FOURIER, FEA_Ncots MARIE CHARLES, a French socialist, was b. at Besancon. April 7, 1772. His father, a merchant, had him educated in an academy at Besancon for his own profession. He distinguished himself by his perseverance and success in study, and excelled in geography, mathematics, music, and the natural sciences. He left his studies with regret to enter upon the duties of a merchant's clerk, which he performed with zeal and integrity at Lyons, Rouen, Marseilles, and Bordeaux. He also traveled in the interest of his employers, not only in France, but in Holland and Germany. In these journeys and residences, nothing escaped his observation; he noted climate, cul ture, population, public and private edifices, and remembered even the topography of villages, and the dimensions of buildings, with astonishing accuracy. His father died in 1781, leaving him about £5,000, which he became possessed of in 1793, and invested in trade at Lyons. This was lost in the revolution; and he was thrown into prison, and compelled to serve two years as a cavalry soldier. Discharged on account of illness, he obtained employment' in a mercantile house at Marseilles, where he was employed to superintend the destruction of an immense quantity of rice, held for higher prices, in the midst of a scarcity of food, until it had become unfit for consumption. This cir cumstance called his attention to the frauds and duplicities of commerce, and he devoted his spare time to the study of social problems, until he developed the system of socialism to which his name is commonly given. This system is contained in several works, written and publisIn1L:under discouraging circumstances. In 180S, he published his
7Vorie des et(les Dedine.iS Gonerales (Theory of Movements, and of the General Destinies of the Human Race). In 1822, he produced his T•aitli cr Association Domestiqu.e Agricole (Treatise on Domestic and Agricultural Association); in 1820, Le _Nouveau )foade Industrial et Societaire (The New Industrial and Social World); in 1831, Pages et Charlatanisme des Deux &cies Saint-Simon et Owen, promettant Asso ciation et Pcogas (Snares and Quackeries of the Two Sects of St. Simon ians and Owen ites, Association and Progress); iu 1835, Lu Fausse Industrie, Norcelee, R•pugnante, lensongere, et r Antidote, Undustrie iVaturelle, Combinee, Attrayante, Veridique, dormant Quadruple Pruduit (False Industry. Fragmentary, Repulsive, and Lying. and the Antidote, a Natnral, Combined, Attractive, and Truthful Industry, giving Quadruple Products). These works, written in the midst of commercial pursuits, and published at long intervals, by means of his small savings, found for many years few readers, and no disciples. Tow•irds the close of his life, a small group of intellectual men accepted his views, ind giaered round him, to learn the details of his social system from his own lips. He was unwearied in his efforts to interest men of power or,capital, who could give his theories the test of practical realization, and for many of the last -years of his life waited patiently at a certain hour every day; expecting to lie visited by such a patron. His less patient disciples probably hastened his death by immature and partial efforts at realization. He died in Paris, Oct. 8, 1837.