Brook Farm | Page 6

In order more effectually to promote the great purposes of human
culture; to establish the external relations of life on a basis of wisdom
and purity; to apply the principles of justice and love to our social
organization in accordance with the laws of Divine Providence; to
substitute a system of brotherly cooperation for one of selfish
competition; to secure to our children, and to those who may be
entrusted to our care, the benefits of the highest physical, intellectual
and moral education in the present state of human knowledge, the
resources at our command will permit; to institute an attractive,
efficient and productive system of industry; to prevent the exercise of
worldly anxiety by the competent supply of our necessary wants; to
diminish the desire of excessive accumulation by making the
acquisition of individual property subservient to upright and
disinterested uses; to guarantee to each other the means of physical
support and of spiritual progress, and thus to impart a greater freedom,

simplicity, truthfulness, refinement and moral dignity to our mode of
life,--
We, the undersigned, do unite in a Voluntary Association, to wit:--
ARTICLE 1. The name and style of the Association shall be "(The
Brook Farm) Institute of Agriculture and Education." All persons who
shall hold one or more shares in the stock of the Association, and shall
sign the articles of agreement, or who shall hereafter be admitted by the
pleasure of the Association, shall be members thereof.
ART. 2. No religious test shall ever be required of any member of the
Association; no authority assumed over individual freedom of opinion
by the Association, nor by any member over another; nor shall anyone
be held accountable to the Association except for such acts as violate
rights of the members, and the essential principles on which the
Association is founded; and in such cases the relation of any member
may be suspended, or discontinued, at the pleasure of the Association.
ART. 3. The members of this Association shall own and manage such
real and personal estate, in joint stock proprietorship, as may, from time
to time, be agreed on, and establish such branches of industry as may
be deemed expedient and desirable.
ART. 4. The Association shall provide such employment for all of its
members as shall be adapted to their capacities, habits and tastes, and
each member shall select and perform such operation of labor, whether
corporal or mental, as he shall deem best suited to his own endowments,
and the benefit of the Association.
ART. 5. The members of this Association shall be paid for all labor
performed under its direction and for its advantage, at a fixed and equal
rate, both for men and women. This rate shall not exceed one dollar per
day, nor shall more than ten hours in the day be paid for as a day's
labor.
ART. 6. The Association shall furnish to all its members, their children
and family dependents, house-rent, fuel, food and clothing, and all

other comforts and advantages possible, at the actual cost, as nearly as
the same can be ascertained; but no charge shall be made for education,
medical or nursing attendance, or the use of the library, public rooms or
baths to the members; nor shall any charge be paid for food, rent or fuel
by those deprived of labor by sickness, nor for food of children under
ten years of age, nor for anything on members over seventy years of
age, unless at the special request of the individual by whom the charges
are paid, or unless the credits in his favor exceed, or equal, the amount
of such charges.
ART. 7. All labor performed for the Association shall be duly credited,
and all articles furnished shall be charged, and a full settlement made
with every member once every year.
ART. 8. Every child over ten years of age shall be charged for food,
clothing, and articles furnished at cost, and shall be credited for his
labor, not exceeding fifty cents per day, and on the completion of his
education in the Association at the age of twenty, shall be entitled to a
certificate of stock, to the amount of credits in his favor, and may be
admitted a member of the Association.
ART. 9. Every share-holder in the joint-stock proprietorship of the
Association, shall be paid on such stock, at the rate of five per cent,
annually.
ART. 10. The net profits of the Association remaining in the treasury
after the payments of all demands for interest on stock, labor performed,
and necessary repairs, and improvements, shall be divided into a
number of shares corresponding with the number of days' labor, and
every member shall be entitled to one share for every day's labor
performed by him.
ART. 11. All payments may be made