Usually the
instruction has been in German; but when I visited Zoar they had an
American teacher.
On the blackboard, when I visited the school, a pupil had just completed
an example in proportion, concerning the division of property among
heirs; and I thought how remarkable it is that the community life ever
lasts, in any experiment, beyond the first generation, when even the
examples by which children of a community are taught arithmetic refer to
division of property and individual ownership, and every piece of
literature they read tends to inculcate the love of "me" and "mine." I
do not wonder that general literary studies are not encouraged in many
communities. As for the Zoar people, they are not great readers, except
of the Bible and the few pious books which they brought over from
Germany, or have imported since.
The Zoar communists belong to the peasant class of Southern Germany.
They are therefore unintellectual; and they have not risen in culture
beyond their original condition. Nor were their leaders men above the
general level of the rank and file; for Baumeler has left upon the
society no marks to show that he strove for or desired a higher life
here, or that he in the least valued beauty, or even what we Americans
call comfort.
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