of the
small body of people who had followed him from Germany, for the purpose of serving God in their own
way. He left his impress on the Society, which still
exists much as he left it, only with diminished numbers.
After the simple funeral was over, his body having
been deposited in the brchard, where his grave is undistinguished by any-mark from those of his brethren
who sleep around him, the Society all assembled in the
church to consider what was to be done. They were
like a family of children bereaved of its head. They
felt that they had no one who could fill Father Rapp's
place, but they still approved of the principles upon
which he had founded and governed the Society, and
they determined to carry them out. With great unanimity, they elected from among themselves a board of
nine elders, upon whom were devolved the powers
heretofore exercised by Rapp himself, with the advice
and assistance of the foremen and business agents of




44           TIHE HARMONY SOCIETY.
the Society.  Two of these elders, R. L. Baker and J.
Ienrici, were designated as Trustees, and became the
executive officers as well as the religious guides of the
community.  It was a remarkable evidence of the confidence which Mr. Rapp's administration had inspired,
that not an individual member called for any report or
statement as tor the pecuniary affairs of the Society.
They took it for granted that all was right. And that
this confidence was not misplaced, was made apparent
a few years afterward, in the progress of certain trials
instituted against the Society by seceding members.
The most protracted and searching investigations by
the courts, with such men as Charles Shaler and
Edwin M3. Stanton as the lawyers for the prosecution,
failed to discover any maladministration, or misappropriation of funds on the part of Rapp or his associates.
A brief notice of Frederick Rapp may close this
chapter.  His proper name was Frederick Reichert; he
was born in Germany, April 12th, 1775.  He was a
stone cutter and architect by trade; -he had received a
good education, of such a grade as the ordinary public schools of the country afforded.  HIis travels in the
prosecution of his business brought him into the neighborhood where George Rapp resided, and he soon made
his acquaintance, and became an attendant upon his
meetings.  He found the teachings of Rapp to meet
his own sense of religious want, and to correspond with
the growing convictions which his own mind had been
cherishing. EIe was like many others who declared
that;" of all the preachers whom they had heard, there
was none whose words had power to touch their hearts




GEORGE AND FREDERICK RAPP.            45
like those of Mr. Rapp." Frederick soon became a
devoted adherent, and a member of Rapp's family.
And when the great measure of emigration was at
length:resolved upon, his fine executive abilities found
scope in conducting the necessary arrangements. As
stated above, when George Rapp came to America,
Frederick was left in charge of his family and of the
religious work which he had inaugurated.
He enrolled the names of those who proposed to
emigrate, secured from their wealthier brethren the
necessary aid for those who were not able to meet the
expenses of the voyage, corresponded with the ship
owners at Amsterdam, and, in short, did whatever was
necessary to forward the great enterprise which they
had in view. After dispatching the first ship with its
instalment of colonists, he himself remained until all
the rest were ready, and then came over with them in
one of the ships which landed at Philadelphia.
So faithfully and efficiently had he discharged his
various trusts, that by the unanimous consent of the
Society at its organization, he was associated with
George Rapp in the management of its affairs. It was
also by the desire of Mr. Rapp himself and of the
Society, that Frederick dropped the name of Reichert,
and'became recognized as the adopted son of George
Rapp. As the spiritual functions and the home management were sufficient to occupy all the time of George
Rapp, Frederick was intrusted with the affairs of the
exterior, for which his business capacity so well fitted
him. He conducted all negotiations in the way of
purchase and sale with those outside of the Society,
did the necessary traveling to Pittsburgh, Philadelphia,
5




46           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
&c., and conducted any outside litigation which might
occasionally arise. Hie carried on in his own name all
the external business of the Society, taking to himself,the titles of real estate, and holding it in his own name,
though under a solemn contract, signed and sealed, in
which he declares that all the property, personal, real
and mixed, which then was or should afterward be in
his possession, or held in his name, should be the sole
and absolute property of the Society, and not of himself.
lie continued to serve the Society in this capacity,
with great success, and to the acceptance of all, down
to the year of his death.  In the latter part of the
year 1833 he had somehow taken a cold, which was
increased by the eagerness with which he exposed himself on the famous night of the "shooting stars," a
phenomenon on which he gazed with intense interest.
He soon became dropsical and otherwise permanently
diseased, and died in the following June, 1834, while
the prayers of the whole assembled Society were ascending for the continuance of his life. One who sat with
him the last night of his life, cherishes a most impressive remembrance of his pious and instructive conversation during that solemn night.
Frederick Rapp was accustomed to officiate as preacher in case of the absence or illness of George Rapp. He
was a man of considerable literary culture, and poetic
ability, several of the hymns in the Society's collection
being composed by him. He was well known and highly
esteemed among a large circle of business acquaintances; and being a well bred gentleman and good musician,
as well as an amateur in works of art, he was a wel



GEORGE AND FREDERICK RAPP.            47
come visitor in many a family circle, whose hospitalities he was always glad to reciprocate as he had opportunity.
After the death of Frederick, it became necessary
that another business agent should be appointed in his
place; and on the 5th of July, 1834, Mr. George
Rapp, although he hadso long been the general head
of the whole Society, was now, for the first time, formally designated to this secular office, in a document
signed by all the members. In this document, which
is in the nature of a mutual contract, George Rapp
solemnly disclaims all personal interest in the property
of the Society, other than that of an individual member. Being himself still occupied chiefly with his
spiritual and other home functions, he appointed as
sub-agents, R. L. Baker and J. Ienrici, who attended
to those details of outside business which had belonged
to Frederick Rapp during his life.




48          TIIE HARMONY SOCIETY.
CHAPTER III.
THEIR HISTORY AT OLD HARMONY.
REASONS FOR ADOPTING THIE COMMUNITY SYSTEMS, AND
CELIBACY -TRIALS AND TR IUMPIIS.
H l E former chapters have contained only the
TA0d}7 most brief notice of the history of the Society'Ifi0J J subsequent to its first organization.  Some further details may be of interest. It will be remembered
that the followers of Rapp came from Germany, still
retaining their personal property and former domestic
relations, and each family at its own expense. They
came, however, most of them at least, with the intention of adopting the community system, but with no
definite purpose, as yet, with reference to the abandonment of marriage and conjugal intercourse, although
this latter subject had been somewhat discussed among
them.
On their assembling at Harmony, some were moderately wealthy, while others had nothing left after defraying the expenses of their immigration. They were
thus in the condition of the primitive Christians at
Jerusalem, of whom some were rich and some poor,
many of the latter being destitute, by having come
from a distance to the great feast of the Passover, without bringing with them the funds necessary for their




THEIR HISTORY AT OLD IARMONY.    49
expenses during the unexpected delay occasioned by
their conversion to Christianity. Thus, in that instance,, it became a matter of the most obvious Christian obligation, that those resident in Jerusalem, or the
vicinity, who were possessors of lands or houses, should
sell them and lay down the proceeds at the apostles'
feet, so that distribution should be made to every man
according as he had need. The wants of the poorer
brethren and of those who were strangers, were thus
supplied, and, for the time being at least, they " had all
things common." Rapp and his people, however, so
understood the Scriptures, that.they felt bound -not
only to imitate this example in their present emergency,
but to adopt it as a permanent and fundamental principle in their organization. They regarded the gospel as
requiring the abnegation of all our selfish feelings, and
looked upon the pursuit of personal gain —the'" love
of money"-as " the root of all evil," inconsistent alike
with that supreme love to God and that spirit of true
equality and brotherhood, which are of the very essence
of religion. Their expectation also of the Lord's probable
speedy coming rendered them the more indifferent to
the possession of worldly goods. It was under the influence of such motives that most of those who joined
IRapp, at Harmony were ready, with one accord, of
their own free will, and without undue pressure of
authority from him, to enter into the mutual covenant
which they solemnly adopted on the 15th of February,
1805. It may, however, be mentioned as among their
early trials, that a few of those who had come over as
Rapp's followers were not disposed to enter into this
organization, but used their liberty in retaining their
5*




50          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
personal property and merging themselves with the
outside world. About ten families, including some of
the most wealthy among them, became dissatisfied with
the socialistic views of the majority, and withdrew both
their aid and their funds, to the great grief of their
brethren, and to the great pecuniary loss of the Society.
In this connection may also be mentioned another
serious difficulty which arose soon after their organization.
Their town of Harmony was located within one mile
of the older village of Zelienople, which Dr. Basse had
founded.  A  competition arose between these two
places as to which should have the post-office, and the
post road which was being laid out between Pittsburgh
and Lake Erie. It was reported to the disadvantage
of the ilarmonists that they were at variance among
themselves, that they could not pay for their lands,
that the Society was likely to be soon broken up and
their town abandoned, and that the road and post-office
would not be needed there. And, although they gained
both the road and post-office, and paid for their lands
sooner than their obligations required, yet the evil
report had gone abroad to the injury of their credit.
When Frederick Rapp next visited Pittsburgh, and
called at a house with which he had before dealt, he
was refused even a short credit on the articles which
he wished to purchase. On inquiry as to the cause,
he was answered that common report said that the Society was on the eve of breaking up.
So long as they had to buy all their provisions and
supplies, their fare was coarse and scant, and they
knew sometimes what it was to feel the gnawings of




THEIR HISTORY AT OLD HARMONY.             51
hunger. Their work of grubbing and clearing off
land was a hard toil to which they had not been accustomed.  In these circumstances, weak and disaffected
members were ready to communicate to outsiders all
the difficulties, smaller or greater, which occurred in
the Society, and these again were further reported
abroad with exaggeration, so that the public eye was
continually fixed with jealousy and distrust on this
strange community.  Thus sorely were they tried
during the first year or two after their settlement.
These trials, however, were only what the more
thoughtful among them had anticipated, and they were
prepared to meet them. Before they left Germany,
some of them were often heard to say, in the midst of
their persecutions, that "if they could only find a land
where religious toleration was enjoyed, they would wish
to be there, even though they might have for a while
to live upon roots." They were never reduced quite to
this extremity, but their trials were sufficiently severe
to test the faith of the most earnest and devout, and
they regard them since as providential visitations, designed to inure them to that life of self-denial and crucifixion of the flesh which their whole system involves.
The terms of the agreement mutually entered into
between "' George Rapp and his associates" on the one
part, and the other members of the Society on the
other part, were in substance as follows, viz.: 1. Those
of the latter part, for themselves and their heirs and
descendants, agree to deliver up all their estates and
property whatever, in cash, lands, chattels, &c., as a
free gift or donation, for the benefit and use of the
community, and to be at the disposal of the superin



52           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
tendents, as though they had never possessed it.
2. They also pledged themselves to submit to the laws
and regulations of the community; to show a ready
obedience to the superintendents; to give the labor of
their hands for the good of the community, and to hold
their children and families to do the same. 3. In case
any, contrary totheir present expectation, should at
any future time desire to withdraw from the Society,
from whatever cause, they were never to demand any
remuneration for labor or services rendered by themselves or their children.
George Rapp and his associates, on the other hand,
agree on their part, 1. To adopt the other contracting
parties as members of the community, whereby each of
them obtains the privilege of being present at each
religious meeting, and they and their children and
families are to receive such instruction in church and
school as was needful and requisite for their temporal
welfare and eternal felicity.  2. Rapp and his associates promise to supply the members with all the
necessaries of life, not only during their days of health
and strength, but during sickness, old age, or incapacity to labor; and to the widows and orphans of any
member, the same rights and maintenance are to be
afforded as long as they shall live or remain members
of the community. 3. In case of the withdrawal of
any member or members of the community for whatever cause, George Rapp and his associates engage to
refund to him or them the value of their property
originally brought into the Society, without interest;
and if they had brought nothing in, they should receive a donation in money according to their conduct




TIIRIt HISTORY AT OLD IIARMONY.         53
during membership, &c.  [This last provision in regard
to refunding was abrogated in 1836, as will be hereafter explained.  See Appendix D, and Chapter VII.]
Persons who subsequently joined the Society, were received on the same conditions, after one year of satisfactory probation, and on subscribing to the above
articles.
The association being thus fully organized, and the
few thousands of which their aggregate fund consisted
having been invested in payment for their lands, and
for articles of immediate necessity, all hands in this
busy hive go diligently to work in clearing out their
lands, cultivating the soil, pursuing trades, and erecting the necessary buildings. During the first year, one
hundred and fifty acres of ground were cleared, from
forty to fifty log houses were erected, besides a house
of worship, a grist mill, large barn, shops, &c. Next
year, they clear four hundred acres more of land, and
erect a saw mill, tannery, distillery, brick store house,
&c., and plant a vineyard of four acres.  They raise
grain enough for themselves, and have six hundred
bushels to sell, besides three thousand gallons of
whiskey.  This latter manufacture is one in which they
have always excelled, though much more to their own
pecuniary profit than to their credit as a religious and
comparatively temperate community, or to the welfare
of the surrounding people and neighborhood.
They engaged to some extent also in the culture of
the vine, to which most of. them had been accustomed
in Germany. In 1809 they produced six thousand
bushels of Indian corn, four thousand five hundred of
wheat, four thousand five hundred of rye, five thou



54'           TIIE HARMONY SOCIETY.
sand of oats, ten thousand of potatoes, four thousand
pounds of flax and hemp, and fifty gallons of sweet oil
made from the poppy. During this year also they
made their first piece of woolen cloth from yarn spun
by hand, which was regarded as a great step toward
independence. In 1810 they erected a woolen.factory
for the manufacture of broadcloth from the wool of the
Merino sheep, which they were among the first to introduce into this country, and which became one of the
great sources of their growing wealth.*  Not to speak
in detail of their progress from year to year in agricultural, mechanical and commercial prosperity, we
find that in 1810, five years after their organization,
they consisted of one hundred and forty families,
amounting in the whole to seven hundred or eight hundred persons; that they have two thousand acres of
land under cultivation; that they have a large stock of
the finest sheep and cattle, and that in every department of labor they have a large surplus for sale after
supplying all their own wants. They have their own
tradesmen of all the necessary varieties; carpenters,
blacksmiths, wagon makers, coopers, shoe makers, hatters, tailors, masons, wheelwrights, saddlers, &c., &c.,
who serve not only their own community, but also the
Surrounding country, all their work being most honestly and faithfully done.
A writer who visited them about this time, has given
the following testimony concerning them:  "We are
* In regard to the introduction of these sheep, a written memorandum thus states: "An Eastern man named Hopkins, had sent from
New York one hundred Merino ewes into our neighborhood for sale.
But the people generally were not prepared to pay one hundred and
twenty-five or one hundred and fifty dollars for one sheep, and they




THEIR HISTORY AT OLD HARMONY.              55
struck with surprise and admiration at the astonishing
progress in improvements and the establishment of
manufactories which this little republic has made in
the period of five years. They have indeed made the'wilderness to blossom as the rose.'  They have done
more essential good for this country in the short period
of five years, than thd same number of families scattered about the country have done in fifty. And this
arises from their unity and brotherly love, added to
their uniform and persevering industry. They know
no mercenary view, no self interest, except that which
adds to the interest and happiness of the whole community.  All are equally industrious, for an idler has
no companion.' If any should fall into bad practices of
idleness or intoxication, he is kindly admonished by
the head of the family, backed by the countenance and
wishes of all the rest; but if he is found incorrigible,
he is excluded from the Society; so that there is no
opening for the practice of vice and immorality. All attend the place of worship twice on each Sabbath, and
give serious audience to the words of their venerable
father and preacher, George Rapp, who, from his manner, appears devoted both to the spiritual and temporal
interests of his flock. They have also sermon twice
every week. The children are kept at school from six
to fourteen, and then are put to such trades as they
may choose.  Sometimes nearly the whole force of the
Society, male and female, is put to one object, such as
would have been driven back, had we not bought them at one hundred
dollars a head. We now increased our flock, introduced Merino sheep
into the neighborhood, paid two dollars a pound for unwashed Merino
wool, and improved the manufacture of broadcloth, which sold for
twelve dollars per yard in the time of the embargo."




56           THIE HARMONY SOCIETY.
pulling flax, reaping, hoeing corn, &c., so that the
labor of a hundred acre field is accomplished in a day
or two. All in fact seems to go on like clock-work,
and all seem contented and happy."
This picture is doubtless in the main correct, though
sufficiently flattering. Its substantial truthfulness could
be verified by a'visit to the community at any subsequent period, down to the present time.  There is friction no doubt in the machinery. Human nature is not
a sort of material to work smoothly, even in the most
favorable circumstances. But in this Society the oil
of brotherly love, and Christian charity, and meek
contentment, is so well applied, that the creaking of
the machinery is seldom heard even by one standing
near at hand.
The subject of celibacy we noticed somewhat in our
first chapter. It is here introduced again, as one of the
most noticeable events in the history of the Society during
their residence at Old Harmony. It may also be stated,
more fully, that marriage was not discountenanced
during the first two years of the Society's existence,
During that period a number of marriages took place,
solemnized by Rapp himself; among others was that
of his own son John (father of Gertrude), who married
therefore with his father's full approbation.
There was, however, in the views of the Society
some tendency to asceticism, and the question whether
there was not a holier state than that of matrimony
was agitated among them. In 1807, a much deeper
religious feeling than usual pervaded the Society.
They call it a " fresh revival of religion," such as had
given rise to their first movement in Germany. Deep




THEIR HISTORY AT OLD HARMONY.    57
convictions of sin were experienced, and a general
sense of worldliness and backsliding.  They acknowledged. to each other their consciousness of want of conformity to the spirit of primitive Christianity, which
they aimed to restore. Among other things, they fixed
upon the indulgences of the married state, as generally
practiced, as not being consistent with that purity of
heart and isolation from the world which they desired
to cultivate.  Such, at least, is their own account of
the matter.  Protestant Christians generally will say,
that a more intelligent and scriptural view of the whole
subject would have led to very different conclusions.
But Mr. Rapp encouraged and strongly advocated the
growing ascetic spirit.  Such passages of Scripture as
seem to favor the practice of celibacy, were expounded
and urged as applicable to all periods of the church, as
well as to the peculiar circumstances of the primitive
Christians. Some of these passages were referred to
in a former articles. They are such as Matt. 19:10-12
and 22: 30; 1 Cor. 7: 7, 8, and 25-27, 29; 1 Thess.
4:3-5; Rev. 14: 4.  He did not condemn matrimony
as being unlawful in those who had not within themselves a vocation to what he regarded as a holier state.
But in view, especially, of the expected near approach
of the Messiah's second advent, and of that a first resurrection" in which " they neither marry nor are given
in marriage," &c., and in order that they might be num.
bered among the " hundred and forty-four thousand"
who should "stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion,"
and "who were such as were not defiled with women,
but were virgins," he urged his people to this great
work of purification and preparation.
6




58           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
As an evidence of his sincerity, he himself set an example by practicing what he preached, as did also his
son John (not by force and violence, as the slander
has it, but of his own free will). These, with other
leaders, and at length the members generally who were
married, agreed to abstain from further conjugal intercourse. No more marriages were solemnized, and
it became established as a law of the Society that marriage was incompatible with membership. Thus this
tenderest of earthly bonds was virtually sundered
among them.  Many of the members being yet young,
the trial, as may well be imagined, was a very severe
one, too much so indeed for the faith and fortitude of
some. Hence the lapses, back-slidings and withdrawals to which we alluded before.
It may be doubted also whether this trial was alleviated by the fact stated by one of their number, that
"husbands and wives were not required to live in different houses, but occupied, as before, the same dwelling with their family, treating each other as brother
and sister in Christ, and remembering the precept of
the Apostle,' This, I say, brethren, the time is short;
it remaineth that both they that have wives be as
though they had none,'" &c. He adds, that " it was
easier to bear, because it became general through the
whole community, and all bore their share alike."
Another, writing in 1862, says:  "Convinced of the
truth and holiness of our purpose, we voluntarily and
unanimously adopted celibacy, altogether from religious motives, in order to withdraw our love entirely
from the lusts of the flesh, which, with the help of God,
and much prayer and spiritual warfare, we have succeeded well in doing now for fifty years."




THEIR HISTORY AT OLD HARMW'Y.             59
No children have been born in the community for
many years, and the general consistency of their practice with their principles on this subject, affords a remarkable example of steadfastness in resistance to the'flesh.
It may not be amiss here to correct another of the
formerly current slanders, to which the greater notoriety has been given by its introduction into the poems
of Lord Byron, where. he says,
"When Rapp the Harmonist embargoed marriage," &c.
It is, that while marriage is not prohibited, it is so restricted "' as to prevent more than a certain quantum
of births in a certain number (seven) of years," &c.
To any one well acquainted with the history of the
Society, it is needless to say, that there never has been
any groundcl whatever for such a statement.  Their
reasons for the adoption of celibacy must have entirely
prohibited any such usage.
It is one of the multitude of gross slanders which
have been put in circulation by the enemies of the Society, and credited by those who cannot comprehend
how such rigid self-denial should be practiced for conscience sake.




60          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
CHAPTER IV.
REMOVAL TO THE WABASH, AND FINAL SETTL1AMENT AT ECONOMY.
THEY SETTLE IN POSEY COUNTY, INDIANA-ENLARGED
OPERATIONS, AND INCREASE OF NUMBIERS-SELL OUT
TO ROBERT OWEN, AND RETURN TO PENNSYLVANIATO WN OF ECONOMY B UIL T —THEY ENGA GE IN THE SILK
B USINESS-E- STHETIC CULTURE-DUKE O.F SAXE WEIMAR'S VISIT —ARCADIA LOSES ITS ROMANCE —OTHER
CHANGES- WINE MAKING.
~   AVING in the previous chapters given the early
and most eventful portion of the history of the
Harmony Association, the subsequent period
may be passed over more cursorily. They continued
to grow and. prosper in their original location, as heretofore described, until the year 1814, when they determined to seek a new home. Among their reasons for
desiring a change, was the disadvantage of being twelve
miles from navigation, together with the unfitness of
the soil and climate for the most successful cultivation
of the grape and other fruits, to which they desired to
give special attention. Accordingly they sent a deputation to the West, for the purpose of searching out and
purchasing a more desirable place for their settlement.
They finally selected a large and most inviting body of
lands In the valley of the Wabash, mostly in Posey
county, Indiana, where they purchased some thirty
thousand acres, consisting chiefly of unimproved Gov



REMOVAL TO TIIE WABASH.             61
ernnent land, along with several improved  tracts
bought from individuals.
Here they found good lands, good mill seats, a navigable river, and a climate suitable for wine. In the
middle of June, 1814, about one hundred persons
started down the Ohio river in flat boats, and made the
necessary preparations, for the reception of their brethren, who followed in detached companies, some in the
fall of 1814, and the remainder in the spring of 1815
descending the river in keel and flat boats, as the mode
of travel then was.
They had in the meantime disposed of their property in Pennsylvania, at a great sacrifice; about six
thousand acres of land, with all the factories, mills, and
other buildings, of the town of Old Harmony, having
been sold for one hundred thousand dollars.
They soon built up a new town on the same general
plan with the one they had left, with such improvements in the details as their experience suggested.
They gave it the name of Harmony, as before.*  Here
they greatly enlarged their operations in every
department of business, cultivating more land, and
raising more stock, erecting larger mills and more extensive manufactories of woolen and cotton goods, and,
especially, extending their vineyards and the production of wine. They found the soil and climate here
very congenial for this favorite employment. They
carried on also a large commerce with the surrounding
country, to which they became the great business centre, and they extended their trade even to New Orleans. Besides a large and well stocked store in their
* It was afterward named New Harmony by Robert Owen.
6*




62           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
own town, they ultimately established branches in Vincennes, and Shawneetown, furnishing to a large section
of country not only their own productions, but a general supply of dry goods, hardware, agricultural implements, &c. Their wealth and prosperity, of course,
rapidly increased. They were brought extensively into
contact with the* outside world. Their fame became
known, and considerable additions were made to their
number by the admission of new members from Germany, and from German settlers in this country. In
the fall of 1817, an addition of one hundred and thirty
souls was received at one time, consisting of immigrants from Wiirtemberg, many of them being relatives
or acquaintances of the original members. They left
Germany in the same faith, and for the same reasons
which had led to Rapp's emigration, and it is a fact
worthy of notice, that the emigration of a colony to
Russian Tartary, and another to Zoar, Ohio, which are
referred to in the Introduction and in Appendix B,
took place in the same year; showing that the same
influences still continued to operate extensively in that
country.
In the following year (1818), by the advice of Mr.
Rapp, and for the purpose of promoting the greater harmony and equality between the original members and
those more recently added, the book containing the list
of contributions made by any of the members to the
common stock of property owned by the Society, was
burnt. They were exhorted, at the same time, not to
set their hearts upon their worldly possessions, but to
forget those things, and be " as though they possessed
not." This was the palmy period of the Society, as to




REMOVAL TO THE WABASH.              63
numbers and outward prosperity.  Their whole number ultimately was not much less than one thousand.
Their subsequent history while on the Wabash, does
not furnish any incident of very special interest. They
found the surrounding population to be composed
pretty largely of settlers from the Southern States, and
these not of the best character.  Many of them were
ignorant, vicious, and turbulent; and sometimes unpleasant collisions occurred between them and the
peacefully disposed Harmonists. The country, also,
was found to be unhealthy, fevers, agues, &c., prevailing. These circumstances induced them to think of
returning to Pennsylvania.
They employed a certain Richard Flower, an Englishman, and a prominent member of an English settlement in their vicinity, at Albion, Illinois, to negotiate
for a sale of their lands and other real estate, offering
him five thousand dollars to find them a purchaser.
Flower went to England for this purpose, and hearing of
Robert Owen's community at New Lanark, Scotland,
he sought him out, and succeeded in selling to him the
town of New Harmony, with all its houses, mills, factories, &c., and twenty thousand acres of land, for one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This was an immense sacrifice, but they were determined to leave the
country, and they submitted to the loss. Having, in the
meantime, made a purchase of their present lands in
Beaver county, Pennsylvania, on the Ohio river, about
eighteen miles from Pittsburgh, they built a steamboat,
and removed in detachments to their new and final
place of settlement. This was in 1825. Thus they
lived ten years at Old Harmony, in Butler county,




64           THE HARKMONY SOCIETY.
Pennsylvania, and ten years at New Harmony, on the
Wabash. In both these removals, the whole Society
clung together.  Some had a reluctance to making
these changes, but when the option was given them of
remaining behind, with a certain provision made for
their wants, or of removing with the rest, they all determined to follow Father Rapp and their brethren.
Their new town, to which they gave the name of
Economy, was built on the north side of the Ohio
river, on one of the most beautiful sites to be found
anywhere in the country. It is in the midst of an
elevated plateau, which extends some four miles up
and down the Ohio, and slopes gently back to the picturesque hills which skirt it at the distance of nearly
a mile from the river. The streets are sixty feet wide,
and are at right angles with each other, forming several squares of about two acres and three-quarters each,
on the corners of which, and mid-way on the intervening sides, the houses are erected, the enclosed grounds
affording ample space for the gardens of the several
families.  The houses are of frame or brick, two stories
high, and of a unique style of economic architecture,
having but one door each, which is entered through a
yard from the side. Their church, hotel, barns, mills,
manufactories, &c., were erected as rapidly as possible
after their arrival, and on improved plans, practical
utility rather than superfluous ornament being consulted..The whole machinery of the Society's operations
was soon in vigorous motion as before. The agueshaken members recovered their lost health. The
surrounding population was friendly, and pleasant
business and social relations were formed with the
neighbors, which have ever since been maintained.




