James Pierrepont Greaves (Part 1 1842, Part 2 1843)

AUTHOR: Lane, Charles

PUBLICATION: “James Pierrepont Greaves.”
Part 1, The Dial. Vol. III no. 2 (October 1842): 247-255.
https://archive.org/details/dial02riplgoog/page/246/mode/2up
Part 2, The Dial. Vol. III no. 3 (January 1843): 281-296.
https://archive.org/details/dial02riplgoog/page/280/mode/2up

While not the focus of the article, Lane does mention Greaves's Pythagorean lifestyle, which notably includes a veg*an diet.

KEYWORDS: food, James Pierrepont Greaves, Pythagoreanism, education

SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen):

This is a rather verbose, two-part biographical essay eulogizing James Pierrepont Greaves and his ideas. Lane singles out Greaves's adherence to the “Pythagorean idea” or Pythagoreanism, including a vegetarian diet as part of the good life:

That everything needless should be given up; that all things, every action, should be made subservient to the one great end, was not with him a mere idea to be spoken of, but actual practices. By an adherence to principle in this manner, in respect to diet, to behavior, to mental freedom, moral candor, and divine love, he became, despite of all tendency to retirement, an eminent example and a frequent theme of discourse to all who knew him (253-254).

The essay includes extracts from Greaves's notes on and rewritings of passages from such authors as Locke, Swedenborg, and Boehmes, a well as brief discussions of some of Greaves's own writings. According to Lane, Greaves ultimately aims

to reawaken in the public mind the fact, that man must not only believe, not only be convinced, but feel with the same certitude with which he feels his own existence; that there is one universal love-truth, which is the same to all individuals, at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances. That man must feel that this love-truth is not a dead word, nor a thought to be defined, or described, or expressed in dead words, but that it is the one living Spirit manifesting itself in all things; in the works of nature, in the clear thoughts, in the noble sensations of the human soul (286).

Lane also mentions the “collective association” (290) at Ham Common that Greaves helped to establish, with “[i]ts disciplines in respect to diet” (291). It is through this experiment that connections with New England reformers were established, most notably with A. Bronson Alcott, after whom the school at Ham was named, Greaves having been impressed with Alcott's ideas for educational reform. The essay ends with a series of notes extracted from Greaves's notebook.

 

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