The Arcades Project - Operi

w
[Fourier]
Seas they fathom! Skies they reveal!
Each of these seekers after God
Takes an infinity upon his wing:
Fulton the green, Herschel the blue;
Magellan sails, Fourier soars.
The frivolous and ironical crowd
Sees nothing of their dreams.
-Victor Hugo, DAnnee terrible: Les PricUTJeuJ"S, Epigraph
to the brochure by Pellarin, 104' anniversaire natal de
Fourier (Paris, 1876), cited in A. Pinloche, Fo urier et
Ie Jocialisme (Paris, 1933), supplement
'The words of Jean Paul which I put at the head of this biography of Fourier-'Of
the fibers that vibrate in the human soul he cut away none, but rather harmonized
all'-these words apply admirably to this socialist, and in their fullest rcsonanee
apply only to him. One could not find a better way to characterize the phalanstedan
philosophy." Ch. Pellarin, Notice bibliographique (1839), p. 60, cit.ed in
A. Pinloche, Fourier et Ie socialisme (Paris, 1933), pp. 17-18. [WI,l]
Fourier on his business career: "My hest. years were lost in the workshops of
falsehood, where from all sides t.he sinister augury rang in my ears: 'A very honest
boy! He will never be worth anything in business.' Indeed, I was duped and
robbed in all that I undertook. But if I am wort.h nothing when it comes to pract.icing
business, I am worth something when it comes to unmasking it." Charles
Fourier, 1820, Publication des manuscrits, vol. 1, p. 17, cited in A. Pintoche,
Fourier et Ie sociali$me (Paris, 1933), p. 15.' [WI,2]
Fourier wanted '"'every woman to have, first of all, a husband with whom she could
conceive two children; second, a breeder (geniteur) with whom she could have
only one child; then, a lover (favorit) who has lived with her and retained this
title; fourth and last, mere possessors (possesseurs), who are nothing in the eyes of
the law . ... A man who expressly says that a girl of eighteen who has not yet found
a man is entitled to prostitute herself; a man who directs that all girls he divided
into two classes, the juveniles (under eighteen) and the emancipated (over eight-