FINAL SETTLEMENT AT ECONOMY.           65
Extensive orchards and vineyards were planted, and
soon added their products to the wealth derived from
broad fields of grain, large flocks and herds, and busy
manufacturing establishments.  Labor-saving machinery was introduced.  Steam power was then and is
still employed wherever it is available. Not only their
woolen and cotton factories, their flouring mill, and saw
mill, &c., were driven by steam, but they still thresh
and clean their grain by steam, grind and press their
apples and grapes by steam, and wash and wring their
clothes by steam. Their laundry establishment has
always been an object of interest, especially to lady
visitors.  The town is amply supplied with water
through wells, hydrants, and watering troughs, at convenient points. A large reservoir receives the water
of a stream that flows from the hills, and when this
source of supply becomes deficient, the ever serviceable
steam engine pumps water from a deep river-well.
In former years they employed the steamboat navigation of the Ohio river as their chief channel of trade
and travel; but in later years they enjoy the advantage of the Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne & Chicago, and the
Pittsburgh & Cleveland rail roads, whose trains are
passing every hour along the bluff in front of the town.
They have also a telegraph office.
Soon after their settlement at Economy, a few silk
worms were sent to Mr. Rapp from a friend in the
East, with instructions as to the various processes of
silk culture.  It was a new business to them, but
they engaged in it with zeal, as a source of probable
profit, and as affording easy employment to the women
and, children and aged persons among them. They




66           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
planted an orchard of Italian mulberry and of morus
multicaulis, and adorned their streets with shade trees
of the same. They soon produced large quantities of
raw silk, and looms became necessary for weaving.
They employed the services successively, of an Englishman, a Frenchman, and a Switzer, to instruct and
assist their own,mechanics in the erecting of looms,
and the weaving of ribbons, vestings, satins, velvets,
&c., in which they soon attained a high degree of skill.
The business was successfully continued for a few
years, but through want of suitable patronage from the
Government, in the way of protection against foreign
competition, it was found to be unprofitable, and was
at length abandoned by them, as it was also at most
other places where it had been introduced.
These HIarmonists were not mere boors or dull utilitarians, as they have been falsely represented. It is
true that, in addition to their three daily meals, they
were accustomed, as they still are, to take a slight
lunch in the middle of the forenoon and afternoon
(the latter being called " vespers"), consisting of a slice
of bread and a mug of wine, beer, or cider; and perhaps some of them may have had these creature-comforts at hand even during the night; but still they did
not live merely to eat and drink. They were fond of
music, and gave much attention to its cultivation, as
already noticed. In their earlier days, also, they were
not regardless of works of taste and ornament. The
Rapps showed their wisdom in this respect. Frederick
especially, being a man of fine aesthetic culture in
poetry, music, painting, sculpture, and articles of virtu,
endeavored to infuse his own spirit into the people.




FINAL SETTLEMENT   AT ECONOMY.          67
For this purpose, among things, he procured from New
York and Philadelphia, at an expense of several thousand dollars, an extensive museum of curiosities, consisting-of rare minerals, fine paintings, collections of
birds, insects, shells, &c., besides Indian antiquities,
and many other things new and strange. Among the
early recollections of the writer, is the expansion of his
organ of wonder by the marvels which he saw in this
museum. Equally vivid is his recollection of his boyish delight on seeing for the first time a park of deer
at Economy. Also, of his losing himself in the mazes of
the mysterious labyrinth, composed of a curiously con*structed -hedge which then grew around and almost
concealed from view the round-house that still stands
on the outskirts of the village. And then again was
West's great picture of " Christ Healing the Sick,"
which still adorns the parlor of the Rapp House, conspicuous among other fine pictures there to be seen.
But most frequented then, as ever since, was " Rapp's
Garden," with its beautiful flowers and shrubbery, its
winding walks,- its cool and cosy arbors, its tempting
fruits (the more tantalizing  from  the prohibition,
" hands off"); the fish pond in the midst of overhanging evergreens, and in its centre the round tower,
from -the top of which the band of music was wont to
send forth its sweet strains upon the evening air. But
most surprising of all was the Grotto, constructed on
the Chinese principle of pleasing by contrast. You
approach, by a narrow tangled path, a small rude structure, of the roughest stone, overgrown with wild vines,
and with a door apparently of rough oak bark. You
enter —and you stand in the midst of a beautiful min



68           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
iature Grecian temple, with a life-sized piece of emblematic statuiary before you, and the dates of the great
events in the Society's history conspicuously engraved
in niches around you.
It was with such things as these, in those palmy days,
that the taste of the Harmonists was cultivated, the
tedium of their monotonous life alleviated, and their
many visitors gratified. No wonder that romantically
disposed tourists spoke and wrote of the place as an
Arcadia.
It may be proper to introduce here the following
notice of the Society in 1826, by the Duke of Saxe
Weimar, who visited it in that year.
" At the inn, a fine large frame house, we were received by Mr. Rapp, the principal, at the head of the
community. He is a grey-headed and venerable old
man; most of the members immigrated twenty-one years
ago from Wiirtemberg, along with him.
" The warehouse was shown to us, where the articles
made here for sale or use, are preserved, and I admired
the excellence of all. The articles for the use of the
Society are kept by themselves, as the members have
no private possessions, and everything is in common,
so must they, in relation to all their wants, be supplied
from the common stock. The clothing and food they
make use of is of the best quality. Of the latter,
flour, salt meat, and all long keeping articles, are
served out monthly; fresh meat, on the contrary, is
distributed as soon as it is killed, according to the size
of the family, &c. As every house has a garden, each
family raises its own vegetables, and some poultry, and
each family has its own bake-oven. For such things




FINAL SETTLEMENT AT ECONOMY.           69
as are not raised in Economy, there is a store provided,
from which the members, with the knowledge of the
Directors, may purchase what is necessary, and the
people of the vicinity may do the same,
"Mr. Rapp finally conducted us into the factory again,
and said that the girls had especially requested this
visit, that I might hear them sing. When their work
is done they collect in one of the factory rooms, to the
number of sixty or seventy, to sing spiritual and other
songs. They have a peculiar hymn book, containing
hymns from the old Wiirtemberg collection, and others
written by the elder Rapp. A chair was placed for
the old patriarch, who sat amidst the girls, and they
commenced a hymn in a very delightful manner. It
was naturally symphonious, and exceedingly well arranged.  The girls sang four pieces, at first sacred,
but afterward by Mr. Rapp's desire, of a gay character. With real emotion did I witness this interesting
scene.
" Their factories and workshops are warmed during
the winter by means of pipes connected with the steam
engine. All the workmen, and especially the females,
had very healthy complexions, and moved me deeply by
the warm-hearted friendliness with which they saluted
the elder Rapp. I was also much gratified to see ves,
sels containing fresh sweet scented-flowers, standing on
all the machines. The neatness which universally
reigns, is in every respect worthy of praise."
But it is not to be wondered at that in such a community, where no provision is made for its perpetuation, where the young are growing old, and the old
passing away, there should be a gradual decadence in
7




70          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
taste and enterprise.  The cotton, woolen, and silk
manufactures were abandoned years ago-the last because it was not profitable, and all, because there was
a lack of mechanical skill in those whose eyes now
needed the aid of glasses and whose hands were becoming tremulous.  Diminishing numbers also required
more force to be applied to the culture of the ground.
The museum was'found to be an unprofitable investment, and it was sold at a sacrifice. Its mineralogical
department, after remaining for a time in the custody
of the Western Pennsylvania Hospital, was ultimately
transferred to the Western University of Pennsylvania,
at Pittsburgh, where its remains may still be seen.
The deer were unprofitable stock, and the labyrinth
was a toy, which only encumbered the ground where it
stood. The Grotto has exchanged its old and proper
thatch covering for a civilized roof. The old musicians of
the band have relinquished their labor (except at religious festivals) to younger and less skillful hands, and the
late efficient leader, having yielded to the power of the
tender passion and gone in the ways of Hymen, is no
longer a member of the Society.
The Economites have always excelled in the culture
of the grape and the manufacture of wine. The vineyards, however, which they planted many years ago,
have been abandoned, so far as field culture is concerned, and the grapes which they now use are supplied
almost entirely from vines growing on their houses.
The upper story of each house is covered on three sides
with vines carefully trained on trellis work attached to
the house; and besides the ornamental appearance of
these vines, the grapes are found to be better protected




FINAL SETTLEMENT AT ECONOMY.           71
from the frost, and more richly sweetened by the sun,
than those grown elsewhere. For some.years past,
also, their finest wines have been produced from the
common red currant, several acres of which are cultivated for this purpose. The grapes which they cultivate for wine have been chiefly the Catawba and
Isabella, while they have not been inattentive to the
claims of the new varieties.
In the year 1832, the Society suffered a diminution
of one-third of its number, through the great secession
under Count Leon, the history of which will be given
in the next chapter.




72          THlE HARMONY SOCIETY.
CHAPTER V.
SECESSION UNDER ICOUNT DE LEON.
HE OPENS CORRESPONDENCE WITH RAPP-CLAIMS A DIVINE MISSION-CO-M.ES TO ECONOMY —WISHES TO BE AT
THE HEAD OF AFFAIRS — DRAWS OF.F A PARTY- THE
SOCIETY DIVIDED-COMPROMISE MADE-NE Tf SOCIETY
FORMED A T PHILLIPSB URG-CASH EXHA USTED-CO UNT
FAILS TO MAKE GOLD OUT OF ROCK'S-MOB VISITS ECONOMY-DR UMMED O UT- B UBBLE B URSTS- CO UNT TAKES
FR.ENCH LEA VE-DIES ON RED RIVER, &c.
N the year 1829, a long letter was received from
i   Frankfort-on-the-Main, purporting to be written
by John George Goentgen, Doctor of Philosophy and Theology, but who signs himself Samuel, this
being the name which he claims as belonging to him
under the new dispensation of which he writes. He
does not directly name the personage who afterward
called himself the Count De Leon, but refers to him
under such appellations as the Anointed of the Lord,
the Divine Messenger, &c., and speaks of him in terms
applicable only to the Messiah, whose second advent
was at that time daily expected by many among the
pietistic sects of Germany. Of this man's previous
history we have but little, except that his proper name
was Bernard Miiler, and that he had gathered around
him at Frankfort, a religious sect of mystical and mil-.
lennarian Pietists, who held him in high reverence,




SECESSION UNDER COUNT LEON.          73
under the name of Broli.  He claimed to have a
Divine commission to proclaim to the world the judgments which were impending in "the last days," and
to call upon all the Lord's people to come out from
among the wicked, and gather themselves together in
some place where they might await the glorious personal advent of the Redeemer. He addressed a solemn
circular, or letter apostolic, to the several courts and
heads of churches in Europe, warning them  of the
coming judgments, and bidding them to publish this
message, and not to interfere with the coming out of
the Lord's people.
His letter to George Rapp, written by Gdntgen,
who seems to have been his amanuensis or private secretary, expresses great reverence for him and his
Society, whom he professes to regard as the first fruits
of the new millennial church, a portion of that body
spoken of in the book of Revelation, chapter 12, as " the
woman who fled into the wilderness where she hath a
place prepared of God," &c. He expresses his belief
that America is not included in the field upon which
the prophetic judgments are to fall, but is to be the
home of God's chosen ones, and that Rapp's Society
are honored with being the forerunners of the church
of the " first born," which is to be gathered into this
land. He proposes to bring with him a company of
his own followers, with a view either to joining themselves to the Harmony Society, or to the forming of a
separate community on kindred principles, as might
seem  best. He inquires concerning the quality and
price of lands, the eligibility of locations, &c. See
Appendix E.'6*




74           THE HARMONY:SOCIETY.
From the pious tone of this letter, and the similarity
of its sentiments to those of Rapp and his people, a
favorable opinion was formed, and an encouraging
answer was returned.  Nothing more, however, was
heard from Leon until October, 1831, when a letter'
was received from him stating that he:had just arrived
in New York, with about forty persons, and desiring to
know whether they could be accommodated at Economy during the winter.
YHaving received an affirmative answer, they came on
immediately.  Leon, assuming an air of great dignity,
sends forward two of his suite to herald his approach,
he himself tarrying in the meantime in Pittsburgh.  A
formal public reception was arranged for him. The
minds of the people having been prepared' for some
time before, by Rapp's preaching, for the advent of
such- a personage, it was: a time of great expectations
with the honest and simple-minded  Harmonists. As
soon as the coach which bore Leon approached the
town, it was greeted with a salute of the finest music
from the band stationed on the tower of the church.
The Count (soi-disant) was met at the hotel and escorted to: the church, where the whole community.are
assembled awaiting his arrival. He enters in state,
attended by his Minister of Justice in full military
garb, and sword at his side.  He is shown into the
pulpit by'Mr.: Rapp, and all eyes are fixed upon him
and all; ears are open. The great man stands before
them! But where are all his solemn prophetic utterances?:Instead of delivering an address befitting the
occasion, he only expresses his belief that " this meeting is the most important event since the creation, and




SECESSION "UNDER COUNT'LEON.            75
that henceforth all the -troubles and sorrows of the
Lord's people wiil cease.;" and then.professes to be too
full of emotion for further utterance.'Mr. Rapp makes
a brief address, in which he coolly expresses his doubts.as to whether the ehappy period.anticipated by the
Count has yet arrived,: and then dismisses: the. assembly.
Five houses' were: assigned, to Leon andhis followers,
andi:a few boarded at the hotel, paying their own
expenses..'As yet, Rapp and his people knew: nothing of the
views and character'of'.these:strangers, except what
Imnight be gathered from:the' letter. above mentioned..Some of the more discerning ones,. however,. sooh: began to form  unfavorable opinions from  what they saw.and heard.!Meetings for: conference were held two. or
three evenings every -:week, for a month -or more, between the leading men on both sides  Leon was heard
at length in exposition; of -his views, and extended
passages: were read: from a volume.which he called: the
"'C Golden Book.".The conferences.were not satisfac-.tory.  The more Rapp learned of Leon's views,'the.more he disliked them. iRapp's system  aimed at the
crucifixion of the flesh and. separation from.the.spirit
of" the-world..He believed that religion required the
bearing of' the cross..Leon.. seemed to think that the
offense of the cross:would cease. under the new order of
things which he was called to introduce.  He favored
a better style of dress:and living,. and especially was he
disposed to encourage matrimony. among his followers.
It was soon found that: there could be no union between the two societies, and Leon and his party, would
havei been.expected to leave at once, but for the late



76          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
ness and inclemency of the season. Being permitted
to remain through the winter, they had ample opportunities of mingling with the people in their manufactories, workshops, and elsewhere.
These opportunities were but too well employed in
fomenting dissatisfaction and discord.  Leon was extolled by his friends as a man of extraordinary knowledge, experience, and wisdom, possessing even the art
of making gold out of the rocks around them. His
Divine commission was also urged, and the danger of
resisting his claims. Those whose ear could be gained
were invited to visit him at his house, and thus he
held his evening levees, and Absalom-like, endeavored
to steal away the hearts of the young and unstable
among the members. It was represented to them that
if Count Leon were their leader he would soon bring
the Society to a great state of advancement, giving
them better fare, better clothing, more personal
comforts, less work, and above all, the privilege of
marriage, so much desired by some. These seductive
representations were not without their effect upon some
of those who were not fully imbued with the principles
of the Society, especially the young, the disaffected, and
the recently admitted members. A paper was drawn
up and published in the newspapers, in which Leon
was mentioned as the future head and leader of the
association, and outstanding bills were to be sent in
to him for settlement. This paper was signed by all
those who favored his claims, to the number of two
hundred and fifty, including men, women, and children.
Another and counter paper was also prepared and
signed by those who were determined to adhere to the




SECESSION UNDER COUNT LEON.             77
old order of things, expressing:confidence in their
present leaders and protesting against the divisive
movement.  This paper contained five hundred names,
and;thus the Society stood divided two-thirds against
one-third.
A state of;temporary an:archy ensued, and the Society seemed to be on the verge of dissolution.  Members of:the same household!took opposite sides. It was
a:trying -time -to the old anld faithful members, whose
quiet:;habitations were now;for the first time disturbed
with:the noise of strife and contention.  But they
trusted,in God and in their tried leaders, and they
determined -to go forward.  The question now was,
how best to rid themselves of these treacherous guests
and their adherents? To wait.the slow process of the
law would occupy too:much time.  They determined
to make a: compromise.  The terms, as -finally agreed
upon and:ratified on the 6th of'March, 1832, in legal
form, were in substance these-: The adherents of Leon,
now:members of the Society, were to withdraw from it
and leave Economy, within three months; relinquishing all claims whatever upon ithe property,:money, and
real estate of the Society,.and taking with them only
their::personal clothing, household furniture,:&c., in
consideration of the sum ofr.one hundred and five thousand dollars, to be paid to them in three instalments
within the year.  Leon himself and suite were to:lea:e
within six weeks.
With the money they -received, the withdrawing
party purchased the village of Phillipsburg, on the
opposite side of the Ohio, ten miles below Economy,
with about eight hundred acres of land.  Here they




78          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
settled and organized themselves into a Society on the
community principle, but allowing marriage. They
called their association the New Philadelphia Society.
They erected a hotel, factories, &c., and proposed to
rival Economy in manufacturing, farming, vine raising,
&c. In order to make good the promises of Leon as
to better living,' less work, &c., their expenditures for
the first year far exceeded their income, including the
amount paid them from Economy. Finding themselves
largely in debt and their credit exhausted, they called
upon the Count to bring into requisition his power of
making gold; and he is said actually to have built a
laboratory and made the attempt to extract gold from
stones. A small portion of the precious metal at length
appeared, but how it got into the crucible was not
explained. The promised gold is not forthcoming,
and the seceders. who had been made to believe that
they were living on the Count's money, now find out
that their own one hundred and five thousand dollars
are expended, and they are indignant and much excited against his countship. In order to allay the rising
tempest he persuades them to -make an additional demand upon the Harmony Society, under the plea that
too little had been paid them, and that he himself had
never sanctioned the compromise.
Having little hope of extorting anything more by
process of law, and being in need of the ready cash,
they determined to adopt a summary process. On the
second of April, 1833, a mob of about eighty persons
entered the town of Economy, took forcible possession
of the hotel, and then laid their demands before the
authorities in a long and offensive document, which




SECESSION UNDER COUNT LEON.          79
ended in terms similar to a declaration of war. This
ultimatum was formally considered and promptly rejected, with the reply that the terms of the compromise which had been accepted by both parties had been
fully complied with, and nothing more could be yielded.
The members of the Society, meanwhile, all remained
quietly in their houses, as they had been advised, so
that there might be no collision.  The mob then
threatened loudly to enter Mr. Rapp's house by force,
in order, as they alleged, to get possession of certain
papers which would sustain their claims. But finding
the house barricaded and well guarded from Within,
they desisted from the attempt. They gathered again
around the hotel, and helped themselves freely to whatever provisions, liquors, &c., they could find.
In the meantime, many of the neighbors and friends
of the Economites, hearing of the proceedings, had
gathered in to see what was going on; and after having
learned the unreasonable demands of the mob, they
sent for further assistance, and toward evening they
rose up in -a bold American way, under a dauntless
leader, and drove the invaders from the town before
drum and fife, and to the tune of the Rogue's March.
During the whole day, however, not a drop of blood
was shed, nor even a blow was struck.
The next morning complaint was made at Beaver,
the county seat, against the individuals composing the
mob, as well as against Leon and his associates, and
they were bound over as conspirators to answer at the
June court. Indictments were presented to the grand
jury, and true bills found against the whole of them,
but their attorneys managed to put off the trials to the




80          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
September term. Between June and September they
had ample time to examine into the state of their
affairs and learn their true position. The eyes of the
misguided seceders were now thoroughly opened, and
they thought it advisable to get rid of their bogus
Count and prophet. He was accordingly, with a small
number of his own followers, quietly shipped on board
a keel-boat, and leaving his debts and legal recognizances for others to care for, he made the best of his
way to Alexandria, on the Red river, in Louisiana,
where he died of cholera, in the fall of 1833. He
seems to have been a compound of the enthusiast and
the impostor.
The seceders, being thus left to themselves, made an
assignment, divided the property and debts pro rata,
and started anew on the individual system. By calling
into action the industry and carefulness which they
had practiced at Economy, and improving each one his
own allotted share of the land, they soon relieved themselves of their debts, and began to prosper. When the
September term of the court came on, the Harmony
Society, by advice of their lawyers, consented to withdraw the suits against their former brethren,-now that
the maker of all the mischief was gone away in shame,
-they paying all the costs. Thus the difficulties were
ended, and thus ingloriously terminated all the splendid schemes of Herr Bernard Miillers Broli, Count de
Leon, Divine Messenger, &c.
This diminution of their numbers by one-third, together with the amount of money paid to the seceders,
might have been supposed to be a great loss to the
Society. But it was, on the whole, a decided gain.




SECESSION UNDER COUNT LEON.           81
They were relieved from all the discordant materials
which, in the course of time, had become intermingled
with their organization. A greater measure of true
harmony and brotherly love than they had known for
years before, was now restored. They henceforth pursue the even tenor of their way in peace. All their
enterprises prosper. sThe social machinery works
smoothly, and they find verified in their experience
the truth of a remark pithily made by one of their
leaders, in view of the events above recorded, that
"happiness is not always found in great numbers nor
in large masses."




82          TFIE HARMONY SOCIETY.
CHAPTER VI.
VARIOUS LAW SUITS.
THE MULLER CASE- THE SC'HR1BER CASE —THE NACGHTRIEB AND LEMMIX CASES-EMINENT LEGAL TALENT
EMPLOYED, &c.
H    HE Harmonists have never been a litigious peo~~~~,    plie, but true to their name, they have aimed to
live in harmony with all men. They have not
been able, however, to escape altogether the necessity of
appealing unto Caesar in defense of their rights. This
they have not done willingly, but in nearly all cases
have been the respondents in suits brought against them.
It is not proposed to notice these law-suits in detail.
To the more important of them lawyers have access in
the published reports, and the public generally would
not care to read of such things. They, however,
attracted much attention at the time, both from the
eminent legal talent employed, and from the importance of the principles involved; while to the Society
itself, they have been among the great events of its
history, breaking in upon the quiet and seclusion of
the peaceful community, and dragging them before the
great world. A brief notice of the principal ones
must suffice.
The first suit of which we have any notice was




VARIOUS LAW SUITS.              83
brought by one Eugene Miiller, who withdrew from the
Society about the year 1821-2, and removed to Pittsburgh. He was not one of the original members, and
was never in full harmony with the spirit of the organization. The suit was brought to recover wages for
labor and services rendered while a member of the
Society. As all suchclaim is formally renounced in
the articles of association, which Miiller himself
had signed, he was easily defeated before the court.
Even had his cause been a good one, his chance of
success must have been small, when opposed by such
men as James Ross and John H. Hopkins (the latter
being now Senior Bishop of the Episcopal Church in
the United States, but then a member of the Pittsburgh bar).
Peter Schriber, with. his five sons and four daughters, joined the Society in 1806, one year after its
organization. They did not come from Germany with
Mr. Rapp, but were originally from Adams county,
Pennsylvania, and had removed to Columbiana county,
Ohio. Here George Rapp became acquainted with
them  in 1803, and enjoyed their hospitality while
exploring the Tuscarawas country in search of a place
of settlement for his people. Schriber was a man of
some wealth, owning one thousand acres of land, with
horses, stock, &c. He was a man of decided religious
character, and was so delighted with Rapp's plans for
the- new religious society which he proposed to form,
that he determined to join the association as soon as it
should be fully organized. Accordingly, in 1806, he
left his farm in Ohio, and came with all his family and
a large amount of personal property to Harmony, Penn



84           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
sylvania, where Rapp and his people had settled.  All
this property, -together with the proceeds of the sale of
his farm afterward, amounting in all to some eight. thousand dollars, was thrown into the common stock of
the Society, according to the terms of the original
articles. of association. All the Schriber family concurred in this action, and they continued to be faithful
and contented members of the Society during life,
except Jacob, the fourth son. This Jacob was a man
of somewhat visionary and enthusiastic character, and
was an eager advocate for the removal of the Society to
the land of Palestine, there to await the Lord's coming.
Not finding much sympathy with his views, and having come under some unfavorable influences (among
others, probably that of the tender passion), he withdrew in 1826, and returned to Ohio.
Here he met with several other dissatisfied seceding
members, with whom he held frequent conferences.
Finding that they had grievances in common, and having but little hope from the courts, they prepared a
memorial to the Legislature of Pennsylvania, which
was extensively signed by seceding members and
others, asking for a committee of investigation to examine into the affairs of the Harmony Society, with 4
view to the redress of alleged wrongs and grievances.
The memorial was referred to the judiciary committee,
who reported that the allegations of the memorialists
were improbable and not sustained by evidence, and
referred them to the courts for an adjustment of their
pecuniary claims.
After the death of his father Peter Schriber, who
being a member of the Society had died intestate,




VARIOUS LAW  SUITS.              85
Jacob, as one of the surviving heirs, took out letters
of administration, and made a demand upon the Society for an account of the property of his father in their
hands. Suit was brought before Judge Bredin, of the
Court of Common Pleas of Beaver county, who decided
adversely to the claim. An appeal was taken to the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, where the judgment
of the lower court was affirmed, after an able opinion
by Judge Gibson, which is recorded in Watts' Reports,
vol. 5, p. 360-4.,t- v-           e
The legal principles decided by this trial were, 1st,
"that an association by which each surrendered his
property into one common stock, for the mutual benefit
of all, during their joint lives, with the right of survivorship, reserving to each the privilege to secede at
any time during his life, is not prohibited by law.
And that right of secession-is not transmissible to the
personal representative of a party to such agreement,
so as to enable him to recover the property of his
intestate, so put into the common stock." 2d. That
" a member of a religious society cannot avoid a contract with it on the basis of its peculiar faith, by setting
up the supposed extravagance of its doctrines as a
proof that he was entrapped." The attorneys for the
Society in this case were Richard Biddle and Walter
Forward, both afterward among the distinguished
men of the nation.
The Nachtrieb case was a bill in equity filed by
Joshua Nachtrieb, before the Circuit Court of the
United States for the Western District of Pennsylvania, at the November term of 1849; in which it is
charged, that the complainant having been a member.



