478 HARRIS HAKRIS, Thaddens William, an American nat- uralist, born in Dorchester, Mass., Nov. 12, 1795, died in Cambridge, Jan. 16, 1856. He graduated at Harvard college in 1815, studied medicine, and practised his profession at Milton Hill till 1831, when he was appointed librarian of Harvard college. For several years he gave instruction in botany and general natural his- tory in the college, apd he originated the Har- vard natural history society for the students. He was chiefly distinguished as an entomologist. In 1837 he was appointed one of the commis- sioners for a zoological and botanical survey of Massachusetts, the result of which was his " Systematic Catalogue of the Insects of Mas- sachusetts " appended to Prof. Hitchcock's re- port. In 1841 appeared his "Report on In- sects Injurious to Vegetation," published by the legislature. It was reprinted in 1852, somewhat enlarged ; and a new and enlarged edition, by Charles L. Flint, with engravings drawn under the supervision of Prof. Agassiz, by direction of the legislature, appeared in 1862. HARRIS, Thomas Lake, an American reformer, born at Fenny Stratford, England, May 15, 1823. He was brought to America when four years old by his father, who engaged in mer- cantile pursuits in Utica, N. Y. By his mother's death and financial reverses he was thrown from boyhood on his own efforts for education and support. At an early age he exhibited strong religious tendencies and poetic imagina- tion. At 17 he began to write for the press, and soon after became known through contri- butions to newspapers and periodicals. In his 21st year he renounced his inherited Calvin- istic faith and entered the ministry of the Uni- versalist denomination, settling at once over a parish in Minden, N. Y. After a few months, on account of failing health, he went to Charles- ton, S. C., whence in the following year he re- moved to New York to become pastor of the fourth Universalist society ; but after one or two years he was again prostrated and re- signed his charge, in which he was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. Chapin. In the ensuing year he took the position which he has since main- tained of an independent religious and social teacher, and organized the " Independent Christian Society " in New York, to which he continued to minister till after the outbreak of spiritualism in 1850. He then joined a com- munity at Mountain Cove, Va., and after a few months employed in spiritual investigations he preached and lectured in the principal cities of the Union till 1855. In philosophy a Pla- tonist, in spiritual science agreeing with Swe- den borg, and in sociology accepting the eco- nomical views of Fourier, he sought in these labors to turn the public interest in spiritual- ism in behalf of this larger and higher range of thought. In 1855 he resumed his ministry among his friends in New ^ork, and establish- ed a periodical devoted to his religious and so- cial doctrines. In March, 1857, as he affirms in his "Arcana of Christianity," he was sub- jected to severe temptations from evil spirits, whom he saw plainly and talked with. The result of the conflict with these demons was that he triumphed over them and gained the power of internal respiration, so that now, as he says, " I inhale with equal ease and freedom the atmosphere of either of the three heavens, and am enabled to be present, without the sus- pension of the natural degree of consciousness, with the angelic societies, whether of the ulti- mate, the spiritual, or the celestial degree." In 1858 he visited England and Scotland, and preached and lectured several months each in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. Returning in 1861, he retired to his farm in Amenia, Dutchess co., N. Y. Here he was fol- lowed by a few friends, interested in or experi- encing the new respiration, and seeking to real- ize a purer social life. As his spiritual family enlarged he purchased property in the neigh- boring village of Amenia, organized a national bank, and engaged in milling and other branch- es of business at that place and elsewhere ; and now the family grew into a society, since known as the "Brotherhood of the New Life." He returned to Europe in the interests of the broth- erhood in 1866, and in 1867 removed to Port- land, Chautauqua co., N. Y., where he pur- chased for his own account a tract of 1,000 acres suitable for vineyard and agricultural pur- poses, and adjoining farms of about the same extent for account of other members of the soci- ety. Among those who had joined him previ- ous to this were Lady Oliphant and her son Mr. Laurence Oliphant, M. P., and several Japan- ese of distinction, one of whom is now a for- eign minister, and another in high official rank in his own country. Members of the society who hold real estate cultivate it on their own account. No property is held in common. Mr. Harris's own estate affords a place of retreat . and means of rest and recuperation to members of the fraternity in impaired health, or to those who visit him from Asia and Europe; while its cultivation gives employment to such of his friends as find in it a congenial pursuit; but nearly all the members of the brotherhood are engaged in active commercial, industrial, or di- plomatic pursuits in their respective countries. The " Brotherhood of the New Life " has no written creed, covenant, or form of government. It is said that it numbers more than 2,000 mem- bers, mostly in Great Britain and on the conti- nent, in India and Japan, and that it is held in its entirety simply by the principle of fraternal love, and by an inspiration working through internal respiration, and that its growth, since it never employs proselytism, is by means of its inherent vitality and assimilative power. They claim for this new breath that it descends through the heavens from the Divine Spirit. and that it replaces the former and natural mode of breathing by a respiration which is divine-natural, in fulfilment of the statement which Swedenborg alleges to have been made to him by the angels in the last century, that
