Splendors of the Combined Order

Charles Fourier, "Melons that Never Deceive"

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn P. Wilbur) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 23:46:00 +0000

THE THEORY OF UNIVERSAL UNITY

VOLUME 3, pages 47-50.

CIS-AMBLE,

Melons that never deceive, or prodigies of composite serial Gastronomy.

Let us give some articles to each of the classes of readers. There are those who love amusing demonstrations, connected to their favorite pleasures; the gastronomes are among this number: I attempt, in this mediant, their conversion. I suppose that they are already moved by the depictions of the refinement that the Passional Series introduces into good food. I will give gormandizing some more nobles colors, and present it as the principle aide of the economic views of Providence, provided, however, that this passion is developed in Grouped Series.

A little gastronomic debate will prove that by learning the theory of the Passional Series, we acquire the gift of explaining all the apparent eccentricities of nature, tearing down all the veils of brass. It is the melon which will serve as our interpreter.

Everyone knows the dictum, that melons are as hard to know as women and friends. it would be a true wonder if we could find a means of never being fooled by this fruit which bewilders the most expert judges. We often ask ourselves why nature has not attached to it some sure sign of quality and maturity; does it intend to make light of man? I will explain that enigma, and show a sure means in the societary regime of never committing any error in the choice of melons.

That would be a slight advantage, if it did not lead some something more precious: but if the method which will avoid all deception about melons can preserve the advantage in a hundred more important relations, it becomes very interesting to learn how we can introduce this judgment into the distribution of melons, this appropriateness that the Civilized order cannot establish either in little things or in great ones.

There is no fruit more generally suitable for all tastes than the melon of high quality, like the muskmelons of Persia, Astrakhan, Lower Provence, etc. Men, women and children, even animals, from the horse to the cat, are fond of the melon, which, for that reason, is a fruit of high harmony and unitary affinity.

However, this vegetable so eminently destined for man and his domestic animals is the most deceptive, as to appearances: it seems that nature has created it to mock the human species. Whatever care we bring to the choice of the melon, we are constantly fooled, especially in cold countries; and the tables resound with jeremiads on the unpleasantness of having paid amply for a good melon and only encountering a squash.

We take, however, when purchasing this fruit, some extraordinary precautions: we exclude women from it, as incompetent and uninformed in gastronomy; and in every country, it is not the housewife, but the husband who is charged with the purchase of the melon. Despite so much care, blunders are so frequent, that we joke about the one who carries a melon, it is so well known that the most deft buyers often find they have miscalculated when it comes to the opening of them.

What then was the intention of nature, when it covered that fruit with an enigmatic husk, made to mystify civilized diner? Did she want to fool these legions of double-dealers; to pay them in their currency, which is falsity? Yes: but that calculated irony is linked to some arrangements of distributive justice, impracticable in civilization.

In the societary order, the choice of the melon is as exempt from error as if we bought it already sliced. Let us explain the mystery.

Every agricultural Phalange establishes seven classes in its distributions of comestibles, which are,

1^st. The command, approximately 50 individuals	}	1500
2^nd. The sick and the patriarchs, approx. 50
3^rd. The 1^st class, approx. 100
4^th. The 2^nd class, approx. 300
5^th. The 3^rd class, approx. 900
6^th. Children from 2 to 4 ½ approx. 100
7^th. The caravanserai, unlimited number
!K. A lot of animals containing the coarse dishes and waste.

Let us examine how none of these classes can be fooled about the melon or other comestibles.

Each day the groups of melonists, the cultivators and distributors of melons purchased or gathered, lay out the quantity necessary for the day’s consumption.

Moments before the meal of each of the classes, one carries out the probing and tasting of the melons for the day: we begin with the lot considered superfluous, and intended for the companies of the command and the first class, for the sick and the patriarchs.[1]

From these melons probed and chosen from among the best in appearance, we separate all the inferior for the tables of the 2nd class, who, paying less, should have the average quality. We then probe a mass of melons estimated as 2nd class, of which we accept only the precious portion to be mixed with the remnants of the 1st class. Then for the 3rd tables of 900 persons, whose meal is later, we probe the entire mass of melons to be consumed, the best of which is added to the remnants of the 2^ndclass. Thus all the melons served at the tables of various degrees are not only well suited to the degree, but adorned with a mark indicative of their qualities; so that, far from having any error to fear, we see by indicative marks the real value of each of the melons placed at the buffet.

Let us conclude on the general conventions of that distribution. The pieces that are too small, the small bits of very good quality, which would not be presentable to the companies of the 1st class, agrees wonderfully for the children of the aforementioned class. After all the choices completed, they find some melons spoiled or inferior, which are left to the horses, cows, sheep or other animals, along with rinds of various degrees. The comes the distribution of the scraps from the edges, neglected although good: they are distributed first to the cats, then to the poultry and fish as fertilizer. The scraps of an inferior sort are divided among the animals of lesser value, like the swine.

Thus, not a man, not a cat, can be deceived about the melon, a fruit so treacherous for the Civilized, because they do not regulate the distributive order according to the serial method desired by God; method with which he has made all the dispositions of nature coincide. It is quite right that the Civilized, in these distributive details, are dupes of their social division or familial regime; and God exercises an irony as fine as judicious, by creating certain products enigmatic in quality, like the melon, made to innocently mystify the rebel banquets in the divine methods, without being about to in any way deceive the gastronomes who line up in the divine or societary regime.

I do not mean to say that God created the melon exclusively for that joke; but it was part of the numerous uses of that fruit. Irony is never neglected in the calculations of nature; you will see the proof I the article Inverse Pivot, pollen of the lily. The melon has among its properties that of harmonic irony, independently of other more important [properties], which there is no time to mention. It will suffice for this description of the combined uses of the melon, to disabuse ourselves of so many apparent/related eccentricities of nature. It is only bizarre in civilization, which is not compatible with the views of the Divinity, nor with the distributive system ruled prior to creation, and adapted to the societary state or regime of the contrasted, rivalized, enmeshed Passional Series.

It is, I feel, very humiliating to give way to such an opinion, when we have piled up 400,000 tomes to prove that civilization is the aim of God, and that is why the Buffons, the Senecas and other beautiful minds, prefer to claim that nature has erred in creatingthe passions and kingdoms, that to put into question if the passions and passions do not have another destination, and by what means one can determine that unknown destiny, of which the whole material and passional creation makes us suspect the existence, by its impropriety with the civilized and barbaric order.

Obliged to reproduce the different aspects of the fundamental truth, that neither man, nor the products of the various kingdoms are made for civilization, I have recourse, in this article, to the familiar dissertations, like the induction drawn from the uses of the melon in the societary state. I could support it with other examplesof the same kind, furnished by these products, like the melon, which appear made to mock men, only mocks the civilization incapable of using them.

Let us conclude by observing that in the civilized order where the work is repugnant, where the people are too poor to participate in the consumption valued dishes, and where the gastronome is not a planter, his love of good food lacks a direct link with cultivation; it is only simple and ignoble sensuality, like all those that do not attain the compositemechanism, or influence of production and consumption acting on the same individual.

I will take up this argument again in thetrans-amble, where gastronomy, which is only examined here in compositeuse, will be treated in bi-composite on another subject. It is enough, for “the moment,” to have demonstrated on this gastronomic trifle the disagreement of the civilized order with the dispositions of nature, the essential connection of the passions and the kingdoms with the series of industrial groups which we are going to deal with, and the impossibility of explaining other than by the societary destiny, all the apparent eccentricities of creation such as the rebellion of a couple of magnificent porters, the zebra and the quagga, more precious than the donkey and the horse, and which, uncontrollable for the Civilizees and Barbarians, will become mounts as docile as they are precious for the societary state. Nature, in refusing us the possession of these superb quadrupeds, mock us still more bitterly than in the traps of the melon.

[Working translation by Shawn P. Wilbur]

[1] Nota. The first class, although the wealthiest, is seated first, contrary to the civilized custom which, by sedentary labors and an apathetic life, takes away the appetite of rich people, or hardly leaves them enough for a diné at nightfall. The opposite takes place in Harmony, where the rich, by a life which is still more active than that of the poor, enjoy a thriving appetite at their five meals, and will not put up with a diné that will take the place of the soup, according to the custom in Paris.

Charles Fourier, "Major or Gastrosophic War"

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn P. Wilbur) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 23:19:00 +0000

[A colleague and I have been working on a translation from Fourier's New Amorous World, which focuses on the "wars" between the armies of Harmony to determine the most generally pleasing series of means of preparation for petits pâtés. This is a companion piece from The Theory of Universal Unity, which describes variations on the same process.]

Major or Gastrosophic War.

Let us banish calculations from an article dedicated to beautiful subjects, to nice tastes. Let us not, however, entirely neglect method.

We call nice tastes those with which we can form at least a regular series of about thirty persons at minimum in each Phalanx, according to the following table, with 2 pivots, 4 transitions and 9 sub-groups.

Y : [K rotated 270°] : 3. 4. 2: K : 3. 5. 4 : [K rotated 180°]: 2. 3. 2: [K rotated 90°]: [Y rotated 180°].

These nice tastes are of various degrees, depending on whether they include 1/12, 2/12, 3/12, 4/12, etc., of the Phalanx: let us give two extreme examples at 1/12 and 12/12.

Good musk melonsare a fruit which pleases nearly everyone, the three sexes[1] all together, and without culinary preparation. As to squash, despite the interventions of the cook, they are a poor sort of food, good for the present populace, but they will not reach well-stocked tables.

Thus the melon, in Harmony, will easily bring together in series twelve twelfths of the Phalanx; it will be a nice taste of a high degree. The squash will barely assemble the series of one in twelve, as tabled above: it will be a nice taste of a low degree, and not a pleasing taste which would gather a sub-series or regular group (343).

The nicest tastes, in high degree, relate to good food and love. These pleasures, for which the taste is most general, are the principle mechanisms which Harmony uses to involve the armies in intrigues by infinitesimal series. From this arises three sorts of military rivalries or wars, namely:

The pivotal [X rotated 270°], war of intrigues in industry.

The major Y, war of intrigues in gastrosophy.

The minor [Y rotated 180°], war of intrigues in love.

I will not speak of the wars of love, which will not be compatible with our customs; a table in the gastrosophic regime will suffice to make known the intrigues of the Harmonian armies. (Trap for the censors; I warn them of it.)

Let us suppose a great army of the 12th degree, bringing together divisions from a third of the globe, about 60 empires thathave each provided 10,000 men or women. The 60imperial divisions or armies are gathered at the Euphrates, having their headquarters at Babylon.

This great army has chosen two campaign-theses[2], one of which, in industry, involves the art of embankment. It must embank one hundred and twenty leagues of the course of the Euphrates, by some method or methods.

The army being of the major order, it also has a gastrosophic thesis: the determination of a series of petits pâtés in the hygienic orthodoxy of the 3rd power, with 32 varieties of petits pâtés, plus the foci, all adapted to the temperaments of the 3rd power, conforming to the table on page 314.

The 60 empires which want to compete have brought their materials, their flours and garnishes, and the sorts of wine appropriate to their varieties of pâtés. Although the costs are paid jointly by the whole world, each empire assembles its provisions as it wishes for the thesis of battle.

Each of these empires has chosen the gastrosophers and pastry chefs most apt to defend their national honor, and to make prevail the sorts of petits pâtés that they want to have admitted into the orthodox series of the 3rd power.

Before the arrival of the 60 armies, each of them have sent their engineers to arrange battle-kitchens which are appropriate for the object of the challenge and for the accompanying dishes. The battled-kitchens do not provide the daily service of sustenance; each army is fed in the caravanserais of the Phalanx where it is camped.

The oracles or judges who sit in Babylon are drawn, as much as possible, from all the empires of the globe, and not exclusively from the 60 empires which figure in the competition.

The army, 600,000 combatants strong, with 200 systems of petits pâtés takes a position on the Euphrates, forming a line of about 120 leagues, half above and half below Babylon.

Before the opening of the campaign, the 60 armies choose 60 cohorts of elite pastry chefs, which they send to Babylon pour to serve in the high battle-kitchen serving the great gastrophical Sanhedrin. It is a high jury which functions as an ecumenical council in this matter.

At the same time one detaches from the 60 armies one hundred and twenty battalions pastry chefs of the line, who are split up by squads in each army, so that each has 59 squads drawn from 59 other armies, making the petits pâtés according to the instructions of the competing chefs of their empire.

Each of the 60 armies is positioned in the center or the wings, depending on the nature of its claims in the series:

The right wing, on stuffed petits pâtés, 20.

The center, on vols-au-vent[3] with sauce, 25.

The left wing, on garnished mirlitons,[4] 15.

}

(I may be mistaken in this distribution, for I am a complete intruder in gastronomical matters. )

The affair is engaged with some batches from one of the corps, the left wing, of the mirlitons, which are tasted at Babylon by the great Sanhedrin or congress of oracles et oraclesses. No more than 2 or 3 systems can be presented per day. The tasting would become confused if the number exceeded three.

Each day, in the 60 armies, the battle-kitchens make and serve to their army the varieties presented to the judgment of the great Sanhedrin, in order that those armies have a fresh memory of it, and the aftertaste still, at the moment when the bulletin of Babylon arrives which will relate the opinions of the Sanhedrin on those varieties.

At the end of a week employed for the tasting of the systems of the left wing, the Sanhedrin renders a provisional judgment, and the bulletin of Babylon makes known to the 60 armies, and to the entire world, that the three empires of France, Japanand California have won a first advantage; that some systems of mirlitons presented by them have been accepted provisionally into the left wing of the orthodox series, or adapted to the conveniences of temperament.

So far, the struggle is competition and not battle, which can only begin after the admission of the entire series. A month would have to pass before the Sanhedrin could form a provisional cadre of orthodox systems of 12 varieties, distinguished into groups of 3, 5 and 4 for the center and the wings, plus a pivot.

This is only a preparation for battle, during which each army has other, more active intrigues: but this one, being the principal, must occupy the entire campaign, 5 or 6 months.

The cadre being formed at the end of a month and announced to the world, the battle is engaged along the whole line and in triple struggle; for each of the 48 empires which have failed in the competition of the cadre, preserve their chances:

To drive out one of the accepted systems or even a corps from the wings or center, by producing new systems of petits pâtés which have not yet competed;

Of being accepted in the counter-octave, when it is necessary to form a complete gamut of 12 major varieties and 12 minor varieties;

Of taking place in the 4 transitions, the 4 sub-pivots and the great pivots still not admitted.

These three chances give an extreme activity to the leagues, and to the voyages of diplomats in the 60 armies. Each day we see new alliances form between the various empires which judge it convenient to associate their varieties of petits pâtésand of wines and other beverages, to form center our wing, and to give battle to a mass of systems already accepted.

The multiplicity of these claims oblige 3 juries to form in a sub-order for the tastings and presentations. These juries placed in the three great divisions, at 30 leagues from one another, are served like the Sanhedrin, each by 60 squads of elite pastry chefs. Their decisions are provisional and subordinate to the tastings of the Sanhedrin. From then the struggle becomes general, and more variable as each acceptance or rejection causes new plans, produces new cartels directed at one or more empires, and demands new negotiations between victors who have attacks to fear until the definitive fixing of the orthodox series.

In the meantime, the 64 battle-kitchens work wonders of skill; travelers rush from all parts in order to bear witness to these complex struggles which will decide the claims of so many empires; the bulletins of Babylon are read avidly around the globe, especially in the empires which took part in the combat.

Nonsense, it will be said, you promise a treatise on Association, and you reel off twenty fairy tales!!!Patience, until the commentary which will follow; and the alleged nonsense will become the thoroughly methodical solution of a problem of equilibrium in the infinitely small, necessary counterweight to the infinitely large: but let us conclude.

At the end of the campaign, there would be 24 empires vanquished and 36 triumphant; perhaps less, for a single empire can succeed in making adopted 2 or 3 varieties of its making.

However, the vanquished are not considered beaten; they will reproduce their petits pâtés for a new Sanhedrin which will form a series of the 4th degree, with 135 varieties: until then their methods are heterodox, not applicable in the gamut of the 32 temperaments, and not accepted into the gastrosophic hierarchy.

The armies battle over a lot of these theses in various degrees, and each day at the meals they have some struggles between the empires, the procedures of which they review, depending on the distributions of cooks that each army makes to the others.

They also have, for their evening sessions, some propositions regarding affairs of the fine arts and occasional sympathy. In these numerous intrigues, they engage in a whole campaign before reaching the outcome.

Their pleasures are still varied by various incidents, like the encounters of characters or legions of adventurers and adventuresses, who travel to spread a particular character in the sciences or arts, and which contain many virtuosos in that genre.

At the end of the campaign, the armies assemble for some time, first in sub-divisions, then in three divisions, then en masse, to give some unitary feasts in the cities of the headquarters, to render public homage public to the individual victors, to the authors of productions adopted in one or another of the gastrosophic Sanhedrins.

A capital, in Harmony, is always surrounded at some distance with a circle of shady paths, or boulevards with several lanes, which are used to shelter and table the armies.

On the day of triumph, the victors are honored with a military salvo. For example, Apicius is the pivotal victor; his petits pâtés are served at the beginning of the dinner; all at one the 600,000 athletes are armed with 300,000 bottles of sparkling wine whose loosened corks, held in by the thumb, are ready to pop. The commanders face the beacon-tower of Babylon, and at the moment when its telegraph gives the signal to fire, the 300,000 corks are released at once; their clamor, accompanied by shouts of “long live Apicius!” re-echoes far off in the caves of the mountains of the Euphrates.

At the same instant Apicius receives from the head of the Sanhedrin the gold medal, bearing the inscription: “To Apicius, victor Y in petits pâtés, at the battle of Babylon. Given by the 60 empires, etc.” Their names are engraved on the reverse side of the coin.

Such homage will be rendered to the pivotal inverse victor, man or woman, whose petits pâtésare adopted as term [Y, rotated 180°] of the orthodox series.

Gastronomic pygmies of our time, dare to compare your lowly trophies to those of a gastrosopher of Harmony, whose triumphs, in a single dish, ring out with so much brilliance throughout the entire world! Everything is just arbitrary in your science; the Beauvilliers and Archambaults are only confused guides, operating without the distinction of temperaments, without the avowal of competent authorities. Their laurels are as often the object of facetious remarks as they are a path to glory; those of Apicius will join interest and glory, for they will be for him a road to high honors, even to various degrees of magnature and scepters, by title of ambition *2, and of institution *3 (275).

I have given these details to support a principle, namely, that the armies of Harmony, of all degrees, have feasts so brilliant and intrigues so active, and so numerous, that acceptance into the army is a favor, and is obtained only on good titles. For example, in this campaign of the petits pâtés, we require half the applicants to have the ability to work as pastry chefs, and the other will be subject to the most minute questions of taste.

Similar battles will be established for all the nice tastes, whether in gastrosophy, the fine arts, or love. Now, the petits pâtésare a nice taste of a very high degree, and perhaps even the highest, for we find very few people—men, women, or children—who are not amateurs of some sort with regard to petits pâtés or mirlitons.

That army, aside from its theses on nice tastes, will have to work on the nasty tastes by a divergent series in reverse. The armies of Harmony have a large number of functions which always tend to form connections of all sorts between the regions of the globe, and to establish them in proportion to the degree of refinement; when the orthodoxies are established, we will see in every army of 10,000 men, some feasts in the 5th degree for example:

They will provide meals according to temperament, divided into 810 companies, which will prepare each dish in 810 ways, which are different, but still orthodox, for each of the 810 temperaments.

It is only in the armies that such feasts can be found; for 810 companies of 9 or 10 persons already make 8,000 persons at the table, plus the servants: it requires then gatherings of 10,000, to have celebration in the 5th degree of dishes or other objects. An army of 30,000 can hold celebrations of the 6th degree, much more refined and spreading more charm on the links of which they are the source.

One would thus be grossly mistaken about the purpose of the passions, claiming that they will bring uniformity of development. Their harmony, their equilibrium in the societary mechanism, depends on the extreme variety of developments given to a single passion.

Listen at a Civilized table as different tastes are expressed regarding a bagatelle, an omelet: a sober man will believe he speaks philosophically, saying that all the omelets are equal in rights, and that one must eat without distinction all those that are presented.

Far from that: it is necessary, in order to harmonize the passion for omelets in the 5th degree, to open 810 paths of development, by a classification of 810 varieties, applied to as many temperaments, and adopted by a Sanhedrin which will theoretically transmit to all the empires of the globe the rules of fabrication for 810 omelets, the practical science of which will be communicated to those empires by the legionnaires who have waged the campaign of omelets of the 5th degree.

If one noticed a delay in digestion in some series of temperaments, in those who those who devoted themselves to the omelette soufflée, that would be a thesis to propose to the armies. The unified congress seated at Constantinople would indicated an industrial struggle for the following year, linked to a battle of omelettes soufflées, to be engaged in somewhere, say at Paris, by an army from various empires, which would take positions from Rouen to Auxerre, to debate there both theoretically and practically the question of omelettes soufflées, and their orthodox assortment in the series of temperaments.

While seriously concerning itself with these apparent trifles, an army of Harmony executes immense and magnificent labors. What does it matter if it has, at mealtime, some intrigues involving pâtés and omelets? These apparently frivolous rivalries, are principal branches in the balance of the passions, and the more we manage to raise the refinements to a high degree (according to the table on page 336), the more we are assured of establishing a perfect equilibrium in the development of each passion. What a denial of that philosophy which wants to bring us back to the holy equality of tastes, to universal monotony, and which would claim to found on uniformity that equilibrium of the passions that we can only establish on the progressive and methodical development of the varieties of tastes, whether nasty or nice!

[Working translation by Shawn P. Wilbur]

[1] Men, women, and children, according to Fourier’s reckoning.—Translator.

[2] The theses are competing methods of achieving some taste: preparing a particular dish, embanking a river, etc.—Translator.

[3] A hollow puff pastry.—Translator.

[4] Based on Fourier’s descriptions elsewhere, another small pastry, probably a meat-filled tartelette.—Translator.

Gastrolatry / Gastronomy / Gastrosophy

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn P. Wilbur) — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 08:09:00 +0000

These entries are from the Dictionary Of Phalansterian Sociology:

GASTROLATRY. — Ignoble role of the man who only knows how to play with his jaw. — New Industrial World, 259. Theory of Universal Unity, 109.

— See: Gluttony.

GASTRONOMY. -- In civilization gastronomy can only play a very subordinate role, nearer to debauchery than to wisdom. — New Industrial World, 258.

— Conditions which render gastronomy honorable and praiseworthy. X. 251.

— Gastronomy is a seed of attraction more effective than any other. N. 260, 382.

GASTROSOPHY. — Gastrosophy is gastronomy applied to industrial attraction and to hygiene.

— Gastronomy, which in civilization is only a simple and contemptible sensuality, becomes in harmony a science of high social politics, called Gastrosophy, high gastronomic wisdom, profound and sublime theory of social equilibrium. — Theory of Universal Unity, III. 139.

— Gastrosophy or hygienic wisdom engendered by the 4 functions: Gastronomy, Cooking, Preserving, Cultivation. — New Industrial World, 258.

— Graded gastronomy is the mechanism organized to work promptly as mechanism of attraction in a trial phalanx. — New Industrial World, 102. - Motifs by which the gastronomic passion has a strong influence for the success of the beginnings of Harmony. — New Industrial World, 261.

— Necessity of speculating on gastronomy to make industrial attractions bloom. New Industrial World, 300. Is disdained today by women. — New Industrial World, 206. — But will be the most powerful emulative mechanism in education in the combined order. Livret d’Annonce, 31.

— Gastronomy or gastrosophy will be the source of refinements in the quality of products, which will allow the poorest Harmonian to claim to be better served than the kings of Civilization. — New Industrial World, 273.

— Utility of the gastrosophic antiennefor classifying temperaments from an early age. — New Industrial World, 343.

— Combined gastronomy envisioned in its political, material and passional sense. — Theory of the Four Movements, 236, 243, 253.

— Wonders composite, serial gastronomy. Melons that never deceive. — Theory of Universal Unity, III. 47.

— Problem of bi-composite gastronomy. The triumph of the tough poultry. — Theory of Universal Unity, III. 135.

— Major or gastrosophic war. (The word “war” is used in the sense of rivalry.) — Theory of Universal Unity, IV. 352. See: Industrial armies.

— Gastrosophy is derided by the Civilized, even though it is their guilty pleasure, for the love of good food reigns as much in the philosopher as in the prelate who rants against the pleasures of the table. — Theory of Universal Unity, IV. 418.

— Gastrosophy demands the cooperation of four sciences: chemical, agronomical, medicinal and culinary. — Theory of Universal Unity, IV. 420.

— See: gourmandise, hygiene.

Charles Fourier, Cardinal and the Principal Movements in the Harmony of the Universe

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn P. Wilbur) — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 05:12:00 +0000

FOURIER.

I am aware that it is very humiliating for an age in possession of so much physical and mathematical science, to be branded with ignorance concerning other branches of knowledge; to be openly accused of entertaining false notions on many subjects, and of not being initiated even in the most elementary details of several very important sciences; such, for instance, as the four following:—

Industrial Association.

Passional Attraction.

Aromal Mechanism.

Universal Analogy.

If the pride of modern learning feel offended at this sweeping declaration, let it reflect upon the following table of distinctions in the branches of universal unity; from which it will become apparent that the genius of modern science has hardly penetrated into one-tenth part of the system of Nature.

A Table of the Cardinal and the Principal Movements in the Harmony of the Universe.

4. The Material branch of Universal Movement.—The theory of astronomy only explains the effectsand not the causes of material movement or attraction.

3. The Aromal branch of Universal Movement.—This branch relates to the distribution of the different sorts of aroma or imponderable fluid, known and unknown, operating actively and passively on the different orders of creation in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. These different sorts of imponderable fluid are not known systematically, nor are the causes of their influence respectively attached to them at all understood, particularly as regards the conjugations of planets which are regulated according to the laws of aromal affinity.

2. The Organic branch of Universal Movement.—The laws according to which the creator regulates and distributes forms, properties, colours, flavours, &c., to all the substances which have been, or are to be created on the different globes of the universe. Up to the present time nothing has been known concerning the distribution of different properties to those creatures in actual existence, nor of the causes and effects of such productions as may be expected in future creations.

1. The Instinctual branch of Universal Movement: or the Laws of Necessity, according to which the passions and instincts are distributed to different orders of beings in the creation. Neither the mode of distribution nor the causes which regulate the distribution of instinctive faculties are known to our Divines and Philosophers.

And, finally, the passional or social branch of universal movement: or the laws which govern the organization and succession of different forms of society on different globes. Neither the causes nor the effects of this pivotal or leading branch of universal movement and harmony are known to our men of learning and influence. They have no idea of the laws of unity which harmonize the passions of mankind without thwarting them by repressive discipline.

From this general view of universal movement it is quite clear that one of the five primordial branches only is known to our men of science, and even that has been but partially discovered, for, the science of Astronomy only explains the effectsof material attraction and not the causes. One half, therefore, of one of the five primordial branches of universal attraction, or one-tenth part only of the laws of universal movement, is all that our leading men of science can explain.

The aromal branch of universal movement is hardly dreamed of by Philosophers, and scientific corporations: it has never been a subject of systematic investigation; and yet its influence is of a very superior order in the material harmony of the universe, which our learned Astronomers have only partially explained, for want of a knowledge of aromal affinities or the natural functions of the imponderable fluids in planetary attraction.

By putting the following questions to our Astronomers, we should certainly reduce them to a confession of ignorance:—

1. What are the law, which regulate the distribution of satellites and their respective conjugations with the primary planets? Why is it that the planet Uranus, which is hardly one-fourth the size of Jupiter, has a greater number of satellites?

2. What are the laws of planetary conjugation? How is it that Vesta the smallest of all planets does not revolve as a moon round one of the others; not even, round the enormous Jupiter to which it is so nearly located.

3. What is the law which regulates the position of the planets with respect to the sun? Why should Uranus, being considerably less than Jupiter, be immensely more distant from the sun? and why should our earth, being even smaller than Uranus, be nearer to the sun than Jupiter?

These and many other questions on the laws of universal harmony, are beyond the learning of our great men, for all their science is confined to the analysis of general effects, but of first causes, they know nothing. As I have already said, they have not yet discovered one-tenth part of the laws of universal nature. Newton certainly commenced the study of attraction as a universal law, but he commenced at the wrong end of the subject. It has been very well said, but ill attended to, that "the proper study of mankind is man,” and that is certainly true; for the study of human nature, or the scientific analysis and synthesis of passional attraction is the real key to the study of universal attraction and repulsion, or the law of universal movement and harmony.

As a mathematician, Newton did all that we had a right to expect from him, but, on seeing the brilliant success which attended his labours in the study of material attraction, our men of science might have been led to augur well of a similar investigation of the laws of moral or passional attraction. This would have led them on to the discovery of Nature's laws with regard to the causes and effect. of movement and harmony in the aromal the organic and the instinctual spheres of attraction.

It would have been very natural to suppose in accordance with the unity of system which governs the universe, that, as a regular analysis of material attraction or gravitation had explained the material branch of harmony and unity in Nature, a systematic calculation embracing analytical and synthetical views of passional attraction, might reveal to us the natural method of realizing unity and harmony in the moral branch of universal activity.

This method of investigation has been entirely neglected, and thence it is that the world is in total darkness with respect to moral and social harmony.

* * * * * *

The real science of association is inseparable from that of universal unity, or unity of man with man, with God, and with the universe. It is for this reason that I deem it necessary to treat of universal analogy, or unity of man with the universe, and the immortality of the soul, or unity of man with God, as well as of social science, or unity of man with man.

This method may perhaps displease Atheists and Materialists who are now become so numerous and intolerant, particularly in France; but, as I believe unity of doctrine to be the only true basis of progress, I must be allowed to think for myself on these subjects, and those who do not think proper to examine or concur in my views of analogy and immortality, may deem them merely conjectural, and confine their attention to that branch of unity which they deem most important; namely, the unity of man with man, which is the special object of social science.

Source: The Morning Star, No. 8 (December 30, 1840) 59-60; translated from The Theory of Universal Unity.

Charles Fourier, Framework for the Integral Study of Nature

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn P. Wilbur) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 23:12:00 +0000

FOURIER

ON THE UNITY OF SYSTEM IN UNIVERSAL NATURE.

Modern sophists, particularly in France, have generally aimed at explaining the unity of system which is remarkable in universal nature, and yet the philosophical world never was farther removed from the right line of study on this subject than at present. There is hardly a correct idea abroad

concerning the fundamental basis of universalism or general unity, which may be thus resumed:—

Unity of man with man,

Unity of man with God,

Unity of man with the universe.

In this book it will be demonstrated that philosophers have either purposely or unwittingly neglected to study the first of these three primordial branches of unity: that of man with man, or man in society, and particularly of man with himself or his own passions, which, in the present incoherent slate of social organization, are in a slate of general deviation and discord, hurrying headlong to ruin those individuals who suffer them to rule.

This duplicity of action, or discord of man with his own nature, has given birth to a science called morale, which mistakes the duplicity of action in human nature for a sign of innate depravity, and the irretrievable destiny of mankind. This science teaches us to resist the impulse of our passions, and be constantly at war with our natural inclinations; and, as a necessary consequence, it places man in a state or opposition to his Maker, who created those inclinations; for those passions and instincts which animate all living beings were given to them by God as the laws of their being, and guides to their respective destinies.

To this it is objected by metaphysical casuists, that reason was given to man to control his passions; whence it would follow, 1st—That God had subjected us to the rule of two guides, which are eminently dissimilar and irreconcileable, i. e., reason and passion. (This constitutes a thorough discrepancy in theory.)

2nd—That God would be absolutely unjust towards 99 men in every 100 to whom he has not given enough reason tp govern their passions. In all countries it has been observed that the mass of the people are almost devoid of reason; and, therefore, according to this doctrine, there is a great lack of distributive justice on the part of Deity. (This constitutes a thorough discrepancy in distributive unity.)

3rd—God, in giving us reason as a means of counter-balancing the passions, would have acted very injudiciously; for it is notoriously evident that reason is totally inadequate to the government of the passions, even amongst the fell' who have been most richly endowed with it, for those very men who talk most about reason, such as Voltaire and other philosophers, have been more subject to the impulse of their passions than any other men. (This fact constitutes a thorough discrepancy in the practical part of moralism.)

So that the boasted science of moralism sets out by a complete negation of the first branch of unity, and places man in a triple state of duplicity with himself and his fellow-beings; a principle winch is as monstrous as it is arbitrary, and which aims at nothing less than accusing Deity of a triple and wilful duplicity in creating the passions.

There is nothing admissible in these three hypotheses of moralism: they will be duly analysed and fully refuted in the three first sections of this book, wherein it will be demonstrated that all the aberrations of metaphysical sophistry have originated in one grand error; that of omitting the study of passional attraction, the analytical and synthetical calculation of which would have led to the discovery of their natural functions in the equilibrium of passion and reason, which are as perfectly accordant with each other in an associative medium as they are necessarily discordant in competitive society.

Being ignorant of the first primordial branch of unity, that of man with himself and his fellow-beings, it is not extraordinary that philosophers should be ignorant of the second and third branches of universal unity; unity of man with his Maker and with the universe. The study of the first branch being incomplete, the two others were necessarily undiscovered.

Thus, therefore, has the whole system of nature been unknown to philosophy, and the genius of man has been limited to an imperfect knowledge of a few secondary branches of nature's laws, such as the theory of gravitation or material attraction, which is only a fragment at the third primordial branch of general unity. Newton's discovery ought to have led the way from the study of material to that of passional attraction, in order to discover what were the natural laws of passional affinity; what was the domestic and social organization which God had pre-ordained, as being best adapted to the natural and harmonic development of human instincts and passions; what was the true Slate of industrial activity, for it has ever been abundantly evident that the present state of things is out of harmony with nature.

It has been vaguely laid down as a general principle, that man is made for society; but it has not been clearly stated that society may be organized on two fundamentally different principles: that of association and that of individualism, or competition and co-operation. The difference between the two is exactly analogous to, and correlative with, the difference between truth and falsehood, riches and poverty, justice and injustice, light and darkness, brutality and refinement; and, to go from the medium to the two extremes in the creation, the difference is analogous to that which distinguishes the planet from the comet, in the solar system, and the creeping caterpillar from the beauteous butterfly, in the world of insects.