86           THE HIARMONY SOCIETY.
of the Society, was unjustly excluded and deprived of
any participation in the property and benefits of the
association, and praying for an account of the property
and effects at the time of his exclusion, and that his
share be awarded to him by decree of the court. This
was a protracted case, and was managed by distinguished counsel on both sides, the attorneys for the complainant being Charles Shaler, Edwin M. Stanton and
Th. Umbstaetter; for the Society, A. W. Loomis and
Wilson M'Candless.
During the years 1.850 and 1851, a great mass of
testimony was taken in various places, by cowmmissioners
appointed by the court, and the case was argued at the
November term, 1851, before Judges Grier and Irwin,
who, after a full hearing, took the case under advisement, and on the 5th of April, 1852, delivered their
opinion, sustaining the claim of the complainant. The
Trustees of the Harmony Society, R. L. Baker and J.
Henrici, were ordered to render a full account of the
net value of all the estate of the Society during the
twenty-seven years of the complainant's membership,
in order that the court might determine the amount
due to him as his proper share of the whole. This
led to a protracted and tedious investigation before
Commissioner Henry Sproul, in which the pecuniary
affairs of the Society, from the very beginning, were
minutely and inquisitorially examined into, and all their
books and accounts, their methods of transacting business, the value of their lands and all other possessions,
were brought under review.  The final result was the
issuing of a decree in 1855 by Judge Grier, awarding
to the complainant the sum of three thousand eight




VARIOUS LAW  SUITS.              87
hundred and ninety dollars, as his rightful share in the
estate of the Society. The operation, however, of this
decree was suspended by an appeal which was taken by
the Society to the Supreme Court of the United States.
At the December term of 1856, the case was finally
adjudicated by a reversal of the decree of the lower
court, Justice Campbell pronouncing the judgment of
this high tribunal in an ably written opinion. Thus
Nachtrieb was defeated, and this " seven years' war"
was ended.
It was a hard case for the complainant, and public
sympathy was very much in his favor, inasmuch as it
appeared plainly in the course of thb trial that his
alleged voluntary withdrawal from the Society, which
was plead as a bar to his claim, was virtually an expulsion by the authority of George Rapp. His offense,
too, which was holding conversation by appointment
with some of the Phillipsburgers, was regarded as a
trivial one, by those who were not acquainted with the
true state of things at Economy.  But Nachtricb was
known by the leaders to be a disaffected and unsound
member, and to be in sympathy with those hostile
seceders, who were still plotting against the Society,
and were reported as having threatened the destruction
of the town. In these circumstances a favorable opportunity only was wanting to bring such a pressure to
bear upon the offender as to constrain his voluntary
withdrawal, and thus rid the Society of an undesirable
member. His signing of a paper in which he declares
" I have this day withdrawn myself from the Harmony
Society, and ceased to be a member thereof," and
acknowledges the " receipt of two hundred dollars as a




88           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
donation according to contract," was regarded by the
Supreme Court as conclusive evidence against his
alleged expulsion, and as a bar to all claims.
Elijah Lemmix was the friend and associate of Nachtrieb, and left the Society at the same time, and under
the same circumstances, except that his withdrawal
was more manifestly a voluntary one than that of Nachtrieb. In 1852, after the decision of Judges Grier and
Irwin in favor of Nachtrieb, Lemmix also brought suit
before the same court, for the recovery of his share
of the property. A similar course of protracted investigation was had, under the management of the
same able attoereys; but at the February term of the
court, in 1855, Judge Irwin pronounced a brief and
decided opinion adverse to the claim of the petitioner.
Thus Lemmix, also, was defeated, and at the same
time an effectual estoppal was put to a series of annoying law suits about to be entered by seceding members,
which, had they been successful, must have resulted in
the entire dissolution of the Society.
It was found, by the investigation into the actual
wealth of the Society before Commissioner Sproul,
that instead of some eight or ten millions, at which
the property was wildly estimated by the complainants,
it did not amount in all to quite one million; and in
order to meet the demands of all who would have been
encouraged to make similar claims against the Society,
this million of dollars would soon have been exhausted,
and the remaining members left penniless.
These law suits had been extremely vexatious. All
the private and domestic concerns of the Society were
pried into, all their branches of business and the




VARIOUS LAW  SUITS.              89
profits of each, all their religious and social usages,
everything, indeed, which was wobody's business but
their own, was impertinently, needlessly, and inquisitorially dragged into public view. The result of the
whole, however, was to the benefit and credit of the
Society. They became better known and understood;
the extravagant estimates of their supposed wealth no
longer awakened jealousy; and especially, the unimpeachable integrity with which their financial affairs
had been managed by the leaders, even though never
called to account by the Society, was a refreshing exhibition of honesty in the use of funds which is but
too rarely found.




90          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
CHAPTER VII.
ITS  LATER  HISTORY.
CHANGE IN ONE OF THE ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATIONOUTSIDE ENTERPRISES —THEY OWN TWO RAILROADS
AND A TOWN-THEIR OIL BUSINESS, c&c.
CCORDING to the original articles of association, assented to at the organization of the
Society in 1805, and more formally adopted at
New Harmony, Indiana, in 1821, and renewed again
at Economy, Pennsylvania, in 1827, it was stipulated
that in case of the withdrawal of any member of the
Society, for any cause, the money or property originally brought into the common fund by such person,
should be refunded without interest, in one, two, or
three annual instalments. This provision had been
found, at a very early period, to operate unfavorably,
both by keeping up a feeling of inequality among the
members, according as they had brought in less or
more into the Society, and by fostering a disposition
to withdraw among any who might become disaffected.
Accordingly, as early as 1818, those who had been
among the original members, agreed by common consent to destroy the record which had been kept of the
amount contributed by each, in order that their children might not know, and that they themselves might




ITS LATER HISTORY.                91
forget, as far as possible, how much each family had
brought in. It was not, however, until after some of
the lawsuits before described, and especially after the
difficulties growing out of the claims of Count Leon's
adherents, that it was determined to abrogate altogether
the article which provided for refunding to withdrawing members. Accordingly in 1836 the following new
articles were unanimously adopted and signed by the
three hundred and ninety-one members, then composing the Society, viz.: " 1st. The said sixth article [in
regard to refunding] is entirely annulled and made
void, as if it had never existed, all others to remain infull force as heretofore. 2d. All the property of the
Society, real, personal and mixed, in law or equity, and
howsoever contributed or acquired, shall be deemed
now and forever, joint and indivisible stock.  Each
individual is to be considered to have finally and irrevocably parted with all his former contributions, whether in lands, goods, money or labor; and the same rule
shall apply to all future contributions, whatever they
may be. 3d. Should any individual withdraw from
the Society, or depart this life, neither he in the one
case, nor his representatives in the other, shall be entitled to demand an account of said contributions, or to
claim anything from the Society as a matter of right.
But it shall be left altogether to the discretion of the
superintendent to decide whether any, and if any, what
allowance shall be made to such member, or his representatives, as a donation."  See Appendix D.
These new articles effectually precluded all further
claims from any who might withdraw, and made it the
common interest of all alike to live and die in fellow



92           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
ship with the Society. It has always been customary,
however, to make a donation to any member who withdraws in an open, regular manner, to the amount
usually of not less than two hundred dollars; and in
special cases a much larger amount has been granted.
The later years of the Society's history up to the
present time are'marked by few incidents worthy of
notice. They have continued to pursue the same quiet
and industrious course of life as in former years. All
their business is conducted with clock-work regularity.
There is a place for everything, and everything is in
its place. Every individual has his or her proper work
to do, and all go forth to their daily employments with
apparent cheerful contentment. To the eye of a stranger, the town has a dull and finished appearance. Its
grass-grown streets, its Sabbath stillness, and the absence of children (except a few apprentices and others),
render it all unlike most other American towns. There
are many transient Visitors, who are hospitably entertained at the hotel, but no regular boarders are received
as in former years.  Owing to diminishing numbers,
they have necessarily contracted the range of their
mechanical and agricultural operations, and their profits from these sources are proportionately diminished.
They keep a store, which serves for the accommodation
of themselves and their neighbors, and where is also
the postoffice, and the general place of business for the
Trustees.
Accumulation is no longer among the prominent
aims of the Society. They have enough for their own
wants, and have no need to lay up for others. A oertain portion, however, of their capital must be kept




ITS LATER HISTORY.              93
employed. Among their chief sources of income, for
some years past, have been certain outside enterprises,
especially the oil business. But even into these investments they have been drawn involuntarily, rather
than from the prevalent spirit of speculation by which
others are influenced.
They have ever been'ready to extend aid and relief
to individuals and enterprises which commanded their
confidence, not forgetful at the same time of the safety
of the investments which they were called to make.
In this way they have often been compelled to become
the sole owners of property which they did not want,
in order to save themselves from loss through the failure of the parties to whom they had advanced funds.
In some such cases, especially where an individual or
family were concerned, they have waited long and
patiently for payments due, and have given every
opportunity to their debtors to recover from their embarrassments, and to redeem property which had been
mortgaged to the Society.  Many a family in Beaver
and Allegheny counties, and elsewhere, are now in
comfortable circumstances or even wealthy, who would
have been utterly bankrupt but for the forbearance of
these benevolent creditors.
Where companies have been concerned, while they
have been forbearing, they have also, as in duty bound,
had an eye to profitable returns. All loans and other
investments have been in the hands of the Trustees,
who as faithful business managers, were bound to consult the interests of the Society. Sometimes they had
found an elephant on their hands, and sometimes they
have hit upon a good' speculation.
9




94:          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
Among their larger outside investments may be
mentioned the Saw-Mill Run coal mines and railroad,
once a single interest under one company, but now
divided, the Economites still retaining a large share in
the stock of the railroad, partly for the relief of the
company and partly for the value of the investment.
They are also, now sole owners of a railroad some six
miles long, which connects with the. Pittsburgh, Fort
Wayne and Chicago railway at Darlington, in Beaver
county, Pennsylvania, and extends to a tract of land
of about one thousand acres, containing valuable mines
of bituminous and cannel coal. In order to facilitate
the sale of this property, they are now boring for oil on
this land, it being only a few miles from the great
Island Run oil region. If they succeed in striking oil,
they will benefit both themselves and the owners of
adjoining tracts, and if they fail they are able to bear
the loss.
The town of COld Brighton (now  called Beaver
Falls), containing some five hundred acres of land,
now laid out in town lots, together with one of the
finest water-powers in the country, belongs to the Society, it having fallen into their hands in the way
indicated above. They are now selling out the lots and
water-power privileges, at low rates, for the accommodation of those whose means are limited.
But their largest and most profitable outside investment is a large tract of land, of some six thousand
acres, opposite Tidioute, in Warren county, Pennsylvania. This was originally purchased as a lumber
region, for the supply of their own wants and to meet
the extensive demand for lumber which is made at




ITS LATER HISTORY.               95
their saw-mill in Economy.. Connected with this original tract is another smaller body of land, which they
took originally in payment of a bad debt, and also for
its lumber.
This latter tract has since proved to be a valuable
oil territory, and it is here that the Society now owns
several fine wells, whicl have been a large source of
income for the last four years. When the oil was first
discovered, as'it was a great and unexpected addition
to the value of the land, they generously intrusted the
management of it to the former proprietor, with such a
share in the profits as enabled him to retrieve his shattered fortune and place his family in independept circumstances. They then took the whole business into
their own hands.
What may be the present value of the. entire estate
and possessions of the Societ;y, and how large their
annual income, the writer has not troubled himself
particularly to inquire, nor does it concern the great
public to be more definitely informed. Nor has it been
deemed necessary to indulge in any curious speculation
in regard to the question which every one is ready to
ask, but which no one can answer, namely: What is to
become of all this property after the present members
of the Society shall have passed away?  Some of them
expect, even yet, that the Lord will come in his glory
before they are all gone. Those who live long enough
will see.




96          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
CJIAP TE R VIII.
RELIGION OF THE HARMONISTS.
MYSTICO-PIETISTIC-NOT A SECT-COMMUNITY OF GOODS
-DUALISM OF ADAM-HO W HE FELL-PHILOSOPHY OF
CELIBA CY-FALL OF L UCIFE.R-MYSTICAL COSMOiVONYFINAL RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS.
HE religious opinions of the HIarmonists have,    been very cursorily noticed in the preceding
chapters. The popular lisconceptions on this
subject are so great, that a more full discussion seems
desirable. As they acknowledge no written creed but
the Bible itself,.it is the more difficult to secure any
correct or closely defined statement of their religious
views. They may be regarded as among the offshoots
of Pietism in its later developments, embracing also a
good deal of the mystic element. They reverence the
names of Arndt, Spener, and Franke, but their views
more closely assimilate to those of Bdhm, Arnold, I'etersen, Bengel, and Jung Stilling. They are very
decided Trinitarians, and highly exalt the character of
Jesus Christ, making him all in all in their system of
salvation. They formerly kept up a friendly correspondence with the Shakers, who resemble them in the
matter of community of goods and of celibacy, but they
lately declined any further intercourse, on the ground




RELIGION OF THE HARMONISTS.             97
of some heretical publications of the Shakers in regard
to the divinity of Christ.  They are not, however,
intolerant or denunciatory toward other Christian denominations, whether Catholic or Protestant, but they
are decided in maintaining their own views, which are
rather practical than dogmatic.  A " total regeneration
of the heart, through the mercy and grace of our
Saviour," they regard as necessary to enable us to put
in practice the simple but all-iinportant principles of
the religion of Christ, which they attempt to carry out
in their peculiar organization and mode of life. "Love
to God above all and to thy neighbor as thyself, without laying much stress on forms, letter or ceremony,"
they give as "constituting the sum and substance of
their religious creed." They do not regard themselves
as a distinct religious sect, and they have no ecclesiastical organization apart from the civil community.  In
this respect their system is strictly patriarchal, while,
at the same time, they constitute a voluntary association, in which all who are permitted to subscribe to their articles of agreement become entitled
alike to all the civil and all the religious privileges of
the Society. They are governed, as has been stated,
by a board of nine elders, chosen by themselves, two
of which elders are appointed and designated as Trustees, and are ex-officio the business managers and
religious leaders of the community.
Their system of community of goods was originally
adopted, and is still maintained, mainly from religious
motives.  They refer for authority to the example of
the primitive Christians, as recorded in Acts 4 32, &c.,
"And the multitude of them that believed were of one
9*




98           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that
aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but
they had all things common."' This they regard as not
having been a temporary arrangement, but a normal
principle in the organization of the Christian church.
They shared this opinion in common with some of the
other separatists of Germany, and though perhaps
unwittingly, they imitated the very ancient example of
the Greek Pythagoras, and of the Jewish Essenes.
See Appendix C.
THRE DUAL ADAM.-Their views in regard to the
original character of Adam are peculiar. They believe
him to have been created in the exact image of God,
and in a higher and more mystical sense than is commonly attached to those words. Instead of confining
the image of God to a mere moral likeness in " knowledge, righteousness, and holiness," they include in it
also a resemblance in form to the person of the Godman, or God-manifest, whose " voice was heard walking
in the garden," and whose visible appearances are
often referred to in the Old Testament; this theanthropic manifestation being not merely anticipative of
his incarnation, when he was " made in the likeness of
man," but his original and normal characteristic as the
Logos or God-revealed.  Hence the expression, "No
man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten
Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared (revealed) him." His incarnation as the son of
3Mary was but the subjection of his theanthropic person to all the conditions of our fallen humanity, "without sin."  Thus he became the second Adam.
Man they regard as constituting the highest order of




RELIGION OF THE IARMONISTS.           99
created beings, higher even than the angels, who are
only " ministering spirits sent forth to minister to the
heirs of salvation." This they infer also from his
being the last in the ascending order of creation, as
well as from the honor put upon our humanity through
its assumption by Christ as the second Adam, who
"took not on him the nature of angels."  The passage
which says, " Thou blast made him a little lower than
the angels," they understand as it is given in Luther's
version, "' Thou hast for a little time deprived him of
the angels," i. e., in the person of Christ, as " Son of
man," who during his incarnation was deprived of that
ministry and worship of angels with which he was surrounded before he became man.
They regard Adam also as having been made a dual
being, having both the sexual elements within himself,
according to Gen. 1:26, 27, "And God said, Let us
make man in our image, after our likeness, and let
them have dominion," &c. And " so God created man
in his own image; in the image of God created he
him; male and female created he them."  They understand the word them in both these verses as applying to the dual Adam, before the separation ot Eve
from him, as recorded in the second chapter.
ADAM'S FALL. —This separation also they regard
as a consequence of the incipient fall of Adam, which
took place at the time when the various animals were
caused to pass before him, and when, beholding them
all in pairs, he conceived a desire for a similar separation and companionship in his own case, thus becoming
discontented with the condition in which God had
placed him, and abusing his freedom of will by yield



100          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
ing to his lower animal nature.  The restlessness'and
worry of mind thus induced was a physical cause of
the deep sleep that fell upon him, and that resulted in
the separation of the female sexual element from his
person. The partaking together of the forbidden fruit
was but the consummation and natural consequence of
that earlier incipient apostacy. This view is supposed
to be corroborated by the statement in Gen. 2: 18,
"The Lord God said, It is not good that the man should
be alone."  At the close of the six days' work, as recorded in ch. 1: 31, all things were pronounced " very
good," but now there is something that " is not good."
How could man's loneliness, they ask, have become an
evil (which before was " very good"), had he not already brought himself into a state of restlessness and
dissatisfaction, which made it "not good" that he
should be alone. God, therefore, allowed his fall to be
complete by giving him a'" help-meet for him" in his
present deteriorated condition; just as he afterward
gave the Jews a king when they demanded it. Adam
had conceived an irregular desire toward the feminine
element of his nature, while it was yet a part of himself, and now that the woman has become a separate
being, she readily completes the temptation, by presenting to him the forbidden fruit. This fruit they
regard as an objective reality, and as possessing some
sort of poisonous quality which introduced the seeds of
disease and death into the human frame, and induced
that unholy sexual passion which is implied in the
discovery of their nakedness and the awakening of the
sense of shame. The tree of life, on the other hand,
they suppose would have been the means of sustaining




RELIGION OF THE HARMONISTS.          101
man's physical immortality, if he had not fallen. This
view seems to be sustained by Gen. 3:22, &c.
In regard to the command, " be fruitful and multiply," &c., as given in Gen. 1:28 (and as they say,
before the separation of the sexual elements), they do
not pretend to explain how this increase of the race
could have been brought about; but they believe that
it would have taken place in a manner incomprehensible to us, by a certain holy commingling of the male
and female elements of man's being, at particular times,
and with God's immediate appr bation; so that a new
being would be in some way developed from man's
person without physical pain.  Such an offspring would
have been truly a Son of God, as well as a Son of man,
even as Jesus the son of Mary was. The person of
Jesus they suppose to have been physically the same
with that of Adam before his fall, i. e. dual; the bodies of the risen saints (in the first resurrection) will be
of the same physical conformation, and therefore, like
the angels, incapable of marrying and giving in marriage. Matt. 22: 30.
PnTLOSOPIHY OF CELIBACY.-We thus have a profound (though somewhat mystical) basis for their notions in regard to marriage and celibacy. Since man
has fallen, and the sexual elements have become separated, contrary to God's original design, they regard all
intercourse of the sexes as polluting; and while it may
be tolerated in lawful marriage, so far (and only so
far,) as may be necessary for the perpetuation of the
race, yet the offspring are all necessarily conceived in
sin. Adam, after his fall, "' begat a son in his own likeness" (not after the image of God), and such have been




102          TIIE HARMONY SOCIETY.
all his sinful posterity.  Joseph, the husband of Mary,
being a sinful man, could not beget a holy seed, and
hence the necessity of the miraculous conception of
Jesus, in order that he might be a Son of God, and
free from  the taint of ordinary generation.  With
these views, while they do not condemn marriage in
those who choose to enter into that bond, they do, nevertheless, regard the celibate state as more pure and
holy; more. acceptable to God, and as better fitting
them for that higher resurrection state which their
millennarian views lead them to expect. And in support of this belief, they refer to those various passages
of Scripture which hlave been cited in former chapters.
They admit, also, that this celibate life is only suited
to those who have a special vocation to it, according to
our Saviour's words in Matthew 19: 11, 12, "All men
cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it was
given. He that is able to receive it, let him receive
it." If they be inquired of as to the probable consequences if mankind generally should be persuaded to
adopt their practice on this subject, they will only reply, that the way would thus be the sooner prepared
for the Lord's coming, and for the new heaven and new
earth wherein shall dwell righteousness. Under that
new and more glorious dispensation, they look for that
literal " restitution of all things" to their primitive condition, which seems to be foretold; when sin, pain, and
death shall cease, and God wiil in truth dwell with
men again, conversing with them face to face, as He
did in Paradise.
MYSTICAL COSMOGONY.-They regard the present
disordered condition of our earth in which the'" whole




REL1GION OF TIE IIARMONISTS.          103
creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until
now," as a consequence of the introduction of sin.
The fall of Lucifer from his first estate, resulted from
his being'"lifted up with pride,'" and aiming at inde-x
pendence of God. On being banished, with his hosts,
from heaven by the assault of Michael and his angels,
he threw that part of the universe which he had before
governed, into conflagration and chaos, such as this
globe is represented to have been at the time when the
six days' work begins. The world was without form
and void (Heb. tohu va vohu), i. e. in a state of utter
chaotic confusion, such as would be the result of that
terrible satanic conflagration which was quenched by
the waters that Michael poured upon the burning world.
Thus the earth is found "standing out of the water
and in the water," and all those igneous formations of
which the geologists tell us are in a measure accounted
for.  Our globe has never recovered from  its semichaotic condition.  Its volcanoes, its earthquakes, its
tornadoes, its pestilences, &c., are all so many throes of
pain and travail under which it still " groaneth."  A
paradise was indeed prepared for man on a limited
part of this stricken earth, and had he continued holy,
this paradise would have been enlarged as might be
necessary, until it should become like what the new
heavens and the new earth will be hereafter. Hlad
man not sinned, he would have eaten lawfully of the
tree of life, and'would have " lived for ever" in his
earthly paradise, or been translated, as was Enoch, to
a higher sphere.  But now the earth is a fit habitation
only for a fallen, sinful race of beings, "waiting,"
however, as the apostle says (Rom. 8:19), "with ear



104          THE HARMIONY SOCIETY.
nest expectation for the manifestation of the sons of
God."  It has been "subjected to vanity, in hope of
being delivered from the bondage of corruption into
~the glorious liberty of the sons of Godc"
Man (the microcosm) has, by his apostacy, shared
in the same ruin and awaits the same deliverance from
the bondage of corruption, with the earth (the macrocosm) itself. His body has become subject to disease
and death, his understanding is darkened, and his
whole nature is fleshly. The apostle says, " even we
ourselves, groan within ourselves, waiting for the
adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."' Rom.
8: 23. They teach, however, that as the earth itself
still retains much of' its pristine beauty and glory, so
also in man's fallen nature there is much to remind
him that he was made in God's image; and that in
every man, even the most degraded, there still remains
a certain germ or "' spermn"* of his original divinity
which tends to germinate heavenward. Thus inall
his darkness he yearns for the light, and sometimes
"searches and feels after God, if haply he may find
him."  Yet such is the ascendency of evil, that even
the " light which is in him is darkness," and it is only
by a great regeneration-work that he can come fully
" out of darkness into God's marvelous light."  They
do not, however, apply the term regeneration, as orthodox divines do, to a moment of incipient impulse
toward goodness produced by the Spirit of God, but
to the entire process of man's recovery, and the restoration of his " whole soul, body and spirit" to the image
and favor of God. This is a work which is only in
* They term it also a divine spark.




