Among its many peculiarities was that of carrying "moral suasion" to such lengths, as a solitary means of discipline, that the master occasionally publicly submitted to the castigation earned by a refractory urchin, probably by way of reaching the latter's moral sense through shame or pity.

This was, doubtless, rather interesting to the pupils, whether or not it was corrective.
Mr.Alcott's peculiarities did not stop here, however, and Boston parents, when he began to publish the _Colloquies on the Gospels_ which he held with their children, concluded, on the evidence thus furnished, that his thought was too "advanced" to make it prudent to trust them longer to his care.

Miss Elizabeth P.Peabody, since so well known as an expositor of the Kindergarten system, had been his assistant.

She wrote a _Record of Mr.Alcott's School_ which attracted the attention of a small band of educational enthusiasts in England.

They gave the name of "Alcott House" to a school of their own at Ham, near London, and hoped for great things from the personal advice and presence of the "Concord Plato." He was petted and feted among them pretty nearly to the top of his bent; but his visit would have proved a more unalloyed success if the hard Scotch sense of Carlyle, to whom Emerson had recommended him, had not so quickly dubbed his vaunted depths deceptive shallows.
On his return he was accompanied by two Englishmen who seemed to be like-minded with himself, a Mr.H.G.Wright and Mr.Charles Lane, both of whom returned within a year or two to their own country, wiser and perhaps sadder men.