The natural method of speculation on this subject is exceedingly simple.

There can be but two fundamentally different modes of organizing industry, namely, the divisional system of culture by isolated families and individuals as we see it now, and the associative system of culture and industry, by means of numerous bodies acting in co·operative unity, and possessing an exact science of equitable repartition to each individual, according to the respective faculties of industrial production, i. e, capital, science, and labour.

We have only to ask ourselves which of these two modes of social activity is the one especially designed by God? The competitive or the co-operative organization? There can be no room for hesitation in deciding this question. As the Supreme Economist, God must necessarily prefer the associative state of society, which is the most perfectly economical, and, in order to facilitate the establishment of this perfect state of society, the Creator must have pre-ordained a scientific basis of co·operative organization, the discovery of which was the task of human genius.

If association be the law of justice and the will of God, it follows as a matter of course that the competitive state should be the very contrary, and generate every thing which is in contradiction with justice and truth; in a word, it naturally engenders effects which are diabolical and contrary to the spirit of truth, and such are its natural results as they are manifested in poverty, fraud, violence, oppression, carnage, &c. &c.

And, moreover, since it is evident that every variety of competitive society, patriarchal, barbarian, and civilized, only tend to perpetuate these diabolical results in defiance of scientific discoveries, it is quite clear that our only resource is in the adoption of co-operative principles and organization.

The present generation ought to have turned its attention to the problem of association, but neither statesmen nor economists have thought seriously of doing so, and philosophers are too deeply enamoured of their own theories to think of abandoning the long cherished sophisms.

At length, however, the discovery is made, and what is more, it is made completely, in all its degrees; but it has one great blemish in the eyes of philosophy: it is in direct contradiction with all previous systems of social mechanism, and it dispenses at once with those uncertain sciences called politics, metaphysics, moralism, and economism.

Charles Fourier, The Critical State of Civilization (2 of 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn P. Wilbur) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 22:52:00 +0000

FOURIER,

ON THE CRITICAL STATE OF CIVILIZATION IN EUROPE.

There never was a greater want of useful discoveries in the civilized world than at present. Society is now afflicted with four disastrous elements of a comparatively modern date, which aggravate the primithve causes of human suffering. These modern elements of social misery are,

1. The new pestilence and its complications.[1]

2. The insalubrious effects of injudicious culture and the destruction of Forests.

3. The permanency of revolutionary ferment
4. The alarming increase of public debts and stock-jobbing speculation.

This quadruple plague proves that civilization and refinement are progressing like the lobster, backwards instead of forwards. Instead of approaching nearer to human happiness, society is daily becoming more and more miserable.

To these elements of social calamity we must add another which is worse than all; namely—The charlatanism of the scientific world which is more baneful in its effects on society than all the other social evils taken collectively, for it not only misleads public opinion, by advocating the present system which engenders so many evils, but it offers the most obstinate resistance to all effective plans of improvement.

The modern sect of economists are constantly lauding the present system of society and the incoherent principles of free trade, as the beau ideal of social perfection, and the pride of modern genius. If we believe them, the science of social progress has attained the limits of perfection in their refined sophistry concerning the wealth of nations.

To refute; these pseudo-economists we have only to point to the practical results of their doctrines, as they are embodied in the evils just now mentioned. If we take one of these evils alone, the increase of national debts and the penury of governments, where are we to look for a remedy? Can politicians and economists remedy the evil. Their arbitrary speculations only serve to increase national burdens, for those countries in which economists are the most numerous and their doctrines, have the greatest influence, are also the most oppressed by the weight of nominal property. France and England for instance. * * * *

What folly it is for the present generation to pin their faith to the sophisms of these economists, who delude them. selves and society by visionary speculations concerning free-trade, and persuade the public that all truly progressive principles are impracticable. We shall prove however, in this work, that there are numerous modes of improving society on associative principles, though all plans of incoherent progress can only tend to enslave the people and increase the despotic power of money monopoly.

The exact sciences, mathematics, chemistry, &c., are progressing rapidly in real discoveries, and far from pretending to have already attained perfection, their votaries very modestly avow that much more remains yet to be discovered in every branch of these sciences. The philosophers and economists of the present day have adopted a very different line of conduct. The more their doctrines increase the real evils of society, the more they persist in their visionary mode of speculation, the absolute failure of which, after 30 years experience, proves that a new science is necessary to save society from ruin. * * * *

If men had any real faith in the universality of Providence, they would be convinced that God has provided a natural code of laws for the government of society, and that It is I possible to discover those principles which are best adapted to the domestic and industrial prosperity of mankind.

I do not mention the principles of government, because the grand error of philosophical speculation on that subject, during the last three thousand years, has consisted in agitating questions of government, instead of studying the principles of social organization, The true method of progress would not give umbrage to any government, for all are desirous of seeing industry progress and prosperity increase, as the best sources of peace and security in society.

It is well known that domestic and industrial association if it were practicable, would realize an immense increase of wealth and comfort: The creator, therefore, must know this better than we; what, then, must be his intention in this respect? There are but two fundamentally different modes of social organization: the present system of incoherent industry and the associative method of organization. Which of these states of Society is the natural destiny of man? All the mental, moral, material, and religious advantages indicate the latter to be our real destiny upon Earth, and therefore it was the duty of philosophers to study the natural principles of association, which would have been easily discovered by a diligent inquiry,

But such an inquiry, concerning the laws of nature would have been in direct opposition to the arbitrary speculations of moral, political, metaphysical, and economical science, based as they are upon uncertain philosophy. A want of faith in Providence has caused men to trust to human reason instead of studying the divine will as it is revealed to us in the laws of nature. * * * *

Let us examine more minutely the present state of society and the evils generated by political ignorance. This will give us an idea of the insufficiency of arbitrary science and the necessity of a new policy to save us from ruin.

THE MATERIAL ELEMENTS OF DECLINE.

1stly…. The Plague and its additional complications.

1. The inhabitants of Northern Europe think themselves secure from the effects of this pestilential disease, because it has been generally confined to the coast of Spain, but in spite of quarantine regulations, the yellow fever will sooner or later be imported to England and France, for it is becoming more and more prevalent in the West Indies, while medical men are still ignorant, both of the nature of the malady and the means of curing it.

2. The old pestilence peculiar to the Levant is likely to become more prevalent in Europe, since the increase of intercourse between the Turks and the Christians.

3. The typhus fever, which decimates both the negro and the while population of America is another specimen of modern perfection, which is already said to increase the malignity M the yellow fever.

4. The cholera morbus is approaching from the East. It has already reached Bagdad, and will no doubt be speedily transmitted to us through the medium of our amiable allies, the Turks, who, from their filthy habits and blind belief in fatalism, will soon have allowed the Indian and the Egyptian plagues to unite, and these two united to the typhus and the yellow-fever, will form a compound of pestilential elements, and a new plague of more malignant and disastrous effects than any of the simple infections. These are the material results of our present system of progress, and our philosophers are deluding themselves and the public with declamatory twaddle about progress. This one positive symptom of decline is enough to undeceive all thinking people; but we will enumerate three others.

As a set-off to these positive signs of decline, great stress is laid on partial degrees of progress, such as the discovery of vaccination, which has almost entirely neutralised the effects of the small-pox. That is certainly an advantage, but it is not enough to counterbalance the very serious evils which are rapidly increasing around us. The general of an army might as well boast of having taken a thousand prisoners in the field of battle, after losing several thousands of his own men, as for, statesmen to boast of progress in the present state of things. How is it that the statesmen of the present age, who are constantly talking of the balance of power and the progress of civilization, do not perceive that both the political and the material world are receding ten times as much of the one hand as they are progressing on the other? I shall often have occasion to remind them of this curious result of their learned theories concerning the progress of commerce and the balance of power.

2ndly: The insalubrious effects of injudicious culture and the destruction of forests. The seasons are now completely deranged in their alternations; they are subject to sudden transitions and periodical excess which cause permanent injury to the culture In Europe. The chief cause of these pernicious irregularities and inclemencies of the seasons, is the reckless manner in which the great mountains in Europe have been deprived of their forest wood. This one blunder alone will be the cause of very serious injury to the agricultural interests of Europe so long as it remains unrepaired; and as that is not likely to be very soon, we have nothing but an increase of bad harvests to expect for a long time to come.

There has been already so much said on this subject that it would be difficult for me to make the picture worse than it has been made by others, unless I add that the evil is often increased by those unexpected seasons which are generally deemed favourable. For instance; after a series of bad seasons from 1816 to 1821, the mild winter and the early spring of 1822 were mistaken for a return to a healthy state of alternation in the seasons, but the result proved the contrary. After experiencing a series of winters which were prolonged to the month of June, our planet seemed in 1822, to have had no winter season; and this irregularity was the cause of an Immense increase of vermin, in addition to premature and persevering droughts and innumerable hurricanes, Which devastated, not two or three parishes here and there, but whole provinces; so that, after all the fine appearances of crops, and the high expectations of the people, the harvest was one of the most indifferent.

These multiplied irregularities, and their disastrous consequences sufficiently prove the material derangement and decline of our planet, and the urgency of a general system of progressive improvement, but how are our natural philosophers to discover a remedy which they never think of looking for? Which of our philosophers is likely to speculate concerning the causes of decline and irregularity in the material functions of our planet, when none of them has ever yet thought of calculating and classifying the mere effects of evil, either in the physical or in the political department?

The political world is evidently not less diseased than the physical world, as we shall clearly show in our next article.

[1] Formerly the pestilential disease which ravaged different parts of the world from time to time was of a comparatively simple nature, and commonly called the Plague, but it has now assumed a quadruple developement: namely,

1. The Ancient Plague or Mediterranean Pestilence.

2. The Yellow fever or American Pestilence.

3. The Typhus fever or European Pestilence.

4. The Cholera-morbus or East Indian Pestilence, which is rapidly progressing towards Turkey and Africa, and will soon be in Europe. (The reader must bear in mind that Fourier made this prediction in 1822, and in 1831 it was fully realized.)

Charles Fourier, The Critical State of Civilization (1 of 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn P. Wilbur) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 05:36:00 +0000

[This section from The Treatise on Domestic-Agricultural Association immediately follows the material already posted from The Morning Star. It appeared in the November 25, 1840 issue (No. 6) of that paper.]

FOURIER

ON THE CRITICAL STATE OF CIVILIZATION IN EUROPE.

ELEMENTS OF DECLINE IN THE POLITICAL WORLD..

The most recent and the most remarkable elements of decline in the political organization of society in Europe, are, national debts and revolutions, which generate each other. Our political doctors have hitherto failed in devising remedies for these social evils. As a check on the prodigality of national expenditure and the increase of national debts, they have established what is called constitutional government and national representation, the principal property of which, according to experience, is to increase taxes, national debts, and popular fermentation. As a check to revolutionary ferment amongst the people, they have established repressive laws, which only tend to multiply the seeds of discontent, and generate a new revolutionary spirit by those very means which are used to put down sedition.

The only effective means of neutralizing the modern spirit of revolution, consists in creating new interests, having the power of absorbing popular-attention, by eclipsing the paltry interests of democratic institutions: such would be the effect of progressive association.

The first positive result obtained by association will change the popular current of opinion from the channels of political agitation to those of productive organization, and thus absorb at once the delusive spirit of sedition and false liberalism, which is now the cause of so much anxiety to all the governments of Europe. Political agitation will be scouted as a senseless loss of time, which only tends to thwart the collective and the individual interests of all classes. Those who deem themselves the most liberal, according to our present notions, will be found to be very wide of the principles of true liberality, notwithstanding their honourable intentions, for the present state of society offers us no type of real liberality.

We shall prove that the most enlightened policy of liberalism ought to conciliate the existing authorities, by confining reform to industrial and economical combinations, without disturbing the functions of general administration, which will always adapt themselves spontaneously to the social state of the people. Besides, it has already been proved by repeated experiments, that political revolutions only increase the burdens of the people for the benefit of intriguing factions, instead of bettering the social condition of the labouring population.

The increase of public debts and stock-jobbing rapacity are so well understood, and the rapidity of their progress is so very notorious, that it is hardly necessary to dwell upon them here; and this fact alone is enough to show the utter inefficiency of that arbitrary science called Political Economy. This leads me to speak of one grand defect, more or less connected with the preceding causes of decline ill society, and that is, charlatanism in science, or the delusive pretensions of arbitrary systems of economy, which are found by experience to produce effects contrary to those which they announce. Tile authors of these systems should be made more or less responsible for the results of their application, and then, perhaps, they would be less reckless in their speculations.

Those philosophers who have talked so long and so loudly about the responsibility of ministers and other public officers, have never said a word about subjecting themselves to similar laws of responsibility concerning the results of their own schemes. And yet it is probable that such a mode of proceeding might be very useful. A penal code for sophistical speculation, proved to be injurious in their results, would have cured the age of the mania for making arbitrary systems, and forced philosophers and economists into the natural method of speculation, which leads to useful discoveries. The present generation may be endowed with great powers Of wit and ingenuity, but it has proved itself to be very deficient in sagacity with respect to the direction of scientific speculation.

I have only mentioned four general causes of decline in the physical and the social world of the present day, but it would be very easy to multiply that number tenfold, as we shall see in the sequel of these pages; enough has been said, however, to show that our champions of progress and perfectibility are completely lost in their own sophistical labyrinths, and that they are causing us to retrograde, in a collective sense, faster than we- progress in an individual sense. It is evident that they are misleading us; and therefore it is highly necessary to verify whether or not association is the only source of healthy progress, and, if so, whether or not the method of corporate organization, which I am about to explain, is the true basis of progressive association.

Without association, it will be impossible to protect the rights of labour against the inroads of national debts, and secure property against the dangers of revolutionary re-action. But to understand the principles of association, we must divest ourselves of all that economico-philosophical superstition which darkens the minds even of those who think themselves open to conviction.. These prejudices may be truly termed the original sin of the present generation, and they will require a considerable degree of preparatory instruction to neutralize them effectually.

If we except the necessity of waging war with sophistical doctrines, we may present the science of association as a doctrine of universal conciliation, for it teaches us how to enrich all classes without injuring any. It will even conciliate philosophers themselves, when they become indifferent to the fate of their arbitrary systems, and can feel the pleasure of true knowledge concerning the science of destiny and the system of Nature, the discovery of which they have never dared to hope for.

The most limited experiment of association uniting about one hundred families on a plot of land containing a few square miles will prove that philosophers have never had any adequate idea of social happiness, nor of the true means of practising that truth, liberty and economy, of which so much has been said, and so little understood.

During a period of at least twenty-fire centuries, since the origin of moral and political science, little has been effected for the general happiness of mankind. Philosophy has only tended to perpetuate misery and reproduce the same calamities under different forms. This proves that mere philosophy is inadequate to the task of solving the problem of human happiness.

And yet, there is a universal uneasiness of mind which proves that humanity has not yet arrived at that state of existence which is called for by Nature, and this uneasiness seems to be prophetic of an extraordinary change in social organization. The nations of the earth, hundreds of times deceived by political quacks seem to hope for some miraculous delivery, like a sick patient abandoned by the doctors. Nature seems to whisper in the ears of the human race,—“that we are destined to a happy state of existence in this world, the road to which we have not yet found, but that a miraculous discovery will dispel the darkness of incoherent policy and reveal at once the true road to terrestrial happiness.

The science of association will justify this hope, and secure to the whole human race that Slate of graduated and progressive refinement which is universally desired. Science may be said to have effected comparatively little for social happiness, so long as the primary wants of humanity have not been satisfied by a graduated sufficiency of riches and comfort, securing a decent independency to the poorest individuals. Social science itself would only be another source of humility to human reason, if it only enriched the domain of science without creating that abundance of production which will destroy the fear of want and the cause of discord in society.

The present state of incoherent civilization and competitive industry, from which we are about to emerge, is only a temporary state of social existence, to which every globe is subjected during the period of its political infancy. The savage, the Patriarchal, the barbarian or military, and the civilized states of competitive industry are only so many successive degrees in the progress of society from ignorance and poverty to science and social comfort, and this transitional state has been greatly prolonged on our globe by the error of philosophy in neglecting the study of moral attraction and universal harmony.

It would have been eternally vain for philosophers to speculate on metaphysical subtilities concerning human happiness, with competitive industry as a basis of .social organization, for that basis is in opposition to the universal laws of truth and economy, and therefore it is not the natural destiny of mankind; it is not the perfection of society as designed by God.

Philosophers must now confess, either that terrestrial happiness is not the real destiny of mankind, or that their arbitrary methods have not been able to penetrate the secrets of Nature and her laws. And yet it must be owned that the laws of Nature are not impenetrable to those who observe them simply as the mathematicians and chemists do, instead of imagining arbitrary systems and substituting them in lieu of Natures laws, as moralists and metaphysicians have done generally.

The votaries of the exact sciences have observed nature instead of dictating laws to her, but moralists have constantly endeavoured to deny the authority of nature, and stifle the passions and attractions of man instead of studying their natural mechanism in society. Those human passions and desires which have been so long the subject of moral declamation, are nevertheless the eternal springs of human activity and -the permanent interpretation of the divine will, as it is revealed in the universal laws of attraction and repulsion, the analysis and synthesis of which lead us to association as the only means of harmonizing the innate attractions of human nature. And be it observed here, that we use the word passion in a general sense, and not in the common acceptation of brutal impulse or violent agitation.

The deviations of the passions have been mistaken by moralists for innate depravity, and thence it is that they have not been able to discover the laws of social harmony. Instead of observing human nature to discover the secret springs of ac lion, they have studied only to resist those impulsions which they could not destroy. This is the cause of all their blundering.

What a marked contrast there is between the errors of uncertain philosophy, and the sublime results of the exact sciences! Every day adds new errors to old sophisms in the sphere of metaphysical speculation, while on the other hand the physical and mathematical sciences are daily revealing new truths and shedding a lustre upon modern times which is only equalled by the depth of philosophical obscurity which disgraced the eighteenth century.

Edouard Silberling, Entries from the Dictionary Of Phalansterian Sociology

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn P. Wilbur) — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 01:43:00 +0000

There was apparently a little flurry of Fourierist publication in France in 1911, which the American Economic Review characterized as "the farewell attempt of a passing school." I came across Edouard Silberling's Dictionnaire de sociologie phalanstérienne while trying to answer some questions regarding a translation that Joan Roelofs and I have been working on, and although it didn't actually help me much at that moment I promised to myself that I would return and explore the work more fully. Political dictionaries are strange things, full of words which might not have much political significance to most people, displayed as occasions for explorations of the application of the political ideology in question. (See, for example, Claude Pelletier's definition of "quarry," from his own socialist dictionary.) This Fourierist dictionary certainly has some of that character, but it also functions a something like a concordance to Fourier's works. Here, as a first taste of what Silberling was up to, are the first three

Entries from the
DICTIONARY OF PHALANSTERIAN SOCIOLOGY

ABANDONMENT.—The abandonment of the weak, of children and of the elderly is one of the characteristics that civilization has borrowedfrom savagery. New Industrial World.109, 407, 424.—The civilized order can only produce eviland hypocrisy. It is powerless to ensure the effective protection of the weak. Supportfor children quickly degenerates intoexploitation, under the mask of charity, and assistance for the infirmand elderly degenerates into abuse.

BEE.—The beehive and the hornets’ nest depict the two political orders of harmony and civilization. Q. 429.—The hive depicts the three functions of unitary industry: production, distribution, consumption. III. 215.

— A bee transported to an island furnished only with bare rock will nonetheless be attracted to flowers. II. 315. — Attraction is a primordial impulse, indestructible in all the beings in creation. Attraction is the divine impetus.

ABUNDANCE.—Abundance will result from the organization of the passional series, or societary regime, which will multiply the pastures, the orchards, the poultry-yards, etc. It will increase the cultivated land in all zones, along with industry and all the sources of wealth. Q. 243. III. 564, 567, 568, 571. L. 19.

— In civilization we see the abundance of products alongside poverty and hunger, and if the people of civilization do not die of the urgent need for food, they die of hunger slowly through privations, surrounded by products in superabundance. N. 29, 30. — We see entire peoples, like the Irish in 1822, die of hunger in times of perfect peace and abundance. IV. 362. Haven’t we seen recently, in India, whole populations dying beside piles of wheat?

— In civilization poverty is born from abundance itself. N. 35. — It is an economic monstrosityendemic in advanced civilization. We have a recent example of it in France, where the surplus production of wine has caused the poverty of the producers.

Fourier's response to the Gazette de France — II

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn P. Wilbur) — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 07:22:00 +0000

SECOND PART OF FOURIER'S REFUTATION OF THE GAZETTE OF FRANCE.

[Part One]

For some time past the secret influence of the philosophic Pandemonium had enjoined the discipline of general science in the press, concerning the science of "attractive industry," but the indiscreet Gazette has disobeyed the word. It is proverbially noted for its gossiping propensity, and notwithstand the tactics of obscurism, one of its scribes, inspired with a new idea, has aimed a fatal blow of calumny against my principle, by charging them with insult to our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

The cause of this attack was a speech made by one of my partisans, at a scientific meeting on the subject of attractive industry; alter which, the orator, Mr. V. Considerant, took part in a religious controversy, a subject quite foreign from my science; and, therefore, whatever may have been said on such a question, does not, in the least, affect my responsibility. I never interfere with the religious opinions of those who adopt my principles of science, nor do I deem it necessary for me to do so.

Why should I be more intolerant than the Pope himself, who forms alliances and enters into contract with people who deny the Divinity of Christ? The agent of the Pope, in contracting for a loan with an Israelite banker, does not make s point of attacking his religion; and why should I, a simple individual of no authority, take upon myself to force conformity with my religious feelings and opinions? Some of my partisans are Jews; and what have I to do with that? My science, being purely industrial, is equally free to all religious sects; and though I am myself a Christian, I only teach the science of attractive industry; and neither my religion, nor my science, are affected by the peculiar opinions on religion held by those who advocate my theory.

If, then, it were true, (but it is not.) that the orator, Mr. V. Considerant, had professed opinions in opposition to the Gospel, my principles could not be held responsible for his errors, or for any opinions contrary to my own.

But the fiery Gazette has brought my name in question, and declaimed against what its scribes are pleased to call Fourierism, indicating my theory of attractive industry. Amongst a number of perfidious misrepresentations, the scribes have manufactured and inserted a dozen lines or more, in which Jesus Christ is really insulted, but, by the scribe of the Gazette, who has falsely attributed them to Mr. Considerant, whose written and spoken opinions are diametrically opposed to those attributed to him by the impious journalist.

Mr. Considerant immediately threatened the Gazette with an action for libel and defamation, if his own reply were not immediately inserted; but the perfidious journal, not daring to refuse insertion, evaded the effect of justice, by an unfair manœuvre in the printing, and a delay of three weeks time in its edition for the provinces.

These scribes say that “I wish to be the God of the material World,” and sometimes they dub me with the title of “Messiah.” What a pity it is they do not add a handsome pension to these Godlike honors!

Is it, then, pretending to deity one‘s-self, when one simply follows the divine precept,—“Seek, and ye shall find?” and having discovered any of the laws of God and Nature, is it infringing on the power of God merely to explain those laws to man? Did Kepler and Newton pretend to be gods when they discovered and made known the laws of God concerning our solar system and the mechanical equilibrium of celestial bodies?

On the contrary, I am, perhaps, the only person who has fully ruined those who really usurp the right of God. I have proclaimed the principle of a Universal Providence, and, in virtue of that principle, the necessity of seeking for the pre-ordained laws of harmony and unity relating to society, instead of trusting to the arbitrary laws of man. Jesus Christ himself repeatedly enjoined us to seek for God’s social code of laws, and predicted its discovery when truly sought; and if those who take credit to themselves for ultra-piety, had sufficient hope and faith in Providence, they would adhere to the letter of the Gospel dispensation, and believe our Saviour, who assures us that his Heavenly Father’s Providence extends even to the numbering of the hairs of our heads. It is, indeed, injurious to our Maker to doubt his Providence in pre-ordaining laws of social harmony for man, when he see that, from the greatest to the smallest works of his creation, he has provided laws of unity and harmony for their correlative conditions. Having provided laws of social unity for the enormous globes revolving in infinity, and also for the smallest insects inhabiting those globes, how is it possible to think he would neglect to make a similar provision for the social regulation of mankind? “ Has he not provided for the fowls of the air, and how much more worthy are we than they?”

It is impious, then, to doubt the Providence of God; and Jesus Christ has told us that our duty is to " seek that we may find" the code of social harmony and justice which our Heavenly Father has prepared for us Irma all eternity. It is, in fact, impossible to think that God has not provided for the most imperious of our wants, a code of harmony for human society, to regulate industrial economy, producing an abundance of worldly comforts, for the happiness of all in perfect justice, and applicable to all the nations of the earth without exception.

The discovery of this code of social laws, is the task assigned to us by Christ himself, concerning this probationary state in which we should prepare for an hereafter; but philosophy has left us neither faith nor‘ hope in the universality of God’s providence, nor a spirit of charity extending to the whole of human-kind.

Philosophy only talks of gaining riches for one or two nations of the earth, leaving the rest to languish in ignorance and misery. Forgetting that God is the Creator of the I whole universe, and that his laws are made for all his creatures,—from the greatest to the smallest, the planet to the insect,—our modem legislators and philosophers have usurped the power of God; neglected the study of his laws of harmony, and made society the tool of men like Bartholus, Cujas, Mirabeau, and Target, of whom it may be said with truth, that they usurp the power of God in governing society by arbitrary rule, instead of following the precepts of the Gospel, and studying the will of Heaven: for, not only do they themselves refuse to study the will of God revealed to us in his eternal laws of mental, moral, and mechanical attraction, but they even vilify and persecute whoever questions their sophistical infallibility.

Christ has plainly told us what we are to think of such scribes and philosophers. "Ye hypocrites," says he, “well did Essias prophecy of you, saying,—This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honor me -with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the mmandments of men."—(St. Matth. xv. 7, 8, 9.)

It is utterly false, then, to say that I pretend to be a God, either of the Material or the spiritual world. I render to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar; and to God, that which belongs to God, the right of legislating for humanity. But why should the scribes of the Gazette accuse me of wishing to be the “God of the material world” more particularly? This is a point requiring explanation.

It is said that my principles are subversive of Christianity, because they tend to harmonize in regular development, those passions or sources of activity in the human soul, which Christ enjoined us to subdue and mortify. Now, in the first place, nothing could tend more to subdue the passions in perfect harmony, than my science of passional mechanism and attractive industry, which prevents excess by infinite variety of action ; and as for the doctrine of mortification, it is not true that Christ intended it to last for ever. It was only meant to last during the periods of social incoherency which mark the progress from the fall of man to the full regeneration; and in these periods of ignorance, privation and injustice, it is absolutely necessary; but when, " by seeking, we have found the kingdom of Heaven and its justice," which means the laws of moral equilibrium in the physical and mental activity or human society, there will be no longer any need of an oppressive discipline to make us pure in heart and mind. We shall then be governed by a law of love in expansive equilibrium, infinitely more efficient than the law of fear, and compressive self-denial.

We must, of course, admit that the law of self-denial and positive restraint is absolutely necessary in the present state of things; but Christ, in telling us to “seek the kingdom of heaven and its justice, that all worldly comforts may be added unto us,” has also given a foretaste of physical enjoyment to those who manifested faith in his prediction. At the feast of Cana, did he not change the water into excellent wine? and did he not multiply the loaves and fishes to feed the multitude whose faith had led them to the desert with him? This miracle, he worked to recompense their faith in trusting to his power without anxiety for their own comfort. He himself took pleasure in speaking of his own dependency: “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no where to repose his head.”

He also rebuked those who accused him of faring sumptuously; saying,—“John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine ; and ye say, He hath a Devil. The Son of Man is come eating nd drinking and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of all her children.” It is evident, therefore, that he deemed wisdom quite compatible with worldly comfort, and in order to join precept with example, he took his seat at a table served with delicacies, in the house of a publican who invited him; and when the courtezan anointed his hair with perfume, he rebuked the publican who blamed her for her services. To the woman herself he said, “Thy sins are forgiven: thy faith hath saved thee.” Compassionating with the sex that is most oppressed, he pardoned Magdalene and the adulteress, rebuking those who had accused .them. Nor did he forget to say, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”—(St. Matth. xi. 30.)

It is clear, then, that our Redeemer was no enemy to riches and refinement; all he commanded was, that to worldly pleasures we should add a genuine faith in universal providence, and a proper use of heaven’s bounty, in seeking for the kingdom of justice and the science of social harmony.

Nor be it said that Christ, in speaking of the kingdom of Heaven and its justice, alluded to a future life alone, where worldly comforts are spoken of in allegory, for he knew well that neither food nor raiment would be wanting there. lt is not, then, of a future state he speaks, in promising us worldly blessings: and, the better to prevent mistake, he adds, " Let those hear who have ears to hear,” meaning that his parables were true both ways, and that there are two kingdoms of heaven; one already in existence, and another to be finally established upon earth.

Philosophers deny all this, and ridicule the notion of a better state of things, because it has been hidden from their mental vision; and the unreﬂecting public fondle the delusion. This state of things is spoken of in Scripture, where it says—" They are as the blind leading the blind.”

St. Mark has tnily said of these, " Ye neither understand the Scriptures, nor the power of God.”

A single instance of the power of God is quite enough to prove that the pretensions of philosophy to regulate society are incomparably deficient. The sole power of distributing our faculties, gives our Maker the facility of rendering any social law attractive and complete; while philosophers, who have no such power, can never make us like their schemes in opposition to our nature.

On the other hand, we are sure to err in misery by submitting to the arbitrary laws of human reason, which are not attractive to our innate feelings: for philosophy has not the power of altering our faculties, so as to adapt them to a liking for oppression, poverty, prisons, hulks, taxation, and anxiety, with all the other "graces" of human legislation and “liberal perfection."

These considerations are alone sufficient to inform us that God must have originally made a plan for social happiness, and that it is our duty to obey the Gospel, in “seeking for the kingdom of Heaven and its justice,” revealed to us in all the laws of natural phenomena in matter and in mind.

Such will be the mechanism of passional attractionand industrial economy. And Jesus no doubt alluded to the scientific mission of an interpreter of these laws, when he Said, “ I speak to you in parables; but he who will come after me, will speak to you in spirit and in truth.” He who wished “that the things of Cæsar should be given unto Cæsar, and that the things of God be rendered unto God,” also wished that human reason should be left to do the work imposed on it by God; and thus reveal to 111811 the kingdom of Heaven and its justice, in the scientific mechanism of attractive industry based upon the principles of moral and religious unity.

As John the Baptist came before Christ with the mission of precursor, to announce the coming of the word, so another was to come after Christ with the mission of coadjutor, to study and reveal the laws of social mechanism by which peace and plenty will reward the general practico of truth and justice, and the human race commence the work of absolute regeneration.

This is the task of the Messiah, of whom M. de Lamartine, in his conversations with Indy Esther Stanhope on Mount Lebanon, spoke as being " yet to come," affirming “that those who are now living will see him with their own eyes, and for whose mission all things seem to be preparing in the world.”

But here, again, we may apply the words of Christ, " Do not ye after their works, for they say and do not.”—St. Matthew, xxiii. 3.)

If it be true " that a man is soon to appear with an extraordinary mission in science, and that, as all things are prepared in this world for his coming, we shall certainly see him in person;" how comes it, that when he has actually made his appearance and proved his mission by revealing a new science that will solve all the problems of social and political harmony,—how comes it, say, that all the learned world refuse to hear him, and absolutely form a coalition of obscurism to prevent the public from acquiring a knowledge of his science, or even of his existence, though he can prove that he has nrictly followed the injunctions of our Saviour, and that he speaks in the simple, clear, and natural spirit of mathematical truth which children may understand ; and the science which he thus reveals will teach us how to banish from the earth those hideous social ulcers, poverty, crime, slavery, mercantile fraud, and all the moral evils so much loathed in the sight of God?

We have many philosophers who speak and write piously, because piety is now-a-days a political instrument; but it is not so easy to find people who are really pious in fulfilling the commands of Christ. If our philosophers were truly pious, they would say, “This theory of attractive industry should be carefully examined and tested by experience, for, if it be really true and practicable, its results would be prodigious.Besides creating wealth in great abundance, it would totally eradicate the germs of revolution; and of moral and religious discipline, it certainly affords the most secure foundation. In our present moral theories, we do indeed inculcate a love of honest industry, but then we must admit that little has been done to render it attractive. This author says he has discovered the science of attractive industry in conformity with the natural impulsions of mankind, and that, besides being proved by all the principles of science, his theory may easily be tested by a limited experiment on a single parish containing three or four hundred families. This is a great advantage compared to the dangers of political reforms affecting a whole nation by every new experiment. Should the experiment fail altogether, it will only affect a single parish, and if it be found defective in some of its parts only, we can probably correct its defects, and improve it as a whole.”

This would be the language of impartiality, but it is not to be expected from the learned corporations of this bouted centre of civilization, Paris.

The title of “Messiah” is, however, as applied by M. de Lamartine, in speaking of the man whose mission was announced by Christ, improperly applied to a mission of mere science. John the Baptist was the prophet whose mission was that of a pre-cursor to Jesus Christ, and my mission is that of the prophet post-cursorand coadjutor, announced by Christ to solve the Christian problem, and complete the scientific part of human regeneration with respect to industry alone and social equity; but I am not a Messiah, though the Gazette de France, in its furious attacks, accuses me of being in pretension both a “God” and a “Messiah.”

There is nothing mystical in a purely scientific mission; and though the function of a prophet and coadjutor in human regeneration has fallen to my lot, it is not the Irission of one specially elected, like John the Baptist, but a mission open to all the human race, any one of whom was free to study and interpret the social code of laws devised by God to introduce on earth “the kingdom of Heaven and its justice,” whenever human reasonshould perform the task imposed by Christ, of "seeking till we find; asking that it may be given; and knocking that it may be opened unto us;” to see and understand the laws of social harmony and passional attraction.

I have performed this mission in accordance with the bidding of our Saviour, by leaving the beaten track of arbitrary speculation and the cunning of philosophers, of whom the world's Redeemer said,—“O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."—(SL Mal. xii. 34.) " Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity-."—(St. Matth. xxiii. 27, 28.)