RELIGION. OF THE HARMONISTS.          105
part accomplished in this world; the whole process
will be complete only "in the regeneration, when the
Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory," &c.,
Matt. 19: 28. Thus earth and man alike await the
second advent of Him who will come to " destroy the
works of the devil," and to restore the universe, both
of matter and spirit, to its pristine purity and happiness. And in some far distant geological'cycle, it
may be, they expect that this great redemptive restoration-work will be consummated in the final removal
of all sin and all suffering from the universe of God!
Surely these are glorious dreams-if dreams they be.
10




106         THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
GIItAPTER IX.
RELIGION OF THE HARMONISTS.
(Continued.)
MILLENNTARIAN VIEWS-ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION
-RELIGIOUS USAGES-FUNERALS-CONCL USION.
HIIEIR MILLENNARIAN VIEWS have often been
alluded to in the preceding chapters, but no
formal statement has been given of the particular phase of millennarianism which they embrace, or
of the arguments by which they support it. We shall
here notice these briefly.
Their belief in the ultimate restoration of this earth
to its original paradisaic condition, as above alluded to,
is founded not only upon the general principles which
they hold in regard to the nature of God's redemptive
work, as embracing the material as well as the spiritual universe, but also upon such specific declarations of
Scripture as are found in Acts 3: 20, 21, and Rom.
8:19-23.  The former of these passages they connect also with Acts 1: 11, "Ye men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus
which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so
come in like manner as ye have seen him go into
heaven,"  This personal and visible return of Christ




RELIGION OF THE HARMONISTS.          1C7
to this world they  regard as referred to in the
other passage, where the apostle Peter speaks of the
"times. of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,"
which shall be experienced " when he shall send Jesus
Christ, Whom the heaven must receive, until the time
of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the
mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began."
Also in Rom 8:19, &c., where "' the whole creation"
is represented as " groaning and travailing in pain together," and waiting in earnest expectation for the
manifestationi of the sons of God, when " the creation
itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption,
into the glorious liberty of the children of God."  In
this restitution of all things, they include not only
(lst) the physical renovation of this disordered mundane system,. and the introduction of the " new heavens
and new earth" spoken of by the apostle Peter in his
second Epistle, ch. 3: 13, but also (2d) the restoration
of the Jewish nation to the land of Palestine, accord-.ing to the numerous predictions of the prophets to
that effect (e.g. see Ezek. 37: 21, Amos 9:11-15,
Jer. 30: 3, &c.), and (3d) their conversion to Christianity, according to Zech. 12: 10, &c., " they shall look
upon me whom they have pierced," &c., and Rom. 9:
12-32, "and so all Israel shall be saved," &c.; and (4th)
the resurrection of the sainted dead, and the transfiguration of the pious living, spoken of by the apostle Paul
in 1 Thess. 4: 13-18. All this they regard as included
in that universal " restitution," which is to be effected
at the visible " appearing" of Him, whom the heaven
was to receive until -that time.
All this too, they expect to take place, not as per



108          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
haps most Christians do, at the final winding up of this
world's affairs, before the great day of judgment, but
at the beginning of the "thousand years," during
which the saints are to live and reign with Christ, according to Rev. 20 4, 5, &c. This is that " first resurrection" in which they expect the risen and transfigured saints tolbe fully restored to the image of God
by being clothed in bodies like unto Christ's glorious
body, and like to the dual organization of Adam, when
he first left the Creator's hand.
They believe also, that under the glorious kingdom
of the Messiah, then to be set up, there will still be a
race of men in the flesh, as at present, but who will
"be all righteous" (Isa. 60: 21), the kingdoms of the
world having become the kingdoms of the Lord, &c.
They look also for a literal realization, during this period, of that happy state foretold by the prophets, when
the curse that was put upon the ground for man's sake,
filling it with thorns and thistles, &c., shall be removed,
and " instead of the thorn, shall come up the fir tree, and
instead of the briar, the myrtle tree," &c.-when " they
shall build houses and inhabit them, and they shall
plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them"-when " the
wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion
shall eat straw like the ox, and the little child shall lay
its hand upon the cockatrice's den," &c.-when " there
shall be no more curse," and "' no more death." Instead
of death will be tran.sfiguration (like that of Enoch
and Elijah), as fast as any shall have made such progress in holiness as to be prepared for this exaltation.
Thus they would be prepared to accept as expressive
of their views the following eloquent passage from Dr.
Seiss' "Last Times," p. 207:




RELIGION OF THE IARMONISTS.          109
" But Jerusalem below, radiant in all its untold
glory, shall be but a type and earthly picture of the
higher. and sublimer Jerusalem that is above; that
firmly-founded city for which Abraham looked,' whose
builder and maker is God'-that city which John saw'descending out of heaven from God, having the glory
of God, and light like unto a stone most precious, even
like a jasper-stone, clear as crystal.' The one is earthly,
the other is heavenly.  The one is built by human
hands, the other is the workmanship of God himself.
The one has a population composed of men holy and
happy, but men in the flesh; the other is the glorious
residence of the glorified saints. The one shall rest
upon the earthly mount, the other shall be' above the
mountains and the hills.' The one will need clouds
and rain, sunshine and peaceful night, the other' has
no need of the sun nor of the moon to shine in it, for
the glory of God shall lighten it, and the Lamb is the
light thereof.' The one shall have its temple and its
altars, the other'has no temple therein, for the LordGod Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.'
And whilst the-sons of Abraham in the flesh shall possess Jerusalem that is below, the sons of Abraham by
faith -in Christ,' who have come out of great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb,' shall, in their glorification,
have their everlasting bliss and home in' the Jerusalem that is above.' The relation of the one to the
other, is like that of the Sanctuary to the Holy of
Holies. The one is the metropolis of the' new earth,'
the other of the' new  heavens.' The one is sus.
pended in the clouds to pour its radiance on the saved
10'




110           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
nations below  (Rev. 21  24), but both belong to the
one sublime and wonderful economy which is to encompass this planet, when once its redemption is complete."
As to the precise date of this glorious appearing of
Christ in his kingdom, they have learned to speak
more cautiously than Father Rapp did during his lifetime.  They  have learned  that it is " not for us to
know  the times oi the seasons which the Father has
put in his own power" (Acts 1:7).  They are  inclined however, to assent tothe theory most generally
adopted in ancient times by Jewish Rabbis and Christian fathers, that the millennium will be the seventh
thousand years, or great Sabbath of the world; the
golden period of rest to this sin-wearied earth, like unto
the " rest" into which God entered after the six days'
work of creation.  They do not, however; pretend to
judge as to the correctness of the various systems of
chronology. They regard rather our Lord's injunction
to his disciples, to " watch and pray," for "in such an
hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh "-and
"ye know not when the time is."
Entertaining such expectations as these, it is not
surprising that they should manifest so little anxiety
about the future disposal of their earthly possessions.
These may all be needed in that better state, when
"holiness to the Lord shall be written even on the
bells of the horses."*
* The recent success of the Atlantic Cal'le, and the prospect of the
speedy completion of the Russo-American Telegraph by way of Behring's Straits, have lately.recalled to their remembrance a remarkable
prediction made by the celebrated Nicolaus von der Flue, hermit of
Switzerland, who lived one hundred years before Luther. This man
has a very interesting history, which need not be given here. HIe was




RELIGION  OF THE HARMONISTS.               111
ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION.-The Sabbath discourses of their leaders are not, as has been sometimes
alleged, made up largely of instructions in regard to
their secular affairs, but are decidedly biblical and re.
ligious. In their expositions of the Scriptures, espe.
cially of the Old Testament, they make much use of the
alegorical method.  WVhile not denying the literal verity of the historical facts, they seek a- deeper typical or
symbolical meaning beneath the surface; and thus they
spiritualize the letter, and find the Old Testament full
of the richest gospel truth. In defense of this practice they appeal to the example of our Saviour himself
and his apostles, who thus spiritualize the " manna,"
and the " rock," and the " passover," and the " tabernacle," and " Mt. Sinai," &c.
To give a few examples: They regard the process of
creation-the " spirit of God moving upon the face of
the waters" (or chaos), the breaking in of " light"
through  the thick  darkness, &c., as symbolizing the
new creation, when "God who commanded  the light
to shine out of darkness, shines in our hearts," &c.;
and the purifying fires of the: final conflagration, which
shall prepare the way for the " new  heavens and the
celebrated for his piety and wisdom, and was an expectant of the
Lord's coming; but when inquired of as to the probable date of this
great event, his only reply was, that the Lord would come when a cord
should be put around.the whole world! The tradition of this enigmatical
prophecy is still prevalent in Switzerland. What the hermit may have
meant by it, is doubtful. But the probable completion of telegraphic
communication round the globe within the coming year, together
with the calculations of many interpreters of prophecy which fix the
date of the great consummation to the year 1866, or:i867, is at least a
striking coincidence. We are also reminded of Matt. 24: 27, "As the
lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth unto the west, so shall
also, the coming of the Son of man be."




112          TIIE HARMONY SOCIETY.
new earth," as resembling that "baptism, of fire" by
which Christ will burn up the "wood, hay, and stubble" of his people here, through various fiery processes,
and will make even the " fires of hell" (as they suppose)
a means of ultimate purification to lost souls!
Again, they take Moses as the representative of the
law, and Joshua of the gospel. The exclusion of Moses
from the promised land, was not merely a punishment
for his offense in smiting the rock (which would have
seemed too severe), but a great symbolical lesson to Israel, that salvation or entrance into the " rest that remaineth for the people of God," the heavenly Canaan,
is not by the law, but by the gospel of Jesus, who is the
Joshua of the New Testament. Comp. fIeb. 4: 8, " For
if Jesus (i. e. Joshua,) had given them rest, then would
he not have spoken of another day."
Thus also Noah, Joseph, and Boaz, are types of
Christ; the " scarlet line in the window" of the harlot
(hostess) Rahab, symbolizes the blood of Christ; and
the year of jubilee, when all bondmen were liberated
and every Israelite restored to his lost inheritance, but
foreshadowed the great redemptive work of Christ
under the gospel, and the great final Jubilee of the
universe, when all the enthralled and banished "c sons
of God," both angelic and human, shall recover their
lost inheritance in the kingdom of God!
It is not considered necessary to enter more largely
upon the exposition of their religious views. On the
various other points of Christian theology, they do not
seem to differ materially from the Lutheran and other
Protestant confessions. They are certainly not Calvinists, and their whole style of religious thought and




RELIGION OF THE JIARMIONISTS.        113
expression differs much from that of Scotland; nevertheless they will admit, summarily, that the substitutionary atoning sacrifice of Christ is their only ground
of hope for salvation, and a personal interest in this
great atonement is to be attained only by a living faith,
which brings the soul into fellowship with God, and
manifests itself in a holy life.
RELIGIOUS UsAGES.-As to their outward religious
observances, they keep the Sabbath holy by abstaining
from ordinary and unnecessary labor, and by assembling twice for public worship, which is conducted very
much as that of other Protestants, with singing, prayer,
a sermon, &C. They, however, follow the example of
the Germans generally, in paying less regard to Sunday evening as holy time; and their band of music in
years past was often heard sending forth its soft strains
from some secluded spot, as the sun went down.
Besides the religious observance of Christmas, Good
Friday and Easter, they have three great annual festivals, partly religious and partly social, when the whole
Society assemble in their large public hall, and religiously feast together. The first of these is the Anniversary of the Founding of the Society, on the 15th of
February; the second is their Harvest Home, in early
autumn; and the third is their annual Love Feast and
Lord's Supper, which they observe together in the latter part of October. On these occasions they are careful to remember those of their brethren who are too
infirm to meet with the rest, and also the stranger and
sojourner among them, by sending liberal portions of
good things from their well furnished table.
As preparatory to partaking of the holy communion,




-114         THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
they are careful to urge the necessity of reconciling all
difficulties which may have arisen among any of the
members, so that they may participate in true Christian
love and fellowship. This is in accordance with our
Saviour's injunction in Matt. 5: 23, "' If thou bring thy
gift to the altar," &c. As a part also of their preparation
for the communiol-, they have another usage which approximates the Roman Catholic practice of confession.
When any one may have indulged in any gross sin, or
have any burden resting upon his conscience, he is
urged to make a private confession of it to the religious
leader, as well as to God; believing that without this
confession to the priest or (minister) they cannot expect that full forgiveness from God which will bringthem true peace of mind. In favor of this practice
they urge the salutary operation of it as a relief to the
conscience, and a defense against future temptation;
besides being sanctioned by the command, "Confess
your faults one to another,'' &c., and by the power of
"binding" and' loosing," given in Matt. 18: 18.
There is less of this confession practiced now than in
former years, especially in the time of Father Rapp,
whom they profoundly reverenced as God's minister
and when, being younger and less established in the
Christian life, they were more liable to yield to temptation or besetting sins.
In former years thiey had a pious custom, which is
attributed to them in the " Encyclopwedia of Religious
Knowledge,"* of keeping watch by turns at night, and
after crying the hour, adding these or like words: "A
*The same article gives them credit for "cultivating the learned
languages and professions." This they have never done.




RELIGION OF THE IIARMONISTS.         115
day is past, and a step made nearer our end: our time
runs away, and the joys of heaven are our reward."
The watchman still pursues his nightly rounds, but
always in silence. The practice of crying the hours was
lon01  since laid aside.
FUNERAL CEREMONIES.-Their funeral ceremonies
are simple. The elders and a few of the more intimate
friends of the deceased assemble at the house where
the body lies, and after a few appropriate remarks they
follow the hearse in procession to the orchard, where.the grave has been prepared. The plain hexagonal
coffin which encloses the remains is laid over the grave
as usual, a hymn is sung, a few further remarks are
made, the coffin is lowered to its resting place, a few
flowers are thrown upon it by each of the bystanders,
and the grave is quietly filled.
No board, or stone, or monument of any kind, is
placed at the head or foot. Only a little elevation of
the earth above the surface, with sometimes a shrub or
flower planted on it-the affectionate tribute of some
near friend-marks each grave. The resting place of
Father Rapp himself is thus undistinguished from those
of the brethren and sisters who sleep beside him in
lengthening rows beneath the apple trees. A register
is kept in which the names of the deceased are recorded, with the date of their departure and a number
annexed, which serves to distinguish the grave in its
row. They nearly all live to a good old age, few dying
under seventy, and many reaching even to four score,
or more. None of them seem to dread the approach of
death.  They believe that all who have been good and
faithful members of the Society, and who are not per



116         THIE HARMONY SOCIETY.
mitted to survive until the Lord's coming, will be
raised up to meet him at his glorious appearing. Thus
they calmly speak of being carried to the orchaird, when
their work is. done, there to sleep until the resurrection
morn.
CoNCLUSION.-Their aged and helpless ones, of
whom there are always some, are carefully and tenderly nursed. A few have been bed-ridden for twenty or
thirty years, and are remarkable examples of patient
Christian endurance. There are but few young among
them, except those who are apprenticed and not full
members; and but few of these ever avail themselves
of the privilege of a permanent connection with the
Society on attaining their majority. Young Germany
has become Young America, and he is not disposed to
submit to the want of personal property, personal liberty, and a wife-though compensated by all the advantages which membership in a wealthy association
brings. Even the prospect of sharing the spoils, if at
any future time the Society should be dissolved and its
large possessions distributed among the survivors, does
not present sufficient attractions to induce all the
younger members to retain their connection. Nothing
but the strong religious convictions which brought the
original members together, and which were intensified
and confirmed by the general religious revival which
preceded their adoption of the system of celibacy,
could have so long held them in union. The younger
members, with a few exceptions, and the apprentices,
do not become fully imbued with the true spirit of the
Society, and they are easily induced to go out into the
world.




RELIGION  OF TIIE  HARMONISTS.              117
What is to be the end of all this, is a question difficult to answer.  They themselves are not disposed to
be communicative on the subject, especially to strangers.  Seriously they hope that the great consummation  may arrive soon, while some of them  are yet
living; but playfully, they may reply to idle questions,
that the State of PennGylvania will be glad to inherit
their possessions, as a help toward paying off her debts.
It is to be hoped that, ultimately, some great benevolent foundation may be laid, in which they may become, in a measure, their own  executors, and  may
contribute in the most effectual way for the promotion
of human welfare, and the advancement of that glorious
kingdom  of God which they have been so long expecting.  They are doubtless not unmindful of the stewardship  with  which  they have  been  intrusted, and
of the  responsibilities  it involves.  It is for themselves to  determine  how  they may  best meet these
responsibilities. Meanwhile, let the writer and leader
of these chapters be mindful each of his own stewardship, for neither of them  may live to see the last of the
Idarmonists.
Since the foregoing chapters were written, the following brief semi!
official statement of their views on certain points, by one of the leaders, has come to hand. It is dated August 3,1861.' RELIGION.-We understand from the book of Genesis 1: 26, that
man was created in the image of God, to have dominion over all
the earth, t&c.; also, that our first parents, by disobedience, committed
a transgression against the command of God, and fell from that original ele vation, and became corrupt and unfit to possess the garden of
Eden, which was intended for their abode. God passed sentence, and
expelled them from Eden, i-nto this world which we now inhabit. In
this corrupt state man has invented a vast deal of good, which is evidence of his original greatness; he has also revealed and brought
into action a vast deal of evil: those two facts cannot be denied
11




118             THE IIARMONY SOCIETY.
They constitute two central points, which are represented by the Word
of God-Jesus Christ on the one side, and the Angel of darkness on
the other. The latter was the instigator and the beginning of all evil,
but shall have his head bruised by the woman's seed. Gen. 3: 15.
Jesus Christ is the woman's seed who has bruised that head and will
continue to bruise it by his followers in time and eternity, until the
influence of evil is entirely cut off and subdued through Jesus Christ
and his people, and ultimately God be God in all. Cor. 15: 27-28. Religion, therefore, is the medium to raise fallen man up to his former
dignity.'Ihe doctrine of Christ and his apostles is the true religion.
If this is rightly understood, believed, and put into practice in spirit
and in truth, by thoughts, words and acts, it will work a full regeneration and produce a new man, or the image of God, through Jesus
Christ, to love God above all, and man as ourselves. In this lies the
fulfilment of law and gospel."
To this may be added the following old memorandum  of some of
Mr. Rlapp's doctrines, by one who was not a member, but which is admitted to be correct:
"Mr. Rapp taught, 1st. A doctrine of future rewards and punishments. 2d. Did not teach the doctrine of everlasting punishment.
Ad. Taught that the end of the world was nigh, it might be to-morrow; but he varied the time, extending it sometimes to 1837. 4th.
Taught that there must not be carnal intercourse between man and
woman, married or unmarried. 5th. That such only as refrained
from such intercourse would inherit the brightest places, or most
perfect happiness in the other world."
For a further exhibition of religious views kindred with those of
She Harmonists, see Appendix F.




APPENDIX A.
" CHILIASTIC DREAMS." (See Introduction, p. 17.)
"ABOUT the close of the 10th century, a very wild and extraordinary delusion arose and spread itself; and at length
so far prevailed as not only to subdue the reason, but to actuate the conduct of multitudes. It proceeded from a misinterpretation of the well known passage in the Revelation,
ch. 20,'And he laid hold of the dragon, that old serpent,
which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand
years,' &c. It does not appear that the earlier divines derived from this prophecy that specific expectation respecting
the moment of the world's dissolution, which now became
general, nor do we learn that the people before this time,
much busied themselves about a matter which could not possibly affect their own generation (it being the prevailing
tradition among commentators, that the period of'a thousand years' commenced with the manifestation, or the passion of Christ, and that the establishment of the Christian
church was to be regarded as the'first resurrection' and
the first epoch of the period of a thousand years'); but about
the year 960, as the season approached nearer, one Bernhard,
a hermit of Thuringia, a person not destitute of knowledge,
boldly promulgated (on the faith of a particular revelation
from God) the certain assurance, that at the end of the thousandth year, the fetters of Satan were to be broken, and after the reign of Antichrist should be terminated, that the
world would be consumed by sudden conflagration. There
was something plausible in the doctrine, and it was peculiarly suited to the gloomy superstition of the age: the clergy
adopted it without delay; the pulpits loudly resounded with
it; it was diffused in every direction with astonishing rapidity, and embraced with an ardor proportioned to the obscurity of the subject, and the greediness of human credulity.
The belief pervaded and possessed every rank of society, not
as a cold and indifferent assent, but as a motive for the most
important undertakings. Not nobles only, but princes, and
even bishops, are mentioned as having made pilgrimages to
Palestine on this occasion. Many abandoned their friends
and their families, and hastened to the shores of Palestine,




2 00          THE IIARMONY SOCIETY.
with the pious persuasion that Mount Sion would be the
throne of Christ, when he should descend to judge the world;
and these, in order to secure a more partial sentence from
the God of mercy and charity, usually made over their property before they departed, to some adjacent church or monastery; others whose pecuniary means were thought, perhaps,
insufficient to bribe the justice of Heaven, devoted thier personal service to the same establishments, serving in the character of slaves, anl hoping that the supreme Judge would be
more favorable to them, if they made themselves servants to
his servants. In many places, edifices both sacred and secular were suffered to go to decay, and in some instances actually pulled down, from the expectation that they would be no
longer needed. Whenever an eclipse of the sun or moon
took place, most persons betook themselves to the shelter
of rocks and caverns, as if the temples of nature were destined to preservation amidst the wreck of man and his works.
Almost all the donations which were made to the church in
this century, were prefaced with the words,' Alppropinquante
mundi termino,' &c. (i.e. the end of the world being now
at hand). This general delusion was opposed, indeed, by
a few wiser individuals, but nothing could overcome it, till
the century had closed. But when the century ended without any great calamity, the greater partbegan to understand
that John had not really predicted what they so much
feared.' —Mosheir's and  Y'Vaddington's Church History.
The Crusades also, those wild and fanatical expelitions to
the Holy Land during the middle ages, were the fruit, in
part, of these " Chiliastic dreams."  The habit of making
pilgrimages to Palestine, which is mentioned above, continued to prevail even after the close of the 10th century.
Great merit was supposed to be acquired by these pilgrimages, and the reports which the returning pilgrims brought
respecting the wrongs and cruelties inflicted upon them by
the Moslems who held the Holy Sepulchre, fired the hearts
of those thousands who set forth for the rescue of the holy
places from infidel hands.
MIeanwhile the millennarian interpreters continued to reconstruct their Chiliastic schemes, and to keep' up the prevailing delusion that the throne of the Messiah was soon to
be set up on Mount Sion, and that all true pilgrims and Crusaders would share in the honors of his kingdom.
Again, at the time of the Reformation in the 16th century, the Anabaptists arose, and, by their " Chiliastic dreams"
and other fanatical follies, brought great reproach upon the
more sober millennarian views of Luther and the other re



APPENDIX.                    121
formers. They were a turbulent and seditious people, who
"repudiated all human laws and magistrates, and set themselves to subvert all existing institutions, in order to realize
the kingdom of their dreams. Instead of leaving to Christ
to establish his own kingdom in his own time and way, they
undertook to establish it with fire and sword, and took a
certain tailor, John Buckholdt, and set him up as "King of
Zion," in the name and place of Jesus, regarding him as the
representative of God himself, the Lord of all the earth, by
whose administration all *worldly powers were to be rooted
up, the wicked exterminated-, a kingdom  of saints established in this world, without having to wait the time of the
"resurrection of the just." (Seiss.) They taught the people to despise their lawful rulers, and the salutary regulations by which all communities exist. Everywhere it was
the cry of these enthusiastic visionaries, " no tribute, all
things in common, no tithes, no magistrates, the baptism of
infants is an invention of the devil," &c. (Milner.) Bimiler and his followers (referred to in the Introduction, p. 19,)
seem to have entertained kindred views.
The Millerites, of our own country, are also in the recollection of all, as being a class of Chiliastic dreamers, who ventured to fix the precise day of the Lord's coming; first, in
the month of April, 1842, and then, on the 22d of October,
1843. Thousands of our countrymen, and not a few in
Great Britain, embraced these notions, and many had prepared their "ascension robes," and were gathered together
in various places, in confident expectation that the Lord
would then appear.
About twelve years ago, the sect of Adventists had again,
as they supposed, discovered the precise day, and many of
them sat all day in their houses in solemn expectation of the
great event.
APPENDIX B.
COLONY TO RUSSIAN TARTARY.
(See Introduction, p. 18.)
Extract from Blumnhardt's "Handbuchlein der MIissionsgeschichte," p. 153, 161-2.
"IN the years 1817-1819, about five hundred German
families, mostly from Wiirtemberg, emigrated to and settled
in (Asiatic) Georgia, under the auspices of the Russian Government. The chief motives or cause of their emigration
11*




122           TIIE IIARMONY SOCIETY.
were, partly, liturgical changes in the church of their native
land, and partly, the hope of the speedy return of the Lord
-an occasion on which they deemed it desirable to be near
the Holy Land. In the region of the river Kur they founded seven colonies; which, however, to their own injury and
against the express advice of the Czar, were placed at a distance of about eighty leagues from one another. They are
called New Tiflis, Alexarndersdorf, Miarienfeld, with Petersdorf, Elisabethal, Katharinenfeld, Annenfeld, Heleneldorf.
They received perfect freedom of religion and worship along
with other privileges, and they chose. their spiritual superiors or directors from among themselves. Most of them had
brought with them from honme a considerable store of Christian knowledge, and much active Clristian life was manifest
among them. However their hopes were not realized. In
the midst of strange and half savage people and customs,
their economical relations did not long continue in a favorable condition. During the war between Russia and Persia,
in 1826, they had the misfortune of being exposed to the
incursions of robber hordes from the TurJish and Persian
borders.  Most of them  were compelled to flee for their
lives, leaving all they had to become the prey of the plunderers. Many were dragged away as slaves. Katharinenfeld was entirely destroyed, and only the speedy victory of
the Russians rescued the settlements from utter desolation.
Not less injurious were the controversies which, from the
first, they carried on with one another, as in every village,
especially in Katharinenfeld, there were two parties hotly
opposed to each other on matters of faith or doctrine.
In 1822, several German missionaries, the first fruits of
the mission school at Basel, settled in Astrachan-not with
the view of remaining there permanently, bhut to learn the
languages of the East, and at their leisure to select a place
for their future labors. Here they were soon convinced that
direct and immediate efforts for the conversion of the Mussulmans would be untimely (the Christian name was so
utterly despised), and that they must proceed modestly and
quietly in the way of preparation for future efforts. This
preparation they hoped to effect in three ways:  1. By
labors among the scattered colonists. 2. By a revival of
the ancient churches. 3. By the diffusion of uooks and
tracts adapted to the awakening of the IMohammedans. The
carrying out of the first of these plans obviously led them to
Georgia (or Grusien), to their own countrymen of the colonies on the river Kur. The Basel missionaries were very
actively employed among these people. They also intro



APPENDIX.                     123
duced a new spiritual ritual or church-service, founded on
the Augsburg Confession, which received the imperial sanction (the Czar's).  Then in 1824 Saltet was appointed (and
recognized by the government) as an itinerant preacher;
and as the government assured to each local preacher a salary' of one thousand rub13s, all the villagss were by degrees
provided with pastors from  Basel, who were under the supremne direction of Saltet, as rector or chief pastor at Tiflis.
Saltet died of cholera in 1830, and his place was filled next
by August Dittrich, and then by Bonwetch. However welcome this spiritual care and superintendence were to the
colonists at first, the preachers, after a.l, received small
thanks for their self-sacrificing toils; a separatist spirit
showed itself ever more and more decided in opposition to
all church order and dicipline. The labor expended upon
these communities has consequently had no special significance or results in regard to the mission work."
THE ZOARITES. (See Introduction, p. 19.)
Extractfrogm Emil KIauprecht's " Deutsche Chronik irn der
geschichte der Ohio-Thales, " p. 167.
"Similar to Rapp's settlement was that of the Zoarites in
Tuscarawas county, Ohio. It also shows how simply and
naturally German peasants and weavers fall into communism, and how intelligently they can carry out the system.
As in other instances, so also in the case of these people, religious caprice or independence, in the old Swabian villages,
came into conflict with the government, and therefore in
the spring of 1817 they left their native land, about one
hundred and fifty- in number, and reached Philadelphia in
August. Joseph Bitumler (Bimiler), a young man, had
during the voyage, by his mild and prudent conduct and
behavior, gained the confidence of his companions. He had
been first a weaver and then a teacher, and now his uncommon talent for organization became manifest.  Certain
Quakers of Philadelphia sold to the Society at a fair price
and on a long credit, five thousand six hundred acres of land,,
formerly military land, lying around old Fort Laurens, in
Tuscarawas county, Ohio. They arrived at the place in the
winter. They were poor, destitute of all means to render
life even in some measure tolerable;,cattle, farming utensils,
and furniture, were equally wanting. They first sought
shelter in the most wretched huts; they had to suffer from
hunger, cold, and wet; fever committed great devastation
among them, but their religious communion and fellowship




124           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
held them together. After they had kept house individually or by families, for more than a year, they deemed it
better to unite themselves into a community of property
and industry, in order more effectually by associated labor
to overcome the difficulties with which they had to contend.
The cholera of the year 1832 produced fearful ravages among
them; fifty members of the community fell its victims.
From that time, however, their property increased with
every year. Their property amounted to considerably more
than a million of dollars; they possessed nine thousand acres
of land in one tract, most excellent herds of cattle, an oil
mill, a saw mill, a flour mill, two smithies, and a cloth
manufactory. They carried on a considerable trade with
their productions, and had profitable sums of money depos —
ited in bank."
THE GERMAN SETTLERS IN EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA.
It is further worthy of remark that most of the earlier
German emigration to Eastern Pennsylvania, originated
in a desire to escape from religious disabilities and persecutions. During the religious troubles in Germany in the
beginning of the 17th century, the French Catholics threatened to devastate the whole Protestant country of the
Rhine provinces and elsewhere, in which attempt they partially succeeded. At this time, and subsequently, many respectable and opulent farmers left their homes for North
America, and settled mostly in Eastern Pennsylvania. William Penn himself had visited Germany, and had traveled
and preached there extensively in 1677, five years before the
date of the royal charter for the colony of Pennsylvania.
Besides those who embraced his peculiar views, there were
great numbers of other religious people, who availed themselves of the opportunity of emigrating to a colony which
was under the administration of so benign a governor.
In 1742 the number of these early emigrants and their
children amounted to one hundred thousand souls. Many,lso settled in New YArk, South Carolina and Georgia, but
did not prosper as well as*those in Pennsylvania.
The prevalence of various minor German sects in Eastern
Pennsylvania, such as Moravians, Mennonites, Dunkers,
Ummish, &c., is the result of these early emigrations.
They were not only a religious people, but were the model
farmers of the country. Thus it will be seen that Germany
as well as Great Britain, Ireland, and France, sent its II Pilgrim Fathers" to this country.




