This Prospectus was intended to announce the publication of his new discovery in a series of eight octavo volumes, to be published by subscription, and commenced as soon as a sufficient number of subscribers had sent in their names. The work was entitled Thaorie des Quatre Mouvemens et des Destindea Gendrales: It is the strangest, most mystical, and most startling of all his works, though merely given as a general announcement of his theory. Sur prise and wonder were the only effects which it produced on those who read it and the few public writers who reviewed it. After being noticed by a few persons in the neighbourhood of Lyon, it sunk into oblivion, without a dozen copies being sold.
After publishing this voluminous 'Prospectus' of his theory of the cardinal movement", Fourier remained fourteen years without pub lishieg the continuation of his theory. He quietly prosecuted his studies in the solitude of private life, interrupted only by his mer cantile pursuits, he still continuing in his mercantile position in Lyon. Little is known of his habits or his movements from 1808 to 1815, except a few incidents mentioned by himself. In one of his unpublished manuscripts, ho says, in reference to the long interval which elapsed between his first and second publications, "It was well that I deferred the publication of my theory, for it was not until 18:4 that I discovered the principal laws of equilibrium in combined associative harmony, and other branches of transcendental theory. It was not until the year 1819 that I discovered the possibility of organising associative unity without disturbing the present laws of marriage.
"My commercial duties had always prevented me from giving that undivided attention to my discovery which its infinite details required. The stagnation however in which mercantile affairs were plunged by the political events of 1814 and 1815 induced me to retire from business and devote my time exclusively to study. In 1816 I com menced the preparation of materials for publication, but the problems to ho solved were so diversified and numerous—the subject so immense—that I could not succeed in bringing them within the limits of an ordinary book. Twelve months were lost in trying to condense the matter and improve the plan of distribution. At length 1 fixed upon a plan of partial publication, which contained about one-quarter of the whole theory, but sufficient for all purposes of practical association on a simple scale."
During the Hundred Days of Napoleon's reign Fourier was placed at the head of the statistical department of the prefecture or pro vincial government of Lyon, by his namesake the Count Fourier, but after the second restoration of the Bourbon family everything was changed again, and Fourier retired from Lyon to Ta]lisaieu in the autumn of that year, to pass the winter in his sister's family. From Talliasieu he went to Bailey to reside with his other sister, and there he remained from 1815 until 1821, occupied exclusively in preparing the manuscript of his future publication.
Hitherto no one had seriously thought of Fourier's ideas or his studies, but in 1814 a copy of his first volume fell accidentally into the hands of M. Just Mniron, of Besancon, a gentleman of studious habits and high standing in the provincial administration of Franche Comto, and also proprietor of its leading provincial newspaper, L'Impartial de Besancon.' The views of Fourier's theory announced in that volume made a deep impression on Muirou, who wrote immediately to the author to obtain more information on the subject. This led to a long corre spondence and an interview, which tended to confirm Muiron in the high opinion he had first conceived of both the author and his theory. After a duo consideration of the principles and an intimate acquaintance with Fourier, from whom he gathered ample information on all points of doctrine, aluiron became the intimate friend and the first avowed disciple of Fourier. He became more anxious than Fourier himself to have the theory completely published, and under took to furnish a raft of the funds for the expense of printing, as soon as the msnuseripts could be made ready for the press. Fourier sold a part of his little property to defray the rest of the expense of printing. The correspondence between Muiron and Fourier became frequent. It is an interesting history of Fourier's opinions and pursuits during the period of his studious retirement from 1816 to 1821. The whole of Fourier's theory was written during this period, though not more than half of it has yet been published. The unpub Hailed manuscripts treat however chiefly on cosmogony, psychology, analogy, and other very abstruse subjects, which are treated in a manner not at all likely to attract the general reader.