These words are truly applicable to those philosophers of our day, who laud the present state of civilization as the beau-ideal of society, though it is based on the most odious principles, such as the following, which are openly professed:

“It is absolutely necessary to keep the multitude in poverty in order to enrich the few, and, not being able to prevent the horrors of this state of things, we must learn to look upon them as necessary evils.”These maxims are indeed worthy of a sect which holds the principles of sceptical philosophy, and publicly asserts " that the mass of the people can never be happy until the last of the kings shall have been strangled with the gut-strings of the last of priests,” and whose watch-word in the work of human massacre, is "Down with the impostor," (écrasez l’infâme,) meaning Jesus Christ. ls it a wonder, then, that these philosophers oppose my doctrine, which was announced by Christ himself as the industrial mechanism of truth and the spirit of social harmony, to he revealed by the interpreter of God's social code, who was to come after Christ?

Let me not be misunderstood in saying this; for I ask nothing for myself, neither mediately nor immediately. My mission is to speak the truth, and minister to the Holy Ghost. Jesus Christ has said, " He that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you, hut the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever l have said unto you.” —(St. John, xiv. 24, 25, 26.) Now the literal meaning of the words Holy Ghost being the spirit of truth, it is clear that every principle of truth and harmony is an emanation of the Holy Ghost, or the universal spirit of truth, and, in this sense, the science of social harmony is the social “comforter," explaining all things relating to the practice of truth and justice upon earth.

We may again repeat with Christ, that “the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."—(St. John, iii. 19.) This is true of the present state of philosophy, containing at least one hundred thousand different and contradictory systems, none of which will bear the light of a comparison with that science of social mechanism and attractive industry it has been my lot to discover; and which consists in harmonizing all our instincts and desires by means of an industrial and domestic combination, the leading springs of which are,—@

1. Regularly graduated scales of discord and natural inequalities.

2. The proper combination of series and groups in the functions of industry.

3. Variety of occupation, and ii free choice of function, subject only to real skill and due qualification.

Whether this be or be not the true principle of industrial mechanism and social harmony, there can be no doubt that the present age, so frequently convulsed by the disastrous innovations of unsound philosophy, has need of some new science to secure stability and peaceful progress. After trusting to political and moral theories in vain for centuries and centuries past in misery, it is natural to try another mode of innovation, which, if even inefficient, is at least secure from danger and convulsion. Those who have property at stake might certainly to tire of a philosophy which only serves to generate iniquity, and oppose the inﬂuence of pernicious doctrines by s principle which is, in all respects, the very opposite. The arbitrary doctrines of philosophy would vanish into darkness and oblivion as soon as the real principles of social policy were practically tested; for this is the principle of which Christ has said, “Et portæ inferi non prævolebunt."

What are these "Gates of Hell” of which he speaks? there are, at least, two which are easily recognized: intolerant philosophy, and j the spirit of self-righteousness which is not less intolerant. Both of these are worshippers at the same shrine of superstition: that of a PASSIVE and INERT resignation to the principle of evil and the honors of competitive society. The one tells us that “crime and misery are the necessary results of civilization, and that we must submit to them patiently without hoping to avoid them;” the other tells us " that we must resign ourselves to suffering in this world, in order to obtain our reward in the next:" but those who preach these doctrines, take very good care not to follow them themselves. They invariably secure for themselves as much as they can of the comforts of life, and then deliberately tell their starving brethren to suffer patiently the wrongs which they endure.

It is no doubt proper to resign ourselves with patience and forbearing, as long as society remains in ignorance and poverty; but Christ himself has told us that this state of things was not to be perpetual, and that it was our duty to escape from it as soon as possible, by seeking the kingdom of Heaven and its justice, that all worldly comforts might be added unto us abundantly.---He expressly told us also to be active in our faith, and not to indulge our idleness in a passive and inert resignation to the principle of evil; but to seek that mechanism of the science of attractive industry and combined economy.

What can be the cause of this passive and inert resignation to the principle of evil, in the church? During eighteen centuries the ministers of Christ have warned us against the baneful doctrine. of philosophy; was it not their duty, therefore, to follow the injunctions of our Saviour, and seek, till they discovered, the science of social harmony, and its principles of truth and practical equity? But, supposing their efforts to have been constant, thong inadequate, is it not, at least, their duty to protect the man who has devoted thirty-eight years of a laborious life to the seeking and discovering of the principles of justice and social regeneration?

The Church has evidently lost her equilibrium: she has been betrayed into the hands of vain philosophy; for those who call themselves the “pillars of the Church," are neither more nor less than skeptical philosophers.

What are these scribes of the Gazette, but sceptics in disguise, forming a pandemonium of obscurism? proscribing every attempt at social progress, and supporting the monopoly of privilege and sophistry.—Its proceedings in 1829 were more scandalous than those of any other journal published in Paris. It is a well known fact, that the most abominable system of intimidation was used to terrify those amongst the public functionaries who did not generally purchase the Gazette.

These pretended champions of religion, are betraying both the monarch and the Church, for no party is more deeply interested in the welfare of the people, than the clergy of the Church of Rome, and the King of the French nation, who is more or less suspected by all the kings of Europe.

The vessel of St. Peter has evidently lost its rudder, for, during the last half century, it has been so badly governed, that the clergy have lost almost all their former influence; and as for the throne of France, it is so far humbled, that it dares not venture to resist the influence of American chicanery, which has recently constrained us to admit a doubtful claim upon our treasury.

All parties, then, are equally interested in the progress of truth and general prosperity; and, as all the schemes of fanciful philosophy have failed, it is but rational to expect a contrary result from the practical application of those principles which are, in all their bearings, the very opposite of incoherency and individualism.

It is in vain for the blind members of the Church to think, that if it were possible to establish harmony and justice in society, Christ himself would have revealed to us the science of its organization; for, I have already proved that he commanded us to seek it in ourselves, and by the aid of human reason, in connexion with an ACTIVE faith in Providence and all his promises.

Ministers of the Church,—you whose mission it is to call sinners to repentance—are you not sinning, yourselves, against the doctrines of Christianity? By adopting the tactics of sceptical obscurism, and opposing my theory by your premeditated silence, are you not opposing the will of your master, who announced the scientific mission of human regeneration?

You are witnesses to the declining influence of Christian principles and the spreading influence of mystical and sceptical philosophy; and though you may deem these systems of philosophy too absurd to be generally introduced, still it is your duty to be active in your opposition; for the general aberrations of material and inductive philosophy may give rise to sects whose doctrines would be no less offensive than the Atheism of the Owenites, and the spoliating tendencies of St. Simonism in its doctrines of inheritance. If you remain blind to the duties of your mission, you will shortly have in Europe as many heterogeneous sects of religious doctrines as there are in America, and civil war is almost the inevitable product of this religious anarchy.

In this dilemma, your only safety lies in bringing into practical consistence my principles. which will rapidly supersede the influence of your natural enemies, the sceptical philosophers.

You need not be alarmed at the risk of fostering an error; for, one single experiment would prove it to be true or false without endangering the present constitution of society. Remember, also. that the most useful discoveries have been generally ill received at first: the simple grain of coffee, and that very useful root the potato, were prohibited as poisons, by the learning of a Parliament. The first inventors of steam-engine were most of them insulted, and some of them were even put to death. Columbus was banished for announcing even the probable existence of a New Continent, and the thunder of an excommunication was hurled upon his head from the Holy See of I Rome; then, surely, you should pause before you condemn.

And yet, we can hardly expect to find wisdom and discernment in the Church, when we see the Universal Bishop stigmatising equally both friends and foes. In the last index, published at Rome, we find names classed together without any rule of justice. The Church, in her distress, has lost her mental equilibrium and discernment. She has inconsiderately classed the name of the celebrated Christian poet, De Lamartine, with that of St. Simon, the avowed opponent of the Roman clergy; and to make the matter worse, my name has been connected with the enemies of property, although my principles would introduce at least twenty-four new source of security to private property, in addition to those which are already in existence.

It is a strange anomaly, that the Christian Pontiff should denounce the only man who has demonstrated, by mathematic revelation, the necessary existence of a God, and the universality of Providence. Before my discovery, the very existence of Deity was questioned in the name of science; but this delusion of Atheism, arising from the aberrations of reason, is now completely dissipated in the sphere of real science. These errors of the Church prove that vain philosophy has stolen its way into the Vatican, and the bewildered Pope of Rome is now the dupe of scepticism.

This language may be deemed severe, but no one has so good a right as I to call the Church to an account for her neglect of duty. lam, perhaps the only innovator, having every chance of founding a new religious sect, who has not thought of doing such a thing. My doctrine satisfies, at once, the natural desires of both soul and body, in this world and in the next: l have had, therefore, several chances of founding a religious sect, which no man ever had before.

But my mission is not to create a new sect; in fact, I look upon all religious schisms as brands of discord: and, as my task is to conciliate all parties in both Church and State, by the institution of attractive industry and social equity, I am opposed to all the arts of policy which would cause disturbance, and class me amongst mere turbulent agitators. I disavow also, beforehand, whoever might, when I am gone, make any such abuse of my conciliatory principles, which serve invariably the interests of all parties.

[To those who have “ears to hear,” and “eyes to see,” nothing can be more beautifully clear than Fourier’s elucidation of the Gospel; but many there are, within and without the pale of the Christian Church, whose mental visions is too much obscured to recognize the light. The Church itself has long been more or less eclipsed by negative philosophy; but soon, we feel convinced, the shadow of uncertainty will gradually vanish, and leave the type of unity to re-assert her mission by dispensing light and heat, in spirit and in truth, to all the human race.]

[Source: The Phalanx, 1, 14 (July 13, 1844) 205-209.]

Terrence, "A Short Introduction to the Works of Charles Fourier" (1848)

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn P. Wilbur) — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 01:55:00 +0000

A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO THE

WORKS OF CHARLES FOURIER.

BY TERENCE

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“In Nature and in State, it is easier to change many things than one.” BACON.—Essay on Health.

“Entertain variety of delights rather than surfeit of them.—Idem.

“ And let the main portion of the lands employed to gardens or to corn be to a common stock, and to be laid in, and stored up, and then delivered out in proportion.” BACON.—On Plantations.

“Fourierism, which is diametrically opposed to Communism.”—Morning Chronicle, March, 1848.

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LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY THE PHALANSTERIAN ASSOCIATION

AND TO BE HAD OF

P. ROLANOI, 20, BERNERS ST., OXFORD ST.;

AND AT 55, RUPERT ST., COVENTRY ST.

MDCCCXLVIII. -

PRICE SIXPENCE.

INTRODUCTION

TO THE

WORKS OF CHARLES FOURIER.

At a moment when the extraordinary and sudden events of Paris have stirred the political condition of Europe from its very foundation, and have commenced “‘hat is professedly a social revolution, the following rapid sketch of what is termed the social science, or in a wider sense, “The Theory of Universal Unity,” may not be without interest to the public, as it may help them to a clearer comprehension of what is now occurring, and enable them to distinguish between those acts of the Provisional Government which are inspired by a spirit of communism, and those which emanate from the school of Fourier.

The whole of the English press, in mentioning the tendencies of the late revolution, have attributed them to the Communist doctrines disseminated through the medium of the works of various authors, among whom they include Fourier; being, however, so little acquainted with his views, that they are even ignorant of the real orthography of his name;for they have, with few exceptions, most amusingly agreed in spelling it with two rs, thus—Fourrier. This point, though minor in appearance, is in reality most important as an argument against them; for this error originated in a ridiculous and ignorant criticism made several years back, which criticism seemingly has remained the only source of information which the guides (?) of public opinion have deigned to consult on the subject.

Now this accusation of communism arises from a very general, although most erroneous notion; for Fourier, whatever may be. thought of the practicability of his whole system, is, as we will presently prove, the only author who presents a definite, just, and unanswerable argument in favour of the existence of property, and he who alone has sought efficient because equitable means of rendering its enjoyment perpetual.

Fourier, from his earliest childhood, evinced the profoundest love for truth and justice; and though educated at a period when professions of atheism were in full vogue, he always breathed the purest religious sentiments, free however from intolerance and cant. On looking around him, he found all things subjected to a Divine Harmony, save the social relations of man, in which fraud, misery, and vice were but too much the predominant features. Yet, that such was the final destiny of mankind, his notions of divine justice would not for one instant allow him to suppose. Trusting, therefore, to the words of Christ: “Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you;”—”There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known;” and seeing how completely society, in its present form, is devoid of truth, justice, and happiness, he determined to devote his life to the research of the natural or Divine social form, in which God’s will being done on earth as it is in Heaven, these blessings should exclusively reign; and after several years of incessant labour, he produced to the world what all who have studied itproclaim a most wonderful and complete system of universal science.

The metaphysical foundation of Fourier’s theory, (and we must crave the indulgent reader’s patience for a few paragraphs that may perchance be deemed abstruse,) is as follows:—All that exists, being the work of one great Creator, must bear upon it the impress of His harmonious mind, and be therefore analogous, though never identical in its various forms; accordingly, Fourier, taking a complete survey of all the natural sciences and arts, finds a perfect analogy between the harmonies of sound, of colours, of curves, of numerical and grammatical functions, &c., distributed according to a certain series or regular distribution of parts, into groups, varieties, genera, species, orders, and classes; hence his science of Universal Analogy, the radiant spring of poetry,—and its manifestation, the serial Law, for the development of which we must refer to his works, or those of his disciples. Fourier, with this guide, arguing with true mathematical precision, from what was known to what was as yet unknown, boldly dived into the past and the future, and foretold most of the discoveries which have since shed so much glory on the scientific men of our age; among these may be numbered Levenier’s planet, instantaneous communications with all parts of the globe, painless operations, &e. &c.

Carrying out these views in his vast investigations of nature, he found that all things were formed of three principles, corresponding to the three essential functions of motion: one active or spiritual (the moving force,)—one passiveor material (the moved force,)—and one neuter or regulative (the directing force). His theory of Production may serve as an illustration of this division of parts; for Production, in its widest sense, the source of the activity and the wealth of nations, is, like all other things, a compound of these three elements, viz. :

1. Labour, the activeprinciple.

2. Capital, the passive principle, on or by which labour acts; land, buildings, money, machinery, implements, &c. &c.

3. Talent, the neuter principle, by which labour and capital are directed.

Now, if the rights of anyone of these principles remain unsatisfied, the other two are endangered, and impeded in their progress. According to Fourier, the fault of society has hitherto been in overlooking the rights of labour and talent, granting all permanent advantages to capital alone, which has in consequence indirectly but greatly suffered. The Communists, on the other hand, in their reaction against the exclusiveness of capital, commit a similar error in an opposite direction.. The exclusive reign of capital occasions unperfect production, pauperism, and revolt. Communism, or the negation of individual property, by destroying emulation, and compressing superior minds, without raising the interior, would be a death-blow to the ideal and the sublime, and both are subversive of all justice and liberty; yet both represent equally legitimate rights, which can only be satisfied by the free association of the three essential elements of production, whereby every individual may reap the fruits of the seed he has sown, by participating in the profits of the common produce, each in proportion to the amount of capital, labour, or talent employed in its creation, every member being thus personally interested in the success of the whole. The creative powers resulting from unity of purpose and action are thus substituted for the fearful and destructive antagonism which now reigns between the employers and the employed. (The practical difficulty of such an arrangement will be mentioned hereafter.) This proportionality, according to capital, time, and skill, is evidently in direct opposition to the principle of Communism, which is based on an absolute equality of rights; and Fourier is so far from denying the rights of property, that it is chiefly to large capitalists that he addresses himself, inviting them to combine freely, and carry out his views, promising them in return a new and happy social era, in which they will be the first to benefit largely; for one of his fundamental principles is, that the science of society must accept and classify all existing interests, and the social transformation be such, that those who reap the greatest advantages in our present state, shall profit still further instead of losing by the new order of things.

But this is only one branch of Fourier’s vast system of scientific and social reform. Analysing with great acuteness, the past and present history of humanity, and examining the fundamental character of the five social phases, viz., 1, Edenism; 2, Savagism; 3, Patriarcate; 4, Barbarianism; and 5, Civilization, through which it has successively passed,—he ascertained (as any unprejudiced mind might have done before him,) that Man had as yet never been placed in a social medium in accordance with his nature, though he had gradually advanced towards a superior state of society, according to the natural law of progression. Yet man, with all his passions[1] or tendencies, which according to circumstances urge him on to virtue or to vice, and which, in spite of human institutions, have maintained their dominion in all countries and all ages,—man, we say, with all his passions, is the work of God. The social form, essentially variable in its nature, differing at the beginning and at the end of the same age, differing on the opposite sides of the same mountain or river, is the work of man. If man, and the social conditions he is placed in, clash, whose is the fault, and whose work must we modify? Surely not God’s!

As well might our tailors and shoemakers propose one model of their own creation, as a standard whereby all men were to be dressed, as our philosophers and constitution-framers pretend that man, as created by God, is imperfect, and must be made to bend to fanciful and oppressive institutions of theirinvention, which centuries have proved to be inefficient in producing the desired end. This misconception of man’s nature has forced them to uphold their false institutions by means of constraint and tyranny, thus forming a lamentable scission between the lovers of order and those of liberty, and keeping the world in a constant state of turmoil and warfare.

The important point is, however, to fully understand the nature of Man, the primary element of society, and the social problem then resolves itself into the following terms:

“Man and his passions being given, to determine the social conditions in which these may be harmoniously developed, so as to produce the greatest and most beneficial results by the smallest means.”

Now man is himself, according to what we have said above, a compound of three principles;

1. The Passions, active or motive principle.

2. The Body, passive or material principle.

3. The Intellect, neuter or regulative principle.

The body is the mere instrument or tool through the medium of which the passions act; and the intellect is the principle by which man judges, ( and by which he governs and directs the other two.

The passions, again, are composed of three principles—the material or sensual; the spiritual or affective; and the directing or distributive—subdivided into twelve radical passions, summed up in one pivotal passion, which, like white and black among colours, is, in its positive form, the result of the combination of all the others, while, in its negative form, it is the result of their absence.[2]

Most of those passions, the 10th, 11th, and 12th especially, are in civilization, productive of more harm than good; for instance, the love of change, termed by Fourier la papillonneor butterfly passion, in a society where each member is chained exclusively to one profession or trade, is a vice, breeding inconsistency, fickleness, inattention, and discontent; yet nature in her goodness meant it as a preservative against monotony, and excess in the development of anyone of his faculties, moral, intellectual, or physical, at the expense of the others, by instilling into him a strong desire to give a full and harmonious development to all in their turns. For a full comprehension of this psychological analysis, we must refer to the works of Fourier, or those of his school. Musicians will, however, understand us when we say, that the four affective passions are the cardinal, corresponding to the four notes which form the main chord and the sensitive note, in the octave. The three distributive correspond to the subordinate chord, and the five sensitive to the five semi-tones.

As the different combinations of the twelve semi-tones of the chromatic scale are sufficient to produce an infinite variety of melodies and harmonies; or, as all shades are the result of the various combinations of the prismatic colours, so the different proportions and combinations of these 12, or rather (including the pivots) 14 radical passions, form the various characters or temperaments which constitute humanity; and as Providence has balanced the number of the sexes, so also has it counterpoised the various springs of action among mankind, so that unityand harmony shall be the result, as soon as man, rightly and religiously using his reason and free-will, shall, by doing for society what he has lately done for locomotion, have sought, discovered, and practically established the conditions in which these passions or springs of action may act according to the eternal laws of God, and be productive of good instead of evil. A permanent revelation is granted as a light to guide us in this research,—Good being the heavenly sign that humanity is fulfilling its destinies,—Evil the invariable sign of its deviation therefrom; and who will deny that Evil has hitherto had the ascendancy?

Fourier, by this analysis of the nature of man, which all his disciples consider as unimpeachable, seems alone among philosophers to have carried into practice that admirable maxim of the ancients, “Know thyself,” and I has therefore alone afforded us the means of organizing society in accordance with that nature.

The 14 radical passions of man, being his data, Fourier seeks, by what external or social conditions they can best be satisfied and utilized. And first, he finds it will be necessary to offer to the sensitive passions none but the purest objects of gratification so that our senses, by which we are put into communication with the outward world, may carry correct notions only, to our soul and intellect. This duty falls chiefly to the lot of industry and the fine arts. Secondly, the effective passions must find their full development, which can only be attained by opening numerous gradual posts of honour, proportionate to each individual’s peculiar merit, so as to gratify the passion of ambition; and by increasing the general wealth of the community sufficiently to ensure the right of living by one’s labour to every man, woman, and child, and thus allow in all cases of love-unions, freed from those heart-rending anxieties which now attend most parents as to the future prospects of their children. Thirdly, in order to give due satisfaction to the distributive passions now productive of so much evil, corporative rivalship must be awakened in the community, but so organized as never to degenerate into personal jealousy and hatred. The various social duties must be performed no longer by individuals, but by friendly groups in order to satisfy the noble passion of enthusiasm, which requires numbers for its full development, and which doubles and triples our energies. Above all, constant variety must be introduced into our occupations, that we may call forth and satisfy alternately all the faculties of our soul and mind. And finally, the noblest of all passions, Uniteeism, the warm fountain of religion, philanthropy, charity, and self-sacrifice, must find a constant channel to flow in, for the benefit of others, thus counteracting the chilling influence of its opposite, individualism, whose function is the mere preservation of the individual.

By the Association of many interests, forces, and abilities alone, can all these conditions be realized; and civilization, though founded on the spirit of individualism, or the “chacun chez soi, chacun pour soi” system, has instinctively felt this; for in all great works, such as canals, railways, insurances, clubs, &c., it has always recourse to the fruitful principle of association, although, till this year, strictly confining it to capital.

Seeking what was to be the main-spring of action which was to introduce life and motion in the new social medium, and finding that Attractionwas the great principle by which God gave motion and form to the materialworld, Fourier was led by universal analogy to suspect that the spiritual and socialworld might perchance be subjected to the same principle. This led him, by a succession of calculations, to the discovery Of what he called passional or spiritual Attraction, by which discovery he did for the whole range of science, including that of society, what Newton had already done for astronomy and natural philosophy, by his discovery of material or· physical Attraction, of which Locke even then said, “That admirable discovery of Mr. Newton, may be counted as the basis of natural philosophy; and how much further it could guide us in other things, if rightly pursued, is not yet known.”—(Conduct of the Understanding, § xlii.)

“The law of attraction,” says Fourier,” governs the whole universe, the plant, the insect, and the stars, accomplishing their revolutions. The animals obey a Divine law revealed by instinct, by attraction; all nature groups itself, associates in an harmonious concert, and accomplishes its destiny attractively. Man alone, ignorant of this Divine law, still struggles with his instincts, his desires, his passions, and attractions. In the midst of universal association and the harmony of worlds, human societies are sunk in discord and antagonism: their labours are repugnant; their relationships conflictive. Attraction, not being obeyed, becomes for man a source of suffering and .chastisement. His miseries are aggravated by the knowledge of enjoyments he does not possess. Like a bee, transported to a barren rock, languishing from want of flowers to call forth its industry, man, being out of his destiny, is not the less capable of fulfilling it, and suffers in proportion to the distance separating him from harmony and unity.

“Attraction in the hands of God is like a magic wand, which enables him to obtain by love and pleasure, what man can only obtain by violence. It transforms the most repugnant functions into pleasure. What can be more repugnant than the care of a new-born infant, crying, helpless, and unclean? What does God do to transform so repulsive a duty into pleasure!’ He gives the mother impassioned attraction for these unclean offices; he simply uses his magical prerogative-the impress of attraction. Thenceforth repugnant functions disappear, and are changed into pleasures.

“We see God confine himself to the simple lever of attraction to direct the planets and the stars, creatures immeasurably greater than ourselves; is man then alone excluded from the happiness of being guided to social unity by attraction? Why this interruption in the scale of the system of the universe? Why does attraction, the divine interpreter of unity in the highest and the lowest orders of creation, the law of stars and animals, sufficient to conduct them to harmony, not suffice for man, who is a creature between the planets and the animals? Where is the unity of the Divine system, if the law of general harmony, if attraction, is not applicable to societies of the human species, as well as to those of stars and animals, if attraction is not applicable to agricultural and manufacturing industry, which is the pivot of the social mechanism?

“Industry, the torment of the servant and the slave, nevertheless causes the delight of various creatures, bees, beavers, wasps and ants, wholly free to prefer idleness; but God has provided them with a social mechanism which attracts them to industry, their source of happiness. !Why should he not have granted us the same privilege? What a difference between their industrial condition and ours! A Russian, an Algerine, works from fear of the whip and the bastonade; an Englishman, a Frenchman, from fear of famine, which threatens their families; the Greeks and Romans, whose liberty has been so much vaunted among us, laboured as slaves under the fear of punishment, as the negroes do now in our colonial possessions.

“Such is the happiness of man in the absence of an attractive law of industry; such is the effect of human laws; it reduces humanity to envy the lot of the industrious animals, for whom attraction changes their labours into pleasures. What would have been our happiness had God assimilated us to these animals, had he impressed on us passional attraction for the exercise of all the labour to which we are destined? Our life would be a series of delights, whence would arise immense riches; while in ignorant subversion of attractive industry, we are nothing but a. society of galley-slaves, of whom some few escape from drudgery and maintain themselves in idleness. These are hateful to the mass, which tends, like them, to emancipate itself from labour: from thence arise revolutionary , ferments, agitators, who promise the people leisure, wealth, and happiness, “and who by some revulsion, having once obtained this for themselves, enslave the multitude anew to maintain themselves in the rank of idlers, or privileged directors of the industrious classes, which is a sort of idleness.”

According to the law of unity, the analogy of man with the creation, the Divine plan consists in a law of attractive industry, flowing from a mode of association in which all interests agree and harmonize instead of injuring each other in perpetual conflict as in the present state.

On this condition only, the unity of the creation will be demonstrated; man will be in accordance with himself, with the universe, and with God.

Armed with this knowledge, and strengthened in his researches by his implicit trust in the infinite goodness of Providence, he confidently proposes a new social order in harmony with man’s nature, or attractions, “which,” says he, “are always in proportion to his destiny;” a social order in which, however, all that is good in present or past ages is sacredly retained, but so organized as to ensure the greatest sum of happiness to the great mass of mankind; in which, through the power of association, whereby unity of interest and action, as well as vast economies and positive wealth can alone be attained: and Attractive industry, under which term he comprises all incentives to the productive energies of man, viz., agricultural, domestic, manufacturing and commercial labour, education, science and art, freed from all that now tends to make them repulsive,—the various blessings of this earth shall be so multiplied, that an abundant share of them may become the lot of the poor, allowing at the Bame time for an incredible increase in those of the rich; in which the various tastes and attractions of mankind are so admirably balanced, that the satisfaction of all prevents excess[3] in the satisfaction of each, and that the cardinal or affective passions (conjugal and parental love, friendship and ambition), nay, the very pleasures of the senses, shall, by finding legitimate satisfaction, establish the happiness of the individual, furthering at the same time the welfare of the community; for the individual and collective interests are so intimately connected, that the misery or advantage of the one invariably reflects on the other.

THE PHALANSTERY.

But instead of beginning his reforms from above, and according to constitutional customs, applying to a whole nation ideas which, if erroneous or incomplete, would be productive of the greatest evils, Fourier, considering the Commune (parish, village), with its agriculture, trades, professions, magistrates and clergy, as the primary element of society, rationally proposes to begin the social reform by a reform of the Commune, or indeed of a single commune, which, if unsuccessful, will have been productive of no considerable injury even to the shareholders; whereas its success, like that of the first steamer, the first railroad, the first electric telegraph, the first painless operation, would soon lead to new and more complete attempts in all parts of the globe, and thus peacefullyrealize that regeneration of society which he so confidently anticipated. (See a remarkable passage in chap. iii. of “Butler’s Analogy of Religion,” in which he describes the general influence such a community would have over the face of the earth.)

A series of calculations led him to consider that in an assemblage of 400 families of different ranks and fortunes, (about 1800 or 2000 individuals of all ages,) all the varieties of character and tastes necessary to fulfill the various industrial, artistic, and social functions, would be found united. Such, therefore, is the number he fixes on for his model community, which, from its being associated, like the famous Macedonian legion, by ties of affection and interest, he terms a Phalanx. The collective property of the Phalanx consists of about one league square, indivisible in itself, but represented by transferable shares, on the principle of railroads, canals, water-works, and other joint-stock concerns. Instead, however, of covering the land with 400 small and uncomfortable houses or huts, all more or less deficient in water, fire, and light; 400 , kitchens, 400 cellars, 400 barns, a number of ill-constructed stables, &c. >&c.; a sumptuous palace, termed a Phalanstery, (abode of the Phalanx,) is, at a far less cost, erected near the centre, in which onekitchen, divided !!into compartments, as at a restaurant, or a club-house, and in which a few professed cooks, with every convenience at their command, is substituted for the 400 small or miserable kitchens employing as many hands, thus withdrawn from productive labour. This palace, of an imposing and varied aspect, in which beauty is no where neglected, nor utility sacrificed, and consisting of various suites of apartments of all prices, to suit all fortunes and tastes, is imposed throughout of a double row of buildings, to prevent its extending over too long a space, which , would necessarily render communications difficult and it encloses within its circuit vast courts adorned with trees and fountains. In the centre, from which rises a majestic tower, containing the observatory, the clock, the industrial flags and signals, &c., are placed the public halls, saloons, and libraries, the seat of the Government, and the apartments of the wealthy. This part of the building surrounds a spacious garden, in which are placed the green houses for the cultivation of the rarest species of plants and flowers, and which serves as a winter promenade, especially for the aged and the infirm. On the right and on the left there extend two wings, gracefully recoiling on themselves, and which contain apartments gradually diminishing in price as they remove further from the centre, yet all combining neatness and comfort; and the extreme ends of the wings are appropriated to noisy occupations, assemblages of children, and all that might otherwise disturb the rest of the population.

The internal communications are managed by a wide and covered gallery on the first floor, winding round the whole extent of the building, and extending over the courts in colonnades. This gallery, which communicates with all parts of the Phalanstery, and is warmed in winter, ventilated in summer, is as it were the street, and at the same time the pictureand statue galleryand museum of the Phalanx. (The Long-gallery at Windsor may give some slight notion of what is here meant.) By means of tubes concealed in its flooring and walls, it distributes to all parts cold and warm water, heat and light; it also communicates by subterraneous passages with the workshops, stables, farm-yards, storehouses, dairies, barns, &c., which are, for convenience sake, placed at the other side of the road; and thus the population are never exposed to those sudden changes of temperature which, in our ill-constructed, filthy towns, are productive of so many colds and coughs, and pleurisies, and inflammations of the lungs, from which even the noble lady leaving the ballroom to enter her carriage is not exempt. Thus arrangement does away immediately with the need of those nuisances of civilization, the umbrella, the comforter, the clog. The constant out-door activity of the population will ensure their robust health, and the street gallery will, on minor occasions, free them from the annoyances and injurious influences of our muddy, comfortless streets.

In all the arrangements of the Phalanstery, comfort and convenience are always combined with elegance. Thus, the large public banquet or dining-rooms have several smaller ones adjoining them, for the accommodation of private parties of friends or industrial groups; and each family or individual may, moreover, without increase of expense, take their meals as at present in their private apartments. But for a full description of all the various details of this noble building we must again refer to Fourier’s own works, or Victor Considerant’s “Destinee Sociale.” (See also People’s Journal, Nos. 12 and 14.)

The Church—the temple of Spiritual Harmony, and the Opera—the school of Material and Artistic Harmony, complete the centre of Phalansterian Unity.

The same principles of unity are carried out in the distribution of the soil. Instead of covering the land with ditches and enclosures, and deadwalls,—instead of forcing it to produce what the nature of the soil is not suited for, at a vast expense of labour, and money laid out on manure, often brought from far,—instead of leaving waste fine tracts of land which a small outlay might soon cover with verdant crops, or luxuriant groves, the body of agriculturists analyse every portion of the common estate, and distribute the agricultural, horticultural, and agricultural labours according to the natural qualities of the soil and various expositions. The force of association allows of all these works being carried out on a large scale, the most perfect instruments of tillage being substituted for the paltry and imperfect ones still so much in use, from the poverty or prejudice of the farmers; besides every facility being offered by the unitary stables, for the collecting, classifying, and proper distribution of manure, without the present ruinous expense. Soiling, the rotation of crops, and judicious irrigation, can likewise be carried to the highest pitch of perfection, on an estate of 5,000 or 6,000 acres in extent, to the cultivation of which nearly 2,000 persons devote Rome portion, however small, of their time; and no portion of the soil is subjected, as at present, to the caprices of ignorance, or the necessities of individual poverty. Thus it is already easy to see that the profits of association are two-fold: negative, consisting in economies of time, labour, and produce; and positive, from an actual increase in the produce, consequent on the concentration of power, and the superiority of the methods and implements which a large body can command; for the bounteous earth asks only to be courted, and is prodigal in her gifts to those who bestow on her some portion of their attention, but often barren and cheerless as an abandoned lover, when neglected by man. Great however, as the increase of the general wealth of the community would already be, it might not still allow of a sufficiency for all, nor would the happiness of the individual yet be complete, for man is a creature compounded of matter and spirit, and the mere gratification of his material wants cannot satisfy him. Fourier would have only done a small portion of his duty towards man if, after having so acutely analysed his nature, he had not sought the means of satisfying his seven spiritual as well as his five sensitive or materialpassions, which latter he considered as the subordinate; nor would he have been true to the system of nature, had he not sought in all things to substitute attraction for constraint.

ORGANIZATION OF LABOUR.