APPENDIX.                   125
APPENDIX 0.
ANCIENT COMMI1UNISTS.  (See p. 98.)
THE: history of'socialism from the earliest times, would be
an interesting and instructive one; but the writer has not
the authorities at hand to enable' him  to give even a brief
sketch of the various attempts which have been made toward
such a reorganization of human society. It is well known,
however, that all such attempts have been on a very limited
scale, and of comparatively short duration. Two examples
belonging to ancient times may be noticed as being less
known than those more modern.
I. PYTHAGORAS, an old Greek philosopher of the fifth century before Christ, was a practical communist. He taught
the doctrine of a celestial harmony, and that there is a certain "music of the spheres" produced by the impulse of the
planets upon the ether through which' they move; the seven
planets producing sounds corresponding with the seven
notes of the musical scale.'It was a leading thought with
him, that the state and the individual ought each in its way,
to reflect the image of that order and harmony by which he
believed the universe to be sustained and regulated. After
having acquired great fame in his own country as a philosopher (a name which he was the first to apply to himself as
a lover of wisdom), he removed to Crotona, in Southern
Italy (Magna Groecia), where he instituted a school for the
instruction of young men of the noblest families, in math~ematics, politics, and the various branches of science known
by the comprehensive name of philosophy. The number of
his pupils was at first confined to three hundred, and they
formed a society which was at once "a philosophical school,
a religious brotherhood, and a political association."  We
read that, afterward, "The brethren of the Pythagorean
college at Crotona, were-about six hundred in number, and
lived together ts in one family with their wives and children, in a public building called 5.aiciZov or the common
auditory. The whole business of the society was conducted
with the most perfect regularity. Every day was begun
with a distinct deliberation upon the manner in which it
should be spent, and concluded with a careful retrospect
of the events which had occurred, and the business which
had been transacted. They rose before the sun, that' they
might pay him homage; after which they repeated select
verses from Homer, and other poets, and made useof music,
both vocal and instrumental, to enliven their spirits and fit




126           TILE HARMONY SOCIETY.
them for the duties of the day. They then employed several hours in the study of science. These were succeeded by
an interval of leisure, which was commonly spent in a solitary walk for the purpose of contemplation. The next portion of the day was allotted to conversation. The hour
immediately before dinner was filled up with various kinds
of athletic exercises. Their dinner (&t-irvov) consisted chiefly of bread, honey, and water; for after they were perfectly
initiated they wholly abstained from wine. The remainder
of the day was devoted to civil and domestic affairs, conversation, bathing, and religious ceremonies. "
Before any one could be admitted into this fraternity, he
had to undergo the severest scrutiny as to his features and
personal appearance; his past conduct toward his parents
and friends, the passions he was most inclined to indulge,
the character of his associates, what incidents excited in him
the strongest emotions of joy or sorrow, &c. Upon the first
admission, which was but probationary, the fortitude of the
candidate was put to a severe trial by a long course of abstinence and silence. He was not permitted to see the master, or to hear his lectures, but from behind a curtain, and
more commonly he was taught the doctrines of Pythagoras
by a more advanced and fully initiated pupil, who was allowed to give no explanations to any inquiries, but silenced
all questionings, by the oracular "ipse dixit" of the master. If any one, through impatience of this rigid discipline,
chose to withdraw from the society before the expiration of
his terms of probation, he was dismissed with a share of the
common stock, the double of that which he had advanced,
and a tomb was erected for him as for a dead man. (See
Thirlwall and Ritter.)
II. TmH  ESSENES were a sect of Jewish communists at
the time of our Saviour, and are usually mentioned in connection with the Pharisees and Sadducees of the New Testament. The singular fact that they never came in for a share
of the rebukes which the other Jewish sects received from
Christ and his apostles, and are not even referred to at all in
the New Testament, is accounted for from the circumstance
that they were a sort of pietistic separatists, who mingled
but little with other Jews, lived a quiet and secluded life,
did not go up to the three great annual feasts, and yet were
remarkable for their piety toward God; and thus they did
not come in contact with our Saviour, and did not deserve
his reproofs. Neander, in contrasting them with the formalist
Pharisees, and the skeptical Sadducees, characterizes the
Essenes as " those more quiet but more warm-hearted spirits,




APPENDIX.                    127
with whom the power of religious feeling or imagination is too
predominant, who withdraw into themselves from the strife
of the learned in Scripture, and seeking the interpretation of
the meaning of the old documents of religion in their subjective feelings or imaginations, become mystics, sometimes
of a'practical, sometimes of a contemplative character." He
speaks of them further as'" a company of pious men, much
experienced in the trials of outward and of the inward life,
who had withdrawn themselves out of the strife of theological and political parties, to the western side of the Dead
Sea, where they lived together in intimate connection, partly
in the same sort of society as the monks of later days, and
partly as mystical orders in all periods have done."  From
this first society, other smaller ones afterward proceeded,
and spread themselves over all Palestine. Josephus says,
" They have all things in common, so that a rich man enjoys
no more of his wealth than he who has nothing; for it is a
law among them, that those who come to them must let what
they have be common to the whole order, and so there is as'
it were, one patrimony among all the brethren. There are
about four thousand men that live in this way, and neither
marry wives, nor are desirous to keep servants, as thinking
the latter tempts men to be unjust, and the former gives the
handle to domestic quarrels; but as they live by themselves
they minister to one another.  They also have stewards
appointed to take care of their common affairs, who have no
separate business for any, but what is for the use of them
all." "Nor is there ever anT clamor or disturbance in their
houses, but they give every one leave to speak in their turn,
which silence thus kept in their houses appears to foreigners
like some tremendous mystery; the cause of which is, the
perpetual sobriety which they exercise, and the same settled
measure of meat and drink that is allotted to them and that
such as is abundantly sufficient for them." " They do nothing but according to the injunctions of their curators, except to assist those that are in want, and to show mercy;
this they may do of their own accord, but they cannot give
anything to their kindred without permission from  the
curators." " They are eminent for fidelity, and are the
ministers of peace: whatsoever they say also is firmer than
an oath, but swearing is avoided by them, for they say that
he that cannot he believed without swearing is already condemned."  " If any one has a mind to come over to their
sect, he is not immediately admitted, but he is prescribed
the same method of living which they use, for a year, during which he is excluded. Ha'ving approved himself during




128           THIE HARMONY  SOCIETY.
that time as being able to endure their continence, he receives the waters of purification (baptism), and after a trial
of two more years he is finally admitted to full fellowship."
" After the time of their preparatory trial is over, they are
divided into four classes, &c. They are long-lived also, insomuch that many of them live above one hundred years, by
means of the simplicity of their diet and their regular course
of life. As for death, if it will be for their glory, they esteem it better than living always. When tortured, burnt,
and torn to pieces for their religion, they smiled in their
very pains, and laughed to scorn those who inflicted the tormenlts, and resigned up their souls with great alacrity, as
expecting to receive them  again."  "Another order of
them, who agree with the rest as to their way of living, and
customs and laws, differ in the matter of marriage, thinking
that if all men were of the same opinion, the whole race of
mankind would fail. But they. do not marry or have intercourse for the sake of pleasure, but only for the sake of offspring."
They looked upon the law of Moses as an allegorical system of spiritual and mysterious.truths, and renounced in its
explication the literal sense of the Mosaic law; but those who
inhabited the deserts of Egypt maintained that no sacrifice
should be presented to God, except that of a composed mind
absorbed in the contemplation of things divine. They observed the Sabbath more carefully than other Jews, not
even kindling a fire on that day. They employed themselves in the arts of peace, agriculture, pasturage, handicraft works, and especially in the art of healing, while they
took great delight in investigating the healing powers of
nature.
The very remarkable resemblance between the notions
and practices above described, and those of the Harmonists,
Zoarites, and especially of the Shakers (except the dancing),
must strike every reader. And yet none of these sects had
probably any knowledge of the Essenes.  W~hence then this
striking similarity? It is to be attributed partly, no doubt,
to a desire on the part of these modern sects to imitate the
primitive Christians, who themselves may have had the example of their Essenite Jewish neighbors before them, in the
matter of community of goods; and partly also to the influence of political circumstances, and of a mystical style of
religious and philosophical thought which prevailed alike
anmlong Essenite Jews and Pietistic Germans.




APPENDIX.                    129
APPENDIX D.
ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION. (See pp. 53 and 91.)
WHiEREAS, by the favor of Divine Providence, an association or community -has been formed by George Rapp and
many others, upon the basis of Christian fellowship, the
principles of which, being faithfully derived from the sacred
Scriptures, include the government of the patriarchal age,
united to the community of property, adopted in the days of
the apostles, and wherein the simple object sought, is to approximate, so far as human imperfections may allow, to the
fulfilment of the will of God, by the exercise of those affections, and the practice of those virtues which are essential to
the happiness of man in time and throughout-eternity;
And whereas, it is necessary to the good order and well
being of the said association, that the conditions of membership should be clearly understood, and that the rights,
privileges and duties of every individual therein should be
so defined as to prevent mistake or disappointment on the
one hand, and contention or disagreement on the other;
TLerefore, be it known to all whom it may concern, that
we, the undersigned, citizens of the county of Beaver, in the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, do severally and distinctly, each for himself, covenant, grant and agree, to and with
the said George Rapp, and his associates, as follows, viz.:
ARTICLE 1st.  We, the undersigned, for ourselves, our
heirs, executors and administrators, do hereby give, grant,
and forever convey to the said George Rapp and his associates, and to their heirs and assigns, all our property, real,
personal and mixed, whether it be lands and tenements,
goods and chattels, money or debts due to us, jointly or severally in possession, in remainder, or in reversion or expectancy, whatsoever and wheresoever, without evasion qualification or reserve, as a free gift or donation, for the benefit
and use of the said association, or community, and we do
hereby bind ourselves, our heirs, executors and administrators, to do all such other acts as may be necessary to vest a
perfect title to the same in the said association, and to place
the said property at the full disposal of the superintendent
of the said community without delay.'
ARTICLE 2d. We do further covenant and agree to and
with the said George Rapp and his associates, that we
will severally submit faithfully to the laws and regulations
of said community, and will at all times manifest a ready
12




130           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
and cheerful obedience toward those who are or may be
appointed as superintendents thereof, holding ourselves
bound to promote the interest and welfare of the said commuhity, not only by the labor of our own hands, but also by
that of-our children, our families, and all others who now
are, or hereafter may be, under our control.
ARTICLE 3d. If contrary to our expectation it should so
happen that we could not render the faithful obedience aforesaid, and should be induced from that, or any other.capnse, to
withdraw from the said association, then and in such case
we do expressly covenant and agree to and with. the said.
George Rapp and his associates, that we never will claim or
demand, either for ourselves, our children, or for any one
belonging to us, directly or indirectly, any compensation,
wages or reward whatever for our or their labor or services
rendered to the said community, or to any member thereof,
but whatever we or our families jointly or severally shall or
may do, all shall be held and considered as a voluntary service for our brethren.
ARTICLE 4th. In consideration of the premises, the said
George Rapp and his associates do, by these presents, adopt
the undersigned jointly and severally, as members of the
said community, whereby each of them obtains the privilege
of being present at every religious meeting, and of receiving
not only for themselves but also for their children and families, all such instructions in church and school, as may be
reasonably required, both for their temporal good, and for
their eternal felicity.
ARTICLE 5th. The said George Rapp and hisvassociates
further agree to supply the undersigned severally with all
the necessaries of life, as clothing, meat, drink, lodging, &c.,
for themselves and their families. And this provision is not
limited to their days of health and strength; but when any
of them shall become sick, infirm, or otherwise unfit for labor, the same support and maintenance shall be allowed as
before, together with such medicine, care, attendance, and
consolation, as their situation may reasonably demand.
And if: at any time after they have become members of the
association, the father or mother of a family should die or
be otherwise separated from the community, and should
leave their family behind, such family shall not be left orphans or destitute, but-shall partake of the same rights and
maintenance as before, so long as they remain in the association, as well in sickness as.in health, and to such extent as
their circumstances may require.
ARTICLE 6th. And if it should so happen as above men



APPENDIX.                   181
tioned, that any of the undersigned should violate his or
their agreement, and would or could not submit to the laws
and regulations of the church or the community,. and for
that or any other cause should withdraw from the association,
then the said George Rapp and his associates agree to refund
to him or them, the value of all such property as he or they
may have brought into the community, in compliance with
the first article of. this agreement, the said value to be refunded without interest,. in.one, two,or three annual instal-ments, as the.'said George Rapp'and his associates shall determine. And if the person or persons..so withdrawing
themselves were poor, and brought nothing into the community, notwithstanding they depart openly and regularly,
they shall receive a donation in money, according to the
length of their stay, and to their conduct, and to such
amount as their necessities may require, in the judgment of
the superintendents of the association.
In witness whereof, and in testimony that the undersigned
have.become members of the said community upon the conditions aforesaid, they have hereunto severally and each for
himself, set their hands and seals, on the ninth day of March,
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
twenty-seven.
In presence of John H. Hopkins
and Charles S. Voltz.
on the death of George Rapp, 7th of August, 1847, the
whole. Society signed the above agreement again,. putting in
two. Trustees, and seven.-Elders, to manage and regulate all
matters as George Rapp had done.
APPENDIX E.
EXTRACTS FROM  GONTGEN'S LETTER, INTRODUOTORY TO THE VISIT OF COUNT LEON.
(See page 72.)
NOTE-The translation has been made literally, and fitly represents
the long,,involved, and word-crowded sentences of the original German. We give it with all its verbiage.
Peace, grace, and mercy:, as also salvation and blessing,
be to the aged Patriarch George Rapp and his associated
superintendents, and also to the whole in-God-united-Society of Harmony.
In the quarter of a century which has passed away since
you withdrew from the pressure upon freedom of conscience




132          THE IIARMONY SOCIETY.
in monarchical Europe, to seek refuge in the free States of
North America for the undisturbed realization of your philanthropic ideas and the development of your generally benevolent inclinations, the measure of iniquity in Europe has
at last become full I The spiritual order neglected even more
and more its appointed end, and became even more and
more estranged from the Divine Grace, through striving
after external honor and profits,' so that the clergy, with
very rare exceptions, became utterly unqualifiedto be instruments to promote the true eternal welfare of believing Christians or children of God. The secular rulers, both high and
low, have violently taken to themselves the lordship of God
over the bodies and souls of their subjects, so that, instead
of administering the divine laws, as the representatives of
the Creator, for the advancement of the external and internal prosperity of men, for whom the living Son of God, Jesus
Christ, poured out his blood, and over whom as over them
too (the rulers), he acquired an unlimited right of property
as the King of kings, and instead of protecting the church
in the enjoyment of her divine rights, they commit whoredom with the divine word and the divine authority, as they
strive after the enjoyment of that honor which belongs to
the majesty of God alone: expend the property of the citizens upon worthless or trifling objects, and interfere with
and violently oppress all the simple, Christian, peacefulpeople in the land.- The people are scourged by their rulers
with two-fold rods: nationally, by exorbitant taxes and cruel
custom-regulations, whereby trade and industry are ruined,
and all business brought to a standstill; spiritually, by the
suppression and prevention of all exhortations and warnings
in regard to amendment. Ignominy and imprisonment are
the portion of the clergy and other believers who publicly
recognize the holy commandments of the religion of Christ
and endeavor honestly to follow them.
At this moment, individually ana generally, the despotism
ofthe rulers is becoming intolerable. Laws are abused by
their executors in favor of rogues, and administered to the
injury of the retired peaceful pious people of the land. This
is the experience of thousands, whether in comfortable circumstances or poor, so that the better people are contending with real despair for conscience sake. On account of the
blindness of the faithful and the obduracy of the world,
no one regarding either the promises or the threats of God,,the great day of God's wrath has -come, and God will hold
judgment upon all flesh that is upon earth. The harvest ii
ripe, and the fruit of Christ's people is dry, and God will




APPENDIX.                    133
root from the earth and from his Christian children everything that is ungodly, and all those whose names are not
written in the Lamb's book of life. Therefore, to the angels
and powers of heaven and all elements is the command
given, to pour out the seven vials of the fierce anger of God
over all those in Europe who do not repent and turn with
the whole heart to God. The irrevocable final judgment of
God is pronounced in regard to all men. In Europe fearful
signs, prognostics of thQ great day of the Lord, are appearing before the near real coming of the Son of man, who will
judge without respect of person, the whole world, according
to their works.
Therefore, by the authority and in the name of the living
God, ant oficial writing is addressed to all those in whose
hearts the love of God and faith in the living Triune are
not quite extinct; and it is placed in the hands of the most
important monarchs of Europe, and is especially directed
to the chief shepherds of the Catholic church and to the
enlightened rulers of the other Christian confessions; who
are enjoined, on their everlasting responsibility, to make the
said writing everywhere known to the faithful, and where
possible, to have it printed, that all who read or hear it and
are still susceptible of the divine grace, may be able to reform and return with childlike trust to God their Lord.
There is no more time, as God the Lord has already spoken
his judgment upon the whole earth.
The good, true, believers would perish with the ungodly if
God did not take care of his children, in whom all good is nearly extinct. Happy they who shall be found watching in the
fear, faith, and love of God, with lamps full of the oil of good
works! God will gather together these his sheep scattered
through all the world and lead them to a place where they
shall be kept until, &c., &c.
North America is the wilderness where the church exists,
not at all according to the strict external hierarchical connections and relations.'All ecclesiastical forms, even the
narrowest and most one-sided sects, all stand side by side
and equally enjoy.the protection of the government. Even
atheism  is tolerated and permitted, &c. But while the
divine is there pushed into the background, the more freedom  is allowed to the humane to develop itself.  Hence
the greater receptivity of the North Americans for the
regeneration of Christianity, which finds difficult entrance
among men brought up as they are in Europe, amidst
empty church formalities and the dead letter.  While in
America the church is permitted to extend herself with
12*




134           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
out limitation or condition, according to the established laws
of freedom; in Europe, on the contrary, a man is not allowed to perform the duties he owes as an individual to
other men, much less to God.  Therefore, the first fruits
of the new church of Christ shall be rescued from Europe, and united with all those in America who are prepared of God to be incorporated with the true living Christian congregation. FEor the Lord has designated America
and his ambassador in the prediction of the prophet (4 Esdras 12: 34), " MPy remaining people will he redeem with
mercy, namely, those who escaped to my most outer borders." The first place where the Lord will reveal his divine
grace, is your Christian Society of Harmony, which is all
along distinguished of God by wonderful preservation and
increase.
America, which has already contemplated with astonishment this remarkable blessed little people, will be thrown
into the greatest amazement, when from this little point the
word of divine truth and the fullness of divine blessing,
shall be spread abroad over all America.
The Lord has delivered you precisely in the time wherein
the type of the anti-christ in France has obtained the highest power and dignity, in order to become the scourge of
the nations. Your community has had frequently to change
its place of abode, even in the free States, in order that'those might be separated from it who could not sincerely and
with the whole heart attach themselves to such a purely
humane union, until you have now arrived at the resting
place, where the Lord will visit you all with his grace.
It was an omen or token from God, that you should build
a church in the form of a cross, in accordance with a vision
in sleep, and that you chose the "golden rose"* for the
symbol, according to the prophet Micah; for this golden
rose shall in truth come to you; yea, the divine Holy Ghost
which proceeds from the Father and the Son shall make
his abode with you. You, in a truly humane, religious
spirit, founded a colony whose constitution was grounded
upon the words in the Acts of the Apostles: "' And the multitude of the faithful were of one heart, &c., and no one
said of his goods that they were his own, but all things
were in common," so that you have united yourselves on
* Allusion is here made to Luther's version of Micah 4: 8, " Unto
thee shall come the golden rose, the first dominion," &c. The church
built by the Society on the Wabash was in the form of a cross, having emblazoned above its front entrance a large gilded rose, in aecordance with a vision or dream of Father Rapp.




APPENDIX.                  135
the common principles-love to God and good will toward
men, purity of life, and community of goods. Therefore,
your fame has resounded in all lands, that the members of
your community with the greatest joy frequent the religious
assemblies, and that the moral conduct of the community
is blameless, that no vicious customs are found in vogue, no
cursing or swearing heard, no extravagance seen; that to
cheating there is no temptation, because no individual needs
money or fears want; that you present a singular example
in that you abstain [?] from using the intoxicating drinks
which you manufacture as a branch of industry; yea, that
of free will you have laid upon yourselves abstinence from
sexual intercourse, &c. Through the internal arrangement
and external organization of your community, God has
declared himself for the preparation for the future, when
he will ", reveal himself to the little, and will bring to shame
those mighty in their own esteem."
Therefore, he hath shown in a living example what man
on a human stand-point, in faith and trust in his Creator, is
able to achieve for the general good of his fellow men, and
has made your town the type of the kingdom of God. Just
as even individual details in your Society are carried out
simply according to the will of God, so will the Lord reveal
himself to vou in the general also-and according to his
divine law will establish himself in your community, through
and in which he has laid the first foundation-stone of the
city of God in truth, in order to prepare the future constitution of his Divine Kingdom, and by degrees to bring
into connection with you all who are called to eternal life.
Then all those who hunger and thirst after righteousness
will be fed gratis with the bread of eternal life, and given
to drink the living waters of divine grace, while on the
other hand, all the ungodly shall be rooted out and cast into
eternal fire.
Since now God will not suffer his human children to pine
in wretchedness of body and soul, and fall into eternal ruin,
now the eternal decrees shall be fulfilled, and no human
power on earth shall be able to hinder the decreed and outspoken will of God, and to frustrate the work of divine
righteousness. Therefore, it is also impossible for THE
ANOINTED AND SENT OF GOD to direct and turn things
according to human views and wishes, or according to
political hopes and expectations, or otherwise than as the
express law of God exacts and orders.
The elucidation of the divine will in verity in the generally known writing attests and legitimates (as has been




136            TIIE HARMONY  SOCIETY.
imparted to all the mighty ones of Europe), for all and
every one, at once, the contents of the same as purely divine,
as well as him through whom therein God reveals his will,
as a true plenipotentiary of God. According to the prediction of the prophet (Zech. 4: 14), he is shown forth, and he
will justify himself by the fulfilment of the divine mysteries
-that to the descendant of David is given the power of the
keys of David, or the power to bind and to loose, as also
to judge and to decide according to justice and righteousness.
The Anointed of God, from  the stem of Judah, of the
root of David, who as man has passed through all the trials,
physical and spiritual, of life, and hath endured, according to
the example of Christ, every indignity and persecution from
officials and people of all classes, hitherto however in
silence like a sheep that is led to slaughter; he knows and
loudly confesses before God and all the world, that he is the
least and smallest, but also that there is nothing to him
more sacred than the honor of God, &c.
Before the elect children of God, rescued through flight,
shall have reached your neighborhood, you will probably
have heard of the terrible judgments of God which have
already commenced in Europe, and which will extend farther —shortly before and simultaneously with the flightjourney of the little Philadelphian community* of Godwho, on their arrival in America, look forward to a christian brotherly reception from you, through the grace of
God, and expect philanthropic support. At the same time
you have no cause to be anxious that the care for their
maintenance will burden you alone, for the Christian strangers carry with them what it was possible to rescue (of their
goods), and are, besides, rich through the spiritual treasure
of Christian hope, in the living conviction that there will be
* The Philadelphian Society was the name which Count Leon gave to
his community at Phillipsburg (see p. 78); and it is probable, That he
borrowed this name from that of a society which was founded under
the same name in 1697, by one Jane Leade, who spent most of her life
in reading the works of Jacob Bohm, and penning down her own revelations, &c. Her writings, published at her own expense, are said
to fill eight volumes. She had many followers. The name Philadelphian (i. e., brotherly love,) was adopted because she believed that all
contentions among Christians would cease, provided all would commit their souls to the internal teacher to be moulded, enlightened and
governed by him, neglecting all other doctrines, precepts and opinions. She believed that her Philadelphian Society was the very
Church of Christ, in which alone the Holy Spirit resided, and that it
would supersede all others before the end of the world. She held also
the doctrine of the final restoration of all things. See Murdoch's Mo.
sheirn's Church History, vol. iii., p. 550-1.




