Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/362

 354 FOURIER miseries of society, are a fearful exposure of the ulcers of our imperfect civilization ; and even those who reject his more positive notions will find abundant material for thought in these exposures. The fundamental and lead- ing principles of Fourier are summed up in the following short formulas : "1. The series distributes the harmonies of the world. 2. Attractions are proportional to destinies. 3. Analogy is universal." In other words: 1, all the harmonies of the universe grow out of a regular and- uniform order, which Fourier de- nominated the law of the series ; 2, all beings are led to and kept in their true sphere, not by a principle of external force, but of internal at- traction ; 3, the universe, being everywhere the same, constructed upon the same infinite model, and according to the same eternal laws, must in every sphere repeat itself, or be analogous. These general principles or deductions Fourier carried out into all branches of science, but his chief application of them was to social science. Society being composed of men, he began with an analysis of human nature, of human im- pulses and attractions. The permanent princi- ples of nature were three : 1, the active prin- ciple, or spirit; 2, the passive principle, or matter ; 3, the neutral principle, or the math- ematical laws of justice and harmony. The nature of man was coordinate with this di- vision, and contained: 1, his physical nature, adapted to the passive principle, er matter; 2, his moral nature, adapted to the active princi- ple, or spirit ; 3, his intellectual nature, adapt- ed to the neutral principles of law and justice. The common object of all his physical desires is sensuous enjoyment; the common object of his moral, mutual affection ; the common ob- ject of his intellectual, order and association ; while over all presides a superior tendency to unity or universal harmony. The essential faculties of the soul, then, or impulses to ac- tion or life, Fourier analyzed into five sensuous "passions," four moral passions, and three in- tellectual passions. Thus: f 1. Sight, or desire for enjoyments of color, &c. Sensuous fa- 1 2. Hearing, or desire for the pleasures of culties, or I sound. modes of 1 8. Taste, or desire for delights of the palate, enjoyment. 4. Smell, or desire for agreeable odors. 5. Touch, or desire for external ease, &c. (" 6. Friendship, or the affection of equals. Moral affec- I 7. Love, or the affection of the sexes. tions. j 8. Paternity, or the family affection. [ 9. Ambition, or the affection of society. (10. Cabalistic or emulative impulse. 11. Alternating or varying impulse. 12. Composite or combining impulse. 18. Unityism, or harmonizing aspiration. These simple and essential desires of the soul, according to Fourier, may all be directed into a contrary and subversive development by the unnatural action of circumstances. In the false conditions of society they become so many uncontrollable and warring appetites. What they want for their rectification and true development is a social sphere adapted to their harmonic action. Society must be con- stituted according to the same law of groups and series which harmonizes universal nature. The association of the three principal agents of production, that is, of capital, science, and labor, for the mutual advantage of each member of such association, in the several branches of agriculture, manufacture, commerce, domestic industry, art, science, and education, would prepare the way for this true society. The economies effected in expenditure and con- sumption would be prodigious; the distribu- tion of labor and of its result would become gradually very exact and equitable ; the plea- sures of combined and varied exertion would take from toil its monotony and its repulsive aspects ; while the skill, the wisdom, the grace of every member of the association would be always available to the benefit of every other member. The unity of the association would be expressed in the common domain and com- bined dwelling house (the "phalanstery"); the variety, in the separate apartments, the different labors, the individual tastes. A township of about 1,800 persons, male and female, Fourier regarded as the germ of larger combinations, which would interweave and unite themselves together, step by step, until a network of con- nected associations, bound by the same princi- ples, and governed by a syndic or council of representatives, would be spread over a state, a nation, Europe, the globe. But this grand and world-embracing harmony would be the result of no instantaneous or speedy change, but of a regular development of the combined order, according to the law of the series. So- ciety, he said, passed through a process of reg- ular growth, from its most infantile condition to its highest maturity, when it would again begin to decline, and finally fall into decrepi- tude and decay. In this it resembled the growth of the individual man, who had his ascending vibration, or advance from infancy to youth, from youth to manhood, from man- hood to old age, and then by a descending vi- bration from old age to death. This universal career of humanity Fourier distributed in the following order : two phases of incoherence, containing each seven social periods ; two phases of combination, containing each nine social periods ; grand total of 32 social periods or societies. The first seven of these periods, embracing the history and progress of the world up to the present time, he named : 1, Edenism ; 2, savagery ; 3, patriarchalism ; 4, barbarism ; 5, civilization ; 6, guaranteeism ; and 7, simple association. Five of them, as the records of all the earth prove, have been periods of constraint, poverty, oppression, fraud, carnage, and false science; the other two are the feeble dawns of a better day, ushered in by associations of joint interest and reciprocal guarantee. But as soon as society shall have reached them, a higher and compo- site order begins, when seven other periods, distinguished by successive creations of har-