As yet, labour, the destiny of man, has been looked upon as an evil, and only resorted to through the compulsion of law or necessity; and this has I led to the general belief that repose, or inertion, is the state man is most inclined to. Yet man is essentially an active being; and generally none are more so than the professedly idle. For behold a group of children in their hours of recreation, when perfectly free, if so inclined, to indulge in sloth and indolence. How active are they in the pursuit of pleasure! how laborious the occupations to which they voluntarily subject themselves! And how great their courage and endurance in overcoming difficulties of their own choice or creation! What also can be more fatiguing, more laborious than a fox-hunt or a steeple-chase? and what more monotonous, more tedious than fishing? Yet these occupations are the delight of many. It is not, therefore, labour in itself that is repulsive, since on the contrary it is so frequently resorted to as a source of supreme pleasure, for voluntary labour is ever attractive. We must therefore seek for its repulsiveness in the form in which it presents itself, in its mere accessories. We have already seen that there are implanted in man three distributive passions-the spirit of rivalry, or emulation; enthusiasm, or blind zeal; and the love of change. These passions not having had as yet a legitimate development, have generally been proscribed by our philosophers, who presumed to correct these works of God, while their duty was to seek how they might be properly directed to ultimate good. Now labour, as it has hitherto been constituted, gives satisfaction to none of these. The spirit of rivalry has found development only in the various forms of gambling (cards, dice, racing, stock-jobbing, &c.) or in religious, political, and legal discussions, which have generally led to bloodshed and ruin. Enthusiasm, which is chiefly awakened by large masses, united by some common interest or sentiment, finds, alas! its most complete development in a body whose chief function is destruction—the army. And the satisfaction of the love of change, so essential to the full development of an our faculties, is the privilege of a few rich only, who, using it in the mere pursuit of unproductive and egotistical pleasure, often find it an insupportable burthen.

But let us enter into the field of civilized labour. What do we see? A man, a woman, or a child spending a whole day in a solitary field, ploughing, digging, or weeding incessantly; or a human being, changed into an animated machine, spending whole days, years, a life, in making the eighteenth part of a pin, or feeding with flax a spinning machine, which performs the really creativepart of the work! What enthusiasm can be awakened in the workman’s breast, and renew his energy, in the performance of such duties? What spirit of rivalry can call forth his ingenuity? and by what means can he develop the faculties of his head, of his heart, the several talents which perchance lay dormant in his bosom? If we add to this the poverty of the workman’s fare and dress, the unsightliness and impurity of the generality of workshops, and the offensiveness of their atmosphere, we cannot wonder that labour should be considered a hardship, and only resorted to through the dread of starvation. Yet these conditions, not being inherent to labour, can and should be removed, and perhaps attraction, or the pleasure men feel in exercising their various faculties in occupations of their own choice, may, by a change in its mechanism, give to production an impetus which society has been in vain striving for three thousand years to attain by violence. Fourier, to satisfy these three passions or impulses implanted in us by the hand of God, proposes what is only feasible in an association of 1500 or 2000 persons of every age, rank, and fortune, viz., that all the branches of human activity, agricultural, domestic, manufacturing and commercial labour, education, science, and art, shall, as is already the case in most manufactures, be subdivided into classes, species, varieties, sub-varieties, &c., until the minutest subdivision be reached; but instead of condemning a few individuals to adopt exclusively one of these subdivisions, which makes life dwindle down to the limits of thirty or forty years of moral and physical misery, he leaves them all open to the free choice of the population, who, following the true bent of their nature, or their attractions, form friendly groups for the accomplishment of any particular variety or sub-variety. As these groups are formed of persons who have a liking for their occupation, they work with enthusiasm and zeal, as is the case when men assemble for their pleasure, however laborious it may be in itself (racing, cricket, rowing, &c.). If at the same time, rivalryor emulation can be excited between two groups engaged in almost identical occupations, the exertions of both will become extraordinary, and the work will be incomparably more joyously, more quickly, and more perfectly performed, than if the members of each group had undertaken a small share of the work, and accomplished it alone.

But enthusiasm, from its very intensity, is of short duration, rarely exceeding the limits of two hours. Once this fire extinguished, the attention lags, energy fails, and indifference ensues; and unless some fresh occupation arouse the spirits anew, they fall into a torpor which borders on stupidity. An opera of four hours’ duration would become tedious. How much more so a mere material occupation! With the exception therefore of the sciences and fine arts, few employments will last more than two hours; nor in this new organization is it likely they could be of a much longer duration; for groups of workmen are always substituted for individuals, and it is evident that the work which would employ one mall for twelve hours, would only employ six men for two hours, independently of the influence of enthusiasm and rivalry, which more than double the active energies of man, and cannot be awakened in solitary and long-continued labour. After two hours’ work, more or less, the group breaks up, and each member proceeds to join some other group of his own choice, which he again quits for another, and so on in succession through the course of the day. This breaking up of the groups prevents any jealousy, however strong, between any two industrial bodies, from turning, as at present, into hatred between persons; for it may happen that the very individuals who were corporatively opposed in the morning, may in the afternoon be amicably leagued together in the pursuit of some common occupation. The simplicity of the work entrusted to each group being, in consequence of its extreme subdivision, very great, it will require no long apprenticeship; so that every individual, man, woman, or child, may, after having given satisfactory proofs of competence, belong to twenty o thirty different groups, and yet attain more or less excellence in each. The gardens and orchards are placed, as nearly as the nature of the soil, will allow, in the immediate vicinity of the Phalanstery, the remoter portions of the domain being reserved for fields, pastures, and woods; and as all the manufactories and workshops arc on the opposite side of the road, but little time will he lost in moving from one group to another. Conveyances are moreover provided for those groups whose occupations may require their presence at the limits of the domain, the greatest distance of which from the Phalanstery is always under two miles.

Our abilities can only be justly and soundly appreciated by our peers; hence to each group belongs exclusively the right of electing its director or chief. Thus, mathematicians must be elected exclusively by mathematicians, agriculturists by agriculturists, and musicians, painters, or architects by those who are alone competent judges, from their pursuing similar avocations. The election of the most talented is thus ensured in each particular group; for ever) member is personally interested in the perfect fairness of the choice, as the placing of an incompetent person at the head of the group would injure it materially, by diminishing its productive powers, and morally, by calling down upon it the criticisms and jeers of rival groups, The chiefs of the groups elect from among themselves the chiefs of the varieties to which they belong. These again choose the chief of the species; and thus, by a series of progressive elections, we arrive at the chiefs or ministers of the principal branches of human activity (agriculture, manufactures, education, commerce, &c.), who form the general council or Regency of the Community.

To ensure a just equilibrium between all the labours essential to the welfare of the Community, a larger share of artificial attraction, such as honours, privileges, superior remuneration, &c., will be superadded to those functions which of themselves are less attractive. But this rule is subject to some exceptions, in order to leave a scope for the satisfaction of the passion of Uniteeism, or social charity and self-sacrifice.

Thus labour, now so repugnant, is rendered attractive by the mere fact of every man, woman, and child being enabled to follow the true bent of their inclination in the choice of their several occupations and industrial companions; and of giving due satisfaction to the three distributive passions, viz., those of rivalry, enthusiasm, and variety, or discord, concord, and modulation. Add to these spiritual attractions to activity, the material charms offered by a participation in the fruits of the united exertions of the members of each group, and above all, the substitution of airy, comfortable, neat, and even handsome workshops, enlivened by various artistic ornaments and the delights of music, for the filthy, cheerless, dark dens in which so many emaciated and demoralized human beings now perform their monotonous and health-destroying duties j and we think that all unprejudiced minds will freely admit that industry may become attractive, yea attractive, when, by a good and natural organization, every useful occupation shall have become a pleasure, and every pleasure a useful occupation.

In the division of profits among the three elements of production, the rights of capitalare, as at present, proportionate to the original investments. Those of labour are calculated upon the number of hours each member has worked; and those of talent are determined by the rank held in the industrial hierarchy. Thus, an operation which may at first sight have appeared of a most complicated nature, is, from the admirable organization of Phalansterian society, reduced to a simple arithmetical problem, termed Fellowship, or Partnership, which any school boy may solve.

It is needless to say that, enriched as the Phalanx would be by both positive and negative wealth, (increased produce and economies of all sorts,) it could easily afford to advance to every man, woman, or child, a minimum in food, lodging, and clothing, as a substitute for the natural rights of hunting, fishing, pasturage, gathering, &e., enjoyed by, the savage, but which are incompatible with an organized society. That this advance of the first necessaries of life would be no inducement to idleness where industry is rendered more attractive than pleasures are in civilisation, will be evident to all those who have examined a group of idlers, for, as we have already stated, idlers are often the most active of men, and in order to become most useful members of society, and more than repay the advance made to them, only require labour to be presented in an attractive form, with a constant change of occupation; for they have generally the love of varietyas their dominant passion. Should such an anomaly as a perfectly inert man present itself, the Phalanx will consider him as a madman, and as such he will, like the infant, the aged, and the sick, have an incontestable right to their assistance.

We must however admit that this minimum can only be ensured where labour is attractive, for were it guaranteed to every member of civilised society, in which labour takes its most repulsive forms, the whole population would soon fall into the most complete idleness. The English poor laws, which constitute a sort of minimum, tacitly acknowledging in all men the rights of subsistence, though most inadequate even to the first wants of nature, have however had a decidedly pernicious effect on the population. There is no liberty without the minumum; there is no minimum without attractive industry.

Such is a rapid and most imperfect sketch of Fourier’s system of organizing labour, in which attraction is substituted for the compulsion of law or want, and by which the produce may be increased ten fold without injury to the labourer. It may be summed up in the following terms:

Collective labour universally substituted for individual labour; and its natural consequence:

Shortand varied occupations substituted for long-protracted and tedious occupations.

WOMAN.

It is manifest that in a society where all its members, men, women, and children, are guaranteed a respectable maintenance through their own industry, the condition of woman will be materially altered, and that the gentler half of humanity will cease to be held in thraldom by the physicallystronger. But there would be so much to say on this subject, that we prefer reserving it for a special article. Suffice it to say, that even in marriage, woman would still retain her individuality and independence, and no longer be absorbed in the person of her husband, and often brutalized by his power. Her property, her earnings, her inheritances, all would remain indisputably her own, and be subject to no marital influences. The great equalizer, Love, would of course make all things common between those whose union originated in the heart; and in the Phalanstery there would be no other unions; but the law would not step in and say to the wife, “All that was yours belongs henceforth to your husband; your duty is for the future resignation and obedience to his will and his caprices.” And let it be observed, that every step towards the complete emancipation of woman is likewise a step in the progress of humanity; and that, were civilised nations suddenly to exchange monogamy and the civil rights of the wife for polygamy, or the seraglio, they would in a short period relapse into barbarianism. Independence and the general education of the mind and heart of woman will do more towards the extirpation of vice than all the moral treatises that were ever penned by hoary-headed men; and modesty and virtue will reign universally, when woman, the protecting angel of our infancy, the fairest dream of our youth, the companion of our life, being fully emancipated and conscious of her supreme worth, shall universally receive that esteem, love, and reverence, to which she is so eminently entitled.

Then will the chivalrous sentiments which cast such a charm and lustre over the early parts of modern times, and which were, alas! rather the creation of poetic minds than a genuine picture of the social habits, be in truth realised; for when woman, becoming free, no longer depends upon marriage to obtain a certain standing in life, a feeling which but too often induces her to form a union against the inspirations of her heart, man will be aware that to obtain her, he must win her affections, deserve her esteem, and far from commanding and tyrannising in what is essentially the dominion of woman, must in Love subject himself to her will. These principles will no doubt seem far from orthodox to the stronger sex, who in framing the laws of marriage, have been careful to reserve for themselves the lion’s share; but let them consider well that they may yet be the gainers by the change; for woman, restored to her rights and dignity, will no longer have recourse to the cunning and duplicity by which she now but too frequently regains the influence of which she has been so unjustly deprived. If any man doubt this influence. obtained by double dealing and deceit, let him but examine attentively the domestic circle of his neighbours and friends, though it were better he shut his eyes against his own.

While on this subject we will briefly state that the few pages in which Fourier treats of matrimonial doctrines have called forth the most bitter and no doubt virtuous animadversions of our modern Tartuffes, who instead of attentively studying the system as a whole, in order to be able to judge fairly, even though unfavourably, of its parts, act like boys with a book of medical or natural science, seeking out certain passages with the help of the index, and then, taking their own impure minds and our corrupt civilisation as a standard, build thereon a system of turpitude and vice by which they alarm innocent and unsuspecting minds, and thus deter them from the study of a science which bears in it the germs of the future regeneration of mankind. But, to pacify the pure minded, thus alarmed by mere sophisms, we will simply assert that Fourier has striven to introduce into the relations of love that same truthfulness and sincerity which he makes the basis of all-our other relations in life; and though he foresaw that in a purer state of society, in which all impediments are removed from genuine unions of the heart, and in which that monstrous legal prostitution, that infamy of infamies, the “mariage de convenance” is utterly unknown, some modifications may without danger take place in matrimonial institutions. Though he foresaw this, still, unlike Plato, Owen, and St. Simon, he always strenuously maintained that the present conjugal institutions should be most religiously preserved for three or four generations after the general establishment of harmony upon earth; and even then only altered when all those whom the question most vitally interests, viz., husbands, fathers, magistrates, and the clergy, shall have agreed, after due consideration, that a change would be desirable and unattended with peril. Still, unlike the above-named philosophers, he lays down no positive or dogmatic rule on this subject, but merely states that such and such forms of conjugal relations, which he describes, may possibly, and in all probability will be, the result of the serial or natural organization of labour, which is alone proposed by him as an absoluterule. The pertinacity with which all his opponents-attack him on this point only betrays their utter ignorance of his works; and more than one has been surprised in perusing them carefully, neither to find as the rule of this new social order the polygamy of the Patriarchs, nor the revolting community of women paired off yearly by lots, proposed by the divine Plato.

EDUCATION.

The most beautiful and interesting part of the economical portion of I’ Fourier’s Theory is perhaps his system of Education, of which we will also make a separate article. The tender care with which he seeks out and awakens the tastes and talents of children from their earliest infancy, and directs them to the beautiful and the good—the paternal solicitude with which he keeps from them all that might corrupt their innocent minds, or awaken dangerous passions before the naturalage of puberty (17 or 18),—measures which are impracticable in the incoherence of civilisation, where everything, books, pictures, conversations, bad examples, and legions of human beings living chiefly by the corruption of youth, tends daily, hourly, to awaken in the child’s mind ideas which are pollution and death to body and soul, but which become possible and easy in association; and finally, the social use he makes of the activity, talents, and propensities, of what he so quaintly and profoundly, but alas! in civilisation, so satirically terms the neuter sex, are well deserving- of the attention of all philanthropists and thinkers, and above all, of mothers, the only competent judges in matters of infantine education.

We will not enter either into any details respecting the balance of population, a question which Fourier has treated with truly scientific, humane, : and religious sentiment, vastly distinct from that which presides over the cheerless, cruel, heartless theory of Malthus, who makes all the nobler feelings of the soul subservient to the mere materialnecessaries of life (and these how scanty!); who subjects spirit to matter, and finds no other means of keeping population on a level with the means of subsistence, than moral restraint, or a prudential restraint from marriage, which is nothing short of an absolute crushing of the heart, an abstaining from the two gentler affective passions, love and familism; neither will we show how several phalansteries, grouping round a phalanstery of the second degree or borough, form a canton,—several cantons grouping round a phalanstery of the third degree or town, form a shire,—several shires a province, several provinces a nation, several nations a continent, and finally, all the continents grouping round the Capital of the globe, (probably Constantinople, from its favourable position,) the superior centre of all the social relations of spherical unity, which, being the brain and the heart of the globe (to assimilate it to the human frame), will receive life from, and distribute it to, all parts through the means of its nerves (the electric telegraph), and of its vast arteries (lakes, rivers, canals, railways); neither will we speak of the amelioration of climates, through the gradual cultivation of the deserts, and reclaiming of unwholesome marshes, by means of industrial armies substituted for those numerous armies of destruction which society, as yet unable to organize labour and production, has displayed so much ingenuity in organizing; for the reader will find all these questions admirably treated in the works of Fourier and of his now numerous disciples. But we will close this short sketch of so vast a subject by saying, that Fourier’s system, unlike the Commonwealth of Plato, More’s Utopia, Cabet’s Icaria, and all other social schemes, is not the offspring of a blind though well-meaning imagination; it is the genuine discovery of Nature’s laws, the bearing out of what Newton so wonderfully began; it carries the precision of the mathematical and natural sciences, the warmth of feeling and beauty of the fine arts, the elegancies of refined life, and more than the aspirations of the democrat into our social relations: it acknowledges that all parties, however opposite, are founded on a partial truth, a legitimate right, only unjustbecause exclusive, but to which a well organized society should and could give entire satisfaction, and it seeks the law by which these partial and contending truths may be combined in one sublime and harmonious unity. In it, all the vital questions of the day—the rights of property, the rights of labour, universal suffrage, the extinction of pauperism, general sanatory measures, public education, protection of women, universal peace, &c. &c.—find their only logical, only complete solution; and by its means alone can the struggle between capital and labour cease, or rather be converted into a friendly and beneficial emulation—a struggle which may otherwise burst forth into a fearful conflict, equally destructive to both parties; for, says Bacon, “The matter of seditions is of two kinds: much poverty and much discontent;” and again, “The rebellions of the bellyare the worst,”

The free association of the three essential elements of production, whereby every individual, man, woman, or child, may participate in the produce, each in proportion to the Capital, Labour, or Talent employed in its creation; and the Organization of Labour, in which attraction or pleasure is the great incentive to activity, developing at the same time, the physical, moral, and intellectual faculties of every member of society, each in proportion to his or her natural endowments:—such are the two leading features of Fourier’s Model Community or Phalanx, the experimental establishment of which on one square league, is the great hope and final object of the most ardent endeavours of his school.

We have, of course, in this short pamphlet, given a most incomplete and unsatisfactory view’ of this vast subject; tut our aim was merely to clear the Phalansterian. doctrines from the accusation of communism and immorality. For further information, we must refer all who have the happiness of mankind at heart, to the various publications of the “Ecole Sociétaire.” Though Fourier’s own works might be considered too voluminous and abstruse to begin with, there are many concise and popular views of his theory, the perusal of which would amply repay the few hours spent on them, and probably add as many converts in different degrees as there were readers. By these simple means the Phalansterian ranks are daily increasing, drawing their chief recruits from among scientific and literary men and artists. The central school at Paris which twenty years ago consisted of a deaf man, a lady, and a child, has lately been enabled to publish a daily paper, “La Démocratie Pacifique,” which has within the last six weeks increased its daily sale from 1,500 to 25,000; a monthly review, “La Phalange,” in which Fourier’s principles of universal unity are applied with great success to the higher questions of religion, science, literature, and art; and the works continually issued by them are sufficiently numerous and varied to suit every degree of knowledge and satisfy every taste.

We should, indeed, advise every student of Fourier, to begin by some of the simpler works of his disciples; for Fourier’s own writings, like those of Newton, are, from their inherent abstruseness, and the novelty of the doctrines they present, difficult to be understood and appreciated without some preparation. The following works are among those we chiefly recommend:—

l.—Exposition Abrégée, by Victor Considerant, 9d.;
or, Organisation du Travail, by M. Briancourt, 10d.
or, Exposition de Victor Hennequin.

2.—Solidarité, by R. Renaud, 1s. 3d.;

or, Notions Élémentaires, by H. Gorsse, 1s. 6d.

3.—Destinée Sociale, by V. Considerant, 14s.

4.—Le Fou du Palais Royal, Cantagrel, 4s.

5.—Visite au Phalanstere, by M. Briancourt.

6.—Vie de Fourier, Ch. Pellarin, 5s.

7.—Nouveau Monde Industriel, Ch. Fourier, 6s.

8.—Théorie de L’Unité Universelle, “ 20s.

9.—Théorie des Quatre Mouvements, “ 6s.

10.—La Phalange, a Monthly Review, publishing Fourier’s numerous manuscripts.

Fourier’s doctrines had made but little progress in England, till within the last month, owing no doubt to their abstruseness, and the dread entertained in this country of what is termed socialism. But be it remembered, that Newton’s sublime doctrines were long held up to public odium by Leibnitz, as subversive of true religion, and that the same accusations of absurdity, immorality, or imposture have always been the lot of great and glorious novelties; nor were the first Christians themselves dealt With more ceremoniously at the hands of the pagans of antiquity.

However this may be, the English sketches of the Phalansterian system are few and imperfect, being limited, we believe, to the following:—

“Attractive Industry,” by Abel Transon; with a sketch of Fourier’s Life, by H. Doherty. “Fourier and his System,” translated by T. Wood, which though good in parts, is imperfect as a whole. Four brief articles, in Vol. I. of People’s Journal, by Tito Pagliardini. A Translation of “Exposition Abrégée,” in the Topic, June 1st, 1847. The article, “Fourier,” in supplement to Penny Cyclopedia, and “Morell’s History of Modern Philosophy,” 2nd edition, 1847, though it is evident from the concluding remarks, Vol. II., page 388 and 389, that the author had taken but a hurried and incomplete view of the subject, which is the more to be regretted, in consequence of his general tone of impartiality.

The Morning Chronicle which, from being the most retrograde and shortsighted paper in London, has, since it recently changed hands, become one of the most enlightened, has also given, in its numbers of 29th and 31st March and 1st April, a short but impartial summary of the practical portion of Fourier’s views. A Society termed the Phalansterian Association, is however formed with a view to translating and publishing Fourier’s works and those of his disciples. All communications, on this subject, are received at 55, Rupert Street, Haymarket, and at P. Rolandi’s, Bookseller, Berners Street, where also the above-named works can be obtained.

[1] By Passion, Fourier means any motive, or spring of action whatever—the source of all our virtues as well as of our vices; for, like all other movements in nature, the passions are subjected to a twofold. development (Dualité de mouvement): one harmonic or direct, the other subversive or indirect. The action of the passions is harmonic when in accordance with, and subversive when opposed to, the Divine will. But as all the social conditions in which man has hitherto been placed, have been opposed to his real nature and tendencies, his passions have in general taken the subversive direction; hence the exclusively unfavourable acceptation in which the word passion is at present generally taken.

[2] Before we continue our account of his views, we must warn the reader that Fourier, like all inventors, has presumed to adopt a few new words in order to express new ideas; and carrying mathematical precision into the science of society, has even ventured to use mathematical formulae. This boldness on his part has, however, called forth the censure of many plain, straight-forward, practical men, and has even, we areassured, deterred many from paying due attention to his system. We have more reasons than one for supposing that the same practical men have avoided, on a similar plea, the study of algebra, geometry, astronomy, and especially of chemistry, natural history, and botany; for these sciences, though already overladen with hard and barbarous words, to wit—dodecahedron, megatheridae hypogenous, caspidate, pinnatifid, papiilionaceous—are daily adding to their stock. We confess ourselves, however, at a loss to account for the immunity granted on this point to the inventors of steam-engines, railways, and pomatums, as well as to the reporters of the money-market and city-news. The chief sins of Fourier in this respect, are the terms of Phalanstery, Cabalist, Composite, Unitecism, aroma!, pivotal, serial law, binivers, with about a dozen others, together with a peculiar use of the letters X, Y, and K, (in imitation of algebraists,) which, however, we must confess, add greatly to the precision and clearness of his formulae. We must likewise in justice to him state, that all these terms are as clearly defined in his works as the geometrical terms are in the books of Euclid, and that his formulae and tables are wonderfully clear and concise even for those whose scientific education has been neglected.

[3] How frequently does a repast, from being too much prolonged, degenerate into an orgia! Yet if, when the necessities of nature were duly satisfied, any important or attractive occupation were immediately to follow the banquet, such ns a religious or political meeting, a ball, an opera, or any scientific or artistic pursuit, this excess would be presented, to the great advantage of each individual, as also of the moral and physical condition of society in general; hence tile utility of the alternating passion, and the need of so arranging society as to give it due satisfaction.

Fourier's response to the Gazette de France — I

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn P. Wilbur) — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 06:03:00 +0000

FOURIER‘S REPLY TO THE GAZETTE DE FRANCE,

in which his doctrines were grossly misrepresented as being anti-christian.

“Having been publicly calumniated in the columns of a daily newspaper, by some pseudo-Christians, who are evidently influenced by that false pride which they pretend to condemn, it is my duty to refute their sophistry, and show the inconsistency of those absurd critics and false prophets who publicly admit the want of that very discovery of practical truth, which they blindly calumniate in my theory.

“‘Tant de fiel entre-t-il den l‘âme des dévots?’”

Boileau.

Yes: Uncharitable feeling and angry prejudice possess the souls of pseudo-saints and scribbling hypocrites, who treat religion as a mere material of mercantile monopoly. These pious mountebanks would plead as zealously for Judas as for Jesus, if money could be gained by it. The most triﬂing incident furnishes them with p. pretext for opposition against the Government of the day; to sound a general alarm, and raise a cry of “the Church in danger,” “religion undermined,” and “Jesus Christ insulted.” And all this is merely to secure a "living," or realize one hundred francs per column in a newspaper. Calumny, in fact, is a. fruitful source of profit in mercantile Paris.

A science which reveals the secret of abolishing slavery, banishing poverty, preventing crime, and neutralizing false doctrines, such as atheism, materialism, and other philosophical aberrations, has provoked the angry censure of the Gazette de France, in one of its recent numbers, (December, 1835.) The writer in the Gazette is indignant at the very mention of such a thing as the discovery of the science of human destiny, showing the wisdom of the Creator to be greater than that of philosophy with regard to the passions and instincts of the human race, and the industrial mechanism of society.

Up to the present time, the Creator of all things. who has displayed so much wisdom in the mechanism of the material universe, had not manifested the same harmony in the social world, which appears to have been subject to the Evil Spirit during the last 5000 years, since the fall of man; and this apparent lack of Providence has brought into repute a false philosophy or scientific superstition, amongst atheists, materialists, and matter-of-fact-mongers generally, who point to the falsehood and injustice of society as a matter-of-fact proof against a ruling Deity, omnipotent, omniscient and infinitely good.

This want of faith is now proved to he unreasonable, as well as irreligious, by the new science which demonstrates that the passions and instincts of mankind are subject to a two-fold mechanism in society,— the one being false and sinful, the other just and true. In the first, we are doomed to misery; in the second, to redemption.-— (The science of social harmony may be deemed the forerunner of that spirit of the Holy Ghost, which Christ has promised should regenerate the world, and introduce the kingdom of heaven and its justice on earth.—E. P.) This science demonstrates that which we are told in Scripture, i. e. that the fall of man is not permanent and irreparable, but accidental and redeemable. After the fall of man, the false mechanism of the passions was a necessary and an inevitable transition ; but this subversive state has been unnecessarily prolonged, and more particularly since the mission of Christ, by the aberrations of philosophy, and the indolence of pseudo-Christians. The work of regeneration may, however, be at once commenced by a practical demonstration of attractive industry and associative economyapplied to a school of three or four hundred children, and proving its efficiency on a larger scale, by which the whole human race may gradually and speedily emerge from the gloomy maze of barbarism and anarchial civilization.

When we see the possibility of realizing these effects, may we not conclude that the real cause of anger in those who oppose us by calumny, is the fear of such a change tending to expose the deeds of false piety, and tear away the mask from those pseudo-Christians, who, having neither faith, hope, nor charity, nor a true conception of God’s power, degrade his providence, by supposing that the sufferings of humanity are. agreeable in his sight.

We must not he deceived by the mere diferences of profession: there are false prophets and arrogant philosophers amongst both priests and laymen. I am not, however, to he duped by their disguise, and whether their sophistry assume the name of religion or philosophy, I shall show their impious tendency in striving to mislead us with regard to the will and the wisdom of our Maker.

They pretend that religion is subverted, and Jesus Christ insulted, by my theory. How can Christ be insulted by the discovery of those principles of peace and harmony which he himself taught us to seek, and, which may be said to realize his own views, by a practical solution of the Christian problem? He preached the doctrine of freedom to the captive, and consolation to the poor. His Gospel has been the principal means of effecting that general emancipation from personal slavery, which was deemed impossible by the philosophy of antiquity ; and my theory of attractive industry and united economy will help to complete the work of redemption by banishing poverty and emancipating labor from the bondage of indirect slavery and mercantile anarchy. One practical demonstration of this theory will be the signal for universal emancipation, to be effectcd simultaneously in all parts of the globe.

Three hundred millions of slaves and‘ serfs may be rapidly introduced to freedom without any risk of lessening labor, and without incurring the expense of fiscal ransom in imitation of the twenty millions lately squandered by the English Government in blind concession to the clamors of an ill-advised philanthropy.

Such limited and partial applications of the principles of freedom only serve to excite ferment and rebellion amongst the majority of slaves still held in bondage, andparticularly amongst those of the Brazils, whose numbers are said to exceed five millions, augmented by a yearly importation? of forty thousand, in spite of the prohibitionary regulations. These slaves are said ; to be in a state of permanent conspiracy.—l Rebellion has already broken out amongst them in Bahia and Para, where much blood has been shed, and these commotions, may be deemed a prelude to the general massacre of the white population, unless a more effcient principle of manumission be speedily and generally adopted.

In the United States of America, those who speak of abolishing slavery are subject to Lynch law, and dispatched without ceremony. A strange result, indeed, in a Republican country, that a man's life should be forfeited by democratic slave-holders, for having listened only to those who promulgate the doctrines of liberty. Such, however, is the fact; the fruit of modern theories of mercantile economy and sceptical philosophy.

It is of paramount importance, then, that the king, the ministers, and the parliament in France, should be duly informed of the folly of sacrificing ten millions sterling to the injudicious manumission of one thousandth part of the slaves on the globe, when the whole may be rapidly emancipated by the gradual extension of social combination, and without any danger to property and industry.

The associative method of emancipation being based on the principle of attractive industry, will render the arts of producing wealth infinitely more agreeable than any of the ordinary pursuits of pleasure in the present suite of things; and the three classes who are now the least inclined to useful industry.—that is, the free savage, the uncontrolled child, and the voluptuous sybarite,—will then become the most active and untiring agents of production.

The owners of slaves would soon be reimbursed by those whom they had held in bondage, and who, when industry became a pleasure, would soon enrich themselves, and liquidate collectively, by gradual instalments, the debt of their emancipation.

Poverty would speedily be banished from the earth ; the produce of combined and attractive industry would soon be so abundant, that a decent minimum of subsistence might easily be guaranteed to the most humble classes of society; even to those individuals who could not labor for themselves.

That these results should irritate in prospect the writer of the Gazette, is somewhat strange. He is perfectly free, however, to plead for the continuance of poverty and slavery; but it will not be very easy to persuade the Christian public that the final destruction of these social calamities would be an insult to Jesus Christ.

During the last thirty years, the newspaper scribes have assailed me by calumny in a great variety of forms, but none of them had ever before ventured to assert that my principles were contrary to Christianity.Fortunately, however, the Evangelists are there to prove whether my theory or the declaration of the Gazette is most accordant with the principles of truth and charity; and which is the most worthy of confidence, the doctrines of the Gospel or those of the Gazette!

There have been two instruments of Divine Providence with whom I could not disagree without denying my own principles; and these were, Jesus Christ and Newton. (And be it understood that in speaking here of Jesus Christ in connexion with Newton and himself, Fourier does not pretend to compare his own discovery of the laws of passional or moral attraction, and Newton’s discovery of the laws of gravitation or material attraction, with the Divine mission of Jesus Christ, any further than in such degrees as one class of truths stand related to another in the universal principle of justice and harmony.) Jesus Christ foretold the discovery and the practical application of the principles of peace and social harmony, and he forcibly enjoined his followers to seek the kingdom of Heaven and its justice, but they have hitherto failed in practising his precepts. They have, indeed, refused the task of discovering the practical mechanism of Christian principles; and in their mental darkness they have said, that truth and justice were impracticable in this world.

Sixteen hundred years, however, after the birth of Christ, Newton discovered the principles of attraction which regulate the material harmony of the world, but he neglected the mechanism of moral harmony, the principles of which it has fallen to my lot to discover in obedience to the will of Christ, whose positive injunctions, were—“Seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you; ask and it shall be given; for there is nothing covered that shall not be known, neither hid that shall not be revealed.” The principles of passional attraction and repulsionare exactly analogous to those of material attraction and repulsiondiscovered by Newton, and both are perfectlyin accordance with the precepts of the Gospel, notwithstanding the contracted views and the blind apprehensions of pseudo-Christians.

How is it possible, then, that I could be in contradiction with my two guides in science and religon? I defy the world to prove that in my writings there is a single phrase alluding to Christ which does not venerate his wisdom and his goodness. And the unscrupulous Gazette has the audacity to publish throughout the land that my doctrines are an insult to Jesus Christ! But I will confound the authors of this foul calumny, both mediate and immediate. I say mediate and immediate, because I know that the writer in the Gazette is only the tool of the Philosophical Pandemonium, who play their game in secret, and constitute a central power of obscurism to swamp whatever happens to expose their ignorance.

After trying to traduce my principles in the sphere of science, the philosophical clique is now trying to prove that I am an enemy to Christianity. It is really an amusing novelty to see philosophers become the advocates of Jesus Christ. They were not so anxious about either him or his doctrine when both were really attacked by Saint-Simonism, which was just on the point of raising in the church a greater schism than that of either Arius or Luther.

I am not, otherwise. displeased that the scribes of the Gazette should have entered this field of discussion, in which it will be easy to unmask them. Jesus Christ himself shall be my advocate; I desire no other aid than that of his Gospel.

It will be easy to show that the scribes of the Gazettehave but an imperfect idea of the meaning of Holy Writ, and that it is impossible to have a full knowledge of scriptural revelation without understanding the eternal laws of passional attraction as they are revealed to us in human nature and universal analogy. In the time of the apostles, the Doctors of Divinity were in a similar state of darkness to that which obscures the mental vision of the present age. When they accused Jesus of contradicting the scriptures, he exposed their ignorance, saying—“Do ye not, therefore, err, because ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God.” (St Mark, xii. 24.) In this manner Christ proved the incapacity of the self-righteous scribes and philosophers of that period ; and the eternal truths which he then uttered will amply suffice to confound the intolerant hypocrites of the present day. But let us look into the Gospel for the light which is to guide us. Are we not therein told, that :—

24. “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.

25. “Therefore, I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

26. “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns (as you have the power of doing;) yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

27. “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature ?

28. “And why take ye thought for raiment? consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

29. “And yet, I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these.

30. “Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you? O, ye of little faith?

31. “Therefore, take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? or, what shall wedrink? or, wherewithal shall we be clothed!

32. “For your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.

33. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you." (St. Matth. vi.)