APPENDIX.                  137
fulfilled the promise (Rev. 3: 7-12), "And to the angel
of the church in Philadelphia, write: These things saith he
that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David,
he that openeth and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no
man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I. have set before
thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a
little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied
my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of.
Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie;
behold, I will make thbm to come and worship before thy
feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou
hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee
from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the
world, to try them that dwell upon the earth: Behold, I
come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man
take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar
in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and
I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name
of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which
cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write
upon him my new name."
In the commission of the Ambassador and Anointed of God,
of the Stem of Judah, of the Root of David, written by SAMUEL, a fellow-servant, and consecrated servant of God, in
the profane world now really subsisting Chief Librarian of
the free City of Frankfort, Doctor of Philosophy and
Theology.
JOHN GEORGE GONTGEN.
Frankfort-on-the-Main, July 14, 1829.
APPENDIX F.
THm: following extended and characteristic passages have
been translated from  a small volume, entitled "Hirten
Brief, Sc.; or, Pastoral Letter to true and genuine Free
Masons of the ancient system, in the year 5785."
Although the Harmonists are not Free Masons, yet so
highly did they esteem this work, that they had it reprinted
in 1855, and a copy placed in every family of the Society.
It very nearly coincides with their own views. It abounds
in sublime conceptions, but the reader will soon find himself carried out into distant nebulous regions of thought,
where he will be lost in a fog-cloud of words hard to be understood. It is a fair specimen of the style of thought and




138          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
language adopted by the theosophic mystics. Its author is
unknown, but the speculations are those of Jacob B6hm
and his school.
WVe give entire the introductory remarks which the learned translator has been kind enough to prefix, pertaining to'the history of Freemasonry, and the life of Jacob -Bihm (or
Boehmen, as it is often written).
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS,
BY THE TRANSLATOR.
Every one knows that Freemasonry assumed several dif-'ferent forms or modifications on the continent of Europe,'during the early and middle years of the eighteenth century.
This is indeed admitted by English'and American Masons
of " the straitest sect," though they may maintain that " the
most ancient and venerable order" was truly represented.by not more than one of the many lines of lodges which had
by degrees established themselves in France and Germany.
In Germany, as in America, the motives which led men to
become Freemasons were various. One desired and hoped'in this manner to secure for himself in the lodge a respectable place of resort, in which he could always find congenial
society. Another was influenced by the view of insuring
himself against material want, by an interest in the benevolent and beneficent agencies of an order believed to be
wealthy. One aimed at gaining friends, and frustating the
pow er and intrigues of enemies. Another was fascinated
and drawn into the order, by its lofty moral and historical
claims and pretensions, and by the halo of mysterious and
unfathomed antiquity in which its beginnings were believed
to be enveloped; and the mere desire to learn I" the great secret" was, no doubt, a powerful attraction to many minds.
Some may have looked upon the lodge as a debating club,
in which they might, by practice, acquire the art of eloquence.  Heinrich Steffens, the celebrated physicist and
professor, in his autobiography, informs us that the great
Prussian Field-Marshal Bliicher, who used to astonish and
rouse to enthusiasm Whole brigades by his oratory, who in
fact spoke as well as he fought, " was said to have acquired
his remarkable facility of speech at the Freemasons' lodge."'
Whatever motives may have prompted persons to become'reemasons, men of different characters and antecedents
were accustomed to assign different reasons for remaining in
he order and recommending it to dthers. The mechanic




APPENDIX.                   189
found his trade and calling honored and magnified, when he
saw, the common life and toils of' a hand-worker like himse'f, invested with antique dignity, and''idealized into
"something new and strange,"." immensum infinitumque."
Men of imaginative character., of a ast of. mind at once poetical and speculative, were able to discern in the symbols
and ceremonies of Freemasonry, the embodiment and practi-'
cal inculcation of the great principles which lie at the foundation of civilization. Thus Lessing* shows how the order
may be the means of briiging into connectionand useful cooperation those men of all lands, who are exalted by natural
endowments, or acquired culture, or, innate sympathies,
above the petty and repelling influences, of sect, nationality,
afid traditions; how it may be one of the mightiest agencies.
fdr' "c the education of the human race," while its secret may
be nothing more than the conviction that no secret exists to
be discovered or revealed.
The Christian theologian, on the other hand, saw in " true
and genuine Freemasonry" n6thing but. Christianity. He
was convinced that the chief end of "the holy order" and
the chief end of'true Christianity were identical; that real
Freemasons constituted that sublime and consecrated priesthood, of which the Crucified One was the Head, that they
were "brethren of"the Cross," and that any rian claiming
to belong to the mystical fraternity who denied the divinity
of Christ, was either an impostor, or'he was utterly ignorant of the character which he pretended to sustain. The
writer of this letter had in mind a class of nominal Free-.
masons, who were: known to entertain false views on this
and kindred subjects. This appears from innumerable passages in the letter; and in the short.introduction or. preface,
the writer says, "Our holy brotherhood has for some time
had the misfortune to contain some members who forget
what they owe to the Man who has in his hands the fate of
the whole order, yea, of the whole human race."  "These
unhappy persons see not the light at clear midday, partly
because the eye is lacking to see with, partly because the
medium through which it: should ray into the soul is discolored and impure. To supply the former want is not now
in our power; for the second, however, we have prepared a
remedy, from which we expect the best issue.".
The author says he writes not for all the brethren, but
for a certain class of them. He'has nothing for those who
are " full and increased with goods. "' He writes not for those
who have attained perfection, nor for those who, though.
* See Lessing's Gesammelte Werke, 2 Band, s. 334, 336.




140           TIE IIARMOINY SOCIETY,
still on the road, are nearing their great aim-but for the
new and inexperienced brethren, who are hungering for
truth and illumination.  "Utterly profane readers are
begged to leave our letter unread, unless they possess the
inquiring spirit in a high degree, or unless they have already learned to find the truth worthy of love, in whatever
garb it may appear.' Where I understand the man, he
compels my approval. Why then should I not suppose that
there is truth where I fail to understand him?' This was
the admirably candid and modest judgment of a great man."
The writer then adds, that he fears not the criticism of any
one who reads his production in this spirit.
" Jesus is God-these words constitute our pastoral epistle.
The Light of the inner world is the reflection of Jesus, as
Jesus is the reflection of the Father of all. The inner world
bore the outer world. The affinity between them is therefore close and intimate. The transition from the lower to
the upper takes place through mediate substances. The glorified humanity of Jesus is the first of these substances from
above downward, as the natural light is the first from below
upward. The union of the two, with the enthronement of
the Divine Spirit, is the end of regeneration, and this is the
way to the treasure of external nature."' "In these words,"
concludes the writer, " you have our plan. Never lose sight
of it. This is the guiding thread of Ariadne, which can
and must conduct you surely to the goal."
The words quoted above in regard to the connection between the upper and the lower worlds, will remind some
readers of the question suggested by the angel in Milton:
"What if earth
Be but the shadow of heaven, and things therein
Each to other like more than on earth is thought?"
And a mystical poet of Persia, in a little poem translated by
Tholuck, affirms what is here merely suggested as a question.  " The world of sense," says he, " a shadow is of the
spirit-world.' *
We greatly fear, however, that to most readers, the style
and teaching of the epistle will appear exceedingly obscure,
so nebulous indeed, that we should not be surprised to hear
some of them affirm, that the words conveyed no meaning
to their minds. In truth, we are compelled in candor to
confess-in the words which Cicero employs when thankfully acknowledging the receipt from his friend Atticus of a
celebrated Greek-book written by one Serapion-" Hardly
* see *" Trench on the Parables," p. 25.




APPENDIX.                    141
the thousandth part of it do I understand.'* But what of
that? Some of the most admirable productions of the human intellect are hard to be understood, The Timweus of
Plato is not a luminous dialogue, nor is Hegel's Philosophy
always comprehensible at a glance. The latter illustrious
philosopher, when dying, lamented that he was leaving be,hind him on earth only one-man capable of expounding his
system, and he, alas I did not quite understand it.
The "Hirten Brief" belongs to a kind of physico-metaphysical speculation, which for several centuries has had
earnest cultivation in Germany. It will be at once recognized, by every one having the slightest knowledge of the
subject, as a legitimate product of the mystical school of
which:Jacob Boehmen was the founder. This remarkable
man was born at Altseidenburg, in Upper Lusatia, in the
year 1575. His parents were poor country people, whom
their son helped in their work by watching the cattle. Even
while a mere lad, he used to see strange things in. visions
of the night, and sometimes of the day: a circumstance
which his adherents afterward referred to as evidence of his
divine call, and his enemies, as proof of his mendacity. He
learned the trade of a shoemaker, and became ultimately a
master workman in G0irlitz, where he married the daughter
of a butcher. After suffering much petty persecution, he
died at Girlitz in 1624. From time to time through his
whole life he was favored with visions. One of the most
remarkable of these he saw in the year 1600, in the
twenty-fifth year of his age.  "Looking at a bright tin
vessel, a beautiful, joy-inspiring spectacle, he believed himself to be grasped by a ray of the higher life and hurried
away into the centre of mysterious nature."'
We must recollect that the nature of metals played an
important part in the, system of the mystics, if we would
understand how the sight of a tin vessel-which would leave
us cool enough-could produce such an effect upon the imagination of Boehmen. The impression of these visions was deepened by intercourse with some physicians who were devoted
to the occult sciences, and who by their erudite Paracelsian
language exerted much influence upon Boehmen's style of expression. In the year 1610 Boehmen, quite illiterate though
he was, felt called upon to appear as an author. His first
work bore the following title: "Morning-dawn in the East,, Fecisti mihi pergratum, quod Serapionis librum ad me misisti;
ex quo quidom ego (quod inter nos liceat dicere) millesimamn partem
vtx intelligo.-Cicero, Epist. ad Att., lib. ii. 4.
t Hagenbach's "Evangel. Protestantismus in seiner geschichtlichen
Entwickelung," 1 13aad, p.  338, et al.
13




142           TILE IIARMONY SOCIETY.
that is, the Root or Mother of Philosophia, Astrologiai and
Theologia," &c., &c. This work was in course of time followed by others, and Jacob Boehmen became widely known.
His speculations were received by many as truth, his disciples
and admirers multiplied —he was called by them sometimes
simply Philosophus Teutonicus —the German philosopher,
-and sometimes the " inspired shoemaker."  The number of
his opponents and persecutors also increased, and to them he
was " The Knight of the Wax," and " the crazy cobbler of
Gorlitz."'*  His fame soon extended into foreign lands. We
are told by Sir David Brewster, that " Sir Isaac Newton was
a diligent student of Jacob Boehmen's writings, and that there
were found among his papers copious extracts from them
in his own hand-writing." The same writer also says,
that it is stated in a letter of Mr. Law (William  Law,
author of "Call to the Unconverted"), that Charles First
was a diligent reader and admirer of Jacob Boehmen, that
he sent a well qualified person from England to G6rlitz, in
Upper Lusatia, to acquire the German language, and to collect every anecdote he could meet with there relative to this
great alchemist."  We need scarcely add, that "the German philosopher" was believed, among other secrets of
nature, to have discovered the art of making gold.
The fame and influence of Boehmen did not die away with
the century in which he lived. Among the religious peasantry of his native land, in many an humble farm-house and
secluded village, his works, family heir-looms, have been
thumbed and pondered over by successive generations, from
their first publication until the present time. And not only
the obscure and the uninstructed acknowledge his influence
and genius. Schelling avowed " affectionate reverence for
his labors," and once declared, ex cathedra, that I' from great
Plato down to Master Hegel, no one had appeared worthy
to loose the shoe latchet of the profound shoemaker."  The
great English philosopher, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, says:
" My obligations to Boehmen have been direct. I owe him a
debt of gratitude."-  We must, however, state that these
flattering estimates are rather exceptional than otherwise
among the judgments of the learned, and that probably a
large majority of those who attempt to study Boehmen's
works, give a hearty assent to the opinion of Adelung, who
assigns him one of the first places in his " History of Human
Folly." This fact, however, is not his condemnation; "fit
audience, though few," was the desire of one of the greatest
* Hagenbach, ebb supr(a.
jWorks, vol. 3, 264, Harper's edition




APPENDIX.                   143
earthly speakers. And it cannot be denied, that the admirers and disciples of Jacob Boehmen and his school, have,
many of them, been remarkable for deep spiritual insight
and irreproachable purity of life.
HI RTEN  BRIEF;
OR, LETTER TO TRUE AND GENUINE FREE MASONS OF
THE ANCIENT SYSTEM.
PART I.
General object of the Letter-Theosophic views of the Trinity and of Creation-The " Seven Spirits," and their office-The Cross the Fountain of alI
True Light, d&c.
The chief end of this letter is to vindicate the Godhead of
our most high brother-master (Christ), his identity with the
Father, and then the necessity as well as the beneficent consequences of his incarnation. Yes-our object is to elucidate
these three great, all-comprehensive subjects, and to impress
*them upon your hearts, an object of unspeakable dignity, of
unutterable importance. Should we succeed, we shall have
accomplished all, and shall have the pure heavenly joy of
seeing you, weary and heavy laden, come to Jesus, that he
may fully kindle the smoking flax and mend again the broken reed.
In order to accomplish our three-fold object, we must
show you the entire venerable series or chain of truths,
member by member, which comprehends the whole threefold wisdom imparted by God to your fathers from the beginning. God himself not only holds the highest member'of this chain, but as being independent, eternal truth, he
-pervades and animates all, even the most remote links or
members -of it. Through him they are what they are, viz.,
sparks, or little drops exactly harmonizing among themselves from the infinite ocean of all truth and goodness. fWe
wish to show you the gradation or scale of these truth-drops,
according to the measure of the spirit that impels us-to




144          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
place in your hands a systematic view of doctrine, in which
the deepest didactic and life-truths will present themselves
to you, and you will be enabled as it were to touch with the.hand the whole connection of the universe. We must, however, go out into the most remote point of the creation, yea,
beyond nature and creation; we must ascend to that nameless Being of all beings, whose name consists in that he iswe must, in humility and reverence, contemplate what God
was before the creation, what he is now, and what he will be
through all eternity. From him we descend then into nature and creation; we proceed even to their most extreme
limits by the leading string of wisdom. Deeply bowed before
him as children in his house, we gaze at the All-Father of the
whole, as he makes worlds, causes world to arise from world,,peoples them partly with free and partly with mechanical
creatures; to the former he is at once father and bridegroom
(John 10: 30, Mark 2: 19), and sows the spaces of immensity
with immeasurable systems of suns. Hereupon we come
upon that unhappy place of the universe where the Son of
the morning forgot that he was a merely finite, limited being, and misused his freedom in the most miserable way.
The consequences of this transgression we see become the
occasion that God creates a new world, and peoples it with a
new race of beings. Adam was the first happy inhabitant
of it; but the envy of the rejected Angel plunged him down
into the chaos of misery, which he has transmitted even to us.
The state of man before the fall, and then his present
state, with what he must become to fulfil his destination;
further, the exalted means of his transformation and the
blessed consequence of the same-among which are embraced
the treasure of the wise, yea, the mastery over all nature,
&c.-all these things will be revealed to our inquiring eyes.
Let us for a moment, in thought, annihilate all that is
created, and we shall then have nothing before us save the
infinite, eternal, omnipresent God. Proceed we then in this
way farther back, and with an eye full of timid reverence
we behold the eternal generation of the Triune-we shall at




APPENDIX.                   145
length in God himself strike upon an unnamable Somewhat,
to go beyond which is impossible without being lost in a
boundless abyss. We would name this inexpressible Somewhat the Ungrounded or the Bottomless —the eternal, independent One-the unsearchable Deep, which incessantly
swallows up all finite understanding. Here we would
attach our thread in order to descend into the outermost
creation.
This mysterious Unfathomed is a being that produces or
bears from himself; all, however, that it bears is God. The
primordial will of the Fathomless to bring forth and feel himself, is that which the Holy Scripture calls the Father in the
Godhead-who is greater than all, while he has in himself
the immortal life-principle,-is independent in the highest
sense of the word; from him also all fatherhood in heaven
and earth proceeds. The pure Begotten of this primordial
will is called the Son —the perfect image of the Father, the
reflection of his majesty, the created light, the first-born before every creature, in whom the lFather sees, tastes, and in
a divine way enjoys and feels himself; to whom also he has
given to have life in himself, and in whom he has his entire,
sole, and undivided good pleasure. The Bond between the
Father and the Son is the Holy Ghost, who constantly goes
forth from both, with both is co-essential, and therefore all
that he has receives from the Father and the Son, and gives
to them again. For what the Father has, the Son also has,
and the outflow from both is the Holy Ghost, who brings
forth divine life and motion,'and bears back again into the
paternal abyss all that whatever the divine primordial will
has begotten in and out of himself. Out of or beside this
Triune Divine Deep, before the creation of finite beings,
there was naught. It was this alone that filled all in all, as
once again after the ending of the determined veons in created existence, it will also be all in all. It is like an infinite
circle, whose centre is every where, whose periphery is nowhere. In this circle place a fiery triangle, and you will
have a faint image of the Triune independence, or self13*




146          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
existence, in as far as it is permitted to help forward our
imagination by lines and figures.
Love, or a desire of impartation, was the motive which
impelled the All-Sufficient to become a creator. To this,
passive matter or substratum  was necessary, on which to
establish the kingdom of the future world of spirits. At
this period, however, as already said, beside the Triune in
his whole immensity there was naught. He stepped then as
it were out of himself, and bore from his innermost being
the first foundation for creation (Psalm  33:9). Divine
bringing forth is called speaking; for when God speaks, or
commands, it stands fast. The first thing, however, which
God utters, or begets through speaking, is called in the
Scripture, wisdom  (Proverbs 3:19, &c.); and as God can
produce from himself nothing dead or quite lifeless, this first
offspring of his Being is necessarily a two-fold substance, inasmuch as it (speaking anthropopathos, or after the manner of
men) consists of the living word of the Father, as the efficient or working; and then, secondly, of the passive substratum of the word which is as it were the Feminine of the
Godhead, and serves him as the mirror wherein at once and
from eternity he sees and recognizes the types and ideas of
all merely possible creatures.
The passivity of wisdom is called in Scripture the " glory
of God" (Exodus 16:10), inasmuch as from it, as from his
inexhaustible treasury, he draws all his attributes of majesty, glory, wrath, vengeance, &c., which are impartable to
the creatures. 1 Chron. 29:11. She is that fruitful mother
who is above, by whom God is constantly accompanied,
who is with him equally eternal, infinite, and omnipresent,
and without whom he can impart himself to or be enjoyed
in a conscious way, by no created being. From it, under
the old covenant, God took the material of that incombustible fire in which he appeared to Moses. Exodus 3: 2, Heb.
12: 29. From it he formed that visible cloud which filled
the Tabernacle, and from which he spoke mouth to mouth
with our Egyptian brother-master. Yea, and without it the




APPENDIX.                   147
incarnation of the word would have been impossible, as we
shall show in the proper place.
The outspoken wisdom is not only the dwelling of the word,
but the passive part of the same contains also the potential
matter of all that is made. The Father has made all by the
Son. Eph. 3: 9. Wisdom is a breath of the divine omnipotence-a reflection of the everlasting light-an unstained
mirror of omnipotence, and an image of the divine goodness. In the Scripture she describes herself, Prov. 8, Rev.
19: 13. In the womb of this wisdom the matter of creation
is only potentially present. This potential matter becomes
real matter, the essential foundation of the worlds of spirits
and bodies, by means of the word through the agency of the
" seven spirits" who constantly stand before the throne of
God, and who are subordinated to him who has all power in
heaven and in earth. Thus the leading strings, the middle
of the whole creation, are in his hands. These seven spirits
are called the " seven eyes of the Lamb, which are sent forth
into all lands," Rev. 5: 6. By means of these spirits, then,
God, through his glory as the passive of the Godhead, brings
forth all that is not God. In the co-operation of these spirits,
the spirit of the word, and in this the primordial will of the
Father, is the moving spring. That these spirits may cooperate with one another, their essential or primary powers
must be different, else neither action nor reaction could take
place. Therefore according to the number of these spirits,
there are seven general primary powers, as well in temporal
as in eternal nature, by means of which, outside of God all that
is has received its being. Their manner of operation consists
in this-that, according to the laws of their nature, in the
potential matter of the object to be produced, they arouse
reacting qualities-partly in order thus to bring forth a
movable creature-life, according to the idea of the forming
spirit, partly in order to render substantial the incorporeal
life-matter; for it is the unchangeable will of God that that
which is invisible and spiritual in himself shall be presented
corporeally) even as already his whole Godhead dwells




148           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
bodily in Christ. It is difficult to express in our corporeal
speech the individual operations of each of these seven
spirits.
The first nature-spirit imparts to the matter of creation the
attractive primary power, and the second, the expansrive primary, which consequently are grounded in eternal nature,'and
constitute the innermost movingpsprings of the spiritual and
corporeal worlds; yea, they present the principle or ground
of all energizing creature-life, but with various modifications in the different orders of existence, as men, angels,
vegetation, but without losing their central resemblance,
also without losing the power of ascending the scale (or
ladder) upon which they have descended, when this may become necessary according to the plan of the Creator.  The
susceptibility of all corporeal things to become again spiritual
is an established and demonstrated principle in our secret
school. Dissolution and corruption must take place before
body can be exalted to spirit, for what we sow will not become alive unless it die, &c.
As there is a natural body,, there is a spiritual. Adam
was invested with natural life; the second Adam, on the
other hand, has spiritual, &c. 1 Cor. 15.  This spiritual
life is the result of the seven spirits, or natural powers, of
which we are here speaking. The attractive primary power is the origin of all matter and all corporeality, while the
repulsive power is the origin of all dissolution, subtilization,
and spirituality. When both work with equal power, they
produce the circular motion, that wheel of nature (see
James 3: 6, Greek, iTpoXbi), as the third quality of the matter
of creation, which may be called the womb of creature life.
In the midst of the operations of the fourth spirit, in the
middle-point of the above mentioned wheel of nature, there
arises a flashing crucial intersection, which fully generates
creature life. This is quite developed in the following working periods of the fifth and sixth nature-spirit, and by the
power of the seventh spirit is made steadfast, or fixed over
its substrato. We must, as you see, dear brothleI, use some




APPENDIX.                    149
scholastic terms occasionally to express our meaning, our
own tongue is so poor.  Even with that assistance how
little is effected in the way of explanation I [True I]
Most gladly would we make comprehensible to you
the mysteries of the fourth natural quality, as by it
is brought about the separation of light and darkness.
We should, however, overstep the limits of a letter.
So much we must say, that in the crucially intersecting
flash of the fourth nature-form, the inaccessible light of
the Godhead is communicated to the creature, or is again
withdrawn from  it.  The three first natural powers are
equally appropriate to angels and to men, for out of them
are constituted the souls of angels as of men; but in the
fourth form is the separating boundary between evil and
good, light and darkness, life and death, amidst which is
the freedom to choose one or the other. Life consisting' of
the three first forms, that of all free creatures, is called evil, in
as far as it is viewed in its own nature, and is alienated from
the life of God. The all-sufficient God is alone good, who
in his Son imparts himself to creatures as a light, has life
and immortality, and changes the darkness of the creature
into light, life, and goodness. All this takes place at the
cross, for, as already said, the life-centre in its innermost
part presents a cross-like intersecting light-ray, from whose
central point, so long as the creature stands in the divine
order, the light of the Godhead streams forth and illuminates the ground of life, in itself dark. 0 the gentle, the
beneficent cross I The cross is the fountain of all true light;
and oh how gently, how full of blessing flowed this cross in
the beginning from the hands of Godl But Lucifer and
Adam have changed it into a cross of torture, deprived of
all truth and light, to which we are now fastened through
our whole lives, and on which at last love itself must die, in
order to make the faded light again radiant on the cross on
which it was once quenched.
Behold, beloved cross-brother, so deep is the sign grounded which you bear, which you have received from us as




150           TE II-ARMONY SOCIETY.
your order-symbol. It reaches to the centre of all worlds,
yea, it is conterminous with the very Godhead. Ah I surely must Jesus suffer all that he suffered; for at the cross was
lost the life from God, and only at the cross could it be restored again. Luke 24: 26.
The operations of the seven spirits must not be considered'as taking place successively, but simultaneously, in one and
the same moment; nor are the objects mentioned to be conceived of as separate in place; they are spiritual, and so penetrable, able to work in and through one another without
any displacement. With our corporeal and material bodies
and modes of thought, it is impossible to give to another a
correct idea of all this. It can be conceived in the spirit,
but not expressed. Conceive of a substance animated with
seven different powers, which  incessantly produce one
another actu purissimo, and are changed into one another;
which so intimately interpenetrate one another as to form
only a single highly simple whole, that is inseparable; thus
you will get a feeble image of what we have endeavored to set
forth. Add to this, that these seven powers are dominated
by another power, which does not belong to their own essence, but guides and directs them according to its will,
and illumines them with its independent light, and you
will have an image of a good creature; take away this lightpower, so that it remains in its own character, and you have
an evil creature. To all this is applicable what the apostle says, 1 Cor. 2:15, " The spiritual man discerneth all
things."
PART II.
The Chaos produced by the Fall of Lucifer, son of the Dawn, and his subject
legions, was reduced to Kosmos by the Almighty, and prepared for the habitation of a new being to be created, viz., of Man.
He was designed to be a spectacle of wonder to the unfallen angelic choirs, a subject of bitterest envy to Satan, and
a perennial fountain of indescribable blessedness to himself.
The Almighty took his body from the quintessence of the
new creation, his soul from  eternal nature, and his spirit




APPENDIX.                   151
from the very spring of divine life, which He imparted to:
him by an animating breath, and thus constituted him a
Triune being, which was consequently, in the strictest sense
a living himage of his own Godhead.
THE PERFECTIONS OF ADAM.-Shall we say, Adam wasa God? That is indeed to say very much, and yet, nevertheless it is perfectly true. Nl ot merely an angel, not at all
a mere creature of the world of light-no, beloved, he was
something more than this, he was a second Divinity, subordinate only to the Triune. The end of his being, his dignity, his nobility, his destination, were so perfect and exalted,
that he surpassed all hitherto created spirits; for these two
latter inhabit only the two inner spheres of creation, viz.,
the worlds of light and of fire; Adam, on the other hand,
was a confluence of the whole; was an inhabitant of a threefold world, and consequently was present there also from
where other blessed spirits are excluded, and, bowed in reverence, only long to gaze into. To understand this, recollect
we have seen that in order to bring forth creatures God must
awaken.opposite qualities in eternal nature, that a creaturelife different from his own may result. Now the sphere of
these opposite or contrary vital powers, this fiery triangle in.
the midst of a quadrangle, constitutes a peculiar world for
itself, which is called the dark world of fire, inasmuch as
without the light inhabited by the spirit, it is thick darkness
and gnawing, consuming fire. This world, which forms the
ground of hell, and is present in the deepest interior of all
creatures, had no inhabitant before the fall of Lucifer, but
was merely the necessary basis of another world, which is
cdalled the domain of light-while in it the dark powers of
fire were swallowed up of Light and anointed with the oil of
the divine goodness. Now the world of light was the proper
abode of all angels and spirits, and at the same time the
throne of the divine spirit, which accordingly was built
upon the ground of hell; for without the powers of the
world of fire neither were creatures Io-ssible, nor could light
itself have been raised to the splendor of the divine majesty;




152          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
as, for illustration, we see that without the burning or consuming powers of fire earthly light can neither appear nor
shine forth in its full brightness.
Besides these two worlds there was joined in Adam also
the third, viz., this external visible world, as not only was
his ethereal body formed out of the quintessence of the earth,
but also even the divine breath by which God imparted to
him life and motion, was a threefold existence partaking of
all three worlds. This divine breath of life consisted namely,
not only of the immortal fire-spirit and light-spirit of both
the inner worlds, but also of the spirit of this outer world,
yet all in the greatest harmony and order, so indeed that the
fire-spirit and the world-spirit were subordinate to the spirit
of the realm of light, by means of which also they had
essential communion with the spirit of the word. How noble,
how exalted, how divine was then the internal and external
condition of this more than blessed creature I Like God, he
was present in all three worlds; yet like God again, dwelt
only in the angelic world of light. Besides, Adam was, only
on a small scale, essentially three-in-one like God. Nay,
more. He possessed indeed a three-fold tri-unity; for the
above three worlds exist like their seven vital powers, one
in another, and the most intimate centre of them all is God,
in whom they are all destined to be swallowed up as in the
consecrated decade or number ten.
The- Godhead of Adam was shown on another side in the
most splendid light. Like God, he was a being capable of
*bearing or producing from himself; for he possessed both
the male and female powers of generation, powers which we
will in future designate as the fire-tincture and the lighttincture. God created him a male and a female (Genesis
1: 27), that is, he gave to Adam both faculties of propagation, and formed him a real masculine maiden. In this
condition, it was intended that he should produce his kind
in a magical way-that is, through the imaginative powers
of attraction and chaste enkindling in the spirit of the word
which he bore within him, the union of the fire-tincture




