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German labor movement in the United States; and John Toedt,
the uncle, at whose home he had met his bride.
The library in the Weitling home was small, but it contained
some volumes that must have exercised considerable influence on
the development of many of their owner's views. Among the
books were the volumes of Josiah Warren, and a book published
in London in 1839, entitled The Revolt of the Bees. This curious
allegory on communism described a revolt among the bees against
communal living in favor of free enterprise and private profit; the
consequent exploitation of the many by the few; the chaos into
which the empire of the bees degenerated because the "Apiarian
Economists" could not agree on any plan; the flight of one of the
bees, a la Owen, to found a colony of its own; and the greed and
wars from which they suffered until they at last accepted a
"science of Social Union" and realized that rapid advancement in
mere scientific power without the application of the principles of
Christianity would not solve social problems. Another little vol
ume, printed in Germany in 1814 and entitled Selected Tales and
Parables, emphasized much the same themes, offered good advice
for the rearing of children, and recounted little tales intended to
inculcate morality and the Christian virtues. Since this book ob
viously was intended as literature for the young, it may be that
Weitling read these tales to his children. His library also contained
books on the structure and use of the French and Italian languages
and, like many Germans, he knew his Goethe and Schiller thor
oughly.
By far the largest section of his small collection, however, was
devoted to books on astronomy. They included Franz Arazo's
Astronomie; Humboldt's Kosmos; Moritz A. Stern's Himmel¬
kunde; Carl Schoepfer's Uranus; Jean Baptiste Biot's Astronome
physique; W. A. Norton's Elementary Treatise on Astronomy,
which was heavily used if one may judge by the marginal notes
and calculations; and Denison Olmsted's A Compendium of
Astronomy.
In addition to such items, Weitling preserved quantities of