Here is the two-fold destiny of humanity announced by Christ himself: a better state of society which he calls the “kingdom of God and of justice:” a state of things in which we may enjoy all the necessary comforts of life without care and anxiety. And be it remembered that these injunctions relate to this world as well as to another; for we are expressly told that, if we neglect the kingdom of God in this world, we shall lose it in the next. It is evident, however, that the comforts of life and the quietude of mind, promised by Christ when we shall have established the kingdom of justice and harmony upon earth, are refused to us in those iniquitous states of society, called barbarism and competitive civilization, in which physical privation, moral depravity, mental delusion, and sectarian discord are gradually descending into the deepest regions of iniquity, instead of vanishing progressively before the light of truth and justice and religious unity.

It may be said that we are more advanced than the Jews were in the time of Christ ; but I think we have but little to boast of in the present day, when it is an acknowledged fact, that two thirds of the French nation, or 22 millions out of 33, are limited to the miserable pittance of three-pence farthing a day for their entire sustenance, food, clothing, fire, lodging, and recreation. No wonder that they still exclaim, “What shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be clothed?” when those who ought to guide them and strengthen their faith, refuse to seek the kingdom of God and his justice, and prefer the reign of fraud, depravity, misery, and unbelief.

And yet Christ has promised us an abundance of worldly comforts and peace of mind; but on condition that we first seek the kingdom of Heaven and its justice.—What, then, is the kingdom of Heaven for which we are told to pray, that the will of God may be done in earth as it is in Heaven? It is the reign of social harmony, by means of moral regeneration, and the establishment of attractive industry with united economy, in which state of society the practice of truth and justice would lead to wealth and honor, while falsehood and injustice would lead to shame and trouble. In such a state of things, the religious and the worldly motives would unite in harmony: the terrestrial would be consonant with the celestial destiny; and the will of God be done in earth as it is in Heaven.

But let us not be misunderstood to mean that physical comfort would stand in lieu of moral and religious duty: we mean no such thing: but we do mean to say, that physical privation leads to crime, and stands in the way of religious progress. So far, then, industrial harmony would aid the work of moral regeneration.

As far as our worldly condition is concerned, the new order of things would realize the kingdom of God and his justice upon earth ; and the most superficial calculation of its advantages proves that Christ was truly inspired in promising us worldly comforts in abundance with perfect peace of mind, whenever we think proper to organize society according to the principles of justice. The discovery of these principles was not difficult for any person truly desirous of finding them, for, in my writings, I have shown that there were at least sixteen different modes of making the same discovery.

(See my Treatise on Domestic and Agricultural Association, vol. i. pages 108 and 342.) Our Saviour was constantly exhorting the Jews to make this discovery assigned to human reason. He not only told them to “Seek and they would find,” but he also assured them that, “There was nothing covered that should not be revealed, neither hid that should not be known.”

Some of our pseudo-Christians will perhaps affirm, that if it were possible to organize a better state of society, he would have revealed to us its laws; and our sceptical philosophic will perhaps" inquire, also, why he did not, if his mission were divine, reveal the scientific principles of social unity? I will tell them:—It was not his mission to reveal the principles of worldly . science. The discovery of Nature’s laws is a task assigned to human reason. Jesus came to prepare us for another world, and to 'warn us of the errors of human judgment. He admonished us of our want of faith and hope in God, and of the danger of confiding too exclusively in mere philosophers, who live by sophistry, and who, enriching themselves by misleading the minds of the people, will not submit, as I have done, to the patient and laborious study of a new science, during thirty-eight years, without a chance of worldly profit, and with the certainty of being paid by insult and by calumny.

Christ did all he could, in consistency with his special mission, to guard us against the aberrations of philosophy; and he told us to seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all worldly things should be added unto us. He knew that philosophers were misleading us, and he told us so, but the Jews scoffed at his warnings and crucified his body; and, by allowing his Gospel to become a dead letter, we have crucified his spirit.

It was possible to discover the science of social unity when Christ appeared, or he would not have enjoined us to search for its laws; but the arrogance of blind philosophy has continued to mislead us ever since.~ We have not sought the kingdom of justice with a true spirit, and thence it is we have not found it. In India, excessive superstition ; in China, the spirit of familial and patriarchal immobility, have obstructed scientific progress and discovery.

In the Western world, before the time of Christ, the light of science was sufficient to have led to the discovery of social unity, had philosophy been based upon a true religious faith. The priests of ancient Egypt are said to have been deeply versed in learning, and, at a later date, the sciences were much advanced in Greece. In Rome, still later, the scientific means of progress were abundant; but all have failed, from want of a sufficient faith in Providence, and too much confidence in human sophistry.

When all these means had failed, Christ himself appeared to stimulate our intellectual energies, and bring salvation to our sinking souls. His missions, as well as that of his immediate apostles, was positiveand ACTIVE, with respect to our celestial destiny and the salvation of our souls; but it was PASSIVE or negative, with respect to our terrestrial destiny and the welfare of our bodies. It is the task of human reason to seek the kingdom of Heaven, and establish its justice upon earth; and as Christ could not reveal to us the ordinary principles of science, without subverting the decrees of destiny and opposing the will of his Heavenly Father, he confined himself to stimulating our intellectual faculties, by telling us to “seek for the laws of social harmony, that all worldly comforts might be added unto us abundantly;” giving us at the same time positive assurance that “ there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid, that shall not be known.”

As it was not his special mission to reveal those positive principles of worldly science assigned to human reason as its mission of discovery, he was the more particular in exhorting us not to be misled by false philosophy; and foreseeing the consequences of erroneous doctrines, he deemed it necessary to warn us of the danger; saying,

15. “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheeps' clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves ”

16. “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" (St. Matt. vii.)

Now, what are the fruits which society has reaped from philosophical theories?—-Have they not always been the same calamities of poverty, crime, bloodshed, and oppression, varied in form and in degrees of intensity? In all ages, and particularly within the last century, have not the different sects of philosophy been constantly undermining the principles of Religion, the rights of property, and the laws of order in Society? The most recently hatched sects of Philosophers in Europe, the Jacobins and Saint-Simonians in France, and the Socialists in England, have been more or less hostile to Religion, to Government, and the rights of private property. Instead of "rendering unto Cesar the things which belong to Cæsar, and to God the things which are of God," they seem fiercely disposed to spoilate both one and the other in the name of liberty, while they sacrifice private property on the altars of equality and anarchy. And what is still more strange, apparently, they wish to strangulate the right of private judgment wherever it be found to question the, decrees of sceptical philosophy and fragmentary science. The very mention of a new science unknown to the doctors of philosophy, irritates their nerves, offends their pride, and calls forth their intolerant obscurism. Not one of them have ever deigned to look into the new science of passional attraction or attractive industry. If they speak of it at all, it is only to calumniate, but it will soon be proved that the real science of association is more liberal than all the sects of liberal philosophy; for it serves the sects of liberal philosophy; for it serves the interests of all classes without disturbing either property, government or religion,

The philosophers have neither discovered the true principles of social harmony them. selves, nor are they willing to allow the possibility of such a discovery being made by others. Jesus Christ reproached them for this same spirit of obscurism, which neither seeks the kingdom of justice, nor allows others to reveal its laws:-

“Woe unto you lawyers!” he exclaims, “For ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye enter not in yourselves, and them that were entering ye hindered.” (St. Luke, xi. 52.)

I believe I am the only person who has strictly followed, in this respect, the injunctions of our Saviour. I have sought, and I have found, because I went in perfect faith and humility of spirit, to the original source of Nature, and there discovered those unknown principles of social unity and moral harmony to which philosophy has hitherto denied existence. Having steered my course in perfect independence in the unknown spheres of science, like Columbus sailing boldly in an unknown sea, I naturally met with an unknown world.

The pride of philosophy is humbled by my discovery, which proves the inutility of their speculations in Morals, Metaphysics, Politics, and Economism ; and thence it is that sceptical arrogance feigns to treat my theory with ridicule; but finding that mockery leads many to a serious inquiry, they have now thought proper to adopt another sort of tactics, traducing my principles in the name of Christianity; but here, again, they are easily refuted, as I shall amply prove in my next article. [To be continued.]

Source: The Phalanx, I, 13 (June 29, 1844) 185-187.

[Part Two]

From "The Morning Star" (October 21, 1840)

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn P. Wilbur) — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 01:58:00 +0000

[In October, 1840, Hugh Doherty launched The Morning Star, or Phalansterian Gazette as the organ of the associationist movement in England. It lasted twelve issues, and was succeeded by The London Phalanx. The first issue announced an intention of providing weekly translation from Fourier's work, and while that plan was ultimately not accomplished, there were a number of translations included in the paper. This first selection, from that first issue (October 21, 1840), is drawn from the "Foreword" of The Treatise on Domestic-Agricultural Association.]

TRANSLATION OF THE MOST POPULAR PARTS OF FOURIER’S WRITINGS

It is our intention to give a weekly translation of a few pages from the works of Charles Fourier, selecting those parts which are the least scientific and abstruse, so that the general reader may have an idea of the manner in which that great genius treats the question of social progress. We will commence by a translation of his principal work, which was published in 1822. Omitting such parts only as may be deemed too abstruse for cursory reading.

The Science of Domestic and Agricultural Association. By Charles Fourier.

Introduction.

Contrary to the common practice of those who make discoveries, and who are generally more or less inclined to exaggerate the importance of their science, I will endeavour to throw a veil over the chief beauties of mine, unveil them by degrees, and treat the reader as an occulist would treat a patient who had just been relieved from a film or cataract on the sight, and who could therefore only be gradually exposed to the full light of the sun.

The association of domestic and agricultural interests is pregnant with the most gigantic and magnificent results. The arithmetical calculations, and the rigourous demonstrations of science which support the truth of these results, will hardly prevent the picture of so many social improvements from appearing fanciful to those who have been accustomed to nothing but the miserable realities of-the present state of society.

For instance, to say that the present amount of wealth might be trebled in a few years by associative industry, so that the yearly produce of France, which is now estimated at 180 millions sterling (41 milliards) might be raised to 520 millions yearly, would only raise a general exclamation of impossibility and visionary speculation, and yet it will be fully proved to the most incredulous, if they only take the trouble to examine fairly, that such is the real fact, and that so far from being an exaggeration of fancy, these gigantic results are rather· under than over-rated.

If we pass from the material to the social results, we shall find that they are not less prodigious, and the incredulity of those who are unacquainted with the advantages of association, will probably be increased, when we state that the strife and bickerings of party politics will be gradually neutralized as the jarring interests of society are progressively absorbed in the superior unity of combination. All party factions will be speedily conciliated when once the principles of association are practically introduced, but until these principles are properly understood, it will be truly impossible to conciliate the opposite interests of political parties.

This extraordinary result of social concord will be produced by the generation of new interests in society, and more, particularly by the confusion of all parties when they become conscious of the ignorance ,and the sophistry with which philosophy has obscured. the minds of men during the last three thousand years, in persuading them that poverty and slavery were the natural destiny of humanity upon earth; and all this sophistry has been palmed upon, society because philosophers have been too blind or too careless, to seek for the laws of nature concerning human society and associative harmony.

Those arbitrary sciences which, have so long deceived mankind, are commonly called metaphysics, politics, moralism and economism. (I say moralism, and not moral science, for nothing can be more. laudable than the precepts of morality, but moralism or the spirit of sophistical controversy concerning moral duty is as injurious to real science as the other three branches of arbitrary speculation. Moralism has become the most contradictory of the four, since its votaries have endeavoured to conciliate the love of truth with the practice of mercantile fraud:

"Serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agoi."

St. Chrysostome thought a merchant could not possibly be agreeable in the eyes of God. In his time the speculations of moralists were not disgraced by lauding the infamous deceptions of mercantile schemers; they were merely sophistical without abetting the falsehoods of competition and its legions. But, to return to the four arbitrary sciences.) These four sciences fall at once and together before the new science of association, which they have always attempted to condemn à priori by insinuating that social happiness was too beautiful ever to be realized. At last, however, the general illusion is dispelled, and the principles of association are fully discovered in all their details. The work of social regeneration depends chiefly upon a very simple combination, which may be called corporate organization, in series of industrial groups regularly contrasted and intermingled in their functions; or more briefly, passional corporation and attractive industry. It will be seen that association cannot be practically effected on any other basis.

The points to be examined, then, are,—

1. Whether or not the organization of passional corporations is the true basis of association and attractive industry.

2. What are the methods which the adversaries of association oppose to this general law of organization.

3. Whether or not this is the only mode of conciliating the interests of all classes; whether or not it would produce the following advantages amongst thousands of others:—

1. The art of rendering industry attractive even for those who are least accustomed to labour, such as savages and fashionable idlers.

2. The threefold increase of real wealth.

3. The complete absorption of revolutionary principles.

4. The acquisition of wealth by the practice of truth and virtue, which only lead to poverty and contempt in the present state of society.

The classification of groups contrasted in series is the method which the Creator has adopted in the distribution of the universe and in all the distinctions of class, order, genus, species, variety, &c. in the animal, the mineral, and the vegetable kingdoms of this globe. According to the laws of unity which govern all nature, this method ought to be applied to human society, and the problem of association is solved by discovering the means of its application.

It cannot be said, therefore, that I am proposing a method which is absolutely unknown; I limit myself strictly to that which is adopted by God in all the works of Nature. This, I hope, will be sufficient to obtain a conditional degree of confidence until the principles of association are more clearly developed.

Being obliged to satisfy different classes of readers, and guard against the piracy of plagiarism, I have been reduced to the necessity of adopting some irregularities of method, which may appear strange until they are explained. In the first place I have adopted a very modest but inadequate title. This book ought, in regular form, to have been called The Theory of Universal Unity. This science has been slightly touched upon by Sir Isaac Newton, who has partially explained one of its branches, but, as my countrymen, the French, have been already inundated with systems professing to explain the unity of the Universe, they would condemn the book from its mere title, if it announced a discovery concerning which they have so often been deceived. The innumerable works of sophists have generated suspicion in the minds of the public, and this suspicion will necessarily fall upon the real discovery, and therefore, I purposely suppress the real title of my science, and confine myself to the announcement of an inferior branch of universal harmony, i. e. domestic association.

I have given a double introduction to this work; the first for people of a frivolous nature like the French; the second for those of a serious character, such as that of the English nation.

The English people merit particular attention in this case, for two reasons: In the first place, they were the first in the field of theory, for Newton has treated the material branch of universal attraction, though he has neglected the aromal or imponderable sphere of attraction; and, in addition to this theoretical initiative in the new science, they are already engaged in practical experiments concerning the chief problem of passional attraction, or associative combination, to which the continental nations have not yet turned their attention.

For this reason, the discovery of the universal principles of attraction and association is more directly interesting to the English nation, and the author ought to address himself specially to them without losing sight of the interests of other countries. Such is the plan I have adopted in this introduction, which contains a long article relating to the particular interests of England.

Some people will no doubt say that after making them wade through two long introductory chapters, I ought to enter at once into the positive principles of my discovery; but such a course would be contrary to the readers interest. I must repeat to him incessantly that those who are introduced to the new science of associative harmony, should be treated like a person who has just been relieved from a cataract on the eye, and only introduced gradually to the light of the sun.

It is absolutely necessary to dwell at considerable length upon preparatory instructions, for the first thing to be affected is the total ruin of all arbitrary sciences relating to the policy of individualised society. It is necessary to remodel the judgment, and forget many of those sophisms which have hitherto reigned predominant.

Nothing can be more startling at first than the idea of associating 300 families of unequal rank and fortune, when it is notoriously impossible to associate even three different families, much less 300.

It is very true that three families could not possibly be associated in harmony. I who am intimately acquainted with the science of association in all its degrees, after studying it for more than twenty years, do not hesitate to affirm that the lowest degree of associative harmony is not applicable to any number less than thirty families. But any number of families (not individuals) from 40 to 300 may be advantageously associated in domestic harmony. To explain the principles of a science 50 new and apparently incomprehensible, it is first necessary to expose the evils of the present system, and rid the mind of those erroneous opinions and false doctrines which now govern society.

Cosmogony — II

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn P. Wilbur) — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 23:30:00 +0000

COSMOGONY.

FROM A MANUSCRIPT OF FOURIER.

[continued from part I]

CHAPTER III.

OF THE LABOR OF THE PLANETS.

Philosophers and superstitious people have given us such absurd ideas of God, that it is no wonder that our age mistakes Him. So far from creating the stars for idleness, he employs them in immense labors of graduated harmony; that is to say, one star elaborates juices for the two orders of creatures above and below itself; it furnishes aromas for its universe which is one degree higher in the scale; it also furnishes them for the men of each planet, although man is of a degree inferior to the star; but all is united in the system of movement, and the different creatures aid one another in every sense. Jupiter, Saturn, &c,, who seem to have no relation with us men, do labor very actively for us. They hold in reserve certain aromas, destined especially for the service of our planet and of us, aromas whose contributions we shall be able to receive, whenever it shall please us to enter into communion with the stars by the organization of Harmony.

The part of these aromas, which is assigned to the service of man, will be consumed in creations of the four kingdoms; at present we have only a creation, of which we should be very weary; for it keeps us in an extreme poverty, obliges us to war incessantly against the atmospheric scourges, against the vices of temperature, against destructive animals and parasitical plants. This is only a provisional outfit, such as could be made with the gross aromas which the planet furnished at its origin.

Each substance of the different kingdoms is the product of an aroma, shed by one of the stars, and combined with that of the planet. The ox is born of an aroma shed by Jupiter; the horse of an aroma shed by Saturn; the rose of an aroma shed by Mercury; the pink of an aroma shed by Hebe, the eighth satellite of Herschel. The operation is nearly the same with that of our gardeners: we sow seeds, which contain a germ that will combine in fermentation with the juices of the earth. Thus, when Jupiter shed upon us the seeds of the ox, they had to be received and elaborated in the bosom of the planet, then thrown out at different points of its surface, where they produced the first herds of oxen.

Thirty thousand plants, which we enjoy, were the product of thirty thousand influxes (co-plantations[1]) received into the earth from different stars. It takes time for the planet to receive and elaborate the germs. The tradition which pretends that the creation was made in six days, would have done better to have estimated the duration of the work at six centuries, at least. It would be no benefit to the planets to have the toil abridged, since it is for them a source of pleasures, a struggle of ambition, of self-love, in which each displays its ability in competition. Each of their products is seen and judged by the other planets. Saturn, the creator of the flea, had to undergo censure upon this object, as well as upon the horse.

If the creations had been achieved in six days, or in six weeks, the planets would soon have been reduced to the negative pleasure of idleness, so praised in our times. Bella cosa far niente, say the Italians. They have reason, so long as Civilization lasts; there is certainly more pleasure in doing nothing, than in toiling excessively, like our peasants and our mechanics, and getting neither bread, nor wine, nor clothing; but the planets, which are bodies constituted in harmony, have as much pleasure and ardour in their labors as the groups which we have described, so that it would be very irksome for them to have nothing to do; there is always something to be created on some one of the thirty-two globes, and especially upon the interior Sun, which has no holiday in this respect. If our globe is excluded for the moment from cooperation in this labor, there remains a vast field for industry in the other stars, of which the cardinals and mixt ought to receive, each, twenty-four creations, besides the pivotal one. As to the moons, they have only twelve creations, and the pivotal. This number should be extended to sixty for the Sun. We may presume, then, that the stars have commonly three or four creations in full labor, and others just commenced or nearly finished. They hasten those which are disagreeable, like the two whose productions we see upon the globe (I will class them hereafter,) and for which the sidereal cohort had to operate upon vitiated or gross aromas; but they are not precipitous with those that are executed upon aromas of a good quality. Hence it comes, that the creations 3 and 4, which will take place in rapid succession upon our globe, soon after the foundation of Harmony, will be accelerated, while the beautiful creation 5 (major transition,) which will commence about 400 years after Harmony, will go on more deliberately.

The creations being the furnishings of the globe, which have to be renewed from time to time, and which are no longer of use after a certain lapse of centuries, every globe, or rather, every monoverse, or human race upon a globe, is free to preserve those of its productions which may be usefully combined with the new furnishings; for example, it is very certain that our globe will retain the horse after the next creation, although that will furnish new species of carriers; but it is doubtful whether it will retain the ass, except as a curiosity, because the said creation will give for the same kind of service porters more agreeable and not so vicious. The ass, by his sobriety, may suit in a society of mendicants and beggars, like the civilizees, who dispute the very bones with the dogs to make soup of them for their citizens; but in a society, in which extreme abundance will reign, and in which the dogs of the court yard will fare better than our mechanics, they will have no farther need of animals in which the useless merit of sobriety will not balance their numerous defects. Hence I presume the asses will be suppressed from the service of Harmony, which, however, will preserve the zebras from this creation, and know how to tame them. For the rest, this is a rough calculation, which may apply to all the animals and plants of little value. As to the asses, I do not pretend that the horoscope of their suppression is a judgment without appeal, for I have no desire to discompose the Brotherhood of Asses, which is said to be numerous and powerful in Civilization.

On the subject of creations, let us dissipate some of the ridiculous prejudices which the civilizees carry into every study relative to movement. I have already remarked upon the absurdity of believing that the creation produced only a single man, a single ass, a single cabbage, a single radish. There is another foolish notion, into which every one thinks it would be irreligious not to fall: it is the attributing to God all the labor of the creations, and supposing that he has left nothing to be done by the creatures themselves, by men, planets, &c. Ask a civilizee: Who created cabbages? He will answer: God.—Well, who created asses?—God.—Did he then create every thing, even men?—Undoubtedly. Who else should have created them?—With this stupid answer, you behold him more learned than they will be in Harmony after a century of studies; for it will require at least that time to disentangle and classify the work of actual creation, which is very complicated, especially in the vegetable kingdom, where about thirty thousand problems of origin present themselves. Some of them I shall resolve in the part which treats of application. Let us reason about this strange prejudice that God has created every thing. It would follow that God is a despot, and the stars legions of drones. I shall follow my custom in such matters, and prepare the mind by a comparison. Let us suppose ourselves in the country, a hundred leagues from the residence of the king, and having the following conversation with a laborer: Who has the care of this grain?—The king.—Ah! well, who planted these vines?—The king.—You are joking! the king, then, has all the work to himself here. Was it he who planted this orchard, this garden?—Without doubt. Who else did?—Who! why the cultivators, you and your neighbors. It is their work!—What audacity! do you not recognize the authority of the king, then?—Certainly; but I do not confound his authority with his functions, which are to watch over and direct the aggregate of the labors of the kingdom, and to distribute them by gradation from ministers to governors, and so down to laborers.—But the king has all power!—Agreed. Nevertheless, if he can do all, he does not do all; he leaves a portion of the work to each of his subjects, he limits himself to governing the whole, and occupying every body as much as possible; and although he has the right to sow and to plant, it was not he who planted your cabbages.—How! you deny the omnipotence of the king! you are a conspirator.—And you are but half-witted. Adieu.

The stupidity of this laborer would be the same with that of the civilizees who pretend that God has created every thing. What would remain for the planet's to do, if God did every thing? Why does he not come to till and sow our lands and reap our harvests? The act by which thirty two families sow and cultivate their canton, is the same, in the scale of movement, with that by which thirty-two planets elaborate and furnish one of their number with aromal germs, from which a creation springs. The farmers, every year, recommence their operation and vary it in divers ways; and just so the planets, after some interval, say four or five thousand years for our globe, reiterate and vary the work of creation, which furnishes them, as well as men, with the germs of harvests; for the aromas of eatable and other plants which a globe sheds upon different planets, are of a quality proportioned to the perfection of the germs with which it is furnished, as well in the aromal kingdom, as in the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms. All is united in the system of movement. A planet, badly organized in its four kingdoms,[2]is for the other planets, what a wild tree is for us, which bears inedible fruit; it is like a patch of garden covered with bad herbs, and entirely unproductive. Such is our planet, a useless member for the aromal support and for all harmonic intercourse with the others. The other planets are burning with impatience to be able to put ours under cultivation, and re-furnish it with a new creation more profitable for themselves and for us; an effect impossible since the first creation, when the aromas of the globe, still altogether vitiated, made it necessary to adopt the subversive system, or creation in counter-type, which yields the useful products only by way of an infinitely small exception.

I have sufficiently shown that a creation is the concurrent work of all the planets, in which each one intervenes according to its qualities; the details I will give hereafter. I will show by what method we discern the work of each. Till then, if we ask of the civilizees: Who created cabbages? Who created plums? they ought to answer: We know nothing at all about it. We are ignorant of the laws of Aromal movement, of the origin and distribution of the primitive germs. They should beware of answering: It was God who created the plums. He did, without doubt, create the germs or original aromas; they were distributed among the highest beings in the scale, the milliverses, who again divided them amongst the centiverses; these, amongst the deciverses, noniverses, octiverses, down to inverses or universes; these distribute them to the biverses or planets, and these to monoverses or men, who cultivate them. But, if every thing comes from God, it does not follow that God made every thing; and when we see “in the name of the King” on a proclamation, it does not follow that the king made the paper and the paste, that he composed the contents, printed and posted up the placard; but only that every act is made under his supervision and in the name of the royal officers. It is just so with every property and function assigned to the planets; the whole emanates from God through degrees of superior functionaries, who regulate the harmonic manœuvre according to the instructions and primordial will of God; but it is necessary to refer each subaltern operation to the one who has executed it. If they ask you: Who created cabbages? answer: Herschel. And who created plums? The satellites of Herschel, each one modelling according to its dominant passion.

I will not stop to give an aromal catechism after this fashion, which would lead us too far, since the vegetable kingdom alone would furnish thirty thousand questions of origin, and a thousand times more, thirty millions of questions, about the properties and modifications of each vegetable species. What would it be with the other kingdoms? Each of these questions demands studies, researches, upon which I have often run aground after long labor, although I possess the key to this science. I have in vain sought what star has made us a present of the toad; my suspicions rest upon Mars. I have all along limited myself to some few of the most remarkable problems, which will suffice to put naturalists and competent persons upon the track, and open to them a career as new as it is immense, the explanation of the causes and rules of creation, of which thus far they have only studied the effects. Le: us give an instance of this, drawn from the cabbages, or from the plums, since in these vegetables the French are connoisseurs. I continue the aromal catechism, from which I extract a quadrille of hieroglyphics concerning Love.

Who created the Reine-Claude plum? Hebe, the eighth satellite of Herschel, (shedding an aroma in the dominant of fidelity.)

Who created the Golden Drop plum? Cleopatra, a satellite of Herschel (shedding an aroma in the dominant of coquetry.)

Who created the Apricot, the pivotal fruit among plums? Herschel, the Cardinal of Love (shedding the pivotal aroma of matronage.)

Who created the Peach plum, called Brugnon?

Sappho, an ambiguous planet in the Scale of Love (shedding a mixt aroma in the dominants of Sapphism (sentimental love) and Prudery.)

The questions of causes will turn first upon the general plan adopted before creating plums and all the other products which are the work of the different satellites of Herschel. How did they class the characters and functions of Love, represented allegorically by the Apricots and Plums! how did they distribute the different parts among the ten planets of the Scale of Love? how regulate the competency of each to represent such a table of the effects of Love? Why was it ordained that the fruit of Hebe should be green sprinkled with white? that the fruit of Cleopatra should be yellow, touched with a purple spot? How may we be assured that these arrangements were the regular emblems of such a species of Love? Finally, what were the discussions and calculations after which they resolved upon the forms, colors, tastes, and good or bad properties to be distributed among these different fruits, so as faithfully to represent the effects of Love in the human species, whose passions should be depicted in every created object?

On this point, our naturalists will 'reply that they did not “assist” at the council of amorous allegories held by these gallant planets, before the creation of plums, and that it is for me to render an account of their deliberations, if I was present. Assuredly I was not there: but, as the discoverer of the science by which the causes and rules of creation are determined, I might reply to these various questions. It is enough for me to show the immensity of this new science, which is going to give a soul to all Nature by holding up to us the portraits of our passions, our characters, our perfidies and our duperies, in all the works of Nature, every one of whose products had seemed to us an enigma not to be deciphered. Every veil shall be lifted, if you will only take the trouble to do it, and all studious men will have an ample harvest to gather in.

We are only preluding on this subject, and combating the shameful prejudice, which supposes the universes and their planets plunged in idleness. Of all the injuries which can be done to God, there is none greater than to suppose him the friend and protector of laziness. The author of movement, then, knows how to create only idle worlds! and this is the opinion of a century which boasts of having carried reason to perfection! O nineteenth century! if the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit, what an eminent rank must thou occupy in it, as a recompense for thy stupid smartness (bel esprit), which is so different a thing from good understanding! (bon esprit.)

The prejudice, which supposes God to have created every thing, justifies in fact the atheists and materialists; for a creation so vicious in its productions, engendering societies so favorable to vice, gives room for so many recriminations against God, that men are pardonable for doubting his existence rather than attribute this shameful work to him; but if we admit that creatures may create, like God, by employing the germs originally distributed by him, they may commit faults, and the universes in their operations blunder sometimes, as well as our architects and laborers. Think you, our universe, which is yet young, has never committed a mistake? I shall point some out, and you will see that it is not the fault of God if our globe is furnished with so disastrous a creation and afflicted with so many miseries. Neither is it the fault of our thirty-two planets, which have operated as well as possible; but it is the fault of our universe, which acted precipitately and without due consideration in organizing its pivotal system. We shall see hereafter that this folly caused the loss of a cardinal planet of Friendship, which held this seat before our globe, and revolved in the same orbit. The replacing it by our globe gave room for other faults; for always one mistake draws on another. Errors are difficult and slow to repair. The operations of the sidereal vault requiring several thousand years, we have labored for eighteen hundred years past on the operation which is to repair all; I shall speak of it in a special chapter.

Thus far, we conceive that the disorders of the universe ought not to be attributed to God, but to creatures misusing their free will; and in the object which now occupies us, it is the whole sidereal vault, the whole Areopagus of fixed stars, which has committed a fault, with regard to our system and our globe; but if you suppose that God created all, then God alone must be accused, and his universes will be only monuments of despotism, fatalism and indolence. We suppose God like the lion in the fable, who divided the booty into four parts for his associates, and ate all four himself.—Meanwhile, if there is unity in his system, why did he destine man alone to labor, while the superior creatures, the biverses, called planets, and the triverses, called universes, run their whole career in idleness?

This hypothesis plunges us into a crowd of inconsistencies; and in the first place, if the planets do nothing, cultivate nothing, produce nothing for one another, on what are they nourished, and what can be their bonds of harmony? What charms can hold them by attraction in the plane in which we see them fixed? To solve the difficulty, our savans decide that our planets do not eat; but if they do not labor, nor eat, nor perform other necessary functions, if they have not the use of the passions, sensual and spiritual, their functions are reduced to mere promenades! They are then automata, deprived of free will and mechanically applicable to any uses! In this case, the government of the universe is only an act of despotism on the part of God. He deprives himself of the chances of variety, which might spread a charm over his dominion. He imitates a king who, playing at cards with his minister, should wish to choose his hand, and leave no room for chance; the consequence would be ennui for both of them; can we presume that God, the infinitely wise, would commit such a fault in reducing to the part of automata the creatures whom he governs. Our philosophical and religious dogmas, in refusing to the stars industrial and creative functions, have infected with fatalism all the theories of movement; and to this day our foolishness in this sort is equal to that of the good simpletons who cannot break a pot without exclaiming: God's will be done! They deceive themselves; it is not God's will that there should be maladress or idleness; as a wise distributor, he wishes that creatures of all degrees should participate in the labors and delights, reserving to himself only the perpetual impulse or attraction, that it may be distributed unitarily, and leaving to the creatures the free will, the power to operate harmoniously for their happiness, or incoherently for their misery; since from the sub-divisions of Harmony and of the subversive order, spring the innumerable chances which form the stimulus of all creatures and of God himself.

Our planets, faithful to his intentions, pursue their harmonic labors of creation; while we think them idle, they are ready to give us a brilliant catalogue in the place of our hundred and thirty serpents and other reptiles hatched from the two first creations. It requires all the effrontery of the naturalists to flatter nature for a work so disgusting.

I have said nothing of the other functions of the planets; it is enough to have commenced with dissipating the prejudice upon a single one of these functions, that of production. In other chapters we shall treat of matters pertaining to the consumption, reproduction and passional mechanism of these stars, which are quite identical with ours, in spite of the variety of methods and processes. It is always, at bottom, the development of the twelve passions, subject, as to forms, to innumerable differences, as I have remarked on the subject of the reproduction of animals.

In truth, we see nothing of all this mechanism of the stars; the aroma is not visible by us. If we could perceive it, we should see the whole planetary air occupied by a crowd of aromal columns crossing it in all directions. We do not see the magnetic fluid, whose circulation about our globe is well established by the motion of the needle which it governs. We do not see the seven colors which exist in the solar ray, before the prism has divided them. We do not see certain other aromas, such as that of electricity, which nevertheless make themselves felt: is it astonishing that we do not see the agents of communication between the planets, and the transmissions of aromal and other substances which take place habitually in their society, from which our planet is excluded? The great planetary atmosphere is all furrowed by these columns of aromas, which traverse it in all directions, and cross each other like the bullets on a field of battle. The planets absorb and give out these aromas in various ways; an aroma of reproduction is absorbed by the poles, an aroma of manducation by the equator, one of plantation or of seed by various latitudes which favor its development; and so with the others, for the planet has points especially adapted to the exercise of each sense. All this mechanism, invisible to us, exists none the less, and it must be repeated for the hundredth time, that men judge nature falsely, when they believe her limited to known resources, to effects and phenomena which fall under our senses.

Is it astonishing that they have been so slow to recognize the interior mechanism of the planets? It is but yesterday that we have known that of the objects contiguous to us: the circulation of the blood, the sexual functions of plants. We believed for twenty-five learned centuries, that nothing, except nourishment, circulated in our body; that the blood, the humors and the corporeal fluids were stationary; that the veins, arteries and glands were in a state of lethargy, condemned to inactivity. Have we not, moreover, thought that the leaves of plants were without functions! It was not known that, the leaf labors as well as the root, that it absorbs the juices to carry them to the trunk, which sends them back into the. wood and the fruit, after elaboration. Now if for twenty-five centuries, we were too ignorant to judge either of the mechanism of our bodies, or that of plants which we had under our hands, is it surprising that we should have erred about the mechanism of the great planetary body, which is, like ourselves and our vegetables, a collection of springs and channels, in which circulate a crowd of fluids inspired and set in operation by the star, to be again respired and distributed amongst other stars.