.APPENDIX.                   158
and the light4incturo -should take place for-the generation
of.his race, -in which no animal organs or vessels.would be
needed, seeing that the embryo produced by -this heavenly
union would come,to light immediately and in its entire
perfection, without having passed through the many stages
of development necessary to the completion of every animal
offspring. In brief, not from blood or from the will of the
flesh, but in, through, and from God, Adam would havebegotten an innumerable posterity. He was in general like the
angels and blessed spirits, who neither marry nor are given
in marriage for'the propagation of their kind, but in the
chaste embrace of Sophien (wisdom), the general mother who
is above, are prolific, and propagate themselves in a magical
supersensual way.
And what shall we say of the external Godhead of
Adam? As all that is created is subjected to the -omnipotence of the Infinite, and is dependent on his orders, so to
Adam were subject all spheres of the external world, and he
without restraint ruled over all that God had separated and
brought forth from the deteriorated elements:of chaos; for
in order to impart to him.this dominion in the fullest measure, God created him out of the purest quintessence of the
whole outer creation, for the reason that without this inestimable advantage such dominion could not have continued,
nay, would not have been possible. Thus the influences of
the inner realm of Light came to his support, and as he possessed the magic power of vision, so also he possessed an in.
fallible knowledge of the properties and.distinctive marks of
all things, by aid of which he bestowed upon them their
appropriate names. (Gen. 2:.20.) The animal nature was
already manifest in innumerable animals; but his (Adam's)
own animality was present in him  only potentially, and
most deeply concealed in the temperature of light; whence it
follows, that to him only the way of the imagination was.left
in which he could sin-that is, depart from his dependence
on God and become unfaithful to his Spirit, seeing that his
powers of generation were not yet separated, and he conse14




154          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
quently had as yet no external helper with wthom he could
-as some would affirm-unite himself in a corporeal manner and after the way of animals. To wish for this, or
imagine himself in this, was all he could do-and which,
alas! compelled God, through the separation of the power
of light, to give him the longed-for helper.
In reference to the other functions (or parts) of animality,
he needed as little any animal organs, either for the digestion
of food eaten, or for the separation of heterogeneous portions,
He enjoyed, indeed, of all; but ever only paradisaical fruit
and with paradisaical mouth, in which likewise was the central point of the faculties of separation, by means of which
the things enjoyed were indeed tasted, but also dissolved
with the gentlest sensation, and each conveyed back into its
own domain. Of what use would have been the animal stomach and intestines, with the other instruments of assimilation, when not only no revealed curse was present, but the
Adamic appetite for nourishment was directed solely upon
paradisaical power-essence-that is, upon things which existed in the most perfect temperature of light, and were
consequently indestructible? As to the perfection of his
external and internal senses, this is beyond all present conception of man lying under the curse-for while the subjects, the objects of these senses, were partly divine, partly
paradisaical, necessarily the senses to be affected by them
must possess a corresponding power of apprehension and
reoeptivity. But who are men, dearest brother, that they
should be able to give account of a matter which to them is
more utterly lost than to the unhappy father of our race
himself? How should blind moles speak fitly of the splendor of the sun, and beings born in darkness declare the majesty of the beneficent radiance of light?
It was a part of the Adamic Godhead that the elements
of the external world were wholly under his command. His
body had not the clumsy gravity of ours, nor was it bound
down to the sluggish clods that press so many drops of
sweat from our brows; therefore he moved through the air




APPENDIX.                   155
and through the water without difficulty; not only so, he
visited the deepest bowels of the earth to refresh his spirit in
the View of their manifold treasures. The mobility of his
body was like the swiftness of his thoughts, and his will was
inviolable law for the elements, as also for the creatures
formed from them; they were incapable of making injurious impressions upon him, inasmuch as he was created iii
an invulnerable condition, was endowed with penetrability
(the susceptibility of being passed through by another body),
and could neither be touched nor hurt by. anything outside
of himself. Physical evil, with its numberless consequel.
ces, was to him utterly unknown, and to guard against
moral evil was also in his power. He was subject to no
corporeal necessities; he stood in want of nothing; he was
naked without knowing it, as he was invested with light
which shone from within him and filled his whole atmosphere with light and love-like the glorification of Jesus on
Mount Tabor. The internal and external energies of his
soul knew no weariness or exhaustion such as the powers of
our present bodies experience, which we are compelled to
resuscitate in sleep-a state resembling death. The heavenly bodies, indeed, by their revolution, formed day and night;
but both were alike to Adam, who was raised above all
changes of external nature; for he was sun and moon to
himself, he had essentially in himself that light which shines
from without upon those creatures who live under the dominion of the world-spirit; yea, he bore within himself the
purest extract, or quintessence of all outer constellations.
Light was his outer garment, and from Within again streamed other modifications of the principle of light through the
pores of his ethereal body, visible to the naked eye —as not
only the pores but the whole bodily structure of Adam were
endowed with-the most perfect diaphaneity.
But when should we finish enumerating all the great unspeakable advantages which the highest Master-Builder had
conjoined in the body of Adam? We have already said
much, but how little in comparison with what is not said.




156           TIHE IIARMONY' SOCIETY.
For we have said nothing of the aptitudes of his spirit, of'
his magical way of- knowledge, his exalted understanding,
his unlimited insight into the being of things; nothing of.his intimate intercourse with God, and the inner world of
spirits, of his capability of growth in the divine life, and
generally nothing of. his adaptation for that nameless blessedness, happiness, and: fullness of God, which awaited. him
when through the good. use of his freedom he should have
rendered to God- the homage. required: of him. But what
mortal: dare presume himself qualified for the treatment of
these, subjects,. without being: himself'a. God, or- at least
A2dam?In order'finally to render the Godhead' of Adam complete,
God-imparted to him: also unlimited freedom of will, such as
he had once given to the reigning Princes, now fallen.
This-prerogative which assimilated him to the most exalted
spirits of the inner world, was designed to qualify him to
receive from the: hand of his Maker- the manifold treasures
of: blessedness that-he enjoyed and'should continue to enjoy,
not merely as a mechanical gift, but as a reward of his reciprocal:!ove and faithfulness. With respect to this, trialwas necessary in order to see whether or not Adam would
persevere, out of free love to God, in the heavenly sphere in
which he- was created, and so render himself worthy of his
blessedness. The Divine Light had united these in itself to
a' jubilant reciprocation of affection.  The dark world ofEfre delighted in the holy world of light, and these again in
the  ex.ternal world-as their: revelation ad extra. Thus was
Adam-the. theatre of a three-fold fundamental impulse or
inclination, which, however, by. means of the light possessed
the most perfect- unity. But outside of him this unity of
light-did. not exist in so high a degree, for both the world of
fire and the outer. creation were already broken off from the'
realm.of light, and had' established themselves in their own
possession, although the- outer world was still in some measure dominated by the inner realm  of light, and held in
bounds. Even- by-this state of things was the Adamic free



APPENDIX.                   157
dom to be put to the test, viz., into which of these three
worlds it in imagination would enter. The garden in Eden
was appointed for this trial-a place of our planet where
God allowed the holy element of the inner world to bloom
forth through the earth to produce paradisaical fruits for
Adam.
ADAM's TRIAL AND FALL.-The trial itself was three.
fold; for each one of the' three worlds obtained permissions
as it were, to attempt to gain a victory over the other two in
Adam. To these were joined the envy and malice of the
fallen Angel, who put forth all his strokes of art to involve
Adam in his own fate, and to secure the issue for the kingdom of darkness. However, on the side of the dark world
of fire, which alone permitted free access to him as its inhabitant, he could effect nothing. Adam was too well entrenched, and was surrounded with a two-fold breast-work, viz., of
outer and inner light, by which he frustrated all attempts to
raise against him, the powers of fire. Satan therefore abandoned his first purpose; and now endeavored to render Adam
at least susceptible to the enticements of the external world,
and thus ruin his happiness in another way. He therefore
inflamed his imagination -showed him, as to our Lord in
the wilderness, all the kingdoms, beauties, and witcheries of
the world; described the pleasure of knowing good and
evil; caused him to long for one like himself in order to
propagate himself like those animals who live under the
spirit of the world; in brief, he called to his aid all that the
Scripture comprehends under "the lust of the eye, the lust
of the flesh, and the pride of life," in order to gain the victory over him. And, alas i his devilish toil was not in
vain; for he had struck the weak side of Adam, who, caught
in this net, lost his harmony with the kingdom of light, and
along with this his whole godhood. For as soon as he imagined himself in the enjoyment of this lure, his desires, his
volition, his magical power of representation, were fettered
and become the slave of the object to which he had turned
his affection, as the direction of his will. This was Adam's
14*




158           STIE HALRMONY' SOCIETY.
first transgression, from which' the loss of the magical power
ofpropagation was the necessary consequence. For as.soon
as —he so grossly misused his —freedom  as. to let himself be
dragged.by his imaginationsinto animal nature, generation
out of- God,-who is so jealous of his honor-could& not.,possibly take place. Whenever God saw that, through Adam's
sin, matters were come to such a pass that his: honor. and
holiness did not permit him- to remain so closely united with
him-, He-who in the beginning had:pronounced' all which
he had made, "very good"-said,'" It is.;not goodthat man
should continue longer: alone, else h'e.may; lose himself yet
more, and-render himself still more. unworthy.of my grace."
He therefore- let: him feel- the first consequence of his. sin
while he threw him. into: a-deep sleep - which in his state,
of innocence- had, not- been possible-and deprived: him of
his feminine power of propagation. He also lost the heavenly. indwelling  of- Sophien at the time God- created- for
him a helper with whom he could gratify his false desire and
propagate himself in! an animal way. As soon as he saw
her- he recognized. her for flesh of his flesh-an irresistible
proof that Godhad- made him.a:male and a.female, that is,
had urnited:in him the: male.and- female generative powers.
ADAM. AFTER, THE BFALL.-With what abyss of distrac.
tion and misery shall we let our pen, dipped in tears, begin
to be the: recorder- of Adam's history,? Shall we take the
material of our lamentations- from within, or. from without?
Was body, soul, or, spirit more injured, rendered more void
of their Godhood-, and more- thrust down, more. deeply
degraded, from the throne of their original nobility? Alas I'the whole- Adam, the. whole Eve, were- equally wounded,
saw: themselves surrounded by. the goads: and. stings of one
and the same:Death and Hell, and had now the additional
mortification: of being mocked by God and by the Devil.' See then," it was said, "Adam is become -as one of us."
Gen. 3: 22. The deadly mouthful indeed did:not operate at
once. After its enjoyment Eve still. had time to persuade
her husband also to a like transgression. But it operated




aPENDIX                      159
then more; ertainly; the- more- its' operation allowed themtime to satisfy their. whole desire upon it. Now, however,
unhappy  Adam I blinded: Eve l this costly mouthful isswallowed; already its poison is creeping through the innermost passages of your ethereal body; it- is mingling with
the most subtile juices- full- of paradisaic light; it is, imparting- to them the leaven which will. cause their dissolution,
the separation of their. qualities; with mortal* tooth it is;
gnawing at the pillar of the divine life, and without imme —
diate consciousness, the animal nature is beginning to unfold:
itself, to turn itself outward, and, from possibility to attain
o reality, and to subordinate the, Life of Light to the domain of the external world-spirit.
Pitiable progenitors of: a. whole..humanity still buried
in the chaos of the future!  W-hat will shortly become of
you?  Your divine light from within is losing its radiant
splendor. The animating glance of the Water of Light
is visibly swallowed up by the predominating Ground of
Fire.. The image of God grows dim. The Spirit of the
Word, which hitherto possessed- you as the king of all
humanity, withdraws back into the divine abyss. The magical power of vision is -changed into animal shortsightedness
and-deceptive- night. Your spiritual power of propagation
passes over into animal' generative appetite, full of shameand sorrow, and all your spiritual aptitudes- are converted
into obtuse sensuous feeling.  Unhappy Adam, whitheri
art-thou falling-?  Outwardly, after the- loss of thy clothing of light, thou feelest the - nakedness of a hateful animal
body, of which thou hast the more to be ashamed the
greater it is in comparison with all other animals. Thefour external:elements, since thou hast lost and broken up
their temperature, storm  against thee. without restraint;
heat, cold, and all the disagreeablenesses of entire external
nature, make thee the target of their rage; and hunger and'
thirst, and all the corporeal needs of the most rugged
animal, are now: thy lot. In order- to digest animal food,
* Whose mortal taste, &c." See Milton.-Trans.




160          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
and to separate the everywhere diffused curse from the pure
portion of the means of nourishment, thou possessest now a
stomach.and entrails; ana in order to propagate a race like
thyself, to thee, and to thee alone among all animal creatures, are given organs which are associated with shame.
Instead of being able to move thy body freely through all
elements without hindrance, thou art so utterly bound to
the earthly burden,of thy animal body, that almost every
step causes thee to shed a drop of sweat, forces from
thee a sigh.  Formerly thy ethereal body was the pure
quintessence of all animality; now it is degraded to an
animal of all animals; yea, instead of reigning over all
animals, thou art now their general slave. In future,
thou wilst daily through animal sleep renew the image of
thy death in the inner spiritual -life, and the outward sun,
whioh fortunately for thee is still there, will never go down
to thee, without, to thy ever-enduring sorrow, reminding
thee of the eternal day which formerly shone upon thee.
Poor Adam, worthy of compassion, where art thou?
Whither hast thou wandered? Already the measure of
thy unhappiness is so full; how will it be when first the
judgments of God upon thee shall awake? When also God
himself shall exercise righteousness upon thee? What says
to thee, even now, thy inexorable conscience?
The divine threat-on the day thou eatest thereof death
shall be the consequence-was only too punctually fulfilled.
They truly died-not, indeed, that death which now robs
men of their animal life. Alas I that odious animal was as
yet by no means developed in them. They died in the
inner life, as to essential communion with God, and on the
other hand, fell within the realm of the outer world, which
Jesus names the kingdom of darkness, and which the apostle
names the region of the air, ruled by Lucifer. Dying is
nothing else but the separation of the principles of life, of
which death is the necessary consequence. Now Adam was
made in the kingdom of light. His ethereal body was the
habitation of the two inner worlds; and as the purest ex



A:PPENDITX.                  161
tract of the earth which was found in the solar point of,
terrestrial natural light, the elements of this body existed
in-the most absolute harmony-which invested him, as' to
his body, with the immortality which he already possessed
as' to his soul. But the unfortunate indulgence of their
appetite for delicate food had ruined them (Adam- and Eve)
with respect to both, had separated both bonds. They first
died as to the inner life from God, and after they had borne
long enough the consequences of' tneir sin, bodily death
also followed, as the inheritance of all the children of Eve
who should be begotten after the flesh. In the strictest,
understanding, they also died a three-fold death: first, in
(or; as to) the inner kingdom of light, which retired back
again into its holy darkness, and left them in their ownnamely, in the lightless abyss of fire. Then: ensued the.
dissolution of their ethereal body into its contradictory
elements-by means of which they not only became susceptible of the influence of the spirit of the outer world and of
the four elements, but also, as already said, had the misfortune to see themselves changed into an animal of all
animals-in the full meaning of the word-as their animality was the aggregate of all animal attributes. Finally,
this animal must also die, and'go the way of'all flesh, as it
is impossible that flesh and blood should either' see, or everagain possess, the kingdom of God, which Adam lost through
his separation from the world of light. S1 Cor. 15: 20.
This, dearest brother, was the mournful end of the
Adamic Fall. As an animal, he was now no more susceptible of the paradisaic life of light, and therefore according
to his condemnation he was banished not only from Ed-en,
but also from all Paradise-that is' to say, out of the temperature of the Holy Element.
We- must know Paradise;was a certain place of our planet,
where' God allowed the holy- element to bloom greenly
through the four external elements, as the abode of'animals-in which also paradisaic fruits were produced-and changed
this locality into a heavenly garden full of splendor and mani



162-          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
fold beauty. It was the purpose of God, that in proportion
as man multiplied his race in a magical way, Paradise should
gradually be extended from this place, until it should by
degrees cover the whole earth. But unhappily by the abuse
of his freedom man reduced himself to an animal, and thus
frustrated the views of his Maker, as he became incapable of
multiplying in Paradise, or of longer enjoying it. For
even after his separation into man and woman, he might
still have propagated in Paradise, if by eating the forbidden
fruit he had not utterly deprived himself of the privilege.
Hence it is clear that Adam committed a two-fold sin. His
first offense was the imagination of animal propagation, of
which the separation of the feminine power of light, or the
formation of Eve, was the consequence; and the enjoyment
of the forbidden fruit was a second sin independent of the
former-upon which followed the development of the animal nature, the evolution of the curse, and the utter loss
of Paradise;: notwithstanding that Adam had as yet by no
means known his helper carnally, else his first-born Cain
could not possibly have carried with him a fratricidal impulse;- an irresistible proof that he was not begotten by
Adam in Paradise.
We have shown that is was simply the inseparable possession of God which Adam lost in the fall. It was God
himself, the Spirit of his Word who essentially possessed
him in light; who ruled him, embraced him in love as his
bride, furnished him all his goods and treasures; brieflyl
it was God himself, his light, his love, -hi-s essential com —
munion, wherein the life and the nobility of Adam consisted.
Consequently there neither has been nor is outside of this God
any created being, not even the highest seraph, capable of
retrieving or compensating Adam's loss; for even the most
exalted of all blessed spirits is only from and out of God that
which he is; and therefore if he were so unhappy as, like
Adam, to forsake the divine communion, he could obtain
his restoration only from God himself; as it is impossible
that any finite being can serve as a vehicle of the Infinite.




APPENDIx.                    163
Weigh well, brother, what' we say, and impress it deeply
on your memory, for we have uttered a truth so ponderous
that it alone is sufficient to countervail all your doubts in regard to the divinity of Jesus. We therefore repeat it: what
Adam possessed was God, and what he lost in the fall was
also God, with whom through wisdom he was essentially united.
God is that illimitable sea of blessedness wherein all angels
and spirits are more or less immerged, and in which alone they
are and abide, blessed, holy, good, righteous —or in one word,
in which they are and continue even Gods so long as they do
not issue from it in imagination. Suppose, now, that one of
these divinities were so unhappy as to abandon the fountain
of life-or, abiding by our similitude, to go out of the divine
sea of infinity-tell us, brother, whether any other being that
swims in this sea, would be able to restore Godhood to the
apostate creature? Or still more plainly say, whether it
were, if we may thus speak, in the power of God's omnipotence, to employ creatures so limited that they are hardly
competent to grasp so much of the divine essence as is required for their own salvation, as a means by which to imbue again an entire humanity with light and with the fulness
of God? No, brother; that which neither has nor can red
ceive, cannot impart to others. The Seraph is perhaps the
being most full of divinity, the humanity of Jesus excepted;
but he nevertheless possesses only a creatural measure of it,7
and is only as a mote in a sunbeam to the sun. Assuming also
that it involved no impossibility, that a creature could receive
as much as were required, and could also impart it to othersyet could it never receive the whole Godhead, which the Father
of all had resolved to introduce into fallen humanity. This
reaches away beyond all power of the creature, and is only
the property of Wisdom in the Word —which is co-eternal
with God, equally infinite, so long as it has not passed over
into nature and creation.
This is, indeed mere stammering, dear brother; however,
see to it well, what we have here said, as it were in passing,
and in our stammering speech you will find truth full of




164          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
unction.  When doubts'in regard to the deity of Jesus.assail you, forget not that only wisdom dwelling outside of
nature and creation, equally eternal and infinite with God,,is or can be receptive of the whole Godhead. This truth
we declare.incontestible, and boldly challenge all reason to
overthrow it. That, however, the purpose of God was to im-.part.his whole divine fulness to separated humanity, is clear
— partly from his nature, which is indivisible, consequently
in every instance aen and must be imparted entire though.gradually —and partly from the need of man, whom God in
-the very beginning so constructed that out of God absolutely
jhe can be satisfied with nothing else.
But let us return to the.history of Adam. It would surely
have been impossible -for him to recover his lost inheritance,
if God had not come to his aid. And oh I the incomprehensible goodness I Already before Adam's creation this loving
Father had provided -for the possible abuse of human freedom,
in a manner which must draw tears -of love and joy from
the least feeling creature. For even before the foundation
of the earth was laid we were chosen in Christ, the bruiser
of the serpent; that is to say, even before God had restored
to order the chaos produced by the fall of Lucifer. He resolved, in case man should fail in his trial, nevertheless to
carry out his decree, and to introduce again into humanity
the whole treasure of his love and compassion in and through
the. only saving name of Jesus. Eph. 1: 4. Moreover, God,
according to the -Fire-abyss of the dark world, had known
beforehand that Adam would fall, and had therefore determined beforehand the means of restoration. Oh the boundless goodness and love of our God! Who will give us the
mouth of all created worlds, that we may be able sufficiently
to adore, magnify and laud him? Truly, brother, if God had
already possessed no such exalted means of recovery in the
treasure of his wisdom, he would never have exposed man,
by his creation, to the peril of rendering himself irretrievably
miserable.
God showed Adam still another favor which may stand-by
the side of the former, namely: as he foresaw that Adam




APPENDIX.                   165
would have to undergo the sharpest' temptation friom the
envy of Lucifer, he left in him from the distracted chaos, a
little tinder, a small unregenerate particl'e, which should
servehim as a counterpoise, when during the trial Satanmight
draw him somewhat more toward the inner world of fire
than toward outward animal life: for, however wretched.the
fate of humanity became through the latter, yet it would
have been much more miserable, if Adam had, like Lucifer,
grasped after the inner world of fire. Take notice, beloved
brother, even when the purpose not in any degree to encroach
upon human freedom, necessitates the Creator to permit evil
to take place, yet he seeks beforehand in the most amiable
way to mitigate it. How unutterably miserable our condition would have been, if we, with Lucifer, had fallen into
the power of the abyss of fire I We are miserable, but we
have a Saviour who, through the partaking of his flesh and
blood, will impart to us again the lost spiritual life, the temperature of light. John 6: 53. Besides, we also now live
in a very tolerable habitation. We have the earthly sun
which illumines us, and the external light of nature which
for brief moments can satisfy the hunger of our souls. The
variety and beauty of the productions of the earth, the animal
and vegetable kingdoms, the changing seasons of the year,
and even all the four elements, have for us something beneficent: and the general spirit of the world, how busy is this in
entertaining our senses with innumerable juggleries I What
an inestimable advantage we enj oy in the single circumstance,
that through this earthly life, God offers us a means, at once
short and frequently sweetened with his grace, of attaining
to regeneration by the hand of Jesus I All this, and infinitely
more than this,.we know or understand, must Satan dispense
with in his dark prison-house; and we also, after our earthly
life, shall have a like fate, unless we take with us into eternity
the life of Jesus, unless we shall be born anew from above
out of water and spirit.
How kindly also did God provide for Adam, notwithstanding the antecedent knowledge of his unfaithfulness!
15.




