FOURIER, CHARLES, founder of the system of communism known as Fourierism, was born at Besancon, in Franche-Coint4, on the 7th of April 1772 : he died at Paris on tho 10th of October 1837, in his sixty-sixth year. lie lived and died a bachelor.
He was the son of Charles Fourier, a merchant and magistrate (jugo consulaire) of the city of Besancon, who died when Fourier was in his uluth year, leaving a widow with a family of four children, and a property of about 8000/. Fourier was the youngest child and the only son. After completing his studies at Besancon and Dijon, Fourier was placed in a commercial house at Rouen, where he remained a short time, and then removed to Lyon in the year 1790, when the French revolution was commencing. It was a moat eventful period. New philosophies and theories were almost annually tried experimentally, and found deficient, notwithstanding their plausibility. Fourier, though young, was led to think of principles and causes; social evils and their remedies; the horrors of convulsive anarchy, and all the aberrations of philosophy which then distracted his unhappy country. He reflected long and deeply on these subjects in the midst of his commercial occupations, and experience confirmed him in the opinion he early formed that something must be radically wrong to cause so much injustice and antagonism in society. Ho made himself acquainted with the principles and theories of all the leading parties. From them he turned to real science in its various branches; travelled much to gain experience; and laboured constantly with various feelings of alternate fear and hope, to discover the cause of social misery, and an efficient remedy. By the decree of the National Convention, August 23, 1793, Fourier was compelled to cuter the army, and was drafted into the eighth regiment of Chasseurs is Cheval, which joined the army of the Rhino and Moselle, where Fourier remained about two years ; not without profiting by all that could be learned of scientific evolutions, as his writings indicate, when treating of gymnastic exer cises and the disciplines of education. He also paid great attention to the theory of music during his connection with the army; but his health began to sink, and he obtained his release in January 1795. In
1709 he was employed in a commercial house at Marseille, and he had to direct the operation of submerging a considerable quantity of corn by night in order to avoid the vengeance of the people, who were suffering from scarcity of bread in the surrounding country. The wheat which was thus thrown into the sea at midnight had been spoiled by being kept too long. The scarcity of food had been so general in the country that the poor inhabitants of many parts were suffering from famine and disease when this occurred, and Fourier was more impressed than ever with the awful state of social and commercial and political disorder which deranged the general economy of civilised society. Ilia mind had been already fixed upon the problem for about ten years, but the first discovery which he and his followers regarded as ono of general importance and undoubted certainty was made soon after this remarkable event in 1799.
In 1800 he passed some months iu and then returned to Lyon, whore ho published articles in the newspaper's, which wero noticed by the government for their acuteness and range of thought. One of these articles, published in the 'Bulletin do Lyon,' In 1803, and headed ' Continental Triumvirate,' attracted the attention of Napoleon 1., who caused inquiries to be made about the author, but nothing further occurred. Fourier had to work out the details of his plans, and years elapsed before they were sufficiently . , mature for publication. Meanwhile he was employed as a commercial agent, and only known to the society in which be moved as a man remarkable for his learning in geography and general statistics. In conversation with his intimate acquaintance he had mentioned many things connected with his new discovery, and they at length induced him to commence publishing before he had completed all the secondary combinations of detail. To satisfy their curiosity he issued a Prospectus, in which his general views were broadly stated, but without an attempt at demonstration. This Prospectus wse a small octavo volume, published in 1808, at Leipzig, according to the title page, but really as it would seem printed and published at Lyon, in order to avoid the censorship of Napoleon.