But how can stars so far from one another talk together? What writing, or what concert can they have? How can they do this? And how can they do that? One might soon fill a page with these questions; but am I expected to explain all in a single chapter? and is it not time to finish this one? The important point was to dissipate that grossest of all prejudices, which establishes the inertia of the stars. Our savans reason continually about the unity of analogy, without ever wishing to subordinate thereto their speculative calculations, since they know in the polyversal scale but three creatures, man or the monoverse, the planet or biverse, and universe or triverse. If yon wish to suppose unity, let us attribute to these creatures passions and labors, as well as to ourselves. We may be deceived in the determination of the labors, it is true; but at least let us hold fast to the principle, and discuss at leisure the details, the most probable mode of passional and industrial relations of the stars. We will examine the different problems in succession. Let us continue first upon the aromal industry before passing to the other planetary functions.

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE CREATIONS MADE AND TO BE MADE UPON THE PLANET.

Mineral Kingdom, Vegetable Kingdom, Animal Kingdom.

I have designated by the term terrestrial furnishings (mobilier terrestre) the product of the creations made upon the surface of a planet. They furnish also its interior, for new aromas may be created, which penetrate the body of the planet. We have seen that on the satellites or moons, keys of the first degree, the creations number only 12, besides pivotal one, which is never counted. Upon the cardinal planets, like our globe, they are of the number of 24, distributed as follows:

I have said that we can obtain at will the two creations numbered 3, neuter simple, and 4, neuter composite, because the simple (which will take place, like the second, pivotally on the American continent) is adapted to the seventh social period indicated in the table. Now as we shall omit this period, to pass immediately to the eighth, we shall be able to have the two creations simultaneously, the materials being ready. The aromas of the globe, all vitiated as its system is, exist not the less in a degree sufficient for Harmony. A very short operation, which the planet itself will execute by its boreal ring, will suffice to purge them and refine them. Once raised to the rank of the fourth creation, the third will be all the easier. For this reason they will be put together, twin-like, and will commence, one upon the new, the other upon the old continent, immediately after the inauguration of Harmony. So, every man now living may flatter himself that he will see them, but not in their completeness, for, in spite of the extreme acceleration with which the stars will Ret about it, the work will occupy at least a sieclade, one hundred and forty-four years, but it will be urged on without regard to regular methods. The planetary system will engage in the work, every other business being suspended, because it has pressing need of reinstalling our planet in its functions, where it cannot enter fully without new furnishings or a complete equipment. They will proceed as men do where there i» danger of inundation, when all hands are called out to remove in a couple of hours the crops, which ordinarily could not be gathered in less than two days.

A globe which should not periodically receive new creations, would fall into the same exhaustion with a field which is over-cultivated and never manured. We should see the vegetation degenerate into a bastard growth. Such is the state of our globe: it is a field run out. The creation which we are using will be sufficient to serve during the course of the obscure Lymb, provided the duration of the Lymb do not exceed a certain time, and they do not force the matter, as has happened. Thus the actual creation can no longer suffice for our globe. Let us examine its unsuitableness in the different kingdoms.

In the Mineral kingdom, we soon shall have no more gold and silver. We are stripped of diamonds and precious stones: we are stripped of various minerals very useful in industry, as platina, zinc, antimony, and even tin and mercury. America, or three centuries, has supplied the world with metals and diamonds, because she was yet virgin; but she is already a faded beauty. Potosi today is only Potosi in name: it is a mine in its last agonies. Mexico still yields, but she is sensibly in a decline. They count upon the interior of Africa; it is certain that it conceals more than one Potosi, thanks to the absence of civilization; for the civilizees soon use up the mines. Moreover Africa has mines in the shape of sand, containing gold, open the surface of the earth, as abundant as the iron in the fields of Franche-Comté. Africa is the corps de reserve of the globe in mineralogy. The English know that very well, and send there swarms of travellers under the pretext of philanthropy and geographical explorations. It is evident that the secret end of these philanthropists is to discover the Potosis of Africa, after which it will be easy to enter into understanding with the petty kings of the country for the exploitation: inasmuch as the cannon law, in addition to the means of seduction and of intrigue, would soon bring them to terms; and England would find brilliant resources in Africa; she would succeed there sooner or later, and venturing some caravans with presents, she would finish by immersing herself in the very midst of its wealth.

This perspective is nothing but a subject of alarm, in a mineralogical, and still more in a political point of view. The poor continentals are already slaves enough of the commercial Minotaur; and once let England get possession of the mines of Africa, mines untouched and consequently very fruitful for two or three centuries to come, and soon, of necessity, the whole continent will be reduced to a slavery still more horrible, if that be possible. Europe to-day does service, like a day-laborer, who sells himself for a determinate time, for the harvest or the vintage, in other words as long as the funds hold out; but if England gets hold of the mines of Africa, miserable Europe will finish like the poor villagers, who abandon the plough and go into domestic service.

Let us view this subject on a larger scale; let us abstract the three centuries of domestic servitude which this event would cause for Europe, and suppose ourselves arrived at the epoch when the mines of Africa shall be in as declining a state as those of America, and soon after exhausted, as Mexico will be within a century. Five hundred years will suffice for this. Then there will remain nothing in the way of precious mines upon the globe; the only resource left will be the 400,000 volumes of philosophy, which teach that gold and silver are vile metals, perfidious metals, which ought to be sunk in the bottom of the sea; still, they are less perfidious than copper, which poisons us, and causes sometimes the death of a whole family by the use of a copper kettle overlaid with verdigris. Gold, vile as they may call it, cannot play us such a trick. It is permissible, therefore, to esteem gold, whatever the philosophers may say of it, and to contemplate with alarm the time when the gold and silver of the globe shall begin to fail. So many people are alarmed already at the idea of wanting these vile metals! What will it be when all the mines are exhausted; when the goldsmith's uses, and meltings down, when the mania for burying treasures in the ground, so common in India and in Europe since the revolutions, when shipwrecks and other absorbents shall have consumed the whole!

Then shall we have to resort to Spartan virtues, to money of iron or copper? But copper itself will be exhausted; the mines of Coperberg and Ekaterniburg are not far from their decline, if they have not already reached it; and what will become of our globe within a thousand years, if it is to receive no new creation in the Mineral as well as other kingdoms? So, as long as we occupy ourselves only with scientific moonshine, with the perceptions of sensation, of intuition, of cognition, it is too certain that all which pertains to the solid goods will go on declining; and it is no trifling damage, this speedy loss of the precious metals, already so rare even during the fertility of the mines! They never yet have furnished wherewithal to meet the demands of urgent utility, such as the table service of silver. Nine tenths of the human race are reduced to spoons of tin, iron or wood. What poverty! Diogenes and Seneca will not persuade us that a service of iron is as convenient as one of silver; that a copper tea-pot, liable to verdigris, is worth as much as one of silver, which cannot hurt us; and on this point, as on so many others, we must feel the want of a new creation, which will give us in abundance the pure metals, so necessary to domestic uses. The actual creation has given us the good only as the exception; in the next it will predominate; it will furnish us with gold and silver sowed in grains, like the iron on the surface of certain countries, which will have foundries of gold, as they have now of iron. Then, (and this may commence within five years,) the whole of the poorer class of the human race, composing two thirds of the population, will be served, for economy, in solid plate. Iron fixtures, as those pertaining to harness, locks, arms and kitchen utensils, in short every thing which man will have to handle, will be wrought only in the pure metals, brilliant, and exempt from rust or poison, as gold and silver and platina are to-day, as many other metals will be, which the creation will afford us in as great abundance as this, present creation has afforded iron, copper and other impure substances: how could it have failed to lavish upon us these unclean productions in the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, since it had to represent, hieroglyphically, the effects of the passions, which engender nothing but political uncleanness during the obscure Lymb, or the civilized, barbarous and savage! chaos?

The same observations apply to diamonds and precious stones, to pearls, marbles, and whatever precious things the mineral kingdom produces. The primitive creation has given us these various objects with a parsimony truly ironical, j It seems as if Nature meant to say to us:' "I could create the good, but I limit myself to merely showing it to you, that you may feel that you are deprived of it. Gold, diamonds, marble, so useful for the adorning of your persona and the structure of your habitations, shall be hidden away in inaccessible places, whence you can extract them only by unheard of pains. I give you but the shadow of these things, to convince you that you are disgraced and reduced to general indigence."

I hear the philosophers reply that we have nothing to do with marble or pearls, and that it is enough for an austere re- j publican to have bread, iron, salt-petre and virtues, (in the phrase of 1793,) and { a wife to prepare his radishes, dressed with water, as the house-keeper of Phocion did for her worthy spouse! They will think very differently in Harmony, and, independently of good cheer, upon which I have discoursed, they will be of the opinion that, by virtue of that unity of system, so much demanded by philosophers, man ought to be clothed and adorned like the universe. The universe is sprinkled with suns; man should be sprinkled with diamonds; and of all our fashions the most judicious is that at spangled and embroidered dresses. It is the costume of Gods and Kings upon the stage. Such is the purpose of the Deity, and the destiny of Humanity: a purpose to which philosophy itself adheres, without perceiving it; for it says that man is the mirror of the universe: he ought, then, for the fidelity of the portrait, to be, like the universe, clothed with stars, and dwelling in splendor. A single, bath of unitary aroma will suffice to whiten the interior of certain chains of rocks, to coagulate their grain and form marbles of every species.

Other baths of aroma will give us gold, silver, diamonds and pearls in profusion, not in inaccessible places, not in the bowels of the earth, but on its surface. In the chapter on the Animal Kingdom we shall see in what relations of counter-type the new creations will be distributed.

II. Vegetable Kingdom.

Passing to the Vegetable kingdom, I shall have more than one assault to make upon the naturalists, who will begin by boasting of the gentle presents of Flora, Ceres and Pomona. Poor dupes, these three divinities are mocking you . Flora gives yon play-things at the very moment when you need subsistence. The vegetable system is organized in such a manner, as to satirize the civilizee in the periodical famines to which he is subjected. Three long months of the beautiful season roll away before man reaps the slightest food, for I count as nothing some little trifles, radishes and other minutia; which the Spring affords. Famine, when it steps upon the stage, as in 1812 and 1817, remains famine in spite of Flora; and during the whole reign of Flora our famished people see roses flourishing in May, which are like thorns and thistles for the wretches, dying of hunger, who want fruits and not flowers.

“Ah! but must not the flower precede the fruit? Must not nature have an order, an established method? We must regulate our necessities accordingly, and husband our provisions, &c. &c.” Admirable reasoning! The civilized order, and all the societies of the obscure Lymb, have not the property of laying in provisions in anticipation; they are necessarily the victims of a vegetable system which does not begin to yield until after the equinox, and which furnishes nothing en roquee (nor by diffraction.)

We see so many plants which give the flower before the leaf, why have we none which give a fruit, an eatable substance, before they give the blossom? To support us in this way, nature might have created certain vegetables out of the regular order (roquees,) growing under the snow, and furnishing an aliment to man, in the same manner as the mosses of Lapland, the Ichos of the Cordilleras, are stored up under the snow for the reindeers and vigognes. Nature, in the black truffle, shows us the infinity of her means as to transitions: she gives us a fruit without leaves, or stalk, or root, and more than that, without sowing. The truffle, far more remarkable than the mush-room, proves that nature has ways of effecting bonds and transitions of every sort, even seed-plots of aromas, for the truffle has no other origin. How could nature, so ingenious in binding together her whole system, neglect to bind together winter and summer by some fruits roquees, or anterior to the season of flowers? The creation might provide us thus in two manners; first, by eatable plants with fleshy leaves, which should have their leaves in spring before the flower, without inverting the established order; and then by roots which, sowed like wheat at the end of autumn, should be ripening under the snow (or in the water) and furnish their tubercles in the season of the freshets (fontes.) By these provisions we should have been sheltered from famine; for as soon as we should see a danger of famine, (and any empire may assure itself of that after, the month of October, by looking at an inventory of its harvests,) we should sow an abundance of the two classes of vegetables above mentioned, and we should reap an ample supply therefrom in the months of March and April, at the time of the vernal equinox, when famine first makes itself felt after any scarcity in the grain harvests.

Thus is our vegetable kingdom doubly deficient in products which may be gathered before the general season. There are some for animals, but none for man. Now, an operation is defective when it does not unite itself with the pivot of movement, which is man. Out of 30,000 vegetables one ten thousandth would have sufficed, or four plants formed of fleshy roots or leaves, which might be eaten in the Spring, and growing under the snow like the mosses. Let us add that, if the creation were regular, man would have at his service not four, but forty plants at least of this kind. This, then, is the wise and provident Nature, which his made no provision of guarantees against famine. Is it for want of means? Certainly not. If we could explore a planet as well organized as Jupiter, we should find these premature plants as numerous and as various as the fruits of our orchards. Our globe is completely destitute of this sort of vegetables, and it is evident that this creation is only an abortion in the movement called roquee, notwithstanding its pretended wealth of 30,000 species, 29,000 of which are worse than useless. This I shall prove hereafter.

Were the planets ignorant that it is necessary in a regular system to contrive a movement roquee, an anticipation of the harvest? Undoubtedly not. This anticipation (roquage) is one of the fundamental rules of movement; a rule which characteristic minds[3]divine by inspiration. Thus the inventor of the game of chess has made use of it, though with too much restriction; but he has at least the honor of having recognized a great principle of movement in a game, which, among amusements, is the most beautiful conception of the human mind.

I limit myself to this complaint against the amiable Flora. I might lay a thousand other sins to her charge, and change her crown of roses into a crown of thistles, but beautiful women require to be managed. This flower-goddess bamboozles us with her sweet Spring, which regales only the eyes! I can only compare it to a feast given at Lyons by a certain general, who made a great flourish of trumpets about this soiree for a month beforehand. People canvassed for admission, and various speculators, they say, took medicine and clysters the night before to prepare their stomachs. We may say without exaggeration that several arrived there with appetites of twenty-four hours standing, a very common calculation with certain guests. The debut was brilliant for the eyes: the young danced, the old conversed and waited for the supper. Midnight arrives; the clock strikes one, and there is nothing heard of it. The impatient guests scarcely find a few glasses of lemonade, which only serve to deepen tbo abyss. They judge the tapper to be altogether too much deferred. Finally it strikes two; all the oracles decide that it will not do to delay the supper a moment longer, and in all frankness they intimate as much to one of the chiefs of the house, but, O sad and dolorous discomfiture! He replies that it is a dancing party, and that there is no supper! I leave the reader to imagine what an impression this thunder-clap produced upon the assembly. Every one would have betaken himself to the restorateur, but in the provinces the restorateurs are all asleep by that time, especially in winter. The majority of the assembly deserted and went to wake up whom they could, to give them refreshments. The gourmands next day had the laugh upon them for their disappointment, and even the most sober declared themselves mystified; for there is no good feast, where there is no table set; and I wished to bring this complaint against the ridiculous season of Flora, who nourishes with vapor the poor human race, after a winter passed most commonly in privations.

Then comes Ceres with her sad harvests. What pains it costs to reap and to prepare this miserable bread! Well did the God of the Jews say to our first father: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou earn thy bread!” The Scriptures, in representing this cultivation of wheat as a punishment inflicted upon man, do not exaggerate. It is not possible to accumulate more fatigues and disgusts than are experienced in the labors necessary to this cheap nourishment. And yet it is the pivot of the alimentary system of man. Fine trophy for those who first imagined this creation, so much boasted by our naturalists! The stars who made it, take compassion on us for it. The aromal crossness of the globe does not permit this epoch to operate better; but it will be seen after the next creation how the stars operate upon a globe which furnishes them with good materials! and then the gifts of Ceres in grains will be appreciated at their mediocre value.

I say as much of the gifts of Pomona, which, for the most part, shine only in a negative sense, for the same reason that one-eyed men are kings among the blind. There are undoubtedly some pleasant fruits, but too many insects with whom we have to dispute the title. Besides, their duration is too short, their preservation too difficult, and their distribution very unseasonable. The temperate zone wants fruits in the very season when they are most needed, in the great heats. There is a whole month's cessation between the red fruits and those of autumn; the plum and the apricot, which occupy the interregnum, are feverish and repugnant to many.

I speak here of the popular consumption. Without doubt the rich, by getting the first pick, are always well provided; Prince Potemkin ate cherries at St. Petersburg in the month of January, by paying a crown a piece for them; but in discoursing of the abundance or scarcity of an article of food, it is understood that we speak with reference to the people; and in this view it may be said that the inhabitant of London has no melons, although the rich may at a great expense procure them.

In fact, if we observe how few varieties the 30,000 plants furnish for our tables, we cannot fail to be astonished at the poverty of this creation, and to desire that the human race should exert itself to replace it as soon as possible, preserving only the better and more distinguished vegetables, which after the new creation will be far more precious than before, since it will furnish us, in the animal kingdom, with counter-types or destroyers of these legions of insects which devour our garden vegetables and fruits. In agriculture, as in other functions, the honest industrial toils only for knaves; and nature, who has surrounded him with a legion of knaves in the human form, should, by analogy, by unity of system, assail his granaries, fields and gardens with knaves, who, in the shape of insects, carry off the fruit of his labors in all directions. What was the need of creating thirty-three species of weevils to devour our wheat? When the God of the Jews condemned Adam to reap this wheat by the sweat of his brow, he might at least have left him in possession of the wheat so painfully obtained, and not have unloosed against him thirty-three species of the same genus of ravagers! One must be an enemy of good sense, to see the work of a beneficent God in a creation so odious, and to refuse to recognize in it a provisionary monstrosity, compelled by circumstances, and which authors arc impatient to replace!

I have said that the creations grow old and become in time unsuitable for a globe; our own furnishes a proof of this, it gives us nothing good for the great majority: it reduces the villagers to gross dishes, cabbages, and kidney-beans and peas. On the other hand, this paltry creation, in depriving the poor man of wines and perfumed tonics, reduces him to the use of garlic, which corrupts his breath. . . . . A corruption of the composite order, which transforms the civilizee into a walking dunghill; worthy fruit of a creation so well distributed for the aromal perfection of man! These gross productions could suffice in the primitive ages of industry, when kings, like Ulysses, lived upon the product of their flocks, and when the princess Nausicaa was proud of going out to wash her own robes. The times are changed; the progress of intelligence has created more wants for the middling class, than the class of kings had in the age of Homer. Meanwhile the creation has not augmented its productions: the new tributes of the two Indias, sugar, coffee, &c., are not diffused among the people, and it is evident that our people live more poorly than the people of antiquity, who devoured great quarters of meat, while ours have often only vegetables and had bread. The creation therefore has grown old, inasmuch as it no longer coincides with the wants of the social world; it would be still more out of proportion if we had arrived at the sixth period, or guaranteeism.

From the earliest ages the creation has presented inexcusable omissions, among others that of fruits. It has been seen that they fail us in the heat of summer, and that the feverish cohort of plums and apricots is equivalent to a veritable destitution, During the hot season, the cities, well provided in their environs with skilful gardeners, can prolong the duration of the red fruits, accelerate the pear, and nearly cover the interval. But the country has nearly six weeks holiday and suspension of fruits in midsummer; the melting pears, the melons and the grapes, which would be so desirable in July, do not arrive until the end of August, when the weather is cooler. In September the fruits offer the same superabundance with the flowers in May, every thing in one season, and nothing in another: the pear does not hold out till November, the grape is over in December (for the people); there remains in January only the apple, which seems to linger to remind us of the absence of fruits: it is the exception which confirms the rule.

We are only preluding upon the subject, and I shall take up again the vices of this odious creation, which seems, and really is a system of organized treachery against man, even in the most seducing gifts of nature. There is nothing more tempting than the gooseberry; you think to refresh yourself with a beautiful bunch, and instantly you taste the noisome little bugs concealed between the berries, and whose color has deceived the eye. If you would believe the naturalists, they would find in all these abominations a theme for a panegyric upon beneficent Nature; but, to speak plainly, let us confess that our globe is furnished with an infernal creation, the vices of which I shall explain more regularly in the following chapter.

III. Animal Kingdom.

Tigers and wolves! wasps and bedbugs! rats and vipers! it is for you to reply to the apologists of good and simple Nature; and I have been waiting to bring you upon the stage to describe her work.

In the scale of general harmony, an animal, a subaltern who attacks the chief, or man, is a monstrosity, as much as an assassin who stabs the King. Habituated to a divergent creation, in which all nature is in war against man, we have not observed the absurdity of such an order. It is all regular enough if you please to consider it according to our political prejudices, according to our laws, which consecrate only violence and falsehood; but on a globe harmonically furnished, the creations ought to give only creatures friendly to man, with the exception of one eighth, of a mixed or unsocial character, without being in rebellion against man. Such is the swallow, which does us no harm, but which is incompatible with us, and from which we derive no service; for neither its flesh nor its plumage can be useful to us; while the partridge and the quail, although not associated with us, are negative servants who furnish us a very precious subsistence.

To estimate the poverty of the animal kingdom upon our globe, it is necessary to analyze the proportion of creatures useful and useless to man; it give the following:

Domesticated Quadrupeds.

[Here the manuscript is broken off, and as to the section on the Aromal Kingdom, indicated in the summary, it was never even commenced.]

[1] I use the word co-plantation to signify the active intervention of two animated creatures, identical in species, one of which explants and the other implants; whereas in our plantations and cultures, the earth which cooperates with us by its surface, and the sun, which co-operates with us by its rays, are not creatures of the same species with ourselves.

[2] Observe, the pivot is never counted in movement. This is why we only count four kingdoms, without mentioning the pivotal, or passional kingdom which is superior; just as we only count thirty-two planets, without speaking of the sun, which is the principal.

[3] I use the words characteristic minds as a correction upon the word inspiration. I am far from believing in inspirations; but it is evident that certain minds are inclined by character to this or that kind of labor, and that they divine ingeniously, or mechanically if you will, its natural methods; witness Homer in Epic poetry, witness Archimedes and Pascal in geometry. A mendicant, three thousand years before us, and in an age of ignorance, determines the rules of a transcendent style of poetry, unknown to his own time, a style to which our savans, with all their study, cannot attain, in spite of the artificial aids which have been lavished upon them? After that, how can we doubt that there are characters in whom the excess of natural aptitude is equivalent to inspiration? And am not I, in the theory of Harmony, what Homer was in the Epic! I appeal to posterity.—Note of Fourier.

William Henry Channing, "Letters to Associationists"

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn P. Wilbur) — Tue, 29 May 2012 03:26:00 +0000

LETTERS TO ASSOCIATIONISTS.

Number One.

As Corresponding Secretary of the "American Union of Associationists," allow me thus publicly to present a view of our duties in the Social Movement.

Judge, each reader, of the truth of what is said! Freely challenge and correct errors! Let us commune together!

Thus will the latent spirit be prepared for outward manifestation.

Your thoughts are invited to consider

I. Our Position.

1. In Actual Life, we take the ground of mediating between Revolutionary and Conservative tendencies. We propose a detailed scheme of practical reconciliation, whereby Capital and Labor may combine in a work of progressive reform; and thus take the initiative step to introduce that era of Organized Society, which we are sure will be the Righteousness of God's Kingdom upon Earth, the Doing of His Will.

2. In Science, we take the ground of accepting with discriminations the experience and discoveries of the past and present,—balancing, contrasting, combining them, and thence unfolding the Law of Serial Order, whereby all existences are hierarchically bound together and to the Absolute Being. This we assert is the Method of Society,—the Natural, Human and Divine Logic—the Word and Wisdom of God.

3. In Religion we take the ground of admitting a graduated scale of spiritual illuminations: and give a symbolic interpretation of each of these, by declaring the Central Source of Love from which they radiate. Our aim is to show, that harmoniously distributed charities are the body of Humanity wherein Divine Holiness is forever newly incarnate. Thus responding to the aspirations of all ages, unfolding the laws of heavenly intercommunion, and presenting the image of earthly life transfigured by indwelling God, we seek to be made At-one with Man and God by Universal Mediation.

Briefly, hero is an outline of our Principles, Methods, Ends. Most comprehensive, exact, vital, is this movement. Can so sublime a purpose be fulfilled?

In order to answer wisely we should survey.

II. Surrounding Difficulties.

From present appearances throughout Christendom, does it not at first look as if the Associative Reform was premature, some quarter of a century or more before the times? Must there not intervene between existing Chaos and future Order a period of intensest struggle in all departments of Social Life? In what one sphere, is one grand problem so thoroughly solved, and the truth involved therein so clearly brought out and firmly established, as to serve as an Ararat amid the deluge of doubt?

1. In the Church. Catholicism, Roman, Greek. Anglican—Protestantism, Orthodox, Liberal. Rational—New Churchism, Humanityism, Universal Unity! Are the long standing controversies one hair's breadth nearer to settlement? And looking beneath surfaces to living currents of thought and feeling,—who as yet has revealed the relations of Naturalism, Supernaturalism, Mediation—the respective functions of Priesthood, Congregation and Elders—the just significance of Asceticism, Optimism, and United interests? How many among the Seers even of this generation have earnestly consecrated themselves, by befitting purity, to become transparent media of the Light of Infinite Love?

2. In the University. Survey the highest philosophy of Germany, France, England,—from Leibnitz to Hegel, Descartes to Leroux, Bacon to Hamilton,—and answer, is there one system which abides the test of searching criticism? Or in natural science read the ablest expounders of universal method, from Swedenborg to Humboldt, do we anywhere find such an adequate interpretation of the Divine Symbol of Creation, that Man can thereby hold intelligent converse with God, and comprehend his Law of Life. How many among the thinkers even I involved our institutions and union, are now glaring out of his- exhibit that grand combination of accurate Analysis and unifying Synthesis, balanced by consummate Judgment, which is the indispensable requisites in finders and teachers of Truth. One and Universal?

3. In the State. What peaceful settlements of conflicting claims—or else what exterminating wars await Legitimacy, Liberalism, Socialism, throughout every township, department, nation of the civilized world, throughout Christendom as a whole! How countless, how complex the questions which press forward for adjustment, in every sphere of active interests—from Woman's Freedom to Equitable Exchange—from Apprenticeship of minors to Industrial Congresses—from healthful Gymnastic training to Colleges of Art. Politics indeed at present is a skillful trick of expedient combinations rather than a Scientific System of Organization. Who can solve even the first simple problem of government,—finding fit leaders in every function, from shaping pins to superintending continents? Hereditary honors, popular elections alike fail. Where is the Scale of Trusts sanctioned by the Sovereign Ruler?

Is it not visionary in an age so confused to prophesy Harmony?

What then,—confess that we are dreamers, boasters, liars? Dare we thus eclipse our clear convictions,—mock at the Spirit of Humanity prompting us to faithful efforts,—grieve the Spirit of God working within us, by mighty promises?

No! Brethren! "We are not of those who draw back unto perdition." "Faith is the substance of things hoped for. the evidence of things not seen." "We are compassed about by a great cloud of witnesses." "We are come unto the City of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to the innumerable company of angels, to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the Mediator of a New Covenant." Thus "Receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby to serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear."

Number Two.

III. What Are We Sure Of?

I. Beginning from the present, we are sure that our Criticisms on Civilized Society,—its isolation, intense competition, passion for selfish gains, mercenariness, its divergence and duplicity of interests, collective and individual, are justified by facts. We are right in asserting that Politics, Literature, and Religion, arc more and more controlled by Finance. Civilization is plainly passing from its third to its fourth phase,—from the reign of Commerce into Industrial Feudalism. In some places and vocations, this system is already introduced. And by laws and practices in Land Owning—Monopolized Manufactures—Joint-Stock Corporations—Banking—all branches of Mechanic Skill—Social Manners—The Press—&c.. is the reign of Civilized Capital fast becoming established.

II. We are sure that the Tendency of the Age is towards Socialism, Social Reforms, Social Guarantees, elevation of the Workers, union of Classes.—the widest diffusion of advantages —the harmonizing of all Conditions; that in Religion, Science. Politics, the tide of this age is fast setting in this direction; that failures of public and private charity to relieve or check pauperism—increase of social evils—dangers of revolution—developed intelligence—an influx of the Spirit of Humanity—all are determining the longings and efforts of men towards Universal Mutual Insurance.

We are sure, that the General Direction of the Associative movement is in entire accordance with these necessities of the Times, these aspirations of the People, these longings of the finest hearts and minds, these manifest leadings of Providence.

Our general aim is to organize, by Wisdom, Love and Beauty, all human relations; to do justice, in development, to the whole of man's affections and powers; to find the true place of usefulness and honor for every member of society; to secure ample culture of their spiritual gifts, fair recompense for their services, access to all social advantages; to unify individual interests, opportunities and capacities, and bring them to converge in a Universal Good; in a word to form Many Men Into One Body—a Collective Man, a Heaven on Earth, an Image and Dwelling-Place of God.

Surely,—as regards our general aim and end, our general position and influence—there is and can be no error. We sum up post experience, accept present longings, prophesy the near future.

IV. Are we not sure that our Particular Method of Society is at least a sufficiently near approximation to True Order, to be a working-plan? Let us review its chief principles.

1. Joint-Stock Ownership of Capital, Laud, Tools, Dwellings, Roads, &c. Surely this is right. The experience of the Age proves it. Individual and Collective Property are thus preserved, fulfilled, perfectly harmonized.

2. Co-operative Labor by the Law of Groups and Series of Groups, carefully discriminated, combined, alternated;—securing freedom in occupation, intercourse with many associates, escape from drudgery. Surely we have here the clue of Work-Play and Play-Work, of Attractive Industry.

3. The economies, refinements, social advantages, moral influences of Combined Dwellings,—dispensing with hireling domestic service, removing the barriers of caste, &c. What other possible mode is there of equitably interchanging the advantages of Home-Life, from all to all members of a community?

4. Collective Distribution of Profits to all Partners, according to Labor, Skill and Capital, in place of the Wages-System, thus binding all by mutual interests, instead of arraying employer and employed in jealous hostility. Surely this is just.

5. Mutual Guarantee,—covering all the interests and relations of life, ensuring minimum support, care in sickness, accident and age, labor and position, guardianship and training of children, aid in all misadventures, the influence of combined judgment and conscience, pure society, safe investments, and charge of legacies for family. These and similar guarantee* are the necessary result of the best tendencies, industrial and philanthropic of our age, in the most advanced nations.

6. Honors,—Influence, Trust, Position, Responsible Office. Leadership,—according to usefulness, by a regular hierarchy of preferment, through the free choice of Groups and Chiefs of Groups. How otherwise, than by allowing each trade, profession, &c, to judge of its own leaders, according to their actual efficiency, con prevalent charlatanry, hypocritical ambition, be done away with? This is the true system of Order and Freedom made one by Election.

7. Integral Education,—from childhood to old age, and adapted to all powers in all relations. This is truly a fulfilling of the best tendencies of the time. Such a sanctifying of the whole of Life would fulfill the aspiration of the finest spirits. To secure physical, mental and moral growth, by surrounding all with healthful, honorable conditions, supplying means and motives of study, teachers, books, apparatus, conversation, gymnastics, discipline in the common and fine arts, is plainly right.

8. Unity of Interests is the only condition, whereby Universal Communion can become possible, and the whole of life be made sacred, progressive, refining. Unity of interests is the body of which Charity or heavenly love is the spirit, in true religion. AW, incessant petty anxieties, cares and selfish collisions, separate men from their fellows, from beautiful enjoyment, from God. Only by combining the lower duties and relations of life with the highest, in communities and individuals,—only by proving practically that men are members of one another, as mutual complements in character, mind, energies,—can the Divine Idea of Many Made One be realized, and thus the Divine Life be embodied in human societies.

So much for the particular method, which the American Union of Associationists has prescribed.

What less can a person aim at in the present era of Christendom's development?

What more practicable method of social organization has been as yet made known?

W. H. C.

Number Three.

We have considered our Position and our accepted Platform. The American Union of Associationists is one regiment, or company of the grand army of Socialism.

But Socialism has many banners; where is its Oriflamme? Has it One acknowledged Chief, one Central Authority, one established Creed?

We must grant that the Socialists are a host of volunteers, each band of whom utters a special rally-cry. The popular movements—whose aim is the elevation of the Fourth Estate by such a practical co-operation of Capitalists and Workmen, as will ensure in all communities the Conditions of Fraternity —are as various as the character, culture and circumstances of the nations, towns, classes, wherein they have originated.

Yet this spontaneous uprising of the People of Christendom to gain peace by justice.—coming as the result of eighteen centuries of Progress, seeking as its end Brotherhood—is manifestly Providential. Does not our assured faith in the triumph of Socialism spring from the conviction, that these strivings, theorisings, aspirings after Social Reorganization are suggested by influences from God, through Humanity in the Spiritual world, and that the grand Reality, towards which our partial efforts are guided, is the establishment of Heaven upon Earth?

Social Reform, in the United States, arose normally from the political, philanthropic, speculative and religious tendencies of the times. The Working Men's movement, and the many schemes) of Radical Democracy—the Reforms, devoted to Anti-Slavery, Prison-Discipline, Temperance, Purity, Education, Peace—the Philosophy of the age, Naturalistic, Phrenological, Physiological, Mesmeric, Humanitary, Spiritual—finally, the heart-sickness of thousands at the death-in-life of prevalent Protestantism, the impossibility of their finding freedom and harmony in old Catholicism, and longings for a practical religion which in some approximate degree might fulfil the Ideal of Universal Unity—these and countless conjoint tendencies have been and are irresistibly converging towards the organization among us of Christian Commonwealths. No one can foresee, it would be folly to attempt to foreshape the course, whereby Socialism in this land is to realize itself in a Confederacy of Religious Republics.

But the branch of Social Reform represented by the so called "Associationists," undeniably took its special form and direction from the writings of Charles Fourier.

The question then rises, "What is and should be our Relation To Fourier."