166           THE.HARMONY SOCIETY.
It is also to be seen in the whole history of Adam, how
obviously this counterpoise always operated with him; for
Lucifer soon saw that on the side of the Fire-abyss nothing
could be effected, and therefore he directed his dark powers
outward, where both worlds were still good and evil in
disjunction.
PART III.
The Restolation of our Fallen Humanity in Christ.
The divine conduct toward Adam after the fall is known
from the books of Moses. We learn that when he had withdrawn himself a whole birth from God and his light, and
now, in deep grief for his nakedness, wove aprons, God
summoned him to account, cursed the serpent as the unhappy instrument of the seduction; and after he had
delivered the sentence of his sufferings and death, he made
him the consolatory promise, that he would place enmity
between the seed of the woman and that of the serpent, and
through the former, would finally subjugate and destroy
the whole kingdom  of death and darkness. Gen. 3: 15.
This was an unexpected lesson for the mocking spirit of lies;
for though, as an inhabitant of the dark world, he had, like
God, foreseen the consequences of Adam's fall, and even
learned them by his own experience, yet according to the
divine abyss of light, as to which he had died before Adam's
creation, it was impossible for him even to guess, much less
to anticipate, the divine means of restoration. Even the
loving mouth which before uttered curse and mortality, now
gave expression to life and blessedness. The speech of God
is, however, the most perfect doing. In the moment also in
which God uttered the aforesaid promise, he again essentially imparted himself in and through Jehovah to the extinguished Light-abyss in Eve, as an immortal pledge of his
promise; imperceptible, however, to the animal senses and
understanding, as in a quite foreign land, and unable to
attain again to their inheritance without mystical as well
as corporeal death. This impartation did not accrue to the
Fire-abyss of Adam, but to the extinguished Light-abyss in




APPENDIX.                   167
the womb-of Eve, as it alone' had receptivity for the spirit
of the vivifying word, and so could properly be the dwelling
place of the same. Besides God had resolved through a real
humanifying of his only begotten Son, to reconsecrate the
feminine light-essence, and thereby restore again the divine
image in all mankind. Therefore the love of the Father
again came forth from the divine Triad, and anew married
itself with the extinguished light-tincture of Eve. This
adorable memorial of the divine compassion was like glimmering tinder, an undying spark of light, which was capa,
ble of kindling into love all the seven powers of life of the
abyss of fire, and in general of re-establishing in all humanity the lost kingdom of light. Even this celestial life-spark
is that grain of mustard seed, that leaven, to which Jesus
likened the kingdom of God —or, to say all in a word., it is
Mhe'living seed of the'divine kingdom which all men without
distinction receive; which, however, with most of them,
falls among thorns, or into otherwise unfruitful ground.
Miatt. 13: 33, Luke 8: 11, 1 Peter 1: 23, Matt. 13: 24. This
divine seed of life was transplanted through Eve into her
6ons and daughters, and through them, from generation to
generation, even to the'blessed point of time when the Life
and Light himself appeared (vita erat lux. John 1), in order
to enlighten and vivify all men whom the will of the flesh
had begotten in and for the outward animal world. But as
light can subjugate darkness, and life can snbjugate death
in no other way than by overcoming them in contest-both,
however, sometimes conquer, sometimes are conquered —so
did it happen in this case. The light indeed possessed sufficient superiority of strength and power to overcome all
opposition, and to be victorious everywhere-of which we
have a speaking illustration in the sudden conversion of
Saul, Acts 9 4; but man's free will, which God permitted
still to continue after the fall, embarrassed the light in the
employment of its omnipotence; for God will have no
people under constraint, he will have them enjoy the uSmost freedom of will. Lev. 23: 88, 2 Chron. 17: 16. lIenco




168          TIHE HIARMONY SOCIETY.
it has happened, that, ever since men have existed, the
divine light-spark has, without cessation, sometimes prevailed, sometimes been overcome. As it has also not seldom
happened that the light gained the upper hand already in
the transplantation and production of the soul, it becomes
quite comprehensible how God could hate the Esaus on the
one side, and love the Jacobs on the other, even before
their birth. O brother, what a happiness then it is to be
born of pious parents I How numerous are the examples of.
unhappy souls, who owe their existence merely to the
tumultuous desire of the flesh   Alas I of those begotten
under the cross the instances are too few, else we should
certainly be in a position to draw the most convincing parallels.
Through the two ways in which the divine spark of life
was transplanted arose among the posterity of Adam  two
lines of birth, viz., the line of light, and then the line of the
world-spirit, or of darkness.  Both uninterruptedly run
parallel with each other. The former brought forth the
children of God, the latter brought forth the daughters and
the sons of men. Rom. 9: 8, Rom. 8.: 14, &c. Eve was
indeed the original possessor of the light glimmering up
again in darkness; but the. world-spirit nevertheless proved
his first claim on her children; for Cain, the first-born of
Eve, of whom she even believed that in him she possessed
already the man Jehovah who should bruise the serpent's,
head, was a fratricide. Abel, her second son, first gave its
beginning to the line of life, which was propagated continuously beside the former, to Mary, the purest of virgins. At
last appeared the long wished for world-day of four thousand years, which, in the counsels. of God (as the fourth day
of creation was destined for the concentration of the outward natural light in the orb of the sun), was appointed for
the revelation in human nature of the Word as the sun of
the world of spirits. All heaven, the whole world of light,
prepared for the novel spectacle, in which the compassionate,
love of the Father assumed so incomprehensible and $s




APPENDIX.                   169
humiliating a character. -The most important embassage
possible between heaven and earth, between God and his
creature, was constituted.  Gabriel, in the name of the
Most High, must solicit the free human will of Mary for her
consent to the incarnation of the Word in her person. After
a short consultation with herself, she consents; submits
entirely to the good pleasure of God; is hereupon filled
with the Spirit of the Word; the power of the Most High,
that is, his glory as the embodied power, or the passivity
of the Godhead, overshadows her maidenly light-ground,
wherein the Spirit of the Word, through excitation of the
magical igneous triangle, of which we have spoken above,
forms a real masculine soul of fire, imbues the same likewise
with its divine light, constructs for both out of the holy
element, an ethereal body, connects the same also with a
body out of the four elements, and finally it is born as a real
man.- This, dearest brother, is that unspeakable mystery of
the love of our God, whose breadth, depth, and weight are
greater than the creaturely understanding will be able to
comprehend even-in eternity  yea, greater than the making
of a thousand systems of worlds; for these are the result of
firmly established laws, which are comprehensible, at least
by higher intelligences, and even depend upon their
guidance. But the incarnation of Him whom the seraphim
trembling adore, without being able to comprehend even
the very least of his depths, this is an abysm of all abysms,
a bottomless gulf into which even the most exalted world of
angels cannot look without being lost. And, beloved
brother, can we, filled with holy horror, under the strongest feeling of awe and thankfulness, do less than keep
silence? Eph. 3: 18, John 14, 1 Cor. 4: 9.
The Word, or the first-born before every creature, and
God of God, revealed himself in the flesh thereby that he
himself became flesh, and combined miserable, pitiable,
bewildered humanity with his eternal Godhead, in the view
to replace the awakened wrath of the world of fire in the
kingdom of light, to reunite the separated principles of life,
15*




170           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
and to reconcile the enraged justice of the:Father through
regeneration. Under this fleshly veil the God-man grew up
like other sons of-Adam; he waxed in favor with God and men;
he was subject to his parents; for thirty years he led a poor,
obscure, self-denying life.; he finally stepped forth as the
Son and ambassador of his heavenly Father.; he taught his
brethren the vital truths up to that time for. the most part
concealed; he showed them that the. salvation of his sheep
made it necessary that he should shed his blood and give
his life for them; he also confirmed his words by the fearless offering of himself, as after a course of the most cruel
maltreatment, between two murderers* who. were preferred
to him, he died on the infamous cross, praying for those.
who crucified him. Luke 2:'52, 2 Sam. 7: 14, Rom. 8: 3,
Matt. 17: 12, Mark 15: 27, Luke 23: 34.  This was the
tragical end of the God-man, at whose birth heaven kept
novel festival, and whom during his life the inhabitants of
the angelic world strove-in rivalry to wait upon, with the
reverence due to God.
Yea, the Word became flesh, and we have seen his glory
under a human veil. The Word, which in the beginning
was with God, yea, which was, is, and shall be God himself,
by a hypostatical inseparable union of the Godhead with
human nature, hath kindled again the spark of life transplanted from Eve to Mary; hath anointed the wrath of
nature with the oil of gentleness; hath changed hell into
heaven, darkness into light, death into life and immortality,
and in general, hath again re-established the image of God,
the inner kingdom of light, first in his own person, and
then also in the souls. of those firstlings of the faith, who in
the moment of his death flowed together into one with him
in the newly opened abyss of life, being the first members
of the body of Jesus, and appeared to many citizens of
Jerusalem. The necessity of the sufferings of Jesus was
also grounded in eternal nature; for know you not, said Jesus
* Luther's version, Mark 15: 27.-=Trans.




APPEN]IX.,                  171
himself, that Christ must suffer all that in order- to enteer
into his glory? Luke 24: 26. Say not the prophets the
same?  Has not the Spirit in manifold ways declared it
beforehand? and have ye not learned from  the Mosa-ic.
offering, that: the Anointed, of God could enter into the Holy
of Holies only through the, shedding of his blood, olythrough the sacrifice of himself?
Alas I 0 Jesus I thou well namest us fools and beings of.
slow and hard hearts. *How blind, how insensible we are,
without the influence of thy. grace, in regard to everything
pertaining to God. We' have brokpen ourselves off by a
whole birth from thee and from thy kingdom of light. Our
spirit, soul, and body are equally corrupt, equally empty of
all that can satisfy our magical fire-hunger.  Nevertheless
we feel not our loss, and are seized with sadness when we see
that in order to place the Light again on the throne, the birth
of the flesh, even in thee, 0 divine brother-master, must
necessarily die, and all the seven powers of life (which out
of connection with thee are only miserable slaves of the
world-spirit) must be brought to dissolution and corruption.
For be assured, most beloved brother, that the proposition, the
dissolution of the one is the foundation for the bearing of the
other, is general, and especially applies to the regeneration
of man, and indeed the more certainly in proportion as the
same has operated on the person of Christ. Besides, how
could or should the disciple be more favored than the
master? Ml.att. 10: 24. Nay, brother, even there must
you pass through where your Master has gone before, let
flesh and blood revolt at, it as they may. Remember that
you are a brother of the cross, that you have sworn to the
consecrated gibbet, which is folly to the heathen, an offense
to the Jew, and a stone of stumbling to the nominal Christian.
Comprehend it well, dear brother, wherein the work of
redemption through Christ peculiarly consisted. First, by a
natural birth through Mlary, God combined the lost principle
of light with human nature in Christ. The Godhead of




172           TIIE IIARMONY SOCIETY.
Jesus was consequently united with a real or true human
soul, and this with a human spirit and body. He took upon
himself all the seven degenerate powers of life, without, however, becoming participant in their sinful outgoings; was in
all points tempted like as we are; however, he steadfastly
overcame the temptation to sin, as yonder in the wilderness,
through the inner power of his Godhead, and finally allowed
the tinder of sin utterly to perish by the most painful death
of the body. These lifeless ashes, this dead matter he revivifled anew with his divine spirit of light, he thus transmuted
(tingirte*) the dead curse into life and light; he restored
the principles of the outer body to their former temperature;
he thus reopened lost Paradise, and glorified his external
body into that luminous, resplendent, celestial body which
formerly he had permitted partially to show radiant on
Mount Tabor; with it he passed through closed doors,
walked on the water, ruled the elements, and finally returned
into the bosom of his Father, in order to send the spirit of
truth to his germinating community-body (his church).
John 20: 26, Mark 6: 48, Matt. 8: 27, et al., John 16: 13.
How true it is, therefore, that as through the sin of one condemnation came upon all men, &c. Rom. 5: 18, 1 Cor. 15:
22. For as we all die in Adam, so shall we all be made alive
in Christ.
Dear brother, these are surely comforting, beneficent, blissbreathing truths. However, all this took place in that time
only in the humanity of Christ, and all the other children
of Adam who, through faith in the promised Messiah, had
not been engrafted into the tree of life, remained, even as
such remain to-day, buried in sin and under the curse. For
Christ in the human nature has not mitigated the paternal
wrath in such a sense, that it is enough for us to know it a
historical way what he did, and to believe, or at most to confess ourselves sinners, that we may expect confidently an interest in his merits, and at the same time retain the old man
*Tingiren, in the phraseology of the Alchemists, ment to transmute,
as one metal into another.-Trans..




APPENDIX.                    178
with his animal appetites, and daily nourish them to greater
power. Oh no, belovedl That is the most dangerous and
yet, alas! the most common of all self-deception; for it is
simply an irrefragable, though for the life of the animal man,
a terrible truth-whosoever loves his own life or his soul will
lose it, but whosoever for Jesus' sake shall lose it, shall save
it unto life eternal. iMatt. 10: 30, Mark 8: 35, Luke   7: 883,
John 12: 25. This is of course a fearful lesson for the life of
the flesh, a lesson which forced the sweat of overwhelming anguish even from the God-man. However, not a syllable of
its contents shall fail. Every thing which took place in
Christ externally and internally must take place oi a smaller
scale in us also, though in a spiritual way. In us also must
Christ become a man-must bring forth his Godhead essentially in us; all the seven powers of life through the sword
of the cherub which guards the entrance into Paradise, he
must slay, must then revivify them with the breath of his
Spirit, must raise them from the dead, and exalt them with
him to heaven. Then first, dear brethren, the merits of
Christ are in essence reckoned to our account, as we then essentially feel within us the fruits of the same, viz., the satisfaction of our dark soul-hunger as that wherein even the
true forgiveness of sins consists. Also, then first are we real
Christians, or better, little Jesuses and living members of his
body, as we are inseparably united with him, as the branches
are united with the vine; only from him  draw  sap and
nourishment, and as true sheep, hear, love, and follow his
voice.
You see, children, wherefore Jesus said, if ye eat not the
flesh of the Son of man, and drink not his blood, ye- have no
life in you; for in this glorified flesh and blood dwells the
whole fullness of the Godhead bodily. It is that general
tincture of life, that panacea which Jesus, the loving chemist, prepared in and out of himself amidst the bitterest suffering on the cross. With this divine tincture we must be
interpenetrated, we must mingle it essentially with ourselves; we must really enjoy this precious flesh and blood;




174           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
not, however, merely with the animal mouth, also not
with respect to the gross external animal of burden, as
whieh it is irrevocably destined to a death of corruption.
Our soul has its own mouth, which stands in no connection
with the animal mouth, and which can open when the latter is shut.  This mouth is the magical desire, the soul's
power, of attraction, the hunger and thirst for Aeavenly bread
and the water of life, which alone can permanently satisfy
this magical vortex of fire. Even this magical desire, when
united with confidence and love, is called living faith, to
which all things are possible, *nd without which Jesus himself could'have wrought no miracles; for it is a particle of
the divine power out of eternal nature, wanting which even
God would not be omnipotent. Its peculiarity is that whatever it grasps in imagination, it holds fast, attracts, appropriates, and unites with its-own nature, and also modifies it
according to its own prevailing quality. To love is also the
same as to enjoy. Into whatever, accordingly, the soul
loves, eats thereof, and nourishes itself therewith-into
whatever the soul enjoys-it will be transformed. Adam
imagined himself into the animal principle, and became ananimal. Earthly animal men imagine according to vanity,
according to whatever flatters their sensuality and originates
from the spirit of this world; heavenly men, on the contrary, trample nature under foot, imagine, to the exclusion of
everything else, in the spirit of Jesus, their divine lovar,
whom they attract-through the magnetism  of their souls,
grasp in faith, and allow themselves to be essentially possessed by him. Through whatever may encounter them in
this world they look to him alone. Jesus is the- spirit of
their spirit, and the life of their life. Out of him there is
neither will, nor power, nor knowledge, nor desire, for
them. They are dead to the world and to whatever is not
Jesus, their life is hid with Christ in God. For they only,
beloved brother, are true children of God who are born of
God and are impelled by the Spirit of God. One, therefore,
who has not the Spirit of Christ, is none of his, is no Chris



APPENDIX.                    175.tian; and may not expect, either in this world or the next,
the inheritance of true Christians.
Oh that we could sufficiently impress upon your hears
the peculiar and essential thing in genuine Christianity as
the only infallible way to the treasures of both lights. No
hypocrisy, no merely external imputation of the merits of
Christ is of any avail-as is very generally taught and be-,lieved. Either to die with Christ and rise again with him,
or to be cast out into uttermost darkness, one of these two
things is our inevitable doom. There is no third, no middle
way between the two. Either all or nothing, life or death,
light or darkness, are the two extremes which are submitted
to our choice; and although, of course, in the eternal fields
there are stages of purification, by means of which there
may still be roads from one utmost limit to the other, yet
they will merely serve to fix us in one of the two extremes
for long eternities. Whatever of the merit of Jesus we do
not really feel within us, do not experience in our own soul,
does not touch us, and is an affair which takes place outside
of us and is alien to our heart. The spirit of Jesus himself
must really utter within us the comforting words: Son, be
of good courage, thy sins are forgiven thee. Matt. 9: 2.
Then first, brother, then first we begin to be Christians, and
come the more joyfully to Jesus, that we may be quickened
by him. Mere knowledge without practice is of no avail.
Christ alone then makes us true Christians, as he imparts
to us of his own Spirit, and at length takes such entire possession of the faculties of our souls, that it is no longer we
who live and work, but it is Jesus who lives in and through
us. His Spirit it is which possesses and impels. us, and
transforms us into real children of God. The humanity
slain on the cross and vivified again, is the vehicle of this
animating spirit of Christ, whereby we, according to the
measure of our receptivity, really attain even to the fullness
of God, which dwells bodily in Christ as the head of its
body, and the highest brother-master of our order. How.
ever, this renovation of our humanity takes place only con




176         THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
ditionally and according to firmly fixed laws, not through a
mere imputation without reality, without divine substance
passing over from Jesus into our soul, but through a real,
active, essential impartation of that Spirit who shall actuate
us. In order to become children of God, we must verily be
born out of the principium in which it has pleased the
Author of the whole to reveal himself as Father. The Son
must be essentially begotten out of the Father if he shall
rightfully bear the name of son. Who of you will affirm
that the lower metals can be.exalted to the degree of the
earthly sun [i. e., gold], Without necessarily coming into
real contact with the transmuting tincture? without being
-_most intimately pervaded by it in all their particles? Now
the-flesh and blood of Jesus is the tincture for our souls a8
the earthly nature-savior is for the metals. Jesus was the
first cross-brothet who, through an essential union of Godhead and humaniity, became Projectionable, and prepared
the panacea (universalissimum) for our souls. Those twelve
humble persons whom he chose as his apostles, with Mary
his mother, and a few family connections, all gathered together in one mind and in hope of projection, were the first of
Eve's children who yet in life were baptized with the Holy
Ghost and received this vital tincture. On the same day on
which the Divine Spirit had formed so entirely novel kind
of enthusiasts out of the apostles, that nearly every one was
confounded by the circumstance, projection took place in
three thousand persons; yea, and so gracious was the Lord,
that from day to day he added more, so that in a short
while the number of these happy children of light amounted to five thousand souls. Since then the number of the
faithful has grown to such a multitude, that John, who saw
them in spirit, compares them to a band that no man could
count; and in order that there may not be the least doubt
that this multitude consists wholly of souls regenerated by
the vital tinctuiire of Jesus, John was instructed tLat these




*APPENiiX.                      177
sjuls had all come out of great tribulation, and had washed
their garments in the blood of the Lamb.*
Dear brother, we cannot too strongly and emphatically
declare to you, that the glorified flesh and blood of Jesus ts
the universal life-tincture of all humanity, which has existed,
exists, and will exist. Souls which, in the process of theirregeneration, have already advanced so far that they have
received this tincture ij  an especial measure, are then
medium-tinctures, or genuine channels of projection, whereby Christ will gradually extend the reign of his Spirit over
the whole surface of the earth. 0 children! for what
mysteries would'this subject afford us matter, if this were
the place to pursue it to exhaustion. However, if you will
meditate upon different matters that took place at your
entrance into the Holy Order, and of which, both in our
Decrees and in the genuine Order-tables, such far-glancing
hints have been given, the blinding mist which has hitherto disturbed for you the true point of view, will be finally
overpowered-by- the splendor of the truth, and will permit
you to look without veil into the sanctuary of the Order.
Gladly would we here, in help of your love of truth, still
more draw' back the curtain behind which lie hidden the
jewels, the treasures of both Lights; but we know too well
how weak your shoulders still are, to dare openly to burden
them with matters of such weight. Besides, it wore all too
perilous to exhibit the mysteries of Wisdom unveiled. What
a sharp knife is in the hand of a child, such would be certain mysteries of the Order among brethren to whom  is
wanting the needful temper.
*-Some readers may need to be informed, that, in the vocabulary of
the Alchemists, the powder or tincture of projection was a certain powder
or tincture cast into the aludel, or alembic, or other vessel full of some
prepared'metal, which is to be transmuted into gold, or of some prepared medicine, which is to be' transmuted into a panacea. Any one
interested may read a poetical account of the alchemical process in
Goethe's "Faust:" see scene Vor dem Thor, the passage beginning
"Mein Vater war eitr dunkler Ehrenmarniz,
Der uber die natur undl ihre hail'gqe kreise, etc.
16




178          THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
APPENDIX F-2.
OTHER MEN HOLDING KINDRED VIEWS.
A further brief notice of the men referred to on page 96
as holding views similar to those of the Harmonists, may
serve to show that they can claim respectable names as entertaining opinions not unlike to their own.
The mystical thqology of Jacob Bihm has been sufficiently set forth in the preceding extracts from the Hirten-Brief,
which although not. written by Bihm himself, was the
work of some one who was in full sympathy with his views.
J. GODFREY ARNOLD was an intimate friend of Spener,
and was much admired and followed by the Pietists. In 1697,
he was appointed Professor of History at Giessen, but he
soon resigned, because, as he said, " no man can serve two
masters,'" and professors, at that day, were required to teach
in a manner that did not suit his taste. In 1700, on the
recommendation of Franke, he was appointed court preacher
to the Duchess of Isenach. In 1707, the King of Prussia made him pastor and inspector at Perleburg. He drank
deep into the views of the mystics and pietists, and conceived high disgust with the reigning theology around him.
He was an ingenuous and upright man; but it is admitted
that his strong prejudices may have warped his judgment as
a historian.
His principal work was entitled " An Impartial History
of the Church and of Heresies," in which he undertakes to
defend most of those who were called heretics, against the
accusations made against them by the orthodox. He made
religion to consist very much in certain indescribable internal sensations and emotions, and had little regard for
doctrinal theology. Mosheim seems to have had a very
strong prejudice against him, and does not do him justice.
Kurtz, in his Church History, states that " he wrote and
sang about the mysteries of the divine Sophia, when Adam,
who was originally a man-woman, fell, and his female
nature, the heavenly Sophia, was taken from him, and instead of it a carnal woman was formed out of his rib."
In Mosheim's and Schrickh's Church Histories, we have
an account of JOHN WILLIAM PETERSEN, superintendent at
Luneburg, who died in 1727. "' He early gave way to a
belief in visions and special revelations, which brought him
to hold to a literal reign of Christ on the earth, during the
millennium, and to believe in a final restoration of all
things. He was undoubtedly a considerable scholar, and a




APPENDIX.                   179
very sincere and pious man. But his belief in dreams and
visions led him to embrace very singular opinions. for which
he also claimed the support of the Scriptures. He supposed
that, prior to the millennium, the gospel would be preached
over all the world, and that all nations would be converted.
The Jews, after becoming Christians, would be re'stored to
their own land. Then the first resurrection (that of the
ancient saints and martyrs) would take place, Christ would
appear in the clouds of heaven, and living saints would
be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and be changed.
Thenceforth Christ would reign a thousand years on the
earth, over a two-fold church-the celestial, composed of the
risen saints, and those changed at his coming; and the terrestrial, embracing; all other Christians. Religion would
prevail very generally, but not universally. At the end of
the thousand years Satan would be let loose; there would be
a great apostasy; Christ would come forth and destroy the
wicked; a new heaven and a new earth would appear, and
gradually, all things would be restored to order, holiness,
and happiness." He, and his wife, Joanna Eleanora, and
Rosamond Juliana, a noble y Dung lady, all claimed to have
a sort of divine revelation, and " predicted a complete
future restoration of all things, the liberation of both wicked men and devils from hell, their. deliverance from all sin,
and from the punishment of sin; and assigned to Christ a
two-fold human nature-the one celestial and assumed before
this world was created., the other, derived from his mother
since the commencement of time. Many gave assent to
these opinions, especially among the laitv."
JOHN ALBEXRT BENGEL was born in 1868, in Wiirternburg.'He was distinguished for his learning and piety, and
especially for his pioneer labors in the critical study of the
New Testament. His Gnomon is a critical and practical
commentary which has been translated into English, and is
still highly valued for its deep spiritual insight into the
meaning of the sacred text. He was orthodox in his theology, but of somewhat mystical tendencies. He condemned
Zinzendorf and the Moravians for their sensuous views of
the sufferings of Christ, and for placing the Son instead of
the Father as the representative of the Trinity. He was a
firm  Millennarian, and published an Exposition of the
Apocalypse, in which he fixed upon the year 1836 as the
probable period of the great consummation. He also predicted in this work, that in the last ten years of the 18th
century, the great conflict would commence, and the Romish throne be overturned. This was fulfilled in 1798, by




180           THE HARMONY SOCIETY.
-the French occupation of Rome, and the deposition of the
Pope by Napoleon; the fifth vial being thus "' poured out on
the seat of the beast," or temporal power of the Papacy.
HEINRICH JUNG STILLING, whose romantic Autobiog-.
raphy has been translated into English, and widely circulated both in Britain and in this country, is well known as a
man of eminent piety and learning, of childlike simplicity
of character, of most amiable spirit, and as one who impoverished himself by his gratuitous medical services and other
labors, and charities for the benefit of the poor and suffering. Though a man of humble birth, he rose by successive steps, from the position of schoolmaster to that
of physician and oculist, and then to that of Professor,
and of Privy Counselor to the Grand Duke of Badeno
He was mystico-pietistic in  his religious views.  He
had great faith in the power of prayer, and did nothing
without seeking divine direction. He regarded the spiritual -world as not far removed from view, only thinly
covered, and merely needing faith to have the veil withdrawn. Hence he was led in part' to adopt the views of
Swedenborg in regard to the possibility of perceiving and
conversing with the spirits of the departed. He believed that
those who leave this world in a state of imperfect holiness,
have to remain in Hades until they are freed from all remaining impurity, before they are permitted to enter the heavenly
state. He studied the Apocalypse much, and wrote a partial exposition of it, in which he also sought to fix the
period of the great consummation. He wrote also a work
in two volumes entitled "Scenes from the Invisible World,"
and another still more celebrated, in four volumes, which
*he called " Nostalgia" (Ger. Heimweh or Home Sickness), heaven being the home for which the weary pilgrim
is longing. These works were written in 1793-4, and produced a profound sensation in the religious world; the latter
especially, being very widely read in Europe, Asia, and
America. They awakened anew in many pious souls a
longing for rest in the heavenly home, from the fearful
scenes of revolutionary strife with which Europe was then
agitated. Many also were ready to welcome the second
advent of Christ, to set up his glorious earthly kingdom, an
event which they supposed to be near at hand.
OETINGER is another distinguished name which may be
mentioned in this connection. He is called the great Swabian theosophist; a profound thinker, concerning whom
Schubart has said that an academy of learning expired with
him. He endeavored to develop the entire system of theol



PPENDIX.                    1881
ogy from the idea of Life. There is in his writings a mixture
of the mystico-speculative tendency of Bihm  with the
pietistico-practical of Spener. He favored somewhat the
visionary notions of Swedenborg. He appears to have had
an influence in shaping the opinions of Michael Hahn, who
was for a time a collaborator with George Rapp, as noticed
in our first chapter, p. 26.
This MICHAEL HAHN is mentioned by Kurtz in his
Church History as having given rise to a party or sect of
followers who were named from him Michelianrer (Micheltans or Michelites). Tits sect he says " ~arose in W'firtemburg as a secondary or after-effect of Spenerian pietism
impregnated by the theosophy of Oetinger. Its founder was
a layman, Michael Hahn, a butcher by trade; which, however, gave place to an extensive ministry in spiritual things.
He died in 1819. His writings are full of deep glances into
the divine economy of salvation; among which his "Letters on the Revelation of God through the whole Creation,
&c." are especially worthy of mention. His peculiar doctrines were, that of a two-fold Fall (from which followed by
inference, a great contempt for, though not rejection of the
married state); that of the restoration of all things; further,
and before all, the disparagement of justification in comparison with sanctification, of Christfor us in comparison with
Christ in us; and finally, insistence upon continued repentance."  He was a man of some learning, and besides a number of hymns of considerable merit, he wrote a commentary
on portions of the New Testament, in the form of letters to
his people, in three volumes. This work is in possession of
the HIarmonists.




182.         THE HARMONY SO0CIETY.
APPENDIX G.
(See page 43.)
GEORGE RAPP ON HIS DEATH-BED.
THE following memorandum  has been furnished since
most of this volume was in type, by one who watched with
him during the last night of his life:
"His strong faith in the literal fulfilment of the prolmises concerning the personal coming of Jesus Christ, and the
gathering of the whole of Israel (as foretold Luke 21: 24-27,
Rom. 11: 25, Jer. chaps. 31, 32, 33, &c.), remained unshaken
to his last moments, as was shown by his last words, when
he felt the strong gripe of the hand of approaching death,
saying:' If I did not so fully believe, that the Lord has
designed me to place our Society before his presence in the
land of Canaan, I would consider this my last.' In 1844
and 1845, there was a very lively revival in the Society,
which he considered a sure sign of the nearness of the long
hoped for event. For a number of years he kept everything
in readiness which the Society would have needed for the
journey to the land of Israel."
This belief, on his own part, will readily explain why
many of his people could not be brought to believe that'
Father Rapp would die before the Lord's coming. The
Lord did indeed coME to call his servant home, but not in
the way he expected. Some of them still look for him to
return and be their leader when the Lord shall appear.