This question one of your body would try to answer, speaking of course individually, assuming no collective responsibility, and trusting that the frankness of his criticism, both negative and positive, will not be deemed presumptuous. A truly Great Man—such as Fourier unquestionably was—deserves at the hands of his fellow-men honest appreciation. He needs no panegyric; his peers alone could adequately judge him; it is for those who have been in any sense disciples, to state exactly what they feel and think of their teacher's position and function. Socialism is too stern, near, and urgent a movement, too full at once of warning and of promise, too complex and vast in its connections with mankind's dearest interests, for any to tamper with it frivolously. Personal claims are very trifling in view of such a world-wide reformation, as Fourier had the honor to herald. And he surely was the very man to say—" Waste no time in apologies; out with your undisguised thought of me and my system; above all, be true."

I. Negative Criticism.

1. Fourier's starting point of Absolute Doubt—the challenging, getting rid of, and sweeping clean tradition in order to set out afresh, is a position as unattainable as it would be untenable. By blood, temperament, intellectual tendencies, information, vocabulary, manners, modes of thought, prejudices, principles, &c. &c, every man is and must be a child of his age and nation. Fourier was a Frenchman, bred amidst the chaos of Revolution; and his whole tone of character arid mind show his stock and training.

The right position for the Scholar in all Science, but especially in Social Science, is Faith, a reverential acceptance of the aspirations, hopes, discoveries, axioms, institutions of past ages. Loyalty should baptise liberty. Just in degree, as we cordially love the Truth and Good, transmitted through ancestors, do we become competent judges of our own generation, and credible prophets of future ages. The very view of the Unity of Humanity to which Fourier attained, and which no man in the ancient or modern world recognized more clearly than he did at times—should have led him to discard skepticism, except as a mere subsidiary instrumentality of judgment. Integral Exploration was the true method for a genius so large, rich, penetrating—a method used by Fourier admirably in his best hours —but the “pou sto,” the standing place, for one who would wield such a lever, can be nothing else than Trust in Man.

Fourier perverted his mind by scorn of his predecessors. He was capricious in estimating men and nations. His books are disfigured by sneers at sages and legislators, to honor whom he should have felt as an honor; and there can be little doubt that his prevalent temper towards forerunners in all branches of discovery, and towards cotemporary students, was contempt. In a word, he assumed the part of a giant among pigmies. Such conduct was surely as absurd as it was arrogant. It sadly blinded him with conceit, shut him up in his own notions and cut him off from universal sympathies.

This want of Catholicity—using the word in its large and strict sense—explains Fourier's disregard of History. With his astonishing powers of exact analysis, retentive memory and creative imagination, what might he not have done as an historical explorer! Greatly is it to be regretted that he so much neglected to trace the development of families, peoples, races. Inconsistently with many of his own principles he learned to think and speak of Man as a Natural Production, rather than as a Free Intelligence guided and inspired from a Superhuman Center. Consequently, either without consciousness or deliberately, he committed the enormous error of leaving unexplained the problem of Christendom, and treated of modern European Civilization as if Christ had never lived. All the more unsatisfactory does his course in this respect appear, because he professed to be a Christian, and has left on record some quit* mystical hints as to the action of the Holy Spirit, and the future triumph of the Cross. But the important point to be noticed is,—that he did not justify his position as a Social Reorganizer in this era of Christendom, by showing its accord with the leadings of Providence. He presented the "System of Harmony" as a boon from himself—the sole discoverer—to a perverse race, rather than as a lesson which he had learned, though but in part, from the promptings of Humanity, as enlightened from on high.

2. Fourier was a Pantheist,—as any man, who severs the traditional life-tie which binds him to his race, will almost necessarily become, unless he sinks into the tower depths of materialistic Atheism. Setting out from Nature, and striving to ascend from Natural Law to Universal Order, ho recognized three constituent principles of all existence—Active, Neutral, Passive,—which he asserted to be co-eternal. Consequently, he denied to all intents and purposes, creation; identified creatures with the creator, by making them the multiple of which he was the unity; and instinctively limited his efforts to the study of necessary processes of development.

Fourier indeed called the Active principle alone God; though consistently he should have appropriated that name to the three principles in combination; but evidently his thought was the very old and familiar one, that the Passive principle was the body of which God was the soul. And his notion of the Neuter principle was so obscure, that whether he considered it spiritual, or material, or mixed—intelligent or unintelligent, composite or simple, personal or impersonal, collective or individual, it would be difficult to say.

It is but just thus to acknowledge that Fourier's Trinity of God, the Universe and Mathematics, was a most incomplete conception, that his analysis of fundamental realities was extremely superficial, and finally that this radical error vitiated his whole doctrine of cosmogony, of human destiny and duty on earth, of immortality and spiritual mediation, of heaven and providence.

It is not asserted, that Fourier attempted to draw no distinctions between the Divine Being, Spirits, and the Material World, for by his view of hierarchy he represented Deity as the One and All, of which every existence, according to its degree, was a part more or less honorable. But it is asserted, that Fourier doubtless regarded Substance intrinsically one, throughout the range of universal existence, and looked upon spirit and matter, in all forms, as merely its modified manifestations. Hence he fell into the same errors and extravagancies, which have bewildered Pantheists in all lands and times; and though retaining usages of language drawn from man's experience of moral freedom, was actually a Fatalist, and practically a denier of "Right and Wrong," except in a utilitarian sense.

3. Thus dissevered from hallowed traditions of Humanity, and Pantheistic in philosophy, it was but a matter of course, that Fourier should have misapprehended the quality of Reason and Conscience, slighted their function in man individual and collective, and left the whole sphere of intellect in confusion.

Fourier recognized in man three branches of affection, corresponding respectively to" the Primal Trinity of God, Matter and Mathematics, and impelling man to combine Social ties with Sensitive joys according to modes of universal Order. Yet rich in suggestion as is his statement,—that the three Distributive affections represent the Serial Law, which is the Divine Method of arrangement in all departments,—Fourier never appears to have duly estimated the worth of the Rational principle. He did not regard it as the deliberative and governing power, without whose constant regulation, persons and states would fall into inextricable anarchy. That is to say, he did not conceive of Reason as a consciously free energy, but rather as an unconscious impulse; and did not steadily present it as the specially human endowment whereby man takes rank among spirits, and voluntarily ascends to communion and co-operation with God. There are passages in his writings, to be sure, which show, that he had not overlooked—as indeed how could he—man's power of judgment, choice and rule, and others wherein he describes the Human Race as entering by means of this disposing and ordering faculty, into concert of action with the Divine Being. But all his social arrangements and maxims for private conduct show, that he considered the Distributive passions simply as acting spontaneously like the other passions

Hence Fourier's exaggerated estimate of Attraction, contempt of Repression, disregard of Legal provisions, and utter aversion to Morality and Self-Control. His ideal of Social Harmony by means of the freest play of all impulses acting in order was sublime;—but that in his admiration of spontaneity and genius he slighted reflection and experience, and by trust in God's inspirations and nature's symbolic correspondence to man's desires, undervalued the importance of human aspiration and reaction, there can be no doubt. Keenly accurate as Fourier was, when criticizing past and present societies, he became a mystic poet when imaging future ages. His error was a beautiful dream, an heroic hope, a heavenly aspiration, but it was none the less an error; and most injuriously did it affect all his contemplated social provisions, from marriage, through education and legislation, up to worship.

Here are three negative criticisms upon Fourier and his System, each of which is grave, and which combine to prove that he had not adequately solved the Social Problem.

What then,—recognizing his limitations—shall we disown him, as a Master in Social Science?

By no means! The incredulous, sneering world owes Fourier an immense debt of gratitude, and posterity will surely atone for present suspicion and insult with its highest honors. His claims to our reverent regard shall be the topic of the next letter.

W. H. C.

Number Four.

The Associative movement, in the United States resulted normally, as we have seen, from the Religious, Social, Scientific and Political tendencies of the Nation: but it received impulse and special direction from the influence of the writings of Fourier. His system of Universal Unity—gratefully cherished and silently disseminated by a small band of earnest disciples, first among whom in an age and honor stood the talented and high-minded Manesca—was brought before the public by Albert Brisbane in a volume on "The Social Destiny of Man," in columns of "The Future,” and a series of articles in the "N. Y. Tribune”. The indefatigable perseverance of this zealous Social Reformer was in order of time, a chief instrumentality in giving its character of “Fourierism" to the principles and plans of the earliest Associationists.

Since that period, however, the entrance of many unbiased minds into the Associative Movement,—thought, discussion and experience—acquaintance with the views of other Social Reformers, such as Leroux, Lamennais, Cabet, Buchez, Louis Blanc, Proudhon, &c.—the rise of various Garantee Movements originated by Working-men in Europe and America—above all an enlarged comprehension of the immensity, complexity, dangers and difficulties of the Social Problem and a reverent conviction that the world wide agitation of Socialism emanates from and is guided by Providential agency, have conspired to dissipate sectarianism; while at the same time patient study of Fourier's works and manuscripts, with aid of the comments, restatements, modifications and illustrations of his most enlightened followers, has justified the enthusiastic admiration due to his majestic intellect, and the events of every year have confirmed the confidence felt in his prophetic sagacity. Fourier is not indeed our Pope, not our infallible Oracle; but it is difficult to find words sufficiently discriminating and unhackneyed to express just appreciation for this grand genius, born and bred so opportunely, amidst Christian Civilization, in its hour of sorest need. To-day then let us attempt briefly to set forth the claims to earnest regard of the only man, whom, the Associationists as at present instructed recognize as a Master in Social Science.

II.—Positive Criticism. .

By organization and training, Charles Fourier was most rarely fitted for the very work to which his life was consecrated. In him, exquisite sensibility to natural beauty, unerring accuracy of perception, a love of order almost morbidly intense, constructive faculty as various in reach as exact in working, and power of minutest discrimination in all spheres material or spiritual, were wonderfully combined with ideal imagination surpassingly poetic, and vividly comic in its conceptions as well as sublime, with broad, and profound humanity, justice even rigorous in strict exactions, boundless confidence in Divine benignity, self reliance that never faltered, all concentrated and kept consistently active by perseverance stern as fate. This description may seem, but it is not exaggerated. Many powerful tendencies were wonderfully harmonized in Fourier; and it is not surprising, that conscious of his grand energies he should quietly have alluded to himself, as the only illustration he happened to be acquainted with of an all-endowed man. By most felicitous fortune too, he was bred up from boyhood to the mercantile profession, had opportunities for travelling extensively as a commercial agent, was plunged into the horrors of pecuniary losses and financial perplexities, felt the hard gripe of poverty, was separated by humble position and privacy from ambitious excitements, and through his whole life was forced into painful contact with the tyrannous Oligarchy of Money. Above all, the hideous brutalities combined with the extravagant aspirations of the French Revolution, the political chaos of Europe during Napoleon's wars, the manifest breaking down of all civilized dynasties under accumulating debts, and the fast swelling power of the People, communicated just the needed stimulus to a mind and heart so constituted. Fourier does appear to have been one of the series of Providential Persons, raised up and destined to become centers of influence for their own and succeeding times.

But it is to the System, rather than the Man that our attention is now to be directed; and into a few short paragraphs must suggestions be crowded, each of which would demand for elucidation as many chapters.

I. The Integrality of the system of "Combined Order,"— as the author of "Universal Unity" so finely called his scheme for social harmony, is in itself most instructive. At first sight the Phalanstery appears like a piece of wax-work, fashioned by cunning mechanism,—and one, whoso spiritual affections have been trained to predominant delusiveness, is tempted to dash Fourier's books to the ground, and trample them under foot, as debasingly materialistic. But presently the seeming automaton wakes into glowing action, and through the beautiful body shines forth a radiant life of purity, force, genial impulse, honor, benignity, chivalric devotedness, consummate manhood. It is wonderful to see, how, starting from the observance of natural laws in humblest spheres, Fourier was led upward to the most vast and profound views of social relations, and of universal destiny. And the question continually arises, as we study his massive sentences,—within whose cold, clear, statement lie volumes of passionate emotion, as in the fabled casket was prisoned the Genius,—"Did this man actually comprehend the rich significance of his own plans and principles?" Doubtless, he purposely mystified his fellows, and so concocted his compositions, as to cram his readers with as much solid food as they could well digest, under show of tickling their appetites with confectionary. Yet, after all such allowances, it still looks as if Fourier had lit upon veins of treasures, whose worth he never fully estimated,—and which only happier generations can work out, by a faithful application of his method of Universal Analogy.

Certainly, no one can enter into the conception of Phalansterian Life, without gaining a wholly new impression of the refining power of Art, and rising into wondering gratitude, at the infinitely benevolent designs of the Divine Artist. Fourier had attained to clear vision of what all poets gain glimpses of, that Nature—as a whole, and in its minutest combinations and movements—is an ever fresh Symbol of God. The universe was to him a temple, from corner to capstone, from pavement to dome, carved and stamped all over with hieroglyphics of supreme wisdom. The word Art, gives the clue to what otherwise seems a cheerless labyrinth of tedious detail. He did believe, with his whole soul, that fields, workshops, and all spheres of productive industry, might be converted into means of harmony, which would react upon human feeling and energy like an orchestra. And yet more, he believed, with an earnestness which subdued every doubt, and kept his inventive faculties forever on the stretch, that all the passions and faculties of man, individual and collective, were originally adapted exactly to each other, and designed to be perfectly in accord, as are the performers on wind and string instruments, in a well-arranged concert. Hence his insatiable longing to study out in minutest particulars, the Conditions fitted to attune all active tendencies in each person, and to allot appropriate functions to every temperament and character. He was assured, that Social Organization is the Art of Arts; and in his conception of Attractive Industry, he laid the corner-stone and marked out the ground-plan of a temple of beauty, which admiring ages will co-work to rear, and wherein his statue will stand pre-eminent, as the great emancipator of Labor.

By this integrality of system, Fourier anticipated the result, to which Phrenology, Physiology, and the soundest practical Philosophy of our age are rapidly leading all thinkers. He showed how an end might be put to the everlasting war between Spiritualism and Materialism, and by merely exhibiting the true hierarchy in human tendencies and faculties, cleared the field of usurping sophisms and cant. In a word, he made honorable, what one-sided and simplistic observers had presumptuously considered common and unclean, while preserving the supremacy of the highest affections. It is not meant, that Fourier gave an exhaustive analysis of human nature in all its departments, or that he exhibited a complete practical synthesis, by enacting which, Society might insure the symmetric growth of all its members. But this was his high aim; and he did present, in glorious fullness, the Ideal of Society as a Collective Man, whose body was consummate order in all material relations refined to the utmost, whose soul was the exquisite harmony of spiritual affections. Thus also, as will hereafter appear, he demonstrated how Public and Private Life may be made One.

[The remainder of this letter is postponed, to make way for the article which follows.] W. H. C.

NUMBER FOUR

[continued.]

The integrality of Fourier's system can be best comprehended by studying his table of the Three Unities. What he presented as essential, were the necessary arrangements for one Association, whereby to secure abundant and graduated wealth—a proportional minimum support for each and all of its members—attractive industry—convergence of interests—exact justice—harmony of feeling and unity of action. And nothing finer can be found in literary history, than the example which he set of conscientious study of the Laws of Universal Order, as the means of determining the true material and social dispositions for a single community,—-the limitations excepted, which have already been noticed in our Negative Criticism. From the problem of Equitable Commerce, Fourier was led up to that of Domestic, Agricultural Association, and thence to that of Universal Unity, which he claimed to have solved under the following branches:

1. Internal Unity of man with himself by Societary union, spontaneous in all functions.

2. External Unity of man with himself by integral, combined cultivation of the globe.

3. Internal Unity of man with God by fullest movement of all the passions impelled by attraction.

4. External Unity of man wit A God by bi-composite immortality.

5. Internal Unity of man with the Universe by analogy between the passions and material creations.

6. External Unity of man with the Universe by aromal communications among the heavenly bodies.

This Science of Divine Order, throughout the whole range of Nature, Fourier concentrated upon the construction of laws for a Phalanstery. Society he represents always as an Organic Whole, a Collective Man, a Type of the Universe, an Image of God. Never did there live a person, more penetrated with the conviction that we are members one of another, and animated by one life hierarchically distributed through every community of the Human Race.

Not in this comprehensiveness alone docs the integrality of Fourier's views manifest itself; for equally remarkable is the minute accuracy of his system. When his books and manuscripts are translated and spread abroad,—and there is good reason to hope that this will be done soon, and done worthily,--it will be universally admitted that his analytic descriptions of the Sensitive Passions are alike wonderful, for original suggestions as to the latent capacities of the eye, ear, &c, and proper methods of developing them, and for the consummate common sense with which he has provided for their joyous activity throughout every department of labor, economy, hygiene and art. Inspire his form of attractive Industry-Kith the Christian Life of Regeneration, and it may well be said, that in the domain of the Phalanstery is presented the most masterly commentary ever yet given upon the beautiful texts of the earliest and latest scripture: " The Lord God took man and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it, saying, " of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely cat, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil;"—"and he showed me that great city, the Holy Jerusalem * * * and in the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river of water of life, was there

the Tree of Life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

Fourier renders Industry Attractive by the mode in which he makes every sensitive faculty and physical relation minister to the free development of the Social Affections. And here again does his astonishing analytic accuracy appear. In regard, indeed, to the Minor Affective Passions, Love and Familism, especially the former, not a few of our master's most patient disciples both in Europe and America are convinced, that he greatly erred by a misapplication of the Serial Law. But errors notwithstanding, his suggestions are always instructive, and many of them such as commend themselves instantly to the purest and most enlightened conscience. And in regard to the two Major Affective Passions, Friendship and Ambition, it may be confidently said, that nothing can surpass the keen sagacity and profound sentiment with which he has wrought the richest harmony out of tendencies which have been usually found most prolific in jealousy and strife. The Phalanstery is a full embodiment of the maxim of Each for All and All for Each, where Public and Private good are perfect mutual complements. From the cradle to the grave, every individual is alike ensphered by a genial air of love, within the green enclosures of its paradise. Not a taste however capricious, not an interest however trifling, but is made to minister to the Collective Good; and all refining opportunities of society combined, are opened with boundless liberality, as means of private culture and delight. Fourier's scheme of education is by far the most complete over yet devised for fashioning a child's whole character to Social Use, and what is equally important, for combining the sympathy and wisdom of a united society to call out in symmetric fulness the special genius of every child. And no poet, romancer, legislator or prophet, ever more successfully portrayed human life as an ideal whole, overflowing with kindness, courtesy, benignity and honor. The myths of the Golden Age ore far less beautiful than the future which shines forth with transient gleams from Fourier's magic mirror, while with tantalising hints he lifts and drops the curtain. One feels an unquestioning assurance, as he reads paragraph after paragraph crowded full with novel thought, that here is truly reflected the Natural side of Heaven upon Earth.

[Sickness prevents me from finishing this letter, by describing the richly suggestive views of Fourier in relation to the "Distributive Passions and Unityism." I can now add only, that with such exceptions as I have already signified in the Negative Criticism and the Replies to Mr. Godwin, I heartily accept the master's doctrine as to the Law of Series and Attraction. Doubtless much remains to be done in developing, applying, limiting and completing his system; but never do I read a chapter of this always strong and often most eloquent writer, without fresh wonder and delight; and I am gratefully assured, that in the works of this Social Columbus may be found a guiding chart to that New World of Practical Righteousness, wherein " God shall dwell with his people and be their God."]

W. H. C.

[Originally published in The Spirit of the Age]

William Henry Channing, “Charles Fourier” (1843)

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn P. Wilbur) — Tue, 29 May 2012 02:44:00 +0000

CHARLES FOURIER.

The zeal and ability with which Albert Brisbane has for several years devoted himself to the propagation of Fourier's doctrines of association, begin to be appreciated as they deserve. And whatever conclusive judgment his countrymen may pass upon this peculiar system, all must admit, that this earnest advocate of social reorganization has hastened and widened the great reform movement of our day. Few who have paid Fourier the respect he merits, of deep study, will deny that he has cast light, much needed and timely, upon the darkest problems, whether they adopt his social science without modification or not. And the Present will endeavor candidly to describe this system of "passional harmonies" and "attractive industry," with the hope that every such discussion may add new impulse to the flood-tide which is now sweeping Christendom and civilization to a more active recognition of the law of love. Space and time permit, in this number, only a few preparatory remarks.

The biographical sketches which we have of Fourier, are fitted to engage our interests for the man. Such brave and lonely consecration to a great aim, for such a series of years, claiming no sympathy, buoyed up alone by a sublime hope, communing in stillness with truth, is deeply gratifying. One feels as if such a patient miner must have treasured rich ingots. He claims, and has fairly won, a right to the patient heed of his fellow.men. When we add to this fact of his resolute pursuit of a settled object, the quality of his impelling motive, his indignation at the mean artifices of trade, his confidence that heaven has made possible a state of consummate well-being and beauty for the human race, and his bold self-trust that, though seeking to the death, he would find the clue out of this labyrinth of inhumanity; when, finally, we are told by his friends of the grand style of character to which he was moulded, the justice, clear penetration, inflexibleness, and tender pity, the profound enthusiasm for men, as they certainly one day should be, the utter scorn for men as they were, we place a confidence in the sincerity of the teacher, that goes far to forestall our approval of his doctrine. And yet there is this abatement to our sympathy. The study for some forty years of " harmony," should have made his eye of love so clear as to see through wrong and meanness to the vital good; and the consciousness of a generous purpose should have disarmed petty opposition and criticism of their sting. One is pained at the sardonic sneer with which this keenest of observers cuts through disguises, and plucks away from shivering, naked folly the last rag that covers its shame. His denunciation is the condensed essence of bitter contempt. He should have been patient, too, with the dullards who misapprehended, and distorted in their show-boxes the truth he tried to teach. But let his papal arrogance pass. There is this comfort in listening to him—that you have before you a man who, with unblenching eyes and clear, steady voice, tells you truly and exactly what he thinks. One knows the ground on which both parties stand. There is no blowing first hot, then cold. He gives no quarter. He asserts without compromises, without ifs or buts, what he believes he knows. In the same spirit should he be met. Concessions, apologies, etiquettes, may be dropped. Here is earnest work. There is the asserted fact, there the announced law, there the argument and evidence. Test it. Is the coin sterling? For this number these few words must suffice.

But before closing, let the fact be noted, that the interest now awakening in this subject of association is all but universal in this country. Every' day brings tidings of some new movement of those who are roused by a great hope to leave accustomed spheres of business, wonted social circles, the old mill rounds where for years they have been grinding saw dust for bread, and to enlist in these raw militia of social reformers. Such drilling and countermarching and sounding of drums and trumpet#betokens that Providence is gathering the hosts of the faithful for some hew battle with wrong. Doubtless, as in all recruiting, the idle and shiftless and weak, whose sandy foothold has slipped away and left them stationless in life, are occasionally drafted for these armies of industry. Doubtless brigands in heart, selfish and eager for gain, will also join. But the soul of this soldiery of peaceful conquest over injustice, are men and women sick at heart of the inevitable insincerities, unkindnesses, and numberless degradations of our present social state. In the various communities which within two years have been founded or are now in the process of formation, may be found some of the choicest spirits of our land. I wish here to give to all such a hearty invitation to communicate their hopes, ' prospects, and the results of their experience through the pages of the Present. As every grain of gold dust, and leaf of new trees and plants, and root and berry of the New World were precious and curious to Europe after the first voyages of Columbus, so every specimen of actual life from these Eldorados and Utopias is valuable to those who stand gathering their tools and clothing to follow. Send us news, brethren, from your little oases in the deserts, your coral islands in the sea.

W. H. C.

William Henry Channing, “Charles Fourier,” The Present 1, no. 1 (September 1843): 28-29.

Cosmogony — I

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn P. Wilbur) — Mon, 28 May 2012 21:04:00 +0000

COSMOGONY.

FROM A MANUSCRIPT OF FOURIER.

Translated for the Harbinger.

PREAMBLE.

Having reached this twenty-first section, I feel the same temptation which Montesquieu did at his twenty-first book. He wanted to address an invocation to the Muses; I read it in a journal which seemed astonished, and with reason, at this weakness. Montesquieu, amongst other complaints, said to the virgins of Pindus: “I have run a long career, and I am overburdened with cares.” Nevertheless he had, to support his labors and distract him from his cares, an income of 25,000 francs, worth 50,000 francs of the present currency: he had besides, the partisans who always attach themselves to fortune, to rank, to fame, to popular oratory. Could he, with so many supports, lack heart for work, especially when he was assured in all respects of the favor of his age, and when he beheld himself on the way to immortality?

Ah! Montesquieu, was it not an insult to the learned sisters, loaded as you were with the favors of fortune and the resources of genius, to ask for more? The Muses might have answered: “See what we have done for so many great men from the days of Homer to J. J. Rousseau; we have exposed them to the assaults of indigence, of snarling criticism (zoilism), of persecution; but we have given them the sacred fire, which helps man to surmount all obstacles, to suffer while alive a thousand deaths, that he may live only after death; and you, Montesquieu, favorite of fortune and the Muses, you are not satisfied, you ask for more."

Instead of so many succors which were lavished upon Montesquieu, I have had to sustain all the opposite misfortunes. It is for me to express impatience, to call to my aid, the nine sisters, and tell them: “I have run a long career, and I am overburdened with cares.” It is not by the number of volumes that I have to fill, that my career is made fatiguing; it is by the researches it has cost me, by the fatigues it has caused me and will cause me yet. The fatality has pursued me, that always when I would put hand to the work, I have suddenly discovered that something was mislaid, or some strange accident has interfered, as the loss of manuscripts and precious notes, some of which contained solutions sought for several years. The problems of passional movement seem mere child's play when they are resolved. Every body says of them, as of the verses of Racine: “I could have done that myself;” but the difficulty is to do it. I was eleven years seeking the distribution of the general scale of characters, and I did not believe it could be found without the experience of a generation in Harmony. I run aground upon the calculation of passional diffraction, in spite of fourteen years of researches, not continuous to be sure, but still frequent, and finally stopped by the loss of a note which had been mislaid.

Often a chapter, which was only sketched, (as that on diffraction,) cost me years: the solutions of problems are not measured off by the yard-stick, like articles of light literature and systems of politics; in the calculation of attraction you cannot cut short a difficulty by an arbitrary decision: the problem of passional gravitation, in the direct ratio of the masses and inverse of the distances, cost me two months loss of sleep.

There was not one work, one single source from which I could draw a shadow of information. Montesquieu found enough of it in a thousand authors, who had been over the road before him; he had no embarrassment but that of choice; but I am in the position of Robinson Crusoe, who, alone in a desert island, is obliged to make every thing for himself; every step has compelled me to change some arrangements, to recast chapters and parts of the work. In such a case a Montesquieu has scribes at his command, and the work goes on while the author is composing. For me, when I want to hasten the transcription, I suffer from a sprain of my thumb, which more than once has delayed me an entire fortnight. So I have no support but myself. I have crosses without number. I have the prospect of laboring for the small critics who, after vexing me all my life, will try to rob me after my death, or will assign to me the comfortless reward of Homer, altars in the other world, and want of bread in this. Let us persevere, however, in spite of every loathing, and let it astonish no one, if my apostrophes to the favorite Coryphœuses of the age smack somewhat of the reception which the age has given me.

We have now to do with Cosmogony, a science which seems to be much in vogue in France, where sciences, like dresses, are a matter of fashion. Cosmogony is now high in public favor there; often they bring upon the stage the diseases of the planets and the chapter of comets, so feebly treated in 1811. Every system-maker thinks himself obliged in conscience to give a Cosmogony, as every one did in 1788 to give a Constitution. Our century is accused of having produced by itself alone more Cosmogonies than all the others put together; we may say as much, unfortunately, of the treatises on political economy of one kind and another. The more fruitful science is in systems, the more sterile it is in benefits; so we see the people reduced to living upon nettles, and compelled to emigrate by thousands, even in Baden, which is the best cultivated country in Europe.

Cosmogony is of the number of those sciences which may discover the remedy for these increasing miseries. They think it limited to vague conjectures about the stars, about the formation of comets and other useless matters, with which the late De La Grange was occupied so much. It has functions of quite other importance, principally that of determining the destiny of the planets and consequently that of their inhabitants; but its grand office is to remedy the sidereal maladies which vitiate the temperature, destroy the harvests, and are rapidly impoverishing our globe. Cosmogony, then, is the medical science of the planet; it is for it to deliver the globe from a crowd of material scourges, from which it has suffered for five thousand years; among others, the paralysis of the extremities, or the congelation of the Poles. Here are functions which the smart minds, who meddle with this sort of study, have not dreamed of. A Cosmogonist, if he is versed in the science, ought to undertake to effect by a given day, the disengaging of the North Pole, and, at a later time, of the South Pole; to make the orange, within five years, grow as well in Spitzbergen as in Lisbon. Whoever cannot subscribe to this engagement, is ignorant in Cosmogony.

I only know the numerous systems of this sort through some articles in Journals. I have read but one, a very ancient one for our times: it is the pleasant fable of Buffon, who supposes an impertinent comet to have struck our sun, and knocked our thirty-two splinters, out of which were formed our planets. Verily this modern age is most indulgent to the fine minds, if it suffers such absurdities of theirs to pass. A comet to strike against a sun! It could not even strike the smallest satellite. One has been seen to pass into the very nave and sanctuary of Jupiter. Even if it were directed against a point through which a satellite must pass, Jupiter and the Sun, by an aromal fillip, would have thrown the comet off its orbit. Of what use, then, the sidereal harmony, if thirty-two pivoted and unitary planets are unable to sustain themselves against an incoherent body?

They make Cosmogonies and Geologies in our day, which are as improbable as the shock of a comet imagined by Buffon. I have read in the Journals of 1816, (Biblioth. Britann.) a refutation of a system of Cuvier upon the formation valleys, whose excavation he ascribes to the diluvial currents; an opinion as strange as that of the sophists, who suppose that these same currents have washed towards the northern Pole the bones of elephants, which were heaped together under the torrid zone. I shall pass in review some of these absurd hypotheses; they spring commonly from the mania which our savans have for refusing to God a talent equal to that of our mechanics. I shall often claim for Him this small concession; and if they will only allow to God as much ability as they do to our carpenters, smiths, and masons, they will see how easy it has been for Him, without the aid of a Deluge, to form valleys all over the earth, to acclimate elephants at the Pole, &c.

We are about to treat of a Cosmogony more interesting, more extended, than those which have been broached thus far, and more flattering for the human race. It will teach us, that mortals, who have been styled worms of the earth, and excluded from initiation into the laws of nature by philosophy and superstition, are on the contrary high and potent personages, co-associates with God in the direction of the planets, anti invested by Him with a colossal over these enormous creatures. Philosophy, to bring us down, takes its stand upon our corporeal littleness; but by virtue of the law of the contact of extremes, this littleness is the pledge or our high power. Man is the inferior link in the chain of universal harmony, the lowest of the keys or stops which derive their titles from the Twelve Passions; Man, by this title, is in contact, in unison with the highest key, which is God. According to this law, we necessarily participate in the power of God, and cooperate directly with him in the control of the universe.

The destiny of Man has been estimated in proportion to his stature: but is the dimension of beings the measure of their intelligence and their ability? If it were so, a whale should have a thousand times more mind than any of our savans. Let us reason better about the laws of movement; it is our position as the link infinitely little, which assures us our identity of action with God, and the most ample share in the series of powers which He has divided amongst the creatures of harmony. Their series or gradation is composed as follows: Man, Planet, Universe, Binuniverse, Trinuniverse, Decuniverse, Centuniverse, Milliuniverse, &c. &c. The keys 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, 36, form unisons or pivots of octaves, and have different properties from the others; but among these keys of octave intervals, Man, as the extreme pivot, is much more brilliantly endowed than the keys 8, 15, 22, and indeed you would be astounded by a table of the truly immense power which God has given to Man.

Behold a thesis on this subject quite surprising, but which shall be demonstrated in great detail. Every man who has the means (and there are more than four thousand much in civilization) of founding a passional system (tourbillon), may operate upon the temperament of the planet, correct its aromas and charge its temperature and atmosphere, purge its seas, furnish them with a magnificent creation, modify the aromas of the sun and of the different planets, displace five of them to arrange them in conjunction around our globe, and clothe it, like Saturn, with two rings. As to operations beyond our system, we may effect the entrance of the one hundred and two comets into the common plane of our other planets, accelerate by about three hundred years the concentration of the system as well as of our universe, and the operation which is to elevate them from the second to the third power; whence will result a general displacement in the mass of the fixed stars, which have seemed immovable for five thousand years. But what does this displacement, this new arrangement, concern us, if it is not to be fraught with numerous advantages for us? Those who are astonished by this announcement, may familiarize themselves with it, by meditating upon the most universally known law of nature, that of the contact of extremes; it would be violated, and the whole system of movement would be false, if the extreme key at the bottom, which is Man, were not in full participation of the government with the extreme key at the top, which is God; every violation of this law would untie the fundamental knot of movement, and introduce a radical absurdity in the work of creation.

Our Cosmogonists in their systems, universal and special, make no account of this primordial law; they depict for us a universe after their fashion, in which nothing is united, a pretended unity composed only of general incoherence, a God who establishes no bonds in the system of nature, a God who has no fixed relations, no mode of permanent revelation with his creatures, a father of the universe who does not communicate with his children, who has not even thought of their first want, that of a social code, a monster of a father who seeks to degrade us, to exclude us from the knowledge of destinies which he has inspired us with the curiosity of knowing. He is the sole distributor of attraction: would he not be the most odious of tyrants, if he had condemned us to a slate of ignorance, of indigence and of nullity, so opposed to the attraction which he has given us? According to these fine thinkers, the keys of harmony would have no influence upon one another; Man would have none upon his planet, upon his system, his universe, which on their side would have none upon Man. Thus our savans consider the universe as an orchestra in which every instrument, every musician plays according to his own fancy, without any agreement with the others; we see the contrary; a single instrument, which is false or out of tune, troubles the play of the whole orchestra; it is the same in the universe, where the derangement of one of the keys hinders the play of all the others.

The following Treatise will reveal a God and a universe very different from the pictures of our savans, a system of movement in which all is united, the supreme Chief of which wishes to exceed in generosity the expectation of his creatures. For Him it is little to unveil to us his laws upon the mechanism of nature and upon all the mysteries supposed impenetrable; He wishes also that Man should sit with him upon the throne of the universe, and enter into participation of the divine power, of the government of the worlds.

“Think you so!” some pleasant wit will say; “Do you wish to imitate the regenerators of '89, who offered the people a part in the sovereignty, when all they asked was bread! A demand still urgently reiterated; and you reply by promising them a seat upon the throne of God, and a share in the direction of the universe. Ah! be less liberal, take more thought of what is most pressing, and give the people bread.”

This is a pleasantry a la Francaise, which conceals a good many absurdities under the mask of a bon-mot. We will remark here three of them:

1. The theory which I publish does not proceed like our sciences, which promise the superfluous before providing for the necessary. I have already demonstrated that, before seating Man upon the throne of God, it will seat him at a good table, which is the first want and the first desire of every individual.

2. It does not do God the wrong to demand of him only what is strictly necessary, bread; an insulting demand for a liberal father, who has the power and the will to give us superfluity. His social system not being contrived to procure us mediocrity, we shall seek in vain to discover that system, so long as we seek such mediocrity, which is its very antipopes.

3. Those who argue from actual miseries against the blessings which I have shown, deceive themselves, since the excess of miseries in Civilization is the measure of the goods of Harmony, according to the rules of inverse proportion and of the contact of extremes. The more deeply we are plunged in the abyss, the more facilities we have for coming out of it, through the progress of the incoherent industry which has plunged us there.

These three observations suffice to show the weakness of certain fine talkers, who think by a play of words, or a captious thought, to invalidate all reasonings. France swarms with these presumptuous people; but the evils which the French sophists have just caused the world are enough to prove, that it is neither to the argumentative wranglers, nor the wits of this nation, that we must refer the judgment of a discovery upon which the fate of Humanity depends.

CHAPTER I.

OF THE POLYVERSAL SCALE, OR

SERIES OF THE KEYS OF GENERAL HARMONY.

It is with the universe as with the uncertain sciences, until now; the more men reason about it, the less they comprehend it; and we are going to point out some amusing blunders on this subject. Indeed they have been carried to such a point, that it will be necessary to suppress the word Universe, to which they attach so many contradictory senses, that it becomes impossible to use it in a regular science; I have accordingly substituted for it the Polyverse and Polyversal, to designate the aggregate of what exists in the infinity of things finite.

Every one uses the word Universe in his own way. Our romancers in Cosmogony designate by this name the stellar spheroid or mass of visible stars: which has for its focus our sun and his system, for its vault the visible fixed stars, and for its outer envelope other invisible suns, which form the crust or shell of this stellar gourd, furnished on the inside with a single seed-vessel, which is the milky way. This is what they call the Universe; the aforesaid mass must have some name. But how shall we name those other balls of stars, similar to this, but placed beyond the reach of our glasses and more numerous than the atoms of our globe? If we call them all universes, what shall we call infinite matter and the infinite space in which it gravitates? There would then be a universe and universes; then the word universe in the singular would designate only an infinitely small portion of what exists.

I am not fond of quibbling about words: but it is necessary to show the ludicrousness of this must ludicrous of theories, in as much as it confounds the two extremes, infinite matter with a portion of matter which is but a point in space. What should we say of a man, who, picking up a grain of sand upon his grounds, should say: this grain composes all my domain? We should reply, you are jesting; this grain of sand is only an infinitely small portion of your domain. Equally great is our mistake when we think general matter limited to this ball of stars which we call the universe, and which is only a subdivision of matter smaller than is the smallest worm in comparison with our globe; for this globe having a determinate extent, an exact and definite proportion may be found between the worm and the globe; whereas matter and space being infinite, our universe is much smaller compared to them than a worm compared to our globe.

Nevertheless our universe is very vast, they say, since our telescopes cannot measure the distance from the earth to the nearest suns of the heavenly vault, still less to the ulterior suns which terminate this starry cluster. This appears great to our eyes; but a drop of water appears great to the eyes of a million of animalcules which live and move in that little space; a thimble-full of water would be for them a universe.

To appreciate the relative dimensions of this starry cluster, of which our sun and his system occupy the centre, let us imagine ourselves transported far beyond it, say to the distance of a million times the diameter of the said cluster. It would gradually become so small to our eyes, that we would cease to see it before we had reached half that distance; for every luminous mass becomes a point to the eye, which is removed 100,000 or even 10,000 diameters. Venus, a star of the same magnitude with our globe, seems already like a cherry, though it is only at a distance of 4,000 of its own diameters.

Thus our universe, seen at the distance of ten thousand of its own diameters, would appear to us a point, a little star; we should see it confounded with anthills of other points or similar universes; presently we should see these universes agglomerated by millions forming only one ball, which would be a Binuverse, or spherical mass of universes distributed like the stars and systems in our own.

As we receded from this Binuverse to the distance of 10,000, 100,000, 1,000,000, of its diameters, we should see a crowd of Binuverses, distributed like our stars, and forming a spherical Trinuverse, or note two degrees higher in the scale than our Universe. Then continuing to recede, we should see Quatruverses, Deciuniverses, Vingtiuniverses, Centiuniverses, Milliuniverses, or note of the thousandth power in the scale of harmonic creatures.

Let us reason only on the third power. Supposing that it requires a million universes like ours to form a Binuverse; then it will take about a million Binuniverses to from a Trinuverse, which would contain already a trillion universes like ours; and the whole would be no bigger than a point to the eye placed at a distance of 10,000 of its diameter.

Without pushing the progression any further, I have said enough to show the ludicrous position of those who think they see the limits of the world when they see the ulterior stars, and who do not comprehend that this cluster of stars, named universe, is but a proportional atom. I compare them to the silk-worm, who, shut up in his cocoon, should believe that there existed nothing outside of that little cell. We have committed a similar mistake about our little starry cell, which we call Universe. According to the prejudices and false ideas attached to this word, it will be impossible to make use of it to designate the aggregate of matter and its distributions; we shall have to proceed to a methodical nomenclature of the creatures or notes (touches) of Harmony which compose the world, the general system of matter.

But let as not engage at first in these immense details. I refer them to the chapters in which I shall class those great creatures which are formed of centillions of universes like ours; and I shall give the name of Polyverseto the general series of those creatures or notes of Harmony, and limit myself to indicating one octave, commencing with the lowest note, which is Man.

Polyversal Gamut.—First Octave.

Ut, Monoverse, a Human Couple.

Re, Biverse, a Planet.

Mi, Triverse, a Universe.

Fa, Quatriverse, 1,000,000 Universes.

Sol, Quintiverse, 1,000,000,000,000 Universes

La, Sextiverse, 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Universes

Si, Septiverse, 1 followed by 48 zeros (Quinzillion) Universes

Ut, Octivers, 1 followed by 96 zeros (23illion) Universes

This table denotes that the mass which we name universe is a creature of the third degree, and that if we ascend only to the sixth note, it will require a septillonof universes to form it. Judge, then, how small a thing is a universe, and what a contradiction is implied in the ordinary use of the term. Nevertheless, to capitulate as far as possible with usage, I can easily preserve the name of universe as applied to this starry cluster of which our sun occupies the centre, and which ought in the exact gamut to be called a Triverse, since it is a note of the third degree. It will be borne in mind that by the name Polyverse I designate all the notes of the scale, of which I have named only the first octave.

Keeping within the limits of our universe in this first sketch, I will not startle the reader by proposing a voyage among those stars of the vault which they pretend are so remote, but which are in fact much less so than is commonly believed. We will begin with the examination of the objects which are nearest, like our planets and comets.

Here it is embarrassing to adopt a regular method, since it would be necessary to proceed either by analysis or synthesis, and either would be irksome to the reader. To follow analysis, descending from the whole to the details, I should reason first about our universe, its destiny, its age, its relations with the neighboring universes which we do not see. So, in teaching a child Geography, they begin with the map of the world, the aggregate of the thing to be studied, But this method would repulse the reader; it is enough to have given one chapter upon it, that of the Polyverse.

Equally injudicious would it be to proceed by synthesis. Passing from one extreme to the other, we should have to begin with the mechanism of atoms, which, in spite of their littleness, would appear overwhelming, like the enormous Quintiverses and Sextiverses. What rule then must we follow? If we cannot proceed either by analysis or by synthesis, we must adopt an irregular initiation, put ourselves upon a level with the reader without being subjected to any tedious order, let the pedants who dream of nothing but method and style say what they will, commit a hundred sins against method and rhetoric, as occasion may require; provided we can only initiate minds gently and insensibly, every method is good which attains the end. D'Alembert has been criticized for proposing to study history backwards, commencing with the present and finishing with the past. This method would be good for certain minds; the only false method is that which wishes to subject all to one uniform rule; unity or harmony is composed of varieties and not of monotony.

I shall endeavor to distribute the subjects in the order which I believe to be the most engaging; I shall begin with those about which there has been much vague talk, but little knowledge, as the comets, the suns, the diseases of planets, and especially those of our globe; from them I shall pass to subjects less familiar.

CHAPTER II.

ON THE AROMAL HARMONY OF THE PLANETS.

Some moderns have suspected, with reason, that there existed among the planets other bonds of harmony, besides those of weight gravitation. I have read in a poem (The Martyrs, of Chateaubriand,) “that various of the elect occupy themselves in the other life with studying the mysteries of the harmony of the celestial spheres.” Now, as the number of the elect will be very small, according to the prediction in the Gospel: For many are called, but few are chosen, nine tenths of us may fear that we shall not participate after death in the information of the elect about the sidereal harmony, but that we shall be plunged rather into Gehenna, where there is only weeping and gnashing of teeth. Consequently, it will be prudent in the lovers of science to seek to initiate themselves during the present life into these mysteries of the harmony of the celestial spheres, the knowledge of which must be very interesting, since it forms the recreation of the most learned among the elect.

Those who have taken the planets for inanimate bodies, without functions, and limited to certain geometrical promenades, resemble somewhat the idiots who should think the brain inanimate, because it has no visible function, or the belly idle, because it performs no visible labor, like the members. We have always reproached the civilizées with believing nature limited to known effects. If the planets were not creatures animated and provided with functions, then would God be the friend of idleness; he would have created universes filled with great inert bodies passing eternity in promenading up and down, like our idle gentry. They found this opinion on the fact that the planets have no other employment known to us: it is like supposing that the leaves of a plant have nothing to do with fructification, because we see no outward sign of their elaboration of the juices.

The creatures of the different degrees of the Polyversal scale all have the use of the twelve radical passions, but they differ as to the mode of exercising them. It is gross with man, who is a creature of transition, since he is the last in the scale. Thus man seeks nourishment in coarse substances, but the planet in substances more subtle, which we call Aromas. The vulgar notion that the sun drinks up comets is doubtless a great error, but it is less ridiculous than that of the learned world who believe that the stars feed on nothing, that they have not, like us, the use of the five senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch: they have them in a much more perfect degree than we have.

There has been much speculation upon the nature and properties of comets; almost nothing has been ventured upon that of planets. Silence is commendable when one has nothing to teach. Might it please God that men would be silent about so many subjects which they have made more and more perplexed, such as the uncertain sciences, so called!

It is only within a short time that they have begun to attribute some functions to the planets, such as the shedding of aromas upon the sun. It has required ages to obtain this slight concession: so then the moderns have come to believe that the planets are not altogether inert, and that God has not created universes of idlers. It seems to me that Messieurs Mankind might, without any great stretch of liberality, have accorded to the great planetary body which bears them on its surface, those faculties at least which man enjoys. They have not even granted the planets a soul; a refusal by no means surprizing on the part of our century, which has tried to retrench that from man and from the universe itself, since they have wished to suppress God, who is the pivotal soul.

Every planet has, not only, like us, the twelve radical passions, but it has, what we have not, twelve radical aromas analogous to those passions, and susceptible, like them, of combinations without number. By aromal communications are effected all the relations of these great bodies, which execute labors as active as they are varied, although invisible to us; but we may acquire about these mysteries very interesting knowledge, which has been absurdly supposed reserved to the elect.

The theory of the aromal movement will dissipate numerous prejudices, and in the first place those against comets, which so alarm people. They are an aromal troop, whose mission it is to nourish the sun and the planets, and their approach is a subject of joy for all the heavenly bodies. They never can cause the slightest evil. Every star imbibes from them various juices, and sheds upon them others necessary to their temperament.

The planets and comets shoot forth jets or fusees of aromas as rapidly as light, which travels more than 4,000,000, of leagues per minute. Light is the only visible aroma; it holds among the radical aromas the same place with the passion Unityism, which is the compound of all the others. This aroma contains other colors besides the seven visible rays. It can furnish thirty-two, without including white; but our globe is not in a condition to obtain them. It is at the minimum of communication. Hence it comes that it extracts only seven colors; it will not obtain a larger number until its atmosphere is regenerated.

Every planet has, according to its degree, one or more dominant aromas, besides tonics. The distribution in this regard, is the same with that of character.

A planet of the first or lowest degree, like the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, or Herschel has but one dominant aroma. The planets of the second degree, like those three cardinals and our globe, have two dominant aromas of which one is pivotal. These classes of stars correspond to the characters indicated by the name monogynes and dygynes. Our sun is of the degree pentagyne, and has four dominant aromas. Mars, Venus, Bellona, and Sappho, are of the degree mono-mixt, which has a mixture of aromas. Let us remark that the predominance of one aroma does not prevent the star from having the eleven others, and from making certain uses of them.

The sidereal aromas have a perfume with which man is acquainted: in the jonquille we have the pivotal aroma of Jupiter; the violet contains the pivotal aroma of our globe; the rose gives the dominant aroma of Mercury. Each of these plants was created by the star whose aroma it transmits to us. We shall see in the sequel how the stars execute these creations; it is the most interesting part of their mechanism.

I have promised that I would limit myself to satisfying curiosity, without subjecting myself to methodic formulas: in the mean time, without violating at pleasure the rules of method, I have commenced with a subject, the aromal movement, which was not the first one to be treated: I shall be obliged to follow it and devote to it at least the entire section.

I anticipate many questions which people will make haste to put to me; and first, about the generation of the stars: “How do the planets reproduce their species? We do not see them engender little planets (planetons.) Why do they not grow in size, as we do? and are they fixed in dimension? If they are indeed animated bodies, they ought to be subject to the phenomena of growth, reproduction, death, &c.; but we do not see a shadow of these modifications.”

I reply. These are not the most important notions to be acquired; there are others that more nearly touch our interests; among them, those concerning the labor of the planets, of which I shall speak in the following chapter. Meanwhile, I give the present article, which is out of course, and which will help to keep the reader in patience.

The germs of stars are deposited and nursed in the Milky Way, whence they come forth in swarms of comets, which travel for a long time, and usually gravitate about various suns, before they become fixed in a plane in one system.

The aforesaid germs are engendered by the aromal communication of the planets with one another and with their sun. It is not yet time to enter into these details.

We see generation effected in various manners under our own eyes: a dog, a hen, a carp, a bee differ widely in the details of generation and education. A planet follows still other methods. Nature is infinitely various in means, but the functions are essentially the same; it is always generation under different forms, and we cannot too often repeat, upon this subject, that we must not believe nature limited to effects known to us, nor think that the planets do not raise up offspring, because we are ignorant of their processes in this.

It is the same with respect to education and growth, the forms of which vary: we do not see a planet grow, and yet it waxes and wanes, but in its aromal capacity. Let us use a comparison. A strong liquor is not worth on the first day what it will be after being kept ten years bottled. Yet it will not have increased in volume: it will have become more refined in quality. A violin, fresh from the maker's hands, is worth little; in twenty years it acquires much power, without augmenting its volume. It is the same with a planet: it is a body immoveable in dimension, though variable in qualities (titres) which have their increasing and decreasing periods. The quality of ours was one of the most gross at the epoch of the primitive creations; thus its offspring were excessively vicious, witness the one hundred and thirty species of serpents. You cannot, with bad aromas, produce good creations. The planet has since become refined, and in the next creations it will give a very precious inventory. Our planet, in spite of this original vice, is of a vigorous species. It may be compared to those children covered with eruptions in the cradle, which disappear with time, and are succeeded by a good humoral system.

The planets, without changing their dimensions, undergo modifications of atmosphere, adjacent or transjacent. I call adjacent atmosphere that which is contiguous to the planet, as the air which we breathe. The transjacent atmosphere is composed of fluids annexed to the planet and placed at a distance from it in a circular, spherical, or other form. The rings of Saturn, and the crystalline sphere of the sun are transjacent atmospheres, detached from the body, and at a great distance from it. Our little globe will have two rings like that of Saturn, of which it is the conjugal planet in the major octave. * * *

[continued...]

Victor Considerant, The Ideal of a Perfect Society

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn P. Wilbur) — Sun, 27 May 2012 18:46:00 +0000

THE IDEAL OF A PERFECT SOCIETY.

Let us in thought construct upon some globe a society, in which social causes of evil shall not exist, and where humanity shall employ its activity and power in the development of the elements needed for the happiness of its members.

There would be, on such a globe, an order like that which reigns in the system of the stars. In this system, the worlds of different orders are arranged in hierarchies—the satellites burn around their planets, and the planets around the central sun, which concentrates all the attractions of the group, and in exchange returns to each of these worlds which he balances in space, heat and light. There are no perturbations, no shocks, no irregular and disordered movements. All these stars, each with its proper life, its proportioned atmosphere, its seas and continents peopled with appropriate creatures, are guided in movements so calculated, that days and nights and seasons follow each other harmoniously in their meridians and zones. They execute their diverse revolutions, and traverse, in prescribed times, their orbits—immense rings, which they trace around the sun, and which interlace and cross each other as the figures of a well-arranged dance.

Humanity, on one of these worlds, would be arranged in imitation of these grand sidereal laws. It would be understood that man, being the intelligent and powerful creature, pre-eminently, amidst other creatures by whom he is surrounded, is, by that fact, the pivotal and ruling being on the globe—that it is for him to preside over the development of the surface face of the earth, to cultivate and embellish the planet which has been entrusted to his care—that he has received force and intelligence in order that he may adorn his noble domain, and draw from the fruitful bosom of nature the riches it conceals, and which human genius is summoned to lay bare. Finally, and in a word, it would be recognised, that the Terrestrial Destiny of man is the administration of his globe. Then, to use the beautiful thought and expressions of poets, peace descending would sow the earth with gold, and flowers, and spices; and the people, hand in hand, would work together for the culture and beauty of their world. On such a globe, a unitary government would be the centre of all the great industrial operations exercised by the nations of the different continents. It would be the culminating point of the administrative hierarchy, spread like a net-work over the whole globe. It would direct the industrial armies, which, in immense hosts, would labor to introduce great changes on the surface of the earth, to clothe with woods the bare chains of mountains; to conquer, by cultivation, the vast deserts; to establish ample and convenient roads, radiating from the central capital of the globe, to the various continental capitals, and binding them all together. This central government, by its unitary administration, would equalize the production and consumption of the continents, and preside over the commercial exchanges of their commodities and products. In a word, it would direct the general affairs and operations of the globe, and be the high industrial regulator of the whole.

Around this central government should we see grouped governments of the second degree, presiding in a similar way over the administration of the different continents; regulating, according to exact statistical information, which could be readily obtained, the industrial relations of their large territorial divisions, and effecting the interchange of their productions.

Then would come governments of the third degree, presiding over these large territorial divisions; then within them the governments of empires; and lower still, provincial, departmental, and commercial administrations, the functions of which would be analogous throughout.

It must be remarked, that these progressive centres of administration, which together form upon the globe a grand spherical Hierarchy, are congresses of different orders, appointed by the people whose affairs they are commissioned to arrange; and as these affairs would be purely industrial and commercial, the direction of them would be entrusted to men specially appointed and capable of fulfilling their designs. The deliberations of these congresses would not be obligatory; but, as their judgments would proceed from the concurrence of men recognised as the most enlightened upon the particular subjects considered, it would rarely happen that their decrees would not be sanctioned by the acceptance of those interested in them. The governments, in their different hierarchical degrees which regulate the different commercial and financial movements, and preside over the external industrial relations of the different centres of population, would be simply boards of managers appointed by one or more Associations, and invested with the confidence of those who commission them. There would no longer be power, having at its control armies and police; despotism and usurpation would cease to be possible. Such, then, would be in our Utopia of a world organized in unity, a very general idea of its administrative or governmental system. Such would be the exterior arrangements of nations, provinces and communes.

What other functions now would humanity have to execute and how should they be fulfilled?

As there would be no longer wars and intestine discord in this model- world, there would remain in addition to these administrative relations only labors productive of wealth, domestic, agricultural, manufacturing, scientific, artistic. How shall they be performed? How shall wealth be created and expended? Where is the habitation of the agriculturist, the manufacturer, the student, the artist? In the Commune. The Commune, then, is the social workshop of the province, the nation, the general society. If, then, to an organization of unitary government, regulating and directing the commercial and industrial relations of the Communes, which are grouped in provinces and nations, is added a good internal organization of the Commune itself, it is plain that the Utopia of a world Harmoniously ordered will be completely sketched.

And, now, though we have set out from an hypothesis purely ideal as yet, that is, of a unitary government enveloping the whole globe, we can still deduce from this speculation an observation of the greatest importance, the application of which would be most valuable, even now; it is this:

“The organization of the commune is the corner-stone of the social edifice, however vast and perfect it may be.”

Is it not evident, however carelessly the preceding remarks may have been read, that the administrative congresses of different degrees, departmental, provincial, national, &c., the members of which are supplied from the communes and appointed by them, cannot be good and well selected, unless the communes themselves are in a position to know well and to select well their representatives. For, if there are opposed interests, discords, parties, in the commune, the different centres of the administrative hierarchy will reproduce inevitably these contentions, which distract the communes from which they came; and consequently, in the different congresses will be opposition, discord, and strife.

Again, if we will reflect how completely incapable communes, pressed down by misery and ignorance, would be wisely to choose their representatives, we shall see a second reason for concluding, that the hypothesis of a good governmental organization, invested with the confidence of those who commission its members, is possible only on the condition that the commune itself is well organized.

And finally, if we will reflect that the administrative functions, even of the best possible governments, can only be functions of arrangement, of order, of general supervision, and never of agricultural, manufacturing, scientific operations, which are the only functions directly productive of riches, we shall admit, that the installation of the best possible government would be, by itself, a very small thing for humanity; and we shall feel that social welfare depends especially upon the arrangement of the labor performed in the commune, of the domestic, agricultural, manufacturing functions, and of those of science, education, and arts. For, these are the functions which actually create the riches of individuals and of nations, and all the means of man’s material and intellectual well-being.

The communes are the stones of the edifice; the administration is the cement which unites them. If your stones, then, are friable, rough, unhewn, you need a great quantity of cement to make your edifice erect and strong; while, if the stones are good and smooth, you can build with ease a beautiful and solid structure. First of all, then, must you choose, shape, and hew the stones. It is inconceivable, that politicians are not capable of this most simple reasoning. It is incredible, almost, that for so long a time they should have been straining every nerve to form a good government, when it is so perfectly easy to prove, that the best govern’ mental system, taken alone, would do almost nothing for the melioration of human conditions; and when, finally, it is mathematically demonstrable that it is impossible to have a good government, a government administered for the interests of all, when those interests are divided and opposed in the commune, and, by consequence, in the nation. Thus it is, because the question in relation to social well-being, melioration, and happiness, has been wrongly put at first; because men have obstinately attempted what is impossible; because they have tried to solve the social problem by the governmental one, without perceiving that this latter cannot be solved, until that in relation to the commune has been solved first; because, in a word, an error was accepted in the outset and taken as the point of departure, that humanity has been agitated with vain revolutions, and the grandest geniuses have wasted their energies in utterly barren speculations. How has it been possible, that for so long a time men should have failed to comprehend that society, being composed of communes, as the beehive is of cells, and the army of companies, and the house of stones, the first problem to be solved, in order to have a good social organization, is to determine what is the good organization of the very primitive element of all society, the commune.

We have proved that the Congresses or administration councils, departmental, provincial, national, central, cannot be compact, harmonious and well-selected, unless they emanate from nations, provinces, communes, whose internal interests are compact, harmonious and co-operative; so that in our model world, the arrangement of the administration of a department is possible, only subsequently to a right organization of the communes constituting such a department; and the administration of provinces, nations, and of the globe is possible only subsequently to a right organization of all the communes of the globe. Now what appearance would the communes of a perfect world present?

It is in the commune, we have said, that riches are produced and consumed. The administrations which emanate from it establish only the modes of external relations, and regulate commercial transactions and the exchange of products. Therefore, as I consider clearly established, there would be nothing to be done within the communes itself except domestic, agricultural and manufacturing labors, works of art, scientific investigations, education, and the internal settlement of accounts; or in a word, the production and preparation of goods of all kinds for the nse of the commune and for exchange, and the division of this wealth among the members of the association. It is evident, that these labors should be arranged in such a manner as to yield the largest possible returns, or in other words, that they should be executed not blindly and without order, but under subjection to a system of organization. Now, what is the meaning of this word organization?Let us define it by some examples.

In our civilized societies, we generally see but few instances of industrial organizations, for it is evident enough that the agricultural and manufacturing labors of our existing towns are performed by families who have no close connection with each other; we see among them no classification, no arrangement in ranks and orders, no government and union; they work separate, divided, isolated; they follow without agreement or concert the caprices, personal wishes, necessities or accidental intelligence, be it great or small, of individuals. Our civilized societies have no other instances of organization for the most part than the departments of war, of the magistracy, of the post office, &c. The defence of our country is not entrusted to the caprice, to the good or bad will, to the intelligence and zeal of separate families. We have armies composed of different bodies of men arranged in divisions, brigades, regiments; which regiments are divided into battalions and companies; while the whole is linked together and bound in one by a system of government. And thanks to this mode of distribution, the great movements of attack and defence are made with a precision and concert which extend to the maneouvres of the regiments, battalions, platoons. For the security of a country, every one feels that such arrangements are necessary. Every one appreciates too the need of a judicial organization for the repression of crimes, and the settlement of difficulties between individuals. And finally, it is easy to conceive, that if the transport and distribution of dispatches and letters was not made by an organized system, if we had no general administration of the mails, and this function was left to two or three thousand private persons with no connection or concert among themselves, there would result an utter confusion from which every citizen would suffer. A function is organized then, whatever it be, military, judicial, commercial or industrial, when it is executed in concert and order as as a whole, when its various offices are classified, governed, and combined.

Now, although instances may readily be found of organizations badly made and administered, yet no one will deny, that the organization of social functions is a good in itself, and that in every sphere of life it would be proper and convenient to substitute national organization for the blind, uncertain, partial, divided action of individuals and families. If it is well to organize war, the magistracy and the mails, ought we not also to organize industry, and productive labor, whose function is to nourish humanity and to create the means of living and well-being for individuals and nations? Is it not the height of folly to leave to disorder and and anarchy operations which are of the very first importance? What should we say of a manufacturer or farmer, who should leave in confusion his workshop or farm? What ought we to say then of any society which permits in the communes which are its grand workshops of production, confused and isolated modes of industry? The communes of an ideal society would present the appearance of a perfect organization of all its functions. The entire territory, with its cultivated fields, workshops and manufactories, would be considered as the domain of one single person; and all its labors would be regulated and guided by an internal central administration, composed of the most capable individuals nominated by those whose right it is to appoint them, to oversee the operations. This regency, possessed of the confidence, of the people, would have a personal interest, both honorable and pecuniary to govern wisely, because the products of the association would be divided to each individual proportionally to his contributed aid in producing them. For in this model system, the mode will be found of dividing all goods among the associates, not equally, which would be absurd, but prorata according to the capital, labor, skill, which each has contributed, estimated in a regular, fixed and mathematical way.

There would be then for each one in these communal associations employment, at once lucrative to him and useful to the masses, for his capital, labor and skill; there would open for him many occupations in agriculture, manufactures, science and art; and in every branch of occupation there would be honorable recompenses and emoluments proportioned to his recognised usefulness and true merit, awarded by the vote of his peers and fellow laborers. As the emoluments of each would increase proportionally to the general prosperity of all branches of industry, each member as proprietor in the stock of the whole commune, or as a productive laborer, would be interested in its well being as a whole, since the chances of individual gains multiply with the increasing revenues of the commune. The interests of all classes would thus be convergent; and an education given by the commune, open to all, would perfect throughout nations and the world the union of the now separated classes. Finally and as a condition of the highest importance it must be added, that this mode of organizing labor would have the power to render it attractive, so that all, rich and poor alike, would be drawn to it. No more, then, would despotism and oppression, the destruction of man by weary toils and wretchedness appear; but floating on a stream of abundance of all kinds of good, men would love one another, for their interests would be harmonious and united, and their reciprocal relations would engender no. causes of hate. By this organization of labor and by the proportional distribution of benefits, each individual would be socially emancipated, independent and free. And the picture which this normal society, so different from ours would present, would be as follows:

Universal peace, with kind relations among all nations.

The organization of all useful labors.

Harmony of individual and collective interests.

Developement of all the faculties.

Union of all classes.

Perfect liberty of individuals amidst the general order and by reason of this general order;

Attractive industry and unity of action.

Without entering into more particular and regularly classified details, we can readily conceive that this is in general the ideal of a world harmoniously ordered; that if such a society should exist on any planet, it might be said, that there man, collectively regarded, was really the administrator and the ruler of his globe; that lie would there enjoy, amidst ennobling labors all the riches of his own creation and of the creation of God; that his physical, emotive and intellectual faculties, would attain amidst such conditions their fullest developement; that he would there be happy in his senses, his intelligence, his heart; that he would put in practice naturally and with delight all the real virtues; and in one word, that he would there fulfil the most beautiful destiny which it is possible to conceive for him in this earthly sphere.

If what has now been said is true, then with equally strict truth may it be said, that the efforts of man upon this earth should be concentrated upon elevating our social condition to the nearest possible resemblance to this typical organization, even if it can never be perfectly attained. And with the same truth may it also be further said, that we can judge of the relative value of different social organisations, past, present, or to come, by a comparison with this type as a common standard, even if the type itself cannot be completely realized.

Before closing, let one fact which is already established be applied, and let another fact be established. They are both of capital importance, and should be constantly borne in mind.

The first is this, that if the state of society which has now been described as the ideal one, should actually exist upon any truly blessed and happy globe, the first step in its realization must necessarily be the right organization of communes, and that general harmony can be established only in just the degree in which this communal regulation is applied to the different regions of the globe. Whence it appears, that if we desire to-day that any society of any country the world over, should undergo a happy transformation, we must confine ourselves in the first place to a discovery of the laws and mechanical arrangement of a right industrial organization of the commune.

The second fact will be found in the reply to this question: would the members of an ideal society have passions like ours? Apparently they would have the affections of love and of paternitywhich control the perpetuation of the race; and friendship which unites individuals of the same sex, as love does those of different sexes. Apparently they would have ambition, without which there could be no hierarchy nor popular organization. Apparently also they would be susceptible of pleasures of sense, and therefore desirous of the riches by which they are procured; for what end would be answered by the immense developements of the arts, sciences, and of industry, what end by productive labor, and by accumulated means of pleasure, if the men themselves were either brutes or philosophers, who neither could nor would enjoy them. A noble emulation also would quicken them in the accomplishment of their labors; and enthusiasm would stimulate them and fill them with power; and finally they would be impelled by the desire of change, for without this, each man being occupied by one function for His whole life would be little fitted for combination with his fellows, as his nature would be developed only on one side; he who was incessantly occupied by intellectual labor without making use of his body, would lose strength and health, while he who was wholly absorbed in some bodily toil would remain brutal and coarse, would never fill the sphere of a man, and might have his place supplied by an animal or a machine.

Friendship, love, ambition, the family affections, the desires and joys of sense, the love of pleasure and riches, the capacity of rivalry, of enthusiasm and of love of change, would remain active then among the inhabitants of this best possible world. Now if we can prove that these passions now enumerated are primitive and the parents of all other passions, as any one with a little reflection can indeed at once perceive, it will be our necessary conclusion that the inhabitants of this best possible world, the men of our ideal and typical society would be organized absolutely as we ourselves are upon this earth, which is as it has well been called one of the small mansions of the universe.

Victor Considerant.

Source: The Present. I, I (September, 1843) 19-22; I, II (October 15, 1843) 52-56.

Not just for pear-growers anymore

noreply@blogger.com (Shawn P. Wilbur) — Sun, 27 May 2012 17:57:00 +0000

The anarcho-Fourierist renaissance continues. In "The Lesson of the Pear Growers' Series," I had suggested that there might still be some lessons to be learned from Charles Fourier's approach to questions of individual passion, competition, etc. Unfortunately, "Note A," which contains the most concise explanation of Fourier's associative model, is not available (yet) in a public-domain translation online—and it is a bit of a stretch, at times, to make the analogies between growing pears (and apples, and quinces) and other sorts of labor we might actually be planning on engaging in. Fortunately, one of Fourier's disciples wrote a work illustrating how the dynamic of "Note A" might be applied to the problem of rebuilding a town. Mathieu Briancourt's The Organization of Labor and Association was published in French in 1846, and translated into English by Francis George Shaw (William Batchelder Greene's brother-in-law, and a proponent of a competing form of "mutual banking") in 1847. It's a fascinating work, applying Fourier's theory to a practical problem, without relying on Fourier's esoteric terminology. Part of the point of the book is that what Fourier is suggesting is not alien to widely-held values. There are a few funny moments, too:

The Merchant. "So, sir, it is Fourier who discovered this beautiful science which you call phalansterian, which is so logical, so religious, that you have had the goodness to explain to us, and which has singularly modified my ideas respecting man and society?"

The Professor. "Yes, sir; at the commencement of this century, Fourier discovered the phalansterian or social science, which was propagated very slowly at first, like all new truth—but which is now known and discussed among all civilized nations."

The Magistrate. "I had formed, I confess, an entirely different opinion of Fourier's system. I thought it absurd, impracticable, subversive of property and the family."

Ah, yes. Good old wholesome Fourier. We're reminded that his disciples frequently neglected any mention of copulating planets, lemonade seas, or the particular virtues of lesbians. Still, while one could wish the fourierists had been bolder about the positivity of the passions, there is a good deal to like in works like The Organization of Labor and Association.

* * *

A note on "association." Proudhon was pretty clear in his criticism of "the principle of association" that what he opposed was placing "association" as a principle ahead of the specific human drives and desires that led to association in practice. In this, I think, he would have been in accord with Fourier, if not always with the fourierists.

[Reposted from Two-Gun Mutualism and the Golden Rule, February